Diplomacy zine -- Chapter Eight EP #241 From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com Date: Sun, 02 Jun 1991 02:57:38 +0000 Issue #241 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL: ************************************************************************* Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, "Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals ... Now did the Lord say, "First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it." ************************************************************************* Chapter One contains: BAGHDAD, AUSTERLITZ, BLITZKRIEG II, KING'S GAMBIT, PASSCHENDAELE, DRAGONS, BLACK OCTOBER, OPERATION DESERT STORM, THE SOMME And is published by uunet!cti1!rlister or rlister@cti.com/Russ Lister Chapter Two contains: REPUBLIC, BORODINO, KHAN, SUTHERLAND And is published by sinhaa@mcmaster.ca/Anand Sinha Chapter Three contains: SQUALANE, BRUSILOV OFFENSIVE, CULLODEN, GANDALF'S REVENGE, GOODBYE BLUE SKY, MASTERS OF DECEIT, PANDORA, NOW AND ZEN And is published by mad-2@kub.nl/Constantijn Wekx Chapter Four contains: DEADLY DAGGERS, MONTREUIL-SUR-MER, FIRE WHEN READY, THUNDERDOME, BEREZINA, FONTENOY And is published by daguru@ucscb.ucsc.edu/Nicholas Jodar Chapter Five contains: YALTA, AJAX And is published by ddetlef@csd4.csd.uwm.edu/David Aaron Detlef Chapter Six contains: BERLIN WALL, HIROSHIMA, GENGHIS KHAN, SEA LION, VIOLENT PEACE, GIBRALTAR And is published by barry@brahms.udel.edu/Barry Fausnaugh. Chapter Seven contains: TIBERIUS, BETELGEUSE, IRON CROSS, TEUNISGEK, RIYADH'S RECKONING And is published by staats@ucscb.UCSC.EDU/Robert Staats. Chapter Eight contains: HELM'S DEEP, GROUND ZERO, TIBERIUS, BETELGEUSE, IRON CROSS GUERNICA, TEUNISGEK, WOLF BLITZER ------------- Chapter Seven ------------- Table of Contents: Automating this zine. 1990 MELINDA ANN HOLLEY AWARD Letter from Mark Nelson BRIDGE(*) ISSUE THREE (15.5.91) ---- I received the following from loeb@nestor.greco-prog.fr/Daniel Loeb: Just like Ken, I wonder exactly WHAT you want automized. If all you want is a beep everytime you don't get the word "AUSTERLITZ" in your mail for over a month. Then a filter together with an "at" job grepping your mail is all you need. What I suggest however is the following: (1) You urge all games to be formed and played on the JUDGE. (a) You START by finding a GM (or put yourself in as GM with the intention of later being replaced). (b) The JUDGE takes care of signups. (c) You should advertise the game's existance in your regular postings of openings in EP. However, such data will be EASY to summarize grace to the LIST command on the JUDGE. (d) All players who sign up or ask how to sign up should be given a copy of the EP.HOUSE.RULES file (JUDGE version). (e) Before the game starts, the Guest Publisher should signon as an observer. (f) You should be signed on to the "pseudo-game" CONTROL. The allows you to see messages indicated what games are having problems even if the players, GM, and Guest Publisher don't report them to you. (2) Some players might prefer not to use the JUDGE. In that case, the GM should collect the signups, and orders directly from the players and submit it to the JUDGE for them. From the point-of-view of the players this is just like a non-JUDGE game except that the results will contain LESS errors. From you point of view, you will automatically be warned of any problems via the game CONTROL, and the Guest Publisher and other observers will continue to automatically get results. In fact, anti-JUDGE players could play with pro-JUDGE players in such a game. The only one who losses out in this story in the GM who might now have some additional email handling to do. (3) If the GM doesn't want to use the JUDGE, consider getting a different GM, or use your current system on an exceptional basis to keep track of that one game. (4) Some variants are not yet accepted by the JUDGE. If that is the case, then contact Ken Lowe and see if he can add that variant. Otherwise, continue using your current system of running the Electronic Protocol for these variants. (5) Ongoing EP games CAN be transferred to the JUDGE if you like. (However, there is little point transferring a game that is almost finished.) Once you have adopted all of