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Topics - OliverC

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46
Interesting Play Hands / What to lead?
« on: November 15, 2017, 03:10:19 PM »
This was an interesting hand I played with a South African * player in a match yesterday, the result of which hinged totally on my choice of opening lead:

EW Game, Dealer North

You are South:

South
 !S K1098763
 !H 6
 !D A6
!K KJ7

Bidding
North     East     South     West
1 !D        1 !H      1 !S (1)    3 !S
4 !C        No        4 !S (2)     5 !H
No          No        ??

(1) 5+ Spades
(2) Obviously 6-card or longer Spades

What now? It's fairly obvious that West and North are both fairly short in Spades (West because of their 3 !S jump, which sounds like a void, and North because of their failure to support Spades), so I wasn't about to insist on my Spades. Similarly, given the vulnerability it was fairly obvious that EW were playing poker rather than Bridge, because clearly North has a Minor 2-suiter and we certainly appear to have the balance of the points. I didn't think we could possibly make 6 in either Minor either, so I was left with simply doubling 5 !H and everyone passed.

What to lead? I decided that a Spade lead was not likely to be a success, especially if West was void in Spades (although both North and West having a singleton seemed more likely otherwise that would probably give East 5-card Spades). A trump wasn't indicated either since clearly EW had a big Heart fit and so I was unlikely to cut down much in the way of ruffs (I'm provisionally putting Partner with something like 1255 shape).

It seemed to come down to leading one of the Minors, therefore. In the end I chose the wrong one (Diamonds), but I'm pretty much on a complete guess anyway. This was the hand:

                   North
                   !S A
                   !H K
                   !D QJ8743
                   !C Q6542
West                                 East
 !S Q                                   !S J542
 !H J108753                         !H AQ942
 !D 109                                !D K52
 !C A1083                            !C 9
                   South
                   !S K1098763
                   !H 6
                   !D A6
                   !C KJ7

As you can see, any lead other than a Diamond takes 5 !H off and a Spade lead will get it -2 ( !D switch at trick 2). After the lead of the Ace of Diamonds, however, Declarer can just cross-ruff his way to glory, losing only a Spade. Even against perfect defence, 5 !SX is only -2, which would have been cheaper than 5!HX making LOL.

47
Interesting Play Hands / Reading Signals
« on: November 13, 2017, 08:04:48 PM »
Defensive signalling and reading them correctly, is often one of the toughest areas of the game, but even when the signals of themselves are not crystal clear, it's worth considering  the bidding in case that gives us a clue. The following hand was instructive from that viewpoint:

Game All, Dealer West

Bidding
West     North     East     South
1 !D       No          1 !H      No
1NT       All Pass

You are North, sat with:

North
 !S K985
 !H Q
 !D AK9832
 !C 86

Eszter, in the North seat, led the !D Ace at trick 1, and Dummy went down with

East (Dummy)
 !S J103
 !H A1085
 !D 105
 !C A1092

                 North
                 !S K985
                 !H Q
                 !D AK9832
                 !C 86

Partner shows out on the first Diamond and plays the !H 6. How do you continue? The 6 is not a very clear-cut signal, you might think, but there are a few things which make it an absolutely definite request for a Spade switch:
  • Declarer didn't bid 1 !S over 1 !H , so they have a maximum of 3 Spades
  • You hold the !H Queen and can see the !H 10 & 8 in Dummy, so there are no "higher" even Hearts that Partner could possibly play
  • ...and this is perhaps the most crucial clue: Clearly Partner has 5+ Hearts from the bidding, because we can assume Declarer has at most 3-card Hearts or they would have supported them, but Partner is discouraging Hearts. If Declarer had !H K42 and South had !H J9763 sat over Dummy's A1085, it's unlikely that South would be discouraging Hearts. It's far far more likely that the !H 6 is a request for a Spade, therefore, rather than a Club.
We cannot ever beat this contract, but we can take the first 6 tricks. South was sat with 5 small Hearts and !S AQ64. Eszter switched to a Club at trick 2. and even though I ducked the 9, Declarer got the Clubs wrong, and overtook the 9 with the Queen. Declarer then led a second Diamond to Dummy's 10, but Eszter ducked this trick (rightly).

A small Club followed to Declarer's King and then a 3rd round of Diamonds. Eszter took the !D King this time, but instead of switching to a Spade (now that it was utterly clear that the !H 6 at trick 1 could not have been asking for a Club), continued with the !D 9 and Declarer had no problems wrapping up an overtrick.

48
Interesting Play Hands / Make a Plan!!
« on: November 06, 2017, 07:33:06 PM »
Some hands are awkward in that you cannot make a really concrete plan until part-way through the hand. Some hands, however, are much easier, and the plan should be obvious at trick one. The following hand is a really good example, on which you are sat North:

Love All, Dealer West

Bidding
West     North     East     South
No          1 !C        1 !D      X(1)
No          1 !H (2)    No        1 !S (3)
No          2 !C (4)    No        2 !H
All Pass

(1) 5-7 any shape
(2) 2-way
(3) Relay
(4) !H / !C 2-suiter

South (Dummy)
 !S A106542
 !H 865
 !D Q10
 !C 107

!S 3 led

North
 !S -
 !H QJ932
 !D K84
 !C AKQJ8

On the lead of the !S 3 you think a while and then go up with Dummy's Ace (West plays the 7 and you discard a Diamond from hand). What should your plan be?

