That wasn't good, but the last few boards of the set were really quite absurd. It felt like they thought it was the last set.

Obviously gogogo fmk, but it's too bad they had to meet the Dinkin team so early; Id have liked to have seen that latter go farther in the tournament, rather than the same old client-and-pro models. (It doesn't look to me like there's any client on that team.) Further, it's nice to see experimental weirdness do well.

What bugs the crap out of me is when a team with a weak client does well. I don't know details on many of the teams but one that I do know is Gupta — I was disappointed to see that team get out of the round robin. But at least they're losing now.

IMO the team should be chosen pairwise, with USA 1 composed of the three top pairs in some lengthy IMP pairs trial, and USA 2 the next three. That would solve the client problem.

sorry to burst your bubble atak but Dinkin is a client. Which kind of begs the question... does it matter? I mean that seriously because if it was the same team with no money changing hands it seems like you would root for that team more.

Anyways the pairs trial thing has been tried (and is done in other places). it doesn't seem to work. I can only remember one time in the past long time where a weak client has won anyways, it is hard to win lots of tough 120 board matches against good teams if you have a bad player on the team. hence the reason that nickell/diamond/Fleisher have had the USA teams that have done well for the past decade or so. really there was only one client that was bad that had continued success, Zimmerman, and some light has been shed on that recently haha

Well, bummer about that.

I wonder why pairwise trials don't work. I get that a genuinely weak client is likely to drag down a team in a long contest, but a team would still theoretically be even stronger if all of its members were selected for ability. Oh well.

Anyway, go get 'em.

I asked if Dinkin was a client because that would mean that team might actually stick together. If Dinkin wasn't a client I would just assume Grossacks and Lien/Brescoll would move on to some other team.

Live updated odds

11-4 Nickell
4-1 Diamond (I mean 0-1)
8-1 Fireman
10-1 Fleischer
10-1 Gordon
10-1 Schwartz
11-1 Wolfson
13-1 Coren

Man, I'll take some action on Fleischer at that price.

(obviously it's just a hedge against my Diamond FREE MONEY)

Ditto on that. Think chuckles is in general a little too high on Fireman and too low on Fleisher.

Yeah the betting public was a little high on Fireman since how they did in the last Bermuda bowl cycle. Fleischer does look like a good bet, and I expect the odds to go way down if they advance to the semis.

All vul, IMPs

T872
J73
KQ
9532

1D*-P to you.

1D is Precision (good 10-15 HCP, 2+ diamonds). 1NT opener would have been 14-16, so if he's balanced he's got 13 or less.

1S for me. Don't see the downside.

I would bid 1S but the rationale in general is that if you bid when your vul it's pretty dangerous. 1D p 1S p 1N X or something is very bad when you might have survived if they were gonna balance over 1D. Even just playing 1N is pretty bad if you go for 300.

Ofc when you declare 1D it could be very bad as here. I am guessing he did it because he had KQ of diamonds.

Partnering Zia must be frustrating as all hell... He picks apart every play from Kamil

I confess to thinking, possibly wrongly and with no evidence whatsoever to back it up, that he's the most overrated top player out there.

I don't think he is over rated - bit old maybe and definitely best suited to a high stakes rubber game - I suspect it is a bit of a struggle for him sometimes to play with and against world class players - normal for him is doing most of it himself and his opponents helping a lot

You've got this, fmk.

Thx atak. Should be a fun day of vugraphing, 3 close matches.

Bridge is crazy. Good luck fmk! You're the goat I here

An interesting psych on Board 9 in the Gordon/Cohen matchup. Pratap, W/R, opened 1H in third seat on xxx T9xx Txxx Qx.

Well, not any more.

73–0 is a nice start.

wow some huge sets. nickell match still awesome tho

I should sit out more often

this event doesn't use screens?