We had a nice turnout at the Santa Rosa sectional recently. Good bridge and good food! Here are a couple of hands I liked--one from the pair game and one from the team game.
Bd. 4, March 23, Second session, partner Erwin Linzner.
Erwin opened 1♦ and I responded 1♠ with this hand:
♠KQ987
♥A1082
♦9
♣KQ7
I was pleased and surprised when Erwin then jumped to 3♠. With my big hand I immediately bid 4NT, RKC, and learned that Erwin held 3 aces. I bid 6♠ and partner laid down a nice dummy:
♠A1053
♥7
♦AQ64
♣AJ84
♠KQ987
♥A1082
♦9
♣KQ7
The K♥ was led and I saw that I could make 7 if I ruffed two hearts. The 4th heart would go on a club. Spades broke 2-2 and the play went as I envisioned.
The hand seemed fairly routine so I was surprised to get 13 out of 17 matchpoints. Looking at the loser count, Erwin's hand has 6 1/2 losers, but deducting 1/2 loser for each ace brings the loser count down to 5. This clearly makes it worth a jump raise. My hand also has 5 losers, so it is not surprising that we made all the tricks. (Adding our losers together equals 10 and subtracting them from 24 equals 14, the number of tricks we can expect to make. Gee--that would really be a top!)
2. Playing in the Sunday team game with Larry Hansen, I held this hand in 4th seat and there were 3 passes to me.
♠K97643
♥75
♦AK864
♣void
Only 10 high card points, but another powerful hand in terms of loser count: 5 losers. I opened 1♠, LHO bid 2♣ and partner bid 2♠. RHO bid 3♣ and I jumped to game.
Partner's hand was suitable and I ended up making 450 when the opponents failed to cash their 2 heart tricks.
♠QJ10
♥964
♦Q53
♣A632
♠K97643
♥75
♦AK864
♣void
When you're not sure what to bid, count your losers. The proper use of losing trick count will make your decisions easier and guide you to the correct contract more often than not.
See you at the table!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Jennbridge: Kibitz the 2013 Vanderbilt
From the March 19 Daily Bulletin at the Spring NABC in St. Louis:
The Vanderbilt Knockout Teams gets into full swing today after 14 squads did battle on Monday for10 slots to fill out the round of 64. The field will be cut in half each day through Sunday, when the two finalists will face off for the championship.
Bridge Base starts showing the Vanderbilt online today and will be great viewing through Sunday. Good way to improve your game! Go to: www.bridgebase.com.
Check out the NABC Daily Bulletins for results and interesting stories and hands:
http://www.acbl.org/nabc/index.php?a=2013&b=Spring&c=daily_bulletins
See you at the table!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Jennbridge: Losing Trick Count update 2013
Here's a recent comment on losing trick count from a friend and bridge teacher in Mississippi.
Last week I was playing w Allan Siebert & I underbid 4 hands. I use Bergen points, but had gotten lazy in applying LTC as well. Afterwards, when I applied LTC, it said to bid on all 4. So, I re-read your booklet & ordered 5 more for partners. I now put Jenn’s LTC on my convention cards to remember to use it. Thanks, Rick
Another bridge teacher, this one from Florida, getting ready to teach a seminar on LTC with my materials recently sent me this email: I have just started to go through the LTC seminar materials. I am going to use this in my local club lessons. My question had to do with a response from an expert who does not consider LTC a proper hand evaluation method. How does the expert population look at LTC? I need some reasons to convince my partner to use this evaluation method. Thanks for your help.
My response: LTC is well accepted among expert tournament players. Here are two comments from well known experts from the back of my booklet, Losing Trick Count, Vol. II:
It’s about time bridge players learn something besides point counting!
Baron Barclay News
Jennbridge has had a lot of visitors due to Losing Trick Count and Losing Trick Count Vol. II being featured in the current edition of the Baron Barclay Bridge Supply catalog and in a recent Baron Barclay email to customers. Hello to all and thanks for stopping by! Feel free to email me your losing trick count bidding questions.
***********************
On a Personal Note: All of my partners, as well as the folks I mentor, are strong adherents of losing trick count. Many of them also play it with Bergen raises as suggested in my booklet. It is a pleasure to conduct intelligent, not to mention accurate, bidding sequences with them, and I'd like to thank them as well! ♥
See you at the table!
Last week I was playing w Allan Siebert & I underbid 4 hands. I use Bergen points, but had gotten lazy in applying LTC as well. Afterwards, when I applied LTC, it said to bid on all 4. So, I re-read your booklet & ordered 5 more for partners. I now put Jenn’s LTC on my convention cards to remember to use it. Thanks, Rick
Another bridge teacher, this one from Florida, getting ready to teach a seminar on LTC with my materials recently sent me this email: I have just started to go through the LTC seminar materials. I am going to use this in my local club lessons. My question had to do with a response from an expert who does not consider LTC a proper hand evaluation method. How does the expert population look at LTC? I need some reasons to convince my partner to use this evaluation method. Thanks for your help.
My response: LTC is well accepted among expert tournament players. Here are two comments from well known experts from the back of my booklet, Losing Trick Count, Vol. II:
It’s about time bridge players learn something besides point counting!
Ron Smith, San Francisco, bridge professional, ACBL Grand Life Master
Average players can compete against experts if they understand and use losing trick count!
Gene Simpson, bridge professional, ACBL Grand Life Master
**********************************
Baron Barclay News
Jennbridge has had a lot of visitors due to Losing Trick Count and Losing Trick Count Vol. II being featured in the current edition of the Baron Barclay Bridge Supply catalog and in a recent Baron Barclay email to customers. Hello to all and thanks for stopping by! Feel free to email me your losing trick count bidding questions.
