Watching the spots

Game all
Dealer West

• 87
• Q94
• 10765
• KJ32

• K9653
• AKJ8
• AQ2
• Q

N

W

E

S

• A10
• 732
• J84
• A10964

• QJ42
• 1065
• K93
• 875

West

North

East

South

Paul

Simon

Jon

Verity

1^Strong

Pass

1^{8-10 bal}

Pass

1NT^17-19

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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Now I think the line is clear. LHO has KJx of clubs remaining, and at most two spades. Play king of spades, ace of spades, then if he's still got three clubs cash the jack of diamonds and exit with the nine of clubs.

This unusual strip-squeeze looked good, but didn't scored particularly well. Have a look at the spade spots - playing on spades would have made an easy ten tricks. In fact it's harder to find ways to make nine tricks than ten.

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

• KQ98
• 43
• J10983
• A8

N

W

E

S

• J7643
• 9865
• 2
• K32

• A5
• AKQJ2
• Q
• QJ1054

West

North

East

South

 

Walter

 

Giorgio

 

 

 

1^Roman

1

X^values

Pass

2^canape

2

Pass

Pass

3^{5 clubs}

Pass

4

Pass

4^{5 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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In 4, you cash Q, cross to 10, and discard a spade on A. Then you play on clubs, with dummy's trump protecting you against a force on the third round of spades and K to play if dummy takes that force. However, with East having a diamond singleton he can ruff A, and the defence retains control.

In 5, you win the spade lead, cash Q, cross to 10, and lead A ruffed and overruffed. Then you try the hearts: the third round is ruffed and overruffed. Then K, ruffed and overruffed. Then another heart winner, and finally dummy's spade loser can be discarded.

I'm writing about this because the hand looked familiar, and indeed there it is on page 150 of Bridge with the Blue Team by the same author, first published three years later. This time Belladonna bids to 5 and makes it on the attractive "striptease", while 4 goes off in the other room. You can't believe everything you read.

Bad slam

Love all
Dealer West

• AKQJ106
• 10985
• 65
• 3

• 7
• KQ64
• 942
• QJ986

N

W

E

S

• 32
• J3
• KJ10873
• 754

• 9854
• A72
• AQ
• AK102

West

North

East

South

Simon

Jon

Verity

Paul

Pass

1

Pass

2NT^raise

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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There are two possibilities. One is ace of clubs, club ruff high, nine of spades, king of clubs pitching a diamond, club ruff, ace of diamonds, diamond ruff. Somewhere in the middle of that you cash the ace of hearts, and you now exit with a heart, hoping that one opponent starting with KQ, KJ, or QJ of hearts (9.7%) or that an opponent with K6, K4, or K3 of hearts (9.7%) fails to unblock the king under the ace, or that East with KJxx of hearts (4.8%) fails to rise with the king.

The other is a round-suit squeeze. If you choose this line, and you think you can read the discards, you need the diamond finesse, then you can make if one opponent has any 5 or more clubs or QJ(x)(x) and four or more hearts or KQJ. The combined odds are 5.0%. You simply take the diamond finesse then cash all but one of your trumps, discarding a heart from dummy. inflicting a trump squeeze without the count. With seven cards left, an opponent holding four clubs and three hearts has had to let all his diamonds go. Now a diamond to the ace squeezes him out of a guard.

My partner chose the squeeze line, but he ducked a heart to the jack early in the play. This makes the hand easier to read, but is technically inferior in that if East had held Qxx or Jxx of clubs she could have beaten the contract by continuing hearts. As it was, she preferred to switch to a club, forcing declarer to play the trump squeeze anyway, this time with the count, instead of a simple squeeze which required no guesswork over the discards. East-West — who are the sort of opponents I don't mind going off against — generously congratulated declarer.

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

2NT^reds

3^spades

4

4

Pass

Pass

5

5

Pass

Pass

6

Pass

Pass

6

Pass

Pass

X

All pass

Barry

Tom

Sally

Hugh

—

—

Pass

1^{carrot club}

2^reds

4

5

All pass

Mike

Helen

John

Tyrone

—

—

Pass

1

2NT^reds

3

4

5

Pass

5

All pass

John

Paul

Ian

Gary

—

—

Pass

1

1

1

3^reds

4

5

5

All pass

Iain

Ian

John

Robin

—

—

Pass

1

2NT^reds

3

4

4

Pass

Pass

5

5

X^{spade 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.

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

2^majors

4^minors

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

4^majors

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.

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

2^forcing

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.