nikos59

Hi Fred My email address is : sarant-at-pt-dot-lu. By the way, if anyone has QuarterFinal 2nd segment I will be glad to receive it because the file in the aforementioned URL is incomplete. Nikos Sarantakos

Thanks Fred for the reply -and you guessed right, a forum member has already sent me the lin file of the 4th match that was missing and no further glitches occurred, so for the moment *only the 1st match* is missing. ---IF YOU HAVE IT ON YOUR HARD DISK, PLEASE SEND IT!-- end of advertisement. Nikos

Hi all, I went to page http://bridgebase04.bridgebase.com:81/vug/ where the Vugraph logging data are stored and I see that only 2 of the 5 matches played so far really exist, rounds 3 and 5. The lin files for rounds 1, 2 and 4 are there but they are empty. I do know that Round 2 was transmitted, because I watched the end of it and I have the complete lin file on my hard disk (and also at my Vugraph site). So, I presume there was a technical glitch and the real files were overwritten by the empty files or otherwise not stored. I have three out of five matches at my page: http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/2005/2005-nec.html so if you happen to have watched the two missing (1 and 4), PLEASE SEND THEM TO ME. Note that the automatically logged lin files, as stored at the above address, include also the "raw" commentary, which sometimes makes it cumbersome to view the file afterwards (not to mention that sometimes the commentary included concerns another match altogether!); at my site I am usually posting the "tidy" versions, with commentary excised (not manually). Anyway, I hope that whatever problem prevents the storage of correct lin files will be solved. Nikos

The full hand (not that one hand proves anything) was: [hv=d=s&v=b&n=sxhj6xxxd9xxxc7xx&w=s9xxhkxdkjxxcakqx&e=skqxxha987dq10xxc9&s=saj10xxhq10dacj10xxx]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] At my table, where I was South, the lady holding the problem hand (at West) hid 2C. Her partner thought a bit and bid 2NT, and she was relieved to add the third. 3NT made easily, 430. The majority choice of this forum, Pass, would also have worked. East would certainly reopen with 1NT. What should not have worked was the double, which was my team-mate's choice at the other table. Her partner jumped all the way to 4H, which he played on a 4-2 fit with enemy trumps divided 5-2. The lead was the ace of diamonds, a good start for a defensive cross-ruff. However, at Trick 2, South cunningly *underled* in spades, trying to reach partner and receive his ruff. Declarer won the trick, cashed two top trumps felling the queen, gave a third to the jack, won the return and now the contract made, for a flat board -which shows again that there ain't no justice, or perhaps there is since our atrocity in the bidding was balanced by oppo's atrocity in the play. Nikos

IMPs (Teams), real-life bridge. At game all, your RHO deals and opens 1S. You hold: 9xx Kx KJxx AKQx What is your poison? Pass, double, 1NT, 2NT (unusual), 2C or...? (I will post the real-life deal later)

Ben's advice is sound, but when God gives me 12 cards in the majors, He does not intend me to defend 5D. So, heed God or heed partner? In a real-life partnership you may heed partner, because it is well known that God forgives unlike most partners. But in BBO this argument is less strong, so by all means I bid a pious 5S. nikos

If there is a real life deal I don't think there is any breach of copyright unless you copy their analysis. If you restrict your narrative to the bare facts (he took three rounds of trumps but he forgot to cash ace of diamonds, so he was stranded to dummy without any easy way back to hand) there is no issue IMHO. nikos

Really?? If the other table plays 3♥ - 1, then there is a 6 IMP difference between 4♣ making and going down. Same if they play 3♣=, or 4♣=, or 3NT-1. Even if your team mates bid and make 3NT, there are 2 IMPs up for claims at your table. Yes, we totally agree: if the *maximum* potential swing is a measly 6 imps then the swing is really minimal and it is almost not worth to bother about this board. Relax, this is not matchpoints, you can afford it. (And I know that many a match has been won or lost by 5, 3, or 1 imp)

This is not going to be a match-breaker, I guess, so I yawn and lead ace of hearts without strong feelings. At imps, really, the fate of 4C is almost irrelevant. Either the swing is minimal or the board has been already won or lost at the bidding.

In a previous posting I asked you not to assign the blame for a hand. But in the same tournament two friends who know that I participate in an Internet forum (them being unconnectioned) asked me to ask said forum (i.e. you) to arbitrate in their dispute. [hv=d=n&v=b&w=sj109752hk5dj9ck106&e=sak86ha1074d10432c2]266|100|Scoring: MP[/hv] The bidding goes: North East South West 1D pass 1NT pass 2C dbl pass 2S pass pass 3C dbl all pass 3C doubled made with an overtrick and 870 didn't trouble the scorers especially sinve EW were able to make 4S. East said: I thought you had 3-4 small spades and a club stack, with 6 spades you should repeat or even jump to 4S immediately. West said: For all I know your initial double may only show a penalty pass of diamonds; you should raise to 3S; still better, overcall 1S immediately. I think both are partly guilty, because it should be clear to them that it is their partner who has the remaining spades. But perhaps I am influenced by seeing all four hands. Your opinion? Nikos

