Bridge Winners

World champion Russ Arnold passed away today at the age of 90. Known as “the Godfather” to players in the Miami area, Arnold was elected to the ACBL Hall of Fame this past year as the winner of the von Zedwitz award for long service to bridge combined with expertise as a player. At the Hall of Fame dinner, Bobby Levin presented a speech for Arnold, excerpts from which were reprinted in the Toronto NABC Daily Bulletin: (click here to read more)

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I just participated in this week’s Junior Club on BBO with Ira Chorush.  The club provides juniors an opportunity to play several boards with a world-class expert.  You can read more about the program and see a Junior hand from last time.

On one particular hand, some bidding concepts came up that I felt were worth more detailed discussion:

Starting today, Bridge Winners will feature a new weekly series by Andrew Gumperz, focusing primarily on topics of interest to improving players.

Complicated auctions are difficult, even for experts. But what can you do about them? With a little planning, you can simplify partner's problems surprisingly often. Here are four tips for simplifying your auctions:

1) Open 1NT whenever it's reasonable:

Playing a 15-17 NT, what do you open holding:

N North

AQ

J1092

K2

KQ432

After months of wandering through the wilderness, Poppa Jake and his clan finally were nearing their destination -- the rich banks of the Big River in the Land of the Pharaohs, where there was plenty of water for them and for their flocks, thin and scrawny after the long trek across the desert.  As a matter of fact, Jake thought the idea of a little water to pour over themselves would not be a bad idea even for Big Rube, who bathed once a month whether he needed to or not, not to speak of several of the serving girls who kept him company during the long, cold nights in the wastes.  At the last oasis, a week or so back, there'd been barely enough to fill the big clay jugs for reserve water.

Congratulation to Burke Snowden, Ben Kristensen, Hakan Berk, and David Soukup, who won a very close (141-136) 64-board match Sunday to become USA2, in the under 21 division, for the 14th World Youth Bridge Team Championships in Taicang, China, this summer. The winners, all 13 and 14-years old, prevailed against strong opposition from Arjun Dhir, Brandon Harper, Ricoh Das, and Matthew Weingarten. After adding a pair, team SNOWDEN will compete in China for the Damiani Cup. The other American team, USA1, is Adam Kaplan, Zach Brescoll, Adam and Zach Grossack, and Andrew and Richard Jeng.

The U.S. will also send two teams to the Patino Cup, for players under 26 years old. USA1 is Roger Lee, Mitch Towner, Kevin Dwyer, and Owen Lien (plus a pair to be named), with Joel Wooldridge as NPC. USA2 is Jimmy Wang, Zizhuo Wang, Lee Jin, Erli Zhou, Stephen Drodge, and a player to be named. The U.S. has not yet selected its team for the Rona Cup, which is for young women under 26.

Partner opens 1, and RHO overcalls 2. I wish I could bid 3, but partner insists on playing that as a limit raise rather than as pre-emptive. 4 seems a bit much with eight losers. so I settle for 2. LHO bids 5, and everyone passes.