So kind of you Ken, and many others that joined trny today. Please come all again next week!
It's tempting to play lesson hands "differently". I think Kantar, in one of his many books, pointed out that "finesses never work in lesson hands". While that's close to true, it's not always true, and anyway it's a bad way to think.
There are similar issues.
I played boards 1 and 5 in the lesson. On board 1, after a little thought, 12 tricks can be claimed after trick 1. Yes, but not so on board 5. When I could not see the certain line to 12 tricks I got frustrated and then chose an inferior line. Of course not having a certain line is very realistic and I should have then looked for the best line instead of a certain line. I had to leave before the explanations got to board 5 but I guess I see it. The spade finesse works (take that, Kantar!) but you don't need it as long as you take reasonable care in handling the trump suit. The trump finesse also works, but it's against the odds and thus should not be taken. But it still makes.
The Angel hands are very good. I recommend them to anyone. Here is the point: When I first started playing bridge i would read the Kantar quizzes in the ACBL Bulletin and I would think "Sure, it works, but it would never occur to me". Then after a while, it at least sometimes would occur to me. And then, after a longer while, I would think "Good grief, of course I should have thought of that". And that is illustrated with hands 1 and 5 from these lessons. Hand 1 was something that I could see (almost) immediately, hand 5 was one of those "Good grief, I should have made it" hands.
I thank Arik for his efforts, and I really recommend the Dare series to everyone.
