VuBridge Online Player

July 2024 Beginners Hand of the Week Board # 2 Dealer: East Vulnerable: EW You are: South Contract: 3 NoTrumps By West

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How to play

Reading The Runes
By Paul Bowyer

Some defending is easy – you just sit calmly on your chair and wait for declarer to go down.

On some deals, though, you need to put your thinking cap on and do something clever.

Which category does this deal fit into?

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After a very brisk and uninformative auction, partner leads the ♥A against 3NT. Against a No-trump contract, that should mean a sequence of three, which can be broken at the bottom. North should have a suit headed by the either the ♥A K Q or the ♥A K J.

Before we start our own analysis, let's look at it from the declarer's point of view. He sees three Spade tricks and five Diamonds for sure. He has little hope for his ♥Q. His ninth trick is going to have to come from a Club. He is praying that either the ♣A is in North (his safe opponent), or if it is in South (that's us!), we will foolishly play second hand low.

At trick one, we signal discouragement by playing the ♥2. Partner switches to the ♠10 at trick two.

We have two small gems of information. First, North does not hold the ♥Q. Otherwise he'd still be firing away. Second, A count of points shows that North has 8-9. We now know that he has the ♥A K J (8 points) so he has at most one Jack outside his suit. But, Dr Watson, we can see them all! Therefore, North doesn't have a stitch outside his suit.

We now think how we can set the contract. Declarer smartly takes the trick in dummy with his ♠K, and at trick three, tries to steal his ninth trick by leading a Club toward his ♣Q, looking innocent and a little bored.

As we know, the bridge gods pay no more attention to us than the golf gods. We violate the ancient second hand low law, pop up with our ♣A, and then lead the ♥8. Why the ♥8? That's routine play with just two cards remaining.

End result? We take the ♣A and five Heart tricks. Another law violation...

Click to Play	Description
	Potential Danger
	Reading The Runes
	The Right Order
	Active Defense

How to Play:

There is a Chinese saying:
'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 left 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 hovers 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.

Bidding Box

Comment

Read the comment, then click "OK" to continue...

The final contract is shown above.

If necessary, the deal has been rotated to place your hand at the bottom of the diagram.

Auction
Results

Tricks won: 0 Tricks lost: 0

West	North	East	South
-	-	P	P
1NT	P	3NT	P
P	P

To play other boards
from this Series,
click the "Board List" tab
above the comments. W E N S Dealer:
East

It's your
lead...