SpadeHeart 
Waltham Forest Bridge Club
 DiamondClub
Release 2.19q
WFBC

♠   ♣ 

Join us for a friendly game of bridge!

Visitors and prospective members are always most welcome - first visit free!

DUPLIMATED BOARDS

As agreed at the AGM we will be using duplimated boards with effect from 8th January 2024. 

BRIDGE LESSONS
BRIDGE LESSONS

Beginners' and Improvers' Courses are available.

Please email secretarywfbc@gmail.com if you are interested

ESSEX AND LONDON METROPOLITAN COMPETITIONS

The up to date position on all Essex competitions can be found on the ECBA website and we also have a link to the calendar for London Competitions on the London Metropolitan Bridge Association website - see the "Useful Links" tab above for both.

 

AGM 2023

The 2023  AGM took place at the Club on Monday 20th November. Draft minutes will be available in the Members' Section shortly

ESSEX FACE TO FACE BRIDGE
ESSEX FACE TO FACE BRIDGE
There are various face to face Essex competitions coming up at Barleylands, near Billericay. Further information is on the Essex Contract Bridge Association website.
Please support face to face bridge!

♠   ♣ 

Recent Updates
Home
26th Mar 2024 00:16 GMT
Chigwell Riding Trust.pdf
12th Mar 2024 18:24 GMT
Chigwell_Riding_Trust_2024.pdf
12th Mar 2024 17:58 GMT
0 0 0 0 0 0
Pages viewed in 2024
If you have any Hands/Bridge related news you would like to share, email Paul Hickson at secretarywfbc@gmail.com
 
 
  What would you have done as East with this hand?

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.

Last updated : 8th May 2008 16:17 GMT
  Manoeuvres opposite a pre-empt.

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).

Last updated : 29th Sep 2008 16:36 GMT
  When to Alert Part 2

This hand came up recently  on a Monday. North was Colin playing with me and East was Tony, with Remi. It illustrates the problems around alerting that can still occur. If you look at the bidding you can see that Tony has doubled 2 clubs. Should this double be alerted? It may seem obvious that it is for penalties. Nevertheless it needs to be alerted. The rules now state that all doubles of natural suit bids are assumed to be Take Out unless alerted, even when, as in this hand, three suits have been bid.

If you look at my hand as South you can see that as Tony's double has not been alerted I am not obliged to bid 2 spades. I would clearly want to do this if I knew the double was for penaties, after all partner may well have 3 spades to an honour; there is even a chance we could compete to 3 spades. Remi's bid of 3D now makes it impossible for N/S to find any spade fit.

No great harm was done on this hand, 3 diamonds went -1 when South was able to ruff two clubs with his QJ of trumps. -1 was a goodish score for North/South. Annoyingly for East-West 3N is on! There was though a chance that failure to alert the penalty double might have damaged N/S and that is why it is important to remember the rules.

Alert all penalty doubles of natural suit bids at the 1, 2 and3 level.

Last updated : 28th Oct 2010 15:16 GMT

Some hands are so rich in tricks that they become strangely difficult to bid. This hand came up recently. In each case East-West cards were held by three good pairs and yet only one pair bid the grand.  When Paul and Ian held these cards (and Paul and Ian usually have no problems bidding their slams) bidding went as follows:


W      E
1H     2C
2H     3S
3N     4S
4N     6C
P

So what went wrong here? The rebid of 3S would normally be seen as a splinter agreeing hearts. If it is being used as a natural bid (where 2S anyway would be a responder's reverse and game forcing) then it is eating up a lot of space.  West bids 4N, keycard in spades over 4S,and gets a 6C response (3Keycards) and understandably passes.  Paul later said that he and Ian had agreed the following sequence:

Depending on whether W opens 1H or 1NT:

W     E
1H    2C
2H    2S
2N    3S
4C    4N
5H    7N

I'm assuming 3S must be forcing. 4N RKCB. Same thing if W decides to bid 4S over 3S - no worry over the K of the agreed suit confusing matters.

More simply:
1N   4C
4S   7N

Simple Gerber...

