Julian Foster’s hand commentary provides a good read every week. He picks up an interesting hand for commentary (sometimes from an SBC duplicate, sometimes from elsewhere). His column starts with a basic analysis of the hand then lists some key points to note as a quick summary to take away. It then ends with some more advanced points if you progress well with this laddered reading.
Julian is a many times NSW representative, he has an impressive bridge career as an individual player and coach!
- Cover honours but not touching honours
A theme in bridge is to “cover an honour with an honour” – the idea being to promote lower value cards in either your, or your partner’s, hand into winners. That’s good advice. But, like all bridge “rules”, it’s not as simple as that. In … Continue reading - Bidding in 4th seat after 2 passes
If a 1 level opening bid is followed by 2 passes, the situation is not the same as it is directly over the opening bid. Today’s hand taken from a recent congress looks at why not. East opened 1♠. South couldn’t really bid over that … Continue reading - Defence against high level contracts
Today’s board (taken from the Victorian Festival of Bridge currently being held in Melbourne) saw a wide range of scores because both sides had large double fits and could make lots of tricks if the defenders didn’t cash their tricks first. So it’s important for … Continue reading - Not the loser everyone else lost!
Today’s column is primarily just an amusing story but it does have some interesting points in both bidding and defence. The hand occurred in the Barrier Reef Congress teams held recently in Townsville. North South can make 6♠ because ♥A is onside. You discard North’s … Continue reading - Second hand plays low
Something often taught early on in bridge (or in fact any similar trick taking game like whist or 500) is “second hand plays low, third hand plays high”. Like everything in bridge there are no 100% rules and there are of course exceptions to this. … Continue reading
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