53 responses to “Quiz: Test Your Bridge Skills #2”
Anonymous
YOU ARE WRONG IN #4. WINNING HEART ACE IN DUMMY IS VASTLY SUPERIOR. Y0U THEN LEAD LOW DIAMOND NEXT. IF EAST RISES WITH ACE, YOU WILL CASH YOUR NINE TRICKS AND IF EAST’S CLUB KING IS SINGLETON, YOU WILL GET MANY OVERTRICKS.
IF EAST LETS YOU WIN ONE DIAMOND TRICK, YOU WILL PLAY CLUBS AT LEISURE. YOU CAN HOPE TO DROP SINGLETON CLUB. OR HOPE EAST OPENED EXTRA LIGHT AND FINESSE. THE FINESSE BEING HIGHER % IF EAST IS NOT THE PROFOUND FAVORITE TO HAVE THE KING. YOU CANNOT DO THIS IF YOU PRESUMED HE HAS THE KING OF CLUBS.
Anonymous
Thank you! Please continue with these “lessons”, I like to play better bridge.. It is very helpfull
Yorulmazd
Anonymous
Anonymous
5 hard
pedrao
this professor is self-righteous. if he is so good, why isn’t he in top 100 players in the world?
Klujian
And why don’t Olympic coaches win the events themselves?
dmr35
Thanks…
Janey
Prefer not to give opponents too much information
lorantrit
Manners, please. Bridge is a game played by ladies and gentlemen. I made the same “error” by not cashing the club ace. However, I am so highly regarded as a bridge player (and as a lover) that I was able to shrug it off. 19 out of a possible 20 points was still OK for me.
Anonymous
Really? Cannot get 19.
traisiwang
thank you!
Rosarote
Danke viel gelernt
lazkar
Does anybody open QJT9 Q732 A10985 – in first position?
Anonymous
Grazie
Tharinda97
Thank you so much! Learned a lot.
neev
Easily open 1D here.
thawp66
I consider myself to be an above average player. However, when I analyzed board 1, I did it a little too quickly and had an oversight. I concluded partner had the 3 missing aces, giving me 12 tricks in NT and 13 in diamonds. I didn’t initially realize that partner couldn’t have a king as well, because that would give him more points than his maximum (15>14). I wanted to bid 5NT (for kings) to find 7NT. When 5NT wasn’t an option, I reanalyzed the bidding and noticed my oversight.
I think it’s reasonable to conclude that others made the same error. Therefore, I think you should have listed 5NT as an option, as it probably would have been a popular choice.
Thank you for the your time and also for the challenging problems.
Maximus987
I to feel that it is not necessary to cash CA early for possible overtricks – which can be done later – so a bit unhappy to score only 19 points!
Anonymous
I made the same choices, now rewarded 20 points but still 3 out of 4.
kaplanStyle
Quiz 2. I prefer to bid 4nt preparing my pd bid 5 clubs or 5dia. if he bid 5 clubs I can then bid 5 dia.He then go back to 5 hearts. if opp bid to 5spades. I will AXE. so 4nt is a 2 edged sword. Besides if my pd points not in spades with ace of clubs And Qxx of dia. we have a possible slam. so 4nt is a better answer than 5 dia.
Cloudy1
Nice quiz! Really thought provoking.
miamijd
There are a couple of issues with 4NT. First, are you sure your partner might not take it as Key Card? What if you had:
x
AQJTxxx
AKQx
x
Don’t you want to be able to find out if partner has two key cards? To me, 4NT here is key card.
Second, if you and your partner agree that 4NT shows a minor side suit (not standard), what if the opponents bid 5S over 4NT? Now how is partner supposed to know which minor to lead?
joyceanne
good quiz…keep em coming!
blue9244@gmail.com
I thought I was a better player than the quiz revealed. Back to the books for me. I also wanted to bid 5NT on problem #1 but ended up bidding 6NT. Oops!
Anonymous
soo confusing!!!!
lorantrit
Good quiz. On the first hand, you also have to figure out that pard has four (or more) diamonds – that he is not 4-4-3-2. After that it is just a matter of counting tricks and hoping no 5-0 diamond split. Most 4-1’s can be handled with an early club ruff.
Anonymous
5 spades
Anonymous
I did poorly – more so than I deserve, I thought. After reading the analysis, I fully agree that I dot what I deserved. LOL
thank you, I found the quiz very educational.
Gardenia
Very interesting and thought provoking quiz. Please let me know which book to consult to be able to think like this.
Gardenia.
ZLUN
THANKS.
