The Book that Belongs
in Every Bridge Players Library

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CARD READING: Sometimes the defenders find themselves in the unhappy position of guiding declarer's play through not bidding:

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West cashes two hearts and shifts to a trump, declarer drawing three rounds ending in dummy in order to take the diamond finesse.

West wins and exits with a heart, South ruffing.

The ♣K is now marked with East, for in the play West has shown up with the ♥A, ♠K and ♦K, and if he also held the ♣K he would have opened the bidding.

Declarer's only chance is that the king is singleton. Accordingly, he plays a club to the ace, dropping East's lone king.

Declarer has an even greater scope for making educated guesses based on the play of the opponents' cards. This is particularly true when the defenders are forced to discard on a long suit, the order of their discards being most helpful to declarer.

The accuracy of the inferences thus drawn varies with the skill of the opposition, for good players generally plan ahead in these situations, often leaving the declarer with little to go on. Nevertheless, it is the mark of a good player that he guesses the correct play more often than not.

How to Play:

There is a Chinese saying:
'An image is worth 1000 words!'

You may want to take the
Online Player Guided Tour

1 - Bidding: Click the 'Play' button in the middle of the page to display the bidding box.

When you are ready, click the 'Start Bidding' button.

When a bid is alerted, it is shown on a yellow background. You can then click that bid to display the related alert.

When there is a comment or a question about your own bid, you can read it on the bidding box comments pane, and then, click the 'Ok' button to continue bidding.

Click 'Close Bidding Box' to proceed to playing the hand.

2 - Playing: The lead is automatic if you are declarer, otherwise you'll see the 'It's your lead' warning in the center pane.

You will play your cards and dummy's as if you were at a live table.

2.1 -Touching cards are considered equivalent! e.g. if you have 876 and you play the 7 while Vu-Bridge expects you to play the 6, then the 7 will blink and the 6 will be played.

2.2 -Sometimes there will be a comment or question during the play.
You should read it and click the 'Click to continue' button at the top of the comment text.

If its a question, there will be a 'Show Answer' button to click at the bottom of the comment panel.

2.3 - When a comment bears a 'Finish flag' button, you can click it to reveal hidden hands and continue playing. We use this to explain technical coups like end-plays, squeezes etc.

2.4 - You can review the last trick by clicking on the last won or lost trick (back of card) at the bottom of the screen. The last trick will show during 3 seconds and then play will continue.

2.5 - You can click the 'Undo last trick' button at the left of the screen in order to redo one or several tricks and review the attached comments.
You can review the auction by clicking the 'Auction' tab in the same area.
3 - Moving the comment panel:

When the mouse hovers the dark green background of the bidding box or the comment panel, you'll see a crosshair cursor and you can drag and move it around the page.

The left and right arrows on the top left corner of the comment panel allows you to increase or reduce the width for better readability.

4 - When a hand is finished, you can click the 'Board List' at the top of the comment panel, and play other hands From the same Series.

To play other Series, visit the Vu-Bridge's home page and click the 'Bridge Hands' button.