Observation of Mr. Balicki/Mr. Zmudzinski Leads from EBTC 2014

This is an observation of all 26 boards from EBTC 2014 where Mr. Zmudzinski is on lead and Mr. Balicki/Mr. Zmudzinski have not bid. The original work was done some time ago, it has not been updated to include the Poland-Netherlands match.

The observations when Mr. Balicki is on lead are here.

This page was updated on Monday, October 19, 2015. The first original post is now here.

The following is noted:

As an example of the 4 and 5 fingers, look at the first and second photograph below. A double tap of the table with an outstretched hand, or rolling a number prior to extending the fingers (6 cards?) is considered part of a different signal and is ignored.

First the table, then the details, then the summary. The "Kit #" is the number used by Kit Woolsey in the Can you read the B/Z signals? article on Bridgewinners.com. Items in this column marked with a (*) are where Kit disagreed, see B/Z observations. These disagreements are addressed in another page. I have made the table below sortable by either number, just click on the column title. "Z touch" is if Z touches the led card. # fingers is the number of fingers that Mr. Balicki shows along with the suit indicated by the code above. Mr. Balicki's suit is shown next so you can see the correspondence between the suggested length and the cards he has.

# Kit # LIN # Country Board # Contract Lead time Z touch Seconds/fingers # fingers Mr. Balicki's Hand Lead
1 25 34209 Turkey 28 4S 1:26:00 Yes :03, :11 4C, 5H? 96:KJ976:95:QJ94 CA
2 20 34281 Latvia 14 2NT 1:41:48 Yes :25 4S KJ73:743:J7:AQ92 S6
3 21 (*) 34281 Latvia 15 4S 1:52:35 Yes :20 5H 3:K8653:T843:842 HQ
4 19 34291 France 32 4S 2:32:11 Yes :00 4H 5:Q764:T94:JT876 HJ
5 9 34316 Russia 6 3H 41:44 Yes :26 5D 965:J:AQJ94:7432 D7
6 6 34329 Monaco 12 2S 1:27:40 Yes AQ95:98732::Q987 HQ
7 2 (*) 34338 Estonia 28 1NT 1:14:55 Yes :08 5H (1) A4:Q9654:9653:A4 C9
8 12 34311 Norway 20 3H 35:39 Yes AT5:J85:AJT4:Q98 D8
9 8 (*) 34316 Russia 1 2D 8:50 Yes? KT94:J964:A95:K3 CJ
10 26 (*) 34174 Denmark 31 4H 2:18:56 No QT75:43:T964:A54 S2
11 24 34209 Turkey 21 4S 37:45 No A86:KJ852:985:72 H4
12 23 34219 Romania 30 4H 1:37:09 No :08 4H J84:AQJ9:JT98:J9 SA
13 22 34253 Bulgaria 5 4H 40:16 No JT5:3:KT872:KT73 C8
14 18 34291 France 17 3C 17:07 No K8642:752:T5:AT9 C3
15 16 34300 Germany 17 5NT 19:12 No T853:K62:7:J8765 D3
16 17 (*) 34300 Germany 22 3C 55:11 No :20 4? T52:QJT3:QJT8:K5 DA
17 13 (*) 34311 Norway 25 1NT 1:07:45 No :37 5 (2) K75:T86:954:KJ62 C7
18 14 34311 Norway 30 3NT 2:04:35 No T52:J842:A32:A72 C4
19 15 34311 Norway 32 3NT 2:20:29 No :16 5H QT6:AT975:AT9:92 C4
20 10 34316 Russia 10 4S 1:09:21 No JT:JT9532:JT84:5 CK
21 11 34316 Russia 13 2S 1:29:14 No :08 4H AK3:9865:Q:98752 D4
22 4 (*) 34329 Monaco 2 2H 18:40 No :37 6D? 75:32:QT9853:AJT D2
23 5 34329 Monaco 4 2S 31:08 No 83:62:AQ2:JT8765 HA
24 7 34329 Monaco 14 3NT 1:37:10 No T7:9865:JT43:963 S8
25 1 34338 Estonia 17 1NT 7:50 No :05 5H 65:KJ873:54:KQT7 H?
26 3 (*) 34338 Estonia 31 4S 1:33:00 No Q6:QT432:A932:82 HK

(1) Mr. Balicki shows count in hearts before Mr. Zmudzinski moves the card.

(2) This is the only false positive.

Board 1

Mr. Zmudzinski faces the lead, dummy moves the led card, Mr. Zmudzinski moves the led card. This all happens in the first couple of seconds. Within 4-5 seconds, Mr. Balicki extends 4 fingers on his right hand.

Mr. Zmudzinski led a club. Mr. Balicki has 4 clubs. The following are all photographs, not video clips.

Board 1 - 4 fingers

Board 2

After about 8 seconds, Mr. Zmudzinski moves his led card. Mr. Balicki fidgets, checks under the screen to see if Mr. Zmudzinski is looking and after about 8 seconds, extends 4 fingers.

Mr. Zmudzinski led a spade. Mr. Balicki has 4 spades.

Board 2 - 4 fingers

Board 3

After 2-3 seconds, Mr. Zmudzinski moves the led card. About 8 seconds later, Mr. Balicki extends the fingers of his right hand and shows 5 fingers. You have to watch at 0.25 speed to see the difference between 5 fingers (this board) and 4 fingers (previous board).

Mr. Zmudzinski led a heart. Mr. Balicki has 5 hearts.

Board 3 - 5 fingers

Board 4

This is a very busy board. It is the last board in the match against France. Watch as the bidding tray is removed. Mr. Balicki is sitting West. Mr. Balicki grabs the board (he is sitting West, not supposed to touch the board) and shows 4 fingers on the board. Mr. Balicki has 4 hearts. It is the only time that he grabs the board during this match. Mr. Balicki does not know the suit led when he shows 4 fingers on the tray.

