The Hand of the Decade

[billw55]

Best one I can remember was from a club game just a few weeks ago:

 

♠AKxxx

♥AKQJT

♦KQx

♣-

 

Partner held ♠QJx and ♣A, so 6 of anything was cold, losing the ♦A.

 

 

Another one several years ago, I opened a routine 15-17 NT. Partner, holding ♣AKQxxxxx, was wise enough to check for aces, and 7NT rolled home.

[jjbrr]

Doubling 7♠ is so terrible

[Fluffy]

Doubling 7♠ is so terrible

what do you think about opening 6!s? lol

 

I'd say missclick, but then the level is taken before the strain, so the player had 2 times to check.

[jjbrr]

Doubling 7♠ is so terrible

what do you think about opening 6!s? lol

 

I'd say missclick, but then the level is taken before the strain, so the player had 2 times to check.

A plus score is a good score!

[straube]

I would have asked for aces to see if 7N was a make.

[Aberlour10]

I would have asked for aces to see if 7N was a make.

Surely in matchpoints I would probably open 2c and check the A♦ but in IMP's there is no difference between 7s and 7NT I think or?

[RMB1]

Surely in matchpoints I would probably open 2c and check the A♦ but in IMP's there is no difference between 7s and 7NT I think or?

7NT avoids the chance of the opponent ruffing the opening lead.

[Fluffy]

we had a thread years ago about a guy who passed 2♣ opening with

 

x

xxx

xxx

10xxxxx

 

or something like, he got a big top scoring 110. If those guys do exist you might be risking too much B)

[dealmegold]

You must have done some serious overbidding in the previous hands to get doubled when you announce that you're not joking (this time?).

You are wrong. I announced it because I was simply concerned about the possibility to be removed from the table for the nonserious bidding....what would you think if smbd bid 7♠ in the first seat? the possiblity its a real serious bid is 1:1000......? :)

If they booted me I would report them for abuse!

[inquiry]

we had a thread years ago about a guy who passed 2♣ opening with

 

x

xxx

xxx

10xxxxx

 

or something like, he got a big top scoring 110. If those guys do exist you might be risking too much :blink:

Sadly, Masterminds have not gone anywhere.....and I suspect they never will....

 

Using bridgebrowser, you would be highly surprized how many times 2♣ with 20+ hcp is passed by a partner with 5+ clubs and low count. On the good side, this is only one hand at matchpoints. Of course, some of these auctions have to be bidding misunderstaning (one partner playing precision or similar, the other not).

[hanp]

Ben, could you check how well people do by passing a strong 2C with a 0-count and exactly 6 clubs.

[kfay]

Gotta double those grands with aces.

You should tell ch00bacca that!

 

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...4285-1265004615

[inquiry]

Ben, could you check how well people do by passing a strong 2C with a 0-count and exactly 6 clubs.

Ok, here is a break down of 191 Auctions where opener had at least 20 hcp, and responder had: 1) 6 clubs exactly, and 2) 0 or 1 hcp. (sadly I did this from main room databases rather than tourneys, so I will redo with tourneys later)

 

For all 191 hands, the averages were:

187 imp hands, average +0.06 imps

4 Matchpoint hands, 46.26% average

 

(note, while all these auctions started 2C-Pass-Pass, they did not all end in 2C. If we limit to 2C final contract, the averages change as follows)

 

161 imp hands, average +0.02

3 Matchpoint hands, 58.59%

 

If we separate the +1 versus the 0 hcp, we find for 0 hcp...

71 imp hands -0.58/hand (if allowed to play in 2C, 60 times, -0.63)

no mp hands

 

For 1 hcp

116 hands, +0.45 imps (if allowed ot play in 2C, 101 times, 0.42 imps)

4 mp hands, 46.26% (if allowed to play in 2C, 3 times, 58.59%)

 

when opener held 26+ hcp, as you might imagine, pass didn't do so well...

11 imp hands, average -2.7 imps

0 imp hands

 

When opener was balanced (for this analysis, lets say 4333, 4432, and 5332), the results were

77 imp hands averageing 0.80 imps

1 MP hands, which got 90.54%

 

When opener had a six card suit or longer,

48 hands, average -1.23 imps

1 MP hand, average 16.67%

 

I will look at tournaments after a while if anyone has a specific additional question to ask (I had to look across multiple database to find sufficient hands to grab the data above). I will add an observation, it looks like when opener has a "balanced 2NT" type opening passing with a long club suit and no point works well and since this is a high frequency of the 2@C openings, you might see why. If I group all balanced hands (20-24 hcp) and include 6322 in the balanced group, then pass had these averages....

 

96 hands, 0.98 imps

2 hands, 79.55%

[PhantomSac]

Gotta double those grands with aces.

