This Week in Bridge Archives

This Week in Bridge (TWiB) Library

This Week in Bridge is Robert’s lesson series. Each month has a topic (and sometimes that topic continues across two months, making a mini-course). You can download each lesson as a WORD document or view online as a PDF by clicking on the link next to each title.

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You can filter the blog posts by Topic or by Level. There is also a chronological list (Archives) below.
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(637) Hand Type - Balanced and Unbalanced Hands

We define bridge hands into two general categories: Balanced and Unbalanced hands. This classification is called Hand Type. Early in the auction, one of the most important pieces of information we can communicate to partner is our hand type. It is easier for the Opener to communicate this information (as the bidding is designed more for this). Let’s look at how this is accomplished.

(636) 3NT Rebids by Responder

3NT is our favorite contract. That makes bidding it a requirement as often as we can – we cannot play there unless one of us bids it. If we are going to bid 3NT in a variety of different situations, with a variety of different hands (to allow us to play there), then we need to have good agreements about what a 3NT bid shows. Responder is most likely to be the one bidding 3NT, so let’s discuss many of these possible bids.

(635) 3NT Rebids by Opener

One of the most common misunderstandings about Opener’s hand concerns rebidding 3NT. What does it show? As we would expect, the answer is different in different situations. It is key for us to make the right interpretation of partner’s bid and to make sure we don’t make false assumptions. These kinds of bidding mixups can lead to playing the wrong game or missing an “easy’ slam. Let’s look at some auctions and make sure we have good agreements with partner.