tennis, life and a few things in between

I’ve been playing well, and my hands have been generally good to great – played my second grand slam of the year.

This hand I’ve 20 hpc without counting the doubleton. But it’s the doubleton’s ♥️4 & 8 worries me – my opponents can wipe us out if they’ve strong heart suit.

Here is the bid:
Pass – my right
1NT – me
Pass
2NT – my partner (Is 2♥️ be correct bid?)

I could have gone to 3NT but I didn’t: we only need 10 point at this time to make the third rubber. Another reason I got a grand slam was I was diligent till the last trick.

A 2h bid means you have an actual heart suit which you do not. Your partner made improper bid of 2n , which is a very weak response. Partner has 16 points, proper response to your 1n s/b 4c asking for aces

The freshly baked cake is delicious!

Tonight’s game is dominated by good heart, again.  ♠️♥️♦️♣️

• Those two hands, although short on ♥️ but have identical two: ♥️5 & 8.
• this hand bid 4♥️ but only made 3: I was too careless at the end – played the wrong card. No going back.

A rather even hand with 14 HCP – not enough for 1NT.

Mistakenly I started with 1♦️ because it’s the longest suit. The correct bid should be 1♣️ the short club bid – the convention means you’ve 13 HCP no ability of making this suit into the trump suit = any other suit is better. Learn here.

My question is, what to do when your partner doesn’t understand? And when you don’t have strength to go level 2? When three passes, and you stuck with it?

… you bid the short club expecting to go down unless your partner bails you out

I’ve an interesting hand at today’s bridge: K♠️ + A♥️ + A♦️+ A♣️=15 points, without counting in two singletons, which worth 2 pt each (a void is 3 pt).

This hand maybe an easy decision: bid ♠️ because I’ve 7 of them (as it turned out, my partner has two: A♠️ and 6♠️.

Just remember the scoring: 3NT or 4♠️ makes a game, score 100 points below the line.

Correct opening bid ought to be 1S: you have 15 points and 7 spades. An alternate opening bid could be 3S bc you have 7 spades. Either one is NOT perfect but FAR better than 1NT bc you have too many gaps in the other suits and you have 7 S

Perhaps due to my Sunday lousy tennis match, tonight on the bridge table I’ve many very interesting and good hands, with two lovely decks of cards.

I’ve been resisting to learn the conventions and keeping scores. But as I play more, I do feel the urge or need to learn these – they’re part of the game and knowing them, only add more fun to the game. SOOOO … I’ll start learning.

The very first hands. My partner has 5 ♦️so opened it at 1♦️; 1 N and I bid 2♦️, pass. My partner rebid to 3♦️ and played the hand: we made 3. However, with 7♠️ I considered to bit at 1♠️ at the first round, and at the 2nd round but I didn’t. Just wanted to support my partner’s diamonds. Was I wise? Probably not n I should have bid spade ♠️, knowing my partner has good diamonds. Oh well.

Ira: With distribution points, you have no C’s, you had to respond 2S showing opening points and a S suit; if partner responds 3D then bid 4D

Today is, perhaps the first time that I feel I should learn some conventions.

This hand I was wrong to open at 1♣️ without specifying it was a short club. My partner took it at face value and bid 2♣️ – of course we lost.

If there was a hand or two that prompt me to wanting to learn conventions, this has to be it.

Short club bidding means a pretty even hands with the club being the weakest and shortest suit – letting your partner to bid a new suit. Below is two examples:
– When 1♥️ and 1♠ guarantee 5 cards and 1♦️ guarantees 4 cards, 1♣ can be as short as 2 (4=4=3=2).
– When all of 1♦️, 1♥️ and 1♠ guarantee 5 cards, 1♣ can be as short as 1 (4=4=4=1).

♠️♥️♦️♣️

This hand I doubled my mate who played 2♥️, and we won.

Double refers to bridge score, which means I dare the mate to make what s/he has bid.

The normal score for 2♥️ is 30 point per trick. If they fulfill the contact, there should be 60 point below the line – which will be part to the total 200 rubber.

They failed, so we score ??

Three hands below: the first (left) played ♣; the middle hand, although we won but clearly we should’ve played heart ♥️ with all the five high cards – miscommunication and me not good at conventions. The third hand with 18 points, not counting two doubletons, which worth 1 point each.

Today perhaps is the first time that my hands weren’t too good.

All nines [Lol] 二手全九的烂牌🃏 with one has no point. The bottom hand, the opponents played 2N

整晚 除了9⃣️ 还是九 [Lol]
有朋友说 不错了 好过 23456 [偷笑]
也是: 要求低常乐, 人傻也常乐

No trump is the 5th suit -:) in bridge, valued above  ♠️♥️♦️♣️. Playing NT requires a little skill because there isn’t a trump suit. If a lowly 2♣️ is led and others don’t have ♣️, no matter how high the card is played, the lowest 2♣️ wins the trick.

• How to score rubber: one of the team to win two games which means 200 points (contract points) that records below the line.
• winning bid’s points – contract points – record below the line, overtricks are above the line, which doesn’t count toward rubber.

This above hand, I opened with 1N – even I’ve a void which isn’t too good in NT bidding.

Me NT, pass, my partner 2♥️, pass; I rebid at 4♥️. My right led with A♠️ which we ruffed with 3♥️. We made the game, winning 10 tricks.

One of the aspect of the game is keeping the score. To make a game means to get ^{100 pts}

• 3NT ^{40 for the 1st trick + 30 each for the 2nd/3rd}
• 4 ♠ ♥️majors ^{4 tricks × 30 points per trick}
• 5 ♦️♣  minors ^{5 tricks × 20 points per trick}

Contract points:

Overtrick points

Slam bonus

• a slam 12 tricks, earns a bonus of 500 points if not vulnerable and 750 points if vulnerable;
• a grand slam, all 13 tricks, earns a bonus of 1000 points if not vulnerable and 1500 points if vulnerable.

Penalty points

Double is one of bidding tools used in bridge, which means you dare your opponent if you don’t think s/he can fulfill the bid or the contract.

If they make their bid (# of tricks unaffected) they’ll score additional points.
If they fail to make the contract, their opponents will award extra points.

This hand, the player to my right opened with 1 ❤️, I doubled; to my left 1 ♠️, my partner doubled. 2 ❤️ was played. I led with 2♣️. They made two. 😂 They were too nice to tell me what my penalty was.

Here is the takeout double, one of the conventional tools.

This hand with 15 pts plus the ♣️ singleton: pass, me 1 ❤️, pass, 2 ❤️ from my partner. Looking at my ♦️ and especially ♠️, I didn’t go to 4 but we ended up making four.

Last week, my hands were mostly hearts, and tonight are mostly diamond ♦️.

One lesson that engraved in my mind tonight is 13 points for bidding are really important.

For example this hand: my partner and I both passed the initially round but when our opponent to my right bid 1♦️, I followed with 1❤️ and the hand ended up with 3❤️.  Although we’ve 9 ❤️ (J 10 7 4 3 and my partner has ❤️K 9 8 6) but we don’t have ❤️A & Q, actually we don’t have a single A – there goes 4 tricks. My lacking void or singleton put us in debt further.

整晚的♦️
这手 3❤️ … 输的没有然后了