December 2020 - 34

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

See the West and East hands that appear on pages 47 and 49 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.

Mark Aquino and Shome Mukherjee
have been partners and friends for a
number of years. They have been one
of the top pairs in New England during
that time, including a win in the 2015
North American Pairs, Flight A. Both
still reside in the Boston area.
In addition to the NAP win, Aquino
has had several other high NABC+
finishes with other partners, including
a second-place finish in the 2004 Nail
Life Master Pairs. A retired engineering manager, Aquino is heavily involved in bridge administration, having
served on the ACBL Board. He is currently a board member with the USBF.
He also gives back to the game with a
weekly " Shark's Pointers Online " presentation, working with the Westwood
Bridge Club.
Mukherjee learned auction bridge
as a child growing up in India playing
with family. He earned a doctorate in
mathematics at the amazing age of
19 and taught at the university level
in India for a number of years before
immigrating to the U.S. to teach at the
University of Massachusetts. While
there, he took additional graduate-level
courses at MIT and started a bridge
club and began playing the game seriously. He has two other NABC+ wins
among his bridge accomplishments.
He is a professor emeritus at UMass.
Aquino and Mukherjee play a 2/1 system with variable notrump openings.

34 Bridge Bulletin December 2020

Josh Donn and Greg Hinze are a relatively new partnership, though they
have played together sporadically in
the past. Both have achieved success at
the highest levels of the game. Donn, of
Las Vegas, is a four-time NABC champion (three in the Roth Open Swiss and
one in the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs).
Donn, who plays and writes about
the game professionally, takes over as
moderator of The Bidding Box beginning next month.
Hinze got started in the game subbing for his mother in a lesson at the
local club and was instantly hooked.
He has three NABC+ victories and
a handful of seconds among numerous top finishes. He also has a world
championship title in the 2010 Mixed
Swiss with a team that was formed the
evening prior to the event and with two
of the three partnerships playing for
the first time. He is a longtime bridge
professional living in San Antonio.
Donn and Hinze play a strong club
system with a strong 1NT.

Problem 1

North deals. None vulnerable.
West
♠Q73
♥K952
♦AK2
♣765

East
♠AJ85
♥A4
♦J843
♣Q93

Aquino
3NT

Mukherjee
1NT
Pass

1NT showed a good 11 to 14 HCP.
Responder was undecided between inviting in notrump via Stayman and just
bidding 3NT directly, ultimately going
with the latter option. A blind auction like this is often beneficial to the
declaring side at the table, but the poor
mesh makes game an unlikely bargain
single dummy.
Donn
1♥
2NT
Pass

Hinze
1♦
1♠
3NT

East-West play a strong club system
and open " all " 11-counts, so 1♦ showed
two or more diamonds with 11-16 HCP,
or 11-13 if balanced. East-West always
rebid spades with four, so opener may
or may not have had a balanced hand.
Responder has a nasty decision here.
It's all about the least lie. Donn decided
to invite in notrump with the 3=4=3=3
shape. There was a miscommunication
as to the nature of 2NT; East felt it was
the strongest way to invite, and he accepted after some deliberation.
Bridge Bulletin auction: 1♦-1♥;
1♠-2NT; All Pass. Responder is in an
awkward position, with no ideal call

December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2020