Essex Mixed Teams  Wednesday26 May 2010

Winnie with myself, John Stimson, and Colin Elliott and Martin Baker came equal first at this event. One hand helped contribute due, as much as anything to different systems (and perhaps different bridge styles), although Winnie took the view that made the real difference. Looking first at East-West Hands see what you think. North-South are Vulnerable. Playing Lucas Twos as East I was able to open 2 Hearts. (Two Hearts shows exactly 5 cards in the suit and 4/5 in at least one minor. We play it as semi constructive 7-11: we don't upgrade unless there is exceptional shape/sequencing).

South passed and Winnie went straight to 4 Hearts. She might have tried 5 Hearts (to play) but that might have been misinterpreted (but see note 1 below). North bid 4 Spades and Winnie went to 5 Hearts. 5 Spades from North now. Winnie now took the view that 6 Hearts was right. It looks as if she has two tricks, one in Diamonds and one in Clubs. Perhaps East has a trick. However Winnie reckoned that because she had 4-5 in the minors there may well be an easy route to 5 spades.  After all the opposition have at least 10 spades, probably more  between them and as North seems very distributional 5 Spades may well  be there. She bid 6 hearts.

This was duly doubled. If you look at all four hands you can see that Winnie's bid was right (well almost right!) 6 Hearts only went -1 when the defence did not find their Diamond trick.

East did not open at the other table and Martin, South, opened a Precision 1D. With both majors the hand is just right for the bid, despite the poor quality of the suits. West did not overcall. With that Spade void crying out for action I think West might have tried 2C, especially with a passed hand opposite and at Green V Red. But perhaps they had an agreed style to two level overcalls  that the hand didn't meet and indeed many would argue the Club suit needs to be longer or stronger, or even both. With no opposition bidding Colin- Martin were in 4 Spades in no time. Colin made an overtrick.

So simply because of our combined styles and sytems we gained a healthy + 520.

In fact as you can see if East leads his doubleton Diamond, and West ducks initially, 5 Spades can go down as East gets a Diamond ruff as well as the top Diamond and the Trump Ace. It's not clear though that East-West will always get the defence right.

Note 1

Ken Barnett tells me 5 Hearts in this auction is 100% pre-emptive. I guess I have to accept that would be the majority view

Brighton, August 2009

Many hands contain one, or maybe two themes. You can analyse such hands, even compare them to similar hands elsewhere. However sometimes you get a hand that has any number of themes.

This hand is an example. Dealer East. No vulnerability. Teams.

The first point to consider is East's opening bid. Does (s)he open 3S or 4S. There are those who say that 4S is right with 8 cards and the weaker the hand the more you should bid at the higher level . However this is rather a weak suit so 3S can't be altogether wrong.

The second point to look at is West's response. At Brighton two Waltham Forest pairs held the East-West hands. Ken Barnett, with Chantal Giradin, and Anne Catchpole playing with Phil Mattacks. This is as good  a place as any  by the way to congratulate Anne and Phil for coming third in the Brighton Bowl. That's third out of 160 teams. Not bad for a new partnership.

But back to the hand. Phil raised Anne's 3S to 4, Ken looked at his 22 points and wondered if he should make one try to see if slam was on. First of all note that both Chantal and Anne chose 3S. This itself is interesting. I think that 4S would have been my bid. I say 'think' because it really is not clear cut. But with Winnie Godber and Ken Barnett I do have 4D available to show a good 4S opening so perhaps it's easier to stray into 4S . Anyway the point  is really: is it worth looking for slam with the West hand? I don't see it. Plenty of people at Brighton did go for it. There are two bids generally you can try: 4N and 5S. Ken had another bid available and tried 4D which he and Chantal play as cue asking. If that is the case then 4C might be better as one would think that any cue-ask would only be done with a hand as strong as this. It must ask for A/Ks not just aces. Ken felt all he wanted to know was whether partner had the H ace.