Mr. Zmudzinski moves the led card. Mr. Balicki appears to be unsure if he should signal again and starts to show 4 fingers but stops. Mr. Zmudzinski again moves the led card.

Board 4 - 4 fingers

Board 5

Mr. Zmudzinski moves the led card after about 2-3 seconds. You will see that Mr. Zmudzinski leads the card into the middle of the table, sometimes he lets dummy move his card, sometimes, he moves it himself. In this case he moves it himself. About 25-30 seconds later, Mr. Balicki extends the fingers of his right hand to show 5 cards.

Mr. Zmudzinski led a diamond. Mr. Balicki has 5 diamonds.

Board 5 - 5 fingers

Board 6

Mr. Zmudzinski moves the led card about 10 seconds after it is led. This is the match against Monaco. It is unknown if this is before or after comments were made about being still. Mr. Balicki does make some signals with his right hand, including pounding the table with 5 fingers before leading to trick 2, however I have to call this inconclusive because of the time delay.

Mr. Zmudzinski led a heart. Mr. Balicki has 5 hearts. No photograph shown.

Board 7

About 5 seconds after dummy is shown, Mr. Balicki puts 5 fingers down on the table. Mr. Balicki has 5 hearts. Mr. Zmudzinski then moves the led card 2-3 seconds after Mr. Balicki has shown 5 hearts. Mr. Balicki does not extend any fingers on his right hand, presumably denying 4 or 5 cards in the led suit. If there is a signal for 2 cards, it is currently unknown.

Mr. Zmudzinski led a club. Mr. Balicki has 5 hearts. He has 2 clubs.

Board 7 - 5 fingers

Board 8

Mr. Zmudzinski moves the led card about 2-3 seconds after it is led. Mr. Balicki makes no response. From the auction, declarer has 5 spades, 4 hearts and a weak hand. From dummy, showing distribution will be of little/no benefit to the defense.

Mr. Zmudzinski led a diamond. Mr. Balicki has 4 diamonds.

Board 9

Mr. Zmudzinski touches the led card briefly after it was led. This is unlike the other times when he moves it.

Mr. Zmudzinski led a club. Mr. Balicki has 2 clubs.

Board 10

No signals. Mr. Balicki has 2 hearts.

Board 11

Possibly a 5 card signal. Mr. Balicki has 5 hearts.

Board 12

About 4-5 seconds after dummy hits, Mr. Balicki shows 4 fingers. Mr. Balicki has 4 hearts.

Board 12

Board 13

No finger signals. Mr. Balicki has 1 heart.

Board 14

No finger signals. Mr. Balicki has 3 hearts.

Board 15

No finger signals. Mr. Balicki has 3 hearts.

Board 16

Mr. Balicki rearranges dummy. It is not clear how many fingers he is showing. Mr. Balicki has 4 hearts. Kit believes that this is 4 fingers.

Board 17

BZ shows 5 fingers after 30 seconds. Does not have a 5 card suit. This is a false positive.

Board 17

Board 18

No signal. Mr. Balicki has a 4 card heart suit, but it is weak Jxxx and the contract is 3NT.

Board 19

Five fingers. Mr. Balicki has a 5 card heart suit, contract is 3NT.

Board 19

Board 20

No signals. Mr. Balicki has a weak 6 card heart suit.

Board 21

Mr. Balicki extends 4 fingers a few seconds after dummy comes down. Mr. Balicki has 4 hearts.

Board 21

Board 22

38 seconds after dummy comes down, Mr. Balicki shows 5 fingers. However, watch the video very carefully. In this video, Mr. Balicki rolls his thumb over his hand. He does not do this with the other 5 fingers signals. We believe that this is the signal for 6 card suit. However, this is the only example of a 6 card suit in this set of videos so cannot be conclusive. Mr. Zdumzinski led a diamond. Mr. Balick's shape is 2-2-6-3.

Board 23

No signals.

Board 24

No signals.

Board 25

Within 2-3 seconds of dummy coming down, Mr. Balicki shows 5 fingers. He has 5 hearts. Note that the BBO record is wrong, the correct hand record is here.

Board 25

Board 26

No signals.

Kit Woolsey's Comments

Kit commented in B/Z observations where he disagreed with some of the observations. I have clarified this page to reflect some of the comments. See response to Kit for more details.

Updates

Tuesday, October 20: Added seconds column to table.

Comments/Criticisms

The code is indicative. In other words, if Mr. Balicki shows 4 or 5 fingers then this corresponds to the number of cards in the suit. The opposite is not true. There are some cases where Mr. Balicki has 4 or 5 cards in the led suit and does not respond with a 4 or 5 card signal. There may be a number of reasons - fear of getting caught, wanting to give false count to indicate a shift to another suit, looking at dummy and realizing that the signal would not help. The reasons are not addressed.

The sample size for other signals, e.g. showing 2, 3 or 6 cards in led suit is too small.

Summary

There are 26 boards.

In all cases (6) where Mr. Zmudzinski 'triggers' (by moving the led card), Mr. Balicki's response, if he gives one, is the number of cards in the led suit. There are no false positives.

The correlation with showing 4 or 5 fingers in the right hand and having 4 or 5 hearts, or 4 or 5 cards in the suit that Mr. Zmudzinski 'triggered' is very strong. In total, there are 11-12 positives out of a total of 26 boards. There is one false positive. I leave it to the statisticians to determine the likelihood of this being random.

Copyright © October, 2015 Hammond Software.