News Flash – Tournament Results!

May 2nd, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  No Comments 

Friday    B,C,D, Pairs      28 tables     1st.      Luap Ninorc       22.05 MP

             A,X       Pairs      24 tables     1st.      Dref Elegum       11.22 MP

I no sooner suggest it, and there it is!   

A new tournament format?

May 2nd, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  4 Comments 

How about setting the highest strat at 5001-infinity, and then basing the masterpoint awards for each strat on its table count. If the 501-1000 MP strat had the most tables, then those placing in it would get the largest masterpoint awards for doing so. If the 301-500 strat had the next largest number of tables, its placers would get the next highest masterpoint awards. If the 5001-infinity bracket had only three tables, the MP award would be very small……but then this could never happen as there are so many players who say they love to play up and learn from the experts. Hmmmm………..   

BBO “Experts”

April 17th, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  10 Comments 

As an afterthought to the previous blog on the incredible number of “experts” playing on BBO, it is worth noting that a lot of ACBL masterpoints are being won on BBO. The lifetime leader is listed at 7,780 masterpoints, and this year’s leader to date at 653 masterpoints. The latter figure averages out to about 7 masterpoints a day.Recent daily “best performances” are about 14 masterpoints in a day. None of the above would seem to bode well for clubs, as the award there for 3 hours of play against a 15 table field would get you about 1.6 masterpoints for first overall. It is also possible to play a large number of “robot” tournaments per day on BBO , and it may well be that the robots are not capable of dealing effectively with “off the wall” bids.

So many experts!

April 16th, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  12 Comments 

Was playing recently with an “expert” on BBO, and it turned out that “expert” has different meanings in different parts of the world. This one didn’t know Stayman or Blackwood, thought the weaker hand should set the contract, and used 2NT over a 2S opener to show 5-5 in the minors. So…the question is….what exactly should the term “expert” mean? Since BBOers come from all over the world, is a workable universal definition possible?

If there weren’t two kinds of luck….

April 5th, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  2 Comments 

You’re in 5C, with a perilous heart holding of  Jxx in dummy, and Qxx in hand.

LHO, after bidding diamonds, makes the opening lead of the heart K. RHO can’t possibly have a doubleton heart, as that would give LHO 5 hearts, which he certainly can’t have after ovecalling diamonds. The bridge gods have indeed smiled on you!

But now comes a small heart to the ace on your right, and a heart back, which is trumped by LHO with the only trump he has in his hand. Down one – but don’t feel too badly - maybe the lead of the K from Kx  blind will be standard at every other table. Or maybe not!   

Convention Disruption – yikes!

February 25th, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  6 Comments 

Sitting first chair, all white, you open 2C holding    AKQJ109   —    K9     AK953

LHO bids 2D, which is alerted. Your partner inquires about the alert, and is told “Transfer to hearts”.

Now what should partner call holding    62   KQJ8742    1073   J    ???

Few partnerships will have discussed what calls over the 2D–>Xfer to hearts overcall will mean!

The auction has been successfully “disturbed”, and it turns out the 2D bidder’s heart “holding” is A10 and he was really bidding his diamond suit of  AQJ85. It’s not clear why he would want to show his diamonds, as he’s almost certain to be sitting over declarer anyway, but…….two partners playing a bid two different ways, and there’s no recourse – exactly what Bobby and Judy have been talking about!

Percentage players die broke too!

February 16th, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  1 Comment 

You’re in 3 NT, and the success of the contract depends entirely on bringing in 5 club tricks from the following holding:

You                                  Dummy

K10xxx                            A9xx

Ah, but the bridge gods are with you this day – LHO leads the club Q!

Gleefully, you play low from dummy, win the K in your hand, and lead a small club to the 9.

Which loses to the J, and you are the only person in the room going down. You’ve got to know your percentages!

Psychs continued!

January 27th, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  6 Comments 

I am very much impressed with Judy Kay-Wolff’s account of Bobby’s solution to psyching at the 1990 WBF championships in Geneva. Should the ACBL institute such a rule requiring that (a) any psychic bid be “exposed” to the opponents at the table at the completion of the hand by the person who made the bid, and (b) that the details of the bid be reported to the director at the end of the session by the person who made the bid for inclusion in a “psychic bid file” indexed by player names? There would be a penalty (matchpoint or other) for failing to comply with either (a) or (b) above.

In a slightly different vein, I am surprised that of all the issues I have written about, such as the implementation and effectiveness of the ZT policy, the removal of the right of club players to lodge complaints with their Unit, the election of ACBL BoD members by Unit board members rather than by the membership at large, the largest number of comments has been on the issue of psyching, and the nature of those responses in general has been to praise the value of pyschs and insist on the right to use them. Should we be concerned that this topic seems to be of more interest to players than other topics that, IMO, affect the future of the game in a much more important way?  

To psych or not to psych, that is the question!

January 23rd, 2012  ~  paul cronin  ~  14 Comments 

Much interest lately in our club as to whether psyching should be allowed or not. Some players feel it should only be barred against newer players, others that it should be barred in all cases, others that it should be allowed in all cases, etc. Would love to get some feelings from players at large as to their opinions.

Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die.

December 19th, 2011  ~  paul cronin  ~  4 Comments 

For a long time, club players had the right to file reports or complaints with their Unit Recorder. This right was taken away by the ACBL. Why?

TDs at Nationals are mandated by the ACBL ZT policy to make ZT announcements before every session. They don’t. Why?

ACBL Board members are elected by the Unit Boards rather than by the membership at large. Why?

Just wondering!