Minor errors

At match-points, you have to be extra careful when the opponents have gone out on a limb.  Small mistakes on those hands can you cost dearly, turning a top into a bottom.

Hand 1:  
I was West and held  ♠62 ♥8732 ♦T4 ♣AJT76  and passed.   North opened 1S, partner doubled, and South bid 3S (preemptive).  I may have 4 hearts, but definitely do not have enough to bid at the 4 level and so I passed.  Partner now leads the Ace of hearts (A from AK) and dummy comes down with ♠T754 ♥Q5 ♦Q7632 ♣98.  What heart do you play on this trick?

It pays to be clear on what your defensive agreements are.   Ours are that we signal upside-down attitude on trick 1 (so the 2♥ would encourage and 8♥ would discourage) unless a switch is clearly warranted in which case we signal suit preference.  I didn't want partner blowing a trick in diamonds by switching, so I encouraged a heart continuation with the 2♥.  Unfortunately, this was the hand:

	♠AKQJ3 ♥J94 ♦A98 ♣32
♠62 ♥8732 ♦T4 ♣AJT76		♠98 ♥AKT6 ♦KJ5 ♣KQ54
	♠T754 ♥Q5 ♦Q7632 ♣98

and on the third heart, declarer pitched a club and made 3S.  Since everyone else was in 2S making 2, 3S down 1 would have been a top.  3S making was a well-deserved bottom.  I should have discouraged hearts and left it to partner to figure out what suit he needed to switch to.


Hand 2:  
I was West and held ♠AK73 ♥A943 ♦J6 ♣943.  North opened 1C and South bid 2H described as 5 spades and 4 or 5 hearts. I passed of course and North bid 2S which was passed out.  Partner led the 9 of spades and dummy came down with  ♠JT862 ♥K752 ♦K3 ♣72.  Plan the defense.

This is an unfamiliar auction, but it pays to apply some bridge logic.  First: how much does partner have? The opponents passed out 2S, so it is highly likely that they have only 18-22 points.  Partner must have 6-10 points.   Second: how are the hearts distributed?  From partner's lead, he probably has a doubleton in spades, leaving declarer with only 2 spades himself. This means that he has 2 or fewer hearts (with 3, he would have left it at 2H for the possible 8-card fit).  So, declarer's points are in the minors.  The defense is now clear.  Play the two top spades, lead a heart.  You will come to 2 spades and 3 hearts in your hand, and partner's minor suit winners will be the setting tricks.

This was the full hand:

	♠Q5 ♥J ♦QT985 ♣KQJT8
♠AK73 ♥A943 ♦J6 ♣943		♠94 ♥QT86 ♦A742 ♣A65
	♠JT862 ♥K752 ♦K3 ♣72

I failed to analyze the auction at the table and led a top club back.  At this point, partner could have done the same analysis and led the Q of hearts to pin the Jack, but he didn't sniff out the distribution either (it's much easier from my side, so I should have been leading the defense on this hand). The upshot was that instead of going down 2-3 tricks, they made 2S.  Another top converted to a bottom.

Teaching Bridge to Tech Savvy People

The technology company that I now work at has occasional "game nights", and at the most recent one, I taught a few of my colleagues how to play bridge. Because it is a tech-savvy audience, I decided that I would teach them to play online, and forgo a detailed explanation of the rules.

Naturally, I put together a slide deck (here), and the size of the slide deck was the subject of some ribbing. What kind of game needs a 60-page slide deck?  (In my defense: the 60-slide deck was for three sessions; we just did session 1 or 20 slides on the first day.) People took photographs of me going through the slide deck to send out on internal chat.

We bridge players feel BBO is the best thing since sliced bread, but that is because we value it for what we can do on the site.  Yesterday, I saw Meckwell play and last week, I played with a college classmate who lives in India.  So it was funny to see my colleagues' reactions to the site.

The first comments came regarding the password. "I can't use the password that my password generator creates. Why on earth won't it accept special characters?" Then, once they were on, "man, this site must have been designed 10 years ago." "Do they really still use Flash?"  "Someone wrote this 10 years ago and they're making hand over fist now."

The lessons themselves went well, and they were up and playing bridge in about 20 minutes.

They played approximately 15 boards, and no one made a single contract.  The winning pair was jubilant nevertheless.

No justice in the Swiss

On Sunday, I played in my first tournament since moving to Seattle.  It was a sectional, but it was as big as the OKC regional -- there were 52 tables in the Sunday Swiss!  We played in the AX session -- better to get schooled by good teams than to bulldoze bad ones.

