There was a tie for the best entries to my Christmas Competition. Congratulations to the winners: John Euler of Benton Harbor, Mich., and Rupinder Sodhi from India.
My favorite example of a collective noun was "a closet full of suits" by Charles Auerbach of Belvedere, Calif.
Full details are available at www.phillipalderbridge.com.
We have been looking at raising partner's major suit with three-card support. To end the week, here is a tough declarer-play problem. South bid aggressively into seven spades. How should he plan the play after West leads the heart king?
To be honest, bidding seven spades is nigh impossible. You and your partner would do very well to reach six spades. In this sequence, after North's two-over-one response, South's jump to four spades showed a long, solid suit. North used Blackwood twice, the second dose announcing that all four aces were held and that a grand slam was possible. South, with no side-suit kings, probably should have told partner that, but he decided that eight winners would a grand slam make.
Declarer has a heart loser, but he can ruff it in the dummy -- as long as he doesn't immediately draw all of the trumps when he learns that they are breaking 3-0. South pulls one round of spades, plays off dummy's top diamonds, returns to his hand with a club to the ace, and discards dummy's heart loser on his diamond queen. Next, he trumps his heart loser on the board. Finally, he removes the remaining trumps and claims.
My favorite example of a collective noun was "a closet full of suits" by Charles Auerbach of Belvedere, Calif.
Full details are available at www.phillipalderbridge.com.
We have been looking at raising partner's major suit with three-card support. To end the week, here is a tough declarer-play problem. South bid aggressively into seven spades. How should he plan the play after West leads the heart king?
To be honest, bidding seven spades is nigh impossible. You and your partner would do very well to reach six spades. In this sequence, after North's two-over-one response, South's jump to four spades showed a long, solid suit. North used Blackwood twice, the second dose announcing that all four aces were held and that a grand slam was possible. South, with no side-suit kings, probably should have told partner that, but he decided that eight winners would a grand slam make.
Declarer has a heart loser, but he can ruff it in the dummy -- as long as he doesn't immediately draw all of the trumps when he learns that they are breaking 3-0. South pulls one round of spades, plays off dummy's top diamonds, returns to his hand with a club to the ace, and discards dummy's heart loser on his diamond queen. Next, he trumps his heart loser on the board. Finally, he removes the remaining trumps and claims.