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Topics - OliverC

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1
Interesting Play Hands / An Instructive Hand for Assumptions & Counting
« on: January 04, 2022, 08:36:15 PM »
Hi All,

This was a very instructive hand I came up against earlier today while playing with Servet.
You are South at Green vs Red and end up in 3NT after the following auction:

North
!S 982
!H A95
!D 94
!C AJ1074

South
!S K4
!H QJ7
!D A102
!C KQ985

Bidding:
North     East    South    West
No          1 !D     1NT       No
3NT       All Pass

Yes, my 1NT was a little pushy, but Servet's 3NT was bang on.
West led the !D Jack which did not look too promising for the Diamonds splitting 4-4. That won the first trick, East's King took the second round and East then continued the !D 7 on the 3rd round, West following with the 3 and then the 6, while I discarded a Spade from Dummy on the 3rd round. How do you take stock of the hand? At first sight it looks fairly hopeless as Opps will almost certainly make 3 Diamonds, a Spade and a Heart.

Well firstly, you have to make the assumption that the Diamonds really are 4-4, because on the bidding East surely has the !S Ace and !H King to go along with the !D KQ. If East has 5-card Diamonds you are definitely off. In retrospect the best tactic here is to play a Club to the 10 and lead a Spade, because East is more likely to hold up their Ace (which is essential for you) if you play a Spade early on.

I decided to put them under a little pressure first, however, and get a better count on the hand so I played 4 rounds of Clubs ending in Dummy, to which West played 2 Clubs and 2 Hearts and East played 1 Club, 2 Hearts and a Spade.

East had to be 4441 and West 4342 to start with if our assumption about the Diamonds is correct. Now I played a Spade and went up with the King with East played low. Now I had him: I cashed my 5th round of Clubs (East throwing a Spade) and then exited with a Spade to endplay him. He could take his !D Queen, but then had to lead away from !H Kx.

A simple enough endplay but easy to miss if you're not counting the hand. Once you make the assumption that the !D's have to be 4-4 that really limits the number of HCP that West can have when they do not bid 2 !D with 4-card !D support for partner, which 100% rules out them having the !H King. When they show up with the !D Jack at trick 1, the most they can have is the Jack or possibly the Queen of Spades. Also, once East shows up with only 1 Club, they have to be exactly 4441 if you assumption about the Diamonds is correct or they would have opened a 5-card Major. Once you have that straight it's easy to count their discards and even drop their !H King if they get tricky and blank it in order to keep 3 Spades.

A better player than the East I faced might well have discarded 3 small Hearts and only a single Spade on the last Club to try to fool you into taking the !H finesse. They would certainly have spotted the endplay coming a mile away and gone up with the !S Ace on the first Spade trick, cashing the !D Queen and then exiting with a Spade to wait for their !H trick. You have to give Opps a chance to go wrong when the situation seems hopeless, though.

The full hand: https://tinyurl.com/yyztts6n

2
Interesting Play Hands / Double Bath Coup and a Triple Squeeze!
« on: January 02, 2022, 01:05:58 PM »
I really enjoyed this hand in a TM with Servet today:


North
 !S AJ
 !H Q7
 !D K10973
 !C K876


 !C 3 led


South
 !S Q103
 !H A63
 !D J54
 !C AJ95


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


Dummy's !C 6 could have won the first trick, but I took it in hand with the 9 and led the !D 4 to West's Queen, Dummy's King and East's Ace. East thought for a while and then switched to a Spade, taken by Dummy's Jack. I decided then that West had started with !S Kxxxx, !H Kxx, !D Q and !C Q10xx to justify his 2 !S bid and that he was vulnerable in 3 suits . To make sure I took the !D Jack and another !D (West showing out as expected).

So we now have

North
 !S A
 !H Q7
 !D 107
 !C K87

South
 !S Q10
 !H A63
 !D -
 !C AJ5

The key to making 12 tricks was now a bath coup in both Majors: I led the !H 7 to my Ace and the !S 10 back to Dummy's Ace and then ran the last two Diamonds, discarding Hearts from hand. On the last Diamond West, now down to !S K, !H K and !C Q10x had to let something go and discarded the !S King. Now I could cross back to the !C Ace in hand and cash the !S Q, squeezing him again in !C and !H .

...before the last Diamond:

North
 !S -
 !H Q
 !D 7
 !C K87

South
 !S Q
 !H 3
 !D -
 !C AJ5

The opportunities for triple squeezes don't come up very often. It was satisfying to spot the opportunity as early as trick 2, based on the bidding and the fact that East couldn't beat the !C 6 on the first trick and West obviously having the stiff !D Queen at trick 2.

