The BBO ACBL Club Bulletin #15

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:
This hand was played on Saturday, October 3rd, in the 8pm Speedball game. I am writing about it because it presented a nice competitive auction.
The points are distributed evenly in about 80% of the hands, and it is important to know when to balance, when to bid again to get the opponents one level higher, and when to keep quiet.
Listening to the auction can be very important.
The traveler can be seen here.
I have separated the auction and the play for convenience.

Part one:
(Click the NEXT button to view the presentation)

Part two:



Hand 2:
This hand was played on Thursday, October 8th, in the 6pm Speedball game.
I was dummy, and the play did not go exactly as described, but I think the hand is very interesting so I've decided to bring it anyway.
The traveler can be seen here.

(Click the NEXT button)


The important lessons from today's hands is to remember to count, and to listen to the auction. Counting points, counting cards in declarer's hand or the defenders' hands, and listening to the auction can often tell you what the unseen hands are like, and this information can be crucial.

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

Dan Israeli