To play Paul's hands from the 1st installment, click here.
4♥ by West was reached in double-quick time at all tables on this deal. If reaching 4♥ is trivial the play most certainly isn’t. What do you do as declarer on the ♦J lead? Well, you may just play by instinct as so many did at the time. “Thank-you, partner, play the ♦Q”. South won the ♦A and smartly switched to the ♠J and suddenly (and too late) West woke up to his fate.
There is nothing he can do now; ducking the Spade, taking the ♠A or playing the ♠Q all amount to the same thing – the defenders have the tempo to establish two Spade tricks to go with their two Aces. One down. Whoops!“Do you know”, said West, “I was considering bidding a slam on my hand? How unlucky! Nothing I could have done.” Well… actually, that’s not true. As so often the critical mistake came at trick one when West called for dummy’s ♦Q. Declarer should see that a Spade switch through the ♠A Q would be most unwelcome and that he can prevent that by ducking the ♦J lead in the dummy. What can the defenders do? If South overtakes with his ♦A there are two discards available for two of West’s Spades and, on the other hand, if North remains on lead he can do no damage. Another Diamond is ruffed, trumps are drawn and the ♣A knocked out. One of dummy’s Spades eventually goes on the long Club and West has his game.
There is a chinese say:'An image is worth 1000 words!'You may want to take theOnline 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.