New Zealand is the westernmost corner of the Polynesian triangle with Hawaii on top and Easter Island anchoring the east. Incredibly large portions of the north and south islands are uninhabited, with preserved glacier formations, breathtaking mountains and sky-blue waters, making the commonwealth monarchy perhaps the last friendly frontier on earth.

Even among New Zealand communities, Queenstown qualifies as an earthly paradise. A community of 15,000, it borders the bright blue waters of Lake Wakatipu and faces an unspoiled mountain range known as The Remarkables. Queenstown is especially angelic in the New Zealand summer (January = July), when the sun shines as late as 10:30 p.m.

As guests in the modern, black-white-and-red-themed, mountainside home of Chilmark residents Julie and Miles Jaffe, my wife and I enjoyed dinner with them and their interesting friends, hiking and a visit to a sheep station. In another highlight, we got a bridge lesson from Ernie Sutton, a retired expert on U.S. and foreign taxation of U.S. expatriates.

While teaching us the ACOL bidding system used by many Kiwis, Sutton showed a sophisticated understanding of losing-trick counts and vulnerability. He received these cards as North, with South dealing:

10 5

A K J 10 6 4 2

9 3

8 4

The bidding proceeded as follows:

South West North East

1 Pass 1 Pass

1NT Pass ?

What would you bid?

I think most of us would bid 3 to invite game. Not Sutton. “Bid 4,” said he. “You have seven losers. Count on partner for seven losers, which is typical for an opening bid. Now add your seven to partner’s seven, making 14, and subtract the result from 18. The answer is four. That’s the level you should be at.”

In the U.S., experts would subtract 14 from 24, the result of 10 matching the number of tricks you should contract for. By either system, you should bid 4. Mine is not to wonder why these formulas work; mine is but to use them or go down.

I later held these cards:

8 7 6

K Q J 6 5 4

A 9

7 4

As dealer I opened 2 at the top of a 5-10 point, weak two-bid. Sutton said he’d open 1, and not just because the ACOL system plays 5-9 HCP weak two-bids. His reason: seven losers. That’s not to say that he’d open ANY seven-loser hand, but this one was especially strong.

In terms of 7 + 7 = game, Sutton cautioned that the formula applies only when there’s a fit or an independent suit. A good definition of independent is a suit in which the total number of cards plus honors equals at least 10. The heart suit in the first hand cited above would qualify — 7 cards + 4 honors — even if partner had no hearts.

On another hand I was dealt:

K J 10 8 3

A Q 9

J 2

Q 6 2

My right-hand opponent opened 1NT (11-14 HCP), passed out. I liked sitting behind RHO’s strength and playing defense. Nonetheless, Sutton said he’d have bid 2 nonvulnerable. Not everyone would agree, but you could see an inventive, adaptive bridge mind at work.

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The Bridge Club of Martha’s Vineyard will hold its inaugural 2012 game on Saturday, June 23 at the Tisbury Council on Aging, 345 Pine Tree Road. Registration and coffee starts at 9 a.m. and competition at 9:30. Martha’s Vineyard Bridge Club games are held at the Old Stone Church, at the corner of Church and Williams streets in Vineyard Haven, Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. Island Bridge Club games are played at Howes House in West Tisbury Thursday nights at 7.