[AL78]

Somewhat inspired by Pilowsky's adventures with robots, I thought I'd post this ridiculous hand from a club competition yesterday evening (against humans). Partner and I were playing a weak NT.

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I don't get why North bared his king and South threw two hearts when they are not squeezed. North just needs to hang on to ♥Kx and a club, they hold me to 11 tricks.

[Tramticket]

Perhaps North has seen his partner's weak jump over-calls before and wasn't expecting him to hold the ace of clubs as well as a Jack in each major?

[Cyberyeti]

 Tramticket, on 2020-November-25, 09:04, said:

Perhaps North has seen his partner's weak jump over-calls before and wasn't expecting him to hold the ace of clubs as well as a Jack in each major?

Doesn't make sense, he has one of the aces (or you opened 2N/2♣ or rebid 3N) and if it's hearts you've just cut yourself off from A♣.

[AL78]

 Cyberyeti, on 2020-November-25, 09:12, said:

Doesn't make sense, he has one of the aces (or you opened 2N/2♣ or rebid 3N) and if it's hearts you've just cut yourself off from A♣.

Yes, I've shown a good 15-bad 18 HCP, North can put South with at least 6 HCP, trick one shows they are not in spades, and trick five shows they are not in diamonds either. There must be an ace in South's hand because I have shown up with 13 HCP, I can only hold one of the two unseen aces. I guess North just lost concentration, maybe he thought the ace of hearts had gone when he bared his king.

[AL78]

6♦ is makable double dummy if West plays it (by ruffing out clubs I'm guessing). If East opens a strong NT and West does a minor suit transfer, with West super-accepting, is there a way to get there (not saying you should). What would 3M by East mean now?

[akwoo]

 AL78, on 2020-November-25, 12:09, said:

Yes, I've shown a good 15-bad 18 HCP, North can put South with at least 6 HCP, trick one shows they are not in spades, and trick five shows they are not in diamonds either. There must be an ace in South's hand because I have shown up with 13 HCP, I can only hold one of the two unseen aces. I guess North just lost concentration, maybe he thought the ace of hearts had gone when he bared his king.

The average club player can't count hcp around the table.

[Cyberyeti]

 AL78, on 2020-November-25, 12:20, said:

6♦ is makable double dummy if West plays it (by ruffing out clubs I'm guessing). If East opens a strong NT and West does a minor suit transfer, with West super-accepting, is there a way to get there (not saying you should). What would 3M by East mean now?

Well they have to lead a club which makes your job easier or you park your club on the spades.

[mycroft]

In my estimation s/can't/doesn't/ . Not that the intent of your statement is wrong.

[Cyberyeti]

 mycroft, on 2020-November-25, 14:02, said:

In my estimation s/can't/doesn't/ . Not that the intent of your statement is wrong.

Not sure which statement you're responding to, but if it's the 6♦, I was responding to a post about 6♦(W), clearly S can lead a heart.

[mycroft]

akwoo's "The average club player can't count HCP around the table". They can - and do when the teacher forces them to in the post-mortem. But they don't, on every hand. Sorry to confuse.

[akwoo]

 mycroft, on 2020-November-28, 12:54, said:

akwoo's "The average club player can't count HCP around the table". They can - and do when the teacher forces them to in the post-mortem. But they don't, on every hand. Sorry to confuse.

I thought about my word choice when I wrote it, and I stand by it.

Yes mycroft is right, but it's also true that, if I asked a player to try to count points around the table on every hand (or almost every hand - there are a few where it's clear it won't matter or you just don't have any info), by the end of the session they'd be passing partner's forcing bids, forgetting which suit declarer had already shown out of, discarding winners that had been set up in dummy, and maybe even forgetting what cards were high in what suits. It might not be safe for them to drive home.