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October 1996 Vol. V Number 4

The four feathers by David Silver 2

Miami highlights by Fred Gitelman 8
Bad attitude by Roselyn Teukolsky 11
Signal dependency by Prakash K. Paranjape 14
Junior trials by Eric Sutherland 16
Desperation plays by F. Goded 21
More on responsive doubles by Ron Bishop 25
Extra winners by Barbara Seagram 28
Reviews: The Philadelphia Story (Colker & Kokish, eds.) 30
Bridge Buff 4.0 (BridgeWare) 30
The Bridge DEALMASTER (Ward) 31
HCS Convention Card Editor (HCS Software) 32
Bridge Master for Windows (Bridge Base) 33
Visual Deal for Windows (BridgeWare) 34

Canadian Master Point is published four times a year. It is available free of charge through bridge clubs and bridge supply
houses across Canada or by subscription ($16/yr, US $16 for US subs). Copyright ©1996 Master Point Press. All rights re-
served; reprinting of contents without the express written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Correspondence and ar-
ticles should be sent to the above address with SAE for return or reply.

ED. BOARD: Ray & Linda Lee, Maureen Culp, John Gowdy, Ron Bishop
 The four feathers
D a v i d S i l v e r

North
T he 1960 Bridge
Olympiad!” said  A42
Bruce Gowdy to an  Q1098
enthralled audience
of rookies. “Bridge
 7654
was bridge in those  AK2
days. Legends at
every table: Reese

and Schapiro, Goren and Sobel, Jacoby, South
Schenken. Tough, expert, bridge players
all, not like the pseudo-scientific wimps
 K53
you see nowadays. Professor Silver! Do  AKJ7643
you remember the hand that finished off  A
the Americans in the quarter-finals?”  98
“Only too well, Bruce. For thirty-
six years you’ve been telling that story to “The K was led,” Bruce continued, “and
everyone who has ventured within ear- I studied the dummy for a long time, al-
shot, and you have a loud voice,” said most twenty seconds, before finding the
Silver, with a wink in my direction. winning line. After winning the A I
“Do let him tell it again, Professor,” crossed to dummy’s Q; both opponents
said Mia Culpa. “It’s a great hand and I followed, and I cashed the 10 before
never get tired of hearing it.” ruffing a diamond high as LHO played
“It was a dark and stormy match. the queen. Now I went to the dummy
The Americans had been bouncing the with the A and ruffed another diamond
Professor and me around as if we were as RHO discarded a small spade. Then I
soccer balls. But on the last hand, we bid cashed the K, and both opponents fol-
a grand slam which required me to invent lowed. It was at that moment that I an-
what become known as a `Gowdy nounced...”
Ending’” “The deuce of clubs will be my thir-
“What’s a Gowdy Ending?” asked teenth trick!” chanted Professor Silver,
one of the rookies. Eric Murray, and I in unison.
“That’s where you make a grand “Quite right! Quite right, guys. I
slam it by squeezing the opponents and ran my trumps, and this was the end posi-
setting up the deuce of clubs as your thir- tion:
teenth trick,” replied another rookie
(see top of next column)
smugly. “Everybody knows that.”
“Quite right! Quite right! Bright “I led my last heart and LHO, forced to
lad, isn’t he?” said Bruce. “I arrived in keep a diamond, discarded a club. I dis-
7, the bidding isn’t important, and carded dummy’s now useless diamond
needless to say, when the dummy hit the and RHO, who had to guard spades, also
table I was a trick short of thirteen. threw a club. I now cashed dummy’s

Canadian Master Point

 North think you’re doing? They were counting
 — on you.” cried Mia.
 — “Mia, we’ve often spoken of the
pointlessness of spending our lives play-
 7 ing bridge, living from hand to mouth,
 AK2 never seeing the light of day. I want to
have a job, make some friends. I want to
get a life.”
South At that moment, a knock came at the
door. When I answered it, one of the
 5 rookies without a word handed me an
 3 envelope and left. Inside were three
 — white feathers each with a business card
 98 attached. I read the names aloud. “Eric
Murray, Bruce Gowdy, David Silver”.
AK and the club deuce, as I had pre- I stared at them and turned to Mia.
dicted, had become my thirteenth trick! “White feathers! They think I’m scared
Needless to say, the opponents at the to play the match tomorrow!”
other table bid and made only six hearts. “Of course they do. Sure, Wright,
We won the match by 4 IMP’s.” we’ve often spoken of what we would do
“Gentlemen, a word!” I said as ev- if we were free. But you and I are not
eryone prepared to leave. “I have an an- free. We’re bridge players, and we have
nouncement to make. I have to tell you commitments to partners and team-mates
that I have decided not to play the who are affected if we don’t live up to
Knockout final tomorrow.” our obligations. Did you think I would
“Whyever not?” asked Bruce. be proud of you when you chickened out
“I, er, I must go to a job interview.” of a tough match? Sending you those
“A job interview?” asked Professor feathers was cruel, but think how disap-
Silver. “But you committed yourself to pointed in you those guys must be.”
playing on our team!” “If you feel like that,” I replied,
“ Now, I know playing against those “then there should be a fourth feather —
ladies will be scary,” said Bruce. “Go yours.”
home and get drunk. You’ll be okay in I strode over to the bird cage,
the morning.” reached in, and tore a feather from the
“No, I’ve made up my mind, Mia budgie’s tail. Ignoring the squawks ema-
will take my place; she’s on the team nating from both Mia and the budgie, I
roster anyway as npc. I’m going to get thrust the feather into Mia’s hand.
that job.” “Give it to me, Mia. If you, too,
My three erstwhile team-mates think me a coward, give it to me.”
stared at me in varying attitudes of hor- She held it out without a word, and
ror, dismay, and disbelief, and then at- I thrust her feather with the other three
tempted for some time to dissuade me. into my pocket. We parted in silence.
This was not, however, a decision I had During the sleepless night that fol-
reached lightly, and I remained steadfast. lowed, I finally admitted to myself that
Eventually they abandoned their efforts, my true motives were in fact base and
and removed themselves to the bar to that I was indeed the despicable coward
discuss the unexpected turn of events, my team-mates thought me. Perhaps it
leaving Mia and me alone in her suite. was not too late to make amends: I has-
“Wright Cardinal, just what do you tened to the tournament and showed up

October 1996
to play. I was accepted on the condition diamonds, ruffed one in the dummy, and
that Bruce, Eric, and the professor would discarded the fourth on the queen of
take turns playing with me. The unspo- clubs. Dummy’s small spade spots pre-
ken implication was that none of them cluded any thoughts of a late entry to the
wanted to spend the afternoon partnering club suit if that, too, didn’t split and the
a wretch who had so nearly let the side vulnerable overcall by West boded ill for
down. any chance of the A being on my right.
I played the first quarter with Eric With a sense of impending doom I
Murray in an uncomfortable silence. The drew trumps, watching East discard
only sound was the slapping of cards on hearts on the second and third rounds,
the table, since the use of bidding boxes, and played the AKQ. On the Q both
thankfully, made oral communication West and I discarded, she a heart and I a
superfluous. Towards the end of the set I diamond. Fighting back tears of despair
picked up: I ruffed dummy’s small club; I had estab-
lished the 9 as a trick, but how could I
 AKJ1098  K  K975  52
get there with no dummy entry?
Both sides were vulnerable and I opened Suddenly I realized that LHO could be
the bidding in first chair with 1. LHO used as a stepping stone to the dummy. I
overcalled with 2, Eric jumped to 3, laid down the K, won by West’s ace.
and RHO passed. Eric’s 3 bid showed She now played the Q, upon which I
a limit raise and I contemplated passing discarded a small diamond! West was
it with my effective 11-count, but the lure now endplayed: a heart to dummy’s jack
of a vulnerable game was too tempting to would give me the dummy, and an over-
resist. I bid four and everyone passed. trick, while a diamond lead would estab-
My left hand opponent led a trump, as lish my king for the game-going trick.
she always does unless void in the trump “Gutsy bid, Wright, nicely played,”
said Eric, smiling suddenly. He accepted
Murray his feather back when I offered it to him,
 432 and the rest of the hands were played out
 J53 in a friendly and cordial atmosphere.
 62 However, cordial and friendly were
 AKQ94 not the words I would use to describe
Bruce Gowdy’s demeanor when I played
with him in the second quarter. He
loomed over me like the sword of
Cardinal Damocles, ready to impale me for any
 AKJ1098 trangression, real or imagined. Fate,
 K however, confronted me on the third
hand. Our vulnerable opponents had ar-
 K975 rived in 3NT on the auction: 1 by LHO,
 52 1 by RHO, 1NT by the opener, 2NT by
responder, 3NT, passed around to me. I
suit. The dummy appeared and I counted looked again at my hand.
my tricks. It didn’t take long.
 K5  10765  KQ108  J74
I had bought a fine dummy, but I could
see that problems would arise if spades Almost any lead from Bruce seemed
did not divide 2-2. West had found the likely to give declarer a trick and/or a
excellent (for them) lead of a trump with- tempo. Did I dare double for a diamond
out which I could just have given up two lead? They might redouble and make the

