The Bridge Brainery

Session Information for Thursday February 6
The Brainery sessions are held at Pixel Cafe and Bar 1279 North Rd, Huntingdale VIC 3166

Familiarise yourself with this hand and decide what bid you would make if you were the dealer.

You hold: ♠ J9    ♡KQ4   ♦532   ♣AKQ103

What do you open?  A few thoughts and some more questions are listed below the session information. 

Thursday February 6 session information 

Opening hours 

9.30 – 3.00 (these hours will be extended as sessions grow)

Structured play session times: 10.00 – 11.00 or 1.30-2.30 (although the Brainery is about far more than these times so come earlier and staying later to develop your game).  

Cost: $20.00 per person including light lunch ($25 if you are staying for both structured sessions)

During the structured session times everyone will be playing the same hands.  There will be the option to score competitevly, play and discuss at your table or ask questions like a supervised. After the session there will be a group discussion about the boards that you have played. 

In addition to the structured session times the Brainery offers opportunities for you to develop any aspect of your game that you would like to work on through online teaching videos, excercises, play programs and worksheets.  If you have a group of four that would like to work on a particular aspect of your game you can also request boards on a particular topic in advance by emailing bridgevid@gmail.com (this is currently a free service). 

♠ J9    ♡KQ4   ♦532   ♣AKQ103

I would open 1NT.  This wouldn’t matter if I am playing 15-17 or 16-18 (for anyone playing acol it would be a 1C opening, precision it’s a little more tricky).

As far as where the points are, it shouldn’t matter that you have the diamond suit wide open and the spade suit looking quite sparse.  When you open 1NT you are simply describing the number of points that you have, the location isn’t relevant.

If you are playing 16-18 rather than 15-17 I would still bid 1NT on this one.  This is because of that wonderful club suit.  Firstly, you have 5 of them.  More often than not the fifth card will produce a trick because everyone else will have none left but also it is a powerhouse suit!  The fourth club is even the 10.  This means that if someone has a singleton, doubleton or even Jxx the 10 will be a winner after the AKQ are played.  This hand is worth far more than just the 15 HCP that feature.

If you have been convinced that a 1NT opening is right.  Proceed to the questions below.  If you haven’t start working on your reasoning and let’s have a chat about it on Thursday.

Assume that you have opened the bididng with 1NT and your partner bid each of the following invitational sequences.  Which (maybe even none or all) would you accept?

2H*

?

2NT

2H was simply forced

2NT asked if you would like to play hearts or NTs and also if you would like to play in game or partscore

(Pass, 3NT, 3H and 4H would be your options).

2S*

?

2NT 

2S was simply forced

2NT asked if you would like to play spades or NTs and also if you would like to play in game or partscore

(Pass, 3NT, 3S and 4S would be your options).

2D*

?

2NT

2D said that you don’t have 4 hearts or 4 spades

2NT asked if you would like to play 3NT or stop in 2NT

(pass or 3NT are your options)