|
 Read Sample Deals — MAJOR Openings. Read Sample Deals — minor openings. NOTES June 22, 2016 "Where? Where are those links to those Sample Deals you have been telling us to go look at?" This quote comes from one of my students who, evidently, does not know how to scroll on a web-page. "Scroll down," I say. "Scroll down about seven paragraphs." "But so many words!" I think she wants to say to me, but does not dare because she knows that I am the guy who wrote all those words. And now today I am adding so many more. So herewith I put those three very important links to the Sample Deals at the very top of the text. See above. And here, here for the extremely hard of seeing and finding, here they are again: Read Sample Deals — MAJOR Openings. Read Sample Deals — minor openings. You will please excuse my making fun of my student; I am sure she will excuse me, too, because she has a great sense of Yuma. Now for the introduction as originally written: My good friend Maggie Edwy and I are embarking on a new adventure with Sacramento Bridge Center's move to a new location. (google "sacbridge") We will be teaching Bridge to Absolute Beginners, hoping to attract them into the new excitement of Maggie's Duplicate Bridge Game. It is a wonderful undertaking and a profound gift to the Sacramento community. Maggie and I have often said that learning Bridge is like learning a new language. Since Maggie is a quatri-lingal from an ancient civilization and I am a trilingual Californian (how modern can I get?) we know whereof we speak. One does not learn a new language in a day or a week or after ten lessons. "But come on, Maggie!" I tell her. "I learned to play Bridge when I was in 3rd Grade!" "But perfectly, Bob?" "Well, certainly not. One doesn't learn any language perfectly, either. Ever. I'm still learning the game, even while I'm teaching it." "Exactly!" "But I learned the fundamentals! I could sit down at the table and play the game! That is the way I want to teach the class. If a 3rd Grader can do it, anyone can!" Against all teaching advice from all the egg-spurts, I start my students on MAJOR SUIT OPENINGS. Everyone tells me, "Oh, no, Bob, start with Notrump." Nope, you get dealt a NT opener about one hand out of twenty; why start with an anomaly? Yes, first time playing out a deal, yes, by all means just stick to high-card-takes-the trick. Then move on to follow-suit. Then move on to that great and glorious invention, the trump suit. But when you do, make it a MAJOR SUIT TRUMP suit because you get thirty points per trick with a MAJOR SUIT and only twenty points a trick for a minor suit trump. (Notice the intended caps and lower case: not a typo.) In my syllabus I used to move from 1) MAJOR SUIT OPENINGS & RESPONSES right into 2) minor suit openings & responses, but during this second 10-week class, I decided to move from 1) MAJOR SUIT to 2) NT OPENINGS despite the fact that this introduces perhaps too soon the challenge to the Beginning Player of learning two important conventions of the game: * Jacoby Transfer response (offering a 5-card MAJOR) * Stayman (offering a 4-card MAJOR) But since I have already spent at least two lessons on the values of the 5-card MAJOR, this change of 1) then 2) makes great sense. Then last of all we move to 3) minor suit openings and responses because, Yeeminy, there are so many anomalies to the conventions within minor suit openings, and yes, maybe by Lessons 9 and 10 the students will be ready for them. Especially since every lesson I emphasize that the GOAL when you open up the cards of every deal is to find a MAJOR SUIT FIT with hopefully enough high card points to reach the GAME Plateau. I have been an author for literally ever (see me above left as a young man pondering my next words on my next page) and now in my more advanced years (yes, see me above right puzzling over my computer trying to figure out how to make a new webpage and get onto this new webpage all of the many bridge aids that I have been composing for my bridge students these past few years). It was in 2009, I guess, that I first got the idea to start teaching Bridge, with the goal of becoming a Bridge Director on cruise ships in order to see the rest of the world that I have been missing all my life. For accreditation with ACBL (American Contract Bridge League, www.acbl.org) I took a class taught by Audrey