The Setting Trick: Conversations with World Class Bridge Players

Among US Juniors, few adults' names are as well-recognized as Ron Smith. But don't let his title of "Honorary Junior" fool you; Ron began playing bridge back in the Roth Stone era, when he only would open the bidding with 14 points—3 points more than what he needs to open today. A true perennial all-star, Ron stands out for his work in fostering the rising young stars of our game. He's also a pretty entertaining and genuinely good natured fellow.

Episode Highlights:

1:50- Ron's mother used to think he was going to hell for playing bridge

3:40- Ron's sister = ultimate bridge wing-woman

5:15- How Ron became hooked on bridge

12:05- Seymon Deutsch could get away with anything

16:00- The legend of Zia Mahmood

21:30- "I've got a partner for you" = Bobby Levin

23:00- Don't cheat

32:20- Al Roth Stoned

36:55- A Justin Lall story

40:50- Ron + Juniors = win Midnight Zip KO

42:40- Ron is an honorary junior

44:30- How to get Bobby Levin to agree with your bidding

48:30- Bob Hamman's unique perspective on Justin Lall

52:10- Brad Moss bamboozled Joe Grue with a legendary psyche 

54:50- Ron believes in preempting aggressively when favorable

1:05:00- Edgar Kaplan and his diplomacy

1:14:40- Rubber bridge stories

1:23:40- "You're not playing for anything either?"

1:35:28- How Joe Grue got his nickname "Joe Boo"

While Scott Hoffer professes to be the worst player yet to appear on The Setting Trick, he caught my attention as the developer of an iOS app called Tricky Bridge. Presently only available on iPhones and iPads, Tricky Bridge has become my go to destination for anyone who is interested in learning the game. The ACBL Education Foundation helped make the app's series of 37 beginners lessons free. Hat's off to both the Ed Foundation and Scott, you've answered one of my prayers!

Episode Highlights:

2:00- Tricky Bridge and how it came to be

9:48- Tricky Bridge's retention rate with users

11:53- Apple's massive stamp of approval

• Contest - Who is the Apple Editor playing Tricky Bridge???

19:33- Scott's company Forklift Studios

• Meadowlark Bridge - Rodney Ludwig, the AI engine behind Tricky Bridge

21:18- Computer Bridge World Championships

26:03- Idea behind the Bots in Tricky Bridge

31:03- Grant from the ACBL Education Foundation founded the learning portion of the app

33:38- Please advertise the app to any young person interested in learning bridge

43:23- Thanks to BridgeWinners for helping provide feedback on bugs and crashes

48:43- Scott's ideas about the best way to stream bridge

50:03- Scott's acting career

50:46- Yale student, Reese Koppel, is a Tricky Bridge Intern

53:13- Robert Todd from ACBL Foundation

58:08- Double Dummy Film

I first saw Nabil Edggton at the 14th World Youth Team Championships in Taicang. I remember being in the Vugraph room and hearing fellow Aussie (Nabil is from Oz) David Stern say something to the effect of, Andy (Hung, Neil's junior and current partner) likes to bid game and let Nabil play it. It still strikes as the type of compliment on which I would love to be on the receiving end. 

Nabil and I became friends when we teamed up for the Rosenbloom in 2018. We don't talk about it here, but Nabil is a total hunk. He's a good friend and I am pleased to share this conversation with our listeners. 

Highlights from Episode:

1:30- Nabil's thoughts on how to get young people into bridge

6:30- Nabil's potential area of growth in bridge

21:00- Nabil's thoughts on a hand that John played

29:10- John's growth in the skill of moving on after a mistake

32:00- What Nabil thinks is the key to working on improving one's flaws

35:40- Nabil's preparation before a bridge tournament

38:50- What Nabil loves most about John

43:10- Nabil's general life advice

46:10- Nabil's advice on a partnership relationship

52:30- How Nabil tackles the problem of improving as a bridge player

1:05:10- The mental edge that babies have

1:09:40- Why Nabil thinks there is a lot of value in simulations

1:36:20- A story of John teaching Hool

1:44:40- Nabil's thoughts on the problem with society

1:51:10- An area of improvement for John

On March 13th Walt Schafer began organizing bridge games on BridgeBase in response to the global shutdown. Walt continues to organize what has become known as "The Schafer Game," selflessly out of his love for bridge. I got to play with the legendary for Bob Hamman for the first time in Walt's game and we went on to win. Beating Episode 23 guests Finn Kolesnik and Jacob Freeman among others. 

