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On the second hand, holding 5-5 in the majors, you recommend opening hearts. Playing Acol, your partner at first assumes you only have four. With 3 spades and 2 hearts they respond either 1NT. What is your second bid, now? If, on the other hand, you don't reverse - opening 1S - you can show your second suit after whatever partner bids. Or whatever the opponents bid. Partner can then give preference or make some other descriptive bid. I learned Acol over forty years ago and have no idea what the modern version looks like, but that seems like a weakness with the modern treatment.

I’ve been playing bridge all afternoon and strong twos and weak threes came up. What does it mean. X

Had trouble sleeping the other night but watching this video did the 'trick'🙂

Hi John, what do you mean by a 9 loser hand? Ta. X

Usual advice is to treat double below game as takeout & not penalty (though playing with robots it doesn’t work that way), how does that square with your suggestion?

Hand 1 If I was W I would assume that doubling 2D was a takeout, saying 'show me another suit partner'. It also implies shortness in D, although you can make an exception here due to your hand strength. If the opponents bid 1D instead and I'm the first caller, I would bid 1NT like you say with the example hand. Hand 2 I think you need to pass, trust that your partner will make a penalty double (as they MUST be short in hearts) and then you turn their takeout double into a penalty double by passing.

v low sound

Double

Sound is very low John

Thank you

Real teachers use whiteboards. This is impossible to follow.

Thank you

I found ‘ how to be a good declarer’ very useful. I shall use the advice tomorrow ! Ta.

Thank you 😊

G😊😊D VIDEO THANK YOU JHON

Good explanation 😊😊😊

Well done 👍

😊Thank you

Unbelievable lesson, very clear, thank you 🙏

Fantastic explanation 👏

❤FANTASTIC LESSON ❤

I assume he is teaching Acol?? The 1 NT rebid is 15-17.

Really clear and useful

No full screen... so left part obscures cards...

Sir, today i participated in a bridge tournament. It was conduct in Mitchell movement which is player up and board down format. But ranking of result was done in combining both EW and NS points. But so far in know in this format scores are compared separately between all EW and NS pairs and NS and EW will get prizes separately. My question is combination of players from both direction allowed as per bridge law.

How it is done in imp pairs. Kindly show with illustration with 4 boards.

by george - i think I've (finally) got it! Thank you

Inaudible and illegible. Useless.

Do you take vulnerability into account? I am going to talk to my semi-regular partner about this for sure. An exciting concept.

Love your videos!

Thank you John. Love your videos. Clear and concise 🙂

A great lesson-very clear and easy to understand.

Can you use this for standard bridge bidding?

Brilliantly explained ,thank you !

I learned and absorbed more from this lesson than I ever did from an in-person Bridge class of 10 2 hour lessons! Thank you!

Thank you for this clear video, may I ask .. is there a way to alert your partner you intend to transfer.. thanks

Thank you

Could be losing HAK off the top. Cue-bid 4C and see if partner can Cue-bid the HA...

On your first hand 4NT is precipitate as you have 2 suits without the Ace or King . A 4C cue-bid is a standout . If partner can make a return cue-bid of 4D - still safely below Game - you can now perhaps use Blackwood or even make a second cue-bid of 5C and partner knows you need controls from him in both pointed suits ....

Really bad audio

Hand 1: Pass over 1NT; 3C over 2NT. Also, despite only 5HCP, if partner opens a major, we should raise. Hand 2: Over 1NT, it's pretty close between Pass and 2C. The quacks tend to suggest passing but with fewer HCP, 2C would be clear. Over a 2NT opening, I would prefer to play 4M in a 5-3 fit if it is available rather than 3NT. Hand 3 is similar. 3NT is ok in the game zone, particularly if we do not have Puppet available, but in the slam zone we should find out if we have a 5-3 spade or diamond fit so as to bid the safest contract. Going directly to 6NT is a bit lazy here.

no audio

After a 1C opening, the normal response in Modern Acol with a weak hand of 5 diamonds and a 4 card major is 1 of the major. This is because the hand is only worth 1 constructive call and showing the major is more important. With a GF hand, you respond 1D and show spades on the second round. The modern style is even for invitational hands to respond in the major. The result of these changes is that we sometimes play in an inferior part score but our game and slam bidding becomes much easier. Practical results have shown this to be a good trade off, particularly at IMPs. The maths works differently in up-the-line systems like SAYC, SEF and Forum D. Now responding 1D is probably better but as this is a lesson on Acol, it is worth understanding how things have changed since the 1950s. On the A/KQxx/Axx/Jxxxx hand after a 1H opening, a good rule of thumb is to show the second suit if it is a good suit representing a possible source of tricks and raise directly, via a game-forcing raise or splinter, if the suit is weak. Since this club suit is so anaemic, I think a 2NT raise (if played as Jaocby-like) or the equivalent is a much better call. Or as Reese reputedly once said: "Don't bid bad suits in potential slam auctions". Some things haven't really changed from the 1950s.

1C-1NT is not 6-9 in traditional Acol but rather 8-10. In Modern Acol using Inverted Minors, it is often used to cover the gap between a good 2C raise and a preemptive 3C.

The LTC is functionally equivalent to the following point count system:- Ace = 3 King = 3 (unless singleton) Queen = 3 (unless singleton or doubleton) Jack = 0 Void = 9 Singleton = 6 Doubleton = 3 If I told you to use this system (3-3-3-0 + 9-6-3) instead of the Milton 4-3-2-1 + 5-3-1, you would call me an idiot. But this is precisely what you are being told to do when people suggest the raw LTC. You can vastly improve the LTC by subtracting half a loser for an ace and adding half a loser for a queen, just as you can improve Milton by adding half a point for an ace and subtracting half a point for an unsupported queen, but this adds complexity, which is usually what people are looking to avoid with the LTC. Beginners, please do not be fooled by the LTC marketing! This is just another form of point count system, just a much worse one than that which most players use. Finally, you cannot play good bridge just from counting points regardless of which system you are using. Raw points scores are a good starting point but you need to listen to the auction to evaluate properly.

Can you play Stayman with transfers?

In the first example, why would you bid blackwood at all instead of 6S directly, if you know that's where you are going to play?

Ty

Thank you John. Your lessons are wonderful. You make difficult concepts clear and concise. 😊

Best lesson I've ever had, far clearer than the lesson at the Bridge Club!