these measures. The JUDGE will be much bigger and much more efficient. At that point, if you still want more control over the games or if Ken Lowe's JUDGE becomes saturated, then you would AT THAT POINT consider compiling a copy of the JUDGE on your computer and running some of the games there instead. Any questions, just ask.... Yours, Daniel Loeb, Master, Austerlitz,Berezina,Guadal,Jutland,Tiberius (ongoing) Cannes,Hastings,Koursk (forming) Greece, Fontenoy Germany, Iron Cross "Pas de Panique" E-MAIL loeb@nestor.greco-prog.fr HOME 150, cours Victor-Hugo; Appt B21, 33000 Bordeaux France WORK Departement de Mathematiques et d'Informatique, Univ. de Bordeaux I, 351 cours de la Liberation, 33405 Talence Cedex France PHONE(H)+(33) 56 31 48 26, (W)+(33) 56 84 69 05, (FAX) +(33) 56 04 35 13 My response: What does my readership think of Danny's idea? I need to find a way to keep track of how games are going. My method of publishing results in chapters no longer works because too many games are running plus I am unable to find enough reliable publishers who will tell me if a game is having problems. 1990 MELINDA ANN HOLLEY AWARD I am pushing Dave McCrumb for this award because he is a great guy. Please send a vote for him to Ron Cameron, 8781 Walker St. #13, Cypress, CA 90630. If just 10% of this zine's readers responded, he would win. This would be a great way to show the power of the PBEM hobby. The PBM hobby doesn't take us seriously, and I would love to show them that e-mail is the way to play Diplomacy, not snail mail! Again, please vote, it would be fun if we won! From: AMT5MAN@cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk/Mark Nelson: > > " Namely that freddom of information is wider in the States than in the > UK. ... SO whilst I agree with you that the media went too far I won't join > in the media bashing...you have yet to suggest a practical alternative > to our present system." > > I think the military should remove propaganda restrictions such as showing > dead Americans or even dead Iraqis but at the same time it should make > sure that CNN reports don't help the Iraqis with their targeting. MN: Was the decision not to show dead soldiers a 'millitart decision'? I suspect it was a political decision. Bringing home the realities of war does not tend to increase public support for a war. The public must be kept misinformed at all times. > "Perhaps we should resign ourselves to the fact that in 'times of need' > the Goverment is going to want to keep us ignorant and accordingly impose > censorship." > > Trusting the government is not a sane thing to do. MN: True, but is there an alternative? > > "A direct result of knocking out most of the Iraqii generating power is > to create conditions ripe for the spreed of epedimics which could kill > thousands (tens of thousands?)." > > This is not a direct result. Without a civil war, most of these people > would have lived. And destroying the infrastructure helped the rebels > as the government was unable to coordinate its actions quickly. MN: If this isn't a direct result, I don't know what is...Without a civil war I suspect that most of these people would still have died, Saddam would have been able to eliminate many of his enemies by not providing support. But I am arguing here against something I am in favour of. The war waa just. Mark. From: AMT5MAN@cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk/Mark Nelson BRIDGE(*) ISSUE THREE (15.5.91) ROUND ROBIN BRIDGE (by AMT5MAN AT cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk) BRIDGE is an email fanzine produced by Mark Nelson and distributed directly by him and through Eric Klien's ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL (Eric_S_Klien@com.portal.cup). Incidentally I couldn't think of a startling original name for this column so if anyone has any suggestions.... The next issue (hopefully with more contributors!) will appear when there is sufficient material. Last issue I said that this issue would be out in a week, what's happened? Simple an unhealthy amount of work. Although I've had the material for this issue for a long time I haven't been able to find the time to put it together. Today, my Supervisor goes to the States for a jolly and I've promised to get a load