Making 3 overtricks was a great result. At the other table the same contract got a !S lead. Declarer won with the !S Jack, took the losing !C finesse and when West knocked out the !S Ace at trick 3 Declarer was unable to recover and went one off.


https://tinyurl.com/y4px66sy

3
Interesting Play Hands / Tempo
« on: July 07, 2019, 06:56:07 PM »
Playing in tempo can be extremely important. Sometimes the slightest hesitation can give the game away, and your subtle subterfuges will all come to naught. Often you have to try to anticipate what might happen so that you can be ready to play in tempo so as not to give the game away. Holding up your King with Kx when Dummy holds AQJxxx in a suit with no side entries is a well known ploy (when you think Declarer only has 2 of the suit).

Another situation came up today in a hand I played with oktay. You are North, the Dealer at Game All. You are holding

North
 !S A432
 !H Q7
 !D QJ3
 !C J954

After 2 passes, partner opens a weak 2 !H . This is passed round to East, who protects with 3 !C , and West's 3NT ends the auction. You select the !H Queen as your opening lead and Dummy goes down. This is what you can see:

East (Dummy)
 !S Q65
 !H 9
 !D K94
 !C KQ10872

                North
                !S A432
                !H Q7
                !D QJ3
                !C J954

Using o/e signals, Partner plays the !H 4 on trick 1, which Declarer wins in hand with the King. Declarer cashes the !C Ace (Partner contributes the 3) and then tanks for half a minute. What are you thinking about in the meantime?

The play at trick 1 suggests that Declarer has !H AKxx or AK10x. You know about the !C Ace, but the current pause suggests that Declarer started with the stiff !C Ace, as otherwise his second Club would have hit the table already. Declarer will also have either the !D Ace or the !S King, but probably not both of those cards, or Partner will have opened vulnerable with something like a 2-count. If Partner has the !S King then you cannot prevent an entry to Dummy in Diamonds, but if Partner has the Diamond Ace, the whole hand might revolve around trying to prevent Declarer from reaching Dummy with the !S Queen. It's entirely possible that the hand is going off whatever the position, because you know Declarer probably only has 1 entry to Dummy, and the Clubs are not going to run, and if Declarer has the !S King you cannot prevent them from reaching Dummy with the Queen, but you need to work the hand out as best you can.

After his tank, Declarer plays the !S King. If you hesitate, even for a moment, especially if you going to duck, then you've given the game away, because you only have something to think about if you have the Ace. If you end up taking the trick, a pause doesn't matter, but a pause before ducking is foolish. oktay thought for about 10 seconds and then ducked.

As it happened, Declarer was clearly not paying any attention, because he then played the !S 10 and then, after another pause, ran it and lost to partner's Jack. A 3rd Spade went to your Ace (all following) and you could cash your 4th Spade (Dummy & Declarer discarding Diamonds and Partner a Heart) before leading the !D Queen, allowing partner to take Declarer's King with their Ace and return a Diamond to your Jack. You exit with your 3rd Diamond and Declarer has to concede 1 Heart trick to South for -2.

This contract was probably doomed from the start, but you have to realise that You can work out that Partner has the !D Ace or the !S King, but Declarer cannot be sure. From their viewpoint South might or might not have the !S Ace and/or the !D Ace, so best to keep them guessing.

4
Interesting Play Hands / A Nice Burns Law Violation
« on: June 26, 2019, 10:29:48 AM »
Metin and I had a chuckle about this hand, which played quite nicely (with a little help from Opps): You're North, the Dealer, with NS Vulnerable. You open 1 !D (Complex Sys) and this is passed out. East leads the !H King and this is what you can see:

South (Dummy)
!S J642
!H 86
!D 102
!C KQJ42

!H King led

North
!S 105
!H A95
!D A95
!C A8763

Not promising - this could easily end up as -3 if Opps attack trumps.

Metin took the first trick and exited with a Heart. East won and obligingly continued the suit, allowing Dummy to ruff. Metin exited with a small Spade to his 10 and East's King. East even more obligingly played a 4th round of Hearts allowing Dummy to ruff and Declarer to discard his other losing Spade.

Now a Spade ruff, a Club to Dummy's King and a second Spade ruff allowed Metin to make every single one of his trumps separately. That rare score of +70 was worth 2.2 IMPs even though 3 !C is trivially easy, because 10 tricks in Hearts are fairly easy for EW whether they bid game or not.

