Competitive bidding is of course a huge subject. A significant proportion of the boards we play involve competitive bidding. So we ought to know what we’re about without needing a seminar to tell us what to do. So why are you here tonight? Perhaps because you don’t always get it right.
	Note that we’re talking exclusively about pairs, match-pointed pairs that is. The thinking behind competitive bidding in pairs is quite different to that which applies to other forms of bridge such as teams or rubber bridge. As a result, actions recommended in a pairs event would be quite wrong elsewhere.
	I’ve extracted tonight’s material from the book Competitive Bidding at Pairs, written by former Burnham member Peter Hall. Peter presented a series of seminars at SBBC many years ago, and his book was distilled from this material. Many Club members developed their game under Peter’s guidance, and there are still one or two of us left.
	I was wondering just what I could usefully extract for a single seminar, while producing something that would be helpful at the table. We don’t have time to study a book every time we find ourselves involved in competitive bidding, so I’m going to develop just one theme – How are we doing?
	This is the question we need to ask ourselves every time we’re contemplating some kind competitive action.