Strong Jump Shifts, Suit Quality, Losing Trick Count

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Greetings Bridge Friends,

Welcome to BridgeHands third “Extra” lesson that intercedes our more voluminous, full length episodes. Again you will have an opportunity to demonstrate your Strong Jump Shift bidding skills as well as some play skills from our prior lessons.

Premium/ULTRA – Click to view video – Polling You 79 Extra 3, Strong Jump Shift

Premium/ULTRA – Click to view video – Polling You 79 Extra 3 – Part 2, Strong Jump Shift

In these exercises, South will hold strong two-suited hands with 5 great Spades, 5 Clubs and one or more top honor along with a red suit stiff Ace and a King doubleton.   While North will only hold a small Spade singleton, the good news is that partner will also have 5 Clubs and an assortment of 7-8 High Card Point combinations.     As we know, the three primary ways to make additional tricks are ruffs, promotions and finesses.    Also, when in slam with a two-suiter and a secondary fit, it’s not uncommon for the declarer to ruff out a 5 card suit with a 5-1 fit, anticipating the opponents hold a 4-3 pattern in the suit (62 percent odds).  In these exercises, we will explore various bidding and play combinations.  We will also move a few cards here and there to see the impact of bidding and play.   Be sure to view the entire video along with the concluding remarks for additional details.

Polling You #79 Extra 3a

South holds a black hand with a 5=2=1=5 shape with 19 High Card Points plus a few more length points.   And while South would like to immediately begin counting Losing Trick Count, the Suit Quality in Spade is only 8, 5 long plus 3 in length (we need a SQ of 9 or more).  Many West’s will overcall 2 Diamonds despite the vulnerability.   South North pass after interference or respond 1 Notrump with West bidding, in either situation South will rebid 3 Clubs.   Now North should come alive cuebidding 3 Diamonds to show interest in game.  South assumes the cuebid asks for a stopper in West’s Diamond suit and bids 3 Notrump.   Yet with North’s 1=2=5=5 shape the auction is pulled to 4 Clubs.   With North’s change-up, South cuebids 4 Hearts to show a second round control (Heart King).  With no other controls to show, North rebids 5 Clubs and South ventures a 6 Club slam contract.

On play West begins with the Diamond King, top of broken sequence to South’s Ace.  South surveys the hands, counting 1 Heart loser and potentially a Spade loser.   Playing the Club Ace West shows out so South cashes the Spade Ace and ruffs the Spade Queen in dummy (West wisely ducks the gambit).  Without much thought, South quickly plays a low Heart to West’s Ace (more on this on hand 3b).  Unwilling to continue Diamonds with 5-5 between West and dummy North, West returns a Heart to North’s Queen.  South ruffs a Club in hand, followed a Club ruff in dummy.   After another Diamond ruff in hand and another Spade ruff in dummy, South is happy to see the suit will break 4-3, a 62 percent chance.  Using the required Diamond ruff to return to hand, South can now play their final Club trump however East has one remaining Club to set the contract by one trick.   In retrospect, we can see that a flawed declarer play caused South to go down one trick.  Let’s try another like of play in 3b.

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Click to view video – Polling You 79 Extra 3, Strong Jump Shift

Click to view video – Polling You 79 Extra 3 – Part 2, Strong Jump Shift

Download hand diagram and commentary files

 

Polling You #79, Extra #3b

South holds a black hand with a 5=2=1=5 shape with 19 High Card Points plus a few more length points.   And while South would like to immediately begin counting Losing Trick Count, the Suit Quality in Spade is only 8, 5 long plus 3 in length (we need a SQ of 9 or more).  Many West’s will overcall 2 Diamonds despite the vulnerability.   South North pass after interference or respond 1 Notrump with West bidding, in either situation South will rebid 3 Clubs.   Now North should come alive cuebidding 3 Diamonds to show interest in game.  South assumes the cuebid asks for a stopper in West’s Diamond suit and bids 3 Notrump.   Yet with North’s 1=2=5=5 shape the auction is pulled to 4 Clubs.   With North’s change-up, South cuebids 4 Hearts to show a second round control (Heart King).  With no other controls to show, North rebids 5 Clubs and South ventures a 6 Club slam contract.

Play through 4 continues as before.  On play West begins with the Diamond King, top of broken sequence to South’s Ace.  South surveys the hands, counting 1 Heart loser and potentially a Spade loser.   Playing the Club Ace West shows out show South cashes the Spade Ace and ruffs the Spade Queen in dummy (West wisely ducks the gambit).   This time South carefully considers play, realizing despite holding a huge hand play requires a Heart entry to the hand.  So the Heart Queen is called from North to West’s Ace, returning a Heart to South’s King.  Now South can win the two remaining Clubs from East’s hand before ruffing a Spade which West must play the final Spade King.  So after ruffing a Diamond in hand, South’s fifth Spade is now a winner to make the 12 trick slam.  Looking at the 5-1 Spade suit, the opponents indeed Spades split 4-3 following the 62 percent odds.

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