Rossoneri

A very well-known member of Coventry Bridge Club is also named Stephen Green, and coincidentally of the same age...While making a speech at the opening ceremony of the new clubhouse yesterday, he started off by pulling out the above newspaper article...apparently he's had several calls asking him about it!

When you are interested in no-trump after opponents have shown two suits, in some auctions, you can try cueing the suit in which you have the better stopper, asking, in the first instance, for a stopper in the other. Couldn't you play it the other way round - cueing the suit you don't have a stopper in? Or is there some disadvantage to this?

Hint:

3.5k for me hmm...

I'll reveal the full hand in a bit. Now for part 2 of my problem. I led the ♠A (yes I can see the chorus of disapproval already) and dummy hit table: [hv=d=n&v=n&w=sqj9hk65dkq2c7542&s=sa643haqt83dj73c8]266|200|Scoring: MP[/hv] Partner plays the 8 on this trick (high=enc). Now what?

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=sakt73hkj94djc842&w=sjhq32d98632cqt97&e=sq2ha5dakqt754cj3&s=s98654ht876dcak65]399|300|Scoring: MP[/hv] For some reason, I made a mistake in my earlier post. I meant to say I agree that pass should be NF. And at the table, being the muppet that I am, I led A♣ and made the only continuation to let opponents get out for -200. Not that it would have mattered as most other tables were in 4♠+1 or 5♠=.

Thanks for all the replies. At the table, I thought 5♠ was not a certainty to make. I probably forgot to mention that we were playing 4 card majors, 12-14NT. Given that partner might easily have only 4, and the fact that we do open quite light, I decided to take what looked more like a sure plus by doubling 5♦. I do quite agree that pass by partner should be forcing! I will post up the full hands later when I get home.

Interesting, what's your reasoning for leading a trump?

3♥ for me.

[hv=d=n&v=b&s=s98654ht876dcak65]133|100|Scoring: MP[/hv] Bidding goes: 1S-4D-4S-5D P-P-? Do you agree with 4S? What do you bid now?

[hv=d=n&v=n&s=sa643haqt83dj73c8]133|100|Scoring: MP[/hv] You are seated South. Bidding goes: P-P-1H-P 1S-2C-2S-3C 3S-4C-P-P X-AP What do you lead?

Germany scored 16 in 7.

Well, looks like most of us got that right! Great match as well, and to think these were the two teams I wanted to meet in the final!

Daily Mail article The bird has spoken. Besides, I still want to eat takoyaki.

Put me down for 2♣ as well. Agree that in MPs it might be tempting to take my chances in 1N...

With regards to EPO, all I can say is this Chinese saying, which is loosely translated literally as: The righteous get higher by a foot, but evil gets higher by a metre. I have read (as pointed out above) about EPO being almost impossible to detect if used in the "right" way but then again I have also read some other evidence explaining why Armstrong outperforms. It is quite possible that we will never know unless someone helping him outs him or he confesses himself (if he is indeed guilty!).

I want to eat Takoyaki. If only I was back in Singapore...

63) 2 64) 1

1 is an important number surely, as you need it for events which happen almost-surely.

Oops, I'm late! Hope you had a great one!

Going for the swing: 61) 1 62) 1

57) 2 58) 1 59) 2 60) 2

The last few times my team conceded, it was something like 50 imps with 8 boards left and it was getting late and we would rather go and have dinner...

Guess where all that money goes to. Sponsorship deals - loads of money into FIFA. The host nation plows billions and does not get anything from FIFA. FIFA bills it as the world's game or whatever marketing spiel, and then proceeds to charge every country for broadcasting rights. From what I know, these rights aren't cheap at all. Of course, most countries have governments/broadcasters who absorb the costs from sponsorships but then you have countries like a particular one which charges the equivalent of 50 USD or more just to watch the World Cup. There are already many books/articles written about the issue of money and the politician who runs FIFA. I rest my case.

Csaba, I find it interesting that you asked about the difficulty of Chinese. I have heard that Hungarian is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world! Although I did find one similarity Hungarians have with the Chinese - we put our surnames before our first names.