A friendship has developed between the two of us thanks to this podcast conversation and I am delighted to share this conversation with a fine player and fellow bridge lover.

Episode highlights:

2:55- Previously organized bridge games at the exchange

• 8 player
• 7 week schedule
• $5 per imp

7:35- How Walt's directed tournament came to be what it is now

14:45- Walt's Bob Hamman story of a great declarer play which to this day, Walt still does not understand why it was necessary

• Written up in the bulletin
• Took a double dummy software two and a half days to make the same play

19:55- Another Bob Hamman declarer play story

22:20- a Tom Fox story

• Strong club system
• New Orleans
• Walt set up Greco and Hampson

28:40- Baby Levin

31:50- A Spingold story involving Kit Woolsey

• Ed Manfield: "Those are the best 16 boards I've ever been involved in my life"

39:00- Sometimes getting knocked out on the first day of the Spingold is a blessing in disguise

43:45- D22 GNT Qualifiers story

45:55- Junior star Finn Kolesnik

47:45- How Walt learned bridge

51:40- Walt's mentors: John and Bart Bramley

55:25- Bridge players succeed in trading options

1:13:05- Walt's first compound squeeze and how Bart just deflated him

1:15:05- Walt's greatest/favorite played hand where he uses the delayed duck squeeze

• Redouble can be a great psychological weapon

1:26:05- Walt's role in the history of the Helgemo hand

1:30:30- Walt's physic abilities

1:35:50- Walt is a bridge player at heart

• Bridge versus poker in terms of prize money

1:45:30- Walt's invented conventions

• Look out for the Shaferton

1:50:55- Hamman still got it in bridge

1:52:00- Junior bridge

1:59:55- Instant classics

In August of 2012, Tom Carmichael and I spent 12 days together in Taicang, China. Tom as the non-playing captain (NPC) of the USA1 Under 21 team, and me as the executive producer of a documentary film with the working title Lost in the Shuffle. We decided to focus on Tom's team owing to the appeal of the players on it and their chance to win the first ever medal for the US in the Youngsters (Under 21) Series. This conversation is eight years in the making.

As an outside documenter, it's fascinating to hear Tom talk about the dynamics between his fellow NPC's and how they discussed and learned about which teams and players were good. Tom earned silver medals as both a player and NPC in junior bridge and has represented the US in The World Mind Sport Games.

For all of the junior bridge players out there, Tom and Joel Wooldridge's partnership started when they met at the junior reception at a Summer NABC. You never know where you might find your world class partner!

Episode highlights:

1:35- How Tom got into bridge

3:55- Parents met at a bridge club

12:15- How Tom met Joel Wooldridge

14:20 - System development with Joel Wooldridge by mail. Joel became ACBL youngest Life Master in 1990 at the age of 11 years 4 months and 13 days.

18:20- Bridge spans across generations

21:30- Tom believes it is awesome how bridge allows you to compete even against the world best

25:40- Tom's interesting relationships with ACBL Youngest Life Masters

26:50- Atlanta Junior Bridge, Atlanta Super Sectional hosted first ever Youth NABC in 2010

29:20- Tom's memories of the 2012 World Youth Team Championships (the event covered by Double Dummy)

40:15- The competitive pressure and emotions of the game

47:10- Serious Pie Neapolitan pizza in downtown Seattle

48:05- Tom's wife Jenni won the 2016 Reno NABC Mixed Pairs with Greg Humphreys.

50:05- Tom's system with Joel Wooldridge

57:15- Tom's attitude towards Joel's success in bridge

1:00:40- Shireen Mohandes' site http://www.barbu.co.uk/barbu.htm

1:06:45- Tom's history with Atlanta Junior Bridge

1:10:00- Tom's story of kibitzing his team as NPC and how he handles the non-bridge aspects of NPCing

1:20:00- Celebration of Justin Lall's Life

1:25:30- You need to be able to move on from losses

1:31:00- Deal on which Tom won the IMP Pairs + other crazy hands

Not all professional bridge players are world class. I will comfortably posit that Chris Willenken is. Having watched a director ask Chris about a bidding problem at an NABC I've been dumbfounded about how much Chris knows with just a few words introduction. Demand for playing lessons with him has skyrocketed during Covid as bridge players seek to improve their games online.

I love the role Chris' mother played in helping him find this lifelong pursuit. Find out how she and bridge communities in both the Poconos and New York City's initial nurturing helped turn Chris into a top American expert.

