Bridge update 13th May 2024

New this week. I am continuing with a new occasional series of online seminars on Tuesday mornings, this week discussing how to bid after the opponents have overcalled your partner’s One No Trump opening bid. This will run from 9am to 11am on Zoom, with a set of slides that will be made available after the event and some sample hands we can play together. To join please let me have your name and email by 8.45 tomorrow morning, so that I can send you the Zoom link. I will also be recording separately a video of this lesson that you can purchase later, along with others in the series. Some weeks we will revert to simple supervised online play on Tuesday mornings, but I will e posting a schedule of the planned seminars and topics shortly.

Our supervised play sessions in Wytham will be held as normal again this week in Wytham Village Hall. The formal start time is 10am, but play often starts earlier for those who arrive from 9.30 onwards. While it is possible to turn up without notice, it is helpful to know if you are attending so that we can plan tables and partners. Refreshments are also provided.

Best wishes and happy carding.

Jonathan

Bridge hand in The Times

You might be interested in this hand which Andrew Robson chose to mention in his column in The Times last weekend. You can download it from the link below. I am repeating the post as some of you were unable to use the link I provided last time.

bridge Download

I was sitting North, but please don’t ask me what the score was on this hand! 7D was bid and made in one room by our opponents, while 3NT was down 1 in ours when the 3-0 diamond break came to light, meaning I could only score two of the nine Diamonds as tricks. Suffice it to say that I was happy not to be playing this one in my high stakes money bridge game! It is clear for South to bid 4D over 3NT, even if the 3-0 break was well against the odds.

Jonathan

Bridge hand in The Times

You might be interested in this hand which Andrew Robson chose to mention in his column in The Times last weekend. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/board-and-card-games/bridge-xj352j7c0. I was sitting North, but please don’t ask me what the score was on this hand! 7D was bid and made in one room by our opponents, while 3NT was down 1 in ours when the 3-0 diamond break came to light, meaning I could only score two of the nine Diamonds as tricks. Suffice it to say that I was happy not to be playing this one in my high stakes money bridge game! It is clear for South to bid 4D over 3NT, even if the 3-0 break was well against the odds. If you cannot access The Times, the article is also reproduced here.

bridge Download

Jonathan

Bridge update 12th Feb 2024

The new series of supervised play sessions in Wytham resumed in January and is going well, despite all attempts by the highway authorities and Mother Nature to make getting to our venue, Wytham Village Hall, a little tricky at times. It continues this week as normal. Start time 10am formally but we can start earlier if you arrive in good time before then. Thanks to those of you who have managed to us the Doodle poll for dates for the Thursday morning sessions from January to March this year. Signing up is not binding, but will help us to plan numbers and where helpful find suitable partners, particularly in weeks when Annabel is not available to help. Refreshments are also provided.

The next monthly session for our Charlbury group is scheduled for Wednesday February 28th, starting at the normal time of 2.30pm and will continue provisionally monthly thereafter. I also still have room for a couple of new faces on my Tuesday morning learn and play sessions which start at 9am and run until 11.30. Please drop me a line if you wish to be considered for this small but lively group of improvers.

Best wishes and happy carding.

Jonathan

Bridge update 3rd Jan 2024

The new series of supervised play sessions in Wytham resumes this week and for the next few weeks. The one tomorrow (4th January) will be the first session of the new year. Look out for details, coming shortly, of the new seminars and videos on specific bridge topics I promised before Christmas. They will be suitable for both beginners and improvers, and ideal if you wish to brush up on your knowledge of conventions and basic card play techniques.

I have now created a Doodle poll for dates for the Thursday morning sessions in Wytham to cover the period from January to March this year. It is very helpful if you can continue to show your interest in coming by filling in or updating the Doodle poll as many of you have been helpfully doing. Signing up is not binding, but will help us to plan numbers and where helpful find suitable partners, partiuclarly in weeks when Annabel is not available to help.

If you cannot make the Doodle poll work, as some of you have struggle to do, please just drop me an email to say you are planning to come. The formal start time is 10am, to allow for travel times, but you can start playing earlier once there are sufficient numbers. We play a series of pre-dealt hands, each one of which can be reviewed afterwards against my assessment of the best contract and a sensible bidding auction. Refreshments are also provided.

As far as Charlbury is concerned, we plan to run the next monthly session on Wednesday January 31st, starting at the normal time of 2.30pm, and monthly again thereafter.

Best wishes and Happy New Year

Jonathan

Online bridge update 22

This is another short update to give you the chance to join the events that are happening this week. Unfortunately I have had to postpone the Monday seminar this week on negative doubles to the following week because a number of regular participants are away. Negative doubles are such a versatile and useful bidding tool that no aspiring bridge player can afford to miss out on them. You can sign up for the new date for this seminar by following the payment buttons in the sidebar of this and other pages.

The Tuesday morning online supervised play session is going ahead as normal. This continues to evolve nicely with many regular partnerships coming online to play against each other on a rotating basis, although anyone is welcome to join, with or without a partner. To finalise numbers and tables it is very helpful if you can sign up by Monday evening. Annabel and I can normally arrange things so that latecomers are accommodated as well, but it is not possible to guarantee a place if you only contact us on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile the group coaching sessions continue with a lot of renewed enthusiasm and some impressive advances in performance. At least two of them have chalked up their first grand slam bid and made, using the Jacoby 2NT and Roman Key Card Blackwood conventions. This is always a great moment in anyone’s bridge journey. Here is a link to a grand slam hand that came up in a recent match. Would and your partner have bid 7S? I did, but it is not a 100 per cent sure thing (if spades are 4-1 and the Jack is missing). Answers on a postcard please….

