Contract and Duplicate Bridge: Finessing King and Jack

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Okay Bridge friends, what do you say we finish the year with some real finesse? Here at our virtual table, we appreciate holding both the Ace and Queen even if they are not both in the same hand (so called “working honors”). Yet playing in Notrump and holding the Ace allows us to control the tempo, should we wish to duck a trick along the way.

And as in real life, we’ve also included a hand with some nice body cards that might come in handy if we can figure out how to play a secondary finesse. Ah the joys of Bridge, a lifetime of learning. We here at BridgeHands wish you all a joyous New Year!

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Similar to Poll #19 and 20, in today’s polling question we are faced with how to play a suit missing two honors: this time we are missing the King-Jack.  As you will recall from our earlier lessons, we typically finesse toward the lower connected honors (giving consideration to length and placement of honors). [Read more…]

Contract and Duplicate Bridge: Finessing King and Queen

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Finesse, finesse, let me count the ways.   Yes, the road to successful finesses has many twists and turns down the pathway to success.  So let’s scoot up to our virtual Bridge table and give it our best shot.

On today’s poll, we are blessed with some nice honors but missing the King and Queen.  As declarer you are the conductor and partner is your orchestra across the table.  So it’s time to locate the royal nobility – let the music begin. 

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Similar to Poll #19, in today’s polling question we are faced with how to play a suit missing the King-Queen.  When missing these “royal honors” most of  the time we again finesse toward the lower connected honors (giving consideration to length and placement of honors).

On the above hand, South opens 1 Notrump with a balanced 16 HCP.  North holds a flat 8 HCP with lots of secondary honors – 7 to be exact and bids 2C Stayman hoping for a Heart fit with South.  When South bids 2D denying major suit support, North bids an invitational 2 Notrump.  South has a hair pulling exercise deciding whether or not to accept a 3 Notrump game.   Assuming South is willing to take a bit of a gamble and bid 3 Notrump, it’s time to plan your play. [Read more…]

Duplicate and Contract Bridge: Finesse missing Ace-Queen

Everyone loves a good finesse, especially when we have lots of honors in the suit.  But all too often Bridge is like life and we don’t have as many resources as we wished.

In today’s polling question, we are faced with how to play a suit missing the Ace-Queen.  Enter the world of finesses or more properly stated, suit combinations.   While our BridgeHands has hundreds and hundreds of suit combinations, that’s way too many for most of us to memorize.   So on combinations like the one above, we need a general guideline we can use to follow is most situations.

And when missing the Ace-Queen and holding the Jack-10-x, the general guide when needing 2 tricks in the suit is to play low to the Jack-10-x suit.   In fact, you’ll find that in many instances your odds of making an extra trick are increased by first taking the *LOWER* tenace finesse, then later taking the higher finesse.  Wow, that guideline sure beats memorizing over 700 suit combinations!

On the above hand, South opens 1 Notrump with a balanced 16 HCP.  North bids 2C Stayman, hoping South will bid a 4 card major (up the line, Hearts first with both majors).  And with a nice 16 HCP held by North, slam looks very possible (33 points is a good benchmark for slam, with sufficient Aces).  When South bids 2D denying major suit support, North bids 4 Notrump – a Blackwood Ace-ask with strong interest in slam.  South rebids 5D, showing 1 Ace.  With a strong hand and lots of honors, North signs off in 6 Notrump.  West is on lead and begins with the Club Jack.  Plan your play. [Read more…]

Contract Bridge Laws – Dummy Rights

What’s up with the declarer’s partner being affectionately called, “THE DUMMY” anyway? One popular belief dates back to the mid-1800s where Whist preceded Bridge. The notion of a “dummy” was derived by three English soldiers stationed in India, unable to find a fourth player. Their variation became known as Dummy Whist, the predecessor to our Bridge game. Fortunately, back home from the frontier today Bridge players have four players at the table. But the fascinating concept of exposing the cards of declarer’s partner stuck, so the player is referred to as “the dummy.”

In today’s polling question, we will probe your knowledge to detect one of the things the dummy is NOT permitted to do during play. Who would have thought that Bridge Laws 42 and 43 had so much to say about Dummy Absolute Rights, Qualified Rights and Limitations?

Good luck with the poll and we hope you enjoy the holidays!

Those with Membership Subscriptions can login to view detailed analysis on the laws and commentary about dummy rights, qualified rights, and limitations. We also offer background on the orgin of the name “Dummy” and a few associated law tips not known by many Bridge players.

