Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - February 28, 2022 - Bidding the same suit twice

 

 

Question: We have multiple pre-emptive holdings, should W bid over his partner’s H pre-empt ?

Glenna: 

  N opens 1 ♦️ and E bids 3 ♥️, S must pass as he has nothing to say. W must also pass because of his ♥️ void: If he had JX, stiff K, 3 small, he would raise to 4 ♥️. Because he has a void, he should pass.  

Now this is the interesting part: North MUST bid 3 ♠️ and not ♦️again!!! A very common theme for less experienced players is to show the same values over and over. North has shown ♦️ by opening 1 ♦️ and now must bid 3 ♠️. Partner will know she has 5 or more ♦️ and probably 4 ♠️.  Once E has preempted, he cannot (should not) bid again. S can now bid 4 ♠️ and the hand is finished!

  The important thread here is: Do not rebid same values a 2nd time. Partner heard you the 1st time and knows you opened 1 ♦️ so now show your 6-5 or 6-4 hand by bidding ♠️! I see people open a 5-card and when in doubt, rebids it!  NO!!!! Do NOT show the same thing twice—bid 1 NT, 2 of a minor or PASS. 

  Before you rebid a suit, make sure you don’t have a 2nd suit to show or to bid NT—never allow yourself to bid the same suit a 2nd time—it would be better to pass than to repeat!

Glenna

 

Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - February 28, 2022 - Should you pre-empt on an overcall?

 

Question: S has opened a D, W has 6 S and a void in C, should W bid a weak 2 S or bid 1 S as a overcall?

Vic:

Question Back At Ya:  If you were Dealer holding the West hand, would you open it 2S? I think if that question was posed to a large cross section of bridge players, it would generate a close to unanimous “Yes”.  

Answer to Your Question: If West has a hand they would open 2S, then 2S is also what they should overcall. Think about it. The primary goal of any auction is to describe your hand to partner. A 2S opening bid or a jump to 2S as overcaller describes your hand perfectly in a single call. Doesn’t get any better than that. 

Vic’s Auction: If West overcalls 2S, now what? Holding the North hand I would be inclined to bid 4C, hoping partner would take it as a weak jump shift, promising 8 clubs + other suit shortness & less than an opening hand. Holding the East hand I would subsequently be inclined to bid 4S based on “The Law” (don’t be afraid to bid up to the level of your total number of trump). Holding the North hand I would subsequently be inclined to bid 5C which looks to me like it deserves to make (one club loser + one heart loser).  

Above Auction (critique): West first call should be 2S not 1S. South rebid of diamonds on their second call promises a six card suit. They do NOT have 6 diamonds. They DO have a spade stopper. South second call should be 2NT (not 3D) to tell partner about the spade stopper.  North does NOT have a NT hand & was correct to continue clubs. Holding the heart Ace & 4 clubs to the Queen, the penalty DBL by East is not unreasonable. Unfortunately for East, partner (overcaller) does not deserve a trick. 

Ain’t bridge a great game?

Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - February 21, 2022 - Stopping before game

 

Question: North has 14 points with a singleton and so the total point count as  responder could be 17. From the bidding North knows South has under 13 points with the diamond pre-empt.  The total point count with the singleton is 26 points. The hand does not want to be in 3NT due to the weakness in spades. It would appear the strength of the hands are in diamonds.  Instead of bidding 3Ds should North bid 3 hearts or 4 clubs to force South to bid again and be in 4D or 5D?  

Glenna:

  3 ♦️ is a great spot to stop—you can’t make 3 NT or 5 ♦️.  If the opponents push, I would bid 4 ♦️, but otherwise pass. You have to accept that not all good hands lead to a game, but that’s hard for all of us to accept.

Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - February 21, 2022 - Cue bid usage

 

Question:  :  On the second bid, North bids 2H which could be considered a cue bid.  How does one differentiate between a cue bid and a regular bid when there is interference?

Vic: 

In the first sentence, leading to the question, strike the words “could be considered” & replace them with the word “is”. When someone on their first chance to do so bids a suit one of the opponents has bid, it IS a cuebid.  

What does that cue bid mean? It means whatever the partnership has agreed it should mean. The most common agreement for north’s bid of 2H is that it would show a Limit Raise or better of South’s spade suit. Absolutely, I would never expect it to be showing strength in hearts which is apparently what north intended. 

If West had passed, North could show strength in hearts (& deny spade support) by bidding 1NT, although I am not suggesting they should. But West did not pass, which leaves North without a second bid. 

Looks to me like taking 7 tricks in NT is going to be a real crap shoot for either side. 

By the way, if NS are playing Standard American, the opening bid by North should have been 1D not 1C. 

Ain’t bridge a great game?

Monday Morning Bridge - Email Illustrations - May 13, 2024

 

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Weekly Hand Analysis - February 14, 2022 - Glenna Shanahan - How can you improve your bridge playing?

 Question 1:  What steps should a person in the Monday Morning Bridge group take to improve their bridge game? 

