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Slam Bidding Lesson
Slam Bidding and Modified Scroll Bids By Neil H. Timm In this Bridge Bit, I explore more fully Slam bidding techniques, some old and some perhaps new. To reach a small slam, the partnership should have roughly thirty-three Bergen points. In addition to a trump fit and count, slams require controls (aces, kings, voids, and singletons). The more controls between the partners, the easier the slam. To evaluate whether or not the partnership has the required controls, one uses cuebids with perhaps the 5NT trump ask bid (Grand Slam Force), and Blackwood Conventions. Blackwood Conventions reveal how many aces and kings, while cuebidding or control showing bids reveal where they reside. To make a slam, one usually requires first-round control in three suits and second round control in the fourth suit. It is possible to make a slam missing two aces, provided the missing ace is opposite a void, and the second missing ace is replaced by or is opposite a second-round control (a king or a singleton). When looking for a possible slam, one often asks the following questions. 1. What cards should my partner have to be able to make a slam? 2. How may I obtain the required information? 3. Are there any bidding techniques or conventions that I can use to obtain the required information? 4. If my partner does not have the required cards for a slam, can I stop short of slam, and if not is the risk of going down worth it? We shall review techniques to help the partnership find the required information for making a slam! However, with some hands one needs only to count points to reach a slam. -
Things You Might Like to Know About Duplicate Bridge
♠♥♦♣ THINGS YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT DUPLICATE BRIDGE Prepared by MayHem Published by the UNIT 241 Board of Directors ♠♥♦♣ Welcome to Duplicate Bridge and the ACBL This booklet has been designed to serve as a reference tool for miscellaneous information about duplicate bridge and its governing organization, the ACBL. It is intended for the newer or less than seasoned duplicate bridge players. Most of these things that follow, while not perfectly obvious to new players, are old hat to experienced tournaments players. Table of Contents Part 1. Expected In-behavior (or things you need to know).........................3 Part 2. Alerts and Announcements (learn to live with them....we have!)................................................4 Part 3. Types of Regular Events a. Stratified Games (Pairs and Teams)..............................................12 b. IMP Pairs (Pairs)...........................................................................13 c. Bracketed KO’s (Teams)...............................................................15 d. Swiss Teams and BAM Teams (Teams).......................................16 e. Continuous Pairs (Side Games)......................................................17 f. Strategy: IMPs vs Matchpoints......................................................18 Part 4. Special ACBL-Wide Events (they cost more!)................................20 Part 5. Glossary of Terms (from the ACBL website)..................................25 Part 6. FAQ (with answers hopefully).........................................................40 Copyright © 2004 MayHem 2 Part 1. Expected In-Behavior Just as all kinds of competitive-type endeavors have their expected in- behavior, so does duplicate bridge. One important thing to keep in mind is that this is a competitive adventure.....as opposed to the social outing that you may be used to at your rubber bridge games. Now that is not to say that you can=t be sociable at the duplicate table. Of course you can.....and should.....just don=t carry it to extreme by talking during the auction or play. -
Acol Bidding Notes
SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION The following notes are designed to help your understanding of the Acol system of bidding and should be used in conjunction with Crib Sheets 1 to 5 and the Glossary of Terms The crib sheets summarise the bidding in tabular form, whereas these notes provide a fuller explanation of the reasons for making particular bids and bidding strategy. These notes consist of a number of short chapters that have been structured in a logical order to build on the things learnt in the earlier chapters. However, each chapter can be viewed as a mini-lesson on a specific area which can be read in isolation rather than trying to absorb too much information in one go. It should be noted that there is not a single set of definitive Acol ‘rules’. The modern Acol bidding style has developed over the years and different bridge experts recommend slightly different variations based on their personal preferences and playing experience. These notes are based on the methods described in the book The Right Way to Play Bridge by Paul Mendelson, which is available at all good bookshops (and some rubbish ones as well). They feature a ‘Weak No Trump’ throughout and ‘Strong Two’ openings. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ INDEX Section 1 Introduction Chapter 1 Bidding objectives & scoring Chapter 2 Evaluating the strength of your hand Chapter 3 Evaluating the shape of your hand . Section 2 Balanced Hands Chapter 21 1NT opening bid & No Trumps responses Chapter 22 1NT opening bid & suit responses Chapter 23 Opening bids with stronger balanced hands Chapter 24 Supporting responder’s major suit Chapter 25 2NT opening bid & responses Chapter 26 2 Clubs opening bid & responses Chapter 27 No Trumps responses after an opening suit bid Chapter 28 Summary of bidding with Balanced Hands . -
The Eclectic Club
The Eclectic Club Contents Part One The Structure of the Opening Bids Page 3 Part Two Responder’s First Bid 4 The Opening Bid of 1D 4 The Opening Bid of 1H 4 The Opening Bid of 1S 5 The Opening Bid of 1NT 5 Responding in a Minor 7 1NT is Doubled 7 The Rebid of 1NT 8 The Opening Bid of 2C 9 The Opening Bid of 2D 10 The Opening Bid of 2H/2S 11 The Opening Bid of 2NT 14 Part Three Splinters 14 Slam Splinters 14 The Residual Point Count 15 The Gap Between 16 1S 3H 17 Part Four Transfers and Relays 17 Let the Weak Hand Choose Trumps 17 The Competitive Zone 17 Bidding a Passed Hand 18 Transfers in Response to 1H and 1S 18 Transfer Response to 2C 20 The 5-3 Major Fit 21 The Cost of Transfers 21 Responder Makes Two Bids 22 Responder has Hearts 24 The Transfer to Partner’s Suit 25 The Shape Ask 27 Part Five The Control Ask 28 Florentine Blackwood 28 Blackwood with a Minor Suit Agreed 30 Part Six Strong Hands 31 The Opening Bid of 1C 31 Strong Balanced Hands 32 Strong Unbalanced Hands 32 Strong Two Suiters 32 The Golden Negatives 33 Special Positives 33 Opponents Bid over Our 1C 34 R.H.O Bids 35 Our Defence to Their 1C 36 Part Seven More Bidding Techniques 36 Canape in the Majors 36 Sputnik with a One Club System 37 Appendix The Variable Forcing Pass 39 A voyage of Discovery 39 Our Version of V.F.P. -
Last Updated July 2020 Changes from Last Version Highlighted in Yellow Author Title Date Edition Cover Sgnd Comments
Last updated July 2020 Changes from last version highlighted in yellow Author Title Date Edition Cover Sgnd Comments ANON THE LAWS OF ROYAL AUCTION BRIDGE 1914 1st Card Small, stitched booklet with red covers ABERN Wendell & FIELDER Jarvis BRIDGE IS A CONTACT SPORT 1995 1st Card ABRAHAMS Gerald BRAINS IN BRIDGE 1962 1st No DW Ditto 1962 1st DW Ex-G C H Fox Library "A C B" AUCTION BRIDGE FOR BEGINNERS AND OTHERS 1929 Rev ed No DW ACKERSLEY Chris THE BRIDGING OF TROY 1986 1st DW Ex-G C H Fox Library ADAMS J R DEFENCE AT AUCTION BRIDGE 1930 1st No DW AINGER Simon SIMPLE CONVENTIONS FOR THE ACOL SYSTEM 1995 1st Card ALBARRAN Pierre & JAIS Pierre HOW TO WIN AT RUBBER BRIDGE 1961 1st UK No DW Ditto 1961 1st UK DW Ex-G C H Fox Library ALDER Philip YOU CAN PLAY BRIDGE 1983 1st Card 1st was hb ALLEN David THE PHONEY CLUB The