October 1996
contract with overtricks. I shut my eyes tricks when it fell under his ace; three
and doubled anyway. Everyone passed spades, four hearts, the A and the K.
and Bruce led the 4. A distressingly The 13 -IMP pickup gave us the lead in
strong dummy was put on the table. the match!
“Nice double, Wright,”said Eric,
 J762  AK4  A762  86
“Not an easy bid to make when you’re
Declarer played low from the dummy and playing with a volatile partner.”
I won the queen. Attacking what I hoped “I would have applauded the bid,
was a chink in the opponents armour, I even if we had lost 13 IMP’s instead of
put the J down — and everyone fol- gaining them.” Bruce protested. “It was a
lowed low. I continued clubs. Declarer well-thought out tactical double; nicely
contemplated my 7 for a while and fi- done, Wright!”
nally played the king. Bruce grabbed his He took my hand and shook it vig-
ace and cashed the queen and two more orously, then grinned at the sight of his
small clubs. He exited with the 3, won feather which I had left in his palm. He
by dummy’s ace. Declarer now played a put the feather in his wallet and we all
spade towards her hand, successfully fi- returned to the fray. With only a slight
nessing the queen. When the A felled lead, we decided to revert to our estab-
my doubleton king, declarer claimed the lished partnerships, and I sat down op-
balance, thankful to escape for only two posite the stern visage of Professor
down, vulnerable. Silver.
North I had won back the good opinion of
my other two team-mates, but Professor
 J762 Silver was unrelenting. He spoke not a
 AK4 word to me for eight hands, although I
 A762 tried several times to start a conversation.
 86 His play was prenaturally sharp and I had
to concentrate fully in order to follow the
Gowdy Cardinal delicate nuances of his bids and signals.
 10943  K5 I dared not relax even for a second.
 93  10765 Then I was dealer on what was cer-
tain to be a hand fraught with danger:
 43  KQ108
 AQ1095  J74  AK2  KQ742  A54  K2
The immediate problem was that I had to
South bid the heart suit first. Professor Silver
 AQ8 considers the heart suit to be his personal
 QJ82 property by droit de seigneur.
 J95 Consequently, I would have to arrive at
 K32 not just a reasonable contract, but the
double-dummy correct level at which to
Later, when we were comparing play. Any error in bidding judgement
scores with our partners, we learned that would be tantamount to suicide. On the
Professor Silver had made three bright side, Professor Silver might bid
notrumps. In the absence of a lead direct- spades or notrumps, both of which I
ing double, West had led a club, which would support vigorously.
the professor had won in hand with the It was not to be. I opened with 1
king. Crossing to dummy’s A, he had and the professor and I quickly propelled
finessed East for the K, and made nine ourselves into 6. West led the Q and I

Canadian Master Point

was pleased with the dummy. It looked cellent shape. We had arrived at this po-
as though twelve tricks would be easy. sition:
“Perhaps,” I thought, “I may get out Silver
of this alive?”
 3
Silver  A
 963  63
 A63  —
 K632
 AQ6 West East
  ?
  J10
Cardinal  immaterial  —
 AK2   ?
 KQ742 Cardinal
 A54  2
 K2  742
 —
I should have known better. I counted  —
my tricks three times. There was one
inescapable loser, but the rest of the I called for a small diamond from the
tricks were there if the heart suit behaved. dummy; East realized that if she ruffed
My heart spots were so weak as to pre- I would throw my small spade, so she
clude any hope of picking up a four card discarded as I ruffed low in hand. Now I
holding by West, so I won the diamond was able to cross once again to the A,
in hand and cashed the Q. Everyone which with fortuitous foresight I had left
followed suit, but when I continued with in the dummy. Everyone was down to
the K, West showed out! Faced now two cards. I held the deuces of spades
with the dreaded 4-1 trump split, I des- and hearts. But the lead was in dummy
perately sought a lie of cards that would and I was able to lead the last diamond
permit me to make a slam while holding through East. Faced again with Hobson’s
two certain losers! Professor Silver, not- choice, she conceded the slam. If she
ing my sudden pallor, looked at me sus- ruffed in, I would discard my spade and
piciously and I knew that he would take the last trick with my 2 If she dis-
certainly find a winning line of play at carded, I could ruff the diamond for my
the post mortem. I had better discover twelfth trick and she would ruff her part-
one at the table or suffer his scathing ner’s spade winner on the last round.
criticism later. “En passant, mon cher Cardinal,”
I realized that indeed there was still said Professor Silver. “A lesser player
a chance to make the contract, if only would have given up after the bad trump
RHO would follow to three clubs, two break, but you bravely persevered and
spades, and two diamonds. I played three found the winning line. Well done! By
rounds of clubs, carefully pitching a dia- the way, I believe you have on your per-
mond on the Q. Now I cashed my two son something that belongs to me?”
spade tricks before East had a chance to He extended his hand into which I
pitch one from a doubleton. The K was deposited his white feather. To the aston-
played, and when this lived, I was in ex- ishment of everyone but me, he calmly

October 1996
proceeded to eat it, apparently savouring “Bruce — you never said it.”
every morsel. “Well, at least it wasn’t “What? What on earth are you
crow,” he remarked. We finished the rest talking about?” Bruce expostulated.
of the session with our old relationship “You never said it. You will recall
restored, and we won the match. that Sami Kehela, who was sitting out for
A crowd gathered as we relaxed af- that set, was watching your match. Sami,
terwards with Bruce and Eric. Bruce sat although arguably the best bridge player
down with a group of caddies and ad- of the era, always conceded that he could
dressed his attentive listeners. never match your prowess handling the
“The 1960 Bridge Olympiad!” he dummy and kibitzed you every time the
began. “Bridge was bridge in those days. opportunity presented itself.”
Legends at every table....” I turned to “Quite right! Quite right!”
face a smiling Mia.. “On this occasion, he recalls, ten-
“Wright, you’re not finished yet. sion was high and you played the hand in
What incredible feat of skill and daring complete silence, focusing on each card
will get me to take back my feather?” as it was played. And you played it bril-
“Must I?” liantly, winning the match for your team
“Of course you must. This story has and glory for yourself. But you never
to end with the hero regaining his girl’s said `The deuce of clubs will be my thir-
respect and esteem.” teenth trick’. You never said anything at
“Follow me,” I said, leading her all. Come on now, Bruce, confess — or
over to where Bruce was regaling the are you going to call Sami a liar?”
caddies with his famous story. He got to “But, but...” spluttered Bruce.
his famous line, “The deuce of clubs will “Confound you, Cardinal, I’ll never be
be my thirteenth trick!”, and I inter- able to tell that story again!”
rupted. “Mia, your feather.”

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October 1996
 Miami highlights
f D r a e vd i dg i St i e l l v m e a r n

I do not have much

good news to re-
port about the recent
to play with: his unique sense of humour,
one of the reasons he is such a good
writer, also comes across at the table —
NABC in Miami. regardless of the results. There were four
From a Canadian particularly memorable hands I played
point of view, the with Mike. The lesson on both of the
highlight of the tour- first two hands is the same: ‘beware of
nament was the US- Greeks bearing gifts’.
Canada trials for the 1997 World Junior North
Championships. Canadians Mike
Roberts-Eric Sutherland, Jeff Blond-  J2
David Levy, and Darren Wolpert-Fred  7652
Pollack completely dominated this event.  10975
Canada has been a major power in junior  K64
bridge throughout the 1990’s and this
team is perhaps our strongest team ever. West East
I was not only impressed by the results,  K103  84
but by the collective maturity of this team  10  KQJ9843
— maturity is a very rare trait for talented
young bridge players. I believe they have  QJ  643
an excellent chance of winning the gold  QJ109852  A
medal in Hamilton next year.
From a personal point of view, the South
best thing that happened to me in Miami  AQ9765
was getting the chance to play with Mike  A
Lawrence in the National IMP Pairs.  AK82
Mike was one of the original Dallas  73
Aces; he has won two World
Championships and many National Fred North Mike South
events. In addition, he is one of the most
popular and talented bridge authors in the 1
world. Mike and I recently collaborated 3 pass 3 3
on a new software product, “Counting at all pass
Bridge”, so I knew that I had impressed
Mike with my computer skills, but I was
somewhat surprised when he asked me to I led my singleton heart to declarer’s A.
play with him in the IMP pairs. South tried a low spade towards the J
We did not do particularly well, fin- and I hopped up with my K. I wanted
ishing 39th, but this result was more due to get Mike on lead to play more hearts
to our opponents’ good play than to any and had to decide which minor suit to
mistakes we made. Mike was a pleasure play. Fortunately Mike and I had decided