Looking at Dummy and with the friendly lead, you're now probably wishing you had made an invitation over 2 !H , because lots of pairs will surely be in game here. With 5 Club tricks waiting to be cashed, it's clear the main emphasis of your plan should be drawing trumps as quickly and safely as possible. The lead has given you a free, extra entry to Dummy which means that leading trumps twice towards your QJ is now easy, allowing you to play for split heart honours or the !H 10 onside.

Since you have absolutely no need to ruff anything in Dummy, there's no need whatever to delay drawing the trumps, so you should lead a Heart from Dummy at trick 2, because the only real danger on this hand is losing trump control if Opps decide to force you in Spades. You cannot afford to do anything other than lead a trump immediately. If you do, West plays the 7 and East takes your Jack with the Ace and leads the !S Queen. Now you can ruff in hand, cross to the !C 10 and lead another Heart, which West takes with the King and leads a third Spade. You can now ruff, draw the last trump and run all of your Clubs. At the end, East still has to give you a Diamond trick for your 10th trick, because they only have Diamonds left.

At the table, Partner led a Diamond at trick 2 to her King and East's Ace, and was got forced in Spades. Now Declarer crossed to the !C 10 and forced her own hand by ruffing a 2nd Spade, crossed back to Dummy's !D Queen and led a Heart to her Jack and East's Ace. East continued with a Diamond, so Declarer ruffed in Dummy and discarded a Club Winner from hand. Still she neglected to lead trumps and crossed back to hand with a Club and then played a 3rd round of Clubs, which East ruffed with the !H 4 and on which Declarer discarded a Spade rather than overruffing in Dummy. Another Diamond followed and Declarer discarded yet another Spade from Dummy rather than ruffing with the 8. That allowed West to  discard their last losing Club and forced Declarer to ruff with the !H 9, with the K10 still out there. Needless to say, that was the last trick and the defence took the last 2.

4 Pairs were going off in 4 !H , but 7 bid it and made it. 2 !H making only 8 tricks was not a disaster, therefore, but almost every other Pair were making 9 or 10 tricks. The point about this hand is that you really need to concentrate on identifying the essential issues in a hand. Here, with a cast iron 7 tricks outside the trump suit (1 !S , 1 !D and 5 !C ), the looming threat of being forced in Spades and West overuffing Diamonds, the essential feature of the hand is drawing trumps as quickly as possible.

49
Interesting Play Hands / An Extra Chance...
« on: October 23, 2017, 09:17:50 PM »
Sometimes it pays to give yourself that little extra chance to make a contract (even if it later turns out not to have been needed), when you feel like the obvious line is probably going to fail. Take the following hand, on which you are South at Game All, and the Dealer is East:

South
!S QJ10943
!H 8
!D 984
!C 754

Bidding
East     South     West     North
1 !H      2 !S        No         4 !S
All Pass

Yes, I know, 2 !S was a little "frisky". I'd certainly have passed over a 1m bid from East, but decided I couldn't resist over 1 !H.

West led the !D King and Eszter put down her fine dummy:

North (Dummy)
!S K865
!H AJ94
!D J5
!C AKJ

!D King led

South
!S QJ10943
!H 8
!D 984
!C 754

East encouraged at trick 1 and trick 2 was a small Diamond to East's Ace. Ace and another Spade followed (West followed to the first Spade and discarded a Diamond on the second). How do you plan the play from here?

With plenty of choices I took the second Spade with Dummy's King. The problem is that it is more likely that East has the !C Queen and the Heart Honours, so taking the Club finesse was not the topmost priority I had, but I realised it might be something I had to fall back on eventually.

At trick 5 I led the Ace of Hearts and then a small Heart, hoping that West might have 10x or 10xx and that East might therefore rise with the Queen or King just in case I had the 10. This did indeed happen (so clearly East didn't have the 10 but did have the KQ) and when West played the 7 on the second round of Hearts, I knew I was home: I ruffed a Diamond in Dummy and led the Heart Jack, pinning West's 10. East hesitated for a few seconds and then played low to I discarded the losing Club.

As it turned out, West did have the Club Queen after all, so I was destined to make whatever line I took. Only 3 of us were in 4 !S making, the rest allowing EW to play in Heart part-scores or playing in a Spade part-score instead. +620 was worth a useful 8½ IMPs.

Sometimes it is worth just giving yourself that extra chance to avoid taking a finesse you think is probably losing, especially if you always retain the option of trying the finesse after all. I knew it was very unlikely that West held a Heart honour, especially when they didn't lead Hearts at trick 1, but it was possible they had the 10. Psychologically, I thought it might be difficult for East, starting with !H KQxxx, not to play an honour (because they'd look really foolish if I won the second round of Hearts with the 10 and they let the contract through. If East didn't play the 10, then clearly West had it.