As I see it 6S has only two combination in the opener's hand that would work. That has to be the Diamond K and KQ to 7 spades or the Heart A and KJ10 to seven spades. One can practically rule out 8 spades (precisely because if there are 8, then they must be as weak as in this hand). KQ to 7 spades and the heart A is NOT a 3 spade opening. Anyone who opens such a holding  other than 1S needs taking aside on Clapham Common, perhaps never to be seen again. Without Ken/Chantel's cue-ask agreement I wouldn't think of looking beyond 4S. But say Chantal can resond 4H. Ken's next bid presumably would be 5S (go to 6 with good spade honors). The trouble is that if opener passes even 5S will prove difficult.

Both Anne and Chantel ended in 4S.

But yet another view of this hand emerged at Ken-Chantel's table. When Chantel bid 4S opposite 4D  South promptly doubled. What do you think of this double? At teams you would be mad in my view to double here. You have no idea what West holds, no reason to suppose 4S will go down more than one trick at most if at all. At pairs: well, um   perhaps.....

Yet another point arises. What does West do over this double? I have asked any number of people what they think. Liz Cleary thinks 'Redouble', Anne Catchpole 'Pass'. If such good players can disagree then one hardly wants to join the debate. But hey, we Stimsons are made of Wooster like sterness! I would pass this double. Why on Earth is South doubling? As with the question of whether you look for slam you have to consider specific hands. South may well be mad but you wont know that (OK yes in the real world, if you play a lot of bridge, you might know that) so best to pass. If South really is taking 4S down then so will your team-mates. If he isn't then your team-mates, being among the cleverest people on the planet of course, wont be doubling.

There is yet one more aspect to this hand. Anne Catchpole was not doubled and received a small club lead. Of course to begin with she discards her losing club on the Diamond ace. She could try to see if the Diamond K falls by ruffing the suit twice (returning to dummy with the trump A) she will make her contract, or she can immediatekly go for the D running finesse. The finesse at 50% looks as good as anything so Anne led the Q a trick three. Not a flicker as North played low. So Anne, correctly as it turns out, reckoned this card was with South. The Ace S revealed the trump position so Anne had to consider now how to play the hearts. The reason Anne does so well in the major tournaments is because she can tie together all the essential elements of a hand to make the most of her chances. She played first to the King of hearts. This held so she ruffed another diamond.

No King of Diamonds fell. But Anne 'knew' that South held the K; she knew  the trump position of course so took into account the fact that South hadn't doubled. We have already seen that a double doesn't make sense but that doesn't mean it isn't an option. South after all doesn't know that there are 22 points in the West hand. With nothing much to go on Anne used this information to finesse the 10 of hearts and went one down. Well, we all know there is no justice in this life. Chantal's far too good a player not to take advantage of her opponent's doubled and sailed home.

But what an interesting hand.

Think I might go back to Brighton next year.

John Stimson August 2009

Monday 19 January 2010

3½ tables

Scoring irregularities at the table have meant that this session does not qualify for match points. Some pairs played as little as 12 hands. However Alan Custerson has kindly scored the event as directed by the Andy Dodds and for information only scores are as below. If you really want to check the scores a hand written table will be placed on the notice board.

Director Andy Dodds

Scorer Alan Custerson

Would you double with East's hand?

The Bidding

We can all agree that at duplicate if you don't double contracts that make from time to time then you are not doubling enough. However East's double here is risky to say the least. In part it can be explained by West's leap to 4 hearts. Apparently this can be done on a wide range of hands. North's 4 Spade bid was good. She hadn't wanted to open 3D. She indicated she was much too good for that and the 4S bid vindicated that decision.

The play.

As it happens North South appear to be always capable of making 4 spades double- dummy. However South would have to be careful how he plays the hand against best defence. At the table West kicked off with a heart to the king and East returned the Q Clubs. Declarer covered and West after a while continued hearts. It was relatively easy now for South to play another club. East won this and belatedly returned a small trump. Declarer won with the 10 and ruffed the clubs good.