Episode highlights

2:45- How Chris started playing bridge through his mother

9:05- The Collegiate School and Manhattan Bridge Club

13:40- Chris' relationship with one of his first partners

16:00- Chris' quotation on Ernest Hemingway to describe how he started his bridge professional career

20:05- Chris' heartbreaking story about losing the Blue Ribbons Pair on the last board

25:20- Chris' story of a funny hand played with Roy Welland

30:20- Chris' story of making it to the semifinals of the Rosenblum with Michael Rosenberg,  Chris's hall of fame bridge partner for five year

38:20- Chris' mindset on all his incredibly close calls in winning major tournaments

41:30- Chris' answer to when he felt he could be considered a great bridge player

47:10- Chris' epic history with parliamentary debate at Williams College

Amanda Amert, Chris's debate partner at Williams.

51:45- Chris' style of bride with his current partner, Jan Jansma

57:15- How Chris views the use of deception in bridge

1:04:50- How Chris decides with his partner their bidding system

1:07:10- Chris' family and quarantine time

1:15:50- Is Chris better than Kalita???

1:18:45- Youth Bridge Association

Jacob Freeman and Finn Kolesnik are 20 and 16 years old respectively. They first proposed the idea of appearing on The Setting Trick, seemingly as a lark, at the 2019 Fall North American Bridge Championships. As the podcast's founder and host, I was delighted that it mattered to them, and amused by being asked during a chance run in on a street corner!

Find out the amazing story about how these two teenagers put together the "amateur" F Kolesnik team, calling on four hall of famers each of whom are more than twice their age.

These two up-and-coming bridge players who have already found much success in the game. Even though they are both still teenagers, they made waves in the bridge world when they recently tied for first place in the inaugural NAOBC Knockout. 

I got the chance to chat with them about both of their backgrounds and how they got into playing bridge. The two young men tell the story of how they became a team. I ask them about their thoughts on the future of Bridge and about their short-term and long-term goals.

After losing the first 30 minutes of our first recording session, Jacob and Finn were generous enough to chat with me for a second time. In this episode, I have put together both interviews so you as a listener can gain all the insight! 

Thanks for listening, and if you like what you hear, give us a review on iTunes. 

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Show Notes:

Bridgewinners thread on Andrew Robson and David Gold bidding to 7 diamonds from 2017 Transnational Teams Playoff

Episode Highlights:

2:25 - How the Kolesnik Team came together

15:55 - Finn's and Jacob's favorite tournament

21:55 - Bob Hamman is a hilarious man

25:00 - Finn's college and future plans

27:50 - Jacob's future plans

34:25 - Finn and Jacob discusses co-championing in the NAOBC KO

42:30 - How Jacob and Finn met

46:05 - What it was like after realizing they tied for first and the celebration afterwards

50:25 - Hamman said sorry when Finn placed fourth in the Life Master Pairs

52:50 - How Finn and Jacob became so good at bridge

56:40 - Finn's partnership with Michael Xu

1:00:10 - How Finn and Jacob work on their partnership

1:01:50 - How they decided to play together in the NAOBC

1:09:10 - Why John made Double Dummy and started this podcast!

1:14:55 - Funny story about Finn's dad superstitious occurrences 

1:15:40 - Finn and Jacob's professional bridge scene

1:20:45 - Finn and Jacob's youth international bridge plans

Phil Clayton is a regular listener. When he recently won the first ever Premier Pairs we decided to invite him to be a guest. Phil wrote this post on Bridgewinners describing his win with his regular partner Andrew Gumperz. The ACBL's ultimate masterpoint reward is Grand Life Master. Unfortunately for Phil, none of his major wins will qualify him for the distinction. Nonetheless, he says the Premier Pairs is his best result to date.

Phil recently moved to Dallas and seems to be greatly enjoying the bridge culture there. Here's a photo of him and Hall of Famer/ Episode 12 guest, Bart Bramley.

0:30 - Phil Clayton's regular partner and home-grown system

2:40 - what it was like winning the pairs

5:15 - Even a bad session led to a win

7:00 - Phil's environment as a junior player

10:05 - bidding problem and funny system win

15:00 - defensive problem

20:55 - Phil's advice on defensive signaling

30:10 - Phil's prediction on future National events

37:45 - Playing with Hamman

13 pages of notes after 90 minutes of discussion

44:35 - How Phil got back to Bridge after his hiatus

48:30 - Mountain biking with Chris Compton

• "Over the falls"

56:05 - Finalist for ACBL CEO Job

1:11:40 - Nerve wracking nature of barometer scoring

1:16:35 - Bidding problem 

Jack Zhao is a two time world champion in pairs and one of the funniest men in the bridge world. While this is an audio program, when Jack laughs wholeheartedly, it looks like his face is going to explode. I've had the pleasure of partnering Jack for a week long regional tournament and visited him in his home city of Tianjin, China.

