BRIDGE MATTERS Newsletter of the Caloundra, Coolum and Sunshine Coast Bridge Clubs June 2015 AROUND THE CLUBS ♣♣♣ ♣♣♣ ♣♣♣ COOLUM Coolum has again conducted a set of 10 introductory lessons this year. From this, we have gained 20 new members who will now move into supervised play and play in our regular sessions. Our lessons are conducted on Saturday afternoons with a regular play session being conducted at the same time. Supervised play is conducted continuously through the year. Coolum’s lessons are conducted by Alan Sinclair and other volunteers. Because they are identical to the lessons conducted by Wendy O’Brien at Caloundra and Sunshine Coast, a welcome exchange of learners takes place between the clubs. Coolum’s final formal lesson was on May 23rd. Coolum Invitation Day 2015 will be conducted on Wednesday 2nd September at our usual home in Wembley Road, Coolum Beach. If you have never played in an invitation day, grab a partner and come along. It is a largely recreational day with a superb leisurely lunch. If you have never played in a day long event, this is a great start. Entry forms will appear on club noticeboards, or contact us directly at [email protected]. CALOUNDRA Like most other clubs, at Caloundra we have found that attendance at our congresses has been falling over recent times. We decided to reduce our program from 4 one-day events to one two-day event. Much publicity was undertaken, members visited clubs in our area to promote the event. Our own members were encouraged to enter, and we also had a really impressive response to appeals for food, kitchen workers and for billeting visitors. It was decided also that we would plan to do no more than break even financially, with a major increase in prize money. We got a lot of positive feedback from all who participated, and we propose to run the 2016 event in the same way. To all who are reading this - please consider coming to the Caloundra Congress next year. 1 SUNSHINE COAST At the end of April, club members were introduced to Pianola, a service to bridge clubs that provides players with a personal history of their results, analysis of their performance, the ability to replay hands and a partner finder. Peter Busch visited 4 separate sessions to further explain the program. Following considerable positive feedback, the committee has agreed to subscribe to the Pianola software for one year and to review the continuation of our subscription after one year’s experience, the review to be based on usage by members. We have still to decide on whether the club should subscribe to Pianola Plus, or leave that to individual members. INAUGURAL INTER-CLUB TEAMS On April 26, the Sunshine Coast club hosted a new event on the coast, the inter-club teams. Almost 100 players from the Caloundra, Coolum, Noosa and Sunshine Coast clubs competed in this event which covered three separate levels and was won by Noosa. Here we see SCCBC president John Gosney presenting the trophy to Noosa’s president, Gerald Schaaf. ZONE TEAMS OF 3 This year the annual Sunshine Coast Zone Teams of 3 was hosted by Coolum, with Sunshine Coast providing the venue. Once again, Noosa took out all the honours. Congratulations to the winning team: Geoff Hart, Peter McNamee, Margaret Robertson & Margaret Murray. Come on the rest of us! As your editor once overheard a US baseball coach saying to his losing side: “There’s gotta be a way!”. LESSONS AT CALOUNDRA AND SUNSHINE COAST These will finish as Bridge Matters goes to press. Most newcomers seem to have survived the absurdities of alerting, announcing, North pointing directly into the sea, passing out in the pass out seat and opening 2 with a hand that is nowhere near strong enough to open 1 . But they do look at us oddly. 2 BUSCH BASCH CONVENTIONS Peter Busch Last edition we looked at some of the strange bridge jargon. This time, I’m going to run through some of the more common bridge conventions with a very simple description of each. There are hundreds of conventions around – some used almost universally like Stayman, and some that are home- grown and only used by the partnership that invented them. This list is definitely not exhaustive, nor does it describe the convention in sufficient detail to use it. If you like the sound of one of them, do some research and be sure you understand all aspects of it before you add it to your system. Your Club library is a good starting point and the Coolum Bridge Club’s web site (www.coolumbridge.com) has a useful document on its Bridge page called Micro