This was a frustrating hand that cost us being "in the money" in a weekend tournament (obviously, other 40 or so hands could be equally responsible). [hv=d=e&v=n&n=sqj72hq6daq54ck102&w=sa6543ha752dcq543&e=s9hj1043dk10986cj97&s=sk108hk98dj732ca86]399|300|Scoring: MP[/hv] East deals and passes, pard passes as South, West opens 1S, I pass as North despite 14 HCPs, East says 1NT (f.), pass, 2H by West, passed out. The bidding screams for a heart lead but I don't find the courage. I lead a club and pard takes the ace and fires back a trump. But declarer wins her ace and crossruffs merrily taking 8 tricks in the end. Minus 110 is worth a mere 25% of the matchpoints, and yet there is no defence to beat 2H. Note that even if our side reopens 2H we may end in the losing 3D instead of the making 2NT or the touch-and-go 3NT. Don't assign the blame, but tell me who do you think should or could have done more to avert this outcome? Nikos

To Rain: As I said in my second posting, masking identities is not without risk; for instance, in my initial post as it stands now [after your intervention] the final exchange is wrong; it is not North [i.e. the star player] who says "I opened 1D, didn't I?". My partner (i.e. West) said that. To Fred: thanks for the kind words. My only regret at being booted out at the time it happened was that I did not have time to see all four hands of the last deal. Nikos

Rona said: <<Nikos mentioned his partner's name which made it easy for everyone to find out who their opponents were. I thought that was just as bad as mentioning the opponents' names. No names should be mentioned>> Sorry, but I am not persuaded. Hiding my partner's name would just make it a tiny bit more difficult, since on this given day I only played one 4H+1 contract. I already gave an innocent false clue when I wrote "the other day". Whoever wants to play the detective and find identities can do so because the deal is there and we only play 10-20 hands per day. It is a matter of 3 mins to find this elusive 4H+1 contract. Do you mean that I should I go out of my way to mask the identities, ie that I should deliberately change the data of the hand (switch suits etc.?) This has two risks, a) by switching suits carelessly I might make a mistake (and it is too hard work as well) and b) I might be accused of inventing things that never happened. I really would like to know what is the opinion of the moderating team. Nikos

Hi all I had a puzzling or perhaps funny experience the other day. We were playing matchpoints and this hand occurred (me sitting East): [hv=d=e&v=e&n=saj75hq5dt763ck42&w=s4ha743da85caj863&e=skt98hkj92dk92c75&s=sq632ht86dqj4cqt9]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - - Pass Pass 1♣ Pass 1♥ Pass 3♥ Pass 4♥ Pass Pass Pass South led a trump and due to the friendly lie of the cards I was able to make 11 tricks for a shared top. Next hand began and South announced that the bidding was strange. Upon request, he/she specified that the 3H bid was strange. A bit of an overbid, I admitted, but "you cannot argue with success". Yes, he retorted, "but I can argue with the means used to reach this success". And he specified that we reached this contract taking advantage of huddles and tempo variations. Now, this seemed ridiculous to me, but I merely answered that when playing online against people from faraway countries tempo variations are due to bad connections and are to be expected. In the meantime, the oppos had received another bad score because they played an obvious slam and misguessed trumps so lost the overtrick. Question: assuming that 3H is made after a huddle (I did not perceive any huddle, but let's assume it for the sake of argument) isn' my 4H bid totally obvious? Now, South warned: "I insist that delays and hesitations are not part of the tools of trade for bidding or play .....I'll leave this table if it happens again; make no mistake !!!" The next board had began, and I held: J 10 x x A Q J x J x x x x South was dealer at love all and passed. Pard opened 1D. North overcalled 1S. What do you bid? Well, I bid 1NT not liking very much my stopper neither the diamond singleton but I felt I could not pass. S bid 2D unalerted, pard doubled and this was passed out to S who did not make a call. After a while, having already received the sermon about huddles, I said "faster pls" whereupon S exploded: S: nikos59, please leave this table, NOW: ty nikos59: why, pray tell? S: because you are now not a quality bridge player, but a nuisance; so please leave nikos59: We are a nuisance because we beat you? It transpired that S had been asking privately partner about the double, because the very next line of chat read: S: North, I asked you for an explanation of your X; you replied "normal" ; what kind of a reply is that for a bridge player ? S: North, will you respond to my query ? whereupon I ventured: nikos59: perhaps he means "natural"; perhaps he is no native english speaker and pard replied: North: i opened 1D or not? but he could add no further explanation because we were both ejected from the table simultaneously -and I wasn't able to see what the hands were! I hasten to add that North didn't participate at all in the proceedings and that his/her only contribution was an occasional "glp-typ". Nikos

Some time ago I had tried to collect data on the factors that generate a big swing in my BBO games. I have arbitrarily set the limit for a big swing to 7 imps after observing that at crossimps (16 tables) 7 imps more or less correspond to a double-digit swing of a team match. Nikos PS To Ben: Does BrBrowser contain recent BBO data?

