| John's Tip of the Month - June '10 |
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Scrambling
Suppose that our opponents open the bidding with a suit bid and then either the suit is raised or is rebid after a 1NT response. Now if we wish to compete for the contract then clearly a 2NT bid from our side is of no use in its natural sense. We can then use the bid, with partnership agreement of course, to convey a more useful message. In such a guise it has been called ‘The scrambling 2NT’ and to my mind it says “I have two places to play”.
Three recent examples might have illustrated its effectiveness - Here is the first - the others I will keep for my next two efforts. This is the hand that South holds.
East/West are vulnerable, North/South are not and West is the dealer. The bidding has been as above:-
Have you any advice for South?
Have a think then press Show Answer
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They have bid to the two level - a comfort zone for them and therefore not for us
Partner, sitting in the ‘pass-out’ seat, has decided, rightly, to change that scene via a ‘take-out’ double. Either our side will declare for, hopefully, a better score than two spades by East/West or the opponents will choose to bid again so giving us extra defensive chances. We can expect partner to have bid a five card suit so it is reasonable for us to place North with at least two four card suits. Thus we have an eight card fit. But is it clubs or is it diamonds?
In order to find out we ‘ask’ by bidding a scrambling 2NT (hopefully! alerted by partner). North bids his/her lowest four card suit, which in this deal happens to be diamonds. Three diamonds, just making, brings in a good score.
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| John's Tip of the Month - July '10 |
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More Scrambling
Here is another recent deal where the ‘Scrambling 2NT’ ( = two places to play) was used on the way to a fairly good board. Take a look at the scene from the South seat. You are non-vulnerable against vulnerable, West deals and opens one spade, partner passes and East bids two spades. Now it is over to you. Your hand is:-
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 A J 9 5 2
 A Q T 4 3
 9 8 3
I think that you are unlikely to be able to offer, safely, both of your suits explicitly. So you bid a scrambling 2NT which tells your partner that you have two playable spots. The 2NT bid is, correctly, alerted and West ‘ups the ante’ with a 3S bid. Partner bids 4C – thus showing some interest and starting the scramble. When you bid 4D, thereby revealing that your suits are the red suits, North bids ‘one-for-the road’ and you arrive in a 5D contract. The lead is the spade Ace and these are the cards at your disposal.
How would you play these hands?
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A simple count – two side tricks, diamond and club Aces, so nine trump tricks are required – ergo a cross ruff. You will need to take that Ace of clubs early before the defence, in this hand it was West, discards clubs as you ruff hearts. A good score but beaten by a 5D X made and 4S X down two.
(Have a look at all the hands)
Final thoughts: (1) Nine tricks ought to be achieved in spades by West and (2) Could West have found a trump lead against South’s 5D?
Ed: You can see last month's tip covering the Scrambling 2NT below.
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| John's Tip of the Month - August '10 |
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Scrambling Higher
Here is my final example on scrambling wherein via one bid we reveal a holding of two playable suits (at least five carders). Thereon the partnership bids playable suits ‘upwards’ and a ‘fit’ is found. The difference this time is that we cannot employ the scrambling 2NT because the opponents have nicked the ground. Take a look at the scene from the South seat.
It is ‘game-all’, West deals and starts the auction with a ‘weak 2 spades’. Partner passes and East piles on the pressure with a 4 spade barrage bid.
How do we proceed?
(Have a think then Press Show Answer)
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Our problem would be no different had the bidding been 1S, or even 3S, raised to 4S. At the table South bid 4NT, not to be alerted nowadays.North, in response to a request from West, said that the 4NT bid showed‘2 places to play’ i.e. a scrambling 4NT. In such a sequence a natural 4NT is very unlikely to be required or indeed is a Blackwood 4NT of much use. So an efficient use of the bid is the scrambling message. At this point I think that it could make sense to look at all 4 hands.
(Press show all hands)
* Some theorists say that one
shouldn’t bid a weak 2 in a major when holding 4 cards in the other
major. I don’t have a view on that – it is a 2S opener for me.
** A barrage bid – a case for 5S (11card fit so bid to the 11 trick level) especially if non-vulnerable - not the case here.
Now to North – there is obviously a double fit available to North/South whichever 2 suits it is that South holds. A case can be made for bidding 5D and passing 5H (pairs scoring) if it is that South holds clubs and hearts, but the usual way is to bid playable suits upwards. And that is how it went – 5C from North, 5D from South – thereby showing the red suits and North bid one more - six diamonds by South the contract.
