It will be interesting to see how they justify the scoring on the lead problem. 

♠ K Q J 10   ♥ K Q J   ♦ 10 9 8 7   ♣ 10 9

The 100 went to 10/9 of , with a combined 7 votes.

The single top vote getter was the K also with 7 votes and a score of 30 (the Q/J had no votes and also got the same score).

The 10/9/8/7 of got a combined 9 votes with a score of 80

And the K/Q/J/10 had a combined 6 votes with a score of 90 (the Q/10 had no votes).

On the basis of single-card voting, the K the 10 and K should have gotten the 100, while on the basis of the block of co-equal cards with the most votes was a diamond with 9 votes, then any diamond lead should have gotten the 100.  However, neither criterion fit the top two scores.the rationale for the scoring is quite unclear to me.

edited because I accidently looked at the solver % and made it a Panel vote - oops

My choice of the spade K went something like this:
Possible opposing hands:

S: Axxxx
H: x
D: Kxx
C: AQxx

S: xx
H: Axxx
D: AQJxx
C: KJ

In notrup there are 1+1+5+4=11 tricks so 7D makes with two ruffs on the board. On a D lead it goes:Win on the board, H to A, ruff, C to hand ruff,C to hand, draw trump, back to board with the S, cash the C AQ throwing spade and H from hand. However, an opening S lead fouls up the"back to the board with the S" part of this.

I started with the idea that if one D ruff suffices for the contract we cannot prevent that from happening. So assume two ruffs are needed. That requires transportation and the S lead seemed best to disrupt it. I woke up sometime during my Thursday night sleep thinking "Hey, a club lead should be better" but went back to sleep. I had some other hands where the spade K was right as well, where I assumed declarer would take one D ruff and then run a spade-heart squeeze.

As you can see from my previous comment I was tempted to think that this was overthinking and just lead a trump but after wavering I led the spade K.

Added note: That's a [pretty convenient club J that I gave to declarer but the guy did bid 7D. He did not do it on the basis of a lot of high cards in the majors. The club KJ would make the grand a lot more tempting than Kx.

A: 4D
B: 5C
C: 4C
D: X
E: 3S
F: 5S
G: 2NT

H: What the ...?
I am still trying to understand the description.
I will take Blu's word for it that 2-1 points means 2 aces and one K but we still have the five in five 2-1 points to worry about. No, of course we do not all know what this means. It's a serious issue with relay systems, the explanations make sense only to those who have studied the system.

Anyway, I guess I am to assume that dummy will hit with a 5=1=3=4 shape, the diamond K, no other king, two aces, the club Q. It seems declarer must have two aces since otherwise he must have a void and somewhere along the line we should have been told that if they are playing it straight. Declarer can have at most six diamonds in his hand, so we count six diamond tricks in hand the spade A, the heart A and, perhaps, four club tricks. I doubt we can stop him from getting a heart ruff, so that would be 13 tricks. So we have to assume that either partner has the club J, holding declarer to three tricks in that suit, or that declarer has only five diamonds.

I really do not like this problem. In a typical online game I just relax when these relay systems arise but if I were playing something more seriously I would study their relay system beforehand and insist on some more detailed explanations. But time flies and I am leading the spade K. Nah, I am overthinking this. Some D.

H: D T

I might not post this month. I shall return.

Save the images (individually would be best) on an image hosting site. Save the link . . .
Then post them here with this: [ img ]Your image URL goes here and there are no spaces inside the square brackets[ /img ]
Your commentary can follow.

I, and perhaps others, do not know just what an image hosting site is. For example, when I speak of Google docs or Google sheets or Google slides, are these image hosting sites?

Some years back I was doing the sort of ting I suggested with a couple of other guys. Anyone could read what we wrote but only a few were allowed to edit or reply on the Google site I was using. Is this the same as you are saying?

Up until about five years ago I was coping with tech things and even helping my fellow oldsters but lately I am having more trouble. Part of it is that I don't know what the words mean.

July Results

Masse24 led the IAC solvers with 670, edging out both KenBerg and CCR3, with 660 and 630 respectively.  Masse24 and KenBerg also made the MSC Honor Roll!

NAME	BW-SCORE	RANK	MPs
Masse24	670	1	30
KenBerg	660	2	25
CCR3	630	2	10
Also participating this month were:  BabsG, BluBayou, Hoki, JCreech, Peuco, VeeRee, YleeXotee. Congratulations to all!

