I'm happy to offer the following classes for very small groups of students online, using Zoom and Bridge Base Online.

The ideal class size is four students, but as few as two or as many as six can be included.

Typically classes run for about 90 minutes each, and the price is $25 per student. Purchase lessons in bulk: 4 classes for $90.

Here are class subjects available:

• Supervised bridge play, using hands from previous tournaments
• Defense, up to 8 lessons
• Play of the hand, up to 8 lessons
• Competitive Bidding, up to 6 lessons
• Popular conventions, up to 6 lessons
• 2/1 Game Force, up to 6 lessons
• Improving your Judgment: Doubles, 4 lessons

I also have shorter series of hands that are great ways to practice particular skills. Each session will consist of eight hands, with two classes available for each series.

I held a seminar for new players to online bridge about how to play on Bridge Base Online (BBO).

It was very well attended with over 40 guests. I was able to run through my list of things to touch on and take several good questions from the group.

You can play the full video, or you can skip to where I talk about specific topics. These links will take you to the specific spot in the video:

Picture from the Honors Bridge Club in Manhattan

Here's my latest email to the BridgeMojo information list:

Back to bridge classes

It's been an exciting year for Jane and me. As I write this, we're about to head out on our last long scheduled trip: 35 days cruising on the Crystal Symphony from Miami to San Diego, through the canal, and visiting Hawaii along the way. I'll be teaching and directing bridge games on sea days.

Bridge classes are starting up again in January. I'll be offering the Better Bridge series from Audrey Grant, all on Wednesday evenings, 7:00 p.m., at Arcadia High School.

Just prior to Christmas, Jane and I made our first visit on a trek to out-of-town bridge clubs, researching what works and what doesn't. We played an open game on Christmas Eve at the In Tempo Bridge Club in Scottsdale, AZ.

For those of us accustomed to smaller clubs, this one seems enormous! With very comfortable spacing between the tables, this former gymnasium was set up for a full sixty tables. It reminds me of the size of the InBetween club in Sarasota, FL, and I'm sure many of the other large Florida clubs are at least this size. Our game was a lightly-attended holiday game of sixteen tables.

Board 2 in the August 13 game raised an interesting bidding question.

The question by email:

Last night on Board #2, South opened 1NT. As North, how do I reach 3-4♣? If 2♣ means Stayman, should I bid 3♣ with only 7HCP?

Lately I've had some timely questions about a practice that seems to have become common especially among novice and intermediate players. I had an email from a director in Palm Desert who has noticed this practice, and a question about it at my most recent summer bridge class.

Players, as dummy, have been routinely reminding declarer which hand they're in. The common thing is tapping the table to remind declarer that she's "on the board."

When it was brought up in class, I said, "Well it has to stop!" which got a bit of a chuckle.

Let me go into detail about dummy's rights and privileges. They're quite explicitly called out in the Laws of Duplicate Bridge.

First, there's Law 42 B. "Qualified Rights" paragraph 2.:

2. He may try to prevent any irregularity.

Morris Jones
July 9, 2018

The 2017 edition of the Laws of Duplicate Bridge brought in many small changes, and one huge one: Law 23, the Comparable Call rule. The intent is to preserve a bridge result in place of the rather severe penalties of earlier laws. It's not a bad thing, but we'll be adapting to it for quite a while.

Imagine this situation: LHO (Left-hand opponent) is the dealer, but you're distracted with a good hand and you put down a 1♠ bid. The director is called, and your bid-out-of-turn is not accepted by the opponents.

The director cancels your bid, and the auction reverts to LHO who passes. Your partner has no restrictions, but is not allowed to act on the unauthorized information of your 1♠ bid. Partner opens 1♥. RHO passes.

My desk with computer monitor and Dealer4 machine. On the screen is the Dealer4 software with a hand displayed.

Most players take my word when I say, "The hands are randomly generated and dealt to the boards by a machine." That's all true as far as it goes, but what does it really mean?

Let me give you a peek behind the curtain and show you what it takes to make pre-dealt hands and hand records for a duplicate pairs game1.

Since the early days of generating bridge deals by computer, quite a bit of research has gone into the mathematics involved. Early random number generators were woefully inadequate for being able to replicate a hand-shuffled deck of cards.

Bonnie and Angela take on the robot pair.
Photo by Roy Wilson, April 2018
Roy's article on the Unit web site here

Last week was our first trial-run for having a pair of BBO (BridgeBase Online) robots fill a half-table at the BridgeMojo game.

What's wrong with having a sit-out?

Normally when the game has a half-table, on every round there's a pair who can't play. That pair has a 15-minute break. For the BridgeMojo game, that means seven pairs in the game will play twelve boards, and the rest will play fourteen.

To compensate for the difference, the total matchpoint score for those pairs is factored before comparing it with the other pairs in the game. Their final score is multiplied by 14/12 (7/6, 1.166). (Remember your fractions?) That brings every player up to a common baseline score.