mn|SKY Club & Larry Cohen|tu||
cr|1255|cb|164|cg|1155|
cr|264|cb|2255|cg|2255|
cr|364|cb|364|cg|3255|
cr|4255|cb|464|cg|464|
cr|590|cb|5100|cg|5230|
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|5|3d|3|at|


^-{ SKY CLUB & Larry Cohen }


^-
|cs|5|fp|2|3d|3|at|^-{ Deal of the week
Series IV - 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 four in the fourth series.  |pg||

nt||cs|2|ht|b|fp|2|at|^-{INTRODUCTION}
^-
|fp||at|This is the first week in a series of four deals, all relating to signaling. 

To read more about this, please see:
 ^*Hwww.larryco.com/BridgeArticles/ArticleDetails.aspx?articleID=263^*N



|pg||
bg|6|st||qx|Board1|3d||ah|SKY&&Larry|ah|S IV - D I|
pn|South,Partner,North,You,South,West,North,East|md|3SAQ4H54DAKJTCAK53,SJT982H763DQ987CJ,S75HKQJTD6532C762|sv|0|sk|e|nt||ht|c|at|In this series on signaling, you probably aren't expecting good hands (or you'd be declaring).  |pg||mb|p|nt||ht|c|at|In 2nd seat, |pg||mb|p|at|you pass|pg||mb|2n|at| and LHO opens 2NT (20-21). |pg||mb|p|mb|3c|an|Stayman|nt||ht|c|at|After a Stayman auction,  |pg||mb|p3d|an|no major 4th|pg||
mb|p3nppp|at|you find yourself defending 3NT. |pg||pc|sj|nt||ht|c|at|Partner leads the @SJ, standard. |pg||nt||ht|c|at|What should your initial thoughts be? |pg||nt||ht|c|at|Count HCP. |pg||at|You have 9, partner has at least 1 (the @SJ) and dummy has 6. |pg||at|That accounts for 16 HCP. |pg||at|The 2NT opening showed 20-21. |pg||nt||ht|c|at|This now accounts for 36-37. |pg||at|This means partner has 3-4 points aside from the @SJ. |pg||at|It is a good habit to do this kind of math at trick one when the auction permits. |pg||pc|s|nt||ht|c|at|When dummy plays low, |pg||at|what should you play? |pg||hc|sk|nt||ht|c|at|You should play the @SK. |pg||lc|sk|pc|sk|at|It is just possible for partner to have the @SA. |pg||nt||ht|c|at|If declarer has Qx or Qxx in spades, surely he doesn't deserve a trick. |pg||pc|sa|nt||ht|c|at|Declarer wins the @SA - so now you know he has AQ.|pg||pc|h|nt||ht|c|hc|ht|at|Declarer plays a heart to dummy's 10. |pg||pc|hh|lc|ht|at|What is your plan? |pg||nt||cq|1|lb|*mWhat is your plan?^Win 1st heart~Win 2nd heart~Win 3rd heart^2|nt||ht|c|at|On declarer's heart play, partner should signal you his count. |pg||
lc|hakq|at|In "Standard" (although this varies around the world), partner's low card (the @h3) means he started with an odd number of hearts (either 1, 3, or 5). |pg||nt||ht|c|at|Which do you think? |pg||
nt||cq|1|lb|*mHow many hearts he has?^ 1 ~ 3 ~ 5 ^2|nt||ht|c|at|It has to be 3. |pg||
at|If he had 1, declarer would have answered 3@H to the Stayman inquiry. |pg||
at|If it is 5, there are 14 hearts in the deck-call the director. |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|You want to win your @HA at the exact moment that declarer runs out of hearts in his hand. |pg||
pc|h9|nt||ht|c|at|So, duck the first heart (@H9 - you are allowed to give count, too). |pg||nt||ht|c|pc|hk|hc|ha|at|Win the next heart. |pg||pc|hahh|lc|ha|pg||
at|And? |pg||
hc|s6|at|Might as well return a spade. |pg||lc|s6|pc|s6|sk|y|nt||ht|C|at|This is the full deal: |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|Declarer can take only 8 tricks (2@S, 1@H, 3@D, 2@C). |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|Had you won your heart on any other round, the contract would have made. Try it! |pg||
nt||ht|c|at|Note: Against good defenders, declarer shouldn't try the 2nd round of hearts. |pg||
at|He knows they are giving count and he won't be able to sneak through a second round of the suit. |pg||
at|Instead he should use his only dummy entry to try the diamond finesse, which as it turns out, would lead to the same down one. |pg||
up|13|nt||ht|c|at|

Next week we continue with signals. |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. |