Huh!  I wasn't kidding about being busy. We have company tomorrow and an online graduation  to watch tomorrow, company Friday, company Sunday, it's been like that. I'll take  my 660 and maybe plan to think less in the future

A: 3NT. I have said I have a big hand with the minors, and now I am saying that I have a heart stopper. If we belong in 6m pard can say so. 

B: 3S. I dunno, it seems reasonable.

C: 4C. I guess pard might next bid 4H and I guess I would pass that. I suppose I can maybe make 3NT if partner has the stiff Jack of spades but I'm going with 4C.

D: 4S. A typical LOTT problem. We have at least 9 spades, maybe more, they probably have 10 hearts, maybe 11, maybe 9, it appears that the total number of trump is probably 19, so LOTT says that if we can hold 4H to 7 tricks then we should be able to make 6S but maybe we can and maybe we can't. 4S is a nice simple choice. 

E. 2H I suppose it's slightly aggressive but bidding a passable 3H when holding three spades just does not seem right. 

F. 4C. I have a 15 count with two good suits and everyone else wants to bid. What's going on? Beats me, but I like my clubs. If X would show clubs and hearts, and maybe it does, I would do that.  

G.4C  Ah yes, it would be nice to have agreements. 3C is natural and GF, S seems to agree, I suppose 3S is the spade A and a good club fit but maybe it's just shapely with three good spades. And my 4C? Maybe it's minorwood. Or maybe not. I would prefer not. After my 3C I think 3D by pard would show Ds, maybe a 3=3=5=2 shape or maybe even sid diamonds. So if 3D over 3C would not be a cue showing a club fit, then my 4C gives him a chance to cue now with 4D. But the truth is that I have no idea what is going on and so maybe I should just bid 6C. 

H. The Club 3. I have a 5 count, I guess pard has something somewhere. If get has the A or the K or the J of clubs this might work out ok. I am not leading a red card, and it seems at leat possible that dummy's fourth spade will eventually be a trick, so a club seems right. But who knows? The Shadows knows, but I am not the Shadow. (The Shadow was a fun radio program from the 40s and 50s, in case you youngsters don't get the reference.)

Robinson has a table that takes a page and a half to give the various responses to the various conventional overcalls.
For a Landy 2 :
X       Balanced, 8+ hcps
1    , 4-7 hcps
2     , 8+ hcps
2     , 8+ hcps 
2NT    Natural, 7-8 hcps
3     , 4-7 hcps
3     , 4-7 hcps
3     , 8+ hcps
!3     , 8+ hcps
3NT     Balanced, 9+ hcps

Now this is a bit weird since X and 3NT both show balanced hands, one with 8+, the other with 9+. Presumably with 9+ the X is more penalty oriented, the 3NT more of a "Let's just play 3NT".
Also the 3 call as 8+ showing hearts. As in heart stopper, or as in maybe we should play in hearts? I suppose either is possible but surely heart stopper w/o spade stopper is the more useful meaning.

It's just a fact that I have never played the entire table of meanings with anyone. There was a time on my life when I had more regular partnernerships and we had more extensive agreements than I do today, but never that extensive.  My usual agreement wit a partner today is that if I open 1NT and they bid 2 then double is Stayman unless the 2 shows both majors, if it does show both majors then X is penalty oriented. If the overall 1NT with2 or 2 or 2 then 2NT is Lebensohl IF the bid shows that suit with or without a known or unknown other suit and stoppers refer to that suit. So 1NT - 2 (DONT) - 3NT denies a stopper and says nothing about a stopper in either major.  It's not great but it's simple. And even with Steve's table I think more has to be said about follow-ups.

Maybe some pairs playing on IAC have extensive agreements but most of us don't. It helps 9or it helped me) to have in person discussions with partners. We could sit around drinking beer and reading Bergen or whatever and get the various conventions straight. Playing online it seems we are lucky if we get the most common situations straight. The other day my Rho opened 1 , I overcalled 1 , my Lho passed, partner bid 3 , passed out making 5. Ok, I have an 11 count, pard has a 9 count, but I have a stiff and he has a stiff . He meant the 3 as a limit raise, and maybe I bid 4 if I think it's a limit raise.

Donna's sessions are useful for highlighting places where players interpret bids differently so I find it both interesting and useful. It does not completely solve the problem, that requires that the partners discuss what the meaning will be for them. Often there is no choice that is clearly the right choice of meaning.  I do think that playing a jump raise of an overall as preemptive is pretty standard these days. i the case I posted above, playing the 3 as to play makes a lot of sense, but w/o discussion who knows?