Grant, Empress of Bridge, which inspired me —propelled me actually— into writing a book called BITE-SIZED BRIDGE and then I added the subtitle FOR MOM AND POP —(on cruises, on vacation, playing together honeymooney-spooney) hoping to appeal to the recently-retired Baby-Boomers. And now at the end of 2015 and —it seems more and more daily the end of my life at age 70— I revised the book for weeks and added the next subtitle And Young Couples Wanting to Share a Feast of Fun. But I keep running into the probable truth, the to-me-horrifying truth, that perhaps such "couples" do not even exist. It seems it's all individuals on their own, sometimes hooking up in partnerships that work for a while. But maybe I myself am such an egoist these days (as opposed to egotist, which I don't think I really am) that I'm blinded by the sheer gargantuan-ness of this game that I once thought I could make simple by rendering it "bite-sized". Maggie and I hope to bring folks young and old into our Duplicate games at Sacramento Bridge Center where we will teach them the rudiments and they can continue to learn through their own joyful practice in the Center. We will have our own separate classroom with all the latest equipment along with the standard equipment of many decks of cards. It will be immediately Hands-On and Brains-In learning. And if you care to see why Maggie and I love this game so much, here, read Why Bridge? The Hullabaloo, Hush, Passion, Fun !!! of the World's Greatest Game. As you learn to play the game, you may become downcast at how much there is to learn and what a beginner you are. Take heart. This game is so worth the effort. And when you become less of a rookie, you can begin going out to some of the many bridge competitions in your area, not only at local clubs like Sacramento Bridge Center but at area "Sectionals" and "Regionals" and even "Nationals". I told you about my book BITE-SIZED BRIDGE. What fun and what misery that book was to write, trying to get such complexity into as few and precise words as possible! I was positively hemorrhoidal before I finished the first chapter. But I got it all done and it is now a walloping, concise 49 pages —amusing stories of gaffes and successes included— plus five appendices and a glossary of fifteen pages from A to XYZ. Connect to BITE-SIZED BRIDGE. Refer to that book's GLOSSARY here. Opening both windows at once allows you to go back and forth from the chapters to the Glossary for quicker associative learning as you come across new terms in the book. I was at first unable to convince publishers that such a book for Absolute Beginners was a good idea. Marty Bergen told me —and Marty is the most accessible bridge Egg-Spurt you will ever have the luck to run into, with Bridge bids even named after him— "Your book looks good, Bob, but not for me. The clientele for my books are all advanced players." And they certainly are. Marty is a great source for learning materials, but not for Beginners. So I put aside BITE-SIZED BRIDGE for a couple of years. But as soon as I began putting up this webpage with its various Bridge handouts, I realized quickly that the Web with its easy ability to link between and among several windows of bite-sized new concepts is exactly the way to study and learn this game. BITE-SIZED BRIDGE is written for partnerships from "Absolute Beginners" all the way up to "Self-Proclaimed Egg-Spurts". I have tried to make it amusing and entertaining as well as jam-packed with hands-on instruction even from the title page onward A Hands-On Step-by-Step Guide and Cookbook for Partners with a list of famous and infamous couples (and even a few three-ways) a half-page long. Well, go look at the title page for yourselves; you may find yourselves titillated, even hooked. For my students now, I offer not only BITE-SIZED BRIDGE but also this present webpage of links (below) to far simpler Bridge handouts which the reader can feel free to print. That saves on the paper I must carry on the cruises. All these materials bear my copyright, but I give you permission to use them as you wish so long as you give me attribution and include this webpage address if you forward these materials. BRIDGE STUDENTS: I use the word "Beginning" in the two handouts below, but these two handouts go way beyond "Beginning Bridge". Well, that is because this game becomes very complex