wuudturner

Many years ago, partner's response after my face down lead was "Yes, what makes you think it is your lead?"

Yep. Same here. It tells me could not load a critical file, check YOUR internet. Fact is, it is not our internet that is not working, it is theirs. Mine connects me to any other web page I try, and does so virtually immediately. The implication is of course the problem is my fault and mine to deal with, not theirs.

I don't even see this as close. There is a HUGE difference in how well a hand will play in an 8 card trump fir versus a 9 card fit. Do not lie and bid 3S, as that shows 4 cards. You have the values for a limit raise, but not the trump. Is this just a simple raise to 2♠? Consider the same hand, but swapping a 10 for the ace. T94 54 K763 QJ63 This hand would raise to 2♠. The hand with an ace in it is worth far more. That leaves the 2/1 sequence: 1♠-1NT(forcing)-2x-3♠. It shows around 11 points, 3 card support, and invites game. What do you have? 10 HCP, a side suit doubleton. An ace in the trump suit, thus a good card. Your other honors are in long suits (such as you have) and the QJ combine a bit, improving each other. That is, while a queen and a jack in isolated suits are worth a little less than their normal value, together they reinforce each other. In bridge, every bid you make is a compromise of some sort. You search for the least lie, the bid that comes closest to describing your hand. Since you are playing with the bots, then you are playing GIB 2/1. Here that means 1NT, followed by a raise to 3♠. I'd not even call that bid a lie here.

Stephen Tu and nige1 have both given good lines of play. There truly is no solution for "dummies" to playing out a complex hand where there are multiple choices to be made. The important point is to ALWAYS stop at trick 1. I have one student who desperately needs that. If not, they go full steam ahead, without a plan, and then look back and wonder what went wrong. With this student, my mentoring is usually to sit at a table as their partner. We bid the hand out. If I end up as declarer, we swap seats. (We always use bot opponents in this.) So partner plays EVERY hand we declare. Then before any play is more to trick 1, I try to ask a whole slew of questions. Is this a reasonable contract? Would you expect the field to be in this contract? Or is this an unusual contract? How you would play a hand will often be impacted by the answers to those questions. Even knowing if the hand is scored at IMPs versus match points should sometimes impact your play. What do you know about their distribution and points from the bidding? What does the opening lead tell you? Can you infer the location of any specific (important) cards? How many winners do you have? How many losers? How many tricks do you need? What sources of tricks do you see available? Are there any blocked suits that need to be carefully dealt with? Can you combine plays to offer an increased probability of success? What is your plan to play the hand? Do you have an alternate plans in case of bad breaks, thus an alternative line of play when something unpleasant happens? As you can see, this discussion can become a long one, but it builds habits. It is even something you can do yourself. Only when all questions have been discussed is it ok to now play the hand. If we are defending, I'll ask questions about what partner knows about my hand based on the bidding, lead etc. I'll ask what declarer has in hand. On defense, I might ask how I would expect declarer to play the hand. I'm sure I could offer a few more things to consider, but these form the obvious list off the top of my head. And of course, after tha hand is over, we try to have a gentle but complete postmortem of the hand. What could we have done better? Was there a better line than that chosen? Is it truly better, other than that it has a better result? What was the probability of success of the line chosen for the contract? The point is, stop at trick 1. Think about what is where. Visualize their hands. Only then do you go onwards.

