Choose the lead ... for 6 silver points

Playing in a STaC pairs game (one of only two C pairs in a room full of strong players), we are holding our own (we think).  And then, I forget our system and as a result, partner has doubled their contract.

This is the hand I held:

S

South

♠

876543

♥

K9876

♦

5

♣

9

6-5 in the majors, but only 3 points.

Partner opens 2C, which shows a 5+ clubs and an opening hand:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

2♣¹

Pass

2♦²

Dbl

2♥

5♦

Pass

Pass

Dbl

All Pass

(1) 5+ clubs, 10-15 points

(2) Stayman

We play that 2D now is Stayman and I thought I'd be cute and do a "Garbage Stayman".  Whatever partner bids, I thought I could pass.  Of course, if he rebid clubs, I'd have a problem and if the opponents interfered, I'd have a problem, but I wasn't thinking too clearly.

After carefully ensuring that my 2D was artificial, West doubled.  Partner bid 2H, showing 10-13 points and a 4-card heart suit.  East who had heard enough of our bidding on 13 total points, jumped to 5D.  I passed of course, but partner who thought my 2D showed an invitational hand, doubled for penalties.

So, now, I have to come up with a lead.  What would you lead?  Take a look at my hand (above). Make up your mind.  I didn't know it at the time, but this hand would make the difference between placing in the district overalls and not making it.

Decided?

I chose the singleton club and this turned out to be the full deal:

.

Vul: N-S

Dlr: North

N

North

♠

A

♥

Axxx

♦

xxx

♣

Qxxxx

.

W

West

♠

KQx

♥

Qx

♦

AKxxx

♣

xxx

E

East

♠

J10x

♥

xx

♦

QJxx

♣

AKJ10

.

S

Me

♠

876543

♥

K9876

♦

5

♣

9

.

As you can see, either a spade or a heart lead produce down 2.  +300 would be a clear top.  The club singleton lead that I chose at the table gave declarer the tempo to pull trumps and throw away a heart loser on the good club. -550 was a clear bottom.

So, the lead on this hand produced a 14 matchpoint swing and was the difference between coming in first and coming in third, placing in the overalls (with 58%) or not placing (with 52%).  The lead turned out to be worth about 6 silver master points ...

UPDATE:  I was looking at the wrong thing ... turns out to be a difference of only about 3 silver points.

Can you manufacture an entry into partner's hand?

The opponents briskly bid to 3NT:

North

South

1♥

1S

3♥

3NT

All Pass

And partner leads the 3 of spades.  Dummy comes down and this is what you see:

N

North

♠

Q10

♥

AQJxxx

♦

Axx

♣

Ax

Lead: ♠3

E

East

♠

KJ

♥

K109

♦

Jxxx

♣

K10xx

Declarer plays the 10, you play the Jack and the Jack holds the trick, declarer playing the 2.

What now?

I tried the king of spades and this also held the trick.

What now?

The hand should be an open book by now.  Declarer has at most one heart. Partner led the 3 and declarer dropped the 2, so declarer has 5 spades. If you trust partner (and I do), he's not going to lead declarer's suit without at least one honor in spades.   His minors are probably 3-3.  Which probably means that partner is 4-3-2-4.

I didn't find this defense at the table (the story of my blog!), but I needed to remove one of dummy's entries because the hearts threaten.  When partner has 4 clubs, why did he choose spades? Because it might blow a trick ... ergo, he has the queen of clubs. I need to lead the King of clubs, to take out one dummy entry and to give partner an entry with his presumed queen.  We then get three spades, one club and one heart, for down 1.

How tall are the clouds your head is in?

I have this hunch that the way storm heights are traditionally computed is wrong, but try as I might there is something about the problem that I'm not quite grokking.  It's an important question because much of air traffic control relies on these storm heights. Therefore, the right way to formulate the problem, in order to prove or disprove this hunch, has become an obsession.

Playing in the STaC ("sectional tournaments at clubs") game at the club today, I was preoccupied by the weather research problem and not completely focused on the game. So much so that I completely spaced out on the first nine boards, against the first three pairs.

