06.12.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:27 am by Administrator
Today I had the pleasure of playing with a very nice young man, 15 years old, who, if he gets the time, will become an excellent bridge player. Right now, school and extra-curricular activites keep him from playing enough to bring him to the top levels. However, considering the limited amount of time he has to play, he has really come along since I first met him several years ago.
In any case, we had two interesting hands I would like to share where there were errors, mostly from not thinking things through. However, he did recognize the errors and understood them.
In the first hand, he held:
Void
KT842
AT54
KQ75
The bidding goes as follows:
East South West North
(partner)
pass 1H pass 1S
pass 2C pass 2D!
pass 2NT pass 3S
pass 3NT pass 4S
all pass
The 2D bid was, of course, 4th Suit Forcing, forcing for 1 round. Partner’s 2NT makes it appear that his distribution was either 2-5-2-4 or 1-5-4-3 (of course, there are other possibilities that are much less likely. The 3NT bid pretty much confirms a 1-5-4-3 shape.
After an opening lead of the J of diamonds, I saw dummy. My hand looked like:
AK9652
96
KQ76
2
Unless my opponents either revoke or do something very silly, I have to lose at least 2 spades, 1 heart, and 1 club (if everything sits right). I for the most part, things work and I am down 1 for an average result. There are a few issues on the bidding.
First, partner probably should bid 2D instead of 2C. It gives him another convenient rebid if I rebid spades or no trump. However, 2C is not terrible. After I bid 2D, partner should now bid 3D. This is an ambiguous bid. It could be a diamond suit or it could be asking for a diamond stopper. Some even play that it shows a diamond stopper but also shows a concern about playing no trump. If partner had 6 hearts, he would have rebid hearts, either the first time (instead of 2C) or the second time. If partner was 1-5-3-4, he might even have bid 2H.
The second issue are the no trump rebids. The 2NT bid should imply (not guaranty) a doubleton spade and a semi-balanced hand. The 3NT bid should show a singleton spade and is really under a little duress.
Third, my 4S bid is based on the assumption that partner has at 1, possibly 2 spades. With my 6-4 shape, I concluded that 4S was a better place than 3NT.
Partner should bid 3D over my 2S. Even if I jump to 3S, 4D is a better call because it shows that partner really does not like no trump and shows the pattern of his hand. Now, I can either bid 4H, 5D or pass.
Some will ask why I bid 2D instead of 3S. first, 3S is not a forcing call in this auction – 2D is the only forcing call at this point, and I am willing to force game. Second, 2D tends to be stronger than 3S. third, even though 4th Suit Forcing was only a 1-round force by agreement, it should still be 90-95% game forcing. Therefore, there are few situations where we will stop short of 3NT after a 4th suit forcing bid.
The second hand was also interesting. Partner holds:
4
5
KJ43
AKQ10532.
The auction proceeds as follows:
South West North East
(partner)
1C 1H Dbl 2H
3C 3H Pass Pass
4C 4H Dbl
The first double was negative, showing spades and implying diamonds, and the second double was a borderline penalty double. My hand was:
KQ76
873
Q1075
J8
My double is questionable at best and was made on the basis of my knowledge of the opponents. They are known for bidding a bit too much at times. However, my double gives partner important information which should help him decide what to do. It shows I have some values and my negative double was not based on 5-6 HCP, and I have some defensive values. With his 7-card club suit and side 4-card diamond suit, partner now knows that much of his defense is wasted, and that I have some defense, which will probably translate into offense. There is a good likelihood they will make 4H, looking at his hand, and cvlubs should only go down 1 or 2 tricks (in this case, 2 tricks is too much, but the chances are good that I have enough values to keep this to down 1 or I completely lost my mind with my double (many of you may argue that I did lose my mind with this double, and even if this one is reasonable, I have been known to make my share of questionable doubles).
As it turns out, down 1 doubled, 4H making 4 undoubled or doubled, are all the same matchpoints in this small field. Even if we play 5C undoubled, we only get 0.5 matchpoints. Oh well.
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05.16.11
Posted in No Trump Bidding, Slam Bidding, Transfers and Stayman at 12:55 am by Administrator
One more attempt at writing regularly.