In this conversation we discuss Jack's improbable journey to living in America, learning bridge as a teenager and the importance of Jack being welcomed into the bridge scene in Rotterdam. In spite of his team missing the first six boards of the semifinal, Jack won the 2017 Reisinger. In 2006, he won the Vanderbilt as the 44th seed, and the World Pairs, partnering Fu Zhong in both events. He won the World Mixed Pairs in 2014 with Kerri Sanborn.

Jack's ultimate bridge goal is to win a major world team championship, preferably the Bermuda Bowl. In spite of having been asked, he is not yet eligible for senior events.

Highlights from Episode:

1:25- The Edge - "It was like someone lit the touch paper on this bomb. I had never seen anything like it. It was like a switch went on." From It Might Get Loud when he saw the Jam on Top of the Pops.

2:30- Introduced to bridge by a casual player

11:50- 50% slams

14:12- Bridge in Rotterdam

15:25- The importance of bridge books

• Kelsey

16:46- Bridge bible, Better Bridge with Bergen

• Carried it everywhere with him

19:18- Most helpful was Terrence Reese over my shoulder

23:49- Playing with 1966 World Pairs champion Hans Kreijhns

• One club four cards, one diamond four cards, one heart four cards
• Underled ace of diamonds
• • Only lead to beat the contract

29:40- Jack's lifetime hero, Barry Westra, always curious about what Jack was thinking

36:35- Exams at Erasmus University

39:28- Playing with Fu

43:14- 2nd in Transnational teams

44:25- "Easy" last day of Bermuda Bowl Round Robin

47:19- Dream for all bridge players

52:11- Bridge does not require a lot of calculations

53:54- Reaction when he underled ace of diamonds

• He can still see his p's face

56:16- Top players in Netherlands were open to Jack

1:02:00- How Jack learned about Michael Rosenberg

• He was the guy who could make THOSE hands

1:04:27- Opponents cards

1:13:08- Winning Vandy as 44th seed

1:16:24- A grand slam in diamonds

1:19:30- Winning the Reisinger 

1:30:32- Better than Kalita?

Kim Frazer is an Olympian, three time Commonwealth Games gold medalist in rifle shooting and author of Gaining the Mental Edge at Bridge. Seeking a hobby in retirement, Kim took up bridge in 2005 and in 2018 made the Australian women's team in her first attempt.

In this episode Kim shares how the mental techniques that brought her such success in shooting are just as applicable in bridge. Kim discusses the path she took in writing her book and explains with simple practices how to improve one's mental bridge game. Kim is rigorous about improving hers. 

When she encounters a new card combination, she makes sure to look it up in the ACBL Encyclopedia. Her diligence is contagious. Playing in a BBO speedball a few days after we spoke, I encountered AQ762 opposite J954 and wondered, hmm, I wonder if there is more to this combination than I know. (Encyclopedia still in storage)

I played two slams in the same speedball which required careful play and handling. I noticed myself thinking I don't know how to play slams well. Thanks to having talked to Kim, I was able to acknowledge this negative self concept and notice how it didn't serve me. I went on to make both contracts. Thanks Kim!

I echo what Ron Klinger shared in the introduction, "I would just like to bar all of my regular opponents from reading this book."

Here's the fantastic photo of Kim from her shooting days mentioned in the outro. 

Highlights from this episode:

19:00 Dont give yourself an excuse to fail

26:24 Ron Klinger's way of writing a forward

43:19 How Kim credits her partner's mental toughness for her first Commonwealth Games Gold Medal

49:47 How Kim thinks about affirmations

1:1:14 Studying card combinations

1:02:34 Shooting results versus bridge results

1:05:15 BLOW

1:06:15 How Kim's partner looks at the dummy as declarer

1:08:09 Kim's method for tracking the bridge if live bridge ever returns

1:14:36 Kim's bridge goals

1:18:27 Kim's cue word

1:22:01 How she started writing bridge articles

1:24:08 Does Kim hunt?

1:25:10 Better than Kalita?

1:26:59 Why she wrote the book