The 10 beginners lessons in the Autumn term are as follows:

1. w/c Sept 15 - Getting started with Bridge (FREE TASTER)
2. w/c Sept 22 - Playing with trumps (FREE TASTER)
3. w/c Sept 29 - Introducing declarer play
4. w/c Oct 6 - Introducing defence
5. w/c Oct 13 - Minibridge revision   (w/c Oct 20 and Oct 27 = half-term break)
6. w/c Nov 3 - How the bidding works - Opening 1NT
7. w/c Nov 10 - Responses to 1NT
8. w/c Nov 17 - One level suit openings & limit raises 
9. w/c Nov 24 - Change of suit responses
10. w/c Dec 1 - Friendly competition/End of term party

The schedule of lessons is dependent on group progress

You open 1 of a suit when your hand has 12-19 points and you cannot open 1NT (too many points, not balanced or you hold a 5-card major). Your second bid ("rebid") will then more precisely describe the shape and points in your hand. Always open with your longest suit. If you have 2 suits of equal length bid the higher ranking first unless you hold 4 hearts and 4 spades in which case you open 1H.

After your partner opens 1 of a suit, you should pass with fewer than 6 points but must make a positive bid with 6 or more (since partner could have 19). With 4 card support for your partner's major suit (say your partner opened 1H) you bid as follows:

• 0-5 Points        Pass
• 6-9 Points        2H
• 10-12 Points    3H
• 13-19 Points    4H

The material we covered is on pages 34-37 of the manual. We played 3 or 4 of the hands on page 55. You could try the exercise on page 49. Next week we look at how to respond when you cannot support your partner's suit (pages 38-40).   

We started by revising the following:

• How the bidding works
• Opening 1NT
• Responding to 1NT with a balanced hand.

We then looked at responding to 1NT with an unbalanced hand and covered the following responses:

• The weak take-out - bidding 2 of your longest suit (at least 5 cards) with 0-10 points asking partner to pass.
• Bidding 4 of a major with 12+ points and 6+ cards in the major
• Bidding 3 of a major with 12+ points and exactly 5 cards in the major (asking partner to choose between 3NT or 4 of the major)
• Bidding 3NT with 12+ points and a long minor suit.

The material covered is on pages 27-29. Page 30 summarises what we have covered in the last 2 lessons. You can revisit the exercise on page 31 or the practice hands on page 33 which we have played during the past two classes.

Next week we look at opening 1 of a suit when you hold 12+ points but do not hold a 1NT opening hand (pages 34-37). 

We started by looking at how the auction in bridge works. This is very well described on pages 23 and 24 of the manual.

We then looked at the opening bid of 1NT which has a very precise meaning in the ACOL system we are learning. It indicates ALL of the following:

• 12-14 points
• A balanced hand (no void, no singleton, not more than 1 doubleton)
• No 5 card major.

We then looked at responding to 1NT if responder also holds a  balanced hand. Responder decides whether the pair might have 25 points between them and so bids as follows:

• 0-10 points       Pass
• 11-12 points     2NT
• 13-19 points     3NT

The relevant pages in the manual are pages 23-26. The 4 hands we played include hands 1 and 3 on page 33.

Next week we will recap what we covered in lesson 6 and will then look at responding to 1NT with an unbalanced hand.    

We went over some of the basic defence concepts described on pages 11-13. One of the key roles of the defence is to try to avoid presenting the declarer with additional tricks. Let the declarer make his certain tricks but try to avoid opening leads which carry a risk of presenting declarer with an easy extra trick (see top of page 13).

We played the last 2 hands on page 22 where good defensive play can mean that seemingly sensible game contracts can be defeated. On both hands, the wrong opening lead will present declarer with the chance to make the contract. We then played 2 additional hands and compared the results with those obtained by students in previous years.

We have now completed the section on Minibridge (chapter 1). After the half-term break, we will move away from Minibridge and start to learn how to bid and to play the full game of bridge.  

We started by replaying hand number 2 from page 21. This hand illustrates the need to plan the play taking care in how to get between declarer and dummy so as not to leave stranded winners in one of your hands.

