A new “baby” and a new bridge class
The last few days have been quite exciting. Today Ray and I bought a Mazda Miata convertible and drove it back to our Sarasota home. The weather was perfect and Ray had some fun working out the 6 gears. Yesterday we had a big group of beginner and intermediate bridge players in our first bridge classes at the Landings.
I was working with the beginners and I remembered just how much fun it was to teach a class LIVE as opposed to working with online students. By the end of the class my students were doing really well at counting their losers, deciding whether to draw trump and making a plan. Some of the questions were fairly insightful. Is it better to play in a 4-4 fit or a 5-4 fit when you have both? I showed them how a 4-4 fit could work out better on some occasions but recommended that they focus on finding the best fit.
In any case it was so wonderful to see so many people excited about bridge. Ray had the beginners and he drew a few laughs when they discussed why husbands and wives have to work to be nice to each other when they play. We had more phone calls today from more would-be bridge players.
The questions always make me think. Today I mentored my student from Israel. He just had a new grandson – a much more wonderful new baby. We had some bridge bidding to discuss. One thing that came up is the problem of rebidding with 17 high card points a balanced hand and a good five card major if you DON’T open 1NT. Then this deal came up
| North ♠ K32 ♥ Q3 ♦ A54 ♣ K10862 |
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| South ♠ Q76 ♥ K10652 ♦ 6 ♣ AQJ3 |
South was dealer and opened 1♥ . North bid 2♣ game forcing and South bid 3♣ . What should North do? North bid 3NT which seems pretty logical. Should South bid? Is South sure that the eleven trick club game will be better than notrump?
Maybe these day you just tough it out in notrump and hope for a spade lead. Or as an old friend once said: playing in notrump means never having to say your sorry. Any thoughts?
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Perhaps South should have rebid 3D (a splinter in a gf 2/1 auction as I play) rather than 3C?
Looks as though no game will make, but I think it is logical for the “game force” of 2C to continue — rather than allow for stopping on a dime and making other hands difficult to bid — and so I suspect I would be in 5C on these hands.
You do have a shot at 5C if hearts behave decently and/or you figure out the lie of the heart suit. I like the idea of 3D. I think an intermediate/advanced player can handle it.
Good idea.
As one who lives where Linda does ( when she’s in Sarasota) , I have to tell you how much excitement her bridge class has created. Her generosity of books and time ( especially time) is very much appreciated.