twcho

1. Fantoni - Nunes 2. Sadek - El Ahmady 3. Bocchi - Duboin 4. Levin - Weinstein 5. Lanzarotti - Buratti 6. Johnson - Meckstroth

Jlall, I guess you have started the bidding by East. It is West, who has long D, being the dealer. Will this affect your auction?

[hv=d=w&v=e&w=sa6hakjdkq98742c4&e=sk7hqt75dcakqjt32]266|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] A hand played on BBO about 3 days ago. Our partnership only reached 3NT <_< I browsed thru the hand record. Found that only one pair reach 7♣x and it is just by means of a blast. ;) One pair reached 7NTxx and of course North can't find the killing lead of D. :) Is there any way to reach 7♣ by any of your favorite method?

I am a big fan of Vugraph but of course it is impossible for me to view it all the time. Luckily, BBO has made a vugraph archive which is great for anyone who want to review the actual action. In addition to that, the commentators' chat was also logged. However, most of the time the logged chat is not sychronized with the hands. Many time we can see that the commentator is not talking about the current hand or sometimes they are just in another match. How can the chat log synchronized with the hands? Can we log them ourselves when we view the vugraph? Can anyone help?

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sj7h96532dkq9c876&w=skt85haq87da62ct5&e=sq9632hjtdt7caq32&s=sa4hk4dj8543ckj94]399|300|Scoring: Chicago[/hv] I was sitting west and the auction went as follows: W......N......E......S .....................1♦ -(1)...-(2)...1♠.....2♣(3) 2♦.....X(4)...2♠(5)..- 3♠(6)..-......-(7)...= There are many debatable bids in the whole auction, namely: 1. Should I pass in the 1st round or double? Any opinion? 2. Questionable pass by North. Probably they are playing precision. 3. Don't think south hand worth this 2♣ bid. 4. This double should be OK, right? 5. This is the most critical bid. What different hands will be shown by 2♠ or pass? 6. Should I jump to game directly? What should I expect from my pd's 2♠ bid? 7. Should my pard accept my invitation? Of course, the result is not satisfactory. So how can we do better?

Well done for David_C and Fred. Though it looks like that you have all kind of squeeze possibilities, but it is actually an illusion. The right play is some sort of discovery play as indicated in David and Fred's response.

[hv=n=saq93haj9dakq6c54&s=skt52hktd543cakqj]133|200|[/hv] You are south and you play in 7NT. Can you make against any distribution? Please hide your answer if you think you find the solution.

My understanding is that in playing FTF bridge without screen, all bid above 3nt shouldn't be alerted. They are all delayed alerts. For FTF bridge with screen, all bids with partnership agreement should be alerted, of course, on both sides of the screen and by both members of the partnership concerned. For online bridge, self alerts shd be as detail as possible for whatever bids you have partnership agreement.

Among Fantoni and Nunes, Fantoni was being applaused by the commentators such as Bart Bramley as "Deep Fantoni". We have witnessed the excellent declarer plays by Fantoni to bring in some very difficult contracts. If I should label one player as the best player in this Olympic championship, Fantoni is definitely my choice.

Yes, for sure I also witnessed F-N missed some very good game contracts. This does not prove that they play poorly (I also witness B-D and L-V bid to slam lacking two aces in the same round and they were beaten each time. Does that prove they are lousy pairs?) I think the fair way to measure their performance is to look at the pairs' individual score. We can judge from their butler score in the round robin that they are actually by far the most consistent Italian pairs. They are way up in the score with 1.07 imps while B-D is only 0.52 and L-V only 0.41. Moreover, they are the runaway leader in their strong group (their group consists of the final champion, the 1st runner up and 2nd runner up). Further to strengthen the fact they did play very good is that in their round of 16 vs USA, it was because the two sessions that they played did they win over USA (the two sessions they participated Italy won 27:4 and 54:17 which is the final set and they overtook USA as the result of this set)

Yes, what a great final it is. Thanks BBO for the uninterrupted real time broadcast of the final. Janice Seamon-Molson will surely regret her uncharacteristic mistake of returning a D rather than a C for pd to ruff in the 6S contract. Congratulation to the underdog team, Russia. A real classical performance vs the giant team.