of computing done for when he gets back; didn't tell him it was bridge... WHO'S WHO OF BRIDGE. Since I am the only person who knows a little about everyone on the mailing list I think it would be worthwhile preparing a seperate file giving brief details on all the readers. This might also encourage direct contact between you. This file would be sent to all new readers and updatted each year. I'll prepare sample character descriptions and mail these out separately, it's up to you to prepare your own description or get what I give you| Where somebody mailed in comments on a previous hand I've reprinted everything that has so far appeared on that hand. I'd better not say that the next issue will be out in a week, but I'll try and put it together fairly soon. I'd like to drop large chunks out of this issue, so if you have any comments on any of the early hands get then in now| 4. A leading Question by Rob Douglas (maprjd AT UK.AC.BATH.GDR) What would you lead,as East, after the following auction? Love All West North East South You hold S AJ9642 1C x 1S 2D H T74 ---- 2N ---- 3N D 84 ---- ---- ----- C J6 MARK NELSON I would lead CJ. In these situations I feel that it is almo always better to lead partner's suit and the JC stands out. I would only lead a suit I had bid in preference to partner' suit in exceptional circumstances. ************************************************************************* SO WHAT HAPPENED? ROB TELLS ALL||| Hand 1 S KQ107 H KJ83 D 32 C Q103 S void S AJ9642 **************************** H 652 H T74 **** Partner led the **** D QJ75 D 8474 **** S6 and the contract *** C AK9875 C J6 **** made... **** **************************** South S 853 H AQ9 D AK1096 C 42 STUART DAGGER HAS A DIFFERENT VIEW... STUART DAGGER I can't help wondering what circumstances you do consider exceptional if 6 to the AJ9 is not. The opposition have gone to 3NT on less than 25 points and are clearly hoping to make it by running the diamond suit. The initial NT bidder is sitting under you and over your partner and in making his bid will have had greater regard for your partner's suit and values than for yours. A club lead is what he is expecting. He is, of course, aware that you have 5 spades, but he doesn't know that they are that good. Kx, Qx or Txx in your partner's hand is sufficient to kill this contract, and so I would lead my fourth highest spade. Either of us could be right on this particular hand; there are no universal laws in bridge. Nonetheless, I am going to be right more often than you on this one. When the opposition have gone 3NT on length rather than values, you should attack and try to get your suit set up before they get theirs. Leading a club is too defensive; had partner's suit been that wonderful, he'd have doubled. The situation I am hoping for is that with something like Txx in partner's hand, one of declarer's spade honours will be driven out on the first round, leaving the other at the mercy of a second spade from partner through to my AJ. The suit will then run if declarer only began with three. The trouble with clubs is that on this bidding I would expect the opposition to have them stopped twice and that they won't need to go out that often to set up their 9 tricks. With a diamond suit like this one sounds, it is usually a question of once out and then run for home. Best wishes Stuart ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ 5. "Here's A Declarer Play Problem" By Rob Douglas! NS Game. West North East South ---- ---- 1S 2C 2S 3C ---- 3H ---- 4H ---- 5C ---- ---- ---- DECLARER DUMMY S A72 A 5 The lead is the spade Queen. H KJ8 H A652 D 10 D KJ6532 C AK8763 C Q10 MARK NELSON Win with the Ace of Spades and then ruff a Spade with the CT. Play a small diammond towards the 10. Assume a trump is played back. Run J diammonds either discarding a Spade or ruffing if covered. Then ruff a diammond with C8. The contract should now be made! I think this line should be OK against any line of defence. If it isn't than Rob will doubtless tell me where it goes wr and we'll have to see if I can rescue the contract from ther ************************************************************************* HOW DID YOU DO? HERE'S THE SOLUTION.... For a reason only known to himself Rob has moved the