Christmas Present for Bridge Players

It's October and people's thoughts are starting to turn to Christmas.

If you have a friend or family member who is learning to play bridge, then give them a No Fear Bridge membership voucher.

The No Fear Bridge membership site has lots of fun, interactive hands to practice bridge bidding and play, quizzes, a progress chart, handouts, hands of the day. New activities are constantly being added to the site.

A year's membership will give your loved one full access to the site so they can practice their bridge bidding and play in the comfort of their own home.

This is a fabulous way to build bridge playing confidence between lessons or club sessions.

Bridge bidding practice

1. Each week at No Fear Bridge there is a quiz to help you practice bridge bidding. Each quiz has 20 questions with four multiple choice answers. There is a leaderboard - you can have fun trying to beat the competition into first place.

There is also a "My Progress" graph where you can see your scores plotted week on week.

If you choose the wrong answer to a question you are given an explanation of why your answer is wrong.

You can have as many goes as you like at each weekly quiz, although only your first attempt will count towards your place on the weekly leaderboard!

If you'd like to have a go at this week's quiz, just go to No Fear Bridge and register for your two weeks' free trial.

Bridge classes

Autumn is coming. If you want to start learning to play bridge this is the time of year to enrol on a local class.

Many organisations run bridge classes for beginners. Some bridge clubs run classes, many schools run adult classes in the evenings as do colleges and Adult Education services. Your local U3A might run bridge classes.

Check your local paper or ask in your library for classes in your area. You can (of course!) use the internet to search for classes too.

Losing Trick Count

What is the Losing Trick Count?

The losing trick count is a way of finding a more accurate value for your hand if it is an unbalanced hand.

The basic idea is that an Ace should never lose; a King shouldn't lose if you hold 2 or more cards in a suit and a Queen shouldn't lose if you hold 3 or more cards.

• You should only use the Losing Trick Count if you have already established that you and your partner have an 8 card fit.
• You don't count more losing tricks per suit than the number of cards held in that suit, and you never count more than three per suit.

How to count your losing tricks

* If you hold a Singleton:
 Ace is a winner. K and all other cards as a singleton = 1 losing trick

* If you hold a Doubleton:
 AK = no losing tricks. Ax or Kx = 1 losing trick, all other combinations = 2 losing tricks

* If you hold Three cards:
 AKQ = no losing tricks. AKx, AQx, KQx = 1 losing trick, Axx, Kxx and Qxx = 2 losing tricks, all other combinations = 3 losing tricks

Some Examples

Holding a singleton

A  - No losers

K - One loser (King has to be at least a doubleton to count as a winner)

10 - One loser

Holding a doubleton

A K - No losers

A Q 8 6 3 - One losing trick (A Q are winners and you don't count more than three tricks in total)

Applying The Losing Trick Count

Add the number of losing tricks in your hand to the assumed number of losers in your partners hand  -assume 7 if partner has bid 1 of a suit.  Then subtract the answer from 24.  This is "the losing trick count" and tells you the number of tricks you should win.  You can then bid accordingly.

At No Fear Bridge you will find a printable handout, an interactive tutorial and some interacive practice hands hands to help you learn how to use the losing trick count.  Click Here to sign up for your two week trial. No credit card details required.

ACOL Bridge Scoring

As a member of the No Fear Bridge site you will find a range of helpful handouts, including two on bridge scoring.

The extract shown here is from the one for duplicate bridge.  There is also a handout for rubber bridge.

You can find this and a range of other helpful handouts in the "handouts" section of the No Fear Bridge membership site.

Click Here to sign up for your completely free, two weeks trial. It gives you unlimited access to all the quizzes, tutorials, videos, handouts, flash cards and help you need to help you become a better bridge player.  Once your trial has expired you can join for one year, or for a great discount, join for two years.

Learn ACOL bridge bidding with the Weekly Quiz

On the No Fear Bridge membership site you will find a weekly quiz to help you practice your ACOL bridge bidding.

Each week you will find a set of 20 questions. See how many you can answer correctly. Your answers are recorded so you can see a graph of your personal progress. A great learning tool. There is also a weekly leaderboard (only usernames are displayed, not real names). See if you can score 20/20 and be top of the weekly leaderboard.

This quiz is so popular that there will soon be a more advanced version for users who regularly score 20/20.

If you would like to try the quiz, head over to the No Fear Bridge site and sign up for your free two week trial (no credit card details required).

Bridge Jargon

Like any game - the game of bridge has its jargon. This can be daunting for beginners - struggling to learn how to play and learn the meaning of terms. At the No Fear Bridge membership site you will find a printable glossary of terms to help you.

There is a free two week trial, but membership costs just £10 for 3 months or £32 for a year. Join for a year and have unlimited access to the best bridge learning resource on the net.