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Social Lesson 19 – Bridge hand evaluation, HCP, Losing Trick Count, Cover Cards

March 6, 2016 By BridgeHands 3 Comments

Bridge hand evaluation is where it all starts. Counting High Card Points is a good start, Ace=4, King=3, Queen=2, and Jack=1 (maybe). But wait, don’t forget to count extra distribution points when you have a “nice” 5+ card suit, assuming the suit is promotable with a few (2) good working honors in the suit. And when responder has a good trump fit as well as shortness in a side suit, that’s also work extra points since the responder’s hand provide ruffing opportunities for the opener’s side suit losers.

And until Ron Klinger promoted the notion of Losing Trick Count, that was pretty much the state of the art for hand evaluation for the next 60 years. Fortunately, better players came to realize the advantage of using LTC and began tweaking fine points to both leverage its benefits, simplifying responder’s methodology (Cover Cards) as well as refinements to more accurately bid games and slam.

Additionally, Bridge players came up with other guides to find opportunities to open the bidding including opening an 11 HCP hand with a 5-4-3-1 shape (or other singleton/void distributional hands), opening in the 4th (and possibly 3rd seat) with a “Rule of 15” hand calculated by adding the number of Spades combined with the player’s HCP, and even the “Rule of 20” figured by adding the players HCP and the combined length of the two longest suit.

This is the first of a 6 part lesson series where advancing Bridge players learn the ins and outs of hand evaluation.

In this 2 hour video lesson, in Part 1 we will start with the fundamentals of the who, what, when, where and why of hand evaluation by opener and responder. If you are already up to speed in the basics of HCP (High Card Points and distribution/shape) and signoff/invitational bids, feel free to start with Part 2 where we get into the nitty gritty details of LTC and CC. In Part 3 and Part 3b, we will bid and play a wide variety of hand, validating when we should be bidding game… as well as knowing when we should be satisfied in a part score contract.

Part 1 – Review of classic hand evaluation methods – 36:12 minutes of video
Free, Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2 on Losing Trick Count – 21:51 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2b on Cover Cards – 18:36 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 playing hands – 18:37 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3b playing more hands – 21:14 minutes of video

And best yet, here at BridgeHands all of our Bridge hands are full of commentary (regardless of who is the declarer and defender) and analysis on hand evaluation, bidding and play with over 2 hours of animated card play. As always, our hand discussion offers a refreshingly rare glimpse of Bridge inside the minds of all four players at the table as play progresses, bid by bid, card by card. Visitors are welcome to view the Part 1 series of our video lesson with nuances that will lead to quick and sound bidding without guesswork. Those with the Free BridgeHands membership may also watch Part 2 where we review another three hands with provocative play tips and strategies to ensure you bring home the contract. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire five-part lesson segments with lots of hands, plus an opportunity to view future shows during your membership subscription period. And as always, be sure to check out the hundreds of hours of videos in our archive that is growing by leaps and bounds, by clicking “Index to Videos” on the navigation above or simply click this link.

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Filed Under: .Social Tagged With: Bridge hand evaluation, Cover Cards, High Card Points, Losing Trick Count

Social Lesson 18 – Forth Suit Forcing Bids, BridgeHands

October 3, 2015 By BridgeHands 2 Comments

Conventions – love them or hate them, there is a time, place and season for every Bridge bid. So what about when you and partner do not seem to be able to find a suit fit? Or when you as responder have game-going values and are stuck to find a rebid? Enter the world of the Fourth Suit Forcing rebid by our beloved responder.

So as unpassed hands, the auction typically begins with opener bidding a minor suit and responder following with 1 of a major suit. Next opener either rebids a major or 2 of a lower ranking suit then their first bid:

1C – 1H;
1S – ?

1D – 1H;
2C – ?

1H – 1S;
2C – ?

1C – 1D;
1H – ?

