Play of the Hand
Robert Todd
(608) My Favorite Card Combination

The more bridge we play, the more we run into situations in the play that frustrate us – where we feel that we always get things wrong. In compliment to that, we may find certain card combinations where we know we end up with good boards if they appear.  For many players this involves whether they lose a trick to the trump Queen or not!  There is a particular card combination that I find elegant – it has resulted in many good results for me over the years.  Let’s take a look at my favorite card combination and make sure we have it in our skill set.

(608) My Favorite Card Combination
Play of the Hand
Robert Todd
(607) Safety Plays

Some players find declarer play to be fun, while others find it infuriating.  Often this has to do with what we feel is the strength of our game:  Are we best at Bidding, Declarer Play, or Defense?  But one of the ways to improve our Declarer Play is to adopt the right mindset during the play.  This is not just about having confidence in our play (which is always helpful), but also about thinking about the right thing at the right time.  When it appears that we are going to make our contact, then that is the time for us to start thinking about “What could go wrong?” and then about “What can I do about it?”  These are extremely powerful and helpful question to ask ourselves.  What this type of thinking leads to is an extremely useful type of play, the Safety Play!  Let’s look at these plays and see how they can help us improve our declarer play.

(607) Safety Plays
Competitive: General
Robert Todd
(606) Transfer McCabe Responses to Preempts

The modern approach to improving our bidding structures (especially in competition) is to add transfers to our methods.  This gives us more space and allows us to communicate more efficiently.  When we play a system like McCabe, designed to give us more ways of raising partner and show support, we already have a useful structure.  If we add transfers to this structure, we gain even more space for communication.

(606) Transfer McCabe Responses to Preempts
2/1 Game Forcing
Robert Todd
(605) Options for 1♦ - 2♣ 2/1 GF Auctions

The most complicated 2/1 GF auctions are the ones that start 1♦ – 2♣. Actually, these can be some of the most difficult auctions in all of bridge. These auctions can lead to lots of complexity and confusion about the meaning of bids on the 2nd and 3rd round of the bidding. Many pairs have played in 3-3 Major suit fits after the auction began with 1♦ - 2♣, thinking they were headed to a much better fit. Let’s look at what agreements we need to make with partner and then see how these affect our follow-up bidding.

(605) Options for 1♦ - 2♣ 2/1 GF Auctions
2/1 Game Forcing
Robert Todd
(604) 2/1 GF – 2NT Rebid Showing a 6+card Suit

When we play the version of 2/1 GF that uses “2-Major Waiting” (meaning that Opener can rebid their suit without promising a 6th card), then we gain the ability to “right side” a NT contract when we have a balanced hand without a stopper in one of the suits. But, by having 2-Major be a waiting bid we make it harder for us to show our 6-card suit. Let’s see how we can add a gadget to help give us better rebid options to describe our hand.

(604) 2/1 GF – 2NT Rebid Showing a 6+card Suit

(105) More on Fits: 4th Suit Forcing in Depth

(105) More on Fits: 4th Suit Forcing in Depth

We round out our discussion of finding fit with Responder by looking at Responder's tool for finding fits (forcing the auction) after the Opener has shown an Unbalanced Hand - 4th Suit Game Forcing!   We will see its traditional use of looking for a 5-3 fit for game, as well as using it to allow us to explore for slam.