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Social Lesson 19, Part 4, Preemptive Bids, Relative Seat, RONF, Rule of 2-3-4

March 28, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Aha, at last it’s time for some fun making sporty preemptive bids. That’s the good news, yet with great power come great responsibility. After all, Bridge *IS* a partnership game, right?

So having respectable values that properly convey our preemptive values, both hand shape and strength concentration becomes the prime directive to ensure you’re being a good partner. Okay – check (that’s a fine start).

But what about when one, two or three players are passed hands? When are the stars in the ideal position… or not so favorable, and why? And how about relative vulnerability, yours and your opponents? We’ll take a look at the “Rule of 2-3-4” (actually more of a GUIDE, not a hard and fast Rule).

In this lesson we will also cover treatments when our partner raises our preempt, bids a new suit or makes a 2 Notrump call as well as our possible rebids. And finally, we will explore how and when to counteract the opponents preemptive bid and raise scenario.

In total, this 100+ minute lesson is chalk full of pithy discussions and scenarios along with lots of bidding and animated card play with stimulating commentary.

Ready, Aim, FIRE – on with the show…

Part 1 – Beginning with preemptive bidding basics & discipline – 35:42 minutes of video
Free, Premium, ULTRA, Part 2 on hand shape, honor placement & relative seat – 21:43 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 on Raise Only Non Forcing & Rule of 2-3-4 – 27:49 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 on upping preempts and how to counteractive opponents bid and raise – 18:16 minutes of video

And best yet, here at BridgeHands all of our Bridge hands are full of commentary (regardless of who is the declarer and defender) and analysis on hand evaluation, bidding and animated card play.   As always, our hand discussion offers a refreshingly rare glimpse of Bridge inside the minds of all four players at the table as play progresses, bid by bid, card by card.  Visitors are welcome to view the Part 1 series of our video lesson with nuances that will lead to quick and sound bidding without guesswork.  Those with the Free BridgeHands  membership may also watch Part 2 where we play more hands with provocative play tips and strategies, as well as way to improve skills by critiquing student players. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire four-part lesson segments with lots of hands, plus an opportunity to view future shows during your membership subscription period.   And as always, be sure to check out the hundreds of hours of videos in our archive that is growing by leaps and bounds, by clicking “Index to Videos” on the navigation above or simply click this link.

Bridge Teachers – you may download your personal copy of our copyrighted video lesson here:

Social Lesson 19 – Day 4, Part 1

Social Lesson 19 – Day 4, Part 2

Social Lesson 19 – Day 4, Part 3

Social Lesson 19 – Day 4, Part 4

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

 

Filed Under: .Social, Social Bidding

Social Lesson 19, Part 3, Opening Leads – Count, Inferences, Algorithms

March 21, 2016 By Leave a Comment

With our lesson #19, Day 1 on Bridge hand evaluation (High Card Points, distribution for length and shortness) beyond us, probably the next most important factor to improve our game is… YOU!  On Day 2 we learned all about…YOU!  Self-awareness, situational awareness, focus, awareness and more.  And while everyone loves to bid, first let’s take a look at opening leads.

On average we defend half of all Bridge hands, so we make the opening lead 25 percent of the time.  That’s a lot – enough that it’s worth our time to make our best lead before the play of the hand is given to the declarer on a silver platter.

In this lesson we introduce the C.I.A.!  No not that CIA – we are referring to the opening leaders ability to consider:
Count,   Inferences,    Algorithms

When the opponents merrily bid back and forth, perhaps stopping in a partscore contract, game, or even up to a glorious slam contract, they are giving their best assessment of their strength and suit length to their partner.  So as a good “counter-intelligence” agent, it is incumbent on us to Look and Listen to each of their bids rather than pout about why we didn’t get cards with chunky honors.  After all, it doesn’t cost anything and we are happy that they are sharing lots of juicy details that will help us defend against their contract.

