Bridge Vid

Thursday lesson:  The trade off
Monday beginner lesson:  Tips for defence
Weekly free tournament:  Will be running at 10.30 am on Monday

There will be some disruptions to the normal live stream timetable over the next few weeks.  See the schedule at the bottom of the page for more information.

Journey to the Bermuda Bowl

Pete and Juzz have produced the final episode of Journey to the Bowl before their first competition as a part of the Australian Open Team in Seoul.  Pete flys out tomorrow and has a couple days to climatise to the conditions in Seoul and will also take a trip to the DMZ and JSA.  Play begins on Monday and there will be details in next week’s newsletter about how you can follow the Championship.

Episode 5 Making meta agreements	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

This week’s featured lesson:  The trade off

(NOTE:  THE LESSON WILL BE AT 10.00 NOT 11.00 ON THURSDAY FOR THE NEXT 3 WEEKS)

Bridge is all about the percentages and working out what will work the majority of the time.  For instance YOU CAN MAKE GAME WITH 25 POINTS…..well can you?  The answer is sometimes no, the answer is sometimes yes and that you had more points than you needed (you could have made with less) and sometimes that porridge is just right. 

With every new convention that you learn or the style of play that you choose you will be trading off one thing for another.  The important part is that in the long run you want the trade off to be more beneficial than not.

Some of the trade offs that will be discussed include:

Rebidding 1NT (2NT) rather than four card major with a weak balanced hand
The merits of different approaches after a 2C opening
Are new suit rebids by opener non forcing and require a jump bid to force (Eg. 1H 1S 2D and 1H 1NT 2D)
Opening a major or minor with 6 minor and 5 major

If you have a situation that you would like to see discussed please email through.

To watch the lesson live go to www.twitch.tv/peterhollands
(note:  lessons will only be displayed when they are live and running)

We all learnt bridge to make us think….right? (from Newsletter 91 by popular demand)

Learning bridge can be frustrating for players of all skill levels.  At the start you sit there thinking I am the only person that doesn’t get it.  Then once you start to get a grasp on it all you are left wondering how on earth to improve.  If bridge wasn’t challenging it would be boring and if every bridge problem had a clear black and white answer it wouldn’t be a challenge.  

We stumbled across this video by YouTuber Veritasium which looks at the science behind learning.  Not only does it provide a nice insight into how you can improve your game through memory work and why it is so difficult in the first place but it also provides a great idea for how the game should be approached.

Click here to be redirected to The Science of Learning by Veritasium

New daily dose topics

Our new topics have been quite popular.  If you have any feedback we would love to hear it.  

Monday: Same Hand Different Problem

During this segment you are given a hand and are prompted to think about how your actions should change depending on what position you are in.

Wednesday: Understanding The Game

This segment will focus on the laws and etiquette of the game for the most part.  Last week we looked at major penalty cards.

Thursday: Same Sequence Different Hand

During this segment you will be given 5 different hands.  Your job is to evaluate what decision you will make in the same sitaution with the different hands.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE (newer players)

Last week we provided a quiz for players who have been playing for about a year or less.  During this week’s beginners lesson Laura worked through the answers.  The video solutions provide more of a insight into how the problems should be approached and also discussed some of the variables that may apply based on the style that you have learnt.

To access the quiz and the link to the answers CLICK HERE (members)

Thanks for your support

Happy Bridge Vid-ing, Laura and Pete