I like all of Mike Lawrence's books. Judgement and the one on Hand Evaluation are two good ones. Also the several he wrote where you watch over his shoulder. But not everybody learns best by reading. Some people need to absorb from playing it. Those lessons seem to sink in better. But to learn by playing is a difficult thing, because if you play at a weaker table, then you learn from weaker players, who may themselves offer incorrect advice. And there are many things you can do against weak opponents that will get you crushed in a stronger game. So there is much you can "learn" that in time, you would best un-learn if you are to get better. I can even think of several people who were ones to avoid from the various clubs I have played in. While they were happy to offer advice to anyone and everyone, they were also terrible bridge players. It is good if you can find someone to mentor you. And there are many ways to mentor. For example, with one pair, my regular partner and I will sit at a table, then play random hands against the pair we are mentoring. After each hand, we will have a good constructive discussion of how they might have chosen to bid and play the hands. I'll often take one of those hands afterwards where there were many questions and send via e-mail a lengthy analysis of every bid made, as well as how to play the final contract. With another person who I know has a habit of unfocused play, playing too fast without thinking a hand through, I mentor differently. We will sit at a table with two bots as defenders. She sets up the table, so it is owned by her. We will bid to the final contract, if I am the declarer, then I immediately stand up from my seat. She then takes my seat, and declares the hand. Once she sits, I'll take her original seat. So she declares every hand we play. As declarer though, I first prompt her to analyze the hand. I ask her what tricks she has, winners, losers, etc. I ask her who has various cards, based on the opponent bidding, on the opening lead. I'll ask her to tell me the plan she has to play the hand. Does she have any contingencies in case of bad splits, etc. Only after a couple of minutes of advance discussion do I then let her play the hand. When we defend, I will prompt her, asking her to describe what she has learned about my hand from the bidding and from my leads and discards. As far as a good place to play? I might suggest the BIL - a club where there are many people in the same boat as you. As well, there are mentors who are there for the purpose of helping new players. To me, this seems a great environment in which to learn. https://www.bilbridge.com Having a place or a person you can ask questions of is good. Forums like this are wonderful, as long as you are willing to field the criticism that can sometimes arise too. Finally, remember that advice freely gleaned from a forum can sometimes be worth every bit as much as you paid for it. :)

Note that I have no problems creating a new deal archive folder using the +. (Safari, OS X Catalina 10.15.5). Though I do see I cannot rename it. At least, when I do rename it, the name does not stick. The next time I log in, the folder is back to being untitled.

South has a 13 point hand, good spot cards. The KQJ of spades are worth more than just isolated honors. Yes, the club queen and the diamond jack may not be pulling their full weight, but the spades and the nines balance that enough to make this an opener in my book. Yet South could not act in second seat? If you will pass opening bids, then at least some of the time you will not be able to get back into the auction later on. This is especially true for the more balanced hand types. In this case when the bidding gets passed around to North in 2♢, even the 2 level may well seem a bit rarefied for many on that hand. Yes, North has the perfect shape to balance, but it is way easier if South just sees an opening hand, and finds a bid in the first place. It might be interesting to then listen in on the conversation from E-W, about how could THEY be competing in their 9 card diamond fit, after South has opened the bidding 1♢, and NS got to a spade partial.

Compare two hands: Hand #1 KJ986 A873 T52 8 Hand #2 KJ986 A873 8 T52 In both cases, the bidding has started 1♢ - 1♠ 2♢ - ??? Which hand do you like in context of the bidding? In hand #1, you know about a probable 9 card diamond fit. Even in an extreme case, partner has 5 cards. Perhaps they have 1453 shape, and insufficient values to reverse in to hearts. If not, then with say 2353 shape, a 1NT rebid would be common. Otherwise, partner will usually have 6 diamonds for the diamond rebid. So which hand do you want to go off adventuring on? Hand #1 has some promise, and a safe place to land, in 3♢. So you can happily rebid 2♡ there, just in case partner has the perfect hand. On hand #2, you are now sitting in a safe place to play, in 2♢. There is no happy place to land if partner has a shape like 1363. So bidding on with 2♡ on hand #2 is too risky.

My respect to the declarer who finds the very nice falsecard, one that should give most defenders a real problem, and one they will often fail at. An interesting feature of the gambit is if the diamond finesse wins, so North has the king? Then you have conceded a trick you would have won otherwise, compressing 11 tricks into 10 tricks. So winning the ace could be a top or bottom play at matchpoints. It seems even more clear at IMPs. If the diamond finesse loses to the king in South though, now South might believe that North has the queen due to the falsecard. So you may well get that trick back, if South has the diamond honor, as then they might continue spades. Hoping to set the contract, South will play a low spade to the presumed queen in North, and you get that trick back. But what if the defenders are using a signaling agreement like reverse Smith on defense? The idea is that at trick 2, when declarer leads a side suit, North will play a low card if they like the opening spade lead, and a high card if they don't. So declarer wins trick 1 with the spade ace. Then play a heart to the king. North follows suit with the heart 10, clearly a HIGH heart. South should be watching what card North plays. If North actually has the spade queen, then a low heart would suggest exactly that. If North lacks the spade honor though, then they will deny possession of something useful in spades, playing a low heart. The hand is now pretty easy for South to work out. Assume a 15-17 point 1NT for East. The play in hearts marks East with the heart ace. The play in diamonds marks East with the diamond ace. You have seen the spade ace already. So that is 12 points for East. The fact that North has exposed the false card in spades puts the queen in the East hand, so now 14. East cannot have the club ace too, since that pushes the count for East too high. As well, the very fact that Declarer chose to false card in spades tells a wary South that East has something to fear. It must be clubs. Make it easy for partner. Just cash the spade king, then the club king, and low to the club jack in North. The defense takes a spade, a diamond, and 5 clubs on defense. That is, IF the NS partnership is on the ball. Many are not. One of the things I love about bridge is the interplay between an intelligent, thinking declarer and equally cagey defenders. Who will win the battle?