Cleveland Club System 1992 1st DW Ex-G C H Fox Library Ditto 1992 1st DW AMSBURY Joe BRIDGE: BIDDING NATURALLY 1979 1st DW Ditto 1979 1st DW Ex-G C H Fox Library ANDERTON Philip BRIDGE IN 20 LESSONS 1961 1st DW Ex-G C H Fox Library Ditto 1961 1st DW PLAY BRIDGE 1967 1st DW Ditto 1967 1st DW Ex-G C H Fox Library ARKELL Reginald BRIDGE WITHOUT SIGHS 1934 2nd No DW Ditto 1934 2nd No dw ARMSTRONG, Len The Final Deal 1995 1st Paper AUHAGEN Ulrich DAS GROBE BUCH VOM BRIDGE 1973 1st DW Ex-Rixi Markus Library with compliment slip "BADSWORTH" BADSWORTH ON BRIDGE 1903 1st Boards Ex-G C H Fox Library aeg BADSWORTH ON BRIDGE 1903 1st Boards Aeg; IN PLASTIC PROTECTIVE SLEEVE AUCTION BRIDGE AND ROYAL AUCTION 1913 2nd Boards BAILEY Alan ABRIDGED -
Bridge Glossary
Bridge Glossary Above the line In rubber bridge points recorded above a horizontal line on the score-pad. These are extra points, beyond those for tricks bid and made, awarded for holding honour cards in trumps, bonuses for scoring game or slam, for winning a rubber, for overtricks on the declaring side and for under-tricks on the defending side, and for fulfilling doubled or redoubled contracts. ACOL/Acol A bidding system commonly played in the UK. Active An approach to defending a hand that emphasizes quickly setting up winners and taking tricks. See Passive Advance cue bid The cue bid of a first round control that occurs before a partnership has agreed on a suit. Advance sacrifice A sacrifice bid made before the opponents have had an opportunity to determine their optimum contract. For example: 1♦ - 1♠ - Dbl - 5♠. Adverse When you are vulnerable and opponents non-vulnerable. Also called "unfavourable vulnerability vulnerability." Agreement An understanding between partners as to the meaning of a particular bid or defensive play. Alert A method of informing the opponents that partner's bid carries a meaning that they might not expect; alerts are regulated by sponsoring organizations such as EBU, and by individual clubs or organisers of events. Any method of alerting may be authorised including saying "Alert", displaying an Alert card from a bidding box or 'knocking' on the table. Announcement An explanatory statement made by the partner of the player who has just made a bid that is based on a partnership understanding. The purpose of an announcement is similar to that of an Alert. -
SEVERANCE © Mr Bridge ( 01483 489961
Number: 212 August 2020 BRIDGEJulian Pottage’s Double Dummy Problem VER ANCE SE ♠ A 8 ♥ K Q 10 ♦ 6 5 4 3 2 ♣ J 10 2 ♠ K 10 7 ♠ J ♥ N ♥ 2 W E J 8 7 6 ♦ 9 8 7 S ♦ A Q J 10 ♣ A Q 9 5 4 3 ♣ K 8 7 6 ♠ Q 9 6 5 4 3 2 ♥ A 9 5 4 3 ♦ K ♣ Void Contract 5♠ by South Lead: ♥2 This Double Dummy problem can also be found on page 5 of this issue. The answer will be published on page 4 next month. of the audiences shown in immediately to keep my Bernard’s DVDs would put account safe. Of course that READERS’ their composition at 70% leads straight away to the female. When Bernard puts question: if I change my another bidding quiz up on Mr Bridge password now, the screen in his YouTube what is to stop whoever session, the storm of answers originally hacked into LETTERS which suddenly hits the chat the website from doing stream comes mostly from so again and stealing DOUBLE DOSE: Part One gives the impression that women. There is nothing my new password? In recent weeks, some fans of subscriptions are expected wrong in having a retinue. More importantly, why Bernard Magee have taken to be as much charitable The number of occasions haven’t users been an enormous leap of faith. as they are commercial. in these sessions when warned of this data They have signed up for a By comparison, Andrew Bernard has resorted to his breach by Mr Bridge? website with very little idea Robson’s website charges expression “Partner, I’m I should add that I have of what it will look like, at £7.99 plus VAT per month — excited” has been thankfully 160 passwords according a ‘founder member’s’ rate that’s £9.59 in total — once small. -
