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Topics - OliverC

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61
Interesting Play Hands / Counting Tricks
« on: September 18, 2017, 10:41:47 PM »
The opening lead to a contract on which you are Declarer, is often terribly useful in suggesting a good line of play. Take this hand. You are North, Love All, and you and Partner have bid to 3NT via 1 !H - 1 !S - 1NT - 3NT. East leads the !D 3 against your 3NT contract, and this is what you can see:

South (Dummy)
 !S AKJ9
 !H 3
 !D A872
 !C J853

 !D 3 led

South
 !S 43
 !H A8653
 !D KQ9
 !C A62

On trick 1, you play low from Dummy and West contributes the 10. How do you plan the play?

.
.
.

The opening lead and the play to trick 1 suggests that East started out with !D Jxxx, so there are probably 4 Diamond tricks there for the taking with the help of a 3rd round finesse of the 9 if East doesn't cover. One immediate problem is that the Diamonds are blocked, so you must cash the !D King and run the !D 9 whilst you still have an entry to Dummy with a Spade. As a matter of probability, better to finesse the nine of Spades, because if that fails and West plays the ten, you have the option later on to finesse the Jack (a 75% chance for 3 Spade tricks).

On the other hand, you don't want to expose the Club or Heart suits too early by using up your Aces on those suits if East covers the 3rd Diamond, just so that you can take the Spade finesse. That probably gives you 4 Diamonds, the two round suit Aces, and 3 Spades, which is enough for your contract.

A reasonable compromise, therefore, is to take the finesse of the Spade 9 immediately immediately. If it wins, then come back to the King of Diamonds and run the 9. If the Spade finesse loses, West is unlikely to continue Spades into a visible tenace in Dummy (whichever Spade you finessed), and is likely to switch back to Diamonds or try one of the round suits. Either way you have retained your entry to dummy and can continue with your plan.

On this hand, Partner did indeed take the Spade finesse at trick 2, inserting the Jack, which won. She then returned to hand via the !D King (West played the 6 and East the 3). Thereafter, however, she lost her way: Instead of running the !D 9 at trick 4, she cashed Ace and another Club. East won the second Club with the Queen and switched to the Jack of Hearts. Even now it wasn't too late (Declarer can win, run the !D 9 and whether East covers or not Declarer still has access to 2 Spade winners and the !S Ace in Dummy. Fatally, though, Partner ducked the !H Jack. Now East returned a Spade and Declarer was locked in Dummy and unable to get back to hand to finesse the Diamond at all, and inevitably ended up one off.

The opening lead was the key clue, here. If Declarer plays the !D 9 at trick 4 and East plays the 5, is it more likely that East led the !D 3 from !D 543, or from !D J543? By this point Declarer already has 3 Spade tricks, and so needs to look no further than the Diamonds for the 9th trick.

62
Interesting Play Hands / When Opps Drop the Ball...
« on: September 18, 2017, 09:32:09 PM »
Sometimes Opps get to a perfectly reasonable contract which ought to make easily, but Declarer fumbles the ball. You need to make certain you punish them in such circumstances. Take this hand, on which you are North, Love All, Dealer West.

North
 !S 6
 !H K865432
 !D K953
 !C 8

Bidding
West     North     East     South
1 !S       3 !H (w) 4 !S      All Pass

You try the lead of the !C 8 and Dummy puts down

                    South (Partner)
                    !S ??
                    !H ??
                    !D ??
                    !C ??
East (Dummy) ________  West (Declarer)
 !S K1093         |                |  !S ??
 !H Q109          |                |  !H ??
 !D Q1084         |                | !D ??
 !C AQ              |_________| !C ??
                    North
                    !S 6
                    !H K865432
                    !D K953
                    !C 8

EW shrug off your weak jump overcall and bid to game. Declarer wins the first trick with Dummy's Ace of Clubs(Partner plays a discouraging 6) and leads a small Spade to his Ace, Partner playing low. He now continues with a small Spade to Dummy's King, and then the !S 9, which Partner takes with the Queen. Partner cashes the !H Ace, on which you encourage with the 3, but then switches to the Diamond 6. After some thought, Declarer plays low (the 2) and you take your King. Now what?

It should be clear at this point that Opps have dropped the ball, in that given your 3 !H WJO, the sensible thing would be to play Partner for length in Spades rather than the other way around, So you must take advantage of that slip and take this contract off if possible.

What is the likely distribution of the other hands? Firstly Partner has 3 Spades and it's looking like they have a singleton Diamond or something like Jxx (You can see the 3, 4, and 5 between your hand and Dummy and Declarer played the 2 on the first Diamond trick, so Partner has played their lowest Diamond). Since Declarer must have the Diamond Ace to justify their opening bid, that leaves them with probably 2 of them (A2) and Partner with J76. That in turn means Partner has 6 Clubs not including the King (which must be with Declarer). Partner is unlikely to have 5 Clubs, because there are too many Clubs missing if the 6 !C was not an echo, showing an even number). That in turn means that Declarer started with !S AJxxx, !H Jx, !D A2, !C K???.

