I hate to harp on about counting the hand (well actually I don't, because it's the single most important thing in Bridge, literally) but here is a really good example where Opps completely (1) failed to grasp the importance of good signalling, (2) failed to grasp what was going on on this hand, and (3) was guilty of now counting his tricks.


You are East (NS Vulnerable) and Opps (Brian Meadows and me) are playing the Complex version of OCP and have bid to 3 on the following sequence:


South     West      North      East
1         No           1 ⁽¹⁾     2
2 ⁽²⁾    3          3          All Pass

(1) 8-10 HCP any shape
(2) 5+ Diamonds

Partner leads the 7 and you can see


                      Dummy
                      542
                      AJ764
                      K87
                      J10
You
  AK10
  KQ10
  94
  AQ842

You take the Ace of Clubs and return the Queen, which is won by Declarer's King (Partner plays the 9). Declarer now draws 3 rounds of trumps ending in hand. For some reason you discard the 10 on the 3rd round (maybe requesting a Spade, but perhaps upside down suit preference for a Club). Declarer ducks a Heart to your 10 (Partner plays the 8 ), you play the 8 and Declarer ruffs and ducks another Heart to your King (Partner plays the 9). How do you play?

It might seem attractive to force out Declarer's last trump with another Club, on the basis that Partner's 8 and then 9 of Hearts suggests they have 3 Hearts (which means Declarer hasn't got any more), but (1) this flies completely against any logic (why would Declarer abandon the A in Dummy) and (2) You completely missing the point about this hand if you do that. Consider:

Declarer definitely started with 5 Diamonds and 2 Clubs and has already played 2 Hearts. They can only have a maximum of 3 Hearts, which means they must have 3 Spades (4 if they only have 2 Hearts). You have already won 3 tricks, so the AK must be cashing to take them 1 off. The big danger if you plod on with Clubs is that if Declarer has 3 Hearts, he can now ruff and run 3 Heart tricks to make his contract.

East fumbled the ball here by continuing with Clubs, allowing Brian to bring home his "impossible" 3 contract.  in fact, if East had discarded a small Club on the 3rd Diamond, EW can actually cash three Spade tricks to take this contract -2. On the first Heart, it's important for Partner to play the 9 rather than the 9. You can immediately tell that  Partner has an even number of Hearts (a doubleton for certain) and you can immediately abandon the idea of forcing Declarer in Clubs in favour of cashing your Spade tricks before they disappear.

Very nice, Jimmy, but at heart I'm a fairly uncomplicated guy. Looking for complicated solutions, when there is a simple  solution that is 100% guaranteed to obtain the number of tricks you need, is not my style.

OCP is a fairly aggressive system, and aims to get us to thin games based on fit. Today Eszter and I landed in a game that was positively anorexic! LOL This turned out to be a very interesting hand from a play perspective:

North
  A874
  A1032
  7
  K1086

South
  J1052
  K865
  QJ104
  A

Love All, Dealer North (No opposition bidding)

1   -  1
2   -  2NT⁽¹⁾
4 - All Pass

⁽¹⁾ Long-suit trial bid in Spades

West led the 4 of Clubs. I played low from Dummy and took East's Queen with my Ace. Prospects did not look too good. I've at least 1 inescapable loser in Spades, Hearts and Diamonds (and that's if the suits split), but I will be lucky to escape a second loser in Spades because I am missing the 9 as well as the KQ, so if West has H9x I'm probably doomed. Clubs are probably not a problem, because if West leads another I'll try the 10, butgetting West to lead one might be tricky.

In an attempt to persuade Opps to do me a favour, I led the Diamond Queen at trick 2 (hoping to persuade them I was desperate to ruff Diamonds), which was taken by East's King. The favour I was looking for duly appeared when East returned the Jack of Hearts. I won with my King and then finessed the 10 in Dummy, on which East played the 4. So far so good (I've escaped a Heart loser).

