MFA

3NT. The practical bid.

As said, 1 fails only with ♥A in north and at the same time ♥T9 in south. 3 chances to win. After seeing spades 5-2 it seems close to try to cater to hearts 2-5 by playing heart to the J, and then heart to the K. 2 immediate chances + wins with all 2-5 distributions in hearts. Probably 1 is better after all.

If I had to guess I would shoot 7 for sure.

4NT RKC (hands with minors has to take-out double or guess a suit). We must be very close to some grand, 7♣ or 7N, if N is sane (were you N, btw Ole? :angry:).

Our bidding so far is extremely bad. What has partner done to us, since we don't respect his bidding, not even his opening bid? Now we have a grand slam try. 6♣ to show the ace.

Poland?

WBF has improved the TD procedure, so that more TDs are involved in each decision and polls among strong players are standard for all tricky evaluation problems. The TD will be able to explain to the AC about all this and thus give more weight to his decision. I think the quoted statement is fair. Appeals with very little hope are good for no-one, but since it's a world championship, some people might be inclined to make silly, marginal appeals.

If this procedure is to make any sense, then E-W can't be required to reveal what they were just told by answering creative questions from S about actual or hypothetical bids. So implicitely it's ok for EW to give the multiway explanation.

South should definitely just bid 4♠ over 2NT. Practically taken, she needs 4 key cards and the ♦K from partner for a start, or it would be some finessing thing at best.

Hopefully your opponents do also?! (Or is your partner not a friend of yours ;).) Anyways, count me out of 3rd seat lunacy, just because we are green vs red. Not really bridge.

4♠. Ugly, but with 7-0 in the majors I have to put on my bidding shoes in this sequence.

I have had some spectacular bottoms with the unspecified splinters, but I'm still playing them. Hopefully the good boards will come. Last time it came up, I had a very suitable opening hand with 2641, almost a textbook slam hand opposite a splinter. 1♥-p-3♠-(4♠). So I keycarded and ended up in a noplay 6♥. Partner of course had a singleton ... club!

There are no direct money prizes for achivements in the BB. Maybe particular national federations or their sponsors pay bonus in case of success. B-Z resigned from the national team after +- 20 years of playing. Many in my country get away with criticism and judgement on this, forgetting how much these both players have done for Polish teams and development of the game in Poland during past decades. Robert I also find it a pity that so many of the world's strongest pairs are missing in the BB - but I don't meam that as a criticism of H-H or B-Z. Just as a regret that the most prestigious world championship isn't even the strongest tournament taking place this year. I agree it's sad if some of the best pairs doesn't play the BB. "So many" seems like an overstatement, when the actual number is 2. Or do you know of any apart from BZ and HH? One could even argue that BZ are Poles, never have played for Russia in an event such as this before, and were ineligible for the qualifications in Pau. So not really unnatural not to see them in the Russian team in Sao Paulo. Also HH would have been ineligible, had they wanted to play. Helgemo's quarantine expires September 1st, so he couldn't have been selected for the team anyway. While the nationals might have a stronger field since it's deeper, it's an unfair comparison, since the tournaments (BB ct. nationals) are different species. In the BB only one team per country can play, so one has to remember the long qualification process for the pairs/teams before being able to participate at all. In the nationals any slaughter lamb can just write his name on the entry list, if he likes.

Jeez, I just tell him, of course.

Yep, clear pass in Fluffy's sequence. Edit: For starters partner needs 3 key cards + ♠Q. And then there is all the handling and possible bad breaks.

This 4♦ would be a strong raise for me. That's the general rule at the 4+ level. A cuebid below 3NT could be 2-way as I play. General force (aiming for 3NT or just COG) or a strong raise (hoping to be able to pull 3NT to 4 of partner's suit showing a slam try with genuine support).

Oh, didn't notice that the first bid also was for discussion. X then 5NT.

Denmark. Everything is allowed here at teams. In club games the local club can make its own restrictions if it likes. But in national team tournaments there are no restrictions. I have had the pleasure of playing 2-way forcing pass with OleBerg (0-8 or 16+) in a (very strong) club game. For instance. Once in a while people do show up with their own home brew.

I'd try a diamond to dummy and another club. West could very easily have ducked the ♣A. East has at most one ace, and if I play a heart and east has that ace, I'm dead right there. Going for clubs first is wrong only if east has ♣A and also the ♦Q. In which case he could have taken the first round of clubs to defeat the contract. (He might not have done so, of course. But still.)

4♥.

5NT. I have big respect for voids in competition. If I knew my opponents and have a reason to suspect that they are colourblind, I might be convinced to double instead.

In Denmark it's popular to defend Ekren along the same lines as defending multi. X 13-16 bal or 17+ any 2NT 17-19 All overcalls natural. Some play 2♥ (and perhaps also 2♠) for the minors though, I don't. Then Lebensohl, second double from our side is for take-out in all sequences. Pass then X is also take-out. Not so bloodthursty a defense but getting in early with 13+ protects against being stolen from. And converting take-out doubles to penalty does happen. ;) Incidently, I think every time I have faced 2♦-X-pass, the agreement has been 'to play'. Which is also the most sensible one in my opinion. XX to get partner's longer major. Against that Lebensohl still applies for us - subsequent diamond bids are cuebids.

These reviews are quite interesting. It strikes me how uniform the approaches are. Nobody play some really unusual stuff - it's really a very narrow range of methods. Actually I think that's a shame, since new developement in bridge thinking is always refreshing.

Result stands, no damage. A trump lead against 3♠X would be beyond automatic, should we somewhat questionably 'allow' EW to run from 3♣X. But I can see that TD established that there was no MI and therefore no case. David, what are NS supposed to do under EBU rules regarding alerts if they have no agreements about a double?

Pass. Automatic. Partner won't have hidden 6-card suits and voids for this sequence, when he could bid 3♠ or 4♣/♦. It looks as if he is 4153 or 4144 here, which is about the most offensive oriented shapes possible for his bidding. Pass, and I expect to see a trump lead. This could very easily be +500 against nothing or +800 against a game with just a little luck.