Looking at it from another viewpoint: It is possible that Partner started with !H AJ and simply switched to a Diamond to avoid endplaying you with the Ace of Hearts (expecting you to have 6 and therefore Declarer to have 2), but it's much more likely that Partner has switch because the Ace of Hearts was his only card in the suit. In any case, you can tell that if Declarer did indeed start with a singleton Heart, 2 Diamonds and 5 Clubs, there's nothing you can do to beat this contract (because Dummy's Hearts are going away on the long Clubs or any losing Clubs Declarer has are going away on the !D Q10, because Partner's Jack will fall under the Queen).

The bottom line here is that all indications are that when winning the !D King, you should try to cash the King of Hearts rather then returning a Diamond. Declarer here had started with !S AJxxx, !HJx, !D A2, !C KJ103, and Partner with !S Q42, !H A, !D J76, !C 976542, and this was the only chance to make the !H King. Returning a Diamond, placing Partner with either the !C King or the Diamond Ace, simply doesn't take account of the bidding or the play to trick 1 (If Declarer was somehow missing the !C King, he would surely have finessed the Queen on trick 1 since he is never going to have a chance to discard it on anything from his hand).

63
Interesting Play Hands / Thinking Outside the Box...
« on: September 14, 2017, 01:46:43 PM »
Something occurred to me on this hand, but I decided against it. After the hand was over I realised that I'd actually missed the best line for 10 tricks:

Game All, Dealer West

North
 !S 974
 !H 853
 !D J
 !C AJ7542

South
 !S KJ6532
 !H -
 !D AK106
 !C 983

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

Since it was very unlikely that Eszter had that much in the way of points, I placed her with not much in Diamonds (2 at most) and length in Clubs. I had hoped for a 4th Spade and perhaps a tiny bit more in !C ( !C KQJxx was the image I had in my mind), but when Dummy went down I was disappointed because the Spades were likely to be at least 3-1, albeit onside so 4 !SX was going to be tough, but more importantly, I'd gone too needlessly high, because I could see that 4 !H was almost inevitably off. That means I have to try to make this improbably contract

West led the !H King, which I ruffed in hand. What now?

It did occur to me to try a small Diamond to the Jack at trick 2, in the hope that West would duck, placing Partner with the AK of Diamonds. If that worked, I could now lead a Spade and finesse the Jack if East didn't play the Ace, ruff my 10 !D , and lead Spades again. Against that, I was giving up a Diamond trick if West just went up with the Queen anyway. I didn't think long, because a long trance would probably give the game away, and in the end went the other route, which was to Cash the !D Ace, ruff a !D , ruff a Heart (to shorten my trumps in case the !S were 4-0), ruff a second Diamond, and now lead a trump. The second !D ruff was fatal, as it happens, because now when I lead a Spade East can rise with the Ace and lead another Heart to force me.

Worrying about whether to underlead my AK of Diamonds distracted me sufficiently, that actually I didn't see the best line for 10 tricks, which places East with !S AQx, a singleton or small doubleton Club and 3 Diamonds, and West with !C KQx and exactly 1 Spade. What I should have done was the same as I actually did up to and including the second Heart ruff in my hand. Now the position would be as follows:

North
 !S 97
 !H 8
 !D -
 !C AJ7542

South
 !S KJ65
 !H -
 !D K10
 !C 983

I've taken 4 tricks and Opps none. Now I should cash the !D Ace, discarding Dummy's last Heart and then lead a Club. If West plays low I insert the Jack and hope my estimation of the layout is correct. If, as seems more likely, West splits their Club honours, I need to duck, and now West is stymied. If they play another Club East will ruff, but now I'm in control: A red suit lead puts me back in Dummy with a ruff to lead a Spade through East's AQ and East has no answer.

I should have thought of this line, because it's entirely consistent with the bidding (West having both Club honours). Ho hum.... (Another one for Roger's list). Still, enough people were being allowed to make 4 !H that 4 !SX -1 was still a small plus score, but 4 !SX making would have been worth a whopping 14 IMPs.


The moral of this tale is that thinking outside the box is all very well, but sometimes there are much more straightforward solutions that one ought to be aiming at...

64
Interesting Play Hands / A tough hand to get Right
« on: September 14, 2017, 10:30:19 AM »
This was a tough hand that Eszter and I played yesterday. I'll show you all four hands:

Love All, Dealer North

                 North
                 !S SQ63
                 !H 108765
                 !D 85
                 !C 97
West                          East
 !S 54                          !S KJ2
 !H KQJ3                      !H 42
 !D K3                          !D J102
 !C KJ532                     !C AQ1084
                 South
                 !S 10987
                 !H A9
                 !D AQ9764
                 !C 6

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

I'm not certain I would have found Eszter's 2 !H bid opposite a WJO, and it certainly affected the defence in a big way:

Eszter led the !D 8, which was covered by Dummy's 10. Looking at all 4 hands it's easy to see that the right defence is simply to duck (or cover the 10 with the Queen and then sit back and wait for a Heart lead or for Partner to win the Ace of Spades and fire another Diamond through). I was worried, though, that the !D8 might well be a singleton and she could easily be sat there with !H KJxxxx,  or !H Q10xxxx with something like the Ace of Spades. The 2 !H bid made it much more likely that she had reasonable 6-card Hearts and allowing Declarer to win trick 1 would potentially give Declarer the tempo.

