Matchpointer Online
(Serving Tournament Bridge players in A.C.B.L. Unit 430:
Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Sunshine Coast)

Vancouver Bridge Centre

Address: 2776 East Broadway, Vancouver

Club Contact: Ken Lochang, 604/255-2564 (club telephone), e-mail, website, results

Regular Weekly Games:

Monday at 7:15pm - Pairs, 0-1000 MP (with pre-game lesson) Director: Mark Eddy
Tuesday at 10:00am - Open pairs Director: Ken Lochang
Tuesday at 7:30pm - Open pairs (Burnaby Bridge Club)
Wednesday at 10:30am - Open pairs Director: Cathy Miller
Wednesday at 10:30am - Newcomer pairs (0-50 MPs) Director: Teresa Kong
Wednesday at 7:00pm - "Wednesday Night Quickie" varying format (usually pairs), $1 off regular gamefee for 18-21 boards, Director: Bruce McIntyre
Thursday at 7:00pm - Newcomer pairs (0-50 MPs) Director: June Pocock
Thursday at 7:30pm - Open pairs (E.C. Bridge Club)
Friday at 10:30am - Open pairs Director: Cathy Miller
Friday at 7:30pm - Open (unstratified) pairs: Director: Bruce McIntyre
Saturday at 7:30pm - Monthly Unit Game (schedule) Director: Bruce McIntyre
Sunday at 1:00 - Open pairs Director: Mark Eddy
Occasional special events on other days and times

Contact McBruce with more or updated information to add to this page and the calendar below.

The October 3 - 5 visit of Mike Lawrence, for two days at the Marine Drive Golf Club and a day at the Vancouver Bridge Centre, was well-attended, well-received, and well-organized by a small group of people headed by David Dilkes.  Mike Lawrence has been writing eye-opening books about bridge since Ira Corn (who included Mike in the original Aces team that trained together and won the world championship) ordered him to start writing!  A wealth of experience, knowledge and analysis go into his bridge classes, and players are gently stretched to the next level.  A single dose of the Mike Lawrence magic on a bridge cruise was enough to convince David Dilkes that an event in Vancouver would have no trouble drawing a suitable group of people.  David set about and succeeded in making it happen.

The first two days at the Marine Drive Golf Club were divided into a morning class on a single topic, followed after lunch by an afternoon class on competitive bidding with audience participation.  Graciously invited by David but unable to escape from other commitments, I'm only able to report that the Leonard/Roxburgh room was filled with 80 players both days.  The Saturday morning topic was on responding to a takeout double, which is a excellent section of his second book, Judgment at Bridge, that I remember reading over and over as a bridge rookie, marvelling at how obviously correct Mike's advice was, and also how much of an advantage this would be to me, since it was apparent that few other bridge rookies knew this stuff!  Sunday's topic was on bidding after the opponents pre-empt, another common problem topic for intermediate players.

Following Sunday's class, Mike and David visited the Bridge Centre to check out the preparations being made for Monday.  The plan for the VBC day was to have 14 tables of players play two sets of ten deals, followed by a discussion of each deal.  The deals were designed by Mike to have all four seats involved in bidding and play decisions over the course of the set.  On Monday morning when I arrived at starting time, I found an eager group of people ready to learn.  Most of the group had been at the lectures on the weekend and were ready to test their skills against Mike's hands.

Asked to introduce Mike, I had to quickly come up with an introduction, and I recalled something I had noticed when I bought a Mike Lawrence book for the first time (the one referred to above).  The word judgment is often (especially in Britain) spelled with nine letters, adding a central 'e'.  The reason it is usually (in America) and often (in Canada) spelled without the central 'e' is because of President Ford, who, in a speech (pre-written by his speechwriters but unseen), perhaps thinking of 'firmament' or 'sacrament' or maybe even 'Sacramento', pronounced the nine-letter version with three syllables: JUDGE-a-ment.  Immediately, recognizing the power of Presidents to shape the English language (despite the ridicule of H.L. Mencken, 'normalcy' became a common English word, replacing 'normality,' after Warren Harding used it in several speeches), American usagists banded together, contacted Ford's speechwriters, and decreed that the central 'e' had to go.  And at just about this time, Mike Lawrence's second book appeared, called Judgment at Bridge -- with eight letters!  Clearly this was a modern book with the latest in bridge judgment!

