Welcome to Newbury Bridge Club

Well we have gone past the summer solstice so it is all downhill and going darker at both ends of the day. However, we still have bridge. To carry on from May and hand evaluation I will talk about honour combinations.

As you know it is always better to have honour combinations in combination ie supporting each other rather than in isolation. Should you only have a king or Queen and partner only has three small:

With combination (a) you have a 50% chance of making a trick with the KS plus a 25% chance of a trick in hearts. If North holds A Spades you may make no trick at all.

Combination (b) guarantess you one spade trick and, if south hold A Spades you should be able to make two tricks by leading towards the honours twice. Similarly, an ace in one suit and a queen in another guarantees one trick but offers only a slim chance of a second. Put the ace and queen in the same suit and you can lead up towards the queen and have a 50-50 chance of a second trick, simply requiring the king to be onside.

Answer next time or talk to me at the Club about it – now I will know if anyone reads this ………………

May I remind you all how important it is to do a re-opening double, for instance, take last night our last league match – It went pass from my partner (SS) pass from opposition and I opened I spade (playing a 5 card spade suit). The opposition bid 2 clubs directly over me. SS passed and opponents partner passed so back to me.

My hand was AKQxx (spades) Q98x (hearts) Kxx (diamonds) X (club). I have a perfectly good 2 heart call from hand, however, I decided a re-opening double was more useful and (SS) may have clubs.

The 2 clubs hand passed, (SS) passed, and the silent west now bid 2 no trumps. I passed (I have bid my hand) and (SS) doubled. (penalties). It was then passed out.

We were non-vulnerable and they were vulnerable. It was minus 1100. A really valuable score in teams and this Virtually won us the match.

(SS) hand Spades xx Hearts K6x diamonds J98 clubs KQ10 7 x 2
Club overcall hand was : Spades xx hearts J10 diamonds Kxx clubs A J 8 xxx
Her partners hand was spades J 10 xx hearts A 7xx diamonds Q 9 xx clubs 9

Vulnerable I do not consider the 2 club call with 9points a good overcall. It really needs another couple of points at least. I would recommend in that position, ie a passed partner, an opening hand to overcall vulnerable.

There are times when playing duplicate bridge when we feel the opposition Has done something which is against the rules. Should this happen DO NOT Take the matter into your own hands and talk to the opposition about it. Please just call the Director and explain the facts to him/her. The Decision Will then be made by the Director who will explain why. Discussing it Between yourselves should NOT BE DONE.

In my opinion each example is a little bit stronger than the one before it. Hand 1 a balanced hand 4333 with only one four card suit in a minor and No ruffing value. Hand 2 has two possible sources of a length trick with two suits for which You have four card support and, if one of those suits becomes trumps, you also have a ruffing value. Hand 3 only has one possible source of length tricks but you can produce two extra tricks in diamonds. Should you have to support with a three card suit you have ruffing value as compensation.

These hands are identical except that the suits have been swapped around. Should you play in a no trump contract these three hands have the same Strength and weaknesses. One purpose of bidding is to search for a trump Fit and we would all rather have that fit in a major rather than a minor So we get a better score for the same number of tricks, and a game in a Major is much easier than in a minor. Therefore, we would look with Slightly more favour at hand 3 above than on hand 2 and hand 2 before Hand 1.

I think there is still a little confusion when or when not to ask reviews, questions and explanations so I trust the following will finally clear this up:

After having played a card, Declarer or either Defender may ask only what the contract is and whether (but not by whom) it was doubled or redoubled.

1 before the opening lead is faced
2 at his /her turn to play throughout the play of the hand

SPLINTER BIDS This is a convention and is undoubtedly one of the most popular today. The Responder usually makes it but it can also be an option for the opening bidder. It shows a shortage (singleton or void) in the suit bid, four card support for partners suit and at LEAST the values for game.

for eg

1. north 1 spade

south with Spades KQ73 Hearts AK4 Diamonds Q8532 Clubs 6

south bids 4 clubs

2.north bids 1 heart

and south holds Spades AQ84 Hearts K1075 Diamonds 8 Clubs AJ73

This time south shows his hand by splintering and bidding 4 diamonds Partner can either cue bid after that or go into blackwood, if stronger than an ordinary opening hand.

