Never did, but I’d be open to partnering together if we can agree on a time. I’ve avoided 2/1 and still bid Standard American
Thanks for your reply. I’m going to do some brushing up, and I’m not even sure my interest will persist, but I may take you up on it eventually.
It’s often said that bridge is dying, and there may be truth in that. Then again, by some metrics there are more Americans playing bridge than, say, chess. I imagine poker dwarfs them both, though.
Realbridge is apparently what the club scene is moving to in these Covid times
Realbridge does look interesting – like a bridge app with a Zoom client built-in. My friends are all using bridgebase, but I’ll ask them about Realbridge.
All club, regional, and national tournaments here in NZ will be using realbridge for the foreseeable future. I assume given the close ties between the NZ and Australian bridge federations I imagine the same is the case over there too.
When I was a kid, my family were cutthroat single-deck pinochle players. I haven’t played pinochle in decades, but always liked it and have been bridge-curious for years since it’s broadly similar (partner based, trick taking game with bidding) and the 3rd season of Fargo featured bridge. The Tricky Bridge app showed up highlighted on the Google Play store recently so I downloaded and ran through its 50+ lesson tutorial and then started playing its duplicates tournaments (with all bot players.) It’s really fun! I’ve played like 200 hands in the past week. I’m quite bad, but what an interesting game.
Back before kids, I used to play in a regular duplicate game. I played with a nice woman who had two children my age, and always had a great time. I was (at 30) the youngest person by two decades—probably because it started at 5:15 on a workday—but people were really nice.
I’ve found that Bridge people are generally quite welcoming of newcomers or very rusty returning players, which is nice.
If you are ever looking for an online game and are willing to play in the late evening ET, let me know—I’ve played a bit, but am very rusty.
It’s the best cardplay-based (as opposed to betting-based) card game out there and it only gets better when you can discuss things (bidding system, card signals etc) with a real partner, even if you’re still playing against bots.
I haven’t played in about 15 years, but I’d be interested in playing on an occasional weekday evening. However I’m in the UK so timings (and default bidding systems) likely wouldn’t line up well.
So I had a situation yesterday where the bidding was:
East: pass
South (me) : (holding a weak 12 point hand) pass
West: pass
North: 2C strong!
East: pass
That’s at least a game hand, so it seems smart to try to find a fit and maybe go for slam. But I wasn’t holding 5 cards in any suit and responding to 2C-strong with a two level suit is supposed to indicate 5. Responding at 3 level is supposed to show a weaker hand because you’re denying slam. I bid 2NT. Partner passed. Wtf. This would be a situation where it would be nice to be playing with a human so they could explain what I did wrong.
More than 10 pts you should be bidding slam. Tough to say in what, though, since you haven’t found a fit. With 10 pts+ and no biddable suit, I’d bid 3NT. You may not get to slam, but at least you make a game,.
OK thanks, that makes sense. :)
You could also bid 2D as a waiting bid, let partner show where they have five, and then go to 3NT or bid constructively towards slam, depending on whether you have support for partners suit.
Sort of rough as a passed hand though. I’d probably open a weak 12 with 1 of a minor, and then rebid 1NT to show minimum balanced.
Yeah you’re right, particularly since I’d already seen a pass on my right.
Mm, you certainly need to know your conventional responses to the 2C bid here. As your hand is as strong as partner could hope for but has no obvious suit to suggest, you need to take as much control of the auction as possible. So you should ask partner to describe their hand to you and make a decision based on the information gained (rather than vice versa).
Partner has forced to game with the 2C (with the possible exception of the 2C-2N sequence you had, where you’re showing a flat 0-2 count), so you shouldn’t have to worry about anyone passing early. You’re looking to find a fit if you have one, then consider what level to stop in.
The student bridge player in me is screaming.
Lol, would you always open a 12 point hand, even if it was all Qs and Js?
Makes sense, is that a 2D bid? I’ll have to find the SAYC manual and see what the conventional response is supposed to be. :)
Here’s the manual:
So yeah, 2D. But 2NT says I have 8 points, which is enough for game. Partner should’ve responded heading to game.
We opened almost all 11-point hands. But in the UK the default system has a weak (12-14) one no trump opening, which covers a lot of these options in a natural way (and is quite effective as a pre-empt).
It might vary a bit when you’re a passed hand. Does it indicate what you do with no points? 2C-2D-2H/S-2N, perhaps (or 2C-2D-2N-pass).
The ACBL’s card shows 2D = 0-7 points and waiting. 2NT is supposed to be 8+/balanced, with suited direct raises above 2D showing 8+ points and 5+ cards. My bid seems correct. It’s possible the bot has a problem there. I did send a report to the devs.
We’ve always played with a 2D response to a 2C opener indicating a dead (<6 pts) hand. 6-10 pts is 2 of 5-card suit or NT, 10+ points is jump to 3 of 5-card suit or NT
The disadvantage there is that you use up a load of room. Handling both dead and good hands through 2D gives you much more space to find the right contract.
To counteract that, 2C hands don’t come up all that often. So if you or your partner doesn’t have a great memory for conventions choosing something simple and easy to remember is better.
@Matt_W: does the bridge program tell you what bids (and ideally potential bids) mean when you hover over them or similar?