Wednesday morning, May 15, board 17.

Auction with North Dealer:                        1d - 1h - 1s -2h
                                                                     3c - 3h -3NT  all pass


This hand contains a fairly common card-combination problem, yet more than half the declarers in both the open and limited games got it wrong, and went down in a cold game.

West led the Queen of hearts.

First of all, there is no reason to duck this trick. You can lose two spades and a diamond, but if diamonds and clubs come in, you won't have any other losers. Why give them a heart trick, too? (And if they don't take their spades, one of those losers may disappear as well.) The duck of a heart would only make sense if West can win two diamond tricks, and East had no spade entry, not likely on the bidding. (East overcalled and rebid hearts missing the AKQ and probably the J of the suit. Surely she has a spade honor.)

Okay, so you win the first heart, and that brings us to the crux of the hand. How do you play diamonds for just one loser? (If you lose two diamonds, they will be able to get three heart tricks as well.)

If the missing diamonds are divided 3-2, it doesn't much matter what you do. But if they are 4-1, you can still pick up the suit if East has four to the queen.So you check to make sure there are no entry problems to either hand, and enter dummy with the king of clubs. Then lead a low diamond toward the jack. If it loses to West's queen,  you are back to hoping for a 3-2 diamond break, but playing East for queen-fourth, gave you an extra chance, which on this hand of the week, turned out to be critical..

This could hardly even be called a safety play, because there is almost no distribution of the missing diamond cards that will allow you to lose no diamond tricks.  (More on this later.)

Some might ask what happens if West had a singleton queen. Then it would have been right to play a high diamond first. True, but the suggested line of play works whenever west has a singleton 3, 4, 9, or 10. Thus it is four times more likely than him having precisely a singleton Q. It sometimes may turn out to be wrong, but all you can do is make the play that gives you the greatest chance of success. 

Incidentally, at trick two,when you lead a low club to the board, be mindful of your table presence. Try not to act like you expect it to win. You're not allowed to decieve the opponents by being overly dramatic about it, but at least show some interest in what card East plays. Remember, the opponents are taking inferences from every card you play, as well as your attitude.

Despite your manner, East should probably figure out you have the ace of clubs, but you never know. At our table, after getting in with the queen of diamonds, East led another heart, when she should have known that a spade trick was going away. She knew declarer had the AK of hearts from the opening lead, and she can see five diamond tricks and  four club trick in dummy. Thus if she wanted her two spade tricks, she better take them NOW!

One last note. Going back to the diamond suit card combination, there is one precise defensive holding where you can legitimately take all six diamond tricks. If West had exactly  Q43 and East had exactly 109, you can lead the jack from your hand, finessing West's Q. Such a precise holding is unlikely, and I would only play for it to be that way if I was desperate, and couldn't afford any diamonds losers. (It doesn't work if East has the singleton 9 or 10 as West can insure a diamond trick by not covering.) 

Lesson points:

. 
1. With AKxxxx opposite Jx, the best way to play for only one loser in the suit is to lead low towards the jack. (You're going to have to lose one one trick in the suit anyway, no matter what you do, and this gives you an extra chance to avoid two losers.)

2. Try not to reveal your card holdings by your table manner. It is unethical to put on an act, but if you are too cavalier, or act too worried, you may be giving valuable information to the opponents. When you lead up to a king, your manner should be the same whether you have the ace in your hand, or whether the contract depends on the ace being on-side.

3. Count declarer's tricks on defense. Today's East should have known to cash out after winning the queen of diamonds.

 

Friday, 5/3/2013 KO Match

This hand is from the finals of the Friday 5/3/2013 KO at the Austin sectional.  The play is trivial as long as no one ruffs the opening lead so we will focus on the bidding.  South opens 2C.  Is his hand worth a 2C opener?  With spades trump, it has 9 winners: 7 spades, 1 diamond, and 1 club.  Yes, it is worth a 2C opener.  The 2D response showed at least a king, a treatment that is popular with many players.  Now the jump to 3S.  That bid (the jump after opening 2C) is reserved for a hand where you know what the trump suit is and all you really want to know is if partner has an ace (or two).  Bidding 3S says spades are trump and asks do you have any aces?  Partner cue bids his cheapest ace (and if he doesn’t have an ace bids 3NT).  North bids 4C showing the A of clubs.  South now bids 4D showing the A of diamonds.  North is out of aces but has a useful king in the diamond suit (he thinks it is useful since partner cue bid the ace of diamonds) so he bids 5D.  To reiterate, the 5D bid denies the A of hearts and shows the K of diamonds.  South can now count 12 tricks if North’s clubs are at least 3 cards long: 7 spades, 2 diamonds (the A and K), and 3 clubs (the A, K, and Q).  Also, South knows that there is not a grand slam since he has a singleton heart and partner has denied the A of hearts.  South ends the auction by bidding 6S.  Congratulations, you have just bid a 25 HCP slam. 

Lessons:

1. The jump to 3 of a Major after a 2C opener sets the Major as trump and asks partner if he has any aces - it typically shows a suit that is either solid or at least has good play to not have a loser opposite a small singleton.  This is a very useful treatment when you hold a strong distributional hand.  Be sure to discuss this treatment with partner before springing it on him.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
2. High card points do not take any tricks.  High card points are often a good indicator of the trick taking value of a hand but, in the case of distributional hands, some other method of evaluation will work better.  In the above auction, we counted tricks.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
3. Not all slams take 33 points.  High card points are most useful in NT.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
4. If you can count tricks during the bidding, it is the best method of evaluating the potential of the two hands.  

