nikos59

Sean, the Swedish example interests me. Who was the player who balanced with 10873, what match? TIA Nikos

Is this real? Have you the results somewhere? Can you mail them to me, I am very interested in such cases. Nikos

To Fluffy: I presume you know the results and I expect you to reveal them after a while, when everyone will have had the opportunity to comment.

I bid 3D. According to my system, this shows six solid trumps, 3-3 in the minors with some unsupported honours and a bare top honour in spades, ace or king. 3C would show the same hand type with a low spade singleton. Seriously now, I bid 3H. Nikos

For what it is worth, yesterday, Round 3 Board 18 of the Olympiad, South players were holding -- A 10 K Q 9 8 7 6 5 3 A K 7 vulnerable against not. Suppose that East, dealer, opens 1C. What now? Three out of four experts that were in this situation and whose match was transmitted by BBO or elsewhere bid a simple 1D, including Zia. (I was sure about Zia because he has done this repeatedly). Note that this is probably a hand where one would open with a game-forcing bid, no? On the other hand, since it contains only 16 HCPs and no spades at all, it is hardly possible that 1D will be passed out. In fact, the bidding usually stopped at 6D or 6S by EW. nikos

Yes, I know someone :) If you go to my Vugraph Project site, at www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph.html and follow the links to the 2004 Olympiad, you'll see the data. Mind you, only one room is available. Moreover, I heard somewhere that the operator had got it wrong and put the names the other way round, but I am not sure. n

Denis O Kane has already written in another thread. The Vugraph coverage of Istanbul Olympiad suffers in that it is not possible to store the complete results of all the matches (scoreboards) for later perusal. These (seem to) vanish shortly before the next round begins. It is also not possible to see the lineups of the teams. The automatic logging seems not to be working. I am still at the office, hence no connection to BBO proper, but the URL where the unedited logs are stored only shows 2 matches per round for the 4th and the 5th round, which means that some matches may have been lost. nikos

Errr... I posted the news at r.g.b. with the title "Automatic logging of BBO Vugraphs!" on October 17. There were two replies, one to comment that the link on BBO website (as contained in Fred's initial message) was broken. Nikos

Well, if I have a partner opposite (and not some bidding machine) I would never dream removing 3NT, at least not before getting doubled (and even then). n

I totally agree with Denis, especially the last paragraph. And the problem is compounded because the organizers don't seem able to provide a minimum of documentary service. Moreover, perhaps the WBF has staffing problems, but the level of documentary service it offers is far behind what was offered in Maastricht four years ago. For instance, I see that Luxembourg beat China. Who played? There is no way to get this info. On a much more elementary note, in the official page of the tournament (which is very far behind the standard achieved at Maastricht) the results are posted after a delay of a couple of hours. Nikos

There was an article in an old Bridge World about a (facetiously suggested) variation of bridge where every player would be dealt exactly 10 points. I had such an exhibit last night; in fact, we had already agreed that this would be the last hand... [hv=d=n&v=n&n=saq973ha8d8753c43&w=s654hj1043dak104cq7&e=s108h75dqj62cak1086&s=skj2hkq962d9cj952]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] ... and I had very much enjoyed the interaction with partner (a pickup one) so I was in high spirits and so I opened 1S as North (although I would probably open it regardless, what do you think?) then East overcalled 2C, pard said 2H, I retreated to 2S and pard raised to game. Game can be beaten, but... East led ace of clubs, then shifted correctly to a trump. Dummy (South) won the king and played the D9. West won the ace and cashed the queen of clubs. No harm so far, but now he must play a trump! Alas, the lure of a setting trick in hearts was perhaps too strong (although it is hardly possible that I would open without even the heart ace!) for he played a heart. Now I won, crossruffed diamonds and clubs and then drew trumps and claimed. As it was to be expected, the hand was thrown in at 9 out of the 16 tables.

I find it appalling that one is alleging possible cheating (see the title of the topic where cheating is offered as a possibility) so light-heartedly. Now, let's see what South knows from the bidding. South knows that East holds 5 hearts and 2+ (probably 3 or 4) clubs and 9-13 points. South also knows that West holds a weak hand with looong diamonds. Say 6 diamonds, but 7 are possible. Assuming that South can count up to 13 and up to 40, South knows that North has close to 20 points, and South also knows that North has at least 2 spades. So, where is the problem? For me, the 2S *reopening* bid is obvious. The points are there, the spade fit is probably there, the spade normal break is also there. Perhaps these considerations may convince the original poster that it was premature to allege cheating. Nikos

The online Vugraph from the Istanbul Olympiad is a treat and has managed to attract a lot of spectators, but... the Vugraph operators are using IDENTICAL headings for the transmissions and these headings become the filenames of the lin files (for instance: "12th Bridge Olympiad Segment 1/17 - Open Room"). Since this happens in two matches, whatever match ends last is OVERWRITING the other. And this happens both in the user's hard disk (unless user is aware and intervenes) AND in the automatic logging system. So, from Round 1, the lin file for USA-Australia was lost. The same risks happening in Round 2. And it is a pity, because if only one operator modifies slightly the heading there will be no problem. For instance, the Italian operator could write in Italian. I tried to notify to various BBO people online, but apparently in vain. Anyway, I was there and caught the files, but... Nikos

True, but since NS are playing 5-card majors it is South who opened 1S. Opening 1S on 10987 (North) is not recommended :)

There is at least one case in competitive bidding, where bidding 1NT does not show a stop in French Standard and I believe it is sensible. Say you open 1D, LHO overcalls 1S and pard doubles negative. You hold xxx Kxx AKxx Kxx The French solution is to bid 1NT. No 2H on 3 cards or other distortions. In fact, after a neg double the 1NT rebid is known as "enchere poubelle", the call for all hands that don't fit to other calls. Obviously, if pard wants to play 3NT he has to cue 2S/3S and ask for stopper. Jeff Rubens has also suggested the stopperless 1NT reply to t/o doubles after 1x - dbl - pass - ? His arguments are valid. That said, I don't know other cases where a stopperless notrump makes sense.

