The Devil's in the Detail!!!

This is the last deal in our weekly online training on 12th Mar, 2018.

Board 16
Vul: E-W
Dealer: West

North East South West
1♢
Pass 2NT AP

Lead: ♠6

Trick North East South West
1 ♠Q ♠K ♠6 ♠2
2 ♢5 ♢2 ♢4 ♢A
3 ♢6 ♢3 ♠3 ♢K
4 ♢Q ♢8 ♡3 ♢9
5 ?

Lead: ♠6

The declarer wins with the ♠K and runs two top ♢. You win with the ♢Q in the third round. Your partner discards ♠3 and ♡3. And now what's your plan?

The declarer could win 4♢, 2♠ and 2♡. ♠3 shows that your partner holds 5♠. Assuming that you return ♠ now, even if your partner holds ♠A, the declarer could return back twice easily to finesse ♡. In other words, discarding small ♡ and ♠ indicate that your partner doesn't hope you to return ♠. So shifting to ♣ is the only choice. To a player with certain experience, shifting to ♣ is obvious. And now the problem comes, which one to play? Will you play 5 casually? You just have 2 entry to through ♣. Assuming that you play ♣5, it does show that you hold 4♣ with top, unless the declarer holds both 3 and 4, you need 3 entries for follow-on defense. And it might encourage your partner to continue ♣, although after deep thought, your partner should not continue with ♣. You do dig a hole for your partner. For follow-on defense, ♣9 is a better choice. After winning, your partner will choose ♡ or ♠ according to his cards.

PS: If you return with ♣5, this deal becomes a playing problem. Here I will not go further on this issue.

The full deal:
Board 16
Vul: E-W
Dealer: West

Comments

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: East seems to hold 3♡, unless East hold ♡32. In that case, North might not scramble for 3♣ under such vulnerability if North has 4 cards ♡. Bidding analysis: There is no doubt that East doubled,

Asian Game_ Pairs Final: Creating an entry!

This deal happened in the last segment of Asian Game Pairs Finals. Who played this deal would never be mentioned in my blog. I was quite afraid of being accused of insulting players. Board 15 Dealer: South Vul: N-S South West North East 2♡* Pass Pass X Pass 2♠ Pass 3NT AP 2♡: Weak 6 cards ♡ Lead: ♣4 North followed ♣Q and you won with the ♣A. And now, how to play? Now you had 3♣, 1♡, so you need 4♠ and 1♢. You must assume that South hold ♢A and North hold ♠K. Otherwise it would down quickly. The leading was quite strange. If he was 1-6-3-3, he would lead ♢. If he was 2-6-2-3, ♡ was the normal leading. I felt South hold 4 cards ♣, because he led quickly. However, it was hard to say. Anyway, you need 2 entries to finesse ♠K. One was ♢K, appreciating the leading, ♣9 became another entry. Before everything, you must knock out ♣J first. 1. If South won with the J and returned ♣. The distribution was clear. And South must hold d

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, no more information I thought. May

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