Trumpace

In a suit contract, If a good defender sitting over KQT knows that you have xx opposite KQT, maybe it is better to play K on next round. By ducking the A, the defender over KQT has just given you a free shot at a finesse for two tricks in D, which declarer probably would not take if the Q got captured on the first round.

I don't completely agree with the comments which say play as much as you can is the best way to improve. You should play hands, alright, but it is more important that you analyze(without any bias) the hands you played looking for your mistakes etc. Without that, you would just be having fun making the same mistakes again and again.

The next version of BBO will allow you to spread marmalade on you cards so that they stick together and the next players who get them will see only 11 or 12 cards on the screen. :D Perhaps it will be a good April fool's day prank for BBO to pull off... They even have enough time to program it in :P

Your ISP might have been unprofessional, but at least they tried their best to prevent my computer from being infected. I think any other responsible ISP would do the same: bring down the site first and then notify. Notifying first and waiting for response would only increase the risk for the users of that site, which isn't a good thing. If they didn't notify at all... well... Sorry, I was prompted to write this after seeing onoway's post about "HighHandedness" of BBO...

A hand from one of Hugh Kelsey's books. You are in 4S and you receive the lead of a low heart. [hv=d=s&v=n&n=st98652hkj3dk2ca9&s=sqj743hat4dqj8cq5]133|200|Scoring: Rubber Lead, low ♥.[/hv] Plan the play. (As usual Adv/+ please don't post spoilers too soon)

I feel like leading the ♥J. No particular reason, sorry.

This line pretty much requires 2-2 trumps and a misdefence when the ♣K is offside. Is there a better line? It requires 2-2, but rather correct placing of opps card then misdefence? (I have a déjà vu when viewing this hand. Is it coming from a book or a web site?) Say trumps are 2-2 and ♣K is offside. The line was to eliminate ♦ and play ♣A and ♣ to Q (or just ♣ to Q). In this line, defence can make sure that the person who does not hold the ♥A can win the third club and can thus lead a heart. If they don't, it can be considered a misdefence. No? I agree though, that there are some legitimate cases where this line works even if ♣K is offside and if you place the cards correctly (like doubleton Ax). But that is a very small chance I think (and that is why I said 'pretty much' instead of 'always').

This line pretty much requires 2-2 trumps and a misdefence when the ♣K is offside. Is there a better line?

Defend! ...

If you want to make it closer to real life, why not change the software to allow playing the wrong suit, or even play when it is not your turn? How about allowing to play 2-3 cards at the same time? :P I don't agree with the suggestion at all. Using the computer to play gives rise to other mechanical problems not possible in live bridge, like my mouse clicking a card I didn't intend to click. Besides, it is not fun to be stuck with a wrongly played card when that sort of thing happens. And what if we are on a table with all friends? UNDOs should be allowed anytime. Frankly I don't understand the need for this suggestion. If you are an opponent, you can always reject UNDO requests. If you are the one needing UNDO, don't ask! Having the UNDO should not bother you in any case.

Yes, key is trick 1. Would also be an interesting hand from West's perspective if dummy had ♦KQx instead of KQJ. In that case West must duck when you play a ♦ to the K.

East is dealer and opens the bidding with 3 hearts (showing a 7 card suit). You somehow reach 6♣ and LHO leads a small spade (to which RHO will follow). You see: [hv=d=e&v=e&n=sj93ht9876dkqjc42&s=sakth2d2cakqjt976]133|200|Scoring: Rubber Lead small spade.[/hv] Plan the play. (As usual Adv/+ please refrain from posting too soon).

Correct. Something like that, depending on how the bidding went. Also, we should take care not to throw any ♦ from dummy at tricks 2 and 3 (if you decide to duck trick 2).

You can . No?

Yes :rolleyes:

East is dealer and opens 2C, showing 10-12 hcp and 5 or more clubs. You are South and hold AQ4, AQ4,AQ4,K743. You double planning to rebid NT showing 19-21 points. LHO passes, partner bids 2D, RHO passes, you bid 2NT and partner bids 3NT and the auction ends. You might not like the auction, but that is how it is. Besides, this is a play problem. LHO leads the club 6 and you see: [hv=d=e&v=n&n=s76h752dkj983c852&s=saq4haq4daq4ck743]133|200|Scoring: Rubber Lead ♣6.[/hv] RHO plays the club 9 and you win the K. Plan the rest of the play. (As usual, Adv/+ please don't spoil it too early).

I wouldn't try to read too much into the Spade A overtake. Assume that if you lose the lead after winning ♠K, you have a very high chance of going down, spades might still be 5-4 after all. In fact, please assume that the spades split 5-4 for the purposes of this problem. (Sorry, I should have stated it earlier itself).

What do you throw from dummy on tricks 2 and 3? And after winning the 4th heart, what do you plan to do if an opp plays a ♣ (assuming you get the spade split you hope)?

Leading a diamond a trick 2 works for the defense in the hand you gave...

Strange. I have this showing at the bottom of every page: Powered by Invision Power Board(U) v1.3 Final © 2003 IPS, Inc. What do you have?

I am winning the first ♣ and switching to a ♦ and if declarer has A / JT987 / KQJ2 / 974 Down he goes ... and if he's Ax / JT987 / KQJ2 / xx He's got to find the ♠Q Um - No. If he has the first hand, he loses 2 clubs and a trump. If he has the second hand, why does he have to 'find' the spade queen? He knows you have it - and he has no spade loser in any event. No idea what you are talking about. There are hands with East, where he does not hold the ♠Q and the only correct defense is to shift to a ♦ at trick 2. For instance: Hand 1 show by jonottawa. I suggest you look at it again. Isn't not cashing the second club critical to defense and in fact the contract is down 1? Yes - jonottawa's defense works with his theorietical hand. Unfortunately, you do NOT have a singleton diamond - so your defense will not work, now will it? You do NOT hold jonottawa's theoretical hand - so his theoretical shift to the singleton diamond fails. Don't care if the defense works or not. All this proves is that it is not 100% clear to an EXPERT declarer that East has the ♠Q. Right?

I am winning the first ♣ and switching to a ♦ and if declarer has A / JT987 / KQJ2 / 974 Down he goes ... and if he's Ax / JT987 / KQJ2 / xx He's got to find the ♠Q Um - No. If he has the first hand, he loses 2 clubs and a trump. If he has the second hand, why does he have to 'find' the spade queen? He knows you have it - and he has no spade loser in any event. There are hands with East, where he does not hold the ♠Q and the only correct defense is to shift to a ♦ at trick 2. For instance: Hand 1 show by jonottawa. I suggest you look at it again. Isn't not cashing the second club critical to defense and in fact the contract is down 1?

I don't understand why the failure to cash the second club pinpoints the ♠Q. ♥A, yes probably, but ♠Q? In some cases, the club suit is the only communication suit for defense to get a ♦ ruff. You do agree that declarer can play the spades two ways and thus has to guess, right?

This problem could be occuring, because by default IE8 is standards compliant. If the forum code is generating non-standard html, there could be issues. Try adding the forums to the pages to be viewed in Compatibility View. (Tool -> Compatibility View Settings) In order to do a quick test if this works, try clicking on the Compatibility View button, to the left of refresh and the right of the address bar (at least that is where it is on my browser). Thanks that worked. Well the displayed of hands became non-centred but the bold etc buttons provide a popup and not just a bold tag. Which buttons? You mean when replying to a post, the B, I and U buttons? They seem to work fine for me.

Why can't east, with the ♥A and singleton diamond, be planning to put pard in with the Club Queen to get a ♦ ruff?