In this lesson, we will count, Count, COUNT – making an assessment of their likely honors as well as their hand shape, suit by suit.  And capitalizing on our prior lesson 2, it may pay handsome dividends to glance for the opponents gestures, mannerisms, body language, pauses, hesitations, utterances and whatever to possibly give us more “secrets” about their hand assessment and impressions of the auction!

But wait, there’s more!  Once you or partner makes the opening lead, now is a great time to turn your head 45 degrees and admire the dummy.  Do we agree with the dummy’s bidding?  Does it match our assessment prior to the opening lead.  Now how do we feel about the lead?  And the card the declarer chose from the dummy?  Was it a fast decision or slow after considerable consternation?   Okay, enough talk – its time to tune in to this two hour, 4 part lesson with a few dozen slides, punctuated by 15 hand of animated bidding and play.    Okay, let’s do it…

Part 1 – Beginning with lead basics and counting the opponents points – 17:03 minutes of video
Free, Premium, ULTRA, click here to view Part 2 on how to count the inferences – 31:32 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 on lead algorithms and more – 30:38 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 playing lots more hands – 29:23 minutes of video

And best yet, here at BridgeHands all of our Bridge hands are full of commentary (regardless of who is the declarer and defender) and analysis on hand evaluation, bidding and animated card play.   As always, our hand discussion offers a refreshingly rare glimpse of Bridge inside the minds of all four players at the table as play progresses, bid by bid, card by card.  Visitors are welcome to view the Part 1 series of our video lesson with nuances that will lead to quick and sound bidding without guesswork.  Those with the Free BridgeHands  membership may also watch Part 2 where we play more hands with provocative play tips and strategies, as well as way to improve skills by critiquing student players. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire four-part lesson segments with lots of hands, plus an opportunity to view future shows during your membership subscription period.   And as always, be sure to check out the hundreds of hours of videos in our archive that is growing by leaps and bounds, by clicking “Index to Videos” on the navigation above or simply click this link.

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Filed Under: .Social, Social Play

Social Lesson 19, Part 2, Look/Listen @ Auction/Play, Focus, Awareness, Countermeasures

March 14, 2016 By Leave a Comment

With our lesson #19, Day 1 on Bridge hand evaluation (High Card Points, distribution for length and shortness) beyond us, probably the next most important factor to improve our game is… YOU!  But what does that mean and what can I do about it?  Read on…

Bridge is far more than just a logical game with fixed algorithms, cold statistical odds and players who all follow pre-programmed “If This – Than That” drone rules.  On the contrary, part of the secret sauce to winning Bridge is exuding a modicum of flair, full of the “X Factor” and as the French would say, “je ne sais quoi” (extraordinary indescribable quality).

To start, it helps if we are at least self-aware, “Knowing Thyself” as Socrates would say.  Yet going beyond our own SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat) and our ego is imperative since Bridge is much more than just ourselves.   Enter situational awareness  – being aware of our environment, perception/interactions./reputation (to and from others).

And just playing one hand involves over 100 factors and attendant decisions – whew!  So over 3+ hours of Bridge, we’ve made thousands of decisions and that can be taxing as well as stressful in the face of competition.  Add to that our self awareness, distractions, focusing on the wrong thing or fixated elsewhere… well, you get the idea.

In this lesson, we will focus on learning to focus at the table, providing clear signals (to partner at least), learning countermeasures when we become fatigued, stressed or face distractions including an occasional devious opponent.  And that including dealing with emotions around the table (theirs and yours), awareness of basic Bridge odds associated with suit splits, awareness of game forcing/1 round forcing/freebids/signoff bids, etc.

