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The Duplicate Bridge Club meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the Mower County Senior Center in Austin. Start time is 11:30 a.m.  On Tuesday, seven teams played.

Winners were

• First place, Barb and Orrin Roisen

• Second place, Theresa Baldus and Gail Schmidt

• Third place, Larry Crowe and Dave Ring

• Fourth place, Edna Knobbe and Loren Cleland

Wednesday winners out of nine teams.

• First place, Gail Schmidt and Dave Ring

• Second place, Larry Crowe and Stan Schultz

• Third place, Vandy Newman and Ron Peters

• Fourth place, Larry Heimsness and Jaynard Johnson

The ACBL Bridge magazine has many articles  from the Bidding Box or Bidding Matters.

One article is about conventions such as Stayman which is labeled ‘suicide stayman,’ which is when your partner opens and you have a weak hand. Another article is on ‘transfer’ responses to partners opening 1 No Trump. The article goes on to say that we learn the term, but not how and when to use them; we do not have the knowledge required to successfully use them.

Francis Bacon wrote a book back in the 1600s called The New Instrument, wherein he stated that “Knowledge is Power,” which brings us back to bidding. Listen to the bidding, each bid, whether by your opponent or your partner. In all cases any word or phrase is spoken, it means something. The best players analyze and process this knowledge, and more often than not, end up in the winners column.