Tuesday April 30,2013, Board 16

Possible Auction:

N          E          S          W

                                    1S

1N      2S         2N*      Pass

3C    Pass       3H       Pass

Pass   4H      All Pass

Opening Lead: King of Spades

BIDDING COMMENTARY:

North and South play conventions on after a 1NT overcall so Lebensohl was available to South.

South's 2NT bid is a relay to 3C. South could now pass, bid a new suit at the 3 level or bid 3NT. The new suit bid of 3 Hearts shows a hand with fewer than 8 points and a 5+ card suit. Basically, a “drop dead” bid—“This is where we are playing the hand. I have no interest in game.” For a full description of the bid, Google Lebensohl and choose an explanation of the Convention over 1NT interference or go to http://www.bridgebum.com/lebensohl_after_1nt.php for a full explanation.

After South shows the Heart suit, North has reason to believe that the hand could actually make 4 Hearts with as little as x Kxxxx xxx Jxxx. All of North's values seem to be “working” and well placed behind the opener. Suit by suit this means:

            Spades: South should have no more than 1 Spade and therefore no losers in that suit.

Hearts: Even missing the King in the South hand, a finesse against West for the King could easily bring this suit in for no losers.

            Diamonds: Exactly 2 losers here.

Clubs: With the Ace or Jack onside (in the West hand) only 1 loser here. As long as South can reach her hand and figure out which is “onside.”

With no high cards in the South hand, but entries, via Spade ruffs, to lead the Hearts and Clubs it looks like 10 tricks are very possible.

LEAD COMMENTARY:

Pretty obvious.

PLAY COMMENTARY:

South realizes the need for entries to her hand and should start by ruffing the first Spade in her hand. She needs 3 trumps for ruffing so would like the Hearts to break 2/2 but might be able to handle a 3/1. At trick 2, lead the Jack of Hearts. If covered, return to hand with the 10 of Hearts. If not lead a Club toward dummy. East would do well to duck, but most players will win the Ace and lead the Queen of Diamonds. South will duck this. The 10 of Diamonds next (West knows East has the Jack so the 10 lets West know about that card also) and another duck by South. Now East will probably shift back to Spades. South should win the Ace in dummy and play the Ace of Hearts. Now a second Spade ruff to hand and lead a third round of Diamonds. If the Ace falls, you are home free. Return with the last Spade ruff and pitch the 10 of Clubs from dummy on the King of Diamonds. If the Ace does not appear, use that last ruff to hand to do the Club finesse.

It is right to try the Diamond FIRST!! If you do the Club finesse first and it loses, you will already be down!! If you do the Diamond first and it does not work, you can still do the Club finesse later. Wouldn't you feel awful if East had the Jack of Clubs but West had the Axx of Diamonds and you went down??!!

Pointers from this hand:

1. When you have two chances to make a bid, do first the one that will not result in a loser if it doesn't work. In this hand, that is the ruffing out the Diamond Ace. Whenever possible, a finesse should wait until all other avenues have been exhausted.

2. When deciding whether to bid on or not, try considering the most likely arrangement of the missing cards, both high card and length and see what would be necessary for a bid to be “right.” This works well when trying to decide whether a sacrifice is right, whether game is possible when partner preempts, as well as whether it is right to compete one more level or bid a game or slam. CAUTION: Don't look with rose-colored glasses and hope that everything is just perfect when that is what it would take. Look at the situation reasonably and allow for a flaw or two in the plan.

Wednesday Morning, 4/24/2013, Board 27.

You pick up the east hand and happily count seven hearts headed by the KQJ, a perfect 3h opener. Alas, you're in 4th seat. Still, you look forward to bidding some number of hearts.

South opens a spade, partner passes, and north raises to two spades. Now what? You would have opened with a bid of three hearts, so do you bid three hearts now ? Four hearts? Pass, despite a good seven-card suit?

Before we answer that question, let's remember why we preempt.

1. It makes life hard for the opponents. If they enter the bidding, they have to do so at a high level, and they have little room to exchange information. They are forced to guess, and we hope they guess wrong. 

2. It gives partner a relatively accurate picture of your hand. Partner is in a good position to judge whether to pass, bid game, slam, double, or sacrifice.

As a side note, that is the reason players are admonished not to bid again once they've preempted. Partner is in a better position to judge what to do next. You've done your job. You forced the opponents to guess. You hope they guessed wrong. Don't give them another chance to get it right.

What are the negatives to preempting?

1. The hand may be a misfit. You may be going down in three hearts, perhaps doubled, when the opponents can't make anything.

2. It may help the opponents better evaluate their hands in the bidding.

3. If the oppoents buy the contract, it may help the declarer play the hand.

Now let's return to the case at point. If you choose to bid three or four hearts, none of the positives remain. The opponents have already exchanged information, so they are in a good position to judge whether to bid on or double. Meanwhile, your partner has no idea what kind of hand you have. For example, if the opponents bid four spades and your partner doubles, will you leave it in? Partner surely expects you to have at least one or two defesive tricks in your hand, when you may have zero. Now, instead of forcing the opponents to guess, you're the one having to guess.