50
Interesting Play Hands / The Telling Switch
« on: October 23, 2017, 08:39:46 PM »
Eszter did really well on the defence of this hand. Lots of other pairs missed getting the defence right. You are North at Love All and West was the Dealer.

North
 !S AQ103
 !H A9654
 !D 2
 !C J53

Bidding
West     North     East     South
1 !C       1 !H        X          No
2 !C       No          3NT       All Pass

Partner leads the !H 10 (playing Strong 10's) and Dummy goes down with

                     West (Dummy)
                     !S 4
                     !H 2
                     !D K9854
                     !C AKQ1074

North
 !S AQ103
 !H A9654
 !D 2
 !C J53

How do you plan the defence?

Since Partner couldn't even bid 2 !H over East's negative double, it's almost inconceivable that they have an interior sequence here (because it would have to give them AJ10 or KJ10 and they surely would have doubled 3NT  with a 3-card holding that good). It's much more likely that they have 10x in Hearts (in fact I had !H 1083 but really didn't want Eszter to think I might have a top honour in Hearts and rightly felt she'd realise this couldn't be a "strong" lead). Eszter went up with the !H Ace at trick 1, smartly switched to her !S 3, and we took the first 5 tricks.

3NT by East was the overwhelmingly popular choice of contract on this hand and made more often than not, despite a Heart bid by North most of the time and a Major suit lead all of the time. Where a Spade was led it usually went off (apart from a couple of ridiculous misdefences), but when a Heart was led by South after a Heart overcall by North, the contract usually made (especially when South led a small Heart, because North continued Hearts after taking their Ace and Declarer took the rest. At one table, North even ducked the first Heart and Declarer made 13!

So well done, Eszter, for switching to a Spade when the Hearts were clearly hopeless (if only from the bidding).

51
Interesting Play Hands / Mea Maxima Culpa!
« on: October 18, 2017, 09:18:26 PM »
I royally mucked up the defence on this hand, but really should have got it right, as all of the clues were there! :)

You are South at Love All. Opps have bid to 4 !S by East.

West (Dummy)
!S KQ2
!H A10
!D KQ863
!C J97
                   South
                   !S 10873
                   !H 9864
                   !D A54
                   !C K6

You lead the !H 6. Declarer wins in Dummy and cashes the !S KQ. Partner plays the Jack of Spades on the first round and then discards the !C 2. Declarer now leaves off the Spades and plays another 3 rounds of Hearts, (KQJ in his hand) discarding two Clubs from Dummy. Partner discards another small Club on the 4th Heart. Now Declarer leads a small Club from hand and you rise with the King.

What now?

Well I actually had not one buttwo chances to get this one right, but didn't: Clearly Declarer is sat there with !S A96 and I'm owed a Spade trick. Partner's Club discards are suggesting she started with 5-card Clubs, obviously headed by at least the Ace. That, in turn, means she must have 4 Diamonds, which gives Declarer only one of them.

Declarer needs the Club ruff not only to ruff a losing Club, but also to have any chance of accessing Dummy's Diamonds. Giving up my natural trump trick in order to deny Declarer any chance of getting rid of any losing Clubs should have been a no-brainer. Instead I cashed the !D Ace. Even when Eszter gave me a count signal with the 7, and Declarer played his singleton 10 I could still have switched to a Spade to defeat the contract, but had a senior moment and failed to realise that in giving up one trick, I would actually gain two others.

Duuuuh!

52
Interesting Play Hands / Finding the Right Switch
« on: October 18, 2017, 08:48:01 PM »
This was an informative hand that Eszter and I played today. Defence is never easy, but it really helps if you take note of every card that's played and try to work things out from there: On this hand you are North. West opened a 2nd-in-hand 1NT and everyone passed. You are looking at

North
!S A63
!H J943
!D 97
!C AQJ7

You choose to lead the !C Queen (I think that would probably have been the last card in my hand I would have chosen, but that's not the issue here). Dummy goes down:

East (Dummy)
!S K542
!H 108
!D J632
!C 543

                 North
                 !S A63
                 !H J943
                 !D 97
                 !C AQJ7

On trick 1 everyone ducks and Partner plays the encouraging !C 9. You continue with the 7, which runs to Partner's 10 and Declarer's King (ooops). Declarer now leads the !S 10 (You play low) and overtakes with Dummy's King and leads the Diamond Jack off the table. Partner rises up with the Ace and leads a 3rd round of Clubs. Declarer follows with the 8 and you take your two Club tricks. On the last Club Dummy sheds the !D 2, Partner the Heart 6 and Declarer the !H 2.

Now what?

