My sister and her family were here for three weeks. It’s great to spend time with the kiddos—my niece is 10 and my nephew is 7. They can play in the pool all day—it’s amazing. We spent a day at Seagull Beach in Yarmouth and rode the carousel at one of our favorite places, Heritage Museum and Gardens.

I took my niece to see Mean Girls at the Cape Playhouse for her birthday present. She loved it!

They have gone back home to Shrewsbury; school starts this week. I’m still on the Cape with my mom for a couple of weeks before I head back to NYC and return to real life. I will enjoy my last weeks here, but I’m also looking forward to getting home. I’ve got lots of friends and shows to see!

I’ve been hard at work on The Bridge World. We’re making a lot of progress and plan to launch the new site this fall. We have a test version of the site up and running and I have dozens of articles in from writers. Mostly still waiting to be edited—I’ve been busy with other stuff! I’m really proud of what we’re building and can’t wait for you all to see it. Stay tuned!

I released two fun podcasts this month: John Kranyak and Rob Barrington. Next week look out for Marc Smith.

Upcoming topics in my Monday Class on Learn Bridge Online:

September 7	        Reverses II
September 14        Declarer Play
September 21        Defense
September 28        Walsh Style

I have been getting a lot of emails about my columns in the ACBL Bridge Bulletin this year. I love them, keep them coming!

I get a lot of “What should I have done with this hand?” questions

Hi, Adam,

This was a real bidding dilemma for me. I held: ♠ xx ♥ Kxxxx ♦ x ♣ AQJxx

The auction started (1♦) Pass (1♠) ?

I had planned to bid the Unusual 2NT, but after RHO bid I thought that if I bid 2NT it would like I was interested in notrump and not that I had the two lowest unbid suits. (Was I right about that?)

I decided to double, which I thought conveyed support for both unbid suits as well as opening count or very close.

Anyway, the auction continued (1NT) Pass (2NT) ?

I decided to bid one of my suits. I picked clubs, was that right?

Passed all around.

After dummy came down, I saw partner had 4 hearts and 1 club. Should she have corrected my bid to hearts?

As long as your partner hasn’t bid or doubled, a jump to 2NT shows the 2 lowest unbid suits—or in this case, the 2 unbid suits. So you could have bid 2NT. That is usually more shape (at least 5-5) than a double (which could be 4-4), and it doesn’t promise an opening hand, which a double does.

The problem with your sequence was that you doubled and bid; that’s a Power Double showing a huge hand with just clubs. That’s why partner didn’t bid hearts.

Having started with a double, your choices over 2NT were to pass or to double again. Given that partner didn’t bid over your double and the opponents have shown near-game values, you should just pass.

Remember that when you double and then bid, it shows the super-strong hand and cancels out the original meaning of the double that you have the unbid suits.

Adam

I love questions about the Parrish Convention!

Dear Adam,

I am investigating the 2♥ double negative response to standard 2♣ opening, and came across your convention.

You (and others) have alluded to additional responses to your 2♠ convention other than the usually forced 2NT. I cannot, however, find any details of these additional responses.

Could you elaborate on these advanced (and rare) responses to your 2♠ convention?

I have never had it come up, but responder can break the relay to 2NT with a long (7+) suit of their own. In those cases, it’s often best to play in the weaker hand’s suit, since you won’t have any entries to utilize it otherwise.

The other additions one could add are what opener’s 4-level bids mean—both directly and going through the relay. After 2♣-2♥, opener can make an immediate natural forcing bid or go through the relay to sign off. Of course they can also just bid game. But what about 4m? 2♠ them 4m? 2♠ them 4M?

I used to be a system tinkerer and thought about definitions for these bids (mostly looking for things like queens and singletons, since that’s about all you can expect from a responder who showed a bust), but 2♣-2♥ auctions come up maybe once or twice a year, and the basic follow-ups have proven sufficient. Feel free to come up with your own meanings if you want!

Adam

Simple questions rarely have simple answers

Dear Adam,

How do I show a 5-5 majors hand when partner opens 1NT?