As you can see the play presented no problems, just a heart trick to lose. But neither did a contract of 6 hearts and that in fact won the top match-point score for the board. Maybe the bidding at that table didn’t start at the 4 level for North/South! In bridge, as in golf, the score often hides an interesting journey.
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| John's Tip of the Month - September '10 |
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Finesse Control
Declarer had a simple finesse for his contract but it was duplicate pairs hence the making of overtricks was an important consideration. We will get in first at the planning stage and then later see what happened at the table. South dealt at game-all and after the simplest of bidding he became the declarer in charge of a 3NT contract. West led the 5 of spades and this was the collection that confronted South. What plan can you offer declarer?
(When you've had a think press Show Answer)
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Clearly a successful contract and overtricks revolves around the club suit and it is obvious that if East gets in then the contract is doomed. In isolation the best way to play the suit is over to the Ace ( in case East has a singleton King) then back to hand with a red card and lead a club towards dummy letting West have the King on the second or third round of the suit. In fact it would have been on the second round. At that point, safe from a spade attack, ten tricks can be made - eleven if West panics and cashes the spade Ace. The tricks would be one spade and three from each of the other suits.
So what actually happened?
After winning a trick with the club Ace at trick two, declarer played all of his red suit winners ending in hand. Then at trick eight a club was led towards dummy. West had to win that trick and being ‘end-played’, having only spades remaining in his hand, conceded another spade trick to South who thus ended with eleven tricks and a very good match-point haul.
“Well played” said West, smiling as though he was chewing a wasp and to his partner “Sorry - I slopped at least one trick”. Had he played his King of clubs at trick 2 then one trick would have been saved if declarer had ducked that and two tricks saved if declarer had gleefully topped the King with the Ace only later to regret such haste.
(Now press Show All Hands)
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| John's Tip of the Month - October '10 |
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Trump Equation points the way?
It was hand number 17 from the club’s duplicate session of September 6th. Unusual, to some extent, in that the hand was played by East in the same suit (hearts) at everyone of the twelve tables. But, perhaps, it was more noticeable simply because only four of the declarers made the requisite ten tricks
I sat North, dealer at love-all, and this was the auction at our table:-
Partner led the 7 of clubs to my Ace and I switched to spades. Declarers King was topped by partners Ace who then played another top spade. This was ruffed by declarer who fairly speedily wrapped up the required 10 tricks. Had we made it too easy? Or had some declarers taken too many trumps out too early?
Take the East seat and form a plan. You have lost the first two tricks – trick one to the club Ace on your right and then trick two to the Spade Ace on your left. You ruff the spade continuation. What next?
(When you've had a think - press Show Answer)
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I think that the trump equation (Hand of the month - May this year) is often a useful aid to pointing the way to success in some suit contracts. This deal seems to be a good example.
The equation states that:-
Trump tricks required = Required tricks – Side suit winners
For this hand the arithmetic is:-
10 – 3 (Ace of diamonds and two top clubs) = 7
Therefore 7 trump tricks are needed in order to land this contract. That is easy to achieve if trumps can be drawn in two rounds – we would make 5 trumps in hand plus the residual 2 in dummy. However trumps are less likely to split evenly hence we should plan to make 5 trumps in hand and 2 in dummy without drawing all the outstanding trumps. Use the trumps in hand to ruff dummy’s spades and then make the Ace and Queen of trumps separately – a ‘dummy-reversal’
Here is a suitable line -
Trick 4 – one round of trumps only - with the King
Trick 5 – cross to dummy via the diamond Ace
Trick 6 - ruff spade
Tricks 7 and 8 – top clubs discarding diamonds from dummy
Tick 9 – club ruffed with Queen in dummy
Trick 10 – dummy’s last spade ruffed in hand
Trick 11- cash knave of trumps
Thereon – the Ace of trumps still sitting in dummy – the required 10th trick.
(Press Show All Hands to see the deal)
Check out what could happen if two rounds of trumps are drawn at tricks 4 and 5. Trump promotion for the defence? Success is there also if we do not take that initial round of hearts – but if South had one less club….!
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| John's Tip of the Month - November '10 |
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Have the goalposts been moved?
You are playing duplicate pairs on a recent Monday evening at our club. You and your partner have bid to a very sound four spades contract and it is your job to play the hand. Sit in the South seat and see the scene:-
North was dealer at game-all and this had been the auction:-
The first two rounds of bidding have revealed that North holds a 24-25 point balanced hand and then:-
N E S W
2C Pass 2D Pass
2N Pass 3H* Pass
4C** Pass 4S*** end
* = transfer showing five spades
** = happy with spades, showing club control and ergo a slam try
*** = no further interest
Now it is over to you. Your thoughts and plan of action?
