Bridge in Oz

An interesting bidding problem was posed on the Bridge Winners site where you have: J5,7,KQ964,QJ1082 and your LHO has opened 1♠, partner overcalled 2 ♥ , pass pass to LHO who bid 2♠, back to you. Now what does a 2NT call mean? Natural or minors? Bridge World Standard says: Forcing vs. nonforcing: W...

Here's another deal from the recent Nambucca Swiss Pairs Congress. Match 1, Board 13, all vulnerable, North deals. Q432,72,A42,Q874 K85,Q1043,1098,1092 AJ76,AK9865,J,63 109,J,KQ7653,AKJ5 The auction proceeds: North East South West Pass 1 ♥ 2 ♦ 2 ♥ 3 ♦ 3 ♥ ? What would you do as South? You have a pre...

This is from the recent two-day Swiss Pairs Congress at the Nambucca Valley Bridge Club. I played with Pauly Griffin. Match 5, board 1, nobody vulnerable. Due to a bidding misunderstanding with our unusual methods I am declaring 3NT with these cards: Dummy AJ8,KQ108,K973,KQ You 97,A7653,A65,987 The ...

What I describe here is, as best I can tell, very similar to the Bourke Relay. I'll call it Third Suit Forcing because I don't have access to an authoritative description of Bourke Relay, though I did find some discussion of it here and here . There's a related convention TSAR invented by Jeff Ruben...

Playing with Sharyn for the first time, as dealer I picked up this hand in yesterday's club game: KQ862,--,QJ,AKJ982 What would you open? A 1♣ opening seems clear. You're a bit underpowered for 2♣, and also that opening can be very awkward for two-suiters. My plan is to jump shift to 2♠ when partner...

This is the Deck Options screen in the computer app showing a change that I made to one of the parameters. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AMWts8BZISjHRUfsjObTkuOs81uo07eeKYfX3nQw9S5TWf8iF5o0lLtvE7p7O0Mn8Fu2LaCUJRpqU7n_1bKamka2zrRvsYTxAi2Y83xgPTh8e9iiGo558UfvvNKtbPuwOcvcmk5N4YTbtYHXYykUoZ3UCbfX...

Warning Do not use this variation if you are opening 18-19 HCP balanced hands with 2♣ as described here . Overview The Wikipedia T-Walsh article (above) includes this: A common variation is to have opener complete the transfer with 12-14 HCP balanced, even with only doubleton support for the major ...

Last update 2024-07-04 The Problem At a recent Swiss pairs event my partner picked up this hand: AQ97,Q98,A6,AK92 Partner opened 1♣, next hand overcalled 1 ♦ and I doubled to show a heart suit (playing transfers ). Next hand passed. At this point partner would have done better to bid 2NT but unders...

The worst thing about a complicated bidding system is forgetting things. Most of us have a life outside of bridge and there's only so much time to study system notes, especially when your partner has created most of them. It's important to get the most benefit from that time. I figured flashcards wo...

Common wisdom is that the single raise when playing inverted minors denies a four-card major. In my view this rule is not wise as it distorts and complicates auctions when you have for example 6 cards in partner's minor and four cards in a major. The details of this point of view may be seen in an a...