HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: hargrove@nobelium.SLCS.SLB.COM (Jim Hargrove)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Re: Problem Solvers' Panel 15.3
Date: 22 Jul 92 14:16:24 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Schlumberger Austin Systems Center

In article <1992Jul21.162331.5201@speedy.aero.org>, Nick Martino writes:
|> Brett Barksdale writes:
|> >
|> >Problem 3.
|> >IMPs
|> >N-S Vulnerable
|> >Dealer North
|> >
|> >You, South, hold, S-AKQ4 H-A753 D-AQJ6 C-9
|> >
|> >South  West   North  East
|> >              3C     Pass
|> >?
|> >
[Discussion deleted]
|> 
|> To the panel's credit, 17 out of 36 committed the hand to slam and only one
|> misread the problem. It was not mentioned in the conditions whether you are
|> playing gambling 3NT, in which case the Grand is against the odds. In any case,
|> there is a way to get to the slam scientifically and stop in 5C when it's right
|> as well. Over a 3C preempt, I play that 4D is a form of Key Card Blackwood.
|> Over other 3-level preempts, I use 4C as the KC bid. Some partnerships may
|> choose to use this only over 3-of-a-minor preempts. The responses are:
|> 
|>                 1-step     0 Key Cards
|>                 2-steps    1 KC w/o the trump Queen
|>                 3-steps    1 KC w/ the trump Queen
|>                 4-steps    2 KC's w/o Queen
|>                 5-steps    2 KC's w/ Queen
|> 
|> The given hand is not ideal for this convention. Partner could show 1KC with
|> the Queen and hold KQ108xxx(x), in which case the slam is not great (not
|> horrible either). I would contend that partner's suit should be better for
|> these conditions of contest. The convention does allow you to stay out of the
|> slam when partner lacks two of the top three honors. Note that over 4NT,
|> partner's 5D response leaves you badly placed. 
|> 
|>    
|>                                             Nick Martino
This convention works well in this situation, but 4NT doesn't leave you so badly placed as all that, provided it is RKC. Partner should show up with 7-8 clubs to KQJ or AQJ, so 6C is a reasonable gamble. 4NT conveniently leaves you in 5C in the extreme case where partner's clubs are headed by QJ. For that reason, I think it is better than a direct shot at 6C. If I were not playing RKC, though, I'd just bid 6C.
-- 

        -- jwh
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
From: bs@faron.mitre.org (Robert D. Silverman)
Subject: Re: Bidding problem
Organization: Research Computer Facility, MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 00:10:38 GMT

In article <102440013@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com> msl@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Mark Laventhal ) writes:
:The following hand came up at an informal game.
:Dealer (East) held:
:
:	S: 
:	H: Tx
:	D: Axxxxx
:	C: KQxxx
:
:Would you open this hand?
 
Playing what system? Playing Precision, yes. Playing ACOL, yes. Playing SA,
yes. Playing K-S or 2/1 GF, NO.

Playing Roman I open it 2NT (which shows a 5 or 6 loser minor two suiter).

:East did open 1D, and partner responded with 3C (strong jump overcall),
							      ^^^^^^^^

How does PARTNER make a jump overcall? I think you mean strong jump
shift.

:with the opposition (which included myself) silent throughout.
:How would you proceed as East?
 
It is 100% clear. Over 3C, I bid 4S. (splinter)

:
:In practice, East bid 4N (Blackwood), which of course is another blatant
:example of Blackwood being abused.  East ended up bidding 6C when West 
:showed 3 Aces, but the contract was down 1.
 
Huh? West makes a strong jump shift in clubs missing 2 of the 3 top
honors, shows all 3 Aces, and this hand stops in 6C?? And it goes
DOWN? It must have been a mighty strange 3C call. 
--
Bob Silverman
These are my opinions and not MITRE's.
Mitre Corporation, Bedford, MA 01730
"You can lead a horse's ass to knowledge, but you can't make him think"
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
From: brdgstar@wam.umd.edu (Paul Grossman)
Subject: re: Which squeeze?
Originator: brdgstar@rac1.wam.umd.edu
Organization: University of Maryland at College Park
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 16:38:59 GMT

From wam.umd.edu!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!europa.asd.contel.com!uunet!idacrd!desj@ccr-p.ida.org Fri Jul 31 11:53:40 EDT 1992
Article: 10778 of rec.games.bridge
From: desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Re: Which Squeeze?
Date: 30 Jul 92 14:33:23 GMT
Organization: IDA Center for Communications Research, Princeton

Paul Grossman <brdgstar@wam.umd.edu> writes:
>                 J 6 4
>                 8
>                 A K Q 3
>                 A K J 9 2

>                 A K 9
>                 A K 3
>                 9 5
>                 Q 10 7 4 3

>The play so far: West leads D-7, won in dummy, (D-2 from East). On the run
>of the clubs, West pitches: spade, heart, heart, heart. East pitches: heart,
>spade, heart. On your spade ace, West drops the ten. Now what?