Yes. I had thought about the club overtake as a second entry. I should have mentioned it as a possibility, discussing what would happen and how the play would go. Even with 7 hearts missing, it does work here, because the heart king does lie Kxx. So heart ace, ruff a small heart. Low club to the queen. Ruff another little heart, as the king drops. Now you still have the club king to overtake for the rest of the hearts. That gives you 6 spade winners, two taken as heart ruffs. The heart ace, as well as now QJx as good hearts. Plus the club queen and ace, and the diamond ace. So 13 of the last 12 tricks are yours for a shiny gold star. The problem is, if West had made a takeout double on 2434 or 2443 shape, this line would fail, because then you would need three re-entries to dummy. Ruffing three rounds of hearts. And since there are only 2 entries in clubs to dummy, ruffing the heart suit good is not as good a line as playing for the squeeze, which must be pretty good. A nice double squeeze on the hand you posted, which I imagine would be called a non-simultaneous double squeeze.

One thing that I truly enjoy is a good squeeze hand, where everything is simple to see and visualize. In my opinion, this is a great way for a beginner to de-mystify squeezes. One you have seen a few, one day, you will find one of your own, and then another, and another. Soon they will be literally falling off the trees, low hanging fruit. Playing in a BOT game online, vulnerable versus not, I pick up a lot of spades. I have a 14 count, so nobody else at the table has more than 14 themselves. [hv=pc=n&s=skq98762hdaq93ck5]133|100[/hv] Partner is dealer, we are vulnerable, they are not. I am surprised to see that partner has opened 1♡ in first seat. Nice that partner has some points. I will be in some game now. But opening in my void is a bad thing for the value of my hand. A simple 1♠ response is right. Go slowly on good hands, never preempt the auction, as long as you can make forcing bids. Things go downhill again though when my LHO makes a takeout double, then partner just rebids 2H. Ugh. I am less happy yet, but I still plan on game. That is never in doubt here. Partner had a support redouble available to him, so I expect not to see 3 spades over there. Partner does have heart length, and I'm not sure what partner would do with 6 or 7 hearts and 3 spades. More likely, partner has 0, 1 or 2 spades. This is not a hand to just rebid 2S, which could be passed. I'm not even going to invite, just blast 4S. According to the BOT system, 4S is described as 12+ HCP, 13-16 total points, and strong rebiddable spades. (A note to myself, that I should have verified what 3♠ would have meant in the bot system. I generally do that with EVERY bid, check on the alternatives available, what they would imply. This is just a very good habit when playing online with the bots.) I'm expecting to be passed out in 4♠, since I know that partner has a max of 14 points. However, my bot partner surprises me again, with 4NT. This is clearly Roman Keycard Blackwood, for spades. One question that some people have, is should you show a void in response to keycard? That is, there are bids that allow you to show an odd number of keycards, plus a useful void. NEVER show a void as an ace. But also, a void in partner's suit is not a useful void. So here, just bid 5♠, showing two keycards, plus the spade queen. Partner now continues to 6♠, which all pass. I'm a little worried about that bid, because my club king and diamond queen may be poorly placed. [hv=pc=n&s=skq98762hdaq93ck5&n=sjthaqj542d7caq93&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=1hp1sd2hp4sp4np5sp6sppp]266|200[/hv] North has a nice hand, but I can't use it that well. A diamond ruff or two would be great things though. Sadly, West starts the play with the ace of trumps, and a second trump, killing any diamond ruff at all. UGH. At trick 2, East follows suit in trumps, so they are drawn. Sadly, dummy is also out of trumps. I always advise that you need to stop at trick 1, and take complete stock of the hand. How many tricks do you need, how many do you have? Where might you get tricks? Who has what against you, and where? What does the bidding tell you? On this hand, I'll stop things before I play from my hand at trick 2, since I have learned much about the hand at that point. So, first, 14 HCP opposite 14. That leaves 12 out. Who has them? WEST. West made a free takeout double of the major suits at their first opportunity. The 12 missing honor cards are the spade ace (we saw that already) the red suit kings, and the diamond and club jacks. I suppose West might have made a double missing one of those jacks, but not a king. How many tricks do I have off the top now? 6 spades. 