Bridge Winners Profile for Dan Putnam
Basic Information
- Member Since
- July 6, 2017
- Last Seen
- 2 hours ago
- Member Type
- Bridge Player
- about me
I learned party bridge as a teenager and read newspaper columns during college and working years. Didn't start playing duplicate until 2009. As a language enthusiast, I was fascinated by the possibilities of bidding. In fact, I made up my own bidding system and played it with a partner for about a year, until I was asked to become a director and found out some of my system was illegal. Oops! Don't worry. We didn't beat many people, and the only complaints we got were that we weren't alerting enough.
Small Club manager in Eastern West Virginia, about 80 miles from Wash DC
I direct regularly at two local clubs and sub at others nearby.
I think the key to becoming a better player is to study the game and play the game in an equal ratio.
Words of wisdom - Practice doesn't make you perfect. It makes you efficient. What you learn wrong, through practice, you will repeat faster with less thought.
- Country
- United States of America
Bridge Information
- ACBL Ranking
- Silver Life Master
- Dummy play on the bad claim of 6NT
- Acbl considers it a visual aid, which is not permitted.
- How do you view this ruling?
- The bigger question is what the 1♣ bid really means. Is it an artificial bid that only shows points? It should have been alerted and explained. I would more likely have given either a warning or a procedural penalty to N/S. I would not have given an adjusted ...
- Alerts when gray: a specific siutational poll
- I had a very similar situation a couple years ago. In both cases the bid seemed unlikely to be natural, but we had not discussed the meaning over 2NT, and it was a first time partner. I wrote to rulings@acbl.org and was told that I cannot alert unless ...
- Bakersfield club game
- With that hand I wouldn't adjust based on UI on West's part.
- Do you play your 2!D opening as a weak 2?
- It depends. Flannery or Multi? fine. Mini-Roman? stick with the weak two.
- ATB: -500 instead of +1010
- It seems to me that both North and South assumed the TO absolutely promises 4 hearts. And no one else here thinks that is a reasonable assumption or even considered it a possibility without a special agreement. Good. Proves my point from a few months ago. https://bridgewinners.com/article ...
- How would you proceed?
- Either North or West are bidding on distribution. I will double. If partner's pass was forcing, he has some defense. If not, he may pull to 5♥. Glad I showed support.
- What's this X? (I believe I know the answer, but conflicting claims have been made).
- Looks like a trap pass to me. Especially after North says, "OK. I'm out" after the 2♥ raise. It's rare enough that I'm looking at my 13 cards before I make that assumption.
- Apportion the blame - no play slam
- Three aces are better than 4 Q's, but not necessarily according to LTC.
- Apportion the blame - no play slam
- There are two forcing passes - one by each partner. East has no extras for defense or offense. He should have bid 4♥. West should have doubled 4♠. He has no extra source of tricks.
