Bridge: Up for a challenge?

The Sandbox Games
743

oirg wins the regular +16.25, 9.67 ahead of second place among those playing all 5 hands. Since the net imps of the 4 players playing all 5 hands was -14, he had a pretty small leader over the person who didn’t finish.

Everyone finished the Declare-only, and it was close at the top. NN won win 57.81% (watchpoints) but second place was 57.03%.

Both reissued. oirg out in the regular; procrastinator out in the Declare-only (matchpoints)

ETA: I win by 5 vs NN. 13 exact pushes, 2 1-imp swings, 1 each way, when one defender took an additional trick. Also one 5-imp swing. Reissued

744

Demolished by procrastinator by 27. Including 14 when I played for a strip squeeze (cold if my RHO has the heart ace), while he took the more straightforward line (leading toward the heart KJ making if LHO has whichever honor he guesses to play him for; in fact LHO has both.)

Then by 17 on this situation, where bots apparently don’t know what I thought was standard practice. I open 1D, CHO bids 2D (game force), I bid 2D, CHO bids 3D, I use Blackwood. He responds 5C (0 or 3 keys). I bid 5D. He passes, even though he has 3. I thought he’s supposed to bid again then.

Will be reissued this evening.

745

Well, 7 of those IMPs were where RHO opened 1D, and as I was going to pass, my daughter bumped my elbow, so I hit double (with xx xxx QJxxx AQx) by accident instead. Thought that was going to be bad, but somehow it led to them landing a 52 diamond fit with a bad break instead of nt.

On the 17 IMP swing hand, I think whether to bid on with 3 or not depends on what circles you run in - some think that is standard, and some do not. On this particular hand, with all the kings, seemed exceedingly unlikely to me that pd had 0 controls on the auction, so safetied it.

On the 14 IMP hand, think your line may be better against humans, but do not think the bot would have bid 3D without a heart card (once the king of spade is onside which we have to assume to have a chance). While having outside cards shouldn’t make preempts more likely, bots seem to follow the HCP ranges in such situations. I do wonder if my taking such lines to exploit the programming is making me worse at real bridge…

746

Lose by 21 to AA. Challenges against AA and procrastinator reissued

747

I win the regular challenge with +20.75, by 12.00. It should not have been so much, except LHO bot was an absolute idiot. Awful even by bot standards. I, like each of us, was declarer in 6S with Kxxx of trumps in dummy, AJ10xxx in my hand. Barring any clues from bidding or earlier play (and I don’t think there were any significant ones), it’s a straight guess how to play the bumps, not taking a first round finesse of course.

procrastinator and I catered to the idiot factor. We led the spade jack from our hand, and LHO covered! Trump position solved. Had he ducked we were going down on the actual lie of the cards, but there was no way to cover for all lies.

VVV wins the Declare-only (matchpoints) with a 54.17% game, with second exactly 50%.

Both reissued. NN out in the regular. VVV out in the declare-only.

748

Win by 24 vs NN. With one lucky 13 imp pickup that should or at least could have been a loss. I doubled 3NT which made 5 (undoubled) vs NN. Fortunately for me, opps ran to 4H which partner doubled (on the strength of my double of 3NT), down 1 vul. Reissued.

ETA: win by 15 vs procrastinator, by 39 vs AA. Both reissued

749

Yeah, on the big swing, I can’t explain what I was thinking, you definitely outplayed me on that one.

750

procrastinator wins the regular group challenge with +13.68, by 2.51. NN wins the matchpoint Declare-only with 57.81%, second 56.25%. They’ll both be reissued tomorrow evening, with AA out of the regular, NN out of the declare-only.

751

Win by 3 vs NN. Reissued. Lose by 65 to procrastinator and win by 8 vs AA. Those two will be reissued tomorrow.

ETA: procrastinator wins big in the regular challenge, +31.25 by 23.50. oirg wins the declare-only (watchpoints) with 53.13%, by 0.79% over (tied) second and third).

Both reissued. procrastinator out in the regular; AA out in the declare-only.

752

lose to NN by 10, in a match with 2 slam swings, one each way. Reissued

ETA: Lose to procrastinator by 1, with no swing over 8. Reissued

753

In the regular challenge, contested by only 3, NN wins with +24.50, by 18.00. In the declare-only, contested by 4, procrastinator wins with 56.25%, by 4.17%. Both reissued. Oirg out in the regular, VVV out in the declare-only

754

Win by 10 vs NN. With no swing on this board where CHO defended amazingly well, a defense that would never have occurred to me, followed by NN and I misdefending to set it only 1.

Screen Shot 2022-06-02 at 4.49.25 PM
Screen Shot 2022-06-02 at 4.49.25 PM1145×799 183 KB

Bidding the same at both tables. I’ve wondered. Do all of you respond 1H rather than 1D with 4-4 in the reds? Do bots?

