I'll be on BBO around 11 EST. Would that work for you?

In maybe 20 minutesish, yes.

Meh, family heading to dinner. Available to play around 9 eastern, if that still works for people. Can't run too late, as it's a school night for him.

That'll probably work; I'll try to be on then.

Jim and I are on now. Hoping for a pair of POGgers.

Atak, for the record I greatly appreciate the hand write-up (and I know you enjoy writing them so dont pretend you dont).

I had my first 7-6 hand today.

KQ87653
AKQ843

Opened 1 spade. LHO overcalled 2 diamonds. Partner and righty pass.

I thought for a while and decided to jump to 3 hearts. I considered 3 diamonds and worried that partner could pass 3 hearts.

Partner said 4 hearts and then I said 6 hearts. Partner had a bad look on his face as he put down the 3 point dummy. The key part of the hand was the J95 of hearts. Made 6 easily. Nobody else bid the slam. Lost only the Ace of Spades.

Was fun

haha awesome. If I was feeling frisky I would be tempted to pass with that hand to try to get the opps to double me later

Nice writeup atakdog

Thanks for playing last night, DW and Wyman.

One moral: don't trust your partner's signals when you are well aware that your partner doesn't really understand signals. (I knew this, but still like to play things straight — masterminding is a bad habit.)

This reminds me I need to write up my "lessons from Orlando" post, plus another pretty little squeeze hand (though I'll have to admit that I misplayed it).

That hand was awesome. And I appreciate the write-up. Very very well done getting that right at the table.

I'd probably open 2C with the 7-6 hand. Holding the higher two suits, I'd be worried that I could get passed out at some point, and I'm planning on insisting on game. If partner gives me anything besides a negative response I can show my suits without jumping, which will be good; this approach will also minimize the probability of interference (against most opposition), which otherwise will be a substantial problem.

On the actual hand this would turn out badly, I guess, as in order to force to game I need to jump at my rebid, and in most partnerships that sets trump, which I don't want... so maybe I'm wrong. Ah, for want of a precision club...

Was a lot of fun. Funny story: my friend has a younger brother named Jim, who is about 6', 110 lbs soaking wet, has long hair and is a total hippie/stoner. Oh wait, had long hair. He cut it for a job interview. Whatever, that's not part of my image of him.

Anyway, this is how I picture your brother. I realized I was doing that (for no apparent reason, as I clearly have no idea what your brother looks like) last night, and I thought it was kind of funny. Thought I'd share.

Thanks. It actually sort of bothered me that after I got hearts right there was basically no way to go down, as both possible finesses were on, but I still felt pretty good about the play, and the heart suit was genuinely tricky.

I also like some of the defensive issues. I think everyone should ask himself whether, as defender on that hand, he would (with appropriate cards):

1. Play the heart ten at trick one from KTx(x);
2. Choose randomly from among the heart 9 and T, and the diamond queen and jack;
3. Drop the diamond jack or queen from QJx with no card (or at least no king) in clubs (way harder, and maybe not right, on an opening diamond lead;
4. Find a better opening lead, on that auction, from xx 9xxx Qxxx Kxx. (Recall that declarer had shown 10–13 HCP, 5 spades, 2 hearts — unfortunately there's no good lead. The actual trump lead makes the suit easier, but not by a lot; it seems pretty clear no lead is safe. I don't know what I'd choose.)

As people seem to like the hand writeups, I'll continue posting them.

Stepbrother, btw. My father's third marriage (but who's counting — for a while I referred to his mother as my father's future third ex-wife, though this one now looks like it will stick). And the image is just slightly off: maybe 6'1", 230 pounds, offensive lineman looking to play in college if he goes Ivy, clean-cut as all hell, plays viola and gets all A's, though just barely.

viola huh? who knew?

he did blow my mind playing 3N , though I dont think we beat it even with a heart return there. Takes a club lead T1, which is unlikely given your auction

As I said at the time, we did have a talk about setting up one's suits rather than cashing stoppers... He really is a beginner still. But his attitude at the table is perfect, as I've explained. We were talking at dinner about my experience in the Reisinger, and how anyone could play even though very few non-experts do, and how one of my teammates was so completely out of her depth, and he said it sounded like it would have been similar if he had been in her spot — and it probably would have, including the fact that he'd have been totally unfazed by the whole thing. Probably wouldn't have appreciated playing against Hamman & Zia, Meckwell, the Italians (Bocchi and someone, I think) and so forth (which our E/W did) as much, but might have — it's sometimes hard to tell when he's excited about something.

As for the 3NT — proper play may do better, though — if he can talk you into a club shift (or breaking spades), you can afford to hook the spades twice, which might be a good idea at matchpoints, netting 660 most of the time. As it is, heart continuations render that unsafe.

Incidentally, I have a hard time sleeping immediately after playing bridge. Fortunately, our club games are held at an American Legion, where there are $1.50 drafts. That can really take the edge off.

IMO 3H is non forcing, there are few bids in bridge that are forcing when partner could have 0 points that aren't preceeded by a 2C opener or a cuebid. A jump shift is usually forcing because it shows enough values to be in game opposite what partner has shown by responding. Here partner never responded.

You effectively forced to slam yourself, which I think is fine, so you might as well just reopen with 6H imo. Since you opened 1S first obv partner will go back to spades when it's right. I doubt you'll ever find out what you need to know to know if slam is bad anyways.

Wow, so sick.

The latest installment in atakdog's interesting hands... This one somehow doesn't seem to be exactly correct — my memory is a little fuzzy, so if something seems a bit off, it probably is. But it's pretty close, and pretty cool imo. Note that it is not a success story: I did not get this right at the table.


A/X swiss. Advanced but not expert opponents. Vulnerability irrelevant (in other words, I forget ). You deal:

Kxxx Axx Kx AQJ9x

1C (X) — 1D (P)
1NT¹ (P) — 3NT (all pass)

¹ 14–16 balanced


Qxxx
Qxx
AJ9xx
x


Kxx
Axx
Kx
AQJ9x

Opening lead: J. Plan the play.

The hearts:


Once you're in, do you play on clubs or diamonds, and what's your approach?

Ah, I think I just remembered what was wrong with my recollection of that hand: I didn't have the heart ace, and was declaring 2NT, not three. Otherwise the play is as shown, with LHO declining to cash her fourth heart until the end so the end position is the same, just one trick less in the bank for the declaring side at that point.

I remember this because during the auction (which I don't remember exactly), when I passed partner's invitational 2NT bid, partner said to LHO, whom he knows, "He's seen you defend." Unfortunately, this turned out to be slightly prescient — I think pitching as she did at the end is a nice play.

Come to think of it, I think partner had the diamond king (making his diamond suit really similar to the other squeeze hand I posted, which may be why I'm mixing them up), in which case my failure to play on clubs immediately makes more sense: they are basically entryless. The auction was probably 1D (by partner) — 1NT(X); 2NT — P.

Doesn't matter much — the writeup of the end position still applies.

Wow, I did not consider 1 and then 6 seems obvious now.


Had another interesting hand today:

KQJT7543

and a bunch of singletons and doubletons. Partner opens 2. Righty overcalls 2

I bid 2 and then after partner's 3NT, I bid 6

She corrected to 6NT with the singleton A Went down 2 where 6 makes on anything but a lead. GRRR.

Well, you can't teach partner to bid, but the auction might have been clearer had you bid 3H (obviously forcing) at your first call.

Maybe I'm naive, but I did find it weird. With Axx opp Qxx, holding up may cost you a trick, and seems unlikely to pay off.