Friday, March 20, 2020

Count

My favorite partner and I decided to support our local clubs with the ACBL "Black Point" game on BBO. Entry is $5 each (many clubs in the US only charge $5 per pair, although in the Boston area it's usually $10-12). It takes 2 full hours to play 18 boards so it's excruciatingly slow.

But a couple of things came up that were perhaps worth the entry fee.


While, I've known the mechanism (and name) of "Last train" for a long time, it had never actually come up before in the heat of battle--at least not knowingly. Here it was in the flesh. We got to a decent 6S contract (made even more decent by getting a club lead).

The second thing that came up is that it turns out that we don't play the same count signals (and haven't done for several years, it seems).  We play UDCA, as I do with almost all of my partners, but once a suit has been broken, we play present count, right? But do we play present count upside down or right-way-up? Turns out that all the "good" players play it right-side-up. What about you?


3 comments:

  1. Having learned to play bridge "at home", where count mostly seems the default, rather than attitude, I have always been singularly focused on working out my partner's (original...) shape. I've grown accustomed to playing initial upside down count, although I do not consider that "better" or more desirable in any way. Just what I'm used to.

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  2. Standard present count after a suit has been broken.

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  3. No clue Robin, I am not that advanced. I play mostly count anyway, so I work out the attitude by working out the shape, etc. It depends what is needed too...
    SA

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