Now I ruffed the 8 of Clubs in my hand (East following with the 5 and West with the 2) and tried the ruffing finesse in Diamonds, throwing Dummy's 10 . No luck, West played the 3 and East won with the Ace and then returned the 2. How do you play?

At some tables East had overcalled Diamonds. Had that happened I would undoubtedly have played the 4, but without that information I went up with the 10 and West ruffed with the Queen (and I won the trick with Dummy's Ace).

The situation is now

  A874
  3
  -
  K

  J1052
  8
  4
  -

Not a single Spade has been played. East is known to have started with Jx, AKxxxx, and Qx. West originally led the 4 and has subsequently played the 2 and is known to have started with Qxx, and xx. How do you continue?

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I decided that I was going to play West for both Spade honours, on the basis that East has already showed up with 10 HCP and if they had started with either or both of the Spade honours, would probably have overcalled at some stage with a nice 6-card Diamond suit. It's unlikely I can win this if West has KQ9, but if East had 9x, I can pin the 9. First I cashed the King of Clubs, discarding the Diamond from my hand (not a Spade, because I want to endplay Opps). I think this is a better move than discarding a Spade, because my plan was always to lead a small Spade from Dummy towards the J10xx in my hand.

This caters for KQx with West, but if, by some chance, East had Hx, especially Kx, it's very unlikely they would play low. In fact, when I played a small Spade from Dummy, East played the 9,
and my 10 was taken my West's Queen, which was perfect. West now had to lead another Spade or give me a ruff 'n' sluff in Clubs. He chose the latter, and I ruffed in hand, discarding a Spade in Dummy, and West then covered my Jack of Spades with the King and Dummy was "high".

Making 4 was moderately successful. Most of the field were in part-scores. Only 2 other pairs were in 4 and one of those went off.


The thing about this hand is that sometimes you have to wait and try to find out more about the opposing hands before committing yourself irrevocably to one particular line of play or another. Here Spades was always the critical suit. I could have led the Jack of Spades earlier, but I would have been doomed to fail if West had started with Q9x. Similarly I hadn't the information to place the majority of the Spades with West or the point that West was more likely to have the King and Queen, because East hadn't overcalled his strong 6-card Diamonds, until West ruffed the 3rd round of Diamonds. Everything up till that point was trying to find ways to save a trick (as in Heart) in case the Spade position was unfavourable and I had to lose 2 tricks there.

Ahhh. You're changing your tune a little now. You originally said you'd play the hand similar to Samet (who started the Clubs with a small Club from Dummy, rather than the QUEEN) That is slightly different. I concede you will still make your 9 tricks, but there is absolutely a zero chance of the Diamonds being 4-4 here, given the 2 overcall

That's not too bad, Jimmy, as long as you are in hand when the defence duck the second Club. If you're in Dummy (as Samet was) you have no ability to cash any Diamonds, because you're no entries left back to hand. Moreover, you need to cash only two Diamonds, not 3, because you don't know at that stage who has the Ace of Clubs. Cashing a 4th Diamond brings you down to a singleton Spade in Dummy and now when you concede a Club, the defence might be in a position to cash 2 Diamonds and 2 Spades.


Seriously, given the 2 overcall by East missing all 4 top honours in the suit,  is it conceivable that they have less than a 5 or 6-card suit? Would you really overcall vulnerable on 10xxx when RHO has made a 2/1 response?


As I said before, your duty as Declarer at any form of IMP scoring is to play 100% safe for the contract you're in rather than trying for overtricks. Suppose West started with AKQx, -, 10xxxxx, Axx. On your line, you're cashing all your Diamonds (again what are you going to discard from Dummy on the last Diamond?), before exiting with the Club. If you chuck a Spade, I'll take my Ace of Clubs, two long Diamonds and 2 Spade tricks. If you chuck a top Heart, you're giving up any chance for your overtrick right away. It's a million miles safer to establish your Spade trick first, then cross back to hand to the Jack of Clubs. If nobody takes the Ace, cash only 2 Diamonds, throwing losing Hearts from Dummy, and now play a second Club. On this line you are absolutely 100% for 9 tricks whether Opps take the second Club or not, because you've already established your 9th trick in the Spade suit.