Question 2 follows Question 1. 

Question 2:  How do you know when you are improving?  I took this quote from a youth bridge website:

‘ Outcomes are your scores. Unfortunately, scores have a randomness factor. You can play a hand well and get a bad score. You can also play a hand poorly and get a good one. You can even play flawlessly for a whole session and get a mediocre score, or play mixed and get a great one.’

Based on this randomness how does one know they are improving?

Glenna:

Monday Morning Players,

  Think most if not all players need to make the same adjustments, changes, challenges if they are  improve. You cannot remain in the same position at anything in life and expect to get better. Ralph took over Monday morning bridge as it was failing and soon to be nonexistent and look at what he has been able to do. Hope all of you thank Ralph weekly because you would not have Monday bridge without him.

  But to improve, you need  to challenge yourself—play In his Wednesday morning 199er game. Almost every time you play with someone new, they are going to make suggestions or ideas of things they’ve learned and want to share their knowledge with you. It’s new ideas to ponder.

  I am proud of our bridge home for so many different reasons, but you need to know we have one of the best well rounded bridge library of most of the world’s bridge clubs. Borrow a book on play of the hand or defense and you’ll be amazed at the new ideas. Then try them one at a time.

   I tend to “preach” on things I’m passionate about, BUT, I promise this is true: Do not learn 25 of the latest conventions: Learn what is invitational and what is forcing. Learn to bid 6-card minors before a 4-card Major.  Some teachers give players the worst advice ever—do not mis-bid your hand in order to bid a Major—the Major will still be able to be bid after you show a 5 or 6-card minor. It’s not a case of missing a chance forever! 

  This step is the hardest for us to hurdle: You MUST play with better players. People are afraid of being criticized or of looking foolish, BUT, you have to step up and watch what the better, more experienced players bid, play and how they defend. If you play up and a player makes a comment, take it as a helpful suggestion and not as a criticism. Also, remember that sometimes people sound more gruff than they mean to so give them the benefit of the doubt and try not to feel crushed. I have been there my friends and have cried one or two times in my bridge career, but used it as a challenge that I could do it and I worked hard to achieve it.

  Question 2 is easy for me:  When you know very little, you don’t know you could do better. You KNOW when you see that you just made a mistake, you have improved!!!!! Do not watch scores, they are not valid, it’s more like luck when you get little gifts or people don’t bid their games, etc.   

Hope this helps,

Glenna

Weekly Hand Analysis - February 14, 2022 - Vic Johnson - How can you Improve your bridge playing?

 Question 1:  What steps should a person in the Monday Morning Bridge group take to improve their bridge game? 

Question 2 follows Question 1. 

Question 2:  How do you know when you are improving?  I took this quote from a youth bridge website:

‘ Outcomes are your scores. Unfortunately, scores have a randomness factor. You can play a hand well and get a bad score. You can also play a hand poorly and get a good one. You can even play flawlessly for a whole session and get a mediocre score, or play mixed and get a great one.’

Based on this randomness how does one know they are improving?

Vic:

QUESTION ONE - Steps to Improve? 

Answer:  Play the Game 

No teacher/book/computer program/ whatever can “learn" you how to play bridge. Resources like those can only “teach” you how to play bridge. The learning is up to you. And the only way to “learn” the game is to play the game. It is that simple. 

Analogy: No teacher/book/computer program/ whatever can “learn" you how to ride a bike. They can teach you where to put your hands, where to put your feet, how to propel yourself forward, how to stop. They can give you helpful hints (the slower you propel yourself forward, the more difficult it is to balance). They can even demonstrate how it is done. But ultimately, it is up to you to summon up the courage to fail, then take a deep breath & get on your bike & shove off. And if you crash & burn, you need to bandage up or give the broken bones time to heal, then summon up your courage, take a deep breath, & shove off again. 

You want to improve your bridge? Then you need to dare to fail, summon up your courage, take a deep breath, & play bridge whenever you can. The more you play, the faster you will learn. The less you play the slower you will learn. And no teacher/book/computer program/ whatever is going to change that dynamic.  

At least half of the time you play you should endeavor to play with/against players who are better than you are. We call that “playing up”. A steady diet of playing only within a group of people at your own experience level will not pay dividends very quickly. Basically, you simply reinforce the faults you are all making & extend the status quo with little expectation of improving very much at all. 

I do NOT recommend online games against the robots, especially for inexperienced players. The robots are programmed to play a system which I believe is called GIB. You can read in detail about that system on the ACBL website, but I do not recommend you do so. It is bizarrely different in numerous ways from the Standard American or Two Over One bidding system you have been taught. To make matters worse the robots frequently do NOT have the hand that clicking on their bids tells you they have - sometimes not even close. They lie big time which can be frustrating to the extreme. 

