The big event is nearly here and on Saturday next the Charity Game kicks off the 2016 Bermuda Regional.

Chairwoman Kathy Keane and her committee have been hard at work almost as soon as the previous Regional was put to bed and we can expect another quality event. Heading the Director team will once again be Sol Weinstein and we can also expect another quality Daily Bulletin from Janet Evans.

There is a ton of bridge to be played at the Regional with games starting early in the morning and ending at midnight — the keener players play three sessions and some 10 hours of Bridge a day! All of that demands that players stay calm and pace themselves during the week and if they are going to get results players need to prepare well for the crammed schedule. With that in mind, here is a guide to help you along both before and during the event.

BEFORE THE GAME:

Sit with your partner(s) and go through the convention card in detail.

Agree on all your systems, signals, leads, etc well ahead of time. The card has recommended bids and leads so agree whether you are following them or doing something different. The system is important, but not as important as you and your partner playing the same one!

SIMPLIFY your system! Bridge is a game of getting to the most reasonable contract as often as possible — you cannot hope to get to the perfect contract every time. So clogging your brain with esoteric sequences that come up once in a blue moon is, in my opinion, a losing proposition.

AT THE EVENT

Move on after a bad result — it is done!

Do the normal things! Don’t try to be cute.

Take your plus scores

Let them play the misfits, stay patient.

Don’t go searching for the magic slam ! A game plus overtricks will usually score well.

BIDDING

Again, keep it simple. Partner cannot see your hand so a bid that makes perfect sense to you may not mean anything to partner. Sacrifice the “perfect” bid for something that cannot be misunderstood.

Try and understand which of you is “in control” of a bidding sequence. Just because you have the strongest hand at the table does not mean that you should control the auction. For instance, when you open 1NT what does partner know about your hand? 15-17 HCP, No singletons, No 5 card major, probably no 6 card suits, not 2-2 in the majors — that is a lot of information. What do you know about partners hand? Nothing! So who should guide the auction to the final contract? Correct — partner!

Also, when you open a weak two bid or a pre-emptive 3 bid you have described your hand and partner is in control — you are not permitted to bid again unless partner asks you to by making a forcing bid!

If you overcall, make sure you either have a good suit or a good hand! For instance, RHO opens 1 Club and you hold AJ109x, Kxx, xxx, xx. A One Spade overcall is fine as you have a good suit (if you had six spades I would overcall 2 Spades). If you have Q8763,K74, K32, Qx in my book even though you have more points than the previous hand this is not a hand where you should overcall — your main suit is awful and if partner has a good Heart, Diamond or Club suit you can help if LHO is playing in NT so you should not be suggesting a Spade lead to partner. Remember that partner will, nine times out of ten, lead your suit!

Be ultra-disciplined in your bidding opposite an unpassed partner ... if partner has passed, especially if you are non-vulnerable in third seat, the gloves are off! This is because if you have a weak hand in third seat your bidding approach now becomes “destructive” instead of constructive.

Do not bid a Grand Slam unless you can claim 13 tricks without seeing dummy! The risk/reward in bidding a Grand Slam is not great.

Some specific things to discuss are:

Do you play systems on after partner opens a NT and opponents interfere?

Do you play a forcing NT? Does it apply if you are a passed hand and bid 1NT after partner has opened?

What system do you play when opponents open a no trump? Does it remain the same in the pass-out seat? Is it different if they open a weak no trump?

What system do you play after partner opens a weak two bid? Does 2NT ask for a feature or a singleton?

Clarify what your splinter bids mean! A splinter bid is a mild slam try asking partner whether you have a great fit ... partner cannot judge that if he doesn’t know your point range or whether you have a singleton or void!

What sort of Blackwood do you play? Standard or Roman Key Card

DEFENCE and LEADS

Lead partner’s suit unless you KNOW something else IS better, not if you THINK something else MAY BE better!

What do you lead from a suit headed by the Ace King — the Ace or the King?

What do you lead from xxx — low or MUD (middle up down)? Is it different when partner has bid the suit?

Do you always lead fourth best against no trump?

Do you always give count when following suit — up the line with an odd number, down the line with an even number?

What discards do you use? Standard (high card encouraging, low card discouraging) or something like Lavinthal (my preference) where your first discard is always in a suit that YOU DO NOT WANT and the size of the card says which of the other two suits you do want. So if declarer is drawing trump in Spades and you discard a HIGH CLUB it says you want a Heart (the higher ranking of the remaining suits) and if you discard a low Diamond it says you want a Club, the lower ranking of the remaining suits.

Stay patient in defence — let declarer play the hand. More often than not a busy defence ends up giving declarer more tricks than were available at the start!

DECLARER PLAY

When you are declarer, plan the play at trick one.

If everything looks good, plan for bad breaks — if everything looks bad, play as if everything is sitting exactly as you want it!

Don’t always rush to draw trumps! Sometimes you have to set up a side suit or a cross-ruff and you need to stay calm in getting there. The irrational fear of one of your winners being ruffed early often leads to makeable contracts being turned into ... un-makeable ones!

If you get to a good contract that fails because the cards lie badly remember that it is the same for all the other pairs with those cards.

So, go and enjoy it and remember that you cannot improve at this game without practice, reading, and learning from your mistakes. The post-mortem after the session should not only be enjoyable but useful!

See you next week!