Bridge On The Internet Revisited – 2 Review of the Top 10

Today I decided to look at the sites I had picked last time as the top 10 sites and see if I still loved them (and if they were still there).  I looked at Ron Klinger’s site first.  All the content is for members except for the Blog which has not been updated in about two months.  Hmmm.  This one is off my list.

The nest site is Hugh Darwen’s Double Dummy site.  I am happy to find it is being regularly updated.  There are thousands of problems by many composers.  I am in double dummy heaven.  You can enter a solution for Competition Problem 51.  Problems are rated by difficulty and this problem is DR4 with DR1 being easiest and DR8 being toughest.  I go to the archive and decide to try a DR2 problem.  (Well I am working here so I don’t have that much time to try a HARD problem).  Here is Problem 6.

	♠ AKQ2
	♥ none
	♦ AK
	♣ AK87654
♠ —		♠ J987654
♥ 107632		♥ 954
♦ J762		♦ 984
♣ QJ109		♣ —
	♠ 103
	♥ AKQJ8
	♦ Q1053
	♣ 32

South to make six no-trumps.  West leads the ♥3

I don’t really see the solution and this is supposed to be an easy one.  I think the theme must be discarding some high cards from dummy.  I have 11 tricks on the heart lead and I somehow have to squeeze or endplay West.  Dumping diamonds doesn’t work.  But yes there is a way.  Oh my, if this is an easy one I might need a brain transplant.  This site is highly recommended.

Next I try Richard Pavlicek’s personal site.  Can it be as good as I remember it?  I am proud that there is a link to my blog on his site.  Thank you Richard!  The site is just as wonderful as I remember.  Why haven’t I been spending my spare time on this site.  There is so much here I don’t know where to start.  Want to know the odds of getting dealt a ten card suit?  313123056 to 1.  But the chances of getting at least one singleton or void is 9 to 5 against.  It  turns out a balanced hand is odds on.  A subject that I have thought about quite a lot is how odds change as you play the hand.  He does that by presenting a problem

Q J 6 2

A 10 9 8 7

J

A 8 2

A K 9 8 4 3

Q 6 3

A 8 4

5

What is the best way to play the heart suit in a six spade contract.  He starts with the a priori odds and then starts to look deeper and deeper and deeper.  (Not for the faint of heart but wonderful anyway).  I look at Richard’s Popular conventions and then return to my favorite section, polls and contests.  I try the declarer play problems and find them a lot easier than the double dummy problems above.   If you love bridge you will love this site.

Ok now its Larry Cohen’s.  This is great.  Larry had told me that he was updated and reorganizing the site and wow it is much better but with the same great content.  And it is clearly being added to and updated on an ongoing basis.  I see some articles about the recent USBF trials.  It is in the newsletter section so don’t miss it.  Definitely check out the lead problem called an Impossible Lead.  The heavy hint may help you to get the right answer.  I like the fact that the newsletter has a printer friendly version and all of the articles are coded by level.  (The lead problem is labeled all levels).  Larry you made a great site better.

Next is Mike Lawrence.  Next to Larry’s site this site looks like it could use some updating although it is not hard to find your way around it.   The great part of Mike’s site are the articles and there are lots of them.  It does say that they are adding new material about once a week but I can’t really tell if this is true.  Still it will take you a lot of weeks to work your way through the material that is already on the site.  The problems and stories I read seemed geared to advanced rather than expert bridge players but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t useful for all.  Here is a good piece of advice from a BOLS bridge tip Mike submitted entitled ecstasy.  His BOLS TIP is: Any time you feel yourself succumbing to an emotion, whether sadness, depression, irritation, COMFORT, ELATION, OR ECSTASY, you should fight it off. STOP AND PAY ATTENTION!

Well this is fun.  Next is the bridge forum

Rec.games.bridge.  I am a member of this forum and I can attest that it is extremely active with lots and lots of interesting posts from players around the world.  Here is a recent post to think about.  Go to the site to see the discussion.

Recently I have had 2 hands  –2nd seat— where I had an 8 card minor that I chose to open at the 3 level in case my partner could bid 3NT. Both times 5 of the minor makes and 6NT makes however in both cases the opponents got to play the contract. #1.     Kx, x , KQJ10xxxx, xx #2.     x , xx, xx,  AKxxxxxx Partner wants me to guarantee a running suit [ one missing only 1 honor]  or to open 4.  I don’t wish to by pass 3NT with above hands. I would only open 4 in 2nd seat with an 8 card broken suit. COMMENTS  Please.

Things are going great so far but at this point I can’t help but notice that my top 10 is really a top 12.  I decide I have done enough for one day and I will finish the remaining 6 tomorrow.   Besides I want to go back and try some more polls on Richard’s site.

Reviewed: Ron Klinger, Double Dummy, Richard Pavlicek, Larry Cohen, Mike Lawrence, Rec.games.bridge