The BBO ACBL Club Bulletin #10

By Dan Israeli (ACBL_17)

Welcome to this week's ACBL Club Bulletin.
Every week I will bring 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:
Today I want to show you the difference a light opening can cause in a board. Bridge is often a game where you can see the butterfly effect - a small decision can change the whole course of the board. This deal was played on July 22nd during the 8pm speedball game.
For the deal's traveler, click here.
East, the dealer, has a choice whether to open light or pass, and we will see how this choice affects the outcome of the board.

1st Scenario:
First, we will see what happens if east passes in 1st seat.

(Click the NEXT button to view the presentation)

Even if the defense manages to beat 2S, they will only chalk up 100 (or 200 in 3S), small compensation for 620 in 4H making, as we can see. The opponent's spade suit has completely blocked EW's bidding.
Suit preference signals are a very important part of the game. Feel free to ask me about them.

2nd Scenario:
We will now see what will happen if east makes the light 1H opening bid.

(Click the NEXT button)

Interesting how a single decision can alter the board so drastically, isn't it?


Hand 2:

In today's 2nd hand, I want to show you how even great players sometimes have accidents.
This hand was played in one of the Spingold matches yesterday. Here is what happened:

(Click the NEXT button)

The problem with the 5C bid was that east was not a passed hand. If east had passed initially, then the 5C bid would have been much more easily read as a lead-directing bid, because a passed hand wouldn't bid to the 5 level like that without a fit. But as an unpassed hand, east might just really bid 5C to play - that is what west thought, anyway - and so the 5C bid is a dangerous one.
East's bid was inspired, and the result was unfavorable this time. Well done to NS for successfully catching EW by not doubling!


That's it for today.
I hope you had a good time.
See you next week!

Dan Israeli