[Phil]

---

Matchpoints

1. NS play a 15-17 NT with upgrades.

2. 2♣ was an unknown one suiter.

3, Double was Stayman. Puppet Stayman (3♣) was available too.

5♣ made in comfort when dummy put down a useful 0=4=5=4.

ATB please

[xcurt]

100% to north.

The S hand might or might not be a 1NT for this pair but I can't pass judgement on that. it's not insane and as it happened N had the optimal information when 5C came around. other auctions could be

1s-2c-4s-5c; p-p-? Essentially the same position

1n-2c*-2s-x*; 4s-5c and now north the hand with zero defense has to act in front of the strong nt.

[l milne]

100% North.

Pass is not forcing (???????)

[rduran1216]

Never dbl 5 of a minor in stac week, 100% blame to the doubler, these hands are set up.

[gwnn]

150% North, what kind of double is that?

[Siegmund]

I blame South for opening 1NT. Even if you like to upgrade, a 14 with no tens, nines, or eights is awful.

North, quite reasonably, didn't know his side had an 11-card fit, and expected quite a lot more defense from his partner (one spade may cash, and one more face card elsewhere); I think it should be a forcing pass auction, in which case South MIGHT choose to pull, but others may not -- even so, since North knew that even 4S was going to be on shaky ground though it had total-tricks protection, it's hard for me to fault him too hard for expressing an opinion that 5S was probably going to fail and they needed to collect their supposed 300 or so, delighted at seeing the opps sacrifice against a non-cold game.

Or you can just blame the bidding system, if you like. Your system really HAS to approach this auction from the standpoint of your own side bidding to make and assuming your opponents are sacrificing, and you pay off the 10% of the time that they land a lucky 11 tricks.

[Phil]

rduran1216, on 2010-December-13, 01:37, said:

Never dbl 5 of a minor in stac week, 100% blame to the doubler, these hands are set up.

omg....you aren't one of these superstitious club players are you? I suppose you think computer hands are like this in general and have more freaks and no passouts either?

[Phil]

xcurt, on 2010-December-12, 22:32, said:

100% to north.

The S hand might or might not be a 1NT for this pair but I can't pass judgement on that. it's not insane and as it happened N had the optimal information when 5C came around. other auctions could be

1s-2c-4s-5c; p-p-? Essentially the same position

1n-2c*-2s-x*; 4s-5c and now north the hand with zero defense has to act in front of the strong nt.

Yes, in all of my partnerships the opener range for 1N with a good five card major is more like 14-16. LOL at 1N being 'insane' (other post) - that is pure resulting (and poor hand evaluation). The field was mostly taking the push to 5♠ after a 1♠ opener, down 1.

You do not touch on it, but I didn't think this was a forcing pass. While 4♠ here does not deny strength it could be made on a light distributional hands and thus no force. Furthermore, partner could have bid 4♣ to convey ownership.

I think luck gets a lot of the blame here.

[Rossoneri]

I would say the blame goes to North. Give South the either black suit Jack and he has his 15 HCP, but it makes no difference. Granted, I don't agree with the upgrade, but don't trust my judgement on that!

[mtvesuvius]

I would not upgrade the S hand unless playing with a weak partner, in which case I consider it normal. Given North's bidding though, it seems S was right to upgrade, lol. Double of 5♣ is really bad. Granted, N cannot expect partner to have 5♠ always, but he should never be expecting a spade to cash here. Anyway, partner had his chance to double 5♣ and didn't... And with 0 tricks to add to that, I don't see how X can be right. A more interesting problem may be 5♠ vs Pass... I think 5♠ is a longterm winner though.

I give 90% to North and 10% to South.

[rduran1216]

Phil, on 2010-December-13, 09:27, said:

omg....you aren't one of these superstitious club players are you? I suppose you think computer hands are like this in general and have more freaks and no passouts either?

I have been playing bridge less than two years. While its true that 80% of club players are superstitious about these hands its not for nothing.

Every stac week I come across 5-10 hands where u know what everyone has before trick 1. I bid 6D on a flat 26 count on the basis of it being fixed, bid 4H last time stac came around with qxxxx KJxxxxx - x in 2nd seat red, for a stone top. Bid 6D on another hand about a year ago and then played for a 3-0 break with a 10 card fit with confidence.

While I don't think they're all set ups, its just creepy how easy it is to make bad decisions on stac week if you can see what the theme is. I had a 76 red hand a few months ago when stac rolled around and got another great result for making an outrageous call. You can almost certainly predict the unbalanced nature of the hands when you sense something is amiss. And yes, I do get more crazy hands during stac week than during normal shuffle deal and play. Every time stac week comes around there are hands which are just unbelievable, and I know they happen in normal play as well, but its the sensing of the theme to a hand that I can't chalk up to anything other than some being fixed.

And yes, I never dbl 5 of a minor in stac week.

Phil I'm curious what you guys did with board #1 on saturday?

[Phil]

rduran1216, on 2010-December-13, 11:47, said:

Phil I'm curious what you guys did with board #1 on saturday?

Meh, didn't play it. We were #3 NS in an 11 table section so we played 7 through 33.