I agree very much with the sequence Ian and Paul saw as better than the one at the table. Of course if W opens 1N -and there are some modern diehards who would chose that option- then it is easy if you have Gerber available. True also, the grand is easy over either 1H or 1N if you play standard Blackwood or Roman Blackwood. The responder with 11 almost certain trcicks can just use his ace asking convention. However if you play the more versatile Roman Keycard version of Blackwood it is not so straight forward. When I showed the hand to David Sherman and Alan Coral- who play Roman Blackwood) the grand was reached in three bids.

Phil writes that he and Ken got to the grand as follows:

Our auction was; -

1H – 2C (only possible bid as 3C would have been a splinter, but jumping on two suiters without support for partner is unsound anyway) – 3NT (limited and basically a sign off but showing some reason why he didn’t open 1NT) – 4S (control showing, forcing and very strong) – 5D (first round control) – 7NT

My final bid was not guaranteed right but it was hard to find a hand justifying Ken’s bidding that didn’t include the heart A and if he didn’t have it then a) we almost certainly have 13 tricks if hearts aren’t led, b) the opening leader may not have it and c) if she doesn’t then a lead into declarer’s first bid suit is not immediately obvious.

The other thing that occurred to me was what would a double over my 7N call for?  We know that it would be based on the heart A and the doubler would hope it called for hearts, but it’s not clear to me that it doesn’t call for clubs.  There were two ironic things about the hand.  Firstly an immediate 4NT would have worked well as partner really does have the two aces plus the heart K, but if he had shown two out of three it would have left my hand very poorly placed.  Secondly you are much better off if partner doesn’t open the bidding!  Then you can open 4NT asking partner to cue bid aces (responses 5C none, 5D/5H/5S/6C just that ace, 5NT two).

The hand does illustrate that often a more simple bidding structure works better! Ken and Phil got to the grand but not quite as securely as David and Alan who had Roman Blackwood available over 1H.  Another feature of the hand is that without a direct ace asking (as opposed to Keycards) bid available- E-W should bid as slowly as the system allows. It is better to use a responder's reverse as a game force. Secondly the hand with known tricks should be the one to take control of the auction. On this hand it is better if East can bid 4N (RKCB). This is more likely to be possible  when the bidding goes slowly. If you have 11 top tricks you don't want partner to be asking via 4N and then deciding the final contract. He won't see 11 tricks opposite, only East knows about those.

 

 

Last updated : 7th Apr 2014 23:46 GMT
  Catch Up Bridge

In head to head teams it is very tempting to go for broke if you are well down with one stanza to go. This was the case with Tony Veran when his team played Anne Catchpole's team. This was in this year's Gold Cup.

Tony held the West hand. His partner's 2S was a strong two. When his partner rebid 3H, Tony went looking. If his partner was 5-5 in the majors, Tony comments, then 7H should be on. The  singleton spade Q he reckoned could prove useful, surely representing an additional option.

The Play

However as you can see the Grand seems to need the club finesse to work. 7H was -1 and there was no hapy ending for Tony's team. Paul Lamford, part of Anne's side, pointed out that 7S will succeed. The spades behave and there is a diamond ruff available to set up the suit. Paul is very good at spotting that sort of thing although I doubt if it made Tony's team feel any happier!

No doubt to Tony's chagrin he later noticed that 7H can make. The lead was a heart. Win this with the K, unblock the spade Q and cross to the diamond A. Throw two clubs on the top spades. Now you need to play the A clubs and ruff a club: with the HQ! Now you cross back to the East hand with a heart finesse of the 9. All double double I suppose but at least it proved Tony's feeling that the spade Q might be crucial.

The Bidding

As an outsider I find the bidding interesting. I am not sure about the two spade opening, although, as with Ian's  direct Blackwood bid (see "Sixes and Sevens"), many would see nothing wrongwith the bid. I would bid 2N (after the a multi 2D: showing 22-3N). The trouble however with effectively opening 2N with 5-4 in the majors is that it is easy to miss the 4-4 heart fit. This occurs when you play 5 card Staman opposite 2N. On that bases you might have more sympathy with the opening as here. It is easier  if you have a strong two suiter bid available, as Ken and Phil have. Showing a big hand with spades and then mentioning hearts would rule out 5-5. (as you haven't used your big two suiter convention.)

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:00 GMT

Some hands could so easily have appeared in a bridge magazine or book. Have a look at the North South hands and see what you think. The hand came from a recent Monday session Winnie and I sitting down against David Sherman and Alan Coral.

