Jlall

It sounds as though our expectations from 2♦ are very different. If xxx xx Axxxx Txx is a 2♦ bid, what does 3♦ show? Heh, maybe it's just me and not my fellow countrymen? I just wouldn't bid 3D with that vulnerable, I prefer some shape or something more, and don't like Axxxx. Even KQxxx would be much more desirable to me, or a stiff. Maybe this is similar but I wouldn't bid 3H after 1H 1S with Axxx of hearts and out and a balanced hand (balanced defined as one doubleton). It is not that I'm so scared of getting doubled though it's possible, more that I would be scared of partner saving incorrectly if he's expecting more playing strength. I would also be bidding 3D with x xxx KQJxx xxxx which is a much different (and better) hand obviously. In general I am more conservative than most people preempting with no singleton and not 2 doubletons, and I am also conservative about A empty suits.

Yes you're right, I overlooked that and it adds a lot of % for us.

This was only jdonns favorite experience because we were celebrating his national win! I promise.

The sushi restaurant of choice for me and a lot of other bridge (and poker) players in Las Vegas is called "Naked Fish". It is located in the suburbs, maybe 10 miles west of the strip. Hah, I got my edit in before you posted I swear :) Anyways we have the same friends so not a surprise :P

I did all you can eat once in Vegas but I don't remember it (BLACKOUT). I do remember $1 a piece happy hour at some place in DC and it was AWFUL. So I tend to agree with your feelings on those kinda paces. OVERRATED THOUGH?! WAT?

There's a Nobu in Dallas, I'm going in a couple of weeks. Although it's not really a typical sushi place. If you go I recommend the yellowtail with jalepeno and the black cod with miso. It is more of a trendy place with a creative menu. There are Nobu's in other cities but you live in Dallas that's why I mention it. Another "trendy" type place I know is in LA called Katsuya. Interesting rolls etc. Most places in LA that are like that imo suck, but Katsuya is very good. Katsuya is a very "LA" type place though so if you are an east coast type person you might hate it. All that said, I much prefer more traditional places that are about the fish rather than the cool stuff. I like nigiri rather than rolls, or even sashimi. The best places I've been have been in NY. I highly recommend Kuruma Zushi. We went and did the Omakase at the sushi bar and it was amazing. It is not fancy and the ambience is not amazing, but it is the best quality fish I have ever had. Admittedly this was also the most expensive meal I've ever had, but if you are a big sushi person it's worth it once. I've been to Masa in NY, it's not as good and thus overpriced. Blue Ribbon in NYC is very good, one of my favorites. It is less traditional than Kuruma but still excellent fish quality. I think I went with you once to Mishima, I lived near it and it is not that expensive compared to the other restaurants but it's really good. Again not the right type of place to go if you want fancy and trendy rolls, but if you just want good fish this is the place. In Boston I went with Richard to the place he recommended, Uni, and it was excellent. Do the Omakase. In Seattle I went to a place, can't remember the name, but that shows you how good it was. I was really disappointed because I had been told Seattle has better fish than NY and thus has better sushi. I need good reccommendations for if I go back. In general if you go to a high end place always do the Omakase. The chefs know what you want better than you do. If there's anything you particularly like or hate then you can tell them and they can tailor their selections to you. Try lots of stuff early on and figure out what you like. For me my basics are freshwater eel, tuna/toro, and yellowtail. If I'm not doing Omakase I will always order stuff that includes that. I almost always just go for nigiri. Also, Scallops. Scallops are amazing if done well. Also if you can get something topped with quail egg it's always worth it. In rolls I generally like stuff with avocado. So not surprisingly my favorite kind of standard roll is a dragon roll. If you're gonna get rolls at a nice place, get something that looks fun imo. They can really do lots of stuff, so pretty much every roll you get should be something different (if you're like me and are not into rolls that much to begin with). Also, people hate on salmon for being boring but it's pretty good and always solid. Weirdest thing I used to order was a peanut and avocado roll at my local place. Sounds weird and has no fish in it but it's really awesome. Edit: Also in Vegas all of my friends are like OMG NAKED FISH! It is like a standard poker player place. Apparantly half the price of nobu, and similar quality. Never been there but def gonna check it out at some point.

