Walddk

We have had this discussion before. My advice is that you do not play 3NT as gambling (solid minor with little outside). The reason is that if NT is right (once in a blue moon), it will be wrong-sided. However, I also know that a vast majority still uses 3NT for this purpose. That doesn't make it more valid in my opinion. You can use 3NT for various other purposes, but the bottom line is that Fred Gitelman is 100% correct when he says that you should only open 3NT if you do not want to play there! Roland

I must, reluctantly of course, agree 100% with my enemy from Canada. Roland P.S. Our vessel with the 12 mm (or is it 120 mm?) gun is now patrolling the waters around OUR island!

4♥ is fine with me (need a partner?), unless you have the agreement with your partner that you must have a trick more at this vulnerability, then only 3♥. Let's take the worst scenario: partner does not have a single trick for you. Then you go for 1100, but if that is the case the opponents will almost always be able to score 1370, 1430 or 1440, and quite often even 2140, 2210 or 2220. Conceding a phone number is not always a disaster. It can actually turn out to be a very good board. So keep bidding 4♥ with that hand is my advice! Roland

Interesting report Nick. Where are the cocksure asdfg2k and Woolsey when we need them? "Benefit of the doubt" is a term that does not seem to exist in their vocabulary. Do not jump to conclusions when you are 10,000+ miles away is the lesson to learn! 30 cm makes a lot more sense, at least to me. I don't want an apology, Hog, I just hope that this will teach asdfg2k to take some things with a grain of salt, and that Kit Woolsey is not bridge's answer to the Oracle of Delphi. Roland

You can have my Nasi Lemak. I don't even know what it is; maybe I'm allergic to it. Roland

I couldn't agree more, because that is what it says in the Objects Clause of the Laws of Duplicate Bridge. However, it is a contradiction when you, in f2f bridge, actually do punish people for revokes even if they don't matter for the result. One would assume that the lawmakers must be able to do better than this if the laws are not designed to punish people. Roland

There you go. Confusion all over the place. There really should be an international standard. I don't take any credit for what we use in Denmark, but you've got to admit that this is unambiguous: N 4♥, 11, 450 E 7♦, 10, 300 provided that South made 11 tricks in 4♥ non vulnerable, and that East went 3 down (10 tricks) vulnerable in his ambitious grand slam. Roland

I had the same problem, I e-mailed Fred and did what he asked me to: re-downloaded version 4.3.8 (new Beta version with the same number as I understand it). That solved the problem. Colour settings will be there on your next login. Roland

I can see that Wayne Burrows (cascade) is online, so maybe he can give us the score after the 5th segment. Roland

Well, there must be a break now. We have missed the last 5 boards is my guess. Hopefully we will be back when we restart at 6:10 Paris, 12:10 am New York. Roland

The same all over the place it seems. Serious server crash. Roland

The American players are very experienced, so rest assured that they would have called the director if they thought that there had been an infraction (significant break of tempo leading to unauthorized information). I am sorry, but you are not in a position to call the director from where you are even if you think that he should have been called. None of us can do that. Roland

1. You can't state anything obvious. Read mrdct's post. 2. It was as it was to you it appears, but apparently not to the players on site. I can't understand how you can be the judge light years away from the venue. In my opinion you should rather apply the "benefit of the doubt". 3. Real time broadcasts do not reflect all aspects and is not the whole truth. Read mrdct's post again. As far as I know, you have never been an operator yourself. You are assuming something you can't know anything about. Dave Thompson (mrdct) and I have been operating on numerous occasions. We know perfectly well what real time broadcasts involve. Sometimes the operator is the one who hesitates. S/he has lots of things to do. Finally, why would Kit Woolsey be your hero in this case? "If Kit Woolsey says that it is inappropriate, then I believe him. And he did". You and Kit can say anything you like, but it is nothing more than pure speculation if you are not at the table when an incident occurs, if it occurs. Roland

You are entitled to your opinion, but since there seems to have been no ruling, let alone an appeal, we must trust that everything went within the framework of the laws. By the way, I am not sure what you mean by biased commentators. We did indeed have Polish commentary in the closed room, but were you able to understand what they said in this context? At least we did not have any commentators with Polish bias in the open room with English commentary, unless you assume that European commentators are biased. That would be a dangerous assumption. Even commentators are human, and they will surely be rooting for their favourites (preferably in their hearts rather than on print), but "bias" is not a word I approve of in this context. Per definition, commentators are impartial, and that is how it should be. Roland

