Apparently you'll have 2 losers... Provided you tackle the hand the right way!

This hand is brought to you by Harold Schogger.

Having established one of the most well-known bridge clubs in 1983 in London, the 77 Bridge Club, Harold Schogger is now devoting his time to teaching, playing and writing.

Harold is a member of the International Bridge Press Association, the EBUTA (English Bridge Union Teachers' Association), Gold Level Holder and an English Bridge Union Premier Life Master. Harold co-founded the online bridge teaching school 'THE BRIDGE FORUM'. He can often be found on OK Bridge and Bridgebase.com where he plays and teaches.

He writes up the Hand of The Month on Ok Bridge each month so if you have any submissions please let him know: Click here: Hand ot the Month submission.

He runs a bi-yearly bridge holiday to Israel and some weekends.

He also teaches one on one online.

Visit Harold's website

 

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How do you make 11 tricks after a Heart lead ?

If you draw trumps prematurely you will be lucky to make 10 tricks let alone 11.

Once you get to this 5-4 fit you must appreciate the importance of your intermediates in the trump suit (KQJ10987 between the 2 hands) and the value of a second suit: clubs. 

This second suit needs to be established straight away. At trick 2 play a Club immediately from hand. (Normally you would go to dummy and lead up towards your KJ holding but as long as the clubs are divided no worse than 4-2 you need to get the suit working for you as soon as possible).
After West takes his Queen he is almost certain to play a trump followed by another Heart. You can trump this and persist with the club suit which you trump.

You can now return to hand by ruffing another Heart. Ruff one more club with dummy’s trump queen.

With the clubs now breaking you can merely draw trumps and claim 1 Spade, 1 Heart, 2 Hearts ruffed, 2 Diamonds, 2 Clubs ruffed and 3 established clubs losing just the Club Queen and the Trump Ace.

How to Play:

There is a chinese say:
'An image is worth 1000 words!'

You may want to take the
Online Player Guided Tour

1 - Bidding: Click the 'Play' button in the middle of the page to display the bidding box.

When you are ready, click the 'Start Bidding' button.

When a bid is alerted, it is shown on a yellow background. You can then click that bid to display the related alert.

When there is a comment or a question about your own bid, you can read it on the bidding box comments pane, and then, click the 'Ok' button to continue bidding.

Click 'Close Bidding Box' to proceed to playing the hand.

2 - Playing: The lead is automatic if you are declarer, otherwise you'll see the 'It's your lead' warning in the center pane.

You will play your cards and dummy's as if you were at a live table.

2.1 -Touching cards are considered equivalent! e.g. if you have 876 and you play the 7 while Vu-Bridge expects you to play the 6, then the 7 will blink and the 6 will be played.

2.2 -Sometimes there will be a comment or question during the play.
You should read it and click the 'Click to continue' button at the top of the comment text.

If its a question, there will be a 'Show Answer' button to click at the bottom of the comment panel.

2.3 - When a comment bears a 'Finish flag' button, you can click it to reveal hidden hands and continue playing. We use this to explain technical coups like end-plays, squeezes etc.

2.4 - You can review the last trick by clicking on the last won or lost trick (back of card) at the bottom of the screen. The last trick will show during 3 seconds and then play will continue.

2.5 - You can click the 'Undo last trick' button at the let of the screen in order to redo one or several tricks and review the attached comments.
You can review the auction by clicking the 'Auction' tab in the same area.
3 - Moving the comment panel:

When the mouse hover the dark green background of the bidding box or the comment panel, you'll see a crosshair cursor and you can drag and move it around the page.

The left and right arrows on the top left corner of the comment panel allows you to increase or reduce the width for better readability.

4 - When a hand is finished, you can click the 'Board List' at the top of the comment panel, and play other hands From the same Series.

To play other Series, visit the Vu-Bridge's home page and click the 'Bridge Hands' button.