Social Bidding and Play 23 – Confidence at the Bridge Table

Welcome Bridge Friends!

Confidence at the Bridge table – sometimes easier said than done!

First off, let’s reflect on the Dallas Aces 7 Deadly Sins:

•1. Bidding without values
•2. System violations
•3. Unilateral actions
•4. No-win Declarer plays
•5. No-win Defensive plays
•6. Impulsive plays
•7. Mechanics

To this, let’s add #8 which includes:
•Being Street Smart,
•Awareness,
•Partnership Vibes,
•Concentration/Attention/Mindfulness,
•Confidence/Anchoring/Choking,
•Fitness,
•Study (including Laws, etc),
•Time on your Side,
•Arbitrage (Vulnerability risk/reward)

Being confident “In Your Wheelhouse” is important, too, including:
ABILITY:  An ability is a repeatable action which you enjoy because you do it well.
DRIVE:  A drive is something within you that motivates action.  Drives are like internal fuel moving you to make a difference in the world.
NEED:  A need is any issue in want of a solution or response (pain mitigation).

In this lesson, we’ll address your Adrenaline & Cortisol, your breathing, positive/negative attitude factors, stress, fatigue, etc.

Confidence, Part 1, All about you/partner/emotions (31 min)

Confidence Part 2, Hands 1-4 (46 min)

Confidence, Part 3, Hand 5-9 (50 min)

BridgeHands Members, here are our links to peruse through our hundreds of videos:
Hands Of The Week,
Social,
Advanced,
Polling You and
now our exciting BridgeHands Live Streaming videos!

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 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.

Bridge Teachers – you may download your personal copy of our copyrighted video lesson here:

Social Lesson 23 – Part 1
Social Lesson 23 – Part 2
Social Lesson 23 – Part 3

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Social Lesson 22 #2, Negative Double, Opener Rebids

Welcome Bridge Friends!

Negative Doubles, redux – Part 2 is here, Opener’s time to rebid after partner responded with a Double. As we learned in Part 1, our agreements include:
1C – (1D) – X promises exactly 4-4 in the Major suits and 6+ points.
1C – (1H/1S) – X promises exactly cards in the other Major and 6+ points.
1C/1D – (1H) – X promises exactly 4 Spades and 6+ points.
1C/1D/1S – (1S) – X promises exactly 4 Hearts and 6+ points.
1y – (1z) – 2a promises 10+ points and a 5 card suit

So in this lesson we will try our hand rebidding opener’s hand with minimum, medium and maximum hands.

Negative Doubles #2, Part 1, Hands 1-2 (30 min)

Negative Doubles #2, Part 2, Hands 3-6 (37 min)

Negative Doubles #2, Part 3, Hand 7-9 & other bids (39 min)

BridgeHands Members, here are our links to peruse through our hundreds of videos:
Hands Of The Week,
Social,
Advanced,
Polling You and
now our exciting BridgeHands Live Streaming videos!

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 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.

Bridge Teachers – you may download your personal copy of our copyrighted video lesson here:

Social Lesson 22 – Part 1
Social Lesson 22 – Part 2
Social Lesson 22 – Part 3

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Social Lesson 21, Negative Doubles – Part 1, Responder Bids

Welcome Bridge Friends!

Negative Doubles our partner asks? Oh sure, just like Takeout Doubles, right partner? Woah, wait a second – many aspects of Negative Doubles are exactly opposite our bidding strategy and requirement of the Takeout Double. Well, okay sure, in the case of the overcaller making a Takeout Double, yes, we definitely need more points, granted. But it gets a bit tougher when in some situations we promise both majors when making a Negative Double, in some circumstances with 4-3 in the majors, in some situations we may only have ONE 5+ card suit but less than 10 HCP and the beat goes on!

So in this lesson we will learn when to overcall at the 1 level, when to make a Negative Doubles, and a bit more on our possible Responder rebids.

Part 1 – Slide i.e., “Chalk Talk” learning essential req’s (35 minutes)
Part 2 – Hands 1-4 (47 minutes)
Part 3 – Hand 5 bidding AND declarer/defense play (30 minutes)

BridgeHands Members, here are our links to peruse through our hundreds of videos:
Hands Of The Week,
Social,
Advanced,
Polling You and
now our exciting BridgeHands Live Streaming videos!