On one board, we were in a dicey 3S contract, reached after I'd opened a strong 1C.  Lefty led his singleton in dummy's side suit and got a ruff.  Now, all I had to do was to pull the outstanding trump, preserving my lowest spade as an entry to the board and take discards on the now-established side-suit. Except that I led my lowest spade before pulling the last trump! Disaster, as they now cashed their tricks.

On another board, I held:

♠ KQJ109843 ♥ x ♦ xx ♣ xx

and the bidding goes 1NT to my left, 2NT by partner (minors) and 3NT by righty.  What would you do? 4S seemed like a phantom sacrifice, so I doubled -- partner had  2 of the suits, I had the third.  How were they going to make 3NT?  They didn't make 3NT.  They made 6!

Even 3NT doubled, making 6, didn't wake me up.

What did finally wake me up was the 10th board of the session where I put partner in 7S.  This was the deal:

Vul: N-S

Dlr: North

N

North

♠

KQxx

♥

x

♦

Qx

♣

AKxxxx

W

West

♠

—

♥

Q10xxx

♦

AKxxx

♣

xxx

Lead: ♥8

E

East

♠

xxx

♥

8x

♦

Jxxx

♣

QJxx

S

South

♠

AJ9xxx

♥

AKJx

♦

xx

♣

x

The auction went:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

2♣¹

Pass

2♦²

2♥

3♠³

Pass

4NT⁴

Pass

5♠⁵

Pass

7♠⁶

—

—

—

—

(1) 5+ clubs, <= 15 points

(2) Stayman and range ask

(3) 4 spades, 13-15 points

(4) RKC for spades ?!

(5) 2 key cards + Q of trumps

(6) oops

Partner opens 2C, which we play as 5+ clubs and an opening hand. With 6 spades and 4 hearts, I responded 2D which is Stayman and range-ask. West, holding 9 points and piss-poor hearts, now entered the auction by bidding 2H. Partner bids 3S, which shows 4 spades and 13-15 points. My low doubleton in diamonds is suboptimal for bidding Roman Keycard (a cue-bid is probably better) -- but I bid 4NT. Hey, I was not fully in the game. When partner responded 5S, showing 2 key cards and the queen of trumps, I need to bid 6S, which should be off 2 here since we are missing the top two diamonds. But I happily bid 7S, thinking we had everything covered.

As I put the dummy down, I thought to myself that as long as partner held one of the two minor suits kings, we should be fine. But then a chill ran down my spine. If partner held two aces, the king and queen of trumps and the king of a minor, he would have 16 points. With 16 points, he would have opened 1C. As I was mulling over this conundrum, I realized that partner had showed only two key cards and I was missing 3!  Oops.

Fortunately, though, East had led a heart and partner still had a chance. He played it carefully, making the grand when clubs split 4-3.  Still nothing wakes you up like putting partner in an atrocious grand slam.

That shitty grand slam bid which came up roses proved to be the turning point of our game.  We ended up with 58% for second place, but I should have shown up ready to play on board 1, not waited until board 10.   We were just 1.5 match-points from being first and any one of the first 9 boards would have helped.

Not the right +200

+200 is usually matchpoint magic.  It usually means that the opponents went down two in a vulnerable part score.  And since that's usually better than any offensive part score (+110 or +140), +200 is usually a top.

Not all +200s are tops though. Especially when they come like this one from a recent club game.

Vul: None

Dlr: North

N

North

♠

A10xx

♥

xxx

♦

AJxx

♣

Kx

W

West

♠

Qxx

♥

Jxxx

♦

Kxx

♣

Axx

E

East

♠

J

♥

Axx

♦

xxx

♣

QJxxxx

S

Me

♠

Kxxxx

♥

KQx

♦

Q10x

♣

xx

The auction went:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

1♦¹

Pass

1♠

Pass

2♠

All Pass

(1) 2+ diamonds and <= 15 pts

the lead of a low diamond and quickly made 11 tricks for +200 (After a 1S-2S auction, if they don't lead spades, you can pretty much assume that the opening leader has the queen of trumps. So, I played a club towards the king and led towards the king of spades and finessed the 10 on the way back. Then, I led hearts towards my hand twice. East took his Ace on the second round and I had my 11 tricks.).  I thought this was a good enough board -- 11 tricks on 22 points should be.