1 heart, 1 diamond, and 3 clubs, totaling 11. I need 12. Does a feeling of dread enter your mind at this point? Do you just mentally give up? NO! Where can an extra trick appear? 1. West might have a stiff heart king, or a doubleton, in which case it can be ruffed out. 2. A diamond finesse might work. No diamond ruffs are possible of course, since they drew two rounds of trumps. 3. A squeeze might work, IF we play it properly. Those are pretty much my options. I can discard any hope of an endplay in slam, since they already took a trick. The diamond finesse will surely fail, since I know that West has diamond length, as well as the diamond king. Do you see where I am going here? I can play for option 1, by trying two rounds of hearts immediately, then play for a squeeze against West, who surely holds all the cards I need. In order to execute that plan, I need to NOT overtake the spade jack at trick 2 and then just run trumps. So win the jack in dummy. Then cash the heart ace, and then ruff a low heart in hand. Watch to see if the ♡ king ever appears. If it does, then just claim 12 tricks. On those two rounds of hearts, West plays the 3 and the 10, but not the king. East plays two low heart spots. Now what? Again, stop, just to count things out. Visualize the West hand. West had 2 spades. the heart king, so at least 3 hearts. But if West made a takeout double showing the minors, then West should be 4-4 in the minors since we know about 5 cards in the majors. Can you see that hand? East, is, of course, completely broke. The hands are now virtually an open book to read. In the South hand now, start cashing the spade winners. Watch for someone to play a red suit king, and watch the clubs as they appear. You don't need to actively count every card they play. Instead, you need to know what cards are important, and watch for them. On tricks 5 and 6 (two top spades), West plays the 6 and 3 of clubs, East the 4 of clubs. They are making it easy for you now. But it will be easy for you, and very hard for West, who will be massively squeezed. Your plan will be to come down to these cards near the end. North --- Q 7 AQ92 South 2 --- AQ9 K5 The lead is still in South. Cash the diamond ace. Don't even think about taking a finesse there. It won't work anyway. But if the king drops now, your queen is trick 12. Next, cash the last spade. Does a red king appear from West? If not, then throw the heart queen from dummy on your spade. All that remains now is to cash the club king, then play to dummy in clubs, secure in the knowledge that West could not also control the club suit. The ♣ deuce will be trick 12 for you, if you kept it from the beginning. You have executed a basic squeeze. In fact, West was squeezed in three suits. If you want to follow the play, the complete hands were: [hv=pc=n&s=skq98762hdaq93ck5&w=sa3hkt3dkjt8cjt63&n=sjthaqj542d7caq92&e=s54h9876d6542c874&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=1hp1sd2hp4sp4np5sp6sppp&p=sasts4s2s3sjs5s6hah9d3h3h2h7s7htskc6h4d6sqc3h5c4s9djhjd5dad8d7d2s8dthqh6ckctc9c7c5cjcac8cqd4dqhkc2h8d9]399|300|[/hv] Making 12 tricks was actually easy here in a slam that at first glance looks to be a problem. The score was 89.3% on the board, a tie with 3 others also making that slam, while one person who went down in 6♠. Most people stopped in game, some were in 4♠ or 5♠ making 11 or 12 tricks. So never give up on a hand. Look for ways to find that necessary extra trick.

With only 8 clubs between the hands, there are 5 missing. So playing for 2-2 clubs is hoping for a very rare event. ;-)

Even suppose trumps are 2-2. You need to ruff three red cards in dummy if you are to avoid a club hook. You have 6 hearts between the hands, so on the 4th round of hearts, someone will likely be able to overruff dummy, unless you have drawn trumps already. And if you have drawn trumps, then there are only two trumps remaining in dummy to ruff three losers. That makes a grand difficult to make without finding the club king. NOT anywhere near 70%.

