(No, Not that One)

Sixty years ago The Bridge World published an article that has become one of my favorites from them:  George A.W. Boehm’s “Let’s Keep the Bidding Simple,” 27-30 of the March 1962 issue.  I tell you here why we should celebrate its 60^th birthday and to reprise/repraise its lessons.

George wrote notes for his then 14-year-old son Augie (yes, that one) who was heading off for a teenage tournament with B. Jay Becker’s son, Mike (yes, that one), in the first tournament they’d ever played together.  George himself was an expert player and well known as an editor and writer at Fortune magazine. He thought he’d help the boys effectively use their limited time together by laying out some questions that they (and any new partnership) should discuss before playing.

I read that article when it was published and several times since.  I have often thought what a useful taxonomy and way to organize the limited time available.  People playing together for the first time, in my experience, never budget enough time for discussion.   In my recent experience my new partners and I barely get through the first page of the convention card before game time pops up.

Here, I will with permission from BW, reproduce in mildly edited form, George’s questions.  Next to those questions I will give my non-expert answers from the point of view of a modern 2/1 player, who has the newly approved ACBL convention card.  You’ll get to see how thorough was George’s prep for his son and Mike.  You’ll get to see how still, today, some of the things demanding discussion then still want it now.   You see all George’s questions in the table below.

George A. W. Boehm Posed Questions for New Partnerships in 1962 and How Answers Look in 2/1 Sixty Years Later

The questions from George’s article provide the basis for my article’s main presentation in the table above.  My main sources for 2/1 treatments are Paul Thurston’s first book and Max Hardy’s two books, cited in the table.  I bring to the party only some organization. Professor Augie Boehm provided useful comments, which I have incorporated.

I hope I can entertain you a bit.  George had no idea how his first few questions can cause a chuckle 60 years later.

First, he asks:  “When, if ever, can a four-card major be opened?”  You readers in 2022 under the age of 65 have little idea how the battle raged in the 1950’s and 1960’s over this question.  The editor of The Bridge World, A. Moyse, Jr., advocated (I say this without modifying adverbs because my teachers say writing without such is stronger than writing with them and I want to say this the strongest possible way) opening four-card majors and, its concomitant, playing games in 4-3 fits.  You may have heard of Moysian fits.  He’s the eponymous Moyse.  He wrote many paragraphs on the subject in his decades as editor. 

Advocating the opening of four-card majors was part of his campaigning for simplified bidding, contrasted with scientific bidding such as Roth-Stone and Kaplan-Sheinwold, then gaining adherents.  You might already know that 2/1 developed from Roth’s ideas.  Jeff Rubens helped with the theory and writing.

In the postscript to Boehm’s 1962 article, Moyse pokes fun at Boehm for his Rothian proclivities.

Boehm’s second question is harmless.

The third question about the nature and frequency of psychic bids seems odd to me today.  In my limited experience, less than a year, back at the table, (almost) no one makes psychic bids.   George’s spelling seems unusual to me, as well.  Psychic bids were sufficiently common that Kaplan-Sheinwold’s system had controlled psych bids, in part I’d guess, to dampen the proclivity of its users to go on flights of fancy. 

From this point forward, George’s questions for discussion are straightforward.  The 2/1 players have the issue delineated on their convention cards or I indicate they, too, need to discuss, but you see few “Discuss” items there are for many rows.

Then, comes the Tower of Babel.

When we get to the section on slam bidding, we encounter questions that I rarely have time to discuss with new partners until the second hour.  And then, I haven’t had George’s check list.

Takeout Double questions require more time, still.

How much time do you need to budget to get to the end of these questions where I’m sure you have no understanding?  More than you have planned, I’ll wager. 

I showed a draft of this material to Augie Boehm and he graciously corrected some errors in the table above, and added some useful remarks.  Thank you. 

This article is based on material from The Bridge World magazine. For more information or to subscribe, please visit: www.bridgeworld.com.