Isn't it astonishing how many Golden Oldies speak (sing?) directly to us bridge players? Today's tune, 1971's "Everybody Plays the Fool" could be our anthem as we struggle to learn new conventions.
My friend and bridge mentor, Easybridge!'s Edith McMullin, says you don't own a convention until you play it wrong ten times. Oh how sadly true.
To become a decent bridge player, you have to have a high tolerance for ambiguity and for playing the fool. Fortunately as we get older, people tend to forget the stupid things we did in about seven minutes.
Today and Monday we are going to work with transfers (for the majors). And boy, will we look like fools while we do it.
The purpose of transfers is to force the Big Hand to name the suit first. (This BTW is also why we play Stayman.) It's worth about a half-trick each time we can have the opening lead coming INTO the big hand.
When we as responder hold a five card or longer major, we name the suit UNDER the one we want Pard to bid. Want Hearts? Bid Diamonds. Want Spades? Bid Hearts. Point count is from zero to infinity and beyond.
Monday we will tackle our rebids. Today will be comparatively easy.
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