[mycroft]

You won't know about them if you've never gone South of the Equator. They're a distinctly Aus-NZ(*) thing. A very sensible thing, if you ask me, for many reasons (all apologies to the late Mr. Lamb however, who would not have been able to play for the last 20 years of his life. And, less medically so, it's not like *my* handwriting is any good either. And I wonder what all the people who, here, reach across their bodies and twist their left arms to bid, because otherwise they couldn't hold their 13 cards in their dominant hand do - pen in the wrong hand?)

(*)For reasons mostly falling on "I have strange tastes", I have been acquiring equivalents recently. "Fourecks and the Foggy Islands", "Emutopia and Kiwiland",...)

[mikl_plkcc]

awm, on 2025-March-12, 07:36, said:

I have never seen nor heard of bidding pads, though perhaps I could guess what they are from context. And I’m not that young anymore, 49 years old and playing duplicate bridge for 27 or so years.

I used bidding sheets in the past.

[pescetom]

mycroft, on 2025-March-12, 11:53, said:

And I wonder what all the people who, here, reach across their bodies and twist their left arms to bid, because otherwise they couldn't hold their 13 cards in their dominant hand do - pen in the wrong hand?)

And here I was finally becoming almost complacent about my growing skills in low mycroftese

I am right handed (at least by imposition education and for writing or scissors) and I do better at the piano with that hand too, although the other one worked fine (not that I had the choice) for the complicated stuff with violin and guitar. But I'm also infinitely better with my left foot forward on any kind of board, so I guess my right hand must be dominant. Yet I hold my cards in the left hand (should I prefer the dominant hand?) and reach across my body (could one avoid that?) with my right arm to bid. Am I doing something unnatural that might convey UI?

FWIW my hunch about the choice to hold cards in the non-dominant hand is that some ancestral part of the brain suggests leaving the dominant hand free to punch the opponent or wield a sword, which given typical behaviour at the bridge table seems perfectly reasonable

[smerriman]

Doesn't everyone hold cards in their non-dominant hand? Because you use your dominant hand for the more important task of playing a card.

[mycroft]

You'd think? But no, there are several who hold the cards in their right hand, despite clearly being right-handed, and look at the box on their right corner, and bid with their left hand.

Or they'll bring their box over to the middleish, and then bid with their left.

And of course they are using right-handed bidding boxes, so they either bid upside down, or (more commonly) twist their hand or their entire body to turn the card backwards. Every time.

Now, my partner does this (and bids upside down), but as she says, "I'm not left-handed, I'm right-injured". And we do have left-handed bidding boxes in Calgary which we bring (but aren't worth flying north and south with).

I just learned early on that it's not worth doing any of that, just sort the cards in the right, move them to the left, bid; put the hand down to write in the contract, then pick it up with the right hand and play with my (coördinated) left.

[pescetom]

mycroft, on 2025-March-13, 19:50, said:

You'd think? But no, there are several who hold the cards in their right hand, despite clearly being right-handed, and look at the box on their right corner, and bid with their left hand.

Or they'll bring their box over to the middleish, and then bid with their left.

And of course they are using right-handed bidding boxes, so they either bid upside down, or (more commonly) twist their hand or their entire body to turn the card backwards. Every time.

Now, my partner does this (and bids upside down), but as she says, "I'm not left-handed, I'm right-injured". And we do have left-handed bidding boxes in Calgary which we bring (but aren't worth flying north and south with).

I just learned early on that it's not worth doing any of that, just sort the cards in the right, move them to the left, bid; put the hand down to write in the contract, then pick it up with the right hand and play with my (coördinated) left.

Yep, thinking about it, there is a lot of variance here. I have one partner who handles the cards quite "normally" but uses a mouse upside down, which says everything about the dutility of the human brain and the apparent randomness of our choices. And of course, all this variance can be exploited. Maybe my ex-president who insisted everyone should hold their cards below the table like her was not wholly wrong after all (although I always suspected it was just harder to figure out what they were up to)

[mikl_plkcc]

Another Friday again, this time my regular partner was not available so I played with the host.

We finally got a small positive today, however there were a lot of lies which, imo, would led me to lose trust to my partner if it happened in my regular partnership.

I felt that my partner lied to me for at least 3 hands:

Board 16, partner lied a 2NT with 5=1=4=3 22 HCP which I transferred to H, and we missed a cold slam in the other major which many other tables bid and made.

Board 13, partner lied a 1S opening with 4 S and 5 D, (we played 5-card majors), RHO overcalled and I raised with a 3-card Yarborough support. They finally made 3NT while, without a lie, it would end up a penalty pass on us getting -3 or -4 as we had no 8-card fit in any suits so it was a positive for us.

Board 6, partner opened a 1st seat weak 2 with JT9xxx, I held KQx in support and another solid suit, that I presumed my partner must hold the A and bid a game because it was a clear-cut losing 3 tricks and everything else, and of course it ended up down 1 because of the lack of the A. I would not open with that hand because of the poor suit quality and honours in the other major, and with my constructive bidding, would end up in 3D making instead if the opponents didn't outbid us with 3S.

[akwoo]

mikl_plkcc, on 2025-March-14, 17:57, said:

Another Friday again, this time my regular partner was not available so I played with the host.

We finally got a small positive today, however there were a lot of lies which, imo, would led me to lose trust to my partner if it happened in my regular partnership.

I felt that my partner lied to me for at least 3 hands:

Board 16, partner lied a 2NT with 5=1=4=3 22 HCP which I transferred to H, and we missed a cold slam in the other major which many other tables bid and made.

Board 13, partner lied a 1S opening with 4 S and 5 D, (we played 5-card majors), RHO overcalled and I raised with a 3-card Yarborough support. They finally made 3NT while, without a lie, it would end up a penalty pass on us getting -3 or -4 as we had no 8-card fit in any suits so it was a positive for us.

Board 6, partner opened a 1st seat weak 2 with JT9xxx, I held KQx in support and another solid suit, that I presumed my partner must hold the A and bid a game because it was a clear-cut losing 3 tricks and everything else, and of course it ended up down 1 because of the lack of the A. I would not open with that hand because of the poor suit quality and honours in the other major, and with my constructive bidding, would end up in 3D making instead if the opponents didn't outbid us with 3S.

The player who has won the most face-to-face masterpoints in the ACBL in the last decade or so, who seems to average 60% in open pairs at regional tournaments playing with a variety of sometimes much weaker partners who no doubt are paying him handsomely for the privilege, is well known for these kinds of lies. His clients either are truly oblivious, or they pretend to be so they don't have to tell their opponents; I'm never sure which, and it probably depends on the client.

Notice these kinds of maneuvers increase the chance that he gets to declare, which is much better than having to defend with the client or (gasp!) having the client declare.

And - as you can see in this case - it resulted in one good board, one bad board, and one where it didn't make much difference (the opps are finding 3S).

I'm guessing your partner thinks (probably correctly) that they are better than you, and they wanted to fool around a bit.

See if you got some cardplay lessons watching them. And - if you ever get good enough that someone with more money than sense wants to pay you to play with them - you can save up this lesson on how to hog hands and throw opponents (and partner) off at the same time.