Hello🌻

I have been taking a little break from bridge because of my children’s spring holiday, but now I’m back!!

I mainly learnt about auction during the beginner’s course, so I’m not really sure about the strategy of the game. But the play sessions help me to think about more effective ways of playing

Recently, I have been thinking how I could utilise the use of the trump suit.

“Get the defenders’ trump suit out as soon as possible”

This is what I learnt, and I’m sure that is the most basic way to deal with the trump suit. But I was starting to feel like I needed to learn to use the trump suit more effectively.

I tried using the trump suit to utilise the advantage of singleton last time, and it worked! I don’t know if that normally works, but I’m sure I’ll find out soon.

So much fun💕

My next course will be starting in few weeks time & I really can’t wait.

I’m sure that my memories are getting better too!

My happy samurai life in London💫

Hinata

Hello🌻

I went to play at the supervised session again. Yes, I am hooked!!!

I played pretty well this time, but one silly mistake again when I was a declarer😅

I was sure that I could get the last 4 tricks & make the contract… but somehow, I played it in the wrong order that I lost the last 3 tricks. I couldn’t believe it 💢 What a silly mistake. I know exactly where I went wrong.

Overconfidence is dangerous!!!

Today’s learning.

“Don’t be too sure. Always double check before you put your card out!!”

Well, you learn from your mistake so it is all good. Sorry partner 💦

My happy samurai life in London💫

Hinata

Hello🌻

I went for my supervised play session again. Yes we played, played & played!! So much fun & good for your brain😉

I actually played quite well this week, but again made some silly mistakes.

The main one was when I was a defender. I wasn’t paying enough attention to the dummy’s cards & played the suit that the dummy didn’t have anymore. Of course, the declarer could trump me easily💦 What a silly mistake. I will not do that again.

My table was a really nice group though. Happy to make jokes, but also plays seriously. Nobody ever makes nasty comments. I guess that’s the most important manner in playing bridge.

“Don’t slag off each other!!”

I’ve actually started teaching my husband&children how to play, so we play at the weekend sometime. Great family game that we can all enjoy💕

My happy samurai life in London💫

Hinata

Hello🌻

My beginner’s class has finished, and I started to play once a week at the club with other people who also just finished the beginner’s class.

We just play, play, play for about 2-2.30hrs. The teachers are around so we can ask questions if we get stuck.

This session is so much fun!!!

I made some stupid mistakes, but was told that’s how we all learn😉

The worst mistake I made this time was wasting my Trump card💦 I was a declarer, and I somehow miscounted the total number of trump cards that my opponent had and played the trump card even after the opponent ones’ have all been drawn out..

Such a silly mistake….. I’ll never do that again.

“draw out trump suit from the opponent as soon as possible, but stop play the trump cards once they have all been drawn out from the opponent ‼️”

I really need to remember this.

Hinata💫

Hello🌻

This was my final lesson of the beginner’s course, yay!!!

I learnt how to make a rebid after hearing a change of suit response from the partner.

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There are 4 actions you can choose from. Your partner’s new bid (& suit) is 1♠️ & you can…

1. Raise to 2♠️ (or more)
2. Rebidding NT (No Trump)
3. Bid a new suit i.e. 2♦️
4. Repeat your opening suit 2❤️

How to choose which action to take? In this case, my original bid was 1♥️

***************

1. You have a fit in responder’s suit (in this case ♠️)
2. You have a balanced card of 15+ HCP
3. You have an unbalanced card, long cards in 2 suits. You have 5+ cards in the first suite ♥️ & 4+ in the second ♦️.
4. You have an unbalanced card, but very long in your original suit (6+ cards).

***************

This is getting complicated….

Bidding is about communication with your partner. I guess the most important thing is to give as much information as possible to your partner through this process.

I’m going to start playing with some people I met on this course.

I can’t wait!!!

My happy samurai life in London💫

Hinata

Hello🌻

This week, we learnt how to respond to the partner’s bid of 1 of a suit, but you don’t have a fit.