Ok, this needed a lot of help from East but there is something very pleasing about escaping the hangman :)

5
Interesting Play Hands / A Unlikely Game
« on: June 09, 2019, 07:58:47 PM »
Bridge is a really weird game at times. Take this hand that Eszter and I played earlier today. You are North, EW Game and East is the Dealer.

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

East led a small Diamond against 4 !HX and this is what Eszter could see:

South (Dummy)
 !S Q8
 !H 73
 !D 72
 !C AKJ10965

 !D 4 led

North
 !S 75
 !H AJ1098
 !D AQJ108
 !C 3

Not a very promising looking game. 3 certain losers in the Majors and it doesn't look as if the Hearts will be splitting nicely. Moreover Declarer has only one sure entry to dummy to take a Heart finesse.

Still things look up when West plays the !D King at trick 1. Eszter tried the !D Queen at trick 2, but East ruffed low and exited with a small Club. Eszter rose with the Ace and dropped West's singleton Queen. What now?

Well things are certainly looking a little more promising now the Minor suit position is known. Eszter continued with the !C King, West ruffed low and Eszter overruffed. Now the !D Jack produced the !H King from East and Eszter discarded a Spade from Dummy. East cashed the !S King and then continued with another Club, ruffed by West and overruffed by Eszter (I think a Spade continuation gives Declarer little or no chance). Eszter had now lost 3 tricks, but was in full command: She ruffed a Spade with Dummy's !H 3 and put West to the sword with the !C 10.

At this point, West could have made it slightly more awkward for Eszter by not ruffing. Eszter would then have to deliberately shorten her trumps by ruffing Dummy's winner, then ruff the !D 8 with Dummy's last trump and then lead the !C 9 to leave West nowhere to go. This was the interesting position after Dummy ruffed Eszter's 2nd Spade.

South (Dummy)
 !S
 !H 7
 !D -
 !C 10965

North
 !S -
 !H AJ10
 !D 108
 !C -

West is known to have !H Q6, !D 96 and a Spade (probably the Ace or East would have opened 2 !S with an 11-count). Eszter has to get the timing right if West doesn't ruff the !C 10. If West discards a Diamond and Eszter doesn't shorten her trumps immediately she will be unable to return to Dummy for the final trump coup. As it happened West obligingly ruffed, allowing Eszter to overruff for the 3rd time, return to Dummy by ruffing her !D 8, and then applying the coup de grace by leading the !C 9. If West ruffs with her Queen, Eszter overruffs and her hand is now good. If West discards her !S Ace, Eszter simply discards the !D 10 and can claim the final trick.

Well done Eszter! (...even if I disagree with the 4 !H bid LOL)

6
Interesting Play Hands / A Tricky One
« on: May 28, 2019, 08:14:11 AM »
Eszter shone in her play of this tricky hand. You are North at Love All and the bidding has gone:

South     West     North     East
No           1 !D       2 !C        No
No           X           All Pass

East led the !D 6 and this is what Eszter could see:

South (Dummy)
!S J10
!H QJ2
!D J109532
!C Q6

North
!S AQ84
!H A54
!D 8
!C A10832

Yes, it could have been worse but it was clear East had a Club stack and a Diamond shortage. West took the opening lead and continued with the !D Ace. Eszter ruffed low and was overruffed by East, who exited with a small Heart, which went Queen, King, Ace. Eszter wisely resisted the urge to do anything with trumps early on, crossed back to the !H Jack and led the !S Jack. West covered and Eszter took her Ace.

Now Eszter led a small Club. East played low and West's singleton Jack fell under the Queen. Eszter cashed the !S 10 and exited with a Heart, which was won by East's 9 (Given East's lead of a small Heart earlier, West probably thought this was getting ruffed, but I think they should have risen with the 10 regardless).

East was now comprehensively endplayed. He tried exiting with the !C 9, but Eszter won her 10 and then played the !S Queen and exited with her last Spade to endplay East again for a valuable doubled overtrick.

Well played! The trick here was to resist the urge to play on trumps too early and then to only lead them once. East was always going to be vulnerable to being endplayed by their own trump length.

7
Interesting Play Hands / Assumption is the Mother of all...
« on: May 18, 2019, 10:27:07 PM »
Metin (Arda85) and I had an interesting session this morning with Metin trying his hand at the Complex Sys (with a good degree of success). One hand well pointed up the inadvisability of  interfering against multi-style openings until your Opps have clarified their hand somewhat.

