Bridge B

Question 1

What are the 2 advantages of playing in a suit contract vs. NT?

Answer 1

1. You can trump to stop defenders from scoring tricks in their own best suit.
2. You can score extra tricks by ruffing losers in dummy.

Question 2

What would cause you not to draw trumps immediately?

Answer 2

If by doing so it would prevent you from taking the planned ruffs.

Question 3

AS a declarer should you win with the higher or lower of 2 touching honors?

Answer 3

the higher because if you win with the lower one, your opponents will know that you have the higher honor

Question 4

If you are declarer and south and have H K 4, is east or west the danger hand?

Answer 4

east because he can lead a H trapping your K

Question 5

What are 3 things to remember about crossruffs

Answer 5

1. Take the early ruffs with low trumps
2. Before embarking on a crossruff, you should cash all of your side suit winners
3. If you own a long, good side suit, you must not do a cross ruff

Question 6

What are 2 situations that you would use a loser on loser play?

Answer 6

Sometimes you hold a singleton in a suit that the defenders may use as communications for a ruff. To break the link between the defenders you may be able to make a loser-on-loser play, discarding your singleton on a losing card in another suit. When the safe defender has to win the trick you avoid the ruff.

When the defenders are playing a forcing game (leading their strongest suit to shorten your trump holding), you must someimes discard from your hand until dummy can ruff the enemy suit. This preserves your own trump length.

Question 7

How do you remember the cards when playing?

Answer 7

1. Make a prediction about the shape of the hand at the start
2. Plan the play but add some shape definition to it
3. Group or chunk all the tricks into groups
4. When people show out rethink the hand shapes
5. Give meaning to the cards i.e. a lead may indicate where the Ace is

Question 8

If you are declarer in a trump contract and the opponents have the high trump card or two, what should you do?

Answer 8

Play a solid, long side suit to get opponents to use their trump without you uing your trump. You remain in control.

Question 9

Normailly we ruff in the short hand for extra tricks. What do we do with 4 - 4 in the trump suit?

Answer 9

You can choose either hand to be the short suit.

Question 10

Normally we count winners for NT and losers for trump suit. Are there exceptions to this rule?

Answer 10

Playing in a trump suit it is good to count both winners and losers and choose the one that works best for you.

Question 11

When you are on defense, what do you do to stop declarer from doing a cross ruff?

Answer 11

lead trump

Question 12

When you are declarer and have losers, how do you get rid of them
?

Answer 12

trump them (in the short hand) or dump them on winners that you have

Question 13

When playing defense, why cover an honor with an honor?

Answer 13

it allows you take 2 declarer honors for your 1 honor

Question 14

when you are on defense, when would be a case that you should not cover an honor with an honor?

Answer 14

If dummy has a number of equal honors, cover the last equal honor.

Question 15

normally if you have 9 cards in a suit and are missing Q you play A then K (not finesse). When you play for the finesse?

Answer 15

When the bidding indicates there is not a normal distribution i.e. pre-empt bid

Question 16

when your right hand opponent opens the bidding, how many points do you need overcall 1NT
?

Answer 16

15-17 pts

Question 17

When you are in the balancing position, how many points do you need to overcall 1NT?

Answer 17

12-14 pts

Question 18

when does 2/1 apply?

Answer 18

opener bids 1D, 1H or 1S

next player passes

responder bids a new suit at the 2 level without jumping

responder is an unpassed bidder

Question 19

what causes a 2/1 game force?

Answer 19

a non-jump 2 level bid by responder showing 13 or more points, 5+ cards for a 2H response, 4+cards (rarely 3) for 2D or 2C responses

Question 20

why are jump bids not needed with 2/1 bidding?

Answer 20

we already know that it is forcing to game, leaving plenty of room to explore for slam

Question 21

what is the advantage of 2/1 game force?

Answer 21

responder’s first bid establishes that the partnership is going to at least game contract, all subsequent bids are forcing until the goal is reached

Question 22

when is blackwood useful
for slam bidding?

Answer 22

when it is clear that there is enough combined strength for slam and the only question is whether the partnership holds the appropriate number of aces and kings

Question 23

when you hold the Ace as a stopper, as a general rule when should it be played

Answer 23

hold up twice and win on the third round