But wait, there’s more!  Whether you and your partner play various defensive signals or not, your better opponents probably do.  So doesn’t it at least make sense to be aware of the basic types of signals used by those competing against you?  Okay, enough talk – its time to tune in to this 100 minute, 4 part lesson with a few dozen slides, punctuated by animated bidding and play.  And oh, by the way, in this lesson we will overlook student bidding and play on these actual hands!  Okay, let’s do it…

Part 1 – Entering into the mind of the Bridge player – 20:35 minutes of video
Free, Premium, ULTRA, click here to view Part 2 on focus and awareness – 10:43 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 on countermeasures – 37:41 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 playing several hands – 31:53 minutes of video

And best yet, here at BridgeHands all of our Bridge hands are full of commentary (regardless of who is the declarer and defender) and analysis on hand evaluation, bidding and animated card play.   As always, our hand discussion offers a refreshingly rare glimpse of Bridge inside the minds of all four players at the table as play progresses, bid by bid, card by card.  Visitors are welcome to view the Part 1 series of our video lesson with nuances that will lead to quick and sound bidding without guesswork.  Those with the Free BridgeHands  membership may also watch Part 2 where we play more hands with provocative play tips and strategies, as well as way to improve skills by critiquing student players. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire four-part lesson segments with lots of hands, plus an opportunity to view future shows during your membership subscription period.   And as always, be sure to check out the hundreds of hours of videos in our archive that is growing by leaps and bounds, by clicking “Index to Videos” on the navigation above or simply click this link.

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Filed Under: .Social Tagged With: , , ,

Social Lesson 19 – Bridge hand evaluation, HCP, Losing Trick Count, Cover Cards

March 6, 2016 By 3 Comments

Bridge hand evaluation is where it all starts.  Counting High Card Points is a good start, Ace=4, King=3, Queen=2, and Jack=1 (maybe).  But wait, don’t forget to count extra distribution points when you have a “nice” 5+ card suit, assuming the suit is promotable with a few (2) good working honors in the suit.   And when responder has a good trump fit as well as shortness in a side suit, that’s also work extra points since the responder’s hand provide ruffing opportunities for the opener’s side suit losers.

And until Ron Klinger promoted the notion of Losing Trick Count, that was pretty much the state of the art for hand evaluation for the next 60 years.  Fortunately, better players came to realize the advantage of using LTC and began tweaking fine points to both leverage its benefits, simplifying responder’s methodology (Cover Cards) as well as refinements to more accurately bid games and slam.

Additionally, Bridge players came up with other guides to find opportunities to open the bidding including opening an 11 HCP hand with a 5-4-3-1 shape (or other singleton/void distributional hands), opening in the 4th (and possibly 3rd seat) with a “Rule of 15” hand calculated by adding the number of Spades combined with the player’s HCP, and even the “Rule of 20” figured by adding the players HCP and the combined length of the two longest suit.

This is the first of a 6 part lesson series where advancing Bridge players learn the ins and outs of hand evaluation.

 

In this 2 hour video lesson, in Part 1 we will start with the fundamentals of the who, what, when, where and why of hand evaluation by opener and responder.  If you are already up to speed in the basics of HCP (High Card Points and distribution/shape) and signoff/invitational bids, feel free to start with Part 2 where we get into the nitty gritty details of LTC and CC.  In Part 3 and Part 3b, we will bid and play a wide variety of hand, validating when we should be bidding game… as well as knowing when we should be satisfied in a part score contract.

Part 1 – Review of classic hand evaluation methods – 36:12 minutes of video
Free, Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2 on Losing Trick Count – 21:51 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2b on Cover Cards – 18:36 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 playing hands – 18:37 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3b playing more hands – 21:14 minutes of video

And best yet, here at BridgeHands all of our Bridge hands are full of commentary (regardless of who is the declarer and defender) and analysis on hand evaluation, bidding and play with over 2 hours of animated card play.   As always, our hand discussion offers a refreshingly rare glimpse of Bridge inside the minds of all four players at the table as play progresses, bid by bid, card by card.  Visitors are welcome to view the Part 1 series of our video lesson with nuances that will lead to quick and sound bidding without guesswork.  Those with the Free BridgeHands  membership may also watch Part 2 where we review another three hands with provocative play tips and strategies to ensure you bring home the contract. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire five-part lesson segments with lots of hands, plus an opportunity to view future shows during your membership subscription period.   And as always, be sure to check out the hundreds of hours of videos in our archive that is growing by leaps and bounds, by clicking “Index to Videos” on the navigation above or simply click this link.

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Filed Under: .Social Tagged With: , , ,