[barmar]

pescetom, on 2025-April-08, 15:58, said:

Bridge is just not a good game if your partner can communicate with anything other than calls or plays.

Of course. But the degree of improper communication matters, too.

If your partner can see your entire hand, it's much worse than if they only know your suit distribution. And if they can see all four hands, it's as bad as it can get. This is why self-kibbitzing online is one of the most serious infractions.

Inferences from UI are not even close to this. And unless it's deliberate, I wouldn't use the C-word to describe it.

[johnu]

barmar, on 2025-April-08, 15:22, said:

Even in cases where these are used as deliberate signalling mechanisms, the bandwidth is very low. For instance, the famous Reese-Schapiro system just signalled the number of hearts.

IIRC, there were also allegations that they signaled hand strength by the height that they held their hands. I agree that even with both types of cheating this isn't close to as good as knowing all 13 cards in partner's hand.

[pescetom]

barmar, on 2025-April-10, 09:27, said:

Of course. But the degree of improper communication matters, too.

If your partner can see your entire hand, it's much worse than if they only know your suit distribution. And if they can see all four hands, it's as bad as it can get. This is why self-kibbitzing online is one of the most serious infractions.

Inferences from UI are not even close to this. And unless it's deliberate, I wouldn't use the C-word to describe it.

I would argue that when one chooses the LA more suggested by the UI, it is deliberate by definition, if one was aware of the UI and understood the inferences.
But that does not mean one understood the (extreme and slightly schizophrenic) law, so TDs will usually give rope here even if the Laws retain the infraction serious.
I don't remember anyone using the C-word in this thread drift, we were discussing what it takes to make this a better game.

[hrothgar]

pescetom, on 2025-April-13, 15:24, said:

I don't remember that anyone used the C-word here, sounds like a strawman to me.

Then you have your head pretty far up your ass

Check out the following. https://www.blakjak.org/weasel.htm
Does this sound like cheating to you? (Because it is)

Or if you prefer, there is the "French Defense" over NT openings...

The world of bridge is full of cheats

Most people just prefer to sweep it all under the rug

[jillybean]

"Weasel is the only convention known to be played more extensively at the club level than at the national level."

Weasel, and it's variants are now widespread in all levels of Bridge, as we saw in the last NABCs


I'm taking up golf.

[jillybean]

Interested to know, does anyone know how long the Edgar backlog of suspected cheats is?

[hrothgar]

barmar, on 2025-April-10, 09:27, said:

Inferences from UI are not even close to this. And unless it's deliberate, I wouldn't use the C-word to describe it.

Lets try an analogy

There are lot of different racial epithets that get applied to black / Jews / Asians / pretty much whomever
Some are much more offensive than others

Regardless of which one gets used, the person uttering it is still a racist and we shouldn't look for ways to excuse them because they're a slightly more polite type of racist

[pilowsky]

hrothgar, on 2025-April-13, 17:18, said:

Lets try an analogy

There are lot of different racial epithets that get applied to black / Jews / Asians / pretty much whomever
Some are much more offensive than others

Regardless of which one gets used, the person uttering it is still a racist and we shouldn't look for ways to excuse them because they're a slightly more polite type of racist

And with that logic we should send all violators to El Salvador.


What this and other similar threads reinforce is that there is an unreconcilable chasm between what the Laws and Rulings are and how the game is played in reality.
Or irreconcilable if you cheat in the ACBL.