Canadian Hall of Fame
Inducing Bill Anderson
By John Carruthers

Here is a deal played by Bill Anderson and reported over 60 years ago in the Goren syndicated column.

Oswald Jacoby - at the time the youngest-ever American to become an actuary - once declared about Bill Anderson: "0I used to claim I was the best actuary among bridge players but quickly abandoned that claim after meeting Bill Anderson, after which I claimed only to be the best bridge player among actuaries."

Anderson was a successful player, Life Master No. 357, playing with his wife, Marjorie, most of the time, and winning a North American Bridge Championship (NABC) with her.

Here is Bill in action on a deal reported in the Goren syndicated bridge column: "The 4-3-2-1 point count was introduced by Bryant McCampbell in 1915 and publicized by Milton Work in his many writings. However, it was used almost only for notrump bidding. It was not until a Toronto actuary, William Anderson, developed the distributional count in the 40s that point count swept the bridge world. "Besides his fascination with the mathematical aspects of bridge, Anderson was an accomplished player. He held the West cards on today's hand…"

Anderson led the ♠Q, won in the dummy. Declarer led a club with the view to obtaining ruffs in the dummy, and ducked it to West’s 10.

Anderson found the only continuation to sink the contract: the ♦K.

Declarer won the ace, but now a club ruff would bring West's trump jack back into play and no club ruff would result in two more club losers.

Just as Milton Work popularized the 4-3-2-1 count developed by Bryant McCampbell, Goren popularized Anderson's 3-2-1 count.

"Point Count Bidding in Contract Bridge" was a runaway bestseller, eventually selling more than 3 million copies. There were 12 reprintings in its first five years and it was translated into many languages. William Anderson belongs with the most-influential figures in the game, alongside Work, Culbertson and Goren.

How to Play:

There is a Chinese saying:
'An image is worth 1000 words!'

You may want to take the
Online Player Guided Tour

1 - Bidding: Click the 'Play' button in the middle of the page to display the bidding box.

When you are ready, click the 'Start Bidding' button.

When a bid is alerted, it is shown on a yellow background. You can then click that bid to display the related alert.

When there is a comment or a question about your own bid, you can read it on the bidding box comments pane, and then, click the 'Ok' button to continue bidding.

Click 'Close Bidding Box' to proceed to playing the hand.

2 - Playing: The lead is automatic if you are declarer, otherwise you'll see the 'It's your lead' warning in the center pane.

You will play your cards and dummy's as if you were at a live table.

2.1 -Touching cards are considered equivalent! e.g. if you have 876 and you play the 7 while Vu-Bridge expects you to play the 6, then the 7 will blink and the 6 will be played.

2.2 -Sometimes there will be a comment or question during the play.
You should read it and click the 'Click to continue' button at the top of the comment text.

If its a question, there will be a 'Show Answer' button to click at the bottom of the comment panel.

2.3 - When a comment bears a 'Finish flag' button, you can click it to reveal hidden hands and continue playing. We use this to explain technical coups like end-plays, squeezes etc.

2.4 - You can review the last trick by clicking on the last won or lost trick (back of card) at the bottom of the screen. The last trick will show during 3 seconds and then play will continue.

2.5 - You can click the 'Undo last trick' button at the left of the screen in order to redo one or several tricks and review the attached comments.
You can review the auction by clicking the 'Auction' tab in the same area.
3 - Moving the comment panel:

When the mouse hovers the dark green background of the bidding box or the comment panel, you'll see a crosshair cursor and you can drag and move it around the page.

The left and right arrows on the top left corner of the comment panel allows you to increase or reduce the width for better readability.

4 - When a hand is finished, you can click the 'Board List' at the top of the comment panel, and play other hands From the same Series.

To play other Series, visit the Vu-Bridge's home page and click the 'Bridge Hands' button.