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Whew, there really are a lot of details to our Bridge Laws, wouldn’t you agree? While most of us may not be legally oriented, it’s still wise to have a good understanding of the rules that govern our game. So let the laws be your friend and I hope everyone enjoys fair play in our wonderful game.

Happy Bridge trails,

Michael

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3 Notrump, Promotion Play, Rule of 7

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Right away South has a difficult bidding decision. With 17 HCP and a 2=4=5=2 shape, should South open 1 Notrump or begin with 1 Diamond? The decision would be much easier if South held another stopper in Clubs, say the CK-CJ. Holding a Queen-Jack “tight” (doubleton), South should consider subtracting 1 HCP. But with the relatively nice Diamond 5 card suit, the South should consider adding 1 distribution point. For those who play reverses, beginning with 1 Diamond and rebidding 2 Hearts after partner’s expected 1 Spade response, breaking the barrier to a higher level in a higher ranking suit (Diamonds first, Hearts second at the 2 level) shows a good 16+ points. So if you and your partner have a good working knowledge of whether the reverse bid is forcing, the meaning of responder’s rebids, and the meaning of partner’s re-rebids, then fine – make a reverse. Yet suffice it to say, while many players have discussed reverses, they haven’t had many discussions on follow-up rebids!

So assuming South settles for a somewhat flawed 1 Notrump opening bid, West should definitely pass regardless of the vulnerability (adverse here). Next North bids 2C Stayman with 9 HCP, back to South who bids 2H “up the line” showing a 4 card major (may have 4 Spades). Next North rebids 2N showing invitational values. Okay South, what now? Well, we know North has 4 Spades and 3 Hearts or less so we didn’t miss that 4 Heart game had we reversed to Hearts earlier. So with about 6-7 cards in the majors, North has 6-7 cards in the minors. With some like honors as well as length in the minors, we should accept a 3 Notrump game and count our questionable Club Queen-Jack for full values. By the way, after bid 2 Clubs and rebid 2 Notrump after our 2 Heart call, if in fact we did have 4 Spades now is when we would rebid 4 Spades. Okay? Great – then it’s off to play the hands.

On lead without hesitation, West smartly plays the top of sequence Spade King with East playing the S10 to show count. Okay South, what is your plan? First we count our quick trick winners: Spades=1, Hearts=4. So just like West, we need to try promoting a long suit with no finesses available here. Once we knock out the Diamond Ace, we are home free cashing 4 Diamonds right? Oops, wrong this time. It is reasonable to expect West holds 5+ Spades since we have a 5 card Diamond suit, right? So if the opponents get 4 Spades and also win the Club Ace, they’ve won the race before we cash our 4 Diamond tricks. So what to do?

[Read more…]

Contract/Duplicate Bridge Laws – Played Card

The idea behind Bridge laws is to ensure the game is a fair contest.   But sometimes a player makes a mistake or an error that is not in accordance with the the rules of our game.  Since the action (or sometimes an inaction) by the offending side might adversely affect the outcome of the game, the laws come to the rescue of the non-offending side.  The intent of the laws is not to punish the offenders but rather to restore equity to the non-offending side.

Well, that’s how the story goes yet most of will recall an incident where our well intentioned action was challenged as an infractions.  Thus, it’s good to ensure we have a solid understand of common Bridge laws.

In today’s polling question, we explore our understanding of a basic law – when is a card considered to be played?  Hmm, you’d think we all would know this rule since everyone except for the dummy plays 13 cards on every hand.  Yet often when we are taught the basics of Bridge, our mentors don’t always get around to teaching us the finer points of the game.  Or perhaps someone has given us correct information that applies in one situation but not another.  Or worse yet, perhaps our well intended playmates haven’t quite given us the correct information about the laws at all.

Good luck with the poll and better luck playing your cards!

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Happy Bridge trails,

Michael

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While flat 4-3-3-3 shaped hands can often be a negative factor, this time South’s 20 HCP hand will pull its own weight.  The Diamond Ace-King-Queen-fourth is a great holding and the intermediate 10’s might prove beneficial as well.  After opening 2 Notrump, with 6 HCP North bids 3 Notrump.  Did you notice North also holds a 4-3-3-3 shape?  But again, North is proud of the intermediate values which could become a plus – notice the Diamond 10-9-x-x and the Club 10-9-8.  In time, perhaps these “spot cards” will be valuable to the opener. 

West makes a safe “top of broken sequence” lead – the Heart Queen.  Right away declarer South is aware that in the Heart suit, West holds the Q-J-9-x-[…] since South holds the A-10-8 and dummy holds the K-x-x.   Okay, it’s time to play your declarer play – certainly the opponents must be looking at the dummy as well and planning their defense.  In addition to voting and watching the video below, we invite you to login, read additional commentary and download a copy of our MS-Word, PDF, HTML, PBN and other formatted Bridge program files.