You should tell ch00bacca that!

 

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...4285-1265004615

wow that is pretty nasty actually...three aces!

[Aberlour10]

Gotta double those grands with aces.

You should tell ch00bacca that!

 

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...4285-1265004615

wow that is pretty nasty actually...three aces!

There's a lady who is sure all these aces are cold

and she is buying a stairway to heaven :P

[dealmegold]

we had a thread years ago about a guy who passed 2♣ opening with

 

x

xxx

xxx

10xxxxx

 

or something like, he got a big top scoring 110. If those guys do exist you might be risking too much :P

Sadly, Masterminds have not gone anywhere.....and I suspect they never will....

 

Using bridgebrowser, you would be highly surprized how many times 2♣ with 20+ hcp is passed by a partner with 5+ clubs and low count. On the good side, this is only one hand at matchpoints. Of course, some of these auctions have to be bidding misunderstaning (one partner playing precision or similar, the other not).

Or the kind of "misunderstanding" where their profile says SAYC and they don't play transfers?

 

Yes, I'm angry!

[hanp]

So clearly it is right to bid with 0 HCP and pass with 1 HCP.

[1eyedjack]

So clearly it is right to bid with 0 HCP and pass with 1 HCP.

The way I read it is simply that masterminding is not so heinous a crime, despite that it appears to create no measurable gain. The qualifier preceding the statement

Sadly, Masterminds have not gone anywhere.....and I suspect they never will....

does not seem to be justified by this example, although of course it might by other examples.

[inquiry]

So clearly it is right to bid with 0 HCP and pass with 1 HCP.

The way I read it is simply that masterminding is not so heinous a crime, despite that it appears to create no measurable gain. The qualifier preceding the statement

Sadly, Masterminds have not gone anywhere.....and I suspect they never will....

does not seem to be justified by this example, although of course it might by other examples.

There were thousands of hands that passed a 2@C opener where opener had 20+ hcp. Some with flat distribution, some with very few clubs. Han asked a very specific question, limiting responder to EXACTLY six clubs (he asked for 0 hcp, but I included 1 hcp as well).

 

One could easily guess that anytime opener had something like 20 to 25 hcp and balanced hand, passing would be a "winner". Of course, catch opener with a monster and that is no longer the case.

 

As for the observation that passing with 0 was wrong and with 1 hcp is right, there was no statistics given with the current numbers. With only 4 example hands at MP, nothing can be made of those numbers, and in fact, it really is OPENER's hand that determines if pass works or not. When openers hand was balanced, regardless of the hcp. there was little difference between the results of passing with 0 or 1 hcp. For the comparison, only final contracts of 2♣ are included (and opener was 4333, 4432, 5332, 5422, or 6322 distribution, any pc.

 

With 0 hcp

34 hand    Tricks        Score          IMP          HCP        Trumps  HP+Dist

Avge          9.79        111          0.22        23.61          8.88        27.5

Std Err      0.34          16            0.75          0.33          0.14        0.32

 

With 1 HCP

69 hands    Tricks        Score          IMP          HCP        Trumps  HP+Dist

Avge          9.81        117          0.85        23.59          8.68        27.43

Std Err      0.14            6          0.38          0.18          0.09          0.19

 

As you can see, there is no difference in tricks won, hcp + distribution, hcp, number of trumps, average score (just slightly more than +110), and the statisticians can tell us if there is a statistical difference in IMPS with 0 hcp having such a high standard error.

 

Another factor is responder's distribution. We fixed his club legnth at 6, turns out pass worked less well with 6322 than with other distributions, the more wild responder's distribution, the better pass appeared to work out. I would not have thought that, but i forced the final contract to be 2@C so it might has to do with opponents not bidding their fit when reponder was 65 or 64 (this observation constrained opposite a balanced opener).

 

There simply is not enough 6 card suit opposite the 2@C opener to start drawing too many more conclusions on 1 hcp versus 0 hcp.

[1eyedjack]

I'm sorry. My comment was with tongue very firmly planted between incisor and molar.

[Tataie]

Playing on okbridge , like 7-8 years ago :

♠AKQJ109xxxx

♥A

♦A

♣A

 

I didnt bid 7nt straight up but took a slower approach waiting for a x and

managed to play 7NT x/xx in the end for a full bag of imps.

Kudos ;)

[the hog]

Playing on okbridge , like 7-8 years ago :

♠AKQJ109xxxx

♥A

♦A

♣A

 

I didnt bid 7nt straight up but took a slower approach waiting for a x and

managed to play 7NT x/xx in the end for a full bag of imps.

Kudos B)

It must have been a very poor standard game for anyone to x.

[blackshoe]

You're lucky LHO didn't lead a hippogryph. :D