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Vil Gravis Writes

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Questions and Answers

Vil's Tips - Tue, 12/05/2026 - 5:44pm

Vil recently proposed a set of posers for his readers. He says:

Just let me say that there is a lot of misunderstanding about the situations
I have outlined, and I'm not surprised that disasters occur. I suggest you
and your partner take a few minutes and agree on what you do in these
situations. Here is my very simple view, take it or leave it!

Subject: Double Trouble

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

1/1 Chapter 8

Vil's Tips - Wed, 22/04/2026 - 12:04pm

This is the final deal I want to review from the session on Friday 17/04/26 where, once more, the game
force 1NT was very effective and the result could have been great but only if you were Deep Finesse

Board 25. Dealer N EW Vul
AKJ75T2J9K652943285K762T93Q86KJ63T5Q874TAQ974AQ843AJ

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

1/1 Chapter 7

Vil's Tips - Tue, 21/04/2026 - 11:22am

As promised, here are some examples from very recent X-Clubs deals, on Friday 17/04/26. They are all
examples of the game force 1NT response to an opening bid

Board 2. East is dealer and passes. South opens 1S and these are the North and South hands:
NorthK652Q75K5A732
South
QJ943AKJ843262

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

1/1 Chapter 6 - A Deadly Sin

Vil's Tips - Thu, 16/04/2026 - 5:04pm

One of the deadly sins in bridge is to overbid to a minor suit game when nine tricks are easily
available in No Trumps. But a bigger sin, in my opinion, is to choose an unmakeable 3NT when
a minor suit slam is a much better proposition

This deal comes from X-Clubs, Tuesday 14/4/2026. It is an EW hand where most EW pairs chose the
impossible 3NT when a minor suit slam was a much better proposition, and just bidding the minor suit
game would have scored over 90%. Let’s take a look at the EW hands and see how we might bid them

Board 16. Dealer East, Nil Vulnerable.
A85A72J92K832KJ72KQT854AJ9

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Two-Boardy Problem

Vil's Tips - Mon, 13/04/2026 - 2:03pm

Vil posed two problems to his mailing list recently. The first was:
Match Point session. You are South

At All Vul the bidding has been, dealer East
SouthWestNorthEast---1Pass2Pass2NTPass3NT

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

1/1 Chapter 5

Vil's Tips - Thu, 02/04/2026 - 10:45pm

Non Forcing Responses to One of a suit openings:
All responses other than 1NT are non forcing. Often when partner opens 1H or 1S it is necessary to
raise with only a three card suit if you don’t want to force to game. That is why I prefer to play ‘five
card majors’
Normal suit responses to 1 level openings:

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

1/1 Chapter 4

Vil's Tips - Thu, 02/04/2026 - 11:10am

Responding with weaker hands:
After a 1 of a suit opening bid:
Because 1NT is a game force, all other bids are natural and bidding continues in a normal fashion, but a
lot of responses are not strong and hence not forcing, something to be kept in mind. Keeping in mind
also that we are playing 5 card majors and that 1C can be as short as TWO.
Let’s take a look at responses to a 1C opening bid:

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Q&A 09: CUE BIDS BY RESPONDER

Vil's Tips - Mon, 23/03/2026 - 11:24am

There are going to be many times at the bridge table that you will want to tell partner about your hand
but won’t know how best to do so. That is why it is so important to discuss such things with your
partner. This article is aimed at getting a common understanding with partner by using takeout doubles
and cue bids when you and your partner want to compete against your opponents. I will describe the
potential bidding in plain English because, after all, the bridge bidding language is no different, it just
takes a different form

Here are some bidding situations from recent teams play

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

1/1 Chapter 3 - A grand start

Vil's Tips - Tue, 17/03/2026 - 3:21pm

Now let me show you a deal from X-Clubs, from Monday 16/3/2026

Board 6, Dealer East, EW vulnerable
JT52Q86T8543232AKJ74KTAKQJAQ64QT9A75329K9875863J9476