The Bidding

East, Alan, and I, South, passed. David came in now with 4Hearts and Winnie overcalled 4Spades. What would you have bid with my hand as South? I probably should have bid 4N, Keycard. You shouldn't really punish partner for protecting. But I bid 6S with, for me, unusual optimism.

The Play

Alan led a heart won by Dummy's Ace. OK, what now? You could arrange to lead Clubs twice from the  South hand, say, first running the 10,  and if that loses to the Jack finessing again with the Queen. Even on the bidding that must be close to 75%. But is there a better line? In fact 6S played by North is 100% on the H lead. Declarer ruffs a Heart at trick two, high if she wants, crosses to dummy with a trump and ruffs a third Heart high. Declarer has to be careful in this sequence. She needs the 5S as an entry so has to cross to dummy with an intermediate trump retaining the 4. Hearts are now eliminated so Declarer eliminates  Diamonds also and then crosses to the 5S and finesses in Clubs. East can win but is now end played. Either he returns a Club into declarer's club tenace or plays a D and give a ruff and discard.  Note North can even make this contract on a trump lead. But that is another story.

 

Submitted: John Stimson 1 July 2013.

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:02 GMT
  Sixes and Sevens (with additional feedback)

Sometimes a hand comes up with results so at variance, or so strange, you just have to investigate. For the moment take a look only at the North-South hands.  The bidding shown was by Ian, North, and Paul against Winnie and me. The 4N rebid, while not everyone's choice at least got quickly to the Club slam, Paul sensibly converting to Hearts, a much better pairs contract. Ok so no real surprizes here, and if you now look at all four hands you can see that 6H makes comfortably.

When we opened the traveller we saw that the previous score was 4H-2. The -2 was pretty interesting so I checked to see if the cards had been properly replaced. The hands were indeed correct. Declarer somehow allowed herself to suffer a club ruff and then believed she had "locked herself in dummy."

The combined effect of these two misfortunes then led to a catastrophic loss of confidence. Still with the hands to be played two more times I was hopeful of salvaging a matchpoint or two.  However when I came to score the session, staring up at me from the traveller were two identical scores: 7C-1! How on Earth had this happened? And how had it happened to both Anne-Colin and Phil-Ken, two of our more experienced pairs?

Anne/Colin started as with Ian/Paul: 1H,2C. Anne then rebid 3S, showing shortness in the suit and agreeing Clubs. What would you bid opposite 3S? In fact Colin now showed his Heart holding with 4H. Anne believed this to be showing a Heart control. I am not sure about this- it would be interesting to hear Anne's view. I would take the 4H bid as natural in a hand with little slam interest. However I am not convinced 4H is the correct bid. Anne must have a huge hand. Colin is just a little too strong for 4H and I would either bid 4C, or show my Diamond control and bid 4D. However given Anne's interpretation of the 4H bid it is not difficult to see how they arrived at the club grand.

So what of Ken and Phil? Well Ken opened 2C (a strong two-suiter, clubs and another (I think). Phil relayed with 2D and Ken completed the picture with 2H. Now came 2N asking for the better quality suit and Ken bid 3C. Phil characteristically, after Roman Keycard Blackwood, went straight to 7C. When I asked him about bidding 7C here he said that it was at worst on as finesse. I am not really sure about the merits of bidding a 50% Grand when a 100% Small slam is available, nor why it wasn't possible to ask for side suit Kings, or even why, if 7, why not in Hearts, the higher ranking suit?  I am sure Phil will explain all!

Feedback.

There was little change in folks' response here. This is not surprizing I suppose. After all this is bridge!

Anne was sure that the right approach after  suit agreement is that subsequent suit bids are cues. When playing with Tony Veran against David and Alan, Alan raised the questions around this hand. Both he and David said 4 Hearts would have to be natural. Interestingly Tony felt it ought to be a cue. For what it is worth my own view remains that although 4Hearts should be natural Colin is just a little to good for the bid. Colin and Anne play that a two level response can be as low as 9 HCPs. Colin is a King better than that and for that reason I would cue 4 Diamonds. If they reach 6Clubs then he can always convert to hearts. I do acept that, had Anne played 4H as natural on this hand she wqoud likely go on. That will not always be the case however.  Phil just shrugged his shoulders and said, well yes, it was a gamble. Still for 7H to be simply just on a finesse he has to be sure the heart Jack is opposite. It probably should be.Phil also pointed out that 7 clubs would work better than 7H if the trump suit turmed out to be 4-0.

