Classes
Play of the Hand
Mondays 7 pm – 9 pm
Bidding gets you to the contract—but card play determines whether you make it! This eight-week Play of the Hand course will teach you how to look at dummy, make a plan, and give yourself the best chance of taking the tricks you need. We’ll cover the essential techniques every bridge player should know, including developing tricks through promotion and length, finessing, trumping losers, managing entries, watching what the opponents are doing, and handling suits effectively. Most importantly, you’ll learn to stop playing one card at a time and start thinking about the entire hand. If you frequently find yourself in a perfectly good contract wondering, “Now what?”—this class is for you.
Register HERE.
September 14: Making a Plan
September 21: Promotion and Length
September 28: The Finesse
October 5: Trumping and Discarding
October 12: Watching Out for Entries
October 19: Watching Out for Opponents
October 26: No Class
November 2: Managing the Suit
November 9: Putting it All Together
BEST VALUE! All eight lessons with textbook included: $150
Individual lessons: $20 per class
Play of the Hand in the 21st Century Textbook: $25
Defense Decisions
Wednesdays 7 pm – 9 pm
Defense is where partnerships win—or give away—the most tricks. Defense Decisions is a practical course focused on the choices you face when declarer has the contract: What should you lead? What is partner trying to tell you? Should you continue a suit or switch? When should you play aggressively, and when should you sit back and wait? This course will help you learn to think like a defender, using the auction, dummy, partner’s signals, and declarer’s play to work out what is happening around the table. Good defense isn’t about memorizing endless rules—it’s about gathering clues and making better decisions.
September 2, September 9, September 16, September 23 and September 30
Individual lessons: $20 per class
Declarer Decisions
Wednesdays 7 pm – 9 pm
Good declarer play is not a collection of tricks—it is a process of deduction.
Before playing to the first trick, declarer must gather the clues: What do the opening lead and bidding reveal? Which cards are dangerous? Where are the missing honors likely to be? What must happen before the opponents gain the lead?
In Declarer Decisions, we will examine the choices declarer faces on every hand: developing tricks, managing entries, handling the trump suit, choosing between a finesse and an alternative line, keeping the dangerous opponent off lead, and deciding when to change plans as new information appears.
Like Sherlock Holmes, we will learn to eliminate the impossible—and discover that the remaining line, however improbable, may be the only one that succeeds.
This course is designed for advancing players who know the basic techniques of declarer play but want to become better at deciding which technique to use, when to use it, and why
October 7, October 14, October 21 and October 28
Individual lessons: $20 per class