I think it's very dangerous to determine what actually happened at the table if you are 10,000+ miles away from the venue. Kit Woolsey can say anything he likes, but it will only be a guess as far as a hesitation is concerned. Woolsey is a fine player and analyst, but he is no oracle. Roland

It was indeed an amazing set (final as well as playoff for 3rd/4th). It had everything one could ask for, and in the end there was only 5.5 IMPs between Poland and USA1 with 32 boards to go. http://online.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php Don't miss it. Vugraph bridge at its finest! We also had 4200 users logged in to BBO at one point (9 am in New York), 1800 of which were watching live bridge from Sydney. Amazing, and a very unusual high number at that hour. What is it going to be like when we reach October/November and the Bermuda Bowl & Venice Cup? Roland

2♣ is bad enough as it is (space consuming), so if you have to jump to 3NT, 4NT, 5NT whatever on your next turn to show a huge balanced hand, it will get even worse. Accordingly, it would be nice if a 2NT rebid at some stage after 2♣ shows 25+ balanced (GF), would it not? Then you have room to use Stayman, Puppet, Smolen, Transfers, any favourite convention you like, as you see fit. Now, what about 22-24 balanced you may ask. Quite easy if you play Kokish. 2♣ - 2♦ 2NT = 22-24 balanced 2♣ - 2♦ 2♥ Either natural, or 25+ balanced. 2♠ by responder asks for clarification. With the actual hand (if no 2♥ bust on the cc), the bidding would go: 2♣ - 2♦ 2♥ - 2♠ 2NT = 25+ balanced, game forcing. Roland

There is a very simple way of doing this, used in many European countries, Denmark included. Mark the number of tricks declarer gets in his contract. Then there is no confusion possible. Examples: E 4♠, 11, -450 S 6♣, 11, -100 N 2♥, 9, +140 Roland

Excuse me, but I am lost. One thing is that you don't open that hand, fair enough, but implying that the hand is not close to having opening values opposite a take-out double of diamonds is going a bit far. 3♠ would be a serious underbid in my opinion. Roland

They should, absolutely! Do you know what the problem is? Most players don't know if they get a bad ruling or not, so they just comply with anything the TD may say and do. Too many TDs get away with this. They may even think that they have made a correct ruling (according to the Laws of Duplicate Bridge). If that is the case, how can those individuals become better TDs? Ignorance is no crime, but it's silly not to at least try to improve. The TDs in question know perfectly well if they are familiar with the laws or not. Another reason why you don't get more complaints is the simplest of them all: Most players can't be bothered even if the ruling is somewhat dubious (to be diplomatic). They just get on with things. Others don't compromise. Roland

Absolutely, since I follow the Laws of Duplicate Bridge. The laws do not distinguish between experts and beginners, so a TD is not allowed to rule differently just because an offender is a beginner. Follow the rules, or don't follow them. You can't stop in the middle of everything. Roland Say the offender (non alert) here is WC and the non offending side is Beginner. It doesn't change anything. The bottom line is that the laws do not allow you to distinguish. You may disagree of course, but then you need to change the laws first, explicitly stating that there are certain rules for beginners and other rules for world class players. Roland

Absolutely, since I follow the Laws of Duplicate Bridge. The laws do not distinguish between experts and beginners, so a TD is not allowed to rule differently just because an offender is a beginner. Follow the rules, or don't follow them. You can't stop in the middle of everything. Roland

Your double is fair. On a non club lead declarer takes all 13 tricks if he goes with the odds in trumps (drop). 7 spades, 3 hearts and 3 diamonds. Club lead is the only lead that may make him go down (misguessing spades later). Roland

I know that this topic is on Fred's would-be-nice list, but only he knows when this can be implemented. Another improvement would be to have language in the column to the far right instead of scoring format. If only someone would create the 28-hour day :rolleyes: Roland

In that case I suggest that you write an e-mail to support@. I can't imagine that they would not consider your offer. Roland