[pclayton]

Here's an idea.

Hopefully new versions of BBO will have a more enhanced convention card utility. I liked the one OKB had, although it was occasionally unstable for some reason. As this portion of the software (hopefully) develops, perhaps 'suggested defenses' against unusual methods could be uploaded as well.

This would make it a lot simpler for strong players in a pick up partnership to compete against pairs using a lot of esoteric methods.

Isn't the spirit of BBO to foster good bridge? When I play an esoteric system, I don't get a thrill out of winning against pairs simply because they are unprepared to deal with my system. Its better practice for me to have them be able to compete effectively, because that how it will be when I encounter strong competition in real life.

[paulhar]

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Hopefully new versions of BBO will have a more enhanced convention card utility. I liked the one OKB had, although it was occasionally unstable for some reason. As this portion of the software (hopefully) develops, perhaps 'suggested defenses' against unusual methods could be uploaded as well.

I like that. I wanted to suggest that myself but I didn't want to put any more burden on the overworked BBO staff.

Unfortunately, just as people keep coming up with new viruses that McAfee & Symantec have to deal with, people will keep coming up with new conventions faster than BBO can put up defenses to them.

Also, unfortunately, there will be volumes necessary to discuss all the 'standard' defenses to something like Moscito. I could see it now, a Moscito players have the auction 1D (Dbl) 1H P 1S and the next player says, 'Give me five minutes while I try to look up the standard defense on this auction.' This after the couple of minutes that each of the opponents used to look up what double should mean after the Moscito diamond. I use Moscito as an example because it's commonly talked about on the BBO forum, the same would be true for any system that I'm not allowed to play here in an ACBL pair game and thus wouldn't have a defense for.

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It has always struck me as perverse that the individuals who develop new methods bear responsibility for developing appropriate defenses.

Perhaps the overworked BBO staff should develop and post the defenses instead? If Pclayton's suggestion is to be taken seriously, somebody has to supply the defense. Why shouldn't it be the perpetrators of the new system? Heck, they're still getting an advantage until somebody comes along with an optimal defense to replace the one provided by the system creators. (BTW, if such a defense was clickable on BBO, who would decide when it should be replaced by a better defense?)

Another suggestion (requiring no new software) is to make popular another public room besides the Main Bridge Club that would be more for pickup partnerships, where unusual methods just weren't allowed. This won't work unless enough people play in that room so it would have to be well advertised.