Articles for newer players

It’s Fri   Day. For Junior, Intermediate and Novice players…and others. Minors only if we must.  We learn early in our bridge careers that it can be easier to make 9 tricks in 3NT than 11 tricks with a minor suit as... read more here

A Useful Convention. It's Fri Day  for those new to the game Bridge is full of artificial or conventional bids, bids where the meaning is something other than length of cards in the suit bid. There are very few conventions in an initial... read more here

Fri    Day…for less experienced players. The Cruel Game. Our declarer felt quite proud of himself while playing today’s deal but was not so happy at the end. Decide how you would play the following 4 contract.... read more here

A Common Conundrum – for less experienced players and others. It would not happen to you, would it? However, it does happen rather often to others. So, this article is for their benefit not yours! However, to be sure, to be sure, just cast... read more here

points. Does Nought mean “No bid”? for less experienced players and others. The following hand intrigued me because when it was held by some players, they chose to pass at the first opportunity because they were... read more here

It’s Too Late: For Less Experienced Players and others. It is far too late when half way through the play of a board a declarer realises that they just do not have enough tricks to make their contract. That lack of planning would prove... read more here

  Making something out of nothing... for less experienced players and others. Today we have a lead problem which covers the situation where the player on lead has very little, even less and whether they should make the normal lead of an... read more here

Where did we go Wrong? For Less Experienced Players and others. Today’s deal was sent in by a reader who was part of a bad sequence of bids. It was possible to make all 13 tricks in one suit though bidding and making small slam would have... read more here

  Whichever guess is wrong!   For the less experienced   The right finesse is no finesse!   This is a story of two declarers. One was rather more successful than the other in their quest for 10 tricks. Indeed, while one... read more here

“Shut Your Eyes and Bid”. We are going to introduce a slightly different concept this week as we are going to look at the bidding of the same hand at two different tables. Let’s call it a Teams match and see what can happen. It... read more here

Taking Advantage of the 5-3 Trump Fit. We found our way with a little exploration to 4H, a fair looking 5-3 trump fit. Let’s see how we can not just make our contract but even maybe an overtrick. South led a spade with North following to... read more here

Finding (not having!) a Fit. We know we need to have a minimum of 8 trumps between our two hands, dummy’s and our own, for that suit to be our trump suit. That is called a "fit". It is normally fairly easy to find such a fit when each hand... read more here

Text-Book or Practical? We referred last week to the use of bidding a suit we do not hold when our side has bid three suits, in other words “Fourth Suit Forcing”. An example of the use of this came up very recently. There are... read more here

The Suit You Do Not Need to Call. You open the bidding by calling your longest suit at the 1 level. Your partner calls a different suit and you call your second longest suit because you have no support for your partner’s suit and a hand not... read more here

Making the Two Games….or Failing in a Good Cause? We left you on Friday with one pair of hands and two contracts to play. So, let’s look first of all at the one I hope you did not reach, 3NT. North DealsE-W Vul... read more here

Going to game: but which game? We, the bridge teachers, tell our new players to bid to game when we know we are strong enough to do so. Sometimes, we may be strong enough but we do not know which game we should bid. As a for instance, we open 1... read more here

Can’t Bid Slam but Can you Make One? We left you on Friday in a reasonable looking 4S contract. We got to game on a combined 24 high card points and avoided the trap of playing 3NT. We are playing Pairs which means not only do we want to... read more here

The Wise Bid. There are times when, in the bidding, you tell the opponents as little as possible about your hand and other times when you need to reveal all, or quite a lot! If you know which suit and which level you want to play, then... read more here

"Quantitative Bid" …. Can you say it and use it? I struggle to say it but it is a useful bid to use. The idea is that you ask partner to pass if they are minimum for their holding or bid on if they are maximum…a bit like the... read more here

A Change of Plan. You make your plan when you first see dummy. Sometimes, something goes wrong and you have to make an abrupt change if you are to have any chance of making your contract. Take this week’s hand: North DealsNone... read more here

Staying in Part-Score. Part-score contracts are important too. You cannot make game on every hand. When we do not think we can make a game, we would like to stop as low as we can…but it is not always possible.    ... read more here

 Playing a Tough Part-Score Contract.                 We left you as declarer in the  following deal in your part-score spade contract after West had led the jack... read more here

Squashing Honours. We left you on Friday in a rather precarious contract after a very difficult bidding sequence. Let's hope we did not use up all our energies in the bidding! We needed to get 10 tricks with spades as trumps: South... read more here

Bidding What We Have Not: Not Bidding What We Have! The rules or guidelines around bidding can be strange or at times make us do seemingly strange things. For example, if we have 7 high card points and 4 spades and a 6-card club suit, we bid 1... read more here

VALUING VOIDS . As well as valuing 4 points for each ace, three for each king, two for a queen and one for a jack, we learn that we can add on extra points for our hand when we have a one or two card suit…or even no cards in a suit! Word... read more here