In this 2 hour video lesson, in Part 1 we will start with the fundamentals of the who, what, when, where and why of Fourth Suit Forcing bids. If you are already up to speed with with the need and basics of FSF (Fourth Suit Forcing) bids, why they are alertable by partner, etc, then feel free to start with Part 2 where we review various opener and responder hands and bidding scenarios. And in Part 3 and Part 3b, the second hour of videos covers actual hands, situations when we should and should not use FSF calls. But wait – there’s more as we play through a dozen hand variations covering common situations when we are playing in 3 Notrump, 4 of a major suit or even some slam hand!

Part 1 – Introduction to Fourth Suit Forcing bids – 27:30 minutes of video
Free, Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2 – 19:30 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 – 31:07 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3b – 36:01 minutes of video

And best yet, here at BridgeHands all of our Bridge hands are full of commentary (regardless of who is the declarer and defender) and analysis on hand evaluation, bidding and play with over 2 hours of animated card play. As always, our hand discussion offers a refreshingly rare glimpse of Bridge inside the minds of all four players at the table as play progresses, bid by bid, card by card. Visitors are welcome to view the Part 1 series of our video lesson with several hands including critical decisions that will influence our card play. Those with the Free BridgeHands membership may also watch Part 2 where we review another three hands with provocative play tips and strategies to ensure you bring home the contract. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire five-part lesson segments with dozens of hands, plus an opportunity to view future shows during your membership subscription period. And as always, be sure to check out the hundreds of hours of videos in our archive that is growing by leaps and bounds, by clicking “Index to Videos” on the navigation above or simply click this link.

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Filed Under: .Social, Social Bidding

Social Lesson 16 – Bridge Partscore Contracts – Gaining Entries, Finesses, Unblocking, Endplays

September 6, 2014 By BridgeHands Leave a Comment

Greetings Bridge Friends!

At long last, we conclude our series on Bridge promotion plays looking at partscore contracts and focusing our attention on gaining entries. And while it might seem easy to make a contract when not playing for a game bonus, our opponents have other ideas – particularly when THEY have their fair share of honors. In this lesson we begin with 10 hands, yet before the play is through, we expand the hand permutations and associated play to a whopping 35 hand variations. So while sometimes a less than perfect line of play might turn out okay, be careful – on the next hand the opponents line of play may improve, our their card distribution might change and all is lost!

Part 1 – Entries and Promotion Play for all audiences – click here to view 23 minutes of video
Free, Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2 – 18 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 – 19 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 – 27 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 5 – 28 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 6 – 17 minutes of video

[Read more…]

Filed Under: .Social Tagged With: bridge, BridgeHands, Endplay, Entries, Finesses, Partscore, Promotion, Ruffs

Social Lesson 14 – Bridge Suit Promotion, Rule of 7, Hold Back, Endplay, Loser on Loser, Safety Plays, the Dangerous Opponent and more

June 2, 2014 By BridgeHands Leave a Comment

Between promotion, ruffing and finesse plays, certainly promotion plays gain us the most tricks hand over hand. And when promotion plays are used in connection other plays, we rack up even more tricks. In this two-episode MEGA lesson (Lesson 14 and 15), we will cover a whopping 37+ hands. And if that is not enough, for each hand we will take 2 (or more) attempts, first illustrating the problem when we do not use our arsenal of suit promotion options, second where we us e one of a handful of suit promotion techniques .

As expected, you will see the Rule of 7 come into play on a fair number of Notrump contracts. However, over the series of 16 hands (plus several warm-up hands) in Lesson 14 Day 3, we will learn that like all so-called “rules,” it pays to carefully consider other factors before blindly playing hands by rote. Ditto on holdback plays when the opponent s lead a side suit where we have a 5 or 6 card suit – while we worry that the opponents may soon ruff the suit, when holding Ace-third opposite 2 or 3 little, sometimes we ought to duck winning the first trick.

