Walddk

Maybe not Mike, but this is MP, not IMPs. Look again. Roland

Did Fred really write that the 3NT rebid shows 19-21 hcp? I don't think so; 18-19 balanced is what I teach my students. Besides, I would not respond 2♦ with North's hand. A limit raise in spades, whether that is 3♠ or 3♦ Bergen (maybe 3♣ if playing reverse Bergen), is what the North hand is worth in my opinion. However, one may easily get to slam anyway, although I agree that 6♠ is very poor. Add ♦9 to one of the hands and it becomes a great deal better. I don't think there is a method that can discover whether ♦9 is there or not. Roland

I hoped someone would bring that up. Why didn't he just bid 3NT over 1♠? Roland

[hv=d=s&v=b&s=s5hak10863d86ca1076]133|100|Scoring: MP[/hv] Hecht Cup, Copenhagen, Denmark. Matchpoints, strong field. You open 1♥ first in hand, LHO overcalls 1♠, and your partner bids 2♣. Pass by RHO and you support to 3♣. Partner hesitates (no dispute) for about 30 seconds before bidding 3NT. Can you bid 4♥ now? Are you allowed to bid at all? Say you bid 4♥ and get 5♣ from partner. Will they allow you to raise to 6♣? In other words: 1. Is 4♥ obvious? 2. If yes, is 6♣ obvious because it's pairs? Roland

I think a trump is fairly obvious on the auction, and looking at the South hand only. Declarer showed a club side suit. I am looking at AQ10x. When do I get club tricks? When dummy is out of trumps. I wouldn't have taken the double as lead directing (they don't exist at game level in a suit contract). Let declarer try to make it on a trump lead. Yes, he can, as I pointed out in a previous post, but he must play it very well. I am sure that few will find the winning line, i.e. pitching a club when a heart is led off dummy. The double is ..... well, strange, but even so, that wouldn't keep me away from my "natural" trump lead. Roland

I won't deny that you see too much chitchat, sometimes more than enough, but I can only control what I type. I have no intention of imposing censorship upon my co-commentators. They are all adults and should know what they are doing. What I do object to, however, is when they are unneccesarily rude to a player. I have told those people several times in the past, and I will do it if it happens again. I have even banned a few from making comments. This is easily done: I simply don't invite them any more. Everyone deserves fair commentary. One may not agree with what a certain player does in a given situation, but there are more than one way of expressing one's view in a civilised manner. Weather, dog, dinner, etc. You are right, it has nothing to do with bridge, but occasionally you have significant pauses where you feel like doing something to fill the gap. The issues are not always bridge related, I agree, but I don't think it's the end of the world for specs if someone states that it's sunny in Tel Aviv and bucketing down in Delaware. Roland

I spent 44 of the 48 hours commentating (10 of those on my birthday yesterday), but that is nothing compared to the amount of time I spend behind the scene to get all of this organised. I don't want admiration, just some respect for a damn hard work. Constructive criticism is welcomed, and I am obviously prepared to look at all the suggestions Chamaco and others make. Fred and I are in touch on a regular basis, and we are only interested in one thing: making vugraph as interesting as possible. Things will change little by little. Time is all we need. Sighhh. Roland

We had 78 (!) commentators in action for 48 (!) hours over the weekend during our broadcasts from Poland, New Zealand, France, Japan and Denmark. Needless to say it's impossible to get the very best at all times, and we very much appreciate that so many offer their time to do a job they get absolutely nothing for! Perfection is an illusion, close to perfection is too. I am pretty pleased with what we have achieved so far. Vugraph is here to stay, and still more organisers realise how great this is for promoting bridge in their countries. No matter what we do, we won't be able to satisfy all spectators. If we make the vast majority happy (and in my humble opinion I think we do), we have every reason to be content. There is obviously room for improvement, and rest assured: we are doing all we can to make our vugraph presentations even better than they are now. Roland

Thanks everyone, very kind of you. Off to have dinner with my boys. See you around. :) Roland

Maybe I should add that declarer has to play the contract very well on a trump lead. Win in dummy, then a low heart and if North follows small, he must pitch! If not, he will get tapped. With ♥A dropping on the 3rd round, he will be able to set up the heart suit. Roland

There is nothing lead directing about the double, and even if there had been, how do you expect to defeat 4♠? You don't have any surprises for declarer, on the contrary: you know spades are breaking. The bottom line is: I guess you intended your double as a so called Lightner double (lead dummy's fist bid suit, partner). But a Lightner double does not apply at game level. It does at slam level. So if you want my honest opinion. Your double was not a good double. Roland

