[bluecalm]

There is a player in Poland, quite successful one who is known for his unethical play. He literally does everything to win. Starting from always suggesting that he took more tricks that he in fact did counting on mistake by opponents ending at some hardcore cheating.
I don't want to start discussion about what to do with people like that but I would like to present two amusing masterpieces of his:

1)
Our hero plays 3NT, and has something like:
xxx Kx AJx QJx in dummy to:
xx Axx KQxx KTxxx in hand.

The lead is small heart and it's immediately clear that the contract will need some serious help from opponents.
Our hero asks for K of ♥ from dummy and when opponent follow low he also follows and... waits...
After about 1 minute of this impatient opponent asks "it's your turn, you know ?", "Oh, sorry, I took the trick ?". THen he plays clubs and opponents, once in with A♣ tried to cash hearts - fully deserved overtrick :-)

2)
Our hero play in 6♦, hands are something like:

x AKx 9xxx KQJxx in dummy to:
xxx Qx AQTxx Axx in hand

Opponents lead A of ♠ and much to his dismay our hero - having excellent eyesight - saw KJ second in his LHO hand. It seems that there is no hope but not for truly imaginative player.
He ruffs the 2nd spade plays low diamond from dummy and seeing low from RHO exclaimed : "All hope in a finesse!" and banged down the A♦ (!!) of diamonds. Naturally opponent tried to take the trick with K[diaomonds]. Now it was enough to find an explanation for playing diamonds from top again This effort was worth another top of course.

There was a lot of discussion about those displays in polish community but the fact is this player continues to play Beware !

[Hanoi5]

A real master...

What about the Directors? Why don't they do something?

[BunnyGo]

bluecalm, on 2011-June-11, 15:12, said:

1)
Our anti-hero plays 3NT, and has something like:
xxx Kx AJx QJx in dummy to:
xx Axx KQxx KTxxx in hand.

fyp

[JLOGIC]

I heard about one where a person was in slam. He had a KJ guess basically to make. But he sought to increase his chances. He also had KQJTxx in hand opp A9xxxx in dummy of trumps. So he led the queen, it went low, he thought for 5-7 seconds and played the A, and RHO showed out. Now he muttered to himself in his native language, shook his head, and led from dummies Jx.

RHO, taken in, popped ace.

[MrAce]

Wow

[Free]

Bluecalm made me laugh.

[Vampyr]

Free, on 2011-June-14, 08:26, said:

Bluecalm made me laugh.

Well, he said the examples were amusing, so I don't think they really happened, as a) they would not be a laughing matter and b) the person would have been ruled against both times and banned after a few more incidents!

Was your guy ruled against, Justin?

[Bbradley62]

When I was a student, there was a guy like Bluecalm's anti-hero at the local club game. The LOLs all disliked him and playing against him, but the students looked forward to getting to his table because we knew to be on our toes and it frequently produced good stories for the bar afterwards.

[mfa1010]

Two good friends of mine defended this board at a world team championship tournament.

Their opponents quickly bashed 6♠ on these holdings:

Dummy:
♠Kxx, ♥x, ♦QJTxxx, ♣AQx

Declarer:
♠AQJTxxx, ♥Ax, ♦9xx, ♣x

After ♥K to the ace, declarer played ♠A and ♠J to the K. He then continued with ♦x to A, x and K...

The board made the bulletin and declarer was praised for his inventive play - trying to create an illusion to east of the defense having a spade trick. But in reality declarer's Hollywood acting at the table when the ♠K "failed" to drop the queen had been absolutely absurd.

[kenrexford]

---

I cannot recall the hand, but this was my favorite ruse, and the hands looked like this. I did not do any commentary, but it was still fabulous.

After a heart lead, won in hand, I had 8 tricks with only diamonds as a potential trick source. Hoping for the 25% play to work, I tried a club to Dummy and a small diamond toward the Queen in hand, RHO contributing the Jack or 10, covered, won by the King or Ace from LHO.

A heart came back, won in hand as RHO showed out.

Now, I crossed back to Dummy's heart Queen (establishing LHO's hearts for him) and took the spade finesse -- small Queen small. Having opened 2♣ and rebid 2NT, LHO was convinced that I had started with something like ♠AQxx ♥AKx ♦AQxx ♣Ax for my line.