Regarding safety plays, we will reinforce the wisdom of playing unfavorable odds (like 4-1 opponent suit splits) when we need to make a critical contract. Then there’s the spooky “dangerous opponent,” the situation when our house of cards would fall apart (figuratively) should we let a certain opponent on the lead. The consequence will likely lead the opponents to trap our finessable honors, promote THEIR suit, or both!

Loser on loser plays make sense when giving up a losing trick will gain more than one trick elsewhere (including avoiding a dangerous opponent).

Part 1 – Promotion play for all audiences – click here to view 40 minutes of video

Free, Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2 – 27 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 – 32 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 – 33 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 5 – 30 minutes of video on how to make challenging slam contracts and other tricky plays

[Read more…]

Filed Under: .Social, Social Play

Social Lesson 13 – Bridge Safety Play, Endplay, Spot Cards and more…

November 30, 2013 By BridgeHands Leave a Comment

Okay, now that we are getting the hang of suit promotion, finesses and ruffing as the declarer, let’s turn our attention at some new tricks to develop extra tricks at the table. Yet before we begin counting our proverbial chickens before the eggs have hatched, in many situations its more important to ensure we will make our auction than risking an unfortunate suit distribution by the opponents that might cause us to lose the contract. Enter the Safety Play where we are willing to give up an overtrick to the opponents in order to safely fulfill our contract. For instance in a 3 Notrump contract with no outside entries to the dummy that contains a 5-3-3-2 long minor suit headed by the Ace and King and 3 little in declarers hand, opener should duck one trick in dummy and THEN later win the two top honors to make four total tricks (assuming the opponents hold the likely 3-2 suit distribution). And how about a similar situation when declarer holds 3 in the minor suit and opener holds a 6 card suit headed by the Ace-King-Queen – now what? True, the opponents 4-1 suit split is only a 28 percent chance, but wouldn’t you normally want to make the contract more than three-quarters of the time?

As we have discussed in our prior Polling You lesson # 52-54, the Endplay can is a great alternative to making a “brute force” finesse play in certain circumstances. The most classic form of the endplay is when the declarer has a combined major trump suit length of 9 cards, 4-2 or 4-3 in two side suits, and a 3-3 “mirrored” declarer-dummy suit length fit in a third suit that contains an Ace-Queen combination. In this situation, rather than risking the 50-50 percent finesse attempt, the declarer is wise to “strip down” the 4-3 and 4-2 side suit before allowing the Left Hand Opponent to gain the lead. That way the LHO is stuck for a lead, either finessing self or partner in the waiting Ace-Queen side suit, or leading a suit that dummy will ruff and the declarer pitching a side suit loser in their own hand.

Lastly, we will look at several situations where either the declarer or the dummy (or both) can potentially gain a critical trick with a side suit 10 or less. After all, promotion is a beautiful thing, even if it is no more than a side suit in Bridge! So let’s check out our bidding play of Bridge hands here at BridgeHands with over 15 hand variations and 100 minutes animated card play with commentary.

Visitors are welcome to view the 28 minute, Part 1 series of our video lesson with a handful of subtle variations that will influence our card play. Our Premium and ULTRA members are welcome to enjoy the entire four-part lesson segments. Additionally, be sure to check out the hundreds of hours of videos in our archive by clicking “Index to Videos” on the navigation above or simply click this link.

Part 1 – Declarer play for all audiences – click here to view 28 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2 – 27 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 – 21 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 – 25 minutes of video on how to make challenging slam contracts

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Filed Under: .Social

Social Lesson 11 – Bridge Declarer Play, Part 2, Pull trump?

August 7, 2013 By BridgeHands Leave a Comment

You are playing in a suit contract and you have two choices – pull trump and either promote a side suit, or first ruff losers in dummy’s short side suit. But wait, there ARE other considerations when we should “do something else” before playing trump, right?

In this lesson we will start off considering what to do after the dummy hits the table and we say, “Thank you partner.” Sometimes we count winners, sometimes we count losers, and for those who love counting you’ll probably do both!

