January 15th, 2015 ~ Steve Bloom ~ No Comments 
Sometimes, what happens at the bridge table doesn’t seem to reflect the skill of the players involved, and that can be very frustrating. Of course, that also makes it fun, for, as we all know, Bridge can be a very cruel game. Take a look at this hand from Sunday’s play:
We had an excellent auction to stop safely in two spades:
West leads a fourth-best club four. We appear to have five sure spade winners, and two clubs, so need only one other trick. How would you play for that eighth trick?
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January 7th, 2015 ~ Steve Bloom ~ 4 Comments
It has often been said that Bridge is a bidder’s game. Two hands from play this week reinforced that notion. First up, there was board five. As South, red-on-white, you pick up:
After two passes, you open 1H. 1S overcall, 3H by partner (typically a mixed raise), 3S on your right. Your call?
What would you do if, instead of 3S, righty bid four spades? Read the rest of this entry »
December 18th, 2014 ~ Steve Bloom ~ No Comments
Two game contracts Sunday night hinged on finding the jack of spades. I will look at those hands in some detail, and let you test your guessing skills.
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November 20th, 2014 ~ Steve Bloom ~ 1 Comment
We did very well in our match Monday night, and the level of play was quite high. Two play problems appealed to me, and I will feature those. First up, both sides bid up to three hearts on these cards, but our auction was very revealing, and, as a result, we got a much tougher defense than our opponent faced: Read the rest of this entry »
November 13th, 2014 ~ Steve Bloom ~ No Comments
Sunday’s match went heavily in one direction, with East-West finishing up forty three IMPs. That is quite a lot, but the bridge at our table was quite strong. Thirty of those IMPs swung on trick one decisions at the other table. I’ll focus on those two swing boards.
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November 5th, 2014 ~ Steve Bloom ~ 3 Comments
Deep Finesse, for those of you who don’t know, is a computer program that analyzes how many tricks each side can win in any contract at bridge, for a given hand. The ACBL uses Deep Finesse for its hand records at tournaments, listing the potential winning contracts each way. All of this analysis is double-dummy, the tricks that could be taken knowing the location of all 52 cards. In real bridge, we only see 26 of those cards during the play, and our decisions are never anywhere near perfect.
To play like Deep Finesse, we need to construct the other two hands from the clues available. Bridge is really a pretty easy game, once we can figure out where all the cards are located! The defenders have a real advantage here, since they can use additional clues from the bidding, the opening lead, and partner’s signals. How declarer chooses to attack the hand will also reveal quite a lot about the hand, and good defenders are often defending double-dummy. I heard a wonderful story about the great Italian duo, Belladonna and Garozzo, playing in a US tournament against a low-seeded team. Early in the play, the declarer asked about their signals, and Garozzo replied, “We don’t signal. By trick three, we figure we know more about your hand than you know!”
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October 10th, 2014 ~ Steve Bloom ~ No Comments
The match from Saturday did not go our way, but almost all the IMPs swung on one rather unlucky hand. I found plenty of interesting hands, though, with some small room for pick-ups. The first board out gave us a chance – Read the rest of this entry »
October 2nd, 2014 ~ Steve Bloom ~ No Comments
The play, on Sunday, was quite disappointing, with several hands where players simply lost focus, and made silly errors. East-West had much the worst of it, with five hands contributing mightily to the final score. On board 4, East, as declarer in four spades, could have simply claimed ten tricks, yet managed only nine. Two boards later, West, looking at a sure side-suit winner that could be ruffed on the table with dummy’s last trump, did not play a trump, and a doomed part-score made. These were simply sleepy errors.
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September 24th, 2014 ~ Steve Bloom ~ No Comments
The hands were interesting Sunday night, and the card play was mostly at a very high level. I can’t say the same for the bidding, which was a bit off, but, since I tend to focus on card play, I was quite pleased.
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September 18th, 2014 ~ Steve Bloom ~ 1 Comment
There were lots and lots of interesting stuff from Sunday’s match, plenty of material to keep a mentor happy and busy. Two large swings came when normal 3NT contracts made at one table, but failed at the other. One of these, board 5, swung on opening lead:
With North-South vulnerable, and North dealing, these were the cards:
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