We started off surprisingly well, pulling off convincing wins against two teams each of whose players had more masterpoints than the four of us combined.  The third match, I had my one major mistake of the evening -- I was South on this hand when West doubled my 3C bid:


 Q: How should I play the spades? How many spades can I safely ruff in dummy?

Answer: I can safely cash both the two top honors and ruff both low ones.  East must have 6 diamonds and 5 spades for his bids, and so West must have 3 spades inspite of her failure to raise, and even if East's division is 7-6, dummy's 10 of clubs allows for 3 ruffs.  At the table, I failed to draw the inference, went down one and proceeded to lose the match by 4 imps.  Had I got it right, we would have won that match too.

We blitzed match 5, but lost match 6 convincingly (i.e., by losing imps on pretty much every board).  In match 7, our opponents were bidding extremely chancy games and slams.  Unfortunately, one of their 25% slams happened to make.  Then, they are in another chancy 4H game. Here's what you (East) see after partner leads a low spade:


You win the Ace, of course.  What do you do next?

You know the club finesse is working, so how are you going to beat this chancy game? Note the inference available from the bidding -- because declarer has four diamonds, partner has 2 diamonds. I led a low diamond from my Q10xx.  Partner put up the King of diamonds.  Declarer proceeded to take a losing heart finesse.  Partner then led his diamond to me and got his ruff.  Down 1.  Here's the full hand (click Next to see the play):


At the other table, they were in 3H making 4.  Getting the defense right kept the overall loss to 4 imps, and that was enough for us to come in fourth overall (first in X).

Second in X?  The team we played last.  We ended up placing ahead of the team that beat us in the last round!  But then, we beat the teams that placed #2 and #3 in head-to-head matches too.  There is no justice in the Swiss.

A curious hand

We are playing at the table of the best pair in the room when partner deals and opens 2NT.  He is West and I am East:

	♠AJ5 ♥963 ♦KQJT94 ♣3
♠KQ8 ♥KQ2 ♦A5 ♣AQT87		♠T76 ♥AJT75 ♦62 ♣K95
	♠9432 ♥84 ♦873 ♣J642

North passes.  I transfer to hearts and then bid 3NT which partner corrects to 4H.  At this point, North comes to life and, taking advantage of the favorable vulnerability, bids 5D.   The bidding so far:

W

Pard

N

North

E

Me

S

South

2NT¹

Pass

3♦²

Pass

3♥

Pass

3NT

Pass

4♥

5♦

?

(1) 20-21

(2) transfer

What should would you do with the East hand?

I have more than the minimum, so I made a forcing pass.  Partner now doubles and it is decision time.  Do I have enough to pass and pull?   I decided that partner's double suggested that he had only 3 hearts and with the preempt, hearts were likely to break 4-1.  So, I settled for playing 5Dx.  Now, what should I lead?  This is my hand:

♠T76
♥AJT75
♦62
♣K95

At the table, I decided that the auction called for a diamond lead and led the 6 of diamonds that declarer covered with the 8 of diamonds.  Now, declarer had two entries to dummy and he used that to lead towards his spades twice.  That, and the 2-2 fit in diamonds meant he went down only 3 whereas everyone was making 12 tricks in hearts our way for a bottom board.

But note the curious nature of the hand.  If I had led a heart or a club, we come to four tricks. If declarer has to play diamonds, he has only one entry to board.  5Dx down 4 would have been a top for us.

We'd have finished 4 places higher and they'd have fallen four spots lower had I found the club or heart lead.

Being Hideous

Still trying to find my way around the Seattle bridge scene, I find myself partnered in an intermediate-level club game with a good player.  We're having a good game, sprinkled with the odd misunderstanding when this hand comes up.


Partner opened 1S and I decided that at matchpoints, 3NT was where I wanted to be. A little Hideous Hog of me, I know, but with a 4333 hand with overwhelming strength begs to be played in 3NT and my diamond holding is better if it gets the opening lead ...

I couldn't bid 3NT immediately over 1S because that shows 13-15 points typically and partner with a better hand can't move forward.  So, I temporized with a 2C bid. Partner bid 2H and now I was really in a pickle.  Do I raise his 2H to 3H, or continue with my original plan of playing in 3NT?  It is probably better to now bid 3H, but at the table, I bid 3NT.