Sure you might get lucky and guess right. Maybe this is a hand where they can make four spades, and five hearts doubled is only down two. But, in the long run, we all do better if we avoid unilateral bids and guesses, and allow our partners to be  in on the decisions.

Therefore, the recommended bid is pass, and if they bid on to four spades, to pass again. At least you haven't clued declarer in on the possible bad break in the spade suit.

What happened in real life? Four or five hearts went down doubled on several occasions. Three spades doubled by South made 3. (No doubt the doubler expected his partner to have something for this 3-heart bid.) And for those Easts who kept quiet (we think), four spades went down two, thanks to the not-all-that-surprising (if East bids 3H) bad break in spades.

Lesson Points: Just because you have a hand that is worth a preemptive opening, doesn't mean you should bid it later, especially after  the opponents have already exchanged information.

Before jumping into the bidding, think about  what your bid might possibly gain. What are the upsides? What are the downsides?

Board 2, Friday April 19, 2013

North South Vulnerable, Dealer East

Namyats spells Stayman backwards, however the person who invented this convention was Victor Mitchell who was a partner of Sam Stayman! It was originally called Mitchell Transfers back in the 1960's. Many times the inventor of a convention does not get credit and a perfect example is the Stayman convention which was invented by George Rapee! In both instances Stayman wrote about the conventions and got credit for both!

In this  highly distributional hand, East was the dealer and passed and South decided to use Namyats on this borderline hand and bid 4 Diamonds. A Namyats hand shows one of the majors (and is a transfer bid and is alertable); a 4 Club bid shows you have a Heart hand and a 4 Diamond bid shows you have Spades. It should be a very solid suit and a hand with about 4 or 4 1/2 losers. Typically, you have a hand about 1 trick better than a preemptive bid of 4 of the suit. In this case, the hand has a hole in the long suit (however this suit is one longer than necessary) and 4 other losers. West came in and bid 4 Hearts and now North was happy to bid 4 Spades. East woke up and bid 5 Hearts and now the Namyats bidder bid 5 Spades! West passed, North passed (however thought a while about 6) and East passed and quickly got a Heart on the table for the opening lead.

There isn't much to the play now as declarer (North) pitched a Diamond at trick one off dummy, picked up the outstanding trumps and got the Ace of Clubs out and claimed after a diamond was taken. West was not happy and said that without Namyats he would have been on lead and certainly was leading his Diamonds and setting the hand!

Hearts are a great save for East West on this hand and they should keep on bidding to the 6 level with the favorable vulnerability. The top board for East West was 5 Hearts making and a near top was 5 Hearts undoubled down 3 (and even if it were doubled it would still be still a good sacrifice). The top board for North South was 5 Spades making by 2 declarers.

As for Namyats, it prevailed on this hand beautifully! This bid is also very useful to get to slams as it is so descriptive and most often exact on the losers. When responder bids the slot suit instead of the indicated major, it show some degree of slam interest.

Saturday,  March 16, 2013 Board 5

North was the dealer  and opened 1 Spade rather than 1 No Trump with his 5-2-2-4 distribution. The ACBL has recently given its blessing to opening 1 No Trump with two doubletons -  however, with the strength in the Spade suit, a 1 Spade opening looks more inviting. East now threw a wrench in the works with a 3 Heart bid!

South has to consider his options and some of the newer players that don't play negative doubles decided to bid 3 No Trump. However if you do play negative doubles, this is  a perfect hand for it! West passes and now North decides between 4 Clubs or 3 No Trump. Knowing that partner should have a minimum of 10 points helps him to try a 3 No Trump bid with his 16 high card points. East passes (he has done his damage!) and now South should raise to 4 No Trump (inviting to 6 No Trump). North happily goes to 6 No Trump!

Now the play, with North declarer,  depends on what East leads. With a Heart out there is a play for 7 and without a Heart out, 6 looks like a sure thing. We can count 5 Diamonds, 4 Clubs, 1 Heart (or 2 with the Heart out) and 1 Spade. How can we even think of taking all the tricks? 

What if the preemptor also has the Spades? Now when we get down to the final Diamond (we have run all the Clubs and cashed our Ace of Hearts if they led a Heart) and come down to a 3 card ending with 3 Spades in declarer's hand and dummy (South) holding the last good Diamond, a small Spade and a Heart. Dummy leads the Ace of Diamonds (last Diamond) and declarer discards the Jack of Spades. Now RHO must discard either his last Heart or one of his Spades and declarer can make all the tricks. The end position is shown below:

                                                AQJ

                                                out

                                                out

                                                out 

              542                                                       KT

              out                                                        K

              out                                                        out

              out                                                        out

                                              8

                                              4

                                              A

                                              out

In the actual game in Flight A only one pair reached a small slam and that pair also made 7. In the Limited Game, again only one pair reached a small slam and that pair made 6.

The lesson from this hand is that many decisions are made on every deal and each decision you make needs to be weighed to see what is the most descriptive and best fitting for that hand. On this hand the players used the Negative Double, the Quantitative raise to 4 No Trump, the Preempt, and the Squeeze!

Thursday Morning, March 7^th , Board 5

Opening Lead: Four of Clubs

BIDDING COMMENTARY:

This hand is mainly about the bidding. North is too good for a weak two opening and intends to bid 1D and then 2D to show the hand.

After South responds a Spade, West puts in a 2C bid, getting his side in the auction and giving East a lead director. North completes her plan with a 2D call.