It seems likely that the diamonds are 4-3.  (If they were 5-2, I doubt
the opponents could have resisted the temptation to throw one.)  In
that case I can claim.

Since each opponent has at least two diamonds remaining, it is
impossible for either opponent to guard both spades and hearts.  So, I
have set the B2 double squeeze with the diamond 3 as the double threat.

All I have to do is cash the spade and heart winners.  Then, either my
long spade will be good, or my long heart will be good, or one
opponent will retain a spade and the other opponent a heart, in which
case the diamonds are good.

The only way this line can fail is if one opponent really does guard
both majors.  If West has them, then I couldn't have made it anyway:

        QTxx            xxx
        QTxxxx          xxx
        7x              JT8x2
        x               xx

If East has both majors, then I guess they got me:

        Txx             Qxxx
        Jxxx            Qxxxx
        JT87x           x2
        x               xx

In that case I should have played for the double squeeze with the
heart 3 as the double threat.

                                        David desJardins


~r "bridge1"

This hand ruined a great partnership before it even got off the ground. We
reached 7NT easily (via 1NT opening, and Blackwood), but ended disastrously
when at the point described in the original post, declarer cashed SK and
crossed to diamonds, leaving H3 as the double threat. Upon reflection, this
strategy seems ill advised, since, with six hearts, West would likely have
discarded one before a spade. In reality, West had: Q10xx,Qxxx,87xx,x
so it was necessary to cash hearts first. Too bad!
From: sater@cs.vu.nl (Hans van Staveren)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Do you have a contact in Italy?
Date: 31 Jul 92 09:46:30 GMT

I am still trying to get the daily bulletins from Salsomaggiore organized,
and the silence from Italy is deafening. Even mail to the main Eunet
postmaster bounced, so the network over there must be in sorry shape.

So, if Italy does not respond from this group, I will try the indirect
approach. Wherever you are, if you have contacts in Italy that might be
willing to please you for whatever reasons, please try to find out
if they might be willing to help.

The basic scenario is:
- I know the daily bulletin people. They are smart guys, WP-literate,
  but this network stuff is beyond them.
- I can give them a modem and file transport software, and teach them
  how to use it.
- Someone in Italy should help them getting it connected to the phone-net.
  This does not necessarily mean they should be there, but currently I
  do not even know what the phone plugs look like over there.
- Some site in Italy, with dialin modems, should be willing to give
  them a guest account for the posting. It does not necessarily have
  to carry r.g.b, Email is enough.

The daily bulletin people are perfectly willing to spend some time
on this, but they need some help. If they do not get it, the most I
can manage is to post all the daily bulletins after the event, when
they come back and give me the floppies. That wouldn't be at all the
same thing.

	Hans van Staveren
From: yeyan@sfu.ca (Yeyan Zhang)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: test
Date: 21 Jul 92 16:29:18 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge

The following hand came up at an informal game.
Dealer (East) held:

	S: 
	H: Tx
	D: Axxxxx
	C: KQxxx

Would you open this hand?

East did open 1D, and partner responded with 3C (strong jump overcall),
with the opposition (which included myself) silent throughout.
How would you proceed as East?

In practice, East bid 4N (Blackwood), which of course is another blatant
example of Blackwood being abused.  East ended up bidding 6C when West 
showed 3 Aces, but the contract was down 1.

Mark L.
From: bs@gauss.mitre.org (Robert D. Silverman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Re: Short vs Long suit game tries
Keywords: game tries
Date: 27 Jul 92 19:59:41 GMT
Organization: Research Computer Facility, MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA

In article <1992Jul27.190416.7546@aero.org> campbell@Aero.org (Andrew Campbell) writes:
>-- 
>The subject matter, basically two-way game tries afte a single
>major raise, prompts me to post a method that I encountered
>recently at Bridge Week, and which intrigues me a lot. I am told
>that it is the creation of Ed Davis, and I hope I have it right.
 
If Mr. Davis is claiming the convention you describe as his own, then
I think someone should tell him about plagiarism.
This is not to detract from the usefulness of the convention; merely
a suggestion to be careful about attribution.


