The Omar Sharif Bridge Circus was a fascinating phenomenon born in the late 1960s. Sharif collected some of the world's best players, including members of the Blue Team, and traveled around the world playing bridge exhibition matches against local teams. The Lancia sports car company put up four cars as prizes for any team who could beat them (they paid out once, to a bunch of upstart New Yorkers who included a couple of promising youngsters named Matt Granovetter and Alan Sontag). Then the format changed: the Sharif squad would play matches against the new world bridge powerhouse, the Dallas Aces (Hamman, Jacoby, Wolff, Goldman, Eisenberg and Lawrence).

This is a deal from one of their four exhibition matches in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1970.

On the opening lead of the eight of clubs Giorgio Belladonna played the club king, covered by the ace and ruffed. Now Giorgio pondered the problem. The Closed Room was small but had been provided with a side table for water and coffee. Giorgio stood up, went over to that table and lit a cigarette. He walked back and forth with his head in his hand, puffing furiously.

He finally went back to the table and played the ace of diamonds and a diamond to the jack. He cashed the queen of clubs, discarding the ten of spades. He ruffed the last club high and began running trumps. During his walkabout, he had concluded that the spade king must be offside. When he found an eight-card club suit on his right, he was also convinced that the hearts were not breaking. He arrived at this position:

When Giorgio led his last diamond, Billy Eisenberg was in trouble. If he threw a heart, Giorgio would play ace, king and another heart to endplay Billy and force a spade lead into the A-Q whilst setting up the heart seven. If Billy discarded his spade nine, Giorgio would simply discard the heart three and then play the ace and queen of spades to set up the spade seven and six for the eleventh and twelfth tricks.

Jacoby-Wolff also arrived in six diamonds, but it was over very quickly. Jacoby ruffed the club lead and after playing the diamond ace and a diamond to the jack he led a spade to the ten and jack. Eventually he lost two hearts in the end position for two down.

To this day, Billy Eisenberg says that this was the greatest hand ever played against him. How clearly Giorgio saw this game of ours.

By the 1950s, the Culbertson era was over and modern bridge can fairly be said to have arrived. Goren’s point-count methods had overtaken Culbertson’s honor trick system in popularity in the USA. Meanwhile a group of young British experts had developed a new natural system, Acol, named after the Acol Road Bridge Club where they all played. The 1955 World Championship was held in New York and to some extent was regarded as a test of the two ideologies. The final indeed saw Great Britain taking on the defending champions from the USA in a match which Great Britain won by 5,420 points — they used aggregate scoring in those days.

This deal set up a spectacular comparison of declarer play.

The American declarer's effort showed nothing special. West led the nine of diamonds; declarer won with dummy's ace and played a club to the jack. When that worked he was able to draw trumps and give up a spade. Given West's preemptive effort, that was reasonable, but if the finesse had lost declarer would almost certainly have gone down.

It was in the replay that Terence Reese showed why he was regarded by many as the best player in the world by taking a much superior line. He ruffed the opening lead of the nine of diamonds and cashed the two top trumps. Then he cashed the ace and king of hearts. East covered the seven of hearts and declarer ruffed and exited with a trump. This was the position:

A heart or a diamond would allow declarer to establish two tricks in hearts. East took his best chance and tried the king of spades, only to have Reese table his hand.

On August 4th, 1956, Italy defeated France to become Champions of Europe, marking the birth of the legendary Blue Team, which was to give Italy a matchless series of successes in world competition spanning twenty years. The six players at the time were Walter Avarelli, Giorgio Belladonna, Eugenio Chiaradia, Massimo d'Alelio, Pietro Forquet and Guglielmo Siniscalco; several of them were to remain key members of the Squadra Azzurra for the next quarter-century. The French team, too, included players who were household names for the next twenty years or so: Henri Svarc, Pierre Jais, Roger Trezel and Pierre Ghestem. On a side note, this was the first tournament where penalties were introduced for slow play.

The format used for the 1956 championship was a simple one: a round robin. There were no playoffs. When Italy met France in the last round of the event, they had twelve wins and two defeats. France, still undefeated, had conceded four draws. Another draw would give Italy the title.

At half time, Italy led by 7 points. This dramatic deal introduced the second half of the match.