[rduran1216]

Phil, on 2010-December-13, 12:07, said:

Meh, didn't play it. We were #3 NS in an 11 table section so we played 7 through 33.

too bad ur club isn't ghetto like Long Beach, or ud have made the boards and played 10 through 3 haha

http://thewesterncon...nds/SATAFTM.pdf

After a ridiculous auction where partner bid criss cross over 1D, we were in 5D how would u play after 9 of hearts lead to the A and Q of clubs back?

[Phil]

rduran1216, on 2010-December-13, 12:21, said:

too bad ur club isn't ghetto like Long Beach, or ud have made the boards and played 10 through 3 haha

http://thewesterncon...nds/SATAFTM.pdf

After a ridiculous auction where partner bid criss cross over 1D, we were in 5D how would u play after 9 of hearts lead to the A and Q of clubs back?

LMAO! Dana Point is awesome - we get pre-dooped boards every day of the week and the card fees have stayed at $8 for any game.

Answer to your play problem in 5♦: very carefully....

[l milne]

Siegmund, on 2010-December-13, 02:56, said:

I blame South for opening 1NT. Even if you like to upgrade, a 14 with no tens, nines, or eights is awful.

North, quite reasonably, didn't know his side had an 11-card fit, and expected quite a lot more defense from his partner (one spade may cash, and one more face card elsewhere); I think it should be a forcing pass auction, in which case South MIGHT choose to pull, but others may not -- even so, since North knew that even 4S was going to be on shaky ground though it had total-tricks protection, it's hard for me to fault him too hard for expressing an opinion that 5S was probably going to fail and they needed to collect their supposed 300 or so, delighted at seeing the opps sacrifice against a non-cold game.

Or you can just blame the bidding system, if you like. Your system really HAS to approach this auction from the standpoint of your own side bidding to make and assuming your opponents are sacrificing, and you pay off the 10% of the time that they land a lucky 11 tricks.

I disagree with almost all of this.

Upgrading the South hand is wrong but did not cause the error. It is an (IMO tiny) error in judgement.

This is not a forcing pass auction. Perhaps at red, but here I just can't see the upside. Consider that South is limited to a 'tight' range and North can easily just have some hand with a bunch of major cards (not dissimilar to here). Playing FP here just seems to give North the option between -500 and -550 in a lot of normal auctions.

Why can't we just play normal bridge, where if I have a 15-17 NT and the opponents bid to the 5-level and I have 3 tricks, I double for penalty? Obviously if South hasn't doubled for penalties, North's double is ridiculous. Yes, partner's spade ace might cash. But why hasn't partner doubled if we are beating this and we contribute no defense?

[rduran1216]

Phil, on 2010-December-13, 12:27, said:

LMAO! Dana Point is awesome - we get pre-dooped boards every day of the week and the card fees have stayed at $8 for any game.

Answer to your play problem in 5♦: very carefully....

yeah but the level of friendliness there is minimal compared to us(in my limited experience), and we get GREAT food daily.

[Phil]

rduran1216, on 2010-December-13, 17:20, said:

yeah but the level of friendliness there is minimal compared to us(in my limited experience), and we get GREAT food daily.

Have you played in DHBC before? No one has ever called DHBC unfriendly.

You guys do have a nice deal if you play the afternoon and the early evening session. Sulzby is a good friend of mine.

[rduran1216]

Phil, on 2010-December-13, 19:46, said:

Have you played in DHBC before? No one has ever called DHBC unfriendly.

You guys do have a nice deal if you play the afternoon and the early evening session. Sulzby is a good friend of mine.

I played in a tournament there when I still qualified for the 299er and the people there were just....idk it rubbed me the wrong way, perhaps it was just a few. I know alot of bad players who think they know what they're doing, but something about people lecturing me on what I could've done when I was playing with a client was...a bit bad.

But I wouldn't mind playin there again if you claim they're alright. I've been spoiled by the regulars at LB, its a really tight knit community and the people literally welcome u into their home and socialize away from the table. I would like the prospect of 4.3 for winning since its 1.5 here. Steve's a real nice dude, doesn't play as much but always comes around with Mark Tang at the unit games.

[the hog]

l milne, on 2010-December-13, 13:46, said:

I disagree with almost all of this.

Upgrading the South hand is wrong but did not cause the error. It is an (IMO tiny) error in judgement.

This is not a forcing pass auction. Perhaps at red, but here I just can't see the upside. Consider that South is limited to a 'tight' range and North can easily just have some hand with a bunch of major cards (not dissimilar to here). Playing FP here just seems to give North the option between -500 and -550 in a lot of normal auctions.

Why can't we just play normal bridge, where if I have a 15-17 NT and the opponents bid to the 5-level and I have 3 tricks, I double for penalty? Obviously if South hasn't doubled for penalties, North's double is ridiculous. Yes, partner's spade ace might cash. But why hasn't partner doubled if we are beating this and we contribute no defense?

I agree with this. By the way, if the opponents use a really poor method like Crapallotti, you can turn it against them. I would bid 3S with the Nth hand. Now lets see them bid 5C opposite a 4S by south. Guarantee you will play 4S.