Multi-way game tries (combining short, long, balanced power, and trump
asking) have been around for a LONG time and are well known to a lot of
players. There are quite a few variations. I have played at least one
or more of these variations for the last 10 years.

--
Bob Silverman
These are my opinions and not MITRE's.
Mitre Corporation, Bedford, MA 01730
"You can lead a horse's ass to knowledge, but you can't make him think"
From: graeme@castle.ed.ac.uk (G J Ackland)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Re: Short vs Long suit game tries
Date: 28 Jul 92 09:07:03 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University


	In response to a number of queries regarding the auction:

1H p 2H p    
2S p 2N p  (relay)
3D X XX    (SSGT in clubs, double for a club lead)

>>I am not generally in favour of banning new ideas, but it seems to me 
>>that the claimed advantage of this (suit above the singleton) is to exploit 
>>the fact that opponents have not had chance to discuss defences to it.  
>>A ten second discussion (X shows length in the singleton suit) would 
>>resolve it - but who has the time? 

>> Doesn't this make it much more likely that we can redouble effectively? 

I wondered about this as I posted.  I think it very rare.  Of course,
you'll only want to play at the three level redoubled when you have a
very good holding (cos partner has said nothing about the suit).  With 
this two suiter, you'll only gain when opponents don't have a good save
available in partner's short suit.  So to redouble you'll need good
holdings in three suits (Your agreed suit, the suit you're planning to
play in with no guarantee of support from partner, and opponents suit to
prevent them just saving).  And you could only respond with a single
raise?  No, I think it will be very rare.  (More common than playing in
partners short suit, admittedly).


I think the only way to practically play in 3DXX is if responder passes
the double when holding CLUBS allowing opener to redouble.  I just can't
construct hands where immediate XX works.

Simulation anyone?
                   graeme
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Re: report 10 from the EBL juniors
From: bclaus@cs.wright.edu (Brian Clausing)
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 02:50:58 GMT
Organization: Wright State University

From article <15524@star.cs.vu.nl>, by sater@cs.vu.nl (Hans van Staveren):
> Let me start with a hand that I forgot to tell you some time ago in the
> Italy versus Ireland match on Vugraph. This was it:
> 
> brd 13    A Q 10 9 7
> N/All     A 9 3
>           10 6 5
>           5 4
> J 8 4 2 	  K 5 3
> Q J 10 	  6 4 2
> K Q 4 3         A
> A Q 	          J 10 8 7 6 3
>           6
>           K 8 7 5
>           J 9 8 7 2
>           K 9 2
> 
> Both Wests played 3 NT. The Irish North led the 10S after which declarer
> had no problems. Versace led the QS! This left declarer helpless and at
> the end he needed a throw in to cut his losses to one down.

The spade Q is a scorching lead on the layout, but doesn't the
spade A have the same effect and preserve more options?
After playing off A Q of clubs, declarer needs two entries
to dummy to get the clubs going.

By the way, thanks for posting these hands.

Brian Clausing
From: sater@cs.vu.nl (Hans van Staveren)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Daily bulletin Salso Maggiore
Date: 25 Jul 92 18:25:14 GMT

Starting August 22 the olympiads will be held in Salso Maggiore,
Italy.  Since I published parts of the bulletin of the EBL juniors I
have had a lot of enthusiastic reactions, and I am not unwilling to try
to arrange a way to get the daily bulletins of the Olympiad on r.g.b.
There is only one snag, I will not be there. However I do know the
daily bulletin staff, and I am currently in the process of finding out
whether the WBF would have problems with the idea(as soon as they
understand it).

To make this work I need some volunteers: first a person in Italy,
preferably close to Salso Maggiore who can do the actual posting.
Actually someone with dial-in modems willing to provide a guest account
would also be OK, as long as he has a Usenet connection. Internet would
be nice, but does not seem necessary.  Secondly, someone who will be at
the Olympiad who can take care of transmission, by modem or other forms
of data-transport.

The daily bulletin staff is willing to make one floppy per day,
containing the daily bulletin in WP5.1 format, and in this day and age
we should be able to get that on the net.

Would anyone that thinks he could be of assistance in this matter
please report to me? I will then try to make all connections meet.

