Mary Cook Day

July 14th has been set aside as Mary Cook Day. Mary has been working on becoming a life master for countless years (well, she might have been counting). She has had enough masterpoints for quite a while, but that last little bit of gold proved elusive. She finally found the whole pot of gold at the Greenville Regional. We will help Mary celebrate with a bisquit breakfast before our game on Saturday, the 14th. Congratulations, Mary!

This game will also be our first Pro/Am game. Jack has lined up enough mentors and new duplicate players to assure us of at least five tables. The mentor program is meant to help the new players enhance their duplicate bridge skills. A big part of the mentors job is to make sure that the new players are comfortable and have a good time at the bridge table. I hope that all of you who are at the game with your regular partners will make sure to approach the mentor games with this same attitude.

North American Pairs Games

We will have NAP Games on the 10th and 28th. The NAP games are Sectionally rated, Red points. These are qualifying games so that you can go to the Unit NAP finals and then to the District and National finals. In order to qualify you have to have at least a 50% average in any one of the qualifying games. Cost is $3.00 per person

International Fund Games

We will have International Fund shuffle and deal games on July 17th and 21st. These games are Sectionally rated, black points. The International Fund helps send ACBL players to compete in international events. Cost is $3.00 per person.

Michaels

Invented by Mike Michaels, this convention stipulates that a cue-bid of a natural opening bid shows a two-suited hand. Here is the structure:

1® 2® : At least 5-5 in the majors. Partner must take a preference to 2§ or 2´, although he can, with the appropriate hand, make a pre-emptive jump in either major.

1© 2© : At least 5-5 in the majors.

1§ 2§ : At least 5-5 in spades and a minor. With no interest in spades and tolerance for both minors, partner can bid 2NT to ask for the minor.

1´ 2´ : At least 5-5 in hearts and a minor.

Michaels does not require any particular strength, although vulnerability is usually a factor when holding a weak hand. There is disagreement as to what to do holding an intermediate (12-16 point) two-suited hand. Some players prefer to overcall with the higher-ranking suit immediately and then rebid the second suit later, while others prefer to use Michaels.