East should probably bid 4 Clubs right now, but many players are timid about preempting in this spot and hope to buy the hand a little cheaper. Besides, South may repeat the Spades and now West would be happy to defend.

With the AJx of Diamonds and the Ace of Clubs to go with his Spades, South tries 3 NT.

East knows her partner passed, thinking East has some values and therefore West might be expecting to set this contract. Pulling it to 4 Clubs, East warns West that she lied the first time.

Now South should leave the next bid to North. The Pass by South is “forcing” requiring North to do something besides Pass. Five Diamonds would be a stretch and the Q of Clubs will be wasted in this contract (the lead will come from East). North should bid 4NT, knowing that South is likely to hold the Ace of Diamonds with one or two small ones. This is one time when this bid is “To Play”!!

LEAD COMMENTARY:

With 2 entries, West will try to set up his Club suit. Even if there are two Club stoppers in the N/S hands, there will be opportunity for 2 Leads and still have an Ace with which to get in to cash 3 Clubs.

PLAY COMMENTARY:

South plays the Queen of Clubs from dummy and counts his tricks. 6 Diamonds and 2 Clubs is 8 so he still needs 2 more. It is almost a sure thing that West has both major suit Aces. So South leads a Diamond to the Ace and then a small Heart toward dummy. If West rises, there are now 10 tricks for the taking. West should duck and hope there are no more entries to the South hand to repeat the “finesse.” Alas, another Diamond to the Jack does get South back to his hand to lead another Heart. West will probably win (not best) and clear the Clubs. South will now take 6 Diamonds, 3 Hearts and 2 Clubs, making 5. Note that 5 Diamonds, played by North, will go down on the Club lead from East.

Pointers from this hand:

1. A weak two Diamond bid should not have a four card major on the side, especially not a GOOD one. Even without the Queen of Clubs, this hand should open 1 Diamond.

   
   

2. Minor suit overcalls at the 2-level should be made with 6-card or longer suits. But a GOOD 5-card suit can be used if 2 of three reasons for overcalling are met.

3. If you have a preemptive raise, then that is what you should bid. Note that if East bids 4 Clubs the first time, South will have a harder time of it and may choose to bid 5 Diamonds. That is what preemptive bids are for—to make things more difficult for the opponents.

4. If West counts the tricks, he should know that winning the Ace of Hearts will give the opponents 11 tricks. If playing Matchpoints, it will be important to hold the contract to 10 tricks. South will not lead any more Hearts, but will surely take his 10 tricks and run.

Board 21, Saturday afternoon, February 16

Suggested auction: 2 passes to 1C by S, double by W, 2H by E, 4C by W, 4H by E, 5C by W, 5D by E, 5NT by W, 6H by E.  Opening lead: A of clubs. 

     An interesting hand in that a grand in either hearts or spades is on the heart finesse.  Not that anyone should be in a grand when a winning finesse is required but surely you should be in a small slam when you are on a finesse for a grand.  The interesting thing about this hand is that it was played 16 times and no pair bid a slam.  Yes, EW has only 27 HCP but, remember, point count is only a guideline and points have never taken even one trick. 

     The suggested auction starts with a club opening bid by S in third chair.  W has too powerful a hand for just a one spade overcall so W should double expecting to bid spades next to show her powerful hand and suit.  But, surprise of surprise, E bids 2H which shows about 10 HCP and hearts.  Now W has another problem in that when E bids hearts, it seems that hearts is a better place to play the hand no matter what spades E has.  How should W show her super heart support and powerful hand?  I suggest a bid of 4C which is a splinter bid in support of hearts showing shortness (singleton or void) in clubs and support for hearts.  A splinter bid is, by its very nature, a slam try since if W was not interested in a slam, she would just bid 4H.  The point of a splinter bid is to show partner your distribution so that partner can better evaluate her hand.   For example, if E had no wasted HCs in the club suit, her hand is better than if she has wasted cards in clubs.  

     With her hand, E is not interested in co-operating with W’s quest for slam since the splinter has made 2 of her points useless and she has no controls so she bids 4H.  W still has slam interest because of how powerful her hand is.  A good question to ask yourself is what does partner need so that she has a decent play for slam.  On this hand, W thinks if partner has the KQ of hearts, the play for slam is excellent and the play for a grand slam in hearts is very reasonable.  And that is only 5 points and partner has shown 10 or so.  Therefore, W should make another slam try. 

     W bids 5C to show first round control in clubs, most likely a void (I don’t like splintering with a stiff A).  Now E wakes up because if partner is still interested in slam, she has a pretty good hand given her bidding up to this point.  E needs to do something to say that if W is still interested in slam, she is now willing to cooperate.  But what should E do?  E should bid 5D which must be second round control since she denied the A of diamonds when she returned to 4H after partner splintered. W is now going to bid the small slam - but why not try for the grand slam since if E has the KQ of hearts, the play for a grand must be decent. 

     W bids 5NT which is the grand slam force.  It asks a simple question: do you have 2 of the top 3 honors in our agreed to trump suit?  If so, bid the grand.  If not, bid 6 of our agreed trump suit.  In this case, E would bid 6H and W would pass since she wants to only play a grand if partner has both the K and the Q of hearts.  As an aside, take a look at the two hands changing the diamond K to the heart K.  The grand is almost lay down if that were the hand. 

