Michael Steven Lawrence (born May 28, 1940)According to the State of California ( CA Birth Index). A
Family Tree Legends
Retrieved 2009-07-02. is an American

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

player, teacher, theorist, and prolific writer.

Biography

Lawrence was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. He started playing bridge while he was a

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

student at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

; as result of a self-inflicted hand injury, he had to postpone the final exams and started playing bridge as a pastime. Bridge became his major interest and he devoted his subsequent life to it. In 1968, he was invited by Ira Corn to join the newly formed Dallas Aces team. He formed a partnership with Bobby Goldman, with whom he played a 2/1 game forcing system. They started by winning several

North American Bridge Championships North American Bridge Championships (NABC) are three annual bridge tournaments sponsored by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). The "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall" NABCs are usually scheduled in March, July, and November for about eleven da ...

and, after a long Italian Blue Team reign, returned the world crown to America by winning the

Bermuda Bowl The Bermuda Bowl is a biennial contract bridge world championship for national . It is contested every odd-numbered year under the auspices of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), alongside the Venice Cup (women), the d'Orsi Senior Bowl and the Wuh ...

s in 1970 and 1971. Lawrence and

James Jacoby James Oswald Jacoby (April 4, 1933 – February 8, 1991) was an American bridge player and writer. He played as Jim Jacoby but he wrote books as James and for many years co-wrote a syndicated bridge column with his father as "Jacoby on Bridge" by ...

left the Aces in 1973. Under Ira Corn's mentorship, Lawrence started teaching bridge and subsequently writing books. He has written more than thirty books. He received numerous book-of-the-year awards starting with his first book, ''How to Read Your Opponents' Cards''. He contributed to the theory of 2/1 game forcing systems, and his "2/1 semi-forcing" approach competes with

Max Hardy Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

's "unconditional forcing" approach. Together, they wrote the book ''Standard Bridge Bidding for the 21st Century'' in 2000. He also helped develop educational bridge software with

Fred Gitelman Frederick "Fred" Gitelman (born February 6, 1965) is a Canadian-American bridge player, developer of bridge software, and a founder of the online bridge platform Bridge Base Online. Biography Gitelman has won one world championship, nine North A ...

. In addition to his world championships with the Aces, Lawrence has won another Bermuda Bowl in 1987 in partnership with Hugh Ross along with teammates

Hamman Hamman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adalbert Hamman (1910–2000), French Franciscan priest * Bob Hamman (born 1938), American professional bridge player * Edouard Hamman (1819–1888), Belgian painter * Jared Hamman ...

Wolff Wolff is a variant of the Wolf surname which is derived from the baptismal names Wolfgang or Wolfram. List of people surnamed Wolff A * Albert Wolff (disambiguation), several people * Alex Wolff, American actor * Alexander Wolff, American writ ...

Martel Martel may refer to: People * Andre Martel (1946–2016), American politician and businessman * Anne-Marie Martel (1644–1673), founder of what is now the Congrégation des Sœurs de l’Enfant-Jésus. * James B. Aguayo-Martel, ophthalmologist ...

, and Stansby.

Bridge accomplishments

Awards

Herman Trophy The Goren Trophy (formerly the Herman Trophy) is awarded to the player who wins the greatest number of masterpoints at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). History The Herman Trophy was do ...

(1) 1965

Wins

(3) 1970, 1971, 1987 *

(16) **

von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs The Von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). Usually called simply the "Life Master Pairs" or "LM Pairs", this is a six-ses ...

(1) 1984 **

Wernher Open Pairs The Wernher Open Pairs national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). Typically starting on the Tuesday of the NABC, the Wernher Open Pairs is a four session ma ...

(1) 1984 **

Grand National Teams The Grand National Teams (GNT) North American bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Grand National Teams is a team knockout event. The event is broken into ...

(1) 1987 ** Vanderbilt (5) 1967, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1985 **

Mitchell Board-a-Match Teams The Mitchell Board-a-Match Teams national bridge championship is held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championships, North American Bridge Championship (NABC). It is an open four session board-a-match event ...

(2) 1964, 1968 **

Chicago Mixed Board-a-Match The Mixed Board-a-Match Teams is a bridge competition held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). From 2010 the event is officially the Freeman Mixed Board-a-Match Teams, as it is contested ...

