EBU Announcements and Alerts

As I played in the teams at Brighton and used the new system of announcements and alerts over the 112 boards, I thought I'd provide my views on them.

Announcements

As others have noted on rec.games.bridge, everyone is

• very good at announcing their opening 2-bids
• good at announcing "hearts" and "spades" as transfers over 1NT
• fair at announcing stayman
• abysmal at announcing the 1NT range

I'm not that bothered about our opponents forgetting to announce the NT range as I always check at the start of the rounds. Other appeared to have a similar view but we were in the upper half of the field.

A few pairs also tried to announce transfers over 1NT overcalls - assuming announcements survive then I expect this may be one of the first revisions.

Alerts

The changes to the alerting procedures all seemed positive and we had no problems. A number of us started to alert bids above 3NT (hand reaching the bidding box but then rapidly withdrawn as if seeing a snake inside it) and the new rule, of not alerting above this level, is a massive leap forward and seemed universally popular. We, and others, delighted in alerting conventional doubles and passes above 3NT just to show we knew what we were doing - if only we could remember whether it was 'at 3NT' or 'above 3NT' where the new rule came in :)

Conclusions

Having played with announcements in the USA, the scheme that the EBU has adopted is similar but less consistent. Aside from extending announcements of transfers to all natural NT openings and overcalls, the rise in the number of Short Club systems means that the USA announcement of "may be short" would significantly reduce alerts and explanations.

Personally I am not convinced of the value of announcements. However (when in England) I played exclusively tournaments and almost no pairs events so I do not provide a representative opinion. Now in Scotland, I find that everyone announces their notrump range and weak 2-bids at the start of a round (even in clubs), so the value of announcements would be significantly diminished.

The new alerting procedures are a definite improvement. In particular no alerts above 3NT. Personally I would also recommend that no doubles are alerted, but understand many may feel that this would be a step too far.

Brighton Congress 2006

We played the teams with Bill and Lorne, but three poor matches on Saturday afternoon meant that we were not close to qualifying for either of the finals.

The remainder of the Swiss Teams always seems an anti-climax on the Sunday and so it proved as we plodded to 12th in the Brighton Bowl.

Although we were a little unlucky at times, no-one appeared to play consistently well enough throughout the tournament.

Full results can be found on the EBU website.

ACBL Summer Nationals 2006, Chicago

Another trip across the pond to play in the beautiful, and hot, city of Chicago. We had arranged to play in the Spingold with fellow BBOers Han Peter (hannie) and Jason Chiu (jchiu) but would start with a bracket KO over the weekend to warm up and get used to American alerts, announcements and hospitality.

Although Han and Jason did not qualify for the final stages of the LM Pairs, we were unable to find them in time for the KO so we lurked at the partnership desk. We quickly found Judi and Sharon, who were warming up for the Wagar, and looking for an established partnership for the KO. We had a good run to the final of the 4th bracket on Sunday evening when, despite a good half-time lead, another BBOer (bharatrao) singlehandedly won the match for his team. However we were all pleased with our performance.

On Monday we played in a four-way (three qualifying) match in the first round of the Spingold, against the #31 and lower seeds (we were #71). We played the #31 seeds in a 32-board match - they were a group of Poles featuring two players who had played in the Open Team over the last 5 years, and a current Poland Woman Teams player.

Despite a 29 IMP lead at the half, they stormed back to win by 3 IMPs. I thought Alex and I played well and that the Poles had been quite lucky to win. One grand slam that they bid needed ♠AJ9xxxx opposite singleton ♠K to play for seven tricks – of course it made.

So we now had to play the other losers in our bracket and we were comprehensively beaten by APFEL. It turned out that our four-way was the strongest one as all three qualifying teams won the following day and made it to the Round of 32 (where they lost!). APFEL even beat the number seven seeds (Schwartz) comfortably, so I felt a little better about our result against them.

Judi and Sharon had even worse luck, losing their 64-board first round Wagar match by a single IMP. Undeterred we played together in the top bracket of KOs on the following day but lost in the evening.

Having played a fair amount of bridge we took a couple of days off to do some sightseeing and kibitzing. We then played in a compact KO with fellow Brits Ian Kidger and Jon Downing but failed to trouble the scorers. More kibbing and we came home.

Like always we thoroughly enjoyed the trip and would recommend it to others. For a change we found everyone very friendly at the table and interested in our foreign methods. We have made some new friends and, once again, been able to watch the best players in the world at the closest quarters.

East Wales Congress 2006, Cwmbran

Playing with Paul Martin and Bill Godenzie again, we played inconsistently throughout the event and eventually finished out of the money in 9th. A bigger win in the last round could have got us into third place.

This Congress, like all the events I've played in Wales, is really friendly. It has a good location with affordable Holiday Inn Express nearby.

Cwmbran Results

National Swiss Team Congress 2006, Kettering

The annual trip to Leeds in January had a new venue and new teammates. With ML unavailable we played with John Howard (B & B) and Martin Garvey (Surrey) at the EBU's new Kettering venue.

We started poorly when John and Martin missed the first game due to travel delays. In fact it would have been better if they had missed the next two matches too as we would have been 2 VPs better off as we lost them both 4-16 VPs!

The full results can be seen on the EBU website.

Standing on 13 VPs after 3 matches was not our weekend target and our next opponents suffered as we scored 58 IMPs in the 7-board match. In fact most our opponents suffered for the rest of the weekend as we only lost one further match (by 1 IMP to Paul Hackett).

Winning all our matches on the Sunday meant that we finished equal 5th. A reasonable recovery but we could have done better.

The Beer Card

The Beer Card is the ♦7. It is not part of the official rules of Bridge, but there is a tradition among some (typically younger) players that if the declarer succeeds in making the contract and wins the last trick with the ♦7, dummy must buy the declarer a beer of the declarer's choice. In the same way, if the opponents defeat the contract and one of them wins the last trick with the ♦7, the opponent who wins the last trick is bought a beer by the other opponent.

A fuller explanation is provided by the Bridge Guys.