Better Bridge in Barry County April 26 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

	North                          ª 6 5 2                          © K 8 5 3                          ¨ Q                          § A J 5 4 3
West                          ª A Q J 8 7                          © 4                          ¨ K 10 9                          § Q 7 6 2		East                            ª K 9                            © Q 10 9 7                            ¨ J 7 4 3 2                            § 10 8
	South                          ª 10 4 3                          © A J 6 2                          ¨ A 8 6 5                          § K 9

 

Lead: Two of clubs with North-South Vulnerable


Captain M. North peered through the fog and the rain from the captain’s wheel on the USS: Barry County Bridge Barge. “Oh, brother,” he muttered half to himself. “Red sky at morning: Sailors take warning.” The wind and the rain had begun shortly after leaving port on Lake Thornapple for the weekly river cruise and bridge tournament. White caps and waves pushed against the bow. The bridge players were oblivious to it all. They were deep in concentration on their bidding and their cards. Captain North groaned again, “It will be a crossing rough today with this kind of weather.”

One of the bridge players looked up from Table One, closest to the Captain. “Captain North, did you just mention a cross-ruffing opportunity? I have just the hand to show you!” With excitement in her voice, Bertha O’Toole, a perky and infectious happy camper, looked at the Captain who was rolling his eyes at her enthusiasm. Captain North called her “Rosy” because of her optimistic point of view on bridge and on life.

“Haven’t you noticed the awful weather we are encountering today?” The Captain exclaimed. Rosy only smiled and replied, “April Showers bring May flowers!” The Captain groaned again. “Rosy, show me the hand, please!”

The bidding went as follows at Table One:

Dealer: East	West	North(Vera)	East	South(Rosy)
			Pass	1D
	1S	Dbl	Pass	2H
	Pass	4H	All Pass

Rosy began her explanation. “While 3 hearts is a safe contract, four hearts is even more challenging. Would you like to see how it went?” Not stopping for an answer, Rosy continued. “With a look at the dummy hand that North, my favorite partner, Vera, placed down, I knew that I had to work especially hard to make this contract. After all, Vera was the one who pushed us on to game, and I couldn’t let my partner down.”

Here Vera piped in, “Of course not, Rosy.” (Even the other bridge players had begun to call Bertha by the Captain’s choice of nicknames.) “You know, Captain North, ‘A bid in the hand is worth two in the bush!’” Here the entire table burst into laughter, and the Captain looked at them and shook his head. “Go on with the hand, ladies.”

Recovering from their funny joke, Rosy continued, “My plan was to avoid drawing trumps, and you will appreciate this, Captain North, I planned to use a cross-ruffing technique to pick up the tenth trick!” She smiled with her plan, and she continued. “With the 2C as the opening lead, I took the KC in my hand for trick one. I led the Ace of diamonds from my hand and played the Queen from the dummy making a nice void there. Two for us!” Rosy was enjoying this immensely.

“I next led the 5D from my hand and used partner’s 3H for a ruff. Trick Number three! Yippee!” They all chortled again at the table. Poor Captain North.  Regaining her composure, Rosy continued, “For trick four, I had to live dangerously. I led the Ace of clubs from the dummy and played my nine. It went through for trick four.”

“For trick five, I led the 4C, expecting a ruff, and East used his 7H. I overtrumped with my JH. Back in my hand again, I led my 6D and trumped it on the board with dummy’s 5H for trick six. Then I led the 5C from the board, and when East did not trump this time, I used the 2H for trick seven. I then led the 8D from my hand and trumped with the 8H on the board for trick eight.”

“Two to go, Captain!” said Rosy with a big smile. “Next, I led the JC from the board, and this time when East trumped with 9H, I threw away the 3S, getting rid of one of my three spade losers. East-West had one trick while we had eight already. East led the 9S, and her partner took the AS for their second trick. She also cashed the QS for their third trick.”

