TWiB Lesson #572 (6 of 9)
When responding to partner’s 1-Major opening bid, Responder tries to apply the Law of Total Tricks (LOTT) – getting to the size of the partnership’s fit as quickly as possible. This LOTT bidding is especially effective when our side has a 9+card fit. Bergen Raises are a set of conventional bids Responder can use when responding to a 1-Major opening bid with 4+card support (at least a 9+card fit). Let’s see how this system works.
TWiB Lesson #574 (8 of 9)
Jumping in the auction eats up a lot of bidding space, which is likely to make communicating with partner more difficult. Since our jump bid may make future communication more difficult, it should have a specific meaning. When partner opens the bidding, Responder’s jump shifts can be used to show a variety of different types of hands. We need to decide, as a partnership, which ones we want to use. We will choose different agreements for different situations.
TWiB Lesson #575 (9 of 9)
When partner makes a bid, and we choose to bid a suit of our own, this is called a freebid. In most normal situations freebids show values (called positive freebids) and are often forcing 1-round. We’ve all heard the saying -- a new suit is forcing by an unpassed hand. Unfortunately, this is not always true, but it is often our agreement. Let’s look at freebids made by a passed hand and see how the fact that we are passed changes these situations.
TWiB Lesson #577 (2 of 9)
When Opener makes a jump shift into a new suit with their second bid, it is a strong bid that creates a game forcing auction. This is a good bid because it ensures we reach game, but it is a bad bid because it eats up a lot of bidding space without fully describing our distribution. This is a problem. One of the most difficult opening hands to describe to partner is the unbalanced single-suited (one 6+card suit) hand with 18-19 HCP. This is one of the strongest hands that does not open the bidding 2♣. Let’s look at a system that helps us improve our jump shift methods.
TWiB Lesson #578 (3 of 9)
When partner opens the bidding with a 2-level or 3-level preemptive opening bid then Responder may have a struggle to find the best final contract without getting the auction too high. One of the natural pressures is whether Responder risk going past 3NT to look for a fit or a better fit. Given the variability of modern preempts it can be dangerous to reach the 5-level when partner has taken an aggressive action. Here we look at a tool, called Preempt Keycard, for Responder to ask for Keycards after a preempt, but still keep the auction at a low level.
TWiB Lesson #453 (8 of 8)
When defending a hand it is important to try to visualize the layout of the suit around the table. This is helps guide us in determining whether to be active or passive on defense. (Video Coming)
TWiB Lesson #437 (1 of 9)
Counting our losers is a skill that we should develop both in the bidding and the play. Part of understanding good hand evaluation is estimating how the play is going to go while you are bidding the hand -- in a suit contract this means thinking about what we are going to do with our losers. (Video Coming Soon)
TWiB Lesson #438 (2 of 9)
When we play in a suit contact our trump fit is often our most powerful asset. Here we look at how the size and type of trump fits vary and how that affects the way that we make us of our trump. (Video Coming)
TWiB Lesson #439 (3 of 9)
Ruffing can help us reduce our number of losers in a variety of different ways. Here we look at how ruffing can help us improve the play of our hand. (Video Coming)
TWiB Lesson #440 (4 of 9)
The value of shortness varies based on where it located and the size of our fit. Here we look at how we assign a different number of points to re-evaluate our hand in different situations. (Video Coming)
TWiB Lesson #441 (5 of 9)
One useful way to evaluate a side suit is by looking at the relative length of the suit in our hand and the dummy. When dummy (let’s assume that is the short trump side ) has shortness then we can use dummy to help ruff our losers. (Video Coming)
TWiB Lesson #442 (6 of 9)
In a suit contract how we deal with our side suit losers can vary dramatically. When dummy has the same length in a suit as we do then we can not easily ruff any of our losers in a side suit. Here we look at how we handle losers in these equal length suits. (Video Coming)
TWiB Lesson #443 (7 of 9)
When dealing with the losers in a side suit, if our holding is shorter than dummy’s, then we dummy will provide a valuable asset — let’s see how. (Video Coming)
TWiB Lesson #444 (8 of 9)
This week we look at when dummy has a side suit longer than we do and how we use dummies strength to discard our losers on that suit. (Video Coming)
TWiB Lesson #445 (9 of 9)
We normally like to ruff in the short side. But sometimes we my take many ruffs in the long side — setting up the short side. This “Dummy Reversal” is an excellent line of play on certain hands and vs certain defenses. (Video Coming)
TWiB Lesson #428 (1 of 9)
When partner opens the bidding and RHO competes the Responder often wants to compete further in the bidding. Responder has a set of tools for competing — one of the most important agreements to have “Is Responder’s Bid Forcing?”
TWiB Lesson #429 (2 of 9)
When LHO opens the bidding and partner competes in the bidding the auctions can get very complicated. As the Advancer we often have many difficult decision about how to compete in the bidding. Here we look at these options and agreements about which bids are forcing!
TWiB Lesson #430 (3 of 9)
This week we look at the power of fit and see how the size of that fit affects our hand’s ability to take tricks. We focus on the Law of Total Tricks - when it works and when it needs adjusting!
TWiB Lesson #431 (4 of 9)
When the opponent’s bid a suit they give us the opportunity to bid their suit as a special communication tool with partner. This is called cuebidding the opponent’s suit. Here we look at the meaning of these cuebids early in the auction.
TWiB Lesson #432 (5 of 9)
Bidding the opponent’s suit is a is useful on the 1st round of the bidding and later. Here we look at how we use this cuebid later in the bidding.
TWiB Lesson #433 (6 of 9)
This week we look at Balancing in more detail. Our focus this week is on Balancing by the Responder — how they fight their way back into the auction.
TWiB Lesson #434 (7 of 9)
When we are in the balancing seat we need many ways to compete in the bidding. We can use NT bids to compete in the bidding to describe the appropriate hands.
TWiB Lesson #435 (8 of 9)
For our TWIB lesson this week we continue our discussion on balancing with a focus on our options for doing so with distributional hands.
TWiB Lesson #436 (9 of 9)
This week we focus on balancing back into the bidding in a variety of different auctions — this is a key part of modern competitive bidding.
TWiB Lesson #419 (1 of 9)
In a 2/1 GF Auction we often use our 3rd bid to show more about our distribution. We call this “patterning out”.(Video Coming Soon)