At game all I opened 2NT on the following motley collection:

 !S AJ1042
 !H J10843
 !D Q
 !C KQ

My LHO clearly assumed I had the Minors or Clubs and overcalled 2 !H . Metin doubled and I was perfectly happy to pass that for penalties. Metin was in the very happy position of knowing that I must have the Majors, because he was sat with

 !S K3
 !H 9
 !D AK106
 !C AJ10972

Poor Declarer was sat with !H AKQ52 and the Spade Queen and Dummy just had !D Jxxx. When the dust settled we let Declarer off with -4 for 1100 (could have got one more with perfect defence). One pair found and made the vastly inferior Spade slam but nobody found the much better Club slam and +1100 was pretty good.

This kind of situation is similar to Brozel/DONT Doubles over 1NT and defending against a Multi. You really are generally better off letting Opps define their hand-type before you jump in with both feet. Sometimes if you're 4th-in hand, you don't have that option, but when you're 2nd-in-hand over the Multi-style opening, you usually can count on a 2nd chance.


We had one nice bidding hand for the system, which was rewarded with a top. Metin responded flawlessly on this:

NS Vulnerable, Dealer West

North
 !S J8
 !H AK104
 !D AK
 !C 108643

South
 !S AK1074
 !H 63
 !D AK
 !C AKQ5

Bidding (nothing from Opps)
North          South
1 !D              1NT(1)
2 !C (2)          2 !D (3)
3 !H (4)          4 !C (5)
4 !D (6)          4 !S (7)
5 !C ( 8 )        7 !C (9)

(1) 14+ any shape
(2) 5+ Clubs
(3) Range Beta
(4) Max, 6 Controls
(5) Gamma in Clubs
(6) No Top Honour
(7) Epsilon in Spades (To guard against !S xxx)
( 8 ) 3rd round control of Spades
(9) Knew North couldn't have the !S Queen with AKAK in the Reds, so wasn't remotely tempted to try for 7NT.

The Clubs were 3-1 but the Spades were 3-3 so no problems. Amazingly, nobody else found 7 !C and the Grand was worth 15 IMPs. Overall, Metin showed a very good grasp of the system, so please give him a game if you get the chance.

8
Interesting Play Hands / Preserving Entries
« on: January 27, 2018, 06:51:32 PM »
The ability to move freely between the two hands is a really precious commodity. Sometimes, entries to one hand or another are few in number and on such occasions you need to protect those entries like mad, and work hard to create other entries where possible. This was a simple hand, but it shows the difference when you do the above rather than using up entries needlessly or squandering them:

Love All, Dealer East

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

South (Dummy)
!S K76
!H J1062
!D J74
!C J83

!S Queen led

North
!S A53
!H KQ7
!D AQ652
!C A9

I knew Eszter had a strong hand from her bidding, and clearly the !S King was well placed, but I didn't feel my motley collection justified any movement over 3 !D (rightly as it turned out - the Spade lead gives the defence a tempo and a Club lead would have given Declarer real problems in 3NT, since West had !C Q10xxx).

East led the !S Queen. How do you assess your chances and how do you play?

Firstly, Declarer needs to recognise that the majority of the outstanding high cards will be with East rather than West, so the chances of the !H Ace and !D King being with West are greatly reduced. You have only one sure entry to Dummy, which is the !S King and even that will be under threat if the Spades are 6-1 (which is a serious threat given the bidding).

Safest, therefore, to take that entry while it's a relatively sure thing, so win trick 1 in Dummy with the King. Now what? There's absolutely no incentive to delay attacking trumps, but how is it best to play the suit? With no other considerations low from Dummy to the Queen is the best play, but you might play differently in this situation when it's more likely that the finesse of the Queen will lose (eg: Small to the Ace and small back towards the Jack, which might gain you a tempo when East ducks with !D Kxx in case partner has the doubleton Queen). One thing is sure, there are two very good reasons why you should not lead the Jack here:
  • You inevitably lose an extra Diamond trick when West has the singleton King, and lose a !D trick unnecessarily when West has !D Kx
  • More critically, when the finesse loses, you have not gained back an entry to Dummy. If the finesse of the Queen loses, the Jack becomes an entry
(2) Above pretty much determines how you should play, which is the standard "best line" of small to your Queen. If East has the King, Dummy's Jack is now an entry. Why is this important? Well the Jack of Hearts is why: You want to enjoy Dummy's 4th Heart in order to be able to discard either a losing Club or a losing Spade from your hand. You cannot rely on an entry in Hearts themselves if whichever defender holds the Ace holds up twice and takes the 3rd round.

