Walddk

I replied already, see above. Sign off. Roland

Yes. 1MA - 3mi is natural, invitational in my methods. Roland

Sign off. 7-card suit with a singleton heart, 6 with a void (3064 and 3046). Roland

Both minors, 5-5 and 0-1 hearts. 2155, 3055 ... with 1 heart even 1165 and 1156 possible because you may pass 2♥ with 2155. Roland

Three reasonable lines: 1. Cash the ace and lead small to the queen. 2. Lead a small to the queen, and if it loses, finesse the 10 next. 3. Lead a small to the queen, and if it loses, cash the ace next. I believe that 1. is a little better and that the overall chance of success is around 50%. Roland

I suggest that you get a position at Surrey County Cricket Club, for three reasons mainly: 1. Much closer to your home. 2. It will please Jeffrey. 3. You can get me tickets for the tests and ODI's. Furthermore, they certainly need an expert on "strategic planning" there. Not sure what they are doing in Division 2! Roland :P

I am less concerned about missing a fit in a minor, but it will bother me if I lose a major fit, maybe even a game. Take the first hand Frances shows: ♠ KQxxx ♥ xx ♦ Axx ♣ xxx and give opener ♠ Axxx ♥ AKxxx ♦ Kx ♣ xx If responder passes 2♦, and this comes back to opener, he will obviously downgrade ♦K. He will often pass now because it's unlike that we have a spade fit (no negative double). If he re-opens with a double, however, it is quite likely that he will get 3♣ from responder (3235), and that is what he doesn't want to hear. Roland

I can't be certain, but I suspect that it has something to do with operator availability. Long time ago the organisers in Taiwan asked us to list the event from round 10 and onwards and get English speaking expert commentators for those sessions (2 tables throughout). We can't and have no wish to interfere with that decision. It's entirely up to the organisers, and BBO will accept any decision they come up with. Roland

The only place worth mentioning in Surrey (county south of the Thames in London) is The Brit Oval. The Oval cricket ground in Kennington is the home of Surrey County Cricket Club and was the venue for the first test match between Australia and England. In 1882 a spectator is said to have bitten through his umbrella handle during a tense defeat of England by Australia. This was the first time England had lost on native soil and The Sporting Times produced an obituary lamenting the death of English Cricket. During England’s next tour of Australia, the victorious England captain was presented an urn of ashes- said to represent the cremated ashes of English Cricket. The Ashes are now presented to the victors in test matches between the two nations. Roland

Absolutely lucid, Roland. Except for one question, which is what the heck is the "batting side"? Also seems obvious to diagram (remember those petty diagramming exercises in middle school?). The team that bat, as opposed to the team that field. About 15 minutes before start of play the two captains toss a coin. The captain who wins the toss decides if he wants to bat or field first. The batting side is the team with batsmen whereas the fielding side is the team with the fielders (I believe "fieldsmen" is used in Oz). The batting side has two batsmen at the crease; the fielding side has all 11 in the field at a time. Talking of Oz. We all know that they like everything upside-down since they live down under. The same applies to cricket. It's normal to say that Team A has scored 298-4 (298 runs for the loss of 4 wickets, i.e. runs first, wickets next). Not so in Australia where they would put it 4-298. Roland

Bridgebutikken (The Bridge Shop) in Copenhagen, Denmark. http://www.bridgebutikken.dk/Cart/index.ph...25380.161.21.38 Not sure if this counts, but the Danish Bridge Federation also has a large bridge shop at their premises 30 miles north of Bridgebutikken. http://www.bridge.dk/forlaget/ Roland

I don't think this was meant for me. It's a clear double in both cases, and in your second example it's purely coincidental that responder has clubs too. Roland

How do you know that you represent the majority? I don't think you do actually; among the majority of experts, double shows spades, and spades only. Hence 3♣ shows extras. Another interesting auction is: 1♣ (1♠) X (pass) 2♦ This is a reverse to me because responder has shown nothing but hearts. Incidentally, I don't play 2♦ as necessarily natural, but a reverse it is. On this auction either natural or a hand too good for a 3♣ rebid. I know we have been through all this in a thread a few months ago. Roland

