An up-and-coming player who held my cards in the team game last night asked how we managed to score up 500 when she and her partner only got 50 defending the same contract. Here's what I told her.
Vul. vs. non-vul., I loved my hand and was a little surprised when RHO opened 1 diamond.
♠AKxxx
♥ x
♦ AK
♣ KJxxx
I doubled and LHO bid 1 heart. Bob, my partner, now made a free bid of 1 spade. RHO bid 2 diamonds and I jumped to 4 spades. I was surprised and annoyed as it was passed around to RHO who now bid 5 diamonds. Even though I have a powerhouse 4 loser hand, I decided to take the "sure money" and doubled.
I led a spade honor and declarer ruffed. Dummy had:
♠ Jxxx
♥ KJ10xx
♦ xx
♣ xx
I figured we were making 4S (we were) so we needed to get the maximum we could out of 5 diamonds doubled to compensate.
I hoped that Bob had one of the round suit aces and I had two chances to figure out which one. I won the first diamond and shifted to hearts. Bingo! He won the heart ace and returned a club--just what needed to be done. He knew I had a really strong hand and had to have club values.
Now when I won the second diamond I was able to cash my king of clubs and--a bonus--give him a club ruff!
If he hadn't been able to get in with a heart, I would have been forced to try leading a club next--looking for the setting trick. I knew he had a few values because he made a free bid. I didn't want to lead a club first, because if I led into declarer's ace-queen it would be a disaster.
Just like we form a plan for the bidding and the play, we can make plans for the defense.
************
Here's another defensive problem from an earlier match.
I opened 1 diamond with:
♠ AKxx
♥ xx
♦ Axxx
♣7xx
LHO overcalled 1 heart, partner passed and RHO bid 1NT.
I passed, LHO bid 2 clubs and all passed. Bob led a club (trump) and dummy held:
♠ xxx
♥ xx
♦ QJ10xx
♣ Kxx
When declarer tried to ruff the third heart in dummy, I overruffed. With these cards remaining we had to get the timing right if we were to have a chance to beat the contract:
♠ AKxx
♥
♦ Axxx
♣ x
I lead the spade king to get an attitude signal from partner. He discouraged. As diamonds was my only other viable choice and he knew it, he must want a diamond shift. He must have the king. Even though I was looking at QJ10xx of diamonds in dummy, I underled my ace of diamonds to his king and he returned a diamond to my ace, all following.
Now was the time to be careful. Before I gave him his diamond ruff I had to cash my other spade honor. Otherwise declarer could just throw her losing spade away on the good diamonds. I therefore cashed the ace of spades before returning a diamond--giving my partner an uppercut and scoring the setting trick.
Down 1 netted us 5 imps. This exact situation comes up frequently on defense and it's important to get it right. Lead an honor to get an attitude signal from partner. This should enable you to cash your tricks in the right order AND to cash all of your winners before administering the coup de grace.
Merry Christmas!
See you at the table!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Jennbridge: A Gerber Bluff
At last night's team game at the club, Jenn made an amazing bid that won 9 IMPs for our team. With only our side vulnerable, she was dealt this in third seat:
♠ K
♥ Jxx
♦ KQxxx
♣ Kxxx
I dealt and opened 2 Diamonds, a weak 2 bid, and her RHO passed. Now stop and consider this situation. We have 11 diamonds between us. Since I would not have bid 2 Diamonds in first seat with a 4-card major, the opponents must have a big double major suit fit with at least 9 spades and 8 hearts, and likely more. We have little defense against a major suit contract. LHO must have a big hand and will want to get into the auction.
The best result possible here is to buy the contract for 5 Diamonds undoubled. You don't expect to make it missing 3 aces, but it probably will only be down 1 or 2. If I had held these cards, I would have just bid 5 Diamonds, making RHO guess whether to come in at that level, but announcing our big fit. After this, we would run the risk of either being doubled or pushing the opponents into a makeable game, or, worse, slam.
Jenn found an ingenious way to achieve the ideal result. She decided to play a poker game with the opponents by bluffing strength. The best way to make a show of strength is to ask for aces. Now, it just so happens that Jenn and I play a convention which enables us to use a variation of RKC after partner's preempts that is an improvement over traditional Blackwood. It is often referred to as preemptive Gerber. So she bid 4 Clubs, which I alerted as our version of RKC. This had the intended effect of silencing LHO. I made the expected response, showing one keycard without the queen of trumps*, she rebid 5 Diamonds, and everyone passed. The two hands were:
♠ K
♥ Jxx
♦ KQxxx
♣ Kxxx
♠ xx
♥ Q
♦ ATxxxx
♣ QJTx
We lost the 3 missing aces for down one, -100. Our teammates played it in 5 spades, making seven for +510, so the team was +410 for 9 IMPs.
* The responses to 4C are: 4D is no keycards (first step), 4H is one without the queen (second step), 4S is one with the queen (third step), 4NT is two without the queen, 5C is two with the queen, and 5D is the AKQ. If the opening preempt is 3C, then 4D becomes RKC for clubs and all responses are one step higher. (You don't want to use 4C over 3C as RKC, since it is better used as a continuation of the preempt.) This sometimes enables getting out at the 4-level when you don't have the cards for slam, which you cannot do using standard Blackwood.
Good luck!
♠ K
♥ Jxx
♦ KQxxx
♣ Kxxx
I dealt and opened 2 Diamonds, a weak 2 bid, and her RHO passed. Now stop and consider this situation. We have 11 diamonds between us. Since I would not have bid 2 Diamonds in first seat with a 4-card major, the opponents must have a big double major suit fit with at least 9 spades and 8 hearts, and likely more. We have little defense against a major suit contract. LHO must have a big hand and will want to get into the auction.
The best result possible here is to buy the contract for 5 Diamonds undoubled. You don't expect to make it missing 3 aces, but it probably will only be down 1 or 2. If I had held these cards, I would have just bid 5 Diamonds, making RHO guess whether to come in at that level, but announcing our big fit. After this, we would run the risk of either being doubled or pushing the opponents into a makeable game, or, worse, slam.
Jenn found an ingenious way to achieve the ideal result. She decided to play a poker game with the opponents by bluffing strength. The best way to make a show of strength is to ask for aces. Now, it just so happens that Jenn and I play a convention which enables us to use a variation of RKC after partner's preempts that is an improvement over traditional Blackwood. It is often referred to as preemptive Gerber. So she bid 4 Clubs, which I alerted as our version of RKC. This had the intended effect of silencing LHO. I made the expected response, showing one keycard without the queen of trumps*, she rebid 5 Diamonds, and everyone passed. The two hands were:
♠ K
♥ Jxx
♦ KQxxx
♣ Kxxx
♠ xx
♥ Q
♦ ATxxxx
♣ QJTx
We lost the 3 missing aces for down one, -100. Our teammates played it in 5 spades, making seven for +510, so the team was +410 for 9 IMPs.
* The responses to 4C are: 4D is no keycards (first step), 4H is one without the queen (second step), 4S is one with the queen (third step), 4NT is two without the queen, 5C is two with the queen, and 5D is the AKQ. If the opening preempt is 3C, then 4D becomes RKC for clubs and all responses are one step higher. (You don't want to use 4C over 3C as RKC, since it is better used as a continuation of the preempt.) This sometimes enables getting out at the 4-level when you don't have the cards for slam, which you cannot do using standard Blackwood.
Good luck!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Jennbridge: Michaels and Leaping Michaels
A direct cue bid in a suit the opponents have opened is known as a Michaels cue bid. If the opponents open one of minor, a cue bid of 2 of that minor shows the majors; if they open one of a major, it shows the other major and one of the minors. A jump cue bid, conversely, asks partner to bid 3NT with a stopper in the opener's suit.
When they open with a weak 2 bid, it gets more complicated. Jenn and I, along with many pairs, use a convention sometimes called Leaping Michaels. With a 2-suiter including the other major and a minor, we jump to 4 of the minor. For example, if RHO opens 2H and I have 5 clubs and 5 spades I can jump to 4 clubs to show the 2-suiter.
So, having this agreement, what does a direct cue bid of 3 of their suit mean? I confess that I had not discussed this with Jenn or any of my other partners. Does it still show a 2-suiter, but perhaps weaker than a jump to 4 of a minor, or does it ask partner to bid 3NT with a stopper, just as if the opponents opened 1 of the major?
I was playing on-line the other night. RHO, non-vul vs vul, opened 2 Spades. I held:
♠ K
♥ A8
♦ AKJT8753
♣ 84
It looks like 3NT would have a good chance if partner had, say, Qxx of spades, as diamonds are likely to run. If not, 5 Diamonds may be right if partner has something useful in hearts or clubs. Since I was playing with a pick-up expert partner, I probably shouldn't have risked a 3 Spade cue bid, but I did, hoping partner would be familiar with Leaping Michaels and interpret this as asking for a spade stopper. A more practical solution would be to just bid 5 Diamonds or 3NT and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, LHO raised to 4 Spades and partner, holding
♠ A43
♥ K9764
♦ 2
♣ QJT2
bid 5 Hearts, which went down. 5 Diamonds or 5 NT would have made, and we'd even have done well doubling 4 Spades, which would have gone for -500. He expected me to have hearts. I asked him if he played Leaping Michaels and he did, but he said, correctly, that to expect him to work out that this wasn't showing hearts put too great a strain on a casual partnersship. If you were playing with your regular partner, would you have gotten this right?
Good luck!
When they open with a weak 2 bid, it gets more complicated. Jenn and I, along with many pairs, use a convention sometimes called Leaping Michaels. With a 2-suiter including the other major and a minor, we jump to 4 of the minor. For example, if RHO opens 2H and I have 5 clubs and 5 spades I can jump to 4 clubs to show the 2-suiter.
So, having this agreement, what does a direct cue bid of 3 of their suit mean? I confess that I had not discussed this with Jenn or any of my other partners. Does it still show a 2-suiter, but perhaps weaker than a jump to 4 of a minor, or does it ask partner to bid 3NT with a stopper, just as if the opponents opened 1 of the major?
I was playing on-line the other night. RHO, non-vul vs vul, opened 2 Spades. I held:
♠ K
♥ A8
♦ AKJT8753
♣ 84
It looks like 3NT would have a good chance if partner had, say, Qxx of spades, as diamonds are likely to run. If not, 5 Diamonds may be right if partner has something useful in hearts or clubs. Since I was playing with a pick-up expert partner, I probably shouldn't have risked a 3 Spade cue bid, but I did, hoping partner would be familiar with Leaping Michaels and interpret this as asking for a spade stopper. A more practical solution would be to just bid 5 Diamonds or 3NT and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, LHO raised to 4 Spades and partner, holding
♠ A43
♥ K9764
♦ 2
♣ QJT2
bid 5 Hearts, which went down. 5 Diamonds or 5 NT would have made, and we'd even have done well doubling 4 Spades, which would have gone for -500. He expected me to have hearts. I asked him if he played Leaping Michaels and he did, but he said, correctly, that to expect him to work out that this wasn't showing hearts put too great a strain on a casual partnersship. If you were playing with your regular partner, would you have gotten this right?
Good luck!
Friday, December 10, 2010
Jennbridge: Round One Stories
The Experts, Bob and Jenn vs. Gary R. and Larry H., faced off in the first round of the afternoon STAC game today. While the game was being organized, Gary and Bob shared hands from the Fall NABC in Orlando. Gary gave us this play problem from a pair game. He found himself in 7 notrump with these cards:
1.
♠ KJxxx
♥ void
♦ Qx
♣ KQJ10xx
♠ Ax
♥ AQ10xx
♦ AKxx
♣ Ax
How would you play it after the jack of diamonds lead? (Answer below).
2. Bob followed it up with a hand that helped his team get to the finals of the North American Swiss. At favorable vulnerability, what would you do with this hand after your partner opens 3H and your RHO jumps to 4S?
♠ Jx
♥ K
♦ AKQxx
♣ AKxxx
Answers below:
***************
1. There was general agreement that we would cash the top 3 diamonds (LHO started with 5), then the ace of hearts, then start running clubs. Either LHO will be squeezed or there will be a double squeeze. The ace of hearts is cashed before the clubs are run because 4 discards are needed on the clubs and the queen of hearts serves as a threat card (Vienna Coup). Quite possible that RHO will be squeezed in hearts and spades and be forced to unguard spades to hold the king of hearts. If the heart king doesn't appear, the queen is discarded.
Then LHO will be squeezed in diamonds and spades. Cute hand. Gary made it for a great score.
2. If you double 4 spades, you are minus 990. If you bid 5 hearts and then double 5 spades, you are minus 850! The only winning action is to push on to 6 hearts over 5 spades. Both 5 hearts and 5 spades make. Quite an interesting hand! Bob bid 5S over 5H and scored up 850.
See you at the table!
1.
♠ KJxxx
♥ void
♦ Qx
♣ KQJ10xx
♠ Ax
♥ AQ10xx
♦ AKxx
♣ Ax
How would you play it after the jack of diamonds lead? (Answer below).
2. Bob followed it up with a hand that helped his team get to the finals of the North American Swiss. At favorable vulnerability, what would you do with this hand after your partner opens 3H and your RHO jumps to 4S?
