Eddie Kantar's Magic Hands
ABTA Summer Convention - Chicago, July 14, 2006
Many thanks to Eddie for allowing us to record his lesson!

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On July 14^th, 2006 at our Chicago seminar, ABTA attendees were treated to have the legendary Eddie Kantar present them a double treat.   In addition to helping intermediate bridge players improve their bidding and play, Eddie offered wonderful insights on how to improve one’s bridge teaching skills.  And if that wasn’t enough, Eddie’s delightful stories and jokes mesmerized our teachers for hours.  Even better, Eddie allowed us to record his lesson - see agenda and listen to his training session.

The hands covered in Eddie’s session come from his three modules in the Thinking Bridge Hands series.   Each $75.00 module consists of 100 “magic hands” in either printed or MS-Word file format.  To order, mail your check to:

Eddie Kantar, 2700 Neilson Way #334, Santa Monica, CA 90405

You can also contact Eddie at ekbridge@earthlink.net .  Please visit his website at: http://www.kantarbridge.com
 

Introduction

00:00 – 01:19 Eddie’s warm-up jokes
01:19 – 03:51 Eddie discusses philosophy of bridge hand design
03:51 – 05:07 Eddie describes how to call out hands to students
05:07 – 05:58 Eddie gives caveats when calling out a hand
05:58 – 08:14 Eddie shares joke when students foul up pre-dealt hands
08:14 – 08:38 Hand #201 Introduction
08:38 – 09:54 Hand #201 Opening lead
09:54 – 10:38 Hand #201 Bidding discussion
12:16 – 13:17 (sidebar warning, don’t automatically value doubleton)
13:17 – 14:04 Hand #201 More on opening lead
14:04 – 14:59 Hand #201 Declarer (re)evaluates points in competitive auction
14:59 – 16:32 Hand #201 Opponent HCP when opening a minor suit
16:32 – 16:56 (sidebar, joke on friendly leads)
16:56 – 17:09 Hand #201 Deduce opponent’s honors
17:09 – 18:09 (sidebar, Helen Sobel joke)

Segment 2:

00:00 – 03:18 Exercise – who has the Queen with a 4-2 split (figure odds)?
03:18 – 04:08 Discussion of two-way suits
04:08 – 04:58 Unblocking a doubleton
04:58 – 05:48 Counting perspective
05:48 – 07:07 Finding the Jack
07:07 – 07:50 Stopping play after critical decision - students to play more hands
07:50 – 09:36 Hand #289 Deception. Extra Tricks in the Trump Suit (6 trick play)
09:36 – 10:24 Suggested bidding
10:24 – 13:01 Deceptive declarer discarding
13:01 – 14:09 Declarer’s top two initial advantages
14:09 – 14:48 Why playing hands at table is better than the chalk board
14:48 – 17:25 Exercise: Deceptive declarer discarding in Notrump contract
17:25 – 18:27 Another Exercise: Deceptive declarer discarding in Notrump contract
18:27 – 20:46 Harold Harkabi: world’s most deceptive player

Segment 3:

00:00 – 03:39 Hand 117 - Unusual unblock (winners may be losers)
03:39 – 05:23 Joke: World pro Eric Paulsen’s masterpoints versus offside Spades
05:23 – 07:25 Hand 12 - Multi-lesson: Advancer doubles Stayman (lead direction),
                    opener's rebids, counting partner's points, overtaking partner's
                    short suit, giving declarer ruff and sluff
07:25 – 09:10 Benefits of teaching multiple versus just one point
09:10 – 10:20 Bidding discussion of Hand 12
10:20 – 14:09 Discussion of lead-directing doubles

Segment 4:

00:00 – 02:05 Hand 8 - Deceptive play, shift to 4th suit when all else is lost
02:05 – 03:34 Hand 8 - Suggested bidding
03:34 – 05:19 Opposite Notrump, when opener leads Queen, 3^rd hand signals honor
05:19 – 08:32 Taking tricks you are known to hold
08:32 – 09:17 How to signal attitude on 1^st or 2^nd suit led
09:17 – 13:19 Funny story: don’t give celebrity blind instructions to follow!

Segment 5:

00:00 – 01:47 Hand 279 - 3 Notrump response, card combinations,
                     3^rd hand play, psychology
01:47 – 02:05 Hand 279 - Suggested bidding
02:05 – 02:29 Hand 279 - Declarers 1^st decision – second hand low
02:29 – 05:03 Hand 279 - 3rd hand – keep cover card
05:03 – 07:03 Exercise – another 3^rd hand cover card
07:03 – 08:36 Another 3^rd hand card combination (difficult decision)
08:36 – 10:06 Hand 207 - The 1NT overcall. The Surrounding Play Hand
                     (Counting parnter's points after Notrump overcall)
10:06 – 11:09 Hand 207 - Suggested bidding
11:09 – 13:29 Leads: supported versus unsupported suits
13:29 – 14:50 Surround play with with Jack
14:50 – 17:59 Exercise: Second surround play - Dummy with only Jack, 10 or 9

Segment 6:

00:00 – 04:18 Hand 293 - Opener’s Rebid. Defensive Inference
04:18 – 06:17 Exercise: Deduce location of Queen after Jack played from dummy
06:17 – 06:40 Exercise: Deduce location of Jack after Queen played from dummy
06:40 – 07:30 Closing Credits:
     Eddie Kantar – Eddie Kantar
     Address: Eddie Kantar, 2700 Neilson Way #334, Santa Monica, CA 90405
     EMAIL: ekBridge@earthlink.net
     Website: http://www.KantarBridge.com

     Dennis Scott – Sound Engineer and ABTA President

     Michael Nistler (www.BridgeHands.com) – Post-production/ABTA webmaster