[luis]

Back in 1997 (yes, 7 years ago) I was training for a Juniors South American championship, our coach was probably one of the best bridge teachers in Argentina and he presented me the following deal:

Scoring: IMP

---

East bid spades and you reach 3NT, how do you play on the s8 lead?
I went down 1 in a snap.

7 years into the future: yesterday I was playing an IMP local game, training for the local 2004 season and the following gem appeared:

Scoring: IMP

---

Again east had bid spades and you reach 3NT on the simple sequence (1h-(1s)-3n) west lead the sJ, how do you play.

After seeing dummy I inmediately recalled the hand from 1997 and this time I wrote 600 and to my surprise I was one of 2 declarers from a field of 14 who made the contract. :-). Since this was clearly a valuable lesson for me it may also be a valuable lesson for some Int/Beg players reading the forum. So I invite you to solve both problems.

[inquiry]

Nice hands Luis. Since this is in the beginner/intermediate forum, I will not solve them, but they are surely worth study. The first hand is extremely similar to one from a book I read recently, not sure if it was Eric Jannersten's "The only chance" or more likely Test you play by Lucas and Rubens. Hint is to take advantage of all your chances.

[Free]

You have only 8 tricks when you count only 4 for you length, so you need 1 trick in your minor before trying to make the tricks in your long suit.

Spoiler

1st hand: since your H suit will probably only give 4 tricks, you'll stick on 8, so play Cs first and if you get a trick, start playing Hs for just made.

2nd hand: it's a deja vu, so play a D first, and start on Hs afterwards.

EDIT: forgot it was the B/I forum. Sollution is hidden now...

[luis]

inquiry, on Feb 6 2004, 02:52 PM, said:

Nice hands Luis. Since this is in the beginner/intermediate forum, I will not solve them, but they are surely worth study. The first hand is extremely similar to one from a book I read recently, not sure if it was Eric Jannersten's "The only chance" or more likely Test you play by Lucas and Rubens. Hint is to take advantage of all your chances.

Thanks for your comment Ben, let's hope the BIL members post some answers, even tentative to these problems.
The first hand might actually be from a book since it was the hand that my coach used so it's a "problem" hand. The 2nd one was just played yesterday at a local tournament. Sometimes you think that "book" hands never show up in real life and there it was a perfect hand for bridgemaster level 2 or 3 :-)

Thanks also for not solving them, they are very easy for you :-)). I wonder why at the table many experts went down. My poor opponents were devastated, they lost 13 imps without doing anything wrong.

[luis]

Free, on Feb 6 2004, 02:55 PM, said:

You have only 8 tricks when you count only 4 for you length, so you need 1 trick in your minor before trying to make the tricks in your long suit.

Spoiler

1st hand: since your ♥ suit will probably only give 4 tricks, you'll stick on 8, so play ♣s first and if you get a trick, start playing ♥s for just made.

2nd hand: it's a deja vu, so play a ♦ first, and start on ♥s afterwards.

Excellent tip Free, now let's see if some BIL member solves both problems.

[Trpltrbl]

I will send you the answers Luis, since I can't post them here.

Mike