Newsletter 79

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Bridge Vid

May your Melbourne Cup sweeps win and your finesses work

Schedule November 3 – November 9 (Melbourne time) 

 

Thursday November 3 11.00 am  Featured lesson:  Uses for 4C that aren’t Gerber
Thursday November 3 13.00 pm Free Day long tournament
Friday November 4 12.00 pm Reboot your bridge:
Monday November 7 12.00 pm Beginners:  Slams for beginners (did not run on 31 Oct)
Tuesday November 8 15.00 pm Weekly Free Tournament
Wednesday November 9 11.00 am Featured lesson:  TBA (why not suggest a topic?)

 From Thursday November 10 we will be away at the Australian Open Team Playoffs in Canberra.  It is likely that sessions will resume on Tuesday November 15 or Thursday November 17.   

This week’s 5 card ending problem

 

Problem #10
No trumps
South to lead
N/S are aiming to take 2 tricks

 

Last week’s 5 card ending problem 

Problem #9
Clubs are trumps
South On Lead
N/S Want to take all 5 tricks

To find out the solution to last week’s problem click the link below

https://bridgevid.com/2016/11/01/double-dummy-problem-9/

 

Opening 1NT with a singleton (new ACBL definition)

taken from http://www.acbl.org/clubs_page/club-administration/club-directors/rulings-faq/opening-1nt-with-a-singleton/

Click here to print as PDF.

Opening 1NT with a singleton: It’s officially legal

The ACBL Board of Directors removed a legal gray area surrounding semi-balanced notrump openers when it approved a change to the definition of a notrump opening in the General Convention Chart.

The change allows players to open 1NT with hands that include a singleton ace, king or queen, as long as they do not also contain a doubleton.”

Here is the new definition, effective Aug. 1:

“A notrump opening or overcall is natural if, by agreement, it contains no void, at most one singleton which must be the A, K or Q and no more than two doubletons. If the hand contains a singleton, it may have no doubleton.”

This includes hand patterns such as 5-4-3-1, 6-3-3-1 and 4-4-4-1, in addition to those that were previously allowed, such as 4-3-3-3, 5-3-3-2 and 5-4-2-2.

The change was recommended by the Competitions and Conventions Committee, a group of players appointed by the Board, in an effort to bring regulations in line with popular and expert practice, said ACBL Field Manager Sol Weinstein, who supervises tournament directors.

Before, opening notrump with a singleton was considered a psych. It was legal to do, but players could not have an agreement to open such hands 1NT or 2NT. The lack of clarity was a thorny issue for directors.

“Many players were doing it anyway,” Weinstein said, particularly when a different opening would create a problematic rebid. “They decided it’s not right to have a rule that’s contrary to the way bridge is being played.” The idea of expanding the definition has been discussed for years within the committee, but previous proposals have failed because they lacked the simplicity of the new definition.

“The Laws don’t allow you to limit bridge judgment,” Weinstein explained. “Regulations have to conform to the Laws.”

The new definition prohibits opening notrump with more shapely hands, such as 5-5-2-1, 6-4-2-1 or 7-2-2-2. “All of this has to do with your agreements,” Weinstein noted. “That doesn’t prohibit an out-and-out psych, but you can’t keep doing that or it becomes an agreement, and an illegal one at that.”

The change does not impact the one allowable exception of a partnership agreement where 1NT is treated as a 100% forcing opening bid (and not considered “natural”) with any distribution). The use of such a unbalanced, non-natural 1NT opening must be alerted.

 

 

 

New Daily Dose topics

We have now completed 20 weeks of cringeworthy, reboot mini, beginners, the critical point and hand of the week.  This means that it’s 40 weeks in total or 200 individual videos!

The new topics will be 

Monday:  Little known technique

Tuesday:  Where are the cards

Wednesday:  Beginner

Thursday:  Hand visualisation

Friday:  Hand of the week

To watch a session at a live time

www.twitch.tv/peterhollands

Waverley Congress (Melb) feature

Pete played all 3 days of the Waverley Bridge Club congress.  He has done a bit of a recap on some of the boards from each day of the event.  Take a look to see how he coped with the same problems that you would have had.  

The recaps will be available following the event at:
Friday MP Swiss Pairs:  
https://bridgevid.com/2016/10/28/waverley-congress-mp-swiss-recap/

Saturday IMP Swiss Pairs:  https://bridgevid.com/2016/10/29/waverley-congress-imp-swiss-recap/

Sunday IMP Swiss Teams:  https://bridgevid.com/2016/10/30/waverley-congress-imp-teams-recap/

  

Featured lesson:  Uses for 4C that aren’t Gerber

It’s no secret that we aren’t fans of the Gerber convention.  This week we will look into some better uses for 4C.  Tune in at 11.00 on Thursdsay to watch live. 

 

Thanks for your support Happy Bridge Vid-ing, Laura and Pete  

 

 

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