     The play of the hand is trivial since the only question is who has the K of hearts.   Ruff the opening lead of the club A, cross to the diamond K and lead the Q of hearts.  You make 7 if the finesse wins and 6 if it loses. 

Lessons:

1      Point count is only a guideline.  When you have a powerful distributional hand, then point count is not as important as where the points are.  On this hand, W can see that the hand will have a very reasonable play for a grand slam in hearts if partner has only the KQ of hearts so W has to arrange the auction to work toward the goal of finding out if partner has those cards.

2      A splinter bid is an excellent tool to express a powerful hand and support for partner.  In this hand, W has excellent support for partner’s heart suit and shortness in clubs.  A splinter in clubs expresses that and helps E to evaluate her hand.  A splinter bid is a slam try since there is no reason to splinter if you are going to just bid game. 

3.     Even when you don’t get much cooperation from partner, sometimes your hand is so powerful, you have to continue to explore for slam.  W’s hand is so powerful that she doesn’t need much from partner to make a small slam and really not much to make a grand slam.

4      When you find a fit, there is no reason to muddy the water by introducing your own suit.  When I discussed this hand with several players, some bid spades even though partner had shown hearts.  This avenue didn’t answer the questions that W needed answering and, in fact, made it more difficult to find the cold slam.

5.     5NT after you and partner have found and agreed upon a suit asks partner a very specific question: do you have 2 of the top 3 honors in our suit?  It is called the Grand Slam Force since if partner has the 2 you are asking for, she is going to bid the grand slam.  

Thursday morning, Feb 7, 2013. Board 3 

Auction:  1d - p -2nt - all pass

Opening lead: Six of hearts

I was North, declaring the hand. While it is usually right to lead "fourth from your longest and strongest" against a no trump contract, the bidding suggested that I had four or more clubs (since I didn't have a major to bid), so one can certainly understand the passive lead of the six of hearts.

I won the heart lead in dummy with the ace, and led a low diamond to the ten.

What was my plan?. Clearly I wanted to set up dummy's diamonds, and seemed to have sufficient entries.

Mark Craig, sitting East, let the ten of diamonds win without any hesitation.

Now I was in something of a pickle. It was difficult to untangle my hearts, and repeat the diamond finesse which I knew was working. I led a heart to the jack, and repeated the finesse.

Now East could win the queen, and return a club. I could still knock out the diamond ace, but the only way to get back to diamonds was to overtake my heart queen with the king. In effect, I was willing to give up one heart trick, in order to get two diamond tricks, and who knows, maybe I'd get lucky and hearts would break 3-3 after all.

Notice I wouldn't have had that problem if East had won the first diamond. I wouldn't have wasted an entry to repeat a finesse that was doomed to fail.

In fact, hearts did break 3-3 and I was able to make the contract. 

That's the difference between writing a newspaper type bridge column, where you get to make up the hands, and writing a real life "hand of the week." If I got to make up the hands, I would have had hearts break 4-2.

In real life, East's fine play went unrewaded, but that shouldn't take away from it.

Nice play, Mark.

Lesson Points: 

On defense, don't always be in a hurry to take your tricks. In this case, declarer had to use up a valuable entry to repeat a finesse that he expected to win. You won't always know what problems you may cause a declarer by ducking, but so long as you expect to win the trick later, it is usually right to duck.

If you choose to win the trick, you should already know what your going to lead. If you don't know what to lead, don't win a trick you can always win later.

Anticipate what declarer is going to do, and plan ahead.  If it is right to duck, you have to be prepared to duck smoothly.

Friday Morning, February 3, Board 13

Opening Lead: Spade Eight

BIDDING COMMENTARY:

Some Easts will choose not to open this hand. It is only 12 HCP with a flat distribution. Some of us were taught to deduct a point for this flatness, therefore leaving only 11 points. However, holding 7 cards in the majors and having 2 quick tricks tips the balance to opening this hand 1 Club. You can raise partner's major suit response or bid 1 NT on your next round to minimize your hand. Besides, if you start passing 12 HCP hands the card goddess may quit giving you any points!

After West's Spade bid, passed-hand North can show some values in the red suits by an “Unusual” NT call. This cannot be natural by a passed hand, when partner has also passed. East raises with 4 card support. As South is not vulnerable, has a fit for both of North's suits and has 2 Aces, she tries a 3 Heart call. West has a 7-loser hand in Spades and bids the Spade game.

LEAD COMMENTARY:

North has a tough lead. Many will lead a trump as a “passive” lead, in case the Heart King is in the West hand.

PLAY COMMENTARY:

After South wins the Ace of trumps, it is time to take stock. N/S has a 9 card Heart fit and an 8-card Diamond fit. West has very few red cards and quite a few black ones. There are no Diamond tricks to be had for the defense, since dummy (East) has the AK. It is possible that North is 5/5 or 4/5, in which case, West may may have 2 red singletons and be able to pitch a Heart on one of the high Diamonds. If there is a void in Hearts, in the West hand, a Heart lead needs to come from the South, so that is the switch. There is no need to lead any more trumps, as dummy is not ruffing anything anyway.

This is similar to last week's hand, in that if you stop to think how the play is going to go, you can usually get the defense right.