Eszter led the Jack of Diamonds, which lost to East's King. East now solved our problem, however, by promptly leading out the !H Ace!. Now what? If you just played the !H 7 from your hand, then this post is aimed at you, because there is absolutely no reason not to play the !H King or Queen under the Ace, thereby gaining an entry to Dummy's long Heart in the Heart suit itself. If you play the 7 on auto-pilot you've blocked the Hearts and can never get rid of a black suit loser.

If you were leading the Heart suit yourself, you'd start with the King and then the Queen in order to force out the Ace. Why play any differently when Opps freely play the Ace of their own accord? Okay, we're only talking about a relatively insignificant overtrick on this occasion, but if you don't get into the habit of unblocking suits like this automatically and actively seeking to create entries at every opportunity, then you will find it much harder to do so when it's critical to the success of your contract.

9
Interesting Play Hands / Counting the hand
« on: January 27, 2018, 02:08:04 PM »
Another good hand on counting:

Love All, Dealer West

South (Dummy)
!S 7
!H A874
!D A854
!C J654

!C 10 led

South
!S AQ1082
!H KJ96
!D Q10
!C K8

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

(1) Majors
(2) Pre-emptive

I think Eszter and I were on the same wavelength here: With a genuine invitation I can bid a slow 3 !H, so my fast one  is more pre-emptive than anything else, but North has values to spare.

On the lead of the !C 10, West played low and your King wins the first trick. How do you plan the play? The bidding has told you where all the high cards are. If West's 1NT is 15-17, then there is no room for East to have more than a single Jack, so the location of the !S King, !H Queen, !D King and the !C AQ should not be in doubt. How, therefore, should you play the hand?

Eszter played a Heart to Dummy's Ace and another Heart back, capturing West's Queen on the second Heart. Now the !S Ace and a Spade ruff allowed her to lead a Diamond towards her Queen. West took their King, cashed the !C Ace and tried to cash the Queen, but Eszter was in control: She ruffed, cashed the !D Queen, ruffed another Spade, cashed the !D Ace and the !H Jack was her 10th trick.

Good enough, and few NS Pairs bid this game, so 10 tricks was a decent result. At the end, though, Easter left the !C Jack alone at trick 12, when actually she could have cashed it and discarded the !S Queen for an 11th trick (East had the last Heart and a Club left). There are a number of decent lines for 11 tricks here, mostly based on taking the !S finesse instead of a second round of Hearts.

(In fact, 12 tricks can be made on this hand, based on the bidding, our count of the hand, and a little luck: A !H to the Ace at trick 2, then the Spade finesse and a Spade ruff without cashing the Ace. Now a small Club off the table almost endplays West and leaves them with no decent option except exiting with the !H Queen. Now another !S ruff and a Club ruffs out West's Ace and Declarer can draw East's last trump, cash all the Spades and enjoy Dummy's !D Ace and !C Jack for the last two tricks.)

Opportunities for endplays (and squeezes) abound when you know for a fact that one defender holds everything, as here. In such circumstances it's always worth trying to come up with a line of play that puts such a defender under as much pressure as possible and takes advantage of their predicament.

10
Interesting Play Hands / Trump tactics
« on: January 27, 2018, 10:45:41 AM »
Eszter and I got into a slightly dodgy slam on this hand (entirely my fault, I concede), but Declarer's tactics in the play of the hand is a point well worth making as it potentially applies to many other hands:

EW Game, Dealer South

South (Dummy)
!S J
!H A85
!D AKQ9
!C AQ864

!D 5 led

North
!S A83
!H Q10976
!D J72
!C KJ

Bidding (Opps silent)
South     North
1 !C         1 !H
1NT(1)     2 !D(2)
2 !H(3)     2NT(4)
3 !C(5)     3NT(6)
6 !H(7)     All Pass

(1) Beta
(2) 3 Controls
(3) Gamma in Hearts
(4) Hxxxx in Hearts
(5) Epsilon in Clubs
(6) 2nd and 3rd round control.
(7) A little risky. Good when North has !S Ace and !H QJ10xx, but hopeless when North has the !S King and !H Kxxxx. Not a great slam when North has what they actually had, either. :) I probably should have gone quietly here, but decided not to...

