[sfi]

 pescetom, on 2023-March-13, 16:12, said:

I find that grotesque (watch board 5 of the video from the point of view of a spectator interested in understanding and joining our sport), but comprehensible.

Alright - I'll bite again. What's wrong with board 5? It looked to me like he just pulled the wrong ace and they sorted it out. West said that declarer wasn't committed to the DA, but what else was he going to do? Weinstein even made sure nobody wanted the director to address the incorrect card. I would agree it's not great if you're suggesting that he did it deliberately for comic effect, but it's not clear to me that's what happened.

[lchiu7]

 pescetom, on 2023-March-13, 16:12, said:

...

I find that grotesque (watch board 5 of the video from the point of view of a spectator interested in understanding and joining our sport), but comprehensible.

I just watched this board agaim and if it's the one where there is a good sacrifice of 5D against the 4H game, then I didn't see anything untoward in this. Perhaps when Hydes claimed 2 down he barely shows his cards and also Levin and Weinstock randomly splatter their played cards on the table with no sense of order.

[mycroft]

Yes, the cards pointed wrong - oh well. It'll work out. It's a pain at the lower levels, but the lower levels tend not to do this, except by accident.

The "playing with quitted tricks" thing however is a real problem. It's a great wash for all kinds of stuff we really don't want around.

I am surprised that it's a habit experts don't try to break, for reasons stated already.

Re: # 1014 is clearly cheating. I Have Opinions on this, and some of them are even postable. To me, the World Championships need to be cleaned and stay cleaned (all comments about 50 years ago notwithstanding); the truly horribly obvious ones need to be taken care of (see BW for a couple of examples); and "enough" of the rest need to be investigated and dealt with. If you regularly drive, you will regularly see people pulled over for something. That does induce some more respect for the rules for a while. If the "fine" for getting caught "speeding" is a year of no bridge rather than a couple hundred bucks (and the reputation loss after the penalty is also correspondingly greater), more respect for longer I think will happen. How many we have to catch out of the 1000 or so to convince 90% of the rest to play straight is a question I wouldn't care to speculate on. More than we have been doing, I'm sure. But it's not 1000/1000.

[pescetom]

 sfi, on 2023-March-13, 19:15, said:

Alright - I'll bite again. What's wrong with board 5? It looked to me like he just pulled the wrong ace and they sorted it out. West said that declarer wasn't committed to the DA, but what else was he going to do? Weinstein even made sure nobody wanted the director to address the incorrect card. I would agree it's not great if you're suggesting that he did it deliberately for comic effect, but it's not clear to me that's what happened.

I only watched the video once (even that took patience) and with inaudible audio, but what struck me was the multi-minute tank by Levine (yes I do realise he has a whole lot to think about beyond playing the Ace, and much of it over my head) with the added touch of apparent decisional moments only to slump back into tank again... and then another minute of Weinstein surlily flipping quitted tricks before making the club discard he surely planned during his partner's tank. My gut feeling (and reading of body language) was that they were sore about being onto a hiding and were taking it out on the opponents. Maybe I was wrong, nothing terrible in any case, but not a good spot for the game either.

[lchiu7]

 pescetom, on 2023-March-14, 10:08, said:

I only watched the video once (even that took patience) and with inaudible audio, but what struck me was the multi-minute tank by Levine (yes I do realise he has a whole lot to think about beyond playing the Ace, and much of it over my head) with the added touch of apparent decisional moments only to slump back into tank again... and then another minute of Weinstein surlily flipping quitted tricks before making the club discard he surely planned during his partner's tank. My gut feeling (and reading of body language) was that they were sore about being onto a hiding and were taking it out on the opponents. Maybe I was wrong, nothing terrible in any case, but not a good spot for the game either.

One thing I sometimes forget to take into consideration is that I can see all 4 hands so what seems like a problem to the players not playing double dummy, is not so much for me so the tanks are understandable.

But having played bridge for many years now, I have never felt the urge to play with quitted trick and indeed if I did this at my local club or tournaments I am sure it would raise the eyebrows of my opponents.

[thepossum]

I feel for teachers of young Bridge players these days

Don't play with your cards like that little Jimmy

But xxxxx does it

[thepossum]

Delete