gszes

the problem here is why not go for THREE diamond tricks. There is no articular reason why the opening lead is not from length. That means there is every reasonable chance that RHO has something like J2 92 A2 (i am using the 2 because you did not mention which spot was led) AND that they will insert the J or 9 or A at trick 1. Using any of dummy's intermediate can easily COST a trick rather than provide any gain. Even if RHO has say 96 it is way far from clear that inserting the 6 is a magic bullet vs the 9. I am very optimistic that we can score 3 dia tricks after a dia lead. If things go well, we might also get a chance to lead toward the spade Q for yet another overtrick. The more information you supply the more likely yu are to get a comprehensive reply:)))))))) STAY WELL

This is driving me batty. I mentally concocted a LOP then read the comments. I am convinced that both Cyberyeti and MikeH are spot on (as usual) in their opinions on how to continue the presented LOP. My concern is I see no strong evidence that LHO has more than 5 hearts so there is no huge disparity in open spaces between the two hands. IMHO we seem to be better served by trying to set up spades first and if we find Lho is short in spades we can belatedly attack diamonds just as effectively later in the hand. trick 2 spade to K trick 3 spade Q (lho showing out (rats was hoping for 33 or 42 with lho for 4/5 spades 1h 2c 2d or 4 spades 2h 2c 1d) trick 4 club to A (I hear there is a 40% chance the Q will drop though I cannot vouch for ever seeing it happen in MY favor). trick 5 club K (sigh as usual) trick 6 spade A (pitch useless club) trick 7 dia Q and the hand appears to be over since we would be happy with 3s 2c 2h 2d or 3s 2c 1h 3d. I was unhappy with the proposed LOP mainly because it ignored the rather strong minority chance LHO might have started with 4 spades. This works even if lho began with 1543/1633 since lho cannot squeeze my hand by cashing the club Q after winning the dia K. STAY WELL

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:18c9dfac.2dc9.11eb.94ca.0cc47a39aeb4-1606162729&u=gszes&v3b=web&v3v=5.6.15 Milbridge 19 gszes 23

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:60ec4a34.2b7b.11eb.94ca.0cc47a39aeb4-1605909447&u=gszes&v3b=web&v3v=5.6.15 Stephen Tu 30 gszes 27

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:7b9c67ef.2b7b.11eb.94ca.0cc47a39aeb4-1605909491&u=gszes&v3b=web&v3v=5.6.14 Billyfyng2 39 gszes 3 (ouchies)

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:4d21f937.2b7b.11eb.94ca.0cc47a39aeb4-1605909414&u=gszes&v3b=web&v3v=5.6.14 Shubov 15 Gszes 40

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:87d3ef9a.2ab3.11eb.94ca.0cc47a39aeb4-1605823613&u=gszes&v3b=web&v3v=5.6.14 Shuba 35 Gszes 25

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:a3aa27e5.2a9c.11eb.94ca.0cc47a39aeb4-1605813781&u=gszes&v3b=web&v3v=5.6.14 Cherdano 35 Gszes 31

Icycookie 21 Gszes 7 https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:e812cdcf.2ae7.11eb.94ca.0cc47a39aeb4-1605846108&u=gszes&v3b=web&v3v=5.6.14

event 21 Barmar 5 Gszes 24 https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=ARDCHALLENGE:fa42fc14.2a26.11eb.94ca.0cc47a39aeb4-1605763246&u=gszes&v3b=web&v3v=5.6.14

JEC is the BBO moniker for Jimmy Cayne and his team of international stars.

