July 21-31

District 4 STaC

August 22-28

For those of us who did nothing but refuel, cram new conventions, and drag our partners around the cemetery next door at top speed during the breaks at last month's regional at Valley Forge, Mike Giesler has kindly provided the basics of his lecture on how to Kibitz the Pros.

Kibitz the Pros

 

Ever wondered what bridge experts were thinking when they bid and played a hand? Well, now you can. A great new feature of The Common Game allows you to get inside the pros heads. Four pros are recorded as they play hands from The Common Game. What's the Common Game? It is a service that many clubs use where many clubs use the same computer dealt hands so there can be more comparisons, more play, and better bridge. 

 

It does not matter if your club uses The Common Game - you can still enjoy watching and listening to the expert comments. If you do use The Common Game, it is even more fun since you probably already played the hand and can see how you compare to the Pros.

 

Here is a link to  The Common Game: www.thecommongame.com   

(Click on the green square icon on top of the home page.)

Here is the direct link to  Kibitz the Pros:

https://sites.google.com/site/kibitzthepros/ 

 

Once there, you can go to all of the Kibitz the Pros videos. If you click on the red circle in the middle, you will see the entire hand and sometimes there is written expert analysis that comes with The Common Game. Now, click on any of the pros and you will see the video of that pro and their play an d thought process. After you watch South bid and play the hand, you can switch and hear the comments of their partner. Some pros are more interesting than others. Be sure to watch Sylvia Shi and David Berkowitz. This experience is a great learning tool.

 

Give it a try and encourage your club to use The Common Game.

 

David Berkowitz giving us a peek inside his mind.

It is clear that declarer called attention to his own revoke. If the revoke is not established yet, it can be corrected. If it is established, it can´t (Law 62A). A revoke is established when (Law 63) "the offender or his partner leads or plays to the following trick (any such play, legal or illegal, establishes the revoke)". In this case, declarer is the offender. If his partner (dummy) played to the next trick before attention to the revoke was called, the revoke became established.

Did dummy play to the next trick? Part of Law 45B reads like this: "Declarer plays a card from dummy by naming the card (...)" Declarer named the queen, before stating that he revoked. He did not say "spade queen" or "heart queen," just "queen." Now we go to Law 46B that, for the purpose of this case, reads as: "Unless a different intention from declarer is incontrovertible, if declarer designates a rank but not a suit, in leading, declarer is deemed to have continued the suit in which dummy won the preceding trick provided there is a card of the designated rank in that suit." So, unless it is incontrovertible that declarer wanted the queen of hearts, the queen of spades is played. Therefore, revoke established.

Declarer can´t substitute the club that he discarded on the spade ace, must follow suit to the queen of spades, and (Law 64A1) declarer transfers one trick to the defenders (declarer is the offender, and it was dummy that won the revoke trick, so only one trick transfer). It is important to note that for the purposes of this Law, dummy and declarer are different "players."

At the table, TD without a good understanding of the several basic laws that need to be applied in sequence will have a hard time getting the solution completely right. There is no need to know the laws by heart, but understanding them well is crucial.

Who was Jane Segal's new partner in Bala last April?

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