The BBO ACBL Club Bulletin #21

By Dan Israeli (ACBL_17)

Welcome to the 21st 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 May 11th, in the 8pm Speedball game.
The traveler can be seen here.

(Click the NEXT button to view the presentation)


Important things to remember:
1. Super accepting a transfer should only be done with 4 card support.
2. Two different sequences of bids can never mean the same thing. We have limited amount of bidding space, so each bid should mean something different.

Hand 2:
This hand was played on May 30th, in the 7pm Speedball game .
The traveler can be seen here.

(Click the NEXT button)


Important things to remember:
1. A jump shift, e.g. 1H-1S-3C is forcing to game. If your hand is not strong enough for that, you shouldn't jump. 1D-1H-2S should also be forcing to game.
2. If we bid 3 suits naturally, bidding the 4th suit should be artificial. What the bid actually means will vary according to the context, but it should never be natural.
3. Drawing trumps is important, but sometimes it must be postponed in order to set up the side suit and retain communication between the two hands.

Hand 3:
The last hand for today is a double dummy problem.
You are playing 6 spades from the south seat. The lead is the heart Ace. Can you make the contract?
If you think you solved the problem, you can email me, and I will let you know if you got it right.

(Click the NEXT button to view the presentation)


Thanks to Eli for sending me this nice problem.


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

Dan Israeli