Not Just for Thanksgiving
We at Vu-Bridge strive to bring to you the less obvious…in life as well as bridge. And while our informal Calendar of Events for November could include Thanksgiving, we are going to eschew the expected and instead bring you:
RED LIPSTICK WEEK! Courage! Audacity! Perseverance! Fearlessness! That's what that slash of bright red lipstick is all about. It symbolizes the Amazon Warrior in all of us, men and women. And as bridge players, we need all these qualities. So gals, get out that old tube of Revlon's Cherries in the Snow (does anyone besides me remember that?) and let's go do battle at the table. Guys? Maybe a red pocket square might be more appropriate, or a dashing pair of red suspenders.
Want more? How about FAMILY STORY MONTH. We are into the season of family holidays and get-togethers and these observations celebrate the life stories we share. Good, bad, funny, sad-- these shared histories are what make us what we are. One thing I've noticed is that no two of us (I'm one of four girls) remember our stories the same way. How does this happen? We were all there, and have completely different memories of the event. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that in THEIR versions, I’m the one who got THEM in trouble. Not MY recollection!) Hmmm.
And this certainly applies to bridge. Who goofed on that hand? It certainly wasn't US, was it!
And so off we go to our Slam Hands today. Let's put on our bright red lipstick or pocked square and see if we end up the hero or bum of these stories....
MATTHIAS HUBERSCHWILLER starts us off with several stories where we can be the hero. We see how to make the opponents do our work for us, and how a lucky lead enables us to make the contract. Another of Matt’s hands echos our mantra, “No five-card suit in dummy should ever be ignored.” Plus he shows us a way to eke out a 75% chance of success from a dangerous hand.
BEN NORTON has six hands with a common theme: How to effectively choose between wearing the red pocket square or the red suspenders. Ooops… I mean how to choose between finesses. This, as Ben shows us, doesn’t have to be a guess. We have six examples of how to reason our way through those options, with several effective techniques and skill drills.
I have six hands for you also, each featuring my favorite techniques to get out of trouble. We have “No five-card suit in dummy should ever be ignored,” Strip and End Plays, protecting entries by ducking, and the Ruffing Finesse. Once we master basic techniques, we become better at spotting opportunities to show off our red lipstick.
If all this isn’t enough, Matt has two quizzes for us, one on the Jacoby 2NT, and the second a “Bid a Hand.”
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