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 "Everybody Plays the Fool" Transfers by Marti Ronemus

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.

Question 1

  Your Hand
 4 3
 J 10 8 4 3
 A J 2
 K J 4
 
Q: 1 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 No-trumpPass
?


 Your choice:
A: 2: This is a simple, classic example. We've got five Hearts and we want Pard to bid them, so we bid the suit underneath, Diamonds. On our rebid, we will show Pard we only have five Hearts, but game-going values. So far, so good.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 2

  Your Hand
 J 10 8 4 3
 4 3
 J 4 2
 J 10 4
 
Q: 2 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 No-trumpPass
?


 Your choice:
A: 2: We need to transfer Pard to Spades. Why? Our hand is completely worthless unless Spades are trump. Pard will really Play the Fool struggling in 1 No-trump opposite this mess. We wpi;d be a true Crummy Dummy, but in Spades, we are worth something. On our rebid, we will Pass.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 3

  Your Hand
 J 10
 4 3
 A K 9 8 4 2
 K 10 4
 
Q: 3 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 No-trumpPass
?


 Your choice:
A: 3 No-trump: Were you wanting to transfer to Diamonds? (We'll eventually tackle that.) Were you wanting to BID Diamonds? No, no, no. Then you'd really be Playing the Fool. That suit is a HUGE money-maker in No-trump. What about those ratty majors? Listen, Pard's got about 16 points, and they are likely to be heavily slanted toward the majors. You've got game-going values. Just do it.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 4

  Your Hand
 9 8 7 6 4 3
 A J 3
 K 9 2
 3
 
Q: 4 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 No-trumpPass
?


 Your choice:
A: 2: We want to transfer to Spades. Indeed they are ugly, but for heaven's sake, there are SIX of them! You've got a guaranteed eight-card fit. Your hand is enormously valuable in Spades. Our rebid will invite.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Question 5

  Your Hand
 A 9 5 4 3
 K J 8 4 3
 Q 5 4
 
 
Q: 5 - South:
SouthWestNorthEast
--1 No-trumpPass
?


 Your choice:
A: 2: We're going to start out by transferring to Spades. On our next bid, we'll show our Hearts and Pard will know we are five-five. We start transferring to the higher-ranked suit though.

And now that we feel a little less foolish... let's try a hand.

Your result so far:
Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

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Overall Results

Your results:   out of    Average: 

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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