Sunday, December 31, 2017

Happy New Year


Happy New Year! I have a backlog of hands to write about. Mostly endplays—my favorites! They come in so many shapes and sizes and are always fun and satisfying to execute.

Here is an interesting one from a few weeks ago at an evening club team game. Sometimes it’s difficult to recall the exuberance that led you to bid game with sketchy values such as the following, but it undoubtedly had to do with vulnerability! 

I get a club lead at 3NT after a weak 2♠ overcall on my left and pause, as is my custom.

♠x
Q10xxx
Kxx
♣KJxx

♠AQxx
x
A10xx
♣A10xx

I don’t see a lot of  tricks, but I have been in plenty of worse contracts. I call for a low club, and to my shock, RHO discards a ! "Holy cannoli" (or something similar) I say to myself…"LHO is 6-5"! The opening lead reveals that LHO started with 5♣ and almost certainly has 6♠. This immediately gives me some ideas regarding how to play the hand. 

Let’s see…I have 4♣ tricks, 2tricks and can surely get two spades on an endplay. Hearts are hopeless; maybe something good will happen in diamonds.
I take my 4 club tricks and play the K. LHO follows with the J! A diamond to the 10 (restricted choice) wins as LHO shows out. 8 tricks--almost there. When executing an endplay you need to carefully watch the opponents’ discards so that you can strip them of exit cards as necessary.  As my plan is to throw in LHO at the appropriate time for him to give me a trick with my ♠Q, I next play a heart trick to strip him of his now known singleton .  RHO wins and, apparently reluctant to cash hearts and give my a heart trick, exits with a diamond to my ace. Now the stage is set.

These are my remaining cards. RHO has discarded a ♠ early in the hand on the run of the clubs, so I know he has only 1 left.

♠AQxx

x


I also know that LHO has only 1 ♣ and the all the rest spades in his hand, so I carefully cash the ♠A (removing any possible entry from RHO’s hand) and then exit with a low spade. LHO wins, cashes the 13th ♣  (on which I pitch my ) and ♠K, then has to lead a spade to my ♠ Q—my 9th trick!
We won imps. I love these hands that are so easy to count!

See you at the table!

Monday, November 13, 2017

Still using LTC

News Flash! I will be giving a talk on Losing Trick Count at the upcoming Fall North American Bridge Championship in San Diego. My time slot is Fri., Dec. 1 at 9:15 a.m. If you're at the nationals, stop by and say hello!

I never get tired of writing about losing trick count. Here's a hand I held recently at the club.  With no one vul., I dealt and opened 1♠.

♠AKQxx
void
Axx
♣xxxxx

LHO overcalled 2 and partner jumped to 3♠, preemptive.  RHO bid 4 and it was my bid.

Although partner has shown a weak hand, now that we have a known fit, I can confidently employ losing trick count.  This will enable me to properly evaluate my hand in order to decide what to do.

Although my hand has only 13 high card points, it is actually a fairly powerful hand distributionally, and has only 5 losers (4 1/2 adjusting for aces).   Partner will have 9 or more losers.  With 8 losers he would have invited game.   All things considered, it looks like 4♠ has a good chance of making, so I bid it.

♠J10xx
Jxxxx   
K
♣10xx

♠AKQxx
void
Axx
♣xxxxx

Curiously, the ace of clubs is led, followed by a diamond shift.  It is a good bet that the ace of clubs is singleton and the opening leader is trying for a ruff.  After winning the K, I come to my hand with a spade and pitch a club on the A.  I exit with a club, LHO showing out and RHO winning.  RHO now returns a trump and trumps are 2-2.  I cross-ruff the hand and the long club in my hand is my 10th trick (7 trumps, 2 diamonds and 1 club).

I was a bit surprised to see that plus 420 was a tie for top.  Looking into the matter, I learned that only 1/3 of the field bid 4♠.  The use of losing trick count principles should make bidding the spade game relatively easy despite having only 18 high card points between the two hands.

As Ron Smith (well known bridge pro...:-) points out in his blog regarding my losing trick count booklets: "I'm glad Jenn is doing what what she is doing. Point count has been done forever but it only works on balanced hands. When you have distributional hands, point count doesn't work. I evaluate using Losing Trick Count in almost every hand."

See you at the table!