MORE TABLE ANTICS TO REPORT............................( Article by Dr. Signund T. Schukelgruber ) In the near future I intend to report on a hand where an Irish international opened 4C on his one count, holding a 5-0-1-7 distribution. But today I want to gripe about another top international, playing 2 suited weak 2 openers, who opened 2S on just two HCPs. This clearly suggested a convention with a very wide ranging point count !! So has the bridge world gone mad, or are we witnessing the re-emergence of the psych as the new exciting approach to modern day bidding. The following is an extract is part of the match report from The Independent's bridge column : " As is so often the case thesedays, especially at favourable vulnerability, West had a disruptive toy at his disposal. He opened 2 spades , which showed five spades and 4+ in a minor, 0-10 points". In actual fact he held : J10932....93..3... J10764 , but it was these two phrases that scared me the most : " so often the case"......"disruptive toy". Why wasn't the reporter more to the point? The phrase " highly aggressive and intimidating bidding antics" surely would have been more appropriate. I'm desperate to know now what's happened to the rule of 18? Why are the ruling bodies in the game ( even at levels 4/5 ) giving the green light for players to open on the rule of 13 ? This figure, of course, is based on a 5-4-4-0 distribution with zero HCPs. Why haven't they allowed these mavericks to open at the one level when possessing a single suited hand showing 0-9 HCPs, with 1NT showing 10-12? If it's OK to open on zero points at the two level, then surely it's right that the same can be done at the one level? However, in my humble view, the game is taking on all the dimensions of poker with its equivalent of "blind" bids, outrageous bluffs, intimidating calls......not to mention table presence, which can be used to spot and interpret tells. I can only conclude that if such bidding antics , or should I say developments, permeate their way down into the humdrum arenas of local bridge clubs, then heaven knows how many newcomers and novices will head straight for the exit doors.