mn|SKY Club & Larry Cohen|tu||
cr|1255|cb|164|cg|1255|
cr|264|cb|2255|cg|2255|
cr|364|cb|364|cg|3255|
cr|4255|cb|464|cg|464|
cr|590|cb|5180|cg|5130|
cr|6255|cb|6255|cg|6255|
cr|7120|cb|7255|cg|80|
fh|170|ff|1Times New Roman|fi|1y|fb|1y|fu||
fh|250|ff|2Times New Roman|fi|2y|fb|2y|fu||
fh|379|ff|3Arial|fi||fb||fu||
fh|410|ff|4Arial|fi||fb|4y|fu||
fm|1|
fm|2|
fm|3|
fm|4|
bt||bg|5|nt||fp|1|
cs|1|3d|3|at|


^-{ SKY CLUB & Larry Cohen }
^-
|cs|1|fp|2|3d|3|at|^-{ Deal of the week Series I - Deal II }
|fp|4|ht|w|at||at|}
^-

|fp|4|ht|y|at|^- The analyses are kindly made and shared for you by Larry Cohen.
^*Hwww.larryco.com^*N
|at
pg||bg|6|nt|
|cs|2|ht|b|fp|2|at|^-{INTRODUCTION}
^-
|fp||at|Welcome to the second deal in this series.  |pg||

nt||cs|2|ht|b|fp|2|at|^-{INTRODUCTION}
^-
|fp||at|In the first four weeks of this series (see last week) we will be facing a preempt by partner. When your partner preempts, you have an easy decision. If you are interested in game (rare), then bid accordingly. But, if you are ^*Inot^*N interested in game, just raise to the level of your side's number of trumps. 

To read more about this, please see: ^*Hwww.larryco.com/BridgeArticles/ArticleDetails.aspx?articleID=129^*N



|pg||
bg|6|st||qx|Board1&|3d||ah|SKY&&Larry|ah|S I - D II|
pn|South,Partner,North,You,South,West,North,East|md|2SAKQJT53HDAQTCJT3,S74HKQT984D74CKQ8,S98HJ632D9832C972|sv|n|sk|e|nt||ht|c|at|On this week's deal, you hold these East cards:|pg||mb|2h|nt||ht|c|at|At favorable vulnerability (white versus red), your partner deals and opens 2@H. |pg||mb|p|at|RHO passes and it is up to you.  |pg||
nt||cq|3|lb|*mYour call is?^Pass~3@h~4@h~2NT^2|nt||ht|c|at|First question: Are you interested in game? |pg||
at|It is close, but I'd say no. |pg||
at|A popular guideline here is to add your HCP to your number of trumps (12 + 3 = 15). |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|If the number is 17, then you should be interested in game. |pg||
at|I'm not thrilled with memorizing such numbers, and this guideline is far from perfect, |pg||
at|but I thought I'd mention it anyway.|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|Since you aren't interested in game, your decision is easy |pg||
at|- ^*BFollow the LAW^*N. |pg||
nt||ht|c|hs|eh|at|Since partner has 6 trumps and you have 3, you want to bid to the 9-trick level. |pg||
ls|eh|mb|3h|nt||ht|c|at|Raise to 3H. |pg||
at|This raise is ^*BNOT^*N invitational to game. |pg||
ub|1|mb|2n|nt||ht|c|at|If you were interested in game you would have started with 2NT.|pg||
ub|1|mb|3h|nt||ht|c|at|Over your 3@H, LHO thinks a while, |pg||
at|shrugs, |pg||
mb|4s|at|and bids 4@S. |pg||sk|ns|mb|ppp|nt||ht|c|at|Let's jump over to his seat and play the hand. |pg||sk|ns|nt||ht|c|at|That's some hand that South holds. |pg||
at|By the same token, North's hand is the complete opposite - quite ugly. |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|South had a tough guess over the preemptive bidding from E-W. |pg||
ub|4|mb|x|at|He could have doubled, |pg||
ub|1|mb|3s|at|also could have bid a conservative 3@S. |pg||ub|1|mb|4sppp|nt||ht|c|at|I think 4@S is a practical guess; |pg||
at|after all, his partner didn't have to have such garbage.|pg||
pc|hk|sk|y|nt||ht|c|at|Do you see how declarer should play 4@S after the @HK lead?|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|As usual, in a suit contract, declarer should count his LOSERS. |pg||
hs|ncsc|nt||ht|c|at|Here, he has to lose 3 club tricks, |pg||
ls|ncsc|at|so to make the contract he can't lose anything else. |pg||
hs|nh|nt||ht|c|at|There are no problems in hearts |pg||
ls|nh|hs|ssns|at|and spades, |pg||
ls|nsss|hs|ndsd|at|so his eyes should immediately focus on the diamond suit.|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|With AQ10 opposite low ones,  |pg||
ls|ndsd|hc|dkdj|at|your only chance is that both the king and jack are onside. |pg||
lc|dkdj|nt||ht|c|at|For mathematicians out there, this is a 25% chance (probably better on this auction, where West has preempted).|pg||
hc|dakqjt|nt||ht|c|at|To take that double finesse in diamonds, |pg||
lc|dakqjt|at|you need 2 entries to dummy, |pg||
hc|s9853|at|but luckily you have them. |pg||
lc|s9853|nt||ht|c|pc|hh|at|However, you have to be very careful at trick one. |pg||
hc|s53|nt||ht|c|at|If you carelessly ruff the first trick low, |pg||
lc|s53|pc|s|at|you are dead.|pg||
up|1|nt||ht|c|hc|sakqjt|at|Instead, you should ruff the first trick with a higher spade |pg||
lc|skqjt|at|(if you really want to show off, you can trump with the ace!).|pg||
lc|sa|nt||ht|c|pc|sa|at|Then, |pg||
hc|s9853|at|play your carefully preserved low spade to dummy |pg||
lc|s9853|pc|ssss|pg||
hc|d2dt|at|to play a diamond to the 10. |pg||
lc|d2dt|pc|dddd|pg||
at|Your luck is in! |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|Now, |pg||
hc|s95|at|you have another small spade to reach dummy |pg||
lc|s95|pc|ssss|pg||
hc|dq3|at|for another diamond finesse. |pg||
lc|dq3|pc|dddd|pg||
nt||ht|c|mc|10|at|The rest is easy-10 tricks. |pg||
up|17|hs|ss|nt||ht|c|at|As long as you concentrate at trick one, |pg||
ls|ss|at|you should be able to figure out the gist of the problem.|pg||
at| As ugly as North's hand was, |pg||
hc|s98|at|I hope you remembered to thank the dummy for the 9 and 8 of spades!|pg||lc|s98|up|3|nt||ht|c|at|Next week, we will get another chance to "^*BFollow the LAW^*N". |pg||pf|y|nt||ht|c|at|You can now experiment with how the play of this deal could go by selecting the cards that you want to play for all 4 players. Click on the cards that you want to play. 

The  ^$6  button on the toolbar below can be used at any point to take back the last card that you played. |