East (Dummy)
!S 542
!H 108
!D 53
!C -

                 North
                 !S A6
                 !H J943
                 !D 7
                 !C -

You've taken 4 tricks at this stage and Declarer only two. Partner's !H 6 is not encouraging a Heart switch, but it's difficult to read it as a clear suit preference signal for either Spades or Diamonds.

The play at trick 2 was a little curious: Partner's !S 9 is clearly suggesting an even number of Spades, but if Declarer has 4-card Spades including the QJ10, leading the 10 and overtaking with the King solely to get to Dummy in order to lead the Jack of Diamonds would be a curious play. Clearly the Diamond suit is important to Declarer and it sounds like Declarer was missing the Ace and the Queen, which Partner must have, so a Diamond switch should clearly be right off the menu. The choice, then, should be one of the Majors.

In practice it Doesn't matter which Major you choose. The main thing is not to lead a Diamond. The full hand:

                 South
                 !S J987
                 !H Q76
                 !D AQ8
                 !C 1096
East (Dummy)             West
!S K542                           !S Q10
!H 108                             !H AK52
!D J632                            !D K1064
!C 543                             !C K82
                 North
                 !S A63
                 !H J943
                 !D 97
                 !C AQJ7

Clearly Declarer would have done better to lead a small Diamond from hand at trick 3 rather than touching the Spades, but if you play the Ace of Spades at trick 7, the Queen falls and Partner takes 2 more Spades and then switches back to a Heart. If you lead a Heart, then Declarer has to put Partner in with the !D Queen at some point and Partner (me) definitely would have switched back to Spades (I nearly switched to Spades at trick 4 rather than continuing Clubs, because I was suspicious of the !S 10 at trick 3 when Partner played the 3).

At the table Eszter led a Diamond and Declarer was easily able to wrap up 3 Diamonds to add to the Spade, Club and 2 Hearts. Maybe I should have encouraged Hearts with the 7 rather than playing the ambiguous !H 6 on Eszter's last Club (and riasking a Diamond from Eszter), but I can't afford to play either a Spade or a Diamond and I really want a Spade rather than anything else whether Declarer started with !S Q10 or !S A10, so I felt I had to hope Eszter could read the !H 6 and would realise that I had almost certainly started with !D AQx and Declarer with !D K10xx, because nothing else would explain using up Dummy's only possible entry just to lead the Jack of Diamonds.

Ho Hum...

53
Interesting Play Hands / An Interesting Defensive Problem
« on: October 18, 2017, 07:41:15 PM »
This was an interesting hand that Eszter and I played today:


You are North at NS Game, and the Dealer is East.

North
 !S J652
 !H AKQ98
 !D 6
 !C AK5

Bidding
East     South     West     North
1 !D      No          1 !S       2 !H
5 !D      No          No         X
All Pass


Partner leads the Jack of Hearts and Dummy goes down

!H Jack led
                      West (Dummy)
                      !S A10743
                      !H 7542
                      !D J5
                      !C 76
North
 !S J652
 !H AKQ98
 !D 6
 !C AK5

You overtake the Queen of Hearts but Declarer ruffs and leads the !S Queen, which is covered by Partner and taken by Dummy's Ace. The 7 !C is now led from Dummy. You rise with the Ace (Partner plays the 3 and Declarer the 2) and lead a Diamond, which runs round to Partner's 9 and Dummy's Jack. Another Club from Dummy follows. How do you plan your defence?

Clearly Declarer has a load of Diamonds and is aiming to ruff a Club. You may or may not have a Spade trick to come, but if that trick is available it's never going away. In practice the lead of the Queen at trick 2 strongly suggests a Singleton, because with !S Qx they'd be more likely to leave off the Spades and hope a defender leads away from the suit later in the hand.

Your problem is that you have no more Diamonds to lead and no possible way to get Partner in via a Major. Partner's !C 3 on the first Club is showing an odd number in the suit, so obviously 3 or 5. If the !S Queen is indeed a singleton, then Declarer is either 7-5 or 9-3 in the Minors. Clearly if Declarer has 9-card Diamonds, then Partner will not have a Diamond left to lead either, so there's no point in defending on that basis.

If Declarer has 5 Clubs, then a single ruff in Dummy will suffice to clear the suit, so your only hope is to DUCK the second Club and hope that Partner has the Queen and can lead a second round of trumps. If Declarer turns out to have the Queen of Clubs, then there's almost certainly no way to beat the contract.

54
Interesting Play Hands / A Tricky Trump Split
« on: October 17, 2017, 02:59:47 PM »
Sometimes you encounter a truly horrendous trump split in what ought to be a fairly straightforward contract. This was an interesting hand from a Declarer-play perspective.

NS Game, Dealer North

You are North and open 1 !S . Everyone passes.

East leads the Ace of Hearts and this is what you see:

South (Dummy)
 !S 5
 !H J542
 !D A1092
 !C Q976

A !H led

North
 !S AK843
 !H 107
 !D KJ3
 !C A42

East cashes the AK of Hearts and continues with the 3 on which West plays the 6, 8 and then the Queen and you ruff the 3rd Round. You try the AK of Spades and East shows out on the second round. Not good! How do you plan the play?

