It’s been a beautiful month here in New York City. I’ve been out for a walk in my park pretty much every day. Except a couple when I was too exhausted from my session at the gym.
The theater and concert season has started. Some highlights from September were the new production of Art, one of my favorite plays; Gustavo Dudamel conducting Beethoven’s 5th with the Philharmonic; and the Met’s new production of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay
I’ve got a lot of great stuff lined up for October, including one of my favorite musicals: Mamma Mia!
I’m going up to Massachusetts for Columbus Day weekend to help close up the Cape house for the winter. Other than that, I’m pretty much in NYC until the NABC in San Francisco, which starts the day after Thanksgiving. Shockingly, the flights that week were insane, so I’m flying on Thanksgiving day.
The Leveling Up program has been getting lots of attention around the world! I was interviewed for the September issue of the Swedish bridge magazine. The interview appears here on pages 16-18 (p. 9 of the PDF). It’s in Swedish, so probably not very relevant to most of my readers. But we can all Växla upp together! :-)
I’m playing in my district’s NAP event on Sunday. Check our your district’s schedule and make a plan to play! For those of you in NYC, the Open flight is this Sunday (Oct 5), Flight B is Oct 26, and Flights A and C are Nov 2.
I took my friends Adam Kaplan and Adam Grossack out to celebrate their win in the Bermuda Bowl. I’ve known them both since they were kids. I’m so proud of them!
If you’re looking for something fun to do between Christmas and New Year’s, New York is holding a regional at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square! I convinced them to pre-duplicate all the boards in the team games, so we’ll have hand records. At least my crusade is working in my own district (where I happen to be the president).
My Monday "Expert Thought Process" and Thursday "Thinking Through Declarer Play" classes are on their regular schedule for October. You can get information about both classes here: https://learnbridgeonline.com/adam-parrish/
Upcoming topics in my Monday Class:
October 6 Declarer Play October 13 Balancing October 20 Defense October 27 Transfer Lebensohl
Time for some questions! Please keep them coming.
Defining the meaning of 4NT can be tricky. Always go out of your way to make it clear if you can.
Hi, Adam,
I’m playing with a partner who hasn’t studied with you. We are debating the meaning of 4NT.
I always play 4NT as a range ask unless we’ve agreed on trump. When we have a trump suit it’s RKC.
So today the opponents’ bidding went 1♠ - 2♥ (GF) and the opener bid 4NT. Responder took it as RKC, but I had no idea what the trump suit was, spades or hearts. My partner says you go by the last bid suit and I disagreed. I think the spade opener has to bid hearts to set the contract in hearts.
Will you please weigh in on this?
To avoid these confusions, it’s always best to set trumps when you can. Based on that, my general rule is that if you can make a forcing bid setting trumps and you don’t, 4NT isn’t Blackwood. Sometimes you are out of room and need the jump to 4NT to be RKB in the last bid suit. But not here. Now, in this auction opener has a forcing 2NT bid available, so it’s not like they need 4NT to be quantitative. It’s just not a bid you should ever make—the whole point of 2/1 is to keep the auction low and go slowly. I would assume that 4NT here was a keycard ask in hearts, the last bid suit. But there’s just no reason to risk a misunderstanding when you can set trumps with 3♥ and ask for keycards with your next bid.
A couple of examples.
1♠ 2♥
3♣ 3♥
4NT
Since there is no forcing heart raise available, it makes sense to use 4NT as RKB for hearts.
1♠ 2♦
3♣ 3♦
4NT
Here, 4♦ would be forcing, so if you want to ask for keycards in diamonds you can do that. So 4NT is quantitative.
Adam
The ACBL allows you to open 1NT with a singleton A, K, or Q, but most people don’t understand when to do it.
Dear Adam,
I have three somewhat related questions for you:
1. When do you open 1NT in all positions with a 5-card major?
2. When do you overcall 1NT in all positions with a 5-card major?
3. When do you invite (as responder) with 10 HCP after your partner opens 1 of a suit and rebids 1 NT?
1. I always open 1NT when I’m 5332 and in the 15-17 range (which is often 14-16 HCP, since I usually upgrade for the 5-card suit). I’ll do it sometimes with 5-4-2-2, especially when I have honors in my doubletons.
2. I usually overcall 1M rather than 1NT; it’s important to find a fit in a competitive auction. The times I wouldn’t would be when my suit isn’t very good and my stopper is strong.
3. To invite with only 10 HCP when partner has at most 14, I need a lot of shape. And ideally a fit with partner. So if it went 1♦ P 1♠ P; 1NT P, I would invite (via New Minor Forcing) with ♠ AJTxx ♥ xxx ♦ KQxx ♣ x.
Adam
I get a lot of “What would you bid” questions.
Dear Adam,
Your partner East opens 1♦. You, West, hold this hand. ♠ T96 ♥ K4 ♦ KJ83 ♣ A654. What is your bid?
I’d bid 2NT. An Inverted raise of 2♦ is also possible, but with balanced hands I steer towards notrump.
Here’s how I think about it: if partner is accepting your invitation, they’re going to be steering toward 3NT no matter what you bid. If partner has a minimum and you’re going to play in a partscore, would you rather it be 3♦ or 2NT? This hand looks like NT to me.
Adam
That's all for now. I encourage you to send me questions about my column or anything else at adam@adamparrishbridge.com. Maybe they'll end up in the next newsletter!