A communication blocking holding of declarer

In the ending made a mistake of exiting with a Heart. I actually make the contract in the ending if I exit with a club and hope for righty to have H:QT C:AJ tight or C:KJ tight, not C:AT or C:KT. They can only disentangle three tricks and have to give me a game going trick. By exiting heart, I am giving up any chance of making a trick.

A stopper for No-Trump is strictly for the birds - Part I

I understood that my heart stopper did not exist and partner was certainly not obliged to hold one either, but it did seem that we had an awful lot of tricks on top but almost surely not eleven in suit contract, so I put my money where my mouth was, so to speak. Yes they could just have taken 4 hearts owing to the break (somewhat indicated on the bidding), but they didnt even do that, +660 and a happy Notrump hog

I couldn't make up this stuff.

If there are any non-adults, content warning about unsuitable "bidding". My 3NT was not even a respectable gambling 3NT with all those outside controls. Why not 5D and be done with it? Meanwhile, the Robot looked learnedly at his convention sheet and "inferred" that I had somewhere upward of 25 HCP. He ventured 6NT

Down cane the dummy, and I see that we have a slight problem. They have also found the HK lead. Is it time to lower the white flag? No, when you bid like me or have partners like mine, a stoic disposition and a poker face come with the territory. I dont know if my exaggerated Thank You partner had any impact on the Robots, But RHO unaccountably failed to overtake to guarantee a set, and produced a most curious deuce. Now West, a learned robot had heard of the Bath coup. So he/she/it switched. That is all she wrote

An unusual maneuver in an ending, missed

Use 'Next' to advance to the six card ending, where we can afford to lose one trick. The heart discard by Righty has been ominous. I took the simplest route to cross to dummy to pull the last trump and went down, when Righty ruffed and he had the spade ace coming

Although it requires placing the spade J in addition to the spade Ace(which is marked on the bidding and early play) spade Ace, there is a cute way to thread the needle in the six card ending. Do you see it? Leave me a comment if you do

Yes, perhaps I was unlucky that the "weak 2D" overcaller had a side suit of length 4, but in this game you make your own luck.

To split or not to split

If everyone is playing double-dummy, automatic plays become wrong plays and strange plays become correct. To imagine every layout of the spot cards, and to go to a fourth dimension, is to transcend ordinary analysis and play like the gods. The west player on the following hand has an interesting problem when clubs are led. (He gets off to the best lead, a trump, and once again when in with the spade King, gets off to a second trump, the best for his side.) His moment of truth arrives when the four of clubs is led from hand. (This hand is a strange echo of the last post "A difficult 8-card ending", once again the club suit is 4-3 West East) It seems automatic to split from Q, J, T, but if he does, he gets to hold the lead, since his partner cannot overtake, Now, if he continues a high club, I win in hand, and use the two dummy entries (trump and Jack of spades) to ruff a club small, establishing the King, and enjoying it for a diamond discard. If instead, West tries a small club,i duck to East's 9, fly Ace on East's diamond return, cross in spades, ruff a small club, setting up King, and cross to trump Ace to take my diamond pitch.

Thus, West's correct play is to time the first round of the club suit (tempo is important!) by not splitting Q,J,T, letting his partner win the 9 which he has to hope he has!! Now East's Diamond return is in time!

In practice I won 7 IMP as west fell from grace and even spared me the hard work, returning a diamond into the teeth of my tenace

A difficult 8-card ending

You play in four hearts. Click on next until three rounds of trump are drawn. Here, i went wrong. How would YOU play?

You see, you need to eliminate East's diamond and clubs as he comes under pressure in exiting, you also need west to have the Ace of clubs. However, you need to be surgically precise

If you try CT, West ducks, you win in dummy, EAST will need to UNBLOCK his Jack or Nine. Now when you continue with a small club (My own play of spade was stupid) East will play his preserved small card and west will win club EIGHT. Now there is no endplay, when west exits with the Jack of spades. (On any other exit, say a diamond, East's D exit goes away as you ruff in dummy and you ruff yourself to hand stripping East of clubs, and then lead a spade up, if west plays low, you stick in the nine endplaying east, if west puts in the Jack, you play the Queen and when East wins he has only spades and has to lead away from the spade Ten to the split menace Ax and 9x

The correct play in the EIGHT card ending is a low club, the 7 to the King in dummy. Now they have no answer as you play a club back toward your TEN, EAST has to win Jack, and has to return a diamond (or dummy's CQ sets up), you ruff the diamond, ruff out his club exit and proceed as above.

