TimLymington

1,199 reputation

211

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	location	Hampshire, United Kingdom
	age	48
visits	member for	1 year, 9 months
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I live in Lymington, Hampshire, and work in the Law Courts, which may have made my English slightly pedantic. I realize that Americans and other ex-colonials labour under a disadvantage, and regard it as an holy duty to assist them in speaking (and thinking) clearly.

	1,199 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	1 year, 9 months
211 badges		location	Hampshire, United Kingdom		seen	yesterday

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39 Comments

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May 11	comment	Analyzing bidding sequence a) Could you be clearer about what you are actually asking and b) could you say what bidding system was in use?
May 7	comment	What are some good introductory rules to bridge? Bridge Whist is like Bridge in the same way Australian Rules Football is like American Football; the similarities don't mean playing one will make you an expert in the other.
Apr 29	comment	In bridge, does a declarer “need to” locate all 52 cards during the play of a trump contract? I sense a misunderstanding here. On the one hand, remembering every card played in every hand is a good thing, as there is always a small chance that the setting trick will turn on the 4 against the 5. This does not mean that striving for this perfection is the best way to improve your bridge, nor that anyone who can't do it is a bad player. On the other hand, it is only necessary to keep track of significant cards; but the 4 as against the 5 may be significant as a signal or indicating a split (assuming a defender played his lowest trump under the A). You're not actually disagreeing.
Apr 22	comment	In bridge, how can you “see” (locate) most of 52 cards halfway into the play? @TomAu: Yes. Obviously you have to take into account what opportunities each opponent had, but with two aces and two other honours, most people would bid. This person did not bid: therefore, he did not have two aces and two other honours.
Apr 14	comment	Can a tank attack across water within the same space (Germany to UK)? Hmm, does that imply Ireland is a seperate zone?
Apr 10	comment	Is Duplicate Bridge (standard Matchpoints) a game of pure skill? @Nick: interesting analogy. The rulebook for Railway Rivals specifies that each player rolls the die on his turn to decide how much rail he can build. Nowadays it is usually played with one dieroll per round, so that everybody has to make best use of the same luck. Is that 'pure skill'?
Mar 23	comment	Improved wording for dealing out cards "Equal number".
Mar 16	comment	Why is card counting considered illegal in Blackjack? @EpsilonVector: If casinos took bets where they didn't have an edge, they'd go out of business. (Yes, even if the game was precisely even; the mathematics is interesting).
Mar 10	comment	Diana Stanley dreams of a sunken city +1 for the title alone.
Mar 6	comment	What are the chances of shooting the moon in Hearts? Further research (and a cup of coffee) reveals that the Losing Trick Count only deals with AKQ. Reasonable in Bridge terms, but a suit AKQxx (LTC 0) is not certain to take all the tricks in Hearts; somebody with Jxxx will take the fourth round. This question (with OP's conditions) seems unanswerable, since there is no way but inspection to discover whether a particular hand fulfils the criteria (or that's what my cup of coffee says, anyway.) If you removed some of the specifics, such as Microsoft's rule that nobody can play a point card on the first trick, might Maths.SE be interested?
Mar 6	comment	What are the chances of shooting the moon in Hearts? Sadly, it's more complicated than it appears. 13 clubs is a successful (inevitable) moonshot, but 13 of anything else is automatic failure (admittedly you score no points unless someone else shoots the moon). Even your example hand could fail: ace of clubs, ace of diamonds on which somebody discards a small heart, and a heart lead will mean you score all but one point. My own opinion, more empirically based than provable, is that the number of hands on which you can guarantee to shoot the moon is vanishingly small, but the number on which you can bluff or squeeze a result is quite large.
Mar 6	comment	What are the chances of shooting the moon in Hearts? Much depends, in real lfe, on the skill and strategy of the other players; are you assuming that they attempt to minimise your chance of shooting the moon, or to minimise their score? Also, limited information plays havoc with precise probabilities.
Mar 6	comment	Am I at legal risk if I use a mechanism from another game in my own design? +1 for the advice 'worry more about copyright than patents'. As I understand it, mechanisms can be patented, but only if they are provably original; cards controlling others almost certainly wouldn't qualify.
Feb 17	comment	Can one ask for a “time out” to study the hand in bridge? If you have no choice at the second trick, then the number of trumps etc cannot make a difference to your play; so yes, it is unethical to suggest that it can. You make a plan when you have a decision to take.
Feb 2	comment	Why Do People “Pre-empt” With Seven Of A Suit In Bridge? Also, down four in a pre-empt means the opponents take two trump tricks when there are only six between the other three hands, and you make no side tricks at all; rare.
Feb 2	comment	In bridge, does it make sense to “tighten” or 'loosen" up on bidding depending on vulnerability? @Tom: now I'm really confused. If your partnership agreement is to open borderline hands green but not red (perfectly normal though it should probably be declared at duplicate), then your other hand is a perfect example: is that really what you are asking?
Feb 2	comment	In bridge, does it make sense to “tighten” or 'loosen" up on bidding depending on vulnerability? @Tom: As ever, it depends on many things. But you should also consider that if you open a weak hand (or pass a 13-pointer) this time, your partner is less able to trust you next time.
Dec 13	comment	In the official rules of Monopoly, can you offer immunity to other players in deals? There's nothing anywhere to stop you making a deal: the question is whether it can be enforced when you do land on the property next. My own view is that it can't, except in the sense that anyone who does insist on the rent will find it difficult to make deals in future.
Dec 9	comment	Dictionary for Scrabble that doesn't contain ridiculous words This is a good answer in its way, but if the question is 'How do you stop Scrabble-for-blood players having an advantage over the rest of us?', I'm not sure 'Turn everyone into Scrabble-for-blood players' is quite in the right spirit. In the games I play your bold words would not be valid, because we play with normal words not what SOWPODS has decreed.
Nov 27	comment	In Bridge, Can I Ask About Previously Played Cards to the Current Trick? The difference is actually between duplicate and rubber bridge: I've played extremely formal rubber, and extremely informal duplicate.