Vol.40 No 6 November - December 2012 New South Wales Bridge Association 162 Goulburn St, East Sydney Phone 02 92648111 ABN 61 000 438 648 Email: [email protected] Web : www.nswba.com.au ] [ Bulletin } { Editor: Peter Jamieson searching for a replacement so if anyone would like Chairman’s Corner to get involved please contact me (even in a joint capacity – it doesn’t have to be a single person as we Depending on when you read this, Happy Christmas, have had some volunteers to assist). The role is paid Happy New Year or welcome to 2013! I hope and Council is open to changes that a new editor everyone has a good Festive season and you are all may wish to make going forward. looking forward to lots of fun bridge in the coming year. Finally, if you have any concerns or suggestions about the way bridge is run in NSW and how we This bulletin marks a “changing of the guard” in a could improve matters, I welcome your input. couple of ways. Firstly at the recent NSWBA AGM Bruce Neill stepped down as chairman after 5 years. Julian Foster I would like to thank him for his enormous [email protected] contribution over that time and am grateful that he is remaining on the Council in 2013 (where he will be } ] [ { } ] [ looking after Rules and Ethics matters). Thanks to the other members of Council and the Regional representatives who are continuing in their roles from Annual General Meeting 2012 2012 and also welcome to Richard Douglas who has joined Council as our new secretary. Like all clubs, About 20 people attended. the NSWBA depends heavily on volunteers who willingly give their time to help administer the game Minutes of AGM December 2011 were confirmed. we all love (well, most of the time!). There was no business arising or correspondence. “Who’s the new chairman?” I hear you ask. Well I The 2011 Annual report was accepted. The operating grew up in England and moved to Sydney in 1998 profit was $42,300 —up from $37,749 the previous with work (tax accountant although tending more year. Details are in the Treasurer’s Report within the towards software development these days). As is a Annual Report. pretty common story, I enjoyed the Australian lifestyle and my 18 month work secondment ultimately turned The Annual Report is posted in PDF format at our into permanent settlement here (sorry, I’m still web site. supporting England in the Ashes though!) I have been on the NSWBA Council for 12 years and was Here is the link treasurer for 5 of those so I am pretty familiar with the http://www.nswba.com.au/member/AGM/reports/AnnualRe way things operate and look forward to working with port12.pdf the new Council. Warren Robinson will continue as Honorary Solicitor. The second changing of the guard relates to this CBC Partners will continue as Independent Auditors. bulletin. Peter Jamieson has been an extremely [ ] } { [ ] } { capable editor for over 10 years and has decided to pass the baton on after this issue. I would like to . thank him greatly for his efforts over such a long period of time. At the time of writing we are still Page 1 NSWBA Bulletin Declarer Play Tester who rely on judgment and bridge logic in competitive situations, without comprehensive agreements, will Dealer W; Vul All inevitably suffer losses to their better-prepared ] A 9 6 4 competitors.” [ Q 5 } A 10 6 2 Have you noticed that these days more and more of { J 6 5 your opponents are keen to interpose over your opening bids. The number of times you and partner ████ get to have a peaceful undisturbed auction seems to keep shrinking. And of course you, the reader, are South choosing more and more often to disturb your ] K J 8 3 opponents after they open the bidding. [ A 4 } Q 9 8 4 3 The Contested Auction explores all facets of { K 3 competitive bidding in considerable detail. There are West North East South 17 chapters with titles like “Low-level Doubles — The Pass Pass Pass 1NT12-14 hcp Modern Approach”, “Redoubles” and “Forcing Pass 2C* Pass 2S Competitive Auctions”. The author examines a Pass 3S Pass 4S particular situation and in many cases explains that All Pass there is more than one ‘answer’ to a problem then discretely states his preference. Lead [9, Q, K, A. You play spade to ace and spade back winning East’s ]Q with your king. Then you Early on in the book Hughes says ....”Clearly any play ]J on which East pitches {7.Next you play a attempt to exhaustively list individual auctions with diamond to the ace and another diamond to East’s their meanings is hopeless. Even if it were possible, which it isn’t, such a list would be of use only to a king. East cashes [10 then plays {4. Which club do computer, for it would exceed the human