Clearly West started with 6-card Spades and exactly 3 Hearts (they would definitely have played the 9 rather than the Queen on the 3rd round if they started with 4). That gives them only 4 cards in the Minors. Clearly you cannot avoid losing 6 tricks in the Majors so you have to try to avoid losing any other tricks in the Minors.

Another strand to this is as follows: East has already shown up with the AK of Hearts. They are unlikely to have too much else or they would surely have made a takeout double over 1 !S so either the Queen of Diamonds or the King of Clubs (if not both) will probably sit with West.

A decent plan, therefore, is to cash the !D King at trick 6 and then (assuming West plays low) either to play a Diamond to the Ace and try to drop the Queen in the West hand or to play a small Diamond to the 10 and play East for the Queen, since they surely have the greater Diamond length. Whichever you choose, if you now lead the Jack of Hearts, West is stuffed if they started with 2 Diamonds.

If West ruffs the Jack of Hearts you simply discard a Minor suit card (if you cashed the King Ace of Diamonds, and the Queen didn't appear then discard a Diamond, but if you opted for a finesse of the !D 10 rather than trying to drop the Queen the obvious play is to discard a Club). West can cash all of their Spades, but will eventually have to lead a Club (probably away from the King, as explained above).

If, on the other hand, they discard a Diamond, then they still have a Club left and you can lead a Club to the Ace. If they discard a Club, then definitely discard a Diamond from your hand and lead a Diamond from Dummy (now, whether they follow or ruff high in front of you, you must come to another trick in the end).

That line works as long as West doesn't have 4-card Diamonds and a void in Clubs, but that would give East at least an 11-count with KJ10xxx in Clubs and they would surely have overcalled when they have a singleton Spade.

What doesn't work is what Partner tried, which was to play a Diamond to the Ace (without cashing the King first) and then leading the Jack of Hearts, because West still has a safe exit card (their 2nd Diamond) when they've taken all of their trumps. That line works when West has a singleton Diamond, but if you're going to play for that, you must cash the !D King first and then run the Jack (or play a small Diamond to the 10).

55
Interesting Play Hands / Counting tricks and Making a Plan...
« on: October 11, 2017, 12:06:37 PM »
Partner failed to count their tricks or to make a plan on this hand. Instead they followed a suicidal line of play and ended up going one off in a contract that was ice-cold for an overtrick.

You are Declarer at Red vs Green, and you and Partner have bid to a good contract of 4NT.

North           South
1 !C              1 !S
1NT(1)          2 !S(2)
2NT(3)          3 !D
3 !H              3 !S
3NT              4NT(4)
All Pass

(1) Beta
(2) 5 Controls
(3) HoC
(4) Quantitative

South (Dummy)
!S AKJ9
!H Q9
!D K862
!C K52

!C Jack led

North
!S Q2
!H AK53
!D AJ107
!C Q94

East leads the Jack of Clubs, which runs round to your Queen. How do you plan the play?

Clearly the key to  12 tricks is finding the Diamond Queen, but you only need 10.
  • Count winners: 4 Spades, 3 Hearts, 1 Club and 2 Diamonds (all "on top") = 10 tricks
  • Count Possible Losers: 2, Ace of Clubs and possibly the Queen of Diamonds
  • Potential Problems: We need to keep East away from the lead in order to protect Dummy's King of Clubs.
  • Plan: Cash the Ace of Diamonds and run the Jack of Diamonds, finessing against East. Even if West wins the Queen, they cannot attack Clubs without giving you a second Club trick, so we're cold for 11 tricks.

Partner, however, lost the plot completely on this hand. Instead of even just cashing her 10 top winners and claiming, she took 4 Spades, discarding Clubs from her own hand, and then took 4 rounds of Hearts, discarding a Club from Dummy (visibly blanking the King) when East won the 4th round with the Jack. EW had absolutely no problem now in taking 3 Club tricks as well to take Declarer one off.

Discarding Clubs from hand as well as blanking Dummy's King of Clubs is fine if you're simply going to cash the top Diamonds and hope the Queen falls, but a crazy line if you're going to concede the 4th Heart to East, the danger hand. Even on the 4th Heart, discarding a Diamond instead of a Club when you see that it's East who is about to win the trick would allow you to make the contract by playing West for !C Ax(x) and ducking the next Club.

Attacking the Diamonds at trick 2, however, is absolutely 100% for 11 tricks as long as you finesse against East. In practice, East had a singleton Diamond so you have to concede a Diamond to West, but West can do you no harm in Clubs, so now you have 1 Club, 4 Spades, 3 Hearts and 3 Diamonds guaranteed.

(1) COUNT, (2) PLAN!!!!
This is such an easy game at times.

56
Interesting Play Hands / I'm not Greedy, but...
« on: September 27, 2017, 06:20:45 PM »
I'm not by nature a particularly greedy person, but then again, doubled overtricks are worth quite a lot, LOL. Take this hand, on which you are North, EW Game, Dealer East.