Despite nullo play, I get top board

I open a offshape 1NT in fourth seat, hoping to skew the result and slightly preempt the opponents. Partner transfers to spades and shows a invitational hand with secondary diamonds. I decide my Jx of spades is enough for game to be a good bet. West leads CK. I cannot hold off gainfully in Four Spades, and there is the risk of a ruff, so I win, and take a slight risk, crossing in diamonds to play a spade up to my J. To no avail, as West wins, and he can now scuttle my contract with CQ and C ruff, but he is not sure of the C position. He returns a diamond. I win and pull two trumps in dummy and play a heart up. RHO follows small

What do you play and why?

West was a passed hand. Can he have C:KQ, S:A as well as H:A? No. Therefore, there is no guess. You have to rise HK

East did well to play low. He gave you a guess. You are insulting east if you put in the Jack. It will lose to West.

Alas, I too forgot the significance of the dog that did not bark in the nighttime. I lost to the Queen. Now West made the last blunder of the game by cashing CQ, instead of playing a heart, forcing me to ruff, and lose two clubs for one down.

6H, a show-up squeeze, pressure in three suits.

After a somewhat agricultural auction, where I ask for keycards and, since on the opening bid, partner rates to have the DK protected from the lead, I raise to 6H. Since this is a robot tourney, I take the North seat and play on the DQ lead

RHO wins DA and returns a diamond, I fly King and take stock. If the club finesse is right, it can wait provided four spades run, since there is a show-up squeeze in the ending.

Accordingly, I pull trump. They break 4-1. I draw four rounds as LHO pitches a spade along the way. Now four spades run, and I finish the fifth trump, LHO keeps his DJ, and has to bare his CK, and on a club to the AQ, the King pops up on my left. NOTE: My LHO did not misdefend in pitching a spade. He comes under pressure in spades, diamond and clubs. If he lets go clubs, my entire club suit sets up with the aid of a finesse. This is a triple squeeze.

Bridge Analysis - 3NT

A complex deal which saw me at the helm in 3NT. I represented 20 HCP values with 2NT, a slight overbid and partner put me in game, another overbid. I won the diamond lead and led out the CJ from hand and had no problems when LHO played the stiff T and RHO chose to win the first club

Plan play if RHO refuses the first club. Take your time, then read below.

Double dummy, you will need two late spade entries to dummy (the Nine and the queen) to finesse and set up the clubs. Play for the layout Txxx Kx, Your first lead must be the JACK of spades. ( If East wins, they can take one spade and one heart and two diamonds but that is all. You use the NINE of spades to finesse the clubs ending in hand as east doesnt cover, and the Queen of spades to run the suit) If East ducks, you cash the two black aces and exit in clubs to clear and establish the suit. Queen of spades is an entry to dummy. In this variation they can take One club one heart aand two diamonds that is all. What is that you say? If West has the KJ9 remaining of diamonds and East has the Heart Ace, I am down? Yes, but in this game, you make your own luck.

i won a bushel of MPs for my 3NT, but I wonder if I would have found the spade Jack play at trick three if E ducked

East has a choice of evils.

After (a somewhat unusual SA lead) and a club shift, I took two clubs and two top trumps, and played four rounds of clubs pitching two diamonds. It would not help East to ruff the fourth club with his master trump, because I then cash DA, conceded a diamond and ruff my losing diamond, losing just three tricks, Spade Ace, master trump, and a diamond. He chose to discard. I now continued DA and a Diamond. East was in a curious postion. He either has to let his partner win with the Queen and since his partner does not have the master trump to pull trump with, I cross ruff conceding just one trick to the master trump, OR he has to overtake DK to play a master trump but then my DJ has grown up into trick ten.

First things first. A simple hand.

On a club lead from East, North declares the contract of 4Spades. Plan play.

