Test Your Bridge Skills #44

Hand Evaluation: When the hand is better (to bid higher) and when the hand is bad (not to bid higher).

The hand is better:
1. When you have more trumps.
2.When you have points in partner's suits
3. When you are short in opp's suit
4. When your points are in your long suits
5. When your points are over opp's suit (like when opp overcalls on your right and you have honors in his suit over him)
6. When you have aces (and k's) in suit contract
7. When you have many spots (10's and 9's) = better to raise, especially in nt
8. Vulnerability is favorable

The hand is bad = not to bid on / better for defense if opp's compete :
1. When trump is shorter
2. When you have point in opp's suits
3.When you are short in partner's suit
4.When your points are in your short suits
5. When your points are before opp's suit (opp on your left overcalled).
6. Q's and j's are better for nt.
7. Anemic hand, means you have no spot cards.
8. When you're vulnerable versus not vulnerable.

Your hand is excellent! You have a great trump fit (likely 10+ Hearts), very valuable void in opponents suit, and no losers at all in Diamond and Spade. Your hand is very offensive so playing on defense is not a good idea here.

Partner's 4♥ bid is not yet very clear, regarding the strength of his hand since West's 3♠ bid put him on pressure. It could be a distributional weak hand or a hand with opening and fit (and anything in between). If partner has the right cards, a slam is more than possible, and you don’t need much from him. Bidding 5♥ is just competitive and partner will pass. Bidding 5♥ or 6♥ might be too high if partner has no values in Clubs. So bid 5♦. That bid is showing a control (1st control in 5 level) and tells partner you have ambitions for more than game, if his hand is suitable. You also tell him you don’t have a control in Club and very likely you have no more than 1 Spade loser (if at all), (you cannot have many losers for bidding 5♦).
If opponents will pass and partner has a weak hand or weakness in Clubs, he can still bid 5♥, which you will pass. But, partner can also be:

Partner's 6♣ bid is showing a great hand and is a grand slam invite. It promise Club control, denies Spade control and must have other extras for that bid. Your 6♦ is showing interest in grand slam and promise 1st+ 2nd control in Diamond, Must have 1st control in Spade, likely void or stiff ace (else there is a sure Spade loser), and asks partner for more help in Clubs and Hearts). Partner could still sign off with 6♥ if he has less.

Note:

a. The 5♦ bid has another task – lead directing! If partner is weaker and opponents bid 5♠, then you suggest partner to lead Diamond and not Heart. So many things in 1 bid!

b. Control bidding: This subject is wide but in general, starting a control bidding shows slam interest. Normally, bellow game level u show either 1st (ace or void) or 2nd (K or singleton) control. If you skip a suit – you deny a control in that suit (= you bid the controls up the line).

c. Note the hand evaluation list! Knowing the real value of your hand is the most important thing in bidding!

Hand 3

Against 3NT you led the ♥5. Your partner followed with the ♥7 and the declarer won it with the ♥K and played ♦A and a 2nd Diamond to your ♦K. What will you play now?

What do you understand from trick 1? Why did the declarer win the trick with the K and not with a cheaper card? Let's analyze who has what:

The Q must be with the declarer, else partner would’ve played it – 3rd hand plays high.
The 10 must be with partner, else declarer could’ve win the trick with it.
The 9 must be with partner, else declarer could’ve win the trick with it.
The 8 must be with partner, else declarer could’ve win the trick with it.

Note that although 3rd hand is playing high, there are some exceptions to that rule: With a high sequence, the 3rd hand must play the LOWEST card of that sequence (unlike 1st hand, which play TOP of sequence).

With that play partner is helping you to place the missing cards:

The declarer has ♥KQ and partner has ♥10987. Note that playing the 7 is not against "3rd play high", because 10987 all have the same value, and indeed it helps you realize partner has them all, or else the declarer would’ve won the 1st trick with a cheaper card.

So, play the ♥A, and when the ♥Q falls, continue with a LOW Heart, to avoid blocking the suit. Partner will win 3rd Heart, play 4th Heart and you will overtake it with the ♥J and cash the 5th Heart too for 1 down (4 Hearts and the ♦K for the defense).

Also note that there is no point to try to play the ♠J in a hope to find partner with something like ♠AQxx because partner cannot have more than 4 points due to the bidding (at least 20 with the declarer, 10 in your hand and 6 in dummy)

Note:

3rd hand rules for the defense:

a.3rd hand is playing HIGH, assuming 1st and 2nd hand played low.

b.With a touching sequence, 3rd hand is playing LOW from that sequence (so, Q from KQx, J from QJX etc), assuming 1st and 2nd hand played low.

c.Dummy complete the sequence, meaning that if dummy has a high card, which was not played, then you treat that card as a part of the sequence: Examples:

Here, play the K. 3rd hand plays high! You have only 1 high card.

Here, play the Q. 3rd hand play high, but low from a touching sequence!

If North play small, play the 10. 3rd hand plays high but low from a touching sequence and dummy's Q complete that sequence!

d.If partner lead Ace – signal attitude (want/don’t want) according your agreement ("we" agreed standard carding, meaning that high card is encouraging and low isn’t).

e.If partner lead King – signal count (in standard carding: LOW- HIGH = ODD, HIGH – Low = EVEN) or unblock in NT.

f.If partner lead Ace or King and you follow with an honor = You promise the honor bellow it (top of sequence).

Hand 4

You play 4♥ doubled and West led the ♠Q. You won with the ♠A. What will you play now?

East's double suggest that trumps are not behaving nicely. However, play carefully and success is guaranteed!

From the bidding it is clear that East has singleton Spades ( as West bid weak 2). Therefore you need to protect your ♠K by playing so:
Go to dummy via the ♦A and play Spade from dummy. If East ruffs – he will ruff "air" (with a natural trick) as you will follow with low. Then if he continues with the ♥K, you will take it with the ♥A and ruff the 3rd Spade in dummy (while still having your high ♠K in hand). East can overruff but the defense will not make more than 3 trump tricks and nothing else.
If East will not ruff the 2nd Spade, but discard something, then you will take it with the ♠K and play a 3rd Spade, ruffing it in dummy. East can overruff and play the ♥K (best), but you take it with the ♥A and manage to ruff the last Spade in dummy (again, East can overruff, but opponents will only make 3 Heart tricks and nothing more).
If you play the ♠K from hand at trick 2, East will ruff and play the ♥K. You take it with the ♥A but when you try to ruff the 3rd Spade, East will overruff, play ♥Q to remove your last trump from the dummy, and now you will have to lose the 4th spade (and lose 4 tricks in total).
If you play a low trump at trick 2, East wins, play another trump and you cannot ruff twice in dummy now. Playing ♥A is worse because upon ruffing your Spade, East can play 2 more trump rounds and you cannot ruff any Spades. Also ruffing Clubs is not helping – You need to ruff in dummy, from the short hand.

Note!

1) Playing the 2nd Spade as you did is same as playing to a card finesse (= like playing to a K when the ace is missing). You need to make sure the opponent with no more cards in that suit is playing 2nd seat: If he ruffs – you follow low. If he discard – You win the trick.

2) You count the trump tricks from the long hand. Which is why you want to ruff from the short one: Each ruff you manage to make from the short hand is an additional trick to the tricks you already have in your hand.