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 2024 June Averages 

Wendy Gee Cup.....Diane & Ann

 Founders Cup...Gloria & Anne

Aylsham Cup.... Pat & Diane

NO FEAR BRIDGE
NO FEAR BRIDGE

Everyone Welcome.

2018 CHRISTMAS LUNCH
2018 CHRISTMAS LUNCH

It was to good to see Diana at the Hol;iday Inn. How thoughtful of Mary to bring her along to our 'Away Days.'

2016 GLOBETROTTING
2016 GLOBETROTTING

Do you know where Val and Keith are? I wonder if they played Bridge or just held good hands!

THE DUTIES OF A DEDICATED DUMMY.

Doing Dummy Proud

The Duties of a Dedicated Dummy by NIgel Block.

"Most players believe that being Dummy is rather boring and try to avoid the role as the main duty is to place played cards in the direction of NS or EW depending on who won the trick. However the number of rights and constraints thrust upon you may surprise you. Here are just some of them.

As Dummy you can:

1. Warn any of the players that a quitted card is in the wrong direction, but only if you spot the lapse before the next trick is started.

2. Attempt to prevent Declarer leading from the wrong hand by saying something like, ‘I think you are in Dummy’. However you must not point out the error once a card has been played.

3. Try to prevent a Defender from leading out of turn. Even so you must remain silent once the card has been played.

4. Attempt to warn Declarer of a possible revoke by for example asking, ‘No more spades, partner?’

But what about the limitations placed on Dummy?  Once again here are just a few of them.  During the play of the hand, as Dummy you are not allowed to:

5. Comment on any irregularity committed by any player.

6. Study an opponent’s system card.

7. Say how many tricks have been won or lost.

8. Call the TD on your own initiative.

9. Hover over a card or suit in dummy in anticipation of declarer’s next play.

At the end of the play of the hand as Dummy you may:

10. Draw attention to a perceived irregularity.

Condition 6 is often broken at club level. The danger here is that you may unintentionally be giving unauthorised information (UI) to your partner.

Condition 9 is quite important.  At one time or another, I suspect most of us have committed this offence in an attempt to save time. However it is prohibited under the laws. The TD can award an adjusted score if he/she believes that Dummy was indicating a possible line of play to Declarer.

Technically a procedural penalty against your side is a possibility for disregarding any of the rules, but in club competition the TD would probably just point out your error and take no further action. 

Note: The list above is not exhaustive; full details can be found in Sections 42-43 of the 2017 laws."

Interesting Hands
 
 
  Can you make three tricks in hearts?

You need three tricks from the heart suit to make your contract. Is there any chance and if so how should you play the suit? Sort out the heart suit and try to make up E/W hands which will allow you to make three tricks.

There are five cards with the opponents. You must hope they are split 3/2 and the Ace is with the doubleton then you can make three tricks. You should lead low towards one of your honours hoping that the Ace sits in front of that honour (You may have clues as to who might hold the Ace from the bidding or previous card play). If the opponents take their Ace you are home and dry...............but good players are likely to duck the first round saving their Ace to "kill" one of your big cards next time......................Assuming you win the first trick then you should play a small card from both hands hoping the Ace has to be played because it was a doubleton.................Playing the cards in this manner gives you the best chance of making three tricks from your heart suit.

  A hand for you to solve from Q-Plus Bridge

David came across this hand on Q-Plus last week. Dealer is South. How would you bid and play the hand?  His partner, North chose 4S which went off two. I chose 3NT. Have a look at it if you have time - remember you cannot make the opponents play to help you. They must play the best defence!

Email your answer to Ann (Club Details-Contact Us) or write it on a piece of paper.
  Another Problem from the Workshop.

What would you bid sitting South?

South should avoid making an immediate response of 3NT. It takes away a lot of bidding space and leaves North no room to describe his hand. 3NT might not be the best contract. It is better to make the forcing bid of 2C (change of suit is forcing for one round). This enables North to rebid 2H if he holds five hearts . Therefore the best contract would be 4H not 3NT.

The complete bidding sequence for this hand was (1H, pass, 2C, pass, 2H, pass, 4H, pass, pass, pass.) Therefore enabling South to find the major fit rather than playing in 3NT.

  Invitational or Forcing?

This example is from our Bidding Revision Workshop on Tuesday 11th November. What would you bid next sitting North? What kind of bid is 3H in this bidding sequence? Is it an 'invitational bid' or is it a 'forcing bid'?

The bid of 3H by South is a 'Forcing Bid'. It shows a hand with 13-18 points and 5 hearts. North must choose a game to bid (either 4H or 3NT) depending how many cards he holds in the heart  suit. In this example he has three cards in the heart suit so should bid 4H. Holding only two cards in the heart suit he would have bid 3NT.

Note if playing Transfers the bidding would have been as follows............1NT, Pass, 2D, Pass, 2H, Pass, 3NT, Pass, 4H, Pass, Pass, Pass.

  A Hand from Banningham.

This hand was Board 8 on Monday morning at Banningham, nobody vulnerable, dealer West. It caused lots of interest and discussion. On our table West opened 3D, how would you bid the hand and what do you think is the best contract?

"To pre-empt or not to pre-empt that is the question"

This hand was played ten times by East in a variety of contracts 3C, 4C, 5C and 3NT. On our table when West opened 3D, East bid 4C which was passed out. I wonder what East would bid if West does not open 3D......................Somebody suggested that if West passed East should open 3C or perhaps even "The Gambling 3NT"............East would be hoping that the opponents could not take too many tricks in defence before they could get in and run their long club suit and cash the Ace of Spades to give them nine tricks.

(The text book says that if your partner opens "The Gambling 3NT" you should only pass if you hold an honour card in three suits. Otherwise you should bid 4 clubs which can be left or converted to 4 Diamonds as appropriate.)

Defending 3NT N/S have four heart tricks and the AD, contract one off.............. but if South leads a Spade then West has nine top tricks contract making.

Playing in clubs there are the same four losers, (three hearts and a diamond) assuming the six of clubs is removed from the dummy.......that is again only nine tricks

Is West perhaps a little light to open 3D with just two Kings.....The 'Rule of 500' says that to pre-empt non-vulnerable you should see 6 tricks in own your hand, and to pre-empt vulnerable you should see seven tricks in your own hand.

If West does not bid is East too strong to open 3C or 3NT with the singleton AS as well as a long solid minor and would it in fact be better to open 1 Club............. or should it be 2 Clubs?

The ten times East played this hand it only went off twice giving N/S a positive score of 50 points. The best scores went to the players who played in 3NT making............. but as we can see that can go off one.

Much of the discussion I overheard was about pre-empts........................but was there a pre-empt there at all?......................Please send in your thoughts on this hand how you think the bidding should go and the final contract.