All News

PREEMPTING A PRE-EMPT.....The Eighth Deadly Sin. Do you? Should you? What are the dangers? Can your partnership pull up short of disaster? These are some of the questions generated by Board 23 this week. Look at the West hand and decide if you... read more here

Guiding Partner Good defence can be thoughtful defence. You know what needs to be done but partner may not be on the same wave-length. If you can, guide them. Look at the very simple error which occurred in the defence to this part-score.... read more here

DOWN A BEER OR DOWN THE CONTRACT? Which is more important to a bridge player? Maybe if you are 25 or under..or a year or 20 over, then the answer is obvious. The chance of a free drink would certainly come at the expense of beating a part-score.... read more here

“Don’t Send a Boy on a Man’s Job” The “boy’s” name was Jack.  He was sacrificed, was sent out too early. His loss caused a break-down of the whole operation (contract) resulting in failure. Cause of... read more here

PARTNER’S ALWAYS RIGHT….EVEN WHEN THEY ARE…… That’s right! Partner knows best. You lay down the rules and partner agrees with you. All fine in theory. Let’s tune in to two sides of the bridge table,... read more here

HUGE SCORE BY MACLEANS PAIR IN SCHOOL PAIRS COMPETITION Sunday 18th June saw 22 students from Macleans College and Auckland Grammar School take part in a one session Pairs competition at the Auckland Bridge Club. The speed was, shall we say,... read more here

COUNT TO SUCCESS It’s not easy and there are some deals where you either have to make assumptions in order to try and count a defender’s hand…i.e. working out where missing honour cards are more likely to be. Sometimes, when... read more here

“What a Pass” Take a step forward, Stanley Abrahams. In case you do not know, he is a fine intuitive Auckland bridge player. Played for New Zealand, too. So, pardon the expression, “no mug”. Lover of the Multi 2 too,... read more here

        FITS LIKE A GLOVE We are programmed, have it drummed into us to beware of misfits, that high-card points are not everything and to be cautious in our approach to bidding. Over-cautious would be my impression... read more here

Two Contrasting Test Matches While the Zone 6 countries fought for the Zone’s places at the Bermuda Bowl/ Venice Cup, both New Zealand teams played 64 board test matches against Australia. The first 12 boards saw the Australian Ladies win... read more here

Spotting the difference? 55 boards played…one to go. A nice quick board to finish the day, a quick score-up. The bar beckons. A nice solid 8 card suit . They open 2, meaning, strangely, diamonds…..and you still remember to use the... read more here

DISAPPOINTMENT ALL ROUND At the start of the final day of the double-robin event, the New Zealand Open Team was in third place. Good performances in their three matches against the other top teams and anything was possible. They started against... read more here

HELP FROM ACROSS THE TASMAN The New Zealand Open team started in great style with a 32-4 (16.72) win over Australia. With China recording a smaller win over Indonesia, New Zealand regained the overall lead by a massive 0.37vp! It was a steady... read more here

A NEW NAME TO CHASE The day started with the New Zealand Open Team chasing Japan who had come off a huge day to take the lead. A lot can happen in 24 hours or 4 matches. First up for New Zealand was Thailand with a bucketful of imps changing... read more here

JAPAN SETS THE PACE IN ROUND ROBIN 2 In the second Round Robin, the leading teams start off by playing those at the bottom. So, there is the likelihood of some big scores. The New Zealand Open Team got to play the bottom team of all…but... read more here

A JOB WELL DONE…SO FAR The New Zealand Open team had only two matches today as they finished the first round-robin with a bye. It was to be a day of mixed fortunes, too, with a loss, a good win and then a wait to see if they would end the... read more here

PATIENT DEFENCE REQUIRED Last week, I moaned at the lack of middle cards I was dealt. Moaning had little impact when it came to Board 26 this week. My trumps were 6543 and with partner holding the 2 among his four, it was hardly going to be a... read more here

               Our Open Team Take The Lead With three tough matches to complete the day, the New Zealand Open Team needed a good result in their opening match of Day 3 against... read more here

KEEP YOUR HEAD ON..DON’T PANIC Panic caused a number of declarers to go astray in the following recent slam. Making 12 even 13 tricks in spades and 12 in no trumps was quite possible but some only made 11. Here are the North-South hands:... read more here

The “Four Slam” Day New Zealand Open team dropped to third with a narrow 18-23 (8.42) loss to Malaysia in the first match of the day. The result swung on the defence to Board 13: Board 13North DealsBoth Vul... read more here

New Zealand in Korea  Day 1 Our Open Team Lead the Way Both New Zealand teams started the first day meaning business. Both are playing 14 board matches with the Open team playing four and the Ladies three matches a day. Our Open Team... read more here

Making Someone Happy Look on the bright side. One pair’s disaster is another’s delight. If you can make someone happy along the way, then your day or night has not been in vain. Who said those fine words? So, I pose a bidding... read more here

Two New Zealand teams, an Open and Ladies’ team, are taking part in the 51st Hicar APBF Bridge Federation Championships which start today in, Seoul, Korea. We will be bringing you here on this website daily reports of their progress.... read more here

                                  How Could I Know? Lightning struck twice in one... read more here

                    LONG ODDS AND CLUBS What are the odds of you winning Lotto, not a welcome but unstartling $30 or $40 but the real big money? OK, I... read more here

ONE CHANCE Leading partner’s suit is not always a good idea as North was to find out on the first board of this evening at Akarana. There was to be no recovery when dummy proved to be rather unusual:   Board 1North... read more here

Showing Your Hand There are many important things to learn about bridge. You probably know that….and are still struggling with about 60% of them (you would not want me to put a higher percentage, would you?). What follows is about a... read more here