Winning Strategies Workshop: Matchpoints, Lunch & Bridge Game

Matchpoint Strategy, with Andy Stark

There are a few different scoring methods in bridge: MPs, IMPs, Rubber, and Chicago, to name four. The most popular one, the one you play at the TEBC, is called matchpoints (MPs). There is a strategy of how to bid and play your cards that leads to higher matchpoint percentage scores. In this workshop, delivered by Andy Stark, you too can learn some of these timeworn matchpoint tactics.

Of note, some of the matchpoint tactics we’ll study in the workshop are 1) opening light in third seat; 2) pre-empting; 3) bidding for the lead; 4) taking advantage of the vulnerability; and 5) choosing when to declare in notrump instead of a suit contract.

About the instructor…

Andy got his first bridge lesson at the age of 11. He was asked to be the fourth when one of his grandparents didn’t feel like playing. But the bridge bug didn’t really take hold until after Andy finished university in 1988. That’s when he devoured a textbook written by Audrey Grant in two days--he then asked his mom play at a local duplicate game in Mississauga. From there, Andy was hooked. He has written three books: two co-written with Barbara Seagram on transfers over 1NT, and one by himself called The Weak Notrump which discusses how to play a 1NT opening of 12-14 points. Andy is the editor of the Kibitzer, Ontario’s bridge quarterly, which is free for all, and posted on the Unit 166 website. (Laurie Miller is on the cover of the most recent issue!)

Andy has represented Canada both as a player and as a non-playing captain for three national bridge teams, most recently for a team of junior players in Wroclaw, Poland.

When not playing, thinking, and teaching bridge, Andy teaches Communications courses at George Brown Polytechnic. He has a wife, two sons, (17 and 14) and a Goldendoodle named Chica. None of them play bridge, but Chica is the most interested

Event venue & nearby stays

St. Nicholas Birch Cliff Anglican Church, 1512 Kingston Road, Toronto, Canada

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