Can someone explain? He is Indian so he can say what he wants. Like the Seinfeld where Jerry's dentist Dr. Whatley converts to Judaism just for the jokes. Whatver you're just an anti-dentite.

Doesnt he just ruff a club? I assume you meant Axx AKxxxx xx Kx. In that case you have some play even on 5-1 diamonds if one hand has 4 spades also, it's remote but it is some extra chance at least. That is definitely enough to bid 7 as long as they bid 6 at the other table but there is def some chance they miss 6 with only an 8 card fit and 30 points and no singletons. Since they are the best team ever though I doubt that will happen B)

I still maintain that bidding 3H rather than 3D with this is awful. Partner has rebid diamonds and bid NT when you have bid hearts again. 3H emphasizes a suit you've already bid twice wiht an inadequate holding and fails to give even tertiary support for a suit partner has bid twice. 3D also gives you more room than 3H.

The club suit has more HCP's though. Points Shmoints. We have 5 of the top 8 diamonds, and only 2 of the top 8 clubs.

As usual I think the best way to beat a team who is even demonstrably better than you in a short match is just to outplay them short term, or hope that random system differences/luck works in your favor. Keep focusing on making good decisions, and don't take wild gambles in order to try to win. People get so psyched out playing against good teams that they do crazy stuff in the name of being high variance when in actuality it just sucks and works way less often than their chances of winning are. For instance on this hand you have bid extremely well and are in a position to bid well and win a good swing from making a good decision. There is no reason to think they have bid this well/had the system in the other room, so focus on making the right decision here. Anyways, we have 12 tricks (maybe needing 3-2 hearts) so far. Partner has shown up with a very good hand but signed off over 4C, not even using last train. That is the key, he is limited from his 4H bid. Surely if partner had any queen to go with what he's already shown he would not have bid 4H. He would have keycarded probably, but at the least he would bid 4D. So let's say he has no more HCP. Not even the heart J because I think he would bid last train with that. To make 7 we need to either score a club ruff if he has a third club, or set up diamonds if he doesnt. 2632 would be the death shape. We definitely want to be in 7 opposite a third club. needing just hearts to come in and clubs not 6-2. We want to be in 7 if he has a doubleton diamond, needing 3-2 hearts and not 5-1 diamonds. If he has 2632 we definitely don't want to be in 7, needing a spade/diamond squeeze. But with that shape he probably would have bid 3D over 2N, not 3H (knowing we will preference to 3H with a doubleton). So this is not a possible shape. The worst shape is going to be if partner has 6H and 4C. Then to get a club ruff we need 4-3 clubs. If he is 1624 we won't have the entries to pull trumps and set up diamonds (since he has stiff ace of spades) on 4-2 diamonds. If he is 2614 we can play for 4-3 diamonds or a squeeze if that fails. Anyways, we don't want to be in 7 opp 6-4, but do opposite every other shape. It's not like 7 is without play or anything if he is 6-4, especially if hes 2614. Overall I think the clear bridge decision is to bid 7. Just because they are better than you doesn't mean you can't outbid them on this hand. Use good judgement.

5D, what else?

