Bridge Lessons: Online Bridge Lessons

Bridge Lessons: Online Bridge Lessons: Welcome to Bridge Lessons - A Publication of Blueberry Bridge . A series of 12 lessons for complete beginners wanting to learn Acol bridg...

Blueberry Bridge

I have a birth announcement.  My new site, Blueberry bridge was born today.  It's dedicated to helping beginners learn how to play Acol bridge.  You can see it HERE.

It's going to be a selection of fairly random hints and tips for beginning and improving Acol bridge players.  I'm not disciplined enough to give the site a real structure and a lot of the content has been moved from an old site of mine that no longer exists.

I should organise, but so far I haven't.  Maybe I will one day.  Look on it as an opportunity to browse at random through Acol bridge conventions, play and bidding.  

Blackwood Bidding Convention

If you think that you and your partner have enough points to bid for a slam it can be essential to know that you have enough aces (and kings) - to avoid the embarrassment of losing that vital trick to an ace held by the opposition.  It is possible to hold enough points and still be missing an all important card.

This is where the Blackwood bidding convention comes into its own.  It is a way of asking your partner how many aces (and/or kings) they hold, to ensure that you have enough high cards to make the contract.

You can read more about Blackwood and see how it works if you click here.

Leading Away From A King

The opening lead in a game of bridge can be the crucial card that helps your partnership to defeat the contract.  Most players accept that you should never lead away from an Ace - it can give away a trick, especially if the opposing partnership hold a singleton king.

Does the same thing apply to leading away from a king?  Usually, it is safe to lead away from a king and in most circumstances it is unlikely that it will give away a trick.  You can read more about leading away from a king and see a working example if you click here.

Bridge lessons For Beginners

I have been busy working on a new website - bridge lessons for beginners.  It's a site for beginning Acol bridge players - the system usually used in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.

It assumes that the reader has no bridge knowledge at all and starts right at the beginning by telling you how to add up the number of points in your hand, progressing through some basic jargon to how to play the cards.

It then starts looking at basic bidding techniques, starting with explaining how to decide who opens the bidding in each game.

Using this site, anyone should be able to start playing Acol bridge.  You can then sign up for your two week trial at No Fear Bridge and practice and learn online, with fun exercises, quizzes, hands to play, progress chart, hands of the day, handouts, flash cards and much more.  Join now by clicking here.

The Rule of 15

We are West and the last person to bid in the opening round.  We hold the following hand:

Before reaching us the bidding has gone as follows:

North  East   South  West
Pass     Pass   Pass      ?

Our hand only 11 points.  As a general rule any player holding fewer than 12 points should pass.  Can we safely open the bidding or would it be better for us to pass to and for the cards to be redealt?

As no-one else has opened the bidding, it appears that the card points are evenly distributed between the sides.  We know that there is a total of 40 points distributed between the four hands.  We have 11 of them.  That tell us that there are 29 points distributed between the other three players.  We know that no-one has 12 or more points  because if they did they would have opened the bidding.

If we bid, the game might be played in our choice of contract, but it is also possible that the opponents could overcall us.  If that happens, it would have been better for us if we had just passed.

How do we decide if we should open or pass.  This is where the Rule of 15 comes in.  You can read all about it and take a quiz to test your knowledge by clicking here.

The Rule of 20

The Rule of 20 is a handy bridge bidding technique which is used in the opening round of bidding.  It has a very specific use, namely helping you to decide if your hand is suitable for making the opening bid.  As a general rule a hand should contain 12 high card points (HCP) to be suitable for making the opening bid.  Occasionally, though, you might have a hand that you think is suitable or opening even if it contains fewer than 12 points.  

How do you decide whether or not to open the bidding in this situation?  You use the Rule of 20.

What is The Rule of 20?

Add up the number of high card points in your hand.  Add to that the length of your two longest suits.  If the total is 20 or more then your hand is suitable to open the bidding.  

How to Use the Rule of 20

The easiest way to explain how to use the rule is to show you some example hands.

Examples

Hand 1

(spades) K 10 5 4
(hearts)  J 5 2
(diamonds) A K 9 6 4
(clubs) 7

This hand has 11 HCPs. Our two longest suits are spades and diamonds, which contain 4 and 5 cards.  If we add 11, 4 and 5 we get a total of 20.  This hand satisfies the Rule of 20 and we can open the bidding. 

Hand 2

(s) 6 5
(h) K Q 10 9 5
(d) K Q 6 4 3
(c) 9

This hand has 10 HCPs.  The two longest suits each contain 5 cards.  If we add 10, 5 and 5 we again get a total of 20, so this hand also satisfied the Rule of 20 and we can open the bidding. 

Hand 3

(s) Q 10 7
(h) A J 7
(d) 8 3
(c) K J 8 6 3

Hand 3 has 11 HCPs.  The longest two suits contain 5 cards and 3 cards.  If we add 11, 5 and 3 we get a toal of 19.  This hand DOESN'T satisfy the Rule of 20 so we must pass.