In this lesson while we will focus on bidding and play, we will start off segment one and two reviewing the fundamentals of making your best lines of play. Certainly paying attention to entries and transportation is important, yet knowing the odds based on normal suit distribution as well as “extra information” learned during bidding and play can also help you bring home that close contract. And yes, at BridgeHands you can count on us to take a close look at “human factors” – considering opponents gestures, mannerisms, delays, hesitations and the like (as well as tips on how to avoid doing so ourselves).

To get warmed up, we will start off slowly bidding and playing an easily attainable contract suit contract using our classic declarer play methods. Then over the next 11 hands, we will learn from the Good, the Bad and the Ugg (in fact, sometimes even the opponents give the declarer an unnecessary trick). So better we learn from our animated screen players than when your are orchestrating your declarer play with your hopeful partner praying for you… So as always, we will entertain you with hand variations to underscore valuation with illustrative bidding examples with lots variations including animated card play and commentary. Of course here at BridgeHands, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and as always you’ll see lots of action playing hands at the table!

So sit right up and tune in to our BridgeHands videos!

Premium and ULTRA members are welcome to enjoy the three-part lesson segments (part 2 is 46 minutes, split into Part 2a and 2b). Additionally, be sure to check out the hundreds of hours of videos in our archive by clicking “Index to Videos” on the navigation above or simply click this link.

Part 1 – Declarer play in suit contract – for all audiences – click here to view 29 minutes of video

Free, Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 1b with 5 hand variations and 23 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2 discussing when NOT to pull trump – 16 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2b with 3 hands and 24 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 with 4 hands and 27 minutes of video

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Filed Under: .Social

Social Lesson 10 – Bridge Declarer Play, Part 1, Look-alike Hands

June 19, 2013 By BridgeHands 4 Comments

After several episodes on major suit bidding, let’s take a break and turn our attention to declarer play. Early in our Bridge career we learned the three principal ways to earn extra tricks: ruffing, finessing and suit promotion. We will start of this series of lesson episodes focusing on 3 Notrump contracts – after all, everyone loves making a game bonus! Fair enough, so that narrows our play strategies to promotion plays and finessing.

As soon as the Left Hand Opponent faces their opening lead, it’s time for our fearless declarer to put on their thinking cap and orchestrate their aggregate resources to seize nine or more tricks. While 25-26 points is usually enough to make our beloved 3 Notrump beloved game contract, the pesky opponents are making plans of their own to set the contract. They too, would love to promote their long suit and/or garner enough finesses to make 5+ tricks and set declarer’s contract.

In this lesson we will highlight how to evaluate our winners and losers, differentiate slow and fast tricks, evaluate the probabilities/odds of common play tactics based on suit splits and outstanding High Card Points, experience the benefits of hold-back plays, witness a sleepy defender and the consequence of not “splitting honors,” paying careful attention to maintaining entries into distant hand and more.

We will start off slowly bidding and playing an easily attainable contract with 30-31 points between the dummy and declarer hand (hopefully not exploring slam which requires 33 points). Then over the next 10 hands the declarer will have to earn their keep, playing an onslaught of 25-26 point hands. And while they may look similar and in some cases be the same, the defenders hands will change and require varying tactics to bring home the contract. Better yet, we will witness some defender plays offering “gifts” during errant play – better to watch the transgressions here before heading to the table with your partner! And as always, we will entertain you with hand variations to underscore valuation with illustrative bidding examples with lots variations including animated card play and commentary. Of course here at BridgeHands, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and as always you’ll see lots of action playing hands at the table!

So sit right up and tune in to our BridgeHands videos!

Part 1 – Introduction to declarer play – for all audiences – click here to view 28 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2a with 6 hands and 24 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 2b with 4 hands and 19 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 with 4 hands and 18 minutes of video

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Filed Under: .Social

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