The Play
On a !D lead, how should you approach the play? It's a given that you need something nice to happen in Hearts, but even if you assume that something nice is going to happen there, the hand still needs some care.
The important question is this: Do you need to worry about trying to ruff North's losing Spades with South's short trumps?.

On some hands the answer would undoubtedly be "Yes!", but on this hand, with a Diamond lead rather than a Spade lead, the answer should be a resounding "No!". There are lots of tricks available in the Minor suits on which North's losing Spades can be discarded. Even on an initial Spade lead, it's arguable that drawing Opps' trumps is the overriding concern. Yes you might end up -3 when East turns up with !H KJx, but you're probably off regardless if that's the case and the difference between -1 and -3 in 6 !H when most people will be in 4 !H is not that great.

Eszter took a middle road: Winning trick 1 in Dummy. at trick 2 she led the !S Jack, took her Ace and ruffed a Spade. Now a Club to the King (maybe originally intending to ruff another Spade) but then she changed tacks and played a Heart to Dummy's Ace, before cashing 2 more Clubs, discarding her last Spade on the 3rd before leading a second Heart towards her Q109.

This worked out okay: The Minor suits were both 3-3 and West turned up with !H KJx, so had no winning options on the 2nd Heart and 12 tricks were duly gathered for a very good score, because few NS Pairs bid to a making slam.


The thing is that after trick 1, Declarer has the tempo: her control of the Spade suit is still intact and Opps have to gain the lead twice in order to be able to (1) attack Spades and (2) to be able to cash any Spade tricks. If Declarer didn't have all of the Minor suit winners waiting in the wings to take care of her losing Spades, or if her control of Spades had already been removed (at trick 1), it might be a different matter. Here, though, since we need to get the Hearts sorted out for only 1 loser, it's not the right tactics to voluntarily give up our control of Spades.

Better to attack the Hearts straight away and not touch Spades at all. If the Hearts come in for 1 loser (ie: West has one or both of the missing Heart honours and we guess right), even if either opponent wins the 2nd round of Hearts, they are not in a position to cash a Spade trick. All they can do is to force out the !S Ace and we still have the tempo to complete drawing trumps and enjoy our Minor suit winners.

This sort of principle applies on many hands. Ultimately it comes down to counting winners and losers. Here we have umpteen winners in the Minors and there's no need to gain any extra tricks by ruffing Spades in the short hand. If we keep Dummy's trumps intact, we can potentially still come to our 12 tricks when the Hearts are not ideally placed but still catchable (eg: West with !H KJxx) as long as we retain the ability to lead Hearts twice towards our Q109. Ruffing a Spade in Dummy early on takes away that option.

11
Interesting Play Hands / I LOVE this system!
« on: January 22, 2018, 10:10:32 PM »
Aces are generally worth their weight in gold in a trump contract. Indeed many people favour variations on Milton Work's 4321 method of counting points that give more precedence to Aces and less to Jacks. Marty Bergen, for example, favours a scale of

Ace     = 4.5
King    = 3
Queen = 1.5
Jack    = 0.75
10      = 0.5

Anyway, there's no doubt that the bullets really pulled their weight in this contract. It's also very true that final contracts of 1 !H and 1 !S are much more common when a Pair is playing Precision. This hand shows off Precision at its best in staying low:

NS Game, Dealer South

North (Dummy)
!S 6
!H 5
!D Q763
!C Q1087632

!D 4 led

South
!S J109832
!H A109
!D A82
!C A

I had opened the South hand with 1 !S, and everyone passed (Eszter apparently without a care in the world and not a moment's hesitation LOL). I decided to play West for the !D King and went up with Dummy's Queen at trick 1 (and it held the trick). A Heart to my Ace and a !H ruff, a Diamond back to my Ace and the !C Ace saw me with 5 tricks, and I'd not even touched trumps yet.

In practice nothing could stop me from making an overtrick in this unpromising misfit. I knew it would be a decent result: EW can make 3 !H, but an amazing number of NS Pairs just kept on bidding all the way up to 4 !S. Even the handful of NS Pairs whose EW Opps overstretched to 4 !H and were doubled, going -1 weren't getting quite as good a result as our +110.

I love this System!

