July 15th, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 2 Comments 
Got to wondering today what it is about “modern life” that has made people put themselves and their own “needs” above others and their needs. What brought this on was seeing how many people constantly drive over the speed limit, and get really upset if behind a car that is going at the speed limit, or just a bit over. Not thinking so much here of highway driving, but driving inside the city. They all seem to make the assumption that their “need” takes precedence over the safety of others – the “need” probably being in a lot of cases to get home a few minutes earlier to watch something meaningless on TV. What if they were driving too fast down a residential street and hit and killed a child who ran out from behind a parked car? Having to live the rest of their life knowing that it had been their fault – that their meaningless “rush” ended the life of a child? An ounce of prevention is indeed worth more than a pound of cure!
July 7th, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 2 Comments
I played today on BBO against what were apparently an “expert” and a “novice”. As I usually do, I looked up the rating of both on “BBO Skill” and discovered that the “expert” was rated as a “world class player”, and the “novice” was rated as an “expert”. Curious about the novice charade, I asked for the reason, and the world class player said that he had asked his partner to list himself as a novice. My partner was rated as “Advanced-“. During one of the early hands, I opened the bidding and the world class player overcalled 1S on what turned out to be xx in spades. His partner bid two hearts, alerted as an invitational spade raise, and the world class player bid 4H-which made. Can anybody explain what satisfaction a world class player could possibly get by psyching against lesser players? Can anybody explain how a world class player wouldn’t know that you just don’t do that? Sure, sure – we can just click off and find another game and not worry about this – but I can’t – the “ethics” of it really bother me. Unrelated to the above, maybe, is another hand where the “novice” opened 1S, I overcalled 2C, and the WCP doubled. My partner passed, and the “novice” bid 4H with xxx in hearts – saying after the contract made that “it just felt right”. Hmm……….
July 6th, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 6 Comments
A pair that has never played together before agrees to play an opening bid of 2D as Multi, and hence an opening of 2H as Flannery. Sometime during the tournament session, one of the pair opens 2H, and same is duly alerted by partner as Flannery. Partner then bids 2S, and his LHO begins a detailed series of questions about what the Flannery bidder holds. This LHO then passes, and the “Flannery” bidder, realizing he has forgotten the partnership agreement, now attempts to show what was really a weak two heart opener by bidding 3H. This gets passed around to the opponent who was asking all the questions about Flannery, and he now bids……..3S (surprise!)…….which is raised to 4S by his partner. Unfortunately, 4S goes down one, and the director is called and redress sought. After some deliberation, the director rolls the bid back to 2S doubled by the “Flannery” pair, down four. Will be interested in comments on all this, particularly as to the fact there never was a double in the auction that took place.
June 21st, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 7 Comments
BBO “Public Bidding Systems” lists 106 bidding systems – one of which is SAYC. The first page of SAYC lists 21 opening bids, with modifications of same based on 9 possible choices of vulnerability, 7 choices of seat, and one choice of “constructive” or not. When you open the responses to 1C, there are hundreds of bidding sequences listed, each with its meaning. Multiply this by 21, and you have begun to master SAYC. Only problem with that is – very few (if any) club players play SAYC, so now you’ll have to move on to “Standard American”. But wait – “Standard American” isn’t listed there, so let’s try “San Francisco Standard American”. Once again, 21 opening bids, 9 choices of vulnerability, 7 choices of seat, and one choice of “constructive” or not. Open the 1C page, and again there are hundreds of bidding sequences. I’m not suggesting that this is the way to learn “bridge”, but rather to give some idea of the complexity of the “bridge genome”, and to ask “In what sense is what’s going on here a game?”. Maybe the experts (who have devoted more time to this than those mapping the human genome) can slide along the strands of its DNA with some dexterity, but what must it look like to those beginning the game, or even to those who have been at it most of their lives without achieving expert status? If you think the latter would do just fine, then sit them down at a tournament where in the space of a few tables they may have to contend with SA, 2/1, and Precision. With all the above, we haven’t even touched on defense or declarer play. Is bridge a “game” or a “science”? When most people think of a “game”, they think of something that has a few rules that are easy to understand. Baseball is popular because it has few rules and is easy to understand. Texas Hold’Em poker is popular because there aren’t many rules, and the average person, whether dreaming or not, can say “Hey, that could be me sitting there”. What would an onlooker say about bridge? Why would a younger person want to take up bridge? Going to college and studying nuclear physics would be easier! What’s going to happen to “bridge” when the huge number of players who learned to play while it was still a game go to the big tournament in the sky? Ask not for whom the bell tolls – it tolls for thee!
May 27th, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 9 Comments
In Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, Act 2, Scene 2, Caesar says
“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once”.
Makes me wonder if Julius (or William, for that matter) was a bridge player, and why there are so many “cowards” at the bridge table.
When I hear people talking about hands, the remarks I hear most always start out with “I was afraid that………..”. Afraid – why? Afraid – of what?
Someone gets dealt a 7-6 hand, plays it in two hearts making six, and says “But I only had ten points, and I was afraid that…….”. Why isn’t the glass always half-full for bridge players? One of my opponents last week opened 2C, got a 2H (negative) response from partner, and passed. Partner made five. When the gods give you a 2C opener, why are you pessimistic? What kind of a hand do you need to be optimistic? What is it about bridge that induces so much fear in people? A couple of blogs back I asked what you would bid with J54 — 73 AQJ109764 after partner opens 2D Flannery. I put the question in a poll on “BridgeWinners”, and over 70% of the respondents chose 3C. This hand, with 8 HCP, has seven guaranteed winners in clubs, and quite possibly eight. How many times will partner open when you have seven sure tricks in your hand? What do you have to hold to be optimistic? Why are we not thinking of playing 7C here? Or, regretfully, only 6C? Are you afraid that most of partner’s points will be in hearts? Are you afraid that you will lose two spades? Are you afraid that the opponents have two cashing diamonds off the top? Why are you afraid?
May 25th, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 1 Comment
Playing at the club this past Wednesday and Friday, we finished second both times – 59% and 63%. Both times, we were 12% behind the first place finishers! Tough to beat 70% + games!
May 18th, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 7 Comments
Playing at the club this week, partner opens 2D Flannery (5H,4S, 11-15 HCP) and you hold
J54
—
73
AQJ109764
What do you bid?
May 14th, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 6 Comments
Was playing a suit contract at the club this week, with LHO leading a side suit ace. When the hand was over, LHO berated her partner for not returning the suit she had led at trick 1, saying “You know I would never lead an ace when I have two or three with it – only when it’s a singleton”. Wonder if there’s a name for this convention?
May 12th, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 1 Comment
A friend called me this morning to discuss a hand he played at the local club last week, where he held
AK AK42 AK104 AKQ
After opening 2C, and getting a 2D response, what should his next bid be? Have never seen a 30 HCP hand before, and probably never will again.
April 30th, 2013 ~ paul cronin ~ 5 Comments
There are roughly 1300 ACBL members who have over 5000 masterpoints. Some of these are deceased, and some don’t play much any more, so let’s say 1040 of them are available to play in May, 2013.There are 12 Regionals in May, aand 92 Sectionals, so let’s send 10 to each tournament. Those 10 by themselves would only make up 2.5 tables, so what is needed here is some cannon fodder from the lower levels. Since we don’t seem to have the faith that there really are enough players who will voluntarily want to “play up”, we make the strat limits 3000 to infinity, or 2000 to infinity. Then we award the largest number of masterpoints to the winners of this top strat, on the basis that they beat a “quality” field. Anybody see the problem here?
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