René's Bridge Diary

Lead is a small  ♥ . Cannot harm to take the  ♥ K? Well, the club singleton came back, a ruff, a small  ♥  to the  ♥ J and another ruff. If you stay small, this defense does not work. This happened in the IntoBridge ladder. The player I was compared to, also played the  ♥ K. But there was a Lia on West who did not return a club for a ruff, but instead a small  ♥ . Oh no!

This is a nice one. Our bidding, or rather my foolish braveness, brought us to the unsafe contract of 6♣. 6 ♦  are much better, but after the preemptive bid, nothing is easy. 4NT is explained as an unknown 5-5 distribution. However, you can make 6♣. The trick is to take the diamond lead on the table and to overruff the ruff by East of your diamond continuation. Then play small to the ♣J. Whatever West does, N/S will make their contract. On my table, the bridge god allowed 6♣+1 after a spade lead.

They let me play 2♠-1 on this hand. Now, this is Gavin Wolpert's full series. North does not have a hand which replies 2♠ in that system. By the way, some would also not open 1 ♦  with 11 high card points and one length point. But diamonds are even rebidable and so I opened it. This happened on the other side, and similar contracts were played by E/W on all tables but mine. In fact, 4 ♥  or 3NT cannot be beaten.  We learned that the preemptive 2♠ is there to prevent the opponents to get into the bidding. But here, it seems to go just the other way around. The reason is that West has no reasonable bid over 1NT. A double would show interest in the unbid suits, clubs and hearts. As you see, it is sometimes helpful to allow, even force, opener to describe his hand, instead of fixing the contract with a preemptiv bid.

As before, the advancement from King to Ace level on IntoBridge was tough for me. Sometimes, I felt my age and vanishing concentration. Other times, the increased experience playing on this wonderful server helped. Concentration and following my own advice made the day at last. Doubling the contract above is very reasonable. It is one down with correct defense, while 4 ♥  always make. The ♣Q lead was taken in the hand, and declarer played a trump towards the ♠9, won by my ♠J. Now, I got lazy and took a trick with  ♦ A, followed by drawing the trumps. This allows declarer to make the contract and is downright silly. I should force the table to trump one more. Declarer can draw trumps, but will be trapped in the hand without a way to cash the hearts. So it was 4♠X made. But on the other side, I found someone who played 3NT on South going down for -1100. Good luck for me!

You have that kind of squeeze often, but might not notice it. But after bidding the 7NT grand slam, there is no other chance. You take the club lead and cash ♣KQ. Then you cash the hearts, discarding three spades. East will have to hold four diamonds and has put the ♠K blank when the ♣A is played.

I start a new series. At the King level in IntoBridge, I am faced with a lot of bad luck these days, which adds to my usual series of mistakes and prohibits progress. The air is thin in the top 2% region, and I can feel it. I don't think the bidding above is too unrealistic and the result is within reasonable limits. It is one of those hands where both sides have a fit. E/W with their minority in points already stretched the LAW going to the 5-level with 10 trumps. But it proves to be correct here because N/S can make 5 ♦  as the hand stands. I considered 5♠X-1 a good result. On the other table, however, the following bidding happened. This is 6♠X-2, a loss. The double over 1♠ is described as take-out with 3 diamonds and 3-4 hearts. Likewise, the 3♣ is support cue-bid for partners spade. 4NT is described as forcing. I did not know that bid. 6 ♥  is madness, I think. I shows a control, but to what aim? This board was played only two times, so I cannot tell you about other...

This is a typical example of a declarer play which many players will simply put on automatic track. It is one of the examples on my page "Tips for better Bridge", linked at the top of this blog. The 4 ♥  are a nice sacrifice because opponents can make 5 ♦ , or due to a lucky club brake 5NT. Anyway, almost everyone will bid the same, although it is a bit borderline vulnerable against non-vulnerable. You need to keep the fullers down to one, if possible. The lead is a small diamond. Following the advice to get an overview, you should notice that there are only the top two trumps missing, and West has indicated a shortness with some points elsewhere. You can assume that both trump honors are at East. West might easily have some Aces. You look through your hands and see four losers, and a fifth if East gets to play through your clubs and West has the Ace there.  Now, you should not simply hope for the best, but see if you can avoid the problem. It should dawn to you that your ch...