In the Open Room North passed as dealer and France bid a making six spades. This certainly looked like a good result: seven spades would have been an excellent contract, but it would have gone down with the bad trump break. However, the French pair could not have expected their score to be quite as good as it turned out to be.

This is how the editor of the Daily Bulletin described events at the other table:

'When South doubled the bid of seven spades it gave East a chance to guess the position of the trumps. However, West retreated and when the French made six tricks in hearts to collect a penalty of 1100 I thought the Italians would collapse and there were still thirteen boards to play. Here Forquet did himself honor; he did not say a word, but continued to play calmly for the rest of the match. This excellent test of character allowed Siniscalco to recover his equanimity.'

What should one make of South's double of seven spades? Did he need the extra fifty points?

Italy went on to draw the match 42-42 and take the title. In the next 23 years, the Blue Team and its successors would be gold or silver medalists in Europe in every year but two, collecting an incredible sixteen world titles (only losing the world championship final three times). It is a record unlikely ever to be matched.

The "Buenos Aires Affair" spawned two books: Alan Truscott's The Great Bridge Scandal and Terence Reese's Story of an Accusation.

This is one of the deals Truscott cited as evidence of cheating.

On his second bid, Shapiro psyched two hearts, a rebid which should show at least four hearts. This is a strange bid with very high risk. In an attempt to muddy the waters for the opponents, he risked his partner supporting hearts at a high level and the possible ensuing disaster.

However, if Shapiro knew Reese held just two hearts, there was no danger of support, and the obstruction could only gain. Shapiro knew the opponents had nine hearts between them and, likely, game. If they were doubled, they could run to two spades or three diamonds.

To most experts, this would seem to be compelling evidence of cheating, but Reese answered this allegation in his book.

Since the vulnerability was favorable it was reasonable for East to attempt this maneuver, Reese claimed, "As to the alleged risk, if I, as West had just one spade but five hearts, I too could have would certainly be alive to the possibility that partner's heart bid may not be genuine."

Reese also makes a point that if he knew his partner was short in hearts he too could have bid hearts to try and fool the opponents.

The British Bridge League eventually found Reese and Schapiro innocent of cheating; however, the World Bridge Federation found them guilty and banned them from W.B.F. events for three years.

Friday, I had the pleasure to play with Betty Kenngott, after her partner didn't show up. She played this deal like a world champion to make 1NT.

Mindy Nakaya was on lead against Betty's 1NT contract and she chose to lead a small heart, the unbid suit, rather than her fourth diamond. Good decision, Mindy! Always listen to the bidding before you make that first lead. It will usually give you a clue.

Betty put up dummy's queen and Daryla Kenith, East, won with the ace and returned the suit. Betty ducked this trick and Mindy cleared the suit. Good start for the defense.

Betty now led a club to her queen and West's ace. Mindy shifted to a spade, ducked in dummy and won by East's queen. East cashed the thirteenth heart and exited with the king of diamonds, which Betty won with the ace in her hand.

This left the following position:

Now, Betty made a key play. She cashed the diamond queen, to strip East of a safe exit, before leading three rounds of clubs to endplay East, who was forced to lead a spade away from the king. Betty inserted the jack and claimed the last two tricks.

Well done!

Did you know that the national magazine Sports Illustrated used to run a regular bridge column? It was authored by none other than "Mr. Bridge" himself, Charles Goren.

While this is not a particularly famous deal, I managed to dig up one of Goren's SI columns from the February 6, 1967 issue. The cover that week featured a young Cassius Clay.

The Flashy Leghorn Diamond

by Charles Goren

Late last month one of the most esteemed members of Italy's World Championship Blue Team, Benito Garozzo, disclosed that the team may not defend its title this spring because its boss, Carlo Alberto Perroux, the czar of Italian bridge, wants to replace two of his six men (SI, Jan. 23). Perroux's determination to do this has led Garozzo and Pietro Forquet, two of Italy's best players, to say they will not compete unless the team is kept intact.

One of the more interesting sidelights of this situation is that if Perroux does get his way and manages to quell any rebellion by his aces, the opponents of the Italian team are going to be facing an even wilder bidding system than the ones they have seen-and been unable to cope with-in the past.