hands around.... S K9864 H 107 D A7 C J942 North S 5 S A72 H A652 H KJ8 D KJ6532 D 10 C Q10 C AK8763 South S QJ103 H Q943 D Q984 C 5 Sally Horton suggests the following line of play in 5C; Win the spade lead, run the 10D. If North returns a spade,declarer ruffs cashes the KD pitching a spade, cashes the QC, ruffs a diamond and plays trumps. South is squeezed in the red suits. My partner was hampered by the 1S bid, but it makes good sense to run the diamond ten at trick 2. It is a mistake to ruff a spade early on. When oppo get in they can force you to ruff another spade in dummy. True, you can still get home with a trump coup against a 4-1 break, but there is no reason to play for it. (See actual hand). Also running the 10D is better than leading towards it. Admittedly North's psyche does make the hand harder. The good thing about your line is that you definitely make 10 tricks - partner only made 9! MARK....OK I got it completely wrong...I just decided to play the trumps to be 3-2 and didn't even consider the possibility of the 4-1 break. I should have followed Bobby Fischer's advice, which was...."You've found a good move, that's good; go back and think of a better one. What was Sally Horton doing to hand there? ********************88888********************************************** 6 ROB'S Last Question! How do you play 4NT (no opposition bidding) on the lead of 7S (top of a 4-card suit) remembering that this is pairs! DUMMY MARK NELSON. Win the spade with S8 and run the Queen of S QJ3 Clubs, covering the King if played by West and then play H QJ5 the Ten of Clubs. If the Queen wins, finesse the Club 10 D K87 If it losees and a Heart is returned then put up the Ace C AT93 finesse the Club 10. *********************************************************** DECLARER **** ROB'S ANSWER *** S AK983 **** *** H A3 **** Wining the spade in hand, then a spade to the *** D AQ42 **** table and leading a club towards the Queen looks *** C Q5 **** best. This gives excellent squeeze opportunities *** **** after a Vienna Coup or two. Partner made 11 *** *********************************************************** ROB HAS SOME ADDITIONAL COMMENTS I cannot remember partner's line - what I do remember is that I didn't like it much ( he didn't tackle clubs, and just established a heart for 11 tricks). What I like about my line is that if the indirect club finesse fails, it doesn't matter if oppo leads hearts. If the KC appears, I have 11 tricks already, and excellent squeeze chances ( the long diamonds with either KH or JC - incidentally my original line should have read "win first spade in dummy, and lead a club towards queen").Your line is fine, but if the QC falls to the king,and a heart is led, I guess you try a second club finesse - this could lead to only 10 tricks. 7. A PROBLEM TAKEN FROM THE DAILY MAIL By Mark Nelson. The Contract is 3NT and the lead is S5 by North, SOuth playing SK. S AJ9 S Q H Q62 H KT43 D Q63 D KJ952 C AQJ4 C KT3 ROB DOUGLAS The main danger is SOuth holding AT8x, so an obvious line i Win the Spade Ace Club to the 10 Diammond to the Queen Club to the King Heart to the Queen (the above assumes the DA does not appea The only set-up where the avoidance play is going to come unstuck is when North has 5-2-4-2 with the red suit Aces and the diammond ten, I think this is unlikely, so put me down for the Avoidance play. If the Hea are Ax vs J98x it is pretty dodgy. Otherwise we can set up another diamm at our leisure. PER WESTLING Win with Spade Ace and play low Club to ten on table. Play low diammond towards Q. If South goes up with the Ace I have 9 tricks (3D, 2S &4C) so if he has the Ace he plays low, DQ, if North wins with the Ace he has no winning play (a spade gives the contract and other I can play a heart to make 1H, 2S, 2D, 4C) so the Queen will probably hold that trick. I then enter dummy by playing CJ to CK and play a small heart towards the Q. South has to play small if he has the Ace (else he gives me the contract) so in the case the HQ holds the trick so I can safely play a diammond to secure the contract (if N plays DA and then heart at most the defence can take 2H +1D). Therefore the only difficulty is if North has the HA and plays it. The best continuation is another heart. I win it