Guide 7Z41 Main

About the Lessons

by Richard Pavlicek

Advanced Bridge Lessons by Richard Pavlicek are arranged here in five categories — Partnership Bidding, Competitive Bidding, Popular Conventions*, Declarer Play, Defensive Play — although some overlap exists. Lessons may be studied in any order (each lesson more or less stands alone), but the listed order within categories is recommended. To view any lesson, click on the lesson number.

*Lessons on Popular Conventions would be verbatim from “Modern Bridge Conventions” by Richard Pavlicek and Bill Root, so cannot be republished here per copyright, but there are many exercises and practice deals to increase your understandings.

Bidding lessons are based on Standard American, which includes strong notrumps (15-17), five-card majors, weak two-bids and a strong artificial 2 bid. Essential conventions (Stayman, Blackwood, negative doubles, etc.) are included, however, emphasis is on general principles and tactics — not a lot of conventions. Most instructive points would apply to any system, provided appropriate adjustments (point count, suit lengths, etc.) are made.

Play lessons are more universal, as card-play principles are independent of bidding system. The only area of nonuniformity would be in defensive carding. These lessons adhere to the standard American practice of fourth-best leads, king from ace-king, top of other honor sequences, and right-side-up signals. Those who use different carding would require occasional adjustments.

Exercises

To the right of each lesson are various topical exercises to test your understanding. Enter your answers in the boxes provided, then click “Score Me” to see the results. This can be repeated as often as desired, showing partial results as you go, and previous answers can be changed. If your answer differs and you don’t understand why, it may help to reread the lesson. If you’re still perplexed and think there may be an error, use my Error Report form to contact me.

Practice Deals

Each lesson topic includes many practice deals (up to 40) to reinforce the material. Each file of practice deals is subdivided into sets of four (dealer and vulnerability match boards 1-4) with each player declaring once in each four-deal set. These can be played if you have four people, laid out with a deck of cards to study, or browsed on-screen. Recommended bidding and play are shown, with key plays indicated by an exclamation point.

Proper and Improper Use

Material presented on this site is for the benefit of those who wish to improve their bridge skills. It may not be used commercially in any way, such as to teach bridge, without a license. Licensing is available to other teachers, which includes this material and a lot more, all in pristine typeset format. See Bridge Teaching Material for details.

Guide 7Z41 Main Top About the Lessons