EarlPurple

Now done a bit of analysis on it and there's no 100% line. Against a 5-0 break you can do either of the following: - Win CA, SA and SK throwing a club and ruff a spade in hand with the 9 or 10, then play ace and another diamond. Either you make all your trumps (by ruffing something with the 3 then exiting with your last diamond holding just AKQ10 left), or East gives you a ruff and discard (or ruff and overruff) so you can win in dummy with the 4 (why you kept the 3) and take your finesse then. - Take a finesse to the 9 or 10 immediately. But either of these plays would lose if West had a stiff Jack

My line was to win CA, play 2 rounds of trumps and when they break I make easily. But if they are 4-1 with East having 4, I now cross to S-AK throwing my club and take a spade ruff with my small trump, then play ace and another diamond. If West forces me then I will end up making all my trumps, otherwise he'll set up 2nd diamond trick, which East may be able to ruff but that would only be with his "natural" trump trick. Works with East 7-4-1-1 and West 2-1-5-5 as well as the actual hand.

If a player leaves a tourney can't you put a sub in, even for survivor tourneys?

The hand seems to play itself. You will always make if hearts are 3-3, but there's no need to test them right now. Just play off the trumps, East has nothing particularly great to return so we win in hand and play off the ace and king of clubs, one top heart and all the diamonds throwing the SJ in dummy if the queen hasn't yet appeared. If the top clubs have also not both appeared we try the hearts. Someone holding 4 hearts may have been squeezed. Alternatively the ten may have been doubleton all along.

3♦ is a pre-emptive bid but it's not a psych. The heart suit is far too poor for a fit-jump. But if you did make one it wouldn't really be a psych either. Of course a heart bid would be better than a raise in diamonds if partner has 4-4-3-2 in which case they have no more than an 8-card spade fit which is breaking badly, and we have a 9-card fit in hearts. I don't think 2♥ shows a good hand, it's a pre-emptive bid and the one I'd probably make. I'd then bid 3♦ over 2♠ by then if I can, hopefully showing partner enough of what I hold to let him make any correct decisions over 3♠ by them.

That sounds good but it did happen while playing a tournament.

A couple of times recently I've been disconnected from BBO to upgrade my software in the middle of a tournament. How can you start keeping lists of players who leave tourneys early or have bad connections when there is an obvious fault in your software? Even when I decide to cancel the option to upgrade, I still have to reconnect to BBO.

In f2f bridge you travel to the club and pay your table money and therefore expect value for your money, i.e. a high enough number of boards. Online bridge is different, as you can play a short tournament then play another one.

can't you bring in co-directors?

I think it's simpler though if when players try to register for a tournament that is full they get a message "tournament full - added to reserve list". If when the tournament starts there are pairs missing, it will automatically fill from the reserve list. Anyone on the reserve list who did not make it into the tournament will then be given the option to either join the subs list or remove themselves.

If an upcoming tournament is full, can you make it possible to pre-register as a substitute. It's annoying when it says it's full and then when the tourney actually starts they don't even have all the tables in session. If it's a pairs tournament you can allow pairs to register as substitutes as a pair in case there are incomplete tables, or you can let individuals pre-register as subs.

1. It doesn't need to be an exact average. 2. In an individual tourney you don't know what partner has held. In a pairs tourney, it could be the partnership that gets "balanced". 3. Can be done throughout the tourney. Seems easy enough - as you sit at the table the program calculates who has had the worst deal and if anyone is way below par, rotates the board accordingly.

Nobody likes playing in a tournament where you never pick up a single decent hand. Unfortunately I've had far too many of those on BBO. Given that it's a program, I'm sure it is possible to calculate who has held what so far and somehow balance things to make it fairer, and far more enjoyable for ALL to play in.

It's a nice idea as it means people can leave tourneys when it's running really badly for them - well that happens automatically. And if you're not booted out it means the tourney isn't going as badly as you thought. I notice you get one round of grace so you can still recover from a setback on the first boards (perhaps being "fixed by the field")

I think that running your own tourney lets you see how difficult life can be for the directors and makes you more understanding to directors when you yourself are playing. There is certainly scope for logging bridge movies, which could perhaps also be modified to show time-stamps on each bid and play.

A long tourney might need substitution of directors, as directing a 24-board tourney would be far more stressful than playing in one. Automatic substitutions would help, once this is properly implemented. Most of the time directors are called is to make substitutions.

You can make a time-passing bid of 2D. I like to play that 2NT shows this sort of hand in this auction. With a strong balanced hand you would then rebid a suit first and then bid NT later.

If West leads a spade then I win and play ace and another club. West wins and forces hand with another spade or I make easily. So I ruff it in hand, cross to dummy and ruff the last spade, then draw trumps and play my last club. East must win and lead a diamond for me. If West decided to drop the CK under my ace I simply draw trumps finishing in dummy and lead a club toward the jack. Can always make 10 tricks.

I can't pass to let partner decide because there have been 2 passes to me and another one will end the auction. 6H makes even on a trump lead. I win in dummy, take the diamond hook and when it succeeds I cash the ace and cross to dummy in trumps to continue diamonds, thus making when West holds the king even if he holds 2 or 4, or if he holds 5 when trumps were 1-1. 5S is one off double-dummy.

As declarer, having led the king of spades and seen the ten fall, I will already be suspicious of a 4-1 break. When I lead a low spade to the 9 it will be confirmed. South has to duck this or I make the contract, and now I know the full position and can lead the diamond from dummy (after cashing two hearts) to ensure just a 1-trick set.

I see 5 club tricks, 3 diamonds and the ace of spades. Of course I'm lucky that hearts are 4-4 and clubs 2-2, but 5C is also cold and that only relies on bringing in trumps and not on a 4-4 heart split.

4D is cold, 3NT is going 1 off assuming that your partner would lead a top heart and switch to a top spade on seeing dummy. 4H your way is 1 off.

play it. Even though I'm going 1 down, NS are cold for 3NT so it's going to be a good score.

The 1NT bid is totally correct, I have made a vulnerable overcall and partner is maximum for his pass. What else can he bid? I could have 17 points (I am one of those players who makes simple overcalls on strong hands, which is the modern approach). I agree that with the hand I actually hold pass is now the best option. In 4H I lose 2 trumps, a diamond and? Of course I'd expect partner to bid 3S on that. My double is take-out and he bid his best suit, which is what I requested. If I held that hand and partner doubled and bid 4D over my 3S I would rebid 4S.

We have polls on here, but never mind. 1. all vulnerable (pairs) 1093 AJ9754 42 A4 pass - pass - 1D - 1H pass - 1NT - 2D - ? I'd probably have bid 2H first time around - saves me a problem now but my partner may have defence to 2D - presumably 1NT showed some values in that suit and they are badly placed if I am playing a heart contract so I must go silently. 2NT would be a better bid than 2H if partner can provide me Qx and be able to run the suit. 2. all vulnerable (teams) 9 AQJ8 AK942 AK3 What do you open? 1D, what else? You only open a strong bid when partner might be able to give you game on a hand where he can't respond now, but he'll need quite a lot to give me game here. 3. we vulnerable, they not (teams) K543 AK94 A6 AK7 3D - Dbl - pass - 3S pass - ? 4D. May as well make one attempt, but will pass if partner simply bids 4S, and will bid 4S over 4H.