But this +200 was not match point magic -- several of the pairs bid and made exactly 4S. How would you have found your way to game?

p.s. Thanks to JRG of Bridge Blogging for sharing his HTML tools with me.  What do you think of the diagrams in this post? Beats the 1980s look of my previous hand diagrams, doesn't it?

If you reading this somewhere (RSS reader, syndication site, etc.) where the hand diagrams and auction look goofy, please leave a comment underneath this blog post.

Minor trouble

Two minor-heavy hands gave us trouble in a club game. See if you would do better:

Look at South's hand.  North opens 1D (playing Precision, this is < 15 points and could be as short as two).  What's your response?

Dealer: N Vul: Both	North ♠ AK10x ♥ Jxxx ♦ Ax ♣ xxx
West ♠ Qxx ♥ KQx ♦ xxxxx ♣ Ax		East ♠ xxx ♥ A10xxx ♦ Jxxx ♣ Jx
	Me ♠ Jxx ♥ 7 ♦ KQx ♣ KQ109876
Bidding:	1D*-?	HTML Bridge Hand Layout Creator

I tried 2C, which is a 2/1 response, and so, partner put us in 3NT.  East led her fourth highest heart and we were down 2.   As it turns out, 1NT by me (8-11 points) would have worked out better, since west is unlikely to lead a heart.  This was a Precision Zero:  playing standard methods, North opens 1C, South  bids 2C or 3C.  So, the field was in a make-able club contract while partner and I were the only ones in 3NT.

I imagine that many standard bidders would pass with the North hand, but with 12 points, partner is always going to open a precision 1D. Now what do you bid with the South hand?

Dealer: N Vul: Both	North ♠ AJxx ♥ KJxx ♦ xxx ♣ QJ
West ♠ xx ♥ 9xx ♦ xxxx ♣ Kxxx		East ♠ KQ10x ♥ AQ10x ♦ ♣ 10xxxx
	Me ♠ xxx ♥ xx ♦ AKQJxx ♣ Ax
Bidding:	1D*-?	HTML Bridge Hand Layout Creator

I bid 2D, which is also a 2/1 response showing 12+ points and partner again puts us in 3NT.  East leads her fourth highest club and partner plays low from dummy.  When the king of clubs is onside and west switches accurately to the 9 of hearts (breaking up any squeeze or throw-in play), partner has only 8 tricks.  This, too, turns out to be a Precision Zero.    Normally, North's tenaces need to be protected, so it makes sense that he declares 3NT, but on this hand, if South plays in 3NT, west's likely lead is a club and declarer comes to 9 tricks.

Karma is a bitch

Fresh off our unexpected victory in the Flight A knockout, we went to play in the B/C/D Sunday Swiss with high hopes.

We promptly went on to lose the first three matches.  We felt the way our opponents yesterday must have felt.  Take this hand which provided the entire margin of victory in the first match:

Dealer: W Vul: EW	North ♠ AKxxx ♥ xx ♦ Jxxx ♣ Qx
Me ♠ QJ10 ♥ xx ♦ xxx ♣Axxxx		Partner ♠ ♥AKQJxx ♦AKQ10x ♣ xx
	South ♠ 9xxxx ♥ xxx ♦ x ♣ Kxxx
Bidding:	OUR TABLE: P-1C*-2C-2H-2S-3D-3H-4D-4H-6H TEAMMATES: P-2NT(!)-3NT	HTML Bridge Hand Layout Creator

At our table, I passed and when partner opened a strong club (16+ points), I felt that my hand was good enough to show the 5-card club suit.  Partner insisted on one of his two suits and when I chose hearts (perhaps I should choose diamonds to show my 3-carder), he drove to the heart slam.  6H looks like a decent contract.  Except that South led a ... club!  Partner took the ace and now had to pull trumps (it would have been silly to finesse the 10 of diamonds at that point, wouldn't it?) The diamonds didn't break ... down one.

At the other table, West opened 2NT! Isn't that what you open in Standard American with 19-20 points?  They now played peacefully in 3NT.  South led her fourth highest spade and north ducked  to preserve communications (the lead could have been from a doubleton, with South trying to catch her partner with length).  Imagine where his jaw was as declarer now threw a club and simply rattled off his tricks.

