Story by Tim Jackson (BBO: gane32000)

I remember first learning about bridge by reading the bridge column in the local newspaper, The Windsor Star. I tried to match up the ideas of point count and tricks with the editorial.

I was working at a summer camp in 1981 when I saw a few staff members playing bridge. I watched eagerly. Then they invited me to play. I was a terrible bidder, but I was able to figure out the lay of the cards. On my day off, I bought a book on bridge in Orillia, ON. That book taught me about opening bids.

I moved to Orillia in 1987 and joined the Orillia Duplicate Bridge Club. I slowly learned more. Then I was partnered with Dr. Tom for Tuesday games. He was a patient teacher.

After a while, we noticed we were coming in second East/West with various percentages more consistently. In fact, we had a string of second-place finishes. Dr. Tom teased me about it. He noticed that, at times, I misbid hands that had a 5–5 shape. Being a kind teacher, he introduced me to the Michaels cue bid. He taught me that if the opponents opened the bidding in any suit, my Michaels bid would show him the shape of my hand so he could bid accordingly.

So we played a few games. One night, my right-hand opponent opened 1♥. I had five spades and five clubs, and three diamonds to the ace. I made the 2♥ Michaels bid, feeling very proud of myself. But he kept on bidding and eventually settled on 6♣. It was a top board because 6♠ was down one. Dr. Tom said I had made a good bid and that we were on our way to winning.

We came in second.