Bridge and poker are clearly different dude. The people who in general pass up +cEV situations in tournaments are almost always misguided. cEV and $EV is the same early on in a tournament, later in the tournament they are different so passing up +cEV spots can be fine because of ICM. However if someone was playing a big live tournament with a bunch of fish at his table and a very slow structure it might be right to pass up on marginally +cEV spots because he had an edge on the field. We are talking very small spots, because the edge you have cannot be that big in poker. In an online setting where the players are tougher and the structures are much faster, it is right to push all edges, especially because you can play a ton of tournaments each day. In bridge we have different options, and way bigger edges are possible (because of a far lower amount of luck and higher amount of skill), and very high variance slightly +EV spots are VERY infrequent occurances, whereas in bridge they are not. Moreover, the goal in bridge is not to accumulate all the chips. There is no such thing as doubling up or busting on a hand, it's simply doing as well as you can on each board and how that fits in to your overall score. So the things we are evaluating are different. Here we are evaluating "how likely are we to win the event if we get an average on 1 single board" vs "how likely are we to win the event if we get a top on the board" minus "how likely are we to win the event if we get a bottom on the board." I will contend that getting a bottom on a board hurts my chances of winning more than getting a top on a board helps my chances of winning. Getting an average on the board is fine. This is because I have a big enough edge on all other boards where I rate to win pretty often on those boards as long as I don't get a bottom. I don't need to win by even more by getting a top. Also note I said 50.1 vs 40.9 not 51 vs 49. We are talking a really small edge. Also, my hypothetical that if I play a normal contract I rate to get an average was just hypothetical. My real point of all this is let's say I rate to get 65 % if I play a normal 4S contract. I would need hearts to outperform spades a huge amount of the time in order for me to risk turning 65 % into a 0 just to get it up to 100 %. For a more real life analysis lets say I get 65 % when I play 4S because I AM THE BEST. Let's say I get 100 % 65.1 % of the time when I play 4H, and 0 % 34.9 % of the time. It is obvous for me to take my 65 % and not risk the zero even though 4H is +EV because getting a top doesn't help my chances of winning compared to a 65 % whereas 0 % really hurts my chances of winning. If I was truly a 50 % player in normal contracts I should take a top/bottom situation even if it was 49.9 % to get a top and 50.1 % to get a bottom because I would welcome the variance. As a 65 % player in normal contracts (at least) I will win a lot if I get "normal" scores for me, so I do not welcome variance.

bleh I even put it in quotation marks!

I like north's double, and agree with adam that south has to drive it home after that. I prefer Xing 3C to bidding 4C, I am concerned about partner being 3532 for his double where I need to get to hearts. 4C does not resolve that unless we pass a a 4H bid but then we might play 4H opp 4432. We also might need to get to hearts opposite 3433, or we might just need to defend 3C X opposite that shape. For those who think bidding 2S is obvious, have fun playing 2S opposite 1-5 in the majors!

Don't you feel the fourth trump is often important for the 2H bidder to know about in evaluating how the play will go (how many ruffs he can take, stuff like that?) Or does this never cost in your style?

I think there is one other factor (which I generally don't look at). "Everyone" will be playing in spades which makes it clear to play in spades, because it's quite close anyways, and our superior cardplay edge comes out more if we're in the same contract as everyone else. Also even if I didn't have a cardplay edge I'd rather get an average 100% of the time than a top 50.1 % of the time and a bottom 49.9 % of the time because it allows my superior bridge abilities to let me win the event more often anyways. I was telling cherdano the other day that my dream is to declare a normal contract on every board in a MP event.

