NEWSLETTER

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 ACBL’s “Deal Me In"

Click Here to read this month's edition of ACBL’s “Deal Me In," a guide designed to help novice bridge players navigate the intricacies of the game.

In this article, we will explore essential bidding strategies for balanced hands, bridge terminologies, and provide quick tips for declarer play.

 

- ANNOUNCEMENT -

Josée Hammill wins 2020/21 Teacher of the Year Award

 

The American Bridge Teachers’ Association (ABTA) announced on August 17 that the winner of the 2020/21 Teacher of the Year award is Josée Hammill of Toronto, Canada.

Josée has devoted herself to the craft of instructing new and intermediate players in the joy and mysteries of the fabulous game of bridge.

Those of us who have been her students thank Josée for her dedication to the role of teacher and mentor. We congratulate her on this acknowledgement of her teaching excellence.

Well done, Josée!

Update: Josée has been featured on the ABTA magazine! Click on the image above or here to download the PDF.

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Learning Centre
ACBL’s “Deal Me In,"
 
 

July 2023

 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Welcome to the ACBL’s “Deal Me In,” featuring content for new members to help get you started.

 
 
 
 
 

Best Bidding

Balanced hands and the notrump ladder

Playing “standard” or Two-Over-One, balanced hands are usually easy to handle when it comes to opening the bidding. The following chart is simple to follow:

 

0–11 high-card points: Pass

Avoid opening hands such as:

 A 6 4

K 7 3 2

Q 9 4

♣ Q 8 2

 

12–14 HCP: Open one of a suit, planning to rebid 1NT

Holding:

K J 2

9 3

A K 5 4

♣ Q 10 7 3

Open 1. If partner responds 1, bid 1NT.

 

15–17 HCP: Open 1NT

With:

K Q 9 2

K Q 8

A Q 7 3

♣ 9 5

Open 1NT. Don’t let the low doubleton in clubs bother you. 1NT is the best description.

 

 

18–19 HCP: Open one of a suit, planning to rebid 2NT

If you hold:

A J 9

K 10 2

K J 5 4

♣ A Q 6

Open 1 (your longest suit), and if partner responds 1 or 1, you will next jump to 2NT.

 

 

20–21 HCP: Open 2NT

Here’s a 2NT opener:

Q 9 8 7 3

A K 2

K Q 10

♣ A Q

Even with a five-card spade suit, this hand is balanced and has 20 HCP.

 

 

22–24 HCP: Open 2♣ and rebid 2NT

Many pairs use a strong, forcing and artificial 2♣ to announce a powerhouse. If partner responds 2 – commonly used as a waiting bid to see what opener has – opener’s 2NT follow-up shows a balanced 22–24 HCP:

A Q 7

♥ K Q 3 2

A J 8

♣ A K 4

 
 
 
 
 

Bridge Term Breakdown

Position (noun)

 

1. There are different ways to describe where players sit at the table. One way is the compass position: North, South, East and West:

 
 
 

2. Another way to describe position is first seat (the dealer), second seat, third seat and fourth seat:

 
 
 

3. Once the bidding starts, the first player to bid is called the opener. If opener’s partner bids something, that player is called the responder:

 
 

4. If an opponent bids directly after the opener, that player is the overcaller. If the partner of the overcaller bids, that player is known as the advancer:

 
 
 
 
 

Declarer Tips

Taking care of business

 
 

 

After you open 2NT as South, showing 20–21 high-card points, North raises to 6NT.

The opening lead from West, on your left, is the J. What’s your plan to take 12 tricks?

 
 
 
 

 

Answer:

In notrump contracts, it’s often helpful to count your “sure” winners as soon as you see the dummy. Here, you have three spades ( A K Q), three hearts ( A K Q) and three diamonds ( A K Q) for a total of nine. How do you get the remaining three tricks? From clubs, of course. Therefore, before taking any of these fast winners, you should work on the club suit.

After winning the opening spade lead in your hand, you should drive out the opponents’ ♣A: Play the ♣K at trick two. After one of your opponents takes the ace, you can win whatever suit is returned and take the rest of the tricks.