Now the defense will come to a Spade, a Heart and 2 Clubs and defeat this hand. Without the bid from North, South would not have such a clear picture of the distribution and may be tempted to try for a Club ruff, leading the Ace and the 3 when in with the Spade Ace. Now East will be able to cash 3 top Diamonds, pitching the losing Heart and making the hand.

Pointers from this hand

1. Make sure if you open a minimum hand not to encourage too much. Opening the East hand would have worked just fine, and in fact did when played on Friday morning, as all the E/W went plus, except the pair who passed it out!!

2. A No-Trump bid by a passed hand. opposite a passed partner, is “unusual” at any level!! This becomes the takeout bid for the unbid suits, and usually doesn't have a whole lot of defense.

3. If partner holds the Ace in front of the King and is worried about leading it for fear of it being ruffed, leading a small card from the other side, up to the King, allows the Ace-holder to win safely if the closed hand does end up with a card in the suit, or follow small if the closed hand ruffs.

4. Even if East passes in second chair, West should open in fourth. Seven losers and a casino count (# of Spades + # of points equals at least 15) all point to opening 1 Spade.

Hand #18, December 27 (Thursday) 

Board 2, Thursday Dec. 20

Bidding:1H - 3S - 4H - 4S

            5H -  p  -  p  - 5S

            p  -   p  -  X  -  p

            p   -  p 

Study the club suit in today's deal. How should South play to keep from losing two club tricks?

This was a very interesting hand. North-South can make five spades, and East-West can make 6 hearts-- unless South finds the club lead, and North knows to return a diamond.  The bidding, shown above, is a guess. (At our table, fearful of the vulnerabilty, South only over-called 2S, and after West cue bid 3S, North also was afraid to compete.)  Several declarers did play 5S doubled however, yet all failed. Where did they go wrong?

My guess is that the declarers led low to the ace of clubs, and then led towards the queen, hoping that East, the opening bidder, held the king. That line of play has a better than a 50% chance of making. It succeeds whenever East has the king, or a singleton or doubleton jack. But it is not the best line.

How should you play the club suit?

The best line is to lead the queen of clubs. If West has the king, you always make three club tricks, whether he covers or not, and if the queen loses to East's king, you later finesse West for the jack. This lines wins whenever West has either the K or J of clubs, about a 75% chance.

One could argue that East opened the bidding, so is more likely to hold the king of clubs, but West showed values too. Plus, East is showing long hearts, leaving less room in his hand for both club honors.

So how did it go at our table? Sitting east, I voluntarily bid six hearts. South found the club lead, but after winning the ace, North tried cashing the ace of spades. Now I just had to draw trump, and play the diamond suit for no losers. Since South showed long spades, I should have played her for diamond shortness. I should have played to the king of diamonds, then taken the marked finesse in diamonds twice. That's what I should have done.Instead, I cashed the ace of diamonds, and then had no chance.

Lesson Point. With A109x opposite Qxxx, absent other relevant information, the percentage play is to lead the Q and let it ride if not covered. If it loses,you later try to finesse the jack.

Board 25, Tues. Dec 4, 2012

Only two pairs in the open, and only one pair in the limited game managed to reach slam on this hand. How should the bidding go after West opens one spade in 4th seat?

At our table East raised to 2 spades. West should now realize that despite the minimal raise, slam is a possibility. If East has the king of spades, and one ace, it has a good chance of making. Still, it is too soon to Blackwood, because East may hold none of those cards.

West bid 3c, ostensibly a help suit game try, but in reality, West was just trying to find out if East liked his hand. West bid 3d, possibly denying help in clubs, but certainly showing help in diamonds.

That was all West needed to hear to ask for key cards and then bid the slam.

With two aces and the queen doubleton of clubs, I think East could have simply bid 4s, and no doubt he would have bid game had West tried to sign off in three spades. 

Or, making life even easier for West, East could have bid Drury for his first bid, showing a limit raise. Others may disagree, but I think the East hand is good enough for a limit raise, especially if you play 2C as your Drury bid. Then if opener bids 2D, showing a full opener, East can bid 2S, showing a minimum.

The east-west pair was playing a more complicated system, and East would have had to bid 2d to show a three-card limit raise, and while that would have worked here, it could have made rebids more troublesome if West just held a normal 13 or 14 count.

Of course, it didn't have to work out so well. Despite holding two key cards, it is not that hard to envision hands where slam still wouldn't make. (And then this wouldn't have been chosen as the hand of the week!)

Lesson Point: During the bidding try to envision what different hands partner might hold. And while you should never simply hope your partner holds certain specific cards, try to find a way to safely explore. In this case, the 3C bid and response made it safe to bid 4NT, and when East showed two key cards, slam became a decent probability.

Board 7 from Monday Morning, 11/12/12

The bidding was P – P – 1N – P – 2C – 2S – 2N – 3N. The opening lead was the 2 of diamonds. 

First, a comment on the bidding.  NS were playing 15-18 range so North’s opening bid of 1NT was within their agreed range.  What should South do?  The partnership has a possible game if North has a heart fit or if South’s club suit can be used as a source of tricks in NT.  But South has only 7 HCP.  A very close decision and this South decided that her hand was worth a game try to find out if they had a heart fit so she bid 2C.  When North answered 2S, South had no choice but to bid 2NT since 3C would be forcing and a clear overbid.  With a maximum, North had an easy raise to 3NT. 

