Two of the best (and most enjoyable) Pairs and Teams tournaments of the year have just finished, and I miss them already. Iceland Air’s Reykjavik Bridge Festival, where my teammates Thor-Erik Hoftaniska and Espen Erichsen won the Pairs, and immediately following it, Pierre Zimmermann’s Cavendish Monaco. The Cavendish Teams was won by the French foursome Vinciguerra, whose youngest player (by decades) is 29-year-old Cedric Lorenzini.
The biggest difference in the past 20 years has been the development of highly disruptive bidding methods. Gone are the days when opener had the auction all to himself. The opps will parachute into any bidding sequence in order to get in the way or indicate a lead — particularly at favourable vulnerability. They never stop bidding — it’s exhausting. No one could have bid more than Lorenzini on this hand (and no one did), which no doubt helped them bag the gold medal.
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