Wednesday 24 February 2016

Watching the spots

Game all
Dealer West
  • K9653
  • AKJ8
  • AQ2
  • Q
N
W
E
S
  • A10
  • 732
  • J84
  • A10964
West
North
East
South
Paul
Simon
Jon
Verity
1Strong
Pass
18-10 bal
Pass
1NT17-19
Pass
3NT
All pass

You find yourself in 3NT having shown 17-19 balanced or nearly so. North leads 2, fourth best in principle, you play low from dummy, South plays 5 with no apparent difficulty, and you win the queen. You try K, which gets the four on your left and the five on your right, both odd length in principle. How do you play at matchpoints? I don't claim there's a clear answer to this question.

LHO seemed to have led from KJxx, suggesting that he didn't have a four-card major. But that didn't tell me which major to play on. Unable to decide, I tried leading Q instead. RHO won this and returned a heart. I thought that was more likely to be from four low than queen to four, so I put the eight in, losing to the nine. LHO returned a diamond, to the nine and my ace. I cashed the ace of hearts, the queen falling on my left, then the jack of hearts, getting a spade from LHO, a club from dummy, and the eight of clubs from RHO. Now what?

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Tuesday 31 March 2015

You can't believe everything you read

I recently acquired a pile of old bridge magazines, and came across this hand in a report by Pietro Forquet on the Italian Team Championships, in The Bridge World for July 1968:
E-W game
Dealer South
  • 106
  • 107
  • AK7654
  • 976
N
W
E
S
  • A5
  • AKQJ2
  • Q
  • QJ1054
West
North
East
South
 
Walter
 
Giorgio
 
 
 
1Roman
1
Xvalues
Pass
2canape
2
Pass
Pass
35 clubs
Pass
4
Pass
45 hearts
All pass


At the other table North cashed his nine top tricks in 3NT, but at this table 4 went off. Forquet notes that "West led the king of spades and Giorgio could not make the contract since the 4-2 trump split didn't give him time to establish the clubs", but that 5 could have been made. 4 is a better contract than Forquet acknowledges, but can't be made because East has four hearts and a diamond singleton — what's the best (but failing) line? And how should 5 be made on the same lead?

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Thursday 12 March 2015

Bad slam

Love all
Dealer West
  • AKQJ106
  • 10985
  • 65
  • 3
N
W
E
S
  • 9854
  • A72
  • AQ
  • AK102
West
North
East
South
Simon
Jon
Verity
Paul
Pass
1
Pass
2NTraise
Pass
4
Pass
6
All pass


You find yourself in 6 on this hand, and thank your partner warmly enough, reflecting that if you were 6241 you'd be taking the diamond finesse for an overtrick instead of in a near-hopeless position, and that while your 4 jump suggested good spades, you might have had a little something outside. The opening lead is 2, right-hand opponent playing the seven. How do you proceed?

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Wednesday 14 January 2015

Camrose double fit 3

Game all
Dealer East
  • AKQ105
  • J5
  • 863
  • J85
  • none
  • A10842
  • A10952
  • Q63
N
W
E
S
  • 974
  • K973
  • KQJ74
  • 9
  • J8632
  • Q6
  • none
  • AK10742
West
North
East
South
John
Jonathan
Tommy
Paul
Pass
1
2NTreds
3spades
4
4
Pass
Pass
5
5
Pass
Pass
6
Pass
Pass
6
Pass
Pass
X
All pass

Barry
Tom
Sally
Hugh
Pass
1carrot club
2reds
4
5
All pass

Mike
Helen
John
Tyrone
Pass
1
2NTreds
3
4
5
Pass
5
All pass

John
Paul
Ian
Gary
Pass
1
1
1
3reds
4
5
5
All pass

Iain
Ian
John
Robin
Pass
1
2NTreds
3
4
4
Pass
Pass
5
5
Xspade control
Pass
6
All pass

Hastings
Gerald
Greer
John
Pass
1
1
1
3
4
All pass

Par on this hand is two off in 6X. It's important for East or West to show both red suits. It's easier for North-South to bid high if South opens 1 and North shows spades, because if South opens 1 he'll be worried later about his weak suit. If South and East do bid the auction up to 6. North has a difficult high-stakes guess, which Jonathan Mestel did well to get right.

Camrose double fit 2

Here's the second of the double-fit hands from the Camrose:

E-W Game
Dealer West
  • K3
  • QJ109432
  • 7
  • J104
  • J4
  • 6
  • AKJ1062
  • Q753
N
W
E
S
  • 62
  • K
  • 98543
  • AK962
  • AQ109875
  • A875
  • Q
  • 8
West
North
East
South
Hastings
Jonathan
Greer
Paul
1
3
4
4
Pass
Pass
X
5
Pass
Pass
X
All pass

Heather
John
Brian
Michael
1
3
4
4
5
Pass
Pass
5
Pass
Pass
X
All pass

John
Gerald
Ian
John
Iain
David
John
Rex
Hugh
Tony
Tom
Patrick
1
3
5
5
Pass
Pass
X
All pass

Mike
Mark
John
Rory
1
3
4
4NT
5
Pass
Pass
5
Pass
Pass
X
All pass

Every table played this one in 5X making: at this vulnerability par is 5. For my part, I understand 4 by East, but if you're going to bid 5 and double 5, I think you should try 4 first, so you can get to a good slam sometimes. I think South should bid 4 if sufficient, because I did, thinking it very unlikely that 4 would buy the contract and that my side would learn something about spades. I made slightly the wrong decision by removing 4, shrug.

