Contract and Duplicate Bridge: Finesse, Promotion, Ducking

Happy New Year, Bridge friends!  And so we’ve made our personal affirmations and are ready to make the best of 2011.  To begin our Polling You blog for the new year, we offer an interesting set of hands.  Beside our normal array of bidding and play possibilities, not everyone is likely to agree with the hand evaluation and the initial bid.   But that’s part of the joy of Bridge, isn’t it?  Our exciting game offers players a wealth of options.  And that’s why we are here – to explore the tradeoffs and consequence of various scenarios.

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On today’s poll, we have a multi-part question: one querying opener’s rebid, the other asking our play strategy.   Actually, that pretty much sums up Contract Bridge and Duplicate Bridge doesn’t it?  For sure, making accurate bids is necessary to make the contract.   So our hand evaluation, or re-evaluation here is our first hurdle.  After that, you can ponder a range of play options where suit promotion, finesses and ducking plays might enter the picture.  Okay Bridge thrill seekers, look at your ballots an register your votes.

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North deals and opens 1 Spade, while some advanced players would prefer beginning with 1 Notrump to show a reasonable 16 HCP hand.  Sure enough, partner South bids 1 Notrump and North must make an uncomfortable rebid – Pass or invite with 2 Notrump.   Then there’s a handful of decisions after the lead of the Heart 9. with some challenging declarer’s and defender’s play strategy.  We discuss this and more in our Protected Content area – please login and we will see you over on the other side.   [Read more…]