power of you play from your hand? Answer page 4 recall. Instead we must be guided by general principles”. As he develops his material, Hughes BOOK REVIEW offers a limited number of plausible ‘Rules’ which are useful in solving some of the more obscure bidding The Contested Auction by Roy Hughes problems. This book was published July 2012 by Master Point I liked the way the author discusses the importance Press of Toronto, Canada. It has won the 2012 of the spade suit and why you need to be careful Master Point Press Book of the Year award as when the opponents own that suit. He also reported by the International Bridge Press articulates the importance of having the bigger spot Association (IBPA). cards –especially tens. Some players know all this stuff but often fail to respect it in the heat of battle. The publisher rates this book as “Advanced” and with 336 pages it digs deeply into all facets of contested On page 336 is a bibliography of 21 books –some of bridge auctions. But really any bridge player with which are recognized as ‘classics’ in bridge writing. aspirations to perform well at Tournament Bridge will Hughes mentions many of these books on bidding at find this to be a very interesting and rewarding book. intervals in the text. One fact that surprised me was that Hughes points out that Larry Cohen’s famous The author has a background in mathematics, book To Bid or Not to Bid which talks, amongst linguistics, classical music and computer other things about the Law of Total Tricks and programming as well as Tournament Bridge. He has DONT, is now 20 years old! had three well regarded bridge books published prior to this one (Building a Bidding System, Canada's One good aspect of the book for me was the author’s Bridge Warriors and Card By Card). He has use of clear descriptors for the various people played in multiple World Championships, including involved in the contested auctions. Obviously we New Orleans (1978), Biarritz (1982), Miami (1986), have the Opening Bidder but the player in second Montreal (2002), and Philadelphia (2010). chair is the Intervenor ; the player in third chair is Underpinning the whole book is this thought the Responder and the player in 4th chair is the (extracted from page 19) “I hope that the book can Advancer. Of course where appropriate the text provide a checklist of necessary partnership mentions West or East or ‘the doubler’. Also good is agreements. For one thing I am sure of: partnerships the author’s use of 1=4=4=4 and so on to describe Page 2 NSWBA Bulletin an exact distribution (here being 1 spade and four in In Praise of Howell Movements each other suit). This helps focus the reader’s mind on that precise pattern. Some bridge players are rather negative about playing in a session when the Director chooses a Chapter 8 is titled Low-Level Doubles – the Modern Howell movement (all pairs except one moving). Alternative. Here Hughes supports the increasingly Admittedly if there are exactly five or six tables and popular view that most low-level doubles should be some players have restricted mobility issues then a takeout. He stresses the need for the partnership to Mitchell movement ( N/S pairs stationary) may be know what the exceptions are to this approach –as preferable. clearly some low level doubles must logically be for penalties. However for a small session of between three and 6½ tables a Howell movement is the correct choice. One segment that should be looked at by all serious The winner of the Howell session can be well partnerships is the meaning of doubles of artificial satisfied because they have played everyone (or in bids such as transfers, splinters and so on. In some versions almost everyone). Chapter 14, the author presents 30 questions and suggests both members of a regular bridge Ballina Bridge Club October Newsletter has an partnership separately answer the question as to the excellent article on this titled “I Love Howells”. Go to meaning of the final bid in each competitive auction. http://www.users.on.net/~bbclub/newsletterarchive.html or I would bet that many partners taking this quiz would google Ballina Bridge Club then click on the discover that they are not on the same wavelength.... Newsletters tab on the top bar, then choose October 2012. The article starts on page 2 and concludes on There are a number of mostly very recent bridge page 3. hands shown taken from high level tournaments and { } ] [ { } ] [ { } ] [ featuring many of today’s ‘top guns’ showing some triumphs but also some disasters where someone thought the auction meant something quite different BEGINNERS BRIDGE LESSONS IN 2013 to their partner’s viewpoint.