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Welcome to Hondo Bridge |
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About This Page
Howard is pleased to announce his upcoming lesson series on Fundamentals of Constructive Bidding. These lessons will teach the fundamentals upon which most bidding systems are built. This should allow students to more comfortably play any of the popular bidding systems. Click here for more details and a schedule.
Howard Schutzman is a teacher and expert player on Bridge Base Online (www.bridgebase.com). His nickname on BBO is hondo717. Click here to see an article that BBO wrote about Howard. He has been playing duplicate bridge for more than 40 years. Over the years, he has developed articles and notes on learning to play bridge. This material is presented here, and is available for anyone to download at no charge.
Howard also maintains an email list for interested students. He sends out periodic emails with his teaching schedule, movies from his mentoring sessions, and any other material he feels would be of interest. If you would like to be added to his email list, click here
Howard partners with Marty Bergen, one of the most popular bridge authors and teachers. You can purchase Marty's books and online lessons through Howard by clicking on the links listed below.
The following material is available on this site:
Howard runs several free weekly teaching sessions on BBO. Kibitzers are always welcome at these sessions, and encouraged to chat with Howard. He runs an open mentoring session on Tuesdays at 10:00 PM Eastern in the BBO Intermediate and Advanced Club; if you wish to participate as a player, leave a BBO chat message with camilleLn. He also runs a mentoring sessions in the Beginner and Intermediate Lounge (BIL), on Wednesday at 9:30 PM Eastern. Students are encouraged to mark Howard as a BBO friend, and welcome to watch him play and ask questions any time he is online. He will also gladly answer any questions sent to him via BBO email.
Also pictured are Ava and Taffy.
Ava is Howard's lifelong partner, in bridge and all his other endeavors. She is an accomplished player in her own right. Her bbo nickname is ava17.
Taffy is our family kibitzer. She is welcome at several local duplicate clubs, and loves attending our sessions, particularly when snacks are available. She is very good at "ruffing".
Ava and I run a monthly informal supervised play group.
One year, I prepared a series of tutorials on various bridge topics, including bidding, play, and defense.
As you will see if you download any of them, I tend to favor teaching general principles rather than specific rules.
Ava calls my approach "Big Picture Bridge". My personal favorites are Introduction To Constructive Bidding
and Counting Declarer's Hand on Defense.
You might want to download these first to see if you like my approach.
I sometimes predealt two hands for use with our supervised play group,
and wrote up an analysis. These were used to demonstrate the lessons from the tutorials.
These hands were from actual deals I played at our local duplicate club.
Below are several of the writeups, including a brief description of the topics that were demonstrated.
The best and most comprehensive book on bridge card play is The Play of the Hand by Louis Watson. I read it early in my bridge career, and it really helped propel me to a much higher level of skill. Although it was written in 1934 (and updated in 1958), the principles it teaches are still very relevant to modern bridge.
The biggest difference between the mediocre and expert bridge player is the play of the cards. If you read Watson, you will learn all of the important fundamentals about card play, and greatly improve your skill. Even if you never pull off a squeeze or end play, if you practice the fundamentals of card play taught by Watson, you will be a winner at bridge.
Thanks to Kia, my movie producer, I am able to offer you the material from Watson as BBO movies. Each movie is one or two chapters from Watson.
I will be adding new chapters as Kia creates them.