It depends how strong you are. With a game forcing hand, transfer to spades and then bid 3♥. Transferring and then bidding a suit at the 3-level is natural and game forcing. With an invitational hand, you transfer to hearts and then bid 2♠. This shows an invitational hand with 5 hearts and 4 or 5 spades. With less than an invitational hand, you can pick a suit and transfer and pass, or you can start with Stayman and if partner bids 2♦ you can bid 2♥, Crawling Stayman: partner will pass or choose 2♠.

Adam

That's all for now. I encourage you to send me questions about my column or anything else at adam@adamparrishbridge.com. Maybe they'll end up in the next newsletter!

About This Series

BBO offers a free 8-board duplicate every week, starting on Fridays and ending on Thursday night. Everyone plays the same hands, so you can play any time during the week and then watch my video.

To find the game, go to “Solitaire” on BBO’s homepage.

Then “Weekly Free Instant Tournament.”

Rob Barrington is a professional player, teacher, and one of the more recognizable personalities in the modern bridge world. His online content reaches a global audience where just his YouTube channel has over 6 million views! Based in South Florida Rob continues to teach, create content and travel the world for Bridge.

I’ve included the video here, or you can watch it on YouTube. You can also listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Music

Listen on YouTube Music

Listen on Amazon Music

Some of the highlights:

Bridge in New York City (3:00)

Learning by listening (9:00)

Rob’s teaching philosophy: decisions (11:00)

Playing up is key (17:30)

Reaching younger players (22:30)

Overcoming emotions (28:00)

Common intermediate mistakes (33:00)

About This Series

BBO offers a free 8-board duplicate every week, starting on Fridays and ending on Thursday night. Everyone plays the same hands, so you can play any time during the week and then watch my video.

To find the game, go to “Solitaire” on BBO’s homepage.

Then “Weekly Free Instant Tournament.”

About This Series

BBO offers a free 8-board duplicate every week, starting on Fridays and ending on Thursday night. Everyone plays the same hands, so you can play any time during the week and then watch my video.

To find the game, go to “Solitaire” on BBO’s homepage.

Then “Weekly Free Instant Tournament.”

John Kranyak is a professional bridge player and world champion originally from Cleveland, Ohio, currently living in Tucson, Arizona. He is married to fellow bridge player, Dr. Allison Kranyak. Together they have a baby girl Lyla. In his spare time John enjoys golf, pickleball, running and hiking.

John won his first national event in 2005 playing with his mom, Laurie. He was on the winning team in the 2001, 2005, and 2006 world youth team championships. His team won the 2024 world transnational teams and the 2021 Soloway.

I’ve included the video here, or you can watch it on YouTube. You can also listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Music

Listen on YouTube Music

Listen on Amazon Music

Some of the highlights:

Comeback win in the Team Trials (0:30)

Forming a partnership with Vince (11:00)

Natural vs strong club (15:00)

Do you want to die? (21:00)

Meeting Allison (26:00)

Learning from The Bridge World (29:30)

About This Series

BBO offers a free 8-board duplicate every week, starting on Fridays and ending on Thursday night. Everyone plays the same hands, so you can play any time during the week and then watch my video.

To find the game, go to “Solitaire” on BBO’s homepage.

Then “Weekly Free Instant Tournament.”

My sister and her family come down in a couple of weeks. Can’t wait to see them! I don’t have a lot on my calendar for August—just the way I like it! I’ll head back to NYC at some point in September—the later the better!!

Thanks to those of you who came to my memorial seminar for my dad yesterday. It was a special event for me. And thanks to all of you who donated to the Alzheimer’s Association. The page is still active if you want to make a donation.

I’m hard at work getting the re-launch of The Bridge World up and running. We’re hoping to launch in the fall; details to come soon (hopefully).

I released a couple of great podcast episodes this month, with Raj Shourie and Maya Jonas-Silver. I’ve got some cool ones coming in August: John Kranyak and Marc Smith.