“Here we are at the last two tricks, Captain North. Are you excited?” The Captain only nodded again. “When West led the JS from her hand, her partner trumped with the 10H, but I overtrumped with the AH in my hand for our ninth trick, and from my hand I led my last heart to the KH on the board making four hearts vulnerable. All ten tricks accounted for.”

Captain North surveyed the table, “Well done, Rosy! For today a rough crossing or a cross-ruffing works out just fine, doesn’t it?”

Here Vera spoke up again, “Well, Captain, you know ‘Bids of a feather flock together!’” The entire table erupted into huge peals of laughter once again. Captain North walked away, shaking his head. “Bridge players! You got to love them!” The captain smiled as the sun poked through the clouds.

Bridge Question on this hand: How does the East-West team defeat the four-heart contract of Rosy and Vera?

(Answer to last week’s question: “To the victor belong the spoils” is the famous quote by New York Senator William Learned Macy recited in the US Senate on January 25, 1832.)

Gerald Stein April 3, 2012 959 Words

Better Bridge in Barry County April 19 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

Bidittle -- The Bridge to Bridge: A Bidding and Trick-Taking Card and Board Game

Audience: 2-4 Players Ages 7+ to Adults

Purpose: Teaches trick-taking and bidding techniques to younger players using a board game layout as preparation for entry into the world of bridge

Available at: www.bidittle.com for about $25.00

Today’s column features a review of a game called Bidittle we found at an American Contract Bridge League tournament a few years ago. Advertised as a board game with tokens and cards, this item quickly caught the grandparent-eye in both of us. The vendor was enthusiastically enlivened to see grandparents with money hovering over his wares. He quickly pointed out the advantages of having a game like Bidittle in our home when the grandchildren come over for a visit and want to do something different. The teachers-in-us both saw this as a way to teach our grandchildren the wonderful opportunities of learning to play bridge without all of the technical aspects that can quickly lose little ones’ attention.

Set up as a board game, Bidittle offers two games for the price of one. For younger players, and while the board directions suggest an age of 10+, our grandchildren of five and seven had little difficulty learning the basics on the easier of the two sides of the game.  Two decks of cards are included as in the game of bridge, but here the differences quickly become evident.  Only seven cards are dealt to each player. Seven cards are just the right number of cards for little hands to hold, and the creators of this game have recognized that in little hands 13 cards are highly unmanageable. With seven cards, even our five-year-old granddaughter can keep her cards in order.

As a player and a teacher in Bidittle, it is important to let the younger players know that they are on their way to playing bridge like adults do. This seems to intrigue them and encourages them to learn the game.  Organizing cards into the four suits is a fun activity, and giving the correct names of the suits is step number one.  Telling the grandchildren that the suits are in alphabetical order (Club, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades) makes this an easy first lesson. Alternating red and black cards next helps them keep the suits separate.

The bidding is a simple bidding process of one through seven, the same number of cards as in their hands. The key to bidding is to determine how many cards there are in each suit. If there are at least three cards in one suit, then the player has to make a judgment call and can make a bid of that suit. Making a bid is done by using colored markers or tokens for each player, and the bidder places a token on the number on the board that corresponds to the number of tricks that she thinks she can take with her hand. At first, Bidittle is just an individual bidding and trick-taking game, but before long partnerships develop, and players become very competitive in bidding and playing as in real bridge.

Bidding continues, with additional tokens being placed on the board from one all the way to six (small slam) and seven (grand slam).  As in bridge, the bidding ends when there are the requisite number of passes.

The play of the hand then begins, and the quick round of playing is reminiscent of euchre with leads, wins, and losses. A pad of score sheets (included) allows each player to know the bid and how well the play of the hand went. Children like the fast pace of Bidittle.

As the children grow older and more proficient playing Bidittle, additional concepts are added to make the bidding and the play of the hand even more comparable to bridge. Using the High Card Points of four for an Ace, three for a King, two for a Queen, and one for a Jack, the children soon learn how to count the points in their hand for even better bidding skills.

