tennis, life and a few things in between

No trump is the 5th suit -:) in bridge, valued above  ♠️♥️♦️♣️. Playing NT requires a little skill because there isn’t a trump suit. If a lowly 2♣️ is led and others don’t have ♣️, no matter how high the card is played, the lowest 2♣️ wins the trick.

• How to score rubber: one of the team to win two games which means 200 points (contract points) that records below the line.
• winning bid’s points – contract points – record below the line, overtricks are above the line, which doesn’t count toward rubber.

This above hand, I opened with 1N – even I’ve a void which isn’t too good in NT bidding.

Me NT, pass, my partner 2♥️, pass; I rebid at 4♥️. My right led with A♠️ which we ruffed with 3♥️. We made the game, winning 10 tricks.

One of the aspect of the game is keeping the score. To make a game means to get ^{100 pts}

• 3NT ^{40 for the 1st trick + 30 each for the 2nd/3rd}
• 4 ♠ ♥️majors ^{4 tricks × 30 points per trick}
• 5 ♦️♣  minors ^{5 tricks × 20 points per trick}

Contract points:

Overtrick points

Slam bonus

• a slam 12 tricks, earns a bonus of 500 points if not vulnerable and 750 points if vulnerable;
• a grand slam, all 13 tricks, earns a bonus of 1000 points if not vulnerable and 1500 points if vulnerable.

Penalty points

Double is one of bidding tools used in bridge, which means you dare your opponent if you don’t think s/he can fulfill the bid or the contract.

If they make their bid (# of tricks unaffected) they’ll score additional points.
If they fail to make the contract, their opponents will award extra points.

This hand, the player to my right opened with 1 ❤️, I doubled; to my left 1 ♠️, my partner doubled. 2 ❤️ was played. I led with 2♣️. They made two. 😂 They were too nice to tell me what my penalty was.

Here is the takeout double, one of the conventional tools.

This hand with 15 pts plus the ♣️ singleton: pass, me 1 ❤️, pass, 2 ❤️ from my partner. Looking at my ♦️ and especially ♠️, I didn’t go to 4 but we ended up making four.

Last week, my hands were mostly hearts, and tonight are mostly diamond ♦️.

One lesson that engraved in my mind tonight is 13 points for bidding are really important.

For example this hand: my partner and I both passed the initially round but when our opponent to my right bid 1♦️, I followed with 1❤️ and the hand ended up with 3❤️.  Although we’ve 9 ❤️ (J 10 7 4 3 and my partner has ❤️K 9 8 6) but we don’t have ❤️A & Q, actually we don’t have a single A – there goes 4 tricks. My lacking void or singleton put us in debt further.

整晚的♦️
这手 3❤️ … 输的没有然后了

Tonight is the heart night: I’ve so many good hands with hearts. No slams tho lol …

One hand I played diamonds and could have been a slam. Then I got lazy, instead playing ♦️9, I casually put out 6 which was closer to me. Yup, I lost the trick to ♦️7.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 😊 整晚都是❤️ 一手接一手的

This hand I’ve a singleton, was pretty happy but it was the trump suit 😂. I led ♠️ A K, then ♣️3 the third round. My left followed with ♣️A … We won the hand, hands down.

这手有个单张 高兴😊 … 然后 就没有然后了 – 人家的王牌🃏 😂

俺出的 ♠️ A K, 第三轮是♣️3 , 左手跟了♣️A … we won the hand, hands down [呲牙]