What Perroux proposes to do is banish the oldest member of the Blue Team, Walter Avarelli, and Mimmo D'Alelio, the player he has most often kept on the bench when the pressure was high. He would use their respective partners, Giorgio Belladonna and Camillo Pabis Ticci, as a pair, leave Forquet and Garozzo intact and complete the team with two newcomers from Leghorn, Benito Bianchi and Giuseppe Messina.

Both Bianchi and Messina are in their early 40s. They have had considerable international experience and have played for Italy in several European Championships. Among the advantages they would bring to the team is the fact that they would force their opponents to learn yet another very artificial Italian system: the Leghorn Diamond.

The Neapolitan Club already provides an exchange of information about high cards. The Roman Club emphasizes distributional information. The Leghorn Diamond is designed to add a further way to elicit information about both high-card strength and distribution, employing an artificial one-diamond opening, as well as an artificial one club. When the right hand comes along for the system, there is no doubt that it gleans information that no other method can provide with the same accuracy. The deal shown, from the 1965 European Championships, was perfect for Leghorn.

When Britain held the North-South cards, South opened with an artificial forcing bid of two clubs, and the British stopped at five hearts.

The Leghorn Diamond let the Italians get to the slam with ease. The opening bid was artificial and forcing. Messina's heart response did not show a suit, but simply denied any ace or king. Bianchi's spade bid was asking, and Messina's one no trump revealed that he had either one spade or none. Bianchi's two hearts was still another asking bid, and Messina's answer, three clubs, showed either four or five hearts without any of the three top honors.

Bianchi's leap to six hearts was the first natural bid of the auction. He had learned that his partner could ruff the second round of spades, had enough trumps to make the suit playable for only one loser, and that was all he needed to know. Messina, the declarer, had to concede a trump trick to West's queen-jack-6, but he was able to ruff three leads of spades and set up that suit to bring home the slam.

The infamous "Oh, Shit!" case from the March, 1999 Vanderbilt Knockouts in Vancouver. The contestants were Bobby Wolff and Dan Morse vs. JoAnna Stansby and Michael Shuster.

This deal resulted in perhaps the most controversial decision ever by an appeals committee.

Although Wolff and Morse originally received the correct ruling from the Tournament Director, it was later reversed. Inexcusable! There oughta be a law against it.

Here is what happened: Wolff led his singleton heart against 6, won by declarer in dummy. She then led a diamond from K-J-9 and when Morse, fearing a singleton Q, popped up with his A declarer ruffed. All she had to do was pull trump and claim her slam as she had a discard for her losing spade on the K.

However, instead of the rest of the hand being a pianola, Stansby must have had a "senior moment" (not uncommon, even at the high levels). After ruffing the diamond, she played a low trump to dummy's Q and then played a spade away from the A and Morse hopped up K and gave Wolff a heart ruff for down one. As she led the low spade (and after Morse won the K), her universally quoted comment was echoed, "Oh, Shit!" Wolff described it later, "It was a phrase that was to become so famous that those two words will always be synonymous with the most ludicrous appeals decision that ever came down the pike."

After the play was over, declarer's partner suggested they call the Tournament Director, Stan Tench, to the table who ruled that the result would stand as played. Ten minutes later he was coerced into reversing his ruling, after Chief Tournament Director, Henry Cukoff became involved. Unfathomable as it is, declarer was allowed to take back her card and 6 was chalked up as making. Yes, read it again. You are not seeing things!

UNBELIEVABLE!

The Italian Blue Team were, without question, the greatest team in the history of bridge. They dominated the bridge world for a decade and a half, took a short break, then returned to win three more Bermuda Bowls and an Olympiad.

This may be the best known deal in the history of world championships. It is from the finals of the 1975 Bermuda Bowl. The Italians played the Americans and were leading by 12 IMPs going to the last five hands.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower showed his knowledge of bridge odds as declarer on this deal, which was the first bridge hand ever published in Time magazine. The hand was played in 1953 in a White House game. Eisenhower's partner was bridge expert Oswald Jacoby and their opponents were U.S. Chief Justice Fred Vinson and Air Force Secretary Harold Talbott.

The auction was straightforward, with South choosing a strong jump-shift response, then using Blackwood.

