[jillybean]

schulken, on 2011-December-02, 09:27, said:

I have played with a partner who still uses bidding practices such as minimum off-shape take-out doubles, overcalling with a 4-card major at the one level (and not necessarily a good one - xxxx is fine with him), Michaels cue bids and unusual NT overcalls with 5-4 frequently (once he was 6-4 and had 0 points), etc. He tends to be very successful at tournaments, where he's not known, but less so at local club games where his tendencies are well known. As one local player said, God invented to double card to punish people like him. While this doesn't help you in your situation, it does support your concern that there are strange bidders out there and in a brief encounter (such as a compact KO) you'll likely not be able to surface those tendencies. However, word does get around, even at NABCs. Good luck.

Where do you find the room to put all this on your CC?

At the opposite end of the spectrum we've just finished the morning side game where we played against two "young guys" who looked like they'd been up all night playing the midnight KO's. They had a very complex CC and went out of their way to explain the system and were very pleasant to play against. We finished the round early and they were even happy to answer more questions I had about their CC.

[S2000magic]

jillybean, on 2011-December-02, 14:27, said:

. . . they were even happy to answer more questions I had about their CC.

Are you going to keep us on tenderhooks, or are you going to tell us what you learned?

[wyman]

jillybean, on 2011-December-02, 14:27, said:

At the opposite end of the spectrum we've just finished the morning side game where we played against two "young guys" who looked like they'd been up all night playing the midnight KO's.

Those sessions are pretty early; give them a break!

[blackshoe]

schulken, on 2011-December-02, 11:36, said:

Just to be clear, all of these were clearly marked on our card and under ACBL rules are not alertable or even announceable, with the possible exception of the 5-4 Michaels/UNT. TDs have told me that if I'm expecting 5-5, they wouldn't rule unfavorably as plenty of people will use 5-4 when conditions warrant and the opponents shouldn't be surprised to see it.

The problem is that you aren't expecting 5-5. You know his tendencies, so you're expecting 5-4. This is probably a bad example, though, because UNT on 5-4 (other things, like point range, being equal) isn't sufficiently unusual to be deemed "highly unusual and unexpected", so the deviation from 5-5 wouldn't require an alert. It's on your card, and presumably if they ask, you'll explain fully your partner's tendencies. Legally, you're covered. If it were me though, I wouldn't react with glee if the opponents screwed up because they expected 5-5. Not saying that you would, mind you, only that I wouldn't.

[jillybean]

S2000magic, on 2011-December-02, 14:36, said:

Are you going to keep us on tenderhooks, or are you going to tell us what you learned?

Submarine Splinters

[Vampyr]

jillybean, on 2011-December-02, 14:27, said:

Where do you find the room to put all this on your CC?

The ACBL CC is very poorly designed as, besides being probably by far the smallest standard CC, a lot of its space is taken up by things you don't play (necessarily, as many of the printed agreements are are mutually exclusive.)

What I did when I used the CC regularly was edit it (a painstaking process, as it was then and might still be available only in bitmap form.). If you delete agreements you don't play you do gain a bit of room for describing what you do play, and you can make the boxes bigger or smaller as needed. You can also consolidate, for example by putting your 2M openings (and 2♦ if it is the same) into one box.

But in general the card cannot fulfill its function all that well so long as the back is left completely blank.

[jillybean]

Now I have a little more time, Submarine Splinters are as the name suggets, splinters in the suit lower than the shortage.
Apparently very useful after partner has opened 1nt, we didn't have time to get into any detail. Splintering after partner opens 1nt is a new and unsual (to me) concept but I imagine that it could be quite helpful finding a major slam.

And apparently more trouble with the psychic team tonight, the players finding the lack of hand
records very frustrating. Seems as if I'm not the only one who can't remember hands.

[hrothgar]

jillybean, on 2011-December-03, 02:22, said:

And apparently more trouble with the psychic team tonight, the players finding the lack of hand
records very frustrating. Seems as if I'm not the only one who can't remember hands.

I'm somewhat surprised at the lack of hand records.
Traditionally, the ACBL was pretty good about this.

[Mbodell]

jillybean, on 2011-December-02, 14:27, said:

Where do you find the room to put all this on your CC?

At the opposite end of the spectrum we've just finished the morning side game where we played against two "young guys" who looked like they'd been up all night playing the midnight KO's. They had a very complex CC and went out of their way to explain the system and were very pleasant to play against. We finished the round early and they were even happy to answer more questions I had about their CC.

Hey, this was probably me. Were you asking about submarine splinters?

[jillybean]

Mbodell, on 2011-December-03, 05:59, said:

Hey, this was probably me. Were you asking about submarine splinters?

Yes! Great, you can tell me more about your system now, and it was nice to meet you.

[jillybean]

hrothgar, on 2011-December-03, 05:28, said:

I'm somewhat surprised at the lack of hand records.
Traditionally, the ACBL was pretty good about this.