♠ Jx
♥ K
♦ AKQxx
♣ AKxxx
Answers below:
***************
1. There was general agreement that we would cash the top 3 diamonds (LHO started with 5), then the ace of hearts, then start running clubs. Either LHO will be squeezed or there will be a double squeeze. The ace of hearts is cashed before the clubs are run because 4 discards are needed on the clubs and the queen of hearts serves as a threat card (Vienna Coup). Quite possible that RHO will be squeezed in hearts and spades and be forced to unguard spades to hold the king of hearts. If the heart king doesn't appear, the queen is discarded.
Then LHO will be squeezed in diamonds and spades. Cute hand. Gary made it for a great score.
2. If you double 4 spades, you are minus 990. If you bid 5 hearts and then double 5 spades, you are minus 850! The only winning action is to push on to 6 hearts over 5 spades. Both 5 hearts and 5 spades make. Quite an interesting hand! Bob bid 5S over 5H and scored up 850.
| E-W Vul | ♠ — ♥ J 10 9 x x x x ♦ x x x ♣ Q x x | ||||||||||
♠ K x x ♥ Q x x ♦ J 10 x x x ♣ x x |
| ♠ A Q 10 x x x x x ♥ A x ♦ — ♣ J 10 x | |||||||||
| ♠ J x ♥ K ♦ A K Q x x ♣ A K x x x | |||||||||||
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Haste Makes Waste
Oftentimes you are alerted to the proper line of play by the opponents' apparent discarding problems.
I found myself in a rather inelegant 2 notrump contract yesterday at matchpoints, vul. vs. not. (Board 21).
♠ AJ10xx
♥ Jxx
♦ Axx
♣ K9
I opened 1 spade, LHO overcalled 2 diamonds, partner made a negative double and I chose 2NT as one of my unappealing choices of bids. All passed and LHO led the king of diamonds.
♠ 9
♥ AK74
♦ 98xx
♣ QJxx
♠ AJ10xx
♥ Jxx
♦ Axx
♣ K9
I won the second diamond as RHO discarded an encouraging low heart. I didn't like my chances as I could only count 6 tricks (1S, 2H, 1D, 2C). I decided to lead a club out of my hand immediately, figuring if LHO had the ace he might be anxious to take it to cash his diamonds. I was right--he hastily grabbed his ace. On the run of the diamonds, I discarded 2 spades from my hand and a heart from the board, while RHO, oddly, discarded 2 more hearts and a club.
LHO now shifted to a heart and it was time to assemble the clues. What was going on here?
At this point there were only 3 hearts outstanding. Was it remotely possible that LHO would underlead Qxx? No. I therefore won the ace of hearts and cashed the king as RHO followed with her remaining queen doubleton. Now I had my 8 tricks: 1S, 3H, 1D, 3C.
There was only one rational reason why RHO discarded down to Qx of hearts--she had to be holding both the king and queen of spades and was squeezed. And so it was.
She started with KQxx/Qxxxx/x/xxx and needed to find 3 pitches. If she had kept her queen of hearts protected, she would have been squeezed in the majors when I played all of the clubs. She would have had to unguard either the hearts or the spades, and my simply playing my winners would reveal which of my major suits would run.
Of course, LHO can prevent all of this by ducking the first club and later winning my king with his ace. Then I won't have the necessary number of winners to cash to squeeze RHO.
Plus 120 was worth 80% of the matchpoints.
See you at the table!
I found myself in a rather inelegant 2 notrump contract yesterday at matchpoints, vul. vs. not. (Board 21).
♠ AJ10xx
♥ Jxx
♦ Axx
♣ K9
I opened 1 spade, LHO overcalled 2 diamonds, partner made a negative double and I chose 2NT as one of my unappealing choices of bids. All passed and LHO led the king of diamonds.
♠ 9
♥ AK74
♦ 98xx
♣ QJxx
♠ AJ10xx
♥ Jxx
♦ Axx
♣ K9
I won the second diamond as RHO discarded an encouraging low heart. I didn't like my chances as I could only count 6 tricks (1S, 2H, 1D, 2C). I decided to lead a club out of my hand immediately, figuring if LHO had the ace he might be anxious to take it to cash his diamonds. I was right--he hastily grabbed his ace. On the run of the diamonds, I discarded 2 spades from my hand and a heart from the board, while RHO, oddly, discarded 2 more hearts and a club.
LHO now shifted to a heart and it was time to assemble the clues. What was going on here?
At this point there were only 3 hearts outstanding. Was it remotely possible that LHO would underlead Qxx? No. I therefore won the ace of hearts and cashed the king as RHO followed with her remaining queen doubleton. Now I had my 8 tricks: 1S, 3H, 1D, 3C.
There was only one rational reason why RHO discarded down to Qx of hearts--she had to be holding both the king and queen of spades and was squeezed. And so it was.
She started with KQxx/Qxxxx/x/xxx and needed to find 3 pitches. If she had kept her queen of hearts protected, she would have been squeezed in the majors when I played all of the clubs. She would have had to unguard either the hearts or the spades, and my simply playing my winners would reveal which of my major suits would run.
Of course, LHO can prevent all of this by ducking the first club and later winning my king with his ace. Then I won't have the necessary number of winners to cash to squeeze RHO.
Plus 120 was worth 80% of the matchpoints.
See you at the table!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Jennbridge: An Interesting Hand at the Club
By Bob Klein. Kathy and I were having a ho-hum game at the club Friday until the last hand of the day. With neither side vulnerable, I was dealer and picked up:
♠ K87
♥ AT5
♦ AKQ765
♣ J
I opened 1 Diamond. LHO passed, and Kathy bid 2 Clubs, a game force. How should I proceed?
I had several choices. I could rebid 2 Diamonds, 2NT, 3 Diamonds or 3NT. I decided that a NoTrump bid would be best, since I didn't want to bid diamonds and have partner bid NoTrump, which could wrong-side the contract. If I had been playing with Jenn, I would have bid 2NT since we discussed the pros and cons of bidding 3NT in this position and decided that it took up too much space. However, I hadn't played with Kathy in a long time, and decided to make the value bid of 3NT, which showed about 18-19 HCP. (I only had 17, but with the great suit and jack in partner's suit, I felt I could upgrade.) Now Kathy bid 4NT, inviting slam. Since it was the last board, and not much had been happening for us, I said "what the heck" and just took a shot and bid 6NT.
LHO led the Jack of Diamonds, not a good sign. When the dummy came down, I was looking at:
♠ JT
♥ Q642
♦ void
♣ AKQ9643
♠ K87
♥ AT5
♦ AKQ765
♣ J
Well, I wasn't going to make it by running diamonds, but I had a chance because Kathy gave me 7 good clubs. The suit looks solid, but because she had no entries outside, I had to hope clubs were 3-2 or there was a stiff ten, since I had to overtake the Jack to get to them. Assuming the clubs ran, I had 11 tricks: 7 clubs, 3 diamonds and the Ace of hearts. The 12th trick had to be in spades, since if I lost a heart they would cash the Ace of spades for down one. So I had to win trick one and immediately run the clubs, coming down to
♠ K8
♥ A
♦ AK
♣ none
and hope I could guess the spades.
Now psychology came into play. The clubs split 3-2, so I ran them. During the run of the suit, LHO played high-low in spades. I asked what their carding agreements were, and they said standard. So, should I believe this as an honest signal, assume he was trying to fool me, or just ignore it and flip a coin?
LHO was a good Flight B player. If he had been an expert, I would have had a real conundrum. He would know I wouldn't expect an honest signal, so he might just give me one, since I'd likely assume he was lying! I didn't think this opponent would play such a deep game, but would he try to fool me, or perhaps give an honest signal to help partner with discarding? Finally, I decided on the latter, ran the spade jack and was rewarded when he won it with the Ace. 6NT bid and made, for 8 out of 8 matchpoints.
Good luck!
♠ K87
♥ AT5
♦ AKQ765
♣ J
I opened 1 Diamond. LHO passed, and Kathy bid 2 Clubs, a game force. How should I proceed?
I had several choices. I could rebid 2 Diamonds, 2NT, 3 Diamonds or 3NT. I decided that a NoTrump bid would be best, since I didn't want to bid diamonds and have partner bid NoTrump, which could wrong-side the contract. If I had been playing with Jenn, I would have bid 2NT since we discussed the pros and cons of bidding 3NT in this position and decided that it took up too much space. However, I hadn't played with Kathy in a long time, and decided to make the value bid of 3NT, which showed about 18-19 HCP. (I only had 17, but with the great suit and jack in partner's suit, I felt I could upgrade.) Now Kathy bid 4NT, inviting slam. Since it was the last board, and not much had been happening for us, I said "what the heck" and just took a shot and bid 6NT.
LHO led the Jack of Diamonds, not a good sign. When the dummy came down, I was looking at:
♠ JT
♥ Q642
♦ void
♣ AKQ9643
♠ K87
♥ AT5
♦ AKQ765
♣ J
Well, I wasn't going to make it by running diamonds, but I had a chance because Kathy gave me 7 good clubs. The suit looks solid, but because she had no entries outside, I had to hope clubs were 3-2 or there was a stiff ten, since I had to overtake the Jack to get to them. Assuming the clubs ran, I had 11 tricks: 7 clubs, 3 diamonds and the Ace of hearts. The 12th trick had to be in spades, since if I lost a heart they would cash the Ace of spades for down one. So I had to win trick one and immediately run the clubs, coming down to
♠ K8
♥ A
♦ AK
♣ none
and hope I could guess the spades.
Now psychology came into play. The clubs split 3-2, so I ran them. During the run of the suit, LHO played high-low in spades. I asked what their carding agreements were, and they said standard. So, should I believe this as an honest signal, assume he was trying to fool me, or just ignore it and flip a coin?
LHO was a good Flight B player. If he had been an expert, I would have had a real conundrum. He would know I wouldn't expect an honest signal, so he might just give me one, since I'd likely assume he was lying! I didn't think this opponent would play such a deep game, but would he try to fool me, or perhaps give an honest signal to help partner with discarding? Finally, I decided on the latter, ran the spade jack and was rewarded when he won it with the Ace. 6NT bid and made, for 8 out of 8 matchpoints.
Good luck!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Jennbridge: Final Qualifying Round
Picking up the penultimate board of the third and final qualifying session of the World Mixed Pairs, I was pretty confident that we would be in good shape with a good round; not so sure with a bad round. We had to deal with an unusual bid and also make a critical decision in the play.
Board 25. Unfavorable vulnerability.
I had a nice hand and opened 1club after RHO passed.
♠ K109
♥ AKJ7
♦ A62
♣ K87
LHO then bid 2 clubs, described as a 2-suiter with spades. Partner, Bob bid 2 diamonds. RHO bid 2S and I bid 2NT. Pard bid 3D, and although we had a later discussion what our bids meant over this relatively unusual treatment, I bid 3NT.
♠ 54
♥ 432
♦ KQ10973
♣ A3
♠ K109
♥ AKJ7
♦ A62
♣ K87
Later, when we discussed the bidding, I noted that I thought Bob's 2 diamond, followed by 3 diamond bid showed weakness, as it would have over a Michaels cuebid. Therefore, I meant my 2NT bid as strength-showing. He thought his bidding showed 10 + points as it would have over an overcall and therefore took my 2NT bid as nothing more than a minimum. Check out your agreements with your partner!
A spade was led and RHO won and returned a spade to my king. I cashed the heart ace to get a look at the hand and RHO showed out. As LHO obviously had hearts and spades, I had to play the diamonds carefully--playing RHO for all of them. I led a diamond to the king and LHO showed out. I ran the 10 of diamonds, won the ace and went back to the board with the club ace to run the diamonds.
After reviewing this hand, and unable to accurately reconstruct it even with the hand records, I finally realized that an odd thing happened on the run of the diamonds. Due to the lateness of the hour (and possibly due to the fact that Bob was studying the score handout, trying to calculate our percentage), dummy's cards weren't played properly and I only made two discards on the diamonds.
I came down to these cards:
♠ 10
♥ KJ
♦
♣ K
When I led a club to my king, LHO showed out. She had discarded several hearts and the queen or jack of spades. I had to decide whether to cash out for 10 safe tricks or to go for the endplay for the extra trick. LHO rated to have the remaining spade honor, but if RHO had it, holding myself to 9 tricks would net a pathetic score. This situation, (trying to decide whether to go for a top and risk a bottom) is not for the faint of heart. I finally decided I had to go for it so I closed my eyes (not really) and played the spade. LHO won and led into my heart tenace. Making 5 the hard way. After the game I was rather surprised that plus 660 didn't score better than 68%, and only now realize that making 5 would have been relatively easy if we had kept better track of the cards (6 diamonds, 2 hearts, 2 clubs and a spade).
LHO (South): QJ876/Q109865/void/Q5
RHO (North): A32/void/J854/J109642
All was well that ended well, as we played in the finals starting later that evening.
Go Giants!
See you at the table!
Board 25. Unfavorable vulnerability.
I had a nice hand and opened 1club after RHO passed.