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 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.

Bridge Teachers – you may download your personal copy of our copyrighted video lesson here:

Social Lesson 21 – Part 1
Social Lesson 21 – Part 2
Social Lesson 21 – Part 3

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Advanced Lesson 23 – Opening Leads vs NT Contract

Advanced Lesson 23 – Opening Leads vs NT Contract

You pick up your lackluster hand and the bidding takes off with the opponents winning the contract. So you’re on lead opposite a Notrump contract, now what? Do you lead your long suit, maybe a short suit in hopes to help your partner, a safe passive lead, an active lead, a sequence suit lead? Geesh, maybe this Bridge play isn’t so easy after all. No problemo, let’s play some hand, listen to the commentary and we’ll soon have the hang of this! The following is from our new Livestreaming “webinar” show! In addition to the 10 hands we also will play several variations to illustrate The Good, The Bad, and The UGG!

Part 1 – 27 minutes: Essential Strategies – Counting, Inferences, Analysis
Part 2 – 36 minutes: Hand 1-5
Part 3 – 16 minutes: Hand 6-8
Part 4 – 25 minutes: Hand 9-10

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 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.  

As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire four-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.

Bridge Teachers – you may download your personal copy of our copyrighted video lesson here:

Advanced Lesson 23 – Part 1

Advanced Lesson 23 – Part 2

Advanced Lesson 23 – Part 3

Advanced Lesson 23 – Part 4

As always and until our next show, Happy Trails until we meet again!

Social Lesson 20, Part 2 – Counting

Counting. Sounds simple enough, right? 
 
But as any emerging Bridge player will attest, it’s not quite so easy in the swirl of bidding and related inferences, leads, play strategies, signals and yes, surprises that frequently arise before the dust settles. 
 
We begin with a quick review of helpful analysis of the odds of suit splits, common percentages associated with common Bridge holdings and even offer some tips on how to be a good partner.  Then it’s off to the Bridge tournament and it’s time to start tossing cards… after careful thought, of course!
 
BridgeHands Premium and ULTRA Members, here are the  links to watch over two hours and 14 hands helpful to improve your counting skills…

Bridge Teachers, you may download a copy of our videos here for lessons with your local students:

Part 2.1
Part 2.2
Part 2.3
Part 2.4
Powerpoint and Slides

Many thanks for supporting BridgeHands with lots more online recorded and now Livestreaming real-time webinars coming to you – wherever you are, we will be there!

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Social Lesson 20, Counting Opps length & strength

Welcome Bridge Friends!

At long last we had our first online, real time, live-streaming webinar! What makes this format come to life is the opportunity for us to interactively “chat” as the lesson progresses as your typed questions are asked.  And to be sure, we also ask students for their views on what to do next…

On our March 24, 2020 first call we had several hundred live folks attend on YouTube and Facebook.  Thank you all for your support and attending our kickoff episode!

So counting our HCP/points and long suits is easy enough.  That said, in this lesson we are on the hunt to begin evaluating their points and length.  So let’s start paying attention to the bidding, final contract, opening lead and play of the hand.  

Part 1 – Introduction, two-way communication using chat and etiquette (38 minutes)
Part 2 – Talking about the strategy and tactics to use a personalized approach (27 minutes)
Part 3 – Going to the Virtual Bridge Table and practice our counting skills during bidding and play (42 minutes)

BridgeHands Members, here are our links to peruse through our hundreds of videos:  
Hands Of The Week
Social
Advanced and 
Polling You
.

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 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. 

Normally 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 BridgeHands Free membership may also watch Part 2 where we play more hands with provocative play tips and strategies, as well as way to improve skills by critiquing student players. 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.

Bridge Teachers – you may download your personal copy of our copyrighted video lesson here:

Social Lesson 20 – Part 1

Social Lesson 20 – Part 2

Social Lesson 20 – Part 3


Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Social Lesson 19, Part 5, Takeout Doubles and Overcall Competitive Bridge Bidding

Welcome Bridge Friends!