Here is an interesting hand from this afternoon. You pick up, at IMP’s:
K8754 AT94 K8 K8
Partner opens 1NT (15-17 HCP). You respond 2C, I would presume. Partner bids 2S. There are several choices now, for your rebid. You could bid 3H and see what partner does. I discarded this choice quickly because this strongly implies an unbalanced hand, and this hand is semi-balanced. You could bid 4S and abandon any thought of slam. You could bid 5S, but I am not sure what that would mean. I quickly discarded the idea of 4NT because, in our approach, this is quantative, and I don’t want partner to pass 4NT when we have a 9-card major suit fit. I decided that I was interested in slam because we have a 9-card trump fit, I have 2 doubleton kings which could be very useful, and I have 12 HCP opposite partner’s 1NT opener. While the high card points are a bit short of slam values, with the big fit and my hand’s shape, slam is a strong probability if partner has either 2 key cards and the queen of spades or if partner has 3 key cards with or with the Q of spades.
Therefore, I bid 4C, which we play as Roamn Key Card Gerber. I figured this was safe because we can still stop at 4S or 5S. Partner showed me 0 or 3 key cards by bidding 4D (we play the 0314 version of Roman Key Card Gerber). Now I know that partner has a balanced hand with 3 aces (the missing key cards), 4 sapdes, 2-3 hearts (with 4 hearts, partner would have bid 2H, not 2S), and at least 1 queen and 1 jack. I decided not to ask for the queen of spades, because I probably would bid 6S anyway at this point. So I bid 6S.
to make a long story short, partner held: A9xx QJ Axx AJTx. In order to make the contract, partner needed either the spades to break 2-2 or the K of hearts on-side. Unfortunately, the QJT of spades were in one hand, on-side (big deal) and the K of hearts was off-side, for down one. But the slam was approximately 68%, so it was worth bidding.
Oh well.
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08.09.10
Posted in Partnership at 12:00 am by Administrator
For a long time, I have wanted to write about a number of issues that do not deal with specific hands, bidding, playing or defending issues. Among the topics are partnership behavior, ethics, alert procedures, and director rulings.
Today, I want to take a few minutes to talk about being a good partner. What does it take to be a good partner? First and foremost, you must be polite to your partner, at all times! I strive to be polite, courteous and friendly to all of my partners, be they peers, students,better players, lesser players, pick-up partners, regular partners, or people with whom I am filling in when directing.
Every time my partner lays down a dummy when I am declarer, I say thank you, regardless of how good or bad the dummy is and how close it is to what partner described in the bidding (if they did any bidding at all).
I always try to make my partners feel appreciated and I go out of my way to make them feel appreciated and not taken for granted. I have one partner, with whom I play every week, that I e-mail to say how much I enjoyed the game. This is someone who I never want to feel as if I have taken that person for granted.
I also play with a lot of students. While I don’t generally send them e-mails like the partner I described above, I make sure to point out what they did well in addition to what they need to work on. One such partner often replies bulls**t, but I always mean what I say. This particular student makes a significant number of mistakes, many from inattention, many from holes in that person’s knowledge; however, I always mean the compliments I give.
Remember that every partner, including yourself, makes mistakes. It is acceptable to politely point these out to partner if partner has not recognized the error. Depending on the relationship between the partners, it is sometimes okay to good-naturedly tease the partner about a silly or careless mistake (assuming you are willing to accept the same teasing when the roles are reversed). Once in a while, you may get irritated by a partner’s mistake(s). Avoid showing your irritation at all costs. It does no good to yell or scold a partner. All that will accomplish is to cause partner to make more mistakes. Once in a a while, everyone will show some irritation; however, do so as mildly as possible and avoid showing it when you can. I used to have one regular partner who might make one salty comment when I made a mistake, but that was it – he dropped it. He never lost his temper. That is the sign of a good partner. I have also had partners who yelled at me at least 3 times a session. That always caused me to make more mistakes. I no longer play with such people. I tolerated it when I was an up and coming player and the hot-tempered partner was mentoring me. Today, even if I play with someone significantly better than I am, I will not tolerate anything other than mild irritation. There is never a need to lose one’s temper. Every issue can be addressed by rational discussion, even if the end result is to agree to disagree.