HUGE NUMBERS of kibitzers showed up for those SAT afternoon (EST) matches. The results, in the couple of years I was "participating", were indeed quite daunting around 100 to 3. I "think" the main problem was JEC preferred to play against partnerships he might see in the future. That left a huge number of forum readers/posters adrift. I not only played against them on numerous occasions but one time actually WITH them - we clobbered the forum hehe - (seeing traitor appear more than once on my chat:)). I found the experiences wonderful and enlightening. I tried running it for a while when I was new to BBO and found many complaints when I chose 1st come 1st served vs the stronger players since I did not know the bbo names. If it is run again I would get someone who knows who the stronger players are to give JEC the best competition.

partner has warned us about the danger of proceeding with our hand. I would not venture a bid over 3c unless I felt I was within 1 trick of game in my own hand (or better) OR i felt the 4 level was safe in partners preempted suit. Since the above hand meets neither of those requirements I pass and hope 3c can make OR the crazy opps cannot stand passing 3c and back in for a sizeable penalty:)))

good post: I sort of like these posts that allow for a different answer depending on the form of scoring. MP: PASS I know the opps have seen the vulnerability but the allure of + 200 w/o any strong reason to assume we have a game is too much to resist. IMPS: 4c One can almost hear Dirty Harry saying this here is a 3s magnum and it can blow your head clean off. I honestly don't know if it is loaded or not but the real question is, Do you feel lucky punk? The 4 level should be pretty safe and doubling the opps for a possible 1 trick set just seems far too risky for me. Put me BEHIND the 2s bidder and I will pass all day.

After reading Nige1's analysis, I can see little chance My name will ever appear in the newspaper again (associated with bridge anyway) sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

trick 1 win in dummy trick 2 club to the Q this has the benefit of setting up my 11th trick and might also rectify the count for any squeeze. We might also make some assumptions about the nature of LHO hand if they win and do not try to hit an ace in their partner's hand (there is easily room for one). The only reason for this would seem to be lho holding the spade K. If this is how the defense goes I will go ahead and run the diamonds pitching a heart early and hope the AKQT (hidden) will turn out to be the winning strategy. If the club Q holds the trick I will try to run the hearts (taking the top 3) and running the diamonds while falling back on the spade finesse if the hearts fail to run.

This is a scoring issue. -500 (down 2 x) is worse than any game score and -200 (down 1 x) is worse than any partial the opps might score. When you look at your hand you can easily imagine 5 tricks. It is not unreasonable to expect 4 hcp in dia in your partners hand. That leaves around 8/10 (if min) IN FRONT OF the doubler. This means there is a significant chance those 8/10 are doomed to score far less than normal. You need partner to score 3 tricks outside diamonds to beat any GAME the opps have (if partner can take 3 tricks outside dia + 1 dia trick means game is almost impossible for the opps. That means the ONLY way a dia preempt can work is if it makes OR goes down only 1 undoubled. This thinking should allow you to bid only 2d next time or even pass. If you reverse the vulnerability, 3d looks a ton more appealing.

I visited for YES to soloway j/s BUT that was before I knew I had a bot for a partner (they are scary). I will not give the bot the slightest clue we have a dia fit because if I determine 6h is the max I do NOT want bot overruling me to an impossible 7d just because they are short in hearts. With a bot KISS strong jump shift followed by cue bids to see how many times they can cue diamonds OR until it takes over the bidding.

enough defense to make 2sx a possible winner (at these colors) and x is far more flexible for slam bidding purposes if p has no interest in 2sx.