(When you've had a think - press Show Answe)
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This contract is easy but is it the norm?
As ever! you have accord with your partner’s bidding – in particular that decision to bypass 3NT - but it is duplicate pairs and therefore a reasonable assumption is that quite a few of pairs sitting your way will be contracting in 3NT.( For the record 7 out of 12 were in 3NT) Those pairs will have no problem in amassing ten or eleven tricks(clubs breaking) thereby matching your trick total and thus a better match-point score - unless you can manage an extra trick(six in all) from the trump suit and the club suit fails to break evenly. Six tricks from spades could possibly be made via:-
(a) Five in hand and a club ruff in dummy. Draw two rounds of trumps, play off dummy’s clubs, cash the Ace of diamonds, ruff a heart to hand and ruff the long club in dummy. Thereon just concede the two losing diamonds. You would need the defender with short clubs also to have at most two trumps. A better plan, needing just a three/two break in trumps is:-
(b) Three spade tricks from the dummy and three heart ruffs in hand – a dummy reversal. Ruff a heart in hand, a trump to dummy, another heart ruff and return to dummy with a second round of trumps. Ruff dummy’s last heart and back to dummy with say a club to pull the last trump. Again just concede the two losing diamonds. This line would have garnered 22mps whereas just making ten tricks would have given you a mere 5mps – the difference equating to almost 3% in your final score.
(Press Show all hands)
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| John's Tip of the Month - December '10 |
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Slim chance – Fat chance
For this month I have chosen a hand from our (Kath, Nick, Anne and myself) recent Staffs Cup match. The competition is the County’s ‘teams of four’ knock-out event - played, in the early rounds, over 32 boards.
The story starts at our table with a play problem after we had reached a reasonable (my excuse at the time) slam with two apparent losers. Here is the scene facing declarer as West starts proceedings with the lead of the heart knave. Any suggestions regarding the play? Both sides were vulnerable with North the dealer and the bidding had been as above.
3H = splinter, club support, heart shortage
4D, 4S = controls
5S = response to RK Blackwood showing 2 of the five Aces plus the trump Queen
(When you've had a think, press Show Answer)
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If only South, say, had a spade more and a diamond less there would be no tale to tell. As it happened it appeared that 11 tricks might be the limit – losing the club Ace and a diamond.
However there was a slim chance: the missing trump Ace might be a singleton and also in a hand containing at most 2 diamonds. With this possibility in mind Anne, as declarer, won trick one with the Queen of hearts, cashed the two top spades and then crossed to hand with the diamond Ace. The top hearts followed, discarding 2 diamonds from dummy, and then over to dummy via the king of diamonds. At that point a trump was played – hopefully into a defender’s hand with only hearts and spades remaining – and thus forced to concede a ‘ruff and scruff’ with the diamond loser in hand being the scruff!
This is a possible complete deal that Anne had hoped to find:-
Click Show all Hands
But this is in fact a ‘bad news – good news’ story. Bad news because East held three diamonds and the contract failed but good news because a slam had also been bid at the other table. Better news; it was a grand slam – unsportingly doubled by our team mates! 10 imps to the good guys.
(Tip by Ed - don't bid a 'grand' missing an Ace!)
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| John's Tip of the Month - January 11 |
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Worth Repeating
Here is a hand from a teams match with aggregate scoring. West dealt with North-South vulnerable. The auction, at the home table, started with a ‘weak two’ in spades by West and continued rapidly as above.
South, thus, became declarer in 6NTand this was the scene as West tabled the queen of spades.
Declarer spent some time assessing his chances – eleven top tricks, a red queen could drop in two, maybe ‘rectify the count’ and set up a squeeze! “Small please” his instruction to his partner and heeding the sound advice ‘watch all the cards’ he was delighted to see the singleton eight of spades (West was known to have six spades) played by East. Winning trick one with the spade king declarer then played the nine of the suit. West had to cover and so a third spade trick, via the six or seven, gave declarer his twelfth trick and a thinly disguised glow of success.
(Press Show All Hands)
But the story doesn’t end there. Team-mates arrived to ‘score-up’ – and on this hand the opposition had bid to 7NT by South and made it – meaning 780 points away even though both red queens were protected! Check out the play ‘double dummy’. Win the opening spade lead in hand and play the four red suit winners before running the clubs. West is caught by a ‘repeating squeeze’ conceding to declarer the two extra tricks needed for his contract.
Fin
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