|
|
|
|
|
To make a change from the normal weekly duplicate, why not try a Fun Night? You have some boards with different rules, and various prizes. It is very suitable for a Christmas party, or perhaps for Midsummer Day.
Contents:
Everyone plays three or four board rounds in a normal movement. However one board in each round is a different colour. From experience, it was discovered that a whole evening of special boards is too much, so there is one special board per round. Each special board has a piece of paper with it giving an instruction to be read before the bidding starts. There are three types of special boards:
We have once had an evening of all special boards so I have many rules!
These are some possible rules:
2 and the
3 are additional trumps
,
1
... 7
,
7
Order upwards is
,
,
,
, NT:
/ score as minors,
/ as majors
whatever his hand
then partner must bid if able to at same level
: play 3NT; 4NT: play 5]
[ if void ]
must be played at first legal opportunity
trick [even dummy] buys drinks for the other three players and the Director
In all special hands if identical cards are played to a trick, or two wild cards, then the second one played wins it. Any hand that involves swapping cards or places: be very careful that the hand is put right before it is played again: these rules should only be used if curtain cards are used, and players must check their curtain cards at end of hand.
This is not as complicated as it looks, since you will only choose a few rules. Pick the most suitable: rounds of drinks are for clubs where there is a fair amount of drinking: the simplest rules should be used if the players are inexperienced [for example: All bidding and play to be anti-clockwise or: Aces count low].
On the ordinary boards, not the special ones, competitors can get small prizes by claiming certain things.
These are some possible rules:
10
Sometimes the items in #1 aren't claimed: when it gets to the last round they should be made easier. No claims can be made on the special boards. There should definitely be one prize that goes on all evening.
Many thanks again for your help with the organisation of our 'Fun Night' - having someone's experience of this sort of thing was great. Generally, it went well I think - I was threatened with being mugged on the way home by a number of players (and we're talking about LARGE women here) but the threat wasn't actually carried out. One of our older and steadier players was asking for the name of a good psychiatrist but won a bottle of wine for winning a trick with the 2, so went away happy.
I simplified the rules as far as possible so that (except in one board) there was just a travelling slip with each board which N was to read out before anyone looked at their cards. This worked well (except that there was a minor panic when one N put a slip somewhere in her handbag and I hadn't brought along a copy of the slips).
The worst score of the night went to 7NT**-10 (Vul) on a hand where NS were normally making 6NT but EW found a 'good' sacrifice. Better declarer play could, I think, have put the hand down 12 rather than 10 but there wasn't any serious threat to winning a bottle of wine for this score. My own 4*-5 on a fun board only cost 2 MP and was I feel worth it to try to push the opponents to the unmakable 6 that many people arrived at (partner held 7 which became trumps at trick 7).
Only twice during the entire night (16 tables) was a board passed out which was probably poor strategy.
The rule that 7 had to be bid was interesting in that I rigged the hand so that a 7 went off unluckily but 7NT made so the 'obvious' strategy of declarer opening 6NT followed by a double and redouble in an effort to get the opponents into the a priori unlikely grand slam rather than being in it oneself didn't necessarily work. Despite this nobody actually made a contract - the one declarer who did get into the makable 7NT must have misplayed it in some fashion (it may have been one of our
novices).
My own normally competent partner was kicking himself for making 2+1 when he could easily have held himself to 2 for a prize at the expense of very few MP. The trade-off between going for a prize and a good score addded some interest generally.
Seven prizes (10 bottles) - some for a pair, some for individuals. Each prize is a bottle of white wine. No player may win more than one bottle. These prizes apply on the normal boards only, not on the yellow fun boards.
2 in a notrump contract.
One board of every set is a fun board and will have an enclosure with a rule that must be followed by the players. Play this board as the first board of the set of three, followed by the normal boards. This fun board will be scored as part of the normal competition so do as well as you can on it! There are no prizes on fun boards.
The fun boards are pre-dealt but are mainly boards taken from a normal competition last Spring. The unusual feature is that there is a rule in each that must be followed by all players. This rule is enclosed in the boards and should be read by everyone before taking your cards. A very few have an instruction to just one player - this is written on that player's curtain card and must be followed by that player without it being disclosed in any way to the other players. So check your curtain card!
Some of the rules will make bidding and/or play difficult, so you may be forced at times into a different speed from usual - try to play as evenly as possible and not give information to your partner by your hesitations, inflections or comments.
Editor's note:
, 1, 1, 1, 2NT, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3NT ... 7, 7., then declarer must make 10 tricks with
as trumps for tricks 1-6 and with as trumps for tricks 7-13 (scoring is done in the usual way for a 4 contract).
At the HCØ bridge club's annual fall season fun night, the following rules were played.
Otherwise, we played straight Laws of Duplicate. If the TD found it necessary to apply a novel interpretation of some law because the partners are not sitting opposite each other, this was considered a point of law, and the AC was reminded that it may thus not overrule the TD in such cases.
We played a Mitchell movement with N-W stationary; prizes to best N-W pair as well as best E-S pair. We allowed and recommended that the players in a partnership swap roles between some of the rounds.
At the HCØ Bridge Club in Copenhagen, we have one of your small prizes instituted permanently: Highest overall score on any board in a session wins a round of drinks to the scoring pair, payable on the next night. No prize if there is a tie.
Our last session in December usually involves a short tournament of approx 15 special boards. My favorite is where the defenders must lead whenever they are on lead and have left (this rule is known to everyone before the tournament begins)
Many players in our area (however that is delimited) play that if partner makes the last trick with the 7, you must buy him a
drink, and if plays the 7 to the last trick but it does not win the trick he must buy you a drink. As usual, declarer is responsible for dummy's cards. It is understood that you must not jeopardize a trick in order to earn the prize or avoid losing the penalty.
This tradition is reminiscent of the well-known card game tarok: it averages at about one round of drinks per 32-board match.
This set of rules is available as a downloadable Word file so the slips to be put in each board may be printed out - see below.
The following rules are opened before the bidding:
—2—3) Doubles and Redoubles are normal.The following rules are opened after the bidding and before the play:
To get a downloadable version, right-click on the link below, and then click on "Save Link As" or "Save Target As". Once you have downloaded the file, unzip it and then print it using Word. By printing the second page on the back of the first page, and so on, you will get a set of slips suitable for putting in the various boards.
If you do not have a facility to unzip documents then you should download an evaluation copy of WinZip which is available at the WinZip site
Editor's note:
I shall be pleased to hear from you!
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
| Laws menu |
List of contents |
Main index |
Top of article |
Local menu |
Feed back |
Next article |
