Vil Gravis's blog

This was the deal featured in last week's article. There are a number of important lessons for all readers, though most may be a bit difficult for even the advanced players. Nevertheless, I suggest that even the beginner might learn something from the discussion on how South should play this contract in 4S when West leads the six of diamonds. Let's have another look:

Board 9 Dealer N EW Vul

	T432 AJ92 T3 743
J6 T5 K9765 KT52		95 Q86 QJ842 AQ6
	AKQ87 K743 A J98

Board 16 Dealer W EW Vul from Wednesday 18/10/2017

	AJ3 A2 T5 KJ9865
Q2 KQT64 J632 T7		8654 9853 Q7 Q43
	KT97 J7 AK984 A2

First thing this morning I received the following email from one of last night's players:
“Question:
Board 7 from yesterday - was just wondering if I had grounds to search for slam. The bidding went: PASS - PASS - PASS - 1H - PASS - 3H - PASS - 4C - PASS - 4H - PASS - PASS - PASS. As you can see my partner (West) "lied" about her aces (she was pretty sick yesterday) so I left it in 4H and made 6H. I presume there are also other ways to search for/show singletons etc.”

Board 11 from Wednesday 6th Sept. Dealer S All Vul

	K AJ7432 KJ972 A
QT987 K T6 KT432		53 865 Q4 QJ9865
	AJ642 QT9 A853 7

I really don't want to keep on about slams, but there is more to this deal than just bidding slams.

I didn't realise that actually playing in these sessions can be so much fun. As part of our club's mentoring programme, I was asked to partner a player who has just been through his lessons and who had been playing for a couple of months at most. I was astounded at his ability. Despite the fact that he did absolutely nothing wrong, we were a distant third our way, with the two top scores well over 65%. My partner was obviously a quick learner and a fine thinker.

Board 10 from Wednesday 23-Aug
Dealer S ALL Vul

	KT742 AKQJ63 2 9
85 98 AJ874 J873		J963 T542 Q96 62
	AQ 7 KT53 AKQT54