Read some of the bridge resolutions over at Bridge Winners or leave a few here and then come back in a few months and see how you did!

For those who cannot attend, the action can be followed by reading the daily bulletins published at the ACBL site and by news and bridge articles at the BridgeWinners site, which also has an online convention card editor.

There are always many events and classes for bridge teachers at a bridge nationals. The ones in Seattle are listed on this page at the ACBL web site.

Hope to see you here! Happy Thanksgiving to all from Seattle!

– Kitty

Note these numbers are only the players are members of the national organization that runs tournaments (the ACBL in our case). The actual bridge playing population, not just tournament players, is estimated at 25 million Americans by the playing card industry according to a blog post at mlive.com.

So perhaps these numbers have something to do with our loss of dominance.

We have battled Europe for most of this decade in the Bermuda Bowl winning it in 2000,2001,2003,and 2009. While Italy won in 2005 and Norway in 2007 now the Dutch have taken the honors in 2011 while we took the silver.

Our dominance in the women’s event, the Venice Cup, where we won 8 of the 11 times in the 20th century, has also gone downhill in the new millennium where we only won in 2003 and 2007 and this year’s event is the first time the USA had no medal at all.

In the Senior Bowl, now called the D’Orsi Bowl, the USA won the first four times but lost the last two, not even getting a medal in 2009.

I wrote a number of articles on the interesting hands from the recent World Championships over at Bridge Winners. Try your hand at this defensive problem http://www.bridgewinners.com/index.php/bridge-articles/168-defensive-problems/1343-play-problem-from-bermuda-bowl-final

Population figures as of 2011 from Wikipedia article and number of membership bridge players as of 2009 from the World Bridge Federation zonal break-down as of 2009.

When I was growing up we played board games and card games as a family. I think this leads to playing bridge far more easily than playing video games, each in your own room.

Thank goodness bridge can be played online. I think that may be what saves the game from extinction.

Here is an excerpt from an email Maggy sent me which explains some of her thoughts on the subject, “History tells us that the WAY to make serious bridge the fad it once was until the 70s is to do what Ely Culbertson did back in the 20s and 30s.

Promote bridge as a social skill, and you change the culture and that led (will lead) to growth of serious bridge. That’s what happened back then.

I have blogged about Mini Bridge–I think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Even I, took on introducing a foursome to bridge this summer using a little folder from English web site that gave all rules, and notes on basic play. So LOGICAL to skip bidding until later!!

In this country, however, seems as if Mini Bridge approach is confined to kids in school. I don’t think anybody is ever any smarter (in basic iq) than they were in the 5th grade–may have more education later, but no smarter. So why NOT make this way of teaching open to just plain adults? People who don’t seek to play competitive bridge — just want to play for fun.”

Thanks Maggy, you have a very good point!

RHO   me  LHO  partner
1  Pass  1    Double
2   2NT   Pass

If you were my partner what would you think that meant?

My general rule is that 2NT in competition is not natural except in a very few cases listed in detail at the end of this article.

When everyone is bidding, the times I need to invite a game in NT are much rarer than the need to compete without being sure of the right suit to compete in.  When I passed over 1 I could certainly have had a balanced 11 or 12, so it is possible that 2NT is inviting 3NT but with both opponents bidding it is unlikely that our combined hands would ever have the values for 3NT. True the double of 1 tends to show hearts and diamonds but it could also be three-suited so clubs could easily be our best spot. All in all I think that 2NT should ask for partner’s better minor just as it does in standard after 2 Double.

Add this to the mix: we had agreed to play scrambling Lebensohl after a weak 2-bid was doubled by us or after 1 Double 2 – does it apply here? Scrambling Lebensohl is where 2N asks partner to bid their better minor but if you then bid again,  3 or 3 in the sample auction, that is to play. So the immediate bid of 3 or 3 can show values in context since you now have two ways to bid those suits; the weak way going through 2NT. As frequently occurs in bridge, the club suit gets left out.

Yes I think scrambling Lebensohl should apply here. Generally 2NT is only natural when we need an invitation in notrump more than we need extra ways to compete and get to our best partscore.

Here are Steve and my specific rules for when 2NT is natural, as written by Steve for our notes:

2N is only natural in competition in the following cases; in all other cases it asks partner to bid a suit (usually a minor):

• When bid by opener:
  • Opposite a passed partner–e.g., 1X-(1Y)-Pass-(2Y)-2N–where it shows a 2N rebid.
  • When opener could not make a penalty double and later bids 2N, even if it’s not a jump. For example (from the Blue Ribbon Pairs), 1-1-(1 )-Pass-(Pass)-2-(Pass)-2N (Double would have been a Support Double and Kitty had a penalty double of 1 ).
• When bid by responder:
  • In balancing seat when he did not pass. For example:
    • 1-(1 )-Double-(2)-Pass-(Pass)-2N: Four Hearts, Spade and Diamond stoppers, and invitational values.
    • 1-(1 )-2-(2 )-Pass-(Pass)-2N: Spade stopper and invitational values.
    • In balancing seat when responder did pass, 2N is for the minors–e.g., 1-(1 )-Pass-(2 )-Pass-(Pass)-2N.
  • In direct seat–e.g., 1 -(2)-2N, which shows a Heart stopper and invitational values.
• When bid by advancer after partner’s suit overcall, where it shows a game try in No Trump.
  • If intervenor bid at the one level advancer should have 12-13 HCP.
  • If intervenor bid at the two level advancer should have about nine HCP with a fit or 10-12.
  • If advancer made a takeout double and the enemy responder raised to the two level 2N is Scrambling Lebensohl, page VIII-6, below. But if the enemy bid two suits with partner’s takeout double in between 2N is natural.
• When bid by intervenor after doubling at the one or two level.

For those not used to the terms intervenor and advancer, intervenor is the one who doubles or overcalls when the opponent opened and advancer is his partner.

Contact me if you are interested in having suit symbols on your own blog. I plan to put together a software store in the next month or so and you will be able to get it inexpensively there or I can send you a copy now.

This plugin was originally written for JOOMLA (for http://BridgeWinners.com) and is available for that system and soon CMS made simple as well.

For those of you who enjoy my lectures at Western regionals, my next one will be “Preempting” at the Scottsdale regional in October 2011.

The archives show everything in September of different years. The only real dates are since 2011, the others are just good guesses. The old posts are all copied over from my old site.

I have placed all my current lecture handouts in the Downloads section of this site.

So let me know what you think of the new site!

In the early 2000s, I focused on teaching school-age children. Now that I have been working with kids, I think I would use some of the material from the Schools Bridge Manual with adults. Perhaps do a 12 lesson series with the first three or four lessons  (depending on the crowd) just playing cards using MiniBridge and BridgeIt. The last lesson could be a supervised play or competition or even teach them Stayman and refresh Notrump bidding.

Has anyone used the schools materials with adults? Any tips? Over the years a number of people have written me that they have used it for seniors.

And if you have never taken the ACBL teacher training (TAP) or Audrey Grant teacher training, do at least one if not both.

And for those of you who did not know this, my other job besides bridge is web developer (I own Open Sky Web Design) and we helped build that site. Some of the features there, like suit symbols in posts, will be available here and for sale (inexpensively) to add to your own blogs.

A few other Bridge sites we have done are:

• Unit 354
• District 17
• Bermuda Bridge Club
• the USBF
• and new ACBL home page

We have automated displaying the Unit and District Masterpoint Races from the ACBL web site, as well as the display of tournament results. All, except for the ACBL, use content management systems so that once the site is built the organization can update it themselves very easily.