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|1|nt||fp|1|
cs|4|3d|3|at|


^-{ SKY CLUB & Larry Cohen }
^-
|cs|4|fp|2|3d|3|at|^-{ Deal of the week
Series II - Deal I }
|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 first deal of the Series II.  |pg||

nt||cs|2|ht|b|fp|2|at|^-{INTRODUCTION}
^-
|fp||at|This week we start on a new series of four deals, all relating to negative doubles. This is a must-play convention, and you should play it on all levels (not just through the 2- or 3-level). 

To read more about this, please see: ^*Hwww.larryco.com/BridgeArticles/ArticleDetails.aspx?articleID=27^*N



|pg||
bg|6|st||qx|Board1|3d||ah|SKY&&Larry|ah|S II - D I|
pn|You,West,Parnter,East,South,West,North,East|md|3S98764HAJ8DK5C532,SJ53H92DAQ9864C76,SAKQTHQ3D72CAT984|sv|0|sk|s|nt||ht|c|at|As South, you are in 3rd seat with nobody vulnerable, holding:|pg||mb|1c|nt||ht|c|at|Your partner opens 1@C  |pg||mb|1h|at|and RHO overcalls 1@H. And you?  |pg||
nt||cq|3|lb|*mYour call is?^Pass~Double~1@s^3|mb|d|nt||hs|ss|ht|c|at|In "Standard," a double after a 1@H overcall promises exactly ^*B4 spades^*N (not 5, not 3).|pg||ub|1|mb|1s|nt||ht|c|at|Conversely, a bid of 1@S guarantees at least 5 cards in the suit.  |pg||ls|ss|nt||ht|c|at|Accordingly, I love it when my opponents overcall 1@H. |pg||at|I get to convey right away whether I have only 4 spades, or as in this case, 5+ by bidding 1@S. |pg||mb|p3s|nt||ht|c|at|LHO passes and opener raises to 3@S. |pg||mb|p|nt||ht|c|at|After RHO's pass, what do you do? |pg||

nt||cq|3|lb|*mYour call is?^Pass~4@s^2|nt||ht|c|at|Partner is inviting game and you have an unclear decision. |pg||
hs|sh|at|You have a little extra and well-placed hearts (behind the overcaller). |pg||
ls|sh|hs|ss|at|Your trumps (since you already promised 5 cards) are poor. |pg||
ls|ss|sv|ns|nt||ht|c|at|If vulnerable at IMPs, |pg||
at|I'd surely take the push (it is important to be aggressive in that situation). |pg||
sv|0|nt||ht|c|at|Here, it is borderline. |pg||nt||ht|c|mb|4sppp|at|Let's say you do bid 4@S and everyone passes. |pg||pc|h9|nt||ht|c|at|West leads the @H9 - what are your thoughts?|pg||nt||ht|c|at|In suit contracts I like to count losers. |pg||hs|nsnhsssh|nt||ht|c|at|You will surely not lose any tricks in the majors (barring anything ridiculous). |pg||ls|nsnhsssh|hs|ncsc|nt||ht|c|at|In clubs you have to lose two tricks. |pg||
ls|ncsc|hs|ndsd|nt||ht|c|at|In diamonds, if the ace has the decency to be with the overcaller, you will lose only one trick. |pg||
ls|ndsd|nt||ht|c|at|So, is this an easy one? |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|It turns out,|pg||
hc|h8|at| the key to this deal is your @H8 and you must play correctly to trick one.|pg||
lc|h8|nt||ht|c|at|Let's look at all 52 cards. |pg||
sk|y|pg||hc|da|nt||ht|c|at|As you can see, the @DA is wrong.  |pg||lc|da|hs|ncsc|nt||ht|c|at|As soon as you draw trumps and work on clubs,|pg||ls|ncsc|hs|ed|nt||ht|c|at|East will play a diamond and you will lose 4 tricks. |pg||ls|ed|hs|nhsh|nt||ht|c|at|However, you can prevent the loss of 2 diamond tricks if you make use of your heart spots. |pg||ls|nhsh|hc|hq|nt||ht|c|at|At trick one, play the queen from dummy. |pg||
lc|hq|pc|hq|pg||
up|1|at|If you don't play the queen,|pg||
pc|h|pg||
hc|h4567|at| East will play low on the nine|pg||
lc|h4567|pc|h|pg||
hc|haj|at|and you will get only your jack and ace. |pg||
lc|haj|up|2|nt||ht|c|at|When you play the queen, |pg||
pc|hq|pg||
hc|hk|at|East has to cover. |pg||
lc|hk|pc|hk|pg||

nt||ht|c|hs|nhsh|at|Now, you can see the importance of your @H8. |pg||ls|nhsh|hc|ha|nt||ht|c|at|You win the @HA |pg||
lc|ha|pc|ha|pg||hs|nsss|at|and draw trumps.|pg||ls|nsss|pc|sssqs|pg||
pc|sahss|pg||
pc|skhss|pg||hc|h3|at| Now you play another heart from dummy |pg||
lc|h3|pc|hh|pg||
hc|h8|at|and take the sure finesse (East bid the suit and West would not lead the 9 from 10-9). |pg||
lc|h8|pc|hh|pg||hc|hjd72|nt||ht|c|at|Then, you can throw one of dummy's diamonds on your hearts. |pg||
lc|hjd72|pc|hddh|pg||nt||ht|c|at|Now you lose only 2 clubs and a diamond and make your contract.
|pg||
mc|10|pg||up|24|nt||ht|c|at|Next week we continue with negative doubles.|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. |