Upcoming topics in my Monday Class on Learn Bridge Online:

August 3                Two-Tiered Splinters
August 10              Declarer Play
August 17              Puppet Stayman
August 24              Defense
August 31              Reverses

Time for some questions? Always feel free to send me questions at adam@adamparrishbridge.com

One of my big takeaways from Leveling Up is the utility of having a coach

Hi, Adam,

My partner and I started playing together online a few months ago and just played our first Nationals together. We have similar bridge interests and are looking to work on our partnership and play in future Nationals together. To help us in our journey, we are looking for a coach. However, being somewhat inexperienced, we really don’t know what we don’t know. What should we be looking for in a coach? What should we ask them to help us with?

I would lump the things you want from a coach into three basic categories:

1. Agreements. What are our current agreements, how well do we know them, where are they insufficient or overly complicated, what changes should we make? This is for both bidding and defense.

2. Analytics. Where are we falling short? What do we need to work on? This could be vague like “declarer play,” but hopefully more specific, like squeeze technique or identifying endplays. Often the best way to do this is to have a coach analyze your played games. (Online is great for this!!) This can also involve analyzing your style: how similar is your style to your partner’s on preempts, opening bids, overcalls, etc.?

3. Methodology. Now that we know what to work on, what should we be doing to improve? This is actually the hardest part. For bidding you might set up a bidding table, work through old Challenge the Champ sets, or use Cuebids. For defense you might do some structured lessons with the coach. There are lots of tools for declarer play (including my weekly class!). A good coach will be able to offer lots of options.

Finding a good coach like this is difficult, and it’s probably going to be a get-what-you-pay-for situation. I’m happy to make some recommendations.

Adam

What does this mean on the convention card?

Dear Adam,

There is something in the convention card Game Forcing Except When Suit Rebid.

Does that apply just to the responder, just to the opener or both? What do you do as responder if you absolutely do not want that game force turned off?

As responder, I had a 2/1 bid stopped short of game recently and it shocked me. Partner bid 1♠, I bid 2♣, partner bid 2♦, and I bid 2♠. He passed. He said he was worried about vulnerability and his hand being kind of weak. Is that right? What could I have done to avoid partner’s pass?

Almost no one plays that, but if you do it only applies to responder.

So they would play 1♠-2♣, 2♥-3♣ as Invitational but not forcing.

Instead, we just play 1♠-3♣ as that hand, and 2♣ creates an unconditional game force.

Even if you were playing that, it only applies to responder’s second bid. Your partner was not allowed to pass your 2♠ bid. 2♣ is GF GF GF!

Adam

I hate the term “help suit game tries”!

Dear Adam,

As a bridge teacher, I’m trying to put together information for my students about game tries. The problem is the definition of “help suit game try.” Different bridge authorities mean different things by that term.

I would like to clarify what a help suit game try is and how it differs from a natural, aka, “Second suit” game try. The way I see it, there are three different approaches frequently used for game tries:

1. Second suit game tries

2. Help suit game tries

3. Kokish (short suit) game tries

So I wanted to ask you: Is there one particular type of game try you recommend to your students? And if the answer is “help suit game tries,” how does that differ from “second suit” game tries? In other words, what is your criteria for making the game try, and what is your criteria for accepting the game try if your partner makes it?

I hate the term “help suit game tries” for exactly the reason you point out: everyone seems to mean something different by it. Some people make a HSGT on xxx: “I have losers I need you to cover.” Some make it on something like Qxx: “A fitting honor or two would be nice.” Some it’s more like AJxx or KQxx. “This is my second suit. Evaluate accordingly.”

I like the third approach, which I just call natural game tries. The whole point of a game try is to help partner evaluate where their cards—particularly queens and jacks—are useful and where they’re not. When I show my second suit, partner can use “In and Out Valuation” to know whether cards are useful (in my long suits) or potentially not (in my short suits). Now, I’m not going to make a game try on an AKQJ suit—partner is going to have no honors and think the hands don’t fit. Similarly, I’m not going to do it on Txxx and have partner think their Qxx is golden. So you have to use some judgment. If it goes 1♠-2♠ and I want to make a game try holding ♠ KJxxx ♥ x ♦ AKQx ♣ Kxx, I’m bidding 3♣, not 3♦. Partner will know to up-value honors in spades and clubs and down-value cards in hearts and diamonds, which is exactly what I want. ♠ QTx ♥ xxxx ♦ xx ♣ QJxx is a 5-count, but the cards are in the right place and we’re making 4. 3♣ also has the benefit of giving partner extra space to make a 3♦/♥ counter game try.

