June 2023 Hand of the Week
Board # 2
Dealer: West
Vulnerable: None
You are: South
Contract: 3 NoTrumps
By West
A Cunning Plan
By Paul Bowyer
Sometimes when dummy appears it's too easy to think that the contract is just going to sail home without any difficulty. On these occasions it pays to come up with a cunning plan that may just upset declarer's apple-cart. Can you see the crafty defense on this deal?
Accurate bidding is a vital part of improving your bridge skills. A team cannot achieve good results when its players arrive in the wrong contracts!
It is equally important to disrupt the opponents’ bidding, by removing their biddingspace. Learn what risks are worthwhile when you pre-empt.
Edited by the famous author David Bird
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East-West reach 3NT and North leads the ♥J and dummy plays low. How should you defend as South?
Well, a brief piece of arithmetic shows that North has 0-1 point. So, given that he has already shown the ♥J, partner has not a stitch outside his Heart suit.
So, the only way to take five tricks on this hand will be to take two Clubs and three Hearts. The problem is that taking the ♥K and playing one back will be futile – there is no way of reaching the North hand. However, a cunning plan might well work… So the right defense is to duck the ♥J. Declarer could, you may think, recover by ducking this (actually, he can’t – a Spade switch is deadly), so he takes the ♥Q and sets about the Club suit.
You take the ♣Q and play – careful now – the ♥K to knock out the ♥A on table. Now, suddenly, the path is clear to reach partner’s hand in Hearts. A further Club is taken by your ♣A and you can play your last Heart to partner’s three winners.
Declarer could have made the hand by taking the ♥A at trick one – you have no defense to counter that. Should he have done so? Well, if you are one of these pairs whose opening leads include “strong Tens” (so you would lead the ♥10 from ♥K J 10 and the like) then Yes, he should. If the ♥J could be from ♥J 10 9 as well as ♥K J 10 9 then No, he probably should run the lead to the ♥Q.
West was unlucky to run up against you two in defense. Still, if you defend accurately all the time you will meet a lot of very unlucky declarers…
| Click to Play | Description |
|---|---|
| Not Too Scientific | |
| A Cunning Plan | |
| Do You Read Me? | |
| Best odds. | |
| Two chances are better than one. |
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.
