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After playing in the Teams events at the recent Peninsula Congress and the NSBC@Lindfield Restricted Congress, I thought I would try and understand and then explain how the extra report on the individual pairs performance is constructed.
Those lucky enough to be playing West should have enjoyed playing board 19. It must be the strongest hand i have ever been dealt. Who says we never get good cards!?
I almost opened 7D but calmed down and opened 2C following the principle of slow arrival. One doesn't know if S or D will be the better fit. My partner Susan responded 2H with 8 HCP and a 5 card suit. (One declarer opened 6D and their partner passed).
I decided to show my S suit first (it is a 6 card suit after all) even though it is shorter and bid 2S. Partner responded 2NT, nothing more to say, and I rebid 3D. Partner, perhaps surprisingly, showed a preference for S (otherwise I would have rebid S to show extra length). So 7S it was.
Board 9 from the Slam Dunk evening game on Tue 24 Aug 2021 - what do you bid? Whether you open this hand 1C or 2, 3, 4 or 5C might make all the difference.
All the tables played this hand in a slam contract, but the results were nonetheless dispersed. The pairs playing 6C shared a bottom board. Even bidding and making 7C did not get you the prize.
You needed to bid and make 7NT to get a good score - and three tables did, including club members Len Evershed and Bruce McDonald who won the night with a great score of 67.41%. Click on Read More below to see the full hand - and their bidding.
I feel the need to explain further the process and problems with masterpoints (MPs) - what follows supplements my earlier explanatory article.
Why aren't Pianola's MPs always accurate?
I have fielded many queries this year from players who assume their Pianola email is always accurate in reporting masterpoints. Timely it may be, but always accurate - not so much...
It came to my attention that no one teaches new players about masterpoints (MPs) or the progression through the Australian Bridge Federation (ABF) levels. So here is some information for you.
In Australia there are 3 kinds of masterpoints. Green, Red, and Gold.
The current SALT teams competition is being scored using VPs or Victory Points. Probably none of us in the staircase division knew what these were so I asked Robin Devries and this article is an amplification of his explanation - thanks Robin!
VPs are a teams scoring system developed by the World Bridge Federation to ensure that each IMP scored by a team was important but not necessarily of equal value. It is a sliding scale so that a small difference in IMPs between the two teams is worth more VPs than the extra VPs scored from a large IMP difference. In other words, diminishing returns set in.
- How BBO displays the results of Teams matches
- What is a hand really worth?
- Book Review - Matchpoint Tricks
- Book Review - Improvers Bridge
- Of matchpoints and percentages
- Book Review - Various
- Book Review - Weak 2s
- Book Review - The Language of Bidding
- Book Review - Takeout Double
- Book Review - Inferences at Bridge