Partner now bid 4NT, quantitative.  I misunderstood and showed 2 aces.  Partner thought this was slam confirmation and 3 hearts, so he bid 6NT.

The opponents inquired closely about our bidding and I had to own up to my 5H as showing 2 aces, not 3 hearts and confirming slam.  So, dummy came down and everyone at the table knew that I was in a poor contract.

RHO took his Ace of diamonds and returned a passive diamond.  What's your line?

When you are in a poor contract, you visualize a layout that will let you make.  I have 12 tricks only if both the spade king and the club queen are onside.  What about the ten of spades, though?  It has to be doubleton or West has to have it.  When LHO turned out to have QTxx of spades and the club finesse through RHO also worked, I apologized to the opponents (click 'next' above to see my line of play).

Being evaluated

My first week in Seattle, I went to a bridge club that promised partners and ended up playing with someone who showed up without a partner.  The pickup partner was a very pleasant person, but not a great player. The game itself was also very uneven with lots of poor players. Norman Bridge Club, the club that could, has spoiled me, so I decided to look for another club.

Mercercrest was recommended on BridgeWinners and sure enough, when I asked whether I could play, I got a better response.  One of the rotating directors offered to play with me to see who I would best match with later.

Playing with an obviously better player, the first board of the evening has me opening 1C in 3rd seat with ♠543 ♥J63 ♦85 ♣AKQ85.   LHO bids 1H, partner bids 1S, RHO doubles and they end up in 3D.

Partner leads the Ace of spades. Dummy comes down with ♠QT8 ♥QT ♦KT932 ♣T62.  Seeing the queen in dummy, partner switches to the 3 of clubs.  Under your Queen of clubs, declarer drops the Jack.  What do you play next?

The Jack, I decided, could be a false card since declarer was protected by the 10 of clubs in dummy, so I attempted to cash one more club.  Disaster, as declarer proceeded to discard his spade on his good hearts.  The hand was:

	♠543 ♥J63 ♦85 ♣AKQ85
♠QT8 ♥QT ♦KT932 ♣T62		♠972 ♥AK987 ♦AQJ4 ♣J
	♠AKJ6 ♥542 ♦76 ♣9743

Needless to say, trying to cash the Ace of clubs was a boneheaded move.  I simply needed to lead a spade to allow partner to cash her spade.  My Queen of clubs was clear, and so partner knows to lead back a club. Declarer's hearts are not going away if partner has a winner in that suit, but if declarer's hearts are solid, dummy's spades will vanish.

A few more such boards and I was thinking that things were not going well.  The partner I was going to be matched up with next time was probably going to be as poor a player I was being this evening. Towards the second half of the evening, though, I finally found my footing. This was the last board of the evening.

I was declarer on this deal:

	♠K9 ♥AJ ♦T7 ♣AKJT973
♠T764 ♥T874 ♦AQ96 ♣8		♠AJ53 ♥Q5 ♦KJ542 ♣62
	♠Q82 ♥K9632 ♦83 ♣Q54

I had the North hand.  What would you open?

Most of the field opened 1C and played in 3C or 4C, making 4.  I opened it 2C (4 losers) and played it in 5C.  I got a trump lead.  Plan the play.

Most of the field took the losing heart finesse or mismanaged entries and made only four on the layout.

I decided that the key was to discard diamonds on dummy's hearts.  And if hearts are 4-2, you need two dummy entries. So carefully save the 3 of clubs.  Take the first trick with the 9 of clubs and play two rounds of hearts ending up in dummy. Ruff a heart with the Ace of clubs, and be happy that the hearts do not break 3-3. Play a club (not the 3) to the Queen and ruff the fourth heart high. Finally, play the 3 of clubs to the 4, and discard a diamond on the fifth heart.  Finally, lead a spade to the king.  It loses, but you have your 11 tricks for a top.  The nice, flashy declarer play won't hurt your case.

Flyer for a newcomer bridge game

I was standing in line for food at the Oklahoma City Sectional when the person ahead of me in line turned around and said in a disappointed voice: "I was hoping you would make me a flyer for my newcomer game, but then I heard you are moving to Seattle.  I really liked the Easybridge flyer you made and wanted to have some cute cartoons on my flyer too."

I am a sucker for praise (aren't we all?).  So, I agreed to make her a flyer.  This was what I came up with:

The two cartoons:

Here's the Word document in case you want to use it as a starting point.

