Видео

I don't generally worry about suit quality for preempts. I might consider it if I'm bidding with less points than I am promising, or if I'm bidding above the level that my length promises. But I almost never bid down a level. I find bidding down a level can do damage on both the auction and the defense (partner is far more likely to give the opponents a ruff and a sluff if I've told them I have one less of the suit than I actually have). My style of preempts is aggressive. I find the disruptive value to be worth the risk. Your partnership might have a different style. :) This is a great question and something to discuss with your partner. One of the things that makes a partnership great, if is you are on the same page in style, or at least if your styles balance each other out. Some partnerships prefer a less aggressive preempt style, requiring suit quality at all levels and even more points. There's nothing wrong with this. It's all about your comfort level and how aggressive you prefer to play. I would add this note about style: The better your declarer play, the more aggressive your system can be. If you are relatively new to the game and your declarer play is still developing, you might adopt a more conservative style, increasing how aggressive you bid as your play gets better and better.

You're welcome! Thank you for watching.

Welcome! Bidding 2c with a weak hand and 6 clubs is an easy mistake to make. One of those painful lessons you tend to remember!

You're welcome! Thank you for watching.

Great question! There are a variety of styles for gambling 3NT. But most of them include a minimum suit quality of AKQ or at the very least AKJ. Missing the AJ of the suit, most people would not bid gambling 3NT. The idea behind gambling 3NT is that you have a long, running, minor suit. The suit should be self-sustaining, (not needing help from partner) to take 7 or 8 tricks. Which is why there is a suit quality requirement. But of course, different partnerships play this differently.

Thank you! Hopefully, you and your partner can find some time before the game to talk about your style and agreements and fill out a convention card. This can make things easier and more fun. It can be useful to discuss with the club (before they find you a partner) what is important to you. Do you care about skill level? Or do you just want someone who will be friendly no matter how the game goes? I hope you have a good time and meet some great people.

@@thebridgeteachers Thx! I will do that. We'll mostly agree to play the system of the less experienced player. It will be a trial period 1st. I already told them i want to play in the A-line (it's not too strong a club). We'll see!

@@Reteph58 Best of luck! I hope it goes well.

Thank you for watching!

Thank you!

You're welcome! Thanks for watching.

It's true! You don't need to know where the Kd is. It's also true that this is difficult to think about while you are playing. The key is building the habit of thinking about it. Oh, my partner played the ace when following? They don't have the king. My partner led a low card? They probably have an honor. Which honor could that be? My partner led a high card, they probably don't have an honor, then the missing honors are probably in the opponents' hands. As we build this habit and practice it, it becomes easier an easier until it's second nature. Just takes time and repetition. Thanks for watching!

In order to fully see the endplay, we would have to count the hand and have a pretty good understanding of the shape of the east hand. So don't feel bad! The core of this lesson is that first step in placing hidden high cards by having solid defensive agreements with partner. Thank you for watching!

Bridge is a fantastic game and I am sorry to see you go. I appreciate your notes and feedback. As a result, I have incorporated significantly more onscreen notes in my video lessons for the website (not for RUclips as teaching real-life hand examples requires a slightly different approach). Best of luck in all your endeavors.

@@thebridgeteachers And I hope I'm not trying to imply that I'm at you (compared to everyone else I tried to reach out, it's beyond a shadow of a doubt that you and Brian were the best listeners). I think what I'm trying to say is that there is a general problem with the bridge teaching community -- outside of you -- which basically screams "if you don't have access to a physical club and aren't 70 years of age and retired, we don't want you". They also miss something else: Even so much as a sample, condensed version of a physical whiteboard lecture sends the clear message to potential players that if the conventional way of teaching online doesn't work and you don't have access to a club, there's still ways for you to learn, even if 1-to-1 is more your speed. If you want to do any favor at all, I would suggest getting in touch with the ACBL's education department and tell them that their current attitude towards teaching is killing their game. Their Intro to Bridge course is in dire need of a self-study version with only physical whiteboard lectures for those who learn differently, but Stephanie Threlkeld (ACBL education direction) is too stiff-necked, ignorant, or possibly both to accept that. You'll get your share of students because you deserve them, but there is a reason the retention rate of potential players is an atrocious 1 in 10; most people don't take feedback anywhere near as well as you do. Best of luck with all your endeavors in the future.