***********************
On a Personal Note: All of my partners, as well as the folks I mentor, are strong adherents of losing trick count. Many of them also play it with Bergen raises as suggested in my booklet. It is a pleasure to conduct intelligent, not to mention accurate, bidding sequences with them, and I'd like to thank them as well! ♥
See you at the table!
Friday, March 1, 2013
Jennbridge: LTC and Splinters - A Powerful Combination
By Bob Klein.
I cannot overemphasize the value of splinter bids in slam bidding, particularly when combined with judicious use of Losing Trick Count. Here are two spectacular successes I had recently.
Hand A.
In a pair game at the recent regional in Sacramento playing with Dave Neuman, I held, in first seat, neither side vulnerable:
♠ void
♥ Jxxx
♦ Axxxxx
♣ Axx
I thought it was a bit of stretch to open it, so I passed. LHO passed and Dave, in third seat, opened 1 Heart. RHO passed. Now, this marginal opening bid had turned into a monster! First-round control of all side suits, 4-card trump support, and only 6 losers using the adjusted losing trick count where you subtract a half-loser for each ace when there are no queens. I decided that the hand was worth a game force, so I made a splinter bid of 3 Spades. Dave now bid 4NT, RKC. I had the perfect hand to show that the splinter was a void by bidding 5NT, which shows 2 keycards and a useful void. This hit the jackpot as Dave jumped to 7 Hearts.
The two hands combined were:
♠ void
♥ Jxxx
♦ Axxxxx
♣ Axx
♠ Txxx
♥ AKQxxx
♦ KQ
♣ K
The grand slam came home easily. Hearts were 3-0 but diamonds were 3-2.
Note how my splinter bid improved the value of Dave's hand. Once he knew that I had 4 hearts and no more than 1 spade, he could envision ruffing three spades in dummy or discarding them if I had any aces. Moreover, he could envision me holding the 2 minor suit aces since I couldn't have much else to justify a game force opposite third-seat opening bid.
Nobody else in the field bid the grand slam. Only one other pair even got to six.
Hand B
In a recent team game at the club, I picked up this hand:
♠ QTxx
♥ x
♦ Axx
♣ Kxxxx
My partner, Joanne Pransky, dealt and opened 1 Spade. I saw that while the hand had only 9 HCP, it had only 7 losers, decent 4-card support and prime controls in the side suits. So I forced to game with a splinter bid of 4 Hearts. Joanne bid 4NT, I bid 5 Diamonds to show one keycard (we play 0314), she bid 5 Hearts, asking if I had the queen of spades, I bid 6 Clubs, showing her the queen and the club king, and she bid 7 Spades.
The two hands were
♠ QTxx
♥ x
♦ Axx
♣ Kxxxx
♠ AKJxx
♥ Axxx
♦ x
♣ AQx
The grand slam came home easily. My counterpart at the other table chose to treat it as a limit raise and bid 3 Diamonds, showing a 4-card limit raise (Bergen), and they only got to six, so we won 13 IMPs for the only swing in a 6-board swiss match.
Good luck!
I cannot overemphasize the value of splinter bids in slam bidding, particularly when combined with judicious use of Losing Trick Count. Here are two spectacular successes I had recently.
Hand A.
In a pair game at the recent regional in Sacramento playing with Dave Neuman, I held, in first seat, neither side vulnerable:
♠ void
♥ Jxxx
♦ Axxxxx
♣ Axx
I thought it was a bit of stretch to open it, so I passed. LHO passed and Dave, in third seat, opened 1 Heart. RHO passed. Now, this marginal opening bid had turned into a monster! First-round control of all side suits, 4-card trump support, and only 6 losers using the adjusted losing trick count where you subtract a half-loser for each ace when there are no queens. I decided that the hand was worth a game force, so I made a splinter bid of 3 Spades. Dave now bid 4NT, RKC. I had the perfect hand to show that the splinter was a void by bidding 5NT, which shows 2 keycards and a useful void. This hit the jackpot as Dave jumped to 7 Hearts.
The two hands combined were:
♠ void
♥ Jxxx
♦ Axxxxx
♣ Axx
♠ Txxx
♥ AKQxxx
♦ KQ
♣ K
The grand slam came home easily. Hearts were 3-0 but diamonds were 3-2.
Note how my splinter bid improved the value of Dave's hand. Once he knew that I had 4 hearts and no more than 1 spade, he could envision ruffing three spades in dummy or discarding them if I had any aces. Moreover, he could envision me holding the 2 minor suit aces since I couldn't have much else to justify a game force opposite third-seat opening bid.
Nobody else in the field bid the grand slam. Only one other pair even got to six.
Hand B
In a recent team game at the club, I picked up this hand:
♠ QTxx
♥ x
♦ Axx
♣ Kxxxx
My partner, Joanne Pransky, dealt and opened 1 Spade. I saw that while the hand had only 9 HCP, it had only 7 losers, decent 4-card support and prime controls in the side suits. So I forced to game with a splinter bid of 4 Hearts. Joanne bid 4NT, I bid 5 Diamonds to show one keycard (we play 0314), she bid 5 Hearts, asking if I had the queen of spades, I bid 6 Clubs, showing her the queen and the club king, and she bid 7 Spades.
The two hands were
♠ QTxx
♥ x
♦ Axx
♣ Kxxxx
♠ AKJxx
♥ Axxx
♦ x
♣ AQx
The grand slam came home easily. My counterpart at the other table chose to treat it as a limit raise and bid 3 Diamonds, showing a 4-card limit raise (Bergen), and they only got to six, so we won 13 IMPs for the only swing in a 6-board swiss match.
Good luck!
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