November 2024 - 38

THE
BIDDING
BOX
Two pairs who performed well in
the recent Summer North American
Bridge Championships in Toronto
face off in this month's Bidding Box,
tackling an incredibly difficult set of
hands against each other.
We start with Castor Mann of
Sweden and Sofie Sjødal of Norway,
the winners of the NABC 0-10,000
Pairs. Both are rising stars on the
European bridge scene. Mann
played on the victorious under-21
world championship team in China
in 2018. Similarly, Sjødal played on
the winning under-26 world women's
championship team in Croatia
in 2019. Both players have excellent
table demeanor and extremely bright
futures ahead of them. Although they
aren't regular partners, their talent
showed through to pave the way for
their win in Toronto. Their bidding
system is 2/1 forcing to game, and it
should be mostly recognizable for the
majority of players.
Their competition is the Chicagobased
pair of Mark Pinkowski and
Nic Hristea. They finished second
in the Bean Red Ribbon Pairs this
year, an excellent showing. Many
past top finishers in the Red Ribbon
Pairs have gone on to become some of
the best players in bridge, including
national champions Jacob Morgan,
Andrew Rosenthal, Phil Gordon and
38 | Bridge Bulletin | November 2024
Pinkowski Hristea
1h
2s
3s
4s
5h
2h
3c
4d
MODERATOR: JOSH DONN
josh@thedonns.com
See the West and East hands that appear on pages 49 and 55 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.
Andy Goodman. While this is the
best finish to date for Mark and Nic,
there is no doubt more to come for
each of them. Their bidding system
should be simple to follow for most
players, as there are not too many
bells and whistles.
Problem 1
North deals. None vulnerable.
West
s -
East
s Q 10 6 2
h 9 8 5
d K 9 8 7 6 4 3 d A
c A 8 2
Mann
2h
Pass
East has a rather shapely 1h opening
bid. The 2h response looks a bit
heavy when accounting for distribution,
but this pair plays a very constructive
style for this raise, showing
about 8-11 points. East wasn't especially
thinking about slam, so she bid
4h directly, upgrading for her own
distribution.
4h
Scores: 6h 12; 4h 6; 5h 4
Mann-Sjødal 6;
Pinkowski-Hristea 4
Problem 2
East deals. N-S vulnerable.
West
s J 10 8
h 8 7 4 3
d K J 10
c K 10 6
h K Q J 10 7 6 3
c 10
Sjødal
1h
4NT
Pass
East opened 1h, and West raised to
2h, just as the other pair had done.
2s was an artificial bid, asking partner
where they could provide helpful
honor cards. West bid 3c with the
ace. East bid 3s, asking for help in
spades, by agreement. West bid 4d,
implying help in spades as well as
something in diamonds. All of this
was enough to convince East to bid
4s, asking for key cards with hearts
as trumps. West bid 4NT showing
one or four. As far as East knew,
there were two key cards missing, so
he signed off in 5h. West did have an
undisclosed void, but it was impossible
to know if two aces were missing,
so he passed.
Bridge Bulletin auction: 1h-1NT;
2h-3h; 3s-3NT; 4h-5c; 5d-6h;
Pass. The 1NT bid is forcing, with
the intention of showing a limit raise.
3s is an ambiguous call, which can
be offering 3NT or can be trying for
slam in hearts. When East insists on
hearts, a control bid from both players
could allow slam to be reached.
East
s A K Q 5 4
h 10 9 6 2
d Q 5 3
c A
November 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2024