October 1996
to adopt the defensive carding strategy of North
‘trying to tell partner what they need to  AQ842
know’. I have always preferred this phi-  Q94
losophy to ‘always signal count’, ‘always
signal attitude’, or trying to make agree-
 K
ments about every possible defensive  J432
situation. Mike had told me what I
needed to know at trick one when he fol-
West East
lowed with the 3 — a suit preference  J1076  93
signal for clubs.  A863  102
Thus, I shifted to the Q, and de-  Q32  J108754
clarer, giving me a great deal of credit,  K7  AQ9
covered with the K. Mike won the A
and played back the 8, another suit pref- South
erence signal for clubs. Declarer ruffed  K5
with the 9 and I over-ruffed with the
10. I cashed the J as Mike discarded
 KJ75
his lowest remaining heart. Mike’s card-  A96
ing and South’s bidding made it pretty  10865
clear that declarer had both the A and
K. I had a complete count on the hand Fred North Mike South
and I knew that declarer would soon have pass pass
one as well. I knew that if I exited safely
in clubs, declarer would have no choice pass 1 pass 1NT1
but to play diamonds from the top, and
with my QJ about to drop, I could see pass 2 2 2NT
the contract was going to make. It was all pass
time for a Greek gift. I got out with the 1. Forcing
J!
South took the bait. After winning from dummy. The finesse turned out not
the diamond shift, he crossed to the J to be free as Mike’s 10 forced the J.
and finessed Mike for the Q. I won the Now entries were a problem, and when
Q to defeat the contract. I was quite neither hearts nor spades divided the con-
surprised that South, a strong player, tract was down one.
would play me to make the horrible play If I had continued diamonds at trick
of switching to the J from Jx. three, establishing Mike’s suit, the con-
The next Greek gift I offered was tract would have made. After winning
more difficult to refuse: the A, declarer would have played a
heart to the Q, felling Mike’s 10, and
(see top of next column)
cashed the 9. The K would have been
I led the 2, which was won in dummy as an entry to cash the J and the A and
Mike played a neutral middle diamond. Q would have brought South up to eight
Declarer played a heart to the king and I tricks. When declarer accepted my Greek
had to decide what to do. It would often gift, eight tricks became seven. Once
be right to duck in this situation, but I again, the declarer should have asked
saw a chance to offer another declarer a himself “why would this supposedly
Greek gift: I won the A and returned a good player help me by returning a heart
heart. South welcomed the chance to from the 10?”.
take a ‘free finesse’ and played the 9 I have extensive memories of favou-

Canadian Master Point

rite tournaments, events, matches, and Once again Mike opened 1! This time
hands from my bridge career. I do not Margaret overcalled 1. What to bid? I
generally remember favourite rounds have always thought it wrong to try to be
from pairs events, but Mike and I had a delicate on freak hands in what is sure to
round in Miami that I will never forget. be a highly competitive auction. In these
The unfortunate victims of this round, circumstances, tactics and ‘bidding what
Toronto’s Fred and Margaret Lerner, are you think you can make’ are more impor-
far too nice to deserve what happened to tant than science.
them on these two boards. I realized that this hand might not
On the first board I held: play well in diamonds if Mike held only
four (or three!) cards in that suit. I tried
 K7  —  AQJ83  AQ10952
5. Fred raised to 5. When Mike
A very nice hand that got considerably didn’t double this, I was delighted to try
nicer when Mike opened the bidding 1! 5NT, offering a choice of minors at the
We had no way to make an immediate six-level. I was certain that having
forcing diamond raise, nor was a strong strongly emphasized clubs already, Mike
jump shift to 3 available, so I was would choose the right suit. Mike bid
forced to start with 2. Auctions that 6, doubled by Margaret.
begin with 1-2 are extremely difficult Fred, interpreting the double as
in standard systems, especially for a new Lightner, led a diamond. Dummy tabled:
partnership with few agreements, and the
 KQ96  742  KJ63  A2
rest of the bidding is not suitable for a
family publication. Eventually, though, I won the K and played the K, covered
Margaret found herself on lead against by the A and ruffed. A club to the A
6 with a very attractive heart sequence dropped Margaret’s offside K and my
(J109xx). All she knew from our auction heart loser went on the Q, making seven
was that we had lots of diamonds and no again. As we were doubled and vulner-
idea what we were doing, so she quite able this time, the swing was even big-
reasonably led a heart. Mike held: ger. Note that on a heart lead there is no
reason to reject the finesse in clubs and
 103  AKQ6  K10975  74
the slam will therefore fail.
The K was onside and Mike made At the end of the most memorable
seven. The A was offside so our slam two-board round of my bridge career,
would have gone down on a spade lead. Fred was still smiling and laughing, as
A massive swing at IMP pairs. usual. Margaret was still completely
Fred Lerner’s sense of humour is pleasant, as usual. As they say, “It
perhaps not as well known worldwide as couldn’t happen to a nicer pair!”
Mike’s, but it is quite famous in Canada.
It is typical of Fred (and atypical of most
bridge players) that after this result he
said something very funny (which also is
not suitable for a family publication).
After I had introduced Mike to my ex-
friends, the Lerners, we got on to the sec-
ond board.
This time I held even more cards in
the minors:
 —  10  AQ109  QJ1087643

October 1996
 Bad attitude
r oD s a e vl yi nd t Se ui kl ov l e s rk y

North
I would like to be-
lieve that I’ve
reached a stage in
 J109
my bridge evolution
 A63
at which I can face  J10
the game’s vicissi-  KQ1094
tudes with equanim-
ity. I’ve had my
share of triumphs and tragedies, and have
developed a healthy cynicism towards the
South
whole scene. I’ve learned to take my  AQ42
knocks like a man, if you’ll pardon the  KQ54
expression.  Q43
So why, then, do I have such a bad  J7
attitude towards the following hand? I
feel that this particular disaster was not Leads”. Dummy’s 10 was covered by
fairly earned. I feel that I was had. East’s king, and I followed low. East
We were playing in a team game, returned the 9, I played the 4, and
very serious, up there on the leader board, West contributed the 5. Dummy’s J
with young (and not yet cynical) team- won the trick. How would you play this
mates, and I picked up hand?
As far as I was concerned, there was
 AQ42  KQ54  Q43  J7
not much to the play. I had five top
I was in first seat, everyone was vulner- tricks. If the hearts broke and the spade
able, and the bidding proceeded as fol- finesse worked, I had nine tricks. If I lost
the lead before I took nine tricks I was
West North East South not going to make this contract, because
1NT1 they would probably take four diamonds
pass 2 pass 2 and the ace of clubs. I therefore ran the
pass 2NT2 pass 3NT J at trick three.
West won the K, and I watched in
all pass
disbelief as the play proceeded as fol-
1. 12-14 lows: the intrepid West of the “attitude”
lead cashed the A, on which East fol-
2. Invitational, denies four spades
lowed with the 7, and then he continued
with a low diamond to East’s 8! By
lows: The opening lead was the 2. now they had raked in four tricks, three
diamonds and a spade. East had no prob-
(see top of next column)
lem cashing the A which was the set-
I glanced at my opponents’ card and dis- ting trick. Here were all the hands. In
covered that they were playing “Attitude particular, I’d like you to contemplate

October 1996
 North
should be. I think that their ethics are
 J109 fine, but that their knowledge of the con-
 A63 vention is shaky. And if I’m right, then
 J10 they should remove it from their conven-
 KQ1094 tion card until such time that they know
enough to play genuine attitude leads. I
West East mentioned this to them, and they got very
 K86  753 angry with me, telling me that if they
 987  J102 wanted lessons they’d find a real player,
thank you very much.
 A852  K976 So I called the director, not expect-
 532  A86 ing much relief, to be honest. I did, how-
ever, expect the director to instruct them
South to remove the words “attitude leads”
 AQ42 from their cards until such time they had
 KQ54 learned what they were. The director’s
 Q43 attitude was not great either. His take on
 J7 the situation was that I had misplayed the
hand, and was now looking to reverse the
West’s “attitude” lead of the 2. result by nefarious means. “Yes, you can
It was not a good moment when I real- lead what you like,” he told my oppo-
ized that I had been taken. Please don’t nents.
be a genius and tell me that the hand was Now came the post-mortem when
cold — all I had to do was knock out the we compared scores. The contract and
A, and later claim nine tricks. opening lead were the same. Except our
After the hand I turned to my left teammates were playing fourth best
hand opponent and said “I thought you leads, which was clearly marked on their
were playing attitude leads. That’s what cards. So the declarer had no problem
‘s marked on your card.” knocking out the A, and letting them
“We are playing attitude leads,” he score the obvious four tricks. This was a
replied. “Diamonds was my best suit so I vulnerable game swing and we lost the
led a low one.” This is a very experienced match by five IMP’s. I did not take the
(but not overly brilliant) player. Flight A. hand to committee because I was pretty
We’ve seen him around for about tweny- sure that we would lose. The fact is, de-
five years. fenders can lead what they like. My
“Do you really believe that the objection in this particular case is a subtle
deuce is right?” I persevered. “If you’re point: if a partnership routinely leads low
really playing attitude, surely the five is from Axxx, they are not playing conven-
indicated?” tional attitude leads and should not an-
“You know what,” he said to me, “I nounce them as such. And yes, it was
can lead what I like.” important for me to keep intact the notion
Now, there’s no question that he can that I don’t try to win events in commit-
lead whatever he likes, no matter what’s tees.
marked on his card. And he certainly had Now here’s a coincidence. The
a stunning success on this hand. But I got week after returning from this tourna-
the distinct impression that he and his ment, we opened up the latest Canadian
partner routinely do this, not because Masterpoint to find a related article by
they’re unethical, but because they’re not Linda Lee: “Wee Notrump — Friend or
as familiar with attitude leads as they Foe” (April 1996). The point of this ar-

