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Quiz Solutions
Quiz Solutions

Quiz 6 Solution

Dealer: South. Game All.

          S Q 10 9 2

          H 8 7 5

          D A 10 9 3

          C A J

S 6 5 3                 S 4

H A K J 4 3         H Q 10 6

D Q 6                  D J 7 2

C Q 8 6               C K 10 9 4 3 2

          S A K J 8 7

          H 9 2

          D K 8 5 4

          C 7 5

 

Contract: 4S. Opening Lead: HA.

Partner leads the ace of hearts, which you encourage with the ten, and

continues with the king and another heart, ruffed by declarer. Declarer

now draws three rounds of trumps, partner following to all three, and

plays ace and another club, your partner playing the six followed by the

eight as you win.

It looks as if you are well and truly endplayed, and must open up the

diamond suit.

However, a quick count of the hand should tell you that you do not need

to broach the diamond suit at all. You know your partner started with

three spades, five hearts, three clubs (if he had only a doubleton he would

have played the eight first and then the six) and therefore just two

diamonds. So declarer began life with a four-card diamond suit and a ruff

and discard won’t do him any good at all. When you win your king of

clubs, continue with a third round of the suit.

Quiz 5 Solution

Dealer North. E/W Vul.

    S Q 7 6 5

    H A Q 10

    D Q 5 4

    C Q J 3

S Void          S K 10 4

H J 9 6 4 3    H 8 5 2

D J 9 6 3       D 10 8 7 2

C A 9 8 4      C 7 6 5

    S A J 9 8 3 2

    HK 7

    DA K

    C K 10 2

Contract: 6S. Opening lead: CA.

A few weeks back I said that if you are missing K-3-2 you should finesse

rather than play for the drop. K-10-4 follows the same principle, so I can

confirm that cashing the ace in the hope that the king drops singleton is

highly against the odds. So should you just finesse your jack? If you do,

the good news will be that the jack wins. The far more significant bad

news will be that with the trumps breaking 3-0 you still have a trump loser.

a) Best play is to lead the queen from dummy. This is not an attempt to

smoke out the king – you would be very misguided to change your

mind and rise with your ace if East does not cover the queen. Running

the queen is the correct play to cope with K-10-4 in East’s hand. If the

queen wins the trick, you can still finesse your jack on the next round.

Moreover, if East covers the queen with his king to force out your ace,

you will still have your J-9 sitting over his 10-4.

b) Since, if the missing trumps are K-10-9, you simply cannot avoid a

loser if East has them all, it hardly matters whether you lead the queen

or a low spade from dummy. The queen might be slightly better

because a sleepy East might fail to cover.

Quiz 4

Dealer East. N/S Vul.

S  A Q 7 2
H  A Q 8 2
D  4
C  J 7 6 3

 

    N

W    E

    S

S  K 5 4
H  J 6 5 3
D  A 9 3
C  10 9 5

West
 
Pass
Pass

North

2C
3NT

East
Pass
Pass
All Pass

South
1NT
2D



North's Stayman enquiry meets with a negative response, so he assumes partner must have a diamond stopper and bids 3NT.

Partner leads the six of diamonds and you win with your ace, declarer contributing the five. What now?


Quiz 4 Solution

Dealer: East. N/S Vul.

        S A Q 7 2

        H A Q 8 2

        D 4

        C J 7 6 3

S 9 8 6            S K 5 4

H 10 9            H J 6 5 3

D K J 8 6 2    D A 9 3

C Q 4 2          C 10 9 5

        S J 10 3

        H K 7 4

        D Q 10 7 5

        C A K 8

Contract: 3NT. Opening lead: D6.

The Rule of Eleven tells you that declarer has three cards higher than the

six, but that does not mean you should abandon diamonds – partner is

quite likely to have a chunky five-card suit. It does mean that you may

need to lead diamonds twice from your side. When returning partner’s

suit, which card should you play?

Do not imagine that this does not matter! Every card you play as a

defender carries a message, part of the reason why defence is the most

challenging part of bridge. The important thing you must tell partner now

is how many diamonds you have left, so that he knows whether his suit

is running or not.

The standard signal is to play the higher of two remaining cards, top of

your remaining doubleton. The nine tells partner you have just two

diamonds left, therefore declarer started with four. He will beat the ten

with his jack and then switch to a heart or a spade, hoping you can get

back on lead to play another diamond.

Quiz 3

Dealer North. Love All.

S  K J 5 2
H  K Q 7
D  Q J 4
C  J 6 3

N

      W    E

           S

S  A 9 8 7 6 4
H  A 6
D  A K
C  K Q 2

West
 
Pass
Pass

North
1NT
4S
6S

East
Pass
Pass
All Pass

South
3S
5S*



*Bid six if you have good trumps

a) West cashes the ace of clubs and then continues with the four of clubs, which you win with your king. How should you continue to guard against as many adverse distributions as possible?

b) How would you play the trumps if the play starts the same way and you hold the ten of spades instead of the nine?

