Joe de Balliol

1) Undecided 2) Yes; I bid 1♦ B)

Double wtp?

Seems clear: if declarer knows he has the rest of the tricks, he is ethically obliged to claim only if he has no other motive to do so besides forcing opponents to think unnecessarily. If he thinks claiming will waste more of opponents' efforts, or that it will take longer to claim than to play the hand out, or opponents may be incapable of understanding the claim, or he wants a beer at trick 13, or even he just doesn't like claiming, he is allowed to play the hand out [though that last player makes my list of people to avoid, he is not unethical in doing so.] J

Well, it looks like I have to pick either a stiff HK onside or a stiff HT offside. I go with the former. Heart to the ace.

It's better described as fictional science

Who's your poor partner?

1. 4S looks easy. 2. Dunno what mcabe is. I open 1H or 4H depending on mood. 3. DA, ruff a diamond, club to Q. 4. SJ at MPs, DK at IMPs.

1. Pass and high spade. Then decide what to do. 2. Double tends to work well in these situations. For similar reasons to MickyB's. 3N might be worth a try tbf. 3. I go on, exact bid depends on my methods though. 4. Call me crazy but I pass 1S...

I vote to ban dopes from bridge - too many of them imo.

http://uk.geocities.com/mr_1303/Byrne.jpg - this page made my day!!

I agree with this. Partner, by bidding 5N, surely has SAK and CA, and is looking for grand - it's possible there's a slow club loser, but what the hell. 7H from me.

And that EXACTLY was the reason why it was FORBIDDEN to the players to watch VG on the provided PCs - which happened quite early in the event. Thus leaving only one place to watch VG - the VG room. Come on, be real now. You just don't forbid anyone to watch vugraph on the computer in order to make them go to the vugraph theatre instead. This is a simple question of supply and demand. If the internet coverage is better, you should certainly prefer that, and vice versa obviously. No-one should decide what's best for the juniors (or anyone else for that matter). They are old enough to decide for themselves. If the commentators are good enough, the spectators on site will flock to the vugraph theatre. The only positive I can deduce from this is that people must have thought that the BBO presentation was better. That makes us all feel good. Roland In Riccione for the European Youth Championships last summer, the organisers noted that there were long queues of people waiting to email friends back home, who couldn't use the computers because people were on BBO, so they decided to ban BBO use. It didn't stop BBO being used altogether, but imo it would have been better if they'd uninstalled it from the machines. Ditto Slovakia: people could play as much bridge as they wanted, but instead some people decided to play on BBO on the four computers that had to serve hundreds of juniors. J

Yup, 2H made with no problems - I was just curious what people would do without a strong indication of a psyche [the 1♠ bid was phony] and therefore whether South had fielded it.

[hv=d=s&v=e&s=st8xhqxda9xc9xxxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] 1H P P X 1S 1N X P 2H P P X P P ??? EW are pickups, as are NS but they are both juniors and know each other to be juniors at heart in the auction. J

Nobody tempted by 1N for the pre-emptive effect?

Sums up my views and vote

3C as an opening bid is hideous, 4C only slightly less so. Pass, 1C, and 5C are the only things I consider [maybe 6C late at night...] and I go for 5C with no qualms. J

Weak nt, 5cm, 3 weak 2s, IMPs. First in, Green, you pick up A87x xx xx KQJTx Average plus opponents, unreliable partner. What do you do?

I agree with Owen

I cash CAK and lead a club if someone had Qxx. It might not be obvious to take their diamond tricks. If someone drops the Q from QT bare, more power to him. J

I open 1S and anyone who finds a way to stop short of 4S is being wise after the event or ought to win more world titles than they currently do. I expect to reach 4S and go off. J

say "Yes, you missed a good sacrifice"

Very little blame to South. 4♠ not unreasonable with his hand but neither is passing 3♠ I'd be bidding 4♠ with the North cards, because it's hard to visualise a South hand where 4♠ has no play. J

When LHO pre-empts first in and it's passed to me, I *never* pass opening hands provided partner's on the same wavelength. But here we have an exception. Pass.

1. I go with 2S. Can't bear to watch them play in 2m on a competitive hand. 2. ♣K] 3. I blasted 6S the previous round so I don't have this problem. I bid it now. 4. Pass with an annoyed look at partner, all ready to watch him wrap up twelve tricks. But I just hate going off in 5M when I didn't have to look.