Canadian Master Point

ticle was that declarer should have a bad attitude.
thwarted a great defensive play made by Jeff Rubens’ original definition of an “at-
Steve Weinstein, based on inferences that titude” lead relates to how strongly the
could be drawn from Weinstein’s open- opening leader feels that this suit repre-
ing 10 - 12 notrump and the attitude lead sents the best chance of tricks for the de-
made by his partner. In her article, Lee fence: the lower the card led, the more
wrote “From the opening lead and play to partner is encouraged to continue it, and
the first trick East...was marked with the the higher the card led, the more partner
AJ (unless they lead the two as an atti- should be looking for a switch. Suit
tude lead from Jxxxx!)”. (Her exclama- length and honour cards are factors in
tion point, my italics.) She then went on selecting the spot card to lead, but not
to analyse this hand based on the specific decisive. One of the great advantages of
heart holding described. this over “count” leads like fourth best is
So my question is this: what if East that in hands such as the one in this ar-
had not had the requisite holding for his ticle, declarer cannot easily read the dis-
attitude lead? Would declarer have been tribution.
entitled to recourse? Of course not. But The author raises a little-discussed
what if East-West routinely make this issue here: declarers usually know very
kind of lead ......? Who’s to know? little about defensive carding methods,
Ever since this hand I have become Most regular partnerships have agree-
extremely sensitized to attitude leads, and ments on what constitute count, attitude,
have made a point of examining the “at- or suit-preference situations, but their
titude” suits after the hands. And I must opponents often neglect to ask about
confess that my bad attitude in this regard them. Yet we are all paranoid about full
has not improved. Because this is what I disclosure during the bidding!
have found: about half the partnerships The convention card is at best a
I’ve observed (in an admittedly small quick summary of methods and agree-
sample) clearly interpret “attitude” leads ments, and by necessity, it uses a kind of
to mean that they lead whatever they like shorthand; one pair’s exact agreements
in the suit. They mix it up. In this way behind that shorthand will be different
declarer will not have any inkling of from another’s. In the end, the onus is on
what their holding is. The partnership each of us to disclose agreements that
understanding seems to be this: ‘I’ll lead may differ from standard practice (as-
whatever I like, and you should use your suming we know what that is!) in any
judgement’. area of the game. Ed.
Just two days ago an expert player
made one of these leads against us and
when his partner got in with a side suit,
she did not return his suit, even though
partner had led a deuce. In this case it
was wrong for them — he really did have
a great suit — and we made an unmak-
able contract. Again it was clear to me
that the partner of the opening leader had
had no idea of what her partner had in his
led suit, and was guessing that a switch
was right.
So now you must all be thinking
that things evened out in the end for me,
and you can’t figure out why I still have

October 1996
 Signal dependency
p r Da ka a vs hi dk . S p ia r
l av n e j ar p e

S ignals are as
much a part of a
modern bridge play-
his club ruff, and there ended the defence.
South had started with
 1086  A10983  3  KQ94
er’s game as calcula-
tors and computers Mind you, I had very good evidence to
are of a modern hu- support me. After all, partner did play
man’s professional high-low in clubs. He could easily have
life. The analogy played 7-8 in that order if he had
does not however end there. The more three clubs. Declarer could well have
one uses the calculators, the more one started with five clubs, so there was noth-
becomes dependent on them. Similarly, ing wrong in going with partner’s count.
once you start looking for signals while Partner promptly apologized for his mis-
defending, you become dependent on take and the play went on.....
them, and are in danger of losing part of I wasn’t satisfied however. Only
your innate defensive skills. Take for ex- the day before, I had been telling some-
ample the following hands. one that he should have put more effort
North into his defence than just routinely fol-
lowing his partner’s signal. This was the
 AJ95
 QJ North
 AK85  J654
 J65  76
East  AJ54
 KQ432  A54
 752 West East
 72  109  Q32
 A102  AJ109832  4
 —  Q109876
Partner opens 3 at favorable vulnerabil-  J1086  K97
ity in the third seat. North doubles and
South jumps to 4. West leads the 7, South
declarer plays small from dummy, and  AK87
you win with Q, South contributing the
8. You switch to the 2, which fetches
 KQ2
South’s 3, partner’s 8, and dummy’s  K32
J. Declarer now runs the Q to part-  Q32
ner’s king, and he returns the 7 to your
ace. What would you play now? hand.
I mechanically tried to give partner After a 2 weak opening by East, South

October 1996
overcalled 2NT, and following a Stayman winners for discards. His failure to do so
sequence, South became declarer in 4. meant that he had started with a total of
West found a good lead in the A, but four cards in diamonds and spades.
continued with — the 2! East ruffed Moreover, West had opened 3 and
and never considered a diamond return therefore had to have at least six dia-
after seeing the 2! (Vinay Desai, sitting monds, leaving declarer no more than
South, had to resort to a brilliant squeeze one. West had already shown up with
without the count to bring home his con- one spade, so South had to have all the
tract after a trump return — I leave it to three remaining spades. That should
you to figure the play out — but that is have been clear enough. Partner was
beside the point). ruffing spades after all, and that is what I
West certainly got mixed up about should have returned.
his signal. West should have played a Would it have been easier to find
high heart, but East could have rectified this defence if we had not been playing
his mistake easily. After hearing a 2NT any signals? I am not really sure about
bid from South, and seeing four dia- the answer to that question for a disturb-
monds in dummy, East should have ig- ing thought remains. What if declarer
nored the signal and played a diamond was the one who was committing a mis-
anyway. There can hardly be any future take (by not taking his discards on dum-
in playing either a trump or a club in this my’s diamond winners), rather than your
situation. That was what I had said the partner, who erred while playing his
day before. clubs? You never know and that is why
And what about my hand? Could I you keep on playing this magnificent
have done better? Well, if I had thought game!
a little more about the hand, I too could
have got to the right defence. South had To some extent the answer to the author’s
bid 4, so he probably held five of them. question depends on the relative abilities
If he were to hold five clubs in addition of declarer and your partner. We are
to that, he must have started with at most reminded of a maxim of Michael
three cards in the remaining suits. But in Schoenborn’s: “never play an expert de-
that case, he didn’t to lose a spade trick , clarer to have mispulled”. Ed.
as he could easily have used his diamond

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the innovative ingenuity of Ray Lee, Owner and Publisher of Master
Point Press, starting March 25th, Bobby Wolff's Aces on Bridge column
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Canadian Master Point

 Junior trials
e rD i a c v i s du t Sh i e l r v l ea rn d

T he story of the
1996 North
American Junior
far from ideal, but it could not be helped.
There were also some other road-
blocks on the way to the start of the trials.
Trials begins well be- First of all, due to the timing of the trials,
fore the actual tourna- it was hazardous for some juniors to enter
ment. In every the premier event of the Summer
qualification year for Nationals — the Spingold. If any juniors
the World Junior were to survive to the third day of the
Championships, a different method of event — the same day the trials started
selection had been used in both the US — it was ruled that those players could
and Canada: everything from asking for not play for any team during the trials,
applications to pairs trials to team trials. but could be added later for the World
In an attempt a) to give Bermuda and Championship to one of the teams that
Mexico a chance to qualify a team, and did qualify. This materially affected what
b) to mirror some of the success seen in I felt would certainly be the best US ju-
Europe, a new format was suggested for nior team (Carmichael), as two of its
the 1996 team trial. It would be a zonal players —Eric Greco and Chris Wilenken
final with all entries welcomed from — did qualify for the third day.
teams of 4, 5, or 6 members; the location However, the rest of the team — Shannon
would be the Miami Nationals. Lipscombe, Joel Wooldridge, and Tom
At first, the plan was for the top Carmichael — found a replacement
three teams to qualify, with at least one (Scott Lewis) at the last minute, and so
team from Canada and at least one from were able to play after all.
the USA. However, once Canada was We would play a complete round-
ratified as host nation for the 1997 World robin, playing 24 boards against every
Junior Championships, it gave an addi- other team. However, we would only
tional team to Zone 2 (North America), play 6 boards from each of the 9 matches
and hence four teams would now qualify. per day. Hence, you wouldn’t score any
The conditions of contest were immedi- “actual” victory points until the final day
ately modified so that no country could of the event. Further, we were not using
qualify more than two teams. pre-duplicated boards, so some teams
When the final entry for the trial might be at an advantage if their boards
was closed at 10 teams — 7 US and 3 contained harder, swingier hands.
Canadian — it became apparent that Finally, we would be using screens, but
while a joint trial was worthwhile, it was only for the final two days of the trials.
also unnecessary as each country would On the good side, the playing room
qualify two teams independently of the overlooked the ocean, and there was not
ranking of the other country’s teams. another bridge player in sight. It was re-
However, the scores in matches between ally strange to be working out a difficult
US and Canadian teams would weigh play problem, and then look up and see
heavily on the overall results. This was the waves crashing on the shore.

