| 679 Bartley Road, Chester NJ 07930 |
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| SHADOWFAX SCHEDULE |
Tues 9:30 lesson, 10 a.m. 0-999 game
... followed by a postgame discussion of hands played that morning
Wed & Fri 10 a.m. Open games (BYO lunch!)
regular game card fees are $10 per person
♠ ♥ ♦ ♣
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| TUESDAY LESSON (12/30/25) - If there's only one way to set them, play for it! |
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Your partnership should have an agreement for the meaning of any and all Responder's bids after a weak 2 opener.
Do you play RONF (2NT feature-asking)? OGUST? Many North's would simply bid the 4S game directly.
On this hand, both would conventions would get a 3S rebid by opener (no outside A or K; strong hand and suit). North would likely go for game in any case.
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| Show Answer |
After taking his 3 top Diamond tricks, West must decide how best to continue. Looking at the tabled Dummy it is obvious the defense will not get the desired setting trick in either Hearts or Clubs. From the auction, it is known that South has 6 Spades, so East can have (at most) one. If it's the A, it will eventually score. What if East is holding a stiff SK or SQ?
Leading of his low Spade will finesse partner and leave his bare SJ fall prey to South's remaining high honor. But if West leads the 13th Diamond, East should understand that he is being asked to sacrifice his Spade honor (if he has one) to force South to overruff. After using one of his high honors, South can no longer drop the SJ. West retains his low Spade - his SJ remains safely protected. This technique of promoting a trump honor is known as an Uppercut. - it is rare but useful to know about when times are desperate. |
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| Looking for ways to improve your game? --- Our website can help! |
Our website provides analysis (by individual and pair) about sessions played at Shadowfax. Color-coding of the hand-by-hand results makes it easy to identify the boards on which your partnership scored well ^ (or didn't ^).
To see just the hands you played as Declarer or those where you defended & made the Opening Lead, click the BSOL Analysis icon: 
To learn how to use these and other features of our website to improve your game, just ask - we want our members to use all the bells&whistles on our website!
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| Review and Replay Our Lesson Hands! |
Did you know our Tuesday Lesson Hands (more than two years worth!) are available at the Lessons from the Past link?
Review the analysis (bidding & play), then replay the hand
- just click Play It Again!
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| TUESDAY LESSON (01/06/26) - When there's only 30 HCPs in the deck! |
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Do you play Jacoby 2NT?
Do you know WHY you play Jacoby 2NT?
And MOST importantly ... Do you know HOW to play Jacoby 2NT?
North opened 1S and South bid 2NT <<<--- that's Jacoby 2NT ...
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| Show Answer |
... but that's just the BEGINNING of the Jacoby 2NT convention - now, it's up to North to further describe his hand. All 3 level bids of a new suit show a void or singleton in the suit bid. (see other Opener rebids below) When South finds there is at most 1 loser (and no wasted HCPs) in the Heart suit, he can focus on the other 3 suits. With the sure knowledge that they have 26+ of the remaining 30 HCPs, he can treat this as if they have 36+ of the entire 40!
After investigating for slam, he puts partner into a very good 6S contract. North may need to play trump carefully, but as long as trump split 2-2 or Clubs split 4-3, the slam is makeable.
(4-level bids of a new suit show a good second suit, 5 cards and good honors, while Opener's rebids of the trump suit or 3NT show a balanced (5332) hand and can be used to refine his trump suit strength or HCP range based on fast-arrival) |
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