Say at trick two East plays a trump. Declarer wins (with the 10 if necessary) and plays the King of clubs. West must win and does not have another trump to play. Any continuation is easily dealt with. Eventually Declarer will play another club and will still have at least one trump left to set up the suit.

As it happens double dummy East -West can make 4 hearts although it is unlikely that East will get the trump position right. Similarly it is relatively unlikely that South will make 4 spades without the double to guide him.

Seven No Trumps. Is this just on a finesse?

This interesting hand came up at the Ruff Club.

The bidding.

South opened 1Heart. Some might try 2C in case partner passes with a four count and game is on, but really this is not a game forcing hand. South's rebid of 3D is not ideal but after partner's 1 Spade response a game force is now required. After showing 4 key cards with 5D, North's 5S bid asks for the Heart Queen. South decided he had it! After all he said I have a sixth trump, that must be as good as a holding the Queen. That thinking might be OK if North had freely supported hearts, but the 3H after the 3D bid is merely suit preference. It will often be bid on two cards as here. Is North correct in going to the grand? Well it's debatable, South did after all only open at the one level, but 12 tricks now look OK (assuming the heart Queen really is in the South hand) the thirteeenth might well be there one way or another.

The Play.

At the table East led the Club 6.  North looked at South's hand, decided the Heart finesse would haave to be taken, and was soon -1. However it can't be wrong to see what happens when you take your winners. It is always possible something will turn up. You need to win the club with South's ace. This way you preserve communications. Unblock the Spade king and run four rounds of Diamonds. On the third and fourth round of the suit West discards two spades.

Time to take stock. You have to do this before discarding yourself on the last Diamond. Against a grand East led a club. She would hardly do this from an honour, even from the jack. So West likely holds QJ clubs. If West also holds three hearts to the Queen he is goping to be squeezed again when the Spades are played. If that assumption is correct then his shape originally was 5323. So keep the 4th Spade and discard a club. Now cross to the King of clubs. As you can see if you nlow look at all four hands a club honor falls from West. You now play three more rounds of spades, discovering for sure what you already new, they are now 3-3. On the last Spade West is again squeezed. He must either concede a heart or a club.

A triple squeeze that plays itself. I'm told triple squeezes usually do but I wouldn't know that as I hardly ever go looking for them.

Edward Niman and Adam Wershoff have both come back to bridge after a long break. They started playing again at the club a few months ago. Not so long ago I was involved in a bridge workshop. These were all club players and the idea was to look at ten or so hands each evening session, discussing the bidding, defence and declarer play. Ten hands? We hardly ever got beyong three. So many hands have so many angles. This hand is similarlar. Adam and Edward were sitting North-South.

The bidding.

North was correct to open 1S.  He hopes to have a chance to bid hearts later, twice if allowed to show his shape. After East's 2C overcall, Adam, South made the natural looking 2H call. However he really ought to have more points than his six count. many would argue he needs 10 or more to bid 2H freely. A negative double showing some values and at least 4H would be better. But 2H was bid at the table and Edward did well to show his values with 4H. However he does have an alternative. If Adam really does have 10+ points as his 2H bid suggests than 4C, a splinter, makes a lot of sense. It shows the singleton and asks partner to think about more than just a game. As it happens 4H is where you want to be.

The Play.

West started off with his partner's suit. The Ace clubs won and East got off lead with a diamond to Dummy's ace. Adam immediately successfully finessed  in hearts and then dropped the King of hearts by playing the Ace. So far things have gone well. How should Adam continue?

He has 6 spades between the N/S hands. This is interesting because the outstanding spades will be split 4-3  close to 60% of the time. Adam got one of his losing diamonds away on the second top Spade but then simply ruffed his black suits a couple of times, drew another round of trumps and conceeded a Diamond at the end. The result was not a bad one. Many Wests had started the defence with the K diamonds so 11 tricks, the number Adam secured, was always the limit.