I would not open 1S. When the Great Shuffler gives me KJTxxx in spades, He does not intend me to pass. Hence, a 2S opener, warts and all.

I will say, a la maniere de Al Roth, "if I get by this round..." and I will bid 2D. I cannot stand 3S on a three-carder and 3D on this suit seems wrong. Moreover, being vul at MPs is an incentive to score in the plus column and avoid -200s. That said, opponents' silence does make it probable that pard owns 5-4 in the majors, but if this is the case he will probably speak again over 2D. If we rebid 3D or 3S we may well endplay him. Nikos

First of all, happy new year! Then, on #1: certainly not -I wouldn't even think of buying it. on #2: i am not sure; I like better the recent DotWs but in any case I prefer books to software. Nikos

I don't know about the number of posts (probably there has been recently some slight decrease) but the URL is pathetically obscure so I second Rain's idea for an intuitive URL *and* also I suggest reinstating the link that used to exist from the main BB page http://www.bridgebase.com/ A prominent link to the Forum from that page would help a lot. As it is, the Forum's existence is known to the initiated only -a sort of clandestine existence so to speak. But this is by the way, BBO is excellent regardless!

Merry Christmas to every BBO member! May you always guess the ladies in 2005, may your squeezes work and your opponents trumps break evenly! nikos

Hi all I played this hand today. I was East (would you pass? bid 1S? 2C? or perhaps 1H?) and I didn't bid the "obvious" 1H, rather 1S to take up some space. [hv=d=s&v=a&n=skqhk9832daq952c8&w=s43haqdj7cakqj973&e=sj965hj7dk63c6542&s=sat872ht654dt84ct]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - - - Pass 1♣ Dbl 1♠ Dbl 3NT 4♥ Pass Pass 4NT Dbl Pass 5♥ Dbl Pass Pass Pass My partner made the (excellent, imho) 3nt bid then he pushed them higher. I guess that he would run to 5C if given the chance. 5H goes down one always and we achieved a trump promotion in spades so i made my jack and it went down 2, but when we took the second undertrick the table host *removed* pard from the table. The incident has already been reported to abuse@, but it is interesting that when I asked the host the reason why, host claimed that "this is poker, not bridge", presumably speaking about pard's bidding. So the question arises: is this poker or just good bridge? nikos

So, let's see what happened at the table! I also bid 3S as the majority here suggested, considering that 4S was the most probable game. The guess was correct in a sense... but 4S was a possible game for the opponents, the full hands being: [hv=d=n&v=e&n=sq2hj2d642caqj653&w=sa8743h8dkqjt9ct2&e=s6hak974d8753c974&s=skjt95hqt653dack8]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] West North East South - 3♣ Pass Pass 3♠ Pass Pass Dbl 4♦ Pass 5♦ Pass Pass Pass It is too easy to heap scorn on South's double, a double that proved doubly disastrous as it affected also the play (see below). On the other hand, I don't care for the 3C opening bid. Be as it may, I believed the doubler and ran to 4D and partner (I told you, a forward bidder) bid 5D! On a club lead this has no chance whatsoever, but North, incited by the double of 3S, opted for a spade lead. Now it is simple: I won the lead, ruffed a spade, cashed AK of hearts for a club discard and then cross-ruffed ad eternam. 11 tricks made. The traveller revealed a couple of NS pairs making 4S [defence led singleton heart, received ruff, which was disastrous] or down from 3 to 5 [defence led diamonds and persisted later in the suit, declarer was shortened and lost control]. Among the three logical alternatives (3S, 3D, pass) in theory the best action for West in this deal is to bid 3D which scores 110. If West were able to peek at opponents' hands he would avoid 3S at all costs -but it was this ill-judged bid that led to +600 and 7.4 imps.

Since you did not bid 4S at your first round (I would not) what is the use of jumping now? If you want to jump, jump to 6S (I probably would). Else, go slow. That said, pard could also make a move over 4S to ask for a diamond control. Note however that with Kxx opposite 10xx the slam is at risk of a diamond ruff. All in all, I would judge responder 85% guilty.

Playing (IMP Pairs) with a BBO friend who is a good player and a forward bidder, you are vul against not and LHO opens 3C. This is passed out to you. A8743 8 KQJ109 102 You don't have any special bids to show 2suiters (assuming it is feasible to do show in the first place), so your real options are: pass, dbl, 3D, 3S, or Other [4C??, 3NT???] Your choice?

Just a clarification: the redoubler in question was a non-starred, self-professed WC player. (And I also dislike privates but this is another thread)