Every four years the best players gather for the Bridge Olympiad. It's a meeting of the world's best players. Is there room for poorbridge at a meeting like this? You might think not, but in the same way that Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards represented Great Britain at the Calgary Winter Olympics, the bridge Olympiad attracts entrants from countries not traditionally associated with the game. This is compounded somewhat by the event being split into four sections: Open, Ladies, Seniors, and University.

As well as the main championship there are subsidiary events and the hand below comes from a midweek matchpointed pairs competition for the University section. At one table, the England south chose a sneaky pass and was rewarded:

West led his stiff club. Small from table and the king appeared. South won and drew trumps as West exited with first a spade and then a heart, both of which declarer ruffed.

On the trumps, the significance of the club lead and declarer ruffing both majors was lost on East. He committed the first piece of really poor bidge by pitching a club and allowed through 3X+2 for the full value 1070. South was pretty satisfied he'd get all the matchpoints for this effort, but he was wrong.

At another table where Belgium and Botswana met. The Belgian South opened 4NT (possibly specific aces — looks like poor bridge until you see what follows). The Botswanan sitting West backed his AQ combo and overcalled 5. This was doubled and passed out. Fortunately the trumps broke in 5X (well, they broke 7-1) and he went just the eight down for 2000, or big twenty as some writers have called it.

Pairs is such a poor indicator of real skill as the Botswanan team proved when they beat the England team in the round robin.