[hrothgar]

Board 7:
All vulnerable.
Dealer: South.


A8762
AKQ
T32
74
5 QJT94
542 JT9
QJ9864 K75
932 K5
K3
8763
A
AQJT86

Board 7 featured another slam, this time a very good
6c. Amazingly the naturalists were closer than the
scientists in this board but they didn't make it.
The scientists would never have reached 6c after
Sartaj decided his hand was not worth a 15+ club
opening.

Open Room:

Luis Fred Ana Inquiry
-------------------------------
1c
p 1s p 2c
p 2h p 4h
p 5c p p
p
-------------------------------

The natural bidders started with the normal three bids,
Fred's second bid is ackward he has no club support, no
diamond stopper for nt and his spades are not rebidable
his 2h choice looked very sensible. Now Inquiry has a
very good hand with 4 cards in support for h, the sK
an excellent club suit and diamonds controlled, his 4h
bid seems to be an underbid. Fred corrected that to 5c
and now there's a lot to be said about a 6c bid from
South but Inquiry passed again. The cK was onside so
they quickly claimed 12 tricks.

Closed Room:

Malucy Marston Skystne Sartaj
--------------------------------
2c
p 2s p 4s
p p p
--------------------------------

2c showed 9-14 and 6+ clubs, maybe a hand with 5 losers
and excellent 14 HCP should be upgraded to an 1c opening, had
Sartaj opened 1c they would have surely reached 6c for
another slam swing, over Masrton 2s bid Sartaj closed the
proceedings with 4s. Not a good show by the scientific pair
on this board. Even with trumps 5-1 Marston could play 4s
safely cashing one trump and then playing on clubs east was
able to ruff the club and remove dummy's last trump but Marston
still had the diamond ace so he was in control. +620 for no
swing.

Board 8.
Nobody Vul.
Dealer North.


A985
K95
QJ7
AQ5
KJ6 QT32
J763 AQ2
T3 K865
KT92 84
74
T84
A942
J763

Board 8 featured a normal 1nt contract, declarers
took a different line but it was up to west to
defeat the contract. Both wests failed and the
board was a push.

Open Room:

Luis Fred Ana Inquiry
-------------------------------
1n p p
p
-------------------------------

Against the normal 1nt contract Ana lead the spade
2 (4th best). East played the K and Fred took the A.
He misguessed which minor suit to attack first by
playing the cA and a low club to the J. East took
the cK and exited with the cT stablishing the c9 for
the defense on this third club east was forced to discard
the h2. Now declarer played the dQ covered to the A and
a spade. West took the sJ and cashed the 4th club east
discarding a diamond. Now west didn't read the position
at all and played a diamond letting Fred claim 9 tricks
via 4 diamonds, 1 spade and 2 clubs. West got confused
by the h2 discard but the play was evident and he should
have figured out the position. +90 for the naturalists.

Closed Room:

Malucy Marston Skystne Sartaj
--------------------------------
1c p 1s
p 1n p p
p
--------------------------------

1c was strong and 1s showed any hand with 0-5 HCP.
Skystone produced the same s2 lead west playing the K and
declarer taking the Ace. Marston started diamonds playing the
dJ not covered. Then he played the dQ ducking east K the ten
falling, not having entries to dummy this was a very neat
play to ensure 3 diamond tricks if diamonds are 3-3 or as
in the current layout. East exited with a diamond Marston
finessing the 9 west discarding a heart.
He cashed the dA west discarding a club. He finessed in clubs
and played the club Ace exiting with a spade. West didn't
overtake his pd ST so east was enplayed at the end and had
to concede a heart. West can easily overtake the sT with the
J, cash the cK and exit with a heart to defeat the contract
but he didn't. No swing.

Board 9:
EW Vulnerable.
North dealer.


KQJ4
AJT2
J82
A2
983 A762
KQ876 954
54 AK97
KJT 83

T5
3
QT63
Q97654

In this board both south players made north play
3c in a transfer sequence after north showed a
strong nt hand. There's something to be said
about playing 1nt with diamonds being a suit that
can provide some nt tricks if clubs are wrong
anyway it doesn't seem to logical to pretent to
play 1nt with the south hand and the 3c contract
is normal.

Open Room:

Luis Fred Ana Inquiry
-------------------------------
1n p 2s
p 3c p p
p
-------------------------------

2s was a transfer to clubs and 3c denied interest
in that suit. The defense started with three rounds
of diamonds, west ruffing and west then played a
spade to the A. The natural club trick was the
setting trick. -50 for the scientists.

Closed Room:

Malucy Marston Skystne Sartaj
--------------------------------
1c p 1s
p 1n p 2s
p 3c p p
p
--------------------------------

The scientists duplicated the contract taking more bids
to reach it as indicated by their religion. 1c was strong
and 1s showed 0-5, 2s showed clubs and 3c showed a minimum
hand. Nothing
The defense took the same 5 tricks in different order for
down 1. No swing.

Board 10.
All vulnerable.
Dealer East.