The opening lead was the 3 to East's A. Declarer saw that he could avoid the club finesse if he could set up an extra heart trick, but that there could be problems with dummy entries if the trumps broke poorly.

He thoughtfully unblocked his K under East's A. East shifted to the J, but declarer knew that setting up three heart tricks was a better bet than the club finesse, so he won his A.

After drawing trumps, he used dummy's diamond honors as entries to trump two hearts in his hand and then discard his Q on the established J.

It was our regular Friday game at Bridge Ace,
I had not an inkling what was about take place.
We started the day against Carol and Jay,
And on two out of three, things didn’t go our way.

Our opponents, round two, were Michael and Jean,
The last time we played them, I’d gone down thirteen!
I was hoping against hope for more than one good board,
But here, once again, two bottoms we scored.

We moved on to three, where we found Ron and Carol,
They said playing us was, "Like shooting fish in a barrel.”
On the fourth round, we played Gwen and Jackie.
Things didn’t get better – they got even more whacky.

After twelve boards, our game was mediocre,
I had played a few hands just like a joker.
My partner had not taken one winning finesse,
And neither had I, I'm ashamed to confess.

My partner's poor bidding was giving me troubles,
And don't get me started on some of his doubles.
He'd even forgotten two notrump is Jacoby.
I wanted to throw him into Lake Okeechobee!

On round number five, we faced Billy and Larry.
If we couldn’t beat them, I’d commit hara-kiri!
I was hopeful that now our fortunes would reverse.
I knew, at any rate, things couldn’t get any worse.

As I sorted my cards to play board thirteen,
I was feeling the need for a jolt of caffeine.
I knew, for this session, we had a lot to make up,
A fresh cup of coffee just might help me wake up.

North was the dealer and he quietly passed.
"Think about this hand, don't fret over the last."
I counseled myself. I remembered those words,
From a bridge lesson I'd taken with three other nerds.

My hand was worth just ten in high cards,
But the eight solid diamonds I could not disregard.
I pondered my opening. What should it be?
Should I bid five, four or three?

Continuing our series on famous deals throughout history, here is a deal used by con men on Missippi riverboats in the 19th century.

Aptly, the deal is known as the "Mississippi Heart" hand.

My father told me, "Son, I don't have much money to send you out into the world with, so I'll give you some advise. If you ever come across a man that has says he can make a jack jump out of a sealed deck of cards and spit cider in your ear, do not bet this man. For as sure as you stand there you will end up with less money and cider in your ear."

-Sky Masterson, Guys and Dolls

What would you bid with the South hand?

Click Show Answer to see what happens.

This week, we are beginning a series on famous deals throughout history, from swindles to murder at the bridge table.

To kick things off, here is a deal played in Kansas City, KS in 1931. The Bennetts played rubber bridge at home vs. the Hoffmans. John Bennett's wife was so infuriated by his play of one hand that she shot him dead!

Mr. Bennett opened the bidding without sufficient values for an opening bid, and suffered an unusually heavy penalty. However, four spades was not an impossible contract.

Ely Culbertson, the reigning bridge expert of the day analyzed the deal to see if Bennett could have saved his life by better play. To read the analysis, click Show Answer.

This week's deal features an astonishing defense by West − we’ll get to the winning play by degrees.

• If declarer has the ♣A, and West the ♦A, then the winning defense is to take the ♥A immediately and play another heart, stopping the club ruff.
• If declarer has the ♦A, and West the ♣A, then the winning defense is to duck the first trump, win the next club, cash ♥A and then a third club.

Opening Lead: ♥10

It is instructive to note the order of suit bidding: North's hearts-clubs-clubs indicated five-five shape; South's spades-diamonds-spades indicated six-four shape. This latter knowledge allowed North to raise with a doubleton.

West led the heart 10, won by the ace, then a spade was led; {king}, ace. East's card was an omen of the bad trump break, and declarer took full advantage. He continued with a club to the ace; heart ruff; club king (no finesse); then another heart ruff, felling the king. Next came the diamond ace; diamond ruff; heart jack (discarding a diamond); and a club ruff as West helplessly followed suit.

