Here is a hand played recently in the Club, where a choice in the bidding can decide how successful you are, but what can North do?

Option 1 -  Bid 2 ♥, requesting South to bid 2 ♠ (you know from the opening bid that they have at least two), and then jumping up to 4 ♠, with the lovely solid ♠ suit that you have. Contract 4 ♠ by South.

Option 2 -  Bid 3 NT. You have 14 HCP's, and you add them to your partner's (average 13) hand. You would do this with a solid 6 card minor, but should you do it with a solid 6 card major? Also, your opponents do not know that you have such a hand, and it has more chance of attracting a favourable lead (such as A ♥). Contract 3 NT by South.

Option 3 - Bid Stayman. This seems like that this is the worst option, as you are hoping for your partner to have 4 no ♠ out of the 7 no remaining? OK, so you get to a game contract, but the better hand is the dummy. Contract 4 ♠ by North.  

This hand will ultimately depend on how you play the ♥ suit. Guess it correctly, and you will only lose one trick (to the A ♥). Guess it incorrectly, and you could lose to the J ♥ as well. And, you also have the losing ♦ to deal with as well.

In a 3 NT contract, you get the opening lead of 3 ♣. This turns out to be the standard lead of 4th highest from their longest suit. This is won in dummy (with their singleton), and immediately they try the ♥ finesse, by playing small to the 10 ♥. Why do this now? Surely you can play off a few of my winners, before you try this play? The truth is, that the gain is far more, if you do it early enough. You have control of every other suit, so you can comfortably cope with whatever suit is returned. If you play off all your winning ♠, the defenders get a chance to see what discards you as declarer make, which will give them an idea of which suit to attack. When West takes their A ♥, they have no clear idea of where to go, and seeing a ♣ void on the table, may well be inclined to lead another ♣. But, the hand is over, as you can see 6 ♠ tricks, 2 ♥ tricks, 1 ♦ trick & 3 ♣ tricks, just losing 1 trick to the A ♥. 

 This hand was mostly played by partnerships in 4 ♠, which made 10 or 11 tricks, but 3 NT here made 12 tricks, for a top. Even if 4 ♠ can make 12 tricks (and it is possible), the extra 10 points for playing in a NT contract, always gives you the edge.  

NEW PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS & EXISTING MEMBERS ARE WELCOME. YOU DO NOT NEED A PARTNER.

We start, on Thursdays, at 10.00 a.m. for two & a half hours approximately, finishing at 12.30 p.m.

Well it happened again, and not all the cake was consumed & we still have the capacity for more members & newcomers to turn up. 

Last week, we tried looking at the wonderful world of Bridge, which is available on the internet, without a lot of success. This week, we will looking at the losing trick count, and how it can help you.

This relaxed & laid back session is predominantly aimed at people who want to learn the basic information about bridge, and to explore a bit further into the game. Our basic session can include :-

• Playing up to eight hands, possibly more on some specific occasions. These will all be pre-dealt hands that have not been played before, and so will all be new, even to myself. After playing a hand, you can have a chat at the table about these hands, if you so desire, unless you are specifically requested not to, in the case of competitions. 
• There will definitely be a break around the half - time  mark, for a cuppa & a bite to eat. The kettle is always boiled when you arrive, so you can grab a cuppa then as well.
• Normally we will have a topic to talk about - this usually changes every week!
• Normally we encompass at least one sample hand - just to illustrate a particular point, but not always on our topic.
• Sometimes, we can have a little chat about what is going on at the Club. 

We want this session to be a fun & very relaxed session, and a place to learn about the world of Bridge, as well as card play & defence - two absolute basics of playing Bridge. We would also encourage you to talk & discuss Bridge related problems, and if you do not fully understand something, PLEASE ask & we will try and answer your query, even if it is not straight away. 

Please note that this session is to be charged at the same rate as any of the other Wakefield Bridge Club's sessions. I look forward to the journey..............

Do not forget that the club does run teams events, on a reasonably regular basis. These occur predominately on a Monday evening (once a month) or sometimes on a Thursday evening (once every three months).

Please look out for these nights, which also appear on the "MENU" under "CALENDAR".

The next Monday teams session is on Monday 28th April. Please sign up on the notice board................... There is also one planned to occur on Monday 19th May.

