mohitz

I didn't know this was a chrome/bbo issue. I just thought my keyboard keys were getting old!

i have not had troubles using BBO with chrome, what kind of problems are you guys talking about?

IMPs [hv=pc=n&n=sa72hadKT63cq9843&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1c3sdp]133|200[/hv] EDIT: had the hand wrong. corrected it

Well played England. We will get you at Trent Bridge :)

I did not watch that match but from what i have heard Harper made some appalling decisions. This is not the first time Harper's poor umpiring capabilities are being questioned. I for one am happy he is retired. Having said that, i still think it was wrong for Dhoni to have made that statement. But, i can understand if emotions got the better of him. So, you are saying that since DRS is available, the umpires shouldn't care about giving correct decisions? India's viewpoint is that DRS is not very reliable. Well, i dunno if that is true. So, i can't really comment. But by the looks of it, it seems true to me. Case in point: Morgan's dismissal in this very test match. If the weather doesn't play spoilsport, i think there is a good chance of England winning.

The game is set beautifully. The 2nd session today is probably the key session of the match. Am also eager to see how Swann versus India middle order plays out.

It seems right to play a club back. We might be able to defeat the contract if declarer is AJxxx Qxx Qx Axx for example. If we don't shift to a club, declarer can remove trumps and discard a club on the Q of hearts. As regards to which club, i think a low club is better. If declarer has Axx, it doesn't matter. If he has AJx, it doesn't matter. The key case seems to be when declarer has AJ9 of clubs and guesses wrong.

2000th test - England vs India, who is following?

http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/46330-bidding-delay/

Why will clubs play better with that hand? It seems to me that both 6C and 6D require 3-1 clubs. EDIT: Maybe, you meant Axxx xx Ax AQxxx, where in 6C, we might be able to handle clubs 4-0. Anyway, i agree with 6D

If declarer has AKTxxxx xx x Axx, we need to cash diamond Ace and return heart. Otherwise, he will just throw a diamond and will be able to ruff fourth heart in dummy. This defense will work out poorly if declarer has a diamond void, say AKTxxxx xxx - Axx but i will take my chances. EDIT: I overlooked that with the second hand, declarer can always make.

Did your rant start in another thread? :D

it's incredibly hard to grosvenor this. If LHO has the jack of clubs, whatever we do doesn't matter. When he doesn't have the jack, gambling on partner to have the Jack is a huge position to take. For all he knows, declarer might have the jack and was just taking an extra chance.

The play was very interesting too. In one of the SFs, Lev and Pepsi reached 7S on a uncontested auction. Pepsi's LHO, Sundarram led small spade, small, Queen, Ace. Pepsi played second round of spade, when the nine appeared. What would you play? If it matters, Lev-Pepsi were 14 ahead at the end of first 14 bd segment. This was the 5th board of the 2nd and last segment and the first 4 boards at your table were nothing special. Btw, Zia commentating for the first time on BBO said he has a rule "Never lead a trump against grand slam"! EDIT: Sorry for the hijack :)

I voted double to be pure takeout but responder can pass obviously. If my partner bid this, I would expect him to have support for both the minors, say 3244 or 22(45) or maybe 3145 if its our style to bid 1N with those.

Partner has xx QTxxxx AJxx x, so 5H makes. 5C is down 2 for 300 when diamonds break 4-1 and hearts break 3-1.

[hv=pc=n&n=sa943hak6dk932ca5&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=2hp4hpp5c]133|200[/hv] Playing IMPs, do you X or bid 5♥?

We cannot score 2 spades and 6 trumps at the same time. Suppose the play goes as you suggest. The club Ace holder doesn't have the third trump. The position will be [hv=pc=n&s=shkjdc8543&n=sj87h98d3c]133|200[/hv] We have scored 4 tricks and given away 3 tricks. Now, they can play a club which we have to ruff in hand. We ruff a spade to establish the suit but have no entry back. We can cross ruff for 6 trump tricks but then we wont be able to enjoy the spades.

You could try Jack. See www.jackbridge.com. You can choose from various convention cards that come with Jack. You can customize on some aspects like deciding which conventions to play. This is the best you will get out there AFAIK. Good luck!

I used to get these messages all the time. In my case, i had played in some of their tournaments. I presume they added me as friend and just messaged whenever i logged in or before tournament starts. Anyway, the frequent messaging really started irritating me after a while. So, i asked them to remove me from the list a few times. When that didn't happen, I complained to BBO and they took care of it.

[hv=pc=n&s=s5hkqjt9872d52c52&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=4s]133|200[/hv] IMPs against good aggressive bidders if it matters.

I might be wrong but I think when RV said he wants to select 3 pairs from 6-10, it is to select 3 pairs for a pairs tournament and not a team. It just so happens that the number of pairs to be selected is 3 :)

Congrats Justin and team bathurst! Good luck in Bermuda Bowl.

partner bids 4♦. What now?

[hv=pc=n&s=sk63ht2d2cakt9872&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1d3s]133|200[/hv] IMPs, whats your call?