Better Bridge in Barry County July 29 2015

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  9 8 3 2      ♥  A J 6 ♦  A Q 10 9  ♣  5 2
West ♠  A Q 7 6   ♥  Q 8 7  ♦  8 6 4 2  ♣  8 3		East ♠  K J 10 5 4  ♥ 10 3 2 ♦  K 7 5  ♣  K 4
	South ♠  ---  ♥  K 9 5 4  ♦  J 3  ♣  A Q J 10 9 7 6

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

East Both A♠

 

North   1♦ ?	East Pass 1♠	South 1♣ 3♣	West Pass Pass

Duplicate Bridge Scoring Part Two

 

In a recent duplicate bridge tournament held in Lansing, this hand came up and was played numerous times with varying degrees of success. In duplicate bridge, the object is always to make the best score with the cards that you have been dealt. Your opponents have also received the same cards as others so the element of luck is removed, and the true test is how well you can do with the cards that you hold in your hand.

In this particular hand, East as the dealer had ten  high card points; South had eleven; West had eight, and North had eleven. This was not a hand to get too excited about as everyone soon realized that the points had been distributed fairly evenly among the four hands. It was up to North/South with the preponderance of points to make something happen.

After East the dealer passed, South had a tough decision. Should she with eleven high card points and a void in spades open the bidding with 3♣’s? Some did exactly that, and the hand was passed out, and the contract was 3♣’s in the South. Today’s South, however, was a bit tournament-savvy, and so she opened 1♣ planning to jump her next bid. After West passed with his eight points, North bid 1♦ bidding up the line and promising at least four diamonds and at least six points. Perhaps, North should have bid differently, but who knows what to do in a tournament some times?

East wanted to let his partner know about his decent spades, so he overcalled 1♠. This gave his partner some kind of idea for a lead, and the bid was justified with five spades and ten points at the one level. South now jumped to 3♣’s as she had planned showing seven clubs and extra points, mainly with the new information about the spades being in the opponents’ hands. West wanted to bid but with the vulnerability status, 3♠ was too high. West passed.

Now it was up to North. He had promised at least six high card points, but now he knew more about his partner’s hand and that she had a lot of clubs. While he does not have much help in clubs, he does have two aces, one in hearts and one in diamonds. What should North have bid at this point? Should North pass and play the hand at 3♣’s? Should North name another suit? What would it be? Should North bid 3NT without a stopper in spades? Should North have bid 4NT asking for aces and a slam try?

In reality, North failed his partner by passing the jumped bid. The bid, of course, is the 4NT bid asking for aces. South would have responded 5♦ that she had one ace, and North would have placed the contract at 6♣. Does the contract make at 6♣’s? Of course it does, and North/South would have claimed the highest score on that hand by making a small slam and gathering in a first place finish by scoring 120 for the game score, 500 for the vulnerable game bonus, and 750 for the small slam in a minor suit for a score of 1370.

How did those who passed the jump bid do in comparison? Three teams did exactly that and scored five tricks for a score of 100 plus the part score of 50 for 150. Of course, it is easy to see that they failed to come even close to those who ventured on to the small slam. For their efforts, they were awarded the lowest score on this hand. They did very poorly.

For those who bid game and scored 620 or even 660, they were rewarded for their making more points than those who stopped short of game. They were near the top of the scores on this hand.

Some pairs worked hard to get an extra trick making six clubs even though they had not bid the game nor the slam. For making six without bidding game, they scored 170, a twenty-point gain which is better than those who made five and a 150 score. They scored in the middle of the group instead of the bottom level.

What are the takeaways about scoring in Duplicate Bridge? Bid the right contract and make it! This will give you the best chance on this particular hand. Of course, you need to do that consistently, as you will play 24 or 25 hands of bridge, and you hope to score at least 50% or better on the 24 or 25 hands. Secondly, even if you fail to bid the right contract, try to take as many tricks as you can to make up for failing to bid the right contract. Sometimes, an extra trick or two will propel you into a better score than just taking the apparent tricks. Of course, you must also realize that you will defend half of the time as well as declare. So you have twelve boards to make things happen for your team.

