Issue 5 - Standard American

Editorial by Paul Bowyer

Welcome to the fifth edition of V-Blue, the e-magazine for those learning the wonderful game of bridge. Oh, yes, and a happy new year!

In this issue there are (as ever) three excellent series for you to get your teeth into.

Two series (of six hands each) are on suit breaks, a topic backed up by our quiz. We have tried to keep the more abstruse mathematics out of this but we do need you to count the cards as they are played. Basically we are looking at the way suits behave and the way that you know how many tricks are definitely available and how many might be available depending on how they lie. Is this confusing? Don’t worry! We will talk you through this carefully, starting with six very gentle hands in the first series.

There are, naturally enough, six slightly harder hands in the second series.

When you have absorbed the lessons of suit splits and counting out the suits as they are played you may care to try out our “General Series”. Here we have eight assorted deals for you to see what you have gained from previous editions of VuBridge. Practice makes perfect, so they say, so can you approach perfection? Good luck.

Series #2125 - Suit Breaks - Part I (SA)

The art of making tricks in No-trumps is not only by weight of high cards but also by setting up low cards in a suit.

In earlier series we have seen deals where the opponents’ high cards were knocked out to establish a suit. Sometimes, though, we can make tricks by taking advantage of the way a suit breaks (or splits) between the opponents.

Series #2125 - Suit Breaks - Part I (SA):

Suit Breaks: You should take this quiz out before playing the hands... Weakness takeout of 1NT: click here

Series #2126 - Suit Breaks - Part II (SA)

In the earlier series in this edition of V-Blue we have seen deals where suits have broken favorably for our side and (by careful counting) we have known that our "long" cards have been set up as winners.

In this set of six deals life is not as simple. Do you have a Plan B when Plan A fails?

Series #2126 - Suit Breaks - Part II (SA):

Here we have eight assorted deals for you to see what you have gained from previous editions of VuBridge. Practice makes perfect, so they say, so can you approach perfection? Good luck!

Series #2793 General Hands: