March 2005 - 43

March
March 2005
2005



Bridge player's survival kit

Declarer will lose tricks if he
leads trumps whenever he can. But
he can suffer the losses with dignity
as he will lose only three trump
tricks, thus making the contract.
Don't be afraid to draw trumps
just because you are missing several
honors. In fact:
When your trumps are ugly, you
should feel a great sense of urgency
to start playing them!
Don't let the opponents get more
tricks than they deserve.

The author was ACBL's Rookie
of the Year in the 1992 MiniMcKenney competition. The
following year, she became an
accredited bridge teacher. She is
president of the American Bridge
Teachers' Association. She is a
Life Master and editor of Bridge
Students 'R Us, a newsletter for
intermediate and newcomer players
(six issues per year for $25). Write
to Leslie Shafer, 690 Concerto
Lane, Silver Spring MD 20901. 

Profiles of ACBL
Hall of Fame Members
Howard Schenken, the bridge
player's bridge player and one of
the all-time greats, was an original
member of the Bridge Hall of
Fame and a major player for more
than five decades.
In a poll taken among leading
Life Masters in the early Forties,
the question was asked: "If you
were playing for money or your
life, whom would you choose as
your partner?"
The vote was overwhelming:
Howard Schenken.
Perhaps the greatest recognition,
however, came from members of
the Italian Blue Team who said,
"If your team had had another
Schenken, we never could have
won."
Aside from his brilliant play,
Schenken's outstanding characteristic was his impassive calm at the
table. As declarer, it was impossible to tell whether he was in a
comfortable contract or an impossible one. The result was that he
often performed the impossible.
He was a formidably difficult
opponent but a remarkably easy
partner. On the Four Aces, for

example, he was the only one
who could and did play with
every other member of the team
(David Bruce, Michael Gottlieb,
Oswald Jacoby and Dick Frey).
Schenken's tournament record was outstanding: he won
the first "official" World Team
Championship, defeating the
French champions of Europe in
1935. He won the Bermuda Bowl
in 1950, 1951 and 1953.
In addition, he claimed 10 wins
each in the Vanderbilt and the
Spingold and five victories in the
Life Master Pairs (played for the
von Zedtwitz Gold Cup).
When the rank of Life Master
was created in 1936, selection
was based solely on success in
national events. Schenken was
named Life Master #3.
He standardized and popularized
the weak two-bid and was the first
American expert to realize the
enormous advantage the Italian
teams enjoyed with their strong
opening bid of 1. He incorporated it into his Schenken Club
System.

43

PLAY BRIDGE

J 7 6 4 3 K 4 3 8 7 3 9 3.
This is the auction:
West
North
East
South
1
Dbl
2
?
Do you bid 2 or do you pass?
The first thing you do with this hand
is evaluate it -- but not in the usual
way. When you rate a hand, you usually
count the points and note the distribution and make a bid.
Things are different when answering
a takeout double. When your partner
doubles, you can tell when you have
a fit and when you do not have a fit.
Your partner doubled 1, saying he has
something in the unbid suits. You know
that he has at least three spades and that
you can evaluate your hand in terms of
having a known spade fit.
The point that I am making is one
that you should learn right now.
RULE - When you have normal values for a takeout double, never double
without proper support for all the unbid
suits. Your partner has to be able to
count on you for this.
Let's go back to that hand above. Your
partner doubled 1 and your RHO
raised to 2. If you can trust your partner to have spade support, you can bid
2 with a totally clear conscience. In
support of spades you have 4 high-card
points, but they are good points because
they are in the suits your partner is asking about. Also, you have five spades,
not just four, and you have a doubleton
club, a possible ruffing asset. This
should be a shameless 2 bid.
Here are two possible hands that
North may have. One of them is a good
double. The other is a bad double. Note
how comfortable you are when partner
has the good double and how uncomfortable you are when partner has the
bad double.
1.  A K 8
2.  Q 8
QJ82
AQ J 2
 10 2
J94
 K 10 5 2
KQ42
On the first layout, it is easy to imagine that 2 will make opposite the
hand above.
Dummy has 2 more high-card points
on the second layout, but 2 is a terrible contract. You rate to lose three or
four spades, three diamonds and one
club.
The problem is that your partner did
not have the right distribution.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2005