♠ K109
♥ AKJ7
♦ A62
♣ K87
LHO then bid 2 clubs, described as a 2-suiter with spades. Partner, Bob bid 2 diamonds. RHO bid 2S and I bid 2NT. Pard bid 3D, and although we had a later discussion what our bids meant over this relatively unusual treatment, I bid 3NT.
♠ 54
♥ 432
♦ KQ10973
♣ A3
♠ K109
♥ AKJ7
♦ A62
♣ K87
Later, when we discussed the bidding, I noted that I thought Bob's 2 diamond, followed by 3 diamond bid showed weakness, as it would have over a Michaels cuebid. Therefore, I meant my 2NT bid as strength-showing. He thought his bidding showed 10 + points as it would have over an overcall and therefore took my 2NT bid as nothing more than a minimum. Check out your agreements with your partner!
A spade was led and RHO won and returned a spade to my king. I cashed the heart ace to get a look at the hand and RHO showed out. As LHO obviously had hearts and spades, I had to play the diamonds carefully--playing RHO for all of them. I led a diamond to the king and LHO showed out. I ran the 10 of diamonds, won the ace and went back to the board with the club ace to run the diamonds.
After reviewing this hand, and unable to accurately reconstruct it even with the hand records, I finally realized that an odd thing happened on the run of the diamonds. Due to the lateness of the hour (and possibly due to the fact that Bob was studying the score handout, trying to calculate our percentage), dummy's cards weren't played properly and I only made two discards on the diamonds.
I came down to these cards:
♠ 10
♥ KJ
♦
♣ K
When I led a club to my king, LHO showed out. She had discarded several hearts and the queen or jack of spades. I had to decide whether to cash out for 10 safe tricks or to go for the endplay for the extra trick. LHO rated to have the remaining spade honor, but if RHO had it, holding myself to 9 tricks would net a pathetic score. This situation, (trying to decide whether to go for a top and risk a bottom) is not for the faint of heart. I finally decided I had to go for it so I closed my eyes (not really) and played the spade. LHO won and led into my heart tenace. Making 5 the hard way. After the game I was rather surprised that plus 660 didn't score better than 68%, and only now realize that making 5 would have been relatively easy if we had kept better track of the cards (6 diamonds, 2 hearts, 2 clubs and a spade).
LHO (South): QJ876/Q109865/void/Q5
RHO (North): A32/void/J854/J109642
All was well that ended well, as we played in the finals starting later that evening.
Go Giants!
See you at the table!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Jennbridge: Handling Difficult Auctions
Here is the first of two hands from the final qualifying session of the World Mixed Pairs where we had to deal with unusual bids:
Board 4, All vul.
♠ A10763
♥ A
♦ AJ3
♣ AQ83
I was rather enamored with this hand, especially when partner opened 1 diamond, but then RHO overcalled 1NT, alerted as unusual, for the two lower unbid suits!
Well, this throws a wrench in the bidding. My only forcing call is double, so that's what I do.
LHO bid 2 hearts, partner passed and RHO bid 3 clubs. These bids were alerted and complex explanations were forthcoming, but I wasn't really very interested as I was busy thinking about what slam to bid. At this point we were in undiscussed territory and I wasn't about to make a bid I thought was forcing only to have a bidding accident. I couldn't really show my spades and so I just bid what I thought I could make...
Six notrump!
A heart was led and Bob put down this dummy:
♠ K9
♥ Q73
♦ KQ87652
♣ 6
♠ A10763
♥ A
♦ AJ3
♣ AQ83
That 7 card diamond suit was a beautiful sight, and a quick count of my tricks revealed that I had 11. A successful club finesse would land the contract, but as this was a qualifier for a world championship matchpoint game, I studied the hand for overtrick possibilities.
After the run of the diamonds these cards were left, RHO having discarded the queen of spades along with 2 hearts and 3 clubs.
♠ K9
♥ Q7
♦
♣ 6
♠ A107
♥
♦
♣ AQ
I took the club finesse, lost a spade at the end and claimed my 1440 for 82% of the matchpoints. Before I learned of the good score, however, I worried a little about not taking a club finesse, then leading a spade to the 9, and claiming all 13 of the tricks. This would have been a disaster, however, if RHO started with the unlikely holding of QJ of spades.
LHO (South) held: J8542/6542/109/52
RHO (North) held: Q/KJ1098/4/KJ10974
See you at the table!
Board 4, All vul.
♠ A10763
♥ A
♦ AJ3
♣ AQ83
I was rather enamored with this hand, especially when partner opened 1 diamond, but then RHO overcalled 1NT, alerted as unusual, for the two lower unbid suits!
Well, this throws a wrench in the bidding. My only forcing call is double, so that's what I do.
LHO bid 2 hearts, partner passed and RHO bid 3 clubs. These bids were alerted and complex explanations were forthcoming, but I wasn't really very interested as I was busy thinking about what slam to bid. At this point we were in undiscussed territory and I wasn't about to make a bid I thought was forcing only to have a bidding accident. I couldn't really show my spades and so I just bid what I thought I could make...
Six notrump!
A heart was led and Bob put down this dummy:
♠ K9
♥ Q73
♦ KQ87652
♣ 6
♠ A10763
♥ A
♦ AJ3
♣ AQ83
That 7 card diamond suit was a beautiful sight, and a quick count of my tricks revealed that I had 11. A successful club finesse would land the contract, but as this was a qualifier for a world championship matchpoint game, I studied the hand for overtrick possibilities.
After the run of the diamonds these cards were left, RHO having discarded the queen of spades along with 2 hearts and 3 clubs.
♠ K9
♥ Q7
♦
♣ 6
♠ A107
♥
♦
♣ AQ
I took the club finesse, lost a spade at the end and claimed my 1440 for 82% of the matchpoints. Before I learned of the good score, however, I worried a little about not taking a club finesse, then leading a spade to the 9, and claiming all 13 of the tricks. This would have been a disaster, however, if RHO started with the unlikely holding of QJ of spades.
LHO (South) held: J8542/6542/109/52
RHO (North) held: Q/KJ1098/4/KJ10974
See you at the table!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Jennbridge: World Mixed Pairs Finals ****
We had a below average and an average game in the final two sessions of the World Mixed Pairs and finished above average--in the top third of the field. Bob says we should be proud, as dozens of stellar pairs finished behind us, but I can’t help feeling disappointed after our great start.
It was actually a fun event. We used screens in each session and used special World Bridge Federation convention cards . The men always sat North and West and the women South and East. In the 3 qualifying sessions we sat East-West and in the 3 final sessions we sat North-South. We never played the same pair twice.
I’m writing up hands on the flight home and will be posting some of my favorite hands from the finals. It seemed particularly tense in the last session as each pair was jockeying for position and each hand could mean the difference between several places in the standings. These two hands feature interesting card combinations.
Board 4.
I opened one heart with:
♠ A104
♥ AKQ74
♦ 6
♣ K642
Partner responded 2 hearts, constructive, showing 3 trumps, 8-10 points and 9 losers. As I had the right loser count and was looking for a good board I made a help suit game try of 3 clubs. Partner accepted by bidding 3 notrump. With my singleton I wasn’t especially interested in notrump so I corrected to 4 hearts. A diamond was led and the dummy was not something to dream about:
♠ Q862
♥ J106
♦ A104
♣ Q95
♠ A104
♥ AKQ74
♦ 6
♣ K642
Barring some incredible luck I had two club losers and at least one spade loser, along with assorted handling problems. I won the diamond ace and made what turned out to be a key play: a low spade to the ten which forced the king.
LHO continued diamonds which I ruffed. I started trumps by playing a heart to the jack and a heart back to my hand and my problems were compounded when LHO showed out on the second heart.
I next tried a club to the queen which lost to the ace. RHO returned the 9 of diamonds (diamond 10 left in dummy) and I paused to consider the play. If I ruffed, I would be left with fewer trumps than my RHO which couldn’t be right, so I elected to pitch a losing club. LHO won the diamond and paused to consider the defense. He couldn’t continue diamonds without giving me a ruff/sluff and was probably reluctant to return a club, so he exited with a low spade. I played low from the board and won the jack with the ace.
I couldn’t afford to lose any more tricks with the remaining cards:
♠ Q8
♥ 10
♦
♣ Q95
♠ 4
♥ KQ
♦
♣ K6
I started thinking about the spades. What spade would RHO have played on the previous trick if she had started with J9x? As the jack and 9 were equals once the ten had been played, she probably would have played the jack, the card she was known to hold. Her in-tempo play and my partial count on the hand, however, caused me to strongly suspect that she started with the jack doubleton of spades. This meant that LHO started with K9xx of spades and I could finesse the 8. I therefore drew the remaining trumps, cashed the club king and led a spade to the 8, winning the last two tricks and scoring up my game! This was worth 82% of the matchpoints.
LHO held K953/9/KJ8753/73
RHO held J7/8532/Q92/AJ108
Board 11.
Playing 3 notrump with these cards I got a diamond lead:
♠ J963
♥ KJ4
♦ A5
♣ A1082
♠ A4
♥ AQ82
♦ K83
♣ Q954
With 8 winners available and only one more diamond stopper, the problem was how to play the club suit for at most one loser. Usually in this situation, it is right to lead the queen from your hand and then, if it loses, later lead toward the 10, a double finesse. This caters to the club honors being divided or LHO holding both honors, a 75% chance. Before starting on clubs, however, I decided to cash my 4 heart tricks to see if I could learn anything useful. Hearts broke 3-3 and on the 4th round of hearts LHO discarded the 3 of clubs!
Surely he wouldn’t throw a club with anything useful in the suit, looking at A1082 in the dummy, so I decided to change my plan and play clubs differently. Accordingly I led a club to the ace and was rewarded when RHO followed with the jack and then the king on the second round of clubs. She started with KJ doubleton! Scoring 430 was worth 76% of the matchpoints.
LHO held: Q75/1093/J642/763
RHO held: K1082/765/Q1097/KJ
Stay tuned for more hands from Philadelphia. The world championship events will continue through Oct. 16. For more information, daily bulletins and results, check out:
http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelphia.10/Information.htm.
See you at the table!
It was actually a fun event. We used screens in each session and used special World Bridge Federation convention cards . The men always sat North and West and the women South and East. In the 3 qualifying sessions we sat East-West and in the 3 final sessions we sat North-South. We never played the same pair twice.
I’m writing up hands on the flight home and will be posting some of my favorite hands from the finals. It seemed particularly tense in the last session as each pair was jockeying for position and each hand could mean the difference between several places in the standings. These two hands feature interesting card combinations.
Board 4.
I opened one heart with:
♠ A104
♥ AKQ74
♦ 6
♣ K642
Partner responded 2 hearts, constructive, showing 3 trumps, 8-10 points and 9 losers. As I had the right loser count and was looking for a good board I made a help suit game try of 3 clubs. Partner accepted by bidding 3 notrump. With my singleton I wasn’t especially interested in notrump so I corrected to 4 hearts. A diamond was led and the dummy was not something to dream about:
♠ Q862
♥ J106
♦ A104
♣ Q95
♠ A104
♥ AKQ74
♦ 6
♣ K642
Barring some incredible luck I had two club losers and at least one spade loser, along with assorted handling problems. I won the diamond ace and made what turned out to be a key play: a low spade to the ten which forced the king.
LHO continued diamonds which I ruffed. I started trumps by playing a heart to the jack and a heart back to my hand and my problems were compounded when LHO showed out on the second heart.
I next tried a club to the queen which lost to the ace. RHO returned the 9 of diamonds (diamond 10 left in dummy) and I paused to consider the play. If I ruffed, I would be left with fewer trumps than my RHO which couldn’t be right, so I elected to pitch a losing club. LHO won the diamond and paused to consider the defense. He couldn’t continue diamonds without giving me a ruff/sluff and was probably reluctant to return a club, so he exited with a low spade. I played low from the board and won the jack with the ace.
I couldn’t afford to lose any more tricks with the remaining cards:
♠ Q8
♥ 10
♦
♣ Q95
♠ 4
♥ KQ
♦
♣ K6
I started thinking about the spades. What spade would RHO have played on the previous trick if she had started with J9x? As the jack and 9 were equals once the ten had been played, she probably would have played the jack, the card she was known to hold. Her in-tempo play and my partial count on the hand, however, caused me to strongly suspect that she started with the jack doubleton of spades. This meant that LHO started with K9xx of spades and I could finesse the 8. I therefore drew the remaining trumps, cashed the club king and led a spade to the 8, winning the last two tricks and scoring up my game! This was worth 82% of the matchpoints.
LHO held K953/9/KJ8753/73
RHO held J7/8532/Q92/AJ108
Board 11.
Playing 3 notrump with these cards I got a diamond lead:
♠ J963
♥ KJ4
♦ A5
♣ A1082
♠ A4
♥ AQ82
♦ K83
♣ Q954
With 8 winners available and only one more diamond stopper, the problem was how to play the club suit for at most one loser. Usually in this situation, it is right to lead the queen from your hand and then, if it loses, later lead toward the 10, a double finesse. This caters to the club honors being divided or LHO holding both honors, a 75% chance. Before starting on clubs, however, I decided to cash my 4 heart tricks to see if I could learn anything useful. Hearts broke 3-3 and on the 4th round of hearts LHO discarded the 3 of clubs!