As a result of the way I treat partners, I am always in great demand as a partner. Everyone wants to be treated well, and the people I play with appreciate the way I treat them. Even if I am having an off day and can’t get out of my own way and make every wrong decision I can make (as I did a few days ago), my partners excuse it because I excuse it in them.
So remember to treat you partners well. Make sure that they feel appreciated. I truly like every one of my partners and every student who takes playing lessons with me. I make certain that they know I like them and that I appreciate them. My students know that I will correct their mistakes (or at least as many as I have time to address) and that I will compliment them on what they do well and what they have improved upon.
Do the same with your partners and you will never have a problem finding someone to play with.
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08.08.10
Posted in Balancing at 6:23 am by Administrator
Sorry for my long absence but I have been swamped and my health marginal, so I have not had time to write.
The other day, my partner and I had a hand that presented an interesting balancing problem. As a general rule, I don’t let my opponents play suit contracts, at matchpoints, at the 2-level (except I will occasionally allow them to play 2S when we are vulnerable) absent a good reason to leave them alone (such as I am afraid to push them into a makeable game or I have a trump stack and I am happy to let them play the contract there). Friday was no exception.
I passed in first seat holding the following collection of garbage:
S: 8
H: Q10652
D: K98
C: Q1074
The opponents are vulnerable and we are not. My left hand opponent opened 1S and it passes around to me. Now I would not consider overcalling this mediocre club suit in the direct seat at either the 1- or 2-level, as necessary, but I have no problem balancing with 2H over 1S. Left hand opponent bids 2S and again partner and right hand opponent pass. At this vulnerability, I am not letting them play 2S, so I balanced with a double. Partner can pick the suit at this point. She knows I have 5 hearts and probably some values, but less than opening count.
The question becomes what should she do. Her hand was:
S: A964
H: K8
D: Q6
C: J8652
The first question is should she pass and convert my balancing double to a penalty double. The answer is unequivocally no. I cannot be trying to protect a penalty double in her hand because if she doubled 2S, it would be for penalty. It would not be responsive or Rosenkranz or any other conventional double that I know of, absent a specific agreement, because I was balancing as a passed hand, not overcalling in the direct seat. Therefore pass is not an option. Additionally, her hand is not good enough for a low-level double of spades because her spade suit is so bad. She probably has one spade trick, maybe a second if she can trump.
Should she bid 2NT? Absolutely not! I am a passed hand and she has only 10 high card points. That cannot rationally make 2NT absent some miraculous lie of the cards.
So now should she bid her 2-card heart suit, going into a known 5-2 fit, or bid 3C, looking for a better fit? Bidding diamonds simply is not rational with her 3-card suit unless I had bid diamonds. The answer lies in the shape of her hand and the fact that I reopened with a double. For my reopening double, my hand has the following shapes: 2-5-3-3, 1-5-4-3, 1-5-3-4,, or 0-5-4-4. If my hand was 2-5-4-2 or 2-5-2-4, I would have rebid my 4-card minor, as it is lower in rank than my major and my partner, if appropriate, could correct to 3H. I would not reopen with a doubleton as I could end up having my partner play a 3-2 fit, which I can tell you from experience is not a lot of fun. My partner now knows I have one of 4 hand patterns. If partner was 4-2-4-3 or 4-2-3-4, she should bid 3H and take the known 7-card fit rather than risk running into a 6-card 3-3. However, with a 5-card suit, she knows that I have at least 3 cards in her club suit.
At the table, my partner chose to bid 3H over my reopening double of 2S. I went down 3 for -150, which was an average board. Right hand opponent should have raised the opener’s spades, but did not with her 7 HCP and 3-card spade support (yes, opener freely rebid a 5-card spade suit), and half the field played 2S or 3S making 4 for 170 (although a proper defense holds the contract to 3S for 140). One pair played 3C our way, making 3 for 110. That was the top board.
The bottom line is that if partner balances as a passed hand, if you have 2-card support for partner and a 5-card suit of your own, if partner balances a second time, bid your suit as it almost certainly an 8-card fit, and possible a 9-card fit.
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04.03.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:31 am by Administrator
Again, I must apologize for my long absence. Health issues have kept me away from the computer for a while (it is hard to type when you can’t see). I will try to be more regular. Also, I will begin posting articles on my main website soon, now that I can see again.
