"That Says It All" by Marti Ronemus

English isn't the only language with colorful expressions. Today we bring you new ways to make your language sparkle.

From Japanese: "To have a wide face" means to be well-liked with lots of friends.

Deutsch: "To live like a bug in bacon" is living the high life.

French: "To have long teeth" means being extremely ambitious.

Ukrainian: "My cottage is at the edge" is for when one is only slightly involved in a problem.

And my favorite, from Polish: "Not my circus, not my monkey," for those times when it's not our problem.

HOWEVER!! Bidding IS our circus and IS our monkey. Let's tackle our challenge.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ A J 8 4
♥ K 9 4
♦ K J 7
♣ A 9 3

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	2♥
?

A: 2 No-trump: Simple. This means we would have opened 1 No-trump and have stoppers in East's suit. Nice easy warm-up question. This lets us live like a bug in the bacon!

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

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

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	Pass	Pass
?

A: 1 No-trump: In the balancing suit, we can bid No-trump with 12-14 points. We mentally borrow a king from our partner and show our shape and stopper in Hearts.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ 4 3
♥ 9 6
♦ A 9 8 7 4
♣ K 9 3 2

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♠
Pass	2♠	3♦	3♥
?

A: 4♦: We certainly won't have "long teeth" if we Pass! Shame! Pard was willing to enter the auction at the three-level, and we're holding the ♦A. We also like our shortness in the opponents' suits.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

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

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
1♦	1♠	2♠**	Pass
?

**cuebid showing Diamond support and 10-plus points

A: 2 No-trump: C'mon, we don't really want to play in Diamonds, do we? Aren't we audacious? Our 2 No-trump bid is invitational and promises Spade stoppers. Now Pard can Do the Math, look at his own stoppers and decide where to place the contract. Once we limit our hand, which our 2 No-trump bid does, it's no longer our circus and not our monkey.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

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

Q: 5 - South:

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

**Balancing No-trump, 11-14 pts.

A: 2 No-trump: We hated passing initially, but we couldn't overcall, couldn't double. Now we get another chance. Pard's hand is somewhere between 11 and 14 points. With our flat 12, we aren't sure where the contract belongs. We're going to invite, promising 10-12. It's no longer our problem.

Ready for a nice hand?

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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