Bridge Unleashed by Tracey

The rule that separates a good bidder from a sloppy one.

Let's talk about reverses. Because this is where I see even experienced players get themselves into trouble.

A reverse = your second bid is higher than your first bid AND forces partner to the 3 level to give preference.

Example: You open 1:diamonds:. Partner responds 1:spades:. You bid 2:hearts: — that's a reverse. Now partner can't stop at 2:diamonds: if they wanted to.

The rule is non-negotiable: 17+ HCP to reverse.

Not 15. Not 16. Not "well, I have really good shape." Seventeen.

Why? Because you're forcing your partnership to a higher level, and if you don't have the values, you're committing a felony against your partner's future point count. They'll play you for a real hand — and when you don't have it, disaster follows.

Inside the 1NT Forcing Workshop, we cover exactly when to reverse, when to jump-shift instead, and when to just quietly rebid 2:clubs: and let the auction breathe.

Bid what you have. Not what you wish you had.

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Bridge Unleashed | 1NT Forcing Workshop

Plot twist: your twos and threes might be more valuable than your kings.

When partner shows a singleton or void, small cards opposite become instant ruffing power.

Every little card = another trump trick waiting to happen.

Meanwhile, that big fat King sitting opposite a singleton? Practically useless. It’ll never cash. It just gets in the way.

Re-evaluate your hand the moment partner reveals shortness.

Sometimes a “weak” hand is secretly a slam hand.

Save this. It changes how you count HCP.

LOL. 👵

Pronunciation: /ɛl oʊ ɛl/ (noun)

Usage: “I thought I had an easy draw, but I got paired against two LOLs who completely dismantled me.”

It is the opponent you underestimate exactly once.

Long before LOL became internet shorthand for laughter, Bridge players used it—often affectionately and humorously—for **Little Old Lady**.

The stereotype is legendary: an older woman who appears perfectly harmless, quietly organizes her cards, offers you a peppermint, and then proceeds to destroy your contract with flawless defense.

Do not be fooled.

She has probably played thousands more boards than you have. She recognizes the auction, remembers the odds, counts the hand, and has seen your “clever” play approximately four hundred times before.

By the time you realize what happened, she has already entered the score and moved to the next table.

In Bridge, experience rarely announces itself.

Sometimes it just smiles politely while taking you down two.

Bridge has long been a game enjoyed by world leaders, innovators, and lifelong learners.

Deng Xiaoping appreciated bridge not just as a pastime, but as a way to stay mentally sharp. Every deal challenges your memory, judgment, and ability to adapt—proof that learning never stops at the bridge table.

There are books about bridge, and then there are books that changed bridge.

Charles H. Goren’s Point Count Bidding in Contract Bridge belongs firmly in the second category.

Goren didn’t invent the idea of assigning points to honor cards, but he became the great popularizer of point-count bidding, helping move American bridge away from more complicated hand-evaluation methods and toward the familiar language generations of players learned:

A = 4
K = 3
Q = 2
J = 1

Simple. Teachable. And enormously influential.

By the middle of the 20th century, Goren had become one of the most recognizable faces of bridge in America. His books, newspaper columns and television appearances helped take bridge beyond the card room and put it into millions of homes.

And look at this copy.

Revised edition. 26th printing. September 1961.
The cover already boasts “OVER 1,025,000 COPIES SOLD.”

Even the table of contents feels like opening a time capsule: opening bids, preempts, Ge**er, takeout doubles, penalty doubles, overcalls and responses. Some of the methods have evolved dramatically, but so much of the vocabulary is still sitting at our bridge tables more than 60 years later.

That is what I love about finding old bridge books.

They remind us that the game we play today didn’t appear fully formed. It was taught, debated, refined and passed from one generation of players to the next.

Goren was one of the people who made that handoff possible.

And now we get to keep doing it. 🧡♠️♥️♦️♣️

BridgeUnleashed.com THanks Wendy for sending to me - she’s a non bridge playing friend who sees bridge everywhere now

Your longest suit is a printing press. Your honors are just cash in your pocket.

Short suits give you tricks you already own. Long suits manufacture new ones — and they keep printing long after the aces and kings are gone. That's the difference between spending and earning.

So when you're staring at a hand wondering where trick nine is going to come from, stop counting your honors and start counting your length. Four cards in a suit where the opponents have three? That fourth card is a trick nobody gave you. You built it.

If you've ever finished a session feeling like you were one trick short all night long — this is almost always the reason.

Longest suit first. It's the most reliable instruction in the entire game.

Comment WEAK 2 and I'll send you the course.