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 82

This week an interesting card play problem.

 

K9x

JTx

ATxx

AKx

 

Xx

AKQ9xx

X

Qxxx

 

You reach 6h after left hand opponent has made a take out double of the 1 heart opener.

 

The lead is the DK. (try it as a problem without looking at the answer)

 

You have six trumps, one diamond, 3 clubs and one spade provided the ace is with the hand which doubled which is almost certain and essential for the success of the contract. If the clubs break evenly you will have a twelfth trick there but that is only a 36 percent chance. You can of course ruff your fourth club if trumps break evenly having drawn two rounds and there is a further improvement which is to draw just two rounds of trumps and then play on clubs since if the hand with three trumps also holds four clubs you will be able to ruff the fourth club and if clubs divide 3-3 when you test the suit you are home.

 

The best line is rather unusual. Can you think of a way of bumping up your trump winners from 6 to 7?

 

We are taught to look for ruffs in the shorter trump hand rather than the long hand but here we have six entries to the dummy (2 clubs, DA, SK and 2 trumps with the jack and ten) .Imagine we use those entries to ruff 3 diamonds and one spade in the long heart hand. In so doing we increase our trump winners to seven and can use the HJ and HT to draw the outstanding trumps.

 

So the play goes DA, diamond ruff, spade let's assume lho wins and plays a trump. We can win in dummy with the jack, ruff another diamond, play a spade to the king, ruff a spade high and finally play a club to the ace to take our fourth ruff, this time with another high trump, which leaves us with Ax in trumps in hand and Tx in dummy with which to draw the outstanding trumps.

 

 

We score 7 trumps and 5 top cards. The play is described in the books as a dummy reversal and involves ruffing in the long trump hand and then drawing trumps with the holding in the dummy. Even the very best players sometimes miss this line of play so if you found it without looking at the solution you did extremely well.

Week 81

This week I am looking at two bidding hands from last weekend's Devon Congress.
Both are uncontested auctions at Teams scoring, dealer S.

1. Your hands are as follows:

Xxx
Jx
Xxxx
AKxx

A
KQTx
AQ
Qxxxxx

The auction typically began 1C 2C, or maybe 1C 1D, or even 1C  1NT.

The safest contract is 5C, as 3NT is reliant on the diamond finesse on a spade lead. You might even play 4H on the strong 4 - 2 fit.

Our auction, playing 5 card majors and short club, went 1C 1NT 2H 3C 3D 5C.

A reasonable effort and the key points were that 1NT usually promised 4 clubs, and 2H was a descriptive bid and forcing of course. 3D was a no trump probe since we needed a bolster in spades for no trumps to be a better contract than clubs.

 

2. These hands feature a fourth suit sequence:

Axxx
Axxx
Kx
AJx

Kxxx
K
AQxx
Kxxx

6S is a fine spot and cold on a 3 - 2 trumps split since you can take the two top trumps and then cash winners - take some ruffs, with the club loser going on the third diamond owing to the excellent top cards.

The auction went:

1D 1H 1S and now what to bid? The north hand is too strong to bid 4S which should be limited to weak no trump strength, so a maximum of around 14 points if balanced. With a stronger hand, one bids 2C as the 4th suit, then supports spades to show extra values.

 

The other point is how far is the fourth suit forcing, and what is the difference between the following two sequences with the proviso that we are now in a game-forcing situation.

1D 1H 1S 2C 3C 4S

1D 1H 1S 2C 3C 3S

The first sequence shows a better hand than a direct 4S bid over the 1S rebid, but the second sequence is stronger still so is showing a hand with slam interest while leaving the maximum space.

Week 80

This week, two play problems courtesy of Mike Lawrence; one of the finest bridge writers. The theme is counting and assumption both subtle exercises in reasoning.

 

You play in 3c following a 1d opener to your left and a 1s response on your right.

 

KJxx

Xxx

Xxx

KJx

 

Xx

KQx

Qx

AQTxxx

 

West lead the two top diamonds and continues with the ST?

 

You have already lost two tricks and the major suit aces must also be lost .You may lose a second trick in each major in addition.

 

In order to make 9 tricks the HA must be on your right otherwise you will lose 2 heart tricks. Proceeding on this assumption West must hold the SA for the opening bid therefore you rise with the SK on the spade switch. If east holds SA 3c will always be defeated.

 

On our second hand you reach 4s following a 1h opener on your left and a raise to 2h on your right over the double from partner.

 

KQTx

Xxx

AJT

KJx

 

AJxxxx

Qx

Qxx

Xx

 

West cashes two top hearts and shifts to the CT?

 

One club trick must be lost but in order to succeed the DK must be with the opener to your left so assume that it is so.

 

So the question to ask yourself is which hand is east more likely to have for the raise to 2h with the opposition playing 5 card majors.

 

Xx

Jxx

Xxx

Axxxx

 

or

 

Xx

Jxx

Xxx

Qxxxx

 

(The distribution is assumed but the high cards in clubs are the critical thing).

 

With hand two a pass is possible so hand one is the more likely and thus one should play the CJ on the switch at trick two.

 

 The full list of all previous Hands of the Week is available to view here.

 

December

Sunday 15th - Christmas Swiss Teams

Wednesday 18th - Afternoon Christmas Party

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