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Today, I am handing the floor to Pat Carter, one of our leading players and directors. Pat has been heavily involved in on-line playing and directing since the start of the Covid epidemic, firstly on BBO and then on RealBridge, a medium he adopted for the Auckland Bridge Club very quickly when the opportunity arose.

One aspect of playing bridge using RealBridge is whether we play with screens in place. Patrick makes a case for only using screens for our top players. Have a read below.

Firstly, we gave you this bidding situation below which relates directly to Patrick’s article. Take a look.

 

 

 

You are playing Teams with neither side vulnerable. Your partner’s 1 followed by 2 shows 9-13 hcp with 6 clubs (no particular diamond holding). It seems unlikely that South is on the minimum end of that point count.  Your bid?

Screens or No Screens by Patrick Carter

“Everyone praises the social aspect of RealBridge. It is excellent.

Playing with screens reduces that social aspect a bit. It is still good, but not as good. For very high- level events screens have been used in the past, but now that they are available as a setting on RealBridge they seem to be in use in some lower ranking events as well.

I enjoy the game more without screens, but I know some people will disagree with me.

Screens are not perfect. They take away a lot of unauthorised information, but also some authorised information. Here is an example from the Taranaki Congress.

 

 

My 1 opening was a catch-all that was limited without a 5- card major and when I balanced with 2, I almost certainly had a 6- card club suit. Gary (West) doubled for take-out and then had a 30 second think about whether to bid one more but decided not to.

Gary was on my side of the screen and so Julie didn’t know about the hesitation.  3 is more attractive if she knew he could be easily pushed. Julie is allowed to know about the opponent’s tempo, but not about partner’s tempo. Unfortunately, the screens took away Julie’s authorised information and we defended 2 making 8 tricks.

This sort of situation is not all that unusual. If the hand on your left opened 3 and it was passed around to you, would you bid with AQ632 65  K74  A65?

Would you bid if the hand on your right thought for 30 seconds before passing?

Do you want to play with screens and cut down unauthorised information from partner and authorised information from opponents? Or do you say “The Director is capable of ruling on situations with unauthorised information. I want to play a more social game?”

I favour screens for national events where there are a few tables who are all experts. If it is a mixed field with some more social players, let us remember we play the game because it is a social pastime. Even some experts prefer no screens.”

Do you agree with Patrick that screens only be used at top level? In face-to-face events in New Zealand in recent years, they have only been used in National Trials and the semi-finals and finals of New Zealand Open Teams.

It is nice to acknowledge at the same time as we print Patrick’s letter, that with the 11.2 A Points he won at last weekend’s on-line Kelly Peirse Open Teams,  Patrick became this country’s fourth Emerald Grand Master.

Michael Ware was the first and is now Platinum and the other Emerald Grand Masters are Grant Jarvis and Ashley Bach.

 
Patrick with his regular teammates, Jenny Millington, Barry Jones and Julie Atkinson

That’s a total of 8,000 A and B Points of which at least 6000 must be A Points. Patrick now has 6003.16 A Points. Advance congratulations. We will celebrate when he is presented with his plaque.

Last Resort

 

 

A nice easy auction to 4. East leads A on which West plays 3 ( low encouraging). East continues with 8. If you win in dummy, West plays 5. Plan the play. Hearts break 2-1.

Richard Solomon

 

 

 

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