3for3

Which nine tricks did they make? I wasn't there, but as I understand it, they take Ace of spades, king of hearts, 6 diamonds, and you are ended into giving them one in the black suits.. Danny

This problem seems like a non problem, indeed 7 of 8 people doubled at a party last night, a seemingly normal action, but a costly one. +200 against 620. Is this result that surprising? We would all have bid 4♥ had partner passed. Sure this is a likely plus, but is it enough to forego the likely game we have? Danny PS I doubled too

All Vul at teams: 3♥-4♦-? You hold ♠KQxx ♥A ♦KTx ♣AKxxx.

Sister Christian in Boogie Nights. Danny

Count me as a 3 club bidder now, or originally if available. I don't like Bergen Raises for just this reason; the price they pay is too high. They do work fine when they come up, though Danny

The number of possible chess positions is increased by some huge amount of totally meaningless, impractical positions. After all, it is possible to have 6 queens on one side. If you eliminate all of the promotions, after which 99.99999 of all games are over, the number of real positions comes way down. danny

Fred: Thanks for the input. She is decreasing the screen resolution. When she does this, the BBO screen is still all there, but the claim, chat and other buttons are just barely visible and are not usable. I have passed your suggestions on to her. Danny

Windows. Alt Tab does not help. Danny

A friend of mine whose eyesight isn't great has a BBO problem. When she increases her font size, the task bar disappears, so she has to go back and forth on font to use it. Is there a way around this? Danny

Thanks

what is with the people whose profile is zzzz_ followed by a 4 digit number? Idle minds want to know ( I am not sure why) Danny

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15.75 on the Kaplan Rubens hand evaluator. The only reason not to open 1nt is to stay with the field. Danny

Reread my citing. It says "only in flight a" Does that mean they can play 0-5000 because that is flight A, and not the open event? Of course not. What it means is they can only play unlimited events. Is there a place where 0-5000 is considered Flight A in the CoC?

c. In flighted events at any level, foreign players who have represented their country in International competition shall be permitted to play only in Flight A. They may however apply for relief for cause from this requir Automatically ineligible, per ACBL General CoC. Danny

While it is true that baromoeter play eliminates some problems, it creates others. There is little doubt when you overhear a result from another table, which board it is, especially with 2 board rounds. There was an incident at the Cavendish, as I understand it, which had this very problem. The other major downside is the need for VASTLY more space between tables. There have been suggestions to get screens in the round of 32 in the V/S and the powers that be keep saying that we don't typically have the floor space to do so. Danny

Good posts, most covered the important points. Anyone who dismisses clubs as the likely trump suit is missing the point of the hand, IMO. Partner could have the hands Art is suggesting, or even x AJxx AQ KQ9xxx. Hardly a fantastic hand for the auction, yet 6C is the spot to be. I was so interested in 6C that I bid 3C over 2nt. Partner signed off in 3NT over that. Partner's hand for those interested is X AJxx AKT KQ9xx. So 6 clubs is playable, but a little tough to manage. Those who insist on spades should find spades 4-0 and go down in 4S :) Danny

Here is a toughie I faced this afternoon. K9876543 KQ 3 AT 1C-1S 2H-2S 2NT-? 2H was a standard reverse. 2NT was non forcing, however, if you bid over it, you are game forced. Maybe not the best methods, but is good for this hand. So, what is your call, and planned bid next ? Danny

If the ACBL were to try to do a sophisticated rating, they should have some 'batting average' like number. Calculate the average number of masterpoints awarded in each event, then see how you stand relative to average. Average points won is better than total possible, for 2 reasons. One is that total possible makes it very difficult to do well in large fields. The other is that, right away, you could see how a player relates to average in the fields they compete in. Anything over 1.00 means the player is a better than average player at that level, so there would be no standards one would need to learn. Comparing to total possible would be difficult; who knows what a goo You could have a seperate list by color of points; Platninum, Red/Gold, Silver and Black for the various levels. Obviously you would need a certain number of session and points won to qualify, just like in baseball, else a player who plays in and wins one event would have a distorted rating. Danny

There actually is a fairly good rating system for the top players. Look at the Player of the Decade list. Obviously, this list contains some of the better sponsors, even ahead of some of the top players, but if you ignore them, you do get a 'fairly' decent rating of the top players. The reason this list 'works' is that everyone on it (at least at the top) has basically the same oppurtunity. Is it perfect? Far from it. Is it reasonable? I'd say yes. Danny

It proves nothing but partner's hand was AQJxxx void A AQJxxx. Danny

Here is a toughie suggested by a friend: 1♠-4♥-? You hold ♠xx♥AKxxx♦KQxxxx♣void. Red versus White at IMP's Danny

It will be interesting to see how the Gatlinburg regional evolves over the next several years. For those of you who don't know, the methods for calculating masterpoints in bracketed ko's is set to change next year. Instead of counting brackets below yours, the average number of points will determine the award scale. So, if you are in bracket 5, say, which might average 4000 a person, you will be awarded the same amount, regardless of whether it is the top bracket in a small regional, or the 5th in a place like Gatlinburg. I am not sure how much difference it will make, but we shall see.. I predict the 2008 regional will be the biggest, after that a slow drop off for the next few years. Danny

This discussion has veered from the mixed strategies, but getting back there for a minute: One area that seems to need a mixed startegy approach is 'allowing' the opponents to accuratley judge the law of total tricks. Against some (most?) opponents you can take it to the bank that they have 8 trumps (or more) on certain auctions. Opponents bid and raise a suit to the 2 level, they certainly have 8. Overcall followed by a preemptive raise they have 9. Not only can you use their trumps to judge how high to compete, you can use them to deduce shortness in partner's hand. Against strict law abiders, the auction 2H-P-3H marks the opponents with 9 trumps. Well, perhaps we should be raising to 3 on some hands with 2 or 4 trumps to keep them off guard. The problem, as Justin alluded to, is that unless you play literally 1000's of boards against these same opponents, you will not reap the benefit of their misjudgement as much as you might cost yourself from making the theoretically correct bid. Danny

Justin: I agree with your estimates for the amount of edge they would charge. With a relatively simple proposition like this, it would seem a sharp businessman would just hop on a plane to Vegas and take care of it himself. Of course that might be against company policy :D Danny