This is what I hoped for as I played a small "Grue Coup" toward the diamond 9 in Dummy. Sure enough, LHO hopped with his remaining Jack or 10 in diamonds, small from Dummy, smothering remaining Ace or King from RHO.

Unfortunately, RHO, CHO, and LHO at the time were too dense to appreciate this play, and there were certainly no kibs at the table.

[Vampyr]

Your play is very nice, kenrexford, but the other hands in this thread really depress me.

[JLOGIC]

mfa1010, on 2011-June-14, 11:32, said:

Two good friends of mine defended this board at a world team championship tournament.

Their opponents quickly bashed 6♠ on these holdings:

Dummy:
♠Kxx, ♥x, ♦QJTxxx, ♣AQx

Declarer:
♠AQJTxxx, ♥Ax, ♦9xx, ♣x

After ♥K to the ace, declarer played ♠A and ♠J to the K. He then continued with ♦x to A, x and K...

The board made the bulletin and declarer was praised for his inventive play - trying to create an illusion to east of the defense having a spade trick. But in reality declarer's Hollywood acting at the table when the ♠K "failed" to drop the queen had been absolutely absurd.

LOL made the bulletin. I cannot imagine how pissed I would be.

[WellSpyder]

mfa1010, on 2011-June-14, 11:32, said:

declarer's Hollywood acting at the table when the ♠K "failed" to drop the queen had been absolutely absurd.

I hope the TD imposed a fine. OK, the oppo weren't taken in, but this is still cheating, isn't it?

[jIall]

Obv it's cheating...I think you read the story wrong though, the opps crashed the diamond honors.

[nige1]

I'm reluctant to call the director so I can't criticise others who fail to draw attention to possible infractions, when they occur. If we haven't called the director at the time, however, should we publicise the incident later? No director had a chance to establish all the facts and our version of events may be one-sided.

Perhaps, the lesson is to call the director when we encounter what we suspect may be an irregularity.

Still these anecdotes are funny

[WellSpyder]

jIall, on 2011-June-15, 07:13, said:

I think you read the story wrong though, the opps crashed the diamond honors.

Oops, so I did - thanks. Somehow I thought ♦x to A and ♦x to K were two different tricks.

Quote

Obv it's cheating...

OK, good. Like Vampyr, I would feel a bit more comfortable if there was any evidence that the miscreants were punished. Of course, declarer's line is indeed quite a good one provided it is followed without any histrionics.

[ggwhiz]

In the wild old 70's when I started to play I was told by a guy that played in a sectional pairs in NYC as an out of towner that North ripped up the signed score when he left the table and wrote out a new one.

After the game he told the Director "Hey that's not our score it should be +200".

The Director found the slip, looked over to see who the other pair was and corrected it without consulting them.

[1eyedjack]

ggwhiz, on 2011-June-15, 09:08, said:

In the wild old 70's when I started to play I was told by a guy that played in a sectional pairs in NYC as an out of towner that North ripped up the signed score when he left the table and wrote out a new one.

After the game he told the Director "Hey that's not our score it should be +200".

The Director found the slip, looked over to see who the other pair was and corrected it without consulting them.

Similar story:

First game in a new club having moved into the area, by a bizarre fluke on one hand bid and made 3NT sitting E/W after a truly attrocious defence, when every other table bid and made 3NT by N/S.
When the director scored it up, he just assumed that the E/W making score was mis-scored and simply adjusted it to 3N making by N/S without referring to any of the parties at the table.
This was duly noticed by the E/W pair when the travellers etc were posted on the club noticeboard. E/W complained, and the scorer said, OK, just get N/S to agree the correct score and the results will be changed.
Only, N/S then denied the facts!

[Vampyr]

1eyedjack, on 2011-June-15, 09:30, said:

E/W complained, and the scorer said, OK, just get N/S to agree the correct score and the results will be changed.
Only, N/S then denied the facts!

This should not matter. The director had no right to change the score in the first place, so he is required to change it back no matter what N/S say.

[1eyedjack]

Vampyr, on 2011-June-15, 09:47, said:

This should not matter. The director had no right to change the score in the first place, so he is required to change it back no matter what N/S say.

Yes I know. Just reporting what happened. Not excusing it.