Declarer Play Lessons
I taught a series of monthly lessons on declarer play based on Marty Bergen's two excellent books on the subject. As a special service for my students, I have made arrangments with Marty Bergen to allow you to order these books from my web site. As part of this offer, Marty has agreed to autograph each book with a personal message of your choice, provide you with a free copy of his softcover book Bergen's Best Bridge Quizzes. and provide free shipping to US customers. Click here to order the books.
| Topic | Book Chapters | Movies |
|---|---|---|
| Squeezes | Chaper 16 (original) |
Movie Movie with Music |
| End Plays | Chapter 5 (original) Chapter 8 (sequel) |
Movie Movie with Music |
| Counting Winners in Suit Contracts | Chapter 11 (original) Chapter 13 (sequel) |
Movie |
| Drawing Trumps | Chapter 9 (original) Chapter 1 (sequel) |
Movie Movie with Music |
| Managing Entries | Chapter 14 (original) Chapter 5 (sequel) |
Movie |
| Finesses | Chapters 3,4 (original) Chapter 6,7 (sequel) |
Movie Movie with Sound Effects |
| Counting Defenders | Howard's Tutorial Chaper 2 (original) |
Movie |
Fundamentals of Constructive Bidding
Starting in August 2010, I am planning a 5 lesson series on the Fundamentals of Constructive Bidding (bidding when the opponents do not interfere). Lessons will be monthly in the BIL, usually on the last Thursday of the month at 9:30 PM Eastern.
The purpose of these lessons is for students to learn the concepts behind constructive bidding. I have found that, although many students understand the (often complicated) rules about bidding, they do not understand the reasoning behind these rules. By learning the fundamentals rather than just the rules, a student will be able to more intuitively and comfortably bid, without being confused by the many (sometimes conflicting) rules that may or may not apply. Note that these lessons will not teach any particular system. It will simply teach the fundamentals upon which most bidding systems are built. A student should therefore be able to more comfortably play any of the popular systems.
I will make a pdf tutorial a few weeks prior to the lesson. To get the most out of the lesson, I suggest the students download the tutorial. After the lesson, Kia will put together a movie that will allow students to practice what they learned.
Here is the lesson schedule.
| Topic | Date | Tutorial | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction to Constructive Bidding | August 26 | Tutorial | Movie |
| Auctions Starting with 1NT | September 30 | ||
| Auctions Starting with 1 of a Major (Part 1) | October 28 | ||
| Auctions Starting with 1 of a Major (Part 2) | November 18 | ||
| Auctions Starting with 1 of a Minor | December 23 |
Basic Defense Lessons
I have developed a series of lessons on Basic Defensive Techniques. This is an 8 week series that will occur periodically in the BIL as part of the Bridge 101 lesson series. Below are the topics I cover, and a set of tutorials and movies for each topic.
| Topic | ||
|---|---|---|
| Opening Leads | Tutorial | Movie |
| Defensive Carding | Tutorial | Movie |
| Defensive Signals | Tutorial | Movie |
| Counting | Tutorial | Movie |
| Example Hands 1 |
Movie |
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| Example Hands 2 |
Movie |
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| Example Hands 3 |
Movie |
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| Example Hands 4 |
Movie |
I recently offered a 4 week series of lessons on slam bidding. The material for the lessons came from Marty Bergen's excellent new book on slam bidding, Slam Bidding Made Easier I was one of the editors of the book, and I highly recommend it.
As a service for my students, I have made special arrangements with Marty Bergen to sell the book online from my web site. If you buy it from me, Marty will personally autograph it for you with a personal message of your choosing. Additionally, you will receive a discount if you buy both the book and the workbook. Finally, shipping in the US is free. If you are planning to buy the book anyway, I would appreciate it if you would buy it from me, as I do get a commission for each book sold through my site. For additional details, click here.
Kia made a BBO movie of each of my lessons. Besides the material I presented, he also offered his own interpretation of the material as well as a very large number of practice hands. If you read the book and go through all of Kia's movies, I will guarantee that your overall bidding will greatly improve, not just your slam bidding. Here is a summary of the lesson topics and the corresponding book chapters and movies:
| Topic | Book Chapters | Movie |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Points (prior to the auction) | Chapters 1-4 | Lesson 1 Movie |
| Dummy Points Declarer (Bergen) Points |
Chapters 5-7 | Lesson 2 Movie |
| Control Bids Blackwood |
Chapters 8, 16, 17 | Lesson 3 Movie |
| Splinters Jacoby 2NT 5NT Pick A Slam |
Chapters 9, 14, 15 | Lesson 4 Movie |
The 2 Over 1 System is preferred by most experts. Fortunately, it is very similar to Standard American, with only a few relatvely small modifications, so it should be easy for most players to learn.
