All News

An “obvious” lead. No problem here. You are on lead and have a suit headed by the AK.  You are on lead to a slam, too. No, not 6NT, or else there really would be no problem, but 6. So, your lead is obvious, or is it?  ... read more here

  For our National Bridge Congress We WILL have a National Congress in February 2022. That’s the important message for all our Congress attendees, potential Congress attendees and even some of you who may not have thought of going to... read more here

Good timing, great result! So, you are doubled in your pre-empt. How you wished you had a 7th trump! Never mind, dummy looks half decent and this will be no blood-bath. Even better if you could make your contract. Can you?  ... read more here

How Random are Opening Leads? We all know that opening leads can backfire no matter how well intentioned and reasoned. We can only do our best with the sometime limited information available. So, what would be your choice with the hand below? You... read more here

“Stay Low, Joe” We all love bidding…and making!... tight games at Teams, especially vulnerable. We can smell the 10-imp pick-up as we put the cards back into the pocket. Yet, what about the 5 imps or more lost by overbidding... read more here

Under-valued! Have Aces: Go Places. and “those places” can be in the slam zone. The ingredients would be a reasonable trump fit, shortages and aces. Let’s see:       ♠ K Q 7 2... read more here

for the right game! Searching for the Making Game. When one partner has a decent 7 card major and the other partner, with normally at least 6 cards in the other, offers that suit as a playing option, you would normally think that one of those... read more here

Something you like? What to throw away! Sorry, what to discard? When it comes to discarding, there is not one correct answer because we all have our preferred methods. While the method may not be universal, the intention is much more likely to... read more here

but not on the tennis court! Jan’s Day: A “Grand” Victory. As we indicated yesterday, today’s article is not from a period gone by but features a deal from last weekend’s Inter-Provincials. No matter who you are,... read more here

An uncomfortable discard. Defending is rarely straightforward and one of the more uncomfortable parts can be discarding when a declarer runs a long suit at you. The long suit in today’s hand, from last weekend’s Inter-provincials, is... read more here

Too strong to pre-empt: too weak to open. 8 Points 10 Tricks. but not in the way you might expect. We feature a hand today that just does not fit into any traditional opening bid. If you were told that it had a 7-card spade suit and 8 high-card... read more here

“CARE”  for less experienced players and others. That’s the word we are focusing on today. Sometimes it is rewarded. Another aspect to the same question is would you rather have a 42% or 83% result on a board, playing... read more here

Jan’s Day: A Time to Bid and a Time to Pass. We look today at the subject of balancing. Sometimes, we balance and find a making contract or else we push them one level higher than they want to be. We may even go for a smaller minus score... read more here

Simple Stayman: Difficult Decision. How could Stayman become so awkward? You get your response to 2 and on the basis of that, you can either bid or invite game depending on strength, maybe even just choose to play in a major suit at the 2 level.... read more here

Vivienne Sexton and Maureen Russ celebrate here in 2020. A Repeat Performance in the Babich. Just 12 months after scoring  72.16% in the 2020 event, Kerikeri’s Vivienne Sexton and Maureen Russ did it all over again with 73.04% to win... read more here

A good suit to make trumps? A "Major" Disaster. That’s the last thing you want with such a potentially nice hand as the one below. Yet, that is exactly what happened. Let’s relive the sad story, a story that would never have happened... read more here

  Win  free luxury accommodation at The Mount for you and your friends while at the National Congress. Are you a fun loving, a bridge loving person.. and like mixing with others who are? Then, this offer is right up your alley. ... read more here

Any rethink? For less experienced players and others. When you play “500”, you bid first time round or not at all. In Bridge, of course, you can pass several rounds of bidding and emerge “out of the bushes” with a bid. In... read more here

Never in Doubt! The title of yesterday’s article was “Could Be Worse” and the theme around today’s could be along the lines of “could be a lot better”! Indeed, chances of South bringing home 10 tricks would... read more here

Could Be Worse. That’s one way to describe our partner’s bidding on today’s deal. We have got two nice suits of our own and unusually, the suit in which our partner has plenty, is not our shortest. We have a fit! Onwards, for... read more here

Breaking those Rules. That’s part of the beauty of Bridge. We create rules (or guidelines) and then we break them! Of course, sometimes, maybe most of the time, we should not but recognising the times when we should is the mark of good... read more here

  Held on Friday evening. Face to Face heats in Level 2 areas. https://www.nzbridge.co.nz/current-tournaments.html Real Bridge on line heats to be run by the following clubs:... 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

     Jan’s Day:  Fear the Worst. If you survive when the news is bad, you are on the road to being a very good declarer. That is the theme behind today’s Jan’s Day article. The bad news was not a bad... read more here

Too aggressive? Over and Under Bidding. Today, we seem to feature a bit of both. Throw into the mix the need to record as high-scoring a game as possible because we are playing Pairs and we have both controversy and perhaps riskiness in the... read more here

From the Frying Pan to the….. I do hate those movies where you start off with the ending and work your way back to it over the course of the next couple of hours. It kind of spoils the climax! Or does it? Why cannot we have a different... read more here