Paul Cronin

BBO “Experts”

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!

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….

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

 

 

Just Cruisin’ Along

Just back from the third annual “Regional at Sea” bridge cruise. This year was with Audrey Grant and David Lindop, whereas the first two years were with Larry Cohen. Much bigger ship this year – the “Allure Of The Seas”, with 5000-6000 passegers. Learned a new bid, as in the following auction

Partner    RHO    Me       LHO

    1D        2C     2H        DBL

I inquired what the double showed, received a pitying look, and had my question answered with the question “Have you ever heard of a negative double”? I opined that indeed I had heard of it somewhere, but was a little confused as to what suit(s) the double showed inasmuch as three suits had already been bid. RHO gave this considerable thought, while probably wondering how I had ever found my way to the playing site, and replied “Spades”. Did not then have the wherewithal to ask why LHO didn’t simply bid spades, as sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.

Also learned something about the laws of bridge I hadn’t known – was declaring a spade contract, and the opening lead by LHO was the ace of diamonds. I asked RHO what their agreement on leading from AK was, and before he could reply LHO loudly announced “You don’t have to answer that!”.

We lost a Swiss team match when our partners failed to make their 3NT contract. After comparing scores, I gently inquired what the problem had been, and was told “Unfortunately I received a spade lead which I had to win as my king was the only honour I had”. On taking the hands out of the box to have a look, I found them to be

Dummy   xxx    Axx     KQx     AQxx

Declarer  Kxx    xxx     Axxx    KJx

I ventured the opinion that perhaps rather than being the undoing of the hand, the opening lead of a spade had been a gift from the bridge gods, as there were now nine top tricks. Declarer gave this a lot of thought before ruefully concluding “I think I should have made it”.

All in all, great fun! But a shame that next year’s date will be December 16-23 – Ho, Ho, Ho!

And congratulations to our good friends, Ed and Jeanne Lucas from Arizona, who topped the masterpoint winners list with 60.09. Well done!

 

Wadda ya think???

Ran into an “unusual” bid yesterday – let me know what you think:

South opens 1C in first seat, West passes, and North bids 2C holding  AJ842   98   K9743  Q.

East bids 2H, South 3C, West 3H, North P, East 4H, and all pass.

East, never dreaming that North has a singleton club, badly misplays the hand.

When the debacle is over, East asks North what the 2C bid with a singleton club was about, and North replies “competitive”.

Does “competitive” make any sense when only your side has bid?

Wadda ya think???