[helene_t]

jtfanclub, on Jun 28 2007, 01:05 AM, said:

I've given up on books on bidding. They seem to contradict each other, and I have trouble keeping them straight. Maybe if I just read one author 14 times it would sink in.

So I mostly come over here, where people are generally kind enough to set me straight when I bring up one of my many stupid misconceptions, and/or explain when I ask why some bid would be crazy. I have, thank God, not annoyed them enough for them to kick me out.

That's wonderful (no sarcasm) if you play at a club with some really knowledgeable players.

Often the problem is that if one is not a bidding theory expert oneself it is very hard to distinguish the real expert advice from the fake expert advice. And even players who know about bidding theory may be prone to biasing the advice they give directly after a board:
- Resulting: the result was bad so our bidding must have been bad
- Pride: something went wrong and I can't accept it was my fault so it must be partner's.
- Sympathy/empathy: This player is an asshole so it is probably his fault.

So yes, reading the same book 14 times (well maybe slightly few), or reading 14 books by the same author, will help. If you make a selection of 14 books by Bergen (or Lawrence if you prefer) you should have reasonable coverage.

[P_Marlowe]

jtfanclub, on Jun 27 2007, 06:05 PM, said:

I've given up on books on bidding.  They seem to contradict each other, and I have trouble keeping them straight.   Maybe if I just read one author 14 times it would sink in.
<snip>

Hi,

I found this quote in Helens answer, and I want to
make one comment:

It is great, if the books contracdict each other,
because you will need to think and understand.

A good book, explains the logic behind something.

Andrew Kambites, an english author, I can recommend,
wrote something along the lines: "It is not important on which
side of the fence you are going to end up, but even your local
Grandmaster disagrees with my recommendation, most of the
time the lines of thinking will be similar, just he will weight certain
arguments different than I do."

Quite often there is no right answer, and it also depends
on your level, what is good for world class players, does
not need to be good for average players, e.g. due to
frequency issues.
If you play 1000 boards or more each month and something
crops up in 5 boards, it will be helpful, but if you play
only 100 boards per month, it is just waste of mental
energy.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[HeavyDluxe]

Quote

Come on in, its not a threadjack at all. Maybe we can work through this together? If you are interested in partnering, PM me...

Thanks, Best (sending a PM after this post)... And thanks everyone for such a good thread.

Quote

If you want to learn, play with and against players who are better than you.

I think, by and large, MikeH is right. My background is in music, and I can tell you learn to play music better by being with better and better musicians. I think the same holds true for anything.

The trick is that I'm one of the folks who lives in the middle of nowhere (VT), so access to local play is difficult. And most *truly* solid players on BBO don't seem to want to let someone labelled Beg/Int sit at their table. There are exceptions, of course, but it's hard to find a good game.

vuroth said:

Quote

One problem that I have with kibitzing top players is figuring out which ones play a system I'm trying to learn. (In my case, SAYC.)

I made a post asking the same thing... Here's the thread (and makes clear my interest in the jec matches):
http://forums.bridge...showtopic=19783

Quote

1) I know how to download hands via the webpage... But is there a way to get one of the 'movie' files for past team matches (thinking of the 'Cayne vs Matches' here) so you don't have 50 files to work through...?

#1 Bridgebrowser, will do the job.

Heh... Is it uncouth to say I was hoping for a 'free' way? ;-)

Thanks PMarlowe... I'm just surprised on the 'hands' homepage, there isn't a "Download as single file" option, instead of dl'in each hand individually.

That said, I've used Chessbase in the past, and Bridgebrowser seems to be the analogous thing. I'm not quite sure that's the best investment for me at this point. So, I'd welcome any other ideas people have re: getting single files of the CAYNE matches, etc.

Quote

2) Is there a way to open a movie file so you only see one hand, recreating kibitzing one person live?

#2 you could try to replay the hand using the GIB's, upload the hand, play
against 3 GIBs, of course you wont always each the same contract

I'd be, at this stage, anyway, less interested in replaying the hands. I'd rather just see "so and so's" cards and watch the play/bidding from their seat.

I wonder if there's a way to import the BBO files (.lin, I think) into BridgeBaron, which I bought a year ago? Hmmmm. Off to look for a converter.

Quote

3) Does anyone know of some hands that are 'annotated' a la what chess players do with chess games? I'd be interested to see a handful of deals marked up with the "what I was thinking of" kinda comments of a good player.

Thanks for the many good tips here... I'll try to check out the Reese books that were suggested.

You know, this would be an interesting service for the BIL, I think. Have a handful of graduates/mentors play some hands using relatively standard methods, and then have each player annotate their 'turn'. Throw it in a PDF and post it.

If anyone else agrees that it'd be helpful, I'd be willing to offer my time to assemble the documents and convert them.

Thanks again for this thread, everyone.

[P_Marlowe]

[quote name='HeavyDluxe' date='Jun 28 2007, 09:46 AM'] <snip>
#2 you could try to replay the hand using the GIB's, upload the hand, play
against 3 GIBs, of course you wont always each the same contract[/QUOTE]
I'd be, at this stage, anyway, less interested in replaying the hands. I'd rather just see "so and so's" cards and watch the play/bidding from their seat.

I wonder if there's a way to import the BBO files (.lin, I think) into BridgeBaron, which I bought a year ago? Hmmmm. Off to look for a converter.
<snip>
[/QUOTE]
I believe Bridge Baron supports PBN,
a converter from lin to PBN exists,
e.g. you can try the follwoing link
[url="http://www.rpbridge.net/t/bfc.txt"]http://www.rpbridge.net/t/bfc.txt[/url]

Besides it maybe possible to use the BBO
software direct, the BBO Movie Display Program
is able to open PBN Files, maybe it can also
save PBN, just try.

With kind regards
Marlowe