In the end I decided that there was too much of a chance that Declarer had the Ace of Spades, and that Eszter's values were mostly in Hearts (anything she had in Clubs could be picked up by Declarer in any case), so Declarer might possibly come to 9 tricks without touching the Hearts if I allowed him to win trick 1. That meant that the only chance for taking this contract off was to find Eszter with !H KJxxxx and nothing else (so notionally too weak for a Weak 2 in Hearts), and that Declarer was chancing their arm with something like !S AQxx, !H Q10x, !D Kxx, !C KJx, perhaps relying on a !H lead away from the AK.

After some thought, I went up with the !D Ace at trick 1 and switched to Ace and another Heart, which was not a great success :) . Possibly I ought to place Eszter with the Ace of Spades on the basis that Declarer is more likely to take a chance on the unbid Spade suit and to have a more rebust holding in Hearts than I was giving them credit for. As I've said before, if defence was always easy, 80% of contracts would be going off :) This was certainly one I got wrong. (You can add that to your list, Roger LOL)

65
Interesting Play Hands / Two Endplays
« on: September 11, 2017, 06:29:52 PM »
Had an interesting session with Eszter today. She found a nice endplay for an additional overtrick on this hand:

Love All, Dealer West

South (Dummy)
!S 75
!H K1084
!D AKJ62
!C AK

North
!S AKJ2
!H Q2
!D 1097
!C J732

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

(1) Transfer to Diamonds
(2) Game-forcing, 2nd suit

East duly led the !H 6 against 3NT, which was allowed to run round to Declarer's Queen, West inserting the 5. Eszter started on the Diamonds straight away, running the 10, which held. On the 9, West showed out and discarded a small Club, and on the run of the rest of the Diamonds West discarded a Club, the !H 7 and the !S 3. On the last Diamond, East discarded the !C 10.

Eszter now cashed the Ace and King of Clubs (West followed low and East played the !C 9 and then the !S 4. Now the AK of Spades, West contributing the 10 and then discarding the !H 9. West now now marked with a 5-5 in Clubs and Hearts and was clearly down to the !C Queen, so Eszter exited with the !C 7, forcing West to lead away from the AJ of Hearts.

Nice Work!!!!


Another opportunity for an endplay had fallen to me on the previous hand:

Game All, Dealer South

North (Dummy)
!S Q94
!H KQ94
!D A742
!C 102

South
!S A52
!H AJ865
!D Q3
!C 653

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

(1) Transfer to Diamonds (MOTOR)
(2) 3-level limit raise with a control feature in Diamonds (shortage or suit)

I did consider bidding 4 !H because of my useful partial fit in Diamonds (it didn't seem likely that Eszter had a !D shortage), but in the end my minimum values and semi-balanced shape persuaded me otherwise.

West, who was marked with most of the outstanding HCP, led the Spade 7. I rose with Dummy's Queen, which held. I led the Heart King, on which West showed out, discarding a small Diamond, so I switched to the Club 2. East onw this trick with the 7 and led another Heart, which ran round to Dummy's 9. Another Club, won by East's Queen, and a 3rd round of Hearts, which I won with the 8 in my hand a ruffed a Club with Dummy's last trump. On the 3 Heart tricks, West had discarded 2 Diamonds and a Spade and followed to all 3 Club tricks with the 4, 8 and Jack.

I now led a Spade to my Ace (East played low) and West played the 10. The Ace and Jack of Hearts followed, on which West played the !C King and then the !D 9 and East the !H 10 and then the !C Ace.

At this stage I'd won 8 tricks, and the position was now

North (Dummy)
!S -
!H -
!D A74
!C -

South
!S 5
!H -
!D Q3
!C -

East has shown up with the !C AQ which pretty much means that West had to have everything else to justify their Double of 1 !H. I could be fairly certain that West was left with the !S K and !D Kx (which was, in fact, the case). If I was in 4 !H, I would have endplayed West for sure, but needing only the Ace of Diamonds I didn't bother.

In practice I am always cold for 9 tricks even if I try the endplay and it doesn't work, since there were only 2 Spades left (K and J) so even if one defender has both, they still have to give me a Diamond trick at the end, as all of the Clubs and Hearts have been played. I might as well have tried the endplay that I knew was working, therefore - silly me!

