Thiros

Followed the game, what a final position to all but turn out the lights. Looks like Anand miscalculated a combo. Carlsen wins the crown with one draw in the next three games, and once he does, he will hold on to it for a long, long time.

3♥ would be my choice, but at matchpoints a raise to 2NT has some merit to it. The spade situation is risky, but you'll only get blown away in the suit if partner has nothing there, RHO leads a spade and LHO has the ♠A. And even then, partner has the option to go back to hearts with a strong doubleton. I'd want to be in 3NT if partner had ♠J10x ♥x ♦KQxx ♣QJxxx.

That's up to you, but please feel free to post as much as you like in this one: http://www.chessgame...ss.pl?tid=81142 (It means having to register for the site but that is free and takes seconds)

My bad, I would never say that about a poster in here but thought you could be a little freer with characters mentioned in the third person. I'm fixing it.

Opened up the link and was treated to what looked like a picture of an elephant cub fondling a sea horse, which, in turn, was humping the right foreleg of a giant turtle. Somewhat amusing and slightly disheartening, but hardly surprising.

Curious bidding. North has quite a bit more than South expects him to have and so he should go.

Heh, I could rummage up and down SW Cobbler's Lane, but why even bother when I can just rezrov every shop in Diagon Alley and load up my inventory on the cheap. Oh yes, and I WILL be blorbing the Fabergé egg until I figure out how to get it open, just to make sure no bedraggled adventurers come along during the night and run off with it before I get up in the morning.

Congrats on the run Chris. They don't get much deadlier than those Russians.

We pulled our partner's double of 1NT why exactly? Our opening bid is full value. Now we've been given another swing with the ax, so I would pass, but with a prayer that some nasty surprise doesn't await the defense. On the actual hand, I see that there was no need to pray.

"sry" It has boggled my mind for years that this dehydrated fragment of text-talk passes for an apology. If you are really and truly sorry, then spell out the damn word. Two extra letters isn't going to break your hand.

We're in a game force, and our system has already eliminated the 8-11 point hand with 6-7 clubs. Therefore, this 4♣ bid should be natural and show uncommon club length, 7 or 8 cards, and 5-7 HCP most or all in our long suit.

The double of 3♣ should be CARDS. Having a good defensive hand is OK. The double of 2♣ is also cards, but more takeout-oriented (meaning that with a club stack you have to pass and wait for partner to X).

They Might Be Giants ---- /

Loud construction work going on outside my window before about 10 in the morning. Makes me wish I knew the local laws about that stuff.

If you don't have a Bridge World subscription, the ACBL Bridge Bulletin has a similar feature called The Bidding Box.

Don't know if it's just me, but I would rather overcall 4♠ than double with the West hand. Of course, that doesn't make our problem as East any easier to figure out, it might even make it harder. It sure doesn't make it any easier to get to the best slam from the right side. If we bid 4NT in response to 4♠, is that Blackwood, minors, scrambling, or (gasp) natural? Maybe it's best for West to double after all, but it looks to me like 4♠ is the most likely to be the best contract, looking at the West hand alone...

I don't have any firsthand experience with Walsh, but 1♠ in the first case looks like taking it too far. If partner has spades, he can bid them himself. If a big heart preempt on our left is coming, we might still belong in diamonds even if we have a 4-4 fit in spades. Playing T-Walsh, the picture is changed by the fact that the spade bid isn't forcing the bidding. Is the completion of the transfer to 1♠ forced? Or does it promise three-card support, or four? However it goes, we should be able to land in a playable place, and we can run to diamonds if we need to.

If partner has a jack in the right place and is able to get in with it to lead another spade through.... I'll go with the ♥Q.

Hey, the OP edited his post..... Pock, pawk, p-p-p-pawk, p-p-p-ppppaaawwwwkkkkkk . . . . . .

I'm using Safari for this and the interface worked out OK. This could be a great way to show hands, if it caught on. The only message that I took away from this hand is that playing with students is hard. My choice would be to bid 4♠ over 4♥ with North's hand, since it's such a pure offense hand. It looks like it goes down only one. Even if the defense finds some masterful play to send 4♠-X down two, I would rather give up -200 or even -500 than -620, or, heaven forbid, -790. Speaking of students, I would bid 3♦ in response to your double, with the East hand, rather than the 3♥ which he actually did. But I'm sure you wouldn't be complaining, because 3♥ worked out well enough for HIM. :-p I prefer the one where Richard Pavlicek refers to you as God's editor. http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

LOL, I tried to raise 1♠ to 6♠ and it wouldn't let me. So I got there the "proper" way. http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif (No, this is NOT how I would bid at the table) I picked a crude line (♣A, ♠A-K, unblock hearts, ♦K, run hearts). I'm a little surprised that it worked. But if the math problem is figuring out the best line, I don't think it's so "simple", hehe.

Congrats to the Louisville Cardinals and their fans. Both teams left it all on the court.

Thanks for the input. In an event of lower stature, I probably would have picked a line similar to your own. Perhaps, being in an A/X game, I overestimated the defenders. Hard to know. Spot cards not given in the OP are approx. [hv=pc=n&s=sjthaqt743d2caq94&w=sa542hj8dqj974ckt&n=sk9876hk6dak8c863&e=sq3h952dt653cj752]399|300[/hv] T1 : ♦Q, A, 6, 2 T2 : ♦K, 3, ♠10, 4 T3 : ♣3, 5, 9, 10 T4 : ♦J, 8, 5, ♥4 T5 : ♥A, 8, 6, 2 T6 : ♥3, J, K, 5 T7 : ♣6, 2, Q, K T8 : ♦9, ♠6, 10, ♥7 T9 : ♥Q, ♠5, ♠7, 9 T10 : ♠J, A, 8, 3 T11 : ♦7, ♠9, ♠Q, ♥10 http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/mad.gif

Swiss teams A/X ♦Q lead Bidding: silent opps, we only showed our long hearts, not our club suit [hv=pc=n&s=sjthaqt7xxdxcaq94&n=sk9876hkxdakxc863]133|200[/hv]