Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Judgement is everything

Visiting New York City on work, I asked B. if he would play with me again at the Manhattan Bridge Club. To my surprise, considering our  poor (by his standards) 53% game last time around, he agreed.  As he put it jokingly after our game, I with my 200 master points, am "good value".

We were East-West and having a pretty good game.  Finally, we came to the table where the strongest pair in the room (two experts whose names ocassionally grace newspaper bridge columns) were sitting North-South.  Get two good boards off these guys and we would have a good game indeed.

First board. South deals and after two passes, North opens 1D in 3rd seat. What would do you bid holding:
E
Me
AK10x
J10xx
A109xx

I can not double, of course, with a spade void.  Bidding clubs has two drawbacks: (1) I don't want partner to bid spades. Correcting to hearts will take us to the 3-level where I do not want to be (2) My clubs are rather anemic. So, I bid 1H. Yes, my 4-card suit.  Least of all evils. I would even welcome a heart lead if South ends up bidding spades and they play in the suit.

The bidding now went:
W
West
N
North
E
Me
S
South
Pass
Pass
1
1
Dbl
4
Pass
Pass
Dbl
Pass
41
All Pass
(1) Can you blame him?

4S stood no chance because the full deal was:
.
Board: 15
Vul: N-S
Dlr: South
N
North
KQJx
AQxxx
xxxx
.
W
West
9xxxx
Q9862
K
J7
Lead: 4
E
East
AK10x
J10xx
A109xx
.
S
South
A10xx
Jxxx
xxx
KQ
.
With careful play, 4H can make. I do not think I would have made it, but 4H doubled and down 1 would still have been a good board because the field was in 2S making (the auction having gone 1D-2C-X-2S-allpass).  +200 for us was a pretty good board.

The next board also required good judgement.   Partner deals and passes. Then, North bids 1H. What do you bid with this hand?
E
East
K9xx
Axx
KJxx
xx

On the one hand, you have 4 spades, 11 points and partner can bid spades on the one-level. On the other hand, you are a rather poor shape and are at the low end of the range for a takeout double. I hope you passed. I, unfortunately, didn't. I doubled for takeout and disaster proceeded to ensue. The bidding now went:
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
South
Pass
1
Dbl1
4
52
Pass
Pass
Dbl
All Pass
(1) ill-advised
(2) oops

5C didn't have a chance and we went down 2 doubled.  -500 was terrible because even 4H doesn't make:
.
Board: 16
Vul: E-W
Dlr: West
N
North
QJx
Q10xxx
Qx
AKx
.
W
West
Axxx
x
x
QJ109872
Lead: 4
E
East
K9xx
Axx
KJxx
xx
.
S
South
10x
KJxx
A10xxxx
x
.
So much for getting two good boards off these guys.

We ended up with a 58% game.  It was good enough to win our direction, but only for second overall, losing to the pair we played at this table.  I wish I could take that ill-advised take-out double back!


Monday, April 15, 2013

A first time for everything

No mishap, really.

But just wanted to celebrate my first squeeze with y'all since I've been waiting for this for a long time.  I was North on this deal. Watch West (West was a robot, so it is okay to gloat) get slowly squeezed (Click Next to see the play):



I realized that this was turning into a squeeze only after West had shown up with 2 spades and 4 clubs. From that point on, I was playing for this end position with the heart being led from dummy (South).
.
Board: 1
Vul: N-S
Dlr: North
N
North
K
Kx
9
.
W
West
Jxx
10
Lead: 4
E
East
xx
Qx
.
S
South
x
A10x
.
Now, West has to throw away a diamond (if he throws a club, my 9 is good). At that point, I lead the King of diamonds and a small diamond.  As it turned out, West had both the QJ of diamonds, but the squeeze would have operated as long as East could have started out with only 2 diamonds.

But could he? That meant he would have 5 hearts and 4 spades. I have had very poor success with the NT leads recommended by Bird and Anthias since real declarers do not play double-dummy. However, robots simulate deals on similar principles and had I not read their book, I would not have even played for that split.


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Teammates on fire

Playing in the regional Swiss today, our teammates were on fire. How good were they?

