Michael is one of a kind, an eclectic genius, regarded as one of the best Rubber Bridge players in the world. Michael has played for Australia and won major events in both Australia and New Zealand.
Michael’s Spanish grandfather was a very strong player of Solo-Whist, Auction Bridge and Contract Bridge. His parents were both good bridge players and made occasional efforts to teach the game to their children. Although Michael’s sister Jill took up bridge, Michael played chess.
In 1976 a group of seventeen year old chess players in Perth switched to playing bridge. The chess background meant that they all began knowing two very valuable things: read the books and study endings.
It was a tough group to learn in and was helped by Leiv Bornecrantz, one of Western Australia’s best players. Michael played a lot, read a lot, moved to Sydney and played rubber bridge. In the early days, Paul Lavings wasn’t convinced that Michael had a future in bridge and secretly enrolled Michael at Sydney University. Although Michael only stayed at the Uni for a year, he remains very grateful for Paul’s efforts.
What is Michael’s Style of Bridge? An outrageous over bidder as a young player he isn’t a believer in the popular 4-3-2-1 point count and his interest in bridge, logic, jokes and plots is motivated by the paradoxical way all the rules fail when space or time gets short.
