Archive for Bridge ♠️♥️♦️♣️

Two club bidding

 

At clubhouse, my Lefthand opponent Ira opened with a pass. My partner Mark called two clubs, and said ‘you’ve to response.’ A pass followed. I answered with 3 clubs.

My hand is weak, with 8 points, with 5 low clubs cards, which was my longest suit. Since it’s informal and I’ve been asking questions on my bidding, Mark said ‘2 clubs’ meant a strong hand and not necessarily mean in club suit. 

A few notes for  Two Clubs bid and responses:

  • 22 points to open bid (doesn’t show/deny club suit)
  • 2D response bid = a bad hand, 0-6 points (doesn’t show/deny diamond suit)
  • 2 No Trump bid only needs at 20-22 hcp with a balanced hand.

 

a few hands from last night with the girls

We chitchat a little between hands. And sometimes after a rubber or twenty some hands (22 hands here), we tend to loose focus. This will be the time we make mistakes. Most often, by playing the wrong card. Such as, one intends to use ♥️ to trump but instead plays ♦️. The dummy is usually keeps a tape on things, like who goes and if it should be led by the hand on deck. All the times, such mistakes were only pointed out afterward. No one, not even the partner would say a thing. And I like it a lot: at Guandan or other kind of card games with my fellow countrymen, oh boy, do they talk and cheat!

 

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The best opening hand

The first hand of the night: 18 hcp. I bid 4♥️ and made the game.

Toward end of the (the 16th hands) night, I bid 3 NT and ended up winning a grand slam.

The evening went smoothly and I ultimately played the majority of the hands.

My question for the evening is, would you have to play a great hand with little thinking needed, or a even hand that requests some brain to win?

您喜欢一手好牌不要用脑筋 还是 平均牌 需要技巧?

 

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Bridge basics: points

There are total 40 points in a deck: A K Q J, the high card point.

  • HCP:
    • Ace = 4 points
    • King = 3
    • Queen = 2
    • Jack = 1
  • long suit:
    1.  = 5-card suit
    2. = 6-card suit
    3. = 7-card suit
  • short suit:
    1. = doubleton
    2. = singleton
    3. = void

Just so you know, the maximum points a hand can have – mathematically proven – is 37 HCP because each hand has only 13 cards.

♠️ A K Q J
♥️ A K Q
♦️ A K Q
♣️ A K Q

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3 3 3 4 again

Girls night in, two interesting hands.

Bidding correctly is important: I tend to bid low, to feel my partner’s hand, or give her/him a chance to bid too. But many times, I don’t get to rebid when three passes occurred. Like this hand. My rho opened with a pass:

R1: p, 1♦️ (me), 1♠️, 2♦️
R2: 3♣️, 3♦️

Luckily, the bidding went on after my initial 1 diamond bid, which should have been 2♦️ bid.

This hand is identical to the last time at the club, 3 3 3 4, with 11 hcp, with the same partner:

R1: p, p (me), p, 1♦️
R2: p, 2♣️, p, 2N

By passing the first round, I’m telling my partner that I don’t have an opening hand, 12 to 13 hcp. She bid 1 diamond. The second round, I changed to clubs, which is my best suit, telling her that I’ve 10 points and club is my best suit. She then bid 1NT.

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Best suit vs responding

Playing at the club today, I’ve this hand – 11 hcp, 3 3 3 4, responding to my partner’s opening bid of 1 diamond.

The bidding:
R1: p; p (me), p, 1N
R2: p; 2♦️; p; 4♦️, ppp

In fact, I should have bid 1NT or 1♣️, which is my best suit. Essentially, it boils down to my best suit vs response to partner’s bid.

Per Linda: If I have 4-4 diamonds and clubs I will start with clubs. If I start with diamonds it is because I have 4-3 or 5-3. So, knowing that we don’t have an 8 card fit in clubs, why bid them? If I have five of a minor, then I can rebid that suit because you can open with 4 or even three.

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Too much …

Girls night in, I played the most hands, to a point I felt a little guilty. 8 hands each with two different partners, I played 3 each, total six hands.

The 1st hand, it went from pass to 4 spade.

My partner opened with a pass, who has 7 hcp, and six spades. I’ve 11 hcp, 1 void. When my rho followed up with 1 heart bid, which is my void, I took a chance to respond with 1 spade bid. Although I’ve five clubs but I don’t feel comfortable to go to level 2, when my partner passed.

The bid:

R1: P, 1♥️, 1♠️, P
R2: 2♠️, 3♥️, PP
R3: 3♠️, 4♥️, pp
R4: 4♠️, ppp

… unfortunately, we made only 8/2, down 2.

The 3rd hand: after playing the previous two hands, I wasn’t going to bid again. But got this good looking hand: 17 hcp, 7 card suit, 1 singleton and 1 doubleton. The bid:

R1: 1♦️(me), 1♠️, P, 3H
R2: P, 3N, PP
R3: double, ppp

If they don’t clean us up with club, we’ve good chance to def the contract with my seven diamonds and one ace which could use it to transfer to diamond, which I did. We made 7 tricks.