very quickly. If you want real beginning material, go back up to the link to BITE-SIZED BRIDGE but remember that is an entire book of more than 70 pp., starting out with Beginners and moving on gradually. Another nifty option besides the Two-Handed and Three-Handed Bridge games that I explain in the first two chapters of BITE-SIZED BRIDGE is a simple Four-Handed game called MiniBridge in which players skip over the Auction and concentrate on Play-of-the-Hand. Here is a simplistic look at that option: Learn how to play Minibridge here. The two handouts below are a whole lot of info stuffed into tri-folds. Many of the handouts available from this webpage are tri-folds, meant to be printed and folded twice. A tri-fold is a good idea for easier readability in paper format, but it presents a bit of a problem for reading on the computer screen because you must start at the upper-right panel, move down to the second page, read across all three panels, and then move back up to the first page and read the last two panels at the left. I'm sure you will catch onto the format quickly. Read Beginner Do's-and-Don't's. Read Beginning Bidding. Some teachers prefer to start off Beginning Bidding with the 1NT Opening Bid. I think this must be because the mathematical logic of getting to 25 HCP, the usual minimum for Game, is easier to understand when Opener shows 15-17 HCP. Responder having 8 or 9 HCP makes an "Invitational" response; Responder having 10+ HCP makes a "Game-Going" response. Easy-Peasy. Well, perhaps, but since Opener is far more likely to have the 12-21 HCP for a 1-of-a-minor opening bid or —far easier to understand imho — 1-of-a-MAJOR opening bid, I prefer to start off Beginning Bidding with those more frequent opening bids (two handouts above) where Responder with 10-12 HCP is "Invitational" and Responder with 12+ HCP is "Game Going". When you know the odds, you should play the odds. Therefore I am providing a link her to various probabilities in the game of Bridge, easy to determine statistically and with many webpages devoted to them: google "bridge probabilities" for more details. In the link below, I have included only those probabilities I find most commonly useful as you try to find your way to a Game Contract which—you will find me emphasizing again and again— should be your same goal every time you unfold a new hand. Read Playing the Odds in Bridge. I don't much like reading "Sample Deals" and I sure don't like composing them, but it does help beginners to understand there are PATTERNS in Bridge that keep coming up again and again in the googol-plexillion possible hands to be dealt. Below are some "Pattern Deals" to help find the MAJOR SUIT FIT, that first goal every time you unfold a Bridge Hand. Read Pattern Hands — MAJOR Openings. Read Pattern Hands — minor openings. Read Pattern Hands — NT Openings. Read Pattern Hands - Pre-emptive Openings. That said we have now come to the 1NT Opener, and you need to look at Responder's conventions of Jacoby Transfer and Stayman (best choices) and compare them to the old-fashioned "Respond with your longest suit" strategy. Read Jacoby Transfers and Stayman, plus "Rule of 16". Not to be confused with Jacoby Transfers is the Jacoby 2NT conventional bid, one of the most useful bids to arrive at that most wonderful of all climaxes, the Slam or even (dare I name it) the Grand Slam. There are huge bonuses for bidding and making Slam (12 of 13 tricks) and even huger bonuses for that one chance in 3000 or so to make Grand Slam, all 13 tricks. Getting to a Slam contract is much more complicated than getting to a GAME contract, but with practice and perseverance you and your partner can manage it. Two very useful tools, Jacoby 2NT and its continuations, plus the three conventions that use 4NT as a prompt to ask Partner for aces and/or keycards —Blackwood, 3014 and 1430— are described on this next jam-packed handout: Read Jacoby 2NT, Blackwood, Roman Keycard 3014 and 1430. One of the first Play-of-the-Hand strategies you will learn is "The Finesse". You will no doubt become very pleased with the working of your new brain, but don't get too cocky. The Finesse is only a 50-50 winning strategy, and as you learn to play the hand more securely, you will find better strategies, such as how to dump losers onto a long side suit. Read Finesses, a 50-50 Winning Strategy.
