Partnership Agreements - Writing them down by Stan Fuhrmann

Basic Bridge - Playing a NT hand by Kaye Miller

In Matthew and Pamela Granovetter's book, Forgive Me, Partner, Larry Cohen has a chapter about partnership agreements. Put in a nutshell, he recommends that you write down your agreements, including the obvious.

After reading this chapter, I began creating my own system notes for my most regular partnership. Both my partner and I are interested in building up our system, most of it derived by cutting and pasting from various other sources.


We started with a Kaplan-Sheinwold based system (5-card majors, weak NT), but have heavily modified it with ideas from Marty Bergen, Jeff Rubens, Marshall Miles and some of our own. I suspect that both Kaplan and Sheinwold would object to our calling our system K/S after these extensive modifications, but at least it gives our opponents some idea of what we are playing.


After six months, I discovered that putting everything into a single document was not practical. Some areas require less modification than others and should be stored separately to facilitate updating.


At present, we have completed documentation (approximately 80-100 pages) on:


Constructive Bidding
Competitive Bidding
Roman Key Card Kickback
Jacoby 2NT
Coping with Interference
Leads and Carding
Continuations after 2§/1¨
Reminders about Uncommon Auctions (a 1 page cheat sheet we review before a session)
A few miscellaneous documents


Notes save on arguments and misunderstandings in any partnership.

The purpose of this column is to develop fundamental principals of play. After reading the article, try to apply these principles to the example hand at the end of the story.

The play of no trump can present problems even to the most experienced player. Declarer must work to establish tricks in his long suits. How does one go about this successfully?

First, choose a suit with both honors and length, then go about knocking out the opponents' high cards to cash your winners.

Second, realize that in order to knock out the opponent' strength, you will have to relinquish the lead. At the same time, you must attempt to set up your suits before they can set up theirs.

Third, take finesses if necessary to set up your suits without giving up the lead.

Fourth, once you have eliminated the opponents' high cards in your suits, even your small cards may be winners.

Fifth, cash your winners in the short hand first so you can end in the long hand to take all your tricks. Never block your entries to your long suits. Leaving winners stranded will defeat the contract. Pay careful attention to your entries back and forth.

Sixth, when necessary, take care to duck a trick early if it helps you keep control. Eddie Kantar emphasizes the need to lose a trick early by ducking one around in a suit that is headed by both the ace and king with 7 or 8 cards between the two hands… as in Axx opposite Kxxx.

Give 'em a hand…
A BIG hand!

"Eight ever,
Nine never!"
refers to finessing for the queen when you hold eight cards in a suit between you and dummy and playing for the drop with nine..

Concentration is important at all levels of the game!