Sandra Landy
Media: The Daily Telegraph {Main} Edition: Date: Saturday 7, January 2017 Page: 29 Sandra Landy Bridge player who represented Great Britain and became a popular ‘ambassador’ for the game ANDRA LANDY, who has died aged 78, was a multiple World newsletter. and European championship- A woman of great charm, Sandra S Landy was a quiet ambassador for the winning bridge player, representing Great Britain in 11 World game of bridge. Congenial and championships (winning in 1981 and convivial, she would always accept the 1985) and 16 European championships captain’s decisions and results from (winning five times); she also played the other table with good grace. for England twice in the Camrose Typically, in the final of the 1986 (open Home International) Tollemache (for county teams of eight), championship and 11 times in the Lady when her foursome in the Sussex team Milne (women’s Home International). achieved a big enough positive score The daughter of a banker, she was to win the event, there was not a word born Sandra Ogilvie on June 19 1938 at of complaint when the other quartet Croydon, Surrey. After the family achieved an almost equally big minus moved to the Sussex coast, she was score, thereby resulting in third place educated at Hove County Grammar overall. Sally Brock, her most famous school for girls, read Mathematics at partner in international events Oxford and then took a postgraduate recalled that initially Landy could be diploma in numerical analysis and critical of mistakes, but would always automatic computing at Cambridge. apologise if she was too fierce. -
Practical Slam Bidding Ebook
Practical Slam Bidding ebook RON KLINGER MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR BIG HANDS INTRODUCTION Slam bidding brings an excitement all of its own. The pulse quickens, adrenalin is pumping, it’s all systems go. The culmination can be euphoria when you are successful, misery when the slam fails. The aim of this book is to increase your euphoria-to-misery ratio. Of all the skills in bridge, experts perform worst in the slam area. You do not need to go far to find the reason: Lack of experience. Slams occur on about 10% of all deals. Compare that with 50% for partscores and 40% for games. No wonder players are less familiar with the big hands. Half of the slam hands will be yours, half will go to your opponents. You can thus expect a slam your way about 5% of the time. That is roughly one deal per session. If you play twice a week, you can hope for about a hundred slams a year. Practise on the 120 deals in this book and study them, and you will have the equivalent of an extra year’s training under your belt. Your euphoria ratio is then bound to rise. How to use this ebook This is not so much an ebook for reading pleasure as a workbook. It is ideal for partnership practice but you can also use it on your own. For each set of hands, the dealer is given, followed by the vulnerability. You and partner are the East and West. If the dealer is North, East comes next; if the dealer is South, West is next. -
System Notes
System Notes James Sundstrom Nathan Savir April 9, 2009 Notation Legend M Either Major. If used multiple times, it always refers to the same major. For example, 1M-2| -2M means either the auction 1~ -2| - 2~ or 1♠ -2| -2♠ , no other auction. m Either minor. As per M. OM Other major. This is only used after 'M', such as 1m-1M-2NT-3OM. om Other minor. As per OM. R Raise. Used in some of the step based system to mean a simple raise, such as 1~ -2~ . DR Double Raise. Q Cuebid. Acknowledgements Special thanks are owed to Blair Seidler, without whose teaching I probably would not ever have written these notes. If I did write them, they surely would not be nearly as good as they are. These notes are a (mostly very-distant) relative of his Carnage notes, though a few sections have been borrowed directly from Carnage. 