| 1 |
You
hold:
|
What do you bid as South? |
| a. Pass; b. 3♦; c. 3♠; d. 3NT; e. 4♣; f. 4♠. | ||
| 2 | ||
|
Against 3NT your partner lead the ♥2
and dummy played the ♥Q.
What do you play now? a. ♥7; b. ♥A and ♥7; c. ♥A and ♠9; d. ♥A and ♦9; e. ♥A and ♣5. |
||
| 3 |
You
hold:
|
What do you bid as South? |
| a. Pass; b. 3♥; c. 3♠; d. 3NT; e. 4♣; f. 4♦; g. 5♦. | ||
| 4 | ||
|
Against 5♦ West
leads the ♣A. How do you play? a. ♦3, ♦AK, ♠A, heart to ♥J; b. ♦3, ♦AK, ♠A, heart to ♥K; c. ♦3, draw 6 more diamonds and play spade; d. ♠5; e. ♦3, ♦AK, spade to ♠T; f. ♦3, ♦A, ♠A and spade; g. ♦3, ♠A, ♦A and spade. |
||
Answers:
- a. Pass = 0 points; b. 3♦
= 5 points; c. 3♠ = 2 points;
d. 3NT = 0 points; e. 4♣ = 0 points; f. 4♠ = 2 points.
What is 3♣? It’s a trial bid. Partner sees a chance for a game if you hold certain values in club (with ♣A or ♣K you must always accept his invitation). Meaning, he has a suit (3-5 cards) with "holes" in it, and he needs some "cover-ups". With help in club – bid 4♠ and without help bid 3♠.
So what is your ♣Qxx worth? How do you evaluate the whole hand now?
The answer: It’s unclear... For example, if your partner has a hand like this one:
...then there is no chance for a game (a heart lead sets immediately and on another lead, declarer needs to find the ♦A with East to develop the ♦K for a heart discard).
But if partner has a hand like this:
...then 4♠ is cold on any lead (unless there is a spade loser).
Bid 3♦. With that bid you will show that you have "something" in clubs (as partner asked) and another "something" in diamonds. You transfer the decision to your partner. With the first hand, partner must settle for 3♠. There is an obvious problem in hearts. With the second hand, he should happily accept and bid 4♠.
Things to remember:
After a major fit is found, a new suit by opener (or responder) would be a trial bid. That bid shows interest in game in the agreed suit and asks partner if he has some strength in the newly bid suit. It's recommendable to agree that such a trial bid shows some values in that suit and asks partner to fill in the "holes".
Another example:
Example A
Example B
After 1♠ opening by partner, you support with 2♠. Partner bids 3♦ - a trial bid. Notice how valuable the ♦K is in Example A. You must therefore accept the invitation and bid 4♠ in spite of your poor hand, because you do have what your partner is looking for. The contract has very high chance of success even though N-S don't have many points together.
In Example B, you must sign off in 3♠, which will be very hard to make. (Declarer has 3 diamond losers, 2 heart losers and a club loser.)
-
a. ♥7 = 5 points; b.
♥A
and ♥7 = 3 points;
c. ♥A and ♠9 = 1 point;
d. ♥A and ♦9 = 0 points; e. ♥A and ♣5 = 0 points.
Your partner’s lead with the ♥2 says a lot: He has exactly 4 cards in hearts (as he lead 4th best), with an honor – the ♥J. Therefore declarer also holds 4 cards in hearts. Partner doesn't have any 5 card suit (else he would have lead it).Since there is only one entry to your hand, there is no point in trying to develop spades so you must concentrate on the hearts. If you win the ♥A and continue with another heart you will take out dummy's ♥K and develop partner's ♥J. If partner holds ♥J10, you will set up both his hearts. But if partner has ♥J9 (like in this example), the ♥10 will be high after partner takes the ♥J.
You need to take in account that possibility and time your play so that the 3rd round of hearts is played from your hand: Don't win the heart lead (you can encourage with the ♥7)! Declarer will win the ♥Q but when he tries to develop one of his black suits, your partner will win the trick, continue a heart to your ♥A, knocking dummy's ♥K on the way, and when you play a 3rd heart, your partner's ♥J9 will beat South's ♥108. This is the only way defense can win 3 hearts, a club and a spade.
Things to remember:
And what if partner will get the impression that the ♥7 is a suit preference for spades (say ♠KQxxx ) and that you are interested in a switch? How can your partner know that you hold the ♥A? Good question. You can help him with a little agreement called "Smith". That signaling always comes at trick 2 after declarer won the first trick. A low card by you will discourage partner to continue the first suit and a high card will encourage. For example, on this hand: Declarer has won the ♥Q on the lead and played the ♣Q at trick 2. If you follow with the ♣4 you show no interest in hearts and ask for a switch. If you play the ♣8, you ask partner to continue hearts. On this particular hand West has another way to find out, even without Smith: Upon winning the ♣K he must play the ♠A. If East encourages, he will continue with spades. Otherwise West will go back to hearts.
