AL78

Matchpoints against a decent club pair: [hv=pc=n&n=sq85hkq64dj6cj743&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=pp1nppp]133|200[/hv] 1NT is 15-17. Your lead?

The only time I can think of where it is appropriate to give an artificial score is in the case of a board not completed within the time limit and one pair was the cause of the slow play.

Sit-out pairs should not get 50% for the boards they don't play, those boards do not count at all, their score is calculated only over the boards they do play. This can mean in some movements that some pairs play more boards than others, and so each board contributes slightly less to the final result.

It is flat with soft values, suit quality of 7, where are your tricks coming from? I'd want three of five honors in the suit to overcall at the two level with five, this one isn't quite good enough.

I agree with mikeh, the South hand is too poor to overcall at the two level. North made a reasonable attempt to jam the auction on a huge fit with no defence, but the South hand contributes little offensively. Don't overcall at the two level on poor hands. You were a little unlucky that only one other could find the slam, but often even if they have slam on, if you are going to sacrifice, the sacrifice should be less than their game unless the slam is so obvious that almost everyone will find it.

I've seen this argument before, and I wonder are there really so many fields that are so strong it is impossible to gain imps to recover from a game or slam swing, but so weak that you can confidently steal an overtrick on the next board? The truth is that one large swing out isn't the end of your evening, you can get even a vulnerable a game swing back with a couple of partscore swings in, but in both forms of scoring it depends how the cards are dealt. I've had X-imp and teams evenings where it has almost impossible to bring in susbtantial imps, and MP evenings where there has been a massive hand bias the other way, and gaining matchpoints is very difficult with balanced five counts where you are passing and following suit whilst the opponents repeatedly make their cold contracts that hardly anyone else in the room finds*. *Which is what happened to me on one round on Monday evening. We got four consecutive bottoms, our opponents bid to their best contract and the cards lay perfectly for them. Board 3 I lead 4th highest from a suit headed by KQ against 3NT (why not?), dummy comes down with AJ doubleton, so I blew a trick immediately with a lead from the most promising holding. Of course the other pairs are playing 3NT the other way where the same lead by my partner is deadly. That is the problem with bridge, there is a significant element of luck, so sometimes reasonable decisions get punished, and poor actions get rewarded, so those who played the best don't necessarily win. I sometimes wish bridge was more like chess.

At X-IMPS, you get shafted when you come up against the only pair to bid a cold game or slam. At MPs, you get shafted when you come up against the only pair to ignore their nine card spade fit and play in 3NT, which happens to make the same number of tricks as 4S thanks to a fortunate lie of the cards.

502 bad gateway.

I don't think leading a king from KJ tight into a 2NT opening instead of a safe top of a sequence is an obvious lead.

A simple way of dealing with the unusual NT in this sort of auction is as follows: 1♥ - (P) - 1♠ - (2NT) ? 3♣: Mod/Strong opening hand with hearts. 3♦: Mod/Strong opening hand with spade support. 3♥: Weak opening hand with long hearts. 3♠: Weak opening hand with spade support. X: Penalty interest in at least one of the minors. Pass: Weak opening hand without spade support or long hearts. In the sequence you give where partner jumps to 4♥, it sounds like partner has a decent hand with three hearts and four or five spades, in which case you have a massive double fit. In that case, I would have expected much more of a barrage from the opponents as after the 2NT bid, East will immediately know they have a massive double minor fit. Once partner cues a diamond control (presumably a first round control), I'd probably just bid 6♥. Ideally I would have liked to show a good hand with spade support earlier, then there probably exists some two suited key card Blackwood convention that can be wheeled out, or bid 5NT pick a slam.

Of course, declarer stripped West of the minors. In that case I don't see how East can do anything to stop the endplay after the diamond lead. Declarer cashes minor suit winners and cross-ruffs minor losers and exits a spade. They can only cash two spade tricks before West wins by force and has to lead out of HQx.

How can that work? East can play low on the spade exit, but West has another spade to play, and all East has to do is overtake, cash a third round, and guarentee West's trump trick with a fourth round.

That isn't Acol, so I would question your decision to try and play in the Acol club with it. I don't go to a bridge club and expect to be able to play poker. There are EBU games on BBO where many of the participants will be playing some form of Acol where you can test your system, and people won't get the hump.

You didn't need to put it in your post because it is irrelevant as to what you all should have done in the situation, that is call the director if you were upset by LHO's actions.

There is one MP situation where I am never sure whether it is worth taking a risk with the cost being going down if it fails. Say you are in 3NT that it looks like everyone will be in (e.g. a 1NT - 3NT auction), the defence attack your weakest suit and knock out your only stop (and you can't hold up enough to exhaust one of them of that suit). You have an easy nine tricks and a finesse which will give you a tenth trick if it works, or the defence will cash their suit and get you down if it fails. Assuming you have nothing in the play to hint where the honor card is, do you take the finesse?

My opinion is that it isn't extremely serious and advocating throwing them out of the tournament is an over-reaction. If you feel so strongly about it, you should have called the director and explained the situation, and let them decide the best course of action. It sounds like LHO momentarily went into control freak mode, and they apologised when you called them out. If it was a careless over-reaction by LHO and they are genuinely sorry, that should be the end of it.

