Bridge in Oz

Perhaps you've heard the bridge maxim "eight ever, nine never"? That refers to the situation where you have an eight or nine card suit and are looking to pick up the Queen. It says you should finesse with eight, or play for the drop with nine. However with nine the difference in the odds is small. I...

CHBC has announced resumption of games at the club on Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings starting November 6. Initially there will be a maximum of 20 players, strict safety precautions and a booking procedure. More information to come. 20 players is not many, but it's a start! A personal obser...

Cross-ruffing looks like your only reasonable plan. Drive out the ♦ A, cash your winners outside of trumps, ruff everything else. So play a diamond to dummy. RHO wins the Ace and somehow finds the killer trump return. Now what? You're not getting close to 12 tricks without those ruffs. The only chan...

Vulnerable vs. not, one pass to you, you hold: QJ109,QJ8,KQ965,7 Do you open? In close situations I like to count losers, meaning missing Aces, Kings and Queens. You have two in spades, two in hearts, one in diamonds and one in clubs. In general six losers are a good opening, eight are not and seven...

Good suggestions, except when trumps are 3-1 and RHO exits with a club at trick 5 neither the squeeze nor end play will work. Details are left as an exercise.

There's one other important point to consider here. If LHO has only 3 hearts they can beat you by discarding them all. While you know RHO has only 5 spades, LHO thinks they probably have 6 and likely won't defend that way. However you are marked with the ♠10 (because RHO won with the J), and if you ...

It's clear that RHO has opened 2♠ with AKQJ8. She cannot have as much as a queen extra and probably not even a singleton, otherwise would not have a reasonable 2-bid. So LHO has ♥ Q, ♦ Q and ♣A and Q. It's also clear that RHO is going to rattle off four rounds of spades. On the fourth spade you must...

Here's another declarer situation that I actually faced. 7654,AK76,K94,K6 1092,J83,AJ8762,9 The auction has gone 2♠ by RHO, pass, pass, double, pass, 3 ♦ , all pass. LHO leads the ♠3. What's cool about this hand is you can see how it will go before playing a card! Take a minute to look it over.

Your odds look pretty good. What you want to avoid is losing two finesses and two additional hearts. I think the best start is leading a heart to the Queen. RHO is unlikely to guess that you are interested in a heart ruff, and if he/she wins then will probably return a minor suit. In that case you'l...

IMPS, white vs. red, you deal yourself this:

♠ AQ109543
♥ 9854
♦ A
♣ A

I suppose you might open 2♣ with this 4-loser hand, but I chose 1♠. It went pass, 1NT, pass and I closed the auction with 4♠.

The ♣2 was led and partner put down this:

♠ J2
♥ AQ3
♦ J54
♣ J10875

It goes 7, Q, A. What's your plan?