Local player posts first place overall in games at the Bridge Deck
Do you get out for inperson duplicate bridge games? One local player saw success recently at the Bridge Deck in White Plains, N.Y.
The only Greenwich player to place in a local duplicate game last week there was Linda Otness, who finished first overall Tuesday afternoon, partnered by Fred Hawa.
Both the Bridge Deck and the Harte’s Club’s in White Plains offer weekday afternoon games.
And if you’re still not playing the game of bridge in a face-to-face format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, test your knowledge of the game with our quiz. Here is another in the current series on interpreting your partner’s bids.
Today's quiz: In the following problem, you are given an auction accompanied by three hands, only one of which could actually fit the bid your partner has made. Which of the three hands do you think partner might have?
The bidding: PartnerPass; Opponent-Pass; YouPass; Opponent-1D; Partner-Double. Partner could hold: a) S A932 H KQ5 D 73 C A1064
b) S Q1093 H AJ82 D 6 C K763
c) S A4 H 982 D KQJ98 C 1053
Answer: Many players have one or more misconceptions about the use of the takeout double, believing, for example, that it always shows a hand worth an opening bid, or that it must be made at the very first opportunity to act over an opponent’s opening bid, or that it can be used only by the side that did not open the bidding. Such erroneous impressions are widely held despite the fact that the standard definition of a takeout double, as set forth in all textbooks on the game, permits a much broader application of this most important and useful offensive weapon. That definition states that a double is for takeout, asking partner to name an unbid suit, if the double is of an opposing suit contract of less than game, and if partner has not yet bid anything.
Today, we have one example of the varied use of the takeout double. Here, partner, who passed originally, has doubled an opposing opening bid at his next turn. Since you have not bid anything and the opponents are in a suit contract below game, this is by definition a takeout double, showing support for the unbid suits. The main purpose of the double is to enable your side to compete for a partscore if the high-card strength is about evenly divided between the two sides (if it’s not, the opponents will simply ignore the double and continue bidding on toward whatever it is they can make).
Of the three hands given, the only one that jibes with the bidding shown is hand b), containing 10 high-card points and excellent support for the unbid suits. Partner could not hold hand a), with which he would have opened the bidding initially, or hand c), since the double would be interpreted by you not as showing strong diamonds, but everything except diamonds, and could lead to disaster after you answer in a suit partner does not have; partner would therefore have no choice but to pass with this hand.