12
Interesting Play Hands / A Curious Outcome
« on: January 22, 2018, 09:34:27 PM »
This was a somewhat curious hand and I am somewhat at a loss to explain why it is that we obtained such a good result simply by making a game that should go off, but which in practice ought to make given the way that the defence normally went (and how it went at our table was fairly typical):

Game All, Dealer West

North (Dummy)
!S 4
!H K1043
!D AQ962
!C AQ10

!S 2 led

South
!S J1063
!H A752
!D J84
!C KJ

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

(1) Accepting invitation, but only 4-card Hearts and a Spade stop

Firstly, What does the bidding suggest to you? East's initial pass over 1 !D, but leaping into action with 3 !S over North's jump to 3 !H, immediately made me think that (1) East had length in Diamonds and (2) East was short in Hearts.

Anyway, East won the first trick with the Ace of Spades and (without pause for thought) switched to the !H Queen. Given what I've said above, I felt it was far far more likely that the !H Queen was a singleton than a lead from !H QJ98 (which I can do nothing about anyway). I had no hesitation in winning the first Heart in hand with the Ace and finessing the 10 on the way back, completely expecting East to show out (which they duly did, shedding a small Spade).

Aside
The thing is, you absolutely have to play the Hearts in this fashion anyway: Even without East coming in at the 3-level, you have no alternative but to play for any 3-2 split or for East to have a singleton honour, and when East plays the !H Queen on the first round, it's only sensible to finesse the 10 on the 2nd round of the suit, guarding against West having J986. playing for !H QJ stiff with East is way against the odds, whether you put any stock in the Principle of Restricted Choice or not.

The rest of the hand was relatively straightforward, since I was fairly sure what the layout was: I cashed the !H King in Dummy (leaving West with their good !H Jack), crossed back to the !C Jack, and took the losing finesse of the !D Queen (I was fairly sure I would find East with !D K10xx once West played low, because only short Hearts and length in Diamonds could really explain East's initial pass over 1 !D). East played another Club, won by the King in my hand, and now the !D Jack revealed the expected 4-1 split in that suit. West discarded a Club rather than ruffing (their big mistake), and discarded another Club when I played a Diamond to Dummy's Ace (not wanting to ruff thin air). Now, though, I simply ruffed the 4th Diamond in my hand and West could only make his !H Jack once and Dummy was high otherwise.

The defence can do better than they did, it's true: If West ruffs the !D Jack and forces Dummy in Spades, I can't make this contract, but at that stage they cannot be sure how many Diamonds I have. Some Souths were going -2 in 4 !H, however, which needs a fairly determined lack of care on Declarer's part :).

13
Interesting Play Hands / Attempting an Endplay
« on: January 21, 2018, 10:39:31 PM »
This was an interesting deal, on which, with Eszter at the helm, we got a very decent result:

Love All, Dealer West

South (Dummy)
!S AJ
!H 842
!D Q7432
!C Q94

!C King led

North
!S 74
!H AQJ10765
!D K986
!C -

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

Eszter ruffed the opening lead in hand and scored immediately by dropping East's singleton King of Hearts. The !H Queen followed, on which East discarded a small Spade. Now what?

There is considerable potential for trying to endplay East here. Ideally you want Opps to open up the Diamonds for you. East surely started with !C AK and cannot continue attacking the suit without creating a Club trick for you. If you play !S AJ and can persuade East to win the second Spade trick, then they will be endplayed and possibly persuaded to open up the Diamonds for you.

As the cards lie that line you probably have worked quite nicely, since West started with !S Q9863 and probably would (and later on, did) duck the Jack rather than covering it with the Queen. I thought Eszter had found that line when she crossed to the !S Ace at trick 4, but then she ruffed a Club before exiting with a Spade towards the Jack. Ruffing a Club first is a mistake, I feel, because Opps already know North was void in Clubs, so it's not achieving anything and, what's more, gives up the threat which prevents East from continuing Clubs. Now East, winning the second Spade with the King, had an easy exit with the !C Ace.

Eszter recovered well, though: instead of ruffing the !C Ace, she discarded a Diamond from hand and now East (holding !D J10x) was well and truly endplayed to either open up the Diamonds (which West would win with their singleton Ace) or to give Declarer a ruff 'n' discard in one of the Black suits, which would allow Dummy to ruff and Declarer to shorten their Diamonds down to !D K9.


Taking unnecessary ruffs can be counter-productive, as here when the second Club ruff effectively removed the threat against East. Worth noting, however, that playing Ace and another Spade wins even when West wins the second Spade. If they return a small Club, Declarer simply discards a Diamond from hand rather than ruffing and now, whoever has the !C Ace, another Diamond will eventually go away on the !C Queen.