Hi Richard, this is in the teams matches. I have never seen hand records in the TM's.
The players want the hands recorded but from what I heard there is no such thing as a recorder and
TD's are too busy.

Just to clarify what it is like playing in the lowest brackets,and the sort of things that go on, these things happened to us over our two matches.

We have been accused of having an illegal agreement because our 1n overcall range is 15-18 and "it must only be a 3 point range".

My RHO wanted to pick up her K♣ after playing it to a ♦ trick and, after I called the td, said in a loud voice "our last opponents were so much nicer than you" Im not here to be nice.

I have had continual trouble to get players to make their opening lead face down and not have their partner prompt a lead. "We've played bridge for many years and NEVER heard of this before"

Players are giving their partners significant amounts of UI. When I asked after one long hesitiation do you agree there was a hesitation there? The reply was "no, I was watching the big guys and they
think for a very long time". Luckily the auction went pass, pass, pass.

LHO was fiiddling around to find an opening lead and his partner who had bid hearts said, 'do you remember the auction (P) 1H (1S) P (1N)..' When I called the TD he said, oh Im sure he would have remembered the auction" " This guy did not want to be doing the job he was doing.

LHO holds a 2N bid touching the table, pauses, pulls the cards into her lap, thinks and then places
a 2♠ on the table. TD is called and the player says it was a "mechanical error". Both my partner and I
explain what happened and that it appeared to be a change of mind. He rules it was a mechanical error.



I could go on but I have a game this morning, "director"!

[Cascade]

hrothgar, on 2011-December-03, 05:28, said:

I'm somewhat surprised at the lack of hand records.
Traditionally, the ACBL was pretty good about this.

In knockouts when you deal at the table?

This is archaic!

[Cascade]

jillybean, on 2011-December-03, 10:40, said:

Hi Richard, this is in the teams matches. I have never seen hand records in the TM's.
The players want the hands recorded but from what I heard there is no such thing as a recorder and
TD's are too busy.

Just to clarify what it is like playing in the lowest brackets,and the sort of things that go on, these things happened to us over our two matches.

We have been accused of having an illegal agreement because our 1n overcall range is 15-18 and "it must only be a 3 point range".

Tell them 18-15 = 3

Quote

My RHO wanted to pick up her K♣ after playing it to a ♦ trick and, after I called the td, said in a loud voice "our last opponents were so much nicer than you" Im not here to be nice.

I have had continual trouble to get players to make their opening lead face down and not have their partner prompt a lead. "We've played bridge for many years and NEVER heard of this before"

I don't understand why players are not taught better table manners from the beginning.

My experience limited as it is in ACBL games is that the general standard of table manners is better there than here. Although by contrast I saw more outright dodgy things or rather things that I was suspicious of.

Quote

Players are giving their partners significant amounts of UI. When I asked after one long hesitiation do you agree there was a hesitation there? The reply was "no, I was watching the big guys and they
think for a very long time". Luckily the auction went pass, pass, pass.

LHO was fiiddling around to find an opening lead and his partner who had bid hearts said, 'do you remember the auction (P) 1H (1S) P (1N)..' When I called the TD he said, oh Im sure he would have remembered the auction" " This guy did not want to be doing the job he was doing.

I hope he at least told the player that this communication was entirely inappropriate. I would consider imposing a procedural penalty for all but the most inexperienced and I would assume without significant evidence that someone playing at the Nationals was not among the most inexperienced.

Quote

LHO holds a 2N bid touching the table, pauses, pulls the cards into her lap, thinks and then places
a 2♠ on the table. TD is called and the player says it was a "mechanical error". Both my partner and I
explain what happened and that it appeared to be a change of mind. He rules it was a mechanical error.

If this is as you say it borders on incompetence or favouritism.

Quote

I could go on but I have a game this morning, "director"!

Good luck!

[jillybean]

We had a 65% session this morning so it's going ok. But the games are so slow I can nip next door and kibitz Justin in the Reisinger between rounds

[blackshoe]

Last regional I attended, we had a TD call, the TD made the wrong ruling, I asked "what about Law such-and-such?" The TD instructed me not to mention law numbers!

[Cascade]

blackshoe, on 2011-December-03, 17:28, said:

Last regional I attended, we had a TD call, the TD made the wrong ruling, I asked "what about Law such-and-such?" The TD instructed me not to mention law numbers!

So sad that we have officials who have no desire to rule according to the laws.

[Mbodell]

Cascade, on 2011-December-03, 18:06, said:

So sad that we have officials who have no desire to rule according to the laws.

Not that I agree or am defending this, but it could be the TD felt that quoting the law numbers was an attempt to intimidate the opponents.

[blackshoe]

Or the TD.

[barmar]

Cascade, on 2011-December-03, 14:49, said:

In knockouts when you deal at the table?

This is archaic!

ACBL still uses hand dealing for almost all KO and Swiss Teams. And while pair games use computer-dealt hands, they're usually hand duplicated. Duplimate is generally reserved for the late rounds of national events.