TimG

North will declare NT; south will declare hearts. What kind of agreement beyond placing the contract in 6H or 6N are you looking for?

So, an opening bid of 1♠ which shows 12+ HCP and 5+ spades is disallowed?

Has Round Four officially started? Who are the hosts?

Please don't go about casting unfavorable light on Meckwell. Clearly they were permitted to pass one copy back and forth, so I don't know what is this onus you're talking about. The onus would be on Meckwell if there is a policy that a pair must have two copies. Does anybody know if there is such a policy? I don't think is is "clear" that conditions of contest allow sharing of one copy just because a pair chose to do it that way. Even if it is against the rules, the opposing pair would likely have to object in order for the rule to be enforced.

I'm pretty sure the multi defenses in the ACBL Defense Database are holdovers from the Yellow Book days. Who authored them originally, I do not know, but they did not go through the same approval process that is currently in effect.

Common? I don't think I've ever encountered this.

I don't think the game should be held up when there is no sub. It sounds to me like you were playing some sort of Swiss movement where subsequent rounds started when players were available so that everyone doesn't have to be playing the same round simultaneously. If I was your opponent for the final round, we were ahead of pace, you had no partner, and there was no sub available, I would not want to wait beyond the normal time for a round (certainly not the 20 minutes you waited for the tournament to end) to find you a sub.

I like double. I expect the opponents to run to hearts, but maybe partner can double that (I think he could still have four hearts) and if not I have at least started to describe my hand rather than taken a shot in the dark with 3N. When I cannot double 2H and instead bid 3C, I think partner will get a good picture of my hand.

Warning: rant. I find the WBF results pages very difficult to navigate. I went to: http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelphia.10/Results.htm and clicked on Rosenblum Round Robin Results, to get to: http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelp...Results/RRO.htm then selected cross table rank for group A, to get to: http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelp...sp?qtournid=855 There seems to be no way to get the basic information of who is on these teams from this page. Nor can I navigate from this page to the "results" or "participants" page. I back up until I have a "participants" option and go to: http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelp...articipants.htm and then select "world knockout teams" to get to: http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelp...qtournidend=870 where there is a drop down menu and a "show teams" button. I select "all" and click the "show teams" button and nothing happens. Nor does anything happen when I select a specific country. If I can't get a participants list and I can't find out who is on which team from the results pages, how am I supposed to figure out what team which players are on?

Would pass after 3N-DBL-4♣ have been forcing?

Is there a way to click from those pages to the results of the finals? Or, were there only 3 sessions?

I'm curious: at what point does advancer bid a 5-card major? After 3N-DBL-4♣, advancer would bid 4♥ or 4♠ with 5 in the bid major and fewer than four in the other. So, 3N-DBL-4♣-DBL suggests no 5-card major and nothing much else? Back to intervenor, after 3N-DBL-4♣-DBL-4♦, intervenor would bid similarly: 4M now would show a five-card suit and pass would show no 5-card major. Should the difference between pass and double be that one shows equal major suit length and the other shows unequal? Back to advancer, after 3N-DBL-4♣-DBL-4♦-DBL/P-P is seems that advancer can place the contract when intervenor has shown equal length (or at least he knows what the longest fit is), so intervenor's double should be the equal length showing call over 4♦. Let's assume intervenor passes over 4♦ showing unequal length, now advancer can double to get intervenor to bid his longer major and bid his own longer major with a clear preference. Is that close to right?

I'm surprised double is getting so much attention, usually folks on these forums are dead set against doubling with 4-5 in the majors let alone 3-5 in the majors.

To be fair, they're probably right in most cases. Even bridge administrators who can write are unlikely to write in a style appropriate for a newspaper column.

When I followed your links, the page said "Service Unavailable".

Does anyone have late plays?

My guess would have been that a natural 2♠ overcall, though "standard", would have to be alerted. But, the ACBL alert chart seems to indicate that an alert is required only when a "direct cue-bid of natural opening bid played as natural". It seems to me that if natural and michaels are both possible, the meaning of your partner's bids depends upon the meaning of their call, and the lack of an alert does not indicate one way or the other, you ought to be free to ask. So, I think you went out of your way to disadvantage yourself.

I would guess "60% after the double dummy best lead" is what he means. If that's true it should outscore 4♠ since it beats it 60% of the time. But I'm sure it involved lots of guessing of Kx of spades offside so probably not. Yes, I expect it is much worse single dummy.

I would guess "60% after the double dummy best lead" is what he means.

I'm curious why 3♣ won't also be doubled. If I were West and had decided to pass partner's 2♠, I'd be doubling 3♣ (and leading a trump if I was on lead -- even though that doesn't seem to be best double dummy, it still leads to 300). Even if you don't consider a double of 3♣, some EW will score +150 defending 3♣ while they would only score +110 or +140 playing in spades. It seems to me that defending 2♠ (undoubled) should score better.

I can understand if you want to keep the results under cover while the scoring is discussed, but I don't understand why you are waiting to show your tentative scores. Oh, can you remind us how many of the 12 pairs from the lower bracket will advance to the next round?

How did you get to 6♣?

Well I know a firefighter. He has a pager - not a phone - and he couldn't possibly think of playing serious cards when he is on call. Right, if he's on call he wouldn't be entered in a World Championship much less a regional or even sectional (or whatever the equivalent in other parts of the world). Maybe the local club owner would agree to fill in for him in the club game if he got called away mid-game.

Claim early; claim often?

I think in the case of eating poison perhaps the first call should be to someone other than the parents. I can't see a case for firefighter or multinational bank CEO.