April 2010 - 8

Letters to the Editor

settle down, play bridge and be nice.
I am proud to be a Life Master and
know that my wife and I worked very
hard to get there, and no one can take
that achievement away.
RON SIEVERS
Madisonville KY

New formula
To the Editor:
I have the privilege of playing and
directing in one of ACBL's largest -
and, we think, nicest - bridge clubs.
It's the Vero Beach DBC. In order to
keep our 800-plus members interested
in playing on the weekends, every
Sunday we have Swiss teams. Besides
the classic Open/299er games, we
have added the Eight is Enough,
Draw for Teams (come as a pair, and
draw for teammates) and my variation, the 4 by 4 Swiss (and this has
nothing to do with the size and shape
of our players!).
In the Eight is Enough, which has
been written up in your magazine,
a team can consist of no more than
eight "points," where "A" players
count as three points, "B" players two
and "C" players one. In the 4 by 4, we
use the same point system, except
each half of a team can consist of no
more than four points. "A" players
therefore must have "C" players as
partners, leveling the playing field.
These teams may also be stratified,
allowing more players to pick up masterpoints. Enjoy!
JACK WILSON
Sebastian FL

Relevance
To the Editor:
I've been thinking about Frank
Stewart's letter to the editor (September, 2009) about the contents of this
magazine. He has some valid points,
but I think he's a little off base.
Most of the "natural skills" he mentioned are associated with bidding,
not with declarer play. It is my belief
that bidding is a very vital part of this
game we love. If we don't know how
to bid it often doesn't matter how
8 Bridge Bulletin April 2010

well we declare.
It's my experience that most people
who take up bridge are fascinated
by playing the cards. The serious
players-to-be concern themselves
with reading such books as Watson's
Classic Play of the Hand at Bridge
in order to become decent declarers. They eagerly take on the task of
responsible declarer play. It is not
until much later that they think much
about bidding strategies and even
later yet when they wake up to learning defense. Why? Because the latter
two are partnership efforts, whereas
declarer play is an individual endeavor. In other words, it takes two to bid
and defend but only one to declare.
Systems (and related conventions)
were developed and are continually enhanced to give partnerships a
basis for bidding; therefore, they are
extremely important to success. If I
sit down to play with a stranger (and
have hope of winning), I expect him
to adhere to the "system" we agree
upon. We may have little or no time
for discussion, but we have a fallback system to rely on. Today even
Standard American Yellow Card is a
"system," whether you like to call it
that or not, as it is a set of agreements
which a partnership follows.
I frequent club games where the
standard of declarer play is decent
to good, the bidding hit and miss and
defense awful. Subsequent bar discussions are generally on bidding. Online
bridge seems to be much the same.
So if we want to reverse Stewart's
suspected declining trend, we should
start by improving bridge inversely:
defense first, bidding second, and
last, but certainly not least, declarer
play.
I support the editors' selection of
material and, in particular, strongly
encourage the inclusion of almost
any ideas or guidelines that have to
do with partnership bridge (and thus
systems). That is the area in which
players need the most help.
MARILYN HEMENWAY
Omaha NE

Not a spade
To the Editor:
I sat down with my 4-year-old
daughter, Katherine, a couple of
months ago to give her a quick introduction to bridge. She's seen me play
online and would like to pick up the
game some day (I hope I will have a
regular partner for life).
I dealt out four hands, and dealer
opened 1NT. I showed Katherine how
the auction would go, using Stayman
to get to 4. Declarer and dummy
had 25 high-card points combined
and a nine-card fit. Making four was
the result. My daughter played the
dummy and arranged the winning and
losing tricks as we went.
At trick four, I played the K from
my hand. The holiday season had just
passed, and my daughter had watched
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
about 15 times. When I asked her to
play a "small heart," Katherine said,
"You mean, the Grinch?"
JOSH RICH
Alton IL

Not their day
To the Editor:
Not long ago, one board
epitomized several unfortunate
deals my partner and I experienced
one afternoon at a club game. I was
sitting South in fourth seat, and
passed out a hand holding just 6
high-card points.
West then said, "Oh, I should have
opened." The bidding, of course,
was over. West had discovered a
hidden ace in what was actually a
14-point hand. We got a cold zero
because all the other East-West
pairs had minus scores. We were the
only North-South without a plus on
the board.
MALCOLM ANDERSON
Lompoc CA
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2010