66
Interesting Play Hands / Crystal Clear
« on: September 04, 2017, 02:32:47 PM »
Defence is always difficult, but sometimes the position is crystal clear, and it shouldn't be difficult to chat your way through the shoals:

You are North, EW Game, Dealer East

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

Partner, (South) leads the !S 8 and you can see

                    West (Dummy)
                    !S KQ6
                    !H A82
                    !D Q10962
                    !C A6

North (You)
!S A109543
!H 10
!D K873
!C K3

Dummy plays low. You rise with the Ace and play another Spade to Declarer's Jack, Partner's 7 and Dummy's Queen. Declarer now continues with the King os Spades, on which they throw a small Diamond and Partner ruffs. South now Cashes the Diamond Ace, drawing the Jack from Declarer, and then leads the !C Queen. Declarer rises with the Ace in Dummy and leads the !D Queen. What do you do?

                    West (Dummy)
                    !S -
                    !H A82
                    !D Q1096
                    !C 6

North (You)
!S 954
!H 10
!D K87
!C K

Here the position is crystal clear: Partner started with 2 Spades, !D Ax, probably 4-card !H (no 2 !H Opener from East) and therefore something like QJxxx in Clubs (probably QJ10 or QJ9). That means Declarer started with something like !SJx, !H KQxxx, !D Jx, !C xxxx. You must just allow the !D Queen to win, here. Declarer will discard a Club, and if yet another Diamond comes through you must duck again, in the knowledge that Partner can ruff this one. Declarer now probably has only one entry back to Dummy (A !H).

If you were really on the ball, BTW, did you think to ditch the !C King under the Ace?

Covering the Queen of Diamonds sets up the Diamonds in Dummy before partner is ready to ruff or overruff and Declarer can draw trumps ending in Dummy and enjoy all those Diamonds.

67
Interesting Play Hands / The Benefits of Counting
« on: September 02, 2017, 11:38:03 PM »
As I've said on occasion, counting the hand as best you can is the single thing that probably makes the difference between average Bridge players and advanced or expert ones. Accurate signalling by Eszter and counting guided us to a good result on this hand, on which you are South:

Game All, Dealer South

South
 !S A5
 !H AJ6
 !D KQ9
 !C A10765

Bidding
South     West     North     East
1 !C        No         1 !D        1 !S
No          3 !S       No          4 !S
All Pass

Against their 4 !S I led the !D King. This is what I could see:

West (Dummy)
 !S 10732
 !H K83
 !D 53
 !C KQJ4

                 South
                 !S A5
                 !H AJ6
                 !D KQ9
                 !C A10765

Declarer took the first trick with the Ace, Eszter contributing the 7. Declarer now led the !C 9 from hand, which stunk of a singleton, so I rose with my Ace, and my suspicions were partially confirmed when Eszter contributed the 2, showing an odd number. I cashed the Queen of Diamonds. Eszter played the 6 (showing an even number) and Declarer the Jack.

How do you plan the play from here?

.
.
.

(1) Assess the contract: No questions that Opps have overreached themselves here, because barring a !H void in the East hand, which seems very unlikely, you have 4 sure tricks.
(2) What can you expect from Partner on this hand? Allowing East a reasonable hand for their 1 !S overcall and raise to 4 !S , I felt I should expect exactly zilch in Eszter's hand.
(3) What do you think the distribution of the unseen hands is? It's looking like Partner has 3 small Clubs and 6 Diamonds. That gives East a singleton Club and AJ doubleton in Diamonds, which means Declarer has 10 cards in the Majors and partner exactly 4 cards in the Majors.
(4) Plan: It's tempting to be passive at this point and not to touch Hearts in the hope of a second Heart trick. However, If Declarer has 6-card Spades here, there is no scope for a 5th trick for the defence, because it means Declarer only has 4-card Hearts and most of them will go away on the !C KQJ. I therefore felt I had to defend on the basis that Declarer was 5-5 in the Majors, which meant that Eszter only had 2 Hearts, which in turn meant that she would have 2 Spades.

That meant there was a Heart Ruff in the offing, so I Played Ace and another Heart at trick 3 and 4, and sure enough, Eszter played the 9 and then the 4. Declarer took trick 4 in Dummy and tried the !S 10, so now I could hop up with my Ace and give Eszter a Spade ruff for our 5th trick.

Most EW Pairs stopped short of game but none were making less than 9 tricks in either Hearts or Spades, so  our +200 was a joint top. Counting really does work...

68
Interesting Play Hands / Concentrate on the Essentials!!!!
« on: September 02, 2017, 10:40:01 AM »
I keep trying to drum this into you guys, and I'll keep on doing it until the message gets through:

Love All, Dealer East

You are North, holding

North
!S AJ732
!H AKJ1063
!D -
!C 87

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

West leads the !C 9, and Partner puts down

South (Dummy)
!S 10864
!H 82
!D Q4
!C KJ643

9 !C led

North
!S AJ732
!H AKJ1063
!D -
!C 87

You try the !C J, but West wins the Queen and switches to the !H 5. You take the King and try Ace and another Spade, but West shows out on the second Spade. East wins the !S Queen and switches to a top Diamond. How do you plan to make 9 tricks?

