Learn the Game of Bridge from the Pros.

BRIDGE NOTES AND VIDEOS

ROB'S DECLARER PLAY SEMINAR

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 10th

10AM - 3PM

HONORS BRIDGE CENTER

(133 E. 58th St.)

$65

Join me for this fun and challenging day of declarer play. Most bridge players know the common rules of declarer play and defense. You have all heard "8 ever 9 never", "high card short side", "2nd hand low", "3rd hand high", "draw trump" and so on. While following these rules is crucial to making the correct play most of the time, knowing when to break these rules will bring you to another level.

An excellent "bridge rules follower" will see some good results, but, an excellent "bridge thinker" will always be better.

This seminar will start you on the path from "rules follower" to "thinker".

Every bid made and card played gives each player information. Throughout this seminar I will challenge each of you to find the information you need for a successful result. It will seem difficult at first, but the more we practice (and we are going to practice A LOT) the better we will be at just plain "THINKING ABOUT THE HAND".

Check out the video above (counting a hand) for a good example of the kind of problems you will see during this event. The schedule is below and should look familiar to those of you who are veterans of my seminars/classes. You can sign up with the form below or with the Honors staff. Hope to see you on Sunday November 10th at Honors.

SCHEDULE

10AM - 12PM: Interactive Lesson (phones/tablets)

12PM - 1PM: Lunch and informal Q&A

1PM - 3PM: ACBL Duplicate game with analysis

THE "MIXED" RAISE

This hand presents an interesting problem. It is too good for a preemptive raise (3S) and not good enough for a cue bid (2C). Most of you probably chose to raise to 2S with this hand, which is fine, but not perfect. To get the best of all worlds, you need to have some bid that shows this type of hand. This bid is called a

"Mixed Raise"

A mixed raise gives the partnership the best of all worlds. It chews up more bidding room than the simple raise, and paints a better picture of your hand. A mixed raise shows at least a 9 card fit in the suit partner bid (on the above hand this would be 4 or more spades), and between 7 and 9 total points. Some of you may be playing mixed raises without calling it that (Bergen Raises include a bid showing a mixed raise). In an auction like the one above, the JUMP CUE BID (3 Clubs) would be our mixed raise. This is the common expert agreement in auctions where partner has overcalled. Warning: this is only an available option when we can jump cue bid to the 3 level BELOW PARTNER'S SUIT. (ex. If our opponent opened 1S and partner overcalled 2H, we wouldn't be jumping to 3S to show this hand!).

So, before your next game, discuss this agreement with your partner and add it to the card. If you like this new agreement and want to learn more about competitive auctions, join me for my newest interactive seminar at Honors. The details and signup form are above. I hope to see many of you there, but until then, good luck and I will see you at the tables.

Rob Barrington

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