[hallway]

The Beginner Intermediate Lounge First Imp Tournament

is now part of BBO history.

Thank you Fred, Uday for making it possible and for enduring my ceaseless questions.
- the new mail message feature is marvellous

Thank you Ben - our Tournament Director who despite that hurricane was still there to nurse us through this first attempt.

Thank you Wayne and Steve for ably assisting him
- though rumour has it that there was not much assisting called for

Thank you too to a whole bevy of illustrious guests who stopped by with encouragement and some who came to the rescue when a sub was needed temporarily.

[move]You all epitomise the ethic that is BBO[/move]

[glow=red,2,300]CONGRATULATIONS[/glow]

To: Janehererehi and Selena1731 WINNERS

siverfox and mpefritz Second
luckyldy and mgiurgeu Third

I am , of course, more than just a tad pleased with the winners - they are a couple of Terrible Tuataras. ;D

It was unfortunate that another Tournament's start time coincided with ours which caused a huge amount of confusion for those new to Tournaments - with the conflicting Lobby messages happening at the same time.

In our First Newsletter I will make the subject for the
BBO User Tips and Hints section "Registering for a Tournament" there was a lot of misunderstanding in respect of the Partnership Desk - with members assuming that if they hadn't paired up they would BE paired up. We live and learn . My earnest messages , sadly , didn't reach all in time. :'(

Still as the saying goes 'from small acorns do sturdy oak trees grow' - so we will grow from strength to strength .

280 members now !!

When is the next tournament they keep asking mmmmmm well all good things come to those who wait - let me see you using the Lounge, then we'll see 8)

[inquiry]

Exciting hands...Round 5 was potentially exciting for the NS pairs. On Board 9, 4 out of the 9 pairs bid 6NT with:

KTx
KQx
AJ732
AJ

AQJ
Axx
QT5
xxxx

With 3H+3S+1C, NS need just 5 diamond tricks. This requires 3-2 split with diamond King onsides, or singleton King onside (lead low first). That is 37% chance to make the small slam, and 44% of the players bid the slam. The diamond king was offside. So the slam was defeated three out of four times.

The second hand, board 10 (all vul), however, was a fairly sure slam. The hands were...

AT96
A873
JT5
K6

K3
K2
AQ6
AQ9853

If clubs are 3-2 (68%), there are 12 sure tricks, and even with a 4-1 club split, the slam will make if the Diamond King is onside (it was). Increasing the odds of this slam to at least 82%. So this was a very good slam. None of our members, however, bid this one, and one pair had a bidding problem and didn't even bid game.

All nine south's opened 1C, and 8 or the 9 norths bid 1H (the other bid 1S). Over 1M, the south players came up with four different rebids (these are in order of frequency rebid)... 3C, 2C, 2N, 3N

The NS pairs who rebid only 2C really have no chance to bid slam, as North will no participate in slam try. Over the 2NT rebids (18-19 hcp, balanced), there is also not a chance to bid slam. North will add his 12 hcp to partners max of 19, and come to 31 hcp at most, and will settle for 3NT, after making sure no 4 card spade fit exist.

But the 3NT response should have resulted in slam. This has to show long, strong club suit (the club suit wasn't good enough here for 3NT) and a strong hand. Over 3NT, the north hand should be investigating grand slam. At the table, north passed. Over the most popular rebid (3C), north should visualize that there might be slam in the offering. A reasonable slam try would be to rebid 3S, and when partner bids 3NT, raise to 4Cs (after the 3C rebid, Kx of clubs is EXCELLENT support). No one bid beyond 3NT.