Another low-scoring group challenge. oirg wins with +5.00, by 0.50. I beat NN by 1. Both reissued.
I lose to AA by 4. Oops: I intended to reissue the challenge to NN yesterday. I issued a second challenge to AA instead. So today I finally reissued the challenge to NN.
thekinz racks up a big win in the declare-only with 67.71%, by 15.63%. Reissued, with my Precision partner, JEB_SW, playing instead of procrastinator this time.
Put me in the next declare-only challenge if you can. I’d like to compete consistently on something but not on everything.
Does that mean you want to join the rotation for the declare-only, which will then become in for four challenges then off for 2?
Almost all declare-only challenges recently have been matchpoints. I’ll leaning toward changing the ones where Abstract Actuary is sitting out to imps, since he’s the only one I am sure prefers matchpoints, and I personally would prefer imps. Matchpoints is OK with me, so if anyone else has a preference they should speak out. The 7 person rotation will still have matchponts 2/3 of the time. (Someone earlier in this thread it was discussed, and maybe someone else expressed a preference for matchpoints. AA is the only one I’m positive, and know watchpoints was OK with everyone. Not gonna go back through over 900 posts.)
Sorry I wasn’t aware of the format, and I don’t really want to interrupt anything - sounds complicated. I knew you can have IMP challenge matches with multiple people do I thought maybe you were somehow doing that at matchpoints too.
One possibility apart from this is for all of us to friend each other and then to regularly play the 8-board free challenge on BBO. Then we could see how we all did. But I just realized that would involve us playing different hands so nevermind.
I think it’s probably exactly the same. At least I set them up under Challenges/Group Challenge. But my impression is that I can invite a maximum of 4 players (in addition to myself). Then I choose the number of boards (max 16), the scoring (watchpoints, imps or total point), and whether I want declare-only.
If I indeed can invite only 4, and we have 6 people I want to invite, there always need to be 2 sitting out. (Another constraint is that I (with one id) can only host a single group challenge at a time. So SW1 hosts the regular challenges and SW49 hosts he declare-only. SW1 also hosts multiple 2-way challenges, where I don’t know the limit but only only challenge Procrastinator, Abstract Actuary and NumbersNerd anyway. I would be glad to challenge you as well.
The 2-way challenges use Advanced Robots, which don’t seem to be an option in the group challenges. Declare-only is not an option in the 2-ways.
People recognize and accept that I occasionally screw up and get one or more of the 4 settings wrong (scoring, number of boards, bidding also or declare-only, basic or advanced robots.)
I win the regular challenge with +25.00, by 17.50. How do 98 imps change hand in 16 boards? I beat AA by 14, 52-42. Both reissued.
Limit confirmed: a group challenge is limited to 5: the host plus 4 challengees.
I’m fine with Matchpoints or IMPs, just think Matchpoints makes a little more sense in the format (declare-only). And also nice practice for the other formats. And nice to mix it up. But really fine to do any format.
Also, fine to sit out as necessary to make room for others / rotations. I generally get crushed in the declare-only challenges (even more than the full challenges). I know I’m a newer / novice bridge player - never actually played in a legit bridge game or tournament - but figured my card play should at least be competitive.
If we are becoming over subscribed, and having me does not add much value to others anyway, I’m happy to sit out more often or always, if preferred.
I do enjoy the distraction and practice. And sometimes concentrate a lot. Other times I get behind and rush through. And often find myself not concentrating as much as I’d like and making really, really basic errors.
I think it’s fine just to have sit-outs in rotation. If you or anyone else knows they will be unavailable for a while, they could let me know.
I beat NN by 25. Reissued.
I win with 62.50%, by 3.91%. Reissued, with oirg and AA out this time.
I win the regular challenge with +33.50, by 29.75. Unfortunately was only in the middle of board 15 vs AA when the match timed out. Both reissued.
We were tied after 14.
Bizarrely, I win by 1 vs NN, thanks to this deal.
What do you lead?
spoilertext
I’ll even give you a peak at dummy
At both tables the opening lead was ruffed, but only at my table did the defense prevail. Seeing dummy and that auction, can you fathom how declarer prevailed at only one table?
spoilertext
At my table, CHO ruffed the opening diamond lead, and we still got the heart ace. At NN’s declarer ruffed the opening spade lead, and we got only the heart ace. Yes, CHO had remained silent with AKQ10xxxx of spades.
Reissued
NN wins the declare-only, scored at imps, with +6.75, by 3.75. Reissued, with NN and JEB_SW sitting out. Looking ahead, the sitout rotation schedule (where the currently-issued challenge is week 3, and after week 6 we’ll go back to week 1):
oirg wins the regular challenge with 18.75 by 9.25. I lose to procrastinator by 24, beat AA by 23. All reissued.
Just missed again. This time in the middle of board 16 vs NN when it timed out. I was playing 2S, not sure if it was going to make or not. This time I’m guessing I was ahead, but maybe not. Had missed a slam that I wanted to bid but didn’t, and it made easily.
Reissued.
BTW, am playing the Country vs Country challenge, which only costs 10 cents for 32 boards. It’s going very badly I’m afraid. Jeopardized a cold contract (matchpoints) playing for overtricks.
I would have played about that if I’d known about it. Did really once.
There is (or there plan to be) one each month. Play over the first FTuW of the month. It might not be too late to enter for this month. I know you could play all 32 boards in one day.