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 III }
|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 third in the series.  |pg||

nt||cs|2|ht|b|fp|2|at|^-{INTRODUCTION}
^-
|fp||at|In the first four weeks of this series (see previous two weeks)  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 III|
pn|South,Partner,North,You,South,West,North,East|md|2S2HKT98753DJ32CK3,SAKJT85H6D765CJT9,S73HAQJ2DAT98CA82|sv|n|sk|e|nt||ht|c|at|On this week's deal, you hold these East cards:|pg||mb|2s|nt||ht|c|at|At favorable vulnerability (white versus red), your partner deals and opens 2@s. |pg||mb|d|at|RHO doubles and it is up to you.  |pg||
nt||cq|3|lb|*mYour call is?^Pass~Redouble~3@s~4@s^4|nt||ht|c|at|Since you have no game interest, this is an easy decision. |pg||nt||ht|c|at|Your side has 10 trumps, |pg||
at|so you should bid to the 10-trick level - bid 4@S |pg||mb|4s|at|(Yes, it is game, but you are not bidding it to make game - it will surely be a good sacrifice if you are allowed to play there - and you are protected by the ^*BLAW of Total Tricks^*N). |pg||nt||ht|c|at|Your LHO does not look happy, |pg||
mb|5h|at| but decides to bid 5@H |pg||
mb|pp|at|which is passed back to you.|pg||nt||ht|c|at|Are you done? |pg||
mb|5s|at|It could be right to bid 5@S |pg||
at|(especially if 5@H is making), |pg||
at|but a good rule of thumb is this: |pg||
at|Make your Law of Total Tricks bid, let the opponents guess and hope they are wrong. |pg||
ub|1|mb|p|nt||ht|c|at|Don't bid again.|pg||nt||ht|c|at|Lets' hop over to declarer's seat and play 5@H: |pg||sk|a|pc|sa|nt||ht|c|at|The opening lead is the @SA and a very suitable dummy appears.  |pg||nt||ht|c|at|As to South's decision to bid 5@H |pg||at|- well, it would have been nice to bid only 4@H, |pg||
at|but they don't allow that over 4@S.|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|What should your trick-one thinking be?|pg||nt||ht|c|at|At suit contracts, count LOSERS. |pg||
hs|nsss|at|Surely you have to lose a spade trick, |pg||
ls|nsss|hc|djt9832|at|the only way you can go down is if you lose TWO diamond tricks.|pg||lc|djt9832|nt||ht|c|at|What is the right way to play this diamond suit?|pg||nt||ht|c|at|Proper is to take two finesses,  |pg||hc|dkq|at|losing only when East has BOTH the king and queen.|pg||
lc|dkq|nt||ht|c|at|Your chance of success is 75%. |pg||pc|ss9s|pg||
pc|sk|nt||ht|c|at|LHO leads a second top spade |pg||pc|ssh|at|and you ruff. |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|Now what? |pg||nt||ht|c|at|You have a sure line of play |pg||
at|- you won't even need a diamond honor to be onside.|pg||
hs|nhsh|nt||ht|c|at|You should draw trumps |pg||ls|nhsh|pc|hhhah|pg||
hs|ncsc|at|and in the process ruff out the clubs.|pg||
ls|ncsc|pc|ccckc|pg||
pc|cccac|pg||
pc|cchc|pg||hc|d32|nt||ht|c|at|Once the trumps and clubs are drawn you end in your hand to play a diamond towards dummy. |pg||
lc|d32|pc|dd|pg||pc|dtdq|nt||ht|c|at|When West plays low you put in dummy's 10 |pg||
mc|11|at|and claim.|pg||
pc|dk|pg||
hs|edndsd|nt||ht|c|at|East has to either play another diamond |pg||ls|ndedsd|at|or give you a ruff-sluff; |pg||
at|11 tricks either way.|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|This might look easy, |pg||
at|but you'd be amazed at how many people will go down in 5@H. |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|Actually, there is a way to defeat it legitimately. |pg||
up|24|nt||ht|c|at|At trick two, |pg||
hs|wd|at|West has to shift to diamonds. |pg||
ls|wd|pc|d|pg||
at|Declarer has to finesse, |pg||at|but at this early stage, East can win the diamond |pg||
pc|ddqd|pg||
hs|es|at|and exit safely.|pg||
ls|es|pc|s|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|He sits back and gets a second diamond trick. |pg||up|5|nt||ht|c|at|How should West know? |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|From the bidding, he expects declarer is ruffing the second spade. |pg||
at|How would West find a diamond as opposed to a club shift? |pg||
at|This is not easy. |pg||
up|2|nt||ht|c|hc|s964|at|In general, East's signal at trick one is attitude (about spades). |pg||
lc|s964|at|But, in this case, with the spades somewhat known, |pg||
hc|sq|at|a high spade from East should ask for the highest-ranking side suit (diamonds). |pg||pc|sq|nt||ht|c|at|Maybe East could hit West over the head with the unusual play of the Spade QUEEN at trick one. |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|Maybe West would get the message. |pg||
up|3|lc|sq|nt||ht|c|at|Anyway, this is pretty high-level stuff. |pg||
at|I'm happy if East raises West's preempt to 4@S-easy to please. |pg||nt||ht|c|at|Next week, we will get our fourth and final chance to "^*BFollow the LAW^*N" after partner preempts. |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. |