bill1157

what does X mean after this auction in sayc: 1NT-(3♥)-X Bill

A couple of ways to speed up the game: 1. everyone must go to the bathroom before play begins (whether they need to or not). 2. change the rules so overtricks don't count unless the contract is doubled. Bill

North Deals None Vul ♠ J 10 9 ♥ A K J 2 ♦ Q J 10 4 ♣ 6 5 ♠ A 5 3 2 ♥ Q 10 9 8 4 ♦ A 8 ♣ 9 8 N opens 1♦, E overcalls 2♣. It would seem to be less than 50% to make 4♥, but does the overcall raise the chance enough of cards lying favorably to make game a good bid? Bill

It looks like Sonntag is being accused of involvement in cheating here.

the robots used to play pretty well, now they play terribly.

4=5=2=2 is ok to open 1NT Bill

something interesting: the general convention chart would disallow this approach because your notrump overcall has a range of >5 hcp. I assume this applies to balancing NT overcalls too. Bill

that may not mean that they were duplicated with handydup. The duplimate website says handydup cards can be used with regular duplimate.

Does anyone have experience with Handydup? (the hand operated duplimate that is 1/10th the cost...) Bill

is an initial response of 1 ♦ natural?

I like a non-forcing 6♣

How did the 1NT opener work out? Bill

Paul Marston had an interesting article on signaling and discarding in Australian Bridge last year. The gist of it was that you should discard cards you could afford to let go, and that you (on the other side of the table) could draw inferences from that. I.e. Partner isn't discarding from qxx in certain situations. Bill

That's ridiculous. There are other ways UI could be obtained, both nefarious and inadvertent. No one has any evidence of how any alleged UI may have been obtained, but that does not mean it did not exist. Also, there is evidence in the form of expert opinion that the 6♦ was more likely than not the result of UI. But essentially you are proving UI by assuming that there was UI. There is something wrong with that reasoning. Bill

To set the record straight, there is no evidence of UI, the boards were hand shuffled so nobody saw a handrecord or overheard anything. There is nothing to this but a very odd bid that worked out. End of story Bill

very good thinking. The rule that u can't open a weak 2 with a void is stupid, as is the one that says not to with a side 4 card suit. Also, I like to play a raise to 3 as invitational, I don't like the common treatment of raising to 3 with a singleton trump or a small doubleton which is all the rage in my club. Bill

Looks like you didn't get all your tricks...

There is not only a number of witnesses over several sessions, but also photos, of signals that correlate with the number of hearts. What more should be needed, a confession? apparently very little actual evidence is needed!

The whole idea of finger signals to show heart length is ridiculous if you think about it. It is a case of a couple of overzealous people coming up with anything to support their suspicion that Reese and Shapiro were cheating. Bill

The lawyer made this up, Reese and Shapiro always maintained their innocence. Bill That's a possibility but I wonder why would someone of his age would make something like that up. People will make up stuff right up to the day they die...

The lawyer made this up, Reese and Shapiro always maintained their innocence. Bill

I would be curious how people (experts) would rate cap against just playing natural over 1NT (which is what I prefer). Also, if you play double of interference over 1NT as negative, doesn't this take care of most issues as well as lebensohl? Bill

All 32 pages have so far been very entertaining. sometimes the greatest complement you can pay a bridge player is to say that he(she) cheated and then be unable to explain how! Bill

This unfortunate occurrence happened early in the event and the offender's team was eliminated. Too big a deal is being made about this. As we all know even very good players will, under pressure or losing badly do outlandish things (I played against a very good pair in a Swiss yesterday and they did stuff equally as stupid:I don't think they were cheating, just frustrated and having a bad day). Since Justin's team won anyway where is the harm? oh that's right: the sacred game... Bill

Some of this, though, might just be common sense. If partner is a passed hand, it makes sense that there would be alot of leeway in my openings, preempts (passes) etc since pd is limited to 11 hcp. This isn't a question of ethics and in the past would have been regarded as a legitimate bridge tactic. Bill.