Quiz with Larry Cohen 1/2

This quiz allows you to practice what you've learned in Larry's accompanying article

Declarer Play Problems

Quiz bidding - Bridge with Larry Cohen 1

Problem 1

Contract: 3 No-Trump.
Lead: ♥6, and you take East’s Jack with the Queen.

Do you:

Play a Club to the King.

Play a Spade to dummy’s King.

Cross to the ♦K and play the two of Spades.

Answer:

c) Cross to the ♦K and play the 2 of Spades to the Queen

If West has the Ace of Spades he cannot profitably play a second Heart, giving you time to play on Clubs, while if East goes up with the Ace of Spades to play a Heart, you will have three Spades, two Hearts and four Diamonds.

Problem 2

Contract: 5 Diamonds (after East has opened 1♠ and West raised to 3♠).
Lead: ♠2.

Do you:

Ruff, draw trumps ending in hand and play a Heart to the Queen?

Ruff, draw trumps ending in dummy and play a low Heart?

Ruff, draw trumps ending in dummy and play a Club.

Answer: b) Ruff, draw trumps ending in dummy and play a low Heart?

East’s opening bid makes it certain that he will have one or both of the ♣A and the ♥K. If West has the ♥K, you can be sure the ♣A will be onside.

Problem 3

Contract: 3 No-Trump.
West leads the ♠Q and you win with the King.

Cash the Ace of Clubs, cross to dummy with a Diamond and play a low Club towards the Queen.

Cross to dummy with a Diamond and play a Club to the Queen.

Play a Heart to the Queen.

Answer:

a) Cash the Ace of Clubs, cross to dummy with a Diamond and play a low Club towards the Queen,

Cashing the ♣A guards against a singleton King with West. If the suit is distributed as shown, East cannot profitably take the King on the second round, leaving you with time to set up a Heart trick. At matchpoints, it is best to follow line b.

If you are human, leave this field blank.

This article was written by Larry Cohen and was originally published in Bridgerama+.

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