[Phil]

Around the table sit a World Class, Expert, Advanced and Intermediate player. Based on the following hand, your job is to figure out who is whom.

Matchpoints.

---

1. ♠K ducked, ♠Q won by A.
2. ♣AK....on the 2nd East follows with the Q.

Declarer loses a ruff to East but the ♠ goes away on the 4th club and declarer makes 5.

Identify the players.

[kenrexford]

This is fun! My guess:


South = Intermediate
North = Expert
West = Advanced
East = World Class

[dwar0123]

South = Expert - Ducking the first spade and managing to ruff a spade with only 2 rounds of trump pulled
North = Intermediate - Not inviting by bidding 3♦
West = Advanced - Did nothing stupid nor smart
East = World Class - Trying to unblock clubs so west could get in with the jack of clubs to take spade

[billw55]

Yes agree, this is fun. I have played a similar game at Go forums before. As I recall I wasn't very good at it.

So what do I have to go on?

North: is dummy, so all we have is the auction. 2♦ is clearly an underbid. I suppose if he knows that south is weak, this might be ok, but the bid by itself is not good.
South: with a good opener and ♠Axx, might have bid 2NT, but I can't criticize 2♣. Next, realizing that there are probably nine cashers in notrump, finds a line to try for +150 which could salvage a few matchpoints.
East: seeing this dummy, may be aware that NS have underbid. So why risk giving away a trick (or two) with the fancy queen drop? Furthermore, declarer cashing the ♣AK only makes sense if he has the jack.
West: I have books that say that after leading the top of a sequence, if you hold the lead and continue the suit, you should play the bottom of that sequence. However, I often see published hands where this is ignored without comment. Nothing else noteworthy from west, whose holding is pretty much foolproof.

So what to make of all this? I guess I will try

North - intermediate
South - world class
East - expert
West - advanced

[Fluffy]

If south didn't play 2 rounds of diamonds before cashing clubs he is the advanced or the intermediate.

If he cashed the diamons he is expert or world class.

East is expert or advanced, he should foresee that he has no need to avoid being endplayed with dummy having no possible discard for the spade.

North cannot be the advanced with 11 HCP so he must be intermediate or world class, maybe expert, but rare.

If south cashed diamonds:

west advanced, north intermediate, east expert, south world class


If south didn't cash diamonds:

west expert, north world class, east advanced, south intermediate.

[MickyB]

Is the fact that you've decided to post the hand AI or UI?

[kayin801]

Are these BBO expert/WC or actual?

Only thing I have so far is that N underbid and W has nothing interesting to do. So W is whoever we have left at the end while N I would guess is intermediate or advanced.

Don't think E's unblock is necessary since he can overruff dummy's spot, but the line of play certainly seems to indicate S doesn't have the ♣J so it looks pretty safe and might muddle declarer's view of the hand.

South's line is weird at MP, don't really understand the lack of a club finesse with plenty of dummy entries. His line seems to make only 10 tricks unless the club Q is with E so a hook is just as good?

Guesses:
S advanced
N intermediate
E expert
W WC

[billw55]

OK Phil, let's have it, I gotta know.

[BunnyGo]

Fluffy, on 2012-October-06, 14:02, said:

If south didn't play 2 rounds of diamonds before cashing clubs he is the advanced or the intermediate.

If he cashed the diamons he is expert or world class.

East is expert or advanced, he should foresee that he has no need to avoid being endplayed with dummy having no possible discard for the spade.

North cannot be the advanced with 11 HCP so he must be intermediate or world class, maybe expert, but rare.

If south cashed diamonds:

west advanced, north intermediate, east expert, south world class


If south didn't cash diamonds:

west expert, north world class, east advanced, south intermediate.

my thoughts exactly. The underbid by North is probably intentional given the failure of south to cash the diamonds, so that leaves North as expert or better and south as intermediate.

East shouldn't unblock for little to no gain, probably advanced looking for a cool play, or maybe expert.

West seems fine, little to go on.

Likely:

South = Int
North = WC
East = Adv
West = Exp

[Phil]

I was South and East is a Grand LM who can follow suit. I was playing with a (mostly) ex-partner who is renowned for downgrading 4333.

Didn't love my play, but thought it was imaginative. He also thought his unblock was wrong. Que sera sera.

The only person that didn't make a mistake on the hand was West

[han]

You are too modest calling yourself advanced.

[Phil]

han, on 2012-October-09, 08:19, said:

You are too modest calling yourself advanced.

Thus, 'private' on my BBO profile.