The problem of the diamond suit wasn’t revealed until the opening lead had been made.  Looking at the NS hands, we can see that 5C is a much better contract and 6C is not the worst slam I have ever been in but most partnerships do not have the tools necessary to explore and reject NT because of the diamond weakness.  North must hope that somehow the EW pair blocks the diamond suit to be able to cash only 4 diamond tricks.

East leads the 2 of diamonds and West wins the J of diamonds.  West returns the 4 of diamonds, North plays the 8 of diamonds and now the spotlight shifts back to East.  To defeat this contract, East must be careful to win the King of diamonds, cash the Ace of diamonds and return the 9 to West so that West can over take and cash the setting trick.  If East does not resist the temptation to win the second diamond trick with the 9, the contract will be made because now only 4 diamond tricks can be cashed. 

Without seeing West’s hand, how does East know that she should win the King of diamonds and not the 9 of diamonds.  After all, why waste the King when the 9 will do as well? 

The clue is in what happened at trick one.  When West won the Jack of diamonds, East should reason that West also has the Queen of diamonds because if declarer had the Queen of diamonds, she surely would have won the Jack with the Queen.  If West is observant and thinks the situation through, she will know what to do: win the King of diamonds, cash the Ace of diamonds, and lead the 9 of diamonds to partner to hopefully set the contract.  I am proud to say that my partner did just that.  

Lessons 

1.  Bidding is not an exact science and no matter what system a pair is playing, some hands will come up that do not fit into the system. 

2. Although 15-17 is the normal NT range, there are other options.  A pair can play any NT range as long as the range is not more than 4 points wide.   This fact is why the ACBL requires that the NT range be announced when a player opens 1NT. 

3. The defenders need to be cognizant of every spot that is played and need to be able to draw inferences about one hand or the other based on the cards played.   The reason we play lower of touching honors when following suit is so that partner can draw these useful inferences.  If we play touching honors in a random fashion, partner will never be able to know what is going on in this suit.

4. West on this hand was able to use the fact that one plays the lower of touching honors when following suit to conclude that East held the Queen as well as the Jack in the led suit.  If East had played the Queen, West would conclude that declarer had the Jack and would not be able to make the nice play of winning the trick with a higher than necessary card so that the defenders could cash all of their deserved tricks.  

Friday Morning, November 9^th  Board 21

Opening Lead:  Heart King (or Diamond King)

BIDDING COMMENTARY: 

N/S:     The Two Diamond call by South was going to be followed by a 3 Diamond call to remove the game force.  When the auction got past that, and North raised the Diamonds, South competed to the four level.  North tries for the Heart game once more,indicating a six card suit.  South would pass or convert back to the Diamond game if he couldn't support the Hearts at all.  Thus the 5 Heart bid by South.  North has no reason to think his side can make 5 much less 6 so doubles the 5 Spade bid, for the sure plus.

 E/W:     West's 2 No Trump call is the “Unusual No-Trump.” Whenever an initial NT call makes no sense as a natural bid as in this case, it should be deemed as “Unusual.”  The meaning here would be that West has the two unbid suits, at least 5-card length in each, and has either a weak (<10pt.) hand or a strong (>14 pt.) one. With points between 10 and 14 West would bid Spades, and then Clubs if partner does not raise the Spades. 

            East is delighted with the bid and knows that if West is “weak” then N/S have a game  but wants an opportunity to show the fit in both suits.  He bids just 4Clubs the first time.  There is a case to be made for him to bid 4 Spades or 5 Clubs immediately, but if he does, West will never be able to show a more distributional hand if he has it.   When North corrects the 4 Diamonds to 4 Hearts, East now shows the Spade fit by bidding 4 Spades, with the suggestion that a sacrifice should be taken.  With no defense in the red suits, South takes the 5-level sacrifice. 

PLAY COMMENTARY:

            North/South should get both Hearts and a Diamond, as well as the Spade King.  If North switches to the singleton Club before all the red winners are cashed, East cannot afford to take the Spade finesse and lose it and then get a Club ruff. In this case, a Spade to the Ace and then the Queen will take out four of the five trumps and hopefully hold the defense to their 4 tricks.  A good sacrifice, taken with the help of the“Unusual No-Trump” bid.

Board 9, Sunday Afternoon, Oct. 21  

 If you have the ace of trump, you'll probably be able to win a trick with it. When you're on defense, don't be in too big a hurry to grab that trick. A declarer is often glad to get the ace of trump out of the way early, allowing him to go about his business without further interruption. This hand is just one example where a defender was in too big of a hurry to play the ace of trump.

 A diamond opening lead gave North a free finesse he didn't really need since he could later discard dummy's third diamond anyway. Looking at all four hands, we can see that declarer has a club loser and a heart loser, so he had to avoid two losers in the trump suit.

 He had a choice how to play the trump suit. He could hope the jack was on-onside and lead up to the 10, or he could hope the ace was on-side and lead up twice towards dummy's KQ. Generally, in this situation, with sufficient entries back to hand, it is often correct to delay the decision by first leading up to the king. You can always take the finesse later. That is what declarer did.

 West, looking at the KQ109 in dummy, should have anticipated this and ducked smoothly. The declarer would then have had to guess between leading up to the queen or leading up to the ten.

 At our table, West took the king with the ace. Now, when declarer got back in he had little choice but to take the percentage play and finesse the jack, making the contract. Had west ducked smoothly, declarer would likely have gone down.

