[Phil]

It would be great if we could just cut/paste hand records from Myhands without a lot of fuss. As it is, we either need to put them in manually, or change the code so they are properly resized.

Anyway...

About yesterday. As I said, I thought both tables got off to a good start. On #2, Gnasher and Catch22 missed a NV game that needed a finesse that the other table bid, lose 6.

On the 4th and 5th, both tables displayed good competitive judgement and defended / played well, so we picked up 17 on nothing boards.

On the 6th our opponents bid a good slam, but mostly through guesswork.

On the 8th, Gnasher made a sensible raise and they reached a perfecto NV game in a minor on effectively 21 highs.

After 9 boards, BBF lead 24 to 21.

As usual, we got off to a solid start but started to trip a little and dug a deep hole quickly.

Mark and I had two bidding misunderstandings: On 10 he didn't recognize my maximal double so we missed a Vul game - lose 10. On 12 we had a good/bad mixup and missed a skinny 3N, but I suspect that there will be some discussion about that hand.

I missed a 3rd doubled undertrick defending 13 and I missed a baby endplay on 18. Mark didn't play a game well (#20), although he was probably shocked after seeing my dummy (I needed to undo, but decided not to after the auction got away from me).

When Board 25 came in, we were definitely pressing. Here's a game I played, and I'm not convinced I played it correctly, but I thought it was one of the more interesting hands from my POV. See what you think:

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what do you think about the bidding? We don't play Gazzilli (perfect for this hand type) so I had to choose between 2♦ (that Cayne chose), 2N and 3♦. While 2N is a little offshape and doesn't have great stoppers in two suits, it felt 'middle of the road' to me.

I thought Mark's 4♥ was an overbid. This looks like the typical hand that uses a Wolff signoff to get out in 3♥ after 1m - 1♥, and the fact that I opened 1♠ doesn't improve his hand. Also, I should have the option of superaccepting over 3♦ with a great hand and three hearts.

The opening lead was the ♣4. After playing over 100 boards against this pair, I still don't understand their signaling methods, but RHO played the 3.

I tried three spades right away. LHO ruffed the 3rd with the 6.

How would you proceed from here?

[inquiry]

Phil, on 2012-May-07, 11:40, said:

It would be great if we could just cut/paste hand records from Myhands without a lot of fuss. As it is, we either need to put them in manually, or change the code so they are properly resized.

i cut and paste from handviewer to an excel spreadsheet where i use excel to strip off the unwanted parts from the http stuff, then use the CONCATENATE function to add back the missing parts for a forum post

you can do this quickly.
i paste the http info into cell b2, in c2 i have this command
=RIGHT(B2,LEN(B2)-52)
That removes the http stuff (you get basically lin file, usually starting with pn| followed by players names)
i type the comment i want to have into cell b3
then in cell b4 I have the following command
=CONCATENATE("{hv=lin=",C2,"}400|300|",B3,"{/hv}")

This adds the hv command with instruction that it is in lin format (=lin), and the lin info from cell ce2, the size i like, the comments (if any) from b3... NOTE I had to use { and } brackets for the real [ and ] brackets, because if not, we would have a hand diagram shown instead of the excel command

This requires two copies and two pasting to get from hand record to properly sized file here, instead of the one copy and paste you would like to see, but this is quick. You can even use excel to automatically rotate the hands changing the dealer by extracting the four hands, and reinserting them (and changing the dealer appropriately). Try it, it works.

[Fluffy]

I would overruff and play a diamond to the queen. Then play 4th spade. LHO will ruff with an honnor hopefully and we discard dummy's last club. Eventually we will ruff dummy's last diamond on 5th spade. while RHO ruffs from his HJx in the end we will play a heart to the queen after entering dummy with a club ruff.

[mikeh]

I would pitch. I'd be planning on hoping hearts were now 2-2, and I might even get to avoid the diamond hook.

I don't like the idea of over-ruffing. Say I do as Gonzalo suggests and overruff.....the diamond hook might lose (note that I always avoid this if LHO has AKx in trump, and may avoid it if he has Axx or AJx).

While the 4-2 spade break doesn't tell us much, it does suggest that if hearts are 3-2, LHO will probably have held the 3 card suit originally.

[gszes]

overruff and lead a trump. Opps only have
4 left and maybe we can hold our trump losers
to two now (along with a club). Never take the
dia finesse unless the opps force you to. Do
not depend on good luck when its not needed.

[JLOGIC]

What are you talking about? The opponents will always force you to take a diamond finesse (there will not be much left for RHO to play if he is in with a club!), so you are effectively relying on 2-2 remaining trumps and the diamond hook. Seems like you are relying on good luck also.

[nige1]

Phil writes "what do you think about the bidding? We don't play Gazzilli (perfect for this hand type) so I had to choose between 2♦ (that Cayne chose), 2N and 3♦. While 2N is a little offshape and doesn't have great stoppers in two suits, it felt 'middle of the road' to me. I thought Mark's 4♥ was an overbid. This looks like the typical hand that uses a Wolff signoff to get out in 3♥ after 1m - 1♥, and the fact that I opened 1♠ doesn't improve his hand. Also, I should have the option of superaccepting over 3♦ with a great hand and three hearts. The opening lead was the ♣4. After playing over 100 boards against this pair, I still don't understand their signaling methods, but RHO played the 3. I tried three spades right away. LHO ruffed the 3rd with the 6. How would you proceed from here?

(IMO:) John Matheson is a Gazzilli missionary and it seems to work well. MIkeh seems right to discard a ♣ on the third ♠, It would be clearer at match-points. As he says, you may avoid a ♦ finesse (for example if LHO has ♥AJx, then defenders need to be on their toes) At least, you hope to avoid two ♦ finesses

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[Phil]

Nothing really mattered. LHO held ♥AJxx + ♦K.

Cayne and Seamon stopped in 2♦.