Anyway, we’re defending 2D so of course we lead the stiff in partner’s suit. CHO wins, and shifts to K and another trump. Probably the right defense , but I think it would be easy for a human to miss. We pull trumps. and with only hearts and spades left, how did NN and I each misdefend? We led the heart 10, ducked in dummy. Partner won king, of course, it was the setting trick and if declarer had the Q this might be making if he ducked. Had we led the Q, defense is easy.

Far more imps at stake on this one: 7NT, where you can see at trick 1 that you’re going to have to find the club Q unless in a miracle the J10 of diamonds both drop in the first 3 rounds. Or, not as good odds as a club finesse, but not terrible, you could play for a club diamond squeeze. Or maybe it is as good. Pretty close.
Screen Shot 2022-06-02 at 4.55.20 PM

Anyway, we each took 10 side tricks, the diamond J10 not both falling, I happened to guess the club right, to win 10 imps.

The interesting question is whether he and I each missed an easy make. After winning the heart opening lead in our hand, what about immediately playing the club jack from hand, rising with the club ace if not covered. You still have the chance of picking up J10 or J10x of diamonds, and just take the club hook through RHO if they don’t fall. Almost, though not quite, as good a line if LHO would never cover the club J, and making the contract whenever he does cover.

[the “not quite as good” is because by playing the other suits first, you might get distributional information that LHO is more likely to have the club Q.]

Reissued

755

Win by 10 vs procrastinator. Lose by 10 vs AA in a very swingy match, that I’ll blame mainly on CHO.

Two swings when I balanced (as a passed hand) when my LHO had opened 1NT - P - P. One I was sick until I saw his hand, when I balanced 2D (majors) and he jumped to 4S. But it was a favorite, and made, for +8 imps. The other I balanced 2H, RHO reopened 2S, partner made a penalty double, and it made, -11 imps.

Then we were each defending 3NT after 1D (by LHO; our side silent) - 1S - 2C - 3N. (Doubled by AA; I passed). Rather speculative double, but as the cards lie, 3NT should be going down on any lead. 3NT X did go down at AA’s table after he led a club. 3NT made against me, when I led a spade into declarer’s spade suit, and CHO didn’t lead a spade back when he got in. -13 imps.

Then a routine auction at my table 1S (by me) - 1NT - P - 2C (Stayman) - P - 2H - P - 3H - P - 4H - all pass. Declarer could and probably should make 5, but making 4 looked reasonably normal. AA doubled 2C. Rather than redouble and perhaps make 5 (unless CHO ran; we could get out for 500 in 2D X), they still reached 4H, which should have made 5 easily, with the club position marked by the double and lead. Only LHO, with trumps of KJ63 opposite Q975, decided he should lead a trump to the 9. There was some real chance of going down in 4, if AA had 5 clubs instead of 4, but a trump to the 9 wouldn’t have helped in that case even if the 10 were onside. -12 imps.

Both reissued.

756

procrastinator wins the regular challenge with +16.09, by 8.00. oirg wins the Matchpoint declare-only with +60.16%, by 7.82%. Both reissued. NN out of the regular; VVV out of the declare-only

ETA: lose to NN by 13. Reissued

EATA: win by 4 vs procrastinator, by 11 vs AA. Both reissued

757

I played the weekend world cup and did pretty well. It was 24 board IMPs and I scored +36.70 for 951/10,000 or so. Pretty good for me.

1 Like
758

procrastinator wins the regular group challenge with +13.00, by 4.42. I win the matchpoint declare-only with 60.16%, by 7.03%. Both reissued. AA out in the regular challenge. NN out in the declare-only.

ETA: win by 1 vs NN, 2 slam swings 2 1 imp swings, 12 pushes. Reissued

EATA: win by 16 vs procrastinator, by 38 va AA. Both reissued

EATA: VVV wins the match point declare-only with 60.16% by 5.47%. I win the regular with +14.00 the only + imps. Both reissued

EATA: lose to NN by 5 reissued

EATA: win by 19 vs procrastinator, by 35 vs AA. Both reissued. Also was really awful today in the super Sunday daylong and day 2 of the weekend survivor. This after a very good day 1 in spite of a misclick that got me 6% instead of a good board

759

VVV is taking a break from the group challenges due to other commitments, so no more sit outs for now. He goes out with a big win in the regular challenge, +36, by 24. NN has a big win in the delare-only, 60.16%, the only score to break 50%. Both reissued.

760

Lose by 3 to NN. Reissued

ETA: win by 1 vs procrastinator. Should have been more, but I didn’t double when I was sure opps were in a bad spot and I feared someone would run. Win by 19 vs AA. Both reissued

761

I didn’t double in a group challenge hand recently when opponents were in 5C or 5D (I think) and I knew they were in trouble. They were vulnerable, too, but I wasn’t 100% sure. And of course we set them by 4 or 5 tricks. And in the preliminary scoring it was neutral, so everyone must have had the same result. Should have doubled and cashed in big.

762

I know the hand you are referring to. Traveler is all +500 vs. 5D down 5 vul. Don’t see that every day.