Koshisay
Thank you for the advice
pierre3455
i totally agree with that last comment, although the A A 6 is a valuable solution too
Avadakedavra
Also scored 19/20 and dont like the club ace on board 4 as it is too unilateral at this stage – the club ace can wait and on some rare hands where the diamonds are 5:0 East can safely go in with diamond ace knowing declarer want have enough tricks and cant be strip squeezed and end played – for instance suppose West has Spade Jack [there isn’t a law East has to have a 12 count] now East is worried by going in declarer has 3 spades 3 diamonds and 2 hearts and a club.Much better psychologically not to cash the club ace and certainly at Match pointed pairs is the wrong thing to do.Having played for over 50 years you dont want to find an unusual play so East sits up and starts thinking and does go in with the Ace when diamonds are 5:1
Alamosarti
These are very humbling quizzes!!! I’ve scored 0 both times; and thought I was actually a pretty decent player… Geesh!
Anonymous
How can diamonds be 5-1 when the opponents have only 5 diamonds. You have 8, the last I checked 13-8=5. Did you mean 5-0 or 4-1?
Anonymous
Re: Number 1
I prefer a bidding theory based on the following use of jump shifts:
Jump shifts generally are game-forcing and show slam interest as follows:.
a. Jump shift followed by minimum No Trump:
Since 3NT over 1 of a suit = 13 – 15, this is balanced with 16-18. It does not show an overwhelming suit or overwhelming support for opener’s suit (although I suppose it could have wonderful support.)
b. Jump shift followed by rebid of suit
This shows a very strong suit with 16-18 or so. (With extraordinarily strong suit, it may be done with less than 16.)
c. Jump shift followed by support of partner’s original suit.
This shows at least 4 very good cards in support of partner and almost always 16-18.
I write this comment because on the first hand, I would have bid 2S and then 3D.
On the actual sequence in hand 1., I think there is some danger that opener has a 4-card Diamond suit. On my theory, partner might be able to bid the grand slam because he knows that the responder has at least DKQxx and probably holds D KQJx. And of course, if responder tries for a
grand with only 16-18, he must have a source of tricks in Spades.
One of the effects of this theory is that if responder does not jump shift and then makes an unequivocal slam try even though opener does not cooperate, responder is showing more than 16-18.
Of course, I have not written a book on this, but I think that it is a reasonable approach.
I also understand that this conflicts with a method based on a weak jump shift by responder. I am not sure how often that happens or how desirable it is. .
Anonymous
Got No.3 wrong first, didn’t notice dummy’s S10 and thought I should wait for partner to get lead and return a spade. Stupid me, good quiz.
Then after reading the comments, I noticed I would respond 2S at South in No.1 too. I use strong jump shift, but some use weak jump shift and must bid 1S. It’s only a matter of partnership convention.
FelicityR
Not too difficult. There’s a certain logic to all the problems. Though, to be honest, I saw a variation of problem number four some weeks ago in a bridge book. Maybe reading all my bridge books, and reading and writing on BBO forums has helped me tremendously. Always good to read Oren Lidor’s contributions on BBO.
Anonymous
thank you very much
Anonymous
It is great. Tx a lot
anup
Great quizes
jonottawa
20/20. I guess it must be a good quiz, eh?
Kanchi
6s
AAWK
Why is bidding 5nt not a option (shows all key cards on board and asking for kings.
6c = king of c or both kings in d and h
6d = king of d or both kings in c and h
6h = king of h or both kings in c and d
miamijd
What is the use of bidding 5NT? You know that partner has 3 spades, at least four diamonds (he doesn’t have 4 spades), 3 Aces (5C response to 4NT), a balanced hand and a maximum of 14 HCP (he opened 1m and rebid 1NT). How can he possibly have a King, too? He would have opened 1NT, not 1D. If you bid 5NT, partner is going to respond 6S (playing specific Kings) or 6C (playing # of Kings). This doesn’t help you at all.
No, you have to do a bit of simple visualization. 6 spades, 1 heart, 4 diamonds, 1 club. That’s 12. Since we know partner has at least 4 diamonds, chances are 95%+ that we can take a club ruff for 13. 7D.
Malesevich
I scored 4 correct out of 4 questions. It’s intermediate/advanced level.
Anonymous
Pardon my ignorance, but in Blackwood a 5 Club response to 4NT means all ages or none. In what convention does it mean 3?
Anonymous
Almost all tournament players nowadays play some form of key-card convention (key-card Blackwood, kickback, or the like), where you can find out not only about the four Aces, but also about the king and queen of trump. The fifth “key card” is the King of trump, which is typically just as important as an Ace. Go read up on key card blackwood on the internet; you’ll like it 🙂
aawk
What if partner has a 3343 pattern with 3 aces and a king being 15 HCP and did not open 1nt that is why 5nt is still a option to me.
miamijd
Why wouldn’t he open 1NT with that hand? If is an obvious 1NT opener! You can’t base your bidding on the possibility that partner made a mistake!
makcok
For #1; you excluded the probability of an odd diamond distribution. Opponents may have (and with high probability) a 1-4 or 0-5 diamond distribution which could hamper the achievement of a 7 D.
madotte
Christmas lasted a long time in our part of the world.