I decided to lead a spade which partner won with the king. The full layout: [hv=pc=n&s=sajthqt53djct9753&w=sk875hj4dat865cq8&n=sq9642ha976d32cak&e=s3hk82dkq974cj642]399|300[/hv] Forcing dummy with a diamond ruff is the killing defence as it promotes a trump trick for partner. All we got in the end was a spade, heart and diamond trick. I thought of trying to cut down on diamond ruffs in dummy, but didn't think of the possibility of trump promotion by forcing dummy to ruff with a high card. Another one I got wrong. Partner is of the philosphy that you should look at dummy, your hand and the bidding to decide what to do, so she doensn't play much in the way of signals beyond standard attitude and count, so the ♦8 was just saying she had values in diamonds. Teammates were two off in 4♠. An interesting point is that if partner really wanted to go for a trump promotion by forcing dummy, she could have overtaken and lead a diamond back, rather than relying on me to work it out (which is always dangerous)

Teams. [hv=pc=n&s=sajthqt53djct9753&e=s3hk82dkq974cj642&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=pp1sp3sp4sppp]266|200[/hv] This may not have been the exact auction, it was either this one where South invited and North accepted, or South bid 2NT showing a spade invite and North accepted. You lead the ♦K, partner encourages with the eight, the 2 played by declarer. What do you play at trick 2?

It did feel like our result was disappointing given I didn't think I played that badly, apart from one or two poor bidding judgements in the posted hands, and it is normally much less enjoyable during the session when I get a bad result. On paper we should have scraped a win, but teammates missed a couple of games in the first half plus two weird boards put us 15 down and we lost similarly in the second half. I/we didn't choose these teammates, the format of these friendly matches is we declare our interest as a pair and are then teamed up with another pair, so it is pot luck who we play with. There were seven teams playing in total. Summed over all teams, we scored more imps than them but they beat us on VPs, overall it was a close contest.

All I've done is give an opinion that the opps bidding during the match was crazy at times, which isn't a direct accusation of anything improper, so I don't think I have crossed any boundaries as far as the EBU is concerned.

I don't know them, I only know their club, and it is in England. Maybe asking the EBU for advice is the way to go?

Thanks, I'll consider doing that, I will get the opinions of a couple of the club senior players (one of which has directed at county level) first. Is it possible to report some time after the event, and who on BBO would I report it to?

I was hoping partner had the queen and we could set up a spade trick. If declarer has it, the contract is rock solid and I didn't know what else to play for at the time given how the play had gone. On the layout game is cold (5 hearts, 2 spades, 4 clubs), so I'm not sure how exactly I blundered.

I completely agree, and it is something that is drummed into the beginners at my club. Some people just can't stand passing with values even when it is right, so they play this TOX shows an opening hand. You can see them fidgeting awkwardly when their partner responds in their doubleton or singleton.

Finished a 20 board friendly teams match earlier this evening. Another huge hand bias the other way on our table (declared one hand in the first 15 boards). The opponent's bidding was crazy at times e.g. reversing on minimum opening hands, overcalling at the three level on JTxxx and finding dummy with AKxx in support. Here are some of the hands we suffered major losses, I'm not sure whether we (more specifically I) could have judged better. We were playing 5CM, weak NT, multi 2C/D, Muiderberg twos, 2NT=7 card minor, pre-emptive. Round 1: Board 1: My opening was Muiderberg, 5+♠,4+m. When 5♥ came back to me I considered bidding 5♠ on the much more shapely hand and partner being marked short in diamonds, but thought better of it because if I am going to re-preempt I'd better be right, and it looks like partner might be stacked in hearts so both 5♥ and 5♠ could be down. I was half right, we got 5♥ well down but teammates allowed the opps to play in 4♠X+1, so that was a big swing out. Should I have bid again? Board 6: 2NT shows a 3 level pre-empt in one of the minors. The West overcall is what I mean by strange bidding that somehow either worked or we didn't/couldn't punish them for it. Teammates were one off in 4♠. It didn't help our defense that I judged partner more likely to have clubs so led the queen, eliminating declarer's potential loser in that suit. Board 8: Couldn't touch this one. Partner led a heart which helps declarer pick up the suit. Teammates stopped in 3♥. Board 9: Opps bid to 3♥ and we made it in defence. 9 imps in but should one of us find a double? Round 2: Board 2: 2♣ was either a weak 2 hand or an Acol 2♣. Needless to say we couldn't get 2♠ down. Opps on other table were in 3♦= so a partscore swing out. Board 6: Self inflicted. I couldn't see a better bid than 2NT showing a flat 11-12 HCP with no major and a diamond stop (maybe partner will hold a ten or jack to contribute a second stopper). I don't think partner should be bidding 3NT with a minimal opener but what can she do? Of course both black finesses are wrong so I go two down. If she can find a double or maybe I can if she passes it round to me we should get it at least one down, hopefully more. Teammates went one down in 3♦ so that was 6 imps out. Board 10: I don't know if this was system induced or my poor judgement. When partner showed a weak two in diamonds or a big hand I was reluctant to respond 2♥ in case she goes back to diamonds, and then we are in a bigger hole. The opponents managed to find the correct place to play (3♥=) so another partscore swing out. -33 imps at the end of it all. I should have remembered the outcome last time I played in one of these friendly matches before signing up to this one. At least I enjoyed it despite getting pushed around on most of the boards. The 3NT we took down where I knew how to defend almost from when the dummy went down, and I ended up locking declarer in dummy forcing him to concede the 5th defensive trick to my partner was very satisfying.