Sadly, this seems to have degenerated into a flame war, for no good reason. The question at hand is, do you want to be in slam off two keycards? NO. Winning at bridge is a probability thing. If you make the choice that gives you the best chance of winning on every hand, then in the long run, you will win. Avoid the choices that are low probability. Winning bridge is simple in theory, though seemingly harder in practice. So what are the odds here? I won't even get into the question of whether an immediate 4NT was right or wrong (or even what variety of Blackwood it would be.) It told you what you need to appreciate. ONE keycard. There are 3 keycards you do not know about, the !SA, !SK, !CA. If partner has the spade king, then you are missing two aces. If partner has the club ace, then you are missing the top two trumps. Only if partner has the spade ace, do you have a chance, and then not even always. For example, give partner a hand like this: A98xx KJTx J QTx If you can drop the spade king singleton, then the other hand will have JTx in spades, so a sure trump trick for them, no matter what you do. The point is, if partner has only one keycard here, then the odds of slam being successful are roughly 16.7%, at best. That is, partner will have the right keycard (the spade ace) only 1/3 of the time, and even then, slam will at best be on a finesse. Avoid 17% slams. That slam did make is not relevant. You just shrug your shoulders and accept it, wishing you had a pair of side-focal glasses, so you could know when to bid those slams. (Mine are on back-order at the optometrist.) Finally, the question of whether you should blast a 4NT ask over 1!S. I'd say it was not the end of the world, but that usually it is best to go slowly with good hands. Here that means to start with 2NT, if it shows a game forcing spade raise with 4+ trumps. You might be able to learn something useful from partner. So use slow, cooperative bidding on the biggest hands. Bidding is a partnership thing. (That is advice I have admittedly in the past failed too often to heed.)

A hand from the club the other day. Playing with my regular partner, against one of the stronger members of the local game, just short of platinum LM. Matchpoints. South deals, all vulnerable. The bidding goes (South as dealer) pass - pass - 1♢ - pass 1♠ - pass - 2♡ - pass 2♠ - pass - 4♡ - all pass North is the one with 9K master points, so she knows what a reverse is, though South is not strong, and North tends not to trust her partner's bidding. My hand was: 5 64 T7643 KQ732 I lead the spade stiff. Dummy comes down as: AJT87 J8 82 J985 Declarer thinks for a second, then ducks, as partner rises with the king. He returns the spade deuce, as declarer plays the queen. I ruff, and take stock of what I know. It seems abundantly clear that declarer is 2560. She would never blast 4♡ on a 4 card suit. But if she is 5-5 in the red suits, then she would open 1♡. And since her spades were seen to be Q6, I can count 2560. Partner has the same information of course. His spade deuce asks for a club return, so it seem clear that he has the ace of clubs. At the same time, I can count the diamonds around the table too. They must be 6520, with partner having the void. So, partner could have asked for a diamond return too. The question is now, which suit do I return? I am confidant that partner had 5404 shape to start. The problem is, if I return a club, as partner has requested, I know that declarer will ruff. Has partner a heart trick that I don't know of, and does not wish to ruff a diamond? Or, did partner ask for a club, perhaps having not counted out declarer's hand? Anyway, I decide to ignore the suit preference signal, since I am confidant that declarer will ruff. I lead my second highest diamond, asking for another spade return, even though my remaining trump 6 will not be too dangerous. Of course, this is a story about a fix. partner follows suit in diamonds with the queen. Declarer wins, then draws two rounds of trump, ending in dummy with the jack as I show out on the second round, having ruffed already. Now declarer runs spades in dummy, pitching first a club, then the 5 and 9 of diamonds. So declarer was in fact 2551. She had mis-sorted her hand initially, thinking she was 46 in the red suits. Declarer makes 11 tricks. The full hand was: [hv=pc=n&s=sajt87hj8d82cj985&w=sk9432ht952dqcat6&n=sq6hakq73dakj95c4&e=s5h64dt7643ckq732&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=pp1dp1sp2hp2sp4hppp&p=s5s7sks6s2sqh4s8d7d2dqdkhah6h8h2h3c2hjh5sas3c4c7sjs4d5c3sts9d9d3c5cah7cqhkd4c8h9hqd6d8htdadtc9c6djckcj]399|300[/hv] Had I led a club, partner would win, returning another spade. Declarer now needs to ruff with the 7, else I can overruff. And if she ruffs higher, then partner's trumps get promoted. Worse, by shortening her trumps, now declarer needs to play only one round of trumps to the jack, before she can run the spades.

