It’s been great to be back in New York City. The weather has been unbelievable; wonderful to take a walk in my favorite parks everyday. Since being back I’ve been to the Philharmonic a couple of times and seen two wonderful dance performances. The two plays I saw were very good: Table 17 at MCC and McNeal, starring Robert Downey, Jr., at Lincoln Center. I recommend that one if you can get tickets!
I’ve got a lot of good good stuff on my calendar in October: opera, plays, concerts. Plus a short trip to Massachusetts to see my family. I don’t have any bridge trips scheduled until the Nationals in Las Vegas in November. I hope to see you there! I’m sure I’ll be giving a lecture one day, so please stop by and say hi! My sister and I have scheduled a siblings trip to Punta Cana in December. Any recommendations are highly appreciated!
A fellow teacher named David Bailey has created a cool tool for practicing bidding on BBO. It sets bidding constraints for use at a practice or teaching table. It’s a little complicated to install, but once you get the hang of it it’s really cool. It’s a great way to practice specific bidding scenarios and conventions with a partner. Or you can try your luck bidding with a robot.
This week is Silver Linings Week in Virtual Clubs on BBO if anyone needs silver points.
I also encourage you to check out the Instant Matchpoint game at your local club on October 30. It’s a cool chance to win gold points at the club, and you get a great written analysis of all the hands.
The World Bridge Games, formerly known as the Bridge Olympiad, start October 23 in Buenos Aires. The USA is sending a great team, and the competition is always really strong, so I encourage you to check out the VuGraph broadcasts. I might do some commentary if my schedule permits.
The WBF has two cool online events coming up. For those of you who don’t live in the USA or another bridge powerhouse, a Small Federations team event is taking place in December. Registration closes November 25.
In early January 2025, there is a transnational (meaning everyone on the team doesn’t have to be from the same country) Online Women’s Teams event. Registration closes December 7.
My Monday "Expert Thought Process" and Thursday "Thinking Through Declarer Play" classes are on their regular schedule for October: 10am ET on Mondays and 1pm ET on Thursdays. You can get information about both classes here: https://learnbridgeonline.com/adam-parrish/
Upcoming topics in my Monday class are (schedule always subject to change if things take extra time):
October 7 Declarer Play
October 14 Balancing 1NT
October 21 Defense
October 28 Game Tries
If you have topics you'd like to see me cover in the Monday class or hands that you think would be interesting, please send them along. You can send me an email (adam@adamparrishbridge.com).
I hope you're all well and playing lots of bridge! As always, feel free to email me with questions. Speaking of questions...
Any convention you play will add some additional questions.
Hi, Adam,
My partner and I play 2♠ Size Ask in response to a 1NT opening. In this system, how would you show a strong hand with 4 of a major and a 6-card minor? Would you start with Stayman or the minor? Likewise, how would you bid a weak hand with a 4-card major and 6 of a minor?
Start with Stayman with the GF hand. With the weak hand, you usually just transfer to the minor. Transferring to a minor and then bidding a new suit shows shortness (singleton or void) rather than a second suit. Majors always come first!
Adam
Another question about responding to 1NT.
Dear Adam,
After partner opens 1NT, is there a way to show an invitational hand that is 5/5 in the Majors?
Most people play that transferring to hearts and then bidding 2♠ is invitational with 5 hearts and 4 or 5 spades. That's the best I've got. Some people use 3-level responses to show 5-5 hands, but they don't come up enough to be worthwhile in my opinion.
Adam
One great thing about writing bridge books is you get wonderful questions.
Dear Adam,
In your book (Volume 2: Modern Defensive Thinking) you describe the power lead against notrump. This differs from what I have seen in other books (for example, Eddie Kantar's Modern Bridge Defense). It seems like what you are describing is the opposite (switching meaning of Ace and King leads).
Is there a good reason for the switch? Is it just a matter of convention and this is what good players/experts do, but there isn't really a good reason one way or the other? Or is there a specific reason why one method is better than the other?
I'm a bridge teacher (I teach intermediate level classes) and I like to have reasons; one of my partners said, "I don't think alliteration is a good reason to switch"; she was referring to the phrase "Ace for Attitude, King for Kount." If I am teaching this, I want to be able to explain reasoning.
Thanks for your help.
[The “Power Lead” is a special opening lead against a notrump contract that asks partner to play an honor (including the ten) if they have one, and if not to give count. It’s very useful when you have a nearly solid holding like KQT9x.]
The ace was the standard Power Lead up until 20 years ago or so. Many "old-timers" still use the ace as the Power Lead, but expert consensus has shifted to the king. “King for Kount” is easy to remember, but you're right that alliteration isn't reason enough. While either A or K work as the Power Lead, the king has some slight advantages.
The most common suits that warrant a Power Lead are AKJTx, AQJTx, KQT9x. Using the A as the Power Lead is better from AQJT, but if you lead the queen and partner has the king they're probably playing it anyway. The problem comes when you have KQT9; if the K isn't the Power Lead, you have to lead the queen here as the Power Lead. But you also need to lead the queen from QJ9x, where you often want an attitude signal, not count. So using the K as the Power Lead is much better from KQT9, and doesn't really cost from the holdings headed by the ace. Since a Power Lead is quite rare, having one card designated for it (the K) rather than two (A or Q) is better.
The downside of using the king as the Power Lead is that you have to lead the queen from KQ holdings that aren't strong enough for a Power Lead. KQTxx is typical. So a queen lead could be from KQ or QJ. But the same happens if the A is the Power Lead: a king lead could be from AK or KQ. These ambiguities cause problems surprisingly infrequently.
The advantages are small: it's a little like Upside Down carding vs Standard: most experts use Upside Down because there is a theoretical advantage, but on the vast majority of hands Standard is just as good. If you’re used to and comfortable with one method, it’s not really worth changing. But if you’re learning or teaching the Power Lead from scratch, I like to teach what is in line with modern expert practice.
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!
Stay safe!