First of all, 2NT Unusual is not for the minors but for the 2 lowest suits, so sometimes your pard may be led to a heart contract -makeable or not. Then, you may also want to consider the whole array of 2suited overcall, so that you get the chance to play more frequently in a major. A simple but not very efficient scheme is 2NT - 2 lowest 3D - 2 highest 3C - the other combination but there you forego your minor weak jump overcalls. Americans will tell you to play Michaels but the minor is not specified in Michaels. A compromise is to use the cuebid to show the majors / the other major plus clubs and 3C for "the other combination" I strongly recommend *not* to refrain from 2suited overcalls. The received wisdom is that they give declarer a blueprint of the distribution etc. if the opponents get to declare the hand, but I need to see hard facts to get persuaded of its inefficiency. Say your partner holds Kx and Qxxx in your two suits -he knows he holds gold. If you show one suit only, he knows a looot less. Another received wisdom is to play your 2suited overcalls weak or quite strong but not in the middle (i.e. not a plain opening bid hand). This argument has some merit but it loses much of its merit if you are playing against real people and not Eustachian monks. A very rough guide as to the force is 5 to 7 losers, acc. to vuln. Pard can evaluate by how many losers he can cover -he will assume you have no honours in the short suits. ns

To Chamaco: When you have 9 trumps, a 3-2 trump break is much less than 68%, namely 0%. I wager the example hand has more than 50% odds with 9 trumps.

We have to play sometimes :) anyway I agree with you, mr1303. Moreover, if one is not playing 2/1GF, then the 2H reply is beyond reproach. If both players were really playing Sayc, then the auction would go 1S-2H 2S-3H (good 6-carder, not much else, may be passed) and then probably opener would bid 4H. nikos

Fred Gitelman has contributed quite a lot to bridge, but the "self-forcing" character of the 2/1 responses is not one of his contributions, this treatment is with us a long time. In fact, I guess it was the standard treatment before the "2/1 Game Force" movement takes hold. (The 2/1GF being another case where simplicity won). It still is the standard treatment in France. The main weakness of this treatment is the 1D-2C sequence, which is difficult in all systems; advanced partnerships have some special understandings. All in all, a very good treatment, my preferred one. n

To jtfanclub: You say you don't want your partner to raise you on 3 small and a 7-count (we are talking here about a raise at the 2-level). It is good that bridge can accomodate so divergent opinions, because I would change my partner if he failed twice to raise 1S to 2S on a flat 7-count with three small spades :-) Who wants to play with unlawful partners? Nikos (only exception, at unfav when he holds 3-4-3-3, then he is allowed to pass)

I never double with 5 cards, I guess it is a losing proposition. I always overcall up (up to a limit). Partner will raise me at 2S with 3 trumps and 7-10 pts, so I won't miss anything. With 10+ he will cue their opening bid. Your idea of doubling presupposes that opponents are mute. What if 3rd player raises opener to 2 or 3? Or 4H? Then you haven't shown your suit and you may very well miss game (you know, there are deals where both sides can make game or may be allowed to make). Even if 3rd player passes, how on earth is pard to guess that you have five spades? Do you want him to reply 1S on three small?

As to the third auction, where East opened 2C, it might well be French standard. There, the game forcing bid is 2D, and they use 2C to show an old strong two. I would open the East hand a French 2C, but in Sayc I would open 1S. I do not think the East hand is worth a 2/1 2C or a Sayc 2C. To the original poster: Let's not be result merchants, if this is the most obvious slam you'll miss in your career, you'll become world champion.

Before starting the next season, it might be a good idea to post the result *and the movie* from the final. In the relevant section of the bridgebase.pl website I can see all the results of the roundrobin (usually complete with movies) and the semifinals (+movies) but only an announcement that the final is to be played today 6th of October. Nikos

To Free: For the 0-point game, please see separate thread in "Interesting Bridge Hands".

In another thread, on the topic of zero-point opening bids, I had facetiously suggested that since it is possible to make game on zero points combined, one might miss a cold game by passing zero-point hands. Another poster could not believe that a game is makeable on zero points combined, so here is an example: [hv=n=s10987h10d98765432c&w=sakhakdc1098765432&e=sqjhqjdakqj10cakqj&s=s65432h98765432dc]399|300|[/hv] The hand is taken (appropriately!) from BaseIII, a DOS program constructed by no other than our Fred Gitelman. NS make 4S by establishing hearts. This is obviously constructed. At the table, EW just might muster their courage and find something higher their way, perhaps 7NT, unless they are Eustachians, of course! I have written a book on Famous Bridge Records, and the lowest-point game (real-life, not constructed) I have found is on 9 points (by Skid Simon and Gray). Any better records in BBO perhaps? Nikos