One or two BRIDGE ETIQUETTE pointers

turn off your mobile
greet new opponents as they arrive at your tabl
eexplain your system clearly and simply answer any questions clearly
DO NOT ASK WHAT A BID MEANS UNLESS you are intending to bid
ask any questions when the auction has finished.
DO NOT put bidding cards away until initial lead has been made
when you are making the initial lead play your card BEFORE you write down the contract
when making a claim explain your intended line of play clearly
when the hand has been complete north fills in traveller and east confirms it is correct
DO NOT hold long post mortems uless you are CLEARLY well ahead of the other tables
DO NOT touch other players cards
north handles the boards
thank you opponents at the end of the round

Tis the Season to be jolly or so they say – look at this little number from a bridge night the other evening:

West opened a pre-emptive 3spades in front of me and I bid 4 hearts over it. All are vulnerable and East then bid 4 spades over my 4 hearts. You hold:

November 2007TERMEDIATE CARDS

INTERMEDIATE CARDS SUCH AS NINES AND TENS CAN ADD SIGNIFICANTLY TO THE PLAYING POTENTIAL OF A HAND, PARTICULARLY IF THEY ARE BACKING-UP ONE OR MORE HIGHER HONOURS. To take one very obvious example, imagine that you want to establish tricks in a suit where you hold three low cards opposite AJ32, then imagine having AJ109 instead. Both holdings come in at 5 HCP in the basic count but the latter one will provide three tricks a full three-quarters of the time while the former does not even offer a guarantee of two tricks, though three are possible if the suit breaks 3-3 and the king and queen are both onside – about 9%.

There are various number of suit combinations which are improved by the addition of intermediate cards, for example:

The first promises one trick and gives a 50% chance for two, while the former hardly ever provides two tricks and only makes one trick three quarters of the time.

The latter combination is one on which you can play and guarantee a trick eventually. With the first you are only guaranteed a trick if your opponents lead the suit. Doing it yourself your chances are only a little better than 50/50.

Hand 1 contains 12 high card points but they are bad points ie unsupported honours and a total lack of intermediates. Hand 2 has only 11 high card points but only the most confirmed point counter would imagine that is weaker than 1. I would prefer to hold hand 2 and rate it as worth around 13 high card points because of all the tens and nines. Try giving your partner one honour card in any of the four suits and you will see that hand 2 offers an opportunity to establish extra tricks for yourself without risking creating much for your opponents. Do the same with hand 1 and it looks much less attractive.

Should we ever lead an unsupported Ace? This is something I would not normally advocate, however, there are times when I would, namely:

Very often at the Bridge table we are not sure when is the right time to ask a question of the opposition. We often would like to know exactly what a bid means.

When the opposition are bidding you may only ask a question IF you are going to bid yourself, or are likely to bid. You ask the question when it is your turn to bid.

You may always look at your opponents Convention Card.

When the bidding has finished the bidding sequence remains on the table and a card is produced by your partner and placed face down on the table. It is at this point that you may ask as many questions as you like of your opponents. Your partner, when you have finished, turns the card over. Your partner is not able to change their card.

If you are ever not sure please ask the Director of the night that is why he/she is there.

August 2007

THE BB&B CODE ie Best Behaviour at Bridge.

Greet others in a friendly manner prior to start of play on each round.

Be a good 'host' or 'guest' at the table.

Make your convention card readily available to your opponents and fill it out completely.

Make bridge enjoyable for yourself, partner and opponents.

Give credit when opponents make a good bid or play.

Take care of your personal grooming.

Ensure that your mobile phone is switched off.

Enjoy the company as well as the game.

Remember that it is rude to critise your partner or your oponents in public, to be less than polite at the table, to gloat over good results, object to a call for the director, or to dispute or argue about the director's ruling.

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