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Board 26 Tuesday May 7 “Unblocking on Defense”

East dutifully leads the 7 and declarer is in big trouble. It appears declarer must lose 4 spades and a diamond. But there’s a “fly in the ointment.” Can you spot the defensive problem and overcome it to set 3NT?

 

West covered dummy’s 8 won by declarers K. When West was back in with K he lead A. That dropped declarer’s Q. East followed with the original 4th best spade, dummy contributes the 10.  When the 9 is led next the spade suit is blocked.

Both east and west have a full count on the spade suit after West’s spade overcall . When West plays the A East should carefully preserve the low spade for the fourth round. West is guilty as well. After seeing the Q drop, partner is known to have the 2 remaining spades. So lead low next, retaining the 9 to unblock the suit.

 

 

 

Board 12 May 7 “They Bid and Made a Grand”

Partner opens 1NT (15–17); you Texas transfer to 4 then find out through Key Card Blackwood that partner holds the two missing aces and two missing kings.  You can count 12 tricks. Should you stop at 6 , bid 6NT, or bid 7?

I’ve heard it said that you should never bid a grand slam unless you can count 13 tricks.  That may be true for those playing bridge for money, but it’s not good match point bridge.

Here partner has opened 1NT, and shown 14 HCP from the keycard information. Partner should have another point or two.  If it’s a queen that’s the 13th trick,  If it’s a jack there is a 50% finesse that may succeed. Partner also may hold a doubleton diamond, creating a thirteenth trick with a ruff.  Let’s assume there’s a 50% chance partner holds a queen, a 50 % chance of a successful finesse, and a 10% chance partner has a doubleton diamond.  Doing the math there’s a 78% probability of making 7.  (Can you figure out how to arrive at this number?) Being right 78% of the time is good bridge.

So how come Nancy and Linda were the only ones to bid and make 7♠ ?  Where’s my field protection?😎

 

Board 1 Friday April 26 "Choosing Between Two Lines of Play"

Sometimes you can be too smart for your own (and your partners) good. After winning the opening  lead with the Ace, declarer devised a plan to set up diamonds, pitching two clubs and possibly a losing spade claiming 11 tricks. When the Q didn't come down on the third round and the A was with West only 9 tricks were available. Can you find a better way to take 10 tricks?

Win the A , play AK , pitching a club, and play the K . West wins but can’t prevent declarer from ruffing a spade in dummy.  That ruff turns out to be the 10th trick, declarer losing only one club, one heart, and one spade.

Board 10 Friday Apr 26 “The Trump Coup”

After the 4 preempt north is kinda stuck. Pass or bid 4? The odds favor some kind of spade fit and 6-4 hands usually play well . . . I’m a bidder in this situation.

If you were declarer in 4 on this hand you had an opportunity to execute a “Trump Coup”. ( it’s one of a number of advanced declarer play strategies that you read about in books but never seem to occur in real play).

The opportunity for a trump coup arises when RHO has a known finessible honor in trump but dummy has no trumps left to lead. Consider this hand. East leads A K , declare ruffs, plays a spade to the K, then the 9, which wins. If you can figure out how to avoid a spade loser, you get all the match points😎

The key a successful trump coup is to reduce your trump holding so that it equals RHO, then be leading from dummy at trick 12.  Play three rounds of hearts, and lead a fourth from dummy, ruffing. (Now you are down to 2 trumps). Lead the K , then Q if necessary. Retain a club entry to dummy. You win trick 11 in dummy with J . Your lead at trick 12 from dummy traps West’s Q.

Board 13 Thursday April 25 "A Bidding Question"

What’s South’s bid?

With 18 HCP you clearly have game values, and maybe more. But no long suit, no 4 card major….  If you had 11-12 HCP you would jump to 2NT.  With13-15 bid 3NT. With 16-18 bid …..4NT!  4NT in this situation is a natural “quantitative “ slam ask.  You expect your side to have 30+ HCP. But partner needs another King or long suit source of tricks to move on. North should pass ending the auction.

Board 17 Tuesday April 23 "The Ruffing Finesse"

3 showed an invitational hand with 4 spades.  West leads a  to partners A ;  then another  to declarers K .  Declarer has two more aces to lose.  Declarer needs to draw 3 rounds of trump, and there will not be enough trumps left in dummy to ruff two hearts and 1 or 2 diamonds. Soooooo....how to play the clubs?

The obvious way to play clubs is to play the 9  from dummy playing the 10  when west play low.  But, bucause there is still a trump in dummy it is equally effective to start with the A , play the Q  finessing East for the K .  If east covers, ruff and the J 10 are now good. If East plays low, discard.  Unless you need more than 2 club tricks there is no obvious reason to choose one finesse over the other,   East could mistakenly help you out by signaling for a club somewhere during the play.  Those who chose the ruffing finesse were rewarded, making 4 .

Board 11 Friday April 19 "Law of Total Tricks"

West's 2NT overcall shows  and  . Norths 3 bid is conventionally a cuebid showing an invitational plus club raise.  East, with 5 and 0 defensive tricks, applies "The Law". (Our side has at least a 10 card fit, so does NS. Therefore there are about 20 tricks in this hand. If NS is making 5 , thats 11 of the 20 tricks, leaving 9 for us.  Down 2, doubled at this vulnerability (-300) is better for us than their 5 game (-480). So East now bids 5 .  South, with a diamond void, likes his chances and bids 6 . West and North pass.  What should East do now?

Now NS are expecting to take 12 tricks, leaving 8 for EW, That would be -800 at 6 doubled.  Better than -920 for 6 making.  Can you beat 6 ? Why didn't you (E) think of that before bidding 5 ?? With no defensive tricks and partner leaving it to me I'm bidding 6 !

Board 2 Thurs April 18 "Restricted Choice"

You find yourself in an overly aggressive, 4 contract on 14 HCP, which South has Doubled in disbelief.  You ruffed the A lead, lost two club tricks, ruffed a third club trick in dummy, then lead a heart.  North generously rose with the Ace and led another heart. You are destined for down 1 (2 1 and a likely 1 ) .  When you lead a small spade to the K , the J appears on your left.  And you just read up on "Restricted Choice". (Which tells us when there are 4 or 5 outstanding cards in a suit including the Q and J, and one defender plays either honor on the first trick, it is twice as likely that card was a singleton rather than doubleton). 

You play the K and lead the 7 . RHO plays 6  (at this point there are 2 spades Q8 outstanding).  Should you play the A  or 10 to make the contract?

Restricted Choice tells us you are twice as likely to find South with a singleton, but in this case the only way to avoid a spade loser is to rise with the A, dropping the doubleton Q! Note that if you could return to dummy and take the finesse again that would be the best play, but here you have no entry to get to dummy.