I know you are leaving today and will be busy with live tourneys for the best part of 4 weeks. Good luck to you, Brad and your team! Roland

Excuse me, but this is rubbish, Claus! A system is exactly as strong or weak as it is handled by the players who decide to play it. I am convinced that world class players like Helgemo and Hampson are quite capable of adopting to whatever system they agree on with their partners. And no, I don't think they need more than 1 hour to go through the various aspects of that system. In most cases good judgement is what's needed, and the players in this league get it right much more often than others. It's not good enough to know 14 different systems if you don't know how to play the contract you arrive in. The players in this event agree to play one system they are comfortable with, and after the auction is over, they certainly know how to declare. So in this context it doesn't matter one bit if Helgemo plays with Helness or Justin Hackett .... or Geoff Hampson with Greco or Steve Landen. Roland

I suggest you pretend that you're not an Englishman when you say this at the local pub :lol: Roland

Why is this so strange if Jan Jansma Tor Helness Eric Greco Johan Sylvan are unavailable for the occasion? Are you saying that their regular partners should not compete (be invited) because thay are much weaker when they play with other partners? In my view, very strong partnerships can be formed of world class players who have not played together before. 60 minutes of system talk will normally be enough because they will not agree on fancy systems or gadgets. Their bridge skills will take care of the rest. Roland

The richest money tournament, by miles, is the Cavendish Invitational in Las Vegas. http://www.thecavendish.com/ A contributing factor is, of course, that there is an auction where some people spend (and earn) lots of $$. However, the entry fees are quite significant too: Cavendish Invitational Pairs: Entry Fee: $2,500 US per pair Minimum Bid: $12,500 US per pair John Roberts Teams: Entry Fee: $10,000 US per team No auction WBP Pairs: Entry Fee: $750 US per pair Minimum Bid: $1,000 US per pair WBP Teams: Entry Fee: $1,000 US per team Minimum Bid: $1,000 US per team The Cavendish will be played in early May, and if all goes according to plan, we will be broadcasting from the two main events. ..... Regarding the Bermuda Bowl and Olympics the answer is "no". You compete for medals and fame .... but no fortune. Roland

For those of you are totally confused by the term "pyjama cricket", maybe this explanation is in order: In Test cricket (5-day matches) all players wear white clothing. In one day matches, however, the jerseys and trousers are multicoloured (to say the least). I guess you may have a point if you call it pyjama cricket although I don't have an outfit with South Africa or Sri Lanka written all over it :P By the way, the best one day international ever (in my view) was played earlier today in Johannesburg. The Aussies made history by scoring 434 runs off the allotted 50 overs (no team had scored 400 before), but that record was broken a few hours later when the Springboks passed that score with one ball to spare! Howzat! Roland

Starting on Friday we will be having 8 consecutive days of live vugraph broadcasts from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and the Netherlands. First up is the prestigious Yeh Brothers Cup with a star-filled field from all over the world. Our boss, Fred Gitelman, is one of the many stars taking part in this event. See for yourself by clicking on this link: http://www.ywt.com.tw/ywt/2006yeh/index.html As some of you may recall, the event last year took place in China, and due to serious technical difficulties we were not able to show just one hand on BBO. We hope for much better luck this time. Roland

Pass. Partner has a lot of wasted values in spades, and he could have jumped to 4NT to show extras. He did not. By the way, this must be the hand where you, in another thread, asked us to lead against a diamond slam. I can picture what happens if you don't cash ♥A on lead. A heart loser will go away on ♠K most likely. Roland

Carlsberg .... probably the best beer (lager) in the world. Roland

Partner has 12-14 balanced and passed initially? Roland

Yes, 3♥. Less is for children and adults with weak hearts. :ph34r: Roland

Not quite right. You also find cross country bike riding in most other European countries. I know that this is true for at least Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and Spain. I agree with you, by the way; it's very entertaining. Roland