Try playing Duplicate Bridge as a chance to see how you can be competitive in the bridge world. You will soon find that you are looking for the best contracts and the best ways to take all the tricks that you can. You will find that you will become a better bridge player and not just a lucky bridge player. Best wishes.

 

Gerald Stein

July 25, 2015

Number of words: 1016

Better Bridge in Barry County July 9 2015

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

Duplicate Bridge: Part One

If you have played Rubber Bridge for a long time, you have certainly felt that sometimes you have been sitting in the wrong seat all night. Your opponents have been dealt all of the high cards in the deck; they have made game after game, scoring 700 rubbers while you and your partner complain about getting such lousy cards. After twenty hands, you are ready to go home and have a cold glass of root beer. If any of this sounds familiar to you, perhaps you should investigate Duplicate Bridge and see how if differs from Rubber Bridge.

Because bridge is such a popular game, many variations on how to play have been developed. One such popular variation is called Duplicate Bridge. It gets its name from the fact that each hand of bridge is dealt and placed in metal or plastic boards. These boards are essentially cardholders and are passed around to the other tables so that each hand is duplicated many times throughout the evening. The object of Duplicate Bridge is for the players to do the best that they can with each hand. The cards are not thrown into the center of the table as is the common method with Rubber Bridge, but rather they are placed in front of each player. Winning tricks are pointed toward the winning pair; losing tricks are pointed away from the losing pair. At a glance, you can tell how many tricks have been won by each side. All four players keep the same method of scoring tricks. At the end of the hand, before they are returned to the board, everyone must agree to the number of tricks won and lost by each side. Only then are the cards returned to the exact location from which they were taken. Scoring follows immediately on just that hand.

What is the purpose of this kind of play? Because the boards are individually played and scored, the object is for each pair to do the very best against all of the other teams who will play the same hands later in the evening. The element of luck is now taken away, and skill becomes more of a factor. For example, if you have been having one of those horrific nights of not getting cards and you have been sitting East/West all night with your partner, there is some satisfaction knowing that every other East/West pair in the room will also have to play those same cards. The way to do well in Duplicate Bridge is to take the cards that you have been dealt, good or bad, and make the best of the situation. If you and your partner score better than all of the other East/West teams despite the bad cards, you will do well in Duplicate Bridge. Your real opponents at each table, then, are not the North/South pair, but all of the other East/West pairs that will play the same cards that you have just played. You have to beat all of the teams who will play the same cards that you played earlier.

In a typical duplicate game, twenty or more hands are played each session. Consequently, there needs to be at least twenty duplicate boards and twenty decks of cards. Bridge suppliers like Baron Barclay sell duplicate kits for home and club play with 32 boards, scoring materials, and the 32 decks of cards in a nice carrying case. See www.baronbarclay.com for details. Duplicate games need at least two tables to compare scores with others, but typically, there are 4-12 or more tables of duplicate bridge played in a session. Each table receives two or three or four boards at a time. These are played, returned to their rightful location, and scored. When all of the boards are finished, the director, a type of referee or the host of the evening, will move the boards from your table and give you more new boards to play. No shuffling is needed as this was done earlier by the director. Play more bridge is the duplicate player’s motto.

At the end of the evening, it is the director’s responsibility to determine how well each pair did against every other pair. For every pair that you have beaten on each hand, you will receive one point; for every pair that you have tied, you will receive a half point; for every pair that beats you, you will receive zero points. All of your points earned will be tallied, and the ultimate winners of the evening are those teams who have accumulated the most points. Usually, the top three places are determined as the winners of the session. In large games, there could be top winners for the North/South team as well as winners for the East/West team.

For a variation on Rubber Bridge, try a home game with duplicate boards. You will find that getting bad cards all evening will not be as trying if you know others have to play the same cards that you had earlier. Because the cards are returned to the boards, it is also possible to look at a particular hand at the end of the evening, and see how others played the same cards. Duplicate bridge in a fun and challenging alternative to Rubber Bridge. Give it a try and see if you might discover a new way to play bridge.

 

Gerald Stein

July 4, 2015

Number of words: 979

 

Bridge Notes: Next time, in Part two, learn how to score each hand in a duplicate bridge game. Slips of paper called travelers go with each board as they travel around the tables. Do not peek at the scores until you have played the hand, and then you will score your hand with all of the others who have played that same hand.