This deal came up during a practice session on Bridge Base. I was sitting North and playing with three other players from Turkey. And before you ask, I did not know these players, I could hardly pronounce their names, but through the magic of the internet, we were playing bridge in real time.
West opened the bidding with one no trump, a very normal bid for his hand. I bid two no trump, the unusual no trump convention. This indicates at least five cards in each minor suit, and, depending on the vulnerability, a wide range of values. I was vulnerable, so I had to have a decent hand for this bid. After all, I was forcing my partner to make a bid at the three level. West, with only five points, was squeezed out of the auction and South bid three diamonds.
The opening lead was an unfortunate ace of spades and the declarer was able to score up nine tricks for +670.
Bridge Base provides a utility so that you can go back when you are done playing and review the results - your results and all of the results for the other tables that played this deal. Deals are played 16 times. It was interesting to look at these results. Most Wests opened one no trump. Only two players sitting North bid two no trump. When North's first bid was two diamonds, East was able to bid a natural two hearts. This led to a variety of bad results for whichever side won the auction.
Why did two no trump work so well? First, it kept East out of the bidding. Second, once the final contract was set, West, the strong hand, was on lead. While a small advantage, it is an advantage none the less.
Bridge Base is a wonderful place to play bridge when you can't get to a game. On a recent afternoon I found over 8,000 players signed on from around the world. And the best part about it is that it is free. Just go to www.bridgebase.com and download their software. It is safe and secure. Create an account and you will be playing bridge within minutes.
Congratulations to Jan Assini of Aurora. Assini has accumulated over 5,000 master points and has earned the designation of diamond life master. Players in this category and above make up the top one percent of bridge players in the American Contract Bridge League.
There is a new duplicate bridge game on Saturday evenings at
7 p.m. at the Middleburg Heights Community Church, 7165 Bagley
Road, Middleburg Heights. The director has set up an interesting
schedule of special events. For more information, call 440-237-
5322. For a full list of all duplicate bridge clubs in the area,
visit www.whistclub.org and click on 'bridge clubs'.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com