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 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 in row deal of the second series.  |pg||

nt||cs|2|ht|b|fp|2|at|^-{INTRODUCTION}
^-
|fp||at|This is the second  week  in a 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 II|
pn|South,You,North,Parnter,South,West,North,East|md|4SA9HKJ8752DQJ9CQT,SQJ75HAQD632CA943,ST8643HT94DT8CJ76|sv|ns|sk|w|nt||ht|c|at|As West, you are in 3rd seat with: |pg||mb|1d|nt||ht|c|at|Partner deals and opens 1@D. |pg||mb|1h|at|This is overcalled with 1@H. |pg||
at|As I commented last week, I love when my opponents overcall 1@H. |pg||
at|It allows me to clarify my spade length.|pg||
hs|ws|mb|d|nt||ht|c|at|Here, I can double to tell partner I have exactly 4 spades. |pg||
ls|ws|ub|1|mb|2h|nt||ht|c|at|There is no rush to bid game |pg||
ub|1|mb|3nt|at|and no rush to bid notrump. |pg||
ub|1|mb|d|nt||ht|c|at|Let's find out if we have a 4-4 spade fit and reassess the situation on the next round of bidding. |pg||
mb|p2c|nt||ht|c|at|After our double, North passes and partner bids 2@C. |pg||
at|What does this show?|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|Nothing fancy. He has diamonds and clubs and is in the minimum range (no jump). |pg||
at|A jump after a negative double is not like a normal forcing-to-game jump shift. |pg||
at|It just shows some extras; if partner had a "medium" hand he could have bid 3@C.|pg||
mb|p|nt||ht|c|at|South passes  and it is up to you. |pg||




nt||cq|3|lb|*mYour call is?^2NT~3@H~3@s~3NT^4|nt||ht|c|at|With an opening bid opposite an opening bid, you want to be in game.|pg||nt||ht|c|at|Which game? You already explored for but didn't find a major-suit fit. |pg||at|Nobody wants to play 5-of-a-minor unless it is absolutely necessary. |pg||mb|3n|hs|wh|nt||ht|c|at|Here, with two heart stoppers and a flattish hand, you should just bid 3NT. |pg||
ls|wh|mb|ppp|pg||
pc|ht|nt||ht|c|at|West leads the @H10 and you see a frustrating dummy. |pg||nt||ht|c|at|It is frustrating because no matter how you count your tricks, you have only 8 (my advice is to count losers at suit contracts, winners at notrump contracts).  |pg||hs|wheh|nt||ht|c|at|You have 2 heart tricks and can work on any of the 3 side suits. Let's try each one. |pg||
ls|ehwh|pc|hhh|pg||
hs|esws|nt||ht|c|at|If you play a spade, you can knock out their @SA to set up 2 spades tricks. |pg||
ls|esws|hc|dakhaqsqjcak|at|This goes with 2 top tricks in each other suit to produce 8. |pg||
lc|dakhaqsqjcak|nt||ht|c|at|When they take their @SA, they will clear the hearts and you can't lose the lead again-no good. |pg||
hs|edwd|nt||ht|c|at|If you play diamonds and they are 3-2, |pg||ls|edwd|at|they will win and clear hearts. |pg||
hc|dak75haqcak|at|You will have set up 4 diamonds tricks to go with 2 clubs and 2 hearts. No good again. |pg||
lc|dak75haqcak|hs|ecwc|nt||ht|c|at|If you work on clubs, again you have to lose the lead to set up the suit. |pg||
ls|ecwc|hc|cak9854dakhaq|at|Assuming a 3-2 club break, you have 3 clubs, 2 diamonds and 2 hearts - only 7 tricks. We are going in the wrong direction. |pg||
lc|cak9854dakhaq|nt||ht|c|at|This is one of the hardest hands (maybe ^*Uthe^*N hardest) you will see in this series. |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|The solution can best be illustrated by looking at all 4 hands. |pg||sk|y|pg||nt||ht|c|at|Any surprise? |pg||
hc|sa|at|The @SA is where you expected it, right? |pg||
lc|sa|at|Why does it matter? Because, you need the @SA "onside". |pg||hc|d2k|nt||ht|c|at|At trick 2, cross to dummy (in diamonds, say)|pg||
lc|s2k|pc|dddkd|pg||
hc|s2|at| and play a low spade ^*Iaway^*N from the king. |pg||
lc|s2|pc|s|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|What can RHO do? |pg||
at|If he hops with the ace (on air), |pg||
pc|sa|pg||
hs|wses|at|you now have THREE spade tricks. |pg||
ls|esws|nt||ht|c|at|This adds to 2 in every suit to get you to 9 tricks. |pg||up|1|nt||ht|c|at|So, he has to duck the @SA. |pg||
pc|s|pg||
at|Now, you have a spade trick in the bank. |pg||
pc|sjs|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|That's 1 spade, 2 hearts, 2 clubs |pg||
hc|ha|hs|wded|at|and now you still have a heart stopper and can set up the diamonds for 4 tricks |pg||lc|ha|ls|wded|pc|dddd|pg||
at| - totaling 9. |pg||
mc|9|at| Voila! |pg||up|12|lc|dkd2|hc|s5k|nt||ht|c|at|Notice that playing a spade from your hand at trick 2 is no good. |pg||
lc|s5k|pc|sssk|pg||
hc|sa|at|Now, RHO's @SA captures the king (instead of air) and you are a trick short. |pg||
lc|sa|pc|sa|pg||
pc|hk|pg||nt||ht|c|at|This is the kind of deal that can be worked out with brute logic, but not many players are up to the task at the table.|pg||
nt||ht|c|at|You might find that pairs made 3NT when this deal was played, but that is most likely because of misdefense (namely poor discarding). |pg||up|9|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. |