Count the high card points

I got permission to say goodbye to all my bridge friends by playing two days (!) in the local sectional.  Our team was placed in the low bracket of the Saturday knockout.  No matter what we did, or how many mistakes we made, we would still win and win big.  The opponents were very friendly, but the bridge was a little miserable.  It's no good -- either for yourself or for your opponents -- when you win like that.

So, in the Sunday Swiss, we asked to be put in the AX of the Swiss. No more bunny hunting for us.  We did well, ending up with 120 victory points over the six matches.  But a team we beat by 12 imps in the head-to-head pipped us by finishing with 121 victory points.  So, we were third instead of second (first was at 145 VPs, well ahead of either of us, and we did lose a tight match to that team by 4 imps, so no heartache there ...).

Still, we could have been second in A instead of third.  By one measly victory point! Obviously, with that small a margin, every board would have made a difference.  But there are two boards I messed up that come to mind.

This was against the team that came in second. I was West and held:

W

Me

♠

x

♥

AK10xx

♦

Axxxx

♣

Ax

Lead: ♠A

E

Pard

♠

J10xx

♥

9xxx

♦

xxx

♣

Kx

The bidding had gone:

W

Me

N

LHO

E

Pard

S

RHO

1♥

1♠

2♥

Pass

3♦

Pass

3♥

3♠

4♥

All Pass

LHO led the Ace of Spades and switched to the Queen of clubs.  How do you play the hand?  Decide before you go on.

Obviously, I have two losing diamonds with no place to go.  Hence, I need to play the heart suit for no losers.  The question then is the right play for the heart suit.  Did you just plop down the top two hearts because a 2-2 division is the most likely? Then you go one down.

What I needed to have thought about was the auction.  RHO passed on the first round and then bid 3S, so he is dead minimum but because he is willing to push us to game, probably thinks he has a heart trick.  From the lead, LHO has telegraphed the AK of spades, QJ of diamonds and probably the K of diamonds.  That leaves exactly the QJ of hearts and diamonds for RHO.  I need to go up with the king of clubs and hook the heart.  I need to take the view that hearts are 3-1 with QJx with RHO.

The board was a push because the other table also went down 1 in 4H.  But I should have made it.

We beat the very last team by 17 imps.  We would have beaten them by 25 imps if I had gotten this board right.  I was West and picked up, as dealer, this 7-5-1 hand.

W

Me

♠

8xxxx

♥

x

♦

—

♣

AJ109xxx

Lead: ♦A

E

Pard

♠

Q9x

♥

Kxx

♦

9xxxx

♣

Kxx

I've got spades and this hand could very well make slam in either spades or clubs.  So, I passed. The auction now went:

W

Me

N

LHO

E

Pard

S

RHO

Pass

1♥

Pass

2♥

3♣

4♥

Pass

Pass

4♠

Dbl

5♣

Pass

Pass

Dbl

—

—

LHO led the Ace of diamonds.  I ruffed and led out the small heart.  LHO won with the Ace and played back a heart. I took this with the king, discarding a spade.  4H is cold for them. 5Cx is a good sacrifice if I can keep this to down 2.  The key then is to play the clubs for no losers.  How do you play this?

I played low to the Ace, and LHO showed out.  So, down 3.  Our teammates were in 5H making against our -500, so we lost 5 imps on the deal.

The key, as before, is to count out the high card points.  Where are the spades?  RHO probably has them, but did not introduce them.  LHO has A of hearts and AK of diamonds. I should play the spades before touching clubs.  I would have then discovered that RHO had AJ of spades.   LHO with AQ hearts, AK of diamonds and Kxx of spades.  Why would she leap to 4H?  Because she is void in clubs.  I should play low towards the King and pick up the Queen of clubs on a finesse back to hand when LHO shows out on the first round.

Oh so close

In New York on work, I got to play at the Aces Bridge Club in Manhattan with Bill.  We ended up with 69.58% to win it overall.

But because we missed that pyschologically important 70% mark by a whisker, all four of our bad boards really rankle.

Two bad boards came against Joel Wooldridge.  Yeah, this guy.  Multiple-national champion, and Bermuda Bowl silver medalist Joel Wooldridge.  Both boards were opening lead problems.  See if you would do better.

First board, I hold:

South

South

♠

43

♥

7

♦

AJ95

♣

Q108763

The bidding goes:

W

West

N

Pard

E

Joel

S

Me

—

—

—

Pass

Pass

Pass

1♠

2♣

3♣

5♣

5♦

Pass

5♠

All Pass

What do you lead?