Just to make sure that the answer to 4NT should be 5 D indicating 1 or 3 aces. and not to be the 5C which you indicated ???
just asking because I am not the best of players.
Thank you Owen, I am enjoying your Bridge questions.
Comments
53 responses to “Quiz: Test Your Bridge Skills #2”
YOU ARE WRONG IN #4. WINNING HEART ACE IN DUMMY IS VASTLY SUPERIOR. Y0U THEN LEAD LOW DIAMOND NEXT. IF EAST RISES WITH ACE, YOU WILL CASH YOUR NINE TRICKS AND IF EAST’S CLUB KING IS SINGLETON, YOU WILL GET MANY OVERTRICKS.
IF EAST LETS YOU WIN ONE DIAMOND TRICK, YOU WILL PLAY CLUBS AT LEISURE. YOU CAN HOPE TO DROP SINGLETON CLUB. OR HOPE EAST OPENED EXTRA LIGHT AND FINESSE. THE FINESSE BEING HIGHER % IF EAST IS NOT THE PROFOUND FAVORITE TO HAVE THE KING. YOU CANNOT DO THIS IF YOU PRESUMED HE HAS THE KING OF CLUBS.
Thank you! Please continue with these “lessons”, I like to play better bridge.. It is very helpfull
Anonymous
5 hard
this professor is self-righteous. if he is so good, why isn’t he in top 100 players in the world?
And why don’t Olympic coaches win the events themselves?
Thanks…
Prefer not to give opponents too much information
Manners, please. Bridge is a game played by ladies and gentlemen. I made the same “error” by not cashing the club ace. However, I am so highly regarded as a bridge player (and as a lover) that I was able to shrug it off. 19 out of a possible 20 points was still OK for me.
Really? Cannot get 19.
thank you!
Danke viel gelernt
Does anybody open QJT9 Q732 A10985 – in first position?
Grazie
Thank you so much! Learned a lot.
Easily open 1D here.
I consider myself to be an above average player. However, when I analyzed board 1, I did it a little too quickly and had an oversight. I concluded partner had the 3 missing aces, giving me 12 tricks in NT and 13 in diamonds. I didn’t initially realize that partner couldn’t have a king as well, because that would give him more points than his maximum (15>14). I wanted to bid 5NT (for kings) to find 7NT. When 5NT wasn’t an option, I reanalyzed the bidding and noticed my oversight.
I think it’s reasonable to conclude that others made the same error. Therefore, I think you should have listed 5NT as an option, as it probably would have been a popular choice.
Thank you for the your time and also for the challenging problems.
I to feel that it is not necessary to cash CA early for possible overtricks – which can be done later – so a bit unhappy to score only 19 points!
I made the same choices, now rewarded 20 points but still 3 out of 4.
Quiz 2. I prefer to bid 4nt preparing my pd bid 5 clubs or 5dia. if he bid 5 clubs I can then bid 5 dia.He then go back to 5 hearts. if opp bid to 5spades. I will AXE. so 4nt is a 2 edged sword. Besides if my pd points not in spades with ace of clubs And Qxx of dia. we have a possible slam. so 4nt is a better answer than 5 dia.
Nice quiz! Really thought provoking.
There are a couple of issues with 4NT. First, are you sure your partner might not take it as Key Card? What if you had:
x
AQJTxxx
AKQx
x
Don’t you want to be able to find out if partner has two key cards? To me, 4NT here is key card.
Second, if you and your partner agree that 4NT shows a minor side suit (not standard), what if the opponents bid 5S over 4NT? Now how is partner supposed to know which minor to lead?
good quiz…keep em coming!
I thought I was a better player than the quiz revealed. Back to the books for me. I also wanted to bid 5NT on problem #1 but ended up bidding 6NT. Oops!
soo confusing!!!!
Good quiz. On the first hand, you also have to figure out that pard has four (or more) diamonds – that he is not 4-4-3-2. After that it is just a matter of counting tricks and hoping no 5-0 diamond split. Most 4-1’s can be handled with an early club ruff.
5 spades
I did poorly – more so than I deserve, I thought. After reading the analysis, I fully agree that I dot what I deserved. LOL
thank you, I found the quiz very educational.
Very interesting and thought provoking quiz. Please let me know which book to consult to be able to think like this.
Gardenia.
THANKS.