Once the basics of Bidittle  have been mastered, the board can be flipped over to begin The Bridge to Bridge with all of the bridge contract scoring concepts included right in the center of the board. No longer using the seven cards but a full deck of 52 cards, the players have now progressed to using total points and partnerships to reach part score, game, small slam or grand slam status.  Rebids, no trump bids, and doubling are all included in a fun and entertaining way.

If you want to pass on your love of bridge to others, especially to your children and grandchildren, consider going to the Bidittle website and investigate further the fun you will have showing them a new game called Bidittle, the bidding and trick-taking board game.

Gerald Stein, April 12, 2012, 821 words.

Better Bridge in Barry County April 12 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

	North                          ª ---                          © Q J 6 4 3                          ¨ A K Q J 9 7 3                          § K
West                          ª 7 5 4 2                          © 7                          ¨ 10 8 2                          § A J 8 6 2		East                            ª K J 10 8 6 3                            © A K 10 8                            ¨ 4                            § 5 3
	South                          ª A Q 9                          © 9 5 2                          ¨ 6 5                          § Q 10 9 7 4

 

Lead: Pick it!

The second-to-the-last hand of the day with North-South vulnerable provided a lot of discussion at the BC Bridge Club. The hand had been played seven times, and all seven declarers had been set. What had happened at the bridge tables?

While six of the tables had played in diamonds at the four and five level, one table played spades in the East-West seats. Looking at the wild distribution of this hand might lead us to some basic conclusions on bidding and play of the hand put together.

The bidding went as follows at Table One:

Dealer: West	West	North	East	South
	Pass	2C!	Pass	2D
	Pass	4NT!	Pass	5D
	Pass	Pass	Pass

Using a strong 2C bid, North elected to try for slam with his highly and wildly distributional hand. Knowing that his partner South would be playing the hand, (partnership agreement is that 2D is a waiting bid), North wanted to find out, if,  by chance, South had a couple of key aces. If the aces were not there, then 5D would be a final bid.

When South responded to the Blackwood Convention with 5 Diamonds, she acknowledged one ace. Which one of the three missing aces was North’s guess, but by then it was too late, and he passed knowing that he had put his partner into a tough, probably unmakeable, contract. All passed, and the play began with a contract of 5 diamonds in the South.

West wasted no time by leading his singleton heart, and East was poised and ready, taking the first two heart tricks with the Ace and King of hearts, and then leading a small heart for a West ruff. West seeing the bare King of clubs on the board, easily led the Ace of clubs, and North-South claimed the rest, down two tricks vulnerable for a minus 200 points.

Five of the six other tables did much the same, bidding to the five level in diamonds and being set two tricks for a minus score.

One creative East-West team saw things differently, however, and they entered the bidding as contenders. Over North’s opening bid, East threw in a spade overcall and found support from his partner West. They arrived at a four spade contract, only to be doubled by South. She was sitting behind East with the Ace and Queen of spades, good, for sure, of two tricks plus whatever North might have. The nonvulnerable East-West team for all their sacrificing ended up down one trick for a minus 100 points. They ended up with the worst East-West score as all of the other East-West teams had played their cards right and claimed the prize of a plus score. All in all, the BC Bridge Club (the Be Careful Bridge Club) posted their motto on the door: “To the Victors belong the Spoils.”

 (Last week’s Bridge Question answer: Source of the quotation “Things fall apart”? W.B.Yeats, Irish poet, used the line in his poem “The Second Coming.” Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe used Yeats’ line as the title of his novel Things Fall Apart.)

Bridge Question for this week: Where does the saying “To the victor belong the spoils” come from?