I led the 7 of hearts. Which, in hindsight, is terrible.  Joel had made a slam try and subsided in 5S. It is obvious that partner is totally broke except for clubs. The slam try being in Diamonds, I can not plop down the Ace of diamonds - -AJ9 might well be worth two tricks. I need to cash our club trick in case it is going away and the lead a club for declarer to ruff and do what he will after that.  Leading the 7 of clubs stands out by a mile.  What was I thinking about the 7 of hearts?  Actually, I will tell you what I was thinking. I thought that if Joel had a club control for his 5C bid, it would the Ace of clubs, so partner might have the Ace of hearts. And with the slam try in diamonds and partner's preemptive jump, perhaps partner was short in diamonds ... i.e., I put partner with a hand like xxx Axxxx x Kxxx ... in which case the 7 of hearts would lead to Ace of hearts, heart ruff and Ace of diamonds. Maybe even diamond ruff to beat it two ... Very, very unlikely of course.  Much more likely that we have the two minor suit aces coming and maybe a slow diamond trick to beat the contract.   Leading a club would have given us a 56% board. Defending against Joel Wooldridge, a 56% board is victory. Leading the 7 of hearts, on the other hand, gave us a 20% one.  The full hand is here.  Incidentally, a 6C sacrifice would have been a good choice.

The second bad board, I held (everyone non vulnerable):

S

South

♠

1083

♥

K43

♦

843

♣

K743

The bidding goes:

W

West

N

Pard

E

Joel

S

Me

—

Pass

2♥

Pass

Pass

Pass

—

—

West has passed after a very long hesitation. What do you lead?

I led the 3 of clubs and Joel had no problems making 10 tricks.  This turned out to be a bad board, because the pass was well judged.  4H was going down one at most tables after a spade lead. I don't know if I should have gotten this one right.  Here's the full hand.

The third of the bad boards came against a Norman Bridge Club nemesis (long story) who bid 7NT against us and made it on a cold layout.  Got to take that bottom, but it's who the opponent was that doesn't sit well.

The final bad board was totally my fault in not being blood-thirsty enough.  Vulnerable against not, and holding:

S

South

♠

QJ74

♥

J5

♦

AK5

♣

J986

The bidding goes:

W

West

N

North

E

East

S

South

Pass

1♥

Dbl

RDbl

Pass

Pass

1♠

?

What's your bid now?

The redouble was great.  I needed to double 1S and let them play there.  They would have gone down 4 for a cool top, but the fact that we were vulnerable and they were not convinced me to remove to NT.  Bad choice. Once, I had redoubled, it was a penalty that I needed to be shooting for -- colors be damned.

So how can I have made three blunders in one evening and still ended up with a 69.6% game? Not for nothing does Michael Rosenberg call bridge a game of mistakes.

Pacific Northwest

After nearly 20 years in Oklahoma, we are moving to Seattle. I have a new job building the weather inputs to a data analytics system to improve agricultural yield.

With the upcoming move, I haven't had the chance to play much bridge, or to post bridge hands from the games that I did play. I was in New York last week, and played a game at the new Aces Bridge Club in Manhattan with my usual New York partner, Bill.  We ended up with a 61% game and won our direction, but there were a couple of hands where I overbid.

In one, I was not sure how Bill would bid with a minimum hand that held 5 diamonds and 4 of a major.
                         Me                Bill
                         1C                 1D
I had a 4414 hand with 14 points.  Some thing like QJxx AQxx x AJxx. What would you bid in response to 1D?  I tried 1H and Bill rebid 2C:
                         Me                 Bill
                         1C                  1D
                         1H                  2C
Now what? I tried 2NT, and Bill passed.  2NT went down 1.  2C would have made 3.

I will be playing at a sectional in Norman at the end of the month. It will give me a chance to say goodbye to a lot of friends. It is amazing how one builds both deep and broad relationships simply by playing cards once a week ...

I am going to have to look for bridge clubs and partners in Seattle. I went to the ACBL website and did a club search. There are 3 pages of listings, nearly 40 clubs in the area! How am I supposed to know which games are friendly and strong? And even then, finding a network of partners will take time.  One part of me is nervous about going to a club and saying that I have 250 masterpoints for fear of who I would be matched up with (I delude myself that I play much better than that ...). 

A nullo play

A nullo play in blackgammon is a play that can never be profitable.  The obvious thing to do is to avoid nullo plays, but what if you are making nullo plays without ever realizing it?

