"Zsa Zsa Weds Eighth Time" by Marti Ronemus

In amazement, I discovered that this week in 1983 Zsa Zsa Gabor wed Felipe de Alba, her eighth husband. Eighth. The wedding was annulled the next day, since her seventh marriage hadn't been fully legally ended. She went on to marry two more times, for a grand total of ten. And, between her and her two sisters, there was a grand total of 21 marriages!!

What does this have to do with bridge? Not a whole lot. Perhaps the lesson lies in how we treat our bridge partners. How many break-ups have YOU had?

Let's work on our bidding, in hopes of keeping our Pards happy. All 10 of them.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ A K J 4 3
♥ 7 6 5 4 3 2
♦ K
♣ 7

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♣	p
?

A: 1♥: What a stinker of a hand, but nothing to get divorced over. We'd love to skip the Hearts entirely and just bid the Spades, but no can do.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ K Q 9
♥ K 10 6 5 4
♦ K 9 8 7
♣ 2

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♣	1♦
1♥	p	1♠	p
?

A: 2 No-trump: A rebid by responder (that's us!) of 2 No-trump shows 10-12 pts, and in this case a stopper in the opponent's suit. Now that we've limited our hand, it's up to Pard.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ A 8 7 6
♥ K 7 6
♦ A J 4 3
♣ 8 5

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
1♦	1♥	Dbl	p
?

A: 1♠: Pard's Negative Double is unlimited, showing four Spades and probably four-ish Clubs. We need to show Spade support, but just as importantly, we need to show our minimum opening hand. Once we do that, Pard can place the contract.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ 9 5
♥ A K J 10 9 8
♦ J 5 4 3
♣ 2

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♣	p
1♥	p	2 No-trump	p
?

A: 4♥: Pard opened the bidding and rebid 2 No-trump, which sort-of promises stoppers in the unbid suits. We don't want to play this anywhere but Hearts, do we? Our distribution is so attractive that we want game. Some might try to weasel out with a 3♥ bid, but not us card-carrying members of the Clint Eastwood School of Bidding.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ A 3 2
♥ Q J 9 8 7
♦ A 5 4 3
♣ 7

Q: 5 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♥	2♣
?

A: 4♣: This bid shows that we have GREAT trump support, shortness (singleton or void) in the opponent's suit which we are cuebidding. It's obviously game-force, and shows serious interest in slam.

Let's play a hand and see how our "marriage" is working out.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

Overall Results

Your results: out of Average:

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
More informations on our website: www.VuBridge.com

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