In this whopping 2.5 hour show, we will look at new approaches to mastering the fundamentals of Bridge Overcalls and Takeout Double Bridge bidding including bids with a very good hand (18+ High Card Points) regardless of suit distribution.  After all, Bridge is a competitive game so when our Left Hand Opponent makes an opening bid with 12+ points, now may be our only chance to shoot in a call to either fight for a part score contract or perhaps find a game bid with your beloved partner!

So how many points do you need to make an overcall, anyway?
Does it matter if your opponent opened at the 1 level, or perhaps preemptively at the 2 or 3 level?
Does it matter if your honors are concentrated or distributed among the suits?

And what about Takeout Doubles – how many points do you need now?
Over to partner after our Takeout call, when do they make the cheapest bid, jump bid or go for game?
And finally, how many points do you need to first Double and then bid a new suit?  But why do that?

Upon completion of this lesson you will be ready to win more successful auctions, or perhaps push your opponents to bid into uncomfortable level and perhaps miss their contract – touche!

General Audience – Basics of Overcalls & competive bidding 19:30 minutes of video
Free, Premium, ULTRA, Part 2 Stepping it up with overcalls – 30:03 minutes of video

Premium & ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 – Perfecting Overcalls – 26:26
Premium and Ultra Part 3b – Wrapping up Overcall bidding – 27:05 minutes of video
Premium and Ultra Part 4 – Our friend the Takeout Double – 48:23 minutes of video

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 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 play more hands with provocative play tips and strategies, as well as way to improve skills by critiquing student players. 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.

Bridge Teachers – you may download your personal copy of our copyrighted video lesson here:

Social Lesson 19 – Day 5, Part 1

Social Lesson 19 – Day 5, Part 2

Social Lesson 19 – Day 5, Part 3

Social Lesson 19 – Day 5, Part 3b

Social Lesson 19 – Day 5, Part 4

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Social Lesson 19, Part 4, Preemptive Bids, Relative Seat, RONF, Rule of 2-3-4

Aha, at last it’s time for some fun making sporty preemptive bids. That’s the good news, yet with great power come great responsibility. After all, Bridge *IS* a partnership game, right?

So having respectable values that properly convey our preemptive values, both hand shape and strength concentration becomes the prime directive to ensure you’re being a good partner. Okay – check (that’s a fine start).

But what about when one, two or three players are passed hands? When are the stars in the ideal position… or not so favorable, and why? And how about relative vulnerability, yours and your opponents? We’ll take a look at the “Rule of 2-3-4” (actually more of a GUIDE, not a hard and fast Rule).

In this lesson we will also cover treatments when our partner raises our preempt, bids a new suit or makes a 2 Notrump call as well as our possible rebids. And finally, we will explore how and when to counteract the opponents preemptive bid and raise scenario.

In total, this 100+ minute lesson is chalk full of pithy discussions and scenarios along with lots of bidding and animated card play with stimulating commentary.

Ready, Aim, FIRE – on with the show…

Part 1 – Beginning with preemptive bidding basics & discipline – 35:42 minutes of video
Free, Premium, ULTRA, Part 2 on hand shape, honor placement & relative seat – 21:43 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 on Raise Only Non Forcing & Rule of 2-3-4 – 27:49 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 on upping preempts and how to counteractive opponents bid and raise – 18:16 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 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 play more hands with provocative play tips and strategies, as well as way to improve skills by critiquing student players. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire four-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.

Bridge Teachers – you may download your personal copy of our copyrighted video lesson here:

Social Lesson 19 – Day 4, Part 1

Social Lesson 19 – Day 4, Part 2

Social Lesson 19 – Day 4, Part 3

Social Lesson 19 – Day 4, Part 4

Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

 

Social Lesson 19, Part 3, Opening Leads – Count, Inferences, Algorithms

With our lesson #19, Day 1 on Bridge hand evaluation (High Card Points, distribution for length and shortness) beyond us, probably the next most important factor to improve our game is… YOU!  On Day 2 we learned all about…YOU!  Self-awareness, situational awareness, focus, awareness and more.  And while everyone loves to bid, first let’s take a look at opening leads.

On average we defend half of all Bridge hands, so we make the opening lead 25 percent of the time.  That’s a lot – enough that it’s worth our time to make our best lead before the play of the hand is given to the declarer on a silver platter.