1 Contents I Non-Competitive Auctions4 1 Opening Bid Summary6 2 Minor Suit Auctions7 2.1 Minor-Major................................7 2.1.1 Suit Bypassing Agreements...................7 2.1.2 New Minor Forcing........................7 2.1.3 Reverses..............................8 2.2 Minor Oriented Auctions.........................8 2.3 NT Oriented auctions...........................8 2.4 Passed Hand Bidding...........................8 3 Major Suit Auctions9 3.1 1 over 1 Auctions.............................9 3.2 Major Suit Raise Structure........................9 3.2.1 Direct Raises...........................9 3.2.2 Bergen...............................9 3.2.3 Jacoby 2NT............................9 3.2.4 3NT................................ 10 3.2.5 Splinters.............................. 10 3.3 Passed Hand................................ 10 3.3.1 Drury.............................. -
Post Mortem Secretary: Mary Paulone Carns Treasurer: John Alioto Associates: Phyllis Geinzer……
Editor: Arlene Port 220 N Dithridge #404 Unit 142 ` Pittsburgh, PA April, 2021 WEBSITE AT www.pittsburghbridge.org Pgh.PA. 15213 c President: Chris Wang Tel: 412-521-3637 [email protected] Vice President: Craig Biddle Post mortem Secretary: Mary Paulone Carns Treasurer: John Alioto Associates: Phyllis Geinzer……. Memoriam Club Manager: Mary Carns Chris Wang………...First At The Post Unit Recorder: Judi Soon ([email protected]) All the news that fits in print BRIDGE BYTES ……….by arlene port ………..By Ernie Retetagos The very good news is that almost all of those people at a certain BIDDING SYSTEMS age (which I won’t mention) have received one or both of their vaccine shots. This is very good news because most of our peer group in the bridge The bidding systems that we use today are the product of decades of evolu- world is of that certain age. I won’t mention it. We You know who we tion. The early days of contract bridge featured the Ely Culbertson method of hand are. evaluation. The strength for an opening bid was determined by honor tricks, or what Also very good news is that bridge, while not at the present time, we call quick tricks. Charles Goren later popularized the 4-3-2-1 high card point will be restored to our face-to-face games sooner than later. The ACBL has count method for opening bids. This forerunner of Standard American bidding also continued to have their nationally ranked games virtually, so if you’re look- added points for distribution, one for a doubleton, two for a singleton. -
Transfer-Oriented Symmetric Relay
Transfer-Oriented Symmetric Relay Mark Abraham and Josh Sher February 10, 2009 Contents List of Reminders iv 1 Relay Structure 1 1.1 Relay Structure Table of Contents . 1 1.2 General Notes . 1 1.3 Responder’s hand valuation after a strong opening. 2 1.4 Positive shape-showing relays . 2 1.5 Strength asking relays . 6 1.6 Zooming . 6 1.7 Spiral Scan . 6 1.8 Ending relay auctions . 7 1.9 Reverse Relay . 8 1.10 Stopper Asks . 10 1.11 After a negative response to 1♣ .......................... 11 1.12 Interference after 1♣–1♦ .............................. 15 2 Major-oriented one-level openings 16 2.1 General . 16 2.2 Responding to the 1♦ opening . 17 2.3 Responding to the 1♥ opening . 22 2.4 Competitive Bidding . 26 3 Minor-oriented openings 28 3.1 General . 28 3.2 Responding to the 2NT opening . 30 3.3 Competitive Bidding . 30 4 Opening 1NT 32 4.1 Preliminaries . 32 4.2 The Keri 2♣ puppet . 32 4.3 After a transfer to ♥ ................................ 35 4.4 After a transfer to ♠ ............................... 36 ii CONTENTS CONTENTS 4.5 Common structures in Keri major-transfers . 38 4.6 Other sequences . 40 4.7 Slam ideas . 41 4.8 Keri in Competition . 42 4.9 1NT in competition . 42 5 Third and Fourth Seat Adjustments 44 5.1 General . 44 5.2 Opening Bids . 44 iii List of Reminders Shortages are shown high-middle-low order, and accordingly lengths shown low-middle- high. 1 Assymmetric 7-4-1-1 shape-showing 4 Limited hands do not zoom to show strength or controls past 3NT.