However if Adam had chosen to ruff Spades three times rather than just twice the 5th spade would be established to allow him to discard his second losing Diamond in his hand. To be able to do this he simply ruffs his clubs to enter dummy. This would have been 12 tricks and a top. If you look now at all four hands you can see that the missing spades are indeed 4-3 in opponents' hands. With hands where this situation arises it's worth looking to see if this is the case.

This hand comes from Phil Mattacks. It's from a teams event. Vulnerability is red against red.

As with the previous hand (see Doubling after Michaels) the bidding ended with Declarer having to make assumptions about the opponents specific holding in one suit. It also involves deciding whether to bid or not and again involves surrendering a King in order to try and make the contract.

The Bidding

Focus only on the North hand for a moment. You open 1H as North and get a 3 club overcall on your immediate left. This is described asweak with at least 6 clubs. Your partner passes and West calls 3N. The first question  is whether you want to bid on or not. When I was shown this hand I said I would pass, and this is what Phill's team-mate did. However at the other table the opposition North tried 4 Diamonds converted to 4 hearts by South. West doubled and there the bidding came to an end.

The Play

East began with the A clubs and switched to a spade. The king went up from West and North  took his  Ace, Now what?

The key is to assume that West (the strong hand) holds exactly doubleton King of diamonds, and no more than 4 hearts, probably to the KJ. This being the case you have to manouvre a way into dummy to  finesse, either in hearts or diamonds.

Let's say you start with the heart Queen. West will win and try another Spade. That's OK you can get to dummy eventually by leading towards the 10 8 hearts. Now you can finesse in Diamonds. If your assumption about East's Diamond holding is correct then you will be able to finesse in the suit and claim. losing only two hearts and a club.

So you lead the Q hearts and, as with the previous hand, West holds off! OK he has seen through your plan. But you are still not done. Now you must play the diamond Queen. Essentially this is a similar manouvre but in a different suit. West cannot hold off as you will simply go back to trumps conceding two tricks but not losing a diamond. If West wins the diamond Queen, then the  diamond Jack allows you to enter dummy for the heart finesse. Apparently this is what happened at the table and the doubled contract made.

Altogether a very neat hand, almost one designed for Bridge book on problem play.

Green v Green Dealer East

When this hand came up on the Woodberry 4th Tuesday in March. South must have anticipated opening his version of a strong hand. However East  opened 1 spade in front of him. No matter thought South I’ll try 2 spades, Michaels. West raised his partner to 3 spades. North passed and East tried 4 spades, perhaps not sure how strong her partner’s bid might be. But perhaps the right a bid with her shape.

South might have contemplated the fiery nature of the modern game but there wasn’t a lot he could do other than double. He was sure this must be for penalties. After all he had both 4N and 5 diamonds available. But North didn’t see it that way and bid 5 clubs. South’s 5 diamonds led to 5 hearts and this is where North played. (South later argued that he had 4N aand 5D available on the hand. North countered that the double which must be the strong Michaels version, was necessary for  in case North wanted toconvert to penalties).

However the problem here might have been averted had North tried 4 clubs over West's 3S. Now any double must be for blood.

The Play

Looking at Dummy North will decide that to have any chance of making this contract one of the opponents must hold prevcicley Jx of trumps. He may also need one of the Minor suit finesses to work.

East led her spade ace at trick one and switched to her club 2. perhaps Declarer should have paused at this point and though through the significance of this card. If it is a singleton he cannot afford to play the Queen of clubs.However he went in with the club queen losing to the king and West duly played another club for his partner to ruff. Declarer eventually went down by two tricks. “I should have made that he said". "I agree," said a by now exasperated South. What had they both seen?

Well if instead of playing the Club Queen at trick two Declarer  can play it  immediately after taking the Ace. West will take his King and no matter what he returns, Declarer will win  and, after 3 rounds of trumps ending in his hand, his long clubs will be available for at least 3 diamond discards. He can then finesse the diamond queen for his contact losing just one club and one spade.

