TIPS FOR IMPROVERS BY MICHAEL NEWMAN

Points of interest from the June 2013 duplicates

1       Watch the pips – especially in the trump suit

Board 6 Tuesday 4 June – Vulnerability East West - Dealer East

If playing 5 card majors then East will open 1 Diamond.  South will overcall 1 Heart and West will raise pre-emptively to 3 Diamonds.  If West had a full high card raise to 3 Diamonds he would bid 2 Hearts.  Over 3 Diamonds North should go straight to game in Hearts because he has three trumps a singleton Diamond a very strong 5 card Spade suit and the Ace in the fourth suit Clubs.

The best defence against 4 Hearts is to play two rounds of Diamonds forcing the Dummy to ruff.  A Heart to the Queen and Jack follows.  Dummy is re-entered with a Spade to the Ace and the 9 of Hearts is then covered by the 10 and Ace.  At this stage the remaining Hearts are:-

                                                            East  K4

                                    South

                                    852

It is essential for declarer to realise that his 8 and 5 are equals to drive out West’s King.  Say he plays the 8 losing to the King and East perseveres with another Diamond ruffed with the 2 of Hearts.  Now finally the 5 of Hearts draws the outstanding 4 and all Dummy’s beautiful Spades can be enjoyed unmolested.  Result eleven tricks +450.  Isn’t that remarkable how important the 5 of Hearts proved to be.

2       Promoting a trump trick out of thin air

Board 11 Tuesday 18 June – Vulnerability White – Dealer South

East opens 1 Spade fourth in hand.  West raises to 3 Spades and East goes to game.  South opens with the King of Hearts and follows with the Ace and Queen.  Now at trick four South continues with the 10 of Hearts.

North must not idly discard on the fourth round of Hearts.  Instead he should use his 9 of Spades to try and promote a trump trick for the defence.  For instance if South’s Spades were originally J107 a trump promotion is guaranteed.  Even though in this case the promotion is not guaranteed to work nevertheless Declarer is heavy favourite to go down.  Having overtrumped the 9 of Spades with the Ace then if we look at all four hands we can see that the winning play is for East to run the 8 of Spades from hand.  However the only occasions on which this is the winning line is when North started with A) Singleton 9, B) Doubleton 9 and 3, C) Doubleton 9 and 2.  There are five other occasions where to take a first round finesse will fail namely when North started with D) Doubleton 10 and 9, E) Doubleton Jack and 9, F) Three cards 10,9 and 3, G) Three cards 10, 9 and 2, and H) Three cards J, 10 and 9.

Thus the odds favour not finessing against South for the Jack and 10 and thus the contract goes one down.

If there any keen students of the Principle of Restricted Choice reading this article then note that in H) when North has J, 10 and 9 that a competent declarer will go down even after playing a high Spade on the first round.  After playing a Spade to the Queen dropping either the J or 10 from North then following the principle of Restricted Choice (see Terence Reese The Expert Game, 1958 Chapter 3) he will take a finesse against South for the remaining honour on the second round of the suit.

3       Fit Jump by Advancer

Board 20 Tuesday 25 June – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer West

A Fit Jump is a bid made in a competitive auction.  It can be made either by Responder (the partner of the opening bidder) or by Advancer (the partner of the overcaller). 

On the hand above we see an example of a Fit Jump by Advancer.

West deals and passes.   While some would open with a weak two in Hearts I am strongly of the Tony Forrester school who frowns on opening a weak two first or second in hand when holding four cards in another major. 

North opens 1 Diamond and East overcalls 1 Spade (the hand being too strong for a weak jump overcall).  South will probably pass but might bid 2 Diamonds.  The spotlight now turns to West.  He should jump to 3 Hearts.  For those playing Fit Jumps this shows four card support for Overcaller’s Spades and at least five cards in Hearts and a raise to at least the three level in Spades.  North passes and now East has to decide whether to sign off in 3 Spades or jump to game.  Although East has only 10 points his 6-4 shape has enormous playing strength once partner shows a four card fit for Spades.  Accordingly East should jump to 4 Spades.  This contract has three top losers and looking at all four hands you can see that it is impossible for the defence to establish a Club trick before East’s King of Diamonds can be enjoyed for a Club discard from the Dummy.  On the 10 of Diamonds lead North wins and switches to the Jack of Clubs.  East rises with the Ace and immediately discards the Queen of Clubs from the Dummy on the now established King of Diamonds.  The play continues Diamond ruff, Ace of Hearts and Heart ruff, Club ruff at trick seven, Heart ruff at trick eight with the 9 of Spades, last Diamond ruffed in the Dummy at trick 9 and only now at trick 10 plays the Jack of Spades.  Result +620.