The biggest fault in declarer play is the failure to plan out the play and allow for contingencies. Here is a cute hand, you are vulnerable, opponents are not. You hold the following hand:
S: KJT832
H: void
D: AK54
C: K42
The bidding goes:
1C (partner) – 4H (RHO) – 6S (me – no I am not going to justify the bid, that is not the point here) – 7H (LHO)
7S (partner, who is never bashful).
Dummy comes down with the following hand:
S: AQ74
H: J7
D: J6
C: AQ765
Much better than I have any right to expect.
Opening lead is the 2 of hearts. Before you read on, plan the play.
If you trump the opening lead and draw more than 1 round of trump (actually 2 is okay if you stay in your hand),you blew it. Under ordinary circumstances, you would spades to be 2-1, hearts probably 8-3 on the auction, diamonds to be 3-2, and clubs to be 3-2. At least those are the most likely distributions. But what if the distributions are worse? Well, they are, and it is important to plan for that.
First what losers do you have? You have no spade losers, 2 heart losers, which you can trump, 2 diamond losers, and anywhere from 0 to 2 club losers. If everything behaves, you can draw trump in 2 rounds, run the clubs, assuming they are 3-2, and either pitch the diamonds on the clubs or trump the 2 losing diamonds. If the trump don’t break, you can still trump 1 diamond and rely on the clubs being no worse than 4-1 so you can pitch a diamond on a club. So can you still draw all three trump? NO! What if the clubs are 5-0? I know that is not a good chance, but it is a chance, so can you protect against it. The answer is yes, if the diamonds are no worse than 5-2. If the clubs are 5-0 and the diamonds 6-1 or 7-0, you are doomed if the hand with the short diamonds has the long trump. since you have fewer diamonds than clubs, that means the opponents have more diamonds than clubs. That means a great chance of a 5-2 diamond split, or better, so I will protect against the bad club break and hope the diamonds are 5-2 or better.
I trump the first heart low in my hand. I now play the K of spades from my hand. Bad news! The person who bid 4H has 3 spades!! So I know place 8 hearts and 3 spades in that hand, leaving 2 more cards. I am liking this less and less. I play the A of diamonds, abandoning trumps for a minute. They both follow. Now the moment of truth. Do I play for 5-0 clubs and 5-2 diamonds or 4-1 clubs and 6-1 diamonds. I recommend playing the K of diamonds, holding your breath. If you do, both opponents follow on this hand. If you play a club, RHO trumps! This means LHO has 5 clubs and if you pull trump, you cannot set up the clubs and can only get rid of 1 diamond loser, for down 1. If you play the second diamond, you can now trump a third diamond high. Trump dummy’s second heart your hand, trump your last diamond high. Now play your last trump from dummy, ending in your hand, and finish pulling trump. You are now left with 3 club tricks and trump, making 7.
In actuality, I was tired and unfocused, so I did not think the hand through. I assumed normal breaks and did not take precautions against bad breaks, so I went down 1. Had I been focused and thinking, I would probably have worked out the winning line of play.
This was at imps. At the other table, they were in 4S making 7. Oh well! We still won the match, but I will be kicking myself over this hand for a while.
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03.17.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:22 am by Administrator
Sorry I have been away, but health issues have hampered my ability to write. It is hard to type when you cannot see straight (not that I am much better right now, but I have to write something!!!).
I just had an interesting hand on-line which was not bid well and I misplayed because I misclicked on trick 1 because I couldn’t see straight.
I picked up:
AQJTxx
KTxx
—
A9x
In first seat, I open 1S. The bidding is uncontested. Partner bids 2C, which we play game forcing. I bid 2H, followed by 3H from partner, which is stronger than a jump to 4H. We now have suit agreement, so I bid 3S, which is a cue bid, not promising a 6th spade. Now the bidding goes awry. Partner simply bids 4H, which I raised to 5H, which asks if she has 1st or 2nd round control of diamonds (on his auction, it should deny 1st round control because she could have bid 4D after my 3S bid with the A of diamonds, but my head was spinning and I wasn’t sure how she would take the 5H call, but I didn’t want to give up on 6H yet). Partner passed.