Canadian Master Point

 But all of this was in the background Pollack
as we started to play. The three Canadian  A63
teams were:  J4
The TED STANLEY Team: David
Levy - Jeff Blond, Darren Wolpert - Fred  J10643
Pollack, Mike Roberts - Eric Sutherland  Q32
David HALASI - Ben Zeidenberg,
Colin Lee - Barry Piafsky, Mike Nadler
- Danny Nadler Wolpert
Craig BARKHOUSE - Jared Riley,
Tara Gokavi - Josh Heller, Brad Bart -  Q1042
Ian Boyd  3
The day-to-day leader board was  A
assessed on the basis of how you were  AK98654
doing in each match so far, based on a
20-point Victory Point Scale. After the
first day, the TED STANLEY team was West North East South
leading the way, but not far behind was
HALASI. The third Canadian team was 1 pass 2 dbl
back in the pack of US teams, but no-one 3 pass pass 4
was out of the running as yet. The sur- pass 5 all pass
prise of the day was that the “best” US
team was wallowing in second-last after
poor showings throughout. The opening lead was a small dia-
The second day brought much of the mond which went to the jack, queen, and
same. Mike and I had a bidding disaster ace. The opening lead placed most of the
when I passed a cue-bid on the way to a missing high cards. East almost certainly
cold grand slam. Needless to say, Mike had the K judging by the lack of a heart
was not pleased, but we discussed the lead. Darren drew trumps in two rounds
sequence in case it came up again. Our (West having one) and led a heart. West
team was surging out in front, extending won the Q and continued with the A.
our lead over the field. The second Darren ruffed this, and made the key play
Canadian team slipped a spot to third of the Q, allowing West to hold the trick
place, but were still playing well. The when he played the K. He was now end-
third Canadian squad had the second best played.
performance of any team on the third West found a neat counter to this
day, winning all but one of its nine seg- move, and played a heart! Darren dis-
ments. This moved them to 6th place, and carded a spade from dummy while ruff-
in position to start putting pressure on the ing in hand. He hoped for the J to fall
second team. under the A, or on a ruff to dummy, but
The third day brought screens and a it was not to be. But WAIT! What if de-
different location. Our team continued to clarer ruffs in dummy, and discards a
be in good form. There were few diffi- spade from hand? Now a diamond ruff to
cult hands for either side, and we contin- hand and the rest of the trumps squeeze
ued to win most sets by 10-12 IMP’s. West. A great hand.
The most interesting hand of the event And remember that agreement that
happened on this day. After a competi- I said Mike and I discussed after the flub
tive auction, Darren Wolpert became de- the previous day? Well, it came up and
clarer in 5 against a team from Texas. this time we bid the cold grand slam.

October 1996
 Eric Sutherland

Barry Piafsky

Fred Pollack

Canadian Master Point

David Halasi

Danny Nadler

Mike Nadler David Levy

October 1996
 The final day came, and at last we
would start scoring some real victory
points. Going into the final day, the
standings were (based on a 18-board
20-VP scale)
1. TED STANLEY 142
2. CAREY 111
3. HALASI 104
4. RUDER 99
5. BURCH 90
6. ERLICHMAN 87
7. CARMICHAEL 86
8. BELL 79
9. BARKHOUSE 78
10. WOLFF 24
Some strange things started happening on
the last day. Our team remained true to
form, clinching the victory and the Peter
Pender Trophy with two matches to play.
We won eight of our nine head-to-head
matches, losing only to CAREY on a
testosterone-induced swing. However,
the second Canadian team collapsed:
starting the day in a position to qualify Tom Carmichael, captain of the top-
easily, they only nailed down their spot ranked USA team that finished 3rd.
with a match to go.
CAREY locked up their place early CAREY from USA.
as well, but the race for the US second It is worth noting that there were
spot was interesting all day long. many people who were assisting the
CARMICHAEL finally started playing teams in the trials. Many thanks go to
like they were supposed to throughout the these individuals, in particular Fred
event, picked up at least 20 IMP’s in just Gitelman, George Mittelman, Sheri
about every set, and just squeaked in. Winestock, and Jade Barrett. Their ef-
The final standings were forts will help the cause of junior bridge
1. TED STANLEY 142 in North America.
2. CAREY 111 At the European Junior
3. CARMICHAEL 103 Championships earlier this summer, there
4. ERLICHMAN 100 were twenty-six countries competing,
5/6. RUDER 93 with many countries needing playoffs to
5/6. BURCH 93 determine which team would go to that
7. HALASI 92 level. It is clear that we have long way to
8. BELL 82 go when we can only produce ten teams
9. BARKHOUSE 65 from a whole continent.
10. WOLFF 19 I hope that many local players will
So, the North American representatives be able to make it to Hamilton next sum-
at the World Junior Championships in mer, to assist with the organization of this
Hamilton, Ontario next summer will be event, or simply to cheer on both of our
the TED STANLEY and HALASI teams teams. We are hopeful of our chances,
from Canada and CARMICHAEL and and having your support may give us that

Canadian Master Point

 Desperation plays
D a fv .i d g oS di le vd e r

This article is here. If East doesn’t bid now, you are

reprinted from the going to play 2 doubled, and probably
Boletin of the go down a lot. But do you have to resign
Asociacion de Bridge yourself to this? Certainly not: if East
del Centro in Spain. finally passes, adopt an active approach
Errors should be at- — redouble, and try to find another con-
tributed to my trans- tract. Your partner will rescue, and you
lation, rather than to will give East a second opportunity to
the author. RL. make a mistake by bidding.
Here is the whole hand:

Q uite often we find ourselves faced

with contracts that are apparently
Giving up 500 or more in 2 will be at
North
hopeless from trick one, or in bidding or  A6
defensive situations where the prospects  AJ4
of a favourable outcome seem slim. But
it is in just such circumstances that a win-  J1074
ning player shows his or her mettle.  AQ76
We all know players of merely aver-
age technical ability who can suddenly West East
shine in adversity, proving able to turn  KQ1083  5
the situation around to their own advan-  Q  K87652
tage. These players demonstrate a differ-  K96  A5
ent kind of ability: they refuse to give up  K1093  J842
when all seems hopeless, and often find
a way to profit from some psychological South
element of the situation.  J9742
Is this a skill worth acquiring? The
following four problems come from re-  1093
cent tournaments and you can draw your  Q832
own conclusions.....  5
Suppose you are dealt:
best a tie for bottom. By redoubling we
 J9742  1093  Q832  5
risk giving up even more, for a certain
With your side vulnerable at matchpoints, zero, but on this hand rescuing the con-
your partner opens 1NT (15-17). RHO tract to 3 or even collecting a plus by
overcalls 2, and in an excess of enthu- defending 3 will give us an excellent
siasm you decide to compete with 2. score.
LHO doubles, partner passes, and RHO Now let’s look at a play situation.
thinks for a long time. What are you Often there are card combinations that
going to do next? allow us to offer the enemy an alterna-
You are clearly headed for a zero tive route to apparent success. It doesn’t

October 1996
matter if he always follows it — it is North
enough that sometimes he will.  K6
West opens 2 (weak) and you are play-  A4
North  KJ1033
 K6  87643
 A4
West East
 KJ103
 1074  Q9
 87643
 KQJ762  95
 4  987652
 Q92  KJ5
South
 AJ8532 South
 1083  AJ8532
 AQ  1083
 A10  AQ
 A10
ing 4 at matchpoints. West leads the an apparent opportunity to make eleven
K: how would you plan the play? The tricks, but in fact reduced us to an igno-
obvious line seems to be to draw trumps minious nine.
and use the diamonds to discard a club: The picture we have to create for
on a good day we might even make six. our opponents is that of trouble brewing
We duck the K, win the second heart, when in fact cards are favourable, and
and play the K intending to play another that of everything working well when the
spade; surprisingly, we see the Q appear hand actually lies badly. Another op-
on our right. Now what? portunity of a similar nature presented
If West started with four spades, we itself in the recent Spanish women’s
shall lose a trick in that suit, but now we
don’t necessarily have to lose a heart. North
We’ll surely get a good score for eleven  J105
tricks, so we should play a diamond to  76
the ace in hand, ruff a heart, and play the  K10742
K. If West has a 6421 hand we can dis-  Q65
card a club on the J and make an over-
trick.
OK, so we return to hand with the
A and ruff the third heart. South
Unfortunately East overruffs with the 9  A983
and plays a diamond: West ruffs this  AK42
and our castle in the air has collapsed like
the house of cards that it is.  AQ3
 J9
(see top of next column)
Twelve tricks were in the bag as the cards teams championship.
lay, but we didn’t know that. East’s lar- South opened 1, West overcalled 1,
gesse giving up the useless Q gave us and North raised to 2, South ending the

