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The Daily Deal
Each day we "seed" one lesson deal somewhere into our otherwise randomly dealt set of boards. The board number is different each day. You never know which board it is. The daily deal is a free mini-lesson. You can take home a handout of the daily deal every day. We hope you find it educational as well as entertaining. To see past Daily Deals, click here. |
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Sitouts Banned! 
We have done away with sit-outs, for once and for all. When we have a half-table in the game, we enter the computer as a participant in the game, in order to make a full table.
When it would otherwise be your turn to sit out, instead you play against the computer. Your score vs. the computer counts in the game. The computer is always disqualified, so it doesn't take away your masterpoints - in fact, the awards actually increase because the game is larger. |
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Replay At Home  You can now replay the boards you've played at the club - in the comfort of your own home.
Replay the exact same hands with any of several commercial bridge programs such as GIB or Bridge Baron if you own one. If you have not purchased one, we have a free program for you to download. Click here for instructions. | |
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Free Bridge Lessons
Rich answers your questions every Tuesday prior to the game. |
Thursdays, we have a vugraph presentation. Rich reviews interesting deals of the past week. Each board in question is projected onto our large video screen for all to see as we discuss it. |
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Greetings!
This week's deal features an astonishing defense by West − we'll get to the winning play by degrees. |
 Three Degrees of Bacon by Brian Gunnell |
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E-W did well not to compete to 3 (that contract is down one if N-S get their diamond ruff). Instead, E-W are required to defeat South's 3 contract. Will they? West's lead is a spade, won in dummy.
In the first degree, you are declarer. With that running diamond suit you have loads of winners, but the danger is that E-W will get five tricks first. You can try for a club ruff in dummy, but alert defenders will switch to trumps (being sure to hold up the A until the second round). Nonetheless, at trick two, you lead a club hoping that something good will happen.
In the second degree, you are East, trying to thwart declarer. Dummy's A wins the first trick, and a club is led, won by West's  J. West shifts to a trump, and you have a dilemma:
- If declarer has the A, and West the
 A, then the winning defense is to take the A immediately and play another heart, stopping the club ruff. - If declarer has the A, and West the A, then the winning defense is to duck the first trump, win the next club, cash A and then a third club.
So, what's the third degree, and what should E-W do to bring home the bacon?
Scroll down to find out. |
Two Interclub Challenges |
The Third Degree |
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To bring home the bacon the defense must go to the third degree. This time, you are West, trying to help East to thwart declarer. Same start, but instead of routinely winning the J at trick two, you do some thinking. Declarer did not play clubs like someone holding the K, so East surely has that card. In that case you can afford to squander the A! This brilliant stroke solves East's dilemma, telling him what he needs to know. How many Wests would find that truly remarkable play? None that we know of!
As always, you can follow the play of this deal with our Bridge Movie on our website. |
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