Partner’s hand was:
Kx
QJxx
AKx
QJxx
Partner should have bid 4D after my 3S call, showing me the diamond control. Now, I am more confident that if I have a club loser, I can park it on the diamond, so my real concern is trump quality. I can now bid 4NT, Roman Keycard Blackwood (1430 version in our system) and find out I am off 1 keycard, probably the A of hearts. Since partner had shown me extra values by bidding 3H instead of jumping to 4H, it is a safe conclusion that partner has the Q, if not the QJ of hearts. Therefore, I probably only need spade finesse to make 6H, so I will probably bid 6H. A bit of a leap of faith, but if I ask for the Q of hearts, then I am probably committing to 6H anyway, so I may as well bid 6.
Anyway, at trick 1, I got a club lead. I played the Q from dummy, RHO played the K, and I clicked on the 9!!! A club was returned for a ruff. I still had to lose the A of hearts, so I went down 1 instead of making 6!!
It has been a long day.
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12.22.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:28 am by Administrator
The other night, I was playing on-line with a regular partner who is fairly good, but occasionally has gaps in her knowledge base that surprise me.
We had the following auction:
Partner Me
1H 2C
2H 3H
4H 4N
5C 5H
The auction seems straightforward. Partner has an opening hand with at least 5 hearts, from the first bid. I have an opening hand (at least 12 HCP, not a shapely 10-11 HCP hand or a bad 12 HCP) with at least 4 clubs, probably 5 or more. Partner’s 2H rebid strongly implies (but doesn’t guaranty) 6 hearts. My 3H bid strongly implies extra values with at least 2 hearts, confirming a heart fit. If partner was rebidding a 5-card suit under pressure, partner might next bid 3NT, but she bid 4H, which confirms at least a six-card suit. I now ask for keycards in hearts, i.e., the number of aces and the K of hearts. Her response shows 1 or 4 keycards (we play the 1430 variant of RKC Blackwood), so missing a keycard and having only minimal values for slam exploration (I’ll show you the actual hands shortly), I bid 5H, to play.
Virtually all strong players also show a useful void when playing RKC. With 1 or more keycards and a useful void, they will bid the void at the 6-level with an odd number of keycards (generally 1 or 3, if it is 5, something is amiss somewhere) if the void is lower in rank than the trump suit, and they bid 6 of the agreed upon trump suit if the void is higher ranking than the trump suit (again, if the void is in trump, something is very seriously amiss). Furthermore, with an even number of keycards (usually 2, but occasionally 4) and a useful void, the proper bid is 5NT. In this hand, partner had a void that might be useful, although it is arguable.
The hands are as follows:
Partner: S: KT9 H: QJ8543 D: AK64 C: —-
Me: S: A73 H: K96 D: Q7 C: AKT54
Now, there are a significant number of people who would believe that a club void in this auction would not seem useful. Under some circumstances, I might agree. However, in this auction, I have shown extra values by bidding 3H instead of jumping to 4H. I have shown a significant hand by asking for keycards after partner attempts to sign off at 4H. Therefore, partner should assume I either have a hand with 2-3 hearts and about 18-19 HCP, maybe more, or a very good 16+ HCP with 3 hearts. I can’t have 4+ hearts or I would have bid 2NT over the 1H opening bid. In any case, I am not deterred by partner’s potentially very minimum hand. Partner could easily have 11 HCP with a 6-card suit and a semi-balanced hand, and I am still looking for 6-7H. Partner has 13 HCP, all of which are worth their full value in this auction (frequently queens and jacks are devalued, but here, they are in the trump suit, and based on the auction, I should have either the A or K of hearts, or both, making these cards in partner’s hand worth their full weight. Partner has the KT9 in a side suit. The king should be worth its full value, and T’s and 9′s are generally worth more than the value traditionally placed on them, especially when they are joined by other honors in the suit. On this auction, I should have 5 clubs and 3 hearts (or significant extra values), leaving me 5 cards in spades and diamonds. I also should not have a suit with 2 losers in it, unless I have enough other cards to make the 5-level safe. Since she is looking at the AK of diamonds, she knows I either have diamond shortness or I have control cards in the other 3 suits. I almost have to have the A of spades, the A and/or K of hearts, no more than 2 diamonds (or perhaps QJx, but I am not likely to take that risk), and the A of clubs. As this adds up to 11-15 HCP, at most, I have to have more in my hand on this auction. If I have both heart honors, then I might have the K or Q of clubs or the Q of diamonds or the Q of spades, at a minimum. If I have only 1 of the heart honors, I must have at least 2, if not 3 of the missing unaccounted for honors in the side suits. Adding all these things up, the six-level should be safe (if not, it is my fault for asking for keycards, not hers, and she should assume I have not lost my mind – although some of my partners would argue I lost it long ago). Therefore, she can safely bid 6C, giving me all the available information. Note that if her heart suit was worse than it is or she did not have 3 side control cards, committing to the 6-level would be treacherous. But with the quality of her hand and the fact that I have indicated substantial extras, some in HCP and some in either shape, suit texture, or HCP or combination thereof, 6C is the best response to my 4NT bid.
