"Nat'l Caffeine Addiction Recovery Month" by Marti Ronemus

This month is especially relevant to me. I'm currently off caffeine in any form (that includes CHOCOLATE) and I'm in mourning. Not to mention grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. I must not be alone if there's a whole month for us. Can you imagine a life without that morning cuppa Joe? Tea? But giving up chocolate? Please, a small moment of silence for all of us struggling to recover.

Thankfully we've got the distraction of bridge! We'll work through these hands together (but please hide the chocolate before I arrive).

Question 1

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

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
1♦	Pass	1♠	Pass
?

A: 2♠: A fairly strong case can be made for any of our three choices. We need to make a bid that shows a minimum hand, that we can agree on. We lean toward 2♠ because of the Heart doubleton. This one should provide much discussion between partners. I just hope you've all had your caffeine so you're not grumpy and irritable.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ 8 5
♥ A K J 8
♦ J 10 4
♣ A 9 8 7

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♦	Pass
1♥	1♠	2♥	Pass
?

A: 4♥: Pard opened the bidding. We've got a fit. Pard showed a minimum opener, so no need to go further. No problem here.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

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

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	4♥	4♠	5♥
?

A: 6♠: Preempts are annoying to begin with, and East's 5♥ bid is enormously irritating (especially for those of us needing our coffee). We have no room to ask for aces or cuebid our Clubs. We must either double or bid and if we're going to bid, let's reach for the stars. We've got two aces and a void. How bad can it be?

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

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

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
1♣	1♥	1 No-trump	Pass
?

A: 3 No-trump: Pard's got a Heart stopper, and we're sitting here with seven tricks in our hand. Sure, we've only got 14 high card points, and Pard's got 10 at most. BUT!! Bridge is a game of tricks, not points. If we can't have our chocolate, we can at least have the satisfaction of the amazement of friends and opponents when we make this.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

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

Q: 5 - South:

South	West	North	East
-			1♣
1♦	3♣	3♠	Pass
?

A: 4♠: Well, my goodness. Pard enters the auction at the three-level with our second suit promising five Spades. We certainly aren't going to insist on our Diamonds. Think what a great DUMP dummy they will make our hand. We can do no less than bid game.

And now it's time to irritate our opponents. They're drinking coffee and we can't, so let's see if we can set them.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

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

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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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