Vubridge Bidding Quiz Library
Vital Questions Answered!
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Bidding.

We open 1♦ as dealer and are mildly surprised to hear the auction continue with a 1♠ overcall on our left followed by two Passes. What should we do now?

Holding a respectable hand with a singleton Spade and support for all unbid suits, we should keep the auction alive by making a re-opening Double. This is a common situation and needs analyzing.

It is entirely possible that partner could be sitting there licking his chops with a trump stack – lots of Spades and a good hand. He’d be hamstrung over 1♠ as he’d have nothing sensible to bid. If that were the case the best we could do is to defend 1♠ Doubled, hoping to extract a penalty.

Our singleton Spade, along with East's inaction, makes a Spade stack a real possibility (we have short Spades and East sounds like he also has short Spades – thus partner figures to have length in Spades).

We Double (for take-out, of course) and await developments. Unfortunately partner does not have the strength in Spades to Pass the Double, so he removes it to 2♦. Getting the message that North has a pretty ropey hand we Pass and that ends that.
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Play.

West understandably chooses the ♣Q as his opening lead against our 2♦ contract and we take a few moments to Count and Plan.

We can see six possible losers (one Spade, three Hearts, one Diamond, and one Club). The best chance to get rid of one is to trump one in dummy. Remember – with excess losers we can only trump them or dump them.

Here, with ♥K × sitting on table, we should aim to ruff a Heart in dummy. Since we are missing the ♦A also, it is imperative that we do not play on trumps at all. To gain a tempo, we must play a Heart to the King at trick two.

East wins his ♥A and duly shifts to a trump. Good defense – if we don’t play trumps, the defenders ought to. However, it is too late. An initial Diamond lead from West would have prevented our Plan from coming to fruition but leading trumps at trick three does not inconvenience us.

We cash the ♥Q and ruff a Heart on table; to our pleasant surprise, the ♥J comes down on the third round of Hearts, establishing our Ten. We come to hand with a Club, draw the last trump and find ourselves with an extra winner.

So we rack up a neat little overtrick on the deal. We make two Hearts, five Diamonds (four in hand and a ruff on table) and two Clubs.

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.