George Eliot wrote, "Sympathetic people often don't communicate well, they back reflected images which hide their own depths."
At the bridge table, poor players don't communicate well. They do not signal correctly when on defense, and they do not maintain communications between their hand and dummy during the play.
In this deal, South must bring home 12 tricks in no-trump after West has led a club. How can he do it?
South opens two clubs, announcing a hand of power and quality. If his hand is balanced, he will have at least 23 high-card points. If he is unbalanced, he will have nine or more winners opposite a 4-3-3-3 Yarborough.
North's two-heart response shows eight-plus points and at least five decent hearts. (In a perfect world, he would, as here, have two of the top three honors, but especially with a six-bagger, the suit might be a tad weaker.)
After two more natural bids, South uses Blackwood and settles into six no-trump opposite a no-ace reply.
There are 12 tricks once the heart ace has been dislodged: two spades, two hearts, four diamonds and four clubs. But with the diamond blockage, it is important to retain a dummy entry and to time the play correctly. South must win the first trick in his hand. Then he unblocks the ace-king of diamonds and continues with the heart jack. If East ducks that trick, declarer plays a second heart. The club jack is the dummy entry to the diamond winners.
At the bridge table, poor players don't communicate well. They do not signal correctly when on defense, and they do not maintain communications between their hand and dummy during the play.
In this deal, South must bring home 12 tricks in no-trump after West has led a club. How can he do it?
South opens two clubs, announcing a hand of power and quality. If his hand is balanced, he will have at least 23 high-card points. If he is unbalanced, he will have nine or more winners opposite a 4-3-3-3 Yarborough.
North's two-heart response shows eight-plus points and at least five decent hearts. (In a perfect world, he would, as here, have two of the top three honors, but especially with a six-bagger, the suit might be a tad weaker.)
After two more natural bids, South uses Blackwood and settles into six no-trump opposite a no-ace reply.
There are 12 tricks once the heart ace has been dislodged: two spades, two hearts, four diamonds and four clubs. But with the diamond blockage, it is important to retain a dummy entry and to time the play correctly. South must win the first trick in his hand. Then he unblocks the ace-king of diamonds and continues with the heart jack. If East ducks that trick, declarer plays a second heart. The club jack is the dummy entry to the diamond winners.