Jlall

I'm sure we've all been in worse ones than this. On a spade lead you're about 50/50, on a diamond lead you need the DK on or the clubs 2-2, if the opps don't lead from a king that often then it's worse but if they do you're definitely better than 50/50. I think your auction sucked but its hard to atb for getting to a whatever contract.

In your second layout playing a club does not let them make. Further, if South has the spade ten, a club is necessary if declarer is going to guess the spades. Likewise if South's clubs are Kxx. Would East have encouraged clubs with Axxx xx x QJxxxx? Something to think about. I'm not saying that the CA is correct, just that there is more to this hand than you have considered. Yes ok we still beat it if they have SK CQ on a club shift. I know that they are on a guess if they have the ST, but we have let them make 100 % on the club shift. There is not really "more than I have considered" my point is that a heart is always right, and a club lets them make sometimes. It is not a hard hand. You don't always have to do something active on defense, sorry!

How is this guy not banned, or at the very least his posts in this thread deleted? He just completely hijacked this thread with nonsense. What a joke, if there were ever any time for moderation... All, Flytoox is a very old forum member. I used to always like reading his posts. It's a shame that when he comes back, this is what happens to his thread. I apologize for my part in instigating some of this, but out of respect for flytoox can we just ignore the trolls? Flytoox, It is funny because this is one of my "pet peeves" when people overcall rather than double with this shape. I'd go so far as to say almost all experts double, and most non-experts overcall. Doubling is much more flexible with this hand, and does not risk getting to a silly fit ever. It not only increases your chance of getting to a good fit (or NT), it increases your safety level (imagine how bad p p X p p p would be in 2D). Yes, sometimes you will get to 2H in a 4-3 fit, but that's not the end of the world. It's funny that people fear that so much but don't fear 5-1 diamond fits. If partner has the values for game it probably won't matter much which choice you choose.

haha I was so close to posting something like this

Wow I think the CA is a horrible play. Declarer has AQ AJ in the reds, and obviously a spade honor. We can count 3 hearts, 4 diamonds, and 1 spade. What is the point of playing the CA? Just continue to drive hearts. This is not a position where we need to be active. We also know declarer is 4-4 in the reds, so 2443. This actual layout is not a surprise at all. The only possible hands for declarer are: Ax AQxx AJxx Qxx Kx AQxx AJxx Qxx Ax AQxx AJxx Jxx (The spade x could be the ten or not, whatever). In all of these layouts, playing a heart will set them. In 2 of the 3 layouts, playing a club lets them make. In the last layout partner would probably have Xed 2C. I have ignored any kind of 3442 shape because I think partner would at least X and possibly bid with 7 good clubs so it should be impossible, but even if declarer somehow is 3442 and we can run all the clubs, a passive heart still beats them.

Yeah I mean gib sits in gibs seat, you sit in the humans seat. So if everyone in the field is a 10, but youre a 9, you will be below average usually. Meanwhile all the gibs can be 2s and if you get your gibs to better contracts it will have a higher average. So saying that OP is worse than gib is not necessarily true. Also, how much you hog changes things a lot. Roger and I play a lot of these together and he hogs far more than I do, so as a result I would expect his gibs to have a higher average than me, and I would expect him to have a lower average than me. This does not mean I am better or that his gibs are better obviously.

Anand by all accounts was a huge favorite in the rapid/blitz tie breaker, so it's possible Topalov was just pushing too hard for a win in this game to avoid the tiebreaker.

This is not a good way to look at it in robot races

I definitely prefer a game try to a game bid since partner's diamond holding is almost always vital to our contract, and the lead usually won't matter.

no

Hi, This is the advanced and expert bridge forum. See ya!

PASS seems horrible to me, we might make a GAME.

Yeah I can't see which I'm referring to either, I just went over the games. Maybe I thought Anand was winning game 3 for a while... I retract my statement lol

I am one of those who advocates a very sound range for 1N, but even I give leeway for partner when the suit is spades, and we are NV so whatever, I wouldn't raise. I do think we will often miss game opposite 10-11 counts though. I would 100 % raise if we had the same hand except 3325 and it went 1D X p 1N p ?

This is not true, Anand blew a win as black early on in the match, I forget which game. Ch00 pay me my money!

forcing to slam is super lol...we have 31-32 points including our stiff Q, how is that a slam force if we don't have a good fit?

easiest pass ever

No. Why not? What should this hand bid instead? pass

texas if the other option is to play it as natural but I'd def play SA here... are you really bidding 4C gerber over interference very often?

Are you sure Anand is favored? Topalov gets white in the last game which is a big edge. Of course in the tie breaker Anand is going to be the favorite because he is a beast with fast time controls, so it's still possible Anand is the fav but it doesn't seem that clear.

I really dislike 4H, just my style not to do stuff like that. South has an easy pass.

1N is either natural or minors (if natural it doesn't necessarily show very much). If they X then you XX with minors and equal or longer diamonds, and bid 2C with minors and longer clubs. Yes it's possible for this to work out badly if someone has psyched, or if they let you play 1N undoubled when you have the minors and that works out for them, but both are unlikely scenarios. On the other hand you need a way to scramble into the right minor when you have the minors, and you also need a way to play 1N or 1NX when thats your best spot (as it easily could be on a misfit deal when it's 1 level lower). Passing with the minors will not work because partner might bid 2H (the primary message of the pass in these auctions is always that you can stand partner bidding the farthest suit). Also with the modern style of frequently doubling with a doubleton minor, it becomes even more important to be able to show both minors. Did I mention 1S X XX p p 1N is also 2 way?

This was wrong. I think the correct answer is if declarer has any kind of competency then I play the queen all day since they never have AJTx, and might have AKJT like .1 % of the time and be trying something/have a read/w/e. However if declarer is like a random little old lady or a club player then it must be right to duck since they will never have AKJT, and like .1 % might have gone crazy for some reason with AJTx. It's always hard when you have to judge which of 2 extraordinarily unlikely events happened though.

We don't just have an ace and 3 trumps, we have a doubleton. That is very useful, especially since partner is unlikely to be doubleton there also given our spade length. I would pass with 4333 but definitely raise with this.

2S and 2N are both reasonable to me and frankly compared to the quality of the errors other than that it is irrelevant since both are fine and NS have other things to work on. I think I would go with 2S but I don't know, 2N could be better.