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Popular Conventions
These sessions are for those players who are already playing bridge and want to increase their bidding accuracy.
Each lesson will begin with a revision of the previous week's convention, followed by the quiz answers and questions. There will be a power-point presentation based on a new convention. Students will then be able to play some ready prepared hands on the new convention and will be helped at any stage of the bidding and play.
At the end of the lesson students will be given a quiz and handout based on the new convention. Discussion and questions are always welcome.
Here are some of conventions we hope to introduce:-
Jacoby, splinter bids, unusual no-trump/UNT and Michaels cue bid, Landy, losing trick count/LTC, fourth suit forcing/FSF bidding big hands, slam techniques and Roman Key Card Blackwood/RKCB.
We would also like to cover other topics:- different card signals to improve partnership defence, doubles including negative doubles and the importance of hand evaluation in relation to high card points.
Deal, Ask and Play
All bridge players are welcome, from improvers to more experienced players. We will try to organise tables according to ability.
Students will deal their own hands and be able to ask about any aspect of bidding, play defence and tactics for both rubber and duplicate bridge. We will endeavour to bring students up to date with new bridge systems and handouts will be available on these topics. Students will be encouraged to bring in problem hands for discussion. All questions are welcome.
Explanations of our topics
Conventions: Jacoby and Splinter bids, Unusual Notrump (UNT), Michaels Cue Bid, Landy, Unassuming cue bid (UCB).
Jacoby and splinter bids are conventional ways of telling partner there is a suit fit with enough values for game and possibility of slam.
Unusual No-trump and Michaels Cue bids are both ways of showing two 5-card suits in the overcall position.
Landy is an overcall made after an opening Notrump bid, promising 5/4 cards in the major suits and asking partner to choose.
An Unassuming Cue Bid/BOSS bid (Bidding Opener's Suit for Support) shows a value support for partner's overcall to at least the 3-level and to distinguish it from a pre-emptive raise.
Bidding Big Hands: 2NT, 2 clubs, reverse bids & Jump shifts, cue bids, RKCB.
Whilst hands with lots of high card points are a good indication of slam there are other ways of recognising potential slams.
SSSS - shape, stops, strength and a source of tricks are all relevant.
This course covers quantitative bids searching for slam used after a one or two Notrump opening.
2 club opening bids, are the strongest bid available with certainty of game and searching for slam.
There are other ways to show a big hand by using reverse bidding or jump-shifts by Opener or Responder.
Roman Key Card Blackwood (RKCB) is the modern way of checking whether the partnership has enough Aces, plus the King of trumps (these are the 5 KEY cards) before proceeding to slam. Once trumps are agreed cue bids are used to show controls of suits before continuing to slam.
Signals: Attitude, Count, Suit Preference (SPS), Discards.
Defenders can help each other by signalling which suits they would like to be led, or by showing where they hold their strength. This will only be effective if partner NOTICES! Each signal can only convey one message with one card – it depends on the situation.
Three types of signals are covered and making Discards, which are also ways of signalling to partner.
Doubles: Takeout, Penalty, Negative, Re-opening
Penalty Doubles are made to increase the score made if the opponents fail in their contract. Because it is rarely profitable to make a penalty double of a contract below the level of 3♠, Double is used conventionally. Double of 1NT opening bid is always for penalty.
Take-out Doubles - 'TO. X' - are a way of asking partner to 'Help' with overcalling. The requirements are Shortage in the opening suit, Opening strength and Support for the other 3 suits - SOS.
Negative doubles - only used by responder to opener after an overcall. They are an essential way of coping with interference bidding.
Re-opening doubles are made by Opener asking partner to bid even when partner has already passed.