SIGH I HATE these "logic" problems where the answer has nothing to do with how to play the hand single dummy BUT here goes: CYBERYETI is indeed on the right track but I also think the devil is in the details. Trick 1 win the club in hand trick 2 unlock the spade ace trick 3 lead the heart J (key play) and now the LOP diverges depending on If the J is covered or not. IF THE HEART J IS NOT COVERED trick 4 club to the K -----IF THE SPADE Q AND THE SPADE 9 ARE COVERED trick 5 spade Q ruff small trick 6 ruff a club trick 7/8 pull 2 rounds of trump ending in dummy trick 9 spade 9 ruff trick 10 pull last trump (pitch losing spade) trick 11 finesse heart trick 12 cash heart trick 13 cash top spade -----IF THE SPADE Q IS NOT COVERED trick 5 pitch a heart trick 6 trump to hand trick 7 ruff a club trick 8 cash top trump in dummy trick 9 ruff a spade trick 10 pull last trump (pitch last spade) trick 11 take heart finesse and claim 2 hearts and a trump -----IF THE SPADE Q IS COVERED BUT NOT THE SPADE 9 trick 9 pitch losing heart trick 10 ruff a spade trick 11 pull last trump trick 12 take heart finesse trick 13 claim ---------------------------------------------------------- IF THE HEART J IS COVERED trick 4 spade Q (rho must cover as above) ruff small trick 5 top dia in hand trick 6 small dia to dummy trick 7 spade 9 IF RHO COVERS THE SPADE 9 trick 7 ruff small trick 8 club to K trick 9 ruff the small spade with last trump trick 10 heart to Q trick 11 pull last trump trick 12 cash good heart trick 13 cash spade 8 IF RHO DUCKS THE SPADE 9 trick 7 pitch losing heart trick 8 ruff a spade trick 9 club to K trick 10 ruff last spade trick 11 heart to Q trick 12 pull last trump trick 13 cash last heart I HATE these types of problems and, whatever you do, do NOT try to learn bidding by copying the bots

I admit I would start low toward the club TEN mainly because a BOT is my LHO. The BOTS ae totally unaware of the kinds of demons we have running around in our heads so they have a tendency to GIVE UP when they seem doomed opposite best play. That means LHO will RISE when they have both black kings (being doomed to a show up squeeze when we first lead to the T then rise with the ace on a club return and cash the dia. In theory they should insert the J with the club J and spade K but that position is just a tad deeper and I have no clue how far the "thinking" goes. Lho might also rise with only the club K though that defense might be too weak even for the BOTS. IF my first play to the club T fails I would use the above "logic" to play rho for the club K. Minus the "give up" positions, there are 11 cases of rho holding the club KJ and only 7 where LHO holds only the spade K or the club K. See what I mean about demons?

Several factors need to be taken into consideration (beyond those listed by author). 1. How much defense do we have (close to, if not actually, zero) This one factor alone makes a 2h bid scary in case the auction gets real high real fast and p x. 2. We have no control in what would seem to be the obvious opening lead (dia) and that lead is going through partner. Makes any slam bidding by us serendipitous. 3. Do we have a bid that pretty accurately describes our hand while taking into account vulnerability and game? YES (4H). 4. Will our bid allow p to accurately predict the worth of their hand for slam purposes? yes They should love a hand like Axxxx xx A Axxxx and hate a hand like KQJTx void KQx KQJTx. Cant ask for much better reevaluation than that:) Conclusion: Bid 4h and let partner (the player looking at their cards) use their best judgement on how to proceed (IMHO) (maybe just maybe we can bid a grand).

IMHO its just too speculative to make a dia switch at trick 2. There are too many ways declarer can make 9 tricks when partner started with 5 clubs. If p began with 4 clubs I still feel our best bet is to let p take trick 3/4 since they know where they are holding an ace. Just too much to ask for hoping p began with xx xxx AQJx JTxx to make a dia switch at trick 3.

The part score battle at IMPS is NOWHERE near as intense as it is at MP. Risking a HUGE loss with a far less than stellar suit and otherwise boring minimum hand is (IMHO) just too risky at unfavorable at IMPS. Partnership harmony is hugely important so have a in depth discussion and decide the matter.

[hv=pc=n&s=sakj84hkq8d7caj83&w=st76hj754dqt532ct&n=s952ht32d86ckq976&e=sq3ha96dakj94c542&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1sp1n2d3c4dpp4hppp]399|300[/hv] Passing with a KNOWN 8 card spade fit and a KNOWN 9 card club fit for a possible 7 card heart fit is so irrational, one wonders if there is a sabotage clause in the bidding that allows GIB to choose a COMPLETLEY stupid bid on random occasion when it has a HUMAN partner. I say this because I have NEVER witnessed such a travesty when 2 GIBS are partners. This is not a question of judgement but dereliction of duty.