Conventions
(And The Judgment To Make Them Work)

Overview

On this CD, Mike Lawrence, who is not only a long-time world-class bridge player but one of the best bridge writers around, writes about a subject which every duplicate bridge player needs to know, bridge conventions. And he does it using an outstanding bridge tutorial program, Bridge Base. So you already know this is going to be good.

Although the material on this CD will be valuable for intermediate players who want to improve their bidding system, the nature of the subject matter and the way it is written makes it understandable by even novices at duplicate bridge.

That is because conventions are normally not difficult to understand, nor do they require any significant bridge experience to grasp. The main difficulty comes in remembering them, and this is more a function of how often you play and the level of detailed bidding involved.

Lawrence takes that into account by rating each of the conventions for its usefulness. (In fact, Lawrence gives each convention TWO ratings - a traffic light rating at the beginning of the discussion and a 1-5 Stars rating at the end of the discussion.

A large part of that rating depends on how frequently you can expect to use the convention and how obvious the bids are so that you will more easily recognize that a bid is conventional rather than natural.

And even if the bidding agreements get into a level of detail which you do not expect to be able to recall, you can still use the less detailed bids of the convention, and reading about the rest will give you a better understanding of what you do use.

Another aspect of this course is that you need to learn all of these conventions because even if you are not going to play them, you will doubtlessly run into opponents who will play them.

Obviously, you can defend better against these conventions if you understand them, and in many cases, Lawrence specifically discusses the best way to compete against the conventions.

The Software

As with all Bridge Base tutorials, the presentation of the material is impeccable. It starts with a Table Of Contents listing the chapters.

Each chapter again starts with its own chapter table of contents listing the conventions in the chapter. Each chapter also starts with an introduction, as does each convention.

The introduction for each convention actually covers the complete convention, then example deals are used primarily to repeat, illustrate, and reinforce the points discussed. Then some hands are presented where you must choose the correct bid for additional reinforcement.

The interactive approach is why studying this material on the computer is so superior to studying the same material in a book.

The Conventions

The conventions are broken down into chapters by category. You can see a list of chapters by viewing a screen shot of the table of contents.

Few, if any, of the conventions will be unfamiliar to the average intermediate player who has been playing duplicate for a few years.

However, Lawrence goes into details about the fine points of each convention, much of which will likely be new to many players.

For example, you may play Jacoby 2NT responses to opening bids of 1 of a major, but do you know the proper rebids by opener when responder bids a Jacoby 2NT? Do you know what opener should do when responder's 2NT bid is overcalled? Do you know why Jacoby 2NT is not used when partner opens 1 of a minor instead of a major?

Virtually every bridge player thinks they know Blackwood, but do you and your partner have agreements on how to show voids? Do you know when, if ever, it is okay to use Blackwood when you have a void? Do you know how, after partner raises your 1C opening bid to 3C, to use Blackwood without getting past the 5C game level in case you have to sign off?

Have you ever played Exclusion Blackwood? Want to know why Mike Lawrence thinks you shouldn't.

You may play Unusual Notrump, but do you know the best ways to describe your hand over an Unusual 2NT bid made by your opponent? Or what your responses are supposed to mean when partner makes an Unusual 2NT overcall?

Many new partners ask "Weak jump shifts in competition?" and the other person says "Sure.", but are you sure you both agree on how weak "weak" is? Not vulnerable, would you raise responder's weak jump shift if you had 18 points? (Hint: If you would, you are not playing weak jump shifts in competition correctly, according to Lawrence.)

Do you play Drury? If not, find out why you should. If you already play Drury, does your agreement consist simply of responder bidding 2C and opener showing if he opened light or not? Or do you know how opener can ask responder for more information about his hand? Do you know how to handle interferance bids during Drury?

By now, you should have a pretty clear idea of how beneficial this CD might be for you.

Again, if you are a novice to whom even the basics of some of these conventions is new, you should not be afraid of this CD. The material is presented in a way you will be able to understand it, and Lawrence does an excellent job of rating the conventions and warning you against taking on more bidding tricks than you will be able to remember.

Bottom Line

The material is very, VERY extensive. It took three weeks for me to work through it for this review, and I did not go nearly as deeply into it as I could have.

You may want to start by studying the conventions that you already use to learn how to get better use out of them, but eventually you will want to work through the entire CD for two reasons: one, because you need to know how to defend against conventions which others use, and two, because you may discover a better convention than what you are now using for a particular situation.

It should come as no surprise by now that, in Mike Lawrence's terms, we give "Conventions" a bright green light and five stars out of five.

"Conventions" is very well written, and the subject matter is something which will be useful (on one level or another) to novices as well as to advancing intermediate players.

At $60, "Conventions" is priced a good bit higher than most tutorial CDs, but for any serious bridge player, it is well worth it.

Nitpicks

1. Discussions of many of the conventions refer to "limit raises" or the showing of "limit raise" type hands, rather than specifying a hand in terms of number points, shape, etc.

Consequently, it is very important to know exactly what the author means when he uses that term. Readers should be sure to study "Limit Raises" in "Chapter 3 - Raising Partner" before jumping into any of the later material.

2. One of the tenets of "The Law Of Total Tricks" is that, non-vulnerable, you are normally safe competing by bidding for a number of tricks equal to the combined trumps your side has.

Example: Not vulnerable, partner opens 1S, promising a minimum of 5 and the next player doubles. If you have 4 Spades, you can safely bid for 9 tricks, or 3S, even if you have zero points and even if you get doubled.

In many of the conventions, Lawrence discusses whether or not to compete to the 3 or 4 level, and while he does a good job of it, it is never as simple or as easy to remember as applying the Law.

3. There are a few typos -- nothing to get excited about -- but if the text says, for example, that the bid is 3H and display shows 3D (when the opponent has just bid 3D), just understand that it is a typo and don't let it worry you.