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Welcome to Hondo Bridge |
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About This Page
Howard Schutzman is a teacher and expert player on Bridge Base Online (www.bridgebase.com). His nickname on BBO is hondo717. 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, a bridge puzzle column that he writes, and any other material he feels would be of interest. If you would like to be added to his email list, click here
The following material is available on this site:
| Tutorials | |
| Bridge Puzzles | |
| 2 Over 1 Lesson Series | |
| Weak NT Lesson Series | |
| Example Hands | |
| Mentoring Session Notes | |
| Hondo's Email List Signup |
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 in the BBO Intermediate and Advanced Club; if you wish to participate as a player, leave a BBO chat message with Badmonster. He also runs two mentoring sessions in the Beginner and Intermediate Lounge (BIL), one on Sunday at 9:00 PM and the other on Wednesday at 9:00 PM. (All times are 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.
Howard and Ava will be taking a two week vacation in early April. Therefore, there will be no sessions on Tuesday 4/1, Wednesday 4/2, Sunday 4/6, Tuesday 4/8, Wednesday 4/9, and Sunday 4/13. Sessions will resume on Tuesday, 4/15.
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 write a bi-weekly bridge puzzle for the Beginner and Intermediate Lounge on BBO.
It is based on actual hands I have played, and presents a bidding, declaring, or defensive problem.
It is aimed at intermediate level players, although both advanced and beginning players should find it interesting.
| Apr 08 Puzzle 2 | Declaring |
| Apr 08 Puzzle 1 | Defense |
| Mar 08 Puzzle 2 | Declaring |
| Mar 08 Puzzle 1 | Bidding |
| Feb 08 Puzzle 2 | Declaring |
| Feb 08 Puzzle 1 | Defense |
| Previous Puzzles | |
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All 2008 Puzzles All 2007 Puzzles |
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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 |
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 |
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.
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.
| May 2008 | ||||
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May 8, 2008 Guidelines for Competing Responses to 2C Interference over 2C NT Overcalls over Weak 2s When to use Jacoby vs. Texas Opening lead guidelines Coded 10s and 9s |
May 1, 2008 When Not To Signal Unusual 4NT Exceptions to 8 Ever 9 Never Opening Lead Guidelines Weak Jump Shifts Rule of 15 |
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| April 2008 | ||||
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April 24, 2008 Lead Directing Doubles Italian Cue Bids Bids after intervening T/O Double Responding with both majors Bidding "Up the Line" Leads from Suits with a 10 |
April 17, 2008 Reverses after 2 over 1 response When to lead a singleton Help Suit Game Tries Honor Leads Against NT Leading Partner's Unsupported Suit 1N over 1D Implies Clubs Bidding after 1N Overcall |
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| March 2008 | ||||
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March 27, 2008 Preemptive raises in competition Ducking on defense Splinters Importance of proper defensive carding Using the bidding on defense Fourth suit forcing |
March 20, 2008 Planning Over Blackwood Advantage of Reverse Bergen Responding 1D with a 4 Card Major Negative Double Tutorial Cue Bid as Limit Raise Opener Rebids with Strong Hand Cue Asking for NT Stopper |
March 13, 2008 When To Raise A Weak 2 Double and Correct Jacoby 2N DONT Supporting Partner In Competition Weak Hands with Long Suits |
March 6, 2008 Competitive Bidding Judgement Blackwood K and Q ask When to Lead Declarer's Suit at NT Suit Preference Signals New Minor Forcing Cue Bid as Limit Raise |
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Previous Mentoring Sessions All 2008 Mentoring Sessions All 2007 Mentoring Sessions |
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