Canadian Master Point

 auction with a rebid of 3NT. West led tricks chasing the possibility of an extra
the Q. How would you play the hand? chance for her contract, and went down
If the diamonds are behaving, you in an easy game.
have eight top tricks. The ninth can come There are plenty of opportunites for
from spades, where you’ll need to find declarer to make similar plays. I learned
split honours, or East with both honours. a lot from this hand played in a world
However, since you lack sufficient en- championship in the 70’s, and written up
tries to the dummy for two spade fi- by Ron Klinger.
nesses, it looks as though East will have North
to have both the high spades.  J84
OK. So you duck the first heart,
win the second and play the ace and
 973
queen of diamonds. Everyone follows,  AQ42
but under the queen, the jack appears on  QJ9
your left. Eureka! You overtake with the
K, for now you have two diamond en- West East
tries to dummy for spade plays, and will  3  AQ109765
only need East to hold one of the spade  Q1084  J52
honours. Unfortunately, on this trick  J1073  965
North  10543  —
 J105 South
 76  K2
 K10742  AK2
 Q65  K8
West East  AK8762
 64  KQ72
 QJ1095  83 East opened 3 and South ended up play-
 J985  6 ing 6. Yes, I know that 6NT is a better
 A8  K107432 contract, but your job is to try to make the
club slam after West leads the 3. If you
South just let nature take its course, you will
 A983 certainly go down. When East wins the
A he will be able to count to thirteen
 AK42
and work out to give his partner a ruff.
 AQ3 So what are you going to do?
 J9 Without batting an eyelid, South
played the K under the ace! East, natu-
East discards a club! rally, concluded that the king was single-
ton (South’s spot card fortunately was the
Giving up the J was a no-cost play. 2, which helped the illusion along), and
West knew that South had exactly three continued with the 2. Now South won
diamonds, and that East would show out the A and proceeded to play off all his
on the next trick. So the J was a decoy, trumps, reaching this position:
played in the hope that declarer, assum-
ing it was a doubleton, would make an (see top of next page)
error. As a result, South threw away two

October 1996
 North
 J On the 7, West had to discard a heart,
 9 leaving control of the suit in the hands of
his partner. Now declarer discarded the
 AQ42 useless J and played off the top dia-
 — monds. On the third round East was
West East forced to pitch the Q, and declarer
 —  Q10 added insult to his opponent’s injury by
 Q10  J5 taking the twelfth trick with the 2.
I hope that, besides showing you
 J1073  96 some ingenious plays, I’ve started you
 —  — thinking about taking advantage of your
South own opportunities. Remember — never
 2 give up!
 K2
 K8
 7

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Our main site, with information about our books and software, reviews and
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other bridge notables.

Canadian Master Point

 More on responsive doubles
D ra ov ni d b iS si h
l vo ep r

Previously, in
C a n a d i a n
Masterpoint July
I left one of the ‘crowded house’
auctions
1 - 2 - 2 - ?
1996, I discussed
problems with tradi- out of the previous discussion because it
tional responsive required some alterations to the proposed
doubles in auctions competitive structure. This auction is
where responder’s unique in that there is no remaining room
raise of opener’s suit had taken away all between the raise and 2NT. In contrast,
of our side’s investigation room. I re- auctions that start with a red suit allow
ferred to these auctions, such as the advancer some room to introduce the
unbid suits and allow the overcaller room
1 - 1 - 2 - ?
to rebid his suit at the two-level after ad-
as ‘crowded houses’ and proposed a vancer’s try. The auction where spades
structure to deal with them. Two of the are bid and raised requires us to rethink
four auctions of this type were quite sim- our competitive mechanisms.
ilar in that there was investigation room
remaining between the raise and 2NT, (1) 2NT
which was very useful as a relay. In this
article I’ll discuss the two remaining se- This is a Lebensohl-type relay to show
quences length but only competitive strength in
one of the remaining suits (shows a nega-
1 - 2 - 2 - ?
tive freebid in one of hearts or diamonds,
and but not length in both — see (2) follow-
ing). Making this call at a level lower
1 - 1 - 2 - ?
than overcaller’s suit will give him the
which have some special problems as- opportunity to rebid 3 on hands that are
sociated with them. I’ll also show some just ‘club-playable’. You lose the ability
other auctions where varieties of respon- to make a natural and invitational call in
sive doubles could, or should, be used to notrumps but gain some competitive
great effect. Incidentally, this all empha- edge. Many hands that look like the old
sizes the importance of having clear part- natural 2NT are worth game opposite
nership agreements in competitive sound overcalls, so being ‘forced’ to
situations. It’s all well and good to have jump to 3NT with those is not too dan-
a device such as step responses to Grand gerous (and may even improve your IMP
Slam Force down pat, but its frequency is results).
very low. Competitive auctions where
both sides are bidding and raising suits, (2) Double
or searching for fits, come up all the time
and can swing many IMP’s or match- A ‘responsive double’ in the traditional
points. sense, but promising length in both of the

October 1996
unbid suits. Overcaller still has room to often lost when advancer has only moder-
rebid 3 but can go higher when fitting ate values and a fit for the overcalled suit,
either of the red suits. Review how often so elects simply to raise. Advancer can’t
responsive doubles in this sequence are introduce a new suit without the over-
converted to a penalty action by the over- caller assuming at least 5-card length.
caller and you’ll see that these are really With the proposed structure, overcaller,
‘takeout’ doubles. armed with the security of a fit in his pri-
mary suit, can initiate the search for a
(3) 3 better fit for game purposes.

Natural; a competitive and constructive (2) 2

raise (it’s a good idea to discuss in your
partnership just how heavy this raise can A transfer to hearts. The worst hand
be). that advancer can have is a negative free-
bid in hearts, and if the overcaller accepts
(4) 3 and 3 the relay, then advancer doesn’t promise
another bid. The standard meaning of 2
Natural and forcing. (a mild raise) is a clear violation of the
‘Useful Space Principle’ since many of
(5) 3 the continuations end in three of a minor
by one side or the other. This new use of
The Q-bid raise; shows a very good hand 2 (to show one of the suits that has been
for clubs. crowded out by the auction) is clearly
superior. Advancer may, of course, have
The last remaining ‘crowded house’ a good hand with length in hearts and
auction will subsequently continue the bidding
with a strong or invitational action.
1 - 1 - 2 - ?
has special problems of its own in that Exception: advancer’s pull of overcall-
both majors are still outstanding and im- er’s 2 acceptance (to 2) shows the old
portant, both when you are competing for traditional responsive double with length
the partscore and when you are looking in both majors and competitive values.
for a game. The problem is to get one or
both majors into play, investigate (3) 2
notrump game chances, and also have the
ability to show competitive to forcing Similar to 2 but in this case a transfer
‘fit’ hands for overcaller’s suit. Let’s to spades. Overcaller should generally
look at some useful mechanisms: accept by bidding 2 on hands where he
won’t be embarrassed playing there if the
(1) Double advancing hand has the negative freebid
type. Clearly he should take more ag-
A raise in overcaller’s suit! The over- gressive action on hands that fit spades
caller is free to ‘rebid’ diamonds, pre- well, bail out to 3 on strictly diamond-
emptively re-raise to the three-level playable hands, or take other action (such
knowing he has the security of a fit, or as 2NT or 3) on multipurpose hands.
start the hunt for 4-4 major fits on the
way to 3. One of the problems of ‘nor- (4) 2
mal’ responsive doubles is the require-
ment for length in the majors. 4-4 fits are A replacement for the old cuebid of 3

Canadian Master Point

(a good hand for diamonds). This cuebid in one of the remaining suits.
comes at a useful lower level and allows (b) over a Bergen raise after part-
the overcaller to make a try with 2NT ner’s takeout double
when he has a club stopper, with the se-
1 - dbl - 31- dbl
curity that his suit will be a source of
tricks. Usually only a 3-card fit (see (6)
1. 4-card constructive raise
below), but a hand containing reasonable
values. Does this show clubs in your methods or
is it a responsive double? My suggestion
(5) 2NT is that you treat 3 as what it is, a raise
of spades, and that double be used just to
Natural and invitational, with clubs show reasonable values without a clear-
stopped, but still at a low enough level to cut action.
allow the overcaller to retreat to 3.
(c) over a Dormer major raise
(6) 3
1 - dbl - 2NT1- dbl
A 4-card fit for diamonds and a good
1. Limit raise
hand. Usually assures the overcaller that
his suit is running (or that it may be of I suggest that you treat this similarly to
limited defensive value). This ‘raise’ the previous auction.
follows the Law of Total Tricks principle
in that it gets our side immediately to its (d) over weak 2’s and ‘lead-directs’
‘Law’ level while taking up bidding after takeout doubles
space. Those players who are prone to
2 - dbl - 31 - dbl
overcall 4-card diamond suits may find
themselves in a violation of the Law.
1. Lead clubs but retreat to 3
(7) 3 Is this double saying that advancer would
have bid 3 himself, does it show club
Natural and preemptive. values, or is it responsive? Clearly an
area for specific partnership agreements.
Other ‘responsive double’ situations
(e) over ‘new wave’ ventures such as
Your partnership’s agreements in the fol- ‘suit lead’
lowing areas may be key in maintaining
1 - dbl - 21 - ?
a competitive advantage in auctions
where both sides are bidding.
1. “Suit lead”, a transfer to hearts
(a) over a Q-bid raise What is ‘double’ in this sequence? Does
it show diamonds or just competitive val-
1 - 2 - 3 - dbl
ues? Would 2 be natural by the ad-
What does this mean in your system? vancer (to prevent responder from
This could be (and this writer thinks it controlling the auction with a psyche)?
should be) one of the safest responsive Does ‘pass’ followed by a double of re-
doubles in your arsenal — the opponents sponder’s subsequent runout to 2 show
can’t possibly play in your partner’s suit a heart trap or is it just general values
at the three-level so partner need not bid — or perhaps a penalty double ? All
if he doesn’t have a secondary fit for you these need to be discussed in order for