Let us say you quickly take a Heart discard on the king of clubs. Next, what is the first order of the day? A surprising number of declarers played a spade up to the King and a spade back, and now they were short entry and timing to take two diamond finesses. Clearly, there is no rush to pull trumps. If the D finesse is onside, you have ten guaranteed tricks 5 trump, 3 diamonds, 2 clubs. It is essential to take an immediate diamond finesse. Next, try the trumps, they fail but, in with the spade ace, take the second diamond finesse

If instead you play spades, you will lose two hearts and be stuck in hand to lose a diamond along with the trump trick to be lost, (defense will force you in clubs to lead from your hand)

The Art of the impossible

My partner the robot, transferred into club, auto-splintered and raised my FIVE CLUBS to an ambitions SIX CLUBS. West took DA and now shifted to a spade and I was still in the game.

In the end, I took a mundane heart finesse and went quietly down. But I can make it on the dubious spade continuation double dummy. Do you see how?

I need to transfer the diamond menace to East. For this, he needs to hold the T987 as he, in fact, did!

Win the spade shift, pull two round of trump ending in hand, lead the DQ forcing a cover, ruff in dummy, tricks 6 through 8 finish trump, on the last trump pitching a heart from closed hand preserving the D6, Then tricks 9-10 two more spades ending in hand.

With dummy having H:AJx and east having H:Kx D:T and Declarer having S:K H:Q D:6, the last spade turns the screw on East who must let go the D master or bare the HK.

Razzamatazz in bidding to slam. Setting up dummy's clubs

Robot partner opened one club and my book response is One spade, but i chose to bid up the line, knowing i could have trouble later, in the expectation and hope of locating a four four heart fit early. When the fit was found, I figured that partner rated to have a lot of cards in clubs and hearts (not a given, but quite likely), and liking my hand, bid six hearts with razzamatazz. Thank heavens, the machine did not raise me to Seven. For once.

LHO led its singleton club, i pull just two rounds of trump, leaving the master Queen out, and play on clubs. Dummy gets set up soon, and all they can take is one trump. A 94% board.

Doubledummy play in 4NT

My nineteen point 3NT overcall was a bit undisciplined, but I had reckoned without my Robot partner reading me for 25 points and raising to 4NT quantitative. I passed in a hurry, and the play took less time than it takes to describe.

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I played low on the spade lead from dummy, and the appearance of the Queen was one small relief. I chose to guess the clubs as Jx and Kxx, by playing the Ace and Queen of clubs. When this came to pass, I had two entries to dummy. I could then play diamonds up toward my hand, keep an exit card to strip endplay RHO to play away from his (its) marked king of hearts. ten tricks in a hurry and a unshared top board.

Those Spots make a difference

Here is a safety play for five out of six tricks. Plenty of entries. The play depends on the spot cards.

Problem 1. J6 opposite AQ7432

Problem 2. J6 opposite AQ7532

In problem one and two, all 3-2 breaks give no problem. THe extra chance comes for 4-1 break. In problem 1, the spot cards are so small, that the only extra chance comes from a singleton king. Start with the A. In problem 2, the presence of the 5 allows you to handle KT84 or KT94 onside, and you can run the Jack on the first round if covered all round, on the next round advance the 6 and run it. If he covers with the 8, your 75 are now equals for a builder against T4.

Afterthought, of all the 4 -1 breaks singleton king is 1/5th, 5.6 % For 8 or 9 to be singleton and only to west, you have 2/5 * 1/2 * 4-1 breaks or the same 5.6%. Can Jannersten be overlooking this since you have to commit to a line of play on problem 2? "Play Safe and Win" Jannersten and Wohlin.

A world class challenge

South is in 3NT and West leads the SQ. Plan Play.

Clearly, in isolation the safety play to bring in five tricks in diamonds is to play a small diamond from dummy. So, let us say you win in dummy and play a small diamond. If, according to plan, (to cater to the 4-1) RHO wins the DQ. If diamonds are 4-1, he will attack dummy's heart entry while diamonds are not yet disentangled. He plays a heart. Now you have to try diamonds from the top and you go down whether the diamonds broke x QT9x or T9xx Q

Let us back up to the 4-1 breaks that you can reasonably handle in view of the entry attack. Do you see the farsighted play at trick one and two that is needed on the only layouts you can make?