Online bridge update 21

This is another short update to give you the chance to join the events that are happening this week. The Monday seminar tomorrow (9.30am to 11.30am) is a follow up to last week’s session. It is what to when your partner opens 1 No Trump and your opponents intervene, with either a double, a suit overcall or the Landy convention (showing both majors). This is a very common situation and one which can produce very different results if you are not prepared with some basic techniques. You can sign up by following the payment buttons int he sidebar of this and other pages.

The same goes for Tuesday morning’s online supervised play session. This is evolving nicely with many regular partnerships coming online to play against each other on a rotating basis, although anyone is welcome to join, with or without a partner. To finalise numbers and tables it is very helpful if you can sign up by Monday evening. Annabel and I can normally arrange things so that latecomers are accommodated as well, but it is not possible to guarantee a place if you only contact us on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile a few more group coaching sessions are gradually coming back into operation; contact me if you are interested in one of the few remaining slots. There will be both a Beginners and an Advanced course starting in mid-October, and probably an Essential/review course as well. To accommodate as many people as possible, these will probably be in a number of discreet modules rather than in short sessions over an eight week period. The new bridge platform I mentioned last week, which is being set up in the UK as competition to Bridge Base Online looks promising, but as it currently stands looks better for supervised play than for group coaching, as a number of features that are on BBO are not yet incorporated into the system. Will keep you posted as this develops.

Online bridge update 20

This is a short update to give you the chance to join the events that are happening this week. The Monday seminar tomorrow (9.30am to 11.30am) is on bidding after the opponents open the bidding with One No Trump. It will cover the Landy convention (very popular and part of the Robson method) , doubling and suit overcalls. Given how common the 1 No Trump opening is, this is an important part of the game where many tend to go wrong. You can sign up here as normal (see the sidebar).

The same goes for Tuesday morning’s online supervised play session. This is evolving nicely with many regular partnerships coming online to play against each other, though anyone is welcome to join, with or without a partner. To finalise numbers and tables it is very helpful if you can sign up by Monday evening. Annabel and I can normally arrange things so that latecomers are accommodated as well, but it is not possible to guarantee a place if you only contact us on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile the group coaching sessions are also getting back into gear, with five already back in action and others due to restart this week. There will be more news about courses and lessons in the next couple of weeks. Along with many other bridge teachers, I have been looking at a new platform which is being set up in the UK as competition to Bridge Base Online, where a number of changes are due to come into effect over the next few weeks following the sale of the site a little while ago to a more commercially-minded company. More details on this if and when we decide to make a change.

Online bridge update 19

The summer break is over for me. As of today I am back in Oxford and ready to get back into bridge. I hope that you have all been enjoying the last few weeks. While one or two bridge clubs have been bravely looking to get back into face-to-face play, with the use of plastic screens, tablets and other tools to cope with social distancing, I am afraid that is not yet an option for us, nor am I convinced that it is really the kind of interaction that most of you would enjoy, given the continuing restrictions. (Click here for the last thoughts from the English Bridge Union on this subject).

So for now the main option remains group coaching sessions with a combination of BBO and Zoom, as before, in 60 or 90 minute sessions. The formula works well and I am happy to continue offering them this autumn for as many of you as want to continue. The main options for starting times are 9.15am, 11am, 2pm and 4.30/5pm, although I may be able to fit in some other times depending on demand and other existing commitments. If there is any change in the restrictions that make returning to playing face to face in Wytham Village Hall possible, you will be notified of that possibility.

The Tuesday morning online session for a minimum of four tables will also continue as long as there is sufficient demand. The first proposed date for this will be this Tuesday, 1st September. For group sessions please let me know if you want to continue with the slots you had before. There may be some times that I was teaching before that I can no longer do, but most of them should be possible.

I propose to continue with the Monday morning seminars, but starting on the 7th September, rather than tomorrow (Bank Holiday Monday 31st August), as previously suggested. Details of the topics are on the seminars page. I have also had a request to restart more courses. I am very happy to do this, but experience suggests that the most efficient way to run these is to offer four double sessions rather than eight single ones (which inevitably include some dates a number of participants cannot make). Even better may be to hold these courses as one or two day events – more intensive, for sure, but a perfect way to acquire a chunk of material to practise and revise at your leisure.

I propose to offer a number of these courses from the middle of October and will welcome suggestions from you which courses you would be most interested in taking. Beginners and Advanced will certainly be among those scheduled. The general message is: let me know what it is you would like to do, and I will see whether I can oblige. In the meantime I look forward to seeing you shortly back at the virtual table and observing the progress you have all been making…..

Online bridge update

Given the level of interest in playing online bridge, I have updated the page about the options for online play and lessons we are offering from Monday onwards. These include a number of regular supervised play sessions, plus details of the lessons that are continuing, and the opportunity to book a time for a smaller group session with your chosen friends and partners (either continuous supervision or an hour-long review session at the end). For the first time we are offering you the chance to organise supervised play or small group sessions in the afternoon and evening, subject to them fitting in with my schedule. Follow the link to the online bridge page for more details.