Hi Dear Mr Wolff
Another very instructive hand. The presence of JT of clubs in dummy is indeed a blessing. It doesn’t matter who held club Q. Initially I thought that strip squeeze also works but no , it doesn’t. Column line is the only way to make
Regards
Robert LiptonNovember 30th, 2023 at 1:13 pm
Bobby, you have mentioned the…. difficulty, shall we call it? of bidding INT? It’s obvious that East has nowhere to retreat, that north can play two rounds of high diamonds and then shift to a heart, and west can take a big three tricks. Further, if he simply tries 2Clubs, he can later bid 2 Spades over a rebid by north or south.
I read THE BRIDGE WORLD and am constantly bemused by the Master Solver’s Club’s willingness to say “Well, I have 16 points, so I’ll bid NT without a stopper or a singleton. It reminds me of the players in the 1970s who played Every Hand An Adventure. That didn’t last long.
Bob Lipton
Iain ClimieNovember 30th, 2023 at 2:19 pm
Hi Bob,
If West held the DA alone I could live with that but the hand shown is too pushy IMO anyway. If South had passed 2D then the carnage beggars belief if N hits it.
Iain
Iain ClimieNovember 30th, 2023 at 2:53 pm
Hi Bobby,
On BWTA, TOCM would give Jim2’s partner QJ10 KQJ Q109x AKQ of course (or even a perfect hand for 7D) but I still agree with the approach in principle. In Reese’s “The Expert Game” he gives an example hand (6N I think) where due to the caution of good players in prematurely releasing Aces and perhaps rectifying the count, a slam might feasibly make without any obvious mistakes – apart form reaching it of course.
Regards,
Iain
bobbywolffDecember 1st, 2023 at 3:33 am
Hi Iain, AVRR and Bob,
No one (that I know of) ever claimed that bridge offers “no luck required” free passes
to success. One of the features of the application of winning is to fight through the bad luck,
planning to be especially good, especially after a hand of Iain’s making came along to haunt.
No doubt high-level tournament bridge becomes a test of grueling initiative, not a one hand wonder of unlucky chance.
IOW, a game of percentage to which all of us should agree as to the fairness of long matches
where every step of the way becomes difficult, but somehow the better team won. It happens time and time again, but by the time it is finished, most of us unfortunately, remember the bad things which happened, instead of the excellent play.
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Bridge-related
Hi Dear Mr Wolff
Another very instructive hand. The presence of JT of clubs in dummy is indeed a blessing. It doesn’t matter who held club Q. Initially I thought that strip squeeze also works but no , it doesn’t. Column line is the only way to make
Regards
Bobby, you have mentioned the…. difficulty, shall we call it? of bidding INT? It’s obvious that East has nowhere to retreat, that north can play two rounds of high diamonds and then shift to a heart, and west can take a big three tricks. Further, if he simply tries 2Clubs, he can later bid 2 Spades over a rebid by north or south.
I read THE BRIDGE WORLD and am constantly bemused by the Master Solver’s Club’s willingness to say “Well, I have 16 points, so I’ll bid NT without a stopper or a singleton. It reminds me of the players in the 1970s who played Every Hand An Adventure. That didn’t last long.
Bob Lipton
Hi Bob,
If West held the DA alone I could live with that but the hand shown is too pushy IMO anyway. If South had passed 2D then the carnage beggars belief if N hits it.
Iain
Hi Bobby,
On BWTA, TOCM would give Jim2’s partner QJ10 KQJ Q109x AKQ of course (or even a perfect hand for 7D) but I still agree with the approach in principle. In Reese’s “The Expert Game” he gives an example hand (6N I think) where due to the caution of good players in prematurely releasing Aces and perhaps rectifying the count, a slam might feasibly make without any obvious mistakes – apart form reaching it of course.
Regards,
Iain
Hi Iain, AVRR and Bob,
No one (that I know of) ever claimed that bridge offers “no luck required” free passes
to success. One of the features of the application of winning is to fight through the bad luck,
planning to be especially good, especially after a hand of Iain’s making came along to haunt.
No doubt high-level tournament bridge becomes a test of grueling initiative, not a one hand wonder of unlucky chance.
IOW, a game of percentage to which all of us should agree as to the fairness of long matches
where every step of the way becomes difficult, but somehow the better team won. It happens time and time again, but by the time it is finished, most of us unfortunately, remember the bad things which happened, instead of the excellent play.