In addition to 3-2 breaks which land the contract easily, you can only protect against 4-1 breaks with the SINGLETON QUEEN. Indeed, in this case, you preserve the spade and heart entries in dummy, winning the first trick in hand and DUCKING a diamond. No harm if diamonds are 3-2. The gain comes when you have the 4-1 break with the quingleton. The winner can only remove one major suit entry in dummy. You unblock the DJ winner, use the other major suit entry to enjoy 4 more diamonds and the contract.

Credits to Bridge Master, the learning program on Bridge Base . COM

A brilliant lead in Nickell-Fleischer match by Katz.

In the USA2 finals, a sort of repechage for Nickell who had been defeated in the USA1 trials, Katz for Nickell found a nice underlead of an Ace to defeat a well-bid 5D in a competitive auction. The auction was well-judge by both sides, north doing very well to introduce Diamonds as a playing spot. 5H having no chance.

Play (Kranyak) or Defend (Rosenberg)? Analysis by Shenkin

Here, Rosenberg chose to lead the HA, certainly reasonably. Kranyak ruffed the HJ continuation, drew trump in three rounds, played one more looking at discards, crossed to hand in clubs, ruffed a small heart to find the HK drop, and claimed.

Barnet Shenkin, that great analyst, observed that on most leads, you can make on a trump squeeze. The plan is to win, play a small heart. while trumping one small heart, arrive at the end position with S:Txx H:void D:xx opp H:Qx S:AK On the penultimate trump, North is trump squeezed, being unable to hold on to both two hearts and QJx of spades.

Double dummy the lead to beat the trump squeeze is a high spade. Thus, a patzer will beat the slam but a world champion will not.

Defend 3NT. Killpoint for Kranyak to find.

In the USBC finals 1, Kranyak, playing four-handed had a near insurmountable lead of about 100 IMP over redoubtable Fleischer after five rounds of eight. This board arose when Willenken-Rosenberg bid to 3NT.

BBO vugraph commentator said that Willenken took his time before playing to trick one, always a splendid idea. Here, he played the Q, covered and won with the Ace.

Trick two, Jack of diamonds ducked, trick three, diamond to the Ten, East winning.

Willenken's kill-point arose when East played a middle heart away from the ten. He rose to the occasion, by playing small ( a curious mixed metaphor there!). Put yourself in Kranyak's shoes after he wins HK.

Kranyak, proven to be one of the game's greatest players, having pitched near shutouts of great teams such as Nickell, was at the killpoint here. The threat of course was that declarer's tricks in diamonds and spades were ready, but the lurking danger was that Hearts were already set up for 3 hearts. Counter-intuitive as it is to run three clubs in view of a "guaranteed protected King of clubs", it was the double-dummy play here. When he returned a heart, Willenken put the finishing touches to a well-played hand by crossing to diamonds and taking the spade finesse against the spade bidder and earning nine tricks.

"How The Experts Win At Bridge" - by Burt Hall and Lynn Rose-Hall

Sorry I have not posted for the longest time!

The above book is a pretty unique one in bridge literature. It is perhaps more useful for the aspiring player than tons of books on bidding or play. It focuses on key areas of improvement. Establishes clear thinking plans on defense (when to go active/passive, when to lead trump). Seeing the number of MPs and IMPs I through away through stupid doubles, for me the chastening chapter was When and When not to double. The majority of the book is geared to MP, and a chapter on how to win Team Events. The writing is all about leads, defense and play from a strategic perspective at MPs. When to force declarer from the get-go. The examples are good, and not too pat. The prose is good, and this book deserves to be better known.

Elimination in slam, suit combination QJxx-A8xx

Cover the North and South hands and declare West in SIX clubs on the lead of six of clubs. Given that you win the first with the CK, and that on CQ, South discards a low heart, plan play. This problem is from the 1962 book by Ewart Kempson and Paul Lukacs, "the second book of bridge problems, SINGLE DUMMY PLAYS", a compact collection of 64 test your declarer play hands.

