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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09.25.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:35 pm by Administrator
First, I would like to apologize for my extended absence. My original intent was to write an article almost daily. I got sick for about a week, let the blog go, and never got back to it. Well, I’m baaaaaaack!!!
Today, I had a hand that had some interesting bidding issues, which I will discuss. The play and defense should have been routine and the board should have been flat; however, the defenders made a fatal error.
First, the auction went as follows:
North East South West
2C Pass 2D Pass
2NT Pass 3C Pass
3D Pass 3NT Pass
4NT Pass 6NT All Pass
The 2C was, of course, artificial and forcing, showing either 22+ HCP or 8 1/2 or 9 tricks or better.
2D was a positive response, promising an A, K or 2 Q’s.
2NT showed 22+ HCP (no upper limit – I will talk about this more later)
3C was Puppet Stayman, asking for a 4- or 5-card major.
3D denied a 5-card major but promised at least 1 4-card major
3NT was to play.
4NT said “Partner, I have something extra here, either a long suit as a source of tricks or extra values, probably 24/25+ HCP, do you have an excuse to go to 6NT?” (essentially, a quantitative raise).
6NT was to play, accepting the invitation.
When I show the full deal below, I will explain the pluses, minuses, and alternatives of this auction. First, I want to focus on the play of the hand.
East led J of clubs and dummy came down with the following hand:
QJ52 T73 954 AK4
(Yes, South’s 3NT call was much too conservative).
West holds the following cards:
874 QJ6 J86 9753
Before any other card is played, what are the key cards in West’s hand likely to be? Probably the QJ of hearts and perhaps, only perhaps, the 9 of clubs.
The play proceeds as follows:
Declarer ducks the club to his hand and wins it with the Q. Declarer then plays 4 rounds of spades starting with the AK in his hand and ending up with the QJ in dummy. Declarer had 4 spades, as did dummy. West must discard once on the spades, so a diamond discard probably won’t hurt. A club discard is also possible, but, just in case, save the club for now. East discarded 2 diamonds on the spades. Declarer now plays the AKQ of diamonds from his hand with East discarding 2 hearts on the last two spades, and West must now discard on the Q of diamonds. East threw a heart. West knows that declarer has started with 4 spades and 3 diamonds, if she has been counting. This means that North either is 3-3 in hearts and clubs, 4-2 in hearts and clubs, or 4-2 in clubs and hearts. If North has 4 clubs, North can pick up West’s 9 of clubs by finessing if necessary (it means that East led the J from JT or Jx doubleton. If North started with 3 clubs, it does not help West to protect clubs because the 9 will never be good, and if North started with 2 clubs, the 9 will never be good. Therefore, West should discard a club. At the table, West discarded the 6 of hearts. Declarer now played a club to the dummy and the last club, discarding a heart. East and West both followed to the clubs. Dummy was left with the T73 of hearts, while west held the QJ of hearts and the 9 of clubs. Declarer now led a heart to the A and then played the K. All the opponents’ hearts fell and North’s last heart was good. In this case, West had the information necessary to keep declarer from making 7NT. West should have worked out that the club was not necessary to protect and should have protected her hearts.
The full deal was as follows:
North:
AKT9
AK82
AKQ
Q8
West East
874 63
QJ6 954
J86 T732
9753 JT62
South
QJ52
T73
954
AK4
This hand highlights the usefulness of Kokish relays over 2C openings, but that is the subject of another article. Playing Kokish, a series of relay bids would be used after the 2D response to show that North had the big 25-27 HCP hand. My partner and I are going to start using Kokish, probably the next time we play.
Using the methods that we had, there were flaws in the process. The first several bids were correct on each side:
2C – 2D
2NT- 3C
3D -
Partner, with a 4333 hand, decided not to look for the 4-4 fit. She felt that if I had a 5-card major, the major might be better. I can accept that decision. However, 3NT is a gross underbid. She has 10 HCP and I have at least 22 HCP. She needs to make an invitational call, probably 4NT, after which I will bid 6NT. A better action on her part would be to bid 3H after my 3D bid, showing 4 spades and denying 4 hearts. With my extra values, I will bid 3S (with a minimum of 22 HCP, I would jump to 4S – I want to save bidding room with the stronger hand). Now she can bid 5NT, which says partner, pick your slam. Now, I can decide between 6NT or 6S. If I had 27+ HCP, I would probably opt for the grand slam.
In any case, we found our slam, and the opponents let us make an overtrick.
Well, that’s all for now folks. Have a good night.
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06.14.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:20 pm by Administrator
Sorry about my absence for the last week. I promise to be more regular in the future.
Here is a hand that left me a bit dumbfounded, not the hand itself, but the results at other tables. I picked up the following hand (sorry I don’t have all the spot cards, I don’t have my hand record with me):
Not vul. v. Vul.
S: x
H: AT9x
D: AKQJTx
C: Kx
A very nice hand.
Partner opens 4C!!! Normally, I hate it when partner preempts and I have a good hand, but sometimes it makes placing the contract much easier, as it does in this case. After my partner’s preempt, my RHO overcalls 4S.
Decision time. There are 3 choices – bid double, bid 5C or bid 6C (pass is not a rational option holding my hand). Let’s examine the possibilities. If I double, how many tricks will I probably take. I should get 1 heart trick, maybe even 2, 2-3 diamond tricks, and if we are very lucky, 1 club trick. Best case scenario is we get 6 tricks for 800, worst case is probably 3 tricks, for their making the contract.
So how many tricks can we take in clubs. Well, first, I have to examine my partner’s sanity. What kind of hand would she open 4C. At this vulnerability, partner should have an 8-card suit with 7 tricks in her hand (maybe even 8). In theory, partner could have 8 clubs to the Q and a side ace, but that is not likely, since RHO bid 4S vulnerable. RHO probably has the AKxxxxx of spades or better. Therefore, in order for partner to have her bid, she should have the ATxxxxxx or better in clubs and probably very little on the side. Assuming this, we should have 8 club tricks, at least 5 diamond tricks and the A of hearts, for 14 tricks. How many losers do we have? Well, we have one spade loser off the top – however, once we lose the spade, it is unlikely we have any more losers. If partner’s trumps are AT9xxxxx, she might have a problem. If her clubs are AQxxxxxx and the clubs are 2-1, the contract should be cold and if her clubs are AQJxxxxx, the contract is cold unless LHO is able to trump an initial diamond lead or diamond switch at trick 2 after the A of spades is cashed (not a likely scenario). When you combine the odds related to trump breaks, the diamond suit split, and the ability to get to declarer’s hand, the odds of making 6C are in excess of 70% if the defense leads a spade and continues a spade, and much higher on any other line of defense.
Therefore, the bid should be 6C, for plus 920 or 940, which is what I bid. The opening lead was the K of hearts, at which point partner pulled trump and scored 8 clubs, 6 diamonds and 1 heart, i.e., more tricks than were available – making 7 for 940.
So did anyone else score 920 or 940? No!!? One pair was in 7C doubled, down 1. Several people doubled 4S and 5S for 500 or 800, and a number were in 5C making 7.
What would you have done?
By the way, partner had the AQJTxxxx of clubs and nothing else (without the hand record, I cannot recall the distribution of the other 3 suits, but it is a clear 4C opening at any vulnerability in my opinion.
It is important to realize that some players will open at the 4-level at this vulnerability with very bad hands, perhaps as bad as QJTxxxxx and nothing else, or even a worse suit with one side card. That is usually asking for trouble because partner never knows what to do. Such preempts often preempt partner more than the opponents.
Comments anyone?
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