ulven

The choice of 4NT or X depends on your partnership agreements. If 'purely' takeout then X fits the bill. My agreement is to pull if believing in making a contract of our own, which our hand has insufficient playing strength to think. In our partnership, we would bid 4NT on the hand above as we can see that partner is very likely pass if we double and that it's more likely to be wrong than right. The chance of finding a fit is good and there's the added possibility that the next hand competes to 5S when wrong.

Pick your playground - a bridge ceremoni in a foreign country isn't the forum that will achieve anything in that direction for you. Maybe you should devote your time to politics, journalism, opinion blogging or whatever you wish to do with your time instead of wasting it on playing bridge if this is how you feel. That would serve you, and the people who made the choice to spend time playing bridge because they don't want to get involved in 'other stuff' for at least as long as the tournament lasts, better. When participating in a bridge tournament, which is non-political in nature, you implicitly agree to keep manifestations out of that environment IMO. Respect those boundaries.

No signs. If I won a world championship and had the intention of having the prizegiving photo enlarged in my home to remind me of this joyful ocasion, I'd be 'over-the-top' pissed if one of my teammates held up a sign saying 'hi mom' or whatever innocent message you'd like to substitute. Political or non-political, I don't care. Let's keep the litter out of our bridge ceremonies. Edit: Ok, a photo of a deceased teammate, but then it's not a 'sign' by my definition.

I stumbled upon this thread today and as Wayne posed an honest question, I've checked with Fulvio. He didn't see the hand played out because he left for the restroom after putting the dummy down and when he came back, everybody was rolling their thumbs waiting for him. Claudio brought up the hand himself after the match: "He told me that to play spade to the queen or to the 9 is very close to be the same (considering he has to find the spades 3-2) . But if the jack doesnt appear he has also the chance that who take the trick doesnt play diamond because he showed 19-20 balanced . And playing in this way he can save 1 trick if the jack is after the queen." Fluffy: To make jokes (I presume it is a joke) about cheating is VERY inappropiate. It's serious business and doesn't belong her. Period. I think you should offer an apology in this thread. Any other questions about Fantoni-Nunes actions may be forwarded to me and I'll attempt to get clarification, if I deem the motive of good intention. /Ulf

Pass. Depends a bit on style/agreements.

Invite in spades, whatever way the methods prescribe (trf+2N or 2C+2S; prefer the latter).

Direct 5C, warts and all.

Top H. Close. Second choice for me is spade but I suspect the majority will choose a heart lead. Therefore stays with the flock for now. I do, however, have mostly bad experiences with leading away from AKx vs NT-contracts (AKxx of course much better) and do try to find an alternative whenever in this situation. Maybe I should change my lead...

Pass.

This was great! Loved seeing my friend Alon celebrating.

Huge gratulations to the Norwegian team and of course to Harald! A 100-year old political decision just cost us a World Championship ! :rolleyes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_o..._Sweden_in_1905

We haven't yet heard from cascade, ulven, jlall and jdonn, but, like fred, I would be very surprised if they don't see it as a privilege and honour to play for their countries. Apologies if I forgot some BBF members. Of course I'm 100% with Fred et al on this issue. Being on a podium and hearing the national anthem played for you and your teams' efforts is a moment to cherish and treasure. Every time. To not be able to, or making a choice not to, pay full attention to this is surprising to put is mildly. To use an occasion like this to make statements of this kind is something I can't understand in the context. If this was a response to teasing and jabbering from earlier during the championship, then it was a childish display of bad judgement IMO.

I'll pass. Apologizing if wrong.

The IE mobile team blog (with specs): http://blogs.msdn.com/iemobile/ There are entries discussing Flash a bit down. The latest version of Windows Mobile is WM6. The biggest 3rd party browser: http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/ I appreciate you're taking an interest in the matter, Uday. Thanks!

Tried BBOTV unsuccessfully the other day with HTC Touch over Wifi. Is this a Flash problem? I don't care so much about playing on a PPC, but being able to watch vugraph or kibitz during spare time would be really great! Maybe there could be another 'vugraph viewer', purely for kibitzing, using standard browser functionality?

Option number 2. Over short club or nebulous 1D we used/use 2M as either minor.

I played this from about 1996-2000, including winning the EUC open teams: http://viewsfromthebridgetable.blogspot.co...p-overcall.html Now I/we just use the CJO. I liked the (1S) - 1NT as showing H's and will try to get that into the curent mix, but now our efforts are focusing on evolving our contructive semi-relay approach as we're still a fairly new partnership. Other posts involving the CJO: http://viewsfromthebridgetable.blogspot.co...mp-strikes.html http://viewsfromthebridgetable.blogspot.co...and-losers.html Another scheme I used 2000-2004 (winning the Nordic Open Teams ch, making the Spingold semi among other efforts) was using a 2m-overcall over 1M as 2-suited showing 5+m and 4-c unbid M; Raptor by bidding your minor! 1NT then showed minors and 3m jump overcall about 12-15 w/6+suit. Then using (1m) - 2om to show 5+om & 4-c (unknown) M. Earlier I used (1m) - 1NT as both M's (54+) but when my (new) partner didn't like that for no other reason than wanting to be able to overcall 1NT some time, we used cue/2H for both M's (2H = 8-11hcp, 4+S & 5+H). 2S was 9-12 6+suit. Worked just fine but when that partnership ended (partner took a break from bridge altogether) that structure went to the drawer. I've tried various thing over the years against highest-level opp's and having 2-suited bids, is succesful against the very best. The fact that not more high-level players use stuff like this isn't because these methods are inferior, it's more because they focus their effort on other areas or don't realize what they're missing out or is just sceptical to anything they haven't seen and so forth. Adaption therefore is often by geographical area. Sweden and Poland are areas where many like to work on bidding theory and try things, and are allowed to do so without contraining 'charts'. EDITED.

No. In Sweden some of us have moved on to the canapé jump overcall (CJO) instead, keeping the natural 1NT overcall. Lindkvist, Fredin among others. I've written about this more than once in my blog. It's a real winner. Whether my judgment on this issue can be trusted or not. Well...

The bookies are doing the Bermuda Bowl. Check out www.betfair.com for the market odds for final 8 and winner.

Yep!

1) 4H says C-control. Doesn't guarantee H-control. 2) No, only advance with missing control and some extras. If missing control as all responder needs, he'll have to bid again.

I bid 3♥ as I prefer 'always ask'. Easily solves the case when you lack stoppers in both shown suits, which may occur under some circumstances.

I'm a passer as well. Bidding runs serious risk of getting overboard. To prove I'm a passer, I'll give a hand from a couple of weeks ago. We played a practise match against the South African team for Shanghai. All vul. 1S - (2H) - ? - Kxx KT97xx KQ8x I actually passed, as did my counterpart at the other table. How did this end? North reopened with X and we both responded 3H. After 4C I decided we'd never find out if slam is good (depends on H location) and just raised to 5C. Doubled on the way out and I redoubled. Other table continued 4H after 4C and rested in 5C after 4S. Contract made.

Clear 2C for me, playing Garbage Stayman.

2C is a clear-cut overcall for me.