And what of ou heroes in this story, Paul and Ian? Well Ian drew my attention to my remark that his  immediate 4NT was"'not everybody's choice.' This is an example of litotes says Ian! Litotes for those of you who don't know - and I didn't-  is Greek and describes the use of deliberate understatement. Well what can I say? I suppose if somebody is going to use Greek on me I had better apologise. But in fact in a large field I imagine quite a number of players would choosse 4N. I didn't really mean it was so strange that I had to reference that fact!

 Submitted by John Stimson Sept 2011

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:06 GMT
  How does North get into the South Hand?

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.

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:15 GMT

 

Phil came across this hand in a league match.  South is Declarer. Looking only at the N/S handsplan your play on the lead of the heart Ace and a diamond switch.

Phil's Solution

The analysis is as follows. Declarer needs 3-2 spades or he has 4 unavoidable losers, so assumes this.  If the clubs behave (2-2 or singleton Q) there is no problem.  So the plan must be to make when spades are 3-2 and someone has Qxx of clubs (as is, in any case, rather likely).  Declarer has 3 winners in dummy on which he could throw his club losers; if he had an entry.  So he needs to use the opposition as either stepping stones to reach those masters or to make a club lead up to his AKJ.  The clearly best line is to cash both the second master diamond and the club A before exiting on Ax of trumps (as 3-1 clubs is much more likely than 4-0, but even the club A being ruffed won’t hurt you unless it is with a short trump).  This is a dentist coup extracting the club exit from the defender presumed to be holding 3 spades and 1 club (or there’s no problem). 

Whoever takes the trick will be end played, unless the clubs were 2-2 all along (not worrying).  The worst that can happen is that West takes two spades and exists with a small club, when you have to guess the club position but then you will at least have given yourself the option of finessing.

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:16 GMT
  Decisions

The number of hands where things are straight forward in both bidding and play is relatively few. This hand is a good example of how different ideas on bidding can lead to widely different results. It was played recently on a Thursday.  West opened 1H. I am not sure if EW were playing 5 card majors where 1H would be most people's choice. However there are plenty who would prefer 1N as the opening with this kind of hand and that includes those playing 5 card majors. In either case I don't approve but if that is the opening chosen West will play there.

Against 1N North has three suits to lead from and will do well to lead a spade or a diamond. A heart would be less successful. Declarer may straight away play  clubs from hand while he still has diamond controls. In that case he may sneak home. A diamond lead works very well leading to at least 8 tricks for the defence. If North passes 1H then East is likely to bid 1N and probably play there.In fact North doubled West's 1H at the table. The double was probably bid on the basis that with 13 points one ought not to give the opposition an easy ride. East redoubled and South bid 1S. Usually North's double promises 4S. This went back to East who now tried 1N.  

Would you bid again with the South hand? It does look as if N may have doubled on limited points. However the theory that you should bid to the level of the fit is a sound one. With points more or less even around the table and with 8 spades between the N/S hands (South is assuming partner has 4 spades) 2S looks reasonable.  East now has to decide whether any further action is necessary. It is close but it is quite possible the spade Q is not pulling its weight. A pass may be technically correct. On the other hand playing regular club bridge does mean that one has to be prepared to double, otherwise opponents will have an easy ride. For this reason I don't think the double is entirely wrong.  As the cards lay I don't see how 2S doubled can go down and was duly made for a slightly lucky top. Elsewhere 1N went down -2 or -3.

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:21 GMT
  Bidding Difficult Hands

Some hands are just very difficult to bid whatever the system.What would you open with the West hand? In a four table movement  three different opening bids were tried. Say you play Benji or basic Acol. Would you open this 2C/D where this is a game force or, alternatively, as a strong two showing 8 playing tricks?