Bridge Lessons consisting of a series of one-pagers with each discussing a specific convention. CONVENTIONS FOR OPENER AND RESPONDER Stayman – the one we all learnt in beginners’ lessons. After a 1NT opening bid, partner bids 2C to ask about opener’s holding in the majors. Simple Stayman asks for 4-card majors, but there are many variations like Extended Stayman (with the ability to show both 4 card majors and also show the HCPs more precisely), Puppet Stayman (enquiring about 5 or 4 card majors) and Garbage Stayman (whatever the opener answers will be dropped) and numerous other variations. Baron is a similar convention, but asks opener to bid all 4-card suits up the line (including diamonds) and is sometimes used after a strong 2NT opening. Transfers – after partner opens 1NT, responder bids the suit below the one they hold, and opener will bid the actual suit. This allows the stronger hand to be declarer, and also means that the opening lead is coming around to the NT hand, both of which can be beneficial. Gerber and Blackwood – ace-asking methods include Gerber (4C asking bid) and Blackwood (4NT asking bid) and the answers may show the actual number of aces, or one of two possibilities e.g. 1 or 3 aces, and the asker should be able to work out which it is. There are also variations called Roman Key Card Blackwood (RKCB) where the king of the agreed trump suit becomes the 5th key card along with the 4 aces, and the answer can also show whether the queen of the agreed suit is held. There’s also a Mini-Ace ask when you have a minor suit fit (asking bid is lower), and Exclusion Blackwood (asking about aces or key cards excluding a specified suit, presumably because the asker has a void in that suit and doesn’t care about that ace). Jacoby and Bergen – these provide specific responses to show a fit after 3 partner has opened 1 of a major. There can be various bids to show the HCP range and/or number of trumps held, and sometimes they can also show whether the responder’s hand is balanced or distributional. Lebensohl – a convention used when the opponents overcall after we open 1NT. There are specific sequences to show a minimum hand, an invitational hand and a game forcing hand. There’s also a variation on this called Rubensohl. Fourth suit forcing – during the auction, when your side has bid 3 suits naturally, a bid of the 4th suit means something different if you use 4th suit forcing. Usually it tells partner we’re going to game, and typically asks them to bid NT if they have that suit stopped. DOPI / ROPI – a method of answering partner’s ace ask when the opponents come in with a lead directing double or other interfering bid. Trial bids – this is a bid of a new suit after you reach agreement on a trump suit at a low level (e.g. 1H – 2H). There are long suit trials (showing a second suit that contains potential losers) and short suit trials (showing shortages), and partner will assess that information and set the contract at the appropriate level. Truscott – after a takeout double of opener’s bid, responder with a fit will elevate their normal response in order to take up more bidding space and make it hard for LHO to bid. Further, as a redouble by responder would show values, any other suit bid by responder without a fit can be pre-emptive. Benjamin 2’s – a series of 2-level opening bids where 2C and 2D are strong and artificial and 2H and 2S are weak 6 card suits. Multi-2’s – an alternative to Benjamin 2’s where 2C is strong and artificial, 2D can be a weak major or strong balanced hand, and 2-suited hands can also be shown. Flannery – another method of showing specific hand shapes by a 2-level opening bid. Splinters – these are double jumps after partner opens a major (e.g. 1S – 4D) that usually show a fit and also highlight a shortage in the bid suit. Checkback Stayman – after opener has rebid 1NT having opened a minor, responder can ask for more details with a 2C bid. With their response, opener can show their partial support for responder’s major and/or the other major, as well as provide a more precise HCP range. This is similar to New Minor Forcing. Texas transfers – a modification to transfers following a 1NT opening bid. Rather than bidding the suit below your suit at the 2 level, you bid it at the 4 level. This can keep the opponents out of the auction. Namyats – this convention says that to make a pre-emptive opening at the 4 level in a major, you bid a minor and this tells partner to bid the major, so opening 4C asks partner to bid 4H which you will pass.