King_of_D

Here is another one: https://tinyurl.com/ydt57jlu After the D lead, I was marking time, cashing hearts and trying to figure out which finesse to take for the 9th trick. Until E discarded S8, which in the robot system should be encouraging (I think). This jogged my memory: the first time I played the hand I believed E and so played W for the singleton KC (the only chance, I thought). So this time I knew W has both black kings, and KC is single. But it sure takes a lot of fun away when one can know these things, even if only sometimes.

Of course I'm sure it wasn't an instant tournament - I don't even play those. The problem with links is that I don't know how to search my history for specific hands, and I play a lot of hands... So while the second occurence is right in front me, I don't know how to find the 1st one. Anyway, here is a hand I played today: tinyurl.com/2asjjhe2 As soon as I bid I was kicking myself for not bidding 4H. Less so after I saw dummy. But then I saw that the best line must be to win immediately, unblock C A and try to endplay W in trumps, so that he has to give me an entry to dummy. This jogged my memory, because it is such an interesting hand. I remembered that the first time I did bid 4H and went down, when I played W for DQ (I did guess singleton Q, but up D J, when W played a low D). So this time I knew immediately after the lead that E has singleton Q H and doubleton D Q. And made 11 tricks.

... at least in challenges. In the last few weeks I noticed that at least some deals are being repeated. At first I thought I imagine it and they were just very similar, but now I am sure. Played a couple of rather memorable hands - as soon as I realized it is the same deal, I could place every card and did not misplay it this time. I'm rather shocked by this, as well as disappointed.

Yeah, right. Congratulations on the straw argument. Even as a complete beginner I (and everyone else I knew) could obviously tell at the end of the auction who is going to declare the hand. Has anyone told the OP he'll need to count to 13 as well?

Look, anyone who cannot identify the dummy, despite the bidding, the opening lead AND his/her name appearing under declarer's hand, should probably look for an easier game than bridge.

How is this a hard problem? As stated above, 2D or 2S is OK. I definitely prefer 2D, in case partner is 5-4 in majors.

When there were still 3 free daylong tournaments each day, the most popular by far was the one with Total Points. So by this logic, both IMP and MP tourneys should be cancelled and only TP tourneys left. I thought that BBO would take bridge reasons into consideration when making such decisions. IMO, playing only MP tourneys makes bridge players very one-sided. IMP tournaments are very important for improving the game.