October 1996
 f o r f u t u re e x perts
Extra winners
b a r b a r a s e a g r a m

E X T R A !
E X T R A !
Declarer makes im-
of your heart loser (and hope no-one ruffs
in on the clubs) before drawing trumps,
or all is doomed. But if you are only in
possible contract! 4, this is a different kettle of fish!
Opponents de- In assessing the losers you must deal
pressed! Partner with, it is also useful to determine
impressed! whether they are immediate or eventual
losers. An immediate loser is a loser that
Except on a very slow news day, the the opponents can take as soon as they
headline above is not likely to make front get the lead. Say you hold
page news. But you could be well on
your way to being a newsworthy declarer A32
by expanding the bag of tricks at your
command. Use them well, and you too 654
will be able to turn most hands into suc-
cess stories. Yes, sports fans, the bidding After you take your ace, you have two
is over, the opening lead has been made, immediate losers as soon as you lose the
and the dummy is laid out in all its glory lead. Eventual losers are long-term los-
(we hope). It’s your turn to perform that ers, like having
magic act known as being declarer!
We know that planning is the key. AK5
What does the lead imply? Did the bid-
ding give me any clues to the location of 432
key cards? How do I get rid of those los-
ers? When do I draw trumps? What do Eventually, when the ace and king are
I do first? Let’s start at the beginning gone, you have a loser.
— assessing what shape your contract is Often it is a better tactic to take care
in. of the immediate losers first. Let’s see
Count your losers (in most suit con- how having some extra winners can help.
tracts) or winners (on notrump hands).
And always know how many losers you Extra winners in dummy
can afford — that knowledge will often
determine whether you must take a risk “Extra winners in dummy” is a term that
or whether a risk is unnecessary. Let’s describes the pleasant situation that oc-
say, for the sake of illustration, that you curs when you have a holding like
and your partner are missing the A and
the KQ, but have a very solid club suit. AKQ
You have bid to 6, and the opponents
lead the K. To make your contract, you 43
must risk playing enough clubs to get rid

Canadian Master Point

in other words, an unevenly divided suit dispose of losers on extra win-
with more winning cards than you have ners before drawing trumps if
cards in the opposite hand. This allows you do not have more losers
you to use that extra winner to dispose of than you can afford!)
a loser in your hand.
Sometimes, extra winners must be But if you have more losers than you can
established. For example, holding afford, you must decide

KQJ c) are my losers immediate or

eventual?
32
and
you can create an extra winner by forcing
out the ace. With d) does my trump suit have any
losers?
QJ10
If your losers are immediate, you draw
32 trumps first only if your trumps are solid.
If your trumps are not solid, you must
you have two losers, but one extra winner have the courage to play your extra win-
can be created if you have time. A word ners before drawing trumps. Better to go
of caution — watch your entries to down trying to make the contract than to
dummy! Nothing is worse than creating give up without a struggle!
an extra winner in dummy but not being Extra winners in dummy can usually
able to get there to cash it. be used right away. Using extra winners
Extra winners can also be created by in declarer’s hand — sometimes referred
finessing. For example to as the “long hand” — is a little more
involved. Extra winners in hand allow
AQJ declarer to discard from dummy thereby
making an evenly divided suit uneven, or
532 creating a void. Losers in that suit can
then be ruffed in the dummy.
If the king is on your left, you have a no- So remember, whenever the bridge
loser suit. But you have no extra winners gods threaten to rain on your parade
because the suit is evenly divided. If, (which makes the cards very soggy!),
however, you had only two cards in your look for the silver lining inside the storm
hand, you could create an extra winner clouds. Use your extra winners well and
even if the finesse lost! you will win extra!

Do you draw trumps when you have extra

winners?

The right time to draw trumps depends on

two factors: the immediacy of your los-
ers, and who has control of the trump
suit. Let’s look at a line of thinking to
incorporate into our “How can the hand
be made?” process.
a) How many losers can I afford?
b) How many losers do I have?
(Remember, there is no need to

October 1996
 Book and software reviews
D a v i d S i l v e r
The Philadelphia great discussions!
Story (ACBL) Bridge Buff
Richard Colker 4.0 (BridgeWare)
& Eric Kokish eds. PC with Windows.
Revd. by Linda Lee $129.95 (upgrade
version $64.95).

D id you belong
to the debating
society? Do you
Revd. by Ray
Lee
love watching the
Court Channel on
television? Do you enjoy complex philo-
sophical discussions? If you answer
T his newest release of Doug Bennion’s
Bridge Buff software in my view es-
tablishes it firmly in the #1 spot. The
‘yes’ to these questions then this new point-and-click interface is now silky
ACBL publication will be of interest to smooth, with a pleasing screen layout
you: edited by Richard Colker and Eric that includes floating toolbars, and the
Kokish, it documents forty-one appeals program is lightning-quick.
cases from the Philadelphia NABC. The range of conventions available
Each case is presented in complete has been expanded. Some are “non-ne-
detail including the names of the partici- gotiable” — you have to play them, like
pants, all relevant information, the play- it or not — including negative and re-
ers’ comments, the director’s ruling, and sponsive doubles, forcing NT,
the committee decision. Then you are Blackwood, Gerber, and Stayman.
treated to a detailed discussion of the is- Among the optional ones, however, are
sues by members of an elite panel as well Namyats, Ogust, support doubles and
comments from the editors. redoubles, NMF, Checkback Stayman,
It is very interesting to note the weak NT, and various opening 2 con-
complexity of most of these decisions ventions and major suit raise structures.
and the amount of dissent amongst mem- You can play 2/1 or Standard, and elect
bers of the panel. The discussions on the aggressive or conservative hand evalua-
appropriate redress for an infraction are tion. Over your one notrump opener you
fascinating. For example, one frequent can play transfers or 2-way Stayman, and
theme is whether the non-offending side in competition Lebensohl is available
is entitled to ‘windfall profits’ if they along with a range of modern competitive
subsequently make an ‘egregious’ error. gadgets such as Cappelletti and DONT.
Reading these cases will help give While no serious duplicate player will
you a better understanding of the appeals have much difficulty with the mandatory
process, the way that the rules are cur- part of the system, less experienced play-
rently being interpreted by committees, ers might find it presents some problems.
and how directors handle infractions at Normally, you would use the pro-
the table. But the main reason for buying gram to bid and play against computer
this book is the entertainment of match- opponents, with a computer partner, but
ing wits with the committee. Try the it is possible to bid and/or play any num-
cases on your friends — they make for ber of positions around the table from

October 1996
turn out a very professional-looking con- you care to give them (“Strong Two
vention card, essentially indistinguish- Bids” or “Novice Pairs” for example).
able from the real thing, and (if your Once the hands have been selected,
writing is anything like mine) a lot more you can print them out in a variety of
legible. You can also print out the back ways. For example, you can generate
(scoring) side of the card, complete with “hand records”, or hand duplication
VP and IMP tables, which is very useful sheets, or all of the North hands, or all of
for home games. the South hands. As a result, the program
At this price, everyone with a PC is ideal for such
and a colour printer should own this soft- purposes as pro-
ware. ducing hands for
The Bridge DEALMASTER. play in clubs or
(Ward & Sons, Inc.) PC (DOS home games, or for
or Windows versions). US$59.95. partnership bidding
Revd. by Linda Lee practice.
It is also pos-

T he Bridge Dealmaster is not a sophis-

ticated bridge playing package like
Bridge Buff or Bridge Baron, but what it
sible to save other significant information
about each hand, including the bidding,
the play, and any special notes, and you
does, it does very well. As suggested by can add and annotate your own hands.
its name, Dealmaster is a generator of Hands can be tagged with one or more
bridge hands. When you install it, it cre- labels (you can create your own, such as
ates a huge library of randomly generated “defence problem” or “double squeeze”).
hands — how big a library is up to you. You can later select hands by tag.
You can add to this library at any time, or Another feature allows hands to be ex-
even delete it completely and create a ported to word processing documents:
new one. Hands are then selected from bridge clubs could easily create annotated
the library according to a variety of crite- hand analysis sheets for “instant match-
ria — distribution, high cards, and so on. point” games or lessons, or you could
The beauty of Dealmaster is its sim- write that bridge book you always
plicity. The control that you have over dreamed of.....
hand selection is quite amazing consider- One thing that fascinated me was
ing how easy the program is to use. For the statistical analysis of the strength and
example, you can ask for deals in which distribution of hands in the library, which
the South hand is either 6-3-2-2, 7-2-2-2, are compared to probability table expec-
or 7-3-2-1 with 15-17 hcp and the North tations. I discovered that the probability
hand has at least 12 hcp. (At present, of getting a 7-6-0-0 hand was just about
you can only choose parameters relating zero. Also, there were only two deals in
to suit length and high card points, but my 20,000-deal database with 29 hcp,
more sophistication is promised in the and none with more than that.
next release.) Because the hands are pre- The best things about Dealmaster
dealt, the selection process is essentially are its ease of use and its speed. If you’re
instantaneous. Dealmaster announces looking for a flexible hand generator that
that there are (say) 56 deals in its data- produces neat printouts, this may be the
base that meet the criteria, and you can one for you. But remember that there are
now select some or all of them. These playing programs on the market that have
selected hands are then deposited in a some hand generation capability, and if
separate file, labelled with the selection you have any desire to play bridge
number and date, along with any name against the computer, one of these may

