[inquiry]

I thought I might post some "routine" hands from recent BBO tournaments that were not so "routine." These hands will be meant as lesson hands for beginners and interemediates, because no advance player would ever get them wrong. Having said that, in each case more than half the players will have gotten the hands wrong or I will not bother to post them.

This is the first one, and represents a very basic play that all late beginners and certainly all intermediates have read about or heard about. The "hold up" play.

Scoring: BAM

1♣ 1♥
2NT 3NT

Opening lead 5♠ to ♠T

---

RESULTS FROM THIS HAND (TOURNEY)

# [space] [space] [space] Contr [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space]Ld [space] [space] [space] Tricks [space] [space] [space] Score
1 [space] [space] [space] 5HX [space] [space] [space]W [space] [space] [space] SJ [space] [space] [space] -1100 [space] [space] [space] -14.73
2 [space] [space] [space] 4NX [space] [space] [space]E [space] [space] [space] S3 [space] [space] [space] -500 [space] [space] [space] -8.85
3 [space] [space] [space] 3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] SQ [space] [space] [space] -400 [space] [space] [space] -7.19
4 [space] [space] [space] 4H [space] [space] [space] W [space] [space] [space] SJ [space] [space] [space] -400 [space] [space] [space] -7.19
5 [space] [space] [space] 3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] -400 [space] [space] [space] -7.19
6 [space] [space] [space] 3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] -400 [space] [space] [space] -7.19
7 [space] [space] [space] 3NXX [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] -400 [space] [space] [space] -7.19
8 [space] [space] [space] 3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] C3 [space] [space] [space] -300 [space] [space] [space] -5.46
9 [space] [space] [space] 3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] -200 [space] [space] [space] -3.65
10 [space] [space] [space]3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] -200 [space] [space] [space] -3.65
11 [space] [space] [space]5D [space] [space] [space] W [space] [space] [space] SJ [space] [space] [space] -200 [space] [space] [space] -3.65
12 [space] [space] [space]3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S4 [space] [space] [space] -200 [space] [space] [space] -3.65
13 [space] [space] [space]3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] -100 [space] [space] [space] -1.77
14 [space] [space] [space]3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] -100 [space] [space] [space] -1.77
15 [space] [space] [space]3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] -100 [space] [space] [space] -1.77
16 [space] [space] [space]Pa [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] [space] 0 [space] [space] [space] 0
17 [space] [space] [space]2SX [space] [space] [space]N [space] [space] [space] HK [space] [space] [space] 0 [space] [space] [space] 0
18 [space] [space] [space]2S [space] [space] [space] S [space] [space] [space] CT [space] [space] [space] 50 [space] [space] [space] 0.81
19 [space] [space] [space]2S [space] [space] [space] S [space] [space] [space] CT [space] [space] [space] 50 [space] [space] [space] 0.81
20 [space] [space] [space]3S [space] [space] [space] S [space] [space] [space] CT [space] [space] [space] 100 [space] [space] [space] 1.73
21 [space] [space] [space]2N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] H9 [space] [space] [space] 180 [space] [space] [space] 3.04
22 [space] [space] [space]1NX [space] [space] [space]N [space] [space] [space] CK [space] [space] [space] 500 [space] [space] [space] 7.62
23 [space] [space] [space]3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] H9 [space] [space] [space] 600 [space] [space] [space] 8.85
24 [space] [space] [space]3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] 600 [space] [space] [space] 8.85
25 [space] [space] [space]3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S4 [space] [space] [space] 600 [space] [space] [space] 8.85
26 [space] [space] [space]3N [space] [space] [space] E [space] [space] [space] S5 [space] [space] [space] 600 [space] [space] [space] 8.85
27 [space] [space] [space]3NX [space] [space] [space]E [space] [space] [space] S4 [space] [space] [space] 750 [space] [space] [space] 10.65
28 [space] [space] [space]2NX [space] [space] [space]E [space] [space] [space] S3 [space] [space] [space] 890 [space] [space] [space] 12
29 [space] [space] [space]3NX [space] [space] [space]E [space] [space] [space] S4 [space] [space] [space] 950 [space] [space] [space] 12.88

This is a hand that was played in 3NT a total of 17 times. Of these, a spade was lead by WEST 15 times. 3NT made 6 times (this includes both times when a heart was lead). On the 15 spade leads, the declarer played the spade ace 13 times!! Of these 13 times, 11 went down. Both players who made the correct "hold up" on the first lead had no trouble making 9 tricks. As you may see, the hand can be made if you win the first trick, but it it is so much easier if you duck trick one.

On a spade lead, if you win the first spade, you have to be "lucky" and knock out the club ACE before the heart ACE. When you knock out the club ace, WEST will continue spades. This way, when EAST wins the heart ace, he is out spades so you win 2S, 3C, 2H, and a slow diamond in comfort. You will eventually enplay north is one red suit or the other.

The correct play, of course, is to duck the first spade, then win the second. Now, if you happened to unluckily knock out the wrong ace first, east has no spade to lead and 9 tricks fall into you lap. The hold up is not hard to find, in fact is should stand out. Would you have found it?

[barmar]

There's a rule of thumb that can help you know how many times you should usually duck. It's the Rule of 7: subtract the number of cards you have in the suit from 7, and duck that many times (if you can -- with AKx you're forced to win the 2nd trick). The reason this works is because if RHO still has a card in the suit after that many holdups, the suit was splitting OK.

There are exceptions, though. If you can't afford a switch by the opponent who's winning the trick, then you may have to win immediately and hope to keep him off lead. Or if you're not as much worried about a bad split than about LHO using that suit as a later entry, you should duck an extra time (e.g. with Axx opposite xxx you'd normally duck once to protect against the 5-2 split, but you should duck twice if you need to prevent them from using a 4-3 split as an entry to LHO's hand). And if you have 5 cards and he leads the lowest outstanding card with standard 4th-best leads, you can usually get away without ducking since the lead marks the suit as breaking 4-4 (but watch out for those tricky opponents who decide to lead their 5th best to make you go wrong).