and play a high diammond. Regarless who wins at most the defence get one more heart trick (either it's 3-3, or if it's 4-2 (5-1) the HT will protect the Hearts). This will give 2S, 1H, 2D, 4C for 9 tricks. Oh, there are more difficulties if North returns a club after HA. I cash the Clubs and then a high diammond. If this wins another diammond (if that also wins I cash HK for the 9th trick), if North wins then he can't return a Spade without giving me the contract: H return, go up with the King and continue with diammonds and the oppo must give me my 9th trick sometime; D return will raise d tricks...if SOuth wins and exits with a Spade I can win with SQ and cash high diamond (if necessary) with HK as entry to dummy. I think I covered all the possibilities although I don't have the problem to hand as I write this so the last part may be not quite right. 10. A SMOOTH PLAY IN TIME ...IS WORTH A TRICK OR TWO IN HAND?! Paul Cockayne (who does not have an email address!) Rob Douglas' hand in the last MOS (my snail-mail zine) reminded of an unhappy story from Nottingham Bridge Club some years ago. In an identical end position: AQJ East, last to discard, parted with --- 2S smoothly. I knew the distribution --- but not the position of KS, so had the --- choice of the Spade finesse or dropping the now singleton King to T93 K2 make the two tricks I needed. --- QJ --- -- I knew East, and was convinced that --- -- he wasn't good enough to bare his 76 King smoothly. I therefore took the 5 finesse, going two off. --- --- I swallowed my pride and turned to East "You did well to bare your King of Spades so smoothly", I congratualted him. He smiled "Yes, I gave you a chance to make that" he replied, evidently oblivious to the end play. "I meant to discard s heart but I pulled out the wrong card!" 11 A TRICKY 3NT CONTRACT Another hand taken from the DAILY MAIL, but an interesting hand which I always seem to get wrong whenever I look at it. Let's see how you fare... WEST EAST WEST has reached 3NT, after South dealt and passed. S Q6 AT84 North leads 2C which South wins with the King, then H K95 AQJT plays the Ace and another club for North to cash two D AQJ32 T4 more clubs and then exits with a heart. (You discard C J85 T97 a spade from dummy and a heartfrom hand, as does Dealer South South). How do you plan the play? 12 Captain Sputnik comes to the rescue... A hand from a duplicate this term when good ol'e Sputnik came in handy although there were play problems to overcome.... The contract is 5C by South on (I think) a Spade lead. NORTH The bidding was... S W N E (1) 6/7pts+ and at 1H 1S *(1) 3S least 4-4 in the S 984 5C -- -- -- minors. H T5 D K853 C KT83 Sitting South 5C had seemed a good bid (especially as it ennabled me to play a COntract...a rare event). Now all I had to do was to make the contract... S ---- H AKJ876 D AQT C J654 Finally I thought that this might be of interest to some people (those that enjoy discussing bidding). Tony and I both went to a Conferrence in Cambridge and agreed to play Bridge one night. Here's what Tony suggested.....comments on how we played next time. 14 MORE ON EMAIL BRIDGE...previous information on email bridge was contained in section 8 which was last printed in Issue Two. As it was fairly lengthy I am NOT going to reprint it. From: clegg@fi.oulu.tolsun (Matthew Tran Clegg/VTT) Subject: how to get the okbridge program Sender: clegg@fi.oulu.tolsun How To Obtain the Okbridge Program --- -- ------ --- -------- ------- These instructions describe how to copy the okbridge program from the internet and unpack it. I assume you have some familiarity with the basics of the UNIX operating system. The program can be obtained by 'anonymous ftp' from the following machine: machine: tolsun.oulu.fi (128.214.5.6) filename: okbridge.tar.Z directory: pub/unix Ftp is a common program which is used for retrieving files from a remote computer over the network. Ftp programs vary from system to system, but a typical ftp session for retrieving the okbridge program might look as follows: 1* % ftp tolsun.oulu.fi 2 Connected to tolsun.oulu.fi. 3 220 tolsun.oulu.fi FTP server ... 4* Name (tolsun.oulu.fi:clegg): anonymous 5 331 Guest login ok, send ident (your email address) as password. 