The position is now

South (Dummy)
!S 108
!H 8
!D Q
!C K643

9 !C led

North
!S 73
!H KJ1063
!D -
!C 8

You've already lost 2 tricks and there's still the last top Spade and the Ace of Clubs to lose. The opening lead makes it almost certain that the !C Ace is with West. The thing here is that there is absolutely no time to lose. You must start on the Hearts right away. If the Hearts are 4-1 with West and East ruffs your !H King with the last trump, you will be -1, but you cannot afford to try for anything else, because you will be forced in Diamonds (and/or Clubs) and in any case you have no easy entry to Dummy to take the Heart finesse given the likely Club position. It's looking fairly certain that East started with !C 9x and West with !C AQ10x.

You must, therefore, play for the Hearts to be 3-2 (any way) or 4-1 with East. If East has 4-card Hearts you will have a marked ruffing finesse in the suit.

Partner in the North seat tried a Club to the King at this point (East played the 5) and West took the Ace and returned the !C 2. North compounded that error by ruffing this in hand (East being marked with a doubleton at this point, so Dummy's Clubs would be high enough to win the trick if East didn't ruff). East overruffed with the King and cashed the !D King. Now there was no way to sort the Hearts out and get back to hand to enjoy them and she ended up -2 on this hand when she should have been making, something like a 15 IMP difference in the score.

Even if West did start with 4-card Hearts, attacking the Hearts straight away is only -1 (which was effectively the par score), but it's the only decent chance to make, and so should be grabbed with both hands.

69
Interesting Play Hands / Loser-on Loser
« on: September 02, 2017, 09:51:13 AM »
Sometimes Opps give you opportunities to make a contract that should always be "off" and you need to grab those opportunities with both hands.

Love All, Dealer South

You are North, holding

North
!S K
!H AKQ9762
!D 104
!C A102

Partner passes, West opens a weak 2 in Diamonds, and you bid 4 !H. Everyone passes. West leads the Jack of Diamonds and Partner puts down a disappointing collection:

South (Dummy)
!S 109742
!H 85
!D Q3
!C K654

J !D led

North
!S K
!H AKQ9762
!D 104
!C A102

You cover the Diamond Jack in Dummy. West takes the AK of Diamonds and now plays the 9 !D. What do you do?

It should be absolutely automatic to discard the !S King on this trick. You're going to lose the King of Spades anyway. Yes, maybe West started with 7-card Diamonds and East is going to ruff with the 10 or Jack, but West only opened 2 !D so they might have only 6, in which case East started with !D Jxx and this will allow you to ruff in Dummy and void the Spade loser. What have you possibly got to lose? The fact is, you can only possibly gain by discarding the King of Spades on this trick.

On this hand there was no fairytale Club position. West held !H J10x and when Partner (in the North seat) ruffed the 3rd Diamond with the Queen of Hearts she was doomed. East did, in fact, have 3 Diamonds so the high ruff in hand was entirely unnecessary. Partner still had the King of Spades to lose, but now had to lose a Heart as well. In fact, she should have been -2, but a defensive error towards the end of the hand allowed her to escape for -1. The simple loser-on-loser play at trick 3 would have allowed her to make this contract for +6½ IMPs rather than being -1 for -5 IMPs.

70
Interesting Play Hands / Trump Decision
« on: September 02, 2017, 09:29:50 AM »
Most hands have hidden pitfalls. Sometimes you need to visualise how you want the hand to end near the beginning of the play and plan the play accordingly. This simple enough hand was a case in point. You are North.

Love All, Dealer West

Bidding (Opposition silent)
North           South
1 !C              1 !D
2NT(22-23)   3 !D
3 !H              3NT
4 !H              All Pass

South (Dummy)
 !S 1096
 !H Q9875
 !D Q54
 !C 93


North
!S AQ3
!H AJ104
!D AK63
!C KJ

This hand looks innocent enough. You get a helpful lead of a small Club from East. West takes the Ace and returns a Club to your King. How do you plan the play?

If Diamonds are 3-3 you're always okay, because a losing Spade will go away on the long Diamond. It's more likely that the Diamonds willnot be 3-3, however, and if the !H King and !S KJ are all with East, you have 4 potential losers on this hand. That is what you need to plan for.

The idea should be to draw trumps in however many rounds, eliminate the Diamonds by taking 3 top Diamonds and ruffing the 4th in Dummy if necessary, and then run the 10 !S . If East wins, they will be endplayed to give you a ruff and discard or lead a Spade back into your AQ.

You do not, therefore, have the luxury of playing Ace and another Heart to draw trumps quickly, because if West has the King it gives them an early opportunity to lead a Spade through your hand before you've eliminated the Diamonds. Keeping West away from the lead is a crucial ingredient of our plan.

A Diamond to the Queen and then running one of Dummy's higher Hearts (remaining in Dummy if West doesn't cover, of course) should be the plan. If East wins, all they can do is to play another Heart or a Diamond, and we can revert to our original plan. If West has the Heart King, we draw trumps in however many rounds, eliminate the Diamonds and then endplay East in Spades for the overtrick.