Playing the bridgez tournament, I got a pretty good board for bidding and making 4D when the field was going down in 3NT.  This was the bidding on the hand:

You can click "Next" to see the play as it develops.

The field had bid 3D on the first turn, and since that would be forcing, they saw partner bid a hopeless 3NT.  Passing and then bidding 3D was right on values, and allowed the robot to compete to 4D.

4D making was worth 85%, but then I noticed that the WBridge robot had made 5D.  5D?  What was the mistake in my play?  Did you spot it?

It was the nullo manner that I played the clubs.  Having stripped the hand, and lacking the 9 of clubs, the club finesse was a poor choice because it would win only if West had a doubleton club headed by an honor. Yet, with the preempt, it is East who is more likely to have the doubleton in clubs.  Small club to the Ace and low club from hand.  Now, I should get a ruff and discard to make 5.  This is how the play should have gone.

What's a point between robots?

Playing the bridgez tournament rather distractedly, I picked up:

S

South

♠

AQxxx

♥

Qx

♦

AQx

♣

KJx

How many high-card points do I have?

For whatever reason, I thought I had 17 and opened it 1NT (15-17).  The bidding now went:

North

South

—

1NT

2♦

2♥

4♥

All Pass

This was the hand:

4H making 7 was not a good  board.  And all because I undercounted one measly Jack!  And it is not as if I needed that Jack to make 7 ... 

Don't fake a reverse when you can open 2C

One of the recommended actions for a Bridge World Death Hand is to fake a reverse.  So, I thought I'd try it on this hand to avoid an auction that goes 1C-1S-3C:


As you can see, the 2D fake reverse was not a success. When dummy came down, I thought I had a chance, but then I discovered the diamond break ...

What's better?  Best, I think, is to open this 4-loser hand 2C and after the inevitable 2D, bid 3C.  Partner will probably put me in 6C then.

Easybridge flyer

The Norman Bridge Club is going to be running EasyBridge classes starting next Thursday.  I looked at the suggested flyers for advertising, and they are ... horrible.  The entire aesthetic is so 1970s.

I decided to create a more modern-looking flyer and in an effort to decorate it, went looking for cartoons or photographs for the flyer. I found a few including a pretty cool New Yorker cartoon titled "Turning Tricks". But, then I also decided to create one of my own using Tondoo, a company run by one of my undergraduate classmates:

Here's the full flyer.  What do you think?

In case someone else is running bridge classes and wants to use my flyer as a template, click the link to get it as a Microsoft Word Document.

More info on our EasyBridge lessons are on the club's Facebook event page.

Careful with the doubles when GiB is your CHO

Playing a 8-board robot tournament on BBO after a long-time, I got off to a rather poor start when my robot partner pulled my penalty double:

5H down 1 was a 38% board.  4Sx down 3 would have been a lot better of course.  But I had paid my 25c, and by golly, I was going to get my money's worth.  I decided to hunker down and finish the set.

By the 7th board, I was at 70% overall, and in first place.  This was the 7th board and after my RHO bid 4S, I had a decision to make.


Should I pass, double or bid 5H?  I recalled board 1, where my partner took out a clear penalty double.  What would the robot do with a cooperative one? I decided to bid 5H as insurance and when dummy came down, I thought I had blown it, and passing was the right call.  It turns out that 4S makes. Many of the other tables were in 4Sx, so my Center Hand Opponent would have passed the double this time, so 5H undoubled and down 3 was worth 82%.

The last board of the set was another double-or-not decision. This was the board:

After I doubled 3S for penalty and CHO took me out, I decided to not push my luck by doubling 4S for penalty.  It turned out that 4S down 3 was worth 95% anyway.  Doubling was not needed.

This sort of fielding partner's propensities is something that you always have to do with human players -- there are players who will sit and players who will run. It appears that GiB will take out his partner's doubles even at high levels.  And I can not figure what the robot's logic is regarding which doubles are for penalty and which ones are cooperative.  Any suggestions and/or pointers are appreciated.

Analyzing the common game

Finally, our club director signed us up for the Common Game, but I haven't been able to play much at the club.  But with a special Memorial Day game held on Monday afternoon, I got to try it out. Partner and I had a good game (63%), but another pair (who are often our teammates) had an obscene one (80%), so that was good only for second place.

