"Apology" by Marti Ronemus

I must apologize. It seems I've been misleading us all when I share my "factoids." I thought "factoid" meant an essentially useless bit of trivia, but Faithful Reader Thad (with whom I share a passion for words) has straightened me out. Here's what he sez:

" 'Factoid' is a term coined in 1973 by American writer Norman Mailer to mean a piece of info that becomes accepted as a fact even though it is not true, or an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print."

Huh. There's a "lot of THAT goin' around, no? Thad continues:

"Another word used now is 'factlet' for a trivial item of news.
I guess eight ever, nine never to some is a fact, even though only a guideline, so it is a factoid."

Well. I stand (sit?) corrected and thank Thad. I promise henceforth no "factoids," just "factlets." And I'll start with today's quiz, which has some interesting challenges.

Question 1

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

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	1♠	p
?

A: 2♥: We're going to cue-bid the opponent's suit. This is such a useful bid... it tells Pard we've got a limit raise or better with a fit for his suit. We are asking him to limit his hand on his next bid. See next question for a continuation of the bidding.

Pay attention: You will be NORTH who just bid 1♠.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ K Q 10 3 2
♥ 9
♦ J 10 9 3
♣ Q 8 2

Q: 2 - NORTH!! We are the partner of the cue-bidder.

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	1♠	p
2♥	p	?

A: 2♠: Pard's cue-bid asked us to limit our hand. We have the barest minimum for an overcall, so we bid 2♠. Now it's Pard's problem. He is still unlimited and he now knows we have less than an opening hand. LOTS less.

Back In The Day, we needed an opening hand to overcall. Thanks to cuebidding sequences, we can now stay out of trouble overcalling low-point hands. And that's a factlet.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

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

Q: 3 - NORTH!! We are the partner of the cue-bidder.

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	1♠	p
2♥	p	?

A: 3♠: When we overcalled, we could have between 7 and 17 points. Pard's cuebid promised a limit raise or better. Our goal responding to the cuebid is to keep him out of trouble by limiting our hand. Our 3♠ bid defines our hand as being between 12-ish and 14-ish points.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ K Q 10 3 2
♥ 9
♦ A 10 9 3
♣ A Q 8

Q: 4 - NORTH!! We are the partner of the cue-bidder...again.

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	1♠	p
2♥	p	?

A: 4♠: Pard's overcall showed a limit raise or better with our 17-ish points, we've got game opposite a limit raise. We tell him we've got 15-17 pts by going to game. Is that the end of the bidding? Up to Pard. We've done all we can to keep him out of trouble.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ A 9 7 6
♥ 8
♦ J 10 6 5 4
♣ 4 3 2

Q: 5 - South again:

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	1♠	2♥
?

A: 3♠: In a competitive auction, raising your Pard's suit is the weakest bid you can give, thusly the importance of the cuebid is reinforced. A jump raise like this is pre-emptive, showing the number of trumps we hold and following The Law of Total Tricks. We know we've got a nine-card trump fit, so we raise Pard to the level of nine tricks. Pard will know we DON'T have a limit raise. If we did? We would have cuebid.

So far, we've stuck to the truth. Now, on to our hand.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

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

Play on ANY Device

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

Rate yourself:

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51 - 60%	Nice improvement! One more review and you'll have this down solid!
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