Walddk

It was bound to happen one day, and it did now: I agree with Luis! ;) Roland

Where did I say that it's a 5♦ call? Please advise. Roland

MikeH's posts clearly demonstrate that he is away with the birds :) Roland

Latest info. Our 3 matches (all from the Bermuda Bowl) Sunday will be: Round 1: USA1 vs. Argentina Round 2: Portugal vs. Chinese Taipei Round 3: Italy vs. Netherlands (rematch of the final from Istanbul last year). More good news: In all likelihood we will be able to add a match to every round from Monday. A couple of volunteer operators found, and they will be trained by Hervé later on Saturday. Roland

They do, but not as partners. Garozzo with De Falco and Forquet with Masucci (Mosca-Sbarigia the 3rd pair). In this context, however, it's worth noting that BBO does not decide which matches we will be broadcasting. The on site commentators do. Roland

Although the WBF was/is the organizer in both instances, there is a world of a difference between Sydney and Estoril. In Sydney, as far as BBO was concerned, we had: 1. Dave Thompson and Nick Fahrer to prepare for the event. They started 6 months before. Everything was planned to the tiniest of detail. 2. David Stern, a keen and skillful convenor who was very supportive of the BBO activities. 3. Susan Doty, Richard Willey and Wayne Burrows who flew over from USA and New Zealand to serve as (very experienced) operators. So did Dave, Nick and a few other volunteer Australians. All well prepared in advance. 4. No competition from other bridge sites. ---- In Estoril we have: 1. Hervé Lustman (zmud99) who is a part-time BBO'er because he is employed and paid by the WBF during the 2 weeks. 2. Fred Gitelman, who is a player for USA2 and therefore not available to deal with BBO matters (as expressed by himself). Quite understandable. 3. No volunteer operators from abroad, because the WBF budget does not allow this to happen. 4. Competition from Swan Games. So it can't come as a surprise to anyone if our coverage from the Bermuda Bowl will be inferior to what we saw from Sydney. We are obviously all determined to make this as successful as possible, but the conditions are not the same. Roland

Sure. At least you have pinpointed a lead in case LHO becomes declarer. Light openings are perfectly legitimate and are even quite common 3rd in hand, especially non vul against vul. Roland

We have a few names already. I gave them to Fred before he left. Rui Marques is also at the venue (one of the TDs) and a skillful vugraph operator. Hopefully they can work something out in order to get more tables in. Roland

I understand your reaction, and I would have done the same thing. I actually did, and so did Booze, long time ago when we decided to quit as tournament organisers. Not so much because of other directors and their opinions, but because we were fed up with bad behaviour among the players. Kathryn, you have done great, and you have always been willing to learn. Very commendable! However, I understand that you've had it. Enough is enough when you're a volunteer and unpaid director. Roland

This is what I got back when I wrote to the seagulls, in Danish: Kære Roland, På vegne af alle havmåger på og i nærheden af Hans Ø skal jeg hermed takke dig for din uforbeholdne støtte. Vi ønsker bestemt ikke at være underkastet canadisk suverænitet, så vi håber inderligt, at de tapre danske flådestyrker snart får skovlen under dem! Canadiske sild smager rædselsfuldt! Der er et yndigt land, det står ......... Mange venlige hilsener, H.A.V. Måge P.S. Kan du ikke sende nogle sild fra Østersøen vest for Bornholm? Det ved man da hvad er! ..... So you see Mike, there is absolutely no doubt in their minds. Danish they are and Danish they will be forever. Roland

Glad to see that MikeH has come to his senses. Must be sea breeze off Vancouver. The fear of rebidding 3NT could be transferred to this simple example: Axx xx KQxx AQxx Playing 15-17 NT, we would all open 1NT although there is a risk that opps may start with the first 7-8 heart tricks. One has to live with that and get on with things. Roland

I would rebid 3NT as I would have if LHO hadn't overcalled 2♦. I know I don't have a heart stopper, but there is nothing that suggests that opps are able to take 5 heart tricks. Agreed, x Kx Axx AKQJ1098 would have been better, but I've got to bid the hand I am dealt. 3♦ with 8 certain tricks doesn't do this hand justice. I would have had a much tougher problem is they had overcalled hearts. If they did, 3♥ would be my rebid. Roland

