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 19

 

The following is a fascinating declarer play problem.

JT8x

KTx

xxx

xxx

AKQ9xx

AQ9x

void

Kxx

You play in 5 spades after LHO has overcalled in diamonds and east has supported.  The lead is DA. There is a 100% line of play provided trumps break 2-1.

Ruff the lead high play a spade to the jack and ruff a second diamond high and continue with a trump to the ten drawing the last trump and now ruff the third diamond.

So with the diamond suit eliminated and trumps drawn we have reached 

8x

KTx

void

xxx

9

AQ9x

void

Kxx

We require 6 more tricks from this point. The certain line now is to cash HA unblocking the ten, play a heart to the king and a third heart inserting the 9 if RHO plays small. If the hearts are 3-3 with the jack wrong LHO  will win and is now end played and must play either a diamond allowing us to ruff with our last trump in hand discarding a club from dummy with the 4th heart providing a second club discard from dummy. If a club is returned we score the CK and have a heart to discard the other club loser. If RHO has started with Jxxx in hearts we are also ok when the CA is offside.

So we make 4 ruffs in our hand and 4 in the dummy together with 3 heart tricks. I do not think I have seen a 6-4 fit played as a dummy reversal for a total of 8 winners before which makes the hand highly unusual.

 

Week 18

 

A  declarer play problem this week from one of my favourite writers Hugh Kelsey who had the gift of presenting problems of differing degrees of difficulty (some probably the most difficult presented anywhere) very clearly to the reader.

 You play in 5d with the following hands

 

AK9xx

 Tx

 AQTx

 Jx

 

 Qx

 AQxx

 J9xxxx

 x

  There has been no opposition bidding and the lead is the CA followed by a low club which you ruff.

 One declarer finessed the DQ and when that succeeded but the  spades proved to be 4-2 eventually lost a heart since the king was offside so scored up 11 tricks and nothing more was said.

 

What do you think of that line of play and can it be improved upon ?

 

A better line of play is available which will succeed more often .The first two tricks are as above but rather than finessing in diamonds cash the DA leaving the king outstanding now play on spades and ruff the 4th round of the suit in hand establishing the long card. West refused to over ruff with the DK but now declarer simply threw him in with the DK and his next card was  fatal since the black suits are now  eliminated and west's  choice  is either a heart into the AQ or a ruff and discard enabling declarer to discard a heart from dummy and ruff in his hand so 5d made.

 

The other hand:

 

West

 Jx

 Kxxx

 Kx

 ATxxx

 

East

 T8xx

 Jxx

 x

 KQxxx

 

 In conclusion the first declarer would have gone down if East had held the singleton DK whilst the second would still make his contract .The play of the DA at trick 3 also gives an extra chance when East holds Kx in trumps since declarer can then  test the spades before needing to take the heart finesse since if spades are 3-3 all the hearts go away without the need to take the heart finesse.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 17

 

I wonder whether players realise that two much information can be a bad or dangerous thing in bridge. There are many hands where a partnership should go slowly and scientifically in order to work out the best contract typically because the best strain is unknown early on  but there are many others where it is better to bid 1s -4s or 1nt -3nt in order to minimise the information provided to the defence.

 The trick of course is to know which hands fall into which of these categories so to bid 1s -4s on a hand which is too strong may miss a slam.

A hand came up in a recent League match which illustrates the principle that too much knowledge can be  dangerous.

 

xx

 JTxxx

 Ax

 T9xx

 

Imagine you hear the bidding go 1h -2d -4d -4s -5c -6d this is a natural sequence and you expect LHO to hold 9 or 10 red cards with probably longer hearts so in the absence of anything better to do you would probably select a black suit lead against the slam hoping to set up a trick for the defence there and you might lead either of the suits  .I would try a spade  as partner had a chance to double 5c but did not which is a  straw in the wind.

 Now consider the strong club auction which took place. 

 

 1c -2d -2h -3c -3d  -3s -4c -4d -4s -6d .

 

I will provide a translation of the bidding 

  1c ( strong and artificial )

  2d 8-11 points balanced 

 2h 5+ hearts 

 3c ( 4 diamonds !)

3d ( 4 card fit ) 

3s spade values for 3nt initially but he thought with a maximum he was a little too good to bid 3nt at this point which looks correct.

 4c cue bid 

 4d waiting as the bidding is game forcing 

 4s another cue bid 

6d to play.

 Now  have you been listening after all this  information ?

LHO has 5-4 in the red suits together with controls in both black suits RHO has 4 or conceivably 5 poor  diamonds and a balanced hand so hey presto partner must hold a singleton heart so we lead one of those come in with the DA and give him a heart  ruff to set the slam a defence only really possible because of the information available.

The opposition hands were

 

Ax

 AKQxx

 KQxx

 Kx 

 

Kxx

xx

JTxx

AQJx

 

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

 

June

 

Sunday 24th  2.15pm - ACBA Handicapped Pairs and AGM(4.30pm)

 

Saturday 30th 6pm - Italian Supper followed by bridge

 

July

 

Thursday 5th 6.30pm - AGM followed by Bernard Shannon

 

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Cancelled but If you would like to join our next Fast Track bridge course later in the year, please email bridgeclassbristol@gmail.com to register your interest.