I teach two intermediate classes each morning for about an hour and fifteen minutes each with a fifteen minute break. Most often one topic is defense and the other is declarer play. The goal is to teach you how to think at the bridge table. You cannot play this game by memorizing a lot of rules! There are just too many exceptions, and in the heat of battle the rules you have so faithfully memorized often go flying out the window.
Instead you need to learn how to analyze each situation logically, one step at a time, developing a process that you can use on every hand you play. This adds tremendously to your enjoyment of the game and to your confidence.
In each class I talk for about 15 minutes, then each table simultaneously plays pre-duplicated hands designed to illustrate the topic. When all the tables are done with each hand, everyone puts his or her cards face up on the table and we discuss the bidding, the play, and the defense. This leads to questions on many different aspects of the game.
These classes attract people with widely different levels of experience. The hands are challenging enough so that even very experienced players don’t get most of them right, but at the same time they are easy enough to explain so that even very new players can understand the thought process.
The afternoon Supervised Duplicate class uses 12 pre-duplicated hands played simultaneously and scored at matchpoints. You can ask questions. After 4 hands, there is discussion of each hand with the cards on the table. There might be questions about the bidding, declarer play, defense, or any combination of them.
Here’s a hand from the lesson on Discards:
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West North East South
1♦ 2♥ 2♠
P 3♠ P 4♠
All Pass
Opening lead: ♥4
East’s 2♥ weak jump overcall is comparable to a weak two bid, usually showing a reasonable six card suit with 6-9 HCP. It frequently suggests a good lead. South’s 2♠ bid guarantees 5+ spades and 10+ HCP (the 5 and 10 Rule). It is forcing for one round, but not to game, even if you are playing Two Over One. South should usually make a negative double with 4 spades and 8+ points (no upper limit), or with 5+ spades and 8-10 HCP. West should not bid his clubs. Bid over partner’s preempt only with a fit or a very strong hand. West has neither.
It’s never a bad idea to lead partner’s suit (provided you want to play with him again!).
East wins the first trick as cheaply as possible with the ♥8 and continues with the ♥K and ♥A. West anticipates making two discards. Why not discard the ♦KQ so you can ruff a diamond at trick four? After all, declarer may have a singleton diamond, in which case the defense doesn’t have a diamond trick coming. This is the only way to defeat 4♠.
Consider discarding from shortness, especially with more than one discard coming, so you can ruff the suit you are discarding.