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General Quiz Set No.1
Problem No.1 of Quiz Set 1
 | A5432 |
| QJ9 | |
| A2 | |
| AQ2 | |
 | |
| 6 |
| AK1087 | |
| 987 | |
| KJ98 | |
| Contract 7H | |
| By South | |
You arrive in a very ambitious grand slam contract in hearts and West leads a small spade.
How do you plan to make your 13 tricks?
Give yourself a few minutes to think about it.
If you want a clue, look at the articles page...Bridge Tip Number one.
Problem No.2 of Quiz Set 1
| 65 |
| AJ65 | |
| AK32 | |
| Q54 | |
| |
| AK432 |
| 4 | |
| 654 | |
| 8732 | |
| Contract 2S | |
| By South | |
The two of hearts is lead against South's two spade contract. What is your best chance of gathering eight tricks?
Give yourself a little time to consider your answer before viewing the solution.
Problem No.3 Of Quiz Set 1
| Ax | ||
| Kxx | |||
| QJxxx | |||
| KQx | |||
| | K87xxx | |
| QJx | |||
| Ax | |||
| 10x | |||
| Contract 3NT | By South | ||
After the following bidding:-
Partner duly leads the nine of spades and you study the dummy. Declarer plays small from dummy.
What do you do and why do you do it?
| North | East(you) | South | West |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1D | 1S | 2NT | No bid |
| 3NT |
Partner duly leads the nine of spades and you study the dummy. Declarer plays small from dummy.
What do you do and why do you do it?
Problem No.4 of Quiz Set 1
| 632 |
| K4 | |
| A10862 | |
| J94 | |
| |
| AK75 |
| A75 | |
| KQ | |
| A762 | |
| Contract 3NT | |
| By South | |
You arrive in a quite normal 3NT contract As South after East has opened with a weak 2 spades bid.
You are playing Teams or rubber bridge.
West leads a heart. How do you propose to make your nine tricks?
Would it make any difference if you were playing Duplicate pairs?
Problem No.5 of Quiz Set 1
| AK98 | ||
| 8 | |||
| AKJ54 | |||
| 1042 | |||
| | J7 | |
| J10954 | |||
| 1082 | |||
| Q95 | |||
| Contract 5H* | By West | ||
The dealer West started the bidding with 1 heart. The full sequence
was then:-
You decide to start with the Ace of diamonds as these have not been mentioned in the auction. Dummy goes down and it looks about what you expected. Your Ace holds the trick and partner follows with the nine (you play attitude). Partner's nine could be the top card from a doubleton as he expects you to have the King of diamonds OR he could have the Queen of diamonds as there could be 3 possible tricks to be had in the diamond suit.
How do you continue? Give yourself a minute or two to think about it. The problem arose on Leigh's duplicate evening and those faced with this problem failed to come up with the correct solution.
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1H | X | 2H | 2S |
| 4H | 4S | Pass | Pass |
| 5H | X | End | - |
You decide to start with the Ace of diamonds as these have not been mentioned in the auction. Dummy goes down and it looks about what you expected. Your Ace holds the trick and partner follows with the nine (you play attitude). Partner's nine could be the top card from a doubleton as he expects you to have the King of diamonds OR he could have the Queen of diamonds as there could be 3 possible tricks to be had in the diamond suit.
How do you continue? Give yourself a minute or two to think about it. The problem arose on Leigh's duplicate evening and those faced with this problem failed to come up with the correct solution.
Solution to Problem No.1
| A5432 |
| QJ9 | |
| A2 | |
| AQ2 | |
| |
| 6 |
| AK1087 | |
| 987 | |
| KJ98 | |
| Contract 7H | |
| By South | |
On top you see eleven winners: one in spades, five in hearts, one
in diamonds and 4 in clubs.
Not enough. You could make 12 by ruffing a diamond but that would mean losing a diamond first.
Now imagine that North is the declarer i.e. a dummy reversal using North's hands to draw trumps AFTER ruffing spades in the South hand. Now count the tricks. One in spades, only three in hearts, one in diamonds and 4 in clubs BUT an additional 4 spade ruffs by South. It relies on trumps splitting 3-2 and clubs no worse than 4-2 but that is all. Ruff a spade immediately at trick 2, cross to the club Queen and ruff another spade high. Cross to the club Ace and ruff another spade high. Then back to the diamond Ace and ruff the final spade high. Finally, provided you have retained a small trump, you can cross to dummy in trumps, draw the remaining trumps and cash your clubs
Now imagine that North is the declarer i.e. a dummy reversal using North's hands to draw trumps AFTER ruffing spades in the South hand. Now count the tricks. One in spades, only three in hearts, one in diamonds and 4 in clubs BUT an additional 4 spade ruffs by South. It relies on trumps splitting 3-2 and clubs no worse than 4-2 but that is all. Ruff a spade immediately at trick 2, cross to the club Queen and ruff another spade high. Cross to the club Ace and ruff another spade high. Then back to the diamond Ace and ruff the final spade high. Finally, provided you have retained a small trump, you can cross to dummy in trumps, draw the remaining trumps and cash your clubs
Solution to Problem No.2
| 65 |
| AJ65 | |
| AK32 | |
| Q54 | |
| |
| AK432 |
| 4 | |
| 654 | |
| 8732 | |
| Contract 2S | |
| By South | |
The trumps will yield 4 tricks if the suit breaks 3-3 or just 3 tricks if as is more likely it breaks 4-2.
