Bidding for success at the bridge table

If you do not mind a dogmatic approach and would like to check your bidding, read “Win at Duplicate Bridge” by Fred Parker (Master Point Press).

In 22 chapters, the author gives his opinion on bidding using two-over-one game-forcing, and covers conventions of which he approves. I do not agree with everything he says, but his recommendations are primarily mainstream. Each chapter ends with a copious quiz. The book concludes with a chapter on leads and signals, and one with some card combinations. Since there are no full deals, here is another from Carl'Alberto Perroux's book about the Italian Blue Team, which I reviewed two days ago.

At the other table, North was in four hearts after South opened one club, West passed, and North responded one heart. East led the club six. West took two tricks in the suit and continued with a deceptive club eight. However, North ruffed with his heart nine, and East discarded a diamond. North played a heart to the jack and cashed the two top spades, after which he could not avoid losing two trump tricks to go down one.

Pietro Forquet found the winning line. The first five tricks were the same. But after the spade ace, South cashed the diamond king and played a diamond to the queen. East ruffed and shifted to the spade 10, but Forquet, needing the extra winner, took the trick with his jack, cashed the spade king, ruffed the spade eight and cashed the heart king. Each player had two cards left, and when a diamond was led from dummy, East's queen-eight of hearts were trapped by Forquet's ace-10.