Surely he wouldn’t throw a club with anything useful in the suit, looking at A1082 in the dummy, so I decided to change my plan and play clubs differently. Accordingly I led a club to the ace and was rewarded when RHO followed with the jack and then the king on the second round of clubs. She started with KJ doubleton! Scoring 430 was worth 76% of the matchpoints.
LHO held: Q75/1093/J642/763
RHO held: K1082/765/Q1097/KJ
Stay tuned for more hands from Philadelphia. The world championship events will continue through Oct. 16. For more information, daily bulletins and results, check out:
http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelphia.10/Information.htm.
See you at the table!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Jennbridge: High or Low?
Jenn and I are in Philadelphia playing in the World Mixed Pairs. We played 3 qualifying sessions, and managed to qualify for a 3-session final. We're off to a good start: we had a 60% game in the first session and are running fifth overall.
Here are two eerily similar opening lead problems that were very instrumental in our being able to qualify. I held one of them and got it right; the other one was held by a well-known Washington, DC expert who didn't. In each case, you hold a spade suit headed by the AKQ. Do you lead the ace or a low one?
1. You hold:
AKQ764
654
5
Q42
You are in second seat, both vulnerable. RHO deals and passes. You open the bidding with 1 Spade. LHO doubles, partner passes, RHO bids 1NT, and everyone passes. Do you lead the ace or a low spade?
2. You hold:
AKQ75
T86
K76
J5
You are in first seat, none vulnerable. You open 1 Spade. It goes pass, pass, 1NT by RHO. You pass. LHO raises to 2NT and RHO accepts the invitation with 3NT. Do you lead the ace or a low spade?
It turns out that in both cases, it was necessary to underlead the AKQ.
Consider the first hand. What do you expect the distribution of the spades to be? LHO doubled, so he is likely to have a singleton. RHO bid 1NT, so he is likely to have 4 spades. This leaves partner with a likely doubleton. Your hand has no outside entries. The plan is to have partner get in with something, then lead his other spade to you so you can run the suit. Your lead is rewarded in a different way. Dummy had the stiff ten, partner had J8 and RHO had 9532! So we took the first six tricks. Jenn signalled what she wanted me to shift to (she had an ace), so we took the first 7 tricks for down one, which got us 79% of the matchpoints.
Now consider the second hand. Again, what do you expect the distribution of the spades to be? RHO should have 4 spades for his 1NT balance; the remaining spades are likely to be 2-2. Your hand has a potential entry with the king of diamonds, but if LHO has the ace, you'll never get to use it. So a low spade again is indicated. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for the DC expert, he chose to lead the ace, then the king, and found the spade suit to be T8 in dummy, J3 in partner's hand and 9642 in my hand, so once he led the ace, the spades blocked and couldn't be run for 4 tricks. The fourth spade trick was crucial, as I was able to set up 9 tricks without him ever getting in again. We got 89% of the matchpoints at a crucial time near the end of the last qualifying session.
Wish us luck!
Here are two eerily similar opening lead problems that were very instrumental in our being able to qualify. I held one of them and got it right; the other one was held by a well-known Washington, DC expert who didn't. In each case, you hold a spade suit headed by the AKQ. Do you lead the ace or a low one?
1. You hold:
AKQ764
654
5
Q42
You are in second seat, both vulnerable. RHO deals and passes. You open the bidding with 1 Spade. LHO doubles, partner passes, RHO bids 1NT, and everyone passes. Do you lead the ace or a low spade?
2. You hold:
AKQ75
T86
K76
J5
You are in first seat, none vulnerable. You open 1 Spade. It goes pass, pass, 1NT by RHO. You pass. LHO raises to 2NT and RHO accepts the invitation with 3NT. Do you lead the ace or a low spade?
It turns out that in both cases, it was necessary to underlead the AKQ.
Consider the first hand. What do you expect the distribution of the spades to be? LHO doubled, so he is likely to have a singleton. RHO bid 1NT, so he is likely to have 4 spades. This leaves partner with a likely doubleton. Your hand has no outside entries. The plan is to have partner get in with something, then lead his other spade to you so you can run the suit. Your lead is rewarded in a different way. Dummy had the stiff ten, partner had J8 and RHO had 9532! So we took the first six tricks. Jenn signalled what she wanted me to shift to (she had an ace), so we took the first 7 tricks for down one, which got us 79% of the matchpoints.
Now consider the second hand. Again, what do you expect the distribution of the spades to be? RHO should have 4 spades for his 1NT balance; the remaining spades are likely to be 2-2. Your hand has a potential entry with the king of diamonds, but if LHO has the ace, you'll never get to use it. So a low spade again is indicated. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for the DC expert, he chose to lead the ace, then the king, and found the spade suit to be T8 in dummy, J3 in partner's hand and 9642 in my hand, so once he led the ace, the spades blocked and couldn't be run for 4 tricks. The fourth spade trick was crucial, as I was able to set up 9 tricks without him ever getting in again. We got 89% of the matchpoints at a crucial time near the end of the last qualifying session.
Wish us luck!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Jennbridge: Prepping for Philly
Jenn and I are going to Philadelphia soon to compete in the World Mixed Pairs, which is part of the world championships being played there starting October 2. For more information about this, here is a link to their website: http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelphia.10/Information.htm.
We decided to practice our matchpoint game on-line. Last night, we got into a matchpoint tournament and I picked up this hand:
♠ K75
♥ A92
♦ KJ85
♣ AQ3
Jenn dealt and opened 1 Spade. With a strong hand and 3-card support for a major, our approach is to bid 2 of a new suit to create a game force, then show our support the next round. So I bid 2 Diamonds, she rebid 2 Spades, showing a 6-card suit, and I bid 3 Spades. Jenn now bid 4 Spades, showing a minimum opener. What now?
I decided that with 17 HCP, a known 9-card or longer fit, and such good controls, there was a good chance we had the cards for slam. So I bid 4NT, RKC. She replied 5 Diamonds, showing one or four keycards. I bid 5 Hearts, which asked if she had the spade queen. She now made the nice reply of 6 Hearts, which showed the spade queen and also the heart king. What now?
We were missing a keycard, so we had to play at the 6-level. I decided that it was best to bid 6NT rather than 6 Spades. Jenn had the king of hearts, so I knew we had a second heart stopper. It was matchpoints so No-Trump scores more. But I would have made the same bid at IMPs, since it could have been important to have the lead come up to me with tenaces in both minors and we were missing an ace.
This worked out well, as I looked at:
♠ QJ10943
♥ KT
♦ AQ9
♣ 96
♠ K75
♥ A92
♦ KJ85
♣ AQ3
I got a heart lead, knocked out the ace of spades and scored 12 easy tricks. We got over 94% of the matchpoints. Note that 6 Spades will go down if they lead a club and the king is offside (it was).
Good luck!
We decided to practice our matchpoint game on-line. Last night, we got into a matchpoint tournament and I picked up this hand:
♠ K75
♥ A92
♦ KJ85
♣ AQ3
Jenn dealt and opened 1 Spade. With a strong hand and 3-card support for a major, our approach is to bid 2 of a new suit to create a game force, then show our support the next round. So I bid 2 Diamonds, she rebid 2 Spades, showing a 6-card suit, and I bid 3 Spades. Jenn now bid 4 Spades, showing a minimum opener. What now?
I decided that with 17 HCP, a known 9-card or longer fit, and such good controls, there was a good chance we had the cards for slam. So I bid 4NT, RKC. She replied 5 Diamonds, showing one or four keycards. I bid 5 Hearts, which asked if she had the spade queen. She now made the nice reply of 6 Hearts, which showed the spade queen and also the heart king. What now?
We were missing a keycard, so we had to play at the 6-level. I decided that it was best to bid 6NT rather than 6 Spades. Jenn had the king of hearts, so I knew we had a second heart stopper. It was matchpoints so No-Trump scores more. But I would have made the same bid at IMPs, since it could have been important to have the lead come up to me with tenaces in both minors and we were missing an ace.
This worked out well, as I looked at:
♠ QJ10943
♥ KT
♦ AQ9
♣ 96
♠ K75
♥ A92
♦ KJ85
♣ AQ3
I got a heart lead, knocked out the ace of spades and scored 12 easy tricks. We got over 94% of the matchpoints. Note that 6 Spades will go down if they lead a club and the king is offside (it was).
Good luck!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Jennbridge: Searching for Matchpoints
Jenn and I were trying to make up some ground recently in the Great American Open Pairs when I picked this up in third seat, our side vulnerable:
♠ AK3
♥ 1087642
♦ AQ9
♣ 10
Jenn dealt and opened 1 Club. I bid 1 Heart and she rebid 2 Diamonds, a reverse. This is a nice hand, surely worth at least game and maybe slam, with uncertain direction. I didn't like my heart suit, so I made a forcing bid of 2 Spades. We hadn't discussed just what this meant after a reverse. We had agreed that anything but 2NT would be game forcing, and that the fourth suit was an artificial game force when needed, so it wasn't clear just what this meant. Jenn now rebid 3 Clubs. I tried 3NT (Hamman's Rule), but Jenn removed this to 4 Clubs. What now?
I considered what Jenn had for this sequence of bids. She didn't have much in diamonds, couldn't support hearts and didn't like no-trump. I decided that she had to have 7 or 8 solid clubs to have enough for a reverse, so I pictured her hand something like void/x/KJxx/AKQxxxxx. One thing was certain: she had to have a good hand to remove 3NT. So I decided to bid 6 Clubs. I was rewarded when the opponents led a spade, and she held:
♠ Q
♥ Q
♦ KJ42
♣AKQJ943
♠ AK3
♥ 1087642
♦ AQ9
♣ 10
She made 7 easily by pitching her losing heart on my spades. We got 32.5 out of 38 matchpoints.
Good luck!
♠ AK3
♥ 1087642
♦ AQ9
♣ 10
Jenn dealt and opened 1 Club. I bid 1 Heart and she rebid 2 Diamonds, a reverse. This is a nice hand, surely worth at least game and maybe slam, with uncertain direction. I didn't like my heart suit, so I made a forcing bid of 2 Spades. We hadn't discussed just what this meant after a reverse. We had agreed that anything but 2NT would be game forcing, and that the fourth suit was an artificial game force when needed, so it wasn't clear just what this meant. Jenn now rebid 3 Clubs. I tried 3NT (Hamman's Rule), but Jenn removed this to 4 Clubs. What now?
I considered what Jenn had for this sequence of bids. She didn't have much in diamonds, couldn't support hearts and didn't like no-trump. I decided that she had to have 7 or 8 solid clubs to have enough for a reverse, so I pictured her hand something like void/x/KJxx/AKQxxxxx. One thing was certain: she had to have a good hand to remove 3NT. So I decided to bid 6 Clubs. I was rewarded when the opponents led a spade, and she held:
♠ Q
♥ Q
♦ KJ42
♣AKQJ943
♠ AK3
♥ 1087642
♦ AQ9
♣ 10
She made 7 easily by pitching her losing heart on my spades. We got 32.5 out of 38 matchpoints.
Good luck!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Jennbridge: A Leap of Faith
By Bob Klein: This hand is another in a series demonstrating how it pays to bid aggressively with distributional 2-suiters. In an on-line IMP match, I dealt, with both vulnerable:
♠ void
♥ J43
♦ AJT86
♣ KT875
I wouldn't always open this hand, but I felt feisty and liked my intermediate spots, so I bid 1 Diamond. Partner bid 1 Spade, I rebid 2 Clubs, he rebid 2 Hearts (artificial game force), and I had an easy rebid of 3 Clubs. Partner now leaped to 6 Clubs! I passed, and LHO doubled. Now I wasn't so happy that I opened the bidding. He led the king of hearts, and I looked at:
♠ K6432
♥ A96
♦ void
♣ AJ963
♠ void
♥ J43
♦ AJT86
♣ KT875
Here I was in slam with 21 combined HCP, not all of them pulling their weight. Partner sure believed in 5-5, come alive!
How was I to find 12 tricks with this collection? With only 2 quick tricks outside of trumps, I needed either 10 trump tricks or another trick or two someplace. Now if this were the Spingold or a serious KO event, I might take 10 minutes or so to try to find the line with the best chance. But this was on-line bridge, where that would be impossible; the opponents would keep asking me to play, and would be wondering if I fell asleep!
I decided that 10 club tricks would be hard without the queen, so I looked around for other tricks. The jack of hearts might be a trick, or the fifth diamond or spade king. I decided to duck, hoping that either LHO would continue hearts or a possible squeeze might develop. LHO cooperated by continuing hearts, which I ducked to my jack. Now I started the cross-ruff by playing ace and another diamond, ruffed a spade, played a heart to the ace, holding my breath. It held. I ruffed another spade and another diamond. Only low cards appeared. I ruffed another spade and a fourth round of diamonds. On the last diamond, the king and queen appeared. Now I had to guess the ending. I was now looking at
S x
C AJ
D J
C KT
If LHO had all 3 clubs, I had to ruff the spade with the king and play a diamond, overruffing him. This loses if he doesn't have the queen. Or I could just play the ace and king of clubs, playing for any 2-1 split, and taking the last trick with the jack of diamonds. I finally decided that LHO didn't need Qxx of clubs for his double, and in fact with that holding he might be reluctant to double for fear of giving away his holding. With KQT of hearts, Kxxx of diamonds and the ace of spades, that would be enough to double. If he had the queen of clubs also, he might have competed over 1 Diamond. I decided to play for 2-1 clubs, the slam came home, and our team was +1540. At the other table, they got all the way to 3 clubs for +150, so +1390 was worth 17 big IMPs.
