Wednesday, December 12, 2012

2 Loser Hands and Football Rankings going into Bowls

Last night I held two 2 loser hands. Both times we had a 1-2-6 auction. What did I have? ATxxx, AKQx, -, AKQx. The opponents intervened with a diamond overcall and advance sacrifice and somehow I was the only one to bid 6S. We were cold for 7 as long as spades came in opposite KQx after having to ruff truck 1. The other freak 2 loser hand I had was AKQTxx, AQ, AQxxx, -. We had a true 1S-2S-6S auction. I was able to pick up Jxxx of spades onside but wasn’t able to take the heart finesse so made 6 (partner had both minor kings and that’s all) but was strangely again the only one in slam.

There were a ton of good intermediate defensive problems that I should have written down as they would be good candidates for articles in the book I will eventually write about becoming a better defender. I wasn’t taking notes or keeping score but perhaps I should go back and copy down a few of those hands so that when I inevitably get bored/motivated again, I’ll have something more write about.

In other news, bowl season is upon us. Anyone for a Notre Dame-Florida championship game? Yeah, Georgia fans would pitch a huge fit if that happened. Here are the rankings headed into the bowls. My computer finished the regular season beating the spread 55.9% of the time, which makes it 54% over the last 3 years. Maybe it’s time to start betting on these games. Despite ND being ranked #1, even my computer predicts Alabama to win. It also picks a number of other things that aren’t very logical, especially Northern Illinois, a 14 point underdog with the weakest schedule in all of the FBS, to beat Florida State.





Strength of
Rank
Prev
BCS
W
L
Team
Schedule
Total Rtg.
1
1
1
12
0
NOTRE DAME
12
95.518
2
2
3
11
1
FLORIDA
7
90.513
3
3
2
12
1
ALABAMA
36
87.560
4
4
NE
12
0
OHIO STATE
61
85.700
5
6
4
11
1
OREGON
39
84.530
6
7
5
11
1
KANSAS STATE
38
84.101
7
5
11
9
2
OKLAHOMA
26
83.875
8
9
6
11
2
STANFORD
5
82.741
9
11
10
10
2
SOUTH CAROLINA
29
80.205
10
12
8
10
2
LSU
27
80.097
11
13
9
10
2
TEXAS A&M
33
79.520
12
10
7
11
2
GEORGIA
58
79.218
13
8
16
10
3
NEBRASKA
17
78.604
14
14
13
8
3
OREGON STATE
11
77.875
15
16
24
10
2
San Jose State
77
72.718
16
15
17
9
4
UCLA
31
71.691
17
17
14
10
2
CLEMSON
71
71.162
18
18
12
11
2
FLORIDA STATE
93
70.589
19
22
15
12
1
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
124
69.259
20
19

9
3
Ball State
66
68.960
21
20
18
8
4
MICHIGAN
13
68.106
22
23

9
3
Fresno State
89
67.370
23
21
25
11
2
Kent State
113
66.087
24
24
NE
8
4
PENN STATE
35
65.029
25
27
20
9
3
Northwestern
75
64.179
26
29
22
10
2
Utah State
121
64.154
27
30
19
10
2
BOISE STATE
119
64.120
28
25
23
8
4
TEXAS
28
63.885
29
32

9
3
Arkansas State
81
63.453
30
28

9
3
RUTGERS
97
62.781
31
31

9
3
TOLEDO
92
62.314
32
34
21
10
2
LOUISVILLE
117
61.940