May 2020 - 33

The Bidding Box
MODERATOR: JIM MUNDAY
acblbiddingbox@gmail.com

See the West and East hands that appear on pages 49 and 51 respectively, and try
bidding them with a regular partner. Compare how you performed with the expert pairs
whose auctions you can read about in this month's column. The North-South players are
silent unless otherwise noted. The competitors were not informed of any interference by the
opponents before the bidding commenced. The form of scoring is matchpoints with a 12 top.
The Bridge Bulletin auctions are meant to portray possible bidding sequences to one of
the top-scoring contracts using common methods.
Our competitors this month are from
one of our two under-21 squads representing the U.S. at the upcoming world
Junior championships.
Brent Xiao and Richard Jeng are
longtime participants in the USBF
Junior training program, though they
only began playing together in 2018.
Both learned bridge at a young age:
Richard through the Atlanta Junior
Bridge program, and Brent from family and then the Silicon Valley Youth
(SiVY) program shortly thereafter.
Brent has won a number of youth
events in the U.S. and was on the U21
team that represented the U.S. in the
previous world championship. He is
currently studying at Carnegie Mellon
and is working to establish a strong
bridge program at the university. Richard has won multiple medals in U21
world events and two national events:
the Flight B North American Pairs and
the Young Life Master Pairs. He was
also the 2017 ACBL King of Bridge. He
graduates from Georgia Tech this year
and plans to attend law school in the
fall. They play a strong club system,
with a 14-16 1NT and light openings
and preempts.
Cornelius Duffie and Stella Wan
are also a recent partnership, formed
through the USBF program in 2018.
They are also veterans of SiVY, though
each had been introduced to the game
previously: Stella through a high school
friend and Cornelius by his grandpar-

ents. Stella has been playing seriously
only since 2017, winning the Collegiate
Bowl in 2019 with UC Berkeley, as
well as partnering with Cornelius on
the U21 Junior squad with Richard
and Brent in 2018. Cornelius has been
playing a bit longer and recently was
on the winning team in the 2019 U26
World Youth Open Championship.
He is studying at McGill University in
Montreal. They play a straightforward
2/1 system with a strong 1NT.
Stay tuned, as history was made in
this match. See if you can identify how.

Problem 1

North deals. None vulnerable.
West
♠86
♥ 10
♦K97
♣KJ98653

East
♠ A Q 10 7 2
♥Q4
♦AQ2
♣AQ4

Xiao

Jeng
1♣
2NT
3NT
4♦
4NT
Pass

1♦
3♠
4♣
4♥
6♣

1♣ was artificial showing 16-plus
HCP, over which 1♦ was 0-7 HCP.
2NT showed 20-21. 3♠ showed slam
interest in one or both minors, with
4♣ showing just clubs. Their paths
diverged here, with one expecting 4♦
to be key card, and the other a cuebid

showing interest, though they landed
on their feet in the coin-flip slam. Xiao
considered showing a club positive
initially, but opted to learn more of
opener's hand with the space-saving
1♦ response.
Duffie
3♠
4♦
4♠
Pass

Wan
2NT
3NT
4♥
6♣

A similar auction here, with opener
showing 20-21 balanced, and responder showing slam interest in clubs with
4♦: This pair swaps the minor-suit
meanings here so the strong hand declares when possible. 4♥ was key card
for clubs with responder showing one.
With excellent trump support, Wan
drove to slam.
Bridge Bulletin auction: 2NT-
3♠[slam interest in a minor];
3NT-4♣[clubs]; 4♦[control bid]-
4♥[control bid]; 4♠[control bid]-5♣;
6♣-Pass. While 3NT could be right,
with slam possible, responder shows a
club one-suiter followed by a series of
cuebids. Facing a heart cuebid, opener
continues to slam with excellent
trumps/controls and a potential trick
source.
Scores: 5♣ 10; 4♠ 9; 6♣ 8; 3♠ 5;
4♣ 4; 3NT 1
Xiao-Jeng 8, Duffie-Wan 8
May 2020 Bridge Bulletin

May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2020