[John Josephs]

The Acol system does not normally include a strong No Trump although some players use it.  In the past many players used to play weak No trump when not vulnerable and strong when vulnerable but the possibilities are really endless.

It is a matter of partnership agreement.

 

[John Josephs]

There are various versions of Jacoby and if you sit down with a new partner you ought to check exactly what version they play.

I prefer Bernard’s version which is

New suit at 3 level = singleton or void in that suit.

New suit at 4 level = Good 5 card suit with a good source of tricks. The hand will probably also have a singleton but it’s best to show the 5 card side suit if it’s a good suit.

Jump to 4 of the major is minimum

Bid of 3 of the major is strong but without the ability to show an extra feature as above.

Some people recommend bidding 4 of a suit to show a void but this takes up a lot of room and I prefer to bid at the 3 level and if you get the chance to bid the suit again to show a void.

EG. 1S  – 2NT – 3C – 3D (cue bid) 4C showing a void.

Good luck

[John Josephs]

In the Acol Club if I am playing with a regular partner against opponents who have not played together before, we often invite the opponents to ask one another about their bids if they aren’t sure. This is largely because we don’t wish to be in a situation where, for example one person thinks they are playing Jacoby 2NT over a major and the other thinks that 2NT is natural.

 

 

[John Josephs]

I hate being the first to answer as I usually get it wrong.

West obviously has KS for his 3NT bid (unless he’s a gambler) and it depends how the spades are divided.

Partner’s 2 suggests an odd number of cards.  If he has a singleton, you are probably sunk anyway but would West have made a take out double with 4?

So assume partner has 3 giving declarer King doubleton.  So again, it matters not whether you play the Queen or Ace as if you play the Ace and another, when partner gets in again, he can play a third spade.

So what if partner actually had a doubleton but led the 2 anyway?  This gives declarer 3 to the King.   I would probably play the Queen in the hope that declarer will make the mistake of playing the King in case partner has led away from the Ace.

[John Josephs]

I am a great disciple of Mike Lawrences’s approach to overcalling. I would certainly overcall 1 spade with Brian’s example hand.  You do need a very good suit and opening values, though.

[John Josephs]

Helen, you need to post the “player” link to the sessions.

[John Josephs]

Brian, you are quite right.

[John Josephs]

In BBO casual clubs, whether playing IMPs or match points your scores are compared with a maximum of 15 other scores. Sometimes you can be the first to play a board and get 50% until other scores come in (known as an “orphan” board). Or, as in your case, there may only be one other score at the time so you get 100%, 50% or 0%. This usually changes though unless it is one of the last boards you play.

As you said in the introduction, playing in the main bridge club, most of the other players use SAYC or similar systems. If you wanted to compare against players who mainly play Acol based systems, you could set up your table in the Acol bridge club which is a public club so you just create your table as before.

Many of your members play in the Acol Club and, who knows, by playing a session in the Acol club you might get some more!

[John Josephs]

With a heart stop

[John Josephs]

Northampton is reopening tomorrow. We did reopen for a while in the autumn using large tables and screens but we hope to be as normal as possible. Initially we are having two face to face sessions as well as continuing with online bridge as well using RealBridge.

[John Josephs]

I would recommend trying the Acol Club.  Standard is very mixed and you can just join a table or start a new one.

 

 

[John Josephs]

The Acol club was set up in 2004 or thereabouts and is a public club so that anyone is free to play.  We do, however run their own tournaments and before the pandemic we had annual get togethers.

You can read about the Acol club here

http://www.acolatbbo.org.uk

 

 

[John Josephs]

I cannot imagine anyone not opening the second hand 1 diamond. The hand has 12 high card points including three Aces, 5/4 shape and a singleton. Aces are especially valuable in suit contracts.

The first hand is not so clear cut as Aces are not so valuable at no trumps but the hand has a 10 and 4 -4-3-2 shape. You also need to consider that most other players are likely to open 1NT. If the hand had been 4-3-3-3 it might not be so clear cut.

[John Josephs]

Click in the chat window and it pops up.

[John Josephs]

We have used RealBridge in our club for some months. Quite easy to set up and run, provided you get some training. We were lucky in this. It is certainly more difficult to cheat but you do have to smarten yourself up a bit.

But for simple social bridge the Acol club in BBO is best.

 

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