98
T75432
T85
J8
AJT72 K643
AK86 J
KJ62 AQ7
- KT764
Q5
Q9
943
AQ9532

Board 10 is a cold 6s slam for EW, the scientists got there
after a precise sequence, the naturalists jumped to vaccum
bidding 6s in 2 bids. The safe line took 13 tricks while
a more exotic approach brougth 12 tricks and some murmurs.

Open Room:

Luis Fred Ana Inquiry
-------------------------------
1s p
1n p 2h p
2s p 3d p
3h p 4c p
4d p 5c p
6s p p p
-------------------------------

1s was 10-14 4+ spades. West started a relay sequence.
2h showed more clubs than spades. 3d showed 4-1-3-5, 4c
showed 4 controls and 5c showed the cK, sK, dA and denied
the sQ. With a clear picture of the hand West bid the
spade slam. Inquiry lead the cA ruffed and declarer played
spades from the top for all the tricks. -1460.

Closed Room:

Malucy Marston Skystne Sartaj
--------------------------------
1c p
1s p 2s p
6s p p p
--------------------------------

The naturalists used less than half the bids the scientists used
and showed a rather poor approach for slam bidding. Malucy's jump
to 6s could have been either down 1 or making 7 with many posible
east hands. This kind of sequences clearly show the advantage of
a relay system since in the other room EW knew exactly that they
were missing the trump queen for 7 after investigating if 6 was
a good proposition.
Marson lead the diamond 5 won by the Ace. Declarer played the SK
Sartaj falsecarding with the Q declarer played a heart to the ace
and ruffed a heart with the S3. He ruffed a club and tried to
ruff another spade with the s4 but Sartaj overruffued. A very
strange line of play that could have lead to disaster had
diamonds be 5-1 with Marston ruffing. Declarer should play 2
trumps and can't be prevented from ruffing 2 hearts in dummy
for 12 tricks (4s+4d+2h+2 ruffs). -1430 and one well deserved
imp for Sartaj. Scientists 40-0.

Board 11.
Nobody Vul.
Dealer: South.

QT
J
AQ74
AKQ972
98762 AJ54
7632 T9854
KJ6 8
J T83
K3
AKQ
T9532
654

Yet another slam in this match but this one doesn't
seem to be as good as the previous ones depending on
the diamond finesse to succeed.

Open Room:

Luis Fred Ana Inquiry
-------------------------------
p
p 1c p 1d
p 3h p 3n
p p p
-------------------------------

Inquiry's pass looks very conservative with 12 HCP without any
queens or jacks, had he opened the bidding Fred may have driven
to slam with his 4 losers hand. The 3h splinter caused serious
damage to the evaluation of Inquiry's hand and he signed off in
3nt. Declarer refused to double finesse in diamonds so he took
only 11 tricks for +460.

Closed Room:

Malucy Marston Skystne Sartaj
--------------------------------
1N
p 2c p 2d
p 3d p 3s
p 4c p 5d
p p p
--------------------------------

Sartaj, of course opened the bidding with 1nt 11-14 no 4M. They relayed
and bid a keycard in diamonds signing off in 5d after discovering that
2 key cards were missing. A normal auction to the normal 5d game.
Sartaje made 12 tricks for -420 losing 1 imp.
So de naturalists finally scored: 40-1.

Board 12:
NS vulnerable.
Dealer: West.

AJ54
J6
QT3
QJ54
98 K7632
K42 QT85
AJ82 765
KT32 9
QT
A973
K94
A876

In this board both EW pairs got into trouble but at least they were NV.
The naturalists took profit doubling 1nt while the scientists didn't
afford to double the inferior 2h contract.

Open Room:

Luis Fred Ana Inquiry
-------------------------------
1d p 1s p
1n p p x
p p p
-------------------------------

1d showed 10-14 and no 4M, 1s was a negative relay, 1n showed a balanced weak nt without 4M.
Inquiry reopened sensibly with a double and Fred passed that for profit.
Fred hit the good lead of a low club, declarer ducked the Ace and took the 2nd club with the K.
Now he played the hK ducked and a heart to the J and Q also ducked. There's wasn't a good way
to avoid a 2 trick set. -300.

Closed Room:

Malucy Marston Skystne Sartaj
--------------------------------
1d p 1s x
1n x 2h p
p p
--------------------------------

Sartaj's double showed hearts and clubs, Marston doubled 1nt to show good values and now it seemed
like EW got into trouble but Skystone bid a very brave 2h knowing hearts were on his right and
Sartaj refused to double that contract. 2h doubled wouldn't have been nice for declarer since he
seems to take only 5 tricks but after escaping for 2h undoubled who can blame the 2h bid?
Sartaj lead his lowest diamond Skystone raising with the A to play a spade to the king. He then
exited with a diamond to south's king, he cashed the cA and played a diamond to north's Q he played
the hJ ducked to the K, declarer discarded a spade in the cK and tried to cash the dJ ruffed with
the 6 and overrufed with the T. Declarer exited with a spade and north didn't have a trump so he
couldn't prevent declarer from ruffing a spade in dummy. Declarer took 6 tricks for -100. Both
declarer and South plays can be criticized under microscopes and tweezers but at the table we
know things are different. That was 5 imps to the naturalists 40-6.