At this juncture, South remained with the queen-10 in spades and a diamond; West held J-9-8 in spades. Declarer simply led his diamond which West had to ruff. The forced spade return gave declarer the last two tricks.

About a half century ago the late Theodore Lightner proposed a new convention to his partner, Ely Culbertson. A double of a slam, he suggested, should call for an unusual lead. The first time it came up some disaster ensued, and Culbertson angrily refused to have anything more to do with it.

Other players were willing to give the Lightner double a more thorough test, and it became part of the standard bidding repertory. It often gives a vital clue to the opening leader, but there are some occasional failures. One of them occurred on the diagramed deal, although the double did get the defense off to a good start.

Six spades was a reasonable contract for North-South, and was reached with a string of cue-bids beginning with four diamonds. The play would not have been easy after a neutral lead, but when East doubled West found the club lead.

The double tends to ask for dummy's first suit, in this case clubs. West had to ask himself why East had not doubled the cue-bid of six clubs. He concluded correctly that East feared that six clubs might be a playable contract.

South was Rich Waugh, who learned the game in Westbury, L.I., and is now an active organizer and teacher in Craig, Colo. He knew he had run into a bad club split, but had to guess whether West had led a singleton or whether East was void. He guessed right by playing low from dummy, and East ruffed and led the diamond jack.

One plan was to ruff three hearts in the closed hand, but this would have failed for lack of entries. Instead, South planned to ruff twice in his hand and hope for a squeeze. He won the diamond lead with his queen, cashed the heart ace and ruffed a heart. He then led a trump to the jack and ruffed another heart with the king.

When he then led to the queen of spades and cashed the ace he reached this position:

On the last trump East had to surrender. In the rather unlikely event that West had begun with the diamond protection he would have been squeezed in the minor suits. South was due to fail only if East held the diamonds and West the heart king.

Lead: ♦J

How should you plan the play?

Click Show Answer.
 

Partner opens 1¨, Right-hand opponent makes a weak jump overcall of 2©. As South, what’s your call?

Let’s say you bid 2♠. The auction proceeds as shown.

West leads the ©2. How should you plan the play?

This week's deal is a reprise of a deal originally played at Bridge Ace in June, 2008. Somehow the identical deal found its way into our barometer game Saturday.

Back in 2008, the final contracts, all by East-West, were:

• 2♠ - making 5 for 200
• 3NT - making 7 for 520
• 6♣ - making 7 for 940
• 6♥ - making 7 for 1010

How did everyone do 2½ years later?

Click Show Answer to find out.
 

The humble finesse is the first thing we learn, and we also learn that some finesses win, some lose. Later we learn that some finesses are purely for practice and serve no useful purpose. Here is a case in point.

West’s 2NT was the Unusual Notrump, showing both minors, and North eventually plunged (some would say recklessly) into slam. West leads a club, your job is to make twelve tricks.

The game of bridge is enriched by many beautiful plays and stratagems, and we all love to talk about our latest trump coup or double squeeze. But even that pales into insignificance when compared to the fun we get from hoodwinking the opponents with a deceptive play. There’s nothing a bridge player enjoys more than a little bit of larceny!

West leads ♦J and when dummy goes down it’s apparent that the success of the contract depends upon not losing three spades and one heart. It’s a simple hand, wouldn’t you say?

Declarer wins the diamond lead in dummy, and finesses the ♠10, losing to West’s ♠J. Oh, well, now there are three sure trump losers and declarer uses dummy’s sole remaining entry to take the heart finesse. That works, and it’s ten tricks for declarer, losing just three trumps.

Can you do better on defense?

Crime in London appeared to be taking a vacation, and Sherlock Holmes found himself on opening lead at the Baker Street Bridge Club. Let’s eavesdrop on the post-mortem in Holmes’ 221B bachelor quarters.

Watson: Dash it, Holmes, why not lead the unbid suit?  I must have Hearts.

Holmes: Indeed, dear chap, you had four, but so did declarer.

Watson: We know that now.

Holmes: And I knew it before I made my lead.

Watson: An Englishman doesn’t peek.

Holmes: No, it was the curious matter of your bidding.

Watson: But I didn’t bid.

