the_dude

Google's AlphaGo defeated one of the top players in the world 5 games to 0, and achieved a 99.8% winning rate against other Go programs....AlphaGo’s next challenge will be to play the top Go player in the world over the last decade, Lee Sedol. The match will take place this March in Seoul, South Korea. Rather than trying to use pure computation to conquer Go's ridiculous search space, they used deep neural networks to learn from human games, then learn from games against itself. What do you think Google could do with this technology if they decided to turn to bridge? Some links: http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2016/01/alphago-mastering-ancient-game-of-go.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v529/n7587/full/nature16961.html

This may be Resulting, but an intermediate 3H bid would have made life alot easier on this hand... If you start with 2H (as I did) how would you get to 4H? [hv=pc=n&s=sthkj9872dkq2ckq2&n=sk865ht3dajt3ca43&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=1spp2h2sdp2np3nppp]266|200[/hv] Our sorry auction: 2H: as I said, 3H would have worked better, but 2H seems reasonable X: partner meant this as penalty, which looks terrible, but I appreciate his problem. Perhaps X is the best bad option. 2NT: I wasn't sure about X... I like to play it as competitive, but with this partner I didn't know. Not wanting to risk 670, I bid 2NT as a pick a place to play bid, intending to bid 3H over 3m. 3NT: partner was pissed I didn't leave his double in (I have no idea why) so he put me in 3NT in a huff. Given he thought the penalty was obvious, I'm not sure if he could have recovered at this point. ***** Anyway, thanks again for the clarification all - I'm glad there's something of a consensus out there...

Playing with a very occasional partner, we had a dispute over the 'expert-standard' understanding of the following auction: [hv=pc=n&s=sthkj9872dkq2ckq2&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1spp2h2sdp]133|200[/hv] Granted the 2H may not have been best, but considering the auction, is X penalty or competitive or takeout? What would you call?

If my partner is capable of bidding 4H with: xx KJTxxxx xx Ax 1. Yes, I make a move 2. After the game we have a long talk about what we think a 4H bid should look like on this auction Otherwise, I'm passing. Then again we don't reverse light, if we did then I might rethink...

What are your suit quality requirements for this bid. I thought Axxxxx wasn't quite good enough - or is it dependent on the rest of the hand?

Playing 2/1 with some gimmicks, do you have a sensible auction to get to a diamond slam? How about if you are playing Kokish/2C? xxx x Axxxxx A10x AKx AQ10xxx KQ Kx Thanks

Swiss teams, Red vs White, playing 2/1 with a very occasional partner. [hv=pc=n&s=sakj2ht42dq2c9832&n=sq3hkq93dacaqt754&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=1c1d1s3ddppp]266|200[/hv] At the other table, NS got to 5C, over which EW bid 5D. We got sucked into doubling only 3D...

I think pass is a logical alternative - I have no reason to think they can make 2H or even have an 8card fit. In fact I think double shows your 3424 9-count nicely except for the fact your hearts are so bad. In light of that pass is very reasonable. Could be wrong but could easily be right.

I pass without much hesitation, matchpoints makes the decision easier. There's no guarantee we have game, particularly on a misfit-ish hand. Your hand is not well-suited for 3NT - the most likely game - I'll take the sure 300-500. Besides the auction isn't over, if partner reopens with something other than X we will have to opportunity to get excited.

Sorry - I'm usually good about this - the scoring was matchpoints, love all, club game. I held the south hand and spent some time deciding between X and 2D. Ultimately, I felt it was our hand and wanted to convey that to my partner in case LHO bid 3S or 4S. I wasn't prepared for where a simple 2S bid would take us... Fwiw, North is a student (strong student) who (a) does not often open 11-counts, and (b) does not often leave in 2-level doubles. That being said, we have agreed that I bid/play like he is an expert so that shouldn't have mattered, and I'm glad to see him progress on (a) and (b). This hand however was not positive reinforcement, especially if the mistake was mine for starting with the wrong bid. Thanks all for the feedback.

[hv=pc=n&s=s2hkqdkq984ct9652&n=saj43ha87652d2cq3&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1h1s2d2sppdppp]266|200[/hv] Our agreements: - 2D promised 10+ and was not GF, but promised another bid - Pretty much anything by opener over 2S is forcing - 3C by responder at his second turn would have been forcing, 3D or 3H not forcing Who went wrong here?

To answer the inquiries, 2S was the only bid avaialble. 3S would have been preemptive, they do no play mixed raises.

You are EW, Swiss teams, good opponents, game all: [hv=pc=n&s=st432h102da2ckj972&w=skqj95h94dqt93caq&n=shaqj8653dk4ct863&e=sa876hk7dj8765c54&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1s2h2spp3h3s4hppdppp]399|300[/hv] Our partners had this debacle, at our table we played 5Cx -1 which seemed like an good score since 4S makes. All calls seem close, where did it all go wrong?

Simple hand but I'm curious as to the general consensus - swiss teams, love all: [hv=pc=n&s=s872hk82dakjckt82&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1cp1dp2np3cp3np]133|200[/hv] 1D is a marking time bid as we try not to bid inverted minors with these balanced hands. 2NT is 18-19 and does not deny 4cd major(s) 3C is natural and forcing 3NT is likely some 4333 ... he may still have a 4 card major as South would bid 3D looking for a major. How close do you shave these onions? (ps: should I have bothered with the 3C call?)

I seem to get very poor results passing these hands. The likely second heart stopper makes me not even hesitate to bid 1NT.