Another lovely September day. Congratulations to Carol and Sid (64%) and Rick and Margie (64%) for high scores for the day. You've all done very well.
Next Monday we'll start Lesson 8, Preemptive Bidding. There will be an advanced lesson on Squeezes at 10:30 on Thursday.
Check back tomorrow and Wednesday for my comments on today's boards.
See you next week.
Dave
PS Comments added to boards 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 and 13.
West opens 1 Heart and North stops to think. He would prefer to have one less Heart and one more Spade, but let's suppose he doubles with his 16 points. East passes and advances with a jump to 2 Spades to show his suit and 9-12 points. North jumps to 4 Spades and they make it for the top. Good job, Len and Hazel!
This is a great board to play and to analyze. West opens 2 Clubs and East responds 2 Diamonds, waiting. West rebids 3 No Trump promising a balanced hand and 25-27 HCPs. East jumps to 6 No Trump with his 8 HCPs and West passes. North leads the Queen of Diamonds (What else?) and declarer stops to count and plan. He sees 10 top tricks; 4 Spades, 2 Hearts, 2 Diamonds and 2 Clubs. He's 99% sure of the fifth Spade, so figures he needs one more trick. He has possible finesses in the Hearts and the Clubs.
Declarer ponders the two finesses, either of which will give him his needed trick if successful. He considers the result if they lose. If the Heart finesse loses to the Queen, it will gain him nothing and he'll still need a trick. If the Club finesse loses to the Queen, it establishes the Clubs in dummy and he doesn't need anything else. If it loses, he still has 12 tricks and if it wins, he has 13. It's a sure thing, but he must take the finesse while he has all suits stopped and has transportation to get back and forth.
Declarer wins the Diamond lead in dummy with the King and immediately leads a low Club to the Jack. When it wins, he can claim his 13 tricks. If it had lost, he would have won any return, cashed his winners in hand and crossed to dummy with the 2 of Spades for the rest.
The next time you think "Declarer stops to count and plan", remember this hand and do it carefully.
East opens 1 Diamond and West will respond either 1 Heart to promise 4 or more Hearts and 6 or more points or 2 Clubs to promise 5 or more Clubs and 10 or more points. In either case East is forced to describe his hand and will rebid 2 Diamonds to show his 6 or more Diamonds and 13-16 points.
West reevaluates his hand in support of Diamonds as 14 points and knows that his support makes partner stronger. He sees no way to show his Diamond support without allowing partner to pass, so bids what he thinks they can make, 5 Diamonds. This makes with an overtrick for a good score, but two pairs got to 3 No Trump with an overtrick for the top.
West stops to think. He counts 9 HCPs plus 1 for the singleton Spade and 2 for the singleton Club. He considers a preempt and figures 6 sure tricks plus 2 for equal vulnerability. This is not enough for 3 Hearts, so he considers 2 Hearts or 1 Heart. He decides that 12 points and 7 Hearts are too much for a weak-two bid, so opens 1 Heart. East overcalls 1 Spade and East stops to think. He counts 15 points in support of Hearts and figures partner for at least 14 with his Heart support. He decides to just jump to 4 hearts to try to cut off the competition. It's hard to see that either South or North could bid 4 Spades after that, but, if they do, either East or West can go to 5 Hearts and hope to be doubled.
It floats to North who opens 1 No Trump. South responds 2 Hearts, the Jacoby Transfer and North rebids 2 Spades as directed. South rebids 2 No Trump to show exactly 5 Spades and 8-9 HCPs. North rebids 3 Spades to show his support and South reevaluates as 10 points in Spades and raises to game. It makes for the top. Good job, David and Zelda.
North opens 1 Club and South responds 1 Diamond. North rebids 2 Clubs to show his 6-card suit and 13-16 points. South decides that partner would have bid 1 Heart with a 4-card suit, so considers Clubs and No Trump. He sees at least at least 16 points opposite his 14 points in Clubs, but isn't sure how many HCPs partner has opposite his 13 HCPs. This favors Clubs, but he also knows that 9 tricks in No Trump are usually easier than 11 tricks in a minor.
One pair made an overtrick in 5 Clubs for a good score, but the two pairs bidding 3 No Trump made at least 1 overtrick for a better score.
