zenbiddist

I suppose it comes down to the sequence I test suits, presuming lefty will put a club through prematurely. If I cash a top spade, then cross to DK to hook a spade, lefty might play a club out, and I have to commit. Losing a premature club hook would feel stupid when diamonds are three three, or queen-doubleton spade was dropping. If instead I cash two top spades and then try for three three diamonds, then pump a third spade (presuming no luck), I feel silly when rightly has queen-third spade, queen-fourth diamond and the club hook was working. I'm no good at figuring out odds. The second line feels better but my instincts are young. Any help someone? Did I miss something?

I like to post the hands where I did something that I later decided was risky/illogical/silly, because they are the thought processes worth fixing. Cheers!

Very pretty finish

Work through the free Bridgemaster hands on bridge base online (find through the Practice section). These are beautifully designed hands that teach you the skills you'll need to be a decent card player, and are excellent if you are a visual learner. "Card Play Technique" is an absolute classic and fun to read, I recommend that to everyone who wants to learn practical play and defence. Both of these resources will get you thinking along the right lines. Enjoy! And thirdly, as others have suggested, if your result is markedly worse than others' on a particular hand on BBO, you can quickly click through the play and see what they did differently.

That all sounds very reasonable. When I gave it to one of Australia's top players, he guessed the same thing, which got me doubting my original choice. I was hoping partner might realise my bidding problem, that my correct keycard response was passable, which I didn't want to risk: (AK, AKQ, Qxx, KQJxx or similar bids 5S, but so does a hand with 5 keycards) I was hoping that if partner made that deduction, and was on the same wavelength about 5NT being my pick-a-slam bid with good clubs (2=3=3=5 or similar), he might interpret 6♣ as showing 5 keys, the queen and something in clubs.... Silly

This hand really cracked me up. It was too funny to pass up the chance, so I transferred partner back into the LHO's 5-card suit. 1NT was defeated by two at most tables. Partner had to play like a boss to make 2♥. It was worth it just to see the look on his face

Put yourself in the mind of responder - what do you think partner is communicating? [hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=p2c(bopper)p2d(waiting)p2n(GF%20bal)p3h(5%2B!S)p3sp4d(natural)p4h(control%20agreeing%20diamonds)p4n(1430%20ask%20in%20!d)p6cp]133|100[/hv] Style stuff: An unsystemic 5NT response would almost certainly have been pick-a-slam (in this context, offering playable clubs and a 3cd ♦ suit) I was the "perp" in this auction, hitting my partner with some undiscussed. Still, I am interested in how people think. One more question - if you decide to bid something other than 6♦ next, what do your bids between 6♥-7♣ mean? Thanks for your thoughts

The opponents hadn't verbally accepted the claim or contested it - it seems like the they faced their cards so that they could compute my claim visually. They seemed to know that play stops after a claim, which is why I don't think they perceived any risk in facing their cards (ie that a revoke would become etablished)

Last night I played in 5♠ off three aces. I understand this is a sub-optimal approach to bridge - but it did lead to an interesting situation. Anyways, I decided to play a few cards rather than concede, in the hopes that something good might happen. After the opening lead, I needed all the tricks but one, but sadly two aces were out. After drawing trumps, I played a low diamond up. West showed out, and I played the king, which East won: [hv=pc=n&s=sakj6532hjdq97cjt&w=shakt9743d82c6543&n=sqt74hq6dkj54ck72&e=s98h852dat63caq98&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=3hpp4sp5sppp&p=hkh6h8hjhahqh2s2sah3s4s8skh4s7s9d7d2dk]399|300[/hv] He sat there and deliberated. To put him out of his misery, I said: "If you don't cash your ♣A now, I'll take the marked diamond finesse, unblock, cross to dummy and pitch a club on a diamond, so either way you get a club". At this point the opponents put their cards on the table, and I noticed that LHO had diamonds! Confused, I called the director. What's your ruling?

