Trumpace

Huh? 1NT - 2C 2D - 4NT 4NT is blackwood here? Do the "cardinal" rules have to be fundamentally true? Or do they just have to have a religious following? :)

What if partner does not have the ♣J? Maybe declarer would have played two top clubs, instead of {trying for a safety play I guess} playing the preemptor for 4 trumps if he was missing the Q and J?

I have updated the original post with the handviewer link.

You are west and you hold: QJ3, JT642, QJ2, Q2 North is dealer. The bidding goes. (Pass) - 2S by pard - (X) - Pass by you 3C - Pass - Pass - 3S Pass - Pass - 4C - All pass. Pard leads the ♠A (from AK) and you see: (Note you are west, dummy is South, at the bottom) [hv=d=n&v=e&w=sqj3hjt642dqj2cq2&s=s9hk53dat863cakt9]266|200|Scoring: Rubber Lead ♠A by East.[/hv] After winning ♠A, partner switches to the ♦5 (presumably singleton). dummy plays low ♦, you put in the J, declarer (North) wins the K. Declarer then plays a ♣ to A, heart to A, and takes a losing finesse to your ♣Q while pard follows. Handviewer link: http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...3h2hah7c5c6c9cq Now what? (As usual adv/+ please refrain from posting spoilers too soon)

Here is one. You are in 6H. West leads the ♥4. You see: [hv=d=s&v=n&n=sk7hkt8daqj6ca973&s=sa82haj732d732ck5]133|200|Scoring: Rubber Lead ♥4.[/hv]

I guess we don't need to talk "hidden" now. For 2) We can cash one round of spades, if RHO follows with Q,J or 9 then we have a sure shot spade endplay on LHO (no matter who has the DK). If not, we can play RHO for the DK and play as awm did. For 3) I admit this is a bit far-fetched, but there is an additional chance that RHO will be forced to win the 3rd diamond. Say dummy had ♦432. You play ♦A at trick 3, ruff club and ruff ♦ watching the spots played by both opps. If you feel that RHO might be forced to win the 3rd ♦, cash ♠A and throw RHO in with the 3rd diamond if RHO does not follow to first spade with Q,J or 9. If not, play as awm, eliminate minors and duck first round of spade, hoping that LHO will go wrong with the QJ9x of spades (it is probably percentage for LHO to play the 9 there, but the coolness factor to pin pard's singleton T and beat the contract is always there :) ). I hope the analysis is right and sorry about hand #3, probably does not belong to this forum, but it seemed right to put it here.

You can do all the thinking at trick 2 :)

What if RHO is void in spades or has a singleton low spade? Is there any chance, then?

You hold [hv=d=s&v=n&s=saktxhajxxxxdacjx]133|100|Scoring: Rubber[/hv] You are dealer and open 1H. LHO passes, pard bids 4H, RHO bid 4NT (showing minors), you bid 5H which is passed out. LHO leads the ♣K and switches to a trump, both following. Plan the play with the following different dummies. 1) [hv=d=s&v=n&n=s8xxxhkqt9xdqjxcx&s=saktxhajxxxxdacjx]133|200|Scoring: Rubber[/hv] 2) [hv=d=s&v=n&n=s8xxxhkqt9xdqjxcx&s=saktxhajxxxxdacjx]133|200|Scoring: Rubber[/hv] 3) [hv=d=s&v=n&n=s8xxxhkqt9xdqjxcx&s=saktxhajxxxxdacjx]133|200|Scoring: Rubber[/hv] As usual Adv/+ please don't post spoilers to early. If you think a hand is too difficult for B/I, feel free to say so.

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I rate it 5. Trying to discover the count is not something that most players do.

Of course there is. Don't you read the Enquirer?

You don't have to go over each board every time you play. All I was saying is that you just don't ignore them completely. Sometimes during the play itself you will have a good idea which boards are potential mistake boards. Time is always a factor and I agree that a board you lost IMPS on is more likely to highlight your mistakes and those should be tackled first and that if you miss some boards it is ok. But there is no harm in trying to make time for the other boards too. Also, If they are easy enough, you can spend no more than a minute and can get on to the next board. Whether it is inefficient or not depends on the individual, but I agree with you that for most, just the bad boards should be time enough... I consider post-mortems to be an integral part of studying. I find that almost every deal has some instructive point or the other (I do make too many mistakes :( ). Anyway, sorry for derailing this thread.

Good advice. I agree. One thing I would like to add to Step 2. (Evaluate.), though. You also need to evaluate the boards you _won_ IMPS on and not just the boards you lost IMPS on. You might discover that you just got lucky, and against a better team, you would actually have lost IMPS because of the mistakes you made. This is true especially if you are in the intermediate/advanced range. This would probably also help you cut down on forming incorrect bridge ideas based on the (good) results.

How does singleton K help in the first line? Also clubs Kxx with LHO being 31% seems like an overestimate, even if you assume that the lead can be from the K. Anyway, my guess: the point of the hand is to decide how to get to hand to play the ♦AK. ♠A and ruff is probably better than trying to ruff a ♣ back to hand, in case ♣5 is singleton.

How about using Card games? Inquiry will be Bridge Pro while a newbie could be SlapJack Pro. or like some suggested, colours, but like the Karate belts (maybe there aren't enough of those though). The bridge technique one is good too, but perhaps we should have things like Casher Ruffer Squeezer etc instead of the name of the technique itself (as helene suggested)

To check if it is your connection, you can try running traceroute (or tracert on windows). It will give you a list of all the intermediate machines on your route to bbo.bridgebase.com To use (on windows) open command window type tracert bbo.bridgebase.com It will tell you if you there is some missing link in between etc...

Do you really think the improvement is 'slight'? :angry:

This hand appeared in bridge world, apparently a long time back. [hv=d=s&v=n&n=skj86hakjdaqck543&s=saqt954h92d54ca86]133|200|Scoring: Rubber Lead ♠2.[/hv] you are in 6S. West leads a small trump and East follows. Plan the play (forget about squeezes). As usual Adv/Adv+, please don't post spoilers too soon.

V, partner does not have a 4 carder heart.

I agree with Gerben's construction (declarer having singleton spade, if declarer had 2 spades, he is making) and with the heart return (hatchett). By a process of elimination: Spade is fatal. (declarer will get this right for sure). A low ♦ return helps declarer put in the 9 and ruff a ♣ with the Q. (declarer might not get this right if he plays for 3-2) A high ♦ allows a trump coup against us (declarer will probably get this right too) as it does some of his work for him (now he needs only 3 entries to bring off the trump coup, declarer might not get this right either if he plays for 3-2, though, which I doubt). This leaves a heart. If you return a heart, declarer, who needs 2 entries to dummy to ruff in hand, one to play a trump (and force a split) and one for the final coup, will fall short of entries. It looks like the heart return ensures defeat while the ♦ returns might not. So heart it is. I have a question though, why didn't Diamond go into a tank _before_ overruffing the ♦6? Could it not have been right to play low there? Or was there some obvious reason to overruf?

You mean RHO, don't you? In hearts, covering is probably better technically, but I think there is no practical difference.

Here is one which hopefully fits: [hv=d=w&v=b&n=saj854hk9632djtc4&s=sqt632h8d62cakqj9]133|200|Scoring: Rubber Lead ♦A[/hv] West deals and after three passes, you open 1♠. You finally end up in 4♠. West leads ♦A (opps lead A from AK) and then ♦Q and shifts to ♥J. Plan the play.

A very instructive hand and very appropriate to the forum. Keep them coming bill!

Is there anything wrong with bidding 2♣ on this? Anyone care to explain?