Knowing that we are off 1 keycard and that partner has a club void, I can be comfortable in 6H and not concerned about missing 7H. I know that we have a 9-card trimp fit (or better), which will yield at least 5 heart tricks (perhaps 6 natural hearts if she has the AQ, but I will assume 5 natural hearts), 2 club tricks is 7, at least 1 spade is 8, at least 1 diamond is 9, at least 2 more tricks combining kings that she must have with my cards, and either a diamond ruff (ruffing the 3rd diamond if necessary) or another trick in her hand, combining her honors with mine. This adds up to 12 tricks. One of these tricks might require a finesse, which makes this at worst, a 50% slam.
Looking at the layout, it appears the slam is cold, if played correctly. We have 5 hearts, 3 diamonds, 2 clubs, and 2 spades. This can be accomplished regardless of the heart split, assuming declarer plays it properly. Since we were playing imp pairs and we weren’t in slam, my partner had room for error, and unfortunately, she found it. If the hearts are 2-2 or 3-1, it does not matter how you play the heart suit, all you lose is the A. However, if the hearts are 4-0, you need to be careful. You are missing the A and T of hearts. If they are both in the same hand, you need to be able to finesse for the T. If you cash the king or play low to the king, you may have to lose the ten of hearts if the ATxx are in one hand. Therefore, play the Q or J of hearts first. If the hearts break at least 3-1, you can claim. If the hearts are 4-0, you now have to finesse for the T of hearts. You still have a finessing position both ways if you play the Q or J first, but you only have the finessing position 1 way if you play the K first. So with this holding, it is always right to play the Q or J of hearts first. My partner played the K first and made only 5 because the hearts broke 4-0 and she could no longer finesse for the T.
Debate on this, especially the bidding is welcome.
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10.31.09
Posted in Defense, Opening Leads, Preempts at 6:02 am by Administrator
I had an interesting hand today. The auction really should have been quite standard and probably was at virtually every table. The key difference at the various tables was probably the defense.
I picked up the following hand, with nobody vulnerable:
Kx x x KJ98xxxxx
Everyone probably opened this hand 5 clubs in first seat, and the hand was probably passed out. After all, there is an old bridge adage — what do you call a 9 card suit? – Trump!! A 5-level opener should generally be a hand with an 8-9 card minor and about 8 tricks in the hand, perhaps 9 if vulnerable, and less than opening values. The hand probably has little defensive value, if any. For those who play traditional gambling 3NT opening bids, the suit should not be a solid 8-card minor.
The hand above fits this definition. I held a 9-card broken minor suit (not a bad suit, but not solid) and a doubleton king on the side. The side king was of questionable defensive value. I looked at the hand and figured I had 1, possibly 2 club losers and possibly a spade loser. This amounted to approximately 8 tricks, so I opened 5 clubs. If my club suit was stronger, say KQJxxxxxx with a side king, I might have opened 1 club, but with the broken suit, 5 clubs was the right call.
The opening lead was the A of clubs. I will come back to the opening lead shortly. Dummy hits with the following hand:
ATx AKxx KQTxxx —
A very good dummy. My partner gave careful thought to raising me to 6C, but she trusted me to have about 8 tricks and a club suit with at least 1 loser in it. Therefore, in order to make 6C, I would have to either have the A of diamonds (which I should not have for the non-vulnerable 5C opening) or a diamond void (possible to have but impossible for her to rely on or to discover without committing us to 6 clubs). Her pass was clearly the correct bid. If she had the A of diamonds instead of the KQ, then she should raise to 6 clubs, hoping I only had 1 club loser.