You can't give Ben enough credit. I am not sure how many realise how big a task this is. Time consuming beyond compare. I know what I'm talking about. I did it in real life, and I have been doing something similar, as far as workload is concerned, on the internet for the past 2½ years. Some of you may know what I am referring to. Then add all the other things Ben has to attend to as one of our many hard working yellows. Roland

As always, I am very generous, so I will give 100% to both of them ... for not playing transfer advances! Now that you don't play those, I could perhaps give all 200% to East who was remarkably passive, including his pass of a take-out double. Maybe they had taken all his bidding cards away from his box, except the green passes. The worst call? All East's passes, so it's impossible for me to vote. Next time, please add: "All of them, East" - "All of them, West" :D Roland

I can't comment on the merit of Raptor, since I never played it, but those of you who watched our vugraph broadcast from Poland yesterday will have noticed that things go horribly wrong when one player overcalls a natural 1NT after a 1♠ opening, and his partner thinks it's Raptor (which it was according to their agreement). They landed in an inelegant 2♥ when 3NT was cold. You can't blame that on the convention of course. It just goes to show that the more you add to your cc, the more there is to forget. Roland

And I promise tail wind in the bicycle lanes! Roland

And now even whereagles is a happy camper. He got what he wanted, his score compared to everyone else's .... well, at least to those with 500+. Roland

I agree that 4NT should be two places to play. Opener will treat it as minors. With diamonds and hearts responder will correct 5♣ to 5♦, with clubs and hearts, he will pull 5♦ to 5♥. How many have the agreement that 4NT is natural on this auction? My guess is very few. Roland

Just for once I will agree with you. Balanced hands have no errand. The hand with shape has. Roland

Just goes to show how hopeless the Milton 4321 scale is. KQ opposite x in a suit contract. 5 hcp, 1 loser. Ax opposite x in a suit contract. 4 hcp, no loser. QJ opposite xx. 3 hcp, no trick. Kx opposite xx. 3 hcp, 50% chance of 1 trick. KJ opposite xx, 4 hcp, 50% chance of 1 trick. Ax opposite xx, 4 hcp, 100% chance of 1 trick. AKQ opposite xxx. 9 hcp, 3 tricks in a NT contract. AKQxxxx opposite xxx. 9 hcp, 7 tricks in a NT contract. AJ10 opposite xxx. 5 hcp, 76% chance of 2 tricks. AJx opposite xxx. 5 hcp, 25% chance of 2 tricks. AQ10 opposite xxx. 6 hcp. 75% chance of 2 tricks. AQx opposite xxx. 6 hcp, 50% chance of 2 tricks. Someone should change the scale as soon as possible and at least give the 10 something, if supported by one or more honours. Roland

.... and even tighter after we added the French Team Trials from Paris. 47½ hours of live vugraph broadcast over the weekend starting Thursday at 13.00 Paris, 12 noon London, 7 am New York, 9 pm Sydney. Have fun and remember to get a few hours of sleep in between! :) http://online.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php Roland

This is a disadvantage because you will lose 4-4 major fits when partner is weak :) The same applies to 15-17 if you have 17 and partner is weak. Playing 14-16 you will not, so your point is not valid. Roland

Warning: Carefully constructed hands approaching. Perhaps you worded it poorly and meant "rates not to be able to cover three of my 6 losers." There are quite a few hand types that can make game such as: xxx Qxxx KJTx xx xxxx 9xxx KTx Kx xxx Qxx xx KQxxx etc etc, I could go on but it's pointless. You'll note the HCP are 6, 6, and 7. There are no stiffs. Game is cold on 2 hands and very good on the other one. Pass may well be the best hand, but I don't think its fair to say a 2H bid cannot produce a game opposite this hand. You gave partner ZERO hcp in spades in all examples, and yet we didn't hear anything from the opponents. They have 19-20 hcp and AKQJ of spades. You think they would be passing when in two of your examples they have 9 spades between them? Dream on Justin :D Roland

I passed because I don't think it's worth a game try. A hand that could do nothing more than raising to 2♥ (no Drury) can't cover three of my six losers. 3♥ is in jeopardy. Roland

I agree with Luis; no major difference between 15-17 and 14-16. One slight advantage if your NT range is 14-16. For obvious reasons you get to open 1NT more often. Roland

Did you? Why did you not show 22-24? Do you force to game with 24 balanced? Roland Well the problem stipulated the bidding showed 22-23, so that is what we must assume. Indeed Justin, so my main concern is what you do with 24 balanced. Force to game I take it. Seems unsound to me. Roland