How did you get started in bridge? At what age? Who from?
I always enjoyed trick taking card games but had never heard of Bridge prior to moving to Australia. The first couple of years were pretty tough in a new country, and when I found a flier in my mailbox that promised to teach a super smart card game – four teaching evenings, plus four practice sessions, plus a book, plus membership – I thought ‘what a deal, just awesome’. Little did I know how much this would change my life, and/or how much money it would eventually cost me. 😊
What do (did) you do professionally?
I used to have a pretty intense career, being the Chief Information Officer for a few international corporations. I was a workaholic who had no time for bridge for 13 years!!
These days I have shifted to sitting on boards, and I am doing a lot of pro bono work for bridge. I am on the ABF board, member of the MyABF steering committee, and chair of the Bridge NSW People + Governance committee.
Who is your partner and for how long? Longest partnership?
Since my return to the bridge world (Susan Humphries dragged me out of retirement) I have been playing mainly with Maurits van der Vlugt and Jodi Tutty. I guess I am very lucky as these are pretty solid partnerships and all parties are committed to working continuously on improving. Before my 13 year Bridge hiatus I was lucky to attract the attention of the great Margie Bourke, who took me under her wing.
If you had a choice who would you like to play with? Australia and Internationally- living or dead?
Good question, yet I have no answer for that. I always like to experiment, and would always entertain interesting opportunities, but don’t really have a hankering for one specific player.
In your playing career, what is the bridge success that has the most meaning for you?
Winning the 2024 Mixed playoffs and representing Australia in Buenos Aires. Yes, I got to represent Australia a number of times in the noughties when playing with Margie Bourke, but that was at a time where my mind was very occupied with my work career and I felt I was just pulling cards. Now I really love getting into the science, technique, table presence and competitive spirit. It simply is a much more conscious experience and I have more ambition.
And your worst moment in bridge?
Mmmmh. There are many hands that keep you awake later, particularly when you have to think ‘what posessed you to go for such a nonsensical play? why did your brain misfire that badly? what was your plan?’ but those are boring hands and we all experience them. A hand that I remember quite fondly though was early on in my bridge life. I was sooo green: Playing with Margie Bourke at an American National in San Francisco, we sat down in a BAM teams event against Daniela von Arnim and Sabine Auken: Daniela opened in front of me 1H (they played transfer openings), I had a big hand with hearts but did not know what to do and passed, Sabine Auken with a yarborough passed quickly, and Margie in passout seat with a normal opening with hearts passed as well. Daniela played 1H undoubled making barely a trick, yet we won the BAM contest because at the other table their teamies went to a Heart slam that went one off. Doh!!
What do you do between sessions to put you in the best frame of mind for the following session?
I kind of just want to be alone and relax. Lie down, maybe read system notes to focus.
Do you have a favourite and least favourite convention?
The Justin Lall bidding system for 1N responses (eg 3C is GF and asking for a 5 card major etc). It opens up so many response options while concealing opener’s shape, other than point count. I don’t like Gerber, Kickback and similar. My personal Waterloo is Lebensohl. I think it is great, and I would not want to do without it, yet I regularly stuff it up. And I do not know why.
Would you prefer to have more system or less?
I prefer natural systems with lots of agreements, guiding principles and themes that repeat themselves. I am somebody that has to reread system again and again. That means I can forget and then it is really useful to be able to figure out what a bid should mean because in a different situation it would have that interpretation.
What do you do to improve your game?
Lots of Cuebids, Bridgemaster, reading books, and actually simply trying to play a lot.
Favourite bridge book?
One of those favourite questions – I know if I like a book once I have read it. Do I like the style, would I go back to it? There is typically not one author that I prefer over another. Victor Mollo stuff is highly entertaining, and of course his Card Play Technique book was the first I reread when I returned to Bridge.
What interests or hobbies do you have besides bridge?
You mean is there any time and space left? I guess travelling, good food and good wine 😊.
What is the number one thing that bridge has done for you as a person and for your life?
Never ending stimulation and a way of life. Now that I have more time to travel, it is not only a very competitive past time but it provides international social life that would otherwise not be possible.
Bridge Results and Awards
I differentiate between my first bridge life in the late nineties till 2008, and my second bridge life starting again 2021. A few first-place finishes in recent years: 2022 Australian Swiss Pairs (with Maurits van der Vlugt), 2024 National Womens Teams (with Jodi Tutty), 2024 ANC Teams (playing with Maurits for NSW), and the 2024 ANC Mixed Pairs (with Maurits again).
National Titles
In the noughties I was a member of the Bourke team and typically we won everything in sight, unless we came ‘only’ second. Quite a few memorable titles but I would need to dig into the archives.
State Representation
I originally never competed on state level, all my non-working time being consumed with national and international representation. Only now I have started competing in Interstate Teams. This year I represented NSW for the first time and made the winning 2024 ANC Open team (with Maurits, Nunn-Dalley and Milne-Coutts)
International Representation
International representation gigs I remember from the noughties: Seoul/Korea, Shanghai/China, Bandung/Indonesia.
And now the Australian Mixed team 2024. On my way to Buenos Aires as we speak…