No Trump technique 101 is to establish tricks before cashing easy winners elsewhere. Here the reason for cashing 2 Diamonds (and only two Diamonds), is solely to remove Dummy's losing Hearts so that the line of defence East chose is not open to them. Cashing a 4th Diamond trick (and the 3rd will show the Diamonds are 6-2 even if you hadn't anticipated that probability from the bidding) gains you nothing, gives up your control of the Diamond suit, and gives you an awkward discard from Dummy. No point.

Absolutely right, John. Playing for an overtrick when the basic contract is in doubt is a fool's game at IMP scoring. The rule for IMPs is utterly to play safe for your contract before you start trying anything cute. The only time that might not apply is when barometer scores are level going into the last board of a TM, when you're effectively down to Board-a-Match scoring. Now you might take risks for an overtrick, but never at cross-imped Pairs.


Here, whether or not you establish the Spade trick first or not, it's lunacy NOT to take 2 top Diamonds to get rid of Dummy's losing Hearts before playing a second Club.

This was a good example hand that came up today while I was playing with OktayA: You are South, Game All, Dealer West. West opens 2 which is passed round to you. You try your luck with 3 and this is passed out

North
  K3
  J84
  K10854
  Q84

South
  QJ2
  A9753
  AJ73
  7

West leads the 2. You play low from Dummy and capture East's 9 with your Jack. Plan the play...

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You can see that you've landed on your feet here, in that 2!S is probably going to make fairly comfortably. You just have to make your contract. Losers: 1 Spade, 1 Club, and probably 2 Hearts. No problems there. Tricks: 5 Diamonds, 2 Spades, and hopefully 3 Hearts. Dangers: Clearly there is a Diamond ruff in the offing which is not quite such a problem if it's the hand with 3 or more trumps that's ruffing, because they'll probably be ruffing with a natural trump trick, but it'll definitely cost you the contract if it's the hand with shorter trumps that is ruffing. Options: If Spades are 6-2 you might be able to get across to Dummy safely to lead the K , possibly pinning the singleton 10 in West's hand, but that is a fairly fanciful distribution to play for.

Why look for exotic solutions when by far the most sensible thing is just to play for a 3-2 trump break? Bang down the Ace of Hearts and lead a second Heart towards the Jack. This assures you of 9 tricks whenever the trumps are 3-2. Moreover, the opening lead looks and feels like a singleton, which makes a singleton Heart with West more unlikely.

The full hand:

                       North
                        K3
                        J84
                        K10854
                        Q84
West                                     East
  A1098765                        4
  Q6                                  K102
  2                                      Q96
  K32                                  AJ10965
                       South
                        QJ2
                        A9753
                        AJ73
                        7

At our table (Oktay was West and I was East), the luckless Declarer didn't follow the common-sense approach. At trick 2 he led the Queen of Spades. Oktay hopped up with the Ace and returned a Spade, which I ruffed. I now led the 6 (a Club through the Q84 would have been nice since by now it was probable that Oktay was 7213 shape). Oktay ruffed and returned a 3rd Spade ruffed in Dummy with the Jack and overruffed by my King. The Ace of Clubs and a 3rd Diamond ruffed by Oktay's Q gave us 6 tricks for +200 and a nice 2½ IMP gain.

When you can see Opps are likely to start ruffing, then unless an alternative strategy is obvious, it often pays to forget about subtle plays such as finesses and just go for the quickest method of divesting Opps of their trumps. The probability of a 3-2 split in Hearts is nearly 70%. Why look further? If the trumps are 4-1 the likelyhood is that you're going to be down however you play the hand. Here you can afford to lose two trump tricks so best to just go ahead and lose them as quickly as possible

Played an interesting Teams Match with Samet (doru77) earlier today. After 2 Boards we were 26 (yes, twenty-six) IMPs to the good, helped along by the following hand -(hands rotated for ease of viewing)

Hand 1
Samet played this one very well, but we were booked for a great Board here whatever happened, as it turned out.