	Hans van Staveren
From: olle@solaris.astro.uu.se (Olof Morell)
Subject: Re: Yet another Survey it
Organization: UDAC, Uppsala, Sweden
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 08:03:23 GMT

In article <1992Jul17.175648.24388@rose.com>, chris.chambers@rose.com (chris chambers) writes:
|> 
|> Date Entered: 07-17-92 13:52
|> pynq@quads.uchicago.edu writes
|> 
|> > Partner deals and bids 2S (weak).  Next hand bids 3C, and you hold:
|> >
|> > S - 9 x
|> > H - K Q x x x
|> > D - A K x x x
|> > C - A x
|> >
|> > What do you do?
|> 
|> A bit late, but call the director.. blush I have 14 cards.
|> 
|> If I only had 13, singleton club A, then double might be an option.
|> Must check with my partner to see if a negative double is still on
|> in this situation?

The purpose with weak two is to consume bidding space for the opponents
while telling the story about your hand in one bid to partner.
All doubles hereafter should be for PENALTY, making it risky for
them to enter the bidding. Negative doubles are not really needed if you
do not open weak two's on freak distribution in first and second hand.

Given the proper hand (ace singelton in club) I think four spades should
have very good prospects.

-- Olle
-----------------------------------------------
E-mail - Olle.Morell@astro.uu.se

Snail Mail - Astronomical Observatory, Box 515, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
From: Nick Martino
Subject: Re: Problem Solvers' Panel 15.3
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 22:46:34 GMT


>Nick Martino wrote in a previous posting:
>
 >Problem 3.
 >IMPs
 >N-S Vulnerable
 >Dealer North
 >
 >You, South, hold, S-AKQ4 H-A753 D-AQJ6 C-9
 >
 >South  West   North  East
 >              3C     Pass
 >?

 > I couldn't resist this one. Honestly, I can't believe anyone would expect to
go
 > down in 6C on these cards after partner bid 3C red vs white.

>Eric Taylor writes:
>I'll tell you how.  First of all, you should COUNT on 1 trump loser.
>You have only 1 finesse available.  That missing honor had
>better be a doubleton
>  
>Partner has six cards in the outside suits and you have 5.5 cover cards.
>You might add a little for the possiblity of partner having 3 spades, but
>the spades would have to break or you might get
>a spade-diamond squeeze.  I would guess that this percentage is about the
>same as not getting a good club break.
>
>That leaves you with about a 50% slam.  Certainly not bad odds, but
>I certainly would expect to go down 50% of the time.
>
>You will be in a much better position if you and your partner have some
>sort of trump asking bid.
>

This one has been beat to death already, but ...

If partner is sane, 6C has to be better than 50%, provided you can be
reasonably sure that you don't have TWO trump losers. I strongly disagree with
the stipulation that partner should have 6 losing non-clubs and a one-loser
suit. This may be a matter of partnership style to some, but I consider it
unthinkable  at IMP scoring to bid 3C in first seat at unfavorable
vulnerability on a 6-trick hand (e.g., x xx xxx KQJTxxx).  Personally, I'd
prefer to have closer to 8 tricks than 7, but I'd make an exception for a good
8-card suit that might, on a bad day, lose 2 tricks (e.g., AJTxxxxx or
KQTxxxxx). If I have only seven clubs, then I definitely need one of the red
Kings to bid 3C under these circumstances. 

In any case, my main reason for writing previously was not to expound the
virtues of bidding 6C on this hand, but to point out the folly of bidding 3NT.
I assume many of the 5C bidders are making a reasonable decision, based on
their undisciplined (or super-aggressive) partnership style. Nonetheless, I
can't help but wish a few more of my opponents would have 3C bids that don't
make 6C opposite the SOUTH collection.

                                                              Nick Martino
From: desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Distribution
Date: 28 Jul 92 17:32:58 GMT
Organization: IDA Center for Communications Research, Princeton

Can everyone PLEASE stop posting articles with "Distribution: usa" or
other restrictive distribution lines!  I've brought this up before but
it seems to have had hardly any effect.

This is unfair to readers around the world.  If you don't understand
why this is inappropriate, read news.announce.newusers for a while.
If you are doing it inadvertently, then please check the Distribution:
line before you post and delete it if it is nonblank.

About 20% of the articles posted have restricted distribution.  The
following users have posted with restricted distribution during the
past 10 days.  Few if any of the articles seem to have any legitimate
reason for the restriction.