6* Password: 7 230-Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. 8* ftp> cd pub/unix 9 250 CWD command successful. 10* ftp> binary 11 200 Type set to I. 12* ftp> get okbridge.tar.Z 13 200 PORT command successful. 14 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for okbridge.tar.Z (73459 bytes). 15 226 Transfer complete. 16 local: okbridge.tar.Z remote: okbridge.tar.Z 17 73459 bytes received in .68 seconds (1.1e+02 Kbytes/s) 18* ftp> quit 19 221 Goodbye. The above is an example ftp session. I've put line numbers in the lefthand margin, and an asterisk after those line numbers where you must type input on that line. The first line invokes the ftp program. If your machine does not know about tolsun.oulu.fi, then you may need to replace this line with % ftp 128.214.5.6 The fourth line requests you to enter your account name for the machine tolsun.oulu.fi. You type 'anonymous' here -- this explains partially where the term 'anonymous ftp' comes from. On line six, the ftp program is requesting a password. Here it is customary to type your full internet address, for example, clegg@tolsun.oulu.fi. On the succeeding lines (8, 10, 12, 18) you should just type exactly what is shown after the 'ftp>' prompt. If these instructions do not work for you, then you should first consult the system manual page on ftp, by typing % man ftp If this does not help, then try consulting a local guru. There is a lot of variation in the ftp programs out there, and I am only familiar with our local version. So I am afraid I cannot be of much help beyond this point. Once you have obtained the file okbridge.tar.Z, you will need to unpack it. This can be done with the following two commands: % uncompress okbridge.tar.Z % tar -xf okbridge.tar These commands will create a directory named 'okb'. The okbridge package will be stored in the subdirectories of this directory. The next step is to look at the file README in the directory okb. This will give further guidance about how to compile and run the program. Good luck with it! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Clegg email: clegg@tolsun.oulu.fi phone: +358 81 222 482 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 A HAND FROM THE CHARITY CHALLENGE CUP: ROB DOUGLAS HAND 9 Dealer North EW vul NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST pass(1) 2S(2)pass pass (1) Not a bid I would recommend| 3H pass 3N pass (2) Weak, six cards, 5-9 pts. 4H all pass North South(Dummy) S void S K109654 The lead is the 8H. What now? Tony and I H AQJ10953 H K were E-W on this deal..no partnership D Q D KJ105 sniping| C 109832 C K7 ========================================================================= 16 A BIDDING PROBLEM FROM ROB DOUGLAS Dealer South, Love all SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST (1) 8PT in hearts. pass 2H(1) 3C pass pass 3S 4C 4S 5C 5H 6C ? East Hand S AQJ653 H void D 98732 C 74 6S or double? If you double , what do you lead? MN: If I double I lead S6, partner must have KS for his 3S bid and he must be made to win the first trick so he can switch to a Heart. How many is 6C going down and can we make 6S? That's the question. I'm not sure we can make 6H. Would North have bid 6C with two or more hearts? The heart suit might be 7-5-1. Does partner have AD and AC? With AD he might have bid 5D and not 5H. So I double. (At teams there is a greater incentive to bid 6S, but not at pairs) ========================================================================= 17 A hand from Per Westling (c85perwe Playing teams I picked up the following hand as South (N-S vul, N dealt) S x H KJ9x D AKQ87x C xx Partner opened 1C (10-12 balanced or 17+), Carrot. I bid 1H (8+, 4+ Hearts), and partner replied 1S (10-12 4 Spades or 17+ and exectly 5 Spades). Now I bid 3D (Canape', non-forcing to the 10-12) and was surprised when partner bid 3S (17+ and 5 Spades). What to bid now? Well, I chose 4NT Blackwood, and got 5D (1 or 4 Aces out of 5 [SK the fifth Ace|). As this should be 4 I bid 6D (even if not I might make it with the wrong lead). Partner thought some time and bid 6S, which I almost expected and bid 6NT which became the final contract. Lead: CT, dummy showed up with: PERS HAND DUMMY S x S AKxxxx H KJ9x H Ax D AKQ87x D Jx C xx C AQx How do you play this? I