Monday, January 13, 2025

Would you play or defend this deal 3NT by south. Say, on a small H lead

I sat south, and stuck my neck out in the bidding shown after N bid 3Diamonds. I figured I had their suits "stopped".

First conside what you might lead, and analyze play or defend.

Next, and this makes it a five star difficulty problem, move to the E seat. You have to envision South's problems at trick 1. What do you play?

Declarer is going to play on diamonds and partner is going to get in. You dont get to put a spade through declarer. On the other hand, if declarer has S:Kxx and IF he has H:KJ tight, holding off the queen might give him 2 tricks in hearts but no third! ie. if he holds CAxxxx he can come to 5 diamonds FOUR hearts, and partner cannot wreak much havoc when in with the DA, even if he (as he likely does) holds the Club King. Most likekly he will shift to a spade, hoping, but that is trick 11 for declarer, with ONE SPADE KING and CLUB ACE.

But it takes 20/20 vision to imagine Declarer's actual holding and fate if you duck the HQ, with that vital East hand entry lurking and source of tricks in all suits (OK he can force 5 diamonds and H:K and over take HJ with HA and CA but that is only eight tricks in all.

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Welcome to Ramesh's BRIDGE BLOG

In these pages, I comment on hands from Bridge Base Online ACBL tourneys. I play in these with a variety of partners with different degrees of skill. I might present a hand or two from my collection of bridge books, every now and then. I am more interested in play and defense than in complex bidding systems, but I do follow the cut and thrust of Vanderbilt and World Championship Vugraph and try to keep abreast of expert practice in the obstructive and constructive bidding system department. I may also feature, newspaper-style, famous hands from important matches that I saw on Vugraph.

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Bridge expert for 20 years. I started blogging about bridge only in 2009. Chess follower. Problem fan. Studied hundreds of composition themes in two-movers, fairy chess, the former from the Good Companion era to the modern style of virtual play. Big collector of chess and bridge rare books. My two game blogs bridge blog, and my chess problem themes blog chess expo

My alter ego, The Hideous Hog

My alter ego, The Hideous Hog

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