Tag Archives: Watch your entries

Fundamentals of Declaring Your NT Contract

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Please take a seat at our learning table. At this table you have plenty of time — 7 days rather than 7 minutes — to play the hand! Each Sunday we offer a new puzzle. The puzzle includes hints in the form of questions, questions designed to aid your play or defense. You have a week to analyze clues associated with each hint. Enjoy this week’s mental exercise:

Puzzle 1:

You are South in a contract of 3 notrump. East opened the bidding 2 spades. Then the auction proceded: pass by you, pass by West, double by partner, pass by East, 3 notrump by you, all pass.

Opening lead by West is the queen of spades. Here is what you see:

Think before you play to trick 1:

  1. Start by counting your sure winners. A sure winner is a trick you can win without losing the lead. Use the result as a basis for deciding best way to come to 9 tricks before the opponents can take 5 tricks.
  2. Use clues from the auction and opening lead to tentatively visualize the unseen hands. In particular, how do you think spades are splitting on this hand?
  3. Additional clues will be revealed by opponents’ carding during the play. For example, West shows out on your second round of the diamond suit. Now what to you know about East’s hand?
  4. Do you have sufficient entries to hand and dummy to execute your plan?
  5. Should you decide to take a finesse, when is the best time to do it?
    1. Are your chances of winning the finesse 50 percent?
    2. Do you see any additional chances that might allow you to avoid the finesse?
  6. Is there any reason to hold up at trick 1?

Do you have questions or need clarifications? If so, do not hesitate to contact Harry by text (808 854-6147) or email: Hmessenheimer at earthlink.net. Please send your solution to Harry by email before next Sunday. Harry’s solution will be published below next Sunday, including a summary of the fundamentals involved.

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , , , , , ,

How best to play this heart suit?

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Note: This puzzle appeared in Bob Jones’s bridge column on December 14. I hope you will find it as interesting as I did. Since I am not constrained by space limitations, I felt I could add some insights to his useful discussion.

 

You are south in 3NT. Partner opens the bidding with two hearts (weak) in 1st seat. You respond 2NT, asking partner about his hand. Partner raises you to 3NT, promising a strong 6-card heart suit.

Opening lead by West is the queen of diamonds. You win in hand as East follows with the three of diamonds. Next you lead a low heart toward dummy, West following with the deuce. Here is what you see and what you know about opponents’ hands before you play from dummy:

You know from the opening lead and play so far that West started with the queen-jack and 10 or 9 of diamonds and (from West’s card at trick two) the deuce of hearts. You know one card that East started with was the three of diamonds. That leaves 9 unknown spaces in the West hand and 12 unknown spaces in the East hand.

Now you need to decide how you are going to play the heart suit.

  1.  How would you play hearts when scoring is matchpoints?
  2.  How would you play hearts when scoring is IMPs?

You can count six sure winners: two clubs, two diamonds, and two hearts. You will need to develolp 3 more winners in hearts to make the contract. 4 more heart winners would give you an overtrick. In matchpoints it’s always better to go for the overtrick when you have a better than even chance of winning it.

In thinking about your decision, notice that hearts provide your only entry to dummy.

Your best line of play depends on opponents’ shapes in their holding of the remaining hearts. What are those possible shapes? Should you finess the jack of hearts now?

This is a good one for one (maybe two) of our Wednesday think out loud lessons.

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , , ,

A different perspective

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Here is a declarer play problem by Bob Jones. It appeared in his regular column on October 18.

Spades at trick one are deuce, four, six, and ace!. The excellent trump lead negates the possibility of ruffing a losing club in dummy. How would you go about holding your losers to three?

Hint: notice that your six trumps are higher than opponents’ remaining three. Try making dummy the master hand, ruffing heart and diamond losers in your hand.

You have to be careful to preserve entries to dummy to do so. Make sure you win the opening lead with a high trump in hand. That way the jack and nine of spades will be entries when LHO continues to attack trumps.

Try this:

  • Win trick one with ace in hand.
  • Cash the ace and king of hearts.
  • Give up a diamond.
  • Win the trump return in dummy.
  • Ruff remaining heart high in hand.
  • Go to dummy with ace of diamonds.
  • Ruff a diamond high in hand.
  • Go to dummy with ace of clubs.
  • Ruff remaining diamond high in hand

That gives you 10 tricks: 3 spades plus heart ruff and 2 diamond ruffs in hand, Ace and King of hearts, Ace of clubs, and Ace of diamonds.

Be alert for possible “dummy reversals”. Here was the entire deal:

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , ,

Fundamentals of Declarer Play

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As South you opened 1NT in 3rd seat. 1NT gets passed out. Your mission is to plan the best chance for overtricks at matchpoints. Follow the play to the 1st two tricks and decide on your plan.

Trick 1: West leads the ace of clubs (A from AK), East plays the jack, and you play low.

Trick 2: West shifts to the three of diamonds, East play the nine, and you win with the ace.

 

Reminder: You need to employ two NT fundamentals:

What do you plan to do at trick three? Put differently, what suit is best to establish a winner now? Decide on your plan (be specific), and scroll down to see my recommendation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recommend you lead the nine of clubs at trick three. That has the effect of establishing two club winners while creating two club entries to dummy (the eight and queen will become winners in the dummy).

What if West refuses to win the king, leaving you with only one sure entry to dummy? In that case lead the AK of diamonds at tricks 4 and 5. Then lead the ace and jack of hearts at tricks 6 and 7. Now your entry to dummy is set up when you next lead a club.

BTW, the defense might cause you a problem at trick 7. Do you see what that might be?

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , ,

Declarer Play Puzzle

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The contract should have been six hearts (NS have a nine-card heart fit). Be that as it may, South now has to play 6NT? Opening lead is the jack of clubs, East following with the deuce.

