Formatting bridge hands

michael

This is a little experimental, but worth giving a try. I've been writing some code to nicely format bridge hands in other parts of the website, and I thought it was worth trying to add it here too. For example, you can now create things like this:

{dens at9 qj752 75 k96;j86532 4 a932 jt;kq7 kt kj84 q532;4 a9863 qt6 a874}

{b..2dx2sxp2np3n/}

in just a couple of lines of text. For the syntax, see this document on Github.

One issue is that it doesn't show up when you Preview your post, so you kind of have to just hope that it works and edit it if it doesn't. But feel free to use this thread to practice, or to ask questions.

michael

And, just to confirm, it works in replies too:

{b..2s/}

(you may have to hit refresh to see the change though)

ais523

If you're looking for improvements, it strikes me that having some way to annotate bids in the auctions (e.g. to show alerts, locations of breaks in tempo, etc.) would be useful (both for this forum and for the site more generally).

Having something is a huge improvement on having nothing, though, so a change like this is definitely worthwhile even if this is the final version.

michael

Yep, good idea. I'm sure there will be further versions - it's just starting off basic.

adam

{dnnone Q106 KQ973 4 A642; J4 J654 K7653 J10; A8532 A8 AJ10 Q93; K97 102 Q982 K875 } {b.1hp1sp2cp2dp2sp4s/} 4!s is a normal enough contract, and so the key is how many tricks will be made. West will probably lead a diamond, which gives declarer the opportunity to take a ruffing finesse in the suit on the second round. Now it is a matter of making a good guess in trumps. If West plays low when a trump is led from the South hand, declarer will make only ten tricks if the ten is played, but there is an opportunity to end up with twelve tricks on the correct guess. If West rises with the king, declarer will make eleven. So, I expect the field to be divided between these three results, with the odd pair in 3NT, and some getting too high.

mikeindex

Would most Wests really lead a diamond? I would definitely lead a trump on that bidding.

pg10003

Nice, board number??

michael

!s !h

Looks like the forum's suit symbol emojis interfere with the formatter's suit symbols.

michael

@michael said:
!s !h

Looks like the forum's suit symbol emojis interfere with the formatter's suit symbols.

Ok, I've hopefully fixed that. Let me know if it's still broken on any other posts.

mikeindex

@mikeindex said:
Would most Wests really lead a diamond? I would definitely lead a trump on that bidding.

(Not that that's really the point of the exercise).

AlanB

Is this free to use for anyone writing articles or books?

michael

@AlanB said:
Is this free to use for anyone writing articles or books?

Yeah, it's open source. Use it for whatever reason you like.

AlanB

Thanks Michael