We then recapped the main declarer play points from last week's lesson before playing hands 5 and 6 from page 22.

After the break we started to look at defence and opening leads concentrating on the main difference between defending against NT and a trump contract. In NT, both sides are looking to establish their long suit(s) whereas this strategy will not work when declarer has the benefit of a trump suit. We played hand 7 or 8 from page 22.

We have just started to touch on the defensive techniques covered on pages 11-13 and we will cover these in more detail next week and play more practice hands. .   

We started by recapping scoring in minibridge (which is basically the same as scoring in bridge). It takes most students a few months to get the hang of scoring so don't expect to master this all at once. We will have plenty of opportunity to practice scoring in the weeks ahead. The table at the bottom of page 8 is a very useful summary of scoring rules.

The key points to remember at this stage are that you earn a big bonus (300) if you declare and make game. A game consists of 9 tricks in no-trumps, 10 tricks in a major suit (hearts or spades) and 11 tricks in a minor suit (clubs or diamonds).

We practised counting how many tricks you would expect to make from various suit combinations by going through the exercise on page 19 (answers on page 20). The other key messages on declarer play were as follows:

• Plan the play before playing your first card.
• Count your definite winners suit by suit looking at both declarer hand and dummy together.
• Take care in planning which hand you want to win each trick. Try to avoid having winners left in a hand but being unable to get the lead there to play them.
• Look for additional opportunities for extra tricks in each suit. These could be from high cards promoted once the opponents' ace (and king?) has been played or they might be from long suits when you have the last remaining cards in a suit.
• If playing with a trump suit, it is usually a good idea to draw the opponents' trumps at the earliest opportunity.

In the 3 lessons, we have now covered pages 5-10 of the manual. If you want to practice scoring, try the exercise on page 17. The hands we played in class are on page 21.

Next week we will look at how the defenders can try to stop declarer from making his contract (pages 11-13).

We started off by recapping the key points from last week and played a hand of minibridge in no trumps as revision. We then turned to the concept of a trump suit and the key points were as follows:

• The declarer in minibridge has the option to choose a trump suit - a suit which is higher ranking than the other suits (the two of trumps will beat an Ace in a non-trump suit).
• You must always follow suit when you can - but if you have no cards in the suit led, you have the option of either playing a trump to try to win the trick or discarding a card from another suit.
• When choosing trumps, length (number of cards in suit) is more important than strength (how high those cards are).
• In order to gain a sufficient advantage from choosing a suit as trumps, a pair should really have a minimum of 8 cards in that suit between their two hands.

We then began to look at scoring in bridge and when you get your manuals next week, there is a good scoring summary on page 8. To earn a game in bridge and make a large bonus of 300 points, you need:

• 9 tricks in no-trumps; or
• 10 tricks in a major suit (hearts or spades); or
• 11 tricks in a minor suit (clubs or diamonds)

The declarer will decide

1. whether he wants to plsy with a trump suit (and if so which suit) or in no-trumps
2. whether he is going for game or part-game (7 tricks irrespective of the trump suit)

Next week, after a brief recap of what we have covered so far, we will look at how declarer should play in order to try to maximise the number of tricks he will win. We will also have opportunity to practise scoring as it takes some time to learn to score accurately.   

Dear all,

Congratulations! You have completed what for many of you was your first bridge lesson. I hope you enjoyed it.

The lesson covered:

• The pack of cards - no jokers, aces high.
• What is a trick and games of whist
• Assessing strength by counting points (Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2, Jack = 1)
• The mechanics of minibridge

We then played 3 or 4 hands of minibridge without trumps. The declarer had to decide whether to go for part-game (7 tricks) or game (9 tricks). As a guideline, the declarer needs about 25 points between the 2 hands (declarer and dummy) to have a good chance of making game in no trumps (9 tricks).

In lesson 2, we will look at playing with trumps and how to choose a trump suit. We will also begin to look at scoring in minibridge.

I hope to see you all next week.  

Chris