For the most part, the boards fared about the same at the club as in the larger, nationwide field. The difference between the club and field was stark, however, on Board #3, I was South.  I opened the hand 1C.  West passed (!), partner bid 1H, I replied 1S and partner now bid 2NT.  He made 3 for +150:

This was worth 57% of the matchpoints nationwide but only 38% at the club. 

It appears that people at our club are bidding the two flat hands aggressively and ending up in 3NT (how?).  As it turns out, the defence to beat 3NT is extremely difficult.  The opponents need to lead spades, squeezing declarer before broaching either hearts or diamonds (depending on what declarer discards) to beat the contract.

When I bid aggressively,  on Board 15, it turned out to be a cropper.

I was West, and opened the hand 1H.  When partner replied with a semi-forcing 1NT, I should have realized that he might have a minor-suit bust and rebid a calm 2H. Instead, I got carried way by the good hearts and Aces and Kings and bid 3H.  Partner raised me to 4 and I got a diamond lead.

How do you play this thing? I decided to play for a doubleton heart honor with South.  So, I took the Ace and King of diamonds and played the third diamond.  Now, North won with the Jack of diamonds and switched to a club.  I took the winning club finesse, and discarded a spade on the Ace of clubs. I then took a heart finesse that lost to North's King.  Unwilling to give me one more club discard, North finally led a spade. When I got in with the King of spades, I plopped down the Ace of hearts, but unfortunately, South had a third heart and the queen did not fall.  4H down 1.

At the club, others stayed low, got a spade lead and easily chalked up 9 tricks in hearts.

The double-dummy contracts are always worth a think. On Board #17, the opponents bid 4S and made 7.

Double-dummy, they are supposed to make only six.  How? Assume that East is the declarer and South gets to lead. 

I led the King of hearts, but unfortunately, this gave declarer the entry she needed to run the 9 of spades and then a small spade to the queen and Ace of spades. She then came to hand with the Ace of diamonds and, after finessing clubs, was able to throw away her losing diamonds on the clubs. The way to beat the contract is to lead a diamond. This knocks out declarer's entry early.  If she leads the 9 of spades to finesse spades, she has no entry to her hand to take the club finesse (spades are blocked). If she leads a club to the Jack, the 10 is not a entry because I can ruff the third club. Leading the first spade low to the Queen fails because of the 2-1 split.

4S making 7 was a bottom, but I don't think others found the diamond lead. The declarer at our table just played it better than the field.

Estimating poorly

Playing in the Open Pairs game at the OKC regional, partner and I had a 62% game, winning our direction.  All through the session, though, I thought we were having about a 53% game.

Estimation is an important skill to have and I have been working on it. After every board, I estimate whether the board is a top (+2), a bottom (-2) or in between.  Because you have about 25 boards in a session, adding these scores can give a pretty good estimate of how you are faring.  Of course, it works only if your estimates (-2 to 2) are reasonable.

So, I went back and looked to see where and why my estimates were off.  In general, lots of boards I had marked as average (0) turned out to be Average+ (about 8 out of 12).  Essentially, getting to the right contract was worth an Average+.  Theoretically these ought to get washed out by boards where the opponents got to the right contract their way. Even though I consistently marked those also as average (0), they too turned out to be Average+ because the field was not taking all their tricks on defense.   Similarly, I would mark down a board where we dropped a trick as below average (-1) but it would turn out that the field was not picking up these tricks either.

Turns out that many of the stronger players were playing the first round of knockouts.  It may have been an "open pairs", but the field was relatively weak.

The only true mishap of the day occurred on a board where I made two bad decisions in the bidding:

I was West and had to decide whether to open this hand 1H or 1NT.  With a 15-17 balanced hand, I always open 1NT even if I have a 5-card major. However, I decided to upgrade the hand, open 1H and rebid 2NT.  That was mistake #1.  This is pretty clearly not an upgradeable hand.   Partner now bid 1NT (semi-forcing) and South overcalled 2S.  What's my bid now?  

I doubled (takeout) and partner bid 3C.  This is where mistake #2 happened. Forgetting that I had doubled (so 3C was to play), I bid 3S and put partner in a hopeless 3NT contract.  That was our only zero of the night.  Had I passed 3C on this board, we might have won the overalls too, not just the E/W direction, because 3C making 4 would have been Average+.

But I should not complain too much -- the other bidding misunderstanding of the night gave us a cold top (all 12 of the matchpoints).  It was on this board:

After North passed, partner (East) opened 1D and South overcalled 2S (weak).  I bid 3S.

