The BBO ACBL Club Bulletin #8

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 at 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 last Friday in the 4pm speedball game.
If you are curious to see the field results, you can check the traveler for it here.

(Click the NEXT button to view the presentation)


Of course, there are many possible results, as you can see in the traveler link above. This board has lots of places for judgment calls, which might alter the end result drastically. 5H doubled is the "par" result, the best each side can achieve.
For information about the unusual notrump convention, feel free to email me.

Hand 2:

This hand was played last Thursday in the 8pm speedball game.
If you are curious to see the field results, you can check the traveler for it here.

In this deal, the players sitting in East-West haven't got much to say, and the North-South pair needs to constructively bid to the correct contract. Can they do it?

(Click the NEXT button)


Some north players might have just bid 4S after hearing 3D on the strength of the 6 card suit and the double fit.
If they reach 4S, it will probably make, as there are only two trumps to give, and possibly a heart.

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

Dan Israeli