Walddk

The conclusion is that no bridge player can change a light bulb. As a consequence, I have asked my cleaning lady to do it at the bridge centre. On one hand: she has been playing bridge for 3 years, on the other hand, however, she is definitely no bridge player. But what does it all matter? She can change a light bulb, and the can clean the toilets because the light bulbs are lit! Roland

Excellent post throughout, hotShot. Well done! Roland

The Muller-de Wijs convention card (without system notes) can be found at: http://www.ecatsbridge.com/documents/files...ller-dewijs.pdf Roland

Just a couple of questions at this point, Jurek. Do you think it's likely that South jumped to 3♠ with xxx in hearts? How could partner pass 1♥ with 3 hearts and enough for double of 4♠? Well, this is for you to figure out. Roland

If you don't have a relay available after 1x - 1M 2M to find out more about opener's hand, I think 3NT is a fine bid, offering you a choice of games. Roland

No, in a teams event like the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup & Senior Bowl you play against all other 21 teams (Round-Robin). One team is only allowed to field 2 pairs at a time, one for the open and one for the closed room, so 1 pair will always be sitting out. You do not know which pairs the opponents are going to play until rather late before the match begins. If it's the first match of the day, the line-ups must be handed in the evening before. Between matches 1 & 2 and 2 & 3 the procedure is normally 1-2 hours before the start of the next match (varies from event to event, depending on how long a break there is between matches). All this is in the hands of the NPC (Non Playing Captain). (S)he often confers with the players before deciding the line-up. Roland

Correct, because the pair that chooses to play against the HUM pair is allowed to bring a written "open defence" to the table. They are permitted to have a look at the notes at any time during the match. By giving that team the right to choose seating last, one nation only needs to let one pair concentrate on preparing an open defence. It's quite time consuming. The normal precedure (no HUM pair) is to let the Home Team choose last, after they have seen which pair from the opposing team will be sitting where. Roland

Maybe you are too young to remember Tarzan (Johnny Weissmüller). The system was developed in New Zealand and revised in England; now played by Simon de Wijs-Bauke Muller from the Netherlands. WijsMuller. Got it? ;) Roland

22 teams of 3 pairs in all 3 series: Open, Women, Seniors. For full BBO vugraph (provisional) schedule: http://online.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php For systems: http://www.ecatsbridge.com/Events/wbf/2005...ril/default.asp Roland

Sure, he can pass any forcing bid if he feels like it (how can I stop him?), but he won't get many chances with me as his partner. Roland

It does indeed, especially if I find that 3 outstanding hearts break 2-2 :) Roland

Now we agree ... on your conclusion that is! MikeH makes a couple of very good points, and I am sure that will convince you. Roland

No, I do not. 3♠ is logically forcing. Roland

Then perhaps you should change your agreement. How can a passed hand wish to play in a (new) 5-card suit at the 3-level after a 2♣ overcall by partner? Remember that West already denied 6 spades when he passed initially. May I suggest that you play this as (natural) forcing with a fit to overcaller's suit. In other words: if partner doesn't like spades (at least three cards), he must bid either 4♣ or 5♣, depending on how strong his overcall was and how well he likes his hand after the 3♠ bid. Roland

[hv=d=w&v=e&n=s54h9862da94cakq2&w=shakq104dkj82cj1097]266|200|Scoring: IMP S: 4S doubled Lead: Ace of hearts[/hv] You are West and open 1♥ passed to South, who jumps to 3♠. Pass by you now, although a take-out double would not be unreasonable even at these colours. North raises to 4♠, and your partner doubles! All pass. The lead is easy: A top heart, ace or king depending on your partnership agreement. The 3 from partner (standard attitude and count), and declarer follows with the 7. Let me ask you 2 questions: - 1. How do you picture the two hidden hands? - 2. How do you plan the defence now? Hint: When things look easy, it's time to watch out. (If any advanced and/or expert players feel like chipping in, please use hidden text). Roland

Those +++ (3 pluses with no spaces) stand for "scheduled vugraph commentators are able to receive private chat messages while commentating". I am not aware of anything related to a tournament. I doubt that Uday is. If they bear any resemblance to a legitimate abbreviation in a tourney, I don't think that any player would know. Roland

Nothing new here. Slow arrival as usual. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, K! Roland

3♠ is an excellent start to the cold 6♣ opposite AQx A xxx Axxxxx Good partners always have that hand! Roland

You can avoid all this by doing what you do in real life bridge. "Thanks" when you see dummy, and no more. glp, wdp, gtp, gto, wdo and all that jazz must be internet inventions. I am not much into that I must admit, but I am not saying that mine is the right approach. It is for me though, and I don't think it's rude to say nothing more than that. ty, typ, thx, thanks, tx (whatever you prefer) when you are declarer should be enough in my opinion. Is there any particular reason why one would add all the above mentioned abbreviations? If you don't, at least you can't offend anyone, which you may do if you say "wdp" when opps make a serious mistake and let the contract through. Or when declarer misplays the hand and goes down in a rigid contract. wdp, says one opponent. What's the point? Roland

2NT for me, a slight overbid since it shows 10-12 hcp. Could be wrong, but we may still have up to 27 hcp between us (2♣ = 12-18 in my book). The vulnerability at IMPs is too tempting. Roland

I think the bridge politicians are the culprits. Now they added a "girls' series" to the European Youth Championships. Why is that necessary? Isn't it exactly at that age (under 25) you would want to throw away the barriers? This is not the way forward for the women/girls in my opinion, and they really should object. This is often a matter of tradition. Take the Camrose Trophy (men) and Lady Milne Trophy (women) in Great Britain & Ireland for example. They started this in the mid 30's, and they are still going strong. No one is ever going to change it, although I think they should make it one and call it the Cam-Milne Trophy. You never get rid of the traditions if you keep creating new events for women and girls. On the contrary, you add fuel to the flames. Roland

Which in fact is a discrimination, is it not? Againt men, that is. Women can play in the Open, whereas men can't play in the women's. Roland

I agree, but they need to qualify for the Open team first. They haven't been able to yet. They won't have to qualify for the women's team. They are exempts, so they always have two chances to play internationally if they wish. Roland

What are the selection criteria for the German Open team? They team up with any pair(s) they like and compete in trials. On those occasions Sabine and Daniela have had strong team-mates (men), but they have failed to qualify although they were close last year. Sabine and Daniela play in the "Open" German Premier League (as the only woman pair as far as I recall), but then again: there is no woman league in Germany. They exist in many other European countries. Roland

Indeed Justin, and I respect those two for being as good as the best men. How many more would (perhaps) make it to any of the Top 10 "Open" teams in the world? A rhetorical question, since it's a fact that no woman is on any "Open" team at the very top. May I remind you that even Sabine Auken-Daniela von Arnim, arguably the best woman pair in the world, have not yet been able to qualify for the German "Open" team although they have tried on several occasions. Germany are not even among the world's Top 15. They achieved their results in the women's championships (as did virtually all other women), so the real problem is that there is a huge gap between "Open" and "Women". That's a fact nobody can deny, and whether that will change or not remains to be seen. I doubt it, although I can't see any logical explanation as to why one shouldn't try to accomplish this - if the women want it, that is. By the way. You pick your best 10 women's teams, and I pick the 10 best men's. Feel free to pick more teams from the same nation, and I select one from 10 different countries. We seed them and let 1 play against 1, 2 against 2 and so on over say 96 boards. How many of those matches will be won by the women? My answer is hidden. Roland