Prime Play
About the course
WHO
is it for?
This is an advanced course, for experienced players who are confident with everyday cardplay and would like to add some refinements. It is for anyone who ever finds themselves thinking “If only I knew who had the King of Diamonds”, or “What might go wrong with this contract? What can I do about it?”
It is also for Polish Up Your Play graduates who have a good grasp of the contents of that course and are ready for the next step.
If you have a regular partner, it may be helpful if you both take the course so that you can put the parts about defending into practice together.
WHAT
will I learn?
I have not yet written the course. Provisionally, I hope to cover most of these topics:
Declarer Play
- Building a picture – of the defenders’ cards; interpreting evidence from the bidding and play
- Anticipating danger – seeing what might go wrong; identifying the danger hand; safety plays
- Managing trumps – when to draw them; how many to draw; dealing with bad breaks; cross-ruffing
- Card-play techniques – ruff and discard; loser on loser; common suit combinations
Defending
- Building a picture – of partner’s and declarer’s cards; of declarer’s plan (so you can spoil it)
- Active or passive defence – when to take risks and when to let declarer take them
- Getting it right – getting the lead in the right hand at the right time and making use of it
- Card-play techniques – third hand not-so-high; frozen suits; promoting partner’s trumps
HOW
will I learn it?
You will have face-to-face lessons and you will use resources on this website.
Every week, I will ask you to download study notes from the website and to watch a short video. The more you work at them, the more you’ll learn.
You will come to a lesson every week, where we will discuss the notes and video and you will bid and play with other students. I hope that we will all have fun together.
Afterwards, you can practise playing the lesson’s deals on the website.
Whenever and wherever else you play, you can put into effect what you have learned and come back to the next lesson to talk about how it has gone.
WHEN,
WHERE
and
HOW MUCH?
These are the provisional details for the first running of this course, if I’m spared.
I plan to start it in May 2025 and to run 9 weekly lessons from 9.15 to 11.30 on Tuesdays.
They will be in the Christ Church Scout and Guide Hut in Long Lane, Aughton.
The cost will be the same as for the regular U3A Bridge Group – currently £1 per session.
How can I
SIGN UP?
Not yet!
I hope to advertise the course to all U3A bridge group members two or three months before it starts and then to update this section of the website.
If you would like to find out more about it before then, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.