Back to the opening lead. My LHO (left hand opponent) lead the A of clubs from the following hand:
Jxxxx Qxxx Jxx A
I might have the exact holdings in the majors off a little bit, but she did not hold the QJ in either major. In any case, the A of clubs is almost certainly the right lead. It is hard for her to know which major suit (or diamonds for that matter) is the best lead, but leading the A of clubs on this auction will rarely give away a trick and will give her the opportunity to look at dummy and find the best shift. Well, she looked at dummy and shifted to a low spade!!!! I nearly fell out of my chair!!! After that great opening lead and looking at dummy, she found one of the two suits that she could shift to and let me make the contract. Upon the spade shift, I won the A of spades in dummy, played the A and K of hearts, pitching my losing diamond on the second heart. I now trumped a diamond to get to my hand, played the K of clubs and found the bad news — the clubs were 3-1 and I had to lose the Q of clubs. So I made my contract.
Looking at dummy, if my LHO trusted me to have 8 or 9 clubs and probably no outside ace, she clearly should have switched to a diamond at trick 2. My RHO (right hand opponent) would now win her ace and eventually would get the Q of clubs (as I do not have enough transportation to set up a trump coup to capture the Q of clubs – with 9 clubs, I simply have too many clubs to use up in order to set up a trump coup).
About half the players were in 5C, making 5, and half went down 1 trick. Basically, if the opening lead was a major, the declarer can pitch away the diamond loser on the second heart before drawing trump, and therefore make the contract. No person on opening lead in their right mind would find the lead of a diamond from Jxx on this auction. However, if someone did lead a diamond at trick one, that person would defeat the contract. However, I believe the best lead was the A of clubs, followed by a diamond switch.
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10.24.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:17 am by Administrator
My partner and I were playing in a team game today and I picked up the following hand:
AKxx K AQxx Axxx
A nice 20 HCP with a 4-4-4-1 shape and singleton K. I was in fourth seat and was trying to decide whether to open the hand 2NT when my partner opens the auction 1H!!! Surprise #1. Okay, so I bid 1S, waiting for the expected 2H rebid. Well, partner’s next bid is 4D – a splinter in support of spades!! Surprises #2 & #3 – partner has a fit and a good enough hand to splinter when I have promised only 5-6 HCP. So I ask for key cards by bidding 4NT and partner shows me 1 or 4 key cards by bidding 5C. Okay, no surprise here. So I asked for the Q of spades by bidding 5D. Partner now bids 6C, showing the Q of spades and the K of clubs. So I bid 7S (if this were matchpoints, I might have bid 7NT, but 7S is clearly a safer contract). Now the surprise was on my partner’s face.
My partner’s hand was:
QJTx AJ9xxx — Kxx
Obviously, her splinter was based on shape, not high cards, but it was a good call – even with a minimum hand, there would be a reasonable play for game, depending on my shape.
If felt it was a very elegant auction to find a cold grand slam. The opponents led a trump at trick 1. I took it in dummy, cashed the K of hearts in my hand, led a club to the king and trumped a heart high. The Q and T of hearts fell on my left on the first two heart tricks so now the hearts were set up. I pulled the trump, ending on dummy (they broke 3-2, but I could handle a 4-1 split at this point – if the split were 5-0 I am never making this contract). If the spades split, I can make the contract even the hearts break with the QTxx in one hand.
At the other table, the opponents, through an odd auction landed in 7NT!! This works because the hearts break the way they did. At IMPs, this would be a pushed board; however, our teammates doubled, so we lost 7 imps even though we were in a vulnerable grand slam, making. That was the worst suprise.
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10.02.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:42 pm by Administrator
Sorry I haven’t written in a few days. I am in the process of updating my website. It will soon be carrying articles on bidding, specific bidding conventions, declarer play, and defensive play issues. There will also be weekly quizzes on bidding and declarer play. This should take me another 1-2 weeks to get the first group of articles written and posted and the site redesigned. By then, I should be geared up to update this blog and the website regularly.
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