Gerald Stein March 24, 2012 619 Words

Better Bridge in Barry County April 5 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

	North                          ª Q 6 5 2                          © A 9 4                          ¨ J 8                          § J 10 5 3
West                          ª ___                          © K Q 7 6 2                          ¨ K 6 5 3                          § Q 6 4 2		East                            ª K J 10 8 3                            © 8                            ¨ Q 10 7 4                            § K 8 7
	South                          ª A 9 7 4                          © J 10 5 3                          ¨ A 9 2                          § A 9

 

Lead: 8 of Diamonds with East-West vulnerable

As the USS: Barry County Bridge Barge pulled into the landing at the Tyden Pier in Hastings, Captain M. North announced to the bridge players on board, “I am sorry to have you go without your lunch today. Our galley is closed due to a boiler problem. Feel free to take a break and go to lunch in downtown Hastings. Our next session will start in one hour.”

As the bridge players filed off the USS: BCBB, the captain could not but notice that one pair had made no effort to leave. He wandered over to their table where they were deep in a post mortem on an apparently difficult hand. “Why so glum, chums?” Captain M. North offered as an ice breaker. One of the pair, Joe by name, muttered under his breath, “Things fall apart.” His partner Jim looked up and nodded in agreement. “Things fell apart all right on board number 25. What a ship wre….err…train wreck.” He had caught himself in the knick of time.

Here was the bidding with North as the Dealer:

North                    East                        South                    West

Pass                       Pass                       1 ¨                         1©

Double                 1ª                          Pass                       2©

All Pass

Captain M. North looked at the pair. “So? What happened and why?” Jim spoke up first. “I made a one heart overcall after South opened one diamond. I had five solid hearts, 10 high card points, and a void in spades. How can you go wrong at the one level?”

Joe spoke up next. “I heard North double after my partner’s heart overcall, but I did not take the time to understand her bid. That is, until after the damage had been done at the end of the hand. I was only thinking that as a partnership, we do not want to play in hearts having only one heart in my hand. I bid 1 spade with five spades and nine high card points How can you go wrong at the one level?

Jim picked up the conversation as the Captain looked on. “South passed smoothly, and with a spade void, I rebid the hearts. That was a bad decision on my part as the hand was passed out, and I was playing 2 Hearts vulnerable. You will soon see how we went so wrong!”

“With the 8 of Diamonds as the lead,” Jim continued, “I was able to take only five tricks in total, for down three tricks and a score of minus 300 points.  What a disaster we had on that hand.”

Joe spoke up again, “In retrospect, and finally understanding what a poor bid I had made with the one spade bid, I realized that North had told me with her negative double bid that she had four spades in her hand. That had gone right over my head because I was thinking of something else instead of listening to each bid and processing the information that was being given there. My bid should have been a pass, and North-South would have continued the bidding finding a spade fit. If they bid two spades, with my five spades, we can set them one trick, and we end up with a positive score of 50 points.”

The Captain spoke up finally, “Well, don’t beat yourselves up too much. The hand as I see it has a balance of points with North-South having 21 while your team had 19. Unfortunately, you were vulnerable and missed the golden fit in diamonds due to South’s opening diamond bid. Those things happen in bridge, and they happen in life. About the only thing that I can see that you missed on that hand,” and here Captain M. North stopped for a moment with a smile, “was your lunch. It’s time to get ready for our second session.” As the Captain walked away to greet the returning bridge-playing passengers, Jim and Joe looked at each other and shook their heads.

 (Answers from last week’s Bridge questions:  Bridge adages: what do they mean? “Get the kiddies off the street.” Draw trumps ASAP. “Eight ever, nine never.” When missing the queen of trump with an eight-card trump fit, finesse. If you have a nine-card trump fit, play for the drop. “Trump poor.” Too many trump and not enough other high cards in the other suits. “Aces and spaces.” Three or four aces in your hand and no other honor cards.)

This week’s Bridge Question: In this column, one of the characters mutters to himself, “Things fall apart.” What is the source of that quotation?

Gerald Stein March 20, 2012 847 words

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