Holmes: Yes, that was most curious.  My 6-count and the opponents’ bidding told me that you had a decent hand.  And yet you did not overcall 1♥.   Clearly you had less than 5 Hearts.  The auction also told me that West had less than four Hearts and East less than 5.  Thus, the Hearts were 2-3-4-4 around the table.

Watson: Very clever.  I suppose you also knew that West had three Clubs.

Holmes: Yes, Watson.

Watson: You did know?

Holmes: It seemed most likely.  I had five and East had at least two.

Watson: He did?

Holmes: If he was 3=4=5=1 he would raise Spades.  With 2=4=6=1 he would rebid Diamonds.  Ergo, he had at least two Clubs.

Watson: So, if East had two Clubs and West had four then I would have had just two.  With that I would no doubt make a Takeout Double of 1♣.

Holmes: By George, I think he’s got it!

Yes, of course, Holmes did not lead the unbid Hearts, he led through West’s Club suit.  But how on earth did he know to lead the Queen, the only card in his hand which beats the contract?  That’s a story for another day.

'Twas the night before Christmas
Two guests in our house
Were playing some bridge
With me and my spouse.

"Please tell me," she shouted
"Why didn't you double?
'Twas plain from the start
We had them in trouble."

"Tis futile, my Dear --
I am taking no stand.
So please stop your nagging
Let's play the next hand."

"Remember next time"
She said with a frown
"To double a contract
That's sure to go down."

So I picked up my cards
In a downtrodden state.
Then I opened one Spade
and awaited my fate.
 
The guy sitting South
Was like many I've known.
He bid and played
In a world all his own.

"Two Diamonds," he countered
With scarcely a care.
The Ace in his hand
Gave him courage to spare.

My wife, smiling faintly
And tossing her head,
Leaned over the table,
"Double," she said.

And North for some reason
I cannot determine
Bid two Hearts,
like preaching a sermon.

I grinned as I doubled
Enjoying the fun,
And turned round to South
To see where he would run.

But South, undistressed
Not at loss for a word
came forth with "two Spades" --
Did I hear what I heard?

The other two passed
And in sheer disbelief
I said "Double, my friend,
That'll bring you to grief."

South passed with a nod
His composure serene.
My wife with a flourish
Led out the Heart Queen.

I sat there and chuckled
Inside o'er their fix.
But South very calmly
Ran off his eight tricks.

He ruffed the first Heart
In his hand right away.
And then trumped a Club
On the very next play.

He crossruffed the hand
At a breathtaking pace,
'Til I was left holding
Five Spades to the Ace.

In anguish my wife cried
"Your mind's growing old.
You should see that Six No Trump
for us is ice-cold!"

By doubling this time
I'd committed a sin.
It just goes to prove
That you never can win.

Here is a deal played at the club yesterday. Everyone played 6NT with a heart lead, and they all went down, except the pair playing against the computer (and we know how bad the computer is!).

This is a lesson in good technique. As always when playing notrump, your first task is to count your quick tricks.

You can count one spade and three each in the remaining three suits - ten tricks off the top. Where can you develop the other two tricks you need to fulfill your contract?

Well, you can always force a second spade, and diamonds and clubs will each provide another trick if the suit splits 3-3. So where should you start? How do you plan the play?

And yet another preempting decision, here it is South in the hot seat.  Would you open her hand 2♠?  That’s a partnership question, we suppose, but by our standards this hand is just too good.  For starters it passes the Rule of 20 (add HCP to the length of your two longest suits), added to which all the HCP are working, and there are even some useful trump intermediates as a bonus.  It’s fine to have a range of 5-10, but some 10-counts are just too good, and this is one of them.  Of course, some partnerships still use 5-11 but, as any 11-count with a 6-card suit automatically passes the Rule of 20 (11+6+3 gets there), perhaps 11 should be removed from the range.

North’s 4♦ was a splinter showing game-values, a Spade fit and Diamond shortness.  What would a Double by East mean here?  Generally speaking, Doubles of artificial bids are lead-directing, but is there really any point in doubling for the lead of a suit that Dummy is short in?  The answer is “No!” and many partnerships use the Double to request the lead of one of the other two side-suits.  Which one?  Take your pick, one common method is that the Double requests the lead of the suit below the splinter (and if North had splintered in Clubs then the suit below would be Hearts).  Does that mean that, on this hand, East should double 4♦ for a Club lead?  We are not sure that is a great idea, East has something in both side-suits, so on this hand it might be better to pass and trust Partner’s good judgment.