   7   usa    Nick Martino
   3   usa    asya@ux5.lbl.gov (Asya Kamsky)
   1   usa    avir@chen.bgu.ac.il (Avi Roy Shapira)
   1   usa    bdsokolo@morpheus.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Bernd Sokolowsky)
   1   usa    bpwing@phoenix.princeton.edu (Ben Wing)
   1   rec    bs@faron.mitre.org (Robert D. Silverman)
   3   usa    ceblair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Charles Blair)
   1   usa    davidm@voltaire.Rational.COM (David Moore)
   1   na     doug@admiral.uucp (Doug Fields)
   1   na     georgeyu@leland.Stanford.EDU (George Yu)
   1   usa    hargrove@nobelium.SLCS.SLB.COM (Jim Hargrove)
   3   usa    jld@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (J. L. David)
   1   usa    kpsmith@cookie.asd.sgi.com (Kevin P. Smith)
   1   usa    paul@sco.COM (Paul Jackson)
   1   usa    philipg@sco.COM (Philip Gordon)
   1   rec    sinyaw@starbright.smsc.sony.com (Sin-Yaw Wang)
   1   usa    taylor@foraker.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Eric Taylor)
   1   rec    tgw@st-andrews.ac.uk (Trevor Gordon Walker)
   1   usa    varvel@cs.utexas.edu (Donald A. Varvel)

                                        David desJardins
From: pynq@quads.uchicago.edu (George Jetson)
Subject: Re: Problem Solvers' Panel 15.5
Reply-To: pynq@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: D. J. Dougherty & Associates
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 03:17:45 GMT

In article <1992Jul23.173803.5217@talon.ucs.orst.edu> brett@oce.orst.edu (Brett Barksdale) writes:

>
>		My Partner
>		xxxx
>		xxx
>		-
>		xxxxxx
>
>Pro					LOL
>K					-
>xxx					AKQJTxx
>KJTxxxx					AQx
>xx					KJT
>
>		Me
>
>		AQJTxxxx
>		-
>		xxx
>		AQ
>
(story of how Bob ended up defending 7S! deleted)

>My partner did lead a club and when dummy hit everyone at the table
>except the LOL realized what had happened. I won the club Q and
>put the A spades on the table.
>
>After I cashed the A spades and the K fell, I cashed the A clubs and
>for lack of something better to do I led a diamond. When partner ruffed
>it and led back a club I claimed.

Can you really make a defensive claim that requires partner's cooperation?

In order to take 13 tricks, you still need to ruff out your remaining
two diamond losers.  Suppose partner gets confused after ruffing the
second diamond and leads a trump?  Now you've only got two trumps to
look after 3 diamond losers...

Somehow, I have a feeling opps would look askance at a claim of the
form, "I'll lead a diamond, which partner ruffs, he leads back anything
but a trump and I win and lead another diamond which he ruffs..."

************************************************************************
Please don't drink the battery acid, it tastes bad and will hurt you.
Also, don't bite the tyres, especially when the bike is moving.
(Our lawyers made us put this in this manual.)

	- pynq@quads.uchicago.edu, who is still costing the net
	  hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, every time he posts -
************************************************************************
From: bpwing@phoenix.princeton.edu (Ben Wing)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Date: 24 Jul 92 18:51:17 GMT
Subject: Additions to the FAQ ...
Distribution: usa
Organization: Princeton University
X-Subliminal-Message: You can quit reading news anytime you want.

In article <nn23q0g@fido.asd.sgi.com> kpsmith@sgi.com writes:
|In article <1992Jul20.163431.1155@sco.com>, philipg@sco.COM (Philip Gordon) writes:
|>
|>Matchpoints
|>Fairly weak opponents
|>N/S Vulnerable
|>
|>South:  
|>  S: QT6432
|>  H: 852
|>  D: 74
|>  C: 932
|>
|> 1. North   East   South   West
|>    ---------------------------
|>     1S      2D     Pass    2H
|>     2S     Pass    Pass    3D
|>     3S     Pass    Pass   Pass
|>
|>Do you agree with all of south's bids?  If, not when and what would you
|>bid differently?
|
|I disagree with South's first pass.  I would have called a misdeal instead.

This response should be added to the FAQ under the category "please don't
post the following responses when a question is asked".


ben
--

Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
From: m36150p@kaira.hut.fi (Janne Veikko Petteri Kallunki)
Subject: AKQJxxxx in hearts and 18 points
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 09:17:20 GMT

ALL/N IMP:

N:
ATx
T
KQJxxx
Jxx

S: (me)
-
AKQJ9xxx
A
ATxx

N     S
1D    1H
2D    7H

Because my partner opened I decided to make 7H and I thought that I would
make it anyway so I made the straight raise.
7H is always 1 down because W have only two diamonds. In the other board
they made 6NT so we lost 17 IMP.
But how to make 7NT which is always home?

-----
Janne 'Jake' Kallunki m36150p@kaira.hut.fi jkallunk@otax.hut.fi
p. home 4553831, work 1543562
"One-Two-Three-Four"
	-Dee-Dee Ramone