December 2006 - 29

at this summer's NABC in Chicago.
Brod and Earl play 2/1 with weak
notrumps.
Problem 1
North deals. None vulnerable.
West
A K 9 7 3 2
A K 9
-
KJ83

Moderator: Paul Linxwiler
Scores: Bobby Wolff

Stark

See the East and West hands that appear on pages 55 and 22 respectively, and
try bidding them with a regular partner. The North-South players are silent
unless otherwise noted. Compare how you performed with the expert pairs
whose auctions you can read about in this month's column. The form of scoring is matchpoints with a 12 top.
The scores of the competing
partnerships are determined somewhat subjectively by the following:
(1) reaching the best percentage
contract that figures to yield the
most matchpoints available on that
particular board; (2) the ease of
makeability of the reached contract
or the prospect for going set a lesser
number than the opponents figure
to make; (3) a top board [12] or a
near-top [11] is given only to contracts that, because of the difficulty
of reaching, become special enough
to warrant a very high score; (4) if
a particular contract is not listed, in
the absence of the scorer's oversight,
it is assumed that the contract deserves a zero.
The accompanying "Bridge Bulletin auctions" are suggested bidding
sequences using standard methods
with commonly used conventions.
Toronto-area players Andy Stark
and John Rayner have played together
off and on for 15 years. Stark recently
won the Grand National Teams,
Flight A, at the Chicago NABC as
part of the squad from District 2. He
December 2006

is a bridge author (his latest book is
The Weak Notrump), which fits in
with his day job as a college instructor in English Literature and English
as a Second Language.
Rayner is a longtime bridge club
owner and bridge instructor. Hundreds of Canadian players have called
Rayner their teacher, including Stark.
He is a past recipient of Canada's
Kate Buckman Award, given to honor
a player who contributes most to others' enjoyment of the game.
Stark and Rayner will be teammates in the upcoming Canadian
National Team Championship. They
play 2/1 with weak notrumps.
Geof Brod and Steve Earl call Avon
CT home. Brod, a retired investment
manager, and Earl, retired lobby and
labor negotiator who now designs
and creates perfumes, have been
playing for more than two decades.
Part of this time, however, includes a
long layoff by Brod, who returned to
duplicate bridge only three years ago.
The extended sabbatical didn't seem
to hurt his game, however, since he
and Earl were members of the winning squad in the Senior Swiss Teams

2
4
4
6

East
8
862
 Q 10 9 5 4 3 2
A Q
Rayner
2
3
4
4
Pass

The Canadians got off to a bad start
on a sequence that hinges on style
and agreements. Despite a seven-card
suit, Rayner opted for a weak two-bid
in diamonds. 2 was forcing, and
Rayner bid 3. Here's where agreements come into play. Undiscussed,
most players would assign this a
natural meaning, showing a hand
with six diamonds and four or more
clubs. Experienced partnerships will
sometimes allow the preemptor to
show "fragments" (chunky three-card
side holdings) or controls in side
suits. Stark clearly believed 3 was
natural, while Rayner thought he was
showing a club value.
Although Rayner got a chance to bid
4 later in the auction, Stark's mental
picture of his partner's hand compelled him to drive to the club slam.
Brod
1
3
3
4

Earl
Pass
2
3
4
Pass

Earl decided to pass with the East
cards, allowing Brod to describe
his hand in three rounds. This was a
completely natural sequence. The
3 rebid showed extra values, a
popular treatment.

29

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2006