Test Your Bridge Skills #30

Best Answer: 3NT

Partner's 2♦ rebid shows 12-17 points, as with 18+ they would've jumped to 3♦ (called a Jump Shift).

Your 2♥ bid is a correction, showing doubleton Heart or a minimum hand, which they would've passed if they'd also had a minimum hand.

Their 2♠ bid is showing a maximum hand, (15)16-17 points. It's a game interest showing 3 cards in Spades, and is looking for a possible Spade fit, in case you have 5 cards. If they had 4 cards in Spade they would've supported Spades before, after your 1♠ bid, and likely bid 3♠ with 15-17 points. In this case, partner has about 16-17 points and a 3-5-4-1 split.

Since your hand is maximal and you have a great Club holding you bid 3NT.

A 3♣ bid is 4th suit, asking partner for a stopper in that suit. Remember, it doesn't show Club strength. Also, there's no use bidding Hearts or Spades again as you have no more length than you've already promised.

So bidding 3NT, is the best way to describe your hand. It's maximum for what you promised (8-9 points), only 4 cards in Spades, 2 cards in Hearts, and a good Club holding.

A possible hand could be:

3NT has the best chance of making here.

Note:
a. If partner feels it isn't good to play 3NT, they can still correct the bidding. For example if partner had a good Heart suit or 6 cards in Hearts, they could still bid 4♥, as they know you have tolerance. And if they had a good 5-5 and void in Clubs, they could bid 4♦ and let you choose.
b. Note that a 2♦ bid (showing 12-17 points) isn't forcing. If you've 6-7 points, you should pass, as you'd have no real chance to make game. As you've 9 points here, there's a chance for game if partner has maximum. Therefore, to keep the bidding going, you choose to bid 2♥, rather than pass 2♦ (which you'd do with 6-7 points). Bidding 2♥ doesn't mean you have maximum as it's a correction bid. You could hold ♠A642 ♥J3 ♦32 ♣J6543 and still correct the bidding to 2♥. But with this, you'd pass 2♠ rather than bidding on.

Hand 3

Against 4♥, your partner leads the ♣9.
You win with the ♣K, Declarer follows with the ♣10.
You continue with the ♣A. Declarer follows with the ♣Q and partner with the ♣7.
What will you plan next?

Against 4♥, your partner leads the ♣9.
You win with the ♣K, Declarer follows with the ♣10.
You continue with the ♣A. Declarer follows with the ♣Q and partner with the ♣7.
What will you plan next?

Who do you trust? Partner, or declarer?
Trust partner. They lead high – low, so they must have doubleton ♣97.

So why does declarer follow with ♣Q10?
They're trying to confuse you, seeing the Club ruff coming.

If partner has ♣975, they would've lead the ♣7 and later followed with the ♣9 (playing MUD = middle – up – down), to help you with the count. Or they could lead low, if you have agreement on count leads.

So why shouldn't you continue with a 3rd Club straight away?
If you have another Club, you can signal suit preference, telling partner to return Spade. But, as you have just the ♣2 left, and play it now, letting partner ruff, they won't know whether to continue with Spade or Diamond. There's a chance that partner will go wrong and play Diamond which declarer will win, then pull out trumps, and manage to discard their 2 Spade losers on the promoted Clubs.

So, to save partner from the headache and potential arguments after the hand, simply play the ♠A at trick 3, then continue with your ♣2 for the setting Club ruff trick.

Note:
a. If dummy has ♣J653 and you have ♣AK82, then you should play the ♣8 at trick 3 which is a suit preference to Spade (the ♣2 would be preference to Diamond). After the Club ruff partner can play Spade and you can try to let them ruff the 4th Club over declarer. It would be important if Declarer plays 3♥ and partner has say ♥Qxx, so your 4th Club promotes partner's ♥Q. The same goes if partner has ♥Kx; you promote the ♥K.
b. Leading from doubleton isn't always the best choice as you might promote declarer's long suit or help declarer to develop tricks in that suit. The probability that your partner has AK (or AQ over dummy's K) isn't that high. But here, partner has found the setting lead. No need to argue with this success.
c. Stop and think before playing automatically. Many players will automatically return Club at trick 3, to let partner ruff. But, see the problem they face have here after this ruff, and the fact that dummy's Clubs are promoted for 2 discards..

Hand 4

You play 6♠.
West leads the ♣6.
What will you do?

You play 6♠.
West leads the ♣6.
What will you do?

You have 11 sure tricks by assuming you manage to prevent opponents ruffing your sure tricks: 4 Spades, 5 Diamonds and 2 aces. Your 12th trick should be 1 ruff in dummy.

Your main fear here is to lose control by becoming short trump in hand. You need to pull out the trumps so you can take advantage of your Diamonds.

Therefore, ruff trick 1 with the ♠A, and play a Spade from dummy, planning to continue with the trumps. That way you avoid the blockage and also avoid becoming short in hand by ruffing a Heart to continue with the trumps.

Opponents will take the ♠K but you win whatever they play. If Club, you take ♣A, if Heart, you win ♥A and ruff Heart, then continue to pull their remaining trumps and claim 12 tricks; 5 Spades (4 in hand + 1 ruff in dummy), 5 Diamonds, and 2 aces. Doing this, you'll make 12 tricks against any 4-2 trump split.

If you win trick 1 in hand with the ♣A and ruff Club you'll lose to the ♠K and another Club (as you already played your ♣A).
Finessing Spade won't help either, even if West has ♠Kx, as you have just 11 tricks (after winning 2nd Spade with the ♠A, and you've no ruff in dummy).

If you ruff low, Cash ♠A, and return to hand via Heart ruff to play another Spade, you'll manage to avoid losing control only if trumps are 3-3. But here you might go down; after ♠A and Heart ruff, you're down to 3 trumps, the same as West, and when you lose to ♠K next (both, you and West will now have 2 trumps), East plays another Heart, forcing you to ruff again and you'll lose control, as West now has more trumps than you.

Note:
a. Trumps control. To avoid losing trump control, try to prevent ruffing from the long hand by either avoiding a blockage (as in this example) or by keeping trumps in both hands, especially when you have a long solid side suit and you need to pull out trumps first. If you have a trump loser, consider ducking and keep the option to ruff from the short hand if opponents attack your weak suit. When you win the hand, you can continue pulling out trumps and enjoy your long side suit.
b. The suggested bid on the hand above isn't ideal or even typical (there's no right or wrong here); it's quite probable you'd arrive at another contract.