Try bidding out East-West hands. Can you now find the small slam in clubs?
.
Board: 
Vul: E-W
Dlr: West
N
North
Kxx
QJTxx
K10xx
x
.
W
West
Qxx
x
A52
AJx xxx
Lead: ♥Q
E
East
Axxx
AKx
QJxx
KQ
.
S
South
Jxxx
xxxx
xx
xxx
.
And having found the small slam, can you bring it home? What is your line?

The solution that our team-mate found at the table was to realize that he could make on 3-3 diamonds and that a squeeze position existed if the defender with the king of spades also had 4 diamonds. So, he combined the two chances and took the losing diamond finesse, thus rectifying the count. Then, he played clubs from hand until he reached this end position:
.
Board: 16
Vul: E-W
Dlr: West
N
North
Kx
109
.
W
West
Qx
x
A
Lead: 4
E
East
Ax
Jx
.
S
South
.
On the A of clubs, North is squeezed.  Pretty good, eh, for someone who's been playing only a couple of years?  (With the calmness of hindsight, simply leading twice to the QJ would also have worked, but that is a boring line!)

Unfortunately, we ran into a team of former partners and team-mates on the last round. It was "Norman A" vs. "Norman B". After 7 boards, the match was tied.  Since we were leading going in, a tie would have won us the tournament.  But ... on the hand that matters, we were both in 3NT. It came down to a guess of hearts. I was declarer; I guessed wrong; the opponents guessed right. And that was the match.  So, 8 gold points instead of 11 on a stupid guess.  My mishap, although I don't think I would guess any differently the second time. It just so happened that the same defender had both missing aces this time ...

Still, if you'd told me that my first-time partnership and our team (the sum of whose points is under 600) would land up second in the Swiss, I'd have been thrilled.  And so, I am!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Remain focused

On the last board of the night, after a non-spectacular game, I am looking forward to a shot of scotch.

I was South and holding,
N
Pard
xx
Axx
J9xxxx
xx
Lead: ♣Q
S
Me
Axxx
Kxx
AKQ
Axx

I opened the bidding 2NT. Partner simply raised me to 3NT.  How many tricks should I make?

Can you believe that I made only 9 tricks?

What on earth could have happened? Well, halfway through the hand, as I was cashing the diamonds, East said to my partner "you have to bid 3nt with this hand."

"I did bid 3nt," said dummy, and in the confusion of verifying that the contract was 3nt, I neglected to cash the last diamond.

That lapse in concentration was worth one gold point. One whole gold point!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

No free lunch

There is no free lunch.  By avoiding the need to jump, Precision lets you stay low when you have 17-19 points and partner is broke.  But on the other hand, something like this hand could arise as it did during a pairs tournament at the OKC regional:
.
Board: 3
Vul: E-W
Dlr: South
N
Pard
Q98
J94
K8
K9632
.
W
West
KJ53
10763
Q752
J
Lead: J
E
East
4
AK52
J964
8754
.
S
Me
A10762
Q8
A103
AQ10
.
Our bidding went:
South (me)
North (pard
11
22
23
44
(1) 16+ artificial
(2) 5+ clubs, 8+ points
(3) 5+ spades
(4) fast arrival

It is a hopeless contract on the lie of the cards.  Standard bidders started with a 15-17 1NT and played in the comfortable 3NT contract.  This was in a regional pairs game, and close to zero matchpoints out of 15.

On the other hand, the opponents opened a 15-17 NT on this hand and could never catch up:
.
Board: 16
Vul: E-W
Dlr: West
N
Pard
643
KJ943
AK1032
.
W
West
AKJ53
J102
A52
QJ
Lead: A
E
East
Q87
Q7
1086
98654
.
S
Me
109642
AK985
Q7
7
.
West opened her hand a 15-17 NT and found the auction quickly spinning out of her control:
W
West
N
Pard
E
East
S
Me
1NT1
2NT2
Pass
33
34
Pass
Pass
Pass5
(1) 15-17
(2) Minors
(3) choice of minor
(4) Cut it out guys.  I have a 5-card suit!
(5) Not sure if partner will bid again if I double.

3S down 3 was 300 to the good guys and a matchpoint top.  Those two boards evened out and we ended up with 53% over two sessions for fourth place and 2.3 gold points.  Had I not forgotten our system a couple of times, we may have won the thing outright.