[TylerE]

Wonder who sold my info...

[Phil]

I got an email from them too today. 1st one ever

And not even a good hand....

[G_R__E_G]

I got one too. I don't consider one e-mail to be "spam" but maybe I'm less sensitive about these things than some. I'm assuming they've scraped e-mail addresses off of the ACBL site but I could be wrong.

PS I agree 100% with Phil, what a horrible example hand to try to sell a service.

[Rossoneri]

Glad I didn't get spammed, but now I'm curious as to how bad aforementioned hand is!

[G_R__E_G]

Here's the link to it from the e-mail that I received: www.vubridge.com/featured104.aspx

It's not even so much that the hand is a poor one (it's not all that bad). My main issue is that the interface isn't even close to mediocre. I think if you're expecting people to pay for a service, you'd better make sure that your website looks professional. The way this looks brings into question all of the other work that they do.

[matmat]

 G_R__E_G, on 2011-July-11, 12:15, said:

Here's the link to it from the e-mail that I received: www.vubridge.com/featured104.aspx

It's not even so much that the hand is a poor one (it's not all that bad).

I would have liked to have seen one where ducking guarantees the contract.

[AlexJonson]

No

[kenberg]

I hate to sound dense but I find the hand pretty interesting. If the club finesse works then there is no problem so assume that it fails. Ducking pretty much guarantees the hand will be set if E finds the spade switch, right? One diamond, three spades and the club. If the 6 is a true card from a four card suit, E holding Q53 and the king of clubs might well find the switch reasoning that unless diamonds are really running then returning a diamond will give declarer the timing to set up clubs for a probable nine tricks.

Not clear at all, to me, but depending on a diamond continuation could get you set on a cold hand.

Now they don't really go into the question of how you should decide whether to hold up, but I think the hand is both interesting and representative of a situation that comes up pretty often.

I have often found hands in the literature that I think are more interesting than planned. Or am I missing something?

[Rain]

The owner and creator of this site is an active BBOer, and has posted in BBF before too. He would have seen the emails from the email fields or (hopefully not) trawled it.

[kenberg]

Personally, I meant no disrespect by my post. I have often thought that it would be interesting to have a thread in which we discuss (presumed) overlooked aspects of hands in the literature. I may start such a thread sometime.

An author has to accept that not everyone will praise everything that he writes. I try to always be aware of the many errors that I have made but that should not stop us from making assessments of what others present.

[Phil]

 Rain, on 2011-July-11, 14:35, said:

The owner and creator of this site is an active BBOer, and has posted in BBF before too. He would have seen the emails from the email fields or (hopefully not) trawled it.

Is this a nice way to say, "trawling emails on this site violates its rules"?

[semeai]

 kenberg, on 2011-July-11, 14:29, said:

I hate to sound dense but I find the hand pretty interesting. If the club finesse works then there is no problem so assume that it fails. Ducking pretty much guarantees the hand will be set if E finds the spade switch, right? One diamond, three spades and the club. If the 6 is a true card from a four card suit, E holding Q53 and the king of clubs might well find the switch reasoning that unless diamonds are really running then returning a diamond will give declarer the timing to set up clubs for a probable nine tricks.

Even with the actual hand, East should find the spade switch, I think, assuming the auction was 1NT-3NT.

 kenberg, on 2011-July-11, 15:12, said:

Personally, I meant no disrespect by my post. I have often thought that it would be interesting to have a thread in which we discuss (presumed) overlooked aspects of hands in the literature. I may start such a thread sometime.

Here's a good one, in a way. It's a reprinting of a letter to the editor in The Bridge World by Phillip Martin regarding one of Andrew Robson's published deals.

[kenberg]

Quote

Even with the actual hand, East should find the spade switch, I think, assuming the auction was 1NT-3NT.

Agreed. Partner has maybe five points and declarer is not holding up with Kxx so declarer has the ace. Getting to the established diamonds will be impossible. There is just barely room for partner to have the Jack of spades but go for it!

As near as I can see, one should take the first trick. With two cards out lower than the six, the suit may well be 5-2. But holding up should lead to a set regardless of how the diamonds split.

Or so I say looking at the hands. At the table it might be different.

Anyway, I think it's a fine hand.