I will rate Sabine as the no. 1 commentator in BBO followed by Fred, Bart Bramley, Michael and Debbie Rosenberg.

I have watched many matches in the Olympiad Vu Graph presentation. However, when I later checked my log file, I can't find the commentators' dialogue at all. Anyone can help? Also, the vu graph archive in http://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph.html is also without commentators' chat. Does anyone has files with commentators talking embedded?

Flytoox, I guess you are talking about the 3NT hand played by Fantoni (not Versace). When he played a C towards table AJ96, Wan followed with C8 (they play natural signal) after the J inducing Fantoni to play the CQ at the second to try to drop Wan's supposedly C108 doubleton. Also when Fantoni lead the singleton HJ from table and cover it with HQ in his hand, Zen just followed calmly with a small H.

Free, of course you are wrong. Not only 40 HCP does not guarantee 7NT cold, but even you possess all the 10s still does not warrant the 7NT contract. It is simply because each hand has 7600 and the suit won't break even the combined hands possess 20 top tricks together.

One thing that I learned when I once played vs Fred and his wife in BBO is what is really called full disclosure. Fred's wife (sorry about forgetting her name) alert her pass bid and explain in the box that she tends to deny holding 3 card support in Fred's major (because they play supportive double in that situation). I have never encountered another one that will alert the pass bid. From then on, I learned from her and try to explain as detail as possible to our opps about our agreement. E.g. whenever I open 1NT, I will write in the alert box our pt range and also write down "can have 5M".

I agree in BBO with self alert function. Best to alert every bid and write a short explanation on the alert box. If the explanation being too long to fit in the box, I will send a private message to both opponents for the explanation of my bid. One more thing, I seldom private chat to both opps about my pd's bid although I know it is an alertable bid because I fully expect my pd self alert his bid already. But is this the correct approach? Shd I also private chat to opponents about pd's bid? Any idea?

I used to subscribe with I-cable broadband but its inconsistency have driven me away. I am now using Netvigator which have given me trouble free connection to any website in the past year. I recommend you to switch your ISP.

Michael, if west guards H, you may not be able to determine whether to finesse the SQ or drop the SK offside by playing SA at the penultimate trick. Also, you lose the chance the hand guarding H also guarding either S or D.

[hv=n=sxxhakqt9xdxxcaqx&s=saqxhxdakqxckjxxx]133|200|[/hv] You bid to 7NT without opp's intervention. Opening lead Cx, what is the best line of play?

Why are there so few responses to these questions? It is quite interesting indeed. Try them.

Why I said the hand is too complicated before is not because the hand is too difficult to play but there are so many logical lines to choose from and it is very difficult (if not impossible) for anyone to calculate the best line. E.g. As Paul suggested above, East can strip the declarer's option when he wins the 3rd H and return a C. Now declarer can't test the D before resorting to finesse in C. Alternatively, you can play the small H on the 1st trick and if it wins, you can continue with another small H. By doing this, since you discard a S on the 2nd H, your option in the minors will remain intact. If East return a C, you can just cash both minor Aces and then go to dummy with CK. But this line gives up the possibility of dropping singleton or doubleton HQ which the chance cannot be overlooked. Another possible line is to try to finesse on 1st H trick and if it holds, you can try to cash the top H to pinch down the Q but this line suffers from the same drawback that your option in minors will be reduced. Actually my gut feeling for the best line of play is not setting up dummy's H but rather take the 1st H with HA or K and play a small D to J. This line will win whenever east hold DQ or Qx or Qxx because you will have a second entry to dummy in D to establish your H (So 2S, 4H, 4D and 2C). This amounts up to 68%*0.5+28%*0.1=36.7%. If east doesn't hold the above D holdings, you still have chance to test the H with possibility of bringing down singleton or doubleton Q (I didn't include the HQ in my previous calculation for East D holdings) or with these fails but finding East with CQx or Qxx. All this will add up to (100%-36.7%)*(30.5%*2/7+0.5%+90.8%*34%)=25.3%. So the total chance of success for this line of play is 62%.

Who's ID is Garozzo and who is Duboin?

1eyedjack, excellent analysis

Ben, do u really mean this hand for beginner and intermediate? I consider this even too difficult for me and I regard myself being advanced player. :-((