February started out great, finishing up my trip in Hawaii. Life in New York has been exciting as usual. I saw a few shows this month, though I am limiting myself to the weekends, so I gave up some mid-week tickets. A sacrifice to the bridge gods. The highlights this month were Urinetown at Encores! and Redwood on Broadway. This weekend I’m going to the Philharmonic and seeing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at Radio City Music Hall, with an orchestra and choir performing the soundtrack.
Greg and I have been working hard to get ready for the NABC in Memphis. We’re going through our system notes and making sure everything is up to date and makes sense. It’s a lot of work! We’re playing in the Platinum Pairs, the Silidor Pairs, and the Jacoby Swiss. I’m playing with a student in the Mixed Pairs. Hope to see a lot of you there! I booked our dinner reservations; should be some good eatin’.
I’m giving two lectures, so please stop by for those and say hi. Monday, March 17 at 9:15am—Modern Defensive Thinking. Friday, March 21 at 9:15—How to be a Good Partner.
I’m doing an online seminar today (Saturday, March 1) at 12:30pm ET for the Palo Alto Bridge Club. The topic is Doubles. Always a fun one. You’re all invited to attend. Click here for more information and to register.
I launched my Leveling Up podcast this week. The first guest was Brian Platnick. It was a great conversation, and I’m really excited about all the people I’ve been talking to. I think you’re going to get a lot out of it. You can watch the episode on YouTube, or you can get the podcast wherever you normally get your podcasts. (If it’s not there, please let me know and I’ll make sure to add it.)
My Monday "Expert Thought Process" and Thursday "Thinking Through Declarer Play" classes will be recorded the week of March 17 while I’m in Memphis. The Thursday class on March 13 and the Monday class on March 24 will be two hours later than normal (3pm ET and Noon ET) as I travel to and from Memphis. 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):
March 3 Puppet Stayman March 10 Defense March 17 Robot Tournament (Recorded) March 24 Declarer Play
I’m so excited that my Leveling Up program is sparking a conversation and motivating people to work on their game. I’ve gotten so many emails and comments from people. I love it! Please keep the emails coming!
A big theme I’ve noticed is that a lot of what separates the top players is their attitude and mindset at the table.
Hi, Adam,
A big problem I have is when I play at a club and have to play the best teams first. I get discouraged and have a hard time getting out of it.
See if you can reframe it in your mind. You GET to play the top teams! In what other sport can you play against the top players? They won't let you play in the Masters or Wimbledon. But in bridge, all you have to do is pay your entry fee! The best way to learn is by getting beaten up by the more experienced players. As long as you treat it as a learning opportunity. Ask them about what you could have done better. Think of them as a resource, not an insurmountable obstacle.
A huge part of bridge is about being in the right mental place to get the most out of your game. Improving your ability is important, but just as important is playing to your potential. Overcoming and forgetting about bad results is a huge part of that.
Remember that the only board you can affect the outcome of is the one in your hand. What’s in the past is in the past. The worst mistake you can make is letting a bad result affect the next few boards, and it becomes two or three bad results. This is easier said than done! Try to find a routine that clears the last board from your mind and helps you focus on the cards in your hand.
Adam
When you play a convention or treatment, you have to consider all of its ramifications.
Dear Adam,
My partner and I play non-forcing constructive bids by advancer. It works great when advancer has a middling hand, but I’m not sure what to do when I have a very good hand. I can’t make a non-forcing bid, and if I cuebid the opponents suit, partner thinks it is a limit+ raise in their suit.
If you play new-suit advances as non-forcing, you need jump-shifts to be forcing. So after (1♦) 1♥ (P), 1♠ would be non-forcing and 2♠ would be natural and forcing. That leaves the cuebid (2♦) as showing a fit.
It's also important to discuss new-suit advances at various levels. There are four to consider:
1-over-1 — like 1♠ in the auction above
2-over-1 — eg, (1♦) 1♠ (P) 2♥
2-over-2 — eg, (1♦) 2♣ (P) 2♠
3-over-2 — eg, (1♠) 2♥ (P) 3♣
I think 3-over-2 needs to be forcing, since a jump-shift would get you to the 4-level. Some play all of the others as NF, some specify one or two (most commonly 2-over-2) as forcing. Any way you do it is fine, you just have to be on the same page with your partner. For what it’s worth, I like to play a new-suit advance by an unpassed hand as forcing. It makes things a lot simpler.
Adam
We all know that opener’s jump-shifts are forcing to game. But what happens next?
Dear Adam,
What is the difference between these 2 auctions (no competition)?
1♠ 1NT 1♠ 1NT
3♣ 3♠ 3♣ 4♠
In the second auction, I think that 4♠ bid is a Limit Raise showing 3-card support, same as it would be if the opener had rebid 2♣ and responder jumped to 3♠.
But that violates a general principle. 3♣ is game forcing, and usually in a game forcing auction, Fast Arrival shows a weak hand and going slow shows you are interested in finding the best game or possibly exploring for slam.
You're absolutely right that 4♠ shows the 3-card Limit Raise, which is an exception to the principle of Fast Arrival. But we need to be able to punt with 3♠ with other hands, often with a doubleton.
If you hold ♠ KJ4 ♥ Q732 ♦ AJ83 ♣ 73, you started with 1NT planning to complete your two-step raise by bidding 3♠ next. When partner jump-shifts, it’s tempting to want 3♠ to show this hand, giving us lots of room to explore for slam.
But consider what you would do with ♠ K4 ♥ 8732 ♦ J543 ♣ Q52. You don’t have a fit in spades, but you can’t really raise clubs—you don’t want to go past 3NT with a weak hand, and partner could have only 4 clubs. (Or even fewer on a bad day!) You could just bid 3NT, but with such weak holdings in the red suits, that’s not appealing at all. And if you belong in 3NT, you’d rather the strong hand declare. It’s nice to be able to just take a preference with 3♠ and bide time to see what partner does next.
Since you need to be able to bid 3♠ with the second hand, you have to define 4♠ as the 3-card Limit Raise. It’s not ideal, but it’s a narrow enough range that opener can usually figure out what to do.
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!