In the second match, this vulnerable game provided the entire margin of victory:

Dealer: S Vul: NS	North ♠ Ax ♥ K10xxxx ♦ QJ10 ♣ xx
Me ♠ xxx ♥ QJxx ♦ Kxx ♣ Axx		Partner ♠ Jxxx ♥ x ♦ xxx ♣Qxxxx
	South ♠ KQ10x ♥ Ax ♦ Axxx ♣ KJx
Bidding:	OUR TABLE: 1NT-2D*-2H-2NT(!)-3NT TEAMMATES: 1NT-2D*-2H-4H	HTML Bridge Hand Layout Creator

With 12 points and 6  hearts, North bid 2NT after the transfer, saying as she put down the dummy ("since I have only 5 hearts, I need to bid 2NT, right?").   I led a spade and now declarer played a heart to the king and finessed the queen of diamonds losing to my king.  Now, no matter what I did, he had his 9 tricks -- 4 spades, 2 hearts and 3 diamonds.   Our teammates, though, were in 4H which is somewhat more precarious; they went down 1.

Fortunately, we came back and blitzed the last three matches to end up fourth overall.

First time at a knockout

I played my first-ever knockout on Saturday at the OKC sectional.  Partner and I have been avoiding knockouts because they seem to be a lot of risk for very little reward.  We can play in a pairs game and even a 53% game will be good enough to get us a few master points (it's all about the master points!).  But playing 24 boards and not getting anything ... that seems awful.

Anyway, we decided to play the knockout and were surprised to win all four matches.  10 silver points for a day of bridge. Not bad. Even better was that all but one of the teams were stronger than us, and towards the end, we had handicaps as high as 20 points (partner and I average 100 master points; our team mates average about 750; our opponents averaged 5000 each).  The handicaps turned out to be unnecessary though, though unless ... perhaps it induced our opponents to play erratically to pick up the imps. We won our matches straight up (except for one team that we merely tied before the handicap came into play).

So, what did I not anticipate about team games?

1. It was nice to be playing 24 consecutive boards with opponents who were better than we were -- I can see why there are so many people who play teams but don't care much for pairs.  The bridge is a lot more consistent at teams.
2. Part scores were what put us over the top.  Team strategy, we are told again and again, is about bidding and making close games and slams, especially vulnerable ones.  Against each of the teams, we had six to eight boards where we picked up 6 imps per board. But these were not slam or game hands - mostly we bid our games, as did they. Instead, it was simply our team-mates making 2H their way and us making 3C our way.  A double positive part score is worth half a game swing! Fortunately, there were no slam swings -- I'm sure that's where the strong players would have whipped us inside-out.
3. If you are lucky enough to get the right kind of cards (mostly flat hands without any slams), a quartet of intermediate players can hold their own against experts in a 24-board match.
4. Experts bicker.  A lot.  Whereas partner and I mostly played our boards and promptly forgot them, the experts couldn't seem to let go.  I'm amazed that there aren't more fist fights at bridge. One opponent told her partner to wake up. Three opponents berated their teammate for nearly 10 minutes (for taking what is probably the percentage play; it happened to not work on the particular hand).  A third opponent kept shaking his head after every contract we made to the point that his partner started spreading out her cards and asking after every deal: "what would you have led from my hand?"  In pairs games, you face a new set of opponents every 3 boards, so I think it makes it easier for people to move on.  Whereas, playing 24 boards, it's harder.  Once they fall behind to a bunch of hobbyists, the experienced folk get ugly.

As for my game, there were (of course) a lots of mishaps today, but nothing I remember anymore.  Wait. Here's a hand where I opened the bidding at 1D:

me ♠ x ♥ Qx ♦ KJxxx ♣ KQxxx
Bidding:	1D-1S-2H-2S P -3NT-X-4S 5C-X-P-P 5H-X-P-P	HTML Bridge Hand Layout Creator

5H doubled went down 4 for 1100.  I misunderstood what partner's double of 3NT was. Since the 3NT bid was conventional, I thought partner's double was takeout for the minors.  It turned out that partner simply thought it wouldn't make.  Fortunately, we had enough pickups on the other boards to counteract the 1100.