Good luck!
♠ void
♥ J43
♦ AJT86
♣ KT875
I wouldn't always open this hand, but I felt feisty and liked my intermediate spots, so I bid 1 Diamond. Partner bid 1 Spade, I rebid 2 Clubs, he rebid 2 Hearts (artificial game force), and I had an easy rebid of 3 Clubs. Partner now leaped to 6 Clubs! I passed, and LHO doubled. Now I wasn't so happy that I opened the bidding. He led the king of hearts, and I looked at:
♠ K6432
♥ A96
♦ void
♣ AJ963
♠ void
♥ J43
♦ AJT86
♣ KT875
Here I was in slam with 21 combined HCP, not all of them pulling their weight. Partner sure believed in 5-5, come alive!
How was I to find 12 tricks with this collection? With only 2 quick tricks outside of trumps, I needed either 10 trump tricks or another trick or two someplace. Now if this were the Spingold or a serious KO event, I might take 10 minutes or so to try to find the line with the best chance. But this was on-line bridge, where that would be impossible; the opponents would keep asking me to play, and would be wondering if I fell asleep!
I decided that 10 club tricks would be hard without the queen, so I looked around for other tricks. The jack of hearts might be a trick, or the fifth diamond or spade king. I decided to duck, hoping that either LHO would continue hearts or a possible squeeze might develop. LHO cooperated by continuing hearts, which I ducked to my jack. Now I started the cross-ruff by playing ace and another diamond, ruffed a spade, played a heart to the ace, holding my breath. It held. I ruffed another spade and another diamond. Only low cards appeared. I ruffed another spade and a fourth round of diamonds. On the last diamond, the king and queen appeared. Now I had to guess the ending. I was now looking at
S x
C AJ
D J
C KT
If LHO had all 3 clubs, I had to ruff the spade with the king and play a diamond, overruffing him. This loses if he doesn't have the queen. Or I could just play the ace and king of clubs, playing for any 2-1 split, and taking the last trick with the jack of diamonds. I finally decided that LHO didn't need Qxx of clubs for his double, and in fact with that holding he might be reluctant to double for fear of giving away his holding. With KQT of hearts, Kxxx of diamonds and the ace of spades, that would be enough to double. If he had the queen of clubs also, he might have competed over 1 Diamond. I decided to play for 2-1 clubs, the slam came home, and our team was +1540. At the other table, they got all the way to 3 clubs for +150, so +1390 was worth 17 big IMPs.
Good luck!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Jennbridge: Trying for Nine On-Line
I was fooling around on Bridge Base last night when I had a pleasant experience. A BBO friend invited me to his table where I was partnered by a well-known expert and we had about 35 kibitzers. I was dealer and picked up this nice hand:
♠ T72
♥ AQ84
♦ A52
♣ AKJ
I opened 1 Club, partner bid 1 Spade, I rebid 2NT and she raised me to 3NT. LHO led the jack of hearts, and I saw:
♠ Q954
♥ K2
♦ Q6
♣ 97643
♠ T72
♥ AQ84
♦ A52
♣ AKJ
I wanted to set up the clubs and the heart king was my only sure entry to dummy, so I won the first trick in my hand with the ace, then started the clubs with the ace. RHO showed out, pitching a heart (a critical error as it turned out), so the clubs weren't going to come in and I had to find a Plan B. I saw a possible 9 tricks: 2 spades, 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs. To get there, I had to start the spades. I led the deuce. LHO won the king and continued a second heart (a diamond would have been better). I won dummy's king, played a club to my king and played the ten of spades (to unblock). It went jack, queen, ace. RHO returned a heart, I won the queen and LHO followed with the ten. My 8 of hearts was now good, so I was up to 8 tricks. If the spades came in 3-3, I would be up to 9, so I played my last spade to dummy's 9. LHO showed out, but I still had a chance. RHO had a good spade, but all his remaining cards had to be diamonds. So I played dummy's last spade. RHO won and returned a diamond, perforce. I played low, holding my breath, and when LHO didn't produce the king, I was home with 1 spade, 4 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs.
My expert partner sent me a nice message: "I'm impressed!" That's a great thing to read in front of 35 kibitzers!
Good luck!
♠ T72
♥ AQ84
♦ A52
♣ AKJ
I opened 1 Club, partner bid 1 Spade, I rebid 2NT and she raised me to 3NT. LHO led the jack of hearts, and I saw:
♠ Q954
♥ K2
♦ Q6
♣ 97643
♠ T72
♥ AQ84
♦ A52
♣ AKJ
I wanted to set up the clubs and the heart king was my only sure entry to dummy, so I won the first trick in my hand with the ace, then started the clubs with the ace. RHO showed out, pitching a heart (a critical error as it turned out), so the clubs weren't going to come in and I had to find a Plan B. I saw a possible 9 tricks: 2 spades, 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs. To get there, I had to start the spades. I led the deuce. LHO won the king and continued a second heart (a diamond would have been better). I won dummy's king, played a club to my king and played the ten of spades (to unblock). It went jack, queen, ace. RHO returned a heart, I won the queen and LHO followed with the ten. My 8 of hearts was now good, so I was up to 8 tricks. If the spades came in 3-3, I would be up to 9, so I played my last spade to dummy's 9. LHO showed out, but I still had a chance. RHO had a good spade, but all his remaining cards had to be diamonds. So I played dummy's last spade. RHO won and returned a diamond, perforce. I played low, holding my breath, and when LHO didn't produce the king, I was home with 1 spade, 4 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs.
My expert partner sent me a nice message: "I'm impressed!" That's a great thing to read in front of 35 kibitzers!
Good luck!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Jennbridge: Online Fun
By Bob Klein: Bridge Base Online (BBO) is a fun place to play bridge. I have developed a set of acquaintances who often invite me to play in team matches. Some of them are players I can rely on to be experts; others, who claim to be experts, are of uncertain skill. Often a good player will invite me into a game and pair me up with someone I haven't played with before. When this happens, there are times when I have to make decisions without firm partnership agreements or confidence that my partner will know to do the right thing.
Last night, I picked up this interesting collection in a team game with both sides vulnerable:
♠ Axxx
♥ AQJxxx
♦ Kx
♣ x
RHO dealt and opened 1 Club. Do you double or overcall 1 Heart? I decided to double. There were only 5 losers, so I felt it was strong enough to bid hearts the next time if partner didn't respond in spades. The auction proceeded pass, 1NT, pass back to me. Now what?
The most important thing playing IMPs is to bid your vulnerable games. Since partner has shown some values, I wanted to bid a game. It looked to me as if this hand should be played in either 3NT or 4 Hearts. If I had been playing with Jenn or anyone whom I could trust to be an expert, I would have bid 3 Hearts, which should be virtually forcing and giving partner a choice of games. However, I was playing with a new partner and didn't want to risk being passed out, so I just bid 4 Hearts and hoped for the best. Everyone passed, LHO led the jack of clubs, and I looked at:
♠ xx
♥ Kxx
♦ Jxxx
♣ KQxx
♠ Axxx
♥ AQJxxx
♦ Kx
♣ x
Not a bad catch. Partner had nice trump support, so I had a reasonable play for the contract. There were 3 obvious losers, one each in all of the plain suits. I had to somehow take care of all of my low spades, and avoid a second diamond loser. There were two possible approaches: (1) ruff one spade low and one high, and pitch a diamond on a club winner; (2) ruff one spade, pitch one on a club winner and play a diamond toward the king, hoping RHO had the ace. Line (1) risked promoting a trump trick for the opponents if trumps were 4-0 or if they could manage an uppercut by continuing clubs when LHO had 3 trumps and only 2 or 3 clubs. Line (2) risked the ace of diamonds offside and had some problems managing entries to dummy.
I covered the club. RHO won the ace and shifted to the king of spades. I ducked this trick as LHO encouraged. He contined with the spade ten. I decided to play him for the ace of diamonds and go for line (2). I took the ace, ruffed a third round of spades low in dummy (LHO followed with the jack), pitched the last spade on a high club, played a heart to the ace and another to the king (hearts were 4-0 with LHO having all of them), then played a diamond toward the king. RHO stepped up with the ace and played back a club. I held my breath and ruffed low hoping that I wasn't being uppercut. Fortunately, LHO followed, so I drew his trump and brought home the game.
Good luck!
Last night, I picked up this interesting collection in a team game with both sides vulnerable:
♠ Axxx
♥ AQJxxx
♦ Kx
♣ x
RHO dealt and opened 1 Club. Do you double or overcall 1 Heart? I decided to double. There were only 5 losers, so I felt it was strong enough to bid hearts the next time if partner didn't respond in spades. The auction proceeded pass, 1NT, pass back to me. Now what?
The most important thing playing IMPs is to bid your vulnerable games. Since partner has shown some values, I wanted to bid a game. It looked to me as if this hand should be played in either 3NT or 4 Hearts. If I had been playing with Jenn or anyone whom I could trust to be an expert, I would have bid 3 Hearts, which should be virtually forcing and giving partner a choice of games. However, I was playing with a new partner and didn't want to risk being passed out, so I just bid 4 Hearts and hoped for the best. Everyone passed, LHO led the jack of clubs, and I looked at:
♠ xx
♥ Kxx
♦ Jxxx
♣ KQxx
♠ Axxx
♥ AQJxxx
♦ Kx
♣ x
Not a bad catch. Partner had nice trump support, so I had a reasonable play for the contract. There were 3 obvious losers, one each in all of the plain suits. I had to somehow take care of all of my low spades, and avoid a second diamond loser. There were two possible approaches: (1) ruff one spade low and one high, and pitch a diamond on a club winner; (2) ruff one spade, pitch one on a club winner and play a diamond toward the king, hoping RHO had the ace. Line (1) risked promoting a trump trick for the opponents if trumps were 4-0 or if they could manage an uppercut by continuing clubs when LHO had 3 trumps and only 2 or 3 clubs. Line (2) risked the ace of diamonds offside and had some problems managing entries to dummy.
I covered the club. RHO won the ace and shifted to the king of spades. I ducked this trick as LHO encouraged. He contined with the spade ten. I decided to play him for the ace of diamonds and go for line (2). I took the ace, ruffed a third round of spades low in dummy (LHO followed with the jack), pitched the last spade on a high club, played a heart to the ace and another to the king (hearts were 4-0 with LHO having all of them), then played a diamond toward the king. RHO stepped up with the ace and played back a club. I held my breath and ruffed low hoping that I wasn't being uppercut. Fortunately, LHO followed, so I drew his trump and brought home the game.
Good luck!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Hand from Mixed B-A-M **+
The food was fabulous and the weather was woeful in steamy New Orleans last week. Here is one of my favorite hands from the Mixed Board-a-Match Teams. Not much of a hand, mind you, but the type that can be action-oriented at the right vulnerability:
♠ void
♥ J9652
♦ J9
♣ J97432
It was the second board of a tense round against young opponents clearly proud of their intricate big club system with transfer responses, etc. At favorable vul., LHO opened 1 club and partner, Bob, overcalled 1 heart. RHO made a slow bid of 2 hearts, and while LHO was clearly thinking about what the bid meant before alerting it, I took the matter into my own hands.
Certain that they could make a vulnerable game (or even slam!) in spades, I jumped to 5 hearts, taking away most of their bidding spade and presenting LHO with a dilemma. The best she could do was double. RHO passed reluctantly and the king of clubs was led.
♠ void
♥ J9652
♦ J9
♣ J97432
♠ J752
♥ KQ1087
♦ 6
♣ A106
Needless to say, we won the board with our score of minus 100 as the opponents can make 6 spades (or 6 NT). Their hands were: AK10/A4/KQ10854/Q8 opposite Q98643/3/A732/K5.
It often pays to interfere with a precision or big club bidding system--sometimes Big Time!
See you at the table!
♠ void
♥ J9652
♦ J9
♣ J97432
It was the second board of a tense round against young opponents clearly proud of their intricate big club system with transfer responses, etc. At favorable vul., LHO opened 1 club and partner, Bob, overcalled 1 heart. RHO made a slow bid of 2 hearts, and while LHO was clearly thinking about what the bid meant before alerting it, I took the matter into my own hands.
Certain that they could make a vulnerable game (or even slam!) in spades, I jumped to 5 hearts, taking away most of their bidding spade and presenting LHO with a dilemma. The best she could do was double. RHO passed reluctantly and the king of clubs was led.
♠ void
♥ J9652
♦ J9
♣ J97432
♠ J752
♥ KQ1087
♦ 6
♣ A106
Needless to say, we won the board with our score of minus 100 as the opponents can make 6 spades (or 6 NT). Their hands were: AK10/A4/KQ10854/Q8 opposite Q98643/3/A732/K5.
It often pays to interfere with a precision or big club bidding system--sometimes Big Time!