Thank you for the advice
i totally agree with that last comment, although the A A 6 is a valuable solution too
Also scored 19/20 and dont like the club ace on board 4 as it is too unilateral at this stage – the club ace can wait and on some rare hands where the diamonds are 5:0 East can safely go in with diamond ace knowing declarer want have enough tricks and cant be strip squeezed and end played – for instance suppose West has Spade Jack [there isn’t a law East has to have a 12 count] now East is worried by going in declarer has 3 spades 3 diamonds and 2 hearts and a club.Much better psychologically not to cash the club ace and certainly at Match pointed pairs is the wrong thing to do.Having played for over 50 years you dont want to find an unusual play so East sits up and starts thinking and does go in with the Ace when diamonds are 5:1
These are very humbling quizzes!!! I’ve scored 0 both times; and thought I was actually a pretty decent player… Geesh!
How can diamonds be 5-1 when the opponents have only 5 diamonds. You have 8, the last I checked 13-8=5. Did you mean 5-0 or 4-1?
Re: Number 1
I prefer a bidding theory based on the following use of jump shifts:
Jump shifts generally are game-forcing and show slam interest as follows:.
a. Jump shift followed by minimum No Trump:
Since 3NT over 1 of a suit = 13 – 15, this is balanced with 16-18. It does not show an overwhelming suit or overwhelming support for opener’s suit (although I suppose it could have wonderful support.)
b. Jump shift followed by rebid of suit
This shows a very strong suit with 16-18 or so. (With extraordinarily strong suit, it may be done with less than 16.)
c. Jump shift followed by support of partner’s original suit.
This shows at least 4 very good cards in support of partner and almost always 16-18.
I write this comment because on the first hand, I would have bid 2S and then 3D.
On the actual sequence in hand 1., I think there is some danger that opener has a 4-card Diamond suit. On my theory, partner might be able to bid the grand slam because he knows that the responder has at least DKQxx and probably holds D KQJx. And of course, if responder tries for a
grand with only 16-18, he must have a source of tricks in Spades.
One of the effects of this theory is that if responder does not jump shift and then makes an unequivocal slam try even though opener does not cooperate, responder is showing more than 16-18.
Of course, I have not written a book on this, but I think that it is a reasonable approach.
I also understand that this conflicts with a method based on a weak jump shift by responder. I am not sure how often that happens or how desirable it is. .
Got No.3 wrong first, didn’t notice dummy’s S10 and thought I should wait for partner to get lead and return a spade. Stupid me, good quiz.
Then after reading the comments, I noticed I would respond 2S at South in No.1 too. I use strong jump shift, but some use weak jump shift and must bid 1S. It’s only a matter of partnership convention.
Not too difficult. There’s a certain logic to all the problems. Though, to be honest, I saw a variation of problem number four some weeks ago in a bridge book. Maybe reading all my bridge books, and reading and writing on BBO forums has helped me tremendously. Always good to read Oren Lidor’s contributions on BBO.
thank you very much
It is great. Tx a lot
Great quizes
20/20. I guess it must be a good quiz, eh?
6s
Why is bidding 5nt not a option (shows all key cards on board and asking for kings.
6c = king of c or both kings in d and h
6d = king of d or both kings in c and h
6h = king of h or both kings in c and d
What is the use of bidding 5NT? You know that partner has 3 spades, at least four diamonds (he doesn’t have 4 spades), 3 Aces (5C response to 4NT), a balanced hand and a maximum of 14 HCP (he opened 1m and rebid 1NT). How can he possibly have a King, too? He would have opened 1NT, not 1D. If you bid 5NT, partner is going to respond 6S (playing specific Kings) or 6C (playing # of Kings). This doesn’t help you at all.
No, you have to do a bit of simple visualization. 6 spades, 1 heart, 4 diamonds, 1 club. That’s 12. Since we know partner has at least 4 diamonds, chances are 95%+ that we can take a club ruff for 13. 7D.
I scored 4 correct out of 4 questions. It’s intermediate/advanced level.
Pardon my ignorance, but in Blackwood a 5 Club response to 4NT means all ages or none. In what convention does it mean 3?
Almost all tournament players nowadays play some form of key-card convention (key-card Blackwood, kickback, or the like), where you can find out not only about the four Aces, but also about the king and queen of trump. The fifth “key card” is the King of trump, which is typically just as important as an Ace. Go read up on key card blackwood on the internet; you’ll like it 🙂
What if partner has a 3343 pattern with 3 aces and a king being 15 HCP and did not open 1nt that is why 5nt is still a option to me.
Why wouldn’t he open 1NT with that hand? If is an obvious 1NT opener! You can’t base your bidding on the possibility that partner made a mistake!
For #1; you excluded the probability of an odd diamond distribution. Opponents may have (and with high probability) a 1-4 or 0-5 diamond distribution which could hamper the achievement of a 7 D.
Christmas lasted a long time in our part of the world.
Just to make sure that the answer to 4NT should be 5 D indicating 1 or 3 aces. and not to be the 5C which you indicated ???
just asking because I am not the best of players.
Thank you Owen, I am enjoying your Bridge questions.
No have never sent in a reply