Justin Lall

Also October 26, 2011

Since I’m being accused of misplaying 3N X I would like to add that I went down 1. If it seems impossible to go down 2 it’s usually a vugraph operator error.

SF Set 4 October 26, 2011

We lost 31 this set, so we’re up 20. Anyone’s game!

SF Set 2 October 25, 2011

We picked up 23, including our teammates making a slam off two cashing aces! We are now up 6, one more set for the day, then three more tomorrow.

SF Set 1 October 25, 2011

We lost 27 in the first set, so including carryover we’re down 17. We got unlucky on a board that there was a swing on a 50/50 slam and we lost it, but that’s bridge. Ideally all of those boards are pushes, or we win the swing! I am sitting out the second set.

Semi Finals! October 24, 2011

We picked up 28 in the 2nd set, and 2 more in the last set, to win by 41.5. The boards in the second set were really crazy. Overall Joe and I played well, but definitely could have been better. Hopefully we play a tighter match against USA 1 tomorrow. It should be a great match, Levin and Weinstein are both really good friends, and one of the best pairs in the world. We start with a 10 imp carryover.

Set 4 October 24, 2011

We lost 7 this set, so we’re up 11.3 with 32 boards to play.

Set 3 October 23, 2011

We sat out the third and our teammates played great and picked up 32. We are now up 17.3. Three more sets of the quarter final, they have seating rights the first and second.

Set 2 October 23, 2011

We had a brutal set against Bjorn and Peter. Our teammates had a great set, so we picked up 8 and are down 14.3. Thanks guys, I love you!!!!

Here was a tough hand I had:

7xx
Jxx
KTxx
KJ9

AQT8x
AQxx
Ax
AQ

We have a bidding accident and get to 5S. They lead the C2, third and fifth. What do you do?

I chose to win in dummy and planned to take 2 spade finesses. When I played a spade up, RHO played the king. Now what?

If the king is an honest card, your best chance is an endplay. If hearts split, you can strip out the hearts and club, ruff out a diamond, and come down to QT8 of spades in your hand. You exit a spade and LHO must win.

What if RHO played the SK from K9 or KJ? This is a “routine” play from a great player like Fallenius. If so, I risk him ruffing the heart with the 9 of spades and going down. Also, in the endgame described, if I exit the wrong card (the T or the 8), I will go down.

After much deliberation I opted to play the SQ. Hearts were 3-3 so the endplay was on, and RHO just had stiff SK. Oh well.

QF Set 1 October 23, 2011

We lost 19 the first set, so we are down 22.3 including the carryover

Interesting Post from BBF October 22, 2011

USViking from the BBO forums made an interesting post about how the semifinalists did against each other here:

The Netherlands had the best record in head-to-head competition between the eight semifinalist teams;

W-L-T

6-0-1 Netherlands
4-1-2 USA 2
3-2-2 Italy
3-3-1 Israel
3-3-1 Iceland
3-4-0 USA 1
1-5-1 Sweden
0-5-2 China

The Netherlands also led in semifinalist internal VP ratio, a number which correlates well with the WLT standings:

VP/opponents VP

1.692 Netherlands
1.261 USA 2
1.019 Italy
1.019 Israel
1.000 Iceland
0.927 USA 1
0.720 China
0.680 Sweden

Of course, we are playing the one team we lost to!