See you at the table!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Another From Terra Linda
Here is another hand I held at last week's game with Dave at Terra Linda that is an intersting bidding problem. With none vulnerable, I picked this up in fourth seat:
♠ AKJ3
♥ AQ6
♦ 87543
♣ A
Dave passed, and RHO opened 1 Heart. How should I plan the auction?
There is no good action. I could overcall 1NT, but this hand seems suit-oriented, and could play much better in spades than no-trump when partner would be too weak to use Stayman, say with xxxx/xx/Qx/Jxxxx. I could overcall 1 Spade, but that seems like an underbid and is mis-descriptive. I could double, but I didn't have a good follow-up plan if partner didn't respond in spades. With this shape, I could follow up with 2 Diamonds without promising extra strength (an equal-level conversion), but this would also be mis-descriptive with that awful suit, or follow up with 2NT, which is also mis-descriptive with the singleton ace. After thinking about this for a while, I finally decided to double and rebid 2NT if partner bid the dreaded 2 Clubs. This sequence should promise 19-20 HCP, but the prime cards and positional value of the spade jack and heart queen would allow me to upgrade even though the singleton ace was a liability.
Well, the auction did indeed go pass, 2 Clubs by Dave, pass back to me, so I followed my plan and rebid 2NT. Dave, who had passed originally, now made me really unhappy by jumping to 5 Clubs! Everyone passed, and I reluctantly put this hand down as dummy. But I felt a lot better after Dave made six! He held
♠ AKJ3
♥ AQ6
♦ 87543
♣ A
♠ 8
♥ 72
♦ A92
♣ Q986543
The opponents led a low spade. He finessed the jack, cashed the club ace, pitched his two diamond losers on the AK of spades, played a diamond to the ace, then a low club. LHO had to play the king (he started with K7), so Dave was able to draw the last trump with the queen and take a winning heart finesse through LHO to make 12 tricks. This got us 10 matchpoints out of 12.
Next report will be from New Orleans. Jenn and I are trying our luck there in the Mixed Board-a-Match teams and the Swiss Teams.
Good luck!
♠ AKJ3
♥ AQ6
♦ 87543
♣ A
Dave passed, and RHO opened 1 Heart. How should I plan the auction?
There is no good action. I could overcall 1NT, but this hand seems suit-oriented, and could play much better in spades than no-trump when partner would be too weak to use Stayman, say with xxxx/xx/Qx/Jxxxx. I could overcall 1 Spade, but that seems like an underbid and is mis-descriptive. I could double, but I didn't have a good follow-up plan if partner didn't respond in spades. With this shape, I could follow up with 2 Diamonds without promising extra strength (an equal-level conversion), but this would also be mis-descriptive with that awful suit, or follow up with 2NT, which is also mis-descriptive with the singleton ace. After thinking about this for a while, I finally decided to double and rebid 2NT if partner bid the dreaded 2 Clubs. This sequence should promise 19-20 HCP, but the prime cards and positional value of the spade jack and heart queen would allow me to upgrade even though the singleton ace was a liability.
Well, the auction did indeed go pass, 2 Clubs by Dave, pass back to me, so I followed my plan and rebid 2NT. Dave, who had passed originally, now made me really unhappy by jumping to 5 Clubs! Everyone passed, and I reluctantly put this hand down as dummy. But I felt a lot better after Dave made six! He held
♠ AKJ3
♥ AQ6
♦ 87543
♣ A
♠ 8
♥ 72
♦ A92
♣ Q986543
The opponents led a low spade. He finessed the jack, cashed the club ace, pitched his two diamond losers on the AK of spades, played a diamond to the ace, then a low club. LHO had to play the king (he started with K7), so Dave was able to draw the last trump with the queen and take a winning heart finesse through LHO to make 12 tricks. This got us 10 matchpoints out of 12.
Next report will be from New Orleans. Jenn and I are trying our luck there in the Mixed Board-a-Match teams and the Swiss Teams.
Good luck!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Jennbridge: The Power of Tens (and Nines)
I played today in a pairs game at the Terra Linda Bridge Club, a nice venue in Marin County, with Dave Neuman, my other regular partner. I picked up, in fourth seat, both sides vulnerable:
♠ A972
♥ A972
♦ AJ5
♣ J6
LHO opened 1 Heart. Dave bid 2NT, showing the minors. What to do?
I thought that he had to have decent suits to come in vulnerable, and I had protection in the majors, so I raised to 3NT, which ended the bidding. I didn't realize it at the time, but the two nines in the majors were precious. My LHO led a low heart. Dave looked at:
♠ A972
♥ A972
♦ AJ5
♣ J6
♠ T
♥ T8
♦ QT874
♣ AQT52
He ducked this to the jack. The contract was cold, as the full hand was:
♠ A972
♥ A972
♦ AJ5
♣ J6
♠ KJ863 Q54
♥ 43 KQJ65
♦ 93 K62
♣ 8743 K9
♠ T
♥ T8
♦ QT874
♣ AQT52
RHO actually played the heart queen, but had he shifted to a spade, the result would have been the same. In either case, win dummy's ace and lead the diamond jack to force out the king. The combinations of nine and ten in each major produces a second stopper, so you have time to score 4 diamonds, 3 clubs and two major suit aces. Dave's four tens and my nines were the key to the hand. The major suit tens and nines played defense, while the minor suit tens provided the offense. The diamond ten solidified that suit, and the club ten was the ninth trick.
10.5 out of 12 matchpoints, on our way to a 60% game that was worth second out of 16 pairs.
Good luck!
♠ A972
♥ A972
♦ AJ5
♣ J6
LHO opened 1 Heart. Dave bid 2NT, showing the minors. What to do?
I thought that he had to have decent suits to come in vulnerable, and I had protection in the majors, so I raised to 3NT, which ended the bidding. I didn't realize it at the time, but the two nines in the majors were precious. My LHO led a low heart. Dave looked at:
♠ A972
♥ A972
♦ AJ5
♣ J6
♠ T
♥ T8
♦ QT874
♣ AQT52
He ducked this to the jack. The contract was cold, as the full hand was:
♠ A972
♥ A972
♦ AJ5
♣ J6
♠ KJ863 Q54
♥ 43 KQJ65
♦ 93 K62
♣ 8743 K9
♠ T
♥ T8
♦ QT874
♣ AQT52
RHO actually played the heart queen, but had he shifted to a spade, the result would have been the same. In either case, win dummy's ace and lead the diamond jack to force out the king. The combinations of nine and ten in each major produces a second stopper, so you have time to score 4 diamonds, 3 clubs and two major suit aces. Dave's four tens and my nines were the key to the hand. The major suit tens and nines played defense, while the minor suit tens provided the offense. The diamond ten solidified that suit, and the club ten was the ninth trick.
10.5 out of 12 matchpoints, on our way to a 60% game that was worth second out of 16 pairs.
Good luck!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Jennbridge: Matchpoints at its Best (or Worst)
Jenn and I won a two-session sectional pairs event this weekend, but since our margin of victory was less than a board, we might not have if we hadn't gotten this hand right. It illustrates how different matchpoints is from IMPs or rubber bridge. I held, in third seat with both vulnerable:
♠ AKT2
♥ J754
♦ J3
♣ T86
Jenn dealt and opened 1 Club and RHO doubled. We play that whenever we have enough to respond over an opening bid, we usually make the same bid if there is an intervening takeout double. I therefore bid 1 Heart. LHO bid 2 Diamonds, Jenn bid 3 Clubs and RHO passed. I was happy in this spot so I passed. LHO now competed with 3 Spades, which was passed to me. What now?
I thought that it was likely that 3 Clubs would have made for +110 or maybe +130. If I sold out to 3 Spades, we would have gotten a bad matchpoint score even if we set it a trick, since +100 would lose to all pairs allowed to play 3 Clubs. So I had to do something. I decided that it was more likely that we could beat 3 Spades than make 4 Clubs. LHO's bidding marked him with 5 diamonds and 4 spades, and RHO couldn't have more than 4 spades (if he had 5, he would either have overcalled 1 Spade or bid 3 Spades over 3 Clubs if his hand was too strong for an overcall.) So I knew that they had at most 8 spades between them, so we had the law of total tricks on our side and they were getting a bad trump break. So I whacked it. This is a bid I would never risk at IMPs, since if they make it, we'd be -730 for a huge adverse swing.
Everyone passed, Jenn led the ace of clubs and dummy tabled:
♠ Q743
♥ KQ8
♦ A975
♣ J2
I encouraged a club continuation. The ace held, declarer dropping the queen, but the second round was ruffed. Now I had a pretty good picture of the hand. LHO was 4=3=5=1 or 4=2=6=1. Jenn probably had the ace of hearts along with AK97543 to justify her 3 Club rebid. So to beat this, I had to score the ten of spades for our fifth trick.
Declarer played a spade to the queen. I now had the hand set since I could win with the king, play the ace and a small spade, which declarer would have to win with the jack, setting up my ten, with the ace of hearts for our fifth trick. +200 was worth 14 out of 17 matchpoints. +100 would have been considerably below average.
Declarer could not make this no matter how he played it. Probably his best chance would have been to play a diamond to dummy and a low spade. I would have to play low, then he would finesse against my ten by playing low from his J986. However, he could never shut out my spade ten. If he continued with the spade Jack or got to dummy again to play another low spade, I would win with the king, cash the ace, and then play my last club, forcing dummy's queen. If he abandoned trumps, I would eventually ruff a diamond with the ten.
It is noteworthy that RHO could have put more pressure on me by raising to 3 Diamonds. Now, while the matchpoint logic would still call for a double, it would have been much riskier for me since I would likely have faced a 9-card fit so the law of total tricks would have been working against us. I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision. As the cards were, 3 Diamonds would also have gone down since Jenn would have gotten a spade ruff. After cashing the ace of clubs, she would have shifted to her singleton spade as I would have discouraged a club continuation and spades would have been the obvious shift.
Good luck!
♠ AKT2
♥ J754
♦ J3
♣ T86
Jenn dealt and opened 1 Club and RHO doubled. We play that whenever we have enough to respond over an opening bid, we usually make the same bid if there is an intervening takeout double. I therefore bid 1 Heart. LHO bid 2 Diamonds, Jenn bid 3 Clubs and RHO passed. I was happy in this spot so I passed. LHO now competed with 3 Spades, which was passed to me. What now?
I thought that it was likely that 3 Clubs would have made for +110 or maybe +130. If I sold out to 3 Spades, we would have gotten a bad matchpoint score even if we set it a trick, since +100 would lose to all pairs allowed to play 3 Clubs. So I had to do something. I decided that it was more likely that we could beat 3 Spades than make 4 Clubs. LHO's bidding marked him with 5 diamonds and 4 spades, and RHO couldn't have more than 4 spades (if he had 5, he would either have overcalled 1 Spade or bid 3 Spades over 3 Clubs if his hand was too strong for an overcall.) So I knew that they had at most 8 spades between them, so we had the law of total tricks on our side and they were getting a bad trump break. So I whacked it. This is a bid I would never risk at IMPs, since if they make it, we'd be -730 for a huge adverse swing.
Everyone passed, Jenn led the ace of clubs and dummy tabled:
♠ Q743
♥ KQ8
♦ A975
♣ J2
I encouraged a club continuation. The ace held, declarer dropping the queen, but the second round was ruffed. Now I had a pretty good picture of the hand. LHO was 4=3=5=1 or 4=2=6=1. Jenn probably had the ace of hearts along with AK97543 to justify her 3 Club rebid. So to beat this, I had to score the ten of spades for our fifth trick.
Declarer played a spade to the queen. I now had the hand set since I could win with the king, play the ace and a small spade, which declarer would have to win with the jack, setting up my ten, with the ace of hearts for our fifth trick. +200 was worth 14 out of 17 matchpoints. +100 would have been considerably below average.
Declarer could not make this no matter how he played it. Probably his best chance would have been to play a diamond to dummy and a low spade. I would have to play low, then he would finesse against my ten by playing low from his J986. However, he could never shut out my spade ten. If he continued with the spade Jack or got to dummy again to play another low spade, I would win with the king, cash the ace, and then play my last club, forcing dummy's queen. If he abandoned trumps, I would eventually ruff a diamond with the ten.
It is noteworthy that RHO could have put more pressure on me by raising to 3 Diamonds. Now, while the matchpoint logic would still call for a double, it would have been much riskier for me since I would likely have faced a 9-card fit so the law of total tricks would have been working against us. I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision. As the cards were, 3 Diamonds would also have gone down since Jenn would have gotten a spade ruff. After cashing the ace of clubs, she would have shifted to her singleton spade as I would have discouraged a club continuation and spades would have been the obvious shift.
Good luck!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Jennbridge: Ostensibly a Game Try ***
Here's another hand from the Palo Alto KOs. This hand helped us advance to the semifinals:
♠ AJx
♥ AKQxx
♦ KJxxx
♣ void
In response to my one heart opening bid, partner bid 3 clubs, a Bergen raise showing 8-9 points and 4 trumps. He should have a 9 loser hand.
I studied my hand and noted that I only had 4 losers. We might be in the slam zone if partner had the right cards. How to find out?