On this hand West did indeed have the !H King, and East did have !S KJx. Eszter played Ace and another Heart and West duly switched to a Spade. Eszter came out okay, because the Diamonds were 3-3 and a losing Spade went away on the 4th Diamond.

71
Interesting Play Hands / Trusting Partner's signals
« on: August 31, 2017, 01:20:57 PM »
Defence is difficult at the best oftimes. Defensive signalling is intended to make life significantly easier for us, but you have to trust your Partner's signals. With o/e signals and discards, the first one is normally the most critical. The other lesson from this hand, is always to make your signals as crystal clear as possible, and try not to do anything that might confuse Partner or seem to conflict with an earlier signal (not always possible, I concede). The following hand is a really excellent example:

You are North, EW Game, Dealer South.

Bidding
West         East
1 !D           1 !S
2 !C           3 !D
3NT

You are holding

North
 !S 643
 !H 963
 !D AKQ
 !C 10752

What can you presume from the bidding? First of all West is going to be short in Spades, because they rebid 2 !C rather than 1NT and presumably have 9 cards in the Minors and probably 3-card Hearts with likely 2 Heart stops. East probably has 10-11 hcp. They have 4 or 5 Spades and probably 4-card Diamonds.

What does that mean for Partner? South is marked with length in both Majors and a definite Diamond shortage.

Eszter (in the North seat) decided to play Partner for some weight in Clubs (not an unreasonable assumption) and led the Club 7. Dummy went down and this is what she could see:

East (Dummy)
 !S AK108
 !H 54
 !D J10854
 !C Q8
               North
               !S 643
               !H 963
               !D AKQ
               !C 10752

On trick 1, Declarer played the !C Queen from Dummy and the 6 from hand, South contributing a discouraging 4. This is important to note, because the 3 and the 9 are still unaccounted for, so it's extremely unlikely that South has any help in Clubs and probably has just the 4 and the 3. (With J43, they would probably encourage with the 3).

Declarer led a small Diamonds from Dummy to their 9 and you take your Queen (South plays the 4). What now?

Have our presumptions about the outstanding hands changed at all? Yes, slightly: We now know that West started with 4 Diamonds only and so probably 5-card Clubs (no 1NT rebid). If 3-card hearts, then definitely a Spade singleton.

Since East has only 4-card Spades, Partner is pretty much guaranteed to be 5-5 in the Majors. Their exact Heart holding is still a matter for conjecture, but they probably have something like !S QJ9xx. If that is the case it's essential to get the Spades going as soon as possible.

Eszter clearly didn't try to analyse what was going on in the South/West hands, because at trick 3 she led another Club to West's 9 (South playing the 3). Another Diamond followed, taken by North's King, South showing out and asking for a Spade with the !S 7. Eszter duly switched to the !S 6. Declarer rose with Dummy's King, South playing the 2 and Declarer the 5. The !D 10 followed, South discarding the !H 7.

Now what?

East (Dummy)
 !S A108
 !H 54
 !D J8
 !C -
               North
               !S 43
               !H 963
               !D -
               !C 105

Does the !H 7 change anything? Absolutely not! We've won 3 tricks to this point and Declarer has taken 2 Clubs and a top Spade. Getting rid of Dummy's other top Spade must be the priority. If Partner doesn't have the Ace of Hearts, we cannot defeat this contract, n because Declarer will have 5 Clubs, 2 Spades, 2 Diamonds and the Ace of Hearts, but we must drive out the Spade Ace in case Partner does have the Ace of Hearts, because Declarer can only get off Dummy in Hearts in order to reach their long Clubs. At trick 7, therefore, it's essential to continue the Spade attack. You cannot really rely on the !H 7 as a signal because Partner's choice of Heart discards may be somewhat constrained (Give them !H AQJ72, for example).

In fact I held !H AQ1087 and as South I could have made Eszter's job much easier here by discarding the !H 10 rather than the 7, but since Declarer is marked with a Spade shortage and at least 1 Heart stop, I'd already signalled for Spades and clearly she'd "received and understood" that message, it never occurred to me that she might now forget about the Spade request and switch to a Heart instead (but it should have occurred to me, because that's exactly what she did, switching to the !H 6). I can take my Ace of Hearts but now we have no way to prevent Declarer from taking the rest. A Spade continuation dooms Declarer to -2 whatever they do.

72
Interesting Play Hands / Taking the Right Finesse
« on: August 31, 2017, 11:51:05 AM »
An interesting play problem cropped up on a hand I played with oktay yesterday:


NS Game, Dealer East

You are North and you and Partner have bid to 4 !S via the following bidding (Opps Silent)


Bidding
South      North
Pass             1 !C
1NT(1)          2 !S(2)
2NT(3)          3 !C(4)
4 !C(5)          4 !S
All Pass

(1) Spades
(2) Gamma in Spades
(3) No top honour (any length)
(4) Relay Beta (Weak Scale)
(5) 4 Controls (must be two Aces)

South (Dummy)
!S 86542
!H 73
!D A7
!C A982

North
!S AK9
!H KQJ6
!D QJ6
!C KJ10

This is a good contract any time the Spades are 3-2. 3NT is perhaps marginally superior, but the System prevented that because of my hideously expensive 4 !C response to Relay Beta.