North
  8653
  82
  KJ
  Q9864

South
  AKQJ92
  1065
  96
  K5

Bidding
East        South        West       North
No             1           2         2
No             3           X            All Pass

West led the King of Hearts, overtaken by East's Ace and a small Heart back to West's Queen. The Jack of Hearts now followed. Samet did well, ruffing with Dummy's 8. A Club to his King and West's Ace followed and all West could think of was to take their Ace of Diamonds. Ruffing high in Dummy seems like an obvious thing to do, but it's surprising how often Declarer's forget to do it and then wring their hands when East overruffs with the 7. If East holds the 10, there's nothing to be done, but why not give yourself that extra chance?

In practice, our team members were bidding and making 5 on this Board at the other table, so even -100 would have been a good result here, but +530 was the icing on the cake and the lions share of the 14 IMPs we clocked up on the Board.

Hand 2
You are South at Green vs Red, Dealer North.

North
  KQ62
  9862
  A
  KJ96

South
  8743
  -
  Q7432
  AQ52


Bidding
North       East      South      West
1 (1)      No         1          2
2            4        4          X
All Pass

I should perhaps explain that West doubled 4 in a nanosecond. If BBO would permit him to double "in a voice of thunder" I dare say he would have . The lead was the Queen of Hearts, overtaken by East's Ace and ruffed in hand. How do you plan the play?

The other table was in an identical contract via a similar sequence, and the opening lead was a Heart there too. Maybe Declarer there didn't pick up the vibes I did. At trick 2 he played a Spade to the Queen. Now the Ace of Diamonds, a Heart ruffed in hand, Diamond ruffed in Dummy, another Heart ruff, then the Ace of Clubs and a Club to the King. 8 tricks so far, but I suspect Declarer hadn't fully forseen the end position.

North
  K6
  9
  -
  J9

South
  -
  -
  Q74
  Q5

Declarer now led a Club, but West, with AJ10 of Spades and J10 of Hearts was able to ruff, Cash the Ace of Spades and lead a Heart, forcing out Declarer's last trump and so he had to concede the last two tricks for one down.

At the other table, I played for West to have AJ109 right from the start and didn't draw any rounds of trumps. My expectation was that West would have 4522 shape. That would give East a singleton Spade, 4-card Heart support and 5 Diamonds, which I thought was consistent with the bidding. My plan was always to ruff all of Dummy's Hearts, take 2 top Clubs and the Ace of Diamonds as entries to Dummy, ruff 1 Diamond in Dummy and then exit in Clubs.

After ruffing the opening Heart, I crossed with a small Club to the Jack, ruffed a Heart, a Club to the King (West didn't ruff (phew!)), Heart ruff, Diamond to the Ace, Heart ruff, and lastly a Diamond ruff. At this stage I've also made 8 tricks, but see the difference:

North
  KQ6
  -
  -
  J9


South
  -
  -
  Q74
  AQ

Now West is in a hopeless position when I lead a Club. West, with AJ105 and the last Heart, is forced to ruff. If he cashes the A , my KQ are top, and if he leads the last Heart I ruff high and exit again with my last Club. North is now endplayed again by his own trumps to win and lead away from the Ace. In practice West tried the lead of the 10 , but I won with the Queen, and was still able to endplay West with my last Club, which he was forced to ruff.

The critical thing here was (1) to determine not to draw even a single round of trumps, (2) to ruff 4 Hearts in hand and (3) to take 2 top Clubs and the Ace of Diamonds while I was ruffing the Hearts. and only to go for a Diamond ruff in Dummy once all of that had been accomplished. Once West followed to the first two Clubs and East to all 4 Heart tricks, I knew I was home.