Robert Todd’s

ADVENTURES IN BRIDGE

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Latest This Week in Bridge (TWIB) Lesson ♣

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(579) Upgrade to Jacoby 2NT

Jacoby 2NT is a useful convention, but many players choose to try to improve it. The modern expert 2NT response to a 1M opening showing a limit raise or better (LR+), instead of game forcing, has many different inventors and advocates. In Europe, it is known as Limit Sternberg while in America, Larry Cohen popularized a similar approach. Let’s see how this works and how it can help improve our bidding. This one is fun for system bidding fans!

Latest Webinars ♠

Fundamentals - Opening and Responding Basics

9/2024 (62 min)

Here we review some fundamentals of opening bids and look more deeply into your thought process before we open the bidding. Then we pivot to the responder’s actions and make sure that we are prepared to construct a good auction with some problem situations.

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Fundamentals - High Level Response to 1-Major Openings

March 2025 - Coming Soon!

When partner opens the bidding with 1-Major then we normally go slow and make a low level response. But we can also use some immediate jumps to high bids to describe some interesting and difficult hands. Let’s look at the meaning of this high-level jump responses.

Webinar Notes

Fundamentals - Other Responses 1-Level Openings

March 2025 - Coming Soon!

Here we look at some other complex auctions and special responses to 1-level opening bids. We focus on some jump shift responses to 1-Major and 1-minor and then turn out focus to NT responses to minor suit openings.

Webinar Notes

Fundamentals - Hand Eval after Responder's Jump Shift

March 2025 - Coming Soon!

When Responder makes a jump shift, either a weak jump shift or a 3/1 invitational jump shift, then Opener is left to figure out what to do next. Here we look at what types of hands Opener should bid with (like) and when they should be conservative and Pass.

Webinar Notes

Fundamentals - Some Confusing Auctions

March 2025 - Coming Soon!

There are some classic auctions that lead to confusion between partnerships. Ones that you should make sure you and partner agree upon.

Webinar Notes

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Robert's Upcoming Seminars

CA Teaching Week

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May 27-29, 2025
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Sharon Heights Country Club
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Indianapolis, IN Seminars

Indianapolis Bridge Center
Indianapolis, IN
June 6, 2025
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Coral Bay, NC Seminars
Coral Bay, NC Cub
June 11-13, 2025
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Steamboat Springs, CO Bridge Club
July 14 , 2025
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Vail Christian School
July 15-17, 2025
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Colorado Springs, CO Seminars
July 18, 2025
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Charlotte, NC Seminars

Charlotte, NC Seminars
Charlotte Bridge Association
Aug 7, 2025
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Blue Ridge Conference Hall
Aug 8-9, 2025
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Highlands Falls Country Club
Aug 2025
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Madison Bridge Club
Madison, WI
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St. Louis Seminars

St Louis Bridge Center
Oct 10-11, 2025
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Miami Seminars

Miami, FL
Late October 2025
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Woman's Athletic Club of Chicago Seminars

Woman's Athletic Club of Chicago Seminars
WAC Seminars
Oct 2025
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Jupiter Island Club Seminars

Jupiter Island Club Seminars
Jupiter Island Club, FL
Jan, 2026
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Mt Lake Seminars
Mt Lake, FL
Jan 15-17, 2026
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Cabo, MX Bridge Seminars

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Cabo Mexico - Querencia Golf Club
Feb 9-12, 2026
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**Latest This Week in Bridge (TWIB) Practice Hands ♦**

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Advanced Same Bidding 3 - 578

Preempt Blackwood

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. If Responder has an extremely strong hand then they may be interested in exploring slam in preemptor’s suit, but again Responder may face a concern about getting the auction too high. If Responder uses 4NT as Keycard Blackwood to explore slam, then the partnership may get too high and go down. 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.

Recent This Week in Bridge (TWIB) Videos ♥

Featured

Hand Evaluation: Counting Points - Before the Auction Begins

Lesson 1 of 8 (25 min)

Video of Robert further discussing the topics in TWiB Lesson #329.

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TWiB Lesson

Robert’s Bridge News & Articles

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Robert and Michael Berkowitz - BAMSA Conference

Robert and Michael discussion building a Vertically Integrated Youth Bridge Program (bridge for all types of players), and Other Education Foundation (ACBL) Goals at the Real Bridge / BAMSA bridge teachers & coaches conference.

ON THE ROAD WITH ROBERT TODD
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“Bridge is the greatest of all card games. It’s both entertaining and challenging at the same time. Here you can get started learning to play this great game or work to improve your game, no matter your level of bridge experience. ”

— Robert S. Todd