Against 4♠, West has a natural Heart lead, and Declarer can reel in 12 tricks by careful use of the Spade entries to set up the Clubs:

• Heart lead won in Dummy
• Cash ♣A and ruff a Club (high)
• Over to Dummy’s ♠Q
• Ruff a Club (high)

When the ♣K comes down in three rounds, Declarer crosses to Dummy’s ♠J, gets rid of the Heart loser on the Clubs and ends up losing just one Diamond.  Of course, the ♣K is more likely to come down in four rounds, in which case it would have been just 11 tricks.

Although strong enough for a strong 2♣, North correctly opts to open 1♥. Two-suited hands require a lot of bidding room to accurately describe their distribution. It is very hard to describe these hands after giving up an entire level of bidding.

South responds 1NT (not quite strong enough for 2♣, playing 2/1), and North reverses to 2♠. After South's 2NT, North completes his pattern by rebidding spades.

At this juncture, South knows his partner has five spades. But why did he open 1♥? Because he must have more hearts! North has shown 5-6 distribution in the majors and has room for only two minor suit cards. South raises to 4♠ and North makes a slam try with the 5♦ cue-bid (first-round control). South is more than happy to accept and jumps directly to 6♠

Due to the fortunate lie of the cards, it is virtually impossible to misplay this hand. The doubleton ♠10-9 makes it easy to pick up the spade suit with only one loser. The hearts can be established with one ruff (and the ♥Q is even onside for anyone who takes the finesse instead).

West leads the ♠J.

It looks best to establish the diamonds, but because of the lead, you cannot cash the top diamonds and then get back to your hand to run the suit.

What should you do?

Click Show Answer.

Six or seven years ago, I received a call from the concierge of one of the tonier condominiums on the beach. She asked if I was available to teach a group of beginners. I said I would and have been giving lessons to the same group ever since.

The group consists of three of the nicest couples you would ever want to meet. One of the couples has become very involved in the duplicate bridge scene. In fact he is on the Board of one of our local clubs. I am proud to call them all my friends.

When we first started, none of them knew a heart from a spade, but they've made great progress since. It always elates me when one of my students does well.

Here is a deal from last week's lesson:

After two passes, Irene opened 2NT in the South seat. After Diane's Stayman inquiry they settled in 3NT.

Jerry led his fourth club to Don's ♣J. How do you plan the play?

...doesn't mean you have to use it! This week's big deal is a case in point:

After East opened 1NT (15-17), South, with nary a glance at the vulnerability (and possibly not at his hand either!) trotted out his favorite convention to show 5-5 in the majors. He overcalled 2♦, which was Cappelletti, promising both majors.

West doubled, which said he could defend one or both of South's suits. This shows how little is needed for a penalty double after your partner opens 1NT. All it requires is trump tricks!

North entered the fray with 3♣, and South compounded his error by rebidding 3♥, which, of course, West doubled. When the smoke cleared, E-W were +800, instead of the +120 they were rightfully due for making 2NT.

Do you have methods for competing when the opponents overcall your notrump openers, with either natural or conventional bids?

Click Show Answer for some suggestions.

The E-W auction is based on the 2/1 style of bidding, and as you can see they hit the jackpot when they get to 6NT.  Even better, they got it played from the East side, protecting the ♦K from the opening lead.  But there’s no justice in this world and even those who wrong-sided the slam will make 12 tricks.

What do you think of that 4NT bid?

Against your contract of 3NT, West leads the ♥2. East wins the ♥A and returns the ♥8. Plan the play.

.

After opening 2♣, and hearing a 2♦ “waiting” bid from West, what would be your rebid as East?

Continuing our tradition of running games no other clubs offer, we will hold our first "Par" bridge event on Monday, August 23.

In a par contest, all pairs compete against a computer generated "par" score on each board. The par contract on a deal is whatever contract results from optimal bidding, by both sides, which neither side could improve by further bidding. Par will be either the optimum contract by one side or a doubled penalty by the other side, which loses less than the value of the optimum contract. Your score on each board is compared to the par score and the results are calculated by IMPs.