Looking for sure winners, declarer South counts 1 Spade, 2 Hearts, 3 Diamonds and 1 Club.  Assuming the Diamonds break normally, South has 8 tricks and needs to develop another winner somewhere.  So where do you think we should look? [Read more…]

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Graphical diagram of North – South hands:

With 16 HCP plus 2 Spade distribution points minus 1 for the Diamond Jx, South opens 1S. With 8 HCP and 2=4=2=5 shape, South responds an uncomfortable 1 Notrump with questionable shape. Back to South, optimistic South players will bid 4S. But even an invitational jump to 3S by South should result in North accepting game with a known 8+ card fit and 2 primary honors (HA and DK). [Read more…]

During the bidding phase, it’s usually not too difficult to be a good partner.  We carefully value our hand, listen to the bidding and follow our agreements.   Unfortunately, when we are on defense, playing the correct card and making correct card signals aren’t always so clear.  Those of you who play golf can relate to your quip,

“Drive for show and putt for dough.” 

Ironically, their analogy isn’t too far from the truth for Bridge players – declarer play and defense is where tricks are won and lost.  And for those of you aren’t into sports, here’s another apt saying:

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

So with the opponents bidding 1 Notrump,  2 Notrump, and back with 3 Notrump, our partner begins by leading the Heart Queen.   Sure enough, the dummy has a fair 8 High Card Points with a 5 card Club suit that declarer will certainly plan to promote for extra tricks.  In Hearts, we hold the 10-6-3 and after declarer inserts the dummy’s stiff H8, it’s our turn to play.  What Heart is your pleasure?  And should declarer later play the Club Queen, what do you plan to play?

South opens 1 Notrump with 17 HCP and all honors working (please don’t worry about lacking Club stoppers). 

With 8 HCP, North should invite with 2 Notrump. While we would like to count 1 extra distribution point for the fifth Club, do not do so on this holding.  Lacking primary honors in Clubs (A-K) and only one Diamond King, North should not upgrade with 5 of 9 HCP are secondary honors (Q-J).  FYI – while we normally do not value a suit like J10x, when partner opens 1 Notrump, we value all honors.

On lead, our thoughtful West attributes about 25 points for the opponents, LHO with 8-9 HCP.  West holds 10 HCP so partner East must have about 5 HCP.

West happily leads the HQ, top of a broken sequence suit – LHO did not bid 2C Stayman so responder does not have a 4 card major.

When the dummy comes down, West knows East holds either a King-Queen or an Ace. How so?  Well, since East is marked to hold 4-5 HCP and West can see 4 Jacks (3 in dummy, 1 in hand), East’s 4-5 points must be one of these two combinations. 

How about East’s observation?  Holding 5 HCP and knowing opponents have no more than 25 HCP (seeing 8 in dummy), partner West has 10-11 HCP (opener may be stretching with only 16 HCP). So West could hold 2 Aces and a Queen or perhaps 1 each Ace-King-Queen-Jack. Holding 2 Kings and 2 Queens is less likely since East can already see 4 of the 8 Kings and Queens.  Okay, back to the play – good luck with your play.

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As the saying goes, “The chicken’s have come back to roost,” meaning:

…. “Okay folks, most of us wanted to bid one or both of these hands on
….  Monday and Wednesday so here they are together – go for it!”

A small percentage of our poll respondents passed South’s questionable 12 HCP hand on Monday; if they wish to continue bidding their style, then their two options are either pass again in third seat or bid 1H in third seat allowing them to pass partner’s response.   Incidentally, several months ago a leading Bridge columnist and world class champion featured two hands similar to our hands.  You might be surprised by his recommendations (after bidding please login for more on analysis).

Ostensibly the majority will continue to bid 1S with South’s hand.  Playing Standard American bidding style, North will respond 2H with 11 HCP and a 5 card Heart suit.  From here the bidding gets interesting, although here we provide you the luxury of viewing both hands before bidding.  Still, try to visualize the North and South hands individually by themselves so you’ll be making fair bids as you would at the table. 

Okay, see you on the other side after you’ve made your bids.  And after responding to the poll, we have a special treat for you today.   After you login to your FREE Membership Subscription account, we will include the results from our double-dummy simulator.  We plug in the above hands, then deal hundreds of random hands to East/West, recording the number of possible tricks available for North/South.  Hmm, interesting, all very interesting…

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