Randomize Not Working

[The_Doc_Man]

Actually, when it comes to card shuffling, the American Contract Bridge League published some findings regarding the standard shuffling of cards. They found that seven full shuffles are sufficient to randomize the deck prior to dealing a new hand of bridge. Unless, of course, you have an unusually dexterous and unscrupulous dealer who is able to bias the deal. But when I was at UNO, I taught a course in Contract Bridge for the adult extension program. I generated quite a few random hands using a BASIC language compiler on the university computers.

To say something is "random enough" often simply means that its cyclic nature is as small as required to be beneath notice for the project at hand. For instance, if I am defining random numbers from 0 to 99 and subdivide that left-hand cluster into a 10x10 grid, it is about as "random" as the right-hand cluster.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Calling the Rnd() function prior to randomizing, simply sets a seed. If you don't call Rnd(), I think VBA uses Now() or something like that. Although I haven't tested this, I'm pretty sure that you would not want to call Rnd() only once if you wanted to produce multiple random outputs of the same data because I think you get a large number of repeats.

@The_Doc_Man I didn't know you were a bridge player in your early days. Do you still play? Did you play tournaments?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I didn't know you were a bridge player in your early days. Do you still play? Did you play tournaments?

Played and, for UNO's extra-curricular activities department, was a non-certified director. (Certification makes a difference in the points you can award.) I actually represented UNO in a regional tournament with one of my better students as my partner. We came in more or less in the middle but had a blast and a couple of really memorable hands.

I stopped playing after my mother's illness (which has been discussed many times before) and when she passed, I was busy putting together the shambles of my life after five years of being her primary caregiver and then finally getting a chance to grieve. Then I met my dear wife-to-be and she was not a bridge player. But I forgave her for that because she had many other excellent qualities. I actually reached the level of earning one master point (old-style) while at UNO but just never pursued it.

If you don't call Rnd(), I think VBA uses Now() or something like that.

If you don't call RANDOMIZE() it uses the Windows internal clock on your first call to RND().

 

[Pat Hartman]

Sorry got Randomize() and Rnd() confused.

Very few married couples can make a bridge partnership work. It is far better for you to each play with others who are more closely aligned in skills and temperament. Then you can both enjoy the game but not bring it home with you. My husband taught me how to play when we were living in Kuwait because there were very few social outlets in their culture. Our club was quite the international group. About 20% were actual Kuwaitis (all men). The rest were mostly Egyptian, Palestinian, Lebanese, and Britts. I think we were the only American couple. Once we got home, I took the game up in earnest and very quickly exceeded my husband's skill level so we stopped playing and he just didn't like the competitiveness enough to find a suitable partner.

If you want to pick it up again, it is very easy to start by playing on-line. You can play in friendly games with a partner or you can play with a robot. ACBL.org will get you started. The benefit of playing on-line is that there is never an argument. But you bid 2 spades, not three. Or I know you played high-low to indicate interest because the auctions and card-by-card play are saved for posterity There are also teaching programs that you can play with.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I'm so rusty at bridge that I think my bidding style would be called "Stranded American" because of the contracts I frequently had to play.

 

[Pat Hartman]

It does take 2 to get to a bad contract