From a personal point of view the 7NoTrumps.com experiment has not been very successful ….. The original concept I had hoped to nurture was a site that would act as a forum for rapid publication of interesting deals sent in by bridge players from around the world. For whatever reason - misplaced conception, poor site management, unsatisfactory technical design, incorrect and/or insufficient bridge analysis, general apathy by bridge players, lack of publicity - whatever, the hard fact is that the site has attracted too few contributors.
I saw my role as collator/facilitator rather than a bridge "waffler", and the biggest buzz for me was when I opened my e-mail inbox to see a new deal sent from the other side of the world. The countries from where we have received readers' contributions include, amongst others, New Zealand, South Africa, France, India, Canada and USA - not forgetting the UK of course. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following friends-of-7NoTrumps.com who have sent in many deals over the years:- Graham Marshall, Anthony Golding, Paul Bowyer, Simon Stokes, Gary Duddle, Nick Stevens, Craig Biddle and many more.
Maybe in years to come when I have more time available the 7NoTrumps.com project can be resurrected. The site desperately needs modernising - it was originally designed with Internet Explorer 4 in mind but browsers have moved on and now the software needs completely rewriting. In an ideal world I would have added functions such as a message board, pages devoted to bidding systems, a comprehensive resources page for things like system and movement cards, random deal generators, and free webcam software for attractive lady players to download …. yeah, in my dreams. This would involve considerable time and effort, and perhaps a little money too. Until then, friends, may I take this opportunity to thank you for all your support over these past four years, and I wish you all the very best of luck in your bridge careers.
And finally ….@~@" + "~=~" + "s8hK6dT987cQJ8763~=~" + "sQ9743hdAK64cK952~=~" + "~=~" + "Dealer South;E-W Game;Match Point Pairs~=~" + "1{S},Pass,2NT*,Pass;3{D},Pass,3{H},Pass;3NT,Pass,4NT#,Pass;5{D}~,Pass,5NT!,Pass;7{S},Pass,7NT,End~=~" + "* game force with spades;# RKCB;~1 of 5;! asking for specific aces~=~" + "Contract: 7NT by North;Lead: {D}10~=~" + "It would seem appropriate that for our final deal, just like our very first deal four years ago, should be one featuring the ultimate contract. This deal featured recently in a local simultaneous pairs event. North played in 7NT after an auction that you strongly suspect may have gone astray. You decide to lead {D}10 and North wins in dummy with the ace as partner drops the jack. North continues by cashing four rounds of spades and you decide to pitch three clubs. Partner has thrown {H}4 on the third spade and {H}J on the fourth. When North cashes his fifth spade you have a horrible decision to make.
What will it be?@~@" + //1 "~=~" + "s8hK6dT987cQJ8763~=~" + "sQ9743hdAK64cK952~=~" + "~=~" + "Dealer South;E-W Game;Match Point Pairs~=~" + "1{S},Pass,2NT*,Pass;3{D},Pass,3{H},Pass;3NT,Pass,4NT#,Pass;5{D}~,Pass,5NT!,Pass;7{S},Pass,7NT,End~=~" + "* game force with spades;# RKCB;~1 of 5;! asking for specific aces~=~" + "Contract: 7NT by North;Lead: {D}10~=~" + "Partner's highly considerate play of the red jacks has shown you that he possesses neither red suit queen. Declarer must have the two missing aces for his bidding and that gives him eleven top tricks. To throw a club on this last spade is completely out of the question because dummy's club suit will be good, but you are therefore in the grips of a three-suit squeeze.
Help! What do you do?@~@" + //2 "sAKT65hAQ32dQ52cA~=~" + "s8hK6dT987cQJ8763~=~" + "sQ9743hdAK64cK952~=~" + "sJ2hJT98754dJ3cT4~=~" + "Dealer South;E-W Game;Match Point Pairs~=~" + "1{S},Pass,2NT*,Pass;3{D},Pass,3{H},Pass;3NT,Pass,4NT#,Pass;5{D}~,Pass,5NT!,Pass;7{S},Pass,7NT,End~=~" + "* game force with spades;# RKCB;~1 of 5;! asking for specific aces~=~" + "Contract: 7NT by North;Lead: {D}10~=~" + "A little knowledge of squeeze theory will see you, not declarer, through to a happy conclusion. The golden rule about discarding when under the cosh is throw the suit held on your left. In this case dummy holds two danger suits, but as you can see that a club would establish the whole club suit then you must pitch a diamond. That gives declarer a twelfth trick but because he does not have the necessary entry flexibility in clubs you can never be subjected to a heart/club squeeze for the thirteenth. This is known as a sesqui-squeeze - one line leads to the loss of one trick and the other to the loss of two tricks - hence one and a half tricks or "sesqui". Had declarer had one low club more and one low diamond fewer then 7NT tick would have been a nice story, but there should have been one anyway……@~@" + //3 "sAKT65hAQ32dQ52cA~=~" + "s8hK6dT987cQJ8763~=~" + "sQ9743hdAK64cK952~=~" + "sJ2hJT98754dJ3cT4~=~" + "Dealer South;E-W Game;Match Point Pairs~=~" + "1{S},Pass,2NT*,Pass;3{D},Pass,3{H},Pass;3NT,Pass,4NT#,Pass;5{D}~,Pass,5NT!,Pass;7{S},Pass,7NT,End~=~" + "* game force with spades;# RKCB;~1 of 5;! asking for specific aces~=~" + "Contract: 7NT by North;Lead: {D}10~=~" + "At the table North was a good player who knew about the theory of progressive squeezes, and when East pitched a heart on the fifth spade all seemed fair for thirteen tricks when North cashed {H}A to drop East's king. Unfortunately declarer had a complete blind spot and tried to cash {H}3 after seeing a torrent of heart discards from West. This was not a success.
The frequency charts show that one declarer did indeed make 7NT to score a complete top. I wonder what the story behind that was .... maybe one day we'll find out." ; //4 return INFILE; }