10 tricks in 4 !H was surprisingly worth nearly 9 IMPs, because lots of NS Pairs were being pushed to the 5 or even the 6-level and going off. In 5 !H you pretty much have to drop the !H King offside and attack the Diamonds from Dummy (and have the foresight to unblock the !D 8 or 9 under the Ace rather than playing the 6).

14
Interesting Play Hands / An Imaginative Defence
« on: January 14, 2018, 05:12:10 PM »
Michael (rite bid) starred with an imaginative opening lead on this hand that worked spectacularly well:

Love All, Dealer North
East opens 1 !D, West responds 3NT and all pass.

North
!S 94
!H 105
!D K832
!C 109873

What's your opening lead? There are various options here: The !C 10 (or the 9 if playing Strong 10's) or the !D 2 are the "obvious" ones. On the other hand, North has no likely entries if the !D Ace is on their left, and West's hand is clearly weighted to the Minors (no 1M bid), so looking to find Partner's long suit in a Major is a clear winner here. The !H 10 could be (and would have been) misinterpreted, and Michael chose the !S 9, which worked spectacularly well:

East (Dummy)
!S AK102
!H K643
!D Q1095
!C K

                North
                !S 94
                !H 105
                !D K832
                !C 109873

Declarer took the opening lead in Dummy with the King, South encouraging with the 5. Declarer cashed the !C King and then crossed to hand with the !H Jack. Now they led a !D towards Dummy, Michael ducked and Dummy's Queen felled South (obviously singleton) Jack. The !D 9 followed, on which South discarded the !C 6. Michael won and continued the !S attack. Declarer ducked in Dummy and Partner's 8 won the trick, Declarer contributing the !S 7. South continued with the !S Queen, West and North discarding Clubs and then the Jack when Declarer ducked in Dummy (West and North both discarding Diamonds).

When Declarer now led a Heart off the table South took their Ace and a 5th Spade for -1.

Declarer could play this hand a lot better, it's true. Clearly it's best to force out the !H Ace first, since you have no control over who wins that trick. The opening lead makes it look as if any Spade length is probably with South, and Declarer can always keep South away from the lead in Diamonds, by running the Queen and then the 10 if necessary.

This hand is actually cold for 10 tricks from the word so, even with a Spade lead. Without North's imaginative lead at trick 1, however, there is almost a zero chance of stopping this contract. That lead gave the defence a tempo, however, so that Declarer couldn't afford to make any mistakes. Conceding a Diamond to North before forcing out the !H Ace was the mistake.

15
Interesting Play Hands / A Dodgy Slam
« on: January 14, 2018, 04:30:04 PM »
Michael and I ended up in a somewhat dodgy slam today, but it was a nice sequence :) .

North (Dummy)
 !S AKQJ95
 !H J6
 !D AJ2
 !C KQ

!D 4 led

South
 !S 106
 !H A732
 !D 9763
 !C A54

Bidding (Opps silent)
North     South
1 !C        1 !S
1NT(1)    2 !H (2)
2 !S (3)    2NT(4)
3 !S (5)    4 !C (6)
4 !H (7)    5 !H ( 8 )
6 !S (9)         All Pass

(1) Beta
(2) 4 Controls
(3) Iota in Spades
(4) !S xx
(5) Repeat Iota (Sets Spades as trumps)
(6) Still !S xx :)
(7) Epsilon in Hearts
( 8 ) 1st Rnd Control of !H , no 2nd or 3rd Rnd control
(9) This pretty much needs South to have !C AJxx, since I must have !H Axx(x) and cannot have the !D King. A rush of blood to North's head, perhaps LOL.

What to do on the lead of the !D 4? It's possible that West might have led from !D KQxx, in which case the !C Jack will suffice for 12 tricks here. Much more likely, in my opinion, that the lead is from !D K10xx(x) or !D Q10xx(x), in which case East will have to play their honour in order to beat the 9. At any rate, that is what I played for and East duly won trick one with the King and switched to a Club.

I eventually took the Diamond finesse against West for my 12th trick. Nice result, but it's worth noting that for this slam to succeed, you 100% need West to lead a small Diamond from their hand at trick 1. Almost no other lead will allow you to make this. Even the !D 10 lead defeats the contract because of the finesse against the 9 on the way back.

Bidding a slam on the basis of Partner having to have cards they've not shown can be a little dodgy. Bidding a slam knowing you have multiple "holes" ( !D and !H here) is doubly so. Nice when you can enlist Opps' help to allow you to make it, though LOL.

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