JACK: Welcome. We're Jack and Jane Bowling. I'm a retired civil engineer, she's a retired school nurse, and we have been playing bridge together since the winter of 1959, when we were students in Columbus and needed a fourth and a fifth for the same table. We married that June. We have been arguing about the bidding ever since.

JANE: We have not been arguing. I have been explaining.

JACK: Two years ago we sold the house in Ohio and moved to Tucson, where it does not snow and where there is a bridge club ten minutes away with a game every afternoon. We play duplicate there three afternoons a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In the evenings we play on OKbridge, on two computers at opposite ends of the house.

JANE: So we can't see each other's faces when the other one leads the wrong card.

JACK: That was her idea.

JANE: It was a good idea. Our grandson set up the computers, and this page, and he made us promise to put up a hand every month. So here we are.

JANE: A convention card is the sheet every pair fills out and puts on the table, so the opponents know what your bids mean. Ours is plain, and we like it that way. If you sit down against us, this is what you'll find.

♥ Standard American. Our basic system. You need five cards in a major suit to open it one of a major. A one-club or one-diamond opening can be shorter. Two clubs is our only strong, forcing opening; it says nothing about clubs.

♥ One notrump: 15 to 17. A balanced hand, no singletons and no voids, and 15 to 17 high-card points.

JACK: Not 14 and a half. Not "a good 14." I say this for my own benefit.

♠ Stayman. After partner opens one notrump, two clubs asks, "Do you have a four-card major?" Partner answers two diamonds for no, two hearts with hearts, or two spades with spades. With both majors we bid hearts first. It's how you find a 4-4 fit in a major, which usually plays better than notrump.

♠ Jacoby transfers. After one notrump, two diamonds shows five or more hearts and two hearts shows five or more spades. The notrump bidder "accepts" by bidding the suit just above, the one partner actually has. The point is that the strong hand, the notrump hand, ends up declarer, so the opening lead comes into it instead of through it, and the strong hand stays hidden.

JANE: Jack resisted transfers until 1982. He now says they were his idea.

♦ Blackwood. Four notrump asks partner how many aces. Five clubs shows none or all four, five diamonds one, five hearts two, five spades three. Then five notrump asks for kings the same way. We tried Roman Key Card Blackwood for a year and went back. Plain Blackwood has never once made us late for supper.

♦ Weak two-bids. An opening bid of two diamonds, two hearts or two spades shows a good six-card suit and not much else, about 6 to 10 points. It's a nuisance bid. It takes away the opponents' bidding room, and the opponents hate it, which is half the reason to do it.

♣ Negative doubles. When partner opens and the next player overcalls, a double from me is not for penalty. It says, "I have some values, and I have the major you haven't heard about." If Jane opens one diamond and they overcall one spade, my double promises four hearts. We play them through two spades.

JACK: That's the card. If you're new to duplicate, this is all you need to start, and some of the best players at our club play nothing fancier.

JANE: People ask us all the time how we've stayed married and stayed partners. Many couples can't do both. We've seen good marriages ended at the bridge table, nearly. So we wrote down our rules.

1. No post-mortems in the car. What happens at the club stays at the club until we're home and have had something to eat. (JANE)

2. Each of us gets one "Oh, partner" per session. Use it wisely. (JACK)

3. The convention card is the law. If it's not on the card, we don't play it, no matter how clever it seemed in the middle of the auction. (JANE)

4. Never apologize at the table. Nod. The opponents don't need to know, and partner already does. (JACK)

5. Praise in public, explain in private. (JANE)

6. Nobody keeps score of mistakes. (JACK) (JANE: He keeps score of mistakes.)

7. When we disagree about a hand, we ask someone better. And then we both accept the answer, even when it's the other one who was right. (JACK)

8. It's a game. We've played forty years together, and we hope to play twenty more. No single board is worth a cross word over supper. (BOTH)