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The Premier League Final China 2018: Get professional! How a declarer became a defender

This deal happened in the last segment of The Premier League Final China 2018, PD Times VS Hengzhou. Board 8 Dealer: West Vul: None West     North     East     South Lorenzin J.Li        Bessis    Z.Fu Pass       Pass       Pass      1♣* Pass        1♢*       Pass      1NT Pass        2♡*         X          XX*  3♢          3♡*       Pass       4♠  AP 1♣: Precision 2♡, 3♡: Transfer Lead: ♡3 (3rd/5th) South won with the ♡A while you followed ♡J. Then the declarer crossed to the table with ♠J to lead a small ♡ from table. Now what's your plan? Who holds the ♡T and where is the ♢A become 2 serious questions. First, 3♢ indicates that West holds 4 ...
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Online training: An unexpected but reasonable ducking

HAHAHA, after one month off bridge, I'm back!!! This deal happened in our weekly online training, Nov 5th, 2018. First of all, I have to admit my mistake. Hahaha, to be honest, the training was quite boring. After 12 boards, the scores were still 2:2. Although I knew X was not allowed and I would be fined if 3♣X was brought home, I still couldn't help to doing that. Board 13 Dealer: North Vul: Both North    East    South    West  Pass     Pass      1♢         2♢*   2♡*      2♠       Pass       Pass   3♣         X         AP 2♢: Michael 2♡: ♣ suit, better than 3♣ Lead: ♡3 (if hasn't raised, count has a priority. That is to say, xxx lead the smallest card) Table followed ♡9. Normally, you would play ♡Q causally. Would it be correct in this case? Leading analysis: Eas...

Xinrui Bridge: 3-3, Simple squeeze or Double squeeze?

This deal happened when I just open my eyes this morning. I hadn't imagined meeting such interesting deal in Xinrui ever before. K86   K53   83   KJ643 AQ54   A64   AK62   A2 Contract: 6NT Declarer: South Lead: ♢Q I won with the ♢A. And then cashing ♣A, trying to finesse ♣Q in West normally. Unfortunately, East won with the ♣Q and returned ♠J. And now how to play? 3♠, 2♡,  2♢, 4♣, totally 11 tricks where you must suppose ♣ was under a normal distribution. Where was the 12 tricks? Except ♠3-3, was there any chance? If you have read "Bridge Squeeze Complete", the format of type C1 might impress you. Assuming that West hold 5♢, then North had common threaten ♡3 and free suit honor ♣ while South hold both right(♢X) and left(♠X) threaten. The key to the success of type C1 double squeeze was that the honor of left threaten should be cashed before cashing frees suit honors. To satisfy this condition, you must win with ...

NOTICE: Suspension of publication

Dear readers:     For some personal reasons, I am sorry that the blogger would not be updated for a long time, at least one month. Thank you for your understanding. Best Wishes!                                                                                                  X. Li                                                                                             2018.9.30                                    ...

Interactive Hand Testing

Fu Bo shared this deal with me. This deal happened in the open pair qualify of the 15th Would Bridge Series. She asked me could you find out the defense even if you saw 4 hands. Interactive hand analysis was interesting and played an important role in improving bridge technique. Although double-dummy analysis always stood on a God view, it was essential in a post-mortem analysis. This was first time to show a interactive hand analysis here. I'd appreciate if you could share any interesting double-dummy with me. How to defend 4♠? In this case, defenders should prevent declarer from ruffing ♣ or from winning 3♢. How to cut the connection between table and hand became a serious problem. Timing and speed were the crucial point. 1. Leading ♣     A slow step, losing an upper hand. Declarer could win with the ♣A and sent out small ♣. Even if the defender shift to trump, the declarer was a step ahead. (a) Returning small trump, won by North, ruffing a small ♣ and finessing ...

Saturday Training: Leading analysis

This deal happened in termly Saturday training. Card distribution analysis was always a commonplace in my blog. Now, it was still worth to be mentioned again. Board 3 Vul :N-S Dealer: South South     North  1NT         3♡*  3NT         AP 3♡: 4 cards ♠, choosing contract Lead: ♣7 (2nd/4th) West thought for a while and lead ♣7. East followed ♣J. It's your show time. Please start. It was ridiculous. Totally 27 points, only 6 tricks. Even if you get 4♠ and you create a winner in ♡, still 8 tricks. There was an easy way that finessing ♡K directly or hope 3-3 in ♣. How to find the best way to try all the chance became a serious problem. What comes first? For West, 3 cases, ♣97x, ♣7x or ♣97xx. Due to the period of his thinking and table sense, he hardly hold 4 cards ♣. In first two cases, why didn't he lead his 4 cards suit. That was to say, his longest suit was ♠. If he was 4-3-3-3, why didn't he le...

Online training: Please remember to detect the honors beforehand !!!

This deal happened in our weekly online training last Monday. I couldn't concentrate my attention due to the lack of card sense online. Rookie mistake should be mentioned here. Board 13 Vul: Both Dealer: North East    West 1NT      2♣  2♡       4♡ Lead: ♠7 South led ♠7 while North followed ♠J. And I won with the ♠Q. Now what's your plan? ♠7 seemed to be doubleton. Firstly, you couldn't avoid to lose 1♠, 1♢ and 1♣ at least. In other word, you must make a right guess in who had ♡Q. For me, due to the leading, I had supposed South hold long ♡ and he hadn't led trump, so I just played casually, cashing ♡K, then ♡J->♡2->♡5->♡Q... Oops... Doing some detection first to find more clues might be a better choose. Sending out ♢ first and whatever who won, he had no choice but to return ♢ or ♠. I could win in hand. Crossing to table with ♣K. And now the distribution was clear. If one A for each, now it was your guess time, n...