What I love about watching the US team trials online in the early stages is that I can see how 16 different experts handle the same hand, often even on the same auction. Some hands are all over the map while others are the same at every table.
The action can be found on the LoveBridge web site, click here for the live scores or go to the Home page and click on the event you want to follow. Then click on any score or segment to see more information. Because it is all played on computers, the bidding and play of the hand are captured accurately.
Another approach is to go through board by board. You can look at all the boards for the first round, the round of 16 here. You can click on the segment (there are 8 total) and then the board number (there are 15 in each segment) to see what happened on each board. To view the bidding and play at a specific table click on the blue square next to the words Open or Closed on the actual web site:
On board 1, half the field bid slam needing a finesse and a 3-2 split. They went down and lost 11 imps when the other table stopped in game or in one case pushed the board:
Here is a hand where everyone got to 4
and the opponents had 4 tricks to cash. Only 4 of the 16 pairs got their tricks! Far too many players led a trump after which the hand is cold. West has to lead an Ace to have a chance. How would you and your favorite partner do?