My question: could or should I insist on diamond? For defeating a contract wins no under the line points.

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Annual party; cue bid

I hosted the first annual bridge party. 8 players show up (one was unannounced; one couple rsvp’ed but didn’t show … oh well), played on two tables. Between serving foods and drinks, I played 28 hands; won 12 bids, winning 9 of them, 75%.

There are couple of hands that my rho (right hand side opponent) Mr. L bid my suit.

This hand, I’ve 4 clubs: ♣️Q,J,10,7, with total 13 hcp, not counting the two doubletons.

Round 1 bid: p, p, 1C, 1S – me, who won the bid.

My left opponent led ♣️4, my partner has ♣️8,6,3,2, which meant my right opponent has ♣️A,K,9, 5. Also, my partner has 9 hcp.

We made 2 (8 tricks in total).

Interestingly, the same opponent bid my suit twice, also in club.

This hand, I’ve six clubs: ♣️KQJ432, 17 hcp with two doubletons. Clearly, club is my best suit.

There was only 1 round of bidding: 1♣️, 1♠️ – me, who won the bid. At this point, I didn’t know cue bid, and also wrongfully bid 1♠️ – I think the better bid should be  1N, to show my points.

Another option is to penalty double. But I’d rather play, to have the chance winning under the line points, that toward a game or rubber. I’ve used double convention many times, for the simplest reason: I’ve better hand and dare the opponent to make his or her contract.

 

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The Chinese value

Playing Guandan with Chinese from mainland is quite an experience: they talk A LOT, like telling their teammates, how their hand is, and what should they play, especially toward the end, with fewer cards, it’s usually the most exciting time of the game: testing your playing and bluffing skills. It looks like cheating to me. But because they don’t see it that way, therefore, they do it openly and continually.

not a word at bridge

They say …

  1. … my hand is lousy, you guys go
  2. … you can’t play single
  3. … you’ve to play double
  4. … what should I play

… so I wrote the following on WeChat. A few playmates are in my friends circle. One of them, with a PhD from Oxford, replied, “[偷笑][偷笑]等打出来默契后,就不需要通气了” Google translates “Once a tacit understanding is established, ventilation (talking) is no longer needed.”

I disagree.

掼蛋 … 老太婆也时髦

还记得我们小时候在北京, 牌都很旧, 毛边 每张都很厚. 现在的娃们可能都不知道俺在说什么

昨天晚上我的牌一直都挺好 (归功于观看的娃[拥抱]谢谢 希望常来喔) 大家打的都好 双双晋级到A – 我们先到珠峰 但是第一次没有打过. 他们奋起直追 连续打了几个胜仗🐮… 小嫉妒大开心. 我们第二次才打过A. 俺的二个搭档都棒 (会打牌的那种) 舍命陪君子 又肯牺牲色相[闭嘴]俺的护航舰队[得意]

同胞们打牌都很热闹
商榷 推敲牌技[强] 相互通气[弱] 不知道打桥牌是不是也这样?

桥牌是例外一班人马. 很早以前一次见俺搭档犹豫不决 我多口说了句 ♥️K已经出了. 他们三人虽然没有出声 但明显感觉很不当[闭嘴] 很难为情. 搭档选择出♠️ … we didn’t make the contract.
Lesson, learned [捂脸]

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Strong two: slam, missed

My first hand of the night: 15 hcp, six spades, one void ♦️. My right hand opponent opened bidding with a pass.

  1. Pass
  2. 2♠️ – me
  3. P
  4. 3♠️
  5. P
  6. 4♠️ – me

We ended up, making 11 total tricks. Did I open correctly? Is this hand possible for a 12 tricks? How could we bid better?

Ira: You opened short of a true strong two opening. Your partner’s first response should have been 4C , asking for aces bc of partner’s point count. You would have been in small slam. Probably 6S

If partner responds 5C, it means you have all the aces and is asking for kings.

Bidding convention of strong 2 bid opening: wiki, bridge bum,

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Girls night in bridge

A night of exciting bridge: all girls, and many interesting hands.

It’s the first time I bid 5 →

  1. Pass – my right hand; 1♣️ me; 1♦️; 2♣️
  2. 2♦️; 3♣️ me; 4♦️; pass
  3. pass; 5♣️ me

And I made it.

This hand, my right side opponent opened with 1♣️ – this is my suit as well: 6 clubs and total 14 hpc plus a singleton. I chanced it by bidding 1♠️ and made it.

Ira’s opinion:

You have two options: double 1C or pass. The double tells your partner you have opening points and the opponent took your bid, therefore your partner if possible make a bid; passing forces the left side opponent to bid or pass or lets your partner to bid. If everyone passes, you play 1C and most likely opponents will go down.

Below are some interesting hands

… more

  1. 3 3 3 4
  2. Long suit wins in NT
  3. A dream hand: 26 pts

 

 

 

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