According to a web site on the internet, I am 3,115 km (1,947 miles) away from Lisbon, so I don't know more than you I'm sorry to say. Fred is busy preparing for play to start (and so he should be!), Hervé is busy working for the WBF (and so he should be because he is paid by them). Who serves the interest of BBO then? I don't know, but all we can do at this point is hope. From an earlier thread you may recall that it would be "desirable" but not "necessary" for me to be there. I accept that without complaints. I even managed to get a few e-mail addresses for potential volunteer operators. What I do know, however, is that I prepared for this. I have 64 commentators signed up for the first week (25-30 for some of the rounds). Needless to say we won't need a fraction if we don't get more tables than one. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Maybe I have good news to deliver when we get closer to the start. Roland

Wimpish Canadians like MikeH would pass the North hand and get the result he deserves. True, he won't go for 800 this time and that will be his first message when he writes a letter to the seagulls on Hans Ø. Put one of the seagulls in the North seat and Mike on Hans Ø and you will see what happens! :D Roland

If you mean 5 tricks I simply must go for the drop. Singleton jack doesn't give me 5 tricks no matter what I do. Roland

1♥. Not the greatest of opening bids, but 2♥ and 3♥ would both be a bigger lie. I have way too much outside hearts to pre-empt, and my hand could be a suitable dummy in any other denomination. My 2nd choice would be pass. Not even if you twisted my arms would I pre-empt with a hand like this. Roland

With the Bermuda Bowl only 44 hours away, it's still uncertain what we will be able to broadcast on BBO vugraph. At this point, we can only guarantee one table. Hopefully we will manage to get and train a few volunteer operators before the start on Sunday morning local time. We have the equipment (laptops) and connections we need, but we don't have the people to operate. A couple of BBO'ers are working on it at the venue. Will keep you posted as (if) I get more information. Roland

No it's not and I see no reason why it should be. Roland

Meant for beginners/intermediates only. Advanced or better: please use hidden text. 53 AKQJ8 Plenty of entries to dummy. You need all 5 tricks and you start by cashing a top honour. LHO follows with the 10. What now, go for the drop or enter dummy in order to finesse the 8 if you believe that the 10 was a singleton? Another question. Does it matter which honour you cash first? I know they are all equals to you, but should you try a specific honour rather than another? Roland

There is no such thing as bad weather, there is something called bad clothing. Anyway, who cares about the weather when you have your back to the window? I blame it on Microsoft, BBO, etc., etc. B) Roland

I disagree. Borrowing a king (some say ace) applies after a 1-level opening where RHO has shown weakness. It doesn't after a 3-level pre-empt where responder can be very strong with a misfit. Double in this position should show full values, because you force the partnership to the 4-level. That is obviously not the case after 1x pass pass. With the actual hand North should have done more. 4NT seems about right, and then South must be pretty close to jumping to the club slam. Roland

I pass. It's wrong timing (position) to get in sitting under an unlimited opener. If LHO passes, partner is still there; he is the one with shortish spades. I hope I didn't hesitate before I passed. Roland

I am a firm believer in showing consideration for the minority whenever possible, but the fact is that the minority in this case is much larger than we may think. I can't put any figures on the table, but I am sure that we have thousands of non English speaking members at BBO - some of which are very keen vugraph spectators. Uday knows better than anyone how many we have from for example Poland, Italy, France, Turkey, China, Japan and South America. Am I far off when I say that the large percentage of those members are non English speaking? I don't think so. If this is true, I also think it's fair to say that this is not the case in the Forums. The reason for it is simple. The non English speaking members do not join the Forums because this is all in English (apart from the Italians perhaps who have a Forum in their own language). This is why we should give them all the support we can regarding vugraph commentary. It's not our job to teach them English, but we have an obligation to give them the best we can under the circumstances: their own language one way or another. Then add the significant point Rick (shoeless) raises: You know I just bet if you did this and let people know they could watch the BB, VC and SB and chat about it in their own language - you might have a few more people watching. Some local experts are likely to log in to these rooms and give some pretty sound commentary too. I am not the one who decides if this is more "important" than other issues. Uday and Fred are the decision makers. All I and others can do is encourage them to give the non English speaking members this opportunity. Roland

I guess broadcasting is what you mean. If you do, here are 2 links? http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=10664 http://online.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php I suggest that you keep our VG schedule page among your favourites. Roland

The problem is, however, that 2♠ is not constructive if you have Drury on your cc. Dump it then? Fine by me (and David Burn, he asked me to tell you). Roland