One of the most common conventions used in competitive
bridge is the "unusual no trump". When the opponents are bidding
and you can jump in no trump (most normally at the two level),
you are showing a hand that is at least five-five in the minor
suits.
There are two types of hands that qualify. If you are not
vulnerable, you may have a very weak hand. In that case,
whatever high cards you do have should be in the minor suits.
Remember, you are forcing your partner to make a choice at the
three level. The other type of hand would be one like todays
North hand. With six clubs and five diamonds, and with both
suits headed by the ace and king, game is possible opposite a
hand that has three or four cards in either of those suits with
no points at all.
How does your partner know which hand you have? If you make
your two no trump bid and then don't bid again (unless forced),
you have the weak hand. If you bid again, you should have the
strong hand.
After North bid two no trump, East raised his partner's
spade bid. South could have passed but with three cards in both
minors plus the ace of hearts, he decided to bid four clubs to
show a fit. North asked for aces and when South showed one ace
North bid the club slam.
West led the ace of spades and continued with a second
spade. Trumps were drawn in two rounds and when the diamond
finesse worked, North-South scored up +920 for an excellent
result.
Congratulations to Dorothy Piovano of Medina and Marge Sobey
of Middleburg Heights who were second in Stratum C of the
stratified pairs at the Labor Day Regional Bridge Tournament in
Pittsburgh on September 2. This result was inadvertantly omitted
when the results from this tournament were listed.
Great Game Products of Potomac, MD has released Version 16
of Bridge Baron, The American Contract Bridge League rates Bridge
Baron as "The Most Popular Computer Bridge Program" and on five
separate occasions this program has won the world computer bridge
championship. It is Windows and Mac compatible and includes
seven complete bidding systems with over seventy-five optional
conventions.
This is an excellent product to use for practice of defense
and declarer play. It has an option that lets you play a hand
and then have the computer replay the hand to observe the
difference. There are "challenge" hands that will help you learn
some of the complex plays that don't come up that often, and you
can bid and play random deals against the computer.
You can order this product at www.bridgebaron.com for $64.95
plus shipping. You can download a trial version from the same
site.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com