South wins with the queen of clubs and notes that dummy has only one sure entry to the heart suit. What is South’s best chance to make 6NT? Please give me your thoughts in the comments.

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , , ,

One More Puzzle from Victor Mollo*

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You are South in 3NT. How are you going to make the contract after East plays the jack of hearts at trick one and you win the queen?

Mollo1

*From I Challenge You by Victor Mollo

Count your sure winners: one spade, two hearts, one diamond, and one club. You need to develop five more winners to get to nine tricks. The diamond suit should set up for four or five of the additional tricks. That gets you to eight or nine tricks. By driving out the king of spades you will have at least nine tricks.

But there is a danger that the opponents will get five tricks before you can get nine! How are you going to avoid that danger and what card do you play at trick two?

This is a common dilemma for declarer, so it would benefit you to work it out before scrolling down for the solution:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks like West started with five hearts and East with three. The danger is that West may cash three heart tricks if she has an entry with the king of spades. And East is certain to continue the heart attack when she gets in with the king of diamonds. To prevent this, you must keep East off lead while West still has an entry with the king of spades. Play the queen of spades at trick two. No matter who wins that trick, you have a sure nine tricks when East gets in with the king of diamonds: two spades, two hearts, four diamonds, and one club. And you will make an overtrick if West has the king of diamonds. If East happens to get in with the king of spades at trick two, you can safely duck her heart return and take your ace when she continues hearts at trick four.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , , ,

A Challenge from Victor Mollo

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Steve Bartholomew recently emailed me some declarer play puzzles from Victor Mollo’s book I Challenge You. (Thanks, Steve.)  Mollo’s challenge is to use readily available clues to guide your declarer play. Mollo says at the outset, “there’s nothing up my sleeve, no traps for the unwary, and above all, no abstruse conventions in the bidding to obscure the clarity of the play”.

Here, for example, is the first puzzle:

Mollo

 

West leads out the ace, king, queen of spades. You ruff the 3rd spade in hand. How are you going to play from here to make the contract?

Scroll down for the solution:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a near certainty that East has the ace of clubs and King of diamonds (West did not open the bidding). Lead your singleton club and put in the 10. If it loses to the jack, there is nothing East can do to hurt you. When you get to dummy again you will take ruffing finesses against East’s ace of clubs to discard your two losing diamonds.

Did I say, “when you get to dummy again”? You did not lazily ruff that third spade with the heart seven, did you? Of course not, you saw the need to preserve the eight of hearts as an entry to dummy. The eight is equal to the ace in its trick taking power against opponents holding of deuce through six of hearts.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play, Keeping the Dangerous Opponent off Lead | Tags: , , , ,

How Do You Handle the Trump Suit?

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Here is a somewhat difficult declarer problem from a recent hand I observed on BBO. You are South with the hand and bidding shown:

drawtrump

Opening lead is the eight of diamonds. How many losers do you have and how are you going to handle the trump suit?

You have one or two losers in clubs. After you take the ace and king of diamonds you may be able to ruff a diamond loser or two. After you win the ace of hearts you may be able to ruff a heart loser or two. Spades look like they can come in with no losers if you get the likely 3-2 break.

Since it looks like you are going to have to do some ruffing of red suit cards, maybe you should not get in a rush to draw trump.

Say you draw two rounds of trump. Now you can ruff two heart losers in hand. That would get you to 10 tricks as long as the ace of clubs is onside.

It looks best to ignore trumps from the get go. Cash the ace of hearts at trick two. Ruff a heart. Cash the king of diamonds. Ruff a diamond. Ruff a heart. Ruff a diamond. You are almost assured of 10 tricks.

The hand will make five spades against perfect defense. It’s a nice double dummy problem. Here is the entire hand if you would like to give it a try:

drawtrump1

 

Declarers who drew three round of trump went down one.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , , , ,

Quote of the Day

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When reading about suit combinations, I strongly suggest dealing out the suit in question.

That’s from Marty Bergen in Bridge Bulletin, January 2020, p, 57.

It’s often hard to see what’s really going on when looking at a hand diagram. Put those cards on the table!

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play, Exercises: Defensive Play | Tags: , , , ,

Your Best Chance for an Overtrick?

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overtrick1

overtrick2

overtrick4

overtrick5

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play, Interesting Hands | Tags: , ,

Declarer Play Exercise

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entries1

entries2

 

This is an exercise in figuring out what to do about the club suit. You may have two losers in hearts, so you may need to hold your club losers to one. It would be helpful if you could induce the opponents to lead clubs. By planning your entries carefully, you can make the opponents help you!

HT: Mike Lawrence in the Bridge Bulletin

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , ,

Take 8 tricks!

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Here is a fun little mini-puzzle for you. Spades are trump and lead is in the South hand. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to take eight tricks against any defense. Enjoy:

mini dbl dummy

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play, Exercises: Defensive Play | Tags: ,

Tricks

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optimism

count tricks

tricks count

 

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Declarer problem

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Wed bd 14 play

 

 

 

BTW, did you make a mental note of who has the remaining honors in hearts? And how many hearts do you think that player has? Did you use apply the rule of 11 at trick one?

Recommended line of play: You have a nine card diamond fit, so dummy’s diamonds should run if they split no worse than 4-0. You are in dummy, having won with the nine of hearts. Play a low diamond from dummy and insert the jack. Even if it loses to the queen, you know the diamond split is no worse than 3-1. And the remaining diamonds are sure to take tricks. You see how, don’t you? If not, please ask me.

When I observed the play on this hand declarer led the ace of diamonds at trick two, playing the two from his hand. It was not possible to recover after that. Bottom line: It’s right to recognize diamonds as your source of tricks, but make sure you retain an entry (the ace of diamonds in this example) to cash them.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , ,