[aguahombre]

 Vampyr, on 2012-September-06, 09:32, said:

Even just printing a CC on the computer gives you a bit more room, since removing the unused checkboxes and the text associated with them lets you fill in things you actually do play.

Most people who do this do an excellent job. The card is less cluttered and easier for us to find stuff. These people obviously realize they have produced the card for the benefit of the opponents.

A few, however, end up with just as much or more clutter ---but things are not in the locations we are accustomed to find them when we want a particular item. They are hugging the fine line of violating ACBL rules on what a CC should look like.

[paulg]

 aguahombre, on 2012-September-06, 09:46, said:

Yep. The CC holders' only real benefit, IMO is to be able to store multiple CC's. We only need the one we are employing during a particular session.

But where do you keep the list of pre-alerts, the written description of Mid-Chart methods and the approved defences?

[jillybean]

Can someone write a smart phone app for CC's and score cards
One guy at the club already uses his smartphone to keep track of his score. He is NOT one of the villians who let their cell phone
ring during the game but I bet he will be the one in slapped with a penalty if he uses it a tournament.

[blackshoe]

 paulg, on 2012-September-06, 10:24, said:

But where do you keep the list of pre-alerts, the written description of Mid-Chart methods and the approved defences?

Heh. In the folder with all my cards. In the unlikely event I'm playing where the Mid-Chart is allowed, I give the written description and the approved defenses to my RHO - who will probably just hand it right back.

[aguahombre]

 paulg, on 2012-September-06, 10:24, said:

But where do you keep the list of pre-alerts, the written description of Mid-Chart methods and the approved defences?

ZT, if I suggest where to put them.

[f0rdy]

 barmar, on 2012-September-05, 09:51, said:

And how often have you found something that required discussion with your partner?

And I doubt very much that asking will wake up the opps. It's rare that players with unusual things on their CC forget them, unless they're recent changes (I think my partner is finally getting the hang of Meckwell vs 1NT).

Or how about our Mexican 2♦? Are you going to read through all our notes on the response structure, so you don't have to ask what they mean? Do you think you'll remember it after a glance?

One common situation for me (playing in the EBU) is if my partner opens 1NT and RHO overcalls 2X, prompting no reaction from LHO. In plenty of circumstances, the chances are roughly comparable that:

a) 2X is natural
b) 2X is conventional, and LHO has forgotten to alert/hasn't noticed RHO has bid.
c) 2X is by agreement conventional, and LHO has forgotten this.

It's then very convenient if I can unobtrusively glance at their CC; almost all filled in cards in the EBU have a good enough description of their defence to 1NT that I will be able to inform my action without waking up LHO in case c)

This isn't a case of "It's rare that players with unusual things on their CC forget them", because there is no one defence to 1NT that's especially standard amongst club players.

 jillybean, on 2012-September-06, 10:40, said:

Can someone write a smart phone app for CC's and score cards
One guy at the club already uses his smartphone to keep track of his score. He is NOT one of the villians who let their cell phone
ring during the game but I bet he will be the one in slapped with a penalty if he uses it a tournament.

Smartphones seems dubious; I know preventing cheating in bridge largely has to rely on trust, but I think a lot of people will be naturally suspicious of a player fiddling with their phone during a session?

I did once turn up to a match with a Kindle... (almost pick-up partnership, email discussion about system had happened but I hadn't made it to a printer, so just downloaded the CC as pdf in a hurry)
I was surprised by how positive the reaction to it was, even though it really isn't big enough for something designed to be A5. The only negative reaction I got was from an elderly couple; the man was very entertained by it, and the woman responded with "Don't get him started! We've only just got a new computer..."

[Quantumcat]

 jillybean, on 2012-September-06, 10:40, said:

Can someone write a smart phone app for CC's and score cards
One guy at the club already uses his smartphone to keep track of his score. He is NOT one of the villians who let their cell phone
ring during the game but I bet he will be the one in slapped with a penalty if he uses it a tournament.

I was going to write a scoring app a few months ago, for a uni project. It was going to be mainly for teams games, and would cross-score when both sides had finished play. But I decided people probably wouldn't trust it and didn't finish it.

[bluejak]

 paulg, on 2012-September-03, 12:44, said:

A sectional is equivalent to a county event.

In Scotland, the regulations state "At the start of each round, you should exchange convention cards with your opponents and inform them of your basic system, notrump range, the meaning of your two-level opening bids and any unusual aspects of your system".

In England, the EBU believes that the exchange of convention cards is sufficient and there is no need for an announcement.

The Scottish approach seems friendlier.

Hmmm. You are beginning to sound like someone else we know.

But you are wrong, you know. Whether an approach is friendlier or not depends on how people talk to each other, greet each other and so on, not whether they tell you their system. What is certain is that the Scottish approach is far, far less efficient, because people do not tell you what you want to hear, they tell you what they think you want to hear.

The English used to have a similar regulation, but found it worked better not to have it, but to redesign the SC.

 Vampyr, on 2012-September-04, 03:22, said:

Why does the ACBL seem to have a general culture of ignoring regulations (Stop card, convention cards, maybe others) when other NBOs don't seem to have the problem?

Too many Americans?

 blackshoe, on 2012-September-05, 17:55, said:

And that would drive most players in North America absolutely bonkers.