One aspect of this question is whether under the new rules you are allowed to open this hand 2C (as used in Acol based systems). People often get confused about how the rules currently apply. Basically there are three types of hand the EBU states are applicable for a strong 2C (or its equivalent). These are:

1. And hand with opening values where 8 tricks are virtually certain in a given suit.

2. Any hand meeting the rule of 25.

3. Any strong hand with 16 points or more.

These are alternatives. Any one of this criteria is enough. It is the last of these that can cause confusion. My own view is that the 1 and 2 alone are all that is needed. It is hard to think of a genuine game going hand with 16 points that doesn't meet either 1 or 2 above. However the need for 16 points seems to be the criterium most remembered.  On the evening concerned the bids went as follows:

At our table West opened 6D.  As south I doubled this. It would not necessarily go down but with opponents having a maximum of 25 HCP I couldn't see that 6D would always be bid. If it made doubled or undoubled it might still be a bottom. As soon as dummy went down John Francis, the dealer, apologised  to his partner for his bid. I'm not so sure that 6D is such a bad bid. In a larger field he would not be alone. If opponents do have points and a major it will make things difficult for them. Colin led a club (won by the Ace) and the heart finesse was taken. However the contract cannot be made. A heart still has to be lost in addition to the diamond.

Alan (Custerson) playing Benji opened 2C. 'This is not a game force hand,' he said afterwards. Fair enough. Ann responded 2D, a relay. With her length in clubs and 8 goodish points bidding went all the way to 6D. Peter Tremlett as south made the lead I would have made, the spade ace. Disaster! Ann was able to ruff this, cross to dummy by overtaking the club king, throw a heart on the spade king and finesse in hearts. With trumps coming down in two the contract made.

Do you agree with Peter's lead here of the spade Ace? This is an interesting aspect of the hand in it's own right. Assuming West opens 2C Benji or an Acol type two bid and then drives to the slam it seems reasonable to assume he is void in at least one of the Majors. The lead of either minor doesn't look right. It's really a question of which Major is least likely to give a trick. Anne Catchpole agreed with the Ace of Spades as did Colin Elliott. On the othe hand both Phil Mattacks and Ken Barnett suggested a low heart. This was the winning lead against East's diamond contract on this hand but I am still not convinced there is any particular logic to the lead that makes it superior. Stefanie Rohan reckoned the spade ace was right. It's difficult to disagree with an England International.

Ann Sansom opened an Acol style 2D. There was an understandable tug of war with Gwen bidding her 8 clubs strongly. But Ann had her hand in front of her and bid diamonds to the 5 level when Gwen wisely passed. David Ellam's double was not altogether wrong.  The bidding had suggested a massive misfit and such hands are notoriously difficult to play. Sadly for the defence 5 diamonds just cannot be beaten.

At the other table West opened 5 diamonds and played there. This quitely made on the nose.  I thought it might be interesting to see what other club members might open here.  I would open this 2C the strong bid in my system. Phil, Anne, Peter (Richardson) and Martin all agreed. As Anne said, it is just a little to strong to open it as anything less than whatever strong bid you have available.

Ken Barnett said he would open it 1D as it didn't qualify for a 2C opening. This worried me at first because as is well known Ken never makes a mistake. However I then remembered that this perfection really only applied to  declarer play and defence. Later Ken agreed with 2C.  However we have already seen that many folk would prefer to treat this as 8 playing tricks.

Colin Elliott said that with a Precision system you might open this 1C but whether this gets a positive response or a negative 1D you would still have problems. What would you now rebid?  Altogether a difficult hand to deal with.

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:22 GMT
  Brighton August 2009 : A many layered hand

 

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

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:24 GMT
  A Clash of Styles?

 

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

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:25 GMT

Bidding is not always an exact science to say the least but with this hand the final contract was nearly always the wrong one.  Embarassingly, this hand was played both on the Monday and on the Thursday. The hand was somehow not shuffled on the Thursday. Still we do at least have 6 results to compare.  With no interfernce you would think it relatively easy to reach the best contract, six clubs.

The Bidding

There are other ways to bid this hand. If the minimum pointcount for a 2 level response is near game values then North could rebid 3H to show Heart shortage  while agreeing clubs. On the other hand if South needs no more than 9 points the bidding might go as suggested.  However when the hand was played only one pair, Ann Convery and Alan Custerson bid to 6C. All other contracts were either 3,  6 or 7NT. 7NT? you may ask.

Well, the bidding started 1D, 2C; 3C when South went straight to 4N. This got 5S (two key cards and the Q of trumps). South's next bid was 7NT. Where this comes from I don't know. I'd like to say pard and I would never bid that way. Unfotunately it was us who got to  this quite absurd contract. Partner did though manage an average cashing her winners in the blacksuits and watching favourable discards fall from oponents. All she lost was one diamond.