Here is an example taken from a deal at the club this week.

Can you guess the par score for this board? What is the par contract?

First, a comment on the bidding: In no way do I condone the vulnerable two-level 2♣ overcall with a five-card suit when both opponents are bidding. These kind of overcalls have -800 written all over them.

Look at the West hand and decide how you would defend. You lead the ♣9. Partner wins the ♣AK and returns a club, which declarer ruffs with the ♦10.

What is your discard?

a) ♠3

b) ♥4

c) ♦2

d) doesn't matter

Make your decision, then click Show Answer.

You hold the West hand above and hear the auction you see.

What's your next bid?

Decide, then click Show Answer.

Sitting South against East's 2♠ contract, you lead your singleton heart. The play proceeds:

1. Partner wins the ♥K (Declarer plays the ♥6)
2. Partner wins the ♥A (Declarer plays the ♥J)
3. Partner returns the ♥3 which you ruff (Declarer plays the ♥7)
4. Your club switch is won by partner's ♣A (Declarer plays the ♣J)
5. Partner returns the ♥10. East ruffs with the ♠J and you over-ruff with the ♠Q.
6. You cash the ♦A.
7. Declarer claims the rest.

You took the first six tricks for down one. Pretty good, right?

Well, not exactly. Click Show Answer to see how you could have done better.

This a hand we discussed today in our Vugraph presentation at the club. It is an advanced play of the hand problem.

This is a double dummy problem from an interesting deal at the club this week. Larry looked at the hand record and noticed it stated that 6♥ could be made by East-West. He challenged that assertion - after all, North had King fifth of trumps - and accused me of making an analytical error on the hand record.

I don't make those judjments, I use a computer program, Deep Finesse, for that. Deep Finesse is a wonderful program which shows what contracts are possible with the actual layout of the cards.

Larry's question piqued my interest however. I decided to look at the hand and see how 6♥ was possible. Can you see how to make 6♥ with the E-W hands? Click Show Answer.

Here is a deal I played today with Major. He was he dealer and opened 2♣ with the North hand. (I would have opened 1♠, intending to jump shift to hearts, but the 2♣ opening is acceptable - with only four losers, he was within a trick of game.)

Howard Fink overcalled 2♦, usually not a bad idea with a good six-card suit after the opponent's strong opening bid. Here though, it was pretty risky because of the vulnerability.

I passed (a double would have been a negative bid saying, "You're on your own partner. Don't count on me for a thing!") and Rose passed.

What should Major rebid? Click Show Answer.

Here is a text book example of how to bid a slam.

When East opens 1NT (15-17), West knows she wants to be in a small slam. There are not enough values to even consider bidding a grand slam. The only question is whether to bid 6♠ or 6NT.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to find out. She should bid 2♥ to transfer to spades and rebid 5NT, which says to partner: "Pick a slam."

Unfortunately, today Marilyn Sellers was unlucky enough to play with a distracted director (we won't mention any names!).

How did the auction actually go at her table? Click Show Answer!

Today, I had the pleasure of playing with Yashu, who was visiting from Rochester, NY. She plays a very nice game. Here is one of our boards from the last round.

While I'm not disturbed by South's 2♥, I would prefer a rebid of 1NT, mostly because of the totally balanced distribution (3-3-3-4). But in defense of raising 1♥ to 2♥, although the direct raise normally promises four-card support, it is difficult to find fault with a raise when holding three honors in partner's suit. And on this hand it worked well.

There are not many deals where Blackwood is appropriate, however this is one of them. Notice that North has at least second-round control in all the suits. All he is interested in is the number of Aces South holds.

After South raises hearts, 6♥ is pretty easy to bid. Making it, however, is another story. After a trump lead from East, how do you (sitting North) plan the play?

Click Show Answer.

For a change, this is not a hand played at the club, but rather one that arose in one of my private lessons this week.

After West's 3♣ overcall, the 4♣ cue-bid from North is Stayman, asking for a four-card major.

However, South does not have a four-card major. Whatever should he do?

(Believe it or not, West actually did have a reasonable 3♣ call. Click "Show All Hands" to see.)