Until this point, the beginner handouts above have assumed no interference by the opponents. The premise has been Opener, Pass, Responder, Pass, Opener, Pass, etc. until three passes and the auction is finished and the contract established. That sort of auction happens less and less frequently as you begin playing against more advanced opponents who have as a main goal disturbing your auction, inserting an overcall of some kind and —drat!— there are so many ways for them to do exactly that—and whee! First take a look at the Overcall. In olden days (back to 1925) cautious bidders would require of themselves the High Card Points necessary for an Opening Hand in order to insert an Overcall. More and more bidders, however, are requiring less and less. My own advice is to require 8-HCP and a 5-card suit (usually) to make an overcall at the One-Level and 10-HCP and a 5-card suit (always) to make an overcall at the Two-Level, at favorable Vulnerability, which means THEM-Vul and US-nonVul. If Vulnerable, I require 10-HCP at the One-Level and 12-HCP (Opening Hand) at the Two-Level. Interference by opponents is not always undesirable. Often, you can make use of their interfering bid(s) in a kind of piggyback way with a Cuebid or a Negative Double, giving your partner valuable information you might not have been able to impart otherwise. They want to interfere? Make them pay for it! In the case of a Negative Double —as in, for example, the auction: 1D-1H-Dbl— Responder tells partner, "I have four of the other MAJOR, spades." What a great thing to be able to tell Partner so clearly without even raising the auction level. Furthermore Responder is saying, "four but not five." And therefore if Responder does bid 1S in that same auction, 1D-1H-1S, Responder is saying, "I do not have only four, but five or more. Just lovely! And nice and lively, too. Thanks Mr. or Ms. Opponent." What welcome extra news that might well be for Opener. Compare that to this auction without interference: 1D-P-1S, where Opener does not know if perhaps Responder has only four spades, or perhaps five, or perhaps even more. The Cuebid can be similarly advantageous. A Cuebid, for the record, is when you bid the same suit as the Opponent. This, of course, cannot possibly happen unless the Opponent does throw in an interfering bid. Enter the Cuebid. Cuebid by Responder is a Limit Raise+: "Partner, I have at least 3+-card support for your Opening Bid plus at least 10+-HCP, perhaps even more." Cuebid by Advancer is more ambiguous and usually happens in an auction such as: 1C-1S-P-2C. The 2C Cuebid by Advancer is saying, "Partner, I have a sizable hand over here, and seeing the pass by Responder, I think that we are the ones who should take this contract. Do you have an Opening Hand? Or did you make your Overcall with less than an Opening Hand?" Unless Opener makes a second bid —and usually Opener does pass, understanding from Responder's pass that this contract belongs to the Opponents— then Overcaller MUST answer Advancer's question."2S. No, partner, unfortunately I do not have an Opening Hand, and unless you have a gangbuster over there, we should settle for Partscore." or Any other bid by Overcaller does show an Opening Hand, and chances are good that Overcaller-Advancer will go to Game. Read Overcaller & Advancer v. Opener & Responder.
Whole books and subsequent books are written on DEFENSE in Bridge because there is so much to say. At the moment I have only a couple of handouts: one that compares Standard carding signals to Upside-Down-Count-and-Attitude (UDCA), and the other that compares Standard discarding signals to Odd-Even and to my preferred Discard signal, Lavinthal. There is also the Beginner Do's-and-Don't's handouts linked above which gives some simple guidelines about First Lead. I hope to provide more incalculably wise advice in the future. But for now— Read Upside-Down versus Standard. Read Suit Preference, Lavinthal v. Odd-Even v. Standard. Perhaps by now you are interested enough in this game to know a little about the history of the game. Well, when you consider that the invention of the indices on the cards themselves —the number or letter in all four corners of the cards, readable right-side-up or upside-down, and allowing you now to fan out 13 cards in one hand rather easily— did not come into being until its patent right after the U.S. Civil War, it is easy to understand that a 13-trick game such as Whist or Bridge could not possibly have been played before that, this despite the fact that trick-taking games extend back into medieval times, and playing cards themselves appear to have been a Chinese invention of the 9th Century C.E. Read A Brief History of Bridge. Although I began to write Bite-Sized Bridge —see the link at the top of this page—as a guide for beginning partnerships, starting out with Honeymoon Bridge for two players, it has grown into more than that. Honeymooners soon begin looking for other partners for the far more satisfying and exciting Four-Handed Bridge games at clubs and tournaments, and Bridge parties, and even parties of Two-Table Bridge. I have invented (I guess since I find it nowhere else) a Two-Table event that I call Swiss Pairs because the partnerships rotate —in the manner of Swiss Teams— through three teams, playing eight boards a round. It's a rather complicated rotation; so to guide the four partnerships through the three team groupings, I have created a special score sheet for Swiss Pairs. Read and print SWISS PAIRS SCORE SHEET here .
Copyright © Dec. 18, 2013 Robert Locke, rev. Feb. 5, 2015, rev. Oct. 16, 2015 |