Click on the links below to download the associated tutorials.
| Part 1 - Game Forcing Auctions | |
| Part 2 - Auctions Not Forcing to Game | |
| 2 Over 1 Tutorial Movie By Kia |
Since the vast majority of players open 1NT with 15-17, that is what I usually teach. However, Ava and I have always played the weak NT. We feel it gives us a significant bidding advantage.
Playing the weak NT is not simply a matter of changing your 1NT opening range from 15-17 HCP to 12-14 HCP.
It represents a significant systemic change, with different implications for many auctions.
I have prepared a series of 3 lessons to explain the weak NT system.
| Part 1 - Auctions Starting with the Weak NT | |
| Part 2 - Auctions When Opener Holds a Strong NT | |
| Part 3 - When The Opponents Interfere | |
| Zip File With All 3 Parts |
During my mentoring sessions, I play with 3 of my students, commenting on whatever hands happen to come up. One of my students, Kia (bbo nickname nome), produces a BBO bridge movie consisting of the hands annotated with my comments. This involves a great deal of effort, and Kia has generously agreed to share his work by allowing me to post the movies on my web site.
If you have trouble displaying a movie file, or have trouble downloading it as an email attachment,
click here for some tips to help you resolve your problem.
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Previous Mentoring Sessions All 2010 Mentoring Sessions All 2009 Mentoring Sessions All 2008 Mentoring Sessions All 2007 Mentoring Sessions |
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| September 2010 | ||||
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September 2, 2010 NT Honor Leads Leading When You Didn't Support Partner Cooperative Doubles Passive Leads A Rare Case of Second Hand High Bidding Slam with 33 Bergen Points |
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| August 2010 | ||||
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August 19, 2010 A Gambling 3NT Hand Cardinal Rule of Defense - 2nd Hand Low Limit Raise Cue Bids Look at Options Whan Planning the Play Puppet Stayman & Managing Entries A Hand Which Roared Gambling 3NT Responses |
August 12, 2010 Overcalling with Both 5 Card Majors Avoid Missing a Slam Knowing the Odds Opening Hands Using the Rule of 20 Be Reluctant to Open NT with 2 Doubletons Overcalling with a Powerful Distributional Hand Bergen's Hand Evaluation Summary |
August 5, 2010 Be Cautious When It Appears The Cards Are Not Sitting Well Inviting Game When Playing 4 Suit Transfers The Law Of Total Tricks Works Again Jordan 2NT Support Doubles And Redoubles Sandwich NT |
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| July 2010 | ||||
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July 29, 2010 Always Take the Setting Trick Gambling 3NT Modified DONT Squeeze Rare Time When an Unprotected Ace is a Good Lead Don't Just Randomly Play Suits |
July 22, 2010 Figuring Out the Opening Lead Don't Draw Trumps if You Want to Ruff Losers Opening with 4 Diamonds and 5 Clubs Prefer to Overcall with a 5 Card Major Instead Of Doubling 4-4 Fits vs. 9 Card Fits Guidance for Penalty Doubles |
July 15, 2010 Count out your tricks at trick one When they bid two suits, and dummy takes a preference, a trump lead is often right Come up with several alternatives on each hand and hope one of them works Should you bypass diamonds when you have a four card major You may not pass over a takeout double with 10 or more points When you preempt, decide how high you are willing to go, and do it right away |
July 8, 2010 A Tactical Preempt It is Usually Wrong to Ruff from Long Trumps The Secret of Doubling Preempts Often Make the Opponents Guess Inverted Minors in Competition Bidding Over a Preempt |
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