The Play of the Hand

I have changed the layout of the East-West hands slightly to make the play more interesting. So: you are in 6C on a spade lead. How will you play the hand?

The Play of the Hand: Solution

There is no absolute way to ensure this contract will be made. The best chance is to win the opening lead (with the  spade Ace- giving away as little information as possible) and immediately lay down the diamond Ace. Essentially you are playing for either haand to have Honour-small in the diamond suit. There is also the slight chance of finding East with a singleton Diamond K or Queen.

David (Elham) identified the diamonds as being the criticaal suit and suggested after drawing trumps, playing first the 9 of the suit (covered by the 10) . Declarer ducks this and returns to dummy later toto run the diamond Jack. Hopfeully East would cover this trick as well. However East is going to be very suspicious if he holds the cards he has here and will ask himself why declarer is playing this way. If South had the AK of diamonds surely he would play them off and when the Queen failed to drop just give up a trick in the suit . He would lose only one trick and 6 clubs would make.. So East should hold off. Now declarer is down.

Another David (we have so many so I had better mention the player by his second name, Sherman!) suggested straight away playing the diamond Ace. However it is important to do this at trick two. Declarer must then eliminate the trumps and both major suits. He can ruff two hearts high in dummy as he does this returning to top trumps in hand. Now he can play anothe diamond. The defender with a top diamond will win this, in this case West, and give South a ruff-sluff. His last diamond can be discarded on the ruffed card.

What if West unblocks his King of Diamonds under the Ace? If this happens the contract fails. There are some reasons why West might do this but on balance the chances are he will not do so.  I suppose the other question is that, if double-dummy the contract fails should North-South be in it? David (Errington) respoinded to North's 1D opening with 3N. This got him and Gill a top (3N+2). However 3N here rules out any possible slam and it is much better for South to bid slowly. Once North supports clubs it is always going to be difficult to stay out of the slam so the real question comes back to how you play the contract you should be in 6 Clubs.

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:27 GMT
  Taking The Maximum Penalty

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.

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:28 GMT
  Strong Responses to One Of a Major

This hand illustrates a common situation. Partner opens a suit which you can support but you am too good just to bid game. A slam could easily be on. Adam held the West cards; I held the East hand. I opened 1H. It's true that playing ordinary methods  East could respond 2C and then show his good hearts. However is there anything he could do directly over 1H that would let partner know there might be more on offer than just game?  Not surprisingly there are a number of conventions that have been developed.

1. The splinter

A splinter bid shows both support and a singleton.  Responding to 1H  a response of 3S,4C,4D all show Heart support and a singleton in that suit. A singleton Ace (or as here a void) are not really alternatives that could be described as singletons). Players do, though, often play singletons as showing a range of HCPs. I prefer this range to be 8-11 points.

2. 2NT response

Over partner's I level response 2N shows a good raise in that Major. Some play this as a game force, others as a raise to three or better of partner's suit. I prefer the second approach as you lose very little. (What you gain however is the ability to bid 3H opposite partner's opening 1 Heart as purely preemptive). If the opener is really weak he can simply rebid 3H opposite the 2N response. If he feels game is on he can show side suit features. (If the 2N is a game force then some play a series of conventional follow up bids depending on opener's rebid.However I would recommend getting the basic idea into operation before thinking of using these).

3. Jump fits

With these two hands neither a 2N response nor a splinter iss ideal. However a jump to 3C could be made if playing Jump Fits. The bid says I have good clubs and good support for your hearts. With these hands opener could rebid 4C. This does not agree Clubs as trumps (Hearts have already been agreed) but it does show a top club honour. East could now bid 4D (a first or second round cue) and it should now be easy to reach 6H.

4. Bergen raises

Bergen raises are very popular at the moment Opposite one of  a Major. 3C and 3D responses show 4 card support and 9-11 and 10-12 points respectively. 2S shows 3 card support and 9-11 points. (These ranges are of course subject to agreement). Personally I loathe this system. Ken Barnett tells me that this is the modern approach. Any system in any walk of life that has the word 'modern' in it, really should be suspect. Not Bergen Raises apparently. Ken has magnanimously agreed to not play them with me, explaining gently that I am stuck in 80s as far as bidding theory goes!  With Adam and I bidding went:

1H    2C

2N*  3S

6N.   6N looked like a practical shot to me- we had never played before- but it looked as if partner had some sort of responder's reverse. Very unfairly I thought Jill and Janet took two top Diamonds straight away.

