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Sitouts Banned! 
We have done away with sit-outs, for once and for all. When we have a half-table in the game, we enter the computer as a participant in the game, in order to make a full table.
When it would otherwise be your turn to sit out, instead you play against the computer. Your score vs. the computer counts in the game. The computer is always disqualified, so it doesn't take away your masterpoints - in fact, the awards actually increase because the game is larger.
Everybody appreciates playing against "Ace O'Matic." In fact, some people are disappointed when we have full tables of "flesh & blood" players! | |
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Replay At Home  You can now replay the boards you've played at the club - in the comfort of your own home. Replay the exact same hands with any of several commercial bridge programs such as GIB or Bridge Baron if you own one. If you have not purchased one, we have a free program for you to download. Click the button for instructions. |  |
| Free Bridge Lessons | |
Rich answers your questions every Tuesday prior to the game.  |
Thursdays, we have a vugraph presentation. Rich reviews interesting deals of the past week. Each board in question is projected onto our large video screen for all to see as we discuss it. |
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Greetings!
The Deal of the Week comes to you courtesy of the Wednesday Game. This is board 22 from this week's game. |
 | An Aggressive Preempt |
What would you open in second seat with the South hand?
Scroll down for the answer. |
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If you like this analysis, join us for the next Wednesday Game.
On the first Wednesday of each month, we run the "Wednesday Game." As usual, the boards are preduplicated, but after this game you will get expert analyses of the hands you have just played.
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| Did You Know? |
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 Bridge Ace has been featured often in newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, ACBL Bulletin and Better Bridge Magazine.
You can read many of the articles about the club by clicking here. |
| The Answer |
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How about 4♠? That's not everybody's style with only a seven-card suit, but there are good reasons for this apparently extreme preempt.
- N-S are white vs. red and, given a decent suit and a weak hand, there is a lot to be said for preempting one more than usual.
- Does KQT98xx qualify as a decent suit? Certainly it does, those fine intermediates provide additional safety.
- It's actually a bonus that South does not possess the ♠A! How so? We like our preempts to be long on offense and short on defense, which makes the South spade holding almost perfect for preemption (possession of the ♥J would be utter perfection!), as it has no defensive prospects.
- By the same token, possession of the ♥K is a negative for the preempt, it's a defensive value.
- It is often said that second seat is the worst position for making dubious preempts, but that is quite irrelevant here, this looks like a normal preempt in the circumstances!
The Entire Deal:
Careful defense beats 4♠ doubled by one trick.
Next consider West's bid over the 4♠ preempt. Opposite a passed hand, pass is a possibility. So is the double made in the auction above. That double is penalty-oriented for most people, but suppose that West decided that he wanted to try his luck at the five-level. What does 4NT mean? There was a time when this bid was a three-suited take-out but nowadays it might also show a two-suited and initiate a scrambling auction. So, here, if West really, really had to propel his side to the five-level, he could bid 4NT... as it happens East would bid 5♣ with his 2-2-5-4 shape... and West will bid 5♦ saying, "Heart-diamond two-suiter." 5♦ makes, thanks to the winning heart finesse.
Surprisingly, even the awful contract of 5♥ makes! The defense leads spades, declarer ruffing the second round. Now he must knock out the ♣A before drawing trumps. Dummy can ruff the spade continuation if necessary, and when the ♥K is doubleton onside it's eleven unlikely tricks! |
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You can follow the play with the Bridge Movie on our website. |
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The Nicest Club
815 NE 15th Ave
