[PhilKing]

OK, the **** is about to hit the fan again. Boye (imo the greatest figure in modern bridge), is about to unleash yet more hell on the cheats and obfuscators.

The greatness is partly accidental, but he was born to it, and has taken on the role with a bravery, gusto and ruthlessness that is magnificent to behold.

[mgoetze]

JF: Yeah, how many of the 2 new pairs are at the BB?

BB: Both. But don't push it, Jonathan, I am not going to give it all away at this point (even if some of the BW regulars will start screaming). We don't have all the evidences lined up like for Fisher & Schwartz (actually more and more flooded in) and Fantoni & Nunes (easier to get when it's every freaking hand), but the evidences can be released during the Bermuda Bowl if the players or the WBF don't do the right thing. And by all means: If the pairs were clean when they qualified for the Bermuda Bowl: Please play - nothing bad will happen.

[kuhchung]

asdf.

[Fluffy]

Who is JF?

[Hanoi5]

Jonathan Ferguson

[mgoetze]

Balicki-Zmudzinski have apparently been tossed by the WBF credentials committee for unknown reasons. It would be pretty sad if they turned out to be cheaters; I've never met them but always had some level of sympathy because they were one of the pairs to suffer from the ACBL's ban on unwanted bidding systems in international bridge.

[helene_t]

If two further teams throw in the towel then Norway and the Netherlands still have a few hours to select teams and get them to the airport. Good that Rik and his wife are available, since it may be difficult to get three of the five core pairs with such short notice

[Fluffy]

Helene if Bulgaria and Poland finally are declared to have been cheating. Can you please tell us the chances that England was cheating as well given that the other 5 teams who qualified did so? (NOTE to idiots: This is a joke)

[Trinidad]

 helene_t, on 2015-September-26, 08:57, said:

If two further teams throw in the towel then Norway and the Netherlands still have a few hours to select teams and get them to the airport. Good that Rik and his wife are available, since it may be difficult to get three of the five core pairs with such short notice

Our car is filled up and the suitcases are in the hall... just waiting for the phone to ring.

Rik

[cherdano]

 helene_t, on 2015-September-26, 08:57, said:

If two further teams throw in the towel then Norway and the Netherlands still have a few hours to select teams and get them to the airport. Good that Rik and his wife are available, since it may be difficult to get three of the five core pairs with such short notice

What about you, Helene? Your BBF profile still says Amsterdam, surely the WBF would accept this as proof of bona-fide residence given the circumstances.

[Fluffy]

Did anyone calculate who deserve the medals on teh last EC now?

[glen]

 Fluffy, on 2015-September-26, 11:08, said:

Did anyone calculate who deserve the medals on teh last EC now?

If you drop all results of the 5 teams from the 2014 cross table (the event used to Q for the Bermuda Bowl), you get:

ENGLAND
SWEDEN
DENMARK
FRANCE
NORWAY
NETHERLANDS
TURKEY
ROMANIA
ITALY
IRELAND
ESTONIA
RUSSIA
CROATIA

[mgoetze]

Boye Brogeland on BridgeWinners:

Quote

I can assure you that there are no proofs against “the fifth” pair (who mentioned they were from Bulgaria?). So this pair can be 100 % clean and therefore should be welcomed wholeheartedly to play in the Bermuda Bowl. On the other hand, if anything “bad” happened in the qualification to the Bermuda Bowl, please do the right thing.

If the pair and team decide to play, our team will dig into the case the coming days and hopefully reach a conclusive conclusion No Matter if it's one way or the other. Of course our whole team hopes that the “the fifth” pair is clean and that we have been able to track down all the “unethical behaviour” and cheating which everyday bridge players from around the world tipped us about. Thanks for fighting the good fight together with the rest of the bridge community.

Looks like you have to put Bulgaria back in for now, Glen.

[glen]

 mgoetze, on 2015-September-26, 19:08, said:

Boye Brogeland on BridgeWinners:


Looks like you have to put Bulgaria back in for now, Glen.

With 4 teams out, we have:

ENGLAND
BULGARIA
SWEDEN
DENMARK
FRANCE
NORWAY
NETHERLANDS
TURKEY
ROMANIA
ITALY
IRELAND
ESTONIA
RUSSIA
CROATIA

[aguahombre]

It is interesting to me that Glen's two charts indicate Bulgaria's play in the Q event did not affect the relative placing of any other teams.

[PhantomSac]

Still sad there was not a USA 3 qualifier out of default lol

[mikeh]

 PhantomSac, on 2015-September-28, 12:10, said:

Still sad there was not a USA 3 qualifier out of default lol

The question of whether the US should get 1 team, 2 teams or 3 teams never goes away.

No other country gets 2 teams. No other country has as large a bridge-playing community. Giving the US the right to send 3 teams, by (for example) making Mexico and Canada play off against US teams, is contrary to how the rest of the world allocates teams....Europe has far more players than the US, Canada, and Mexico combined, and limits teams to 1 per country for the zonal playoff.

It would, effectively, bar Canada and Mexico from ever competing in the BB, and while (especially in recent years) one could argue that neither country is very strong, in 1995 Canada won the silver medal and didn't lose to the US by much.

Part of the problem is that our best players end up playing for the US. That has been going on since the 1960's and is evident in the BB today, with two of USA2 being Canadians. Imagine how Italy would do if Versace, Laurier et al were eligible to play for the US? Or the UK, if their top pairs all moved to Las Vegas and took up US residency? It is, of course, much easier for Canadians to do that, by virtue of being members of the same ACBL, and being on the bridge circuit in the US.

Imagine how better we would be with Demuy, Wolpert, Fred G playing for Canada? We'd still not match up well against the very best teams, but we'd be no pushover even for them.

We need a Mrs Lavazza in Canada, I suppose We don't have very many wealthy Canadian sponsors, so we don't get to keep the best players home. That shouldn't justify excluding us from the chance to participate.

Maybe we need to give the US 3 teams but keep Canada and Mexico still able to compete.

[cherdano]

 mikeh, on 2015-September-28, 12:38, said:

Or the UK, if their top pairs all moved to Las Vegas and took up US residency?

What do you mean, "if"? If Rosenberg would still play for Scotland, they'd be hot favourites now!

[PhantomSac]

haha I just wanted USA 3 for selfish reasons... I imagine it would be the team that lost the final of the trials (5 out of 6 lost the final of both trials).

Was just kidding, I was laughing with Thomas bessis about what the odds when he was 9th in the euros were of him winning the Bermuda bowl and said really USA 3 should be next haha

[Fluffy]

I also want Spain to become African or South American