. Dealer South Love All

                                    ♠          J 5

                                    ♥          A 8 7 2

                                    ♦          Q 10 8 5

                                    ♣         K Q 4

            ♠          8 7 6 4                        ♠          10 2

            ♥          Q J                              ♥          K 9 5 4 3

            ♦          A 3 2                           ♦          K J 9

            ♣         10 9 6 2                      ♣         J 5 3

                                    ♠          A K Q 9 3

                                    ♥          10 6

                                    ♦          7 6 4

                                    ♣         A 8 7

Sometimes I am left completely amazed at what people do and when my partner played this hand he managed to do down with 9 tricks for the taking from trick 1.

Sometimes its amazing to see the mistakes so called advanced players make. You read in a book that if you have a dodgy suit and you are playng in No Trumps you might need to hold up and not take the first trick or to.

My dear partner did this on this hand to his cost.

 If a Heart is led, as long as the spades break no worse than 4:2 you have 9 tricks at trick 1 without any effort at all- 5 spades, 1 Heart and 3 clubs and your contract is never in jeopardy

Therefore you take the very first trick and cash the 9 tricks.

The lesson of the hand is not to hold up jus because it says so in a book and also if the opposition switches to another suit you are in worse trouble.

 After two rounds of holding up Hearts the opposition switched to Diamnds and my dear partner went off in a a cold contract. I know this is a very easy hand BUT I hope you find the lesson of not always holding up helpful…..

You can also view  watch the following movie to see how the hand pans out. (You need bridgvu.exe programme  and it is available free from   http://www.haroldschogger.com/videos.html or BridgeBase programme on your machine already to view it )

alternatively watch the film www.haroldschogger.com/movies2.htm