Adam

That's all for now. I encourage you to send me questions about my column or anything else at adam@adamparrishbridge.com. Maybe they'll end up in the next newsletter!

About This Series

BBO offers a free 8-board duplicate every week, starting on Fridays and ending on Thursday night. Everyone plays the same hands, so you can play any time during the week and then watch my video.

To find the game, go to “Solitaire” on BBO’s homepage.

Then “Weekly Free Instant Tournament.”

Maya attended her first NABC in 2022, and the next year took 2nd place in GNT Cs, won the 20-50 Mini-McKenney, and started teaching beginners with a novel strategy aimed at youngish working professionals. Since then, she's made Day 2 of a bunch of NABC+ events, captained a team to the Bronze Medal of the inaugural Bridge Brawl, and is just off a first place finish in GNT Bs at the Minneapolis NABC.

I’ve included the video here, or you can watch it on YouTube. You can also listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Music

Listen on YouTube Music

Listen on Amazon Music

Some of the highlights:

Maya’s first tournament (5:00)

Her first NABC (9:00)

Teaching bridge (19:00)

Attracting young adults (22:00)

I still can’t identify anything specific to pinpoint where we’re struggling. We certainly had some boneheaded plays that we’d like back, but a lot of the bad results weren’t really our fault—we did normal and reasonable things and the opponents took a different view that worked out better.

Most frustrating were the two regional pair events we played, where we were one of the favorites—all of the other pros were playing with clients. But we didn’t get a lot of gifts and nothing worked out well and we didn’t place in either event. I care a lot more about our performance in the national events, but not doing well against weaker opposition is still an important data point.

One trend I did notice was hands where we didn’t get into the auction but others did and it worked out well for them. Here’s one from the LM Pairs:

We played board 20 on the first day against Jeff Meckstroth and Norman Beck.

Jeff was sitting North and opened 1♥. I chose not to overcall 1♠—only 7 HCP discounting the ♥J and we’re vulnerable. South chose to start with 1NT rather than 2♥ (I prefer 2♥), so I didn’t even balance, thinking they didn’t have a fit. Others overcalled 1♠ with my hand and caught partner with a perfectly fitting hand that can take 10 tricks in spades. The -200 we got against 2♥ felt good at the time, but it was only 18% because most of the E-W pairs got to 4♠. In hindsight, I still agree with not overcalling 1♠—that’s not our style. But I think I should have balanced.

We’re going to do a more detailed post-mortem over the next few weeks. Maybe we’ll spot some other trends.

Still, the tournament overall was a lot of fun. We had some great meals and a lot of good time with friends. Minneapolis was a great host city for the NABC; I hope we go back soon.

Next up is San Diego. We’re playing with Phil and Danny in the Soloway and Reisinger, so hopes are high. See you there!

My dad’s 80th birthday would have been this Friday. I wanted to do something to honor and celebrate him while supporting Alzheimer's research. The ACBL has a longstanding relationship with the Alzheimer’s Association and is one of their biggest fundraisers. The timing didn’t work out to actually do something on the Longest Day, but this will be included as part of that imitative.

I’m giving a free seminar on Friday, July 31, at 1:00pm ET. The topic is When to Draw Trumps. (Something I know a little bit about!) There will be a short lecture and then practice hands. The seminar will last about 90 minutes. If you can’t attend live, the seminar will be recorded and you can watch and play the hands later.

You can get more information and sign up here. You will get an email with the webinar link about 30 minutes before the event begins.

If you want to support the Alzheimer’s Association, you can donate here.

Thanks for all of your support as my family and I have been going through this difficult time. Let’s celebrate my dad together!