In this lesson we introduce the C.I.A.!  No not that CIA – we are referring to the opening leaders ability to consider:
Count,   Inferences,    Algorithms

When the opponents merrily bid back and forth, perhaps stopping in a partscore contract, game, or even up to a glorious slam contract, they are giving their best assessment of their strength and suit length to their partner.  So as a good “counter-intelligence” agent, it is incumbent on us to Look and Listen to each of their bids rather than pout about why we didn’t get cards with chunky honors.  After all, it doesn’t cost anything and we are happy that they are sharing lots of juicy details that will help us defend against their contract.

In this lesson, we will count, Count, COUNT – making an assessment of their likely honors as well as their hand shape, suit by suit.  And capitalizing on our prior lesson 2, it may pay handsome dividends to glance for the opponents gestures, mannerisms, body language, pauses, hesitations, utterances and whatever to possibly give us more “secrets” about their hand assessment and impressions of the auction!

But wait, there’s more!  Once you or partner makes the opening lead, now is a great time to turn your head 45 degrees and admire the dummy.  Do we agree with the dummy’s bidding?  Does it match our assessment prior to the opening lead.  Now how do we feel about the lead?  And the card the declarer chose from the dummy?  Was it a fast decision or slow after considerable consternation?   Okay, enough talk – its time to tune in to this two hour, 4 part lesson with a few dozen slides, punctuated by 15 hand of animated bidding and play.    Okay, let’s do it…

Part 1 – Beginning with lead basics and counting the opponents points – 17:03 minutes of video
Free, Premium, ULTRA, click here to view Part 2 on how to count the inferences – 31:32 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 on lead algorithms and more – 30:38 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 playing lots more hands – 29:23 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 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 play more hands with provocative play tips and strategies, as well as way to improve skills by critiquing student players. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire four-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

Social Lesson 19, Part 2, Look/Listen @ Auction/Play, Focus, Awareness, Countermeasures

With our lesson #19, Day 1 on Bridge hand evaluation (High Card Points, distribution for length and shortness) beyond us, probably the next most important factor to improve our game is… YOU!  But what does that mean and what can I do about it?  Read on…

Bridge is far more than just a logical game with fixed algorithms, cold statistical odds and players who all follow pre-programmed “If This – Than That” drone rules.  On the contrary, part of the secret sauce to winning Bridge is exuding a modicum of flair, full of the “X Factor” and as the French would say, “je ne sais quoi” (extraordinary indescribable quality).

To start, it helps if we are at least self-aware, “Knowing Thyself” as Socrates would say.  Yet going beyond our own SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat) and our ego is imperative since Bridge is much more than just ourselves.   Enter situational awareness  – being aware of our environment, perception/interactions./reputation (to and from others).

And just playing one hand involves over 100 factors and attendant decisions – whew!  So over 3+ hours of Bridge, we’ve made thousands of decisions and that can be taxing as well as stressful in the face of competition.  Add to that our self awareness, distractions, focusing on the wrong thing or fixated elsewhere… well, you get the idea.

In this lesson, we will focus on learning to focus at the table, providing clear signals (to partner at least), learning countermeasures when we become fatigued, stressed or face distractions including an occasional devious opponent.  And that including dealing with emotions around the table (theirs and yours), awareness of basic Bridge odds associated with suit splits, awareness of game forcing/1 round forcing/freebids/signoff bids, etc.

But wait, there’s more!  Whether you and your partner play various defensive signals or not, your better opponents probably do.  So doesn’t it at least make sense to be aware of the basic types of signals used by those competing against you?  Okay, enough talk – its time to tune in to this 100 minute, 4 part lesson with a few dozen slides, punctuated by animated bidding and play.  And oh, by the way, in this lesson we will overlook student bidding and play on these actual hands!  Okay, let’s do it…

Part 1 – Entering into the mind of the Bridge player – 20:35 minutes of video
Free, Premium, ULTRA, click here to view Part 2 on focus and awareness – 10:43 minutes of video

Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 3 on countermeasures – 37:41 minutes of video
Premium and ULTRA Members click here to view Part 4 playing several hands – 31:53 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 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 play more hands with provocative play tips and strategies, as well as way to improve skills by critiquing student players. As a Premium and ULTRA member, you are welcome to enjoy the entire four-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