A McKains Deal (only 1 in 6 is good enough)

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Thu, 07/02/2019 - 09:35

This seemingly easy bidding problem seems to have been not so easy for five out of every six NS pairs in the field of 192.

Board 5 from Wednesday 6/02/2019.
Dealer N NS Vul

KQ7
76
Q96
J7652
J9532
KQT
T5
AKT
864
J952
J8742
3
AT
A843
AK3
Q984

Did you see THIS??

Submitted by sitemaster on Mon, 04/02/2019 - 12:02

A powerful new tool has been added to the handrecords available on this site.

.... read on ....

A Bit of an Analysis

Submitted by sitemaster on Sun, 03/02/2019 - 13:32

Following on from a casual question this extract was taken from the Results pages. (Hope we haven't missed anyone - please let us know)

Playing TimesPlaying Times

The Sniff of a Slam

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Fri, 01/02/2019 - 14:22

The moment South opens the bidding with 1C, North should be thinking slam in clubs, surely? And if not slam, then game. But when North starts slowly by bidding 1D, East has the chance of coming in with a spade bid, which could be, and should be, more than just 1S. That might make the bidding for NS a bit more difficult but should not stop North asking for aces or key cards and settling for a small slam in clubs.
Board 23 from Thursday 31/01/19
Dealer S All Vul

A
3
AJ9876
QT842
Q985
T986
542
93
KJT632
KQJ5
KT
6
74
A742
Q3
AKJ75

Replay this board by clicking here.

Another Angle on Pre-empts

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Thu, 31/01/2019 - 18:11

Most new players will have learnt the basics about three level preempts: seven card suits and 6 to 10 points. But what then? Here is a typical preempt of 3C that did not lead to the best final outcome for most NS pairs.
Board 9 from Wednesday 30/01/19
Dealer N EW Vul

4
Q4
T96
AJ97432
KJ93
JT85
J72
65
QT8
AK72
KQ543
8
A7652
963
A8
KQT

Virtue being its own Reward

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Fri, 25/01/2019 - 13:23

They say virtue has its own rewards. So does good bidding. Here is a prime example of that. There is a very good reason why the better bidders try and find a 4-4 or 5-3 fit when appropriate. Take a look:
Board 11 from Thursday 25/01/19
Dealer S Nil Vul

843
98
JT942
KJT
KQT96
KJT2
6
A652
AJ7
AQ65
A5
9873
52
743
KQ873
Q42

Introducing "Replay This Hand"

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Thu, 24/01/2019 - 19:12

Further on down in this article you'll see a new link that will take you to Bridge Solver On-Line where you can walk through the featured hand and see what happens when you play a wrong card. This will be a regular feature in Vil's articles from now on.

Simple bidding can become not quite so simple in some situations, which is why you need to have a way to keep bidding open by using the “fourth suit forcing” principle. “Fourth suit forcing” can be just that: if you bid the fourth suit after three have been bid, it is FORCING partner to bid, that’s all you need to remember at this stage of your bridge development. Let’s have a look at a very interesting deal from today’s session.

Board 11 from Wednesday 23/01/2019
Dealer S Nil Vul

J93
K82
J983
963
AT74
QJ
A62
AJ87
Q65
A9765
QT7
KT
K82
T43
K54
Q542

In case you're wondering ..

Submitted by sitemaster on Mon, 21/01/2019 - 15:29

.. Bob has added another column to the Ladder - XG Status. The three categories are Unpublished (U = played < 150 boards), Evolving (E = played between 150 and 1000 boards) and Mature (M = played > 1000 boards). This is because it takes a while for the XG's to settle down - see graph below as an example. Thus, a reasonable player who is status U has a good chance at coming top on the Handicap as their XG will remain at zero until they get beyond 6-7 sessions. Only the most recent 2000 boards are taken into the calculations.

Remember .. all the columns in the Ladder may be sorted by clicking on the green column headers.

Trust Truscott

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Fri, 18/01/2019 - 15:00

“Truscott” is a very useful convention, whichever way you play it. When East opens 1H and South doubles, West bids THREE hearts instead of just 2H. That is how the original version of Truscott worked: when you have a fit for partner and an opponent makes a takeout double, raise to one level higher than you would normally, and the 2NT bid now replaces a normal raise to three. Simple enough and very useful.

Board 8 from Thursday 17/01/2019
Dealer N Nil Vul

A964
Q5
965
J752
KT7
J864
QT73
43
J3
AKT9732
42
A9
Q852
AKJ8
KQT86

More BIG Steps Forward for X-Clubs ... and Bridge in New Zealand

Bob Fearn, as many will know, is the author of Compass scoring which is the engine powering X-Clubs and, for the last four years, the NZ-Wide Babich Simultaneous Pairs. In 2018 Bob took an interest in scoping out a National Grading System (NGS) for use in New Zealand. An NZB NGS would open up a whole new dimension to our game - handicaps. Bridge players could then go out to beat their handicap not their playmates. This challenge became available for all players of X-Club deals 1i 2019.

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