Values in diamonds would be the most helpful. With that in mind, I decided to bid 3 diamonds, which we play as a help-suit game try. I was pleased when Bob jumped to game. I followed it with a jump to slam--6 hearts!
♠ Kxx
♥ xxxx
♦ Qx
♣ Axxx
♠ AJx
♥ AKQxx
♦ KJxxx
♣ void
A club was led and I pitched a spade on the ace. Partner's cards were just what I needed. Hearts broke 2-2 and diamonds were friendly enough to bring in the slam. Even though we were playing against a good team (national champions, all) they didn't find the slam at the other table. These 13 imps contributed to a sizable win.
See you at the table!
♠ AJx
♥ AKQxx
♦ KJxxx
♣ void
In response to my one heart opening bid, partner bid 3 clubs, a Bergen raise showing 8-9 points and 4 trumps. He should have a 9 loser hand.
I studied my hand and noted that I only had 4 losers. We might be in the slam zone if partner had the right cards. How to find out?
Values in diamonds would be the most helpful. With that in mind, I decided to bid 3 diamonds, which we play as a help-suit game try. I was pleased when Bob jumped to game. I followed it with a jump to slam--6 hearts!
♠ Kxx
♥ xxxx
♦ Qx
♣ Axxx
♠ AJx
♥ AKQxx
♦ KJxxx
♣ void
A club was led and I pitched a spade on the ace. Partner's cards were just what I needed. Hearts broke 2-2 and diamonds were friendly enough to bring in the slam. Even though we were playing against a good team (national champions, all) they didn't find the slam at the other table. These 13 imps contributed to a sizable win.
See you at the table!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Bidding 'em Up in Palo Alto **+
Jenn and I played in a two-day KO event in the annual Fourth of July Palo Alto sectional over the weekend. We got to the finals but lost. Here's a hand from our semifinal match. I held, in fourth seat, neither side vulnerable:
♠ AT9x
♥ void
♦ Axx
♣ AKJT9x
LHO dealt and opened 2 Diamonds. Jenn overcalled 2 Spades and RHO passed. What now?
I should have just gone right to 5NT, a grand slam force in spades. This asks partner to bid a grand slam with two of the top three honors. The only risk here was that Jenn had a lot of diamond losers, since RHO didn't raise diamonds, or she held three small clubs and might lose a trick to the queen. I could foresee setting up the clubs to take care of her diamond losers. But I thought I might get more information, so I cuebid 3 Diamonds. Jenn now bid 3 Hearts, which RHO doubled. What now?
I couldn't risk bidding 5NT since this might be for hearts, the last bid suit, even though it was doubled. I was afraid to bid 3 Spades, since while this should be forcing, I sure didn't want to see a pass from Jenn which would have been a huge disaster. So I stalled for time by repeating the cuebid with 4 Diamonds. Jenn now bid 4 Spades. Phew! Now I could bid 5NT as an unambiguous grand slam force in spades. Jenn duly bid 7 Spades, uncomfortably, with
♠ KQxxxx
♥ Qxxxx
♦ Qx
♣ void
She had the worst possible holding, a club void, so the slam required some care in the play. It would be awkward to try for 13 tricks on a straight cross-ruff missing the trump jack, so Jenn had to set up the clubs. Her LHO led the ace of hearts, ruffed in dummy. Jenn ruffed a club and played a spade to dummy, the jack falling singleton. Now she had enough entries to ruff safely until the club queen fell (clubs were 4-3) so the grand slam made.
All of this produced a push board, as they bid the grand at the other table also (they didn't use GSF, just Blackwood, so were lucky that partner held the spade king and not the heart ace.) We won the match by just 10 IMPs, so we had to bid and make this to get to the finals.
Good luck!
♠ AT9x
♥ void
♦ Axx
♣ AKJT9x
LHO dealt and opened 2 Diamonds. Jenn overcalled 2 Spades and RHO passed. What now?
I should have just gone right to 5NT, a grand slam force in spades. This asks partner to bid a grand slam with two of the top three honors. The only risk here was that Jenn had a lot of diamond losers, since RHO didn't raise diamonds, or she held three small clubs and might lose a trick to the queen. I could foresee setting up the clubs to take care of her diamond losers. But I thought I might get more information, so I cuebid 3 Diamonds. Jenn now bid 3 Hearts, which RHO doubled. What now?
I couldn't risk bidding 5NT since this might be for hearts, the last bid suit, even though it was doubled. I was afraid to bid 3 Spades, since while this should be forcing, I sure didn't want to see a pass from Jenn which would have been a huge disaster. So I stalled for time by repeating the cuebid with 4 Diamonds. Jenn now bid 4 Spades. Phew! Now I could bid 5NT as an unambiguous grand slam force in spades. Jenn duly bid 7 Spades, uncomfortably, with
♠ KQxxxx
♥ Qxxxx
♦ Qx
♣ void
She had the worst possible holding, a club void, so the slam required some care in the play. It would be awkward to try for 13 tricks on a straight cross-ruff missing the trump jack, so Jenn had to set up the clubs. Her LHO led the ace of hearts, ruffed in dummy. Jenn ruffed a club and played a spade to dummy, the jack falling singleton. Now she had enough entries to ruff safely until the club queen fell (clubs were 4-3) so the grand slam made.
All of this produced a push board, as they bid the grand at the other table also (they didn't use GSF, just Blackwood, so were lucky that partner held the spade king and not the heart ace.) We won the match by just 10 IMPs, so we had to bid and make this to get to the finals.
Good luck!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
The Splendid Splinter, Redux
You hold, in first seat with neither side vulnerable:
♠ void
♥ Axxxx
♦ Kxx
♣ xxxxx
You pass. LHO opens 1 Spade. Partner overcalls 2 Hearts, and RHO passes. What would you bid?
You have great trump support, a void in the opponents' suit, and 7 losers overall. As partner's bid promises opening bid values, you surely want to be in game. You could just bid 4 Hearts. But since you want to be in game, you have a chance to show partner what you have along the way - a splinter bid of 3 Spades. Since you are a passed hand, partner won't expect more than this. If you bid 3 Spades, its effect is magical. Now put yourself in partner's chair. He holds
♠ J9x
♥ KQJTxx
♦ Axx
♣ A
Surely partner has the ace of hearts. She has at most one spade. So your only losers are two spades and two diamonds. The hand is worth a slam try, so you cue bid 4 Clubs. Partner responds with a cue bid of 4 Diamonds, which has to be the king. Now I think there is enough information to just go ahead and bid 6 Hearts. However, if you want to really be on the safe side, you can bid 4NT, RKC for hearts.
Now go back and look at that first hand. You would like to show the void. However, the way to show a void with one keycard is usually to jump to the 6-level in the void suit. Here, you would have to bid 6 Spades, which is higher than slam in your suit. What many experts do in this situation is to jump to 6 of the trump suit, showing one keycard and a void in a higher-ranking suit. You could do this, or, to be on the safe side, just show one keycard. I would show the void, since this may be what partner needs for a grand slam. Whatever you do, partner will put it into 6 Hearts.
It is quite possible that a 3 Spade splinter bid will encourage LHO, holding
♠ AQxxxxx
♥ void
♦ Qxxxx
♣ KQ
to compete with 4 Spades. But partner would cue bid 5 Clubs and the slam would still be reached. Now you will be either +980 or +500 if the opponents save in 6 Spades.
Looking at the two hands together,
♠ void
♥ Axxxx
♦ Kxx
♣ xxxxx
♠ J9x
♥ KQJTxx
♦ Axx
♣ A
you see that 12 tricks are easy (just ruff all the spades in dummy), and 13 are possible if you can ruff out the club suit and set up dummy's long club. Dummy has plenty of entries to do this.
What actually happened was that we lost the battle but won the war. My partner (not Jenn) missed the opportunity to make the splinter bid, bidding 4 Hearts to end the auction. However, things turned out good for us anyway. Nobody in the field (it was bid 9 times) got to the slam. Clubs were 5-2, so the hand should only make six, but at our table, our opponents misdiscarded and I ended up making 3 diamond tricks for +510, a top on the board. Fortunately this was a pairs game. If it had been teams, it would have been a lost opportunity to win 11 IMPs.
Good luck!
♠ void
♥ Axxxx
♦ Kxx
♣ xxxxx
You pass. LHO opens 1 Spade. Partner overcalls 2 Hearts, and RHO passes. What would you bid?
You have great trump support, a void in the opponents' suit, and 7 losers overall. As partner's bid promises opening bid values, you surely want to be in game. You could just bid 4 Hearts. But since you want to be in game, you have a chance to show partner what you have along the way - a splinter bid of 3 Spades. Since you are a passed hand, partner won't expect more than this. If you bid 3 Spades, its effect is magical. Now put yourself in partner's chair. He holds
♠ J9x
♥ KQJTxx
♦ Axx
♣ A
Surely partner has the ace of hearts. She has at most one spade. So your only losers are two spades and two diamonds. The hand is worth a slam try, so you cue bid 4 Clubs. Partner responds with a cue bid of 4 Diamonds, which has to be the king. Now I think there is enough information to just go ahead and bid 6 Hearts. However, if you want to really be on the safe side, you can bid 4NT, RKC for hearts.
Now go back and look at that first hand. You would like to show the void. However, the way to show a void with one keycard is usually to jump to the 6-level in the void suit. Here, you would have to bid 6 Spades, which is higher than slam in your suit. What many experts do in this situation is to jump to 6 of the trump suit, showing one keycard and a void in a higher-ranking suit. You could do this, or, to be on the safe side, just show one keycard. I would show the void, since this may be what partner needs for a grand slam. Whatever you do, partner will put it into 6 Hearts.
It is quite possible that a 3 Spade splinter bid will encourage LHO, holding
♠ AQxxxxx
♥ void
♦ Qxxxx
♣ KQ
to compete with 4 Spades. But partner would cue bid 5 Clubs and the slam would still be reached. Now you will be either +980 or +500 if the opponents save in 6 Spades.
Looking at the two hands together,
♠ void
♥ Axxxx
♦ Kxx
♣ xxxxx
♠ J9x
♥ KQJTxx
♦ Axx
♣ A
you see that 12 tricks are easy (just ruff all the spades in dummy), and 13 are possible if you can ruff out the club suit and set up dummy's long club. Dummy has plenty of entries to do this.
What actually happened was that we lost the battle but won the war. My partner (not Jenn) missed the opportunity to make the splinter bid, bidding 4 Hearts to end the auction. However, things turned out good for us anyway. Nobody in the field (it was bid 9 times) got to the slam. Clubs were 5-2, so the hand should only make six, but at our table, our opponents misdiscarded and I ended up making 3 diamond tricks for +510, a top on the board. Fortunately this was a pairs game. If it had been teams, it would have been a lost opportunity to win 11 IMPs.
Good luck!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Jennbridge: Two from the Sacramento Swiss **
Jenn and I had fun at the Sacramento regional this past week. We placed in a pair game, then finished in the top 10 in the main event, a two-day Swiss Teams containing most of the good teams in N. California, plus a few pro teams.
The first hand clinched a spot in the finals. The second got us a nice match win on day two.
1. It was Round 6 of 7. We needed 4 or 5 VP to qualify. Our opponents were Jill Meyers and Jill Levin, two world champions. I held, both vulnerable:
♠ AK754
♥ T83
♦ A65
♣ K7
Partner deals and passes, as does RHO. I opened 1 Spade. LHO passes, and partner bids 2 Clubs, which we play as reverse Drury, showing a limit raise. RHO doubled, showing clubs. I liked my hand, so accepted with 4 Spades. Everyone passed, LHO led a low club, and I looked at:
♠ QT6
♥ KJ
♦ K9742
♣ Q54
♠ AK754
♥ T83
♦ A65
♣ K7
RHO won the ace and returned a club. My plan was to draw trump and try to duck a diamond into RHO, so I could eventually pitch my heart losers on dummy's diamonds, losing a heart, diamond and club. So I played the ace of spades and a spade to the queen. RHO showed out on the second spade, pitching a club. So my plan wasn't going to work, since I couldn't lose a diamond as that would give me a loser in each suit. I had to use the club queen to discard my diamond loser, and somehow hold the heart losers to one.
I played a diamond to the ace and a heart to dummy, planning to finesse the jack, hoping for LHO to have the queen and RHO the ace. However, LHO hopped up with the ace and, after considerable thought, returned a heart. I won the king and played the queen of clubs, pitching a diamond. She ruffed and played her last trump, keeping me from ruffing the last heart in dummy. Now there were 3 tricks remaining. I had a spade, the heart ten and a low diamond. Dummy had the king and two low diamonds. So I played the last spade and hoped for the best. Eureka! LHO discarded the heart queen, so my ten of hearts became good for the fulfilling trick. It turned out that LHO was squeezed between the red suits. Her last 3 cards were the heart queen and two diamonds. She had to protect the diamonds, so she hoped her partner had the heart ten. Game made, 12 big IMPs won and a spot in the finals assured!