And, did I say, BUGGY? For example, I just responded to this post, while ribbing a table. I posted my reply. When I did, I am now no longer able to leave the table I was kibbing. I am now frozen to that table. No buttons for back. Not even a logout button. The only way to escape the table is to close down the browser window.

Too much still needs to be done. Many people have stated the new version needs to be more friendly. TRUE! For example, it needs to have some memory. The old version had no problem with that. When I play a set of hands, I want to see the list of hands I have played. But the sub-frame on the right with that list is far too narrow to show the various columns in that frame. So I need to reset the frame sizes, EVERY time I get in. It cannot remember that? Be serious. It cannot remember that I prefer to see hands as hand diagrams? Be serious. Yes, I know about Account/Settings. None of this is stored. What else? The old version had a popup My BBO/Masterpoints, that would give me a complete breakdown of the points earned in each possible category. Surely this is something trivial to provide. When I'm kibbing a table, I really want to see the bidding, not need to remember where to click to get a new frame that hides half the window, just to see the bidding. There is lots of green space on the page. You cannot allocate a corner where the bidding is shown?

I see 3 main possibilities. Set up the diamonds, a squeeze against West in the minors, or 3-3 clubs, with Qxx onside. The latter is not going to be common. Even if we ignore the question of East having longer hearts, 3-3 clubs are 35.5%, half of the time the queen will be in the West. Setting up the diamonds is possible, if you maintain sufficient entries to dummy. All that takes is 3-3 diamonds, or 4-2. If they are 2-4, with East having the length, then you have potential problems, as you need to set them up while using trump entries to dummy. You would then be worried about West overruffing. Anyway, you win the heart king with the ace. (Noting that East did not play the queen.) Then immediately, diamond to the ace, and a low one back. Assume East plays a low heart there. (Note on the defense, even if you could safely have discarded a black card on a red suit, it is often a good idea to pitch red on red. I have occasionally seen an opponent not watch what was happening carefully, and miss that you did not follow suit.) Regardless, ruff the diamond low, and take stock. This tell you a lot about the shape of the defenders hands. Diamonds were 5-1. I would initially presume that East has 6 hearts for the preempt, although 7 is possible. In that case, hearts are 4-6 or 3-7. Setting up the diamonds is no longer possible. But since West is known to have the diamond honors, then a simple squeeze in the minors against West is now looking like a roughly 50% play. You need to draw trumps, and ruff the heart in dummy first though. This will give you a great deal of information about the hands. Ruff the heart jack (I expect that West will cover your jack with the queen), then cash the trump ace, then 10 to the king and queen. On the second and third rounds of trumps, West will throw a low heart and a diamond. You now know that West was originally 1=3=5=4, or 1=4=5=3 shape. East was respectively 3712 or 3613. What do you know about the points? East has shown by the 2♡ bid 4-9 HCP. Not total points, which for the bots include distribution, but 4321 HCP. But you have seen the spade jack, and the heart king, so East does not need to hold the club queen for the 2♡ bid. Can you make the contract if East has Qxx in clubs? It appears not, so you don't worry about that case. You essentially need East to have Qx in clubs, or xx, or xxx. If you can find a line that caters to all three cases, this is your best chance. If you cannot find a line that handles everything, then look for one that caters to the most probable subset of those hands. In that case, you will be playing for West to have the club queen. [hv=pc=n&s=skq6542hajd7ca842&w=s8hq64dkq983ct765&n=sat7h2dajt542ckj3&e=sj93hkt98753d6cq9&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=ppp7sppp&p=h4h2hkhad7dqdad6d2h3s2d3hjhqs7h5sas3s4s8stsjsqh6skd8d4s9]399|300|[/hv] At trick 8, you know that West has exactly 2 diamonds remaining (the K9), and no hearts, so 4 clubs. That gives East a doubleton club. If you were going to play anybody for the club queen, it would be West, with 4-2 odds on that bet. There are two cases remaining to cater for, the clubs sitting Qxxx opposite xx, or xxxx opposite Qx in the E-W hands. At the end here, it helps to know who you are playing. If these are bot opponents, then there is a little trick you can rely on, a bug in the bot programming. You know that East has 2 cards remaining. Does East have Qx or xx? If you cash the ace, then East can see the KJ remaining in dummy. If East had the Qx, then it will play randomly from those two cards, because it assumes that you will be smart enough to drop the queen if it plays low. As such, the Q and the x are equal cards as far as a bot is concerned when you cash the ace. So if you cash the ace, 50% of the time, East will drop the queen if it has Qx. (This is a known behavior of the bots, though I do not know if they have found and fixed this quirk in the bot programming yet.) Against human opponents, I'd probably just take the 2-1 odds, and play West for the queen. Against bot opps, I'd cash the club ace, hoping to get lucky in case East does have the queen of clubs. If a bot East does not play the queen under my club ace, I'd play West for that card.

