Test Your Bridge Skills #26

Hand 1

What will you bid as South?

What does partner show by first bidding Double and then bidding a new suit?
A big double hand (super overcall), showing 17-20 points and at least 5 cards in Clubs. It means that partner's hand is too strong for overcall (up to 16 points). Therefore, partner doubles first.

Since your 1♥ bid shows 0-8 points and 4 cards in Hearts, you're close to maximum to what you "promised" so far. Therefore, jump to 3♥ to show maximum hand with a good 6 suiter.

Partner then should know how to add your hand to theirs and land in the right contract. For example:

You can see here that your 4♥ is easy to make.

Your jump, after already limiting your hand on the previous bid really helps partner to re-evaluate their hand and bid game. With not such a good hand, partner could pass your 3♥ (say with ♠AKJx ♥x ♦Qxx ♣AKxxx)

Note:
a. Overcall is limited to 16 points. 1 level overcall is 9-16 and 2 level overcall is 12-16. With more points, Double first and later bid your suit to show a Big Double hand (17-20 points).
b. With a stronger hand than that you need to Double first and later Cue bid.

Hand 3

Against 4♥ you lead the ♠K.
Partner encourages with the ♠10 and Declarer follows with the ♠5.
How will you continue?

Against 4♥ you lead the ♠K.
Partner encourages with the ♠10 and Declarer follows with the ♠5.
How will you continue?

When partner encouraging your lead and as declarer doesn’t win the trick it means partner has the ♠A.

Also, assume that partner has only 7 cards in Spade, not 8 cards because they would have likely bid 4♠. Then you see that the defense has 3 tricks; 2 Spades and the ♥A. So, it’s clear that you need to quickly take the 2nd Spade before the declarer discards a Spade loser on their good Clubs.

However, if you play that Spade at trick 2, partner will win with the ♠A and then play a 3rd Spade (best defense), hoping to promote a Heart trick for you. And indeed, if the declarer ruffs that trick with the ♥J then your ♥9 will get promoted. But, what will you do if the declarer ruffs in hand with a low Heart? You have no defense now. It’s whether you discard (declarer will discard from dummy), overruff with a low card (declarer will overruff with the ♥J) or ruff with your ♥A, the declarer has enough good trumps to pull them out and collect your ♥9 on the way.

Then how to make sure you can promote your ♥9?

Play the ♥A at Trick 2, to remove the ♥J from your way, and then play your 2nd Spade at trick 3. Partner will take the ♠A and play a 3rd Spade. Now, there's no hope for the declarer, because if they ruff low, you’ll overruff with the ♥9 and if they ruff high (say with the ♥10) then you’ll discard something and your ♥9 is promoted as you have 2 more Heart to follow when the declarer plays the ♥KQ.

Note:

1. On defense, when planning a promotion, it’s important to win all the side tricks first and then try the promotion. Don’t forget to plan your timing accordingly:
   • Either to let partner ruff high, forcing declarer to overruff and by that promoting a trick in your hand.
   • By putting partner (or yourself) after declarer so that if they ruff low, partner (or you) can overruff, and if the declarer ruffs high, a trump trick will get promoted in partner's (or your) hand.Here are the 2 situations:

It seems the declarer has all trump tricks, but after leading ♣AK and playing 3rd Club, partner ruffs with the ♥J. Declarer overruffs with the ♥Q and your ♥10 will be promoted.

Here, it seems declarer has all the trump tricks, but after leading a Club to partner's ♣AK, a 3rd Club from partner promotes your ♥10. If the declarer ruffs low, you overruff, and if declarer ruffs high, your ♥10 will be promoted.

Hand 4

You play 6NT.
West leads the ♦9 and East discards a Spade. How will you play?

Best Answer: ♦AKQ (or less Diamond rounds), ♠Q, and Club to the ♣J

You play 6NT.
West leads the ♦9 and East discards a Spade. How will you play?

You have 11 tricks on top. Your 12th trick can come either from a successful Club or Heart finesses.

Missing the ♣10 means you'd need an 'expass' by playing low Club to the ♣J in a hope to find the ♣Q in East. That way your ♣J will become your 12th trick and you'll be able to discard 2 Hearts later on the ♣AK.

No point playing ♣J from hand as, if the ♣Q is in West, they'll cover and then you'll make only 2 Club tricks. You could play the ♣J from hand only if you had the ♣10 too.

The other option is to try the 'impass' (a normal finesse) in Hearts and if successful, your ♥Q will become the 12th trick.

So, which one should be done first?

'Expass' before 'Impass'. Although both give 50%, by trying Club to the ♣J first you increase your chance to 75%. Even if it fails, you can still test the Heart finesse in the hope it works.

In other words, you need 1 of 2 finesses to work and for that you have 75% chance. You'll fail only if the ♣Q and the ♥K are both in West but you'll succeed in all other possibilities. If you try the Heart finesse first and you fail, you won't be able to test the Club to the ♣J as you'd surely lose to the ♣Q.

It's also important to not play 4 Diamond rounds before testing any finesses, as if it fails you'll fall into West's hand and West will have their 5th Diamond to set you.

Note:
1. Expass (playing to a card finesse) before Impass (a normal finesse). As with playing to a card finesse you have a sure loser in that suit, even if the finesse works you'll lose a trick in that suit before promoting another. While if a normal finesse works, you'll have no loser as you overcome the missing honor. But, as playing to card finesse works, you'll have no need to test the normal finesse.

2. Playing to a card finesse is done in situations like:

a. xx vs Kx = play low to the K
b. Axx vs Qxx = play low to the Q (or Ace and low to Q)
c. AKxx vs Jx = play low to the J

3. A normal finesse is done in situations like:

a. xx vs AQ = play low to the Q
b. Axx vs QJ10 = play Q
c. AKJx vs xx – play low to J (or Ace and later low to the J)