[bb79]

Scoring: IMP

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South is playing 4♠ after west showed weak hand with hearts. Lead is a ♦, east wins J. At trick two east plays ♦A, west discards a ♥. Third trick east plays ♦K. What do you play from your hand?

3 of 4 declarers on vugraph erred here.

[kenrexford]

bb79, on May 26 2009, 06:31 PM, said:

...3 of 4 declarers on vugraph erred here.

Who?!? I want names. This is too easy.

Oh -- wait. B/I.

Wait again -- B/I should get this, but who as B/I was on vugraph?

[bill1157]

pitch a club...

Bill

[Quantumcat]

The trick will likely be won by the opposition no matter what you do, either the high card itself if you discard or a trump if you try to ruff. Even if LHO doesn't have the QS and the TS wins, you will still lose a club (AK hearts gets rid of 2 clubs, but you still have 2 in your hand opp Ax in dummy) so you may as well throw a club on a trick you are destined to lose anyway. Dummy won't have anymore diamonds left so RHO can't keep playing diamonds trying to make his partner's Q or QX of trumps make a trick.

[Phil]

Funny that this is in the BI when 3 supposedly world class declarers muffed this hand.

But it clearly does unfortunately.

[bill1157]

Phil, on May 27 2009, 12:33 AM, said:

Funny that this is in the BI when 3 supposedly world class declarers muffed this hand.

But it clearly does unfortunately.

of course, i can get this as a problem, but at the table...?
Also, experts do make mistakes, maybe it was the hand before a smoke break..

Bill

[vuroth]

Agreed. I play too fast all the time. I would do far better to play slowly and look for "problems" in the play of the hand....

[Gerben42]

Quote

Also, experts do make mistakes, maybe it was the hand before a smoke break..

After you go down and are a smoker, this WOULD be the time to take a smoke break, I guess. I don't have names but since it was 4 tables, my guess would be the semi-finals of the USBF women qualifying... I guess tiredness was a factor.

Thanks for sharing this one, bb79!

[Hanoi5]

This is the kind of play that is not easy to spot at the table if you play too fast (unless you're a GREAT player).

[neilkaz]

bill1157, on May 27 2009, 05:26 AM, said:

Phil, on May 27 2009, 12:33 AM, said:

Funny that this is in the BI when 3 supposedly world class declarers muffed this hand.

But it clearly does unfortunately.

of course, i can get this as a problem, but at the table...?
Also, experts do make mistakes, maybe it was the hand before a smoke break..

Bill

This is a great hand for B/I as it is from actual play and as a good practical example of throwing a loser on a possible (ie West has the queen and overruffs dummy) loser at no cost since at most 10 tricks can be made even if there is no overruff since then the ♣ has to be lost.

Declarer should be anticipating this problem when she sees the opening lead and most certainly when the ♦ are continued.

As for W/C commentators taking their eyes off the ball here, this is no surprise as commentating online is often quite difficult when compared to sitting at the table playing the hand at their own pace and being able to put distractions out of mind.

I am often surprised at how much our commentators miss or get wrong, but they often feel rushed to say something rather than be mute. It most certainly is not an easy task. I've commentated on lots of backgammon matches online over the years, some very serious, some somewhat less so, as well as commenting in person a few times for the finals of major tourneys. Trust me when I say that also isn't easy.

Once again, IMHO this is a great hand for B/I as I think much of what is posted here for defensive or declarer play problems is quite difficult. This isn't difficult, as long as you are alert enough to see it. Seeing it is the problem ATB.

Just my opinion .. neilkaz ..

[NickRW]

Phil, on May 27 2009, 05:33 AM, said:

Funny that this is in the BI when 3 supposedly world class declarers muffed this hand.

But it clearly does unfortunately.

There is a big difference between being able to solve these sorts of problems in a setting like this forum and being able to do it with any degree of consistency at the table. This difference is. perhaps, the single biggest difference between a really good player and an average one.

Nick

[hanp]

What kind of tournament was this from? Of course experts make mistakes too, bad ones even, but this is the kind of hand where you are sort of forced to think and when you think you cannot go wrong. I would be surprised if several good players missed this.

[bb79]

hanp, on May 27 2009, 01:30 PM, said:

What kind of tournament was this from? Of course experts make mistakes too, bad ones even, but this is the kind of hand where you are sort of forced to think and when you think you cannot go wrong. I would be surprised if several good players missed this.

This was from uswbc venice cup trials, Third hand in the 2nd section of Finals&Playoffs.

The technique is called "loser on loser", I believe.

[hanp]

In that case I won't comment.

[kenrexford]

hanp, on May 27 2009, 10:53 PM, said:

In that case I won't comment.

Chicken! Letting it out sometimes helps, you know...

[helene_t]

hanp, on May 28 2009, 04:53 AM, said:

In that case I won't comment.

Too bad, I was hoping for a sexist joke

[kenrexford]

helene_t, on May 28 2009, 06:00 AM, said:

hanp, on May 28 2009, 04:53 AM, said:

In that case I won't comment.

Too bad, I was hoping for a sexist joke

To not comment, out of fear, kind of is.

[Codo]

just not funny this joke

[NickRW]

helene_t, on May 28 2009, 11:00 AM, said:

hanp, on May 28 2009, 04:53 AM, said:

In that case I won't comment.

Too bad, I was hoping for a sexist joke

Women!

[hanp]

Sorry to disappoint you Helene. Unfortunately I know some female bridge players that are both very good and very serious about the game, it makes such jokes less funny.

I didn't see a whole lot of the uswbc vugraph. I would expect many of those players to get this hand routinely right though.