The next Thursday teams session is on Thursday 8th May. You can sign up for this when the notice appears on the board......................

The next committee meeting of Wakefield Bridge Club is on Tuesday 29th 2025 @ 6.45 p.m. This is our annual AGM, and as such, this is for all of our members, your opportunity to ask questions of your committee, as well as possibly alter the personnel on your committee as well. Please look out for a nominations sheet to appear on the notice board in the near future................ 

If there is anything that you think might need raising at this meeting, please ask one of the committee members to bring it up on your behalf. The names and photographs of the committee members are on one of the notice boards in the big Bridge room, so that they cannot hide!

The committee members act on behalf of YOU the members, and to help keep the Club in a financially stable condition, amongst many other considerations.  

Is there any more we can do on other matters? Tell us please, and you never know what may happen!

As a thank you to all those members who turn up on the night & attend the AGM, we are pleased to offer a FREE evening of Bridge on that evening. Please note that this is not a transferable offer, and it could possibly involve playing a few less hands than normal (this is dependent on how long the AGM lasts).

Look on the web-site under "CALENDAR" for all future Committee meetings dates, including the date of the 2026 AGM ...................

The last Fun Day took place on Saturday 4th January 2025. We raised just over £1700.00, a fantastic amount, so THANK YOU all for your generosity. Thanks also go to everyone involved in making this event happen.

We are pleased to announce that the next Fun Day, will take place on Saturday 7th June, at a cost of £20.00 per person, and you should add your names & food choices, on the list on the notice board ........................... 

The food will be a choice of either Pie or Lasagna (Vegetarian options of both available). Your raffle donations will be gratefully received, and raffle tickets will be available shortly. As always, the proceeds of this event, will be used to enhance the experience of playing Bridge in our Club.

We have started to get involved playing in the EBU Seasonal Sims Pairs events, which take place approximately every three months. This gives us all an opportunity to measure ourselves up against other bridge clubs & members from around the country, as well as our Club results, there will also be National results for each day, from every Club that participated on that particular day. 

Over the course of four days (Monday - Thursday), the same hands are played up & down the country - (they are different boards each day). We normally play on a Thursday, and the cost of each of these events is normally £3.00 + our normal session charge, with the £3.00 going to the EBU charity EBED.   

The 2025 dates for the British (Seasonal) Sims Pairs events are :-

1. Summer on Thursday 24th July 2025. 
2. Autumn on Thursday 9th October 2025.

More details to follow (as & when we enter these events)............................

An idea which we are looking into is Cafe Bridge. This is just as simple as it seems - Bridge played in a Cafe. We are at present looking into Cafe's in the centre of Wakefield, where we could try this out. Our idea is simply to promote the game of Bridge to the inhabitants of Wakefield, some of whom may be under the misapprehension that Bridge is a game/pastime that takes place in big houses, played by well off people (it seems to be portrayed this way on television). We all know that this is truly, nowhere near the truth!

We are probably looking at a time which is not a busy time (meal times), but when they are open & have some passing trade. The idea that I have is, for it to be more of a social scene than a formal session, with the only charge being for the food & drink that you purchase. It may be a good idea or it may not, but other Bridge Clubs up & down the country have tried it, so why not us! This is still a work in progress (as at April 2025). 

We are also looking into more ways to get out & about to promote our Bridge Club, as we feel sure that there are a lot of people out there, who are totally unaware of us & what we offer. Watch this space to see what develops.....................

In the course of researching this topic, I came across Bridge holidays based on playing Bridge in cafe's, and that the history of this goes back to 2012. Who knew? 

You all may not be aware, of what we have available in our Club, or what we have been doing inside our Club :-

• Our smaller room now has more playing tables in it.
• The blinds on the western side of our venue, have all been upgraded this year. 
• Have you noticed the additional new two sets of coat hooks outside the kitchen? 
• Do you have any ideas to make things easier at the Club?
• We are currently working very hard to improve our accessibility, for all members of our population, who wish to play Bridge, either now, or in the future. This is a long term issue, and it is not going to go away. 

Things are happening all around! The fact that YCBA wishes to bring prestige competitions to our venue, speaks a lot about what we are trying to create in our Club. 

There may be other ideas that you may have, or we, your committee have, to make things nicer & easier to play Bridge at Wakefield Bridge Club. Please watch this space.........