| 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! |
Show Detail |
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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| TUESDAY LESSON (12/23/25) - How many tricks do we need? |
Show Detail |
South might have passed and played 3NT, but let's sit South at the table where the auction went as shown. West leads the SQ and the Dummy is revealed. What's your thinking?
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| Show Answer |
With 3 losers in the long-trump-suit Master hand, 4H is making, with a possible overtrick in Diamonds. Win the SA, draw 3 rounds of trump (they split 3-2) and when the Diamonds don't split you score 10 tricks for +420. It's the last round, so the Bridgemate displays the final results for the board - you tied for bottom! Why? Let's get in your time machine and go back 7-8 minutes before trick 1.
When Dummy hits the table, consider what the other NS pairs might be in. Doesn't 3NT seem reasonable? How many tricks are they taking? The same TEN tricks you took! But they're scoring 430! You never trumped an extra trick or developed a long suit - we eliminated trump and played the rest of the hand in no trump - the short trump hand couldn't trump anything!
What if we make South the Master hand? North can ruff all the Spade losers, leaving South with just 2 losers. As long as trump behave, you make 11! Eight minutes later the Bridgemate shows you tied for top! |
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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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