An introduction to basic artificial bids for Bridge, in which we cover the Stayman convention, the Jacoby transfer, and the Takeout double. Don't worry, it's not as complex as it sounds.

All in boardgames
An introduction to basic artificial bids for Bridge, in which we cover the Stayman convention, the Jacoby transfer, and the Takeout double. Don't worry, it's not as complex as it sounds.
Where we look at how we calculate high-card points, how we determine if we can open with a bid and support a bid, and how we decide how far to push a contract in order to make game.
f your idea of a dream job is to design games for the CIA, chin up: there's a chance after all! According to an article on CNN, the American intelligence agency frequently uses card and board games to train their intelligence officers and political analysts. "Gaming," senior collection analysts David Clopper said, "is part of the human condition. Why not take advantage of that and incorporate into the way we learn?"
As a geek, dates can be tough. Consider your run-of-the-mill first date: you bring her (or him; we'll just pretend, for the rest of this article, that your date is a girl because everyone knows that there are no girls on the Internet) to a movie, then take her out to a nice candlelit dinner and, if everything goes well, maybe you go for a moonlit walk because that's the romantic thing to do. Swoon. Doesn't that sound perfectly lovely?
Except, of course, it isn't.
Compare a modern boardgame like, say, Blood Rage to a classic like Risk. At first glance, they appear similar: both see you moving armies across a map to conquer territory, fight one another and, in the process, probably ruin a couple of real-life friendships. So what’s the point? Why play Blood Rage when you can get the same experience through your battered, ancient copy of Risk?
Looking for more classic boardgames that should be canned and replaced with harder, faster, stronger modern versions? Your search is at its end. This is part two of two of our "10 classic boardgames that should be replaced (and the games to replace them" series.
Does this conversation sound familiar to you?
“Hey! Wanna play some boardgames?”
”Boardgames? Ugh. No thanks, I hate boardgames.”
You know what, though? I understand. If all you've ever played were games like Scrabble and Jenga and - god forbid - Monopoly, would you ever want to play a boardgame ever again? I've got friends who would rather eat their own shoes than play another game of Risk, and frankly, I don't blame them.