Now, partner had a problem.  Was my 3S a limit raise of diamonds or a general-purpose force where his first priority is to bid 3NT with a spade stopper?  In any case, he had no spade stopper, so he bid 4D.  Back to me.  Well, if partner doesn't have a spade stopper, I can see a diamond slam if partner has a spade singleton.  So, I cue-bid 4H. Would partner cue-bid 4S? 

Partner was not on the same page, however.  Was 4H a cue-bid with diamonds agreed, or an offer to play? Partner passed my 4H bid.  Oops.

The Ace of spades was led and dummy came down.  What do you do?

"Thank you, partner," I said.  No one needed to know that I was in a 4-2 fit.

Ace of spades was followed by a low spade to South's Jack.  South then switched to his Q of diamonds. No surprise there.  Diamonds were 2-1 with the preemptor having only one diamond.  Chances were that his heart and club holdings were then 3-3.

Who rates to have the Queen of hearts?  North, of course.  Firstly, he has 4 hearts to South's three.  Secondly, with the KQJ of spades and Qxx of hearts, South would probably bid 1S, not 2S.  So, I took the diamond switch in hand, and played Ace of hearts and the Jack.

North didn't cover the Jack and I was home.  I ran the Jack, played a club to the Ace, pulled a round of trumps with the king and started running my diamonds. North could ruff in with the Queen of hearts, but I had the rest.

4H made on the 4-2 fit was a cold top.  The better pairs were in 5D while the rest of the field were in diamond part-scores or failing in 3NT.

Tell partner you want an uppercut

One of the most rewarding defensive maneuvers is achieving an uppercut.  You essentially manufacture a trump trick out of thin air.

In a club game, partnering a good player (and frequent teammate) for the first time, we have decided to play upside-down count and attitude, but nothing beyond that.  Still, we are doing well ( we would finish second, with 57%) when the opponents find themselves in a nice 3C partscore.

I lead partner's suit and the play proceeds up this point (hit Next to see the play) when the cards are as follows:

What card should I play?

From partner's point of view, I could have either the King of hearts or the Jack of clubs to defeat this contract.  If I have the King of hearts, he needs to lead a heart before declarer can discard his heart loser on the good spade. If, on the other hand, I have the Jack of clubs, then an upper-cut is the ticket to beating 3C.  My signal needs to tell him which line to take.

Discouraging hearts, perhaps with the 10 of hearts would have lead partner to finding the uppercut. He leads a diamond and if declarer ruffs with the Ace, my Jack is good ...

(Yes, declarer misplayed this.  If he pulls trump before playing spades, there is no upper-cut. Also, he finessed spades into the wrong hand.  If he finesses the spade into my hand, his hearts would be safe even if I held the Ace of hearts.  But then, this ain't the Bermuda Bowl.)

Sac and squeeze

The very first board of the very first match in a GNT game, we are playing one of the strongest pairs in the room. I pick up:

W

Me

♠

AJ9xxxx

♥

AJx

♦

x

♣

xx

And the bidding goes:

W

Me

N

North

E

East

S

South

—

—

—

1♣

1♠

Dbl

2♠

Pass

3♠

5♣

Pass

Pass

?

Do you agree with my bidding so far?  What's your bid?

From my point of view, 5C is making.  Is 5S a worthwhile sacrifice?

The best case scenario is that partner has Kxx of spades and shortness in hearts. In that case, I go down 1.  The worst case is that partner has KQx of spades and nothing else. I then go down 3. I rolled the dice and bid 5S, got doubled and went down ... five!  Turns out that the real worst case scenario is that partner raised with 10xx xxx Qxxxx Qx.

Needless to say, we lost that match.  But only by 7 imps.  Without my ill-advised sacrifice, we would have won.

We lost the next match too and found ourselves in a round-robin with two other two-loss teams.  "Why are they here?," sputtered our opponent to the director who patiently explained that the reason he had play us in the round robin was because we had lost our first two matches.  "I don't want to be here either," I mollified him, "I would rather be playing there."

Our opponent had just about settled down when this hand came up (I was West):

Once North  put in the King diamonds, I realized that I could squeeze South out of his king of spades. If the finesse worked, in other words, I didn't need to take it.  North, the danger hand, with his established hearts would be kept off lead ...  Here's the full hand (click Next to follow the play)



He wasn't happy about that either.  Playing in the last round of a Swiss teams having lost all your matches, you should not be subjected to a squeeze.

We ended up blitzing the round robin and ended up fifth. Not bad, but I had hoped to do better.