The Biggest Bridge Tournament

[@simonbarb4745]

On Board 19, surely you were right regarding the odds. West has only four unknown cards, while East has eight unknown cards. So the odds are 2:1 that East holds any specific card (including SJ). Additionally, you might reasonably suppose that if West started with a 3181 shape, he might well have switched to a heart rather than a club, so you know he has at least two hearts as well as his diamonds and club. That means he has a maximum of two vacant spaces for SJ. The downside of taking the spade finesse is that (as happened), if the spade finesse loses, you're now going three off. This contract is always going off, so how likely is 4S to be the final contract at other tables? Looks highly likely. Will other players take the spade finesse: probably not. So, follow the room by refusing spade finesse and get ~50% or risk a top/bottom by finessing. Depends how well you're doing in the tournament.

[@leighmatheson961]

Using Vacant Places mathematics: Once diamonds are known to split 8-1, the rough odds of spades 3-2 is 45% and West having a singleton spade is 40% (1/5 of this, or 8% of the time, dropping the stiff SJ is required, the other 32% of the time the finesse is required). But of the 45% of the time spades are 3-2, both plays work when East has the SJ (25%), and the remaining 20% requires playing from the top. So finessing is required 32% of the time, and playing from the top is required 8+20=28% of the time. It's very close but the odds do favour the finesse.

[@willay777]

I played in the tournament but had a completely different set of hands. Too bad, I was looking forward to comparing results

[@endthisnonsense7202]

That allways happen on BBO, it supposedly helps to prevent cheating. BUT is makes the leaderboard worthless as (some off) the boards were incomparable. I personnally have played a daily free robot tournament once where I bid the optimal contract on every single board AND made the maximum amount of tricks on each hand, and still did not end up (shared) #1. That being impossible led me to find out about these diffenent sets of hands being played. So others in the tournament had less flat hands and were able to score more just because of that. I find this ridiculous, it's not Bridge, it is a lottery.

[@hanyaly8846]

Nice video.

[@NickSibicky]

Nice video!

[@runeljungstrommer331]

Happy days!

[@EriksV99]

I wanted to play, but completely forgot about it in that that. Fml.

[@jonathanferguson9226]

Funny, the only board we shared was the last one, which was also MY last one. I made the same 'funny' 4th best spade lead. Sigh. Missed cold game. Missed beating it by leading from akx. Missed holding it by leading the unbid suit. Yuck.

[@pamalaoberg628]

Why do always go to game

[@ZahraIsMyDog]

Had a busy day and couldn’t play. :(

[@runeljungstrommer331]

Or not...

[@harrisbobroff9813]

A simple overcall verses a 9 loser hand, going to game??? Unless pushed, ? Better defense be held to 3