[jdonn]

Gotta double those grands with aces.

[Cascade]

The player who opened 6♠ is one solid preempter

[Dirk Kuijt]

True story, from a *very* informal duplicate. I strongly suspect that the hand was stacked, but regardless the story is 100% true.

Dealer, West, picks up:

AKQ10
AKQ
AKQ
AKQ

I'm South, holding

Jxxxx
xxx
xx
xxx

West starts trembling as he sorts his cards and finally blurts out: 2♠

The bidding goes P-P-P.

West, after his partner's (and wife) pass, leans across the table in astonishment (not anger), and said, "You can't do that." To which the reply was: "But dear, we agreed to play weak two bids."

The hand was played 5 times, 7NT twice making 7, 6NT twice making 7, and 2♠ once making 5. The hand really belongs in 7♦, since East has a six card diamond suit. I don't really know how the NT bidders made 7, unless North leads a spade each time; what else does South have to hold on to?

[Fluffy]

I don't remember the hand fully but it was something like:

AKJ10xxx
-
AKQJx
A


one player at our local who has been playing for more than 15 years bid

2♣-2♦
2♠-3NT
4♦-4♠
6♠-6NT-(X)
pass-pass

for down 2 with 7♠ cold, she of course blamed partner for the 6NT bid.

[the hog]

Fluffy, on Feb 22 2010, 10:09 AM, said:

I don't remember the hand fully but it was something like:

AKJ10xxx
-
AKQJx
A


one player at our local who has been playing for more than 15 years bid

2♣-2♦
2♠-3NT
4♦-4♠
6♠-6NT-(X)
pass-pass

for down 2 with 7♠ cold, she of course blamed partner for the 6NT bid.

As she should

[billw55]

Best one I can remember was from a club game just a few weeks ago:

♠AKxxx
♥AKQJT
♦KQx
♣-

Partner held ♠QJx and ♣A, so 6 of anything was cold, losing the ♦A.


Another one several years ago, I opened a routine 15-17 NT. Partner, holding ♣AKQxxxxx, was wise enough to check for aces, and 7NT rolled home.

[jjbrr]

Doubling 7♠ is so terrible

[Fluffy]

jjbrr, on Feb 22 2010, 05:58 PM, said:

Doubling 7♠ is so terrible

what do you think about opening 6!s? lol

I'd say missclick, but then the level is taken before the strain, so the player had 2 times to check.

[jjbrr]

Fluffy, on Feb 22 2010, 01:02 PM, said:

jjbrr, on Feb 22 2010, 05:58 PM, said:

Doubling 7♠ is so terrible

what do you think about opening 6!s? lol

I'd say missclick, but then the level is taken before the strain, so the player had 2 times to check.

A plus score is a good score!

[straube]

I would have asked for aces to see if 7N was a make.

[Aberlour10]

straube, on Feb 22 2010, 01:22 PM, said:

I would have asked for aces to see if 7N was a make.

Surely in matchpoints I would probably open 2c and check the A♦ but in IMP's there is no difference between 7s and 7NT I think or?

[RMB1]

Aberlour10, on Feb 22 2010, 06:29 PM, said:

Surely in matchpoints I would probably open 2c and check the A♦ but in IMP's there is no difference between 7s and 7NT I think or?

7NT avoids the chance of the opponent ruffing the opening lead.

[Fluffy]

we had a thread years ago about a guy who passed 2♣ opening with

x
xxx
xxx
10xxxxx

or something like, he got a big top scoring 110. If those guys do exist you might be risking too much

[dealmegold]

Aberlour10, on Feb 20 2010, 04:03 AM, said:

dicklont, on Feb 20 2010, 03:30 AM, said:

You must have done some serious overbidding in the previous hands to get doubled when you announce that you're not joking (this time?).

You are wrong. I announced it because I was simply concerned about the possibility to be removed from the table for the nonserious bidding....what would you think if smbd bid 7♠ in the first seat? the possiblity its a real serious bid is 1:1000......?

If they booted me I would report them for abuse!

[inquiry]

Fluffy, on Feb 22 2010, 01:53 PM, said:

we had a thread years ago about a guy who passed 2♣ opening with

x
xxx
xxx
10xxxxx

or something like, he got a big top scoring 110. If those guys do exist you might be risking too much

Sadly, Masterminds have not gone anywhere.....and I suspect they never will....

Using bridgebrowser, you would be highly surprized how many times 2♣ with 20+ hcp is passed by a partner with 5+ clubs and low count. On the good side, this is only one hand at matchpoints. Of course, some of these auctions have to be bidding misunderstaning (one partner playing precision or similar, the other not).

[hanp]

Ben, could you check how well people do by passing a strong 2C with a 0-count and exactly 6 clubs.

[kfay]

jdonn, on Feb 21 2010, 01:58 PM, said:

Gotta double those grands with aces.

You should tell ch00bacca that!

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...4285-1265004615

[inquiry]

hanp, on Feb 24 2010, 11:58 AM, said:

Ben, could you check how well people do by passing a strong 2C with a 0-count and exactly 6 clubs.

Ok, here is a break down of 191 Auctions where opener had at least 20 hcp, and responder had: 1) 6 clubs exactly, and 2) 0 or 1 hcp. (sadly I did this from main room databases rather than tourneys, so I will redo with tourneys later)

For all 191 hands, the averages were:
187 imp hands, average +0.06 imps
4 Matchpoint hands, 46.26% average

(note, while all these auctions started 2C-Pass-Pass, they did not all end in 2C. If we limit to 2C final contract, the averages change as follows)

161 imp hands, average +0.02
3 Matchpoint hands, 58.59%

If we separate the +1 versus the 0 hcp, we find for 0 hcp...
71 imp hands -0.58/hand (if allowed to play in 2C, 60 times, -0.63)
no mp hands

For 1 hcp
116 hands, +0.45 imps (if allowed ot play in 2C, 101 times, 0.42 imps)
4 mp hands, 46.26% (if allowed to play in 2C, 3 times, 58.59%)

when opener held 26+ hcp, as you might imagine, pass didn't do so well...
11 imp hands, average -2.7 imps
0 imp hands

When opener was balanced (for this analysis, lets say 4333, 4432, and 5332), the results were
77 imp hands averageing 0.80 imps
1 MP hands, which got 90.54%

When opener had a six card suit or longer,
48 hands, average -1.23 imps
1 MP hand, average 16.67%

I will look at tournaments after a while if anyone has a specific additional question to ask (I had to look across multiple database to find sufficient hands to grab the data above). I will add an observation, it looks like when opener has a "balanced 2NT" type opening passing with a long club suit and no point works well and since this is a high frequency of the 2@C openings, you might see why. If I group all balanced hands (20-24 hcp) and include 6322 in the balanced group, then pass had these averages....

96 hands, 0.98 imps
2 hands, 79.55%

[PhantomSac]

kfay, on Feb 24 2010, 12:28 PM, said:

jdonn, on Feb 21 2010, 01:58 PM, said:

Gotta double those grands with aces.

You should tell ch00bacca that!

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...4285-1265004615

wow that is pretty nasty actually...three aces!

[Aberlour10]

PhantomSac, on Feb 24 2010, 02:45 PM, said:

kfay, on Feb 24 2010, 12:28 PM, said:

jdonn, on Feb 21 2010, 01:58 PM, said:

Gotta double those grands with aces.

You should tell ch00bacca that!

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...4285-1265004615

wow that is pretty nasty actually...three aces!

There's a lady who is sure all these aces are cold
and she is buying a stairway to heaven