Adding your 3 definite tricks outside this brings a total of 6-7 tricks, one short at least of the target.
Now apply the dummy reversal technique (though it's not a dummy reversal). Use the 3 red suit entries in dummy to ruff hearts in your own hand. If the hearts break as the lead indicates then you are home in a canter.
There was an actual hand at Daten not long which was very similar to this one - see 'Elementary my dear..' on articles page.
Solution to Problem No.3
| Ax | ||||
| Kxx | |||||
| QJxxx | |||||
| KQx | |||||
| 92 | |
| K87xxx | |
| 9xxx | QJx | ||||
| Kxx | Ax | ||||
| J9xx | 10x | ||||
| QJ10 | ||||
| A108 | |||||
| 109x | |||||
| Axxx | |||||
| Contract 3NT | By South | ||||
From the lead you know that declarer has the QJ10 of spades. For his
2NT bid he must have two of the three remaining
key cards. The key cards are the Aces of hearts and clubs and the King
of diamonds, so partner must have one of these.
If partner has the club Ace then there is no hope for the defence, as declarer
will attack diamonds next driving out your Ace
and you will never establish the spades.
What about if partner has the diamond King? So you win the spade King and play another to dummy's Ace. Partner wins the first diamond with the King but hasn't got another spade to lead. Let's rewind. Duck the first spade lead by playing the eight to encourage partner to lead them again when he gets in.
Partner wins the first diamond and returns his remaining spade (this relies on partner having started with 2 spades). Now when you get in with the diamond Ace all your spades are good. The duck allowed further communication in the spade suit between you and partner,
Finally what if partner has the Ace to four hearts then the right Action would be to win the spade King and switch to the Queen of hearts, and continue with the Jack if North ducks. Now you will come to 3 heart tricks, the spade King and the diamond Ace. Unfortunately this would not have worked with the given hand but award yourself top marks for your effort as I regard both solutions as equally likely.
Solution to Problem No.4
| 632 | ||||
| K4 | |||||
| A10862 | |||||
| J94 | |||||
| - | |
| QJ10986 | |
| Q9632 | J108 | ||||
| J753 | 94 | ||||
| K1083 | Q5 | ||||
| AK75 | ||||
| A75 | |||||
| KQ | |||||
| A762 | |||||
| Contract 3NT | By South | ||||
Well without the weak 2S bid, you might have won the first heart in
hand, cashed the KQ of diamonds and then given up a spade.
That way you would make if spades or diamond are 3-3 or the
Jack of diamonds falls.
The spade break is out of the picture after the bidding so the tricks must come from the diamonds. It is perhaps not easy to see but you give yourself an extra chance if you play the King of diamonds then lead the Queen and unless West plays the Jack of diamonds overtake with the Ace in dummy.
Now you make when diamonds are 3-3 or when the Jack falls doubleton OR when the nine of diamonds falls doubleton. A small extra chance.
Playing duplicate do as the field do..cash the King Queen and Ace separately..this gives a good chance of five tricks. If Butler scoring was operating however play as though you were playing teams
The spade break is out of the picture after the bidding so the tricks must come from the diamonds. It is perhaps not easy to see but you give yourself an extra chance if you play the King of diamonds then lead the Queen and unless West plays the Jack of diamonds overtake with the Ace in dummy.
Now you make when diamonds are 3-3 or when the Jack falls doubleton OR when the nine of diamonds falls doubleton. A small extra chance.
Playing duplicate do as the field do..cash the King Queen and Ace separately..this gives a good chance of five tricks. If Butler scoring was operating however play as though you were playing teams
Solution to Problem No.5
| AK98 | ||||
| 8 | |||||
| AKJ54 | |||||
| 1042 | |||||
| Q6 | |
| J7 | |
| AK763 | J10954 | ||||
| 7 | 1082 | ||||
| AK763 | Q95 | ||||
| 105432 | ||||
| Q2 | |||||
| Q963 | |||||
| J8 | |||||
| Contract 5H* | By West | ||||
Did you continue with the diamond King? - WRONG you have just conceded
1 doubled overtrick.
OK so you switched to a high spade and that held the trick. Which one did you play, and how do you know which card to lead for the third trick?
This is a cash-out situation, you need to know how many spades partner has. You know he won't have too much for his two spade bid. Regardless of what you play, when you are in a cash out situation, i.e. On lead to a slam maybe with an Ace and a KQ combination in different suits or AKQ in the same suit, or as here still on lead after trick 1..the lead of a King DEMANDS a count signal. Here you should lead the KING of spades at trick 2 and when your partner follows with the two, you know you can cash another spade.
This hand featured at Leigh on 06/12/2011. Both pairs that defended against 5H doubled conceded an overtrick. If you cashed one high card in each suit and then went wrong you only conceded the doubled game.
OK so you switched to a high spade and that held the trick. Which one did you play, and how do you know which card to lead for the third trick?
This is a cash-out situation, you need to know how many spades partner has. You know he won't have too much for his two spade bid. Regardless of what you play, when you are in a cash out situation, i.e. On lead to a slam maybe with an Ace and a KQ combination in different suits or AKQ in the same suit, or as here still on lead after trick 1..the lead of a King DEMANDS a count signal. Here you should lead the KING of spades at trick 2 and when your partner follows with the two, you know you can cash another spade.
This hand featured at Leigh on 06/12/2011. Both pairs that defended against 5H doubled conceded an overtrick. If you cashed one high card in each suit and then went wrong you only conceded the doubled game.