East led the !H 10, which ran round to Declarer's King. okaty tried the AK of Spades, but West played the Queen on the first trick and then the !D 2 on the second. Now oktay played the Jack of Hearts, won by East's Ace, and East now cashed the Jack of Spades (West discarded another small Diamond) and then switched to the 4 of Diamonds. How do you plan the play from here?

oktay did well initially to go up with the !D Ace rather than trying to run it round to his Queen (West plays the !D 10), since West had the !D King. The question is how to play the Clubs. Nobody has yet played a Club. You can presume that West is likely to have the Club length, since it's looking like East is at least 4-4 in the Majors and probably didn't start with a Diamond shortage, or they might have led one at trick 1. Taking an immediate Club finesse against West (which is what oktay did) is a perfectly reasonable line to take, therefore.

There is a counter-argument that it's perhaps safer to cross to the !C King, and cash the !H Queen in order to discard Dummy's Diamond loser. Now the maximum you can go off is -1 (you still have a second Spade to lose, remember). oktay played a small Club from Dummy and inserted his Jack, losing to East's singleton !C Queen. That was 3 tricks lost and he still had the 10 !S and a Diamond to lose. -2 was not a great success.

No question that oktay was very unlucky here. Playing West for the !C Queen is certainly with the odds and there's no question that East did very well not to lead the Club Queen at trick 1 to try for a ruff (they'd be ruffing with a natural trump trick anyway and seeking a ruff in those circumstances is not normally a good idea).

Do you play safe for a maximum loss of -1 or risk -2 by playing with the odds? Difficult question.

73
Interesting Play Hands / Spotting the Right Play
« on: August 21, 2017, 03:53:29 PM »
Sometimes the right play is easy to spot, but sometimes it is more difficult. Take this hand, in which you are North. NS Game, Dealer East:


South (Dummy)
!S 10863
!H A52
!D AK864
!C 5


North (You)
!S KQJ975
!H 10874
!D 5
!C 108


Bidding
East     South     West     North
No        1 !D         2 !C       2 !S
3 !C      3 !S         5 !C        No
No        5 !S         X            All Pass


East leads the Ace of Clubs, to which all play small, and then switches to the Queen of Hearts. You take Dummy's Ace and West plays the !H King under the Ace. How do you plan the play?


Let's suppose you start with AK and another Diamond, discarding a Heart from hand (West plays the 9 and the Jack and East two small ones). Now a !D ruff brings the !D Queen from West and the 7 from East. A Club ruffed in Dummy and now the 10 of Spades (everyone plays small). A Diamond rufffed in hand brings a Club from West and the !D 10 from East.


What now?



South (Dummy)
!S 86
!H 52
!D 6
!C -


North (You)
!S KQJ
!H 108
!D -
!C -


You have to figure two things at this point: West probably started with a stiff !H King, definitely !D QJ9 and at least !C KQJxxx(x), and almost certainly !S Ax (It difficult to imagine East ducking the 10 !S, but West might well, in the hope that Partner has something and you misguess, or in case partner has the stiff King).


Can you see it yet? If West started with the stiff King of Hearts and !S Ax, we know they are out of Diamonds, so a Spade now will endplay West, who will only have Clubs left) to give us a ruff 'n' discard, and and crucial entry to Dummy to enjoy the  long Diamond and all of our Heart losers will disappear in the process like magic, one discarded on the Club that Dummy is about to ruff and one on the long Diamond.


Unfortunately Partner didn't spot this opportunity and exited with a Heart, so we were -500 and minus 11½ IMPs rather than plus the same IMP score for 5 !SX=.


I think this endplay isn't too hard to spot. West might unblock the King from !H Kx, but at trick 1 it's more likely that it's a singleton, especially when Declarer might hand 1098(x). The critical issue here, though, is the probable location of the Ace of Spades. If, as seems almost certain, West has the Ace, you might as well try the endplay. If West does turn up with a second Heart or East unaccountably does hold the !S Ace, then you've lost nothing.


One last thing: When you were ruffing Diamonds, did you preserve the 5 or the 7 in your hand, to give you an extra entry to Dummy (even if you end up not needing it)? That's just good practice, and when the only missing Spades are the Ace, 4 and 2, it can hardly cost you anything.

74
Interesting Play Hands / Playing with Fire...
« on: August 18, 2017, 06:33:51 PM »
"Holding up" is a well known and very valuable tactic in No Trump Contracts and its usefulness in breaking communications between the defenders' hands cannot be underestimated. However, there are occasions when it is definitely not right to hold up, even once. Take this hand. You are Declarer in a 3NT Contract. The bidding doesn't matter but it was an OCP sequence 1 !C - 1 !D - 1 !H - 1 !S - 1NT - 3NT)


South (Dummy)
!S A108
!H 85
!D Q10852
!C J96


North (You)
!S K42
!H A64
!D AK
!C KQ1075


East leads the !S 7. You try the 8 from Dummy and East plays the Queen. Eszter, who was declaring this hand, ducked this trick which was a potentially fatal mistake, for two reasons, one greedy, but the other absolutely vital:


Firstly, there's no particular reason not to take the play to trick 1 at face value. If the Spade Honours are split, Dummy now has the !S A10 sat over East's Jack, so holding up here just gives up a trick unnecessarily.