thought the contract would make if the club finesse held, or if the heart finesse did (with an extra chance of squeezing east or west) so I played CQ to the CK. East thought some time and returned D5. How do you continue? I played D8 if the diamonds split 0-5 and they did (West dicarding club)? Well, how do you continue? The clubs are probably 7-1 as East didn't continue but you can't be sure. I continued small D to DJ and cashed CA, continued HA and small H to King! And played down the diamonds squeezing west as she held: S QJT H Q9x D -- C JT9xxxx Better would have been to cash SA and SK, DJ and play HA, HK and all the diamonds as you will make it with the actual distribution and also if west is holding HQ _or_ long spade. But then you must be sure that west holds seven clubs. A disastrious return by East! 6D will make if you get the same lead and starts with CA as you can discard the club looser, but when CK drops it should be easy even with D0-5. Well, did we win this board? No! At the other table they played 6S which is unbeatable with the actual distibution. MN: I 'played' the hand the way that you played it, I didn't consider the optimal line. Nicely played, it would be easy not to insert a middle diamond and just let it run to the Jack. This would be a disaster| -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 A BIDDING SYSTEM FROM PER WESTLING Here's a system that might interest you. Found it on the net: From: danny@orthanc.cs.su.OZ.AU (Daniel Yee) Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge Subject: a sophisticated relay system Date: 19 Mar 91 01:00:38 GMT Reply-To: danny@basser.cs.su.OZ.AU (Danny Yee) Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia MOSCITO - major oriented strong club system Moscito is a symmetric relay system designed by Paul Marston. The version I describe is that of Peter Buchen (lecturer in applied maths at Sydney University) OPENING BIDS 1C 15+ hcp, any shape 1D 10-14 hcp no 4+ card major 1H 10-14 hcp, 4+ hearts, <4 spades 1S 10-14 hcp, 4+ spades, <4 hearts 1NT 10-14 hcp, 4+ hearts and 4+ spades 2C 6-9 weak two in a major 2D 7-10, 55 in the majors 2H 7-10, 5+ hearts, 5+ minor 2S 7-10, 5+ spades, 5+ minor 2NT 7-10, 55 in the minors 3C, etc normal preempts In the part-score zone the idea is to find a major fit as quicly as posible in an attempt to keep the opponents out of the auction. So a single raise of a 1H, 1S or 1NT opening is a constructive raise with 8-11 hcp and 3 card support (or 4 card support with a flat hand). The point requirements for all openings bids are increased by 2 hcp in third or forth seat (partner has already denied 10 hcp). Responses to 1C 1C 1D 0-8 hcp negative 1H 9+ with 4+ spades 1S 9+ with 4+ hearts, <4 spades 1NT 9+ with 4+ diamonds, <4 spades, <4 hearts 2C 9-11 hcp balanced 2D START OF SINGLE suiter scheme (showing clubs when bid immediately) 2H+ 5-8 with 6,7, or 8 card suits The reponses are inverted so that the right hand is more likely to end up playing the contract. The 2C bid is used to stop relayer getting too carried away (the other positive responses are GF) THE RELAY STRUCTURE relays are initiated by responder bidding the next step in response to any opening bid other than 1C, or by the 1C bidder bidding the next step after a positive response. Relays are marked with a *. In general 4+ card suits are shown in descending order (spades first) and shortages or fragments in ascending order (residue order). SINGLE SUITED HANDS 2D is the key bid for the single-suited scheme So with a single suiter show the suit then bid 2D, bid 2D directly with clubs. examples 1C 2D (single suited with clubs) 1C 1H 1S* 2D (single suited with hearts) 1H 1S* 2D (single suited with hearts) then after the 2H* relay 2S shows a low shortage (or 6332) 2NT* 3C 6332 3D+ as below for high shortage 2NT middle shortage 3C* 3D+ middle shortage as below for high shortage 3C shows equal residue 3D* 3H 4333 3S 4441 with both minors (***** had to go somewhere *****) 3NT 7222, etc. 3D high shortage 5332 3H high shortage 6331 3S high shortage 7321 (3 card and 2 card fragments not differentiated) 3NT high shortage 7330, etc. TWO SUITED HANDS There is no key bid in the 2-suited scheme. You show both your suits and then use the bids from 2H+ to describe