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Jan’s Day: Oh dear! “When the outlook is grim, it is the time to be optimistic.” It could not be “grimmer” than on the board below. Do not give up. An optimist does not…ever!   South... read more here

Subterfuge. Is all not what it seems? What is going on during the play of the hand? Skulduggery at the bridge table?       East DealsNone Vul ♠ J 9 8 7 ♥ 10 4 ♦ K Q J 7 6... read more here

The Power of Aces. Many fine contracts, whether they be games or slams, have been missed because players have undervalued the aces they hold. While in themselves, they only contribute one trick, they control a suit for a declarer often enabling... read more here

Pie in the Sky? The best of bridge partnerships could have one partner who might be a little aggressive and the other who is a tad more conservative. Trouble can develop when both partners are a little aggressive on the same deal.  ... read more here

aiming high. Any Day Playing Bridge is a Fun Day. Today, we farewell Karen Martelletti with a celebration of her life at the Tauranga Bridge Club, an event being live-streamed for those who cannot be there. In the normal course of events,... read more here

A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Jan’s Day comes early: Appearances can be Deceptive. It’s OK. You did not sleep through Tuesday and suddenly find that day had gone. We are a day early this week with our regular “Jan’s... read more here

How Good is my hand? Quite good! Your partner makes a take-out double of the opponent’s pre-empt and you have modest values but a void in the pre-emptor’s suit. How high do you want to go because the opponents have gone to game... read more here

The Wrong Slam. Something went wrong with today’s auction. Slam was reached but it was the wrong slam. We will ask our Panel where they thought it went wrong. What do you think?     West DealsN-S Vul... read more here

Safety Plays and Signals: for less experienced players and others. When declarer misplays and the defence goes astray, what should the end result be? Someone is going to be lucky. Who is it going to be? West DealsNone Vul... read more here

A Chance to shine on Jan’s Day. Well, the sun certainly is!   There are two decisions to make with respect to the hand below. There is also a common bridge saying that “you should not double if you do not know what to... read more here

Do you remember your first A Point? It seems that the urge for overseas travel has burst out - in the form of internal travel to other regions’ bridge tournaments. The result is that we’re all playing so much bridge these days that... read more here

Which way to 12 tricks? In a vacuum (it does happen once every ten years at the bridge table), you seem to have a very straightforward assignment with the hands below. If you can prevent the trump queen from scoring a trick, then you will have... read more here

How Many Spades? You may have won the moral high-ground by not opening your Weak 2 in a major because you have four cards in the other major but you have now to decide what your hand is worth, how high you should go and what agreements you might... read more here

To a damn good sort by Richard Solomon I am not a member of the Tauranga Bridge Club and thus have not experienced or seen close up Karen’s constant positive presence over the running of that club for a period of some 30 years. Nor have... read more here

No Certainty. The opposition appear to have over-stretched themselves and have reached a slam where you have a more than adequate trump holding, an ace and more. Is it time to penalise? South DealsN-S Vul    ... read more here

Beating the Gambler? for less experienced players and others. Much of Bridge bidding is relatively scientific to reach the best possible spot for our side…and then there is the Gambling 3NT opener. South DealsBoth Vul... read more here

Where is the Queen? Find her in the right place and you make your contract. However, if she dares to win a trick, then your contract is doomed!Let's take a look. South DealsN-S Vul ♠ 3 ♥ Q 9... read more here

just one! Jan’s Day: Just a matter of trumps. You are in small slam and have three suits with aces and kings to burn. The fourth suit is the trump suit, the only one that requires any care in order for your slam to succeed. Some days you... read more here

The Teachers Group had added two more topics in the set of Intermediate lessons There are12 - Weak 2 Suiter Openers13 - Splinters and Roman Key Card Blackwood (RKCB) You can click on this link to go to the Intermediate lessons page I wish to... read more here

Ominous Signs. Your partner has shown at least four trumps, a game-forcing hand and a singleton or void in a side-suit where you have a massive unhelpful holding of KQJ75. That sounds bad for slam. So, sign off in our heart game. However, the... read more here

Tough Board. What? They all are! Well, some are just a bit harder than others. Take the decision South already made below. They elected to take whatever they could rather than bidding on to 5S. A controversial decision. Will it be the right one?... read more here

Where did we go Wrong? For Less Experienced Players and others. Today’s deal was sent in by a reader who was part of a bad sequence of bids. It was possible to make all 13 tricks in one suit though bidding and making small slam would have... read more here

Jan Cormack. Fine Defence For Jan’s Day Don’t you sometimes wish that your partner makes a certain lead or switch…and they end up placing a card in your near void suit on the table? If only…if onlys do sometimes happen.... read more here

new tournament: new players performing well. Tournaments are in full flight at the moment with several full or almost full houses. At the end of March Marlborough held its mini Congress, a full weekend of bridge with 5A teams on Saturday and 5A... read more here

no problem if I held these. An Honour too Many? Well, you would not think having such a holding was possible and indeed for a while in an unusual bidding sequence, that was not true. The task today is to unravel the sequence and find the lead... read more here

An Exception to a Rule. That’s one of the things that makes Bridge so interesting. We establish lots of rules and then find situations when we break them! One primary aim in bidding is to find a fit in a major suit and then with the... read more here

“Make it Easy on yourself”. Burt Bacharach may not have been thinking of playing a 6 spade contract when he wrote a song with these words but he might have done! They applied to the following contract. Your partner had taken a plunge... read more here

“Pass” in the “Pass Out” seat? For less experienced and others. Recently, I surveyed a row of +140s for North-South, in 2 hearts making an overtrick almost without exception. East-West were cold to make 3 clubs and there... read more here

Northland's Player of the Year 2020. Greetings all. It’s me again, here from the Winterless North. The last few months have been very busy with tournaments galore and we are seeing more and more visitors to the North attending these... read more here

Jan’s Day: Bold Bidding..and Play to match. Today’s deal features some adventuresome bidding and required some excellent declarer play to bring home the contract. If you are going to “bid them up”, at times you will need... read more here

Give us a Break. A good break, a favourable break. There seems nothing much wrong with the contract and indeed, the computer analysis has a “7” under the spade column indicating you can wrap up all 13 tricks. Yet, this is not some... read more here

Any Regrets? You have opened very light in high card points, with just 9 to be exact. You have good holdings in both major suits and had every intention to play in one of them if your partner drove the partnership to game. Yet, an... read more here

Like a fine cheese, good things take time ! We are pleased to announce that because we no longer have packages, we are able to introduce a proper shopping cart for Congress events on our website.  This reduces the steps for users... read more here