Dealing With Wild Distribution - Weekly Free

[@ankemeny]

Very good judgement and play on all the boards. The grand going down was due to the robot's lunacy. Without that you get over 80%.

[@BridgeWithPete]

Thanks Alex

[@andyeastwood71]

On B4 I did make the strong jump shift of 2S. GIB bid 3D, I bid 3S and GIB bid 4H described as a cue bid. I got to 6S after this. B5 note that the description of GIB's 3D bid is KQ+ diamonds. You need it to hold the ace, so that means it will be AQ or better. As a passed hand, there is no room for it to hold AQD, AS and QC. On B8 if you do rebid 1S, partner bids 3C, so that gets you to 3NT. I screwed it up to go down, though, by misguessing hearts in much the same way as TheArb1.

[@BridgeWithPete]

On B5 I saw the description but are you trying to tell me GIB follows its own descriptions? I thought it was much more reasonable that they didn't open a weak 2 so they don't have good diamonds.

[@andyeastwood71]

Peter Hollands in the US at least, requiring KQ or better to bid a suit in response to partner's 2C is so common that yes, I do believe the GIB description on this one.

[@pmarjora]

Board 1: Same. Board 2: Bid 4D rather than 3NT over 3S. Down 1 for the same 71%. Board 3: Opened 1C and ended up in 1NT+2 for 92%. Board 4: Got to 6S after a strong jump-shift 2S. Made for 85%. Board 5: Played in 6NT-1 after the same annoying auction, for 32%. Board 6: I made a really bad decision (as noted :-)) bidding 2S over their 2C. The explained logic for passing makes a lot of sense. A well-deserved bad score of 21%. Board 7: Played 3H after rebidding 2C rather than 1N, but like Michael I didn’t get the overtrick. 68%. Board 8: Played 3NT after rebidding 2C like some others, but I too mis-guessed the Hs for down 1 and 10%. 55% overall.

[@michaelbodell7740]

These were so much more fun than last week. Boards 1 and 2 same. On 3 I didn't upgrade so played in 1nt. I ducked the heart but didn't run clubs, attacking diamonds, so +120, running clubs is obviously better. Board 4 I made the strong jump and had a decent auction with some cue bids, keycard, q ask, and settled in 6S=. Board 5 I opened 1H, they bid a passed hand 2D, 3C, 3S and I keycard ostensibly in spades but over the 1 I guessed 6H. I got a diamond lead from Kxx through dummy. It is an interesting lead since normally the computer doesn't like leading from honor but it has a lot going for it on this auction. Double dummy the finesse would make, but I refused it, ruffled a diamond (kx more likely than 5-1 split I thought), cashed top hearts getting the bad news. So now I clearly should be down one, but I crossed to the club queen and played a spade up and the K held!! 6H=. Board 6 I bid 2S and ended up in 3H-1 when partner offered 3D. Board 7 I rebid 2C instead of 1nt and now in 3H I got the heart lead and on the diamond A east pulled trump before I got club ruffs and I was held to 140. Board 8 I crossed to dummy after winning opening diamond with H to J hoping attacking weakness would confuse computer, but they won A and played back heart, which left me with 120. Overall just over 66% overall.

[@TheArb1]

Great hands this week! B1 I took the slow route and overcalled 1S, I'm always winning this auction with the boss suit and may get some distributional information from the bidding, slam is not out of the question if pd comes back with 2D. +450 B2 Same auction. Re the double, do the robots play X as take out here? Even if they do (should), N can be sure W's second suit is clubs so maybe they don't play a double and then pull as this hand? I ducked the CK hoping to induce a heart switch, which duly happened. +600 B3 I didn't upgrade this. 1D:1S:1N. I should have run the clubs first after ducking the heart inducing a discard +120 B4 Took the low road too, +680, I tanked almost as long as you did. B5 I opened 1H, this isn't going to be passed out, I then took the low road again, I didn't see that 4C rebid shows the big 2 suiter. 3N+2 B6 Easiest pass ever at this vul! Down 5 +500 100% B7 I too declined the invitation, +170 on same line, that North hand is way too strong for 3H. B8 Total disaster. DT lead against 3NT. S2 at tr2, W flies with ace (?), another diam, spade to Q, start on clubs. After 2 rounds, W is 2551, now ST to SK. Heart towards dummy, wrongly inferred E wouldn't have 11 count and not open in 3rd and put the K up and turned 100% to 11%. Didn't realise that W wouldn't pass over with 2551 and two aces. Doh! 66.5% for the set.

[@BridgeWithPete]

B2 ducking is a better play, well deserved make. B3 not upgrading is normal but I like preempting the opponents majors. B5 I wasn't worried about it getting passed out but I wanted to encourage my partner to bid more with a 6 count, but I am happy with 1H as well B8 that is also a reasonable inference but I guess a better one is available. Nice set though.

[@manudude02]

Boards 1/2 were similar for me. Board 3, I bid it honestly, but got the same misdefense to make 1NT+3. Board 4, I took a flier and bid 6H over 3NT after the same start which was not a success. Board 5, I hate bidding 2C on 2-suited hands, my auction was 1H-2D-3C-3S-4C-4H-4NT-5D-6H and avoided the spade lead and took the diamond finesse when trumps didn't break. Board 6, I did the same thing. Board 7, I rebid 2C and got a heart lead with East inserting an honour. Now I think it's harder to reliably make overtricks since they are threatening to clear dummy's trumps if they ever get in. Board 8, I rebid 1S (after a lot of thought about 1N, but I decided to be honest since 1NT denies 4S in the gib system) and got to 3NT. I didn't get the gift in spades and ended up having to get the hearts right to make it.

[@BridgeWithPete]

I don't like 2C on two suited hands but when I am thinking about slam rather than game then I think it is okay.

[@rosesvarennes]

You really need to understand match-point scoring to win these events. Look at Board 4. Pete is in 5 spades making 6 and gets 60%. They say a slam should be 50-50 but that is assuming everyone is in it. Are you gambling 60% against 100% or maybe zero. So it best to stay with the field and take the small plus. Same with marginal games. If you can play the hand like Pete Hollands, then 1NT+3 will score well when people are going down in 3NT or making +2. So your chance of making must also be adjusted by the number of other people you think will bid the game / slam. That raises a question for Pete.. If you are say 55% with 2 or 3 boards to go do you shoot for tops when averages are no good to you, or do you accept the situation and bid normally .. over to you Pete

[@BridgeWithPete]

I guess that depends on your aim. I assume you are trying to win the event. It also depends on how you rate your card play against the rest of the field. If you are a better card player then you just bid normally and try and take an extra trick on each of the hands. If you are just an average card player then I like to slightly change from the norm - nothing outrageous.