@@journeymanproject1756 I appreciate hearing your thoughts. I love this game. I think it's an amazing game and it is our mission to introduce as many people to it as possible and to make it as accessible as possible. So thank you for your thoughts. As I said, I made changes to how I edit my videos because of your feedback. I appreciate you taking the time to share. This is the most amazing game, and the more people we can show that to, the better.

That's a great adjustment to the strategy of the hand! Free beer should always be our first consideration, for certain.

One problem with playing another round of spades before working on diamonds is that then dummy would be out of spades and the opponents might be able to set up a trick in either trumps or hearts by playing hearts when they win the Ace of Diamonds. Our teacher did not show all the hands so East may have had four hearts to start with.

Great question! I agree with @dancle167. One of the dangers of playing in a 4-3 trump fit is being forced to trump on the long side. The trumps are most likely to be 4-2. If we are forced to trump on the long side, then the defender with four trumps now has more trump than we do in our hand. Keeping the spade in dummy while losing the diamond will allow us to trump on the short side if a heart is led, protecting our length in trump in our hand. There is definitely risk in playing diamonds with trump outstanding, but we can afford to lose a spade trick and still make the hand. And if the trumps were 4-2, another round won't help as the person with the four spades will still have one and the person with 2 is already out. Playing diamonds with 2 trump outstanding may cost a trick, but I think it's more likely that keeping the trump in dummy will be helpful when we lose the lead.

@@dancle167 Great answer! It turns out that the hearts were 5-3 (with west having 5). But your point is still extremely valid, because there's no guarantee that the hand that wins the Ad is out of hearts. It could just as easily be the other hand and now you'll be grateful for that trump in dummy!

You're welcome! Thank you for watching.

You're welcome! It's very useful. I'm glad you and your partner are doing it.

Thank you. I like that! Fast winners. That's great.

This is a fantastic question! We do have the ingredients for an endplay here. We can eliminate the other suits, we will have trump on both sides and we can throw the opponents in with something we were always going to lose anyway. One of the down sides is that we cannot control who we throw in. If east wins the last of our losers, then this is fantastic, because our QJ8 is playing fourth. If west wins, it's not as good for us, but it still does improve our chances because our A is now playing fourth. The biggest downside is that if they give us a ruff and a sluff, it isn't particularly helpful. One of the benefits to an endplay is that if the opponents give you a ruff and a sluff, the sluff gets rid of your loser. Here, a ruff and a sluff leaves us with QJ8 opp A962 or QJ83 opp A96 and only 1 trump left. We are faced with much the same problem as before we attempted the endplay. If we lead the Qs and it is covered, we still could potentially lose the T. Looking for an endplay when your only option is finesse is really fantastic bridge. And most of the elements we need for an endplay are here. Great question.

@thebridgeteachers thanks Samantha for your answer. Very very helpful!!

@@clasesdelucrecia1616 You're welcome!

I don't know many partnerships that are overcalling 1s with QJ9832/3/JT5/T87. In fact, there are a fair amount of partnerships that wouldn't even overcall this hand 2s (which is a much better description of it). If partner made a jump overcall, then I definitely would not cue bid. But when partner bids 1s and has 8-16 points, making a unilateral decision like 4s could put partner in a very bad position if west bids 5h, because now partner thinks we have a weak hand when in fact we have a strong hand and is making a decision at the 5 level with incorrect information. If partner is at the middle of the overcall range, defending may well be correct. If partner as at the top, we might belong in 6s. Not properly describing our hand could put partner in a very bad position and is likely to get us to the wrong contract.

​@thebridgeteachers If you are going to teach bridge, you need to teach that bridge is a four-habded game! "Partner has 8-16" is treating bridge as a two-handed game! When West shows 12+, East 10+ and I have 10 HCP I KNOW which end of 8-16 partner has, and so would anyone who learns that bridge is a four-handed game. So teach that! Before my first bid I know we can make 4 S, but the opponents don't know that. Why tell them and help them make their decisions? You call that "unilateral", I call it common sense! I am the only player at the table that knows what my side can make, which is always a game and never a slam. The people that get good at bridge learn from the beginning that bridge is a four-handed game, so teach that.

You're welcome! Thank you for watching.

Thank you!