* Chatting to Dave Ellam  at the next session he queried why I had rebid  only 2N and not three. A bid of 2N here is a game force whether it shows 15/16 or more. After all the response of 2C shows 9+ so points for game are already there and there is no need to rush. Indeed had opener rebid 3N this bid would show precisely 15/16 in an otherwise uninspiring hand.  

Finally it is possible to get to the slam here not using any of the above. Anne Catchpole and Colin Elliott bid the hand. 1H 3C; 4C 4S; 4N 6H!  Both 4C and 6H show excellent bidding awareness.  With no agreement on how to show two aces and a void, Anne took a practical shot at the slam.Well done to both of them.  However a systemic approach would make this an easier slam to bid. Of course how Colin played 6H on the A Diamond lead is another question (all four hands are there if you want to look) but Colin made his contract safely for a top.

Submitted  John Stimson Nov 2010

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:30 GMT
  How Would You Play This Hand?

Phil Mattacks successfully played this hand recently. You might question Phil's rebid of 4H, even, as here, at teams, but the question is, what line should you take to make your contract?

Contract: 4 Hearts. Lead: Small Spade

In a sense I got this correct straight away. Whenever you see a problem like this you think 'singleton K offside!' So no real prizes for getting that bit correct. But you can't play the heart stright away. At the table Phil finessed in Spades and threw a club on the Ace. His thoughts then followed along the lines 'why didn't West lead a club? This was presumably because he wasn't looking for a ruff. This doesn't of course explain why West has  led away from the K of spades but it was what happened at the table and Phil decided to use that information. You can see where this is going. First Phil led a Diamond from table. If East has both missing diamond honours then he will either split his honours or you will simply put in the  J.  The KQ diamonds were with East and he put in the Q taken by Phil's ace. Now came the Ace of hearts dropping West's King. Phil has to concede a Heart, a Club and a Diamond but he made his hair's breath contract.

The hand reminds me of the sort of thing Terence Reese used to write about. and the need to place key cards in opponents two hands. When I asked Liz Clery how she would play the hand she got all the essential details spot on. In fact having got to this precarious contract entry considerations might mean a fair percentage of players would find the right line. But well done to |Liz and Phil.

Have a look at all four hands. Go back to the lead from West. What defence will get this contract down do you think?  Let me have your answer and I'll complete the analysis  at some point.

Best Defence. The Solution

A number of folk gave their view on the best defence. Some of those asked didn't manage a reply of any sort! The only correct answer was from Liz Clery. West leads a club a trick one and East takes two top tricks in the suit. He then switches to a spade!

Declarer is in dummy and as Liz says 'Declarer can throw one diamond loser on the second spade, but none on the clubs without a ruff with the singleton king of hearts – then after that declarer can’t get back to dummy to discard anything else, so loses two clubs and two hearts'.   This is not a defence I would have ever found at the table. Indeed I suspect very few would.

Addendum

When I showed this hand to Paul Lamford at Woodberry he found the correct defence  relatively quickly. However I missed a possible line in the analysis above. West leads a club and East plays as directed, taking two clubs and switching to a spade. Say declarer simply takes 1 spade. He plays a heart to the Ace dropping the singleton king and now advances the Jack of diamonds. If East wins this it looks as if he is end played. The return of either blacksuit allows entry to dummy and a discard of the losing diamond. In fact East has a simple way round this: he simply plays his trump jack, smothering the 10 in dummy. Again Decarer is locked in hand. The difference now is that he has to give up a second Diamond. The defence stil have their four tricks.

 

Submitted Phil Mattacks. Written Up, John Stimson Feb 2011

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:31 GMT
  Michaels followed by a double

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.

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:32 GMT
  Holding up the Hold up

This hand came up recently on the Monday. East West were Winnie and Colin, North South Dave Ellam and Adam.

Adam and Dave bid this excellent game. You might quibble about North's 3 clubs but modern theory suggests you need 11ish points for the 2Heart bid. In that light North can already count 24 points.