The probability is not that low for a Moysian to make, IF it was well bid. One frequent clue to look for a Moysian is when you hope to be able to ruff a short side suit in the hand with 3 cards. The play in a Moysian is subtly different from play in a suit where you have lots of trumps. You need to be more careful about how and exactly when you draw trumps. Do you need to ruff in the short hand first? Do you need to duck a round of trumps early? Is there a side suit you need to set up along the way, while you still have trumps in both hands to act as a stopper against a suit they may have? Can you play the hand as a crossruff, possibly not drawing any trumps at all? So if you can take three outside winners, then 7 quick ruffs, you have your major suit game. On this hand, you encouraged GIB by reversing into 2♡. You simply do not have a good enough hand to bid 2♡. A singleton in partner's suit is a bad thing. You can blame GB for rebidding spades there on a ratty suit, but the root of the problem was in your own bidding, by showing a hand with perhaps an ace more than you had. Don't get me wrong. The South hand has playing strength, but not so much unless you can find a fit. And with partner showing spade length and hopefully values there, your hand goes down in value a bit. Next, consider if North has a good hand? You have a 13 count. West has overcalled, but only at the 1-level. So lets give West 8+ HCP. East cue-bid raised, but East is a passed hand. So lets guess that East has a maximum pass, so around 10-11 points. That gives North around 8 points. You need to do this in the bidding all of the time. What does partner have? Should I be looking for game or a part score? Should I be willing to get out of the bidding on a misfit? In the bidding, if partner had a moderately weak hand with both hearts AND spades, what might it have done over 1♢? North-bot might have chosen to make a negative double. So the very fact that North bid 1♠ decreases the chance that North also has hearts, because if North had both spades and hearts, it would often have doubled. Even a weakish hand with 5♠ and 4♡ might still double there instead of bidding 1♠. A good hand with 5♠ and 4♡ will bid 1♠, because they know they will have another chance in the bidding to rebid hearts, thus showing their shape. But you absolutely know that North does not hold a good hand. The trick with GIB is to look carefully at what it will expect to see in your hand. Look at every bid you make, before you make the bid. You can check to see how many points it will expect you to have. If you have told it you have an 18 count, and it has 7 or so, then expect it to get the partnership into some thin game, even if you really have only 13 points and a poorly fitting hand. I know your goal is to improve, and have had frequent problems with GIB. But playing with GIB as a partner is actually not that difficult, as long as you are very careful not to overstate your hand. So look very carefully at what GIB will expect you to hold for the hand you have bid. At the same time, I have several friends who do not practice this, and then frequently complain about what bad places GIB got them to in the bidding. In fact, it was usually their fault.

Yes. Some people do. And they are sometimes in trouble, as partner will never know when to take a preference back to diamonds from clubs. Does that mean I would never do so? In fact, if I am playing precision with one partner, where 2♣ is not an option on the hand, and 1NT is sometimes out of range for the hand, then I have no choice but to open 1♢ on the hand, even though I hate the necessity. But in any standard style of bidding, you want to open 1NT if you can do so, as this tells partner the important facts about your hand immediately.

When you open the bidding, you consider what your rebid will be. ALWAYS. For those who want to open 1♣, you need to know what you will do when partner responds with at least any 1-level bid. The problem with 1♣, is you have a good hand. But if partner bids 1♡ or 1♠, you need to than choose a rebid. 2♣ would tend to show a better suit. You cannot reverse into 2♢ as that would show a significantly better hand than you have. And a 1NT rebid tends to show a weaker hand. If you open 1♣ and then rebid 1NT, your fear is that partner with a 10 count will pass, expecting to see a 12 count for your rebid, when 3NT is cold. One option is to open 1♢, then rebid 2♣. Some people will do this, but then they get into trouble, because that should show a diamond suit that is longer than your club suit. So, with equal length in diamonds and clubs, they will take a preference into diamonds. Sorry, but count me out of the group who will open 1♢ in any standard system. Therefore you open 1NT on this hand, as long as the hand fits into the range for 1NT you have agreed upon. The hand is balanced. No choice of bid is always perfect for any hand, however, 1NT is by far the least lie, the opening bid you want to make. (In fact, in my eyes, 1NT is not a lie in any respect.)