 Mike has a way of dispensing with the rote learning and ironclad rules that players blindly follow, instead focussing on using intelligence and judgment to come to the correct solution of any bridge problem.  It's a unique style of bridge writing that works just as well in a teaching situation, and at any level it makes bridge feel like a far more interesting game than the one played by the rules-followers.  As the players played the deals, he visited every table and watched for a while, making sure that events did not get too far off course.  His advice was always given in a simple and supportive tone, and he was quick with praise when a hand was well-played.

In the interactive presentation of each of the ten hands from the first set, Mike stood in the centre of the room (next time we'll ensure that he has a microphone and a larger whiteboard, against the wall instead of on a shaky stand) and reminded me a bit of Garrison Keillor: tall, soft-spoken but assured, a smooth voice of authority and confidence that doesn't use or need volume to make a point.  On several occasions Mike would find an impromptu way to make a point to a questioner unsure about the answer he had given.  For example, to a player who seemed to find something wrong with every possible bid, he wrote this hand (approximately) on the whiteboard:

K72
AQ4
KQJ5
JT8

What is your opening bid?  The player in question found nothing wrong with a 1NT opener.  "But you can't open this hand 1NT," said Mike.  "This is what will happen.  The opponents will lead a club through whatever partner has in clubs and a spade back through your king.  By the time you knock out the ace of diamonds, they'll have six black-suit tricks set up."  And after a few minutes of silence, during which the player began to re-think the 1NT opening bid, Mike continued.  "Don't believe that.  This is a perfectly fine 1NT opener.  But no bid comes with guarantees.  For every time the opponents beat you when you open this hand 1NT, there will be a hundred times when the 1NT call helps get you to a decent spot.  The point is that you can construct a nightmare scenario about every bid, and there is always a chance that it will happen.  But if there is no other reasonable alternative, you have to take the chance.

(Disclaimer: Mike almost certainly said it better than I remember it.)

Many deals had squeeze or endplay possibilities, and without getting too technical, Mike delved into the cardplay and the thinking that should be done, both by declarer and by the defenders, in a similar manner to the way he discusses hands in books.  Usually, his presentation was complete enough to leave very few questions from the audience.  A few questions led to interesting side issues; others led to interesting exchanges.  When Mike asked Ev Hodge about her reasoning for a bid, and suggested that she was afraid to make the recommended call, Ev told him, "I'm not afraid of anything!"

The shortest answer of the day was a response to a question on Jacoby 2NT.  Can you do it with three-card support?  Mike's answers were always very detailed and clear, but in this case it was a single word: no.

In the discussion of the second set of ten deals, following an excellent VBC lunch, Mike said that he had written enough bridge hands for the BridgeClues website that there were enough daily hands to go for months and months before cycling back.  We also got a preview of an article that will appear in the ACBL Bulletin (Mike's are written well in advance) in 2012 or so:

In notrump with unlimited entries and no danger in other suits, you need one trick from the spade suit, which is 7 6 5 in your hand and K J 4 2 in dummy.  How do you play this suit?

Most suggested running the five.  LHO of course covers with the eight and you need to decide whether to play the king or the jack.

You try the jack, and RHO wins the queen.  In again, you play the six and LHO covers with the ten.  Now what?  King (hoping that LHO has the ace) or low (hoping that RHO has doubleton AQ.)?

The king is the odds-on favorite here.  But it loses.  You get the lead back and lead the seven; LHO now shows out (so ducking wasn't going to work either).  Do you still have a chance to make a trick in this suit?

Yes, a 100% chance: play the deuce from dummy, losing to RHO's nine. RHO's last card is...the three.  Your four-spot is good!

At the end of the day, Mike remained available to talk to people and suggest books and software to those interested in further improvement.  It was an amazing day, and for those who were in on all three, it must have been a very instructional weekend.

It would be wrong for me to end this article without mentioning again that the event was set up and organized primarily by David Dilkes, with the help of Rita Dodge, Anne Smith, Ann Hung, Gerry May, Bev Hall, Sachi Yamakami, and Mona Blusson.  Their efforts helped make this all possible: thanks!

[Correction note: I corrected the KJ42/765 example above, after Mike e-mailed to let me know that I had it slightly wrong.  He also adds: "I had such a good time up there.  Hope to see everyone again."]