Course Outline

This site is a complete course of 10 Lessons for beginners wishing to learn the game of Bridge. How to deal, how to score, how to bid, how to play. Each lesson consists of 7 posts. Typically, someone with little or no familiarity with Bridge, will progress at a rate of about one lesson per week. Since each lesson is made up of 7 separate posts, the learner could progress at the rate of one post per day.

If you complete this course of lessons, you will be able to play and enjoy a social game with your friends or family, or in a more competitive setting at your local bridge club and also Online. The North Shore Bridge Club offers face to face bridge sessions at the club rooms in Middle Cove and East Lindfield in Sydney, NSW. There are also online sessions available on the RealBridge platform in the morning, afternoon and evening on most days of the week. Details are available on the NSBC website

https://www.northshore.bridge-club.org/

Below is an outline of the complete course of the lessons that will be presented over a 10 week period. This site is a companion website to a more gradual presentation or blog. The blog can be found at

https://bridgeblog18.blogspot.com/

1.  Getting started.  Understanding the mechanics of the auction and the play.  Defining basic terms - declarer, dummy, opening leader, defenders, rank, majors, minors, honours, spot cards, notrumps, strain, tricks, ruff, partscore, game, slam, grand slam, HCP.  How to score.  Learning conventional plays - leading top of a sequence.  Learning good technique - counting your sure tricks, looking for extra tricks from long suits and from ruffing;  playing honours from the short hand first.

 

2.   Bidding notrumps with balanced hands.  Opening bids and rebids in notrumps with a balanced hand.  How to respond to notrump openings with balanced hands.  Being comfortable with some more bridge jargon - balanced, unbalanced, void, singleton, doubleton, the master of the auction, terminal, forcing & invitational bids, overtricks. Learning good technique - do your losing early when there is a profit in it;  count the defenders' cards in your long suits.

 

3.    Play time.  Put what you have learned so far into practice.  Play lots of hands to develop your skills as declarer and defender.

 

4.    Bidding with a trump fit.  Selecting the opening bid of one of a suit in a 5-card major system.  Learning what constitutes a trump fit.  Learning how to recognize a fit, how to re-evaluate your hand in the light of a fit by adding distributional points, and how to raise opener's suit to the appropriate level.  Your first bidding convention - 4NT Blackwood, asking for aces.  Good technique - drawing trumps, using dummy's trumps to ruff losers from your hand.

 

5.   Searching for a trump fit.  Responding to a notrump opening with an unbalanced hand.  Another very useful bidding convention -  Stayman.  Responding to opener's one of a suit with no immediate fit - either with a shift or jump shift or in notrumps.  More play on creating extra winners by trumping losers in the short trump hand.

 

6.  Opener's rebid after a limit bid by responder.  Recognizing those auctions when opener is the master.  Learning how opener takes charge.  Technique in play - recognizing when you cannot afford to draw trumps immediately; disposing of losers by discarding them on extra winners.

 

7. Opener's rebid after responder's shift. Recognizing auctions where responder is master.  How opener's rebid helps responder's decision by describing a mini, midi or maxi hand. Understanding opener's reverse, and when NOT to make one.  How responder takes decisive action, either immediate or by eliciting further information.  Play technique - understanding the finesse.

 

8.    Play time again.  Another playing session to put your bidding theory into practice and to further consolidate your skills in play.

 

9.  Suit openings at the two level and above.  The game-forcing Two Club opening and responses.  Weak Twos -  2¨/©/ª - and responses.  Pre-emptive openings and responses at the 3-level and above.  Conventional leads - M.U.D.  Technique - counting both your winners and losers in slam contracts before deciding on a line of play.

 

10.  Competitive bidding.  Introducing overcaller and advancer.  Selecting the appropriate action - the interpose or overcall, the takeout double, the weak jump overcall - and learning how to continue.  Introduction to cuebids.  More advanced play techniques to whet curiosity - the ruffing finesse, avoidance play.