Canadian Master Point

 none to all four. will rate possible contracts for each side
You have the option on a deal, assigning them a probability of
to play random success. Hands can be saved for later
deals, to load and replay, and most screens can be printed
play saved hands, or out, allowing you to generate a detailed
to specify that it record of your bidding and play on a par-
generate certain ticular hand, which you can compare to
hand types, allow- the computer’s own accomplishments.
ing for practice in bidding and play. For A word on playing level: Bob
example, it is possible to deal hands that Hamman it isn’t, but it’s about as good as
fit a Flannery pattern, or a notrump open- the lower echelon of players in most du-
ing and a strong hand in response, and so plicate clubs. Certainly as of now, if
on. you’re looking for bridge-playing soft-
The most entertaining innovation in ware, this is the one to buy.
this release occurs in “Match Play”
mode. In this mode, you get to play a HCS Convention Card Editor.
series of 25 hands, which are instantly (HCS Software. ) PC with Windows.
replayed by the computer at the “other $14.95.
table”, and you are assigned a score —
you can IMP against the computer, play Revd. by Ray Lee
board-a-match or an individual event(!),
or have your game match-pointed against
a weak or strong field. It is these latter
two aspects that intrigued me most, and I
have a great deal of respect for the diffi-
T his is a neat utility put together by
Toronto’s Chris Hough, which al-
lows you to create an ACBL convention
culty of what the programmers have tried card for your partnership(s) on the com-
to do here. The matchpointing algo- puter. The software is easy to use, espe-
rithms are certainly not perfect. and some cially if you only need to check the boxes
of your scores will astonish you, but then and fill in the blanks on the standard con-
that often happens in real life too! I look vention card, and there is an excellent
forward to this feature’s being refined on-line help feature that explains what
further in future versions. Even with its each part of the card means for less expe-
current shortcomings, I found myself en- rienced players.
joying this mode of play as much or more If you need more space, or need to
than the IMP matches. modify the card, it is possible to delete or
The other point that is worth empha- edit any section. This is not quite as
sizing is that there is lots and lots of help simple in practice as it sounds, however,
available, both software- and bridge-re- and getting your new section to print out
lated. The on-line help is sophisticated exactly where you want it to can be a
and comprehensive, and includes a great touch tricky. One
deal of material on bidding methods, cute feature is the
style, and conventions. There is a program’s ability to
Kibitzer feature to offer advice during a convert letters to
hand, and a Lookup Wizard that tells you suit symbols on the
what the meaning of any of your possible printed version
calls will be — useful not just for novices (“2H” becomes
in complex auctions! Both these features “2”, for example),
can be turned on or off at any time. In which looks very attractive.
“Practice mode”, a Post-Mortem feature If you have a colour printer, you can

October 1996
 be better value for you. butions or end positions.
The user interface in the new ver-
Bridge Master for Windows. sion of Bridge Master can only be de-
(Bridge Base) PC with Windows. $69.95. scribed as state of the art. You can start
up Bridge Master without reading the
Revd. by Linda Lee manual and will have no trouble using it.
The display is very colourful, and the
hand diagram is large and clear. In this

B ridge Master for Windows, an update

to Fred Gitelman’s Bridge Master
software, is the best product that I have
new version, almost any feature you
could want is there. One option, for ex-
ample, is to display a box which shows
seen for developing your skills as a de- the count, any information you have
clarer (don’t confuse it with Capstone’s about the opposition hands, and how
inferior Bridge Master software) . If you many cards in each suit have been played.
are interested in improving your bridge You can control the speed at which
skills and you do not already have a copy Bridge Master plays its cards, and
of Bridge Master, you should buy this whether or not each trick must be con-
software. The new version comes with firmed. In fact, you are in control (as you
thirty-six hands at each of five levels, should be) of most parts of the user inter-
which should provide you with both edu- face. The only criticism I have here is
cation and entertainment for quite some that you cannot claim and get on to the
time. There is also an import feature next hand even when, for example, you
which will allow you to purchase and have only high trumps left. To complete
import additional sets of hands in the fu- the hand you must play it out until you
ture. have made your contract.
For those not familiar with Bridge If there is more than one bridge
Master, the program provides a series of player in your home, each of you can log
play problems graded by difficulty from on with a separate user ID. Bridge
Level 1, for developing players, to Level Master keeps track of the hands played
5, which provides solid challenges for and the hands successfully completed by
experts. The user must play the hand each player. You can select hands to play
properly since not only does Bridge by type (avoidance plays, communica-
Master defend perfectly, it actually tion, squeezes, etc.) and by status (un-
changes the distribution of the opposition played, incomplete, etc.), as well as by
hands to make sure that if you make the level. You can also review the most re-
wrong play, you go down: there can be cent play of any completed deal.
no lucky lie of the cards to compensate The user manual is professional and
for a technical error. If you make the very clear. Done in a small format, in
right play, on the other hand, you have full colour on glossy paper, it is inviting
the satisfaction of knowing that you will and helpful without being overwhelming.
be rewarded. You can play the hand over Besides detailing all of the features of the
and over again until you get it right. software, it provides a description of
When you have completed the hand you Bridge Master’s bidding and signalling
can watch a “bridge movie” which methods. In particular, understanding the
clearly describes all the nuances of the bidding is important since drawing the
play. This allows you to follow along correct inferences from the auction plays
easily by changing the hand diagram to a role in the play of some of the hands.
illustrate various points in the narrative, The contextual on-line help is excellent.
such as various possible defensive distri- If you own the original Bridge

Canadian Master Point

Master, should you purchase the $25 up- two bid and the opponents overcall.
grade? You now get all five levels from Using ‘by auction’ mode, it is easy to
the first version in one package, and generate a whole set of hands where this
thirty new hands as well. The user inter- happens, and examine the consequences.
face is significantly better and you will Visual Deal is linked with an inter-
presumably be able to buy additional sets nal Bridge Buff 4.0 bidding and play en-
of hands. Assuming that new hand sets gine, which is what allows the ìby
are forthcoming in the near future, I auction’ generation. It also allows the
would recommend the relatively small user to have the computer play out hands
expenditure of upgrading. I cannot think that are dealt. The value here is in analy-
of a better or more entertaining way to sis: suppose you hold Jxxxx Qxx Qx
improve your dummy play. xx and partner opened 1NT (15-17). Is
Visual Deal for Windows. it usually right to bid 2 or leave him in
(BridgeWare) PC with Windows (486 1NT? Using Visual Deal, you can quickly
recommended). $129.95. generate several hundred notrump open-
Revd. by Ray Lee ers, along with E-W hands, have the com-
puter play out the hand in both 2 and

L et me start by saying that this is a

serious hand generator for serious
players. It’s incredibly powerful and flex-
1NT, and see what happens. Using the
same engine, it is also possible to inves-
tigate the effectiveness of different open-
ible, but like many powerful software ing leads on a given hand and auction.
packages, with power comes complexity. Now, while BB4 (see review else-
In some ways, you have too many op- where) is state of the art, it doesn’t yet
tions. play or bid at an expert level. If you gen-
Hands can be specified generically, erate hands by auction, you are con-
specifically, or ‘by auction’. In generic strained by BB4’s understanding of that
mode, the user simply selects from a long auction, and the analysis in the above
list of hand patterns in a menu, and des- example will tell you how many times
ignates the high card point range. In spe- BB4 will make 2 with BB4 defending.
cific mode, everything can be nailed As the playing level of the engine contin-
down including exact spot cards. You ues to improve in future releases, then
can use either of these modes to describe presumably so will the reliability of
any or all or the four hands around the Visual Deal’s analysis.
table. Despite the good on-line help,
So far, other than having enormous Visual Deal is not the easiest piece of
control over the parameters of each hand, software to use, partly owing to its great
there is little new. It is in the ‘by auction’ array of function. The description in this
generation mode that Visual Deal begins review only mentions some of its major
to break new ground, because you can features, and users will find many more
define a bidding sequence, with or with- as they explore it. If all you’re looking
out opposition bidding, or select one of for is a simple straightforward computer
the many conventions built in to the pro- program to deal hands for play or bidding
gram, and generate hands that fit. The practice, this package probably isn’t for
sequence can be as long as you like, but you. But if you’re a serious student of
the more specific you are, the longer the the game, looking for a powerful tool to
program will take to find hands that fit. help you generate and analyze hands and
Let’s suppose you are discussing auctions, you’ll want to take a very good
your methods after partner opens a weak look at buying it.

October 1996