South (Dummy)
 !S AJ10954
 !H KQJ5
 !D AQ
 !C 4

 !D 10 led

North
 !S K72
 !H 987
 !D KJ6
 !C J632

Bidding
East     South     West     North
No        1 !C         No         1 !S (1)
No        1NT(2)     No         2 !C (3)
No        2 !S (4)     No         3 !D (5)
No        4 !S         X           No
No        No(6)     

(1) 8+ Balanced
(2) Beta
(3) 0-2 Controls
(4) Iota in Spades
(5) HH or Hxx in Spades
(6) I was highly tempted to redouble this on the basis that 2 Spade losers are impossible on this bidding (Partner must have KQ Stiff or Qxx or Kxx), and I can't construct a hand for North that has no Controls that is still a positive. As I said at the top, though, I'm not overly greedy by nature and it would be just my luck to find Partner with !S Qxx, !X xxxx, !D Jx, !X KQJx and everything wrong :)

Anyway, Back to the hand: East leads the 10 of Diamonds and you win trick 1 in Dummy with the Ace (West plays the 2). How do you plan the play? It is sounding like West has most of the outstanding high cards, so it's reasonable to provisionally place them with the !C AK and !H Ace, but that doesn't sound like it's enough to justify their Double, so I feel it's also reasonable to place them with Qxx(x) in Spades.

At trick 2 you lay down the Ace of Spades (West follows with the 3 and East with the 8) . On the !S Jack, West plays the 6. There are not one but 2 very good reasons why you should run the Jack here:
  • As discussed above, it's highly likely that West has the Spade length
  • (and most importantly), finessing here is a win/win proposition, because if the finesse loses, you now have the Spades splitting 2-2 and can ruff Dummy's 4th Heart if the Hearts don't split 3-3
Be that as it may, Partner (in the North seat) thought for a while and then went up with her King (East discarded the !C 5). At this stage Partner was still assured of one [doubled] overtrick, by cashing her two winning Diamonds and getting rid of Dummy's Club loser, but instead Declarer played the !D Jack to Dummy's Queen and then led the !H Jack from Dummy.

This, to be honest, is crazy play. As it turned out, it was East who had most of the outstanding high cards and West had doubled on a balanced 5-count with !S Qxx. If the Hearts are not 3-3, it's absolutely essential to save yourself that losing Club trick once you've got the Spades wrong, just to ensure that you make your doubled contract. Why wouldn't you play a Heart towards the !H KQJx in Dummy, just in case the Ace was on your left and you could persuade East to rise with the Ace?


Anyway, 4 !S X making was an excellent score, but 2 doubled overtricks would have been really nice! :)

57
Interesting Play Hands / Careful Technique
« on: September 24, 2017, 02:13:38 PM »
Careful technique is all about giving yourself the optimum chance to make the maximum number of tricks, often within a particular suit. Imagine you have !C J97 opposite !C KQ654 and you're trying to yourself the best chance of making 4 tricks from the suit leading from the hand with !C J97. Clearly you never have a problem if there's a 3-2 split. Careful technique, however, suggests you should start with the 7 towards the KQ, in case LHO has a stiff Ace (and you can still make 3 tricks when RHO has !C A108xx). A108x with LHO you can catch, but you'll need to have X-ray vision to catch RHO with A10xx or a stiff Ace.

It's a variation on a theme I've covered before, just taking the suit in isolation,eg:

KQxx opposite A10xxx (Start off with the K in case LHO has J9xx)
AQ9x opposite Kxx (Ace then King, in case LHO has stiff or doubleton 10 or Jack)

Sometimes outside entries and communications do affect how you play a suit, but the key issue is normally to consider possible unfavourable distributions, what you can catch and what you can't, and how best to protect yourself. Take this hand:

Game All, Dealer West

North is in 3NT after bidding 1NT-3NT.

South (Dummy)
!S 96
!H K2
!D KJ76
!C KQ654

2 !D led

North
!S AKJ2
!H 964
!D A94
!C J97

It's a reasonable enough contract to get to, but Hearts will always be a worry, even though you've escaped an initial Heart lead. You play low from Dummy and take West's 8 with your 9. Now what?

Clearly Clubs are the key suit here. You want to find the line that gives you the maximum chance of making 3 Club tricks (to add to your probably 4 Diamonds and 2 Spades). You have 2 probably entries to Dummy in Diamonds, but you don't want to use them up prematurely (leading a Club from Dummy would protect you if West has the stiff Ace of Clubs). In practice either opponent with  A10xx is going to cause you a problem because you're unlikely to take a second round finesse of the 9 against West (who can't lead Hearts without giving you a Heart trick) and if East has A108x you are unlikely come to 3 tricks without giving them 2 tricks first.

So were're back to guarding against a stiff Ace with East, so start with the 7. If East wins and switches to a Heart and the Ace is offside, there's nothing you can or could have done differently (3 Spades and 4 Diamonds aren't enough).