your shape as follows. And immediate jump to 2H+ shows clubs as the second suit 2H lower suit longer (canape) 2S* 2NT low shortage 3C* 3D+ low shortage as below 3C equal residue as below 3D+ high shortage as below 2S equal length 2NT higher longer low shortage 3C* 3D+ as below 3C higher longer equal residue 3D* 3H 5422 3S 5440 (both minors - this had to go somewhere too) 3NT 6511 3D higher longer high shortage 5431 3H " 6421 3S " 6430 3NT " 6520, etc the symmetry should be clear. All 5431s come out at 3D. example 1C 1NT diamond suit 2C* 2H longer clubs 2S* 2NT low shortage 3C* 3D 3-1-4-5 1C 1H spade suit 1S* 3D club suit 5-1-3-4 (longer higher and high shortage because skipped 2H and 2NT THREE SUITED HANDS 5440s with both minors come out at 3S in the two suited scheme (show better minor) 4441s with both minors - use single suited scheme (also come out at 3S) 4441s and 5440s with both majors - show both majors and then bid 2D (can't be single suited because you have shown two suits) then show exact shape 1NT 2C* 2D or 1C 1H (spades) 1S* 1NT (hearts) 2C* 2D SLAM BIDDING After relaying for the complete shape, relayer can ask for controls (A=2 K=1) or relay points (A=3 K=2 Q=1) and then locate them by further relaying, responder using denial cues. The order of suits for denial cues is longest by suit order, then fragments (with length ties decided by residue order). A SAMPLE AUCTION x Axx QJxx AKxx AKJxx xxxxx Axx x 1C 1S hearts, 9+ hcp GF 1NT* 2C diamond suit 2D* 2H canape (diamonds longer) 2S* 2NT low shortage (short clubs) 3C* 3D 3-4-5-1 shape 3S* 4D 5 controls 4H* 4S denies diamond honour 4NT* 5NT heart honour, spade honour, no club honour (skipping singleton denies honour instead of showing one) 7D partner must have AK hearts, A spades COMMENTS My partner and I have not actually played this system in competition (We only got it a week ago and have been practising in friendly games), however we have played against pairs using it. In a recent state teams selection we got very bad results on two boards played against Moscito pairs when they bid a grand and another slam noone else bid. In both cases they knew enough to bid them confidently. Peter Buchen reckons that Moscito is superior to natural systems in the part-score and slam zones, but slightly inferior when it comes to bidding games. for example you find out partners shape is 5422 and have to pick the final contract. If partners has Kx and Ax for his doubletons then 3NT is the right spot, otherwise 5C. There is no way to find out which he has using relays. (possibly suitable breakouts from the relays could be used for such things) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Danny Yee danny@cs.su.oz ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ========================================================================= 19 FROM ROB DOUGLAS (rjd@uk.ac.bath.maths) Message-ID: <sent Wed, 6 Mar 91 9:00:59 GMT via UK.AC.BATH.MATHS> Partner and I had a bit of a bidding disagreement last night; EW vul, teams South West North East 1D x pass 2H My Hand 3D 3H(1) pass 4H S QJ9x all pass H Qx D xxx C AKJ9 (1) I thought partner's bid promised 9+ pts and a 5 card suit; my bid was intended to be compeditive Partner turned up with a grotty 8 count with a manky 5 card heart suit. 4 off was a suboptimal result - partner thought he had underbid (!!!) on the first round, so raised to 4H. We both had 3 small diamonds, and North had a fair trump holding, so disaster struck! A few words were exchanged about this one! What do you think? ( Partner described my bid as the worst he had heard for a long time!) MN: Whilst I am not sure that I'd bid 3H (if partner was strong he would have bid 2D...?), I certainly wouldn't have raised 3H to 4H. Publisher comments: Quote is from the movie, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". I need standby players due to the summer vacation season that is wiping out some of my college players. ****************************************************************************** To join in the fun, send your name, home address, home and work phone numbers, and country preferences to Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com. ****************************************************************************** Up