Test Your Bridge Skills #41

So, what does partner have? Since you bid 3♣, to show an invite point hand, it is clear that partner has more than minimum for their bid (otherwise they’d Pass 3♣) and is looking for at least game. In which suit? In Club (as you supported Club).

It's true that partner is likely to have 6 Diamonds for their bid, but even if you had only 4 Clubs, it would be better to play in Clubs, given that a 4-4 fit is better than 6-2 and a 5-4 is better than 6-3.

You can see that 6♣/♦ is easy to make (but if the ♦QJ was missing then 6♣ still makes while 6♦ is almost sure to fail).

Bid 3♥. Doing so shows you have a good hand. Your aces, (especially the ♦A) are very valuable, with a control in Heart leaves all options open – whether to bid slam as per the hand above or stay in game.

Also a 4♣ bid would be good as it shows a Slam interest (or you would just bid 5♣). It’s better if partner asks for aces, knowing their shortness (single Spade here) allows them to bid slam with enough key cards.

Nota:

• Why is your 4-4 fit normally better? Because it allows you to ruff, pull trumps and later discard losers on the side 5-3 suit, whereas if the 5-3 suit is the trump, you will not be able to discard losers on the 4-4 side suit later. Example:
  Which slam would you rather play, 6♥ or 6♠?The 6♠ hand has no chance of making. You have a maximum of 11 tricks, no matter what you do and you can’t avoid losing two Clubs.Whereas 6♥ can be made with an overtrick. All you need to do is ruff 2 Diamonds in dummy, pull out the trumps and discard two Clubs on the long Spades.
• You can make an agreement with partner that a 3♣ rebid shows a weaker hand to put opponent off entering the bidding. Here the agreement was that 3♣ is an inviting (ps – should it be invitational?) hand. Therefore 3♦ must be a good hand and not a correction (if partner didn’t have Clubs they would've bid 2/3♦)
• The 2♣ rebid by partner shows12-17 points (so it could be a medium hand too). If they rebid 3♣, they’re showing 18-21. So by bidding 2♣ and later 3♦ this shows the 2♣ rebid was a maximum.

Mano 3

Against 3NT your partner led the ♠7. The declarer followed with the ♠10 from dummy. What will you do?

Against 3NT your partner led the ♠7. The declarer followed with the ♠10 from dummy. What will you do?

What do you learn from partner's lead? Assuming it’s not a singleton (because if it is there’s no chance to set), it has to be doubleton.

That means the declarer has ♠KX (without a stopper in Spades, they would not bid 3NT).

Therefore, it would be best to NOT play the ♠A at trick 1. Play another card to keep communication with partner, in the hope that partner has an entry to his hand.

So, follow with the ♠9 to encourage the suit.

When partner makes their ♥A, they will continue with a 2nd Spade and you will make 5 Spade tricks (your ♠A will drop the ♠K and your ♠Q will drop the ♠J).

And why not play the ♠Q at trick 1? After all, declarer will win the ♠K and later you will have the ♠A9 over dummy's ♠J6. No? – Not if the declarer plays low at trick 1 and allows your Q to win. You can now play the ♠A, dropping the K, but dummy's ♠J will stop you from making anymore Spade tricks.

A good defense will get 6 tricks for the defense - 2 down!

Nota:

• DUCK is when you play LOW as 3^rd hand in order to keep communication with your partner (either on play or defense) when there are no other entries to your hand.
• HOLD UP is when you play low as 2^nd or 4^th hand, when opponents are attacking with their long suit. You hold up in order to CUT communication between your opponents. DUCK is when you play low as 1^st and 3^rd hand in order to KEEP communication with partner (you initiate that suit and still choose to lose the 1^st trick).
• If you win with the ♠A at trick 1 and play another Spade, partner will have no more Spades and the declarer will be able to develop Hearts, losing to partner's ♥A making 10 tricks (Spades, 3 Hearts, 3 Diamonds and 3 Clubs).
• Lebensohl is a convention that you can use after your partner doubles a weak 2 opening by the opponents: at a basic level (there’s a lot more to this convention), a direct bid at the 3 level shows 8-11 points. With less (0-7), the responder bids 2NT, and when partner (who doubled) bids 3♣ (automatic response if they’ve 12-17 points) then the responder passes or corrects to their long suit to sign off.

Mano 4

You play 5♣ and West led the ♥Q. You ruffed. What now?

You play 5♣ and West led the ♥Q. You ruffed. What now?

There are 3 options for finesses (in 3 different suits).

So how can you tell which suit to play first and how? Play to maximize your chances – first play Club to the ♣9. The Club finesse gives a much better chance than dropping a stiff ♣K in East. It's also important to play the Club to the dummy and to not run the ♣Q to create another entry to the dummy. Without capturing the ♣K you have no chance to make, because even if the Diamond finesse works you will still lose Club, Diamond and Spade.

After the Club finesse succeeded and the ♣9 won the trick, you need to play Spade to the ♠Q. Doing so doubles your chances of winning! In this case, East will jump with the ♠K (otherwise they will not make any Spade tricks) and continue with Hearts. Ruff, play the ♠Q, return to dummy with the ♣A (pulling West's ♣K on the way) and discard a Diamond loser on the ♠A.

You can now try the Diamond finesse for an overtrick. The finesse fails, but you still make 11 tricks.

If you try the Diamond finesse first, West will take the ♦K and continue Hearts (or Diamonds) and you will go down, as now you have no entries to develop a Spade trick and eventually you will lose another Diamond and a Spade.

Nota:

• In this example, Diamond finesse doesn't give you chance to win extra tricks, if it fails, there's no way to recover. Playing Spade to the ♠Q will give you a chance to develop the ♠Q and discard a diamond later, on the ♠A. But even if that fails, you still have the option to later finesse in Diamonds to bring your missing trick (hoping the ♦K in East and using the ♣A as an entry).
• In other words, after the Club finesse works, you have a 75% chance to make, failing only if the ♦K and the ♠K are both in West.