Recent TWIB Collection

Featured

Improve Your Card Play - Making Use of an Ace

TWiB Lesson #563 (1 of 4)

The Ace is the most powerful card in each suit. It almost always wins a trick (especially in a notrump contract), but the Ace does much more than simply win one trick. The Ace controls the suit. When we hold the Ace of a suit, we get to not only win a trick in that suit, we get to decide when we take our trick and gain the lead. Holding the Ace gives us the power to choose how the play is going to go.

Improve Your Card Play - Establishing Length

TWiB Lesson #564 (2 of 4)

We usually win tricks with little cards (other than in the trump suit) by setting up our long suits. To establish these little cards in our long suits into winners, we need to play the hand well. This requires using our large cards in the best way possible to establish our little cards. That means we need to play our combinations as best as we can, manage our transportation, and have some good luck in the way the cards divide.

NT and Balancing Auctions -- 14-16 Point 1NT Opening

TWiB Lesson #558 (1 of 9)

By defining our 1NT opening bid to show 14-16 points with a balanced hand, we maintain the general strength of the opening bid while allowing ourselves to open the bidding with it more often. We discuss how you bid if you agree to play this, both as an Opener and as Responder.

NT and Balancing Auctions -- Balancing NT & Other Bal Bids

TWiB Lesson #559 (2 of 9)

When LHO opens the bidding and the auction passes around to us, we are the last line of defense against the opponents buying the contract at a low level - balancing. When we balance we “borrow” some of partner’s values and add those points to our hand - usually about 3 points.

NT and Balancing Auctions -- Range Stayman

TWiB Lesson #560 (3 of 9)

A balancing 1NT bid can be a wide-ranging action, about 11-15/16 points. This 5-point range is much larger than most Notrump bids and leaves partner with a more difficult bidding situation. Range Stayman is a tool that can help Advancer better determine the values of our hand and if game is a possibility.

NT and Balancing Auctions -- Jump Overcalls in Balancing Seat

TWiB Lesson #561 (4 of 9)

One place that we do not need a jump bid to show a weak hand is in the balancing seat. In this seat with a weak hand, say 5-8 HCP, and a long suit, we would not bid; we would simply pass the hand out. Theses bids are used to describe different, stronger hands.

NT and Balancing Auctions -- Other Balancing Auctions

TWiB Lesson #562 (5 of 9)

When our left-hand opponent opens the bidding and the auction passes around to us, we have a big decision to make – should we get into this auction, or should we leave the opponents to play at the 1-level? We have a variety of bidding tools to help us compete in the bidding.

Advanced Competitive Bidding - Leaping Michaels

TWiB Lesson #550 (1 of 8)

When RHO opens a 2-level preempt, they have started eating up our valuable bidding space. But this is just the start of their attack on us. LHO may join in the attack and raise the preempt, making our life even more difficult. When we are bidding over RHO’s 2-level preempt we should keep this in mind. We need lots of tools to deal with this situation.

Advanced Competitive Bidding - Dealing with 4-Level Preempts

TWiB Lesson #551 (2 of 8)

When the opponents open at the 4-level they put a lot of pressure on us to make difficult decisions without much room to maneuver or describe our hand. This preempt will force us to either double or overcall at a very high level. Let’s look at these options and see how we need to adjust our thinking and bidding because of the lack of available space.

Advanced Competitive Bidding - Non-Leaping Michaels

TWiB Lesson #552 (3 of 8)

When the opponents open the bidding with a 3-level preempt then much of tour focus is on “Should we bid beyond 3NT?” This is especially true when we have one long minor, when we likely want to play in 3NT or 5-minor. This allows us to use 4-minor in some interesting conventional ways, just as we do vs. a 2-level preempt.

Advanced Competitive Bidding - 4NT in Competition

TWiB Lesson #553 (4 of 8)

When the opponents stay out of our auctions then usually 4NT is Quantitative in a NT auction or Keycard in a suit auction. But in a competitive auction we are more likely to use 4NT as a bid showing 2 places to play. Let’s look at some of these auctions so we know what partner is trying to do to when they use 4NT in a competitive auction.

Advanced Competitive Bidding - Good/Bad 2NT

TWiB Lesson #554 (5 of 8)

Good/Bad 2NT gives Opener two ways to compete to the 3-level – by bidding directly with a “Good Hand” or by bidding 2NT first with a “Bad Hand”. By using 2NT as a relay bid, instead of a natural call, this allows for a more precise description of Opener’s hand. Let’s see how it works through examples.

Robert’s Upcoming Webinars

October Tuesday Webinars

Fundamentals - High Level Response to 1-Major Openings

Late 2024 - Coming Soon!

When partner opens the bidding with 1-Major then we normally go slow and make a low level response. But we can also use some immediate jumps to high bids to describe some interesting and difficult hands. Let’s look at the meaning of this high-level jump responses.

Recent TWIB Collection

Robert’s Upcoming Webinars

Robert’s Recent Webinars

The AiB Curriculum (In Development)