Robson Gaffe:
Just to show that even the best can make the easiest of mistakes. South ducks the spade lead and wins the second round. For his vulnerable 2♠ opening with ♠Q96543, West must have the A♦. Therefore you would think that there is very little to the play. Robson must have seen something else. After one round of clubs he cashed the AQ♥ - blocking the suit! After this there was no recourse.
Biddable Game:
Here we have what seems like a reasonable vulnerable 4♥ contract that was not bid in either room. I think West's 3♣ bid was probably looking for 3NT and caused North to place the K♣ in the East hand. What interests me is if South had Qxx♣, he might use the same logic to push on to 4♥.
Balancing I:
West has a tough call in the passout seat. If double followed by 2♥ would show extra values then you cannot double. If you are not going to double there is probably little value in bidding 2♣. I think East should have bid over 1♠. His values in spades are transferable (as opposed to ♠QJT9x) and the vulnerability favours bidding game for your side.
Balancing II:
A second balancing hand that cost the Irish 7 imps. I am not sure what variation of Transfer Walsh that N/S play but it is very likely that they have an 8-card fit. It seems standard to double on the West hand. I cannot ever remember coming to great harm in this situation before.
Underbid With Void:
Here we have an example of when not to balance because N/S have underbid. By most standards the North hand is worth a limit raise. Playing four-card majors and a strong no-trump hurt them here as North was fearful of the 8-loser weak no-trump hand and probably hoped there would be a balancing call when South has five spades. I have a lot of sympathy with this bidding as 5440 hands are often easily held on trump leads.
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