Quiz 3 Solution

Dealer North. Love All.

S K J 5 2

H K Q 7

D Q J 4

C J 6 3

                               S Q 10 3                                                            S Void

                              H J 5 4                                                               H 10 9 8 3 2

                              D 6 5 3                                                               D 10 9 8 7 2

                              C A 9 8 7                                                           C 10 5 4

S A 9 8 7 6 4

H A 6

D A K

C K Q 2

Contract: 6S. Opening lead: ♣A.

When this hand occurred, declarer started by playing dummy’s king of

spades and found he had a trump loser. He thought himself unlucky, but this

was poor play rather than bad luck. His thought processes were flawed.

Firstly, he had every reason to feel pleased with his contract. Success is

trivial if spades break 2-1, which will happen almost 80% of the time.

Declarer then started with the ace simply because his teacher once told

him to start with a high card from the shorter holding.

a) A better thought process would be to start by saying that if trumps

were breaking 2-1 then it didn’t matter which high trump he played

first. He should then have actively considered a 3-0 break. If East held

Q-10-3, it was impossible to avoid losing a trick. By contrast, if West

held Q-10-3, a finesse of the jack would work on the second round, so

long as he started with his ace.

b) If the missing spades are Q-9-3 you can cope this holding on either

side. However, you will have to cash either your ace or your king first,

compromising your position. It is just a guess. You don’t really know

whether West has cashed the ace of clubs because he think he can see

another trick or because he has a lot of clubs and thinks East might

have a singleton club.

Quiz 2

Dealer South. N/S Vul.

  J 7
  A 10 2
  Q J 10
  K 10 7 6 3

 

      N

W       E

      S

  Q 10 4
  J 9 6 5
  7 4 3
  9 5 2

West
 
Pass
Pass

North
 
2C
3NT

East

Pass
All Pass

South
1D
2NT



After the two-over-one response, South's 2NT rebid is forcing to game with 15-19 points, showing any balanced hand too strong to open 1NT but too weak to open 2NT.

West leads the five of spades. Dummy plays the seven. Which spade should East play?


Quiz 2 solution

Dealer: South. N/S Vul.

                S J 7

                H A 10 2

               D Q J 10

               C K 10 7 6 3

S K 8 6 5 2                   S Q 10 4

S Q 7 3                        H J 9 6 5

D A 6 2                         D 7 4 3

C J 4                            C 9 5 2

               S A 9 3

               H K 8 4

               D K 9 8 5

               C A Q 8

Contract: 3NT. Opening Lead: S5.

East must play Third Hand High on the opening lead. His highest card is

the queen, but that is not actually the card to play here. If he plays the

queen, declarer takes the ace and drives out partner’s ace of diamonds.

West must now play the king of spades to beat the jack and then lead low

to your ten, which beats the nine. Unfortunately, the suit is now blocked

and declarer makes his contract.

The purpose of Third Hand High is to drive out declarer’s high cards. You

should do that as economically as you can. When the jack is in dummy

the ten will do the job, and that is the correct card to play. (If declarer had

tried the jack from dummy, as he would if he did not hold the nine, you

would, of course, cover with the queen.)

When his high cards surround dummy’s highest card, third hand plays the

card immediately below dummy’s. This is not parsimonious – it is

careful.

Quiz 1

S  K Q 8 7 6
H  A 6 5
D  K 8 5
C  J 6

West
 
Pass

North
1H 
2D

East
Pass
Pass

South
1S
?



This is a nice hand to hold and things are even more exciting when partner opens 1H. There is no need to go leaping and bounding so you content yourself with a 1S response. This is natural, forcing, and shows at least four spades and at least six points.

Partner's rebid is 2D. What do you make of that and what should you do next?

(Solution found on LHS menu)

Quiz 1 Solution

S  A3

      H K 10 9 3 2

      D  A Q 6 2

      C  9 8

         N

     W    E

         S

S   K Q 8 7 6

H A 6 5

D K 8 5

C  J6

West North East South

            1H    Pass  1S

Pass   2D    Pass   4H

End

What shape hand do you think your partner has?

Just suppose for a moment that he only has four hearts and four

diamonds. Then if the other two suits were distributed 3-2, he would have

a balanced hand. He would have either opened 1NT if he had 12-14

points or rebid some number of no-trumps if he had in excess of 14

points.

Could he be 4441? Why yes, in theory, but then he would either have a

singleton club (when he would have four spades and would obviously

raise your suit), or a singleton spade – but then his rebid would be 2C to

keep the bidding as low as possible.

The obvious conclusion is that he must have at least five hearts and, as

you have a game-going hand with at least eight hearts between the two

hands, you should bid 4H.

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