RealBridge Bidding Contest - Experts

Cathy has been a member of the Polish Women's team since 2010, winning two European Championships.

Recent medals

Sophia has been part of the Poland women's team since 2017, starting when she was still a junior, and has won the European Championship twice.

Recent medals

Marty Bergen has 10 North American Bridge Championships to his name, including two Reisingers, two Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs, a Spingold and a von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs, and 10 second-place finishes. He has one USBF championship and won the Herman Trophy (now the Goren Trophy) in 1983. Much of Bergen’s success came partnering with Larry Cohen. They won eight national events together from 1983 to 1991. 

Marty was inducted to the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2022.

In addition to being a longtime monthly contributor to the Bridge Bulletin – his first article appeared in 1976 – Bergen has authored over 60 books, two of which won the ABTA Bridge Book of the Year award: “Points, Schmoints!: Bergen’s Winning Bridge Secrets” in 1996 and “Declarer Play the Bergen Way” in 2005.

Bergen is also credited with developing the conventions and concepts of DONT, two-way Drury, semi-forcing 1NT, the Rule of 20 and the eponymous Bergen raises. The list of his inventions is much longer, including DSI doubles, sandwich notrump, the impossible 2*S*, 3NT response to one of a major as choice of games and jump cue transfer to notrump.

Source:  ACBL 

(left Larry Cohen, right Marty Bergen)
Photo: Jonathan Steinberg

David is the world’s most prolific bridge writer. He published his first book, ‘Miracles of Cardplay’, co-authored with the legendary Terence Reese, in 1980. He has since written more than 160 books on the game and won the prestigious American Bridge Teachers Association ‘Book of the Year’ award a record eleven times. His humorous fiction, featuring the Abbot and the monks of St Titus, appears in bridge magazines around the world. He also commentates on World and European championships, writing bulletin reports and contributing to the championship books. 

Photo: David Bird

Norberto has been at the top level of bridge for nearly 40 years. As a core member of the Italian team, he has won the Bermuda Bowl twice, the World Team Olympiad twice and the European Championship seven times.

Recent medals

Rob is a bridge streamer, YouTuber, and WBF/NABC commentator who retired from professional play about 10 years ago. He has three second-place finishes in NABC BAM events to his name. Rob’s extensive analysis of the RealBridge panel problems each month and, once the competition has closed, the panel’s responses, can be found by searching for ‘Bradybot’ on YouTube.

Playing for the Netherlands and then for Switzerland, Sjoert has won the Bermuda Bowl three times and the World Bridge Games (Olympiad) once. He also has wins and medals in numerous other World, European and North American events. He is currently 3rd in the WBF world rankings.

Recent medals

Sally is currently 4th in the WBF women's world rankings. Represening Great Britain and England, she has won two Venice Cups, two Women's Olympiads, and five European championships. She also performs strongly in Open and Mixed events.

Recent medals

One of the young superstars of the game, Sanna's first international appearance was at the age of 14, in Sweden’s Under-16 team at the 2014 World Youth Championships. Since then, she has won five major titles, starting with the Youngsters’ Teams at the 2017 European Championship and the 2018 World Championship. At the age of 19, she was a member of the Swedish team that won the 2019 European Mixed Teams. Later that same year, she became the youngest ever winner of the Venice Cup. In 2022, Sanna won her second Venice Cup title, earned a silver medal in the World Mixed Teams in Wroclaw, and became the youngest ever Women’s World Grand Master.

Recent medals

Larry Cohen was voted by ACBL as one of the top 10 Influential people in bridge. As a player he has won 25 National Championships. As an author, he has written best-selling bridge books and software. His articles appear in magazines worldwide. As a teacher, he is popular for his land and cruise lectures to sellout crowds wherever he goes. His website: WWW.LARRYCOHEN.COM  contains hundreds of free instructional articles to help your game.

Recent medals