Advanced Lesson 6 – Balancing Seat Overcall and Double Bids

In our last episode, we explored situations where we should overcall 1 Notrump in the fourth seat – either that or double.  This time  on half of our example hands we have a 5 card major suit so our primary task is to determine whether we should simply overcal, or make an initial  double and then bid our semi self-sustaining suit (“type 2” double).  And as with all calls in the passout seat, we must remember to value “borrowing a King” from partner when considering our options.  So after adding a virtual 3 High Card Points to our hand, it’s time to make our best call.

Of course, the bidding doesn’t stop there!  Now it’s up to our passed hand partner to respond, considering our bid was predicated on the “borrowed King.”   In today’s session we will be shooting to bid game and beyond, so be careful and on your toes to make every available trick.   And when you and partner have most all of the High Card Points other than the opening opponent, carefully count out the points in their hands.  In a few of the hands, as declarer you will be able to determine whether or not to finesse a key honor from a marked opponent – especially critical when you are stretching to make a slam contract!   This episode runs 30 minutes.

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Happy Trails,

BridgeHands

Social Lesson 6 – Accepting Game After Responder’s Major Suit Invite

In this episode, responder correctly invites a major suit game (3 level jump with 10-12 HCP) and smartly avoids initially wandering to another suit (i.e., 1 Heart – 1 Spade…)  Okay, so far so good and when opener has more than a minimum 12-14 point hand, its time to bid game with a combined 25+ points.  In fact after responder tables a handsome dummy with four trump including a top honor plus a few more primary honors in side suits, the sweet smell of a major suit game bonus is right around the corner.

Yet when missing the Queen-Jack and two small in trump, perhaps the declarer should pause for a moment to consider the best line of play should the trumps split badly.   Sure, plunking down the Ace and King of trump seems automatic but as we will soon discover when trumps split 4-0 with the opponents, there’s a time and place to consider making a safety play.  In our first play scenario we witness our declarer getting a bit lax.  Hopefully, using a fall-back tactic will help our optimistic declarer bring home a game contract.  As Winston Churchill espoused, “We will fight in the …, we will never surrender!”  At our BridgeHands virtual table, we will tweak the opponents trump distribution and try different lines of play, followed with a critique.   So sit right up and tune in to our BridgeHands videos!

Premium and ULTRA members are welcome to enjoy both lesson segments as well as the Advanced Part 2 lesson on Freebids.  Better yet, 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.

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BridgeHands