(1) 1992 **

Reisinger The Reisinger national bridge championship is held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Reisinger is a board-a-match event. History The event is contested for the Reisinger Trophy ( ...

(4) 1965, 1970, 1977, 1980 **

Spingold The Spingold national bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Spingold is a knock-out team event that attracts the top contract bridge players in the world. T ...

(1) 1969

Runners-up

(2) 1973, 1989 *

Blue Ribbon Pairs The Edgar Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs (or simply the Blue Ribbon Pairs) is a national bridge championship held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The event is restricted to those that have wo ...

(4) 1965, 1968, 1971, 1983 **

Nail Life Master Open Pairs The Nail Life Master Open Pairs is a North American bridge championship held at the fall American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The championship is a Matchpoints pairs event restricted to players with a ...

(1) 1978 **

Jacoby Open Swiss Teams The Jacoby Open Swiss Teams national bridge championship is held at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Jacoby Open Swiss Teams is a four session Swiss Teams event with two qualifying ...

(1) 1994 ** Vanderbilt (1) 1970 **

Keohane North American Swiss Teams The Keohane North American Swiss Teams bridge championship is held at the fall American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. I ...

(1) 1996 **

(1) 1969 **

(1) 1983 **

(4) 1970, 1976, 1980, 1985

Publications

Dates indicate first and most recent publication. * ''How to Read Your Opponent's Cards'' (1974, 1986) * ''Introduction to Contract Bridge and Point Count Bidding'' (with Gerald Fox, 1975) * ''Judgment at Bridge'' (1976, 1986) * ''The Complete Book on Overcalls in Contract Bridge'' (1979, 2009) * ''True Bridge Humor'' (1980) * ''The Complete Book on Balancing in Contract Bridge'' (1981, 1993) * ''Dynamic Defense'' (1982) * ''Play a Swiss Teams of Four with Mike Lawrence'' (1982, 1993) * ''The Complete Book on Hand Evaluation in Contract Bridge'' (1983, 1993) * ''The Jacoby and Texas Transfers Convention'' (1983) * ''The Lebensohl Convention'' (1983) * ''Major Suit Raises'' (1983) * ''Partnership Understandings'' (1983, 1990) * ''Play Bridge with Mike Lawrence'' (1983) * ''Winning Bridge Intangibles'' (1985), Lawrence and Keith Hanson * ''Falsecards'' (1986, 2003) * ''Mike Lawrence's Workbook on the Two Over One System'' (1987, 1993) * ''The Ultimate Guide to Winning Scrabble Brand Crossword Game'' (1987) (with John Ozag) * ''How to Play Card Combinations'' (1988) * ''The Complete Guide to Passed Hand Bidding'' (1989) * ''Mike Lawrences's Bidding Quizzes Volume 1: the Uncontested Auction'' (1990) * ''Topics on Bridge'' - Series 1-30 (1990, 1992) * ''The Complete Guide to Contested Auctions'' (1992) * ''The Complete Book on Takeout Doubles'' (1994) * ''Disturbing Opponents No Trump'' (1995) * ''Mike Lawrence's Opening Leads'' (1996) * ''Opening Leads for Acol Players'' (with Ron Klinger, 1997) * ''Double! New Meanings for an Old Bid'' (2002) * ''I Fought the Law of Total Tricks'' (2004), Lawrence and Anders Wirgen * ''Mike Lawrence Bridge Tips: Tips on Bidding'' (2015) * ''Mike Lawrence Bridge Tips: Tips on Cardplay'' (2015) * ''Mike Lawrence Bridge Tips: Tips on Competitive Bidding'' (2015) * ''Insights on Bridge: Book 1, Moments in Bidding'' (2019) * ''Insights on Bridge: Book 2, Bid, Play, and Defend'' (2020) * ''Insights on Bridge: Book 3, Bid, Play, and Defend'' (2022)

References

External links

* *
Interview by Bridge Bum

at Bridge Guys * – as of October 2014, the text fits another Mike Lawrence ompare LCCN belowwhom "Browse this term" credits with the works of both {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Mike 1940 births American contract bridge players Bermuda Bowl players Contract bridge writers Living people People from San Francisco University of California, Berkeley alumni