René's Bridge Diary

I'm going to resign on Acol. The weak 1NT opening simply does not work efficiently in my experience. It might be on IntoBridge only, but I keep getting bad results more than good ones. Above, I opened 1NT and went down twice. The opponents managed to develop a club trick before I could establish and cash my majors. Opening a minor leads to the natural contract of 2 ♥  which makes.  In those cases where I happily make 1NT blocking them from bidding, opponents on the other table play a major or minor game and go down for more than 90. And there are those cases where a 5-4 minor fit is missed while 1NT makes only 6 tricks. ♠ - ♥ - ♦ - ♣

This hand shows the kind of mishaps you face in Bridge. North has a 5-card club suit. I should have raised to 3♣ immediately, silencing the table. I made 4. But that wasn't good enough. I met the only other player who played 3 ♥  which counts 10 points more. This is another one of that kind. I made 2♣+2. Nobody bid and make 4♠. In fact, nobody ended in spades at all. But the following bidding took place several times. It is one of the problem of not bidding spades that the opponents could find their heart fit. And so it happens. It is a hopeless contract, but difficult to double. If you beat it 3 times, you are good, otherwise not. ♠ - ♥ - ♦ - ♣

This is strange. After North's 1♠ opening I searched through my options for a rebid. I would opt for 2♣, forcing with a 4 cards or in cases of emergency plus a game forcing hand with 3 cards. But the explanation was always 4 cards, and it is usually not a good idea to lie to Lia. So I simply bid 3NT, hoping for the best. It is indeed a good contract. As the hand stands, I made 3NT+1 which was better than 4♠ on the other table. Moreover, we have 9 tricks from the top, whereas 4♠ make only if the hearts solve nicely. There is a wonderful feature in IntoBridge showing what "Lia would have bid with your system". I was quite surprised to see 1NT there, because this is clearly marked and explained as 6-9 points. North now announces the 5-4 distribution and 4 ♥  are reached.  ♠ - ♥ - ♦ - ♣

This bidding did not happen on my table. I switched to Acol for a more relaxed system. Lia on North passed my 1♣ opening. I made two overtricks, cashing the ♣A, and exiting with a low trump. During the game West friendly enough to cash the  ♥ A and returning another heart for a diamond discard. I played the ♣Q and ♣10, and exited with a diamond to West who failed to unblock. So, he had to yield two more trump tricks. On the other table the bidding above took place. 2 ♥  is alerted as "Reverse Flannery", a weak hand with 5 spades and 4 hearts. I never met this convention before. South ignored "weak" part of the description, and jumped to game. This happened on two other tables, and they made 4♠. The players simply cashed the trumps, played ♣A and ♣Q which yields a second discard in hearts. A finesse in hearts completes the contract. In the end, three tricks are lost. Double dummy analysis shows that you can always make 4♠+1. To achieve this, the ♣10 should be played...

I had a hard time getting to Ace level this season. I seem to be unable to concentrate at the computer screen, resulting in silly mistakes. The age takes it tolls too. This hand aced my again, albeit at rank 104 only. Not bad considering almost 4000 participants in the ladder. The season starts two levels below your last rank now, so at Queen level for me. As usual, the advancement from King to Ace was the hardest. The system I play has 2 ♥  as Mullenberg, showing 5 hearts and a 4-card minor, 9+ points. I gladly passed. West doubled hoping for a fit in the other suits, most likely spades and clubs, and North offered me the second suit which I can interpret as 5-5 now with some strength. Still, hearts looks like the right place to be. I made the contract, but only barely.  On the other table, 1NT was passed and went down 2, which is worth less than my partscore. This hand is interesting from many viewpoints. The system I am currently playing uses "two way new minor forcing", ...

Would you have bid like this or double? 4♠ is just by length, so you can assume 5-5 or so. West should have another trick behind you. And there is always at least one ruff. But you cannot say for sure if it is -2 or -3. Your own contract is far from save too. How would you decide? As it is, I lost because it was 4♠X-3 on the other side while I made 5 ♦ . Another one from today. I made 5 ♦  finding the ♠K, discarding the clubs on the spades, and finally guessing the  ♥ A correctly. It is obviously not a good contract. On the other table, 4♠ was bid by Lia with the bidding below. The X is explained as "Take-out or any strong double".  It is interesting to see how Lia would have bid "using my system", currently Gavin Wolpert's master series. In fact, Lia would have passed the double in North's place. 2♣X is -1, i.e., a plus score. That is better than the windy games on North and South, but not better than a part score which is the best solution on the long run...

I intend to post at least one hand  from IntoBridge on a daily basis. The above one looks boring. The simple contract is 4♠ from North. It only becomes interesting to study after you see a red loss sign. On my table, Lia on East and West cashed three tricks before exiting in hearts. On the other table, the bidding was 1♠ - 2♠ - 4♠ simply, and East led a small heart. You can now draw trumps, discard two hearts from the hand and establish one more diamond trick, resulting in +1. The "aggressive Drury" 2♣ is exactly as described with my eight losers, but does not work here.  Maybe it is not a good idea by North to publish the diamond control to the world and thus preventing East to lead one. For sure, I should have used fast arrival with my three card support in spades, even with maximum for my pass. In the end the fault was mostly on my side. Here is another one. On my table, Lia did not bid the slam try with 4♣, but raised to game immediately, which was doubled by East an...