- a.
Pass = 2 points; b.
3♥ = 5 points;
c. 3♠ = 2 points; d. 3NT = 2 points;
e. 4♣ = 0 points; f. 4♦ = 2 points; g. 5♦ = 2 points.
Your partner's jump to 3♦ shows 15-17 points with a good 6 card suit. With a minimum hand (6-7 points) you are allowed to pass. With your hand above, a game is surely possible, due to the 2 aces in your hand. The question is: What to bid? 3NT or 5♦? Also here (like in last week’s test) you'd better transfer the decision to your partner. Bid 3♥, which shows strength in hearts (you need to agree with partner about the meaning of such bids – you can also agree differently – see below). This bid does not promise 4 cards in hearts since you’ve already denied a 4 card major suit by bidding 1NT. This way you show to your partner where some of your strength is located (it normally also denies strength in spade, else 3NT would be a better bid), transferring the decision to him, with that new information.
If partner has a hand like this one for example:
...with a singleton spade and points in the other suits it's obvious that 3NT cannot be a good contract – On a spade lead you lose at least 5 spade tricks. 5♦ however is cold if clubs are 3-2 (and even with 4-1 if opponents are not leading hearts): You have time to draw trumps and establish clubs for a heart discard.
But with a hand like this one:
...partner has strength in spade so he'll happily bid 3NT.
Things to remember:- When you skip bidding a major suit, you deny 4 cards in that suit (1NT here denied both majors). Therefore, bidding that suit next will only show strength in the suit, helping partner to decide the preferable contract.
- Some players have different agreements: They might play that bidding a major asks for strength in that suit (thus they show weakness) , meaning, partner will bid NT only with stopper in that suit where partner asked for help (so in our example, if using such an agreement, we'll have to bid 3♠).
- And again – agree with your partner on what your preferences are, but remember: The disadvantage of any convention is that you need to remember it...
-
a. ♦3,
♦AK, ♠A,
heart to ♥J = 1 point;
b. ♦3, ♦AK, ♠A, heart to ♥K = 0 points;
c. ♦3, draw 6 more diamonds and play spade = 1 point;
d. ♠5 = 5 points;
e. ♦3, ♦AK, spade to ♠T = 2 points;
f. ♦3, ♦A, ♠A and spade = 1 point;
g. ♦3, ♠A, ♦A and spade = 3 points.
West's double clarifies that most of the missing points are likely to be in his hand. Therefore, if you choose to count on the heart finesse for making the contract, it would be better to try to play towards the ♥J in a hope to find the ♥Q with East. But this line of play would be "putting all your eggs in one basket": If your finesse fails – you go down.
You can also try to establish the spades: If you play a spade to the ♠10, you might be able later to play another spade to the ♠A, ruff a 3rd spade, come back to dummy on the 3rd trump, and discard all your hearts on the good spades. The thing is that East is likely to win the spade trick and switch to hearts. And if West holds the ♥AQ, as is the case on this hand – you go down:
Developing spades is a correct thought but you must try to do it without losing the lead to East, the dangerous hand. So... don't ruff the opening lead! Discard a spade instead. Ruff the club continuation (a heart switch from West will not help the defense), play the ♦A, spade to the ♠A and ruff a spade with a high diamond. Go back to dummy with the ♦7 to the ♦8, ruff a 3rd spade with a high diamond, go back to dummy with the ♦3 to the ♦4 and throw your losers on the good spades.
Things to remember:- The "dangerous hand" is the player you don't want to lose a trick to (East in our example hand). Losing the lead to East will set you on the obvious heart return. However, you feel comfortable with West on lead, since your ♥K is not in danger no matter what West plays.
- Ruffing is a useful technique to establish a long side suit and gain extra tricks. You need to ruff untill no one has any more cards in that suit. You must count how many entries you need for that process (and add 1 more in order to reach the tricks you have just developed). Once your long suit is high, you need to finish drawing trumps. Only then you can "enjoy" the high cards you have worked on.
- On the hand above you need 3 entries: 2 to ruff 2 spades and 1 more to reach those high spades. That's why you had to ruff high, to preserve entries via the trump suit.
Grades:
16-20 points: Looks like you are a great player, able to analyze well the situation.
11-15 points: You understand the game well. A little thought above the basic rules will upgrade your level.
6-10 points: You lack experience, or theory (or both). Try to figure out what is your weakness (play of hand, defense or bidding) and try to improve it.
0-5 points: Try to focus more and next time you will do better. Perhaps a class to refresh your knowledge will be helpful.
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