However if we rewind, we can see that both North and South have missed a point. The spotlight falls on West at trick three. He might wonder looking at the club Queen why declarer is playing the contract in this way. This should tell him that he is hoping he can get to hand with a trump to play long clubs; ergo the club from partner must be singleton. West ducks the Queen of clubs for East to ruff. Now a spade lead keeps declarer on the table with not enough communication to make the contract.

It would have been interesting to see whether West would have been up to this defence but North should have at least tested him.

Exclusion Blackwood 1

Whatever form of Blackwood you use there will always be difficult hands where exclusion provides the answer. Take the North hand above. Partner has opened 1 Heart (doubled on your right) and you have to respond. You coukld bid 1 Spade. If partner raises this you will be well placed. If partner rebids 2 hearts you are still interested in more than game. Now 5 clubs is exclusion asking for kings, or keycards ezxclusing the club suit. Exclusion works because the bid of 5 clubs makes no sense. It has to be exclusion in hearts. Indeed with the double and plaaying 5 card majors I don't see much wrong with an immediate 5 clubs. Partner now bids 5 hearts(one key card outside the club suit). and that is where you play. If you now look at all four hands you will see that 5 hearts makes comfotably enough. What you haven't done is bid the hopeless slam.

At the table North's first response was 4 clubs. This is a horrible bid! 1 spade would be altogether better. Opener rebid 2 hearts and North tried 3 spades, a cue bid. Obstinately south bid 4 hearts and north still wantimng more tried 4S. Having denied any sort of interest, and committed to 5 hearts anyway, south cued his ace of clubs. Still unsure where the hand was going north tried 5D (?) and over 5 hearts went specutively to 6 hearts. This got what it deserved a complete bottom.

This hand came up on a recent Thursday. Peter Rogers  held the West haand sitting opposite Winnie. Winnie opened 3 Diamonds. OK so what would you bid after South doubles for take out?

Peter thought for a moment and went straight to 6 diamonds. Before you look at the four hands think about alternatives. Your plan is to muddy the waters for North-South. Anne felt 4 diamonds was about right, or even perhaps 5. 4 diamonds would stop opponents using this bid to give a choice of majors, or even to show a strong hand via subsequernt bidding.

In any event on this hand 6 Diamonds certainly worked.

Look now at all four hands.Opponents have 6 hearts on (but not 6 clubs, defeated by a heart ruff).

This defensive problem comes friom the Ruff Club.

East West are Red against Green.

The bidding

Look first at the West hand  and decide how you would bid it. North opened a 12-14 NT and partner, East, came in with 2 hearts. South bid 3 diamond  and you have to decide what to bid. Overcalls in your partnership,can be quite light but it is difficult to see what would be wrong with 4 spades.  However at the table 3 spades was the bid and East bid 4 hearts. In principle 3 spades , if not a powerful suit in its own right, suggests some support in Hearts.West is about to convert  to 4 spades, which is perhaps why he might have chosen that bid originally, when South comes in again with 5 diamonds. West doesn't think this is likely to make and he has to double to prevent any chance of 5 hearts from his partner. He can't leave the decisiion to double or not to East.

The Play:

West Leads the King of spades. This asks for count. On this East plays the 5 and Declarer the 4. Have a look now at all four hands. West may well have been a little shocked looking at dummy. Partner had overcalled in hearts after all. But West has to play now to trick two. The 5 of Spades must be a singleton as with 95 East would show count with the 9. So what do you think is the best card at trick two?

The Solution

The Ace or Queen of spades could have been played at trick two, and that is what happened at the table. Now Declarer had to lose two clubs, a spade and a heart. However suppose West plays the 10 spades at trick two. East has to interpret this as asking for a heart return following his ruff. But that should not be too difficult work out. East returns the 2 of hearts for a ruff. This confirms an entry in  clubs (not that West has anyhwere else to go really). The club is won by the King. This must promise the Ace and a heart is ruffed. Another heart is ruffed following a second club to East. +800 to East West and a Top. AS 4 spades makes comfortably 800 was needed.

