Teams, strong field, you pick up this hand, 4♣ is Namyats, a strong 4♥ opener. Time to take action? Or not? And if you took action, what do your bids show? Or wait a round and act over the expected 4♥? Or wouldn’t that be a penalty double? And, if you take action, would your partner realize that you can have a hand as light as this and not get too excited?
Probably the most frequent excuse heard at the bridge table is “I thought that ....”, heard whenever one player bid something in a previously undiscussed situation and his partner took it for something entirely different. Of course, what they really should have said is “we never prepared for this and it went wrong”. Is there a way to avoid this?
For some years now, I have been a part of the Thursday night training group at bridgeclub “de Denktank” in Arnhem.
The idea behind this group is simple: you don’t get to be a better player by just playing a lot, you have to discuss the hands with your peers as well and see where you can improve. So, each week, we pick a set of boards from a recent major championship, play them, then spend an hour discussing the hands and comparing our results against the results from the champs. The same approach worked for the Dutch open team, or team Orange, so why wouldn’t it work for us?
Late last year, we decided to make this session an open game on some of the evenings. We’re continuing that this season, on these Thursday evenings:
- September 13 & 27, October 11 & 25, November 5 & 22, December 6 (2012).
- January 10 & 24, February 7 & 21, March 7 & 21, April 4 (2013).
- April 18, May 2, 16 & 30, June 11 & 27, July 11 (2013).
The format is the same as before: play 24 boards against pairs of (at least) 2nd division level, spend an hour after the game to discuss the hands. Butler scoring will be used for the first and third series, matchpoints for the second one, as spring is traditionally the time of the major pairs events in the country.
As I said, the evenings are open to all players of (approximately) 2nd division level above, start at 19:45, end around 23:30 or as late as you want to make it when discussing the hands, pre-duplicated boards, entry fee €2/person/evening. Location is “De Denktank”, Sperwerstraat 59, Arnhem. Pre-registration is required, contact Ruurd at info@bridgearnhem.nl or 06-15964839.
Yesterday, the NBB published its new rating figures for all players and all clubs as of September first. That this is a pretty strong group can be seen from the top 5 of the 1034 clubs in the country:
- Het Witte Huis (Amsterdam) 6501
- B.C.’t Onstein (Vorden) 3452
- De Denktank (Arnhem) 3449
- B.C. de Lombard (Rotterdam) 3327
- Topbridge Zuid (Tilburg) 2969
For the entire list, click here.
And for the problem, the full hand was this. As you can see, 4♠ makes, 4♥ is off 1. That isn’t too interesting in itself, what is more important after discussion, we now agree on our actions: double is a strong take-out, 4♦ shows (as an extension to Leaping Michaels) spades and diamonds (55 or so), 4♥ spades and clubs, pass, then double is a hand with perfect shape but light in high cards.
If you are a serious player and live in the Arnhem area, you know where you should be on Thursday night.