Amazingly, you can cater to any distribution of spades. The solution is to postpone the drawing of the third round (since you want to end up in dummy), play off HAK, DA,DK,Druff, now cross to CA drawing the last trump. Now comes the key move. The two of spades is led. This assures the contract against any distribution and defence. Here, North takes West's queen of spades and leads the ten, West wins and East makes the Ace and the eight on marked finesse.(North can shift to a plain suit but that gives a ruff-discard, disposing of the remaining spade loser). If, instead, North allows west's Queen to win, declarer who still does not know the break, can duck when the 9 of spades appears. If south follows, the spades must be good, If south shows out, North is endplayed. If North shows out on round two of spades, leading up to the closed hand, after going up Ace of spades is simple enough.

Thus, with the elimination complete, you can handle QJxx, A8xx against all breaks. Amazing, is it not? One card combination to add to your mental arsenal.

Meckstroth declares a hand

This hand is from the QF of the Mind Games in Lille where USA lost narrowly to Sweden despite this board. North (Rodwell) opened a precision 2D, South (meckstroth) bid 3S (invitational, actually preemptive invitational at this vul), shutting EW completely out of the auction. Since EW are cold for a VUL game, this rates to win IMPs, but the icing on the cake is when Meckstroth makes his contract.

Visualize the play after the play of the first few tricks. Trump lead to E's Ace, HK, H continued and ruffed. Club to the Ace, and diamond to the Ace. How do you proceed for nine tricks? there is no complete cross ruff, because if you play, d ruff, H ruff, d ruff, how do you come off dummy to ruff your last diamond? West can ruff the first club and play his remaining trump taking out your last dummy entry while dummy's clubs contain a loser.

Meckstroth accurately played to set up clubs and combine the chance of a cross ruff. It went club to East, Diamond tap, H ruff to hand, and a club from hand, and defence is now helpless with the fifth club coming into its own if they ruff in and play their last trump. Well played.

Platnick-Diamond defend 3NT against Rodwell

Meckwell reached the same 3NT as in the other room, after a Big club auction with artificial responses. Platnick won the first heart, which declarer has to duck, and found a spade shift, after which declarer can prevail double dummy, but is the only one to give him some trouble.

Please use next button to advance to the play where rodwell advances the 8 of clubs. This was, at double-dummy, a mistake. The correct play was the Ten of clubs, preserving the 8 for a possible later finesse against the J to bring in the suit if N rose Ace. A very difficult defence that beats the contract now is to rise CA because the clubs are blocked (That is, on the next round of clubs, declarer will be allowed to run the Ten, but the Queen in dummy is marooned.) When the C8 to the C9 finessing against the AJ worked, declarer needed to play a second heart, stripping North, and then play a club up, when North can be strip-endplayed to play Diamonds into the tenace. He instead chose to take a diamond finesse, playing South for some outside values. when this lost, Diamond defended most accurately, locking declarer in his hand where there is a loser by finding the only sequence of plays, Club Ace, then a red card (here, a heart). Declarer cashes his diamonds but has to concede a H at the finish for down one, and 12 IMPS to DIAMOND for a tied match.

Zia's 4-3 Diamond Slam

This hand from a Nickell comeback in the finals against Diamond, featured a Zia brilliance. How do you play 6D (the 4-3 fit, these guys usually show 4 diamonds on a 1D opener except with 4432) on the lead of the SJ to the SQ and SA? The lead with a potential builder of a trick in spades may appear inconsequential. There are four variations to the complex play.

Any 4-2 diamonds with 3-3 clubs allows drawing of trump. Will fail here after pulling 3 rounds of trump, if you touch a round of clubs.

If you play for diamonds 3-3, Play CQ and CA and hope these stand up, ruff a third round of clubs high. Will work here

The actual line chosen by Zia was sexy. None of the online commentators found Zia's table line combining chances. He drew trumps finishing in dummy, finding them 33, and played a heart from dummy, planning to put in the Jack. (If the Jack lost, he would have to fall back on clubs 3-3 or club J coming down in 2 rounds.)

When RHO did not split, he put in the Jack, and built a trick in spades by forcing Hampson to split his T9, winning SK, and playing back a spade. He had at this point a Spade, DA, 3C, 12tricks in all

The other variation if Greco split was amazing, You win with the Ace, and play the HJ pitching a spade, Back comes a heart which you win, a spade to the King, DA, and Greco is squeezed on this trick, between clubs and his last heart. What a hand.