2. Jenn heard me open a strong 2 Clubs, and looked at:
♠ 962
♥ 43
♦ T32
♣ KJT87
The hand and club suit aren't good enough for a natural 3 Clubs, so Jenn bid 2 Diamonds, waiting. I replied 2 Hearts. Now Jenn had a problem. She thought the hand was too good for a second negative, but she couldn't bid 3 Clubs, as that would have been an artificial second negative in our methods, denying a king or 2 queens. So what should she do? She had to improvise with 2NT, even though this risked wrong-siding the contract if we ended up in no-trump.
Now let's look at my hand. I held:
♠ A8
♥ AKJ86
♦ AKQ
♣ AQ2
Not a bad collection! 27 HCP with a 5-card suit. When I heard Jenn reply 2NT, I really didn't know how strong her hand was. She could have had as little as the king of clubs and nothing else. However, since the hand has such great potential, I just decided to take a shot at 6NT. I figured that if she had a really good hand, say three of the missing kings and queens, she might raise to seven. So Jenn played it in 6NT. This proved easy to play, as when she cashed the heart ace, RHO showed out, so she had a marked finesse and was able to claim. 6NT bid and made, and 13 IMPs won. Jenn's counterpart at the other table treated her hand as a second negative, so they stopped in 3NT.
Good luck!
The first hand clinched a spot in the finals. The second got us a nice match win on day two.
1. It was Round 6 of 7. We needed 4 or 5 VP to qualify. Our opponents were Jill Meyers and Jill Levin, two world champions. I held, both vulnerable:
♠ AK754
♥ T83
♦ A65
♣ K7
Partner deals and passes, as does RHO. I opened 1 Spade. LHO passes, and partner bids 2 Clubs, which we play as reverse Drury, showing a limit raise. RHO doubled, showing clubs. I liked my hand, so accepted with 4 Spades. Everyone passed, LHO led a low club, and I looked at:
♠ QT6
♥ KJ
♦ K9742
♣ Q54
♠ AK754
♥ T83
♦ A65
♣ K7
RHO won the ace and returned a club. My plan was to draw trump and try to duck a diamond into RHO, so I could eventually pitch my heart losers on dummy's diamonds, losing a heart, diamond and club. So I played the ace of spades and a spade to the queen. RHO showed out on the second spade, pitching a club. So my plan wasn't going to work, since I couldn't lose a diamond as that would give me a loser in each suit. I had to use the club queen to discard my diamond loser, and somehow hold the heart losers to one.
I played a diamond to the ace and a heart to dummy, planning to finesse the jack, hoping for LHO to have the queen and RHO the ace. However, LHO hopped up with the ace and, after considerable thought, returned a heart. I won the king and played the queen of clubs, pitching a diamond. She ruffed and played her last trump, keeping me from ruffing the last heart in dummy. Now there were 3 tricks remaining. I had a spade, the heart ten and a low diamond. Dummy had the king and two low diamonds. So I played the last spade and hoped for the best. Eureka! LHO discarded the heart queen, so my ten of hearts became good for the fulfilling trick. It turned out that LHO was squeezed between the red suits. Her last 3 cards were the heart queen and two diamonds. She had to protect the diamonds, so she hoped her partner had the heart ten. Game made, 12 big IMPs won and a spot in the finals assured!
2. Jenn heard me open a strong 2 Clubs, and looked at:
♠ 962
♥ 43
♦ T32
♣ KJT87
The hand and club suit aren't good enough for a natural 3 Clubs, so Jenn bid 2 Diamonds, waiting. I replied 2 Hearts. Now Jenn had a problem. She thought the hand was too good for a second negative, but she couldn't bid 3 Clubs, as that would have been an artificial second negative in our methods, denying a king or 2 queens. So what should she do? She had to improvise with 2NT, even though this risked wrong-siding the contract if we ended up in no-trump.
Now let's look at my hand. I held:
♠ A8
♥ AKJ86
♦ AKQ
♣ AQ2
Not a bad collection! 27 HCP with a 5-card suit. When I heard Jenn reply 2NT, I really didn't know how strong her hand was. She could have had as little as the king of clubs and nothing else. However, since the hand has such great potential, I just decided to take a shot at 6NT. I figured that if she had a really good hand, say three of the missing kings and queens, she might raise to seven. So Jenn played it in 6NT. This proved easy to play, as when she cashed the heart ace, RHO showed out, so she had a marked finesse and was able to claim. 6NT bid and made, and 13 IMPs won. Jenn's counterpart at the other table treated her hand as a second negative, so they stopped in 3NT.
Good luck!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Jennbridge: An Inferential Squeeze
In last week's team game, I had a chance to do something neat - make a hand because the bidding and play strongly suggested that an opponent had been squeezed. I was dealt, in second seat:
♠ 63
♥ KQ875
♦ AT
♣ KQT3
Neither side was vulnerable. RHO opened 1 Diamond, I overcalled 1 heart, LHO passed, Jenn bid 2 Clubs and RHO rebid 2 Diamonds. I raised to 3 Clubs and Jenn bid 3 Spades. She probably had 5 or 6 clubs and 4 spades. I trotted out Hamman's Rule and bid 3NT, which ended the auction. LHO led the jack of diamonds, and Jenn tabled:
♠ AKJ2
♥ A9
♦ 76
♣ J9654
♠ 63
♥ KQ875
♦ AT
♣ KQT3
Not quite what I was hoping for (the ace of clubs instead of all these spade honors would have been enough; with what she gave me, I would have rather been in 5 Clubs, which would have been an easy make. In 3NT I had to have some luck. I won the second diamond and took stock.
I couldn't just knock out the club ace, since RHO would run her diamonds. So I needed the hearts to run, then I had to find a ninth trick either in clubs or spades. RHO had to have the club ace in order to have opened the bidding and bid again. If she had the queen of spades as well, she would have a hard time discarding down to 6 cards on the run of the hearts. So I played the A then K of hearts, and RHO luckily obliged by having the doubleton JT. On the next three hearts, she pitched a club; then, after some thought, two diamonds. (She might have made things a bit dicey by pitching one or 2 spades, but she would have to do this in tempo, a hard thing to do.) I decided that her bidding and plays indicated that she started with
♠ Qxx
♥ JT
♦ KQxxxx
♣ Ax
So after discarding two diamonds, she only had two remaining winners. Thus, I was able to knock out the club ace and come to 9 tricks once she took her two remaining diamond winners. We won 6 IMPs as they played in 3 Clubs at the other table.
Good luck!
♠ 63
♥ KQ875
♦ AT
♣ KQT3
Neither side was vulnerable. RHO opened 1 Diamond, I overcalled 1 heart, LHO passed, Jenn bid 2 Clubs and RHO rebid 2 Diamonds. I raised to 3 Clubs and Jenn bid 3 Spades. She probably had 5 or 6 clubs and 4 spades. I trotted out Hamman's Rule and bid 3NT, which ended the auction. LHO led the jack of diamonds, and Jenn tabled:
♠ AKJ2
♥ A9
♦ 76
♣ J9654
♠ 63
♥ KQ875
♦ AT
♣ KQT3
Not quite what I was hoping for (the ace of clubs instead of all these spade honors would have been enough; with what she gave me, I would have rather been in 5 Clubs, which would have been an easy make. In 3NT I had to have some luck. I won the second diamond and took stock.
I couldn't just knock out the club ace, since RHO would run her diamonds. So I needed the hearts to run, then I had to find a ninth trick either in clubs or spades. RHO had to have the club ace in order to have opened the bidding and bid again. If she had the queen of spades as well, she would have a hard time discarding down to 6 cards on the run of the hearts. So I played the A then K of hearts, and RHO luckily obliged by having the doubleton JT. On the next three hearts, she pitched a club; then, after some thought, two diamonds. (She might have made things a bit dicey by pitching one or 2 spades, but she would have to do this in tempo, a hard thing to do.) I decided that her bidding and plays indicated that she started with
♠ Qxx
♥ JT
♦ KQxxxx
♣ Ax
So after discarding two diamonds, she only had two remaining winners. Thus, I was able to knock out the club ace and come to 9 tricks once she took her two remaining diamond winners. We won 6 IMPs as they played in 3 Clubs at the other table.
Good luck!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Jennbridge: When Plan A Fails, Try Plan B, C, ...
Sometimes you have to dig deep into your contingency plans to land a contract. Yesterday in the club's team game, I was dealt, in third seat,
♠ QT87x
♥ QJTx
♦ Void
♣ KJTx
Jenn opened 1 Diamond. I bid 1 Spade. She rebid 3 Diamonds. Since she showed a good hand and didn't reverse, I knew she didn't have 4 hearts, so I didn't bother bidding them and followed Hamman's Rule and ended the auction with 3 No-Trump. I got a low heart lead, and looked at:
♠ K
♥ A8
♦ AJT98xx
♣ Axx
♠ QT87x
♥ QJTx
♦ void
♣ KJTx
There were only four quick tricks, so I had a lot of work to do. The shortest route to 9 tricks is to work on the diamonds for 5 tricks after knocking out the king and queen. If I lost 2 diamonds, a heart and the ace of spades, I would have the rest. So how could I execute Plan A?
To set up the diamonds, I needed three entries to dummy: two to lead diamonds to set them up, and the third to get over to cash them. There are only two sure entries - the heart and club aces. The opening lead gave me a possible chance at the third entry; the lead could have been from K9xxx. If so, I could get to dummy with the 8, so I played it. Unfortunately, RHO produced the 9. I won with the Jack (the best way to confuse the opponents about my holding). What now?
I had to start planning ahead. If I couldn't set up the diamonds, how was I going to get to 9 tricks? If I could bring in the clubs for 4 tricks, I could get 4 clubs, 3 hearts, the ace of diamonds and a spade trick by driving out the ace. Plan B was to play a spade to the king. I had a faint hope that the defense, not fully aware of my entry problems, would duck, after which I would be able to set up the diamonds. This didn't work as RHO took the ace and continued hearts. What now?
Plan C was to pick up the clubs. The best way to get 4 club tricks here is to start low from dummy and finesse the jack. You can only pick up Qxxx if RHO has it since you don't have the hand entries to start clubs from your side. RHO figures to have more clubs than LHO since LHO started a low heart. So I played a club to the jack. This didn't work either as LHO won the queen. He cashed the king of hearts, RHO following, and exited with a heart. I pitched two diamonds from dummy on the hearts and won in my hand. I still only had 8 tricks. What now?
I had to find a Plan D. It had to be to get a second spade trick. I took a good look at my spades. If I could smother either the Jack or nine, I could get a second trick without losing more than one. I cashed the Queen, and finally something good hapened: LHO dropped the nine! Now I could force out the Jack, get back to my hand with a high club and the rest were mine. If the Queen had only gotten low cards, I would have had to guess whether to play the ten, hoping for Jxxx/9xx, or low, hoping for Jxx/9xxx. It turned out that LHO had J9x.
Good luck!
♠ QT87x
♥ QJTx
♦ Void
♣ KJTx
Jenn opened 1 Diamond. I bid 1 Spade. She rebid 3 Diamonds. Since she showed a good hand and didn't reverse, I knew she didn't have 4 hearts, so I didn't bother bidding them and followed Hamman's Rule and ended the auction with 3 No-Trump. I got a low heart lead, and looked at:
♠ K
♥ A8
♦ AJT98xx
♣ Axx
♠ QT87x
♥ QJTx
♦ void
♣ KJTx
There were only four quick tricks, so I had a lot of work to do. The shortest route to 9 tricks is to work on the diamonds for 5 tricks after knocking out the king and queen. If I lost 2 diamonds, a heart and the ace of spades, I would have the rest. So how could I execute Plan A?
To set up the diamonds, I needed three entries to dummy: two to lead diamonds to set them up, and the third to get over to cash them. There are only two sure entries - the heart and club aces. The opening lead gave me a possible chance at the third entry; the lead could have been from K9xxx. If so, I could get to dummy with the 8, so I played it. Unfortunately, RHO produced the 9. I won with the Jack (the best way to confuse the opponents about my holding). What now?
I had to start planning ahead. If I couldn't set up the diamonds, how was I going to get to 9 tricks? If I could bring in the clubs for 4 tricks, I could get 4 clubs, 3 hearts, the ace of diamonds and a spade trick by driving out the ace. Plan B was to play a spade to the king. I had a faint hope that the defense, not fully aware of my entry problems, would duck, after which I would be able to set up the diamonds. This didn't work as RHO took the ace and continued hearts. What now?
Plan C was to pick up the clubs. The best way to get 4 club tricks here is to start low from dummy and finesse the jack. You can only pick up Qxxx if RHO has it since you don't have the hand entries to start clubs from your side. RHO figures to have more clubs than LHO since LHO started a low heart. So I played a club to the jack. This didn't work either as LHO won the queen. He cashed the king of hearts, RHO following, and exited with a heart. I pitched two diamonds from dummy on the hearts and won in my hand. I still only had 8 tricks. What now?
I had to find a Plan D. It had to be to get a second spade trick. I took a good look at my spades. If I could smother either the Jack or nine, I could get a second trick without losing more than one. I cashed the Queen, and finally something good hapened: LHO dropped the nine! Now I could force out the Jack, get back to my hand with a high club and the rest were mine. If the Queen had only gotten low cards, I would have had to guess whether to play the ten, hoping for Jxxx/9xx, or low, hoping for Jxx/9xxx. It turned out that LHO had J9x.
Good luck!
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