Bridge in Oz

"Stolen bid" doubles seem to be a popular convention at the local club when opponents interfere over a 1NT opening. So for example if the overcall is 2 ♦ or 2 ♥ , double is a Jacoby Transfer to the next higher suit and your other conventions, whatever they may be, remain unchanged. The pro...

Every year the Coffs Harbour Bridge Club holds its Anniversary Teams event to celebrate the anniversary of its founding. This is a social event where the teams are organized (somewhat) randomly, and there are three sessions where you have a different teammate as partner in each. I played on a team w...

Here are my preferred agreements for defensive carding after the opening lead. We play reverse Smith echo in notrump contracts, and tend to show suit preference when following suit in trumps. Aside from that our signals are reverse attitude, standard count and standard suit preference. Our choice of...

When partner opens 1NT and you have values for game, the normal approach is to look for an 8-card major suit fit, and failing that settle for 3NT. However some hands beg for more care. A common case is 3-1 in the majors and 4-5 in the minors. Either major might have the singleton, and either minor t...

Here's a curious deal from the 2024 Country Teams Zonal Final in NSW Australia. Round 9 board 18. I sat East. n=s3ajh3akjd58qc7kt&e=s69khtd69kjc3456a&s=s8qth4qd247atc89q&w=s2457h256789d3c2j&b=1&d=e&v=n&a=1c(3+)p1d(hearts)p1nppp&p=d4d3dqdkc3c8cjckd8d9dth2hqh5h3hth4h6hj...

I have added a "hview" button to the post editor, as another way of showing hands, deals, bidding and card play. BBO and the Bridge Winners site also use this. For details mouse over the button when creating or editing your post. Documentation of the parameters can be found here: https://w...

[hview=392,392]d=n&v=n&w=sj98ht83d92ck7632&n=skt63haqdakqt8cj5&e=s542h72dj76543c98&s=saq7hkj9654caqt4&a=1dp1hp2sp4n(rkc for spades)p5d(0 or 3)p5h(after very long pause)p6hp7hppp[/hview] d=n&v=n&w=sj98ht83d92ck7632&n=skt63haqdakqt8cj5&e=s542h72dj76543c98&s...

This is another deal from a recent club game. Vulnerable vs. not you pick up: AQ8,AK6,AK4,AJ43 Not bad! However LHO opens the bidding with 1♣, partner passes and RHO bids 1 ♥ . What to do? The first thing to do is count your points. 25! That leaves 15 for the other three hands and it looks like the ...

Have you ever seen declarer complimenting partner on a nice dummy that they just put down, and partner beaming with pride as if it were a flower bouquet personally arranged? Coffs Harbour is a lovely beachside town of 80,000 and the players at the club are gracious like that. As anywhere they can so...

At yesterday's club game this deal came up. Matchpoints, EW vulnerable. 103,AKQ743,942,95 J7,2,KQ10,AQJ8764 Q9642,1098,A5,K103 AK85,J65,J8763,2 I'm a big fan of The Rule of 2, 3 and 4 . As North in first seat, white vs. red, I counted my tricks. Six. 6 + 4 = 10. Applying this simple math and The Rul...