Zar Points Bermuda Bowl
 
Zar Points  Bidding Systems Theory Support Critics & Opinions

 

Bermuda Bowl - Zar Points Perspective

 

 

NOTE:

 

A lot of people asked me to put a DOWNLOAD link that enables them to save all the Bermuda Bowl comments on this page as a PDF file. HERE it goes:

 

 

Download the ALL the Boards from the FINAL Italy vs. USA 1, + the Two Semifinals

 

 

Click here to DOWNLOAD the entire Bermuda Bowl discussion as a PDF file.

 

 

 

We continue with the Quarter Finals.

 

 

 

Bermuda Bowl 2003 –Day 7, November 9

 

Board #22.  Quarter Final Bulgaria vs. Norway

 

Dealer West, love all. We will present the bidding at the table of Stamatov-Gunev (NS for Bulgaria) vs. Brogeland-

Saelensmind (EW for Norway).

 

 

 

S  A Q 9 6 4

H  7

D  8 5 4

C  A 10 3 2

 

S  .

H  .

D  .

C  .

 

 

Bidding:           East            South               West         North

                                  -                  -                   1 S

 

 

 

You probably think that the missing East hand and the unfinished bidding is a typo here :-)

 

Not really - just a "fresh air" in the Bermuda Bowl presentation :-)

 

After West opened the hand with 1 Spade, a Question was posed at the Vu-Graph: "Would anyone open this hand?". Guess what - I was intrigued! I was about to here answers from expert commentators here "just-like-that", without ME posing the question, thus kind-of suggesting or guiding the answer.

 

And the answers varied from "Never" to "Not Me" ... This hand has 10+4+9+4 = 27 Zar Points and a good Spades suit to top-up your decision for opening with 28 initial Zar Points.

 

Just imagine the amount of conservatism among the upper-20% of the bridge field (where the commentators of a vu-graph undoubtedly are), let alone the 80% of the field.

 

 

My rough estimate, after talking with so many experts on this issue, would be that about only the top 1%, if that many, of the bridge-playing world, actually bids with the type of aggression Zar Points present. And this is despite the fact that virtually every expert would answer "Yes" to a question like "Do you think that aggressive bidding is worth adopting", if the question is asked outside the context of any board. The most aggressive bidders outside the top 1% basically use the Rule of 20 and a hand like the one in this board wouldn’t qualify – it collects only 19 points, which was the reason the experts-commentators said “No” to this nice aggressive-bidding hand.

 

 

Board #23.  Quarter Final Poland vs. USA 2

 

Dealer N, WE VUL. We will present the events at the table of Landen-Rajadhyaksh (EW for USA) against Gawrys-Jassem (NS for Poland). Here is the record:

 

 

S  A K J 7 2

H  A K 7

D  4 2

C  Q 7 3

 

S  8 5 4

H  Q 3 2

D  ___

C  AK10 9864

 

 

Bidding:          East            South               West         North

                             -                  -                        -              Pass

                           Pass             2 H                   2 S             3 C

                            Dbl              4 D                   Pass          5 D

                            5 S            All Pass

 

 

Fred Gitelman at the Vu-Graph mentioned that he would pass too, if in the East's position, which I find remarkable (Fred is the top Canadian player and the guy who runs Bridge Base Online, one of the top-3 Bridge-related Websites in the world: www.bridgebase.com , check it out)! East has 9+3+10+7 = 29 Zar Points! Match this with the 1% of the aggressive players I was talking about in the previous board! NOTE - this hand does NOT fit the Rule of 20 either - again failing with 19 points.

 

At this table, the 5 S contract made +1. Closed room - 7SDbl - 2. Fred Gitelman's comment at the Vu-Graph was that W can bid 6S "on general principles", to use his words, but E is here more to blame, I believe, even if he doesn't open the hand. A 7c contract hangs on a finess here, while it is feasible to run the risk of CL ruff after the H - D two-suiter shown by the 2 H bid of East, if you end-up in a S  contract .

 

 

Board #24.  USA1 vs. Indonesia (seniors)

 

Dealer S, EW VUL. We will present the events at the table of Woolsey-Robinson (EW for USA) against Lasut-Manoppo (NS for Indonesia). Here are the hands and the bidding:

 

 

S  8

H  A K Q 10 5

D  A J 7

C  A Q 6 5

 

S  10 6 4 3 2

H  Q 7 4

D  4 3 2

C  K 8

 

 

Bidding:         East            South               West         North

                           -                 Pass                1 H             Pass

                        2 H                Pass                4 H          All Pass

 

 

The other table stopped at 3 H , but Kit Woolsey didn’t even hesitate for a moment to bid the Game. So let’s see who’s right and who’s wrong from Zar Points perspective.

 

West has 19+7+9+4 = 39 Zar Points! This is 2 ½ Levels above the 26-points opening! East has 5+1+8+3 = 17 Zar Points, bare raise to 2 H . But West has more than enough to jump to Game and no wonder Kit did it.

 

I honestly do not see what could possibly stop West from bidding the Game, with or without Zar Points here.

 

 

Board #25. Quarter Final  USA1 vs. Chinese Taipei

 

Dealer W, NS VUL. We will present the events at the table of Freeman-Nickell(EW for USA) against Yang-Chiu (NS for Taipei). Here are the hands and the bidding:

 

Please, pay attention to the fact that the bidding starts with West being on the left-hand side of the bidding box, rather than starting with the bids of East.

 

 

 

S  A Q 8 6 4

H  K 2

D  ___

C  A Q 10 876

 

S  K 9

H  A 6 5

D  A Q 10 8 5 3

C  K J

 

 

Bidding: West (Freeman)  North     East (Nickell)  South

                        1 C                Pass                1 D             Pass

                        1 S                Pass                2 H             Pass

                        3 S                Pass                4 C             Pass

                        4 H                Pass                4 S             Pass

                        5 C                Pass                5 H             Pass

                        5 S                Pass                5NT           Pass

                        7 C             All Pass

 

 

 

Seven rounds of bidding, while other pairs landed at 7 S by the end if the 3rd round – but any rout is good to a GRAND (as long as it makes :-). So let’s see if we have the Zar Points power insuring the overall prospects for the slam in a very early stage, as you already know.

 

West has 15+5+11+6 = 37 Zar Points – more than 2 Levels in “reserve”.

East has 17+6+9+4 = 36 Zar Points before any upgrades. The C J is immediately promoted rather than being degraded as part of the K J blank, since this is one of partners’ suits.

 

So 73+ Zar Points – points galore so to say … Even after degrading for the duplication in D , you are well above the level needed for a GRAND. All you need to make sure is that the needed controls are in place, using your slam-bidding conventions and tools.

 

We will continue tomorrow with the last 2 rounds of the Quarter finals.

 

 

Bermuda Bowl 2003 –Day 8, November 10

 

After the last 2 rounds, we learned the semifinalists: USA1 vs. USA2 and Italy vs. Norway. Let’s congratulate the teams of Australia,