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

1/1 Chapter 2

Vil's Tips - Tue, 17/03/2026 - 2:56pm

Responding to 1 Level Suit Opening Bids:

A 1NT response to a 1C, 1D, 1H, or 1S opening bid is GAME FORCING, with no reference to any particular suit or denomination. Bidding after this continues in the normal way, but a rebid in a major shows at least a six card suit, 2C or 2D should be natural but can be a good three card suit, though with a balanced 5332 hand the rebid should be 2NT

In such a game forcing situation, any suit agreement or a new suit by the 1NT responder, can be treated as a KEY CARD ASK, which will be covered later

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

1/1 Bidding System - Chapter 01

Vil's Tips - Sun, 15/03/2026 - 3:53pm

Vil is starting a new series which he's picking will be of interest to only a few players. The concept is simple: 5 card majors, a strong (15-17) 1NT and a GAME FORCING 1NT response to all 1-level opening bids. Anyone interested in following the series can get the articles first hand by registering with him (villyn@xtra.co.nz). His articles will be published on this site while he continues to answer any questions anyone may have and helps juniors as much as possible

This system is based on “Five Card Majors”
We have all gotten used to responding to partner’s opening of one of a suit in time-honoured fashion: bid our suit at the one level, or bid 1NT with “6-9” if we haven’t enough points (usually 10+) to bid at the two level. But how often do we really need to bid 1NT? With ‘five card majors’ that is something that I find can be circumvented, with the 1NT response being far more useful to create a game going scenario, with many, many advantages to off-set the loss of the 6-9 1NT response. Read on if getting more out of your system interests you

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Q&A 09: Transfers and Cue Bids

Vil's Tips - Wed, 11/02/2026 - 2:37pm

1. You open 2NT (balanced 20-22) and partner bids 3D which is a transfer to
hearts. Your hand:

A2AQT8AT64AK

What do you know? All you know is that partner has at least five hearts.

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Q&A 08: Splinters and Cue Bids

Vil's Tips - Fri, 06/02/2026 - 3:21pm

We saw in No.7 how a slam might have been bid using “splinters” but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Let me show you another and very similar layout, where you might consider splintering but a slam is
near impossible.

SouthWestNorthEast1Pass2Pass?

You are sitting South and your hand is:
AT964AQJ99KQ9

A much better hand than earlier, so surely a splinter bid of 4D is in order. And responder also has a
better hand than we saw last time:
Q2KT876KQJAJ87

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Q&A 07: Splinters and Cue Bids

Vil's Tips - Mon, 02/02/2026 - 6:06am

You are SOUTH, and dealer. All vulnerable, match points.

The Bidding has been:
SouthWestNorthEast1Pass2Pass?

Your hand is:
AT9643AQ99K73

What would you bid?

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Q&A 06: Major Oriented

Vil's Tips - Thu, 29/01/2026 - 4:32pm

Not enough people play strictly major oriented takeout doubles, and then they find that because they
don’t trust partner to be on the same page, end up in the wrong contract. Here is a good example

You are SOUTH, Both vulnerable, dealer West.
SouthWestNorthEast-1X2

Your hand is:
42AT42J4AJ987

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Q&A 05: DOUBLE OR QUITS

Vil's Tips - Tue, 27/01/2026 - 5:46am

Not enough use is made of the DOUBLE and REDOUBLE in our bridge bidding. These bidding
problems and answers revolve around the use of the “X and XX”. To make it more meaningful to the
club player, all questions and answers come from match point play.

You are SOUTH, EW vulnerable, dealer North.

The Bidding has been:
SouthWestNorthEast--1NTPass2XXXPass?

Your partner’s 1NT is 12-14 and your 2C is Stayman. You play Stayman with no specific point count.
Stayman, as you play it, simply asks a question: “do you have a four card major?”
West doubles and partner (the 1NT opener) redoubles

Your hand is:
K842A753A52J2

What do you make of it?

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Vil's Red Book

X-Club Blog

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