| Not too late (simple) |
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The contract is 4♠
West leads the ♥2.
Make 10 tricks.
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The ♥2 looks like 4th best so hearts are probably splitting 4-3.
Count your losers. ♦A and two ♥s plus the trump ace.
Your only chance is to try the club finesse at trick two.
Win in hand with the ace.
It’s not good enough to just lead the 2 and finesse the Jack. You must lead the ten and retain the lead in hand when West does not cover. When the ten holds, play the 2 to the Jack and finally cash the Ace to discard a heart.
Result happiness. Your losers are now ♦A and one ♥ plus the trump ace.
10 tricks tick Just because you stopped and thought at trick one.
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| Tuesday 15th December |
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This hand is simply a bidding problem. A shapely hand and certainly not a problem for East. With two 5-card suits, open the higher suit first and with a strong hand jump in your second suit or with a weaker hand simple bid your second suit at the lowest available level.
Poor West has to try and guess what the best contract will be. 15 HCP and partner has a better than opening hand, could slam be possible?
Of course the problem is the misfit between the two hands, only eleven tricks are available on this hand whatever you do. But don't sit there smugly thinking that you only bid game anyway, you should have been thinking about a slam, 6 NTs is easy for West if East holds the  Q rather than the ♦Q. Recognising potential slams is important in pairs and teams.
If you don't ever go off in a slam you are definitely not bidding enough. Even if you only make 2 out of 3 slams, your overall percentage will rise. |
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| Tuesday, 15th December (2) |
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| Of course good defence starts with excellent communication between the defenders. The auction is the first clue to the layout of the cards, where the points are and length in the suits but once the play starts you can signal to your partner that you a) like a suit, ie continue it, b) dislike a suit, don't continue it and sometimes 3) you have a unique opportunity to tell partner which suit to switch too. In this hand East is declarer in 4♠ and South on lead - plays the A♥. With a singleton in dummy his second card will not be another heart but North can signal which suit to switch too. You have to be awake on the opening lead, realise that partner will have to find a different suit to switch to and have some useful information for him. The card you play to this first trick will tell him which suit to lead next. Discounting the void-suit (hearts) and the trump-suit (spades) a low heart asks for the lower of the two remaining suits while a high heart asks for the higher of the two remaining suits. On this hand North desperately wants to ruff a club and follows with her smallest heart. |
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| Missing playing bridge, try this one |
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You are playing teams and feeling brave. The contract is 6 hearts. West leads the diamond 6.
Start by counting your top tricks.
Now plan the play! No pressure, but your team-mates are defending 4 hearts and will be coming back with a score of -450. If you make 6♥ your team gains 11imps, -11imps if you go down. |
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| A question of planning |
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The pair playing this hand are playing a strong NT showing 16-18 points.
West leads the ♠K against 3NT. What the the problems and what plans do you have for making nine tricks? It may seem that nine tricks are cold unless the clubs break 4-0, but in fact even if they break 3-1 you havae a problem because all four spot cards in dummy are lower than the two in your hand. This means you will be forced to win the 4th round in hand and can-not reach the 5th club in dummy. |
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The solution is to duck the first two rounds of spades.
From the auction you expect West to hold seven spades and East only one so normally you would only hold up once to guard against an unlikely 6-2 break.
Your clever plan is to discard the 4th club in your hand and unblock the suit.
Even if West switches at trick three, you can play the 3rd round of spades when you are in dummy with the 3rd round of clubs (a good hand to remember to play high cards from the shorter holding first!). |
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| Tuesday 19th January |
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With a weak hand like this, it's quite difficult to show two five card suits. If you play transfers the problem becomes simpler. Transfer first to hearts, then bid spades. Partner should know this shows two five card suits because if you had five hearts and four spades a better bidding sequence would be via Stayman, He also knows your hand is weak because you would bid 3♠ with values to look for game. If it goes 1NT pass 2♣ pass 2♦ pass, you can safely bid 2♥. This would now be a WTO in hearts the same as 1NT - 2♥ (or 2♦ when playing transfers) Partner should also be able to deduce that you have four spades, or else why would you have bid Stayman in the first place. With four hearts and five spades, use Stayman, with a final bid of 2♠ (a WTO) when partner bids 2♦ or pass 2♥ or 2♠. This situation alone makes playing transfers worthwhile. If you would like to learn more about using transfers and Stayman and responding with shapely hands , John Pain will be doing a class Wednesday 17th February 7.15pm. Fee £5. email John for more details. Of course East might come in with an overcall of 2♦ and South can pass.
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| Tuesday, 26th Jan |
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| It is important for South to describe the extreme shape as simply as possible. North has a pretty good hand BUT no fit for partners second suit.
It's easy to overbid on these type of hands. His two black aces can never provide enough discards for diamonds to be really useful.
If South had top cards in both suits the second bid would be either 5♦ or the original opening would be stronger. Notice if you open very distributional hands 2♣ it is very difficult describe the hand pattern to partner. West's best lead is a small trump to try and stop diamond ruffs. The clues are all there in the auction, South has little room for any cards in other suits so setting up diamonds is essential. West's best lead is a small trump to try and stop diamond ruffs. The clues are all there in the auction, South has little room for any cards in other suits so setting up diamonds is essential. West's best lead is a small trump to try and stop diamond ruffs. The clues are all there in the auction, South has little room for any cards in other suits so setting up diamonds is essential. |
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