The Thirty-second Stratagem: Empty City

This deal happened in RR7 China vs Turkey of 17th World Youth Team Championships.

Board 10

Dealer: East

Vul: Both

North East South West

Pass Pass Pass

1♢ Pass 1♠ Pass

2♢ Pass 2NT AP

Lead: ♠8

The leading signal is attitude which means higher is more discouraging, lower is more encouraging. This signal is quite different from the 4th best leading. So that both West and East will know there's no any hope on ♠ after first trick. You just have 4♠, 1♡, 2♢ 7 tricks. The structure of ♢ is real ugly. Even if doubleton QJ exists, there is still a ♢8 outside. Setting ♢ is impossible because the loser will up to 6 first.

So how to play now?

I don't why the stratagem of empty city by Zhu geliang suddenly emerged in my brain that time. So I won with the ♠J and played a small ♣ quickly from the table. She would not continue to attack ♣ in a high rate. There's only one chance for me that West won the second trick and shifted ♡ with A. And then I would get 2♡ and brought contract home. Everything happened as expected.

The full deal

Board 10

Dealer: East

Vul: Both

Actually, West didn't calculate the points carefully. I already had ♠AKQ, so it was for me to hold ♣A. And West had ♣KQ and it quite strange that the declarer didn't set up ♢.

Comments

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...

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 ...

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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