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Welcome to Hondo Bridge |
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Declarer Play Lessons
I am planning a series of monthly lessons on declarer play starting in May 2009 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.
Each lesson will be 60-90 minutes. They will generally be in the BIL on the last Thursday of the month at 9:30 PM Eastern. Here is the schedule thus far:
| Topic | Book Chapters | Date | Movies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Squeezes | Chaper 16 (original) | May 28 9:30 PM Eastern |
Movie Movie with Music |
| End Plays | Chapter 5 (original) Chapter 8 (sequel) |
June 25 9:30 PM Eastern | |
| Counting Winners in Suit Contracts | Chaper 11 (original) Chapter 13 (sequel) |
July 30 9:30 PM Eastern | |
| Future Topics TBD | August and beyond |
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 | |
| Watson Play of the Hand Tutorials | |
| Slam Bidding Lesson Series | |
| 2 Over 1 Lesson Series | |
| Weak NT Lesson Series | |
| Example Hands | |
| Mentoring Session Notes | |
| Bridge Puzzles | |
| 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 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. As noted above, he also runs a monthly lesson on Declarer Play on the last Thursday of each month at 9:30 PM in the BIL. 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.
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.
I reently 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 |
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.
| June 2009 | ||||
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June 18, 2009 Bidding 6/5 Hands Declarer Planning Examplea Opening 2 In 4th Seat Suit Preference Avoid Unnecessary Ruffs When Not to Bypass 1D 3C Opener with 6 Card Suit Hand Evaluation in Competition |
June 11, 2009 Negative Double and Correct Preserving your Entries Premptive Raise in Competition Stopper Asking Bid Defensive Honor Leads lam Try Auction esponding with weak 5/5 in the majors Planning on Defense |
June 4, 2009 When to Lead Trump Tradeoffs Opening Weak 2 vs. 1 Competitive Bidding Tactics Splinter in Competition Planning a Part Score More Tips on Planning Raise After 1N Forcing Shows Exactly 2 Showing Strong NT in Balancing Seat |
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| May 2009 | ||||
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May 27, 2009 Unblocking Technique Bergen Raises by a Passed Hand Showing 4 card support immediately Cue bid over Unusual NT Surround play when dummy has an honor 3N vs. 5 of a minor Raising 4 card suit with 3 card support Disadvantages of Quantitative 4N Double and Correct to 1N Hand Evaluation over Michaels When to Bid Over a Sacrifice |
May 20, 2009 9 Card Fit Missing K and Q Tip for Counting Suits Delay in drawing trumps Correct Sequencing of Play Counting Trump Tricks 2C over 1D in 2 Over 1 When Not To Balance Slam Bidding Odds Overcalling vs. Doubling with 5/4 Majors |
May 13, 2009 Fireside Chat - Unusual NT Unusual NT after Passing 2nd Highest From 4 as Count Checkback Stayman Ruffing on Air 4th Suit as NT Ask 2nd Hand Low Playing in NT with 8 Card Fit Defensive Planning Bergen Raises in Competition and by Passed Hand |
May 6, 2009 Checkback Stayman vs. NMF Slam Bid using Bergen Points Doubling vs. Bidding On New Suit Forcing after Overcall How to Count Trumps Overcall vs. Double and Correct Declarer Planning Example Opening Lead Guidelines Disadvantages of MUD QJx opposite 3 small suit combination |
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| April 2009 | ||||
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April 30, 2009 Blackwood Tutorial Slam Bidding Example 4th Suit as Stopper Ask Factors Against Sacrificing Forcing Pass Signalling with 2nd Highest Blackwood Specific Kings Inverted minor with a 4 card major Responses after interference over 2C Deducing distribution from the bidding |
April 23, 2009 Fireside Chat on Inverted Raises Planning Your Entries Using the Bidding to Determine Declarer's Hand Bidding with less than 6 points Judgement in Sacrificing Counting Tricks as Declarer Raising Responder with 3 Card Support Followups to Inverted Raises |
April 16, 2009 2C over 1D - game force or not? Opening 1N with 5 card major Western cue bid Planning the Play Slam bidding auction Passive vs. aggressive defense Aggressive defense with long suit in dummy |
April 9, 2009 Bidding 5 over 5 Pushing Opponents into Game 4 Card Suit Overcall Negative Double over 1H Ducking on Defense Competing over Michaels Squeeze technique Trump Promotion Responding after a Reverse Reverses in Competition |
April 2, 2009 Fourth Suit Forcing Tutorial Bergen Raises Tutorial Declarer Planning Negative double and correct Opener jump shift is game force Counting your losers Cue bid stopper ask When to bid 3 card suits Overcalling vs. takeout double 1S vs.2S as 4th suit forcing |
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Previous Mentoring Sessions All 2009 Mentoring Sessions All 2008 Mentoring Sessions All 2007 Mentoring Sessions |
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