René's Bridge Diary

After an uneventful bidding, West leads the ♠J. I followed my first attempt to just bet on underleading the ♠K, top of an inner sequence. But that is not a good was to handle the hand If West had the ♠K, you can just as well finesse it later. If he hasn't, your trick count is 8 and you are in trouble after the expected continuation of spades. My second idea is to duck once more. But nothing works, because East can always exit in diamonds and the heart finesse does not work at all. The best play is to duck lead and then cash the clubs, looking at the discards at East and West. Admittedly, one will still have to guess how the hands sits in the end. But East and West will fight to hold he diamonds or not which makes a heart finesse an effective throw in to East.

This is an interesting and subtle one. Of course, I am lying to you a bit in this series. I do not post one of my numerous blunders here. You can learn nothing from them besides the fact that I grew old. After stopping in 3♠, you are in a seemingly good contract which should make unless the cards are distributed oddly. Sadly, they are. The lead of ♣2 is taken at the table and a trump is won by the ♠A. Lia then continues with a small  ♥  to get a ruff. I took the  ♥ 8 overtaken with the  ♥ 10, followed by 2 ruffs in diamond. The contract is now down 2. On the other table, the player took the  ♥ Q taken with the  ♥ A. This worked to keep East from playing low under his  ♥ K for a second ruff. That's down 1 only. You should always try to make it as hard as possible for the opponent. The bidding was also different. The player on the other table played Gavin's full series. And that changes the decision to not raise to 3♠. My personal judgement would also b...

This is a nice one. You reach 4 ♥ , and West starts with the ♠8. If the trump finesse fails, you count 10 likely tricks, including one ruff of a spade at the table. But then there is also the chance to cash the ♣K for an overtrick. Easy. You are glad to combine all these options, and start a simple plan.  Cash the lead and make the finesse in hearts which fails. Another spade comes from West. When you notice that you are going to lose two trump tricks, you collect your tricks, ruffing one spade at the table at the end, and set all hopes to the club finesse which fails. One down. Everybody played like that, including me. You certainly spotted the way to make the contract? Of course. You could leave West with two trumps and throw him in after you trumped your space and cashed your  ♦ Q. Is this difficult to see at the table. Maybe. But you will definitely see West's 4 spades and hearts. When he discards the  ♦ J on  ♦ Q, the coup is very likely to work.

2NT are not makeable, but if you go down only once, you are good against 2♠ by opponents. 2 ♥  would be a nice contract and just make with good play, but opponents won't let you play that easily nowadays, not even the robot Lia. The lead was ♠5, East following with the ♠Q and won in the hand. Due to severe communication issues this hand cries for a try to let the opponents play into the finesses. So, I correctly played the  ♥ A followed by a small one won by West, who cashed  ♥ K too, the followed with the ♠10  because everything else helps the declarer even more. At that point, I went for the clubs, but the diamonds actually work, playing for one honor doubleton at East. Check it out.

This is hopeless. I don't know the precise point where I misled Lia into thinking a grand slam could be a good idea. After getting stuck on King level, I decided to switch to "Gavin Wolpert's Master Series Full". I only watched a few of his videos for the basics, however. But let's analyze the bidding above. 2♣ is 2/1 Game Forcing showing 5 cards. Unfortunately, this meets exactly something I did not watch. But there are always explanations. 3 ♦  is natural with extra length and 15+ points. So, we have a diamond fit. Moste likely, it is meant to set diamonds for trumps.  Now I would think 3 ♥  would show a stopper in hearts with the aim to reach 3NT. But it doesn't. It shows a 4-card suit. Am I supposed to bid 3NT with no stopper in spades? That is exactly what the other table did in a system labelled "2/1 Game Forcing", reaching 6 ♦  in the end. So, I made an understandable slam try with 4 ♦ . 4 ♥  is ace asking for diamonds. This seems to be a nic...

This bidding got me stranded in 2♠ because of Acol. That's actually not bad. You cannot make it against good leads. But neither can you make 1NT, the contract you might reach by downgrading the hand to a weak 1NT. On almost all other tables, the bidding started with a strong 1NT and continued to a good heart contract for E/W by the bidding below. In that case, the "blocking" value of 1NT fails, and the direct mentioning of a spade suit works out to be superior.   But I spoiled that advantage by going down twice. Actually, I could have made the contract after the lead of ♣K. It is always tough to play 1 4-3 fit, and this is no exception. I started with a heart won by East who followed with a trump to prevent ruffs. I now can ruff only one heart at the table. The best line of play is to drive out the ♣Q now. If West takes it on the first round and returns a trump, you can play clubs to dummy and continue it. If he ducks one round, you need to find the finesse in diamonds t...

This is against the expert who plays "Gavin's Master Full". 3 ♦  is explained as 7 or 6 very good diamonds. Okay. It went 3 ♦ -1. On my table, I opened 1NT, and Lia bid 2 ♦  which made. That was explained as a natural overcall. I find it interesting to see that 1NT make it easier to intervene on a safe level in that case. That is unless you play 2 ♦  conventional. I found a bug. The double dummy analysis claims that N/S can make 7♠. As usual, bug reporting does not work.