Notes 7Z92 by Richard Pavlicek
Notes 7Z92 by Richard Pavlicek
1. What bidding methods are used?
Bidding is “Standard American,” which includes strong notrumps (15-17), five-card majors and weak two-bids. Due to variations in American methods, specific agreements are based on my outline of Standard American Bridge and my more detailed Bidding Guide. Any problem scenario that does not conform to these bidding methods would be noted.
The default methods are deliberately simple and include only the most common conventions — Stayman, strong artificial 2 
bid, negative doubles, Michaels cue-bid, unusual notrump, regular Blackwood and Gerber.
Signals generally indicate attitude (high encourages, low discourages) when partner leads, or count (high-low with an even number, up-the-line with an odd number) when declarer leads. Special cases include the trump signal (high-low with an odd number) and suit preference. For clarifications and exceptions, see Carding Agreements in my outline of Standard American Bridge.
Exceptions occur, typically related to the contest theme, but these will be stated in the conditions for that event. (Particularly note “Beware the Ides of March,” in which your opponents use Roman leads and signals.) This is much like in real bridge, as from table to table you will encounter different methods.
Matchpoints — commonly used in pair events. It pays to take risks to win the most tricks in the play. Overtricks are important.
Board-a-Match — similar to matchpoints, but you are playing to beat only one other result. Hence, each board is either a win (1), loss (0) or tie (1/2). Also known as “point-a-board.”
IMPs — commonly used in team events. Making or defeating a contract is the primary goal. Overtricks are less significant but should not be ignored.
Rubber Bridge — traditionally used for non-duplicate bridge. Safety is more important than IMPs, and overtricks are even less significant. Partscores carry over from deal to deal (within the same rubber) and honors count.
Chicago — similar to rubber bridge but more popular today. Each round consists of four deals with predetermined vulnerability rotation. Partscores carry over (within the round) and honors count.
Total Points — almost nonexistent today. Raw duplicate scores are added together. Safety is even more important than rubber bridge, and overtricks are insignificant. Honors count, but each deal stands alone (no partscore carryover).
Plus-or-Fishfood — invented by me (in jest) for “The Game Is Afoot” play contest as the ultimate in safety concern. The only object is to get a plus score, so overtricks are totally meaningless. Honors do not count.
Voting is used to break ties among answers that prove to be equal (or virtually so), and may also affect the actual awards given for also-rans. For example, if a poor play receives a lot of votes, I might score it as 3 or 4 instead of 1 or 2.
Scoring should not be considered final or “official” until at least two weeks have elapsed. While I take great effort to be fair in my grading, I am only human, and it is possible that I overlooked something. I invite feedback and often receive arguments that a play or defense deserves a higher award (nobody ever seems to complain about an award being too high). Sometimes I agree with these arguments, and the scoring may be adjusted.
In this case, simply vote for your second choice. Then use the comment box, if desired, to explain your true feelings and how you would prefer to play. Your score will always be based on the option chosen (almost surely to your benefit) regardless of comment, but don’t be afraid to tell me off if you feel strongly about something.
I think most people understand that some participants answer quickly (as if they were at the table), while others devote a great deal of time to it. Either way is fine! (This accounts for the occasional mediocre score of some known excellent players.) The only thing that wouldn’t be fine is not to enjoy it — because then it may be time to take up canasta.
For practical purposes, and certainly to improve your own play, you should try to emulate conditions at the table. Take extra time if you need it — no “slow play” warnings here — but your opponents might be upset (no kidding) if you punched a bunch of keys on your laptop and announced, “Claiming on a triple crisscross squeeze!” Seriously, even if you don’t select the optimal play in theory, pride yourself in choosing a reasonable play, as that’s how to keep up your scoring average. Sometimes, even my expected answer turns out to be worth only 7, 8 or 9 (LOL, maybe less if I didn’t set the awards) after extensive analysis.
Obviously, it would be wrong to copy another person’s answers and submit them as your own, as any respectable person already knows. Combined or group efforts are also discouraged, but there’s nothing wrong with a husband and wife confiding to submit a single entry if desired. It is preferred, of course, that spouses submit separate entries — and this also makes for a fun household contest, e.g., to decide who does the dishes next month.
Note that this retrieval method also maintains your privacy. If another person entered your exact name and e-mail address, he would not get your scores. Your summary can be sent only to your address.
*Officially, there are 193 countries, but there are many other distinct geographic areas. My listing includes: American Samoa, Bermuda, Cocos Islands, French Polynesia, Greenland, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Taiwan, Virgin Islands UK, Virgin Islands US, and Basque Country. The last is controversial and was added by request in 2001 (I hope no one draws any political inference, as I take no sides in the controversy).Three countries are subdivided: United Kingdom is divided into regions (England, Scotland, etc.); United States into states; and Canada into provinces. The reason for this is to balance the number of participants per location. For instance, California alone has more participants than most countries; so considering the United States as a whole would be greatly out of proportion. Codes for subdivided countries are the ISO country code plus two lowercase letters; e.g., USfl = Florida, and CAon = Ontario.
My entry form now lists all locations (countries, unofficial countries, UK regions, US states and CA provinces) from which I have past participants, plus a few others where I believe bridge is played. If your location is not listed, please select “Other” and use the “Remarks” box to inform me, then I will add it to the list in the future. You are welcome to participate wherever you live.
This situation is quite common in my own state (Florida), which has many residents who are snowbirds — winters in Florida, and summers someplace up north. Please decide which state you wish to be listed as, and stick to it whenever you enter.
Location changes should be made only for permanent moves, or moves with an expected duration of at least two years (such as attending college) in which case I will update my database accordingly. Also, if you change your location and nothing else, my web form offers a checkbox to indicate whether it is an actual move (previous location was correct) or a correction (previous location was wrong), so I know whether the change should be made from now on or retroactively.
Note: If your name happens to sound phony, such as “Clark Kent” or “Bart Simpson,” please use the “Remarks” box to provide evidence that it’s real. If I’m not convinced, junk box. :)
Another problem I have with names is that people sometimes use their true first name, and the next time use a nickname (with the “Update info” box checked). I used to make these changes immediately, but then I noticed that some would switch back and forth (grr… wasting my time). Therefore, my current policy is not to change your first name to a nickname or shortened form unless you specifically confirm this desire with a note in the “Remarks” box.
Obviously, there is no practical way to determine if the address you enter actually belongs to you; but it must be a valid* e-mail address. If I discover that someone has abused this process by deliberately submitting a false address, that person will be denied entry in the current and future contests.
*To minimize typos, addresses are scanned for proper syntax — one @ sign, at least one subdomain and a valid top-level domain (with dot separator), valid alphanumeric characters, etc. Tests are not foolproof, however, so it is possible that a strange but legitimate address is rejected. If this ever happens to you, please write me (richard@rpbridge.net) and I will adjust my screening test accordingly.
Nothing about this message is commercial, so it’s hard to imagine why any bridge player would find it unwelcome; but anyone who wishes to be removed, need only advise me. See my Removal page (also available on the main page).
See my Address Change page (also available on the main page) for more information.
Going by names does add a complication: Matching participants from previous events. My policy is to match people by name and location (not e-mail address because this often changes). In the rare event of same-named participants from the same location, I ask for a middle initial — and if that’s the same, well, I won’t worry about it until it happens.
Keep in mind, however, that resubmitting answers will reset your date-time stamp, which is used as a tiebreaker. Thus, you will lose any tenure you may have accumulated by your previous entry. Sometimes, as in poker, it pays to “know when to hold ‘em.”
Don’t worry about typos, spelling and grammar, as these will be corrected if your comment is used. Also, if you happen to realize that a comment is misworded or goofy, I will usually be able to fix it to what you intended — and if I can’t interpret what you mean, I won’t use it, so you won’t be embarrassed by the publication of an incongruous comment.
*Actually, my web form now enforces a limit of 50 lines (at 50 characters per line) for each comment. This is mainly to prevent abuse, such as someone pasting a huge file into the form. I doubt that anyone would ever want to write this much.Sometimes I will use only what I feel is the best part(s) of a comment, indicating with an ellipsis (…) where text was cut. Usually, this is because the cut portion was already well stated; or it might be that you were too wordy; or drifting into a tirade.
A-Q-10-x-x 
K-9-x-x 
— J-10-x-x. Please do not try to emulate the finished typeset appearance, as this only gives us both extra work. Below are some other tips:
People often ask why I go by GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) instead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time where I live. The main reason is that these events have global participation (90+ countries), and everyone should be familiar with their time difference from GMT. Also, midnight GMT is convenient for me, as the changeover occurs at 7:00 pm local time (8:00 pm during daylight savings). Note that GMT is constant (no daylight adjustment), so British Summer Time (BST) will be one hour later.
My current policy is to open each new event on-the-dot, synchronized by the U.S. Naval Observatory atomic clock. The closing event, however, is given a 5-minute grace period to allow for someone entering at the witching hour with a clock slightly slow. But whatever the case, once the contest is cut off, that’s it.
Seriously, I do it as a hobby, and as my way of contributing to the bridge community. Throughout my life, I’ve had little interest in promotion, marketing or finance — indeed, until a few years ago, I didn’t even know where the bank was. The regular activity also seems to help me emotionally in these trying times with my wife seriously ill.
Copyright © 2007 Richard Pavlicek.