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.

Premier League 6S

E-W Game
Dealer South

• 10632
• Q74
• J7
• 10873

• AJ754
• J6
• 843
• A62

N

W

E

S

• KQ9
• A1098
• AK1095
• K

• 8
• K532
• Q62
• QJ954

West

North

East

South

-

-

-

Pass

Pass

Pass

1

Pass

1

Pass

2

Pass

3

Pass

3

Pass

4

Pass

4NT^RKCB

Pass

5^{2 'aces'}

Pass

5NT^{grand try}

Pass

6

All pass

Two expert declarers in the Premier League reached 6 on this hand, but both went off on the lead of 4. South's K won the first trick, and they switched to Q.

First, some thoughts on the opening lead. The auction has been informative: declarer has five spades, three diamonds, the ace of clubs, the ace or king of spades, probably with the jack, and not much more. Dummy has five diamonds to the ace and king, four hearts to the ace, three spades to the ace or king and the queen, and a club. If that's all they've got, a heart lead will beat the contract by setting up a heart trick before declarer concedes a diamond, so long as declarer has two or three hearts. A trump or club lead may beat it too (the latter depends on who's got the spade ten), but only if declarer's got three clubs.

Making dummy a bit stronger: the contract is almost always making if dummy's got K (unless diamonds are 4-1). But if instead dummy's got K or declarer has Q, a heart still succeeds. And the heart usually wins if dummy's got Q with the king over it.

So, unless diamonds are 4-1, the heart lead is indicated from most holdings, and not much can be deduced from it.

Now how do you play?

Click here to show (or hide) the answer

The lead doesn't tell us much about who's got the queen of hearts, and nor I think does the choice of spot card, but perhaps restricted choice favours North having it, and it's more convenient to play that way anyway. The plan is take a heart finesse and discard a diamond on a heart. For our twelfth trick, we can either ruff the diamonds good, which needs both pointed suits to break (we need the third round of spades to be a late entry to dummy), or simply ruff a club, which needs only the spades to break. The important thing in the latter line is not to make the expert-looking unblock of the jack of hearts at trick one. We win the king of clubs, play the king and queen of spades overtaking, and lead the jack of hearts. North can't afford to cover it, so we will still be in hand to ruff a club, ruff a heart back to hand, draw the last trump, and claim.

This plan will gives us some chance when spades are 4-1 too: if South discards on the second spade we can change tack (which is why we played high spades first). Simply draw all the trumps and lead the jack of hearts, hoping to find North with an original holding of Qxx.

At my team-mates' table, tbe world-class declarer unblocked at trick one, won the king of clubs at trick two, and played queen then nine of spades, planning to finesse in hearts then ruff the diamonds good. When South discarded on the second spade he had to concede one off.

Two hard defences in one

Love all
Dealer South

• K6
• none
• AJ53
• A865432

• AQ10983
• AJ107
• 10
• K7

N

W

E

S

• J5
• K54
• Q9762
• J109

• 742
• Q98632
• K84
• Q

West

North

East

South

Rob

Jonathan

John

Paul

-

-

-

2^Multi

2

3

Pass

Pass

3

All pass

This hand comes from the very friendly annual 'varsity alumni match. But it wasn't entirely out of amity that we got the defence wrong. Ace of clubs lead, club ruff, heart ruff, ace of diamonds, diamond to the queen, king and ruff, and now declarer had no choice but to drop the king of spades. Of course we gave suit preference with our choice of club and heart spot cards, but I failed to signal for the diamond underlead which would have put me in to give a second heart ruff. (And I could have given declarer a chance to go wrong by not covering the queen of diamonds.)

It doesn't help for North to signal at trick two for a diamond return - ace of diamonds, club ruffed to kill the discard, but declarer can simply play ace and another spade and South will be squeezed in the reds. So South has to work out when returning a heart that the best chance is to play North for ace of diamonds and a heart void. Is that possible?

At the time I thought 3NT was a lucky make, but the hand records say not. Can you see the winning defence?

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The defence will need to take three diamonds and one in each black suit, and it has to attack diamonds at trick one before declarer can get the spades going. But ace of diamonds, diamond to the nine and king, diamond to the queen is no good. Declarer establishes a second diamond trick, discarding spades, and will make two diamonds, four hearts, two clubs and a spade. And jack of diamonds to the queen and king is the same thing. The winning defence is to lead the jack of diamonds to the queen and four. Declarer attacks clubs, but North wins and leads a diamond. South takes two diamond tricks and puts a spade through.

A simple pleasure

N-S Game
Dealer North

• K87
• J92
• Q965
• AQJ

• 963
• Q874
• 73
• K1094

N

W

E

S

• AQJ
• AK65
• J42
• 653

• 10542
• 103
• AK108
• 872

West

North

East

South

Paul

Richard

Jon

Charlie

-

1NT^12-14

X

All pass

I think I'm making some slight progress at the game, and I find I'm enjoying getting simple but missable things right more than the occasional fancy play. Here's an example from a matchpoint game. Partner doubles 1NT, perhaps aggressively, and leads the ace of hearts, asking for attitude. You encourage, and he continues with the king, then the six to your queen. Declarer plays the two, nine, and jack from hand and discards a club from dummy. What's your plan?

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You and dummy have got 12 HCP between you, so if declarer has 13 partner has 15 - eight more after the top hearts, so this is going to be close. You can't tell what honours to play partner for just by thinking, but you can look at the heart spots. At the table, you have to remember what's gone - it's particularly important to do this when partner has made a pleasing lead; you have to put aside your appreciation and concentrate. If you've managed that, you'll work out that partner has led his higher heart spot. That means he wants you to return a spade, despite the somewhat off-putting holding in dummy. And since he could have AQJ of spades, you should do that before you cash the fourth round of hearts, which will be your last entry.

The actual deal has got a strange symmetry - each side has got a 4-4 fit to cash, and each side can get to seven tricks by finessing twice with its AQJ trebleton. The side on lead gets the seven, so long as it uses its entries to take the finesses.