Latest News

Squashing Honours. We left you on Friday in a rather precarious contract after a very difficult bidding sequence. Let's hope we did not use up all our energies in the bidding! We needed to get 10 tricks with spades as trumps: South... read more here

Bidding What We Have Not: Not Bidding What We Have! The rules or guidelines around bidding can be strange or at times make us do seemingly strange things. For example, if we have 7 high card points and 4 spades and a 6-card club suit, we bid 1... read more here

TWO BIDS TO SUCCESS. Some bidding sequences can be very drawn out and can take many minutes to conduct. Others are very succinct….and I do not just mean ones like 1NT – 3NT. This particular sequence following involves a bid which... read more here

-850 or + 200? One of those will be the result of our action to double 5H in the following auction. Do you remember the problem? West DealsBoth Vul     ♠ J 6 5 ♥ J 8 7 4... read more here

Clear Signal: Less Stress. We learn at an early stage of our Bridge development that we can tell our partner whether we like their lead or indeed which suit we would like them to play when they get on lead. There are various methods of doing so.... read more here

VALUING VOIDS . As well as valuing 4 points for each ace, three for each king, two for a queen and one for a jack, we learn that we can add on extra points for our hand when we have a one or two card suit…or even no cards in a suit! Word... read more here

“CRIMES” SHOULD BE PUNISHED. Define “crime” in bridge terminology. A criminal action was certainly committed on the following board and should probably have made it easier for a partnership to have bid a slam in safety.... read more here

How Forcing? We often say that a bid is either forcing or is not. Yet, like so much in Bridge, it is not always that simple. We also need to know how forcing a bid is. Is it : Forcing to game? Forcing to 2NT? Forcing just for one round? If... read more here

WHICH ROUTE TO TAKE? We left you to play a rather awkward 3NT contract, only 24 high card points between our two hands and no good fit. Can we make 9 tricks? What’s our planning like? South DealsN-S Vul ♠ J 4... read more here

Opportunities Lost Or are they? Do we bid too much at the wrong times even at a lowish level? Are we too afraid to penalise at too low a level? How many of those questions apply to you? (Sorry, I promise not to ask any more questions!) I lie!... read more here

        TIME TO ACT ! NATIONAL CONGRESS UPDATE. July 2019. It’s three months to go before we draw those cards in Hamilton. So, it must be time to start doing a little planning if you have not already done so….... read more here

Keeping out of the Way. You find the right lead, the only lead to beat a contract….and then something major goes wrong! Take a look: South DealsBoth Vul ♠ Q J ♥ Q 4 2 ♦ A 10 9 8 6 5... read more here

A Good time NOT to win a trick. We spend about half our time during the play of a hand defending. So, it is well worth looking at some of the things a good defender could do. That’s in addition to learning about playing hands and the... read more here

They Open: We bid Game.     As South you pick up a nice looking 18-point hand. You are 4th to speak and there’s a bit of bidding before you get your first shot:       West DealsNone Vul... read more here

Good Bidding…. Not Good Luck. Luck plays its part in a hand of bridge. The best of contracts can succumb to a bad break while some with a much lesser chance of success come home thanks to some good fortune. However, when many pairs miss... read more here