I don't think it possible for East-West to defend 5 undoubled. But bidding 6 would be a reasonable attempt to get a plus score, not too costly if it fails.

Tuesday 13 January 2015

Camrose double fit 1

It's good advice to strain to declarer on double fit hands, but just how mightily? Suppose your side's combined shapes are 10-9-4-3 in some order, with all the honours in your long suits and none in the short ones. Then, barring ruffs by the defence, your side can make between 10 and 13 tricks depends on how the short suits divide, and so can theirs. If your perfect bidding system tells you your side can make 10 tricks, how high should you save? You can't trust the opponents to tell you, even if their bidding system is equally perfect and they are unwilling to bluff, because they may think they're saving too. You just have to go with your feel, preferring to bid too high than too low. (Ed Manfield's BOLS tip doesn't apply to big double fits — The five level belongs to opponents, except when it doesn't.)

I played in the Camrose at the weekend, and had the opportunity to dice with some good players on three hands of this sort. Here's how we all got on.

E-W Game
Dealer South
  • 753
  • 6
  • 98754
  • AKQ7
  • J109864
  • AK753
  • none
  • J3
N
W
E
S
  • KQ
  • QJ10942
  • AJ
  • 1082
  • A2
  • 8
  • KQ10632
  • 9654
West
North
East
South
Paul
Frazer
Jonathan
Philip
-
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
X
All pass

Iain
Barry
John
Sally
-
Pass
1
Pass
2
3
3
5
5
6
6
7
X
All pass

David
Tom
Rex
Hugh
-
1
2majors
4minors
4
5
Pass
Pass
5
6
Pass
Pass
X
All pass

Rory
Helen
Mark
Tyrone
-
3
3
5
X
Pass
5
Pass
6
Pass
Pass
7
X
All pass

Robin
Mike
Ian
John
-
3
4majors
5
5
Pass
Pass
6
6
X
All pass

Tony
John
Patrick
Michael
-
Pass
1
Pass
2
3
3
5
5
All pass

This one is made a bit less dramatic by each side's having an ace in a short suit. The par spot is 5X, going one off as a save against 4 or 4, so none of us played there.

If South opens 3, I strongly prefer 3 to 4 for the majors, mainly because I don't want to play in hearts opposite equal length. Over that I like 5 by North, with the proviso that he has to bid 6 if 5 on his left comes round to him. I sympathize with every East-West's decision to bid at the five level, and with every North-South decision to save over it. I don't like the seven-level saves, especially if you haven't bid clubs. And I agree with 6 only if the bidder is right than North-South will save. (Possibly I'm just agreeing with what I did at the table: Certainly I agree with my 5 rather than 5 — 5 is too likely to get a raise.

The best table result for North-South was achieved by Patrick Jourdain and Tony Ratcliff, when North bid 5 then left his partner to guess to lead clubs, as he did not. The best result East-West was achieved by John Salisbury and Mike Tedd, when South doubled 6, I suppose showing good defence relative to what his bidding so far had suggested.

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Tricky lead

Love all
Dealer South
  • Q2
  • 875
  • K1075
  • Q983
  • A1084
  • A1094
  • QJ9
  • 54
N
W
E
S
  • K75
  • K62
  • 83
  • AKJ72
  • J963
  • QJ3
  • A642
  • 106
West
North
East
South
 
Jonathan
 
Paul
12+
Pass
2forcing
Pass
2
Pass
3
Pass
3NT
All pass

After the inverted minor suit raise, West bid his hearts, and East, expecting the contract to be 3NT, pretended to have diamonds. That gave North an awkward lead problem - what's your choice?

The hand was played in 3NT in 15 out of 16 tables in the Tollemache qualifier, often on the auction 1NT (upgrading to 12) - 3NT. North usually led a diamond, and the defence cleared the suit. Declarer then took a club finesse and set up his ninth trick in clubs.

But at my table, Jonathan tried an imaginative 2. That looks bad - declarer now has four spade tricks, which with four tricks from clubs gives him an overtrick. But declarer didn't know that. He thought, took the club finesse successfully, and thought again. Both defenders had followed upwards in clubs, suggesting odd count, so he cashed the top clubs. No luck, South threw 2, ostensibly discouraging, and declarer let go a heart. Now he cleared the clubs, South discarding 3 and declarer 4. North switched to 8 to the jack and ace, and declarer, looking for a ninth trick, decided to lead 10, hoping to pin the 9. No luck there, so, too late, he led a diamond off dummy. North won and played another heart, and South claimed one off.