South too could have done better on the first spade. If he plays the 9 spades then it is not so easy for West to work out East's spade holding is a singleton.

This defensive problem comes friom the Ruff Club.

East West are Red against Green.

The bidding

Look first at the West hand  and decide how you would bid it. North opened a 12-14 NT and partner, East, came in with 2 hearts. South bid 3 diamond  and you have to decide what to bid. Overcalls in your partnership,can be quite light but it is difficult to see what would be wrong with 4 spades.  However at the table 3 spades was the bid and East bid 4 hearts. In principle 3 spades , if not a powerful suit in its own right, suggests some support in Hearts.West is about to convert  to 4 spades, which is perhaps why he might have chosen that bid originally, when South comes in again with 5 diamonds. West doesn't think this is likely to make and he has to double to prevent any chance of 5 hearts from his partner. He can't leave the decisiion to double or not to East.

The Play:

West Leads the King of spades. This asks for count. On this East plays the 5 and Declarer the 4. Have a look now at all four hands. West may well have been a little shocked looking at dummy. Partner had overcalled in hearts after all. But West has to play now to trick two. The 5 of Spades must be a singleton as with 95 East would show count with the 9. So what do you think is the best card at trick two?

The Solution

The Ace or Queen of spades could have been played at trick two, and that is what happened at the table. Now Declarer had to lose two clubs, a spade and a heart. However suppose West plays the 10 spades at trick two. East has to interpret this as asking for a heart return following his ruff. But that should not be too difficult work out. East returns the 2 of hearts for a ruff. This confirms an entry in  clubs (not that West has anyhwere else to go really). The club is won by the King. This must promise the Ace and a heart is ruffed. Another heart is ruffed following a second club to East. +800 to East West and a Top. AS 4 spades makes comfortably 800 was needed.

South too could have done better on the first spade. If he plays the 9 spades then it is not so easy for West to work out East's spade holding is a singleton.

Goldilocks and the Three Ducks by Paul Lamford

As it happens this hand involves a theme discussed this week (23 June ) by Anne in the bridge class.

The weekly Bears Duplicate reached the last round and Goldilocks had a simple hand to play. She opened 1NT and North, baby Bear, raised to 3NT. Papa Bear led the king of spades. How many times should Goldilocks duck. It's best NOT to look at all four hands befoe you answer this.

The Solution

At one table Goldilocks related, Noddy won the first spade and took the diamond finesse. East won and returned a spade and declarer was quickly off, losing four spades and the King of diamonds. At another table, Sooty did better in that he ducked the first two spades. But Bobtail, West, now switched to the queen of clubs. Declarer won and took the diamond finesse and the defence took two more clubs. 'I won the second spade,' said Goldilocks, which was jut right.' When East won the second diamond he had no more spades left, but even if he did I would have lost only three spades and a diamond.

Paul Lamford has kindly allowed us to use this hand. Most of us would be happy to play 3N with these cards. However the challenge Paul has set you is to work out the North-South hands which will allow you to make 7N on any lead.

Solutions to John Stimson

The bidding:

You may not entirely approve of North's 3D bid following West's transfer to hearts opposite the 1N overcall. It may be a slight stretch but it does take up space and on this hand at least it got South's spades into the auction. But that in itself, West believed, should have told East something about the make-up of the hands.

The play of the defence:

West wasn't sure East had read the bidding as well as he could. The lead was the 10 hearts won by East's K. What would you play at trick two? East thought for a while and then cashed the A of hearts. His chance was gone. Moments later 10 tricks were wrapped up by declarer. (see all four hands).West wanted to know what kind of hand South could have that would let him bid 3 spades. He had to have good diamonds. Didn't the 10 hearts lead suggest an immediate switch? A diamond ruff at trick two, another heart to the ace and  a second ruff  was lost. Perhaps, but at match points as opposed to teams it isn't easy to risk a diamond return. Indeed although played four times the spade game only went down at once.