All News

Awkward Choices (Part 1) Today and tomorrow, we will look at a couple of problems which arise when one plays reopening doubles. A reopening double keeps the bidding open with the possible intention of one’s partner being able to penalise... read more here

The Best Chance. Recognising the best chance in making your contract is step one to success. Then, if you fail, there will surely be someone to tell you what you should have done! If you have taken the best line, then someone, your partner, even... read more here

Planning for the Inevitable. What’s that? Nothing so morbid as a will! For many, well, let’s say all, bridge players, “the inevitable” is that you take a losing finesse. If not on this board, well, it will happen soon. In... read more here

                            Pull the trigger? Sayings in bridge are useful, to an extent. One issue is when... read more here

                  Danger in unexpected places. When one defender opens the bidding and the other maintains total silence throughout the auction, one would think... read more here

Christmas must be approaching... After apologizing for the lack of bridge results and fodder over the past six months, we have finally turned a corner … heaps to report on! The IP’s have just finished and we must make special... read more here

             Low Level: High Stakes To quote a well-known and much abused rule, “when your side has the majority of the high-card points” and your side is defending a suit... read more here

A Nice Hand. Welcome to the world of overcalls, reopening doubles and avoiding the axe! There are a number of questions that could have been posed around today’s hand. In our problem from Friday, we looked at the deal from the view-point... read more here

Multi Choice! Multi Problem: Multi Answers. When eight panellists provide six different answers to a bidding problem, it looks like it might be a tough one. It is our friend, the Multi 2 which is partly responsible for this problem, and as often... read more here

 The Guide. As a defender, it seems you are always struggling to do the right thing. Of course, you tend to forget the countless normal and successful defences you find, let alone the seemingly rare occasion when you does something really... read more here

GOOD IMAGINATION. Today and tomorrow, we will look at two boards from the recent Inter-Provincials where the defence could either get it right…or not! Do you want a plus score or a minus score? So, let’s pose you the problem for... read more here

Clean Sweep for the North Island. It was North Island all the way in this year’s Inter-Provincial Championships with each of the four North Island Regions taking out one title and Auckland-Northland the all-important Dougal McLean trophy... read more here

Central Districts Early Leaders. Central Districts are the early leaders in the chase for the Dougal Mclean Trophy at this year’s Inter-Provincial Championships. After 5 of the 7 rounds in the first round-robin (each team has one bye), they... read more here

Which Major First? Some slams are a straightforward make while others provide options with the declarer hoping to take the route with the most chance of success, in bridge terms, the best percentage line. The following slam certainly fell into... read more here

High Stakes from the Start. I have a little confession to make, to the Panel. When today’s deal occurred, it was in the Pairs’ environment where if one makes the wrong decision, it is only a maximum of around 4%. 16 or 17 imps in the... read more here

How Strong’s Your Weak No-Trump? Yes, that’s all your hand is….and a minimum point-count 12 hcp at that. Yet, it is starting to look a little better….but how much better? Good enough to advance the bidding freely to the... read more here

The Achilles Heel. One advantage of keeping a strong hand hidden as declarer is that the defence are less able to know for sure which honours declarer has or may not have. One would think that when the “monster” hand is exposed as... read more here

                              Don’t Go Chasing Rainbows. We all like to look for any way... read more here

A Dangerous action?                              Sound or... read more here

Winners and Losers Today’s deal is about winners, about keeping them and not discarding them, about saluting them, the team above who won the National Open Teams in Auckland last weekend in some style and who got our deal today just right.... read more here

A Baker’s Dozen. It is not very often that your side holds all 13 cards in one suit. It is even rarer that you know from the start of the bidding that this is the situation…and you are the only one at the table who knows it! How do... read more here

No Half Measures: All or Nothing. Some declarers in the recent National Open Teams in Auckland failed in a game contract to a rather unkind ruff but should never have been in that position because they either drew one trump too many or one trump... read more here

or Attack or Defence Today’s problem is not just about an opening lead but it is an opening lead problem with which we left you, maybe a rather random problem because you neither have much nor have much information on which to base your... read more here

“D” for Diamond: “D” for Disaster! A plan to avoid one! Part of successful defence is co-operating and guiding your partner, if possible, to the winning defence purely through the card(s) you play. This can be both hard... read more here

First in New Zealand: that's Maureen Russ and Vivienne Sexton. Greetings from the Winterless North yet again. Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun. My turn again with all the news that is news from the fabulous upper part of NZ.... read more here

All that Glitters… A nice- looking hand, great potential, two good suits….and, wait a moment. Someone has opened the bidding in one of them…but it is not your partner. What should you do?   South... read more here

      Walk in the Park? Some contracts seem impossible to make but the defence is not the sharpest or the breaks are very kind. Others seem quite straightforward but can catch out the unwary. Come, join me, for this... read more here

Living Dangerously? Today’s hand centre’s around two issues, firstly about whether a double in a low-level auction is for penalties and then, assuming it is, whether that is the choice you would make.   East... read more here