Editorial by Paul Bowyer
Welcome to V-Blue, the e-magazine for those fresh to the wonderful game of bridge. This cleverly designed piece of software is devised to help you understand the game better, to reinforce the learning from your classes that you (probably) attend and to entertain you in the process. What could be better than that?
Here we appreciate that poring over a bridge-related problem in a book or a newspaper is difficult and interpreting hand diagrams and working your way mentally through the play of the cards is a hard task. In fact, it is a difficult skill that takes ages to acquire. With VuBridge you have the cards appear on the screen in front of you and it is though you are at the table, playing cards in real life. Not only that but your teacher is forever at your side, nudging you at the crucial moment, giving you helpful hints and tips about what to do next. You can’t go wrong when you learn with VuBridge!
This software is also useful for teachers, giving them a way of getting over the fundamental points of the game to their students. What are the advantages? Well, in a normal classroom setting you may only have time to play, say, four “set” hands and each player will be declarer once. In VuBridge students can play all the hands as declarer and hence gain far more useful practice, especially in card-play. Whether this is done within the class or at home afterwards is entirely up to the teacher. After all, flexibility is an asset. In this first issue there are three series for you. The “general series of eight hands is designed to get you used to how VuBridge works and sits you (mostly) as declarer playing the hand in set contracts. If you then try the two other series, each of six deals, you will then get to practise opening 1NT. As ever, though, you get to play in the resulting contract and can test your card-play skills. Why wait?
Series #2029 - Opening 1 Notrump (SA)
This set of six deals is a gentle introduction to VuBridge and focuses on the opening bid of 1NT.
In the style which we use here (known as Standard American, not to be confused with Standard and Poor) this opening bid promises a balanced hand of 15-17 points. In this context "balanced" means a hand with a suit pattern of 4∙3∙3∙3 (the most balanced hand you can have) or 4∙4∙3∙2 or even 5∙3∙3∙2.
Here we are going to ask you about opening the bidding with 1NT.
In Standard American methods such an opening bid shows 15-17 points and a balanced hand.
All you have to do is to answer Yes or No to these questions - meaning YES, this hand should be opened 1NT or NO, this hand should not be opened 1NT.
Easy enough? Let's go!
Quiz: Opening 1 Notrump
Series #2030 - Opening 1 Notrump - Part II (SA)
This set of six deals is a further introduction to VuBridge and continues to focus on the opening bid of 1NT.
In general style (also known as Standard American) this opening bid promises a balanced hand of 15-17 points. In this context "balanced" means a hand with a suit pattern of 4∙3∙3∙3 or 4∙4∙3∙2 or even 5∙3∙3∙2.
This set of eight deals is a gentle introduction to VuBridge and shows you how this program can help you learn how to play the cards at bridge. We can give you a useful nudge with the bidding, too...
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