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When you don’t have a fit, you need to continue the conversation by nominating a suite of your own (if possible longest suit)

To nominate a new suite

1. You need 6+ points at the one level
2. You need 10+ points at the level of two
3. If nothing works, you need to respond with 1NT

***************

Responding to a new nominee

You first need to see if you have a fit with the new nominee (for example ♥️) If so (you have 4+ cards of ♥️ ), you will raise 1 ♥️ into below accordingly.

2 ♥️ = 6-9 points

3 ♥️ = 10-12 points

4 ♥️ = 13-15 points

There is just so much to learn but it is such a fun game.

My happy Samurai life in London 💫

Hinata

Hello 🌻

I learnt how to respond to the opening bid of 1 of a suite.

***************

The most important thing is to

1. To see if you have a 4 card match for your partner’s nominated suit. If you & your partner together has “the magic 8”, you have a fit.
2. You must respond with 6+ points.

In this case, the points are calculated as HCP + Shortage Points

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To calculate shortage points, you need to look at the non-trump suits

You will get

1. 1 extra point when you have a doubleton
2. 2 extra points when you have a singleton
3. 3 extra points when you have void

Response

Your response will be (opening bid was 1 ♠️)

1. Pass when your points are 0-5
2. 2 ♠️ when your points are 6-9
3. 3 ♠️ when your points are 10-12
4. 4 ♠️ when your lints are 13+

***************

This must be boring if you are not interested in bridge, but it really helps me when I write this note!! Yes, bridge is so much fun💕

My happy samurai life in London 💫

Hinata

Hello 🌻

Today, we learnt how to open a bid of 1 of a suit. Yes, another session for the bidding!

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We open the bid with 1 of a suit when the cards are

1. Unbalanced or
2. Balanced but too strong (15-19 High Card Point)

To know what “Balanced Cards” mean, refer to my Lesson 2 blog https://samuraihinata.home.blog/2019/02/14/learning-to-play-bridge-from-scratch-lesson-2/

We also learnt how to decide which suite to open

1. Always open your longest suite first (quality of each card doesn’t matter)
2. When there are 2 suites of equal length (4-4, 5-5 & 6-6), open the higher ranking. (ranking goes: ♠️♥️♦️& ♣️)
3. However if ♠️ & ♥️ are in 4-4, open with 1❤️
4. With 3 suits of equal length, open the suit below the singleton

***************

Apparently, we just need to memorise these rules for now & they will make sense at later point.

If a hand is more than 20+points, then you are too strong to open with a bid of 1 of a suite. This will be taught in a later lesson.

It is starting to get a little complicated, but quite exciting😉

Can’t wait for my next lesson.

My happy samurai life in London💫

Hello🌻

I went for my 3rd bridge lesson. So much fun💕

I learnt about the strategy as a declarer – it really made me think a lot! We were still playing only No Trumps.

As soon as your dummy put down the cards, you need to

1. Establish how many sure tricks you can get
2. How many extra tricks you need to meet your target

We learnt 3 basic techniques to get extra tricks.

1. Play the Honour from the Short Holding First
2. Length is strength
3. Don’t rush. You may have to sacrifice some tricks to set up extra tricks.

It was such an interesting lesson!

My samurai life in London💫

Hinata

Hello🌻

I went to the 2nd lesson of the Beginners Bridge Class in London.

First lesson was pretty much about playing the game ‘Whist’ to get used to the cards.

For the 2nd lesson, we learnt about the Opening Bid♠️

Since the teacher hasn’t introduced the concept of the Trump suit, all the bids are NT (no-trump) at the moment.

Today, we focused on

1. How to count HCPs (high card points)
2. Deciding whether your cards are BALANCED or UNBALANCED
3. How to respond with a balanced card (opening bid 1NT) & communicate with your partner.

I found the communication between partners great fun!! It takes a bit of time to get used to counting your HCP to decide whether to respond as “Pass”, “2NT” or “3NT” (the partner’s opening bid was 1NT).

At one point, my partner and I agreed on 2NT, and we managed to get 9 tricks✨

So much fun. Highly highly recommended!!

My happy samurai life in London💫

Hinata