YouHold

Yesterday I posted the following card combination, asking how you would play given different goals.

♠ AQ74

♠ J865

How do you play this combination…
1a) …for 4 tricks?
You have very few options here other than finding the K doubleton of spades onside. Lead low to the Q, cash the Ace and hope the K drops. Because you do not have either the 10 or 9 of spades, you cannot afford to lead the J from your hand. West covering would guarantee a loser in the suit.
1b) …for 3 tricks?
Play the Ace of the suit first. If the …read more

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Card combination problems are a good way to work on improving your technical declarer play. By focusing on a single suit, you can simplify the play for a complex hand. This can give easily turn into positive results at the table.
For each of these problems, unless otherwise stated, assume that you are playing in notrumps with plenty of communications in side suits to lead the key
suit in any manner you wish. (Examples, leading up to dummy twice, etc.)
The object in each of the questions below is to play in a manner which gives you the greatest chance …read more

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In my previous post, I described this highly unusual hand:

AQTxxx
—
—
AKT9xxx

After 3 passes to me, I chose to open 1C (natural) rather than 2C (strong).
On a different deal yesterday, I had another strong highly distributional hand:

AKQJxxx
AJTxx
—
x

This one I chose to open 2C. I’m sure that there are players who would advocate 2C on both hands, and some who wouldn’t bid 2C on either one. Why did I “mix and match”?
In terms of playing strength, both hands are incredibly strong. The key difference between the hands lies in suit quality.
In the first hand I have …read more

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Playing in the Atlanta regional today, my partner held this hand (IMPS, all vulnerable, 2nd seat.):

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In the first part of this series, we were faced with the following declarer problem after West bid both majors:

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In addition to the ACBL, there is another American bridge orginization, one which has been around about as long: The American Bridge Association. The ABA was created back in the days of racial segregation. Most of its membership consists of Black bridge players, however all events (just as in the ACBL) are open to all races.
The ABA recently had its summer nationals in Atlanta, where I live. I had obligations which kept me from playing throughout the tournament, but I was able to play in one national event, a swiss team event.

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After 1NT (15-17) – 3NT by the opponents, you are faced with this defensive problem:

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Consider this the first in a regular series of card play problems, either defense or declarer play. Solutions will be posted separately.

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Sometimes the smallest details can make or break a bridge hand.
This deal is an actual hand from the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams at the Dallas NABC.

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