Bristol Bridge Club

 

Bristol Bridge Club aims to provide facilities and opportunities for all its members to enjoy playing and learning bridge, no matter at what level. Beginner or international.

We are a large club and are able to offer playing sessions that suit all levels of ability. Non-members are always welcome.

The club has its own premises and we are situated near the centre of Bristol in Hotwells. The club consists of a large playing room with a smaller area for classes and a licensed bar that also offers light refreshments.

The club plays duplicate bridge on most days of the week, usually with a qualified director.

The club is affiliated to the English Bridge Union (EBU), via the Avon Contract Bridge Association (ACBA).

BRISTOL BRIDGE CLUB is a charity and it has been entered onto the Register of Charities with the Registered Charity Number 1167959.

There is car parking close by.

For directions and map, click here.

Week 35

This week a play problem which is quite old but rather clever from one of the few television series about bridge (Master Bridge 1983 an individual tournament featuring 8 internationals which was hosted by Nicola Gardener and Sami Kehela it is worth checking out on youtube although you will struggle to see the players at times through the plumes of smoke!)

 

You reach 3nt and receive a low spade lead and view the following layout

 

JTx

AJ9

JT98xx

x

 

AK

QTx

KQ

AKxxxx

 

The problem is the spade lead threatens to establish 3 winners for the defence there together with the DA and HK to defeat you. Is there a certain line?

 

You win the lead and try K and Q of diamonds but the defence ducks twice; now what? 99% of declarers now try the heart finesse it fails as does the contract. But if you simply wish to establish the diamonds consider the alternative line of playing the HQ to the ace in dummy and playing the DJ discarding the SA! The defence win but if they establish the spades dummy must gain the lead holding SJ and ST to enjoy the long diamonds and you have 9 winners. If they switch to clubs the J9 of hearts provide us with a certain entry to cash the diamonds so we score 9 tricks. Discarding the SA to create an entry to dummy is the certain line of play and the great Robert Sheehan a supreme technician found this line of play.

 

This was an interesting defensive problem also from the series

 

Axx

KT84

KJT9

Ax

 

this is your hand and you don't make any bids since the bidding goes 1nt -p-3nt and partner leads a low spade. Dummy is

 

xx

Ax

Qx

KQT9xxx

 

you win the SA at trick one and plan the defence ? You can place all the missing honours on the bidding as declarer is marked with them all with the possible exception of the SJ. You know the clubs will provide enough winners for the contract so priority is to kill the suit and more particularly the entry to those clubs so switch to the  HK to knock out the ace and then duck the first club and win the second round of the suit before exiting with a spade. Declarer has

 

KQx

QJ63

Axxx

Jx

 

 

but there is another twist to the hand since if declarer cashes his spades and top hearts he can play the last heart forcing you to win and lead a diamond away from the king giving him an entry to the clubs. The declarer needs to keep his lowest heart here the 3 in order to achieve this position and his failure to appreciate this difficult point enabled south to unblock the 10 and 8 so when the H6 was led he followed with the 4 avoiding the endplay .A lovely hand and both Jeremy Flint & Irving Rose found this unblocking defence in hearts and entry destroying HK switch.

Week 34 and 33

 

Week32 and 31

 

Week 30 and 29 

 Week 28 and 27

Week 26 and 25 

Week 24, 23 and  22

Week 21, 20 and 19

 

Week 18 and 19

 

Week 16 and 15

 

Week 14 and 13

 

 Week 12 and 11

 

Week 10 and 9

 

Week 8 and 7

 

Week 6 and 5

Week 4 and week 3

 

Weeks 2 and 1

 

October

 Thursday 25th - ACBA Championship Teams Qualifier and Handicap Teams

 November

Thursday 8th - ACBA Mens & Ladies Pairs

Saturday 10th - Sociable Saturday

Tuesday 20th - Spielman Cup Final

December

Sunday 16th - Christmas Swiss Teams

Wednesday 19th - Afternoon Party

The club is running a course of 6 lessons on a Tuesday afternoon between 4.00 -6.30 pm.

The tutor will be David Jones and the course will be suitable for a range of abilities from intermediate to average club standard.

The classes will run from 23 October until 27 November and will include a presentation on the topic of the day with plenty of opportunity to ask questions and make comments followed by prepared hands to play on the theme of the day as well as full notes.

The cost is £8.00 per lesson or £40.00 for the course of 6 lessons.

The class size will be 20 for each session.

The subjects to be covered will be as follows :-

 

1 The Balanced and Unbalanced Hand Families

2 Weak or Strong No Trump, 4 or 5 Card Majors

3 Competitive Bidding

4 Opening Two Bids

5 Development of the Auction

6  Valuable Conventions.

 

Please would you sign up on the relevant sheet on the club notice board if you are interested in attending any of these lessons.

Login to Pianola for personal history of results, analysis of your performance and to advertise for a partner

This is a winter rubber bridge tournament for pairs who play in their homes against other men in their "box". More details on the club noticeboard.  If anyone would like to play they should contact Duncan Ogilvie on duncanogi@aol.com or by phone 0117-9736688.