Play of the Hand
Robert Todd
(565) Card Play: Guarding a Suit

Declarer likes to try to win tricks with their little cards — setting up their length. As a defender it is our job to try to prevent this from happening. The way we do so is by keeping the cards in their long suits, called guarding a suit.

(565) Card Play: Guarding a Suit
Play of the Hand
Robert Todd
(564) Improve Your Card Play: Establishing ...

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. Let’s see how we can properly manage our cards to take our tricks.

(564) Improve Your Card Play: Establishing Length
Play of the Hand
Robert Todd
(563) Improve Your Card Play: Making Use of an ...

Our first discussion on card play is how to get the most out of the best card in every suit - the Ace! There are a variety of ways for the Ace to help us and here we look at how to get the most out of this important card.


(563) Improve Your Card Play: Making Use of an Ace
Bidding, Competitive Bidding
Robert Todd
(562) NT and Balancing Auctions: Other ...

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, but we need to use our judgment about when to compete in the bidding and when to keep quiet.  Here we look at some of the classic bidding situations where we have a difficult decision and then overview some of our bidding tools in these auctions.

(562) NT and Balancing Auctions: Other Balancing Actions
Bidding, Competitive Bidding
Robert Todd
(561) NT and Balancing Auctions: Jump ...

One place that we do not need a jump bid to show a weak hand is in the passout (PO) seat, also known as 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.  Bidding here with so few HCP may give the opponents a chance to reach a better partscore or game that they may not otherwise reach.  Since we will not bid in the PO seat with a weak hand and we could make a simple overcall with 9-10 HCP and a long suit, then a Jump Overcall in the PO seat is free to be used to describe a different type of hand that can otherwise be difficult to show. 

(561) NT and Balancing Auctions: Jump Overcalls in the Passout Seat

Competitive: Doubles

,

(557) Competitive Auctions: I Want to Bid Doubles

,
(557) Competitive Auctions: I Want to Bid Doubles

There are certain auctions where we have made a bid that has “fully described our hand” and we leave the bidding up to partner.  In auctions like these we usually are not very sure of what partner has for their bid and we want to leave any further decisions up to them.  But sometimes we have more shape than partner expects or our instincts tell us that it is right to bid on.  When that is the case we do NOT want to just take over and bid again – we told partner we would not bid any more after our first bid.  In an auction like this we can use a double as a conventional bid saying “I want to bid more”.  This is called an I Want to bid Double and it applies in very specific situations.

Tagged:

,

(556) Competitive Auctions: Anti-Lead Directing Doubles

,
(556) Competitive Auctions: Anti-Lead Directing Doubles

Lead-directing doubles can be helpful in getting partner off to a good opening lead. These lead-directing doubles are common when the opponents make an artificial bid. When the opponents make a cuebid of our suit, a lead-directing double is also very common. Here we focus on this situation in detail to structure our agreements to allow us to communicate in the most effective way we can.

Tagged:

, ,

(520) NT Auctions: Opponents' Doubles of Our Stayman and Transfers

, ,
(520) NT Auctions: Opponents' Doubles of Our Stayman and Transfers

When we open a NT and partner uses an artificial conventional responses, like Stayman or Transfers, then the opponents might double as lead directing. We want to use this double against them. Here we discuss our options for bidding after this double.

, ,

(461) Partnership Bidding: Their Major Suit Openings

, ,
(461) Partnership Bidding: Their Major Suit Openings

When the opponents open the bidding with 1-Major then we need to compete in the bidding and do so quickly and accurately. In order to do this week need good agreements with partner, especially about the meaning of cuebidding the opponent's suit. Let's make sure we have good agreements in these situations.