How could you tell the difference?

 semeai, on 2012-September-05, 18:26, said:

People keep their scores on the reverse side, so they write in it after every hand and thus like to have it close. If you just filled out the convention card anew, you might just have the sheet of paper out, folded in half, with the scores inside, or conceivably folded in quarters in your pocket or under your leg. Otherwise people put it in a plastic sleeve that has flaps to hold onto more on the other side, where you add in blank ones with the scoresheet side showing (some then fold it, some lay it flat).

Are convention cards and scoresheets separate in England, or do people just take it back between hands to write scores on?

Separate in general. Clubs often use combined ones, and more experienced players bring their own SCs.

When I play in the ACBL [sadly not going to this year ] I bring laminated SCs for GCC, MC2 and MC6, also pre-alert cards and required defences. About two people a day look at them.

[paulg]

 bluejak, on 2012-September-06, 17:47, said:

The English used to have a similar regulation, but found it worked better not to have it, but to redesign the SC.

I presume that there were complaints about disclosure with pre-alerts, even though people should also have had a SC (and I prefer the old one to the new one). Were there any areas that were particularly frequent?

[McBruce]

Those of you without experience in ACBL club bridge probably have no way of adequately imagining the way these ACBL combined system and score card plastic doodads infiltrate the club scene, making a quick examination of an opponent's bidding system at the start of a round nearly impossible.

The proper form for the experienced club player is to have one convention card for everyone you have ever played a session with in your life, and scoresheets on the inside part from every game for the past 2-3 presidential administrations. This means the things weigh about as much as a jockey at the race track, and eventually, after a long life, suddenly explode like George Costanza's wallet. They appear to be designed so that you can add more pages to either the outer system card area, or the inner score card area, stretching the plastic little by little. But any notion of removing scorecards from the Clinton presidency, or system cards for your occasional game with players who died during the Florida recount, is simply not on. The plastic may stretch, but it does not snap back to original tension when paper is removed. Going from 150 pages to a svelte 20 means that every time you get up to move for a new round, half of your partners, or the scores you got with them, end up on the floor.

Luckily, at many regionals, part of the hospitality is designating one session during the week-long tournament where everyone playing will get a new convention card holder. This usually prompts people to do a bit of CCH editing and the host hotels and playing site must be sure to schedule a special visit from the garbage truck. The lengths people will go to ensure that they are playing when the free CCHs are handed out are terrifying. You can buy one at the booksellers location at any time for about 15% of the cost of an entry fee. Instead, people have been known to extend their stay an extra day, reschedule their flights, in order to be in a seat when the free ones come out. God help the poor caddy who doesn't have a proper selection of colours.

My role at Pacific Northwest regionals in the past few years has been in producing Daily Bulletins, and I go to great lengths to discover everything I can about each site that may interest the players or be generally useful, like where to park your car if you want it towed away. But I never print the session the free convention card holders are coming out. I'd be lynched if I got it wrong, or it was changed at the last minute. I do my best not to even find out, to avoid having to lie when players ask.

Luckily, our District is getting smart and not giving them out except at the largest Regionals. Instead, in a cost-cutting measure, they give out little fuzzy stickers with the tournament city's name and some sort of iconic symbol to stick onto the plastic, so that a year later you'll remember how much fun you had and come back. The stickers are even more popular than the convention card holders! Trouble is, people start collecting the stickers like stamps on a passport, and soon there is only about a 15% chance the information you want will not be under a peach or a skunk or a watermelon or something even more inane.

Last summer we lost a very popular nonagenarian who played every day, with everyone, almost right up until the end of her life. A beautiful memorial gathering was held at her house on a bright shiny Sunday afternoon, and among the tables of photographs and mementos was a display of the convention cards in her last convention card holder (or maybe the last two or three). I'm told these were deployed, overlapping with only the names at the top visible, over several bridge-sized tables. Her surviving relatives encouraged and pleaded with the bridge people who came to pay their respects to feel free to take home the ones bearing their own name.

So the concept of a start-of-round quick look at the opponents system card, in ACBL club bridge (and a major portion of tournament bridge as well), is viewed with about the same attitude as would follow from an attempt to peddle real estate, interest someone in life insurance, or sell illegal drugs. Often your opponent will be writing scores from the last round, trying to steer the pencil around the fuzzy tiger or the furry football. There is no way the 247 sheets of paper will both stay in the plastic and fold over, so if you hold it up to try and see what partnership agreements lie hidden under the twenty-seven colourful stickers, you will be simultaneously displaying the opponents scores to your partner, and there is not a chance in hell you want partner influenced by anything they may have done.

[jillybean]

 McBruce, on 2012-September-07, 04:18, said:

Last summer we lost a very popular nonagenarian who played every day, with everyone, almost right up until the end of her life. A beautiful memorial gathering was held at her house on a bright shiny Sunday afternoon, and among the tables of photographs and mementos was a display of the convention cards in her last convention card holder (or maybe the last two or three). I'm told these were deployed, overlapping with only the names at the top visible, over several bridge-sized tables. Her surviving relatives encouraged and pleaded with the bridge people who came to pay their respects to feel free to take home the ones bearing their own name.

Ev was influential in getting me hooked on the game, I think she liked me because I was never afraid of bidding. She was a feisty competitor but always had a laugh and some fun at the table and as Bruce says, played with anyone including new players. Ev and I travelled, stayed and played together in what I think must have been the last regional she attended, in Seaside Oregon. We would play 3 session a day, get back to the hotel, and I would be asleep before she had finished talking about the hands. When I was playing at the club I would reach her table with a mixture of trepidation and joy. I miss and think about her a lot, table 3 is just not the same now.
Ev collected the fuzzy stickers for her grandchildren, they were never put on her CC holder.