Not particularly, but it does no harm. Of course he gets an explanation, not a PP, unless it is an oft repeated infraction. Lol, what? Bridge is a timed game, when you use all of your time on nonsense like this you have no time to play the game. Or, as usually happens, people who use all their time on stuff like this take all the time they want playing the game also, and everyone else is screwed. Yeah yeah they get a penalty on a really good day, I'm sure it's really fun to play against them or to be following them or whatever. Why is it so clear to you that pausing TEN seconds over 1N p 3N is the best approach? Why not 20 seconds? Every top player I know will give this one a couple of seconds, and that's that. Maybe the 1 in every 200 times this auction comes up and you have a marginal double you only get a couple of seconds to think. Just make up your mind in that time, or hesitate as long as you want and realize that partner won't be able to heroically find your major suit. He probably wouldn't have anyways, and you probably can make up your mind in a couple of seconds anyways. The solution on every bid to the problem that you might have a bidding problem, and might transmit UI if you break tempo could be to think for 10 seconds on every bid. Why limit it to skips? Since you don't seem to care that bridge already takes a long time and is less fun if you have to deal with nonsense like this, and care only about minimizing the chance of giving UI, I'm sure you would be all for this. And what about hands that take more than 10 seconds? We should just make it 10 second pause for everything, 20 second pause over skips. We'd probably have way less UI. We'd also have a way less fun game. Calling 10 second mandatory pauses over skips "pragmatic" is funny to me. It makes the game impractical. But fine that is the regulation, I greatly prefer the way the game is generally played in expert vs expert competition that everyone keeps a normal tempo for normal situations. Could you really imagine an expert game where it went 2N, 10 second pause, pass, 4N 10 second pause, pass, 6N 10 second pause, pass? It would be ridiculous. Do you think there should be a mandatory 10 second pause if partner transfers? Because if you wait more than 1 second to accept, partner knows you have 4 trumps. Just be prepared to know what your standards for super accepts are and you won't ever have to hesitate. If you have a tough situation, make up your mind quickly. If it's really tough, take as long as you want and realize partner will have to pass if it's a logical alternative. Being prepared for situations so that you can keep an even tempo in normal situations is part of being an expert bridge player. It should be expected of you. It is expected to keep the game fair, and keep the game moving. But as far as I know giving UI is not a crime. Sometimes you have to think. The crime would be taking advantage of it. I am happy with a game where experts are self correcting with the horribly stupid "10 second over ALL skip" rule. I would not be happy with a game where everyone took ridiculous amounts of time on stupid things so that they can give themselves a stupid amount of time the 1 % of times they have a bidding problem in that situation causing there to be no time for the real problems in bridge.

how about Indian bidding? I think you wrote about that a while ago Indian bidding is not logically inconsistent, it is re-evaluating your hand and the likelihood that your partner has a fitting hand given new information (ie the opps bidding). That's why I said you might pass 2H with lots of heart wastage and 4 spades, you are re-evaluating your hand given new information. It does not make sense to pass 2H here with xxx heart and prime values or a stiff heart and 4-6 becuase you have a minimum opener. Your hand has not re-evaluated downwards, it's re-evaluated upwards!

lol amazing there was a very similar hand to this in Portugal that I just remembered. If it goes 1C 1H p 1N p 2H p you bid 2S showing both minors. Partner can assume longer clubs else you would have bid 2D over 1S. I was telling my teammates how I thought this was a cool bid and they thought it was auto and I got a sarcastic "let me tell you about 1H p 1N p 2H p 2S"! Also I am doubtful that LHO is ever balancing with 1S since wouldn't that always contain 5 clubs? It's possible he will double and might also double 1N, in which case if RHO bids 2S you can bid 2N showing the minors and partner can assume longer clubs. I still think the best time for pass vs 1N is when you get to stop low in 1H, or you get to run more when you are in trouble and RHO has a trap pass.

I hate 2N but 3H precludes NT way more than 2N precludes hearts.

You play chinese? ROFL. ? I thought this was a Pai Gow problem :P Assumed it was Chinese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_poker but have no idea how pai gow is played

You play chinese? ROFL.

You are thinking about it wrong if you have a shapely min with 4 spades and pass, or a good looking balanced min with 4 spades and pass. Once you open, you must bid your hand like you have a full opener. Sorry for the spam but people who make the mistake of passing 2H on this auction should read this: Blog post The only reason you might even consider not bidding 2S here is if you have very strong hearts with lots of wastage. If you chose to pass 2H with xxxx KQJ9 Qx KJx I would not blame you. But honestly the rule "always bid 2S with 4 spades in this auction" would be fine too.

Gut reaction was 1N and I think that's what most people would do but thinking about it some more I'm just going to pass. The spades are missing, so either partner has 4S and 5H and a good hand and RHO has crap in which case we have the values for 3N but how are we going to make it so I'd rather stay low, or RHO has trap pass and his hearts are so good he didn't even care about spades in which case I'm happy to pass and later show the minors if RHO passes a double rather than bid 1N now and get doubled there. Or RHO just has a really crappy hand and LHO has a really good hand in which case I'm also happy to pass (LHO will balance 1N or something). Just a really weird auction to be 1-1 in the majors on.