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Are you Zia?


paulg

Your call  

39 members have voted

  1. 1. Your call

    • Pass
      3
    • Double
      3
    • 2H
      33
    • Other
      0


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I maybe will loose this board but I am in good companion when I pass with this weak suit. No the "good companion" is not in this forum (so far) but it had been at the BB.
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100 % 2H call. Where the "this should be NF" idea comes from I do not know. It would be NF if you play negative free bids only. This also has nothing to do with lebensohl although it is a lebensohl position, it only becomes that way if we pass and partner re-opens with double, at which point you have various weak or stronger bids available.
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2.  If I pass and it goes 3 p p or 4 p p (and why shouldn't it, they are favorable), I'm going to want to vomit all over my shoes.

What a pessimist B)

 

What are the odds that LHO can bounce in diamonds when I hold K10x??

 

If he does, isn't our side allowed to bid?

 

And think how partner is going to evaluate his hand if we bid 2 and LHO bounces! Will he play us for a topless suit and a working 6 count? I hope not, not in a real partnership.

 

Frankly, if LHO bounces, I am actually happy I passed. If they bid 4, partner may well be able to double to announce a big hand with shortness in s. If he passes, I can still bid 4, which is a closer description of my hand than an immediate 2, and is justified by knowledge of the diamond shortness (yes, partner could be 4=2=1=6, for example, but bidding 2 over 2 isn't going to make for a much happier auction, and the odds favour catching 3+ card support once he is known to be short in diamonds)

 

If they bid 5, then I double...

 

Sometimes it will be wrong, but at least I avoid reaching either 5 or 6 when those contracts don't make, and that risk is extremely high if partner holds the void suggested by a 5 call.

 

No, my puking comes when I bid 2 and then have the opps bounce, especially to the 5 level.

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Zia passed, as did Rosenberg holding AKxx AKx xxx xxx, so they missed an easy vulnerable game. Gower made 5 tricks in 2.

 

Naturally this came in for a fair amount of criticism from the commentators. However Zia/Rosenberg are in the final and the commentators will still be commentating :)

 

To me it looks a hairline decision but the game is good. I'd say the decision is Zia's to make as I'd pass with Rosenberg's hand. Part of the credit should certainly go to Gower for his 5-card weak jump overcall.

 

In the other room Cope (South Africa) opened a 14+-17 1NT and South just bid the heart game directly.

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If you hold Kxxx AJxx x Kxxx and you open 1 in 2nd unfav, LHO bids 2 and RHO raises to 3, are you really going to x? Partner couldn't make a negative X, bid 2M, which doesn't show the world's fair, nor could he raise clubs or even bid 2NT, all of which he would do aggressively since it's red IMPs. Maybe my judgment is way off here, but it seems like you would pass 3 and quickly. Heck, even make the hand Kxx AJxx xx Kxxx and 4 is just as cold. They could easily be raising to the 3-level at fav with only 8 trumps, or to the 4-level with only 9. I'm not saying bidding 2 can't go wrong, I just think that you're going to get talked out of a bunch of red games if you pass with Zia's hand. But then, not suprisingly, I'm not Zia so what do I know.
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Naturally this came in for a fair amount of criticism from the commentators. However Zia/Rosenberg are in the final and the commentators will still be commentating :)

 

Yeah, they crushed their opponents by all of 8 IMPs. If they had lost by the same amount, not sure what Zia and R'berg would be doing, but the commentators would still be commentating, wouldn't they be?

 

By the same token, South Africans got to an atrociously bad slam against Italy in the QF, the one that came home because Queen of hearts was doubelton and declarer got two picthes holding AK tight opposite JTxx. The commentators were unanimous in declaring that the slam was too lucy for words. SA did get to the semi-fianls. Does the result make that a good slam ?

 

Quite of a few of the commentators are very good/great players in their own right and sharp analysts of the game. Their criticism of an individual bid/play/defense is fairly objective for the most part and it should be taken as such, not tainted by result'ing.

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2 for me. Not close. I would pass then jump to 3 over a reopening double on the king of diamonds less.

 

I have watched about half the boards SA played against Italy and USA1. I think they are not receiving enough credit for the aggressive preempting style, which coaxed both those teams into a number of incorrect decisions and inferior contracts. They were preempting left and right on hands that Italy wasn't and it was consistently working well, so good for them. I'm certainly not saying they are a better team or even close, but I am not joining the "SA was just lucky" parade by any means.

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Naturally this came in for a fair amount of criticism from the commentators. However Zia/Rosenberg are in the final and the commentators will still be commentating :)

 

Yeah, they crushed their opponents by all of 8 IMPs. If they had lost by the same amount, not sure what Zia and R'berg would be doing, but the commentators would still be commentating, wouldn't they be?

 

By the same token, South Africans got to an atrociously bad slam against Italy in the QF, the one that came home because Queen of hearts was doubelton and declarer got two picthes holding AK tight opposite JTxx. The commentators were unanimous in declaring that the slam was too lucy for words. SA did get to the semi-fianls. Does the result make that a good slam ?

 

Quite of a few of the commentators are very good/great players in their own right and sharp analysts of the game. Their criticism of an individual bid/play/defense is fairly objective for the most part and it should be taken as such, not tainted by result'ing.

The ACBL Bulletin ran an article some time ago with a number of experts (of varying levels of expertise, but all 'names' within the ACBL world) giving advice on how to play against teams that rate to beat you. The advice was mostly trite, but maybe I'm jaundiced by old age and having read this kind of thing many years ago in a book I think was entitled 'How to win at teams' or something similar.

 

Anyway, the point on which I think all agree is that you are not going to beat a team, on which every player is at least as good as your best player, by playing it straight. The opps will simply destroy you in a long match. If you consistently bid as well as they do (which you won't, by definition) they will out-declare you and out-defend you.

 

You have to mix it up. You have to make slightly off-beat decisions and hope that this day your 47% choices will beat their 53% choices (no need for the choices to add to 100, btw). So you swing, but you pick your spots. You slightly overbid on a preempt or push for a slam that is doubtful on your cards (and may be worse on partner's). So the SA's appear to have adopted that attitude, combined with steady card play.

 

Plus, from what I heard (not from what saw) some of the Italians didn't bring their A game.. but who does, every session?

 

More power to SA, and very well done. Their example... damn near getting to the finals of the BB by beating and almost beating arguably the best two teams in the event... should encourage us all.. while showing us how to handle ourselves when technically outgunned. I didn't see a lot of hands (the time zone issue is brutual for the 2nd and 3rd segments for me), but what I saw didn't suggest they went nuts and thus got 'incredibly' lucky in either match.

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