Hand Evaluation "Dangerous Woman" by Marti Ronemus

The most dangerous (albeit fictional) woman in the world is Jessica Fletcher, the heroine of "Murder, She Wrote." If we see her coming, we better run. During the 12-year run of the show, almost 300 people of her acquaintance died. This gives her the Guinness World Record of Most Prolific Amateur Sleuth, beating out Miss Marple for the title.

This also makes innocent-looking Cabot Cove ME the Murder Capital of the Planet Earth!

Interestingly, Angela Lansbury wasn't first choice for the role. It was Jean Stapleton. Wanna bet how sorry she must have been to have turned it down?

And for our Faithful Readers who are conspiracy theorists... there's quite a number of fans who posit that Jessica was a serial killer and was the true perp of all those crimes. Well, admittedly, it sure explains how so many people around her ended up dead.

One of our goals at Vu-Bridge is to make our readers Dangerous Women and Men. Today we're looking at hand evaluation. How can you be dangerous if you don't know how effective your weapon will be? We're going back to basics today and are going to think about Hand Evaluation. Every bid made changes the value of our hand.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ Q J 3 2
♥ K J 7
♦ 9 6 5
♣ 4 3 2

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♥	2♦
?

A: 2♥: Nice little warm-up question. You've got the right trump support and enough points for a minimum response.

Now let's look at the same hand with a different bidding scenario.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ Q J 3 2
♥ K J 7
♦ 9 6 5
♣ 4 3 2

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♥	2♥ *
?

* Michaels Cue-Bid: 5 Spades with a 5-card minor.

A: Pass: This time, three of our points are essentially worthless. Eddie Kantar reminds us that we need to carefully consider Quacks (that's Queens and Jacks) in the opponent's suits. This hand has lost a lot of its value, plus it's flat as a driveway. We can't count on this as a weapon.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ A Q 9 7 6
♥ K 8
♦ A J 5 4 3
♣ 9

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
1♠	2♦	2♠	Pass
?

A: Pass: The guy to your left has the Diamond honors, making your suit seriously suspect. Technically, you've got 16 points with distribution, but this is what we mean by every bid changing the value of your hand. If EAST had bid the Diamonds, it would be a different story.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ Q 4 2
♥ Q 8 7
♦ K 4 3 2
♣ K 5 2

Q: 4 - South:

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

A: 2 No-trump: Yes, technically, we've got 10 points, BUT!! This hand is flat. It has scattered honors (rather than honors clustered in long suits) and it has no honorettes. If you bid 3 No-trump, you don't have to go directly to jail without collecting $200, but, opposite a Pard who also has a flat hand, you could be in trouble. This hand needs to be downgraded for bad texture.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ K 10
♥ A 2
♦ J 10 9 7
♣ J 10 9 8 7

Q: 5 - South:

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

A: 3 No-trump: We LOVE this hand! It has everything the last one didn't. True, it only has 9 points, but look at all those honorettes! This hand deserves to be treated with a little respect. Think what a nice dummy this will be. Last hand we downgraded a 10 point hand, this time we're upgrading a 9 pointer. This is all part of the judgment we develop as we play the game.

Speaking of playing... ready?

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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