So the first half of the match ended with a 40-6 huge advantage for the scientists, due to a
slam missed by the naturalists, a bad declarer job by a naturalist at 3nt and an unlucky 3n
down 2 that the scientists accident in the middle bid to a cold 5d game. Many interesting hands
with only 2 dull boards, all the other hands featured very interesting aspects both in the
bidding and the play with both sides missing some chances to score more imps. A very exciting
first half.

[inquiry]

Board 7:
Luis Fred Ana Inquiry
-------------------------------
1c
p 1s p 2c
p 2h p 4h
p 5c p p
p
-------------------------------

The natural bidders started with the normal three bids,
Fred's second bid is ackward he has no club support, no
diamond stopper for nt and his spades are not rebidable
his 2h choice looked very sensible. Now Inquiry has a
very good hand with 4 cards in support for h, the sK
an excellent club suit and diamonds controlled, his 4h
bid seems to be an underbid. Fred corrected that to 5c
and now there's a lot to be said about a 6c bid from
South but Inquiry passed again. The cK was onside so
they quickly claimed 12 tricks.

I think perhaps the analysis misses that 2H was not only not forcing, it wasn't really invintational (at least I don't think so in BBO Advanced... this hand was discussed elsewhere and all the 2/1 players were bidding 2D with Fred's hand. Thus, I am not so sure that a leap to 4HEARTS is an underbid, since I pass with a minumum and raise to 3 with a maximum, my jump showed even more.


Board 10. While my teammates auction was not "scientific" it was both equally effective, and at least had some logic behind it. I mayself, would not have bid it that way... after 2S, plenty of time for cue-bidding, but there is often something to be said for not giving anything away in the auction.

Board 11.
Nobody Vul.
Dealer: South.

QT
J
AQ74
AKQ972
98762 AJ54
7632 T9854
KJ6 8
J T83
K3
AKQ
T9532
654

This hand is interesting to play in 3NT after a heart lead. Give it some thought. imagine 4-0 clubs and spade ace with LUIS.



Board 12: Naturalist punish moscito 1NTX. :-)

So the first half of the match ended with a 40-6 huge advantage for the scientists, due to a
slam missed by the naturalists, a bad declarer job by a naturalist at 3nt and an unlucky 3n
down 2 that the scientists accident in the middle bid to a cold 5d game. Many interesting hands
with only 2 dull boards, all the other hands featured very interesting aspects both in the
bidding and the play with both sides missing some chances to score more imps. A very exciting
first half.

The first half ended with a huge lead for the moscito team due primarily due to poor play, and an excellent slam bid by Luis and Ana missed at the other table. Let's examine.

Board 1 4S vs 3NT... Scientist should lose an imp or two, but was push
Board 2. 4Hx-1 vs 3C, 4H's (contrary to analysis is first thread has no play). Inquiry overbid perhaps.
Board 3. 3NT at both tables, poor PLAY... by naturalist decl.
Board 4. This 5D is not cold, in fact should be down two on a clear heart lead for a push, and down one on the actual line for small plus. Somehow, this 4-3 fit is not so great. The 4-2 spade fit makes 4S's, and the 6-3 club fit also makes.... Not a great bidding victory for either system, but the characterization that 5D is cold is wrong. Looking at the bidding, down two seems automatic.. and even without a heart lead down one is easy to achieve. The defense clearly slipped.
Board 5. Excellent slam by moscito pair. Very nice bidding. The naturalist lost their way, 4H over 3H seems anti-systemic too me. 4D or serious 3NT both seem clear to me.
Board 6. An aggressive decision to bid 3NT got the naturalist one trick too high. Small loss.
Board 7. 6C is 50%, neither side bid it.
Board 8. 1NT made at both tables
Board 9. 3C dowon one at both
Board 10. 6S at both tables
Board 11. 3NT versus 5D
Board 12. 1NTx versus part score... good bidding by naturalist.

So on these hands, the one standout hand for mosquito on bidding was the 6H hand on board 4. The naturalist started on the way to slam, and I think, systemically they SHOULD have been able to bid it, but certainly the auction was automatic with moscito. The 6S auction on board 10 also hinted at a weakness in the slam bidding of the naturalist pair in the open room.

Board 4 was no bidding victory for either pair, and in fact, was quite poor.
Board 2 & 6 show aggressive bidding by naturalist, getting one too high each time.

Board 1, 3 and 5 showed bad play by the naturalist, leading to loss of imps (on 1) and huge wins for the scientist (3 and 5). There maybe some question as to what the best contract is on board 11... 3NT, 5D, or 6D. It turns out with 3D to the KJx in teh hand that had it, 6D makes, in the other hand, 5D is down. I leave that to the theorist... I defended my auction on that hand elsewhere, so will not do so here again, but lookiing at the hands, I think maybe 3NT is the best contract.

All is all, not much here to show superiority of the bidding system that won, but rather, that the moscito players played much better bridge than the naturalist. The naturalist deserved to be trailing huge based upon their play.