 Worse,after West took the ace, he then took some time thinking about what card to lead. If he didn't have a plan, why win the trick?

 One can imagine West's thought process. My ace is doubleton anyway. Might as well take the king with it. If I don't take it, and declarer leads a low trump off dummy, my ace won't even bag an honor card. 

 As if declarer would lead low off of dummy! Declarer can't see your hand. From the bidding, West should know declarer had four spades, meaning partner had three.If declarer had the jack of spades, it didn't matter what West did, but if his partner happened to have the jack it was imperative to play low.

Some notes on the bidding:

 After North opens one heart, South has to decide between 1S and 2H. South is too weak to show his spades. With a bare six points, he just wants to show support for partner's suit and then shut up. He limits his strength and shows support all in one bid.  If he bids 1S and the oppoents bid up to three of a minor, for example, he would never be able to tell his partner about his heart support without suggesting a stronger hand.

 After South bids 2H, North is strong enough to make a game-try by bidding 2S. It doesn't necessarily promise four spades, and it is definitely not a reverse. It shows at least a little extra, and is presumably looking for help in spades.

 Over 2S, South has a close call, with only six high card points and flat distribution.Still, with such good spades, I would accept game by bidding 3S. This is game-forcing, not invitational. Why? Because North may only have 3 spades. 3S by South promises 4+ spades, and shows a willingness to play game in either major. 

 In this particular hand, North elects to play in 4 spades, despite his four measly spades. He anticipates having to ruff clubs, and would rather do so with his small spades, while using dummy's supposedly good spades to pull trump. In general, a 4-4 trump fit is preferable to a 5-3 fit. Indeed on this hand, the declarers who played in hearts took only nine tricks, while the declarers who played in spades took ten.

Key Lesson Points

Don't be in a hurry to win the ace of trump on defense unless you have a good reason. Anticipate the play, and have a plan ready. Be sure to duck smoothly when you are not taking the ace.

A 4-4 trump fit is generally superior to a 5-3 fit.

Monday Evening, 10/1/2012, Hand # 20

Bidding and making a Grand Slam is always an exciting Bridge event - even when the contract was overly ambitious! Here's an example with interesting bidding and play pointers.

BIDDING COMMENTARY:

Two Diamonds was a game force, unless3 Diamonds was rebid. West's 2 Spade bid is suggested in a 2/1 game forcing auction, when no other bid is more descriptive. Since West has no other 4 card suit and No-Trump would suggest at least a doubleton Diamond, 2 Spades is the answer. Playing 2/1, Responders need to be aware that a rebid of a major in this auction (and similar ones) does not always promise a six card suit.

East's 3 Spade bid should therefore be at least 3-card support (rarely honor-doubleton) and slam invitational. When West explores with Key Card Blackwood, the missing Ace is now accounted for. Five Hearts is an inquiry into the Spade Queen. With it, East will bid their first King available, in this case Diamonds. Please note the implied agreement that all five Key Cards are now accounted for (or West will not ask about the Queen), East is now convinced that a Grand Slam is possible and could bid it directly over 5 Hearts. In this case, however, East temporized with a 6 Diamond response to see if West was going to bid Spades or No Trump.When the sign-off came in Spades, East correctly chose the spade suit contract at the seven level, seeing the possible need (indeed!) for a Diamond ruff to set up the suit. A side note here is that when you bid a grand slam, you should be able to count 13 tricks. When in Notrump, the 13 tricks need to be TOP tricks, with no trumping necessary. Besides, it is rare that any Grand bid and made at the Club level is not above average, so safety first (trump contract) is a good rule here.

PLAY COMMENTARY (After a K Lead):

West sees a couple of possibilitiesfor the contract. If the Diamonds break 3/3, there is no problem.But probability tables say that the 4/2 is much more common than the 3/3. so one ruff in Diamonds will likely be necessary. Now, the 13^th trick is available through a Club finesse.

Win the Ace of Hearts. Play the Ace and King of Spades and breathe your first sigh of relief; Trumps broke as needed, 3/2. Lead a Diamond to the Ace and ruff a Diamond.(Another sigh here, as Diamonds are no worse than 4/2). Now a Spade to the Queen pulls the last trump and puts you in dummy for the run of the Diamonds.  At the end, West will finesse the Club King and find success. 

Three Bidding Pointers from this hand:

1. Make sure you have a very good chance of 13 tricks before bidding a Grand. East gambles on West having 6 Spades in her count to 13. (Nope!) Could have been. But East also knew that if there were not 6 Spades, then there might have been 2 Diamonds in the West hand, making the ruff unnecessary and 13 tricks that way (again Nope!).  If there were a singleton Diamond, then West couldn't have gotten so excited about a slam invitation without a some extras in the Clubs or Hearts and a 13^th trick might be forthcoming in one of these suits. (Yes!)

2. When bidding a slam, avoid the temptation to play in NT for the extra points when playing in a suit might be much safer - some pairs bid to 6 NT on this hand, which has no play after a K lead and a 4-2 diamond split. 

3. Don't bid 29% Grand Slams, even if they work! Too tough on Partner, who has to play it! 

Percentages: Spades breaking 3/2 68%

(All Diamonds (no worse than 4/2) 84%

Rounded) King ofClubs onside 50%

Multiplied together, as ALL have to be true, yields about a 29% Grand.

Small Slams should be 50+% to bid. Grand Slams should be at least 80% to bid!!