Vil Gravis's blog

Tricky Questions (12)

You are South.

1.

8
KQJ653
T
K762

Dealer East all vul at match points.
East opens 1S. What do you bid?

Wednesday Play at The Hutt (14)

What I thought was a very basic question resulting from Board 14 from Wednesday 24/3/21 turned out to be more complicated than I thought, at least for many readers. Let’s look again:

Against South’s 4S, let’s say you decide to lead the ace of clubs, not what I would recommend but what many players did lead. Here is what you see in dummy when you lead your club ace.

Dummy (North)

8732
QT
QT
KQJT4

Wednesday Play at The Hutt (13)

Board 14 from Wednesday 24/03/2021 is worth looking at from the point of view of DEFENCE, which I find to be very hit and miss at this level of play. Nevertheless, it is absolutely vital that the improving player start to learn how to use a proper SIGNALLING system. Board 14 will illustrate it best.

Board 14 Dealer E Nil Vul
Let me show you the West hand (yours) and then dummy

A963
KJ93
A9876

Wednesday Play at The Hutt (12)

Two very interesting boards in a row! These did not occur on a Wednesday, yet are nevertheless of such interest that I have been asked for my thoughts on both of them. They occurred on a Friday afternoon, Friday 19/03/2021. The only hands of interest are the East-West ones.

Board 15 Dealer S NS Vul

3
T863
2
AKT8643
AKQ75
AKQ
AQT73

Wednesday Play at The Hutt (11)

Board 14 from Wednesday 17/03/2021
Dealer E Nil Vul

87
T842
K43
AJT4
KQ632
J
AJ6
Q752
A954
Q9763
QT52
JT
AK5
987
K9863

Some Wests were in 2S, some in 3S, and four pairs actually got to 4S, a good assessment of the combined hands. We’re not going to talk about the bidding, we still need to learn things about both declarer play and defence.

Wednesday Play at The Hutt (10)

From Wednesday 10/03/21.
I need to get back to bidding once more, because what happened on Board 2 tells me that very little has been learnt about what bidding is all about.

I will repeat what I have said before: Bidding is a DISCUSSION between a partnership. The discussion can be as short or as long as needed to determine the BEST contract.

You also need to know what you require for GAME. A minimum of 25 COMBINED high card points. What do you need to bid to be in GAME? And what does the game SCORE?

Wednesday Play at The Hutt (09)

This week, I want to talk more about opening leads.

There are two key things you should think about when making your opening lead: the SUIT you are going to lead and which CARD in that suit you should lead. For now, I want to focus on opening leads against a TRUMP contract.

Tricky Questions (11)

You are South each time.

1.

AQT8
T62
T82
AT8

This bidding problem has three bidding sequences: You are South and dealer and pass, so does West and North. East opens 1H. You pass and

a) West bids 2H and all pass. Your lead?
b) West bids 2H, East bids 3H and all pass. Your lead?
c) West bids 2H, East 3H and West 4H, all pass. Your lead?

Tricky Answers (10)

You are South each time. These questions arose in a recent Multigrade tournament.

1. Match Points Dealer E All Vul

Your hand:

T
K73
AT543
KJ92

The bidding has been:

SouthWestNorthEast
-PassPass1
23Pass3NT
Pass4PassPass
Pass

Tricky Questions (10)

You are South each time. These questions arose in a recent Multigrade tournament.

1. Match Points Dealer E All Vul

Your hand:

T
K73
AT543
KJ92

The bidding has been:

SouthWestNorthEast
-PassPass1
23Pass3NT
Pass4PassPass
Pass

Syndicate content