I highly recommend a program available on line called “Bridge Clues”. You will find six hands that you can play for free that change daily (circa 6 pm). The hands will put you on the spot to make decisions about bidding or play of the hand, then lead you thru a critique of the decisions you make. Do the Beginner & Level One hands for sure. It is a great way to learn. Google: “Bridge Clues”  Choose: “Get Started" 

QUESTION TWO - How to Measure? 

Answer: Long Term Trends 

How frequently are you making your contracts? How frequently do you find yourself wishing you had reached a different contract? How frequently are you setting your opponents contracts? How frequently do you make games you did not bid? How frequently do you bid games that can’t possibly be made? Is the frequency of any of the above better this month than it was last month? 

In addition to the questions posed above there are many others. But you need to figure out a way to track them over time. One good session or one bad session can simply be luck of the draw.

Monday Morning Bridge Library

 Monday Morning Bridge Library

As you know, I keep up a weblog (blog) containing information for Monday Morning Bridge.  The blog contains or references to the popular weekly analyses of hands by Vic Johnson and Glenna Shannahan, videos on bridge, and documents pertaining to bridge.  As of January 31, 2022, the blog has: 

• 154 Bridge Hand Analyses
• 7 pdf documents
• 10 references to YouTube videos with a link to the YouTube video
• 17 BBO references including 2 videos
• 9 references to other information 

It is good to have this much information.  The problem is how to make it available to everyone. 

A blog is not the best way to handle this much information.  A website would be better, but I do not want to develop or pay for a website.  I could probably do both but that would be too much like work and I retired to do less work instead of more. 

I decided to attack this problem by putting these pages into a database and developing Google Sheets from the database.  Google Sheets is Google’s version of Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet program, and its main advantage is you can develop a Google sheet and it can be available to anyone with a computer device (pc, phone, IPAD, etc.)   The other advantage is that Google Sheets is free.  

You can reach this information, I hope, by clicking on this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sDV5u4lEHPDSNc94aoIdMEavIzbJYgOMKJo_nPKjMm8/edit?usp=sharing

Assuming you reach this information, you can scroll down to the bottom of the Google Sheet spreadsheet that comes up on your screen.  You should see five tabs. Click on the tab to see the following information:

• GlennaVicAnalysis – Lists the weekly bridge hand analyses by Glenna and Vic.  It is organized by subject and then date (latest first).
• BBO – Lists information specific to joining and playing on BBO
• Otherblog – Information not in GlennaVicAnalysis
• PDF – Written documents in pdf format
• Video – Links to YouTube videos

You will note in many of the Google Sheets spreadsheets you will see a column labeled ‘Subject’.  I tried to define the piece of information in one word so that the approximately 200 pieces of information could be ordered using the columns in the Google sheet.  Whether people, other than me,  can reorder these sheets is another issue in which I believe you can do when you are in Google Sheets. I intend to keep the Google Sheets spreadsheet up-to-date each week.

I fully understand Google Sheets may not allow everyone to reach this information because the screen on their telephone is too small to see a spreadsheet, they have never seen a spreadsheet, or they do not know how to function in a spreadsheet.  However, this is the easiest way for me to keep up with the information and add more in the future.

Weekly Hand Analysis - Glenna Shannahan - February 7, 2022- Advance 1NT?

 

Question: N opens 1C and E overcalls 1♠, should W respond 1NT or 2♠ to indicate shape and point count? 

Glenna:

  Yes, I think W should respond 1 NT. However, once E bids 2 ♥️, I think 2NT is ok, but I would probably bid 2 ♠️ . With good hands 4-3 fits play ok, but with  a weaker hand, I would choose the 5-2 fit and correct to 2 ♠️.  10 pts. Is considered weak. I would probably not choose 2 NT which shows a good 11 or. 12,

Glenna

Weekly Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - February 7, 2022 - 2 NT and not 1NT or something else?

 Question: 

With 19HCPs, should South bid 2NT on their second bid so that their partner knows they have a large hand or is 2NT?  What would happen if there was interference from either East or West?  Would 2NT still be  the bid?

Vic:

Yes. Given that South opted to bid no trump on their second call, the proper bid would have been 2NT (not 1NT).  

Meaning of 1NT: I do not have 4 hearts (true). I do not have 4 spades (not true). I have a balanced hand (true). My balanced hand was too weak to open 1NT (less than 15 points - not true).  

Meaning of 2NT:  I do not have 4 hearts (true). I do not have 4 spades (not true). I have a balanced hand (true). My balanced hand was too strong to open 1NT & too weak to open 2NT (18-19 points - true). 

Meaning of 2H (above): I have a 6-card heart suit. Hearing that I would expect the 3rd call by North to be 4H (not 2NT). 

Summary: Quite a collection of flawed bids. 

By the Way: If I was holding the South hand, my second call would have been 2S. Playing with one of my regular partners, I expect that would have led to a 4H final contract. But that story is too complicated to get into. 

Play of Hand Analysis: Good defense against 4H can take three diamond tricks before declarer ever gets the lead. Looks to me like a flawless defensive effort subsequent to that will set 4H by one trick. But how often is the defense flawless?