2N/3♣ = natural invite 3M = ?. choice of games (not passing at IMPs) 2♦ 2M = invite+ 4M, presume F1 (?) 2♦ 2N = GF bal 2♦ 3♣/3♦ = GF natural 2♦ 3M = suit setting, slammish+ My presumptions, happy to be corrected. Good post

Very pretty logic

Thanks for your answers everyone. The last hand you mentioned is the hand I had at the table Frances (as South), and luckily for me RHO pitched a club so I just played club-club-club. Maybe wrongly I cashed A-K hearts because righty had the feel of someone who was hoing to struggle with two more disards. It's good to hear other players boil their thinking down to a couple of sentences. Thanks for that

Tonight a game slipped through. I've started imagining it from the defender's point of view to see if there were clues. Is there a solution? You are East, pard leads ♦J to South's 3NT contract: [hv=pc=n&n=skj63ht94dq965ca3&e=sq542h852dk3cq975&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=p1n(15-17)p3nppp]266|200[/hv] T1: Declarer covers with ♦Q, you win and.. T2: Return a diamond to pard's ten. T3: Pard plays ♦A, you pitch a heart, declarer a heart T4: Pard clears the diamonds, playing her lowest of two remaining, you and declarer both pitch a heart. T5: Declarer plays a heart to his king, partner dropping the queen T6: Declarer cashes ♥ ace, partner playing a low(ish) heart... What do you pitch, a club or a spade? - My (probably flawed) thinking: Declarer has ♠A (pard would have suit pref'd it) + ♥AK + at least ♣K(J) to make up a 1NT opener. Tricks: that's 2♠+2♥+♦+2♣ = 7... (probably ♣J and hook = 8) A hand consistent with the play? Declarer is ditching hearts, has no diamonds, and so probably has clubs (and will try to set them up), or spades, and wants to save a spade guess / play the suit for four tricks and not need a club hook. Outside chance declarer had hearts but gave up on setting them up. When my thinking goes past there, it's full of "if this, then bla...", but no certain answer. Does someone have clear logic? Thanks!

♦K lead, which was irritating, as it means you have no tempos up your sleeve - first failed hook means you're off. So it's a question of any subtle clues as to which hook is the best one to take first...

Thanks Nige, will do!

Hi there, First off, love BBO and the way it's always being improved, thanks. I would love to be able to give students single-dummy hands that have programmed defence, like bridge master has. If you duck, they do this. If you win, they do this. Is that possible? Was also wondering if it's possible to insert bots as defenders on a par hand (similar to above)? And lastly, in your hand editor I can program play, but I was wondering if I can do that with only a single dummy display? Thanks John

IMPs. [hv=pc=n&s=sj863hqt975dk83c3&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=pp1h1np]133|200[/hv]

I settled on 4NT, which I figured an expert would decipher as minors, given my initial pass. It was probably too aggressive, especially NV, but it's not hard to think of hands where 5m makes. Having read the comments I think 3♦ then a choice of games in the minors is probably better, to get to the right strain. People were all over the place when this hand came up, with only 9/20 EWs settling in clubs (the place to be). Pard's hand was ♠KJT ♥QJ96 ♦A ♣KJ653

Are there any other options that come to mind? Ps: For those talking about Lebensohl - it would be a fairly safe bet that pard would presume Lebensohl, but of course other treatments abound so he might presume natural. Partner is in fact a bidding forum moderator :)

Sadly I knew lefty to have an even tempo during play

[hv=pc=n&e=s53hdqt9653ca9876&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=pp1h1n2h]133|200[/hv] You're playing IMPs with a thoughtful expert, but you have essentially no agreements.

True - these seem like the main two options, and maybe pass is the common choice. Double is obviously going to lead to pard bidding 4♥ a lot. Which games do you think you can make if any? My first thought was how little I needed pard to have to make 5m (Qxxxx, an ace and a stiff for example). Which bid gets you there, and leaves 3N in the picture? I see a slightly obscure path: X, then if pard bids 4♥, bid 4♠. I'm convinced high level cues are best played as choice-of-games to find the right strain, which should be higher priority than slam try. Pard will hopefully figure out you would have passed 3NT, but are now offering both minors. I like having that agreement for cue bids (strain is higher priority than slam try), not sure how common it is outside Australia. Does it seem obscure to others? Comes up a lot actually

You're unfavourable in 4th seat playing IMPs, and it goes 2♠ weak, pass, pass to you: [hv=pc=n&s=s753ht5dak43cakqj&d=w&v=n&b=12&a=2spp]133|200[/hv] If you bid, what do you bid?

1NT-2C 2D-2N 3H You Stayman, and partner denies a major. But over your invite, he bids 3H - hello there! What's that then? Thoughts please. And same over 1NT...3N-4M?

Perhaps I didn't phrase that clearly - is there a double hesitation where the moving pairs move one table or acis per round (ie: without bouncing around the room as in the movement above)? Cheers