AWARD WINNING "25 CONVENTIONS YOU
SHOULD KNOW"
BY MARC SMITH & BARBARA SEAGRAM
1. HOW DID THE
TWO OF YOU COME TOGETHER TO WRITE THIS BOOK?
BARBARA: Ray
Lee, our publisher and Editor, suggested that we write a book on conventions and
introduced Marc and I. The whole book was written on e-mail and ICQ.
2. WHAT CRITERIA DID YOU USE IN CHOOSING THE
CONVENTIONS YOU DID?
MARC: The
concept was born because Ray's mother-in-law plays with a regular social
foursome, but at times one of them will attend a course and learn about a
convention. That one will try to teach the convention to the other three. The
results are predictable, so Ray wanted a book that clearly explained the basic
conventions for that kind of player. We tried to select the 25 most popular
conventions so that anyone could sit down opposite a strange partner and play a
basic card.
BARBARA:
These were to be conventions for Intermediate level players... nothing too, too
complex.
3. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR APPROACH TO THE
CONVENTIONS YOU CHOOSE?
MARC: Our
objective was to describe each convention using example hands so that a reader
who worked carefully through the chapter would be able to sit down and play the
convention confident he understood it. The quiz section at the end of each
chapter provides a comprehensive recap of the important points the reader
should have learned.
BARBARA: We
needed to keep the presentation , examples and explanations simple, and we had
to research what the rest of North America was playing and teaching as
sometimes there are regional differences, depending on which part of the
continent one lives in.
4. TELL US MORE ABOUT THE AWARD THIS BOOK RECEIVED.
BARBARA: The
American Bridge Teachers Association each year makes two awards for books. The
awards are called : "Book of the Year". There is a
Novice/Intermediate category and that is the one we won. Eddie Kantar won the
more advanced category for his two new books on Defense, also published by Ray
Lee(Master Point Press).
MARC: The
ABTA Book of the Year is a coveted award amongst bridge writers. Previous
winners include the likes of Ron Klinger, Mike Lawrence and Larry Cohen.
5. ARE THERE FUTURE PLANS FOR FURTHER BOOKS BY
SEAGRAM AND SMITH?
BARBARA:
Yes, there is one in the works: "Bridge: 25 Ways of Competing in the
Bidding".
MARC: The
sequel will be out in the Spring of 2000. This time we are dealing with 25
competitive bidding conventions that will include some more advanced topics
such as Support Doubles, Fit-Showing Jumps, etc. but also delve deeper into
some of the basic conventions such as negative doubles, etc.
6. BARBARA, AS OWNER OF ONE OF CANADA'S FOREMOST
BRIDGE CLUBS, WHAT IMPACT DO YOU THINK ON-LINE BRIDGE HAS?
BARBARA: I
think it is awesome!! Superb...wonderful. It has had a huge impact on
increasing the popularity of the game of bridge. As a club owner I do not find
it a threat at all, only a stimulant for the game. The more people there are
out there playing bridge, the better it is for everyone. The
sociability of the game means that many still come
flocking to bridge clubs to play face-to-face bridge. As long as we keep the
atmosphere friendly, bridge will always be the most popular card game in the
world.
7. COULD YOU PLEASE PROVIDE OUR READERS WITH A
SECTION ON ONE CONVENTION TO GIVE THEM A FIRST-HAND FLAVOUR?
MARC: Here is part of a
chapter from the book:
SECTION
TWO: GETTING FANCIER
CUE-BID
RAISES of OPENINGS and OVERCALLS
What is a Cue-Bid Raise?
In future chapters we will introduce numerous
situations in which you can use a bid in the OPPONENT'S suit to show a special
type of hand. Such bids are called
CUE-BIDS. You will rarely want to play
in a suit already bid by your opponents, so giving up the use of the bid in a
natural sense is no great loss.
One of the most important uses for cue-bids is
to show a good raise of partner's suit.
We start with auctions in which partner has overcalled...
Why Do I Need Two Ways
To Raise?
ª K 8 4
© J 8 3 2
¨ 5 3
§ K 10 7 2
LHO
Pard RHO You
1¨ 1ª Pass ?
You don't have much, but do you really want to
pass? Partner might have quite a good
hand and he would love to hear that you have some support for his spades. Perhaps you think that you can pass for now,
and then bid spades later if LHO bids again?
That strategy will work if the auction goes:
LHO
Pard RHO You
1¨ 1ª
Pass Pass
2¨ Pass Pass ?
Now you can bid 2ª and everyone will be
happy.
What if it goes:
LHO
Pard RHO You
1¨ 1ª
Pass Pass
2§ Pass 3§ ?
Are you now going to bid 3ª?
It might be correct to do so, but it might equally be a disaster. If you raise to 2ª on the first round of
the auction, then now partner can compete to 3ª
when he has a good hand, but stay out of trouble when he does not.
There is also another significant advantage of
bidding on the first round. You will
have noticed that LHO has bid clubs now, which his partner likes. Chances are favorable that if you had raise
to 2ª, LHO would not have
been able to bid 3§ all on his own. That's right, your pass has made things easy
for the opponents to find their fit.
OK, so you are now convinced that you should
raise partner's overcall despite having a fairly poor hand. Now let's give you:
ª K 8 4
© A J 8 3
¨ 5 3
§ K 10 7 2
This time you have what you might term a
"real" raise -- i.e., you want to invite partner to bid game if he
has a good overcall. This is called a
"constructive raise". Since you
would raise to 2ª with a much weaker hand
with support, clearly you must find a different bid on this hand.
Perhaps you would like to bid 3ª?
You could, but that will get you too high when partner has a fairly weak
overcall, something like:
ª A Q 9 6 2
© 10 7 2
¨ Q 10 7
§ Q 6
Looking at the two hands together, you can see
that 2ª is quite high
enough. Obviously, it would be nice to
be able to differentiate between these raises without getting too high. And that can be done, by using a cue-bid of
the opponent's suit. So:
ª K 8 4
© J 8 3 2
¨ 5 3
§ K 10 7 2
LHO
Pard RHO You
1¨ 1ª
Pass ?
Bid 2ª. This is purely a courtesy raise to allow
partner to compete further if appropriate.
In addition, it makes things harder for the opponents -- always a good
idea.
ª
K 8 4
© A J 8 3
¨ 5 3
§
K 10 7 2
LHO Pard
RHO You
1¨ 1ª Pass ?
Bid 2¨. This says to partner,
"I have a good raise of your suit to AT LEAST the two-level. Do you have anything extra?" Think of this cue-bid as showing "a
limit raise or better."
If partner has a minimum
overcall, then he will simply repeat his suit at the lowest available
level. If he does that, you will be
happy to pass with the hand above. If
you have a little more than this but still not enough to go right to game, you
can raise to 3ª. This would be a very strong invitation that
partner should only pass with a terrible overcall.
If partner has a good
overcall, he can do lots of things. He
can jump to 3ª to show a little
extra. He can go straight to game. He can also bid a second suit or make a slam
try.
25 Bridge
Conventions You Should Know may be ordered directly from the publisher,
Master Point Press http://www.masterpointpress.com, or through your local
bookstore or bridge supplier.