The BBO ACBL Club Bulletin #24

By Dan Israeli (ACBL_17)

Welcome to the 24th edition of the BBO ACBL Club Bulletin.
Once in a while, I will present a few interesting hands played in our very own ACBL games, and try to show you how the hand should be bid and played.
Of course, Bridge is not an exact science, so I will try to bring more than one angle.
I hope you will find this interesting and useful.

If you come across an interesting hand you'd like to share and have analyzed, or if you have an interesting story to tell or a question to ask, feel free to email me.
My email address is ehhehh@gmail.com.

A few preliminary notes:

1. I try to keep the bidding simple. The Basic SAYC system is used, but mostly it is common sense bridge, added with a few simple gadgets.
2. Some boards will require a more scientific approach, but nothing really major. I believe good bridge can be played without 200 pages of agreements.

Hand 1:
This hand was played on Monday August 23rd, in the 7pm Speedball game.
The traveler can be seen here.

(Click the NEXT button to view the presentation)

Important things to remember:
1. When playing matchpoints, the number of tricks you take is extremely important.
The difference between 2S making 8 tricks, and 2S making 9 tricks will often mean the difference between a top and a bottom. Always work as hard as you can to take the maximum number of tricks available.
2. Sometimes small spot cards can be very useful. Do not ignore the spot cards.

Hand 2:
This hand was sent to me by Lorne Russell (ACBL_07). Thanks Lorne!
The hand was played on Thursday, August 19th, in the 7pm Speedball game.
The traveler can be seen here.

(Click the NEXT button)

Important things to remember:
1. It's usually a bad idea to ask for aces (or key cards) whe holding a void. This is because you won't know if partner's ace/key card is a useful one, or the one you don't need because you have a void there.
2. When playing matchpoints, it's much better to play in a major than in a minor, and NT is always best.
This is because the same number of tricks score lowest in a minor and highest in NT.
7 of a minor is worth 1440, 7 of a major 1510, and 7NT 1520 (or 2140, 2210 and 2220 respectively, if vulnerable).
The extra 10 points for the NT contract are often worth ALL the matchpoints.


That's it for today.
I hope you enjoyed reading.
See you next time!

Dan Israeli