Here’s the full deal:

 

If you take your sure winners before tackling the clubs, the contract will fail. Look at the West hand: If declarer cashes the top spades, hearts and diamonds and only then plays a club, West will win the ace and cash a winner in spades, hearts and diamonds to beat 6NT by three tricks!

Lesson: In notrump, consider establishing winners in suits that require knocking out the opponents’ winners before cashing your fast tricks.

 
 

Nothing is quite like face-to-face play! Click here to find a club or click here to find a tournament.


Learning Centre

Welcome to the World of Duplicate: What to Expect at

our Play and Learn Game

When you arrive meet the  director who  will help you find a partner if you need one and also direct you to which table you will start playing from.  Do you know how to score, even if it is just a little?  Then please tell the director  and he will give you a North/South Direction.

The game runs from 12.45  pm to 3:30 pm.  There is a bridge tip first and then the game starts at 1 pm. . A duplicate game is very much like flying on an airplane. You cannot arrive late and you cannot leave early. We promise you that we will not go one minute beyond 3:30 pm.

Shuffle, Deal & Play

The director  will place duplicate boards on your table. At 1 pm ,  you will be asked  to shuffle and deal the cards. Cards are dealt for the first round only. No more shuffling! A good habit to develop is to ALWAYS count your cards when pulling them out of the board, and ALWAYS counting them before returning them to the board.

Move for the Next Round

To keep the game going smoothly, each round of two boards is timed. When you have finished all of your boards at a given table, before moving to the next table, please wait for the director to announce the new round. North-South remain stationary while East-West move to the next higher table and the boards move to the next lower table.  

“Director, Please”

The director  has many roles at the game but their most important one is to help you with your bidding and playing so that you can learn and grow. The director is there to help you. Do not hesitate to call him by saying Director, Please.

How Did You Do?

At end of the day, check on Josee’s website at www.bridgewebs.com/josees for the full results.

Thank You, Partner

Bridge is as friendly as the players, and it’s important to be a good partner and opponent. Introduce your partner and yourself to the opponents at the start of each round. Treat everyone as if they are guests in your living room. Thank your partner when she puts down the dummy. Wish the opponents good luck before you start the game. Don’t get upset about a bad result — you get to start fresh with the next 13 cards. Bridge is a game. Have fun!

We hope you will enjoy playing here. Do not hesitate to contact Josee at mjhammill@rogers.com with bridge questions, concerns or comments to improve your experience on Tuesdays.

Completing your convention card

You probably understand that the convention card is primarily for the benefit of your opponents. You may be surprised to learn that the process of completing your convention card is a great learning experience. Of course, the best way of completing a convention card is to sit down with your regular partner and complete the card step by step. But if you play occasionally with other partners, having a completed card will simplify and shorten the time spent just before a game with a new partner.

Completing all of the sections may seem like a daunting task. What do some of those abbreviations mean? What do the colours mean? Certainly it will take a couple of hours if you are doing it together with your partner. Fortunately, we have located a couple of resource sites on the web which will prove useful:

We recommend that everyone playing with us have a completed convention card available. If you are having any difficulty completing your card, please contact us.

We also recommend that you use one of the available convention card editors that you can install on your computer. These editors allow you to save one or more cards. This has the following benefits:

  • If you play with a variety of partners, you can save a card tailored to each partnership.
  • Having the ability to print out your card enables you to avoid having to complete a new card every time you make a change or having a card full of deletions and messy updates.

Convention Card Editors

ACBL Convention Card Editor – Download a PDF file that you can edit and print. Click here to download.

Other Convention Card Editors (none of these are supported by ACBL)

BridgeWinners.com Convention Card Editor

Download Merlin Vilhauer’s Card Editor

We recommend the program by Chuck Tesler. Click HERE to download this FREE program. Contact Chuck or Bill Jensen if you need any technical help.

Conventions

ACBL one page summaries

The major bidding conventions in a handy one page format for each can be found in the Bidding Toolbox on the ACBL site. Click HERE to read or print..

Bridge Bum

A much more complete list of conventions with short summaries is at the Bridge Bum web site.