Test Your Bridge Skills #43

Hand Evaluation Guidelines:
Follow the list below to find out when your hand is more valuable and when it is less valuable. This will help you decide whether to bid higher or stay low.

Good hands:
1. When you have more trumps.
2. When you hold points in your partner's suits.
3. When you are short in the opponents' suits.
4. When your points are in your long suits.
5. When your points are over the opponent's suit, means you have specific cards that can potentially beat opponent's card (especially if they overcall on your right, and you have honors in their suit).
6. When you have Aces (and Kings) in a suit contract.
7. When you have many spot cards like 10s and 9s, it's better to raise, especially in No Trump (NT).
8. When the vulnerability is in your favor.

Not-so-good hands:
1. When you have fewer trumps.
2. When you hold points in the opponents' suits.
3. When you are short in your partner's suit.
4. When your points are in your short suits.
5. When your points are before the opponents' suit (opponent on your left overcalled, means they probably have higher cards to beat yours).
6. Queens and Jacks are better for No Trump (NT).
7. Anemic hand, means you have no spot cards.
8. When you're vulnerable versus not vulnerable.

Here, what does partner's 3♦ mean?

It shows a very good hand with a fit in Spades, a singleton Diamond and probably very good clubs.

What do you think of your hand now you know what partner has?

Your hand is NOT good! You basically have 8 wasted points. Your ♦KQJ are wasted given your partner's singleton, you have no points in partner's suits and you’re not going to be able to help out in partner's weak suit (Hearts). You also have no length and a balanced hand, so you should bid 3♠ to show absolute minimum with no ambitions.

A possible hand could be:

Partner now has to make a decision on whether to pass or to bid on. You can already see that 3♠ has huge difficulties to make with a Diamond loser, 3 Heart losers and possible Spade and Club losers.

Note:

• A splinter is usually a double jump in a new suit, especially when it comes from the responder, and if so, then it needs to have at least a 4 card support (normally at least 9 cards fit in total) and singleton or void in the bidden suit.
• A Splinter by the opener (as with the hand above), is 1 bid higher than the strongest natural rebid. So, if 2♦ here is the strongest bid (a reverse bid, showing 16-21 points and 1 round forcing), then 3♦ is a Splinter, showing a good hand with a Spade fit and a singleton in Diamonds. In this case the splinter is NOT a double jump and it can be 1 round forcing if agreed upon. On the other hand, in situations where it’s a double jump, it has to be game forcing:
  Opener ----- Responder
  1♦ ------------- 1♠
  4♣ = A Splinter with a double jump, which is game forcing. Note that a 3♣ bid is a natural jump shift, showing at leads 5-4 in Diamonds and Clubs, 18-21 points. Therefore, splinter is 1 bid above it.
• Look at the list and compare to your hand to see clearly why your hand is bad:
  *No extra trump length
  *No points in your long suits
  *No points in partner's suits
  *No aces in side suits
  * wasted points vs partner's shortness
  *Very balanced hand
  *Points are in the short suits

Hand 3

Against 2NT your partner led the ♥6. You won with the ♥A. How will you continue?

Against 2NT your partner led the ♥6. You won with the ♥A. How will you continue?

Partner led Heart and you plan to return suit, but on the way you can let them know what’s going on.

By playing the ♠K at trick 2 and then continuing in Hearts you’re letting them know that you have good Spades over dummy's ♠Q (it’s clear you have the ♠A when your K holds the trick) and when they get the hand with the ♦A, it will be easy for them to play Spades. It will also help with the count - Declarer has 15 points, dummy 8 and partner has 5, coming to 28. And now partner sees you have the ♥A, ♠AK, which means you’ve nothing in Hearts and Clubs.

So play ♠K at trick 2 and return a Heart. If partner has ♥KJxxx, they will make all 5 heart tricks, and once they return a Spade you’ll make 9 tricks together! If partner's Hearts are poor (as they are here), the defense will still manage 1♥, 1♦ and 4♠'s to set (so it’s important that partner plays Spade to capture dummy's ♠Q). So here, partner has the ♦A and upon winning with it, he will know to continue with Spade.

Note:

• After winning your partner's lead with an Ace at trick 1 and planning to return their suit, follow these tips to help your partner count the cards in your suit:If you have AXX:
  Return your high card. For example, if you have A52, play the Ace and then return the 5.If you have AXXX:
  Take the Ace and return your lowest card.This will be easier for your partner to figure out how many cards you have in the suit, and will be helpful for planning the next moves.
• Winning partner's lead, playing a top card with another suit when dummy has Q or J in that suit, and then returning partner's suit at trick 3 helps partner to continue with that suit once they get the hand.

Hand 4

You play 6♠ and West led the ♥J. You won with the ♥K. What will you play now?

Best Answer: ♦2

You play 6♠ and West led the ♥J. You won with the ♥K. What will you play now?

You only have 2 losers, and they’re both in Diamonds. As you can’t ruff or discard the Diamonds, you need to make a double finesse, hoping to find at least 1 of the missing honors in East. There’s a 75% probability that you’ll succeed. You’ll only fail if both honors are in West.

Win with the ♥K and play a Diamond to the ♦10. West will get the ♦K and likely play a Spade or Club. Win with the ♠AK, and now play the ♥A. Even though it might seem odd, you should ruff the ♥A in the dummy. This is the only way (entry) to get back to the dummy's hand and make the second Diamond finesse - this will allow you to make the ♦J as the 12th trick.

Note:

• You'll need your ♥K and the ♥A ruff as entries to get into dummy and make the double finesse.
• When an opener bids 2♣ and next they jump in a suit, it means that suit is the trump and must be a very strong or solid suit. This is also asking partner to show if they have control(s) in other suit(s).
• A bid of 5NT asks for Kings, aiming to reach a contract of 7, especially if North has the ♦K. Since 6♥ shows that they have no Kings in Clubs and Diamonds, South then settles for 6♠.
• Note that as North showed a Heart control, and denied aces, it has to be a 2nd control (K or singleton). South knows it as they have all the key cards, which is why the 6♥ response shows more than just 2nd control – it could be KQ or singleton.