Blogs

How many bridge players have learnt the art of the finesse but not learnt the art of not finessing?
Board 18 from Tuesday 17/01/23
Dealer East NS Vul

	J862 QJ85 7 QJT4
T4 T964 A932 AK7		9753 K J865 6532
	AKQ A732 KQT4 98

The almost universal contract was 4H by either North or South. The almost universal result was down one or two. In other words, a hopeless contract the way things were. Or was it?

Defending low level contracts is something few defenders seem to pay much attention to, despite the fact that there are many match points to be gained in these situations. 1NT is such a case in point, because usually the defenders will have as many, or even more, combined high card points, as declarer.

Defending low level contracts is not just a matter of taking what tricks you can and hoping declarer is not smart enough to take all that can come declarer’s way. An astute partnership on defence can create just as many, or more, tricks as declarer could given the same two hands. That is because the astute defenders can ‘see’ all four hands whereas declarer can see only two!

Board 2 from Tuesday 13/12/22
Dealer East NS Vul

	962 KJT KT54 953
Q84 AQ8 872 T762		K73 532 AJ3 AQJ4
	AJT5 9764 Q96 K8

This week, a real fun as well as educational deal that has something for everyone.
Board 12 from Wednesday 23/11/22
Dealer West NS Vul

	Q2 Q987654 K652
K94 J AQ92 QJT84		AT8765 KT876 A9
	J3 AKT32 J543 73

This deal gave our declarers the opportunity to match Deep Finesse in the play, once again just by following best declarer play recommendations without the need to see through the cards, as Deep Finesse can do.

Board 17 from Tuesday 15/11/22
Dealer North Nil Vul

	QJ874 K3 AK853 7
AK Q52 QT94 AJ32		T63 AJ764 7 KQ85
	952 T98 J62 T964

As at 11;10pm we had 49 of the expected 55 clubs in.