Secondly, and this is the really vital point, you cannot afford to hold up in Spades, because you cannot cope with a Heart switch by West. Even if the Hearts are 4-4, you know you must lose a Club and 3 Hearts potentially. If you concede a Spade as well, that means you will only gain 8 tricks before Opps get 5.


At the table, West just unimaginatively carried on with a second Spade, even though they held only !S Qx and had QJxxx in Hearts and the Ace of Clubs. Eszter was able to clear the Clubs and ended up with 11 tricks, but a Heart switch at trick 2 leaves her inevitably 1 trick short.


If you are more vulnerable in a different suit, but fairly well heeled in the suit Opps have initially led, then it is rarely a good idea to hold up, especially when, as here, you as Declarer can see 2 Spades, a heart, 3 Diamonds and 4 Club tricks are going to be your for 10 tricks if you don't hold up.


In practice, on this hand, West will come under considerable pressure on the run of the Clubs and might well discard a Diamond from !D J9xx, which will allow you 12 tricks if you later take the Spade finesse as well. There is a case for cashing the !D AK to unblock the suit before starting on the Clubs, just in case East has the Club Ace and the Jack of Spades is with West after all. That would make a discard of a Diamond improbable, but your 10 tricks are still 100% safe.

75
Interesting Play Hands / A Tricky Contract
« on: August 15, 2017, 10:28:58 AM »
This was a really interesting hand Eszter and I played yesterday. Positions switched for ease of reference

EW Game, Dealer North

North
 !S K10
 !H AJ6543
 !D A5
 !C A83

South
 !S AQ872
 !H K7
 !D Q963
 !C 76

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

(1) Alpha in !H
(2) No !H Support, 0-3 Controls
(3) Gamma in !S
(4) HHxxx or HHHxx in !S

I was North. After the negative response to my Alpha in Hearts, I decided to forget them (it was a fairly anaemic suit) and go for Partner's Spades.

West led the !C King against 4 !S . You take Dummy's Ace (East playing a small Club). How do you plan the play? If the Spades are behaving not too bad, then the Hearts probably aren't, and vice versa, since it looks like West has 7-card Clubs. Either way, East almost certainly has the length in Diamonds, so it's reasonable at this stage to place the !D King with them.

Eszter decided to play East for something like !S Jxxx  and played to pin the !S 9 in the West hand. She played a Spade to Dummy's King and then ran the 10 on the next round. That's a reasonable enough shot, but didn't come off on this occasion, since West had !S Jxx.

I feel that probably that's a case of putting most of your eggs in one basket, because you can't afford to willingly let West back in to cash another Club and then force us in Clubs. If The Spades are 4-2 and East gets a Spade trick, it's unlikely thatthey can do you much damage because (1) they probably don't have another Club, (2) we've provisionally placed them with the Diamonds, and (3) they can't hurt you in Hearts either.

Anyway, West wins the Jack of Spades, cashes the Queen of Clubs (East discards a Diamond), and then the Jack of Clubs (East discards another Diamond and you ruff). A third round of Spades now reveals the 3-3 split. The big question now is what you discard from Dummy on the 3rd Spade.

This was Eszter's crucial error, I feel. She discarded Dummy's losing Diamond, pinning all of her hopes on a 3-2 Heart split, but I feel that is ignoring the evidence from the opening lead, the bidding, and what she knows of the hand so far:
  • We know West started with 7 Clubs and 3 Spades and so only 3 red cards
  • If West started with 2 Hearts, that gives then a singleton Diamond and they would probably have tried for a Diamond ruff at trick 1 rather than leading the !C King.
  • If West has 2 Diamonds, that means the Hearts are 4-1, probably with East holding !H Q10xx
You can't, therefore, afford to discard a Diamond from Dummy. Even if the Hearts do turn out to be 3-2, you only need 2 discards on the Hearts to make your contract, but if they're 4-1, as seems likely, you will need to be able to lead a Diamond towards your Queen. East has already discarded 2 Diamonds, so there is a decent chance of establishing your Diamonds if the Diamonds were 5-2 originally (because they're now 3-2, East having discarded a couple).

So now cash the King of Hearts (West plays the 9), and try a Hearts towards the Ace (West discards a Club). Now you know you can forget the Hearts and Play Ace and another Diamond. Knowing East started with 5 Diamonds, it's definitely with the odds to place them with the King. Their Diamond discards don't really mean anything in that respect, because they can't afford to discard a Heart, ever. If East goes up with the King, the rest are yours. If they don't, win the Queen and clear the Diamonds.

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