How Forcing? We often say that a bid is either forcing or is not. Yet, like so much in Bridge, it is not always that simple. We also need to know how forcing a bid is. Is it : Forcing to game? Forcing to 2NT? Forcing just for one round? If... read more here

They Open: We bid Game.     As South you pick up a nice looking 18-point hand. You are 4th to speak and there’s a bit of bidding before you get your first shot:       West DealsNone Vul... read more here

Like does mean “Like”. We worked through last time what we would lead to a simply bid 3NT contract and left you in the middle of trick 2 after you had chosen the SQ. This is what you saw after the opening lead was made:... read more here

            A Problem Lead. Our focus today is on the choice of opening lead, rather than the bidding. The opposition bid quickly to 3NT with the following uninterrupted sequence:... read more here

                                TIME TO SWITCH Remember we left you on Friday at trick 3.... read more here

                       A BID TOO FAR. At times, we all tend to underbid hands….and at other times, we all bid a bit too much.... read more here

Lucky Lie. So, there you are in your 4 heart contract. What you can say is that it looks a better contract than 3NT. You made a good choice when you elected to play in your 5-3 heart fit. North DealsNone Vul ♠ A 4 2... read more here

Finding The Right Game. The words “trump fit” are regularly discussed in Beginners’ Bridge Lessons. The magic number seems to be eight. If you have eight or more cards between you and your partner's hand, then you should be... read more here

MANY CHOICES…and a VITAL DUCK.  Too many. If only there was one way to play a contract, life would be a lot easier…but then Bridge would not be the exciting and absorbing game it is. So, let’s get back to the problem of... read more here

Showing Strength. It is important when Opener, or indeed Responder, has a strong hand that they show that strength to their partner. It would not have mattered particularly on the following deal though it is a good principle to grasp. What... read more here

Defenders Must Count Tricks too. We left you on Friday with a problem for a defender. Not only must we learn to bid and play well but we need to defend as accurately as we can as well. We have heard the bidding. After the opening lead, we can see... read more here

TWO LEVEL IS TOO LOW Many bridge deals involve competitive bidding with both partnerships having in region of 20 high card points (hcp) each. While sometimes no player has a long (5+ card) suit, where one partner does, they should not defend the... read more here

Like a good meal, it’s all in the preparation. It seems a shame to bid to a more than reasonable slam and then to fail somewhat unnecessarily. So, we are going to take a good deep breath as they have made their opening lead and we have been... read more here

 Slamwards Bidding Sometimes, we have so many high card points (hcps) between our two hands that one player in our partnership will drive our partnership to slam. Yet, we can still bid to what we hope is the right time to bid slam by some... read more here

Justifying the Good Bidding  Two days ago, we guided you through a difficult choice of opening bid, responding to an opening bid with just 5 high card points (hcps), a forward going bid called a reverse and recognising the forcing nature of... read more here

“Reverse”.. but move forward to Game. Going “back” to move “forward”. This bridge language might seem like “Double Dutch” at times. It is certainly true that bridge terminology does take a bit of... read more here

Reaching the Right Game….and making it! A couple of days ago, we left you with your hand and dummy and asked you to plan how to make your game. You have enough high card points to be in game and enough trumps to make the heart suit... read more here

Reaching the Right Game. “Never mind the quality, look at the length” is a bastardised version of a well-known saying of which bridge players should take heed. While it is nice to have the ace and king of the suit you decide to be... read more here

NO TRUMPS: NO NEED TO PANIC “Leave a space for the trump suit, please” pleaded the declarer as dummy put down a side suit in the space normally reserved for the trump suit. “I would” partner replied “were there any... read more here

STRONG DOUBLES For those new to the bridge table. The Bidding When we make a take-out double of an opponent’s opening bid, we need either an opening hand of our own (12+ high card points) with tolerance for every other suit apart from... read more here

The Easter Egg Winning Lead. We left you on Friday with an opening lead problem. We gave you the following hand and bidding sequence and asked you what you would lead. As is often true, the choice of opening lead is vital to the success or... read more here

A TOUGH HAND TO BID AND TO DEFEAT! This week, we are going to look at a tough pair of hands to bid…and we will later look at whether the defence could defeat the final contract. Firstly, we will give you a bidding problem. Now, you did... read more here

A couple of days ago, we looked at the bidding of one hand. We are now to be the declarer and will have to make our contract of 4 spades. We are West. Remember the hands and the bidding? Board 5North DealsN-S Vul    ... read more here

Bidding to a Game This series is aimed at those who are new or pretty new to the bridge table. Maybe you have just come out of lessons..or even been playing a little while? Perhaps you are a bridge teacher and want some example hands, extra ones... read more here

This is advance notice of a new feature which will run on this website. It is aimed at new players, perhaps those who have just come out of a Beginners' Class or those who need a bit of a refresher. It is quite likely that such players do not... read more here