This is why how two hands are fitting together is so important. Two good fits dramatically increases our trick taking potential.

Great conversation to have with partner. Moments like this help us refine and clarify our agreements.

You're welcome! Thank you for watching.

Thank you for watching!

You're welcome! Thank you for watching.

David, that's fantastic! Thinking about the distribution of the points on every hand is a HUGE mile stone. Well done! If you struggle with counting shape, be sure to start by working on hands where a lot is known about the shape of the hidden hands (when one of them has preempted).

You're welcome! Thanks for watching.

This is both a great question and observation! By covering the first spade with the king, east promotes their partner's ten, but simultaneously makes it possible for us to finesse. If east waits, not covering the first honor, now declarer has to decide what to do. If declarer decides to play a low spade to the ace, the king falls to the ace without promoting the ten. But if declarer goes wrong and leads the second high honor from north, now declarer cannot finesse the ten and partner gets a trick. Generally, when the opposing side has two honors, we want to cover the second honor for just this reason (so the other side cannot finesse our partner). Because the king is doubleton, declarer can actually succeed regardless of which choice east makes, so the question is... which one makes it harder for declarer to succeed?

Thank you for watching.

If the partnership is playing level of the fit, then 3d would be the correct bid with west's hand. They have a 9-card fit in diamonds and should therefore bid to take 9 tricks. 3d is actually a good contract for them. Assuming they get the diamonds right, they are making 3d which is far better than letting 2h make.

Yes! Mirror hands remove a lot of our options.

Great question! This is absolutely possible. It can be useful to examine multiple possibilities. There are two for the clubs: If partner's 6c was singleton, then west is 5-3-2-3. If partner's 6c was not a singleton, then declarer is 5-3-1-4. Ideally, we consider both possibilities and then as the play occurs, determine which is correct. On trick 5, partner leads another club, confirming which it is. Now we know declarer's shape is 5-3-1-4. You are correct, I made an assumption about the clubs early on, ignoring the other possibility. It would have been better to think about both and then on trick 5, when we have confirmation of what is going on in clubs, determine the true shape of the west hand.

@@thebridgeteachers Thank you

@@AlixaDaoc You're welcome!

That's a good policy. If you are not sure, it's usually better to err on the side of covering. If you cover all the time, you will be right far more than you will be wrong.

You're welcome!

Thank you!

You're welcome!

That's a great idea and can be the best solution. In this situation, discarding a loser is a reasonable choice, but probably not the best one. There are two things to consider when making this decision: Can the defense continue to lead the suit with negative results for you? In other words, if we discard a heart here, can east continue and lead another spade? If they do, is the situation, better, the same, or worse? The second thing to consider is how certain you are to lose the card you are discarding. In this case, if we discard, west will be on lead and we will be playing fourth, so a spade continuation would not harm us. When we consider the certainty of losing a heart, however, we have multiple ways to get rid of the heart loser, potentially not losing that trick. So, while west leading a spade after we discard a heart isn't a concern, discarding a heart on this trick and losing it, when we have other ways to avoid that loser may cost us a trick in the long run.

@ thank you 👍🏻

Thank you!

You're welcome!

If you go to thebridgeteachers.com/ and scroll down to the bottom of any of the pages, on the bottom right hand side is a place for you to put your email to sign up for our Newsletter, which has a hand of the month. Once you sign up, every month you will be sent the newsletter. We are working on putting the past newsletters on the website and hopefully that will be available soon!

You're welcome! Thank you for watching.

Thank you, David!

I love your analysis. Everyone plays a bit differently. I like to bid a major here with four (denying the other major as I would double if I had both). But playing 1h as 5 is also perfectly reasonable.

@@thebridgeteachers If you had 5 spades and 4 hearts, would you bid '1 spade' or 'negative double'? And what would you bid if you had 5 hearts and 4 spades? Ty.

I tend to favour 1N response too waiting to see what happens next, 1 H post 1D should show 5 carder H

@@Reteph58 With 4 or more cards in both majors, I would double. So in both of your scenarios here I would double. When a major has not been bid, I prefer the negative double to tell my partner whether I have only one of the unbid majors (by bidding that major) or both (by doubling).

@@checkvideo12 That's a great agreement. Everyone has to find the system that works best for their style.

Glad you enjoyed it!