Bridge Courses

Learn Bridge - Bridge Lessons - supervised bridge- bridge trip to Israel- educational duplicate bridge weekends- children's bridge course-learn-taster sessions- bridge in a weekend

7 week beginners course

This course is designed for absolute beginners who may have never played cards before, and for players whose knowledge may be a little precarious.
Each lesson is divided into two parts - a lecture of about 45 minutes followed by playing of hands connected to the theory part of the lesson. A comprehensive set of notes is given out.

The following is a resume of the subjects covered in this course:

Week 1: The Absolute Basics & Mechanics of the Game, Hand Assessment

Week 2: The Opening Bid of One of a Suit

Week 3: The Opening Bid of One and Two No Trumps, The Finesse, Scoring

Week 4: Limit Responses in the same suit, Limit Responses in No-Trump

Week 5: Responses in a New Suit, Suit establishment, Entries, Rubber Scoring

Wee Week 6: Overcalls (Simple and jump overcalls), Opening leads,

Wee Week 7: Double, The Redouble, Blackwood Convention

Consolidation

Many people who have taken one of Harold’s courses and are now playing regularly, perhaps coming to Supervised Play, have said how helpful it would be to have the occasional refresher covering particular points in the bidding or in the play. So what we have done is put together a programme of what we call ‘consolidation lessons’, the idea being that every 3^rd week or so – that seems quite often enough for everyone’s taste – groups of like minded people, typically who have done a course together, meet for a refresher lesson on a particular topic of choice. At most we allow 8 people for each of these sessions so that everyone gets answers to their own particular questions.

Consolidation lessons are run primarily by our Associates, Alan Shackman and Ian Kay. To find out more, to join an existing group or perhaps to set up some consolidation sessions for your own group of players contact Alan on 020 8361 7639 or alanshackman@btinternet.com.

We emphasise that a programme of consolidation lessons can be tailored to your own particular requirements, but here are some typical topics aimed at those who have completed the beginners course:

§ opening bids with balanced and unbalanced hands

§ the bidding after an opening bid of 1NT

§ limit bids and other responses after an opening bid of 1 of a suit

§ opener’s rebid having opened 1 of a suit

§ overcalling

§ Blackwood and when to use it

§ ‘putting it all together’

and on the play

§ opening leads against suit and no trump contracts

§ suit establishment

§ the finesse

§ ruffing losers

§ hold-up play

Topics for those who have completed the intermediates course include

§ Stayman and overall revision of bidding after a 1NT opening

§ Acol strong twos and 2§

§ take out double

§ pre-empts

§ strong overcalls, 1NT overcalls

§ review of responding when holding a strong hand

§ encouraging/discouraging signals and petering

§ when not to draw trumps immediately

§ avoidance play

§ the rule of 11 and other points in no trump play

How To Play Duplicate Course To Play Duplicate Course To Play Duplicate Course
This 5 week course describes the similarities and differences between social/rubber bridge and competition duplicate bridge. Over the 5 weeks the following lectures will take place:-
Week 1	The mechanics of duplicate, boards, bidding boxes etc
Week 2	How to score / how to estimate your score
Week 3	The etiquette and some rules
Week 4	Tactics :- Part scores or - Games
Week 5	Tactics :- Slams - Doubling

10 session beginners course for Children

spread over ten days 2 hours each afternoon for two weeks

This course is designed for absolute beginners who may have never played cards before.
Each lesson is divided into two parts - a lecture of about 45 minutes followed by playing of hands connected to the theory part of the lesson. A comprehensive set of notes is given out.

The following is a resume of the subjects covered in this course:

session 1: The Absolute Basics & Mechanics of the Game, Hand Assessment

session 2: The Opening Bid of One of a Suit

session 3: The Opening Bid of One and Two No Trumps, The Finesse, Scoring

session 4: Responses in the same suit (Limit responses)

session 5: Choice of opening bids, Scoring

session 6: Responses in No- Trumps, Suit establishment, Entries, Ducking

session 7: Unlimited responses, Unblocking play, Holding up

session 8: Responses to the Weak No-Trump (The Weak take-out, the Strong Jump response) Blind leads,

more on finesses

session 9: Overcalls (Simple and jump overcalls), more Opening leads,

session 10: Revision, The Double, The Redouble, The Blackwood Convention

7 week Intermediates' Course Part a
This course is for players who have successfully completed the beginners course or for players who wish to expand their knowledge in bidding and play. Each lesson is divided into two parts; a lecture of about 45 minutes followed by playing of hands connected to the theory part of the lesson. A comprehensive set of notes is given out. The following is a resume of the subjects covered each week of the course.
Week 1	One no-trump and responses strong & weak
Week 2	The Opening Bid of One of a Suit
Week 3	Opener’s rebids, Covering an honour with an honour,
Week 4	The Acol strong two (Simple signals, to draw trumps or not to draw trumps?) Simple Signals
Week 5	The Informative Double More finessing
Week 6	Unlimited responses & Revise other replies, Unblocking Play Holding up Chicago/Duplicate Scoring
Week 7	Double, The Redouble, Blackwood Convention revised plus Gerber & No Trump Quantitive bidding

7 week Intermediates' Course Part b
This course is for players who have successfully completed the beginners course or for players who wish to expand their knowledge in bidding and play. Each lesson is divided into two parts; a lecture of about 45 minutes followed by playing of hands connected to the theory part of the lesson. A comprehensive set of notes is given out. The following is a resume of the subjects covered each week of the course.
Week 1	The Acol 2Club opening bid (and responses)
Week 2	Pre-emptive opening bids of three of a suit
Week 3	Strong no-trumps and prepared bids in the minors, avoidance plays
Week 4	Forcing to game responses
Week 5	Cue Bidding
Week 6	Weak Twos
Week 7	Simple red suit transfers

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