Partner started off with the !C Jack and East did indeed have a stiff Ace of Clubs, so now only 2 Club tricks could be gathered without giving West a 2nd Club. Fortunately, East was asleep and switched to a Spade (from Q8xx). Partner now made short work of it, played a Club to the Queen, 2 Spades and then 3 Diamonds (West showed out on the second round of Diamonds and discarded 3 Hearts ending with the Jack).

The situation was now

South (Dummy)
!S -
!H K2
!D -
!C K6

North
!S 2
!H 96
!D -
!C 7

Partner did the only sensible thing and endplayed West with the 4th Club to give her a Heart trick at the end and an overtrick. Well Done!

Assuming East doesn't switch to a Heart at trick 3, careful play in Clubs would have yielded 11 tricks in total (because now Declarer can ditch a losing Heart from Dummy on the 3rd Spade rather than a Club winner). Immaterial in practice since most of the room were going off, but it's always worth cultivating careful technique, because sometimes it will be the difference between making and not making a contract.

58
Interesting Play Hands / Losing the Plot...
« on: September 23, 2017, 11:43:07 PM »
No Trump hands can be difficult, I'd be the first to acknowledge that the following hand is not totally straightforward, but sometimes you just have to do your best and hope the cards are okay for you. The main thing is not to panic on a tough hand, but to try to figure out what is going on.

EW Game, Dealer West

You are North and the bidding has gone

Bidding
West     North     East     South
No         1 !C        2 !S      No(1)
No         X            No        3 !C (2)
No         3NT(3)    All Pass

(1) 0-7 any shape
(2) In case you're wondering about the "fast" 3 !C , I didn't want to "bag" the NT Declarership in case Partner was strong balanced (as here) and also didn't want to Pass 2NT-3 !C and leave Partner stranded when there was a better Heart contract available.
(3)

West Leads the !C King and this is what you can see:

South (Dummy)
 !S 85
 !H J987
 !D 92
 !C Q10753

 !S King led.

North
 !S AJ10
 !H AKQ10
 !D AQ106
 !C J2

This might be a tough contact, to be sure, but Partner has pretty much what they promised (not very much LOL). Firstly, what do you do over the King of Spades? It's pretty much essential to take this trick, because it guarantees you 2 Spade tricks. Missing the 10, you might duck it, because it will force West to switch to another suit, but here there's no real advantage to be gained and potentially a lot of disadvantages (You might gain only 1 Spade trick rather than 2, for example).

Having taken the first Spade trick, how do you plan the play?

Firstly it's clear you are unlikely come to 9 tricks unless you make something of the Clubs (2 Spades, 4 !H and 3 Diamonds would do it, but making 3 Diamond tricks relies on gaining 2 entries to Dummy, and you have only one certain entry in the Jack of Hearts. The Spades are likely to be at least 6-2 if not 7-1, so you are definitely going to struggle on this hand if East has one of the Club honours unless you can persuade them to take it immediately when the Spades are 6-2. The good news is that if East has 6-card Spades, they are unlikely to have much length in Clubs, so if they have a Club honour, they may well take it immediately.

We can test the waters without committing ourselves to anything by playing off the top 2 Hearts in our hand. If Opps follow to both tricks, we can even play a 3rd round, retaining the !H Jack in Dummy as our needed entry. On the AK !H both opps follow small, and on the Queen, East shows up with 3 Hearts, and West discards a Club. That means East has at least 9 cards in the Majors, and so is unlikely to have much in the way of Clubs.

Now when we lead the Jack of Clubs, East plays the 9 and West wins with the King and fires a Spade through. If East takes the Queen of Spades and returns another one, West will show out so we know the Spades were 6-2.

Now we try a small Club to Dummy's 10. East shows out and discards a Spade. It doesn't matter if West wins this trick or ducks. Either way we still have an entry to Dummy in Hearts if we need it. 4 Hearts, 2 Spades and a Club is 7 tricks, so we just need 2 Diamond tricks (since clearly we're never going to get more than 1 Club trick.

Now, therefore, we have to make the assumption that West has the !D King. If East has the !D King, we can never make 9 tricks, because as soon as they win, a flood of Spades will follow. We've no need to try the finesse of the 10, because we only need two Diamond tricks to make our contract.

So if West ducks the second Club, we abandon Clubs and try the finesse of the Queen of Diamonds. If West takes the second Club, we win inevitable !D return with the Queen, and claim our 9 tricks when the Queen holds. East had the Jack of Diamonds and 6 Spades, and West was 4-5 in the Minors with all of the outstanding Minor suit honours apart from the !D Jack.


What actually happened...
At the table, Declarer tried ducking at trick 1. East switched to a Diamond and  Declarer took West King with the Ace. Declarer now tried the Jack of Clubs. West won with the Ace and returned a Spade. Declarer held up again and East cleared the Spades. In full panic mode now, Declarer played 4 rounds of Hearts instead on concentrating on the Clubs, and once in Dummy tried the finesse of the !D 10, losing to East's Jack. and 2 more Spades followed, for -2.

