All News

             Playing With “The Master”. Have you ever had a game of Bridge with a “DealMaster”? You know who I mean, don’t you? His (oops, sorry, that may... read more here

There was an excellent atmosphere on the last Sunday of morning of July as 34 students took part in a Schools’ Pairs event at the Auckland Bridge Club. We had players from Macleans College, Auckland Grammar, Bucklands Beach Intermediate,... read more here

 Playing a Tough Part-Score Contract.                 We left you as declarer in the  following deal in your part-score spade contract after West had led the jack... read more here

Ron and Sandra Cooper - Orewa. This month we have a joint nomination, a husband and wife partnership who have served their club in different ways for many years. For 12 years Ron has been a committee member and served for 7 of those years as... read more here

Being Competitive. One of the skills of bidding is, when the opponents open the bidding, of knowing to compete when an auction is about to end. This is called "balancing" or "being competitive".  If you do not, you will find you will get... read more here

Waikato Bays News and Rubber "Cat" ch up Teams events seemed to be back on the radar over the past few months.   Starting with Spa Town Teams in Te Aroha … this is the only stand-alone tournament Te Aroha host and it is comprised... read more here

Trump Signals Can Save The Day… ….. or even help beat a contract. What are they? Normally, we follow quite meaninglessly with our two or three small trumps. We can give the order we play them a meaning. We focus on the other two... read more here

SIX GOOD TRUMPS ARE NO GOOD……. This all happened in one 10 board match among 8 supposedly strong Open bridge players. Firstly, we must give you a bidding problem….or maybe it is no problem: With both sides vulnerable, you... read more here

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

June 2019.  Allan Joseph. Just about any month Allan Joseph, director, member of Wellington's Kairangi and Wellington Bridge Club, would legitimately be able to be nominated as the New Zealand Bridge's Volunteer of the Month. June 2019 is... read more here

Bread and Butter Defending…but no jam! Sorry to be unsensational but it is very rare for any Pairs tournament to be won by one’s slam bidding or by bringing home low point-count risky 3NT contracts. It is much more likely to be won... read more here

Like does mean “Like”. We worked through last time what we would lead to a simply bid 3NT contract and left you in the middle of trick 2 after you had chosen the SQ. This is what you saw after the opening lead was made:... read more here

            A Problem Lead. Our focus today is on the choice of opening lead, rather than the bidding. The opposition bid quickly to 3NT with the following uninterrupted sequence:... read more here

                         Honours Even. Honours were even when the two South Pacific nations played each other in 64 board test... read more here

SILVER FOR BRIDGE BLACKS. The event may have ended too soon with the Bridge Blacks on a roll, two huge victories over Thailand and Japan and with Gold Medalists China eventually less than 15 vps ahead. A great finish for the team of GeO... read more here

Two Kiwi Teams Chase Medals. Three good wins, the most impressive being the smallest over table-topping China, has put the Bridge Blacks in line to challenge for a medal on the last day of play. They are now only 9vps behind 2nd placed China... read more here