Bridge Vid

Thursday lesson:  Slam auctions after 1NT
Monday beginner lesson:  Finding a fit:  When has partner promised 4 and when have they promised 5?

It’s great to have the BV newsletter up and going again.  After a few technical glitches and a couple of weeks of not being able to produce one while on the road (and planes and boats) we are now back in action.  There has still been plenty of new content added to the website including Pete’s latest project, an inital attempt at producing videos for experienced card players (eg. 500 players) who want to learn bridge.  The competition shchedule settles down a little now and we are looking forward to making a few website changes and beginning work on the next short course (and finalising the endplays course). 

Journey to the Bermuda Bowl

It’s hard to believe it is less than a month until Pete and Juzz play their first event for the Australian Open Team.  The Journey to the Bowl series has followed the work that they have put in since making the team.  The 4th (April) episode is now available and the May episode won’t be far away. 

This month they provide some handy tips that you can also apply to your game but you might not like what you hear!  Pete and Juzz are known for landing on their feet when an auction gets tricky but they talk about just how important it is to review everything critically rather than just thinking “my opponent’s had the chance to double me but they didn’t, disaster avoided”.

Episode 4 Review your play	Episode 3 Knowing your leads and signals	Episode 2 Getting in the right headspace	Episode 1 How to get better at bridge

New Daily Dose topics next week

It’s that time again.  We have a couple ideas kicking around of what we could change the Daily Dose topics to but only one that is locked in.  It seems fitting to celebrate Laura’s accreditation as a National Level Director by having a section on the laws.  If you have an idea of what you would like to see please let us know.  To get you thinking, one that we came up with is “Same hand, different situation”.  The idea is that you are stuck with the same hand but we would look at what the different bids should be based on what has happened in the auction Eg.  if you were opener, overcaller, advancer or responder. 

Husband VS wife challenge

The challenge feature on BBO is great fun and gives you an opportunity for a bit of rivalry.  During one of the beginners sessions Laura thought that she should teach people how to use it.  What better way than a real example of challenging Pete!  During the challenge  both players have the same hands with a robot partner against robot opponents.  Pete’s gets straight into the play, Laura’s video shows you how to set up a challenge before playing the boards (note:  You can only see the final result on Pete’s video).

Pete’s play: Challenge accepted!	Laura’s play: Challenging the husband

Autumn National Open Teams

We have just returned back from the Autumn National Open teams which is held in Adelaide.  It was a very successful event for the Bridge Vid team with Pete’s team (Team Hollands) finishing in 3rd and Laura’s team (Team Kelso) finishing in 2nd.  The event is rather lethal, of the 74 teams only the top 2 make it through to the final.  The story couldn’t have been written better if we tried.  In the last round of qualifying it was Team Hollands VS Team Kelso.  If the result was a draw it was possible that neither team would make it through and if there was a decent win that team would qualify for the final.  Kelso defeated Hollands by 20 to make it through. 

Kelso included:  Laura playing with Sebastian Yuen from Laura’s hometown of Canberra and Melbournites Laurie Kelso and Traian Chira.  In the final they couldn’t manage to knock over 2/3 pairs on the Australian Seniors team and lost by 21 IMPS (not that much really) to the Kanetkar team:  Avi Kanetkar, Bruce Neill, Pauline Gumby and Warren Lazer.   Bruce Neill had a very successful event also finishing 2nd in the pairs.  

Kibitz the pros

This morning (last night US time) we played in the Kibitz the pros challenge against Drew Cannell and Ron Smith.  

The last board is quite funny and well worth a look.  Click on the picture or the URL to go to the Kibitz the Pros site

http://bridgefinesse.com/kibitz/tcg/

WHAT IS KIBITZ THE PROS?  In North America the Common Game provides hands that are played at clubs and everyone can compare their results to every other player that took part.  There are a couple of clubs in Europe and also the Waverley Bridge Club in Aus that participate in the game as well.  Each weekday players can vote on hands that they would like to see an expert panel play.  Then away the pro’s go live at 9.00 pm New York time (11.00 am Melbourne time).  

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