The moral of this take is not to panic. Count your tricks and concentrate on trying to establish tricks because you start compromising your ability to move between the hands. The 4th round of Hearts before you've established a Club trick was clearly wrong here, especially once you've given up a Spade trick, because 4 Hearts, a Spade and 3 Diamonds is not enough for your contract. You absolutely have to make a Club trick as well, even if West does have KJx(x) in Diamonds.

This was not the time to try ducking at trick 1, because the chances of West not having a top Club are almost zero, given the bidding, and it's too easy for East to switch to something else. Moreover, there a significant chance that East will turn up with 7 Spades (at this vulnerability, anyway), in which case ducking definitely gives away a trick to no advantage.

59
Interesting Play Hands / The Importance of Signalling Count...
« on: September 23, 2017, 08:38:50 AM »
Eszter and I combined well on this hand to defeat what should be a cast iron contract. It's true that we had no play to defeat it unless Declarer gave us the opportunity, but defensive signalling and patience were the key factors:

Love All, Dealer East

You are North, holding:

North
 !S A642
 !H AQ1042
 !D 52
 !C 73

Bidding
East     South     West     North
1 !S      3 !D (w)   No          No
4 !S      All Pass

Partner leads the !H 8 and Dummy goes down:
___8 !H led__
|                  | West (Dummy)
|                  | !S 10
|                  | !H J976
|                  | !D K864
|__________| !C K942
North
 !S A642
 !H AQ1042
 !D 52
 !C 73

You rise with the Ace of Hearts and return the 2, but Declarer plays the King and Partner the 5. Declarer plays a small Spade to Dummy's 10 (Partner contributes the !S 8) . What do you do?

The fact is there's no advantage to you in taking this trick. Partner surely has a singleton Spade (Declarer almost certainly has 7 to justify their 4 !S bid), and you have no attractive lead if you do win. Eszter did the right thing and ducked. (A slight quibble is that she perhaps ought to have played the 6 rather than the 2 to indicate a desire to ruff, but there's no guarantee I would read that anyway).

Stuck in Dummy, Declarer now played the !C King. Even though you don't know the Club position, it's vital that you play the !C 7 on this trick. Eszter did and then followed with the 3 when Declarer continued the suit. Declarer finessed the Jack and, in with the !C Queen (South had started with !C Q10x), I had no problem giving Eszter her Club ruff.

Sitting South I had started with

South
 !S 8
 !H 85
 !D AQJ10973
 !C Q106

West's pass over 3 !D and the 4 !S bid from East stank of East having a void Diamond (and West some Diamond length), so I had declined to lead a !D at trick 1. Even if Eszter hadn't echoed in Clubs I might have continued the suit anyway, but the echo cemented the fact that Declarer had probably started with 7 Spades, 4 Clubs, 2 Hearts and definitely a void Diamond.

Too often people fall asleep in defence and just play the cards nearest their thumb without taking opportunities to pass Partner information. Eszter did really well here to (1) nottake the first Spade and (2) signal her count in Clubs. Yes, Declarer played foolishly by not ruffing a Heart high once I played the !S 8 on the first round of the suit and carry on drawing trumps, but when Opps give you an opportunity you have to grab it.

60
Interesting Play Hands / 2+2=?
« on: September 23, 2017, 07:51:33 AM »
As I said a while back, I never tire of telling you guys to COUNT YOUR TRICKS!!! Take this hand

You are North, the Dealer at Love All, holding this lovely lot:

North
 !S 54
 !H AJ7
 !D J95
 !C KQ983

You open a 10-12 1NT and everyone passes. East leads the !H 3 and this is what you can see when Dummy goes down:

South (Dummy)
 !S 98
 !H Q4
 !D AQ7632
 !C J42

 !H 3 led

North
 !S 54
 !H AJ7
 !D J95
 !C KQ983

You try the !H Queen from Dummy and it holds (West plays the 6). What now?

Firstly, it must be right to play on the Clubs rather than the Diamonds, since you always have the Ace of Clubs to lose. You try a small Club to your Queen. East wins the Ace and fires back the !D 8.

Do you finesse or not?

NO!!!!
A thousand times no!!!!

Count Your tricks!

2 Hearts, the Ace of Diamonds and probably 4 Clubs is 7 tricks. It should be abundantly clear that East doesn't have the kind of Spade holding that makes a Spade lead remotely attractive, since they've had not one but two chances to lead Spades and have declined to do so. You cannot afford to risk letting West on lead here, because a flood of Spades is bound to follow. You know the Spades are wide open and it's probable that West does, but clearly East doesn't.

So rise with the Ace of Diamonds, cash the Jack of Clubs (both Opps follow) and claim your 7 tricks. At the table, Eszter risked everything in the hope of making 12 tricks. West won and duly started on the Spades (West had !S AKQ10x). Eszter was only saved by the fact that East, with !S J762, blocked the suit even though Eszter and Dummy both showed out on the 3rd round. You can't rely on Opps to save you, though :) .

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