Colin Led the Spade 8. What plan should Adam put in place? He knows that Colin can at most have two spades. He also knows that if Winnie has both red Aces he is going down. He only has 4 tricks in either red suit before East gets her spades going. So Adam must assume that Colin has at least one Ace. If he ducks the first spade (known as a hold up) he should make his contract. In fact Adam took the first spade and led the diamond King. Colin ducked this. It is not clear to me that this is correct. Adam took in the situation and very sensibly switched to a Heart. Winnie ducked the Heart King. She can hardly take this since the Ace of the suit is her only entry. Now Adam correctly went back to Diamonds. In fact he is now going to make his contract. He'll make two tricks in both black suits and four diamonds to go with the heart. Colin won the Diamond continuation and led his last spade.

And Adam ducked! Perhaps declarer felt he would win the next spade and claim his contract.  Perhaps Winnie would even switch to a heart. This was not to be. Winnie hasn't done as well as she has over the years by letting opponents off the hook whenever they slip up, even, as here, when the error is so slight. She cashed her Ace of Hearts and led her top club.

Suddenly Adam is cut off from his 9th trick the King of Spades.

I guess the lesson here is not to hold up your hold up!

Since writing the above Phil pointed out that if declarer ducks the first spade a club switch will defeat the contract. It is obvious that the club switch works but unfortunately the hand took place on Planet Earth where such speculative switches are not common.

Phil also pointed out that with hands like this, afer the duck and sunsbsequent top spade win, it is important to first go for the suit that allows you to return to hand. This would allow you cash the second top spade. Here a heart to the King or a Diamond King (unblocking in dummy) both work. Technically though it is  a good point. In the actual hand after Adam 's heart King wins he could continue the suit and that would also work.

 

Last updated : 8th Apr 2014 00:33 GMT
  A Teams Disaster

Some hands seem to explode in one's face. Maybe you're in a game doubled going down on the correct lead while the opposition make the same doubled contract with an overtrick at the other table. At teams we have all suffered a double game swing. So we can sympathise with Tony and Stuart on this rather dramatic double slam swing. And of course both contracts only make on a favourable the opening lead.

Have a look at the bidding and decide what you think is the lead against South's 7 Clubs. It's aggragate scoring so the lead is important. One feature of the bidding is that South bid 7 clubs without a pause.

 

I asked a number people ,both club members and others, what they might lead. The responses were interesting. For example Paul and Ian play that a Lightner Double specifically asks for the lead of dummy's first bid suit. I know this approach is used by a number of people but suspect that for most Lightner points to a void somewhere and asks partner to try and work out which suit it is. In the absence of a double Paul went for a spade lead. Ian reasoned that opponents would not have bid 7 Clubs on the expected spade lead so went for the heart king. Liz Clery and Ken Barnett also went for the heart king. In Liz's case the lead was chosen because North's non double of 6 spades suggested first round control of the suit. Benjy  had no problem in making what he saw as the obvious spade lead. For what it is worth I would also have led the heart king.

Ok so if we look at the full hand..... disaster!  A spade or a diamond both work. (A triumph for Ian and Paul's Lightner agreement then). On the heart king (the lead made at the table) South's losing spades going away on the diamonds.

But there is worse. At the other table opponents were in 6S doubled. So again what would you lead? I showed this to a number of people and all but two came up with a top club . I think that is wrong as it could well be ruffed at trick one. The question I would be asking is where are the hearts? Almost certainly they will be with the opposition. My choice was a diamond. This is very unlikely give away a trick and if partner has 5 diamonds and they split 2-2 then even if he doesn't have the ace there will be a diamond tick when the Ace of hearts wins. As you can see that fails here. The one lead to defeat it is the heart  ace. Colin Elliott found this lead. Depending on dummy it might prove helpful if partner wanted to show suit preference. Dummy's long hearts though would indicate the fall of the jack opposite a singleton suggests the heart ruff at trick two . So well done Colin in finding the unlikely but winning lead. Ae the table the lead was A clubs so 6S doubled came in.

Aggragate scoring aand opponents bid and make a slam on the same hand at both tables! It hardly bears thinking about.

.

 

 

 

Last updated : 18th Sep 2016 19:00 GMT
  Exclusion Blackwood

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.

Last updated : 10th Jul 2019 11:34 GMT