I hear the East-bot actually rage quit the table when West did not lead a spade. Some of those bots have such a temper. They had to bring in a sub-bot for East on the next board.

You need the diamond hook to make 9 tricks. So it costs nothing at all to go to dummy to lead the jack. East will cover. If you think the deuce is a 4th best lead, then hearts are 4-4. So if you return to dummy with a club, then take a second hook in diamonds, and it loses, then you have 9 tricks. If it wins, then you have 10 tricks. That is, IF you trust the bots to lead 4th best. So I did a little checking online, from the last half dozen or so bot games I played recently. I looked at the lead against all 3NT contracts I played. I excluded hands where an honor lead was indicated. But if I looked only at broken suit leads, I found the bots did lead 4th best from a broken 4 card suit a few times. In fact, when the bot did choose to lead from a broken 4 card suit, it usually seemed like they led 4th best. Then I noticed a few cases where they led 3rd best from 3 small. Then I found a hand where they led the deuce from KQ9432. So is the double finesse a good shot? You absolutely need the king onside for 9 tricks. The 10 is onside half the time. But if the second hook loses, AND the bot did not lead 4th best, you are in trouble. So I'd say finessing against the 10 is probably a bad idea most of the time. A top or bottom shot, but more often a bottom. On top of all that, figure that if you are in game, and it makes 9 tricks, then you get a tie for top with the 17/30 tables who bid game and made it. So just making game is worth over 70% on the board. But taking an extra risk to turn 70% into 100% means that more often than not, you will turn that 70% board into a near zero. The second hook seems like a bad risk.

I have an easy rule. If I make a decision that I know to be right on the edge of being a good idea, and we then get into trouble, it is my fault. I accept the blame. A corollary to rule #1 is that if partner makes a judgment call on the hairy edge of viability, I don't blame them. East had a 10 count. Yes, a 6 card suit. But the diamond jack is arguably not pulling even the 1 point of weight assigned to it. So 1♠ is marginal at best. Yes, I might decide to open 1♠, because the JT9 of spades are all pulling more than their weight. It is arguably near the hairy edge between the two. Pass, and listen to the bidding is an option also. East does hold the boss suit, and can come back into the bidding later. West made reasonable choices afterwards, all down the middle. So, by my logic, East picked a marginal choice to start. The bad result at the end? I would shoulder the blame as East, and certainly would not be defending the initial choice that got us into trouble. Personally for my style when playing 2/1, not vul in first seat, 1♠ is just barely my choice. If vulnerable, or in second seat, I'd open 2♠. And if partner made any of those choices at the table, I'd accept them as all reasonable judgment calls.

Everybody is saying how hard it is to make 4♡ without the lead of the heart king. Can't be done they say. But, what if... Assume West leads a spade spot. That pretty much denies a solid spade holding. So East has at least one spade honor. You know spades are 5-3. West overcalled 1♠. East raised. So I would bet a goodly sum on 5-3. (I've not seen the bots willing to overcall on a 4 card suit.) Say you win the spade ace. Take an immediate diamond hook. This hand is an adventure of discovery, and drawing trumps is something that will need to wait. East cue bid raised spades. So who has the diamond king? West had it, since your hook loses. Say they continue the attack on spades. East shows up with Q96 as you ruff the third round of spades. Now, exit with the club. East wins the ace, then tries the queen, ruffed by you. This leaves you with a lot of information. East has shown up with Q96 in spades. AQ in clubs, and probably the jack there too. East originally passed in second seat though. The bidding has East with 11-12 total points, but 11- HCP. West has KJ543 in spades, plus the diamond king. But a 1♠ overcall is listed as 8-17 HCP. So you have two sources of information that tell you who has the heart king. You don't have it. Not dummy. Not East. And West probably needs it for the overcall. The Rabbi lives again as the crowd roars! Cash the heart ace, with a glimmer of hope in your eyes. The king drops. Draw the last trump. Ruff the last diamond in dummy. You lose only a spade, a diamond, and a club. The road to bridge hell is paved with the souls of those who drew trump too soon, OR too late.