Linda Lee

Birthday Bridge

Today was my birthday and all in all it was a nice day.  It was certainly a bridge filled day.  I spent some time working on bridge hands and stories for our new bridge website which will be up and running this fall.  It is for bridge students and bridge teachers and is called MasteringBridge.com.  (like the name?)

We talked about the books we are planning to publish this year.  Believe it or not we know all of the books for a whole year, although perhaps we might slot one more in between now and this time next year, you never know.  One of my favourite books for the fall is a collection of Frank Vine stories.  Frank Vine lived near here, in Hamilton and he was a fine player but he also was a great writer and his stories (some published in Bridge World) are very funny. 

I started my first bridge blog for learners.  This one was supposed to be for beginners.  It started out with the most simple finessing position there is, the AQ and talked about what a finesse was.  But somehow I got carried away and I went out of beginner land.  Becky, our new electronic publishing intern who does not play bridge (but is learning) told me I had gone much too far. 

Here is what happened.  I started to talk about this finesse from the point of view of the defenders.  Fourth hand shouldn't lead into the AQ away from the King (okay so far) but then I talked about making a trick when the king was onside by a) locking declarer in dummy or b) second hand making a deceptive play of second hand leading from the King.  In the example, declarer had two chances and this play took away one of them.  Okay I agree ... this is a bridge too far.

Now that I think about it there is a lot more one could do with this simple position.  Endplays to start.  Show-in squeeze anyone?

Colin and I have now decided that we are playing at the Boston Nationals which means that we do need to write up our system, pronto.  I am also playing in a senior event (I suppose I will have to admit to being 55) but not with Colin of course.

We did manage to get in a few hands tonight after my birthday dinner.

Here is one favourite.  Colin opened 1S (limited) and I held

S xx H 9 D AQ9xxxx C AJ9

I bid 2D game forcing and Colin bid 3D.  I bid 3H and Colin bid 3S and basically I just bid 6 using keycard along the way.  Colin had a yummy hand.

S AKJ84 H K103 D K1084 C 8

It was one of those great nights where your card is full of pluses and the bridge is fun. 

Eddie's Home Game Revisited

A couple of nights ago, I returned to the hotel very depressed. I had just finished a terrific Indian dinner but I left my glasses in the cab and was a moment too late to retrieve them.  Ray and I were meeting Eddie Kantar and Phillip Alder for a prearranged bridge game. To provide me with the most light (I was incognito in prescription sunglasses) we sat at the back of the tournament hall. All around us sections of players were playing in the Life Masters’ pairs but I think the bridge in our little corner was likely among the best in that room. Ray played very well but it was our opponents who shone.  At the end I found I was no longer depressed at all.

Let’s see if you can defend as well as Eddie Kantar on the hand. This is your hand S K742 H KJ962 D J8 C J2. South (me) opens a 12-14 notrump and all pass. Your goal on the hand is to try to defeat the hand (of course) but also to hold declarer to the fewest possible tricks. You lead a small heart and you see this dummy:

             North

             S Q65 H A54 D Q7653 C 43

 

You (West)

S K742 H KJ962 D J8 C J2.

 

Declarer plays low and partner plays the H10 as declarer wins the HQ. Declarer now plays the DK and it holds. What do you think is happening and what is your plan? Stop and think about it now. Declarer continues with the D10, you perforce cover with the DJ and Phillip (your partner) wins the DA.  He plays another heart, which you win and play a third heart.  What is your plan now?

 

That was a trick question. You cannot play a third heart. Here is the whole hand.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

	Ray S Q65
	H A54
	D Q7653
Eddie	C 43	Phillip
S K742		S A98
H KJ962		H 1073
D J8		D A42
C J2	Linda	C Q1098
	S J103
	H Q8
	D K109
	C AK765

 

 

 

If you continue a heart then declarer will throw her D9 on the HA and eight tricks are hers. Eddie found a shift to the CJ. As it turns out there is no way to prevent declarer from making seven tricks at this point nor is there any way for declarer to make eight tricks. In practice, I won the second club and cashed the other club honor throwing a diamond from dummy. I cashed the D9 and exited a spade. Phillip won the spade, cashed a club and exited a spade to Eddie’s King and now whatever Eddie plays my hand or dummy is high.

 

You can try different variations but after Eddie’s great switch the fate of the hand is sealed.

 

By the way, I now sit the proud owner of two new pairs of eyeglasses with thanks to Judy Wolff. (I shall always have a backup with me.) Judy kindly lent us her car so that we could travel around Las Vegas as we bought replacement glasses. I think I look very cool in my new frames.

 

The system works!

Vulnerable against not, Colin opened a club yesterday and the system actually worked to get us a good score.  Here is what happened.  Colin held

S KQ863 H AK98 D K C A65

He opened 1C and I bid 1D showing 0-8.  Colin bid 1S showing five or more spades.  This bid is forcing one round.  I bid 1NT showing 0-5 HCP and no spade fit.  Colin bid 2H which can be passed but I burst forth with four hearts.  I held

S 97 H J107432 D 963 C 108.

The hand broke normally and four hearts was easy.

Okay, so my bid was a touch aggressive but we would have got to game anyhow.  Since if I bid 3H Colin will bid four.  This hand was passed out in 1S at a lot of tables.  I know see the wisdom of the forcing one of a major. 

We both enjoyed this hand too.  It has nothing to do with system and a lot to do with Colin's aggressive style and our good defence.  Colin held S AQ93 H 94 D 974 C K976.  The opponents were vulnerable and we were not.   After two passes West on his left opened 1D and East responded 1S.  West bid 2S and I balanced with a double.  Colin bid 3C and West took the push with 3S.  Do you pass or make a call?  Colin doubled.  I lead the S4 and this was dummy.

S K862 H KJ72 D K1063 CA

Colin won the SQ and cashed the SA and another spade.  At the table declarer played on hearts, allowing Colin to ruff the heart and return.  Here is the whole hand

	Colin
	S AQ93
	H 94
	D 974
West	C K976	East
S K862		S J1075
H KJ72		H A86
D K1063		D 52
C A	Linda	C Q1084
	S 4
	H Q1053
	D AQJ8
	C J532

Declarer could win the club return, and ruff a heart to hand to play a diamond up.  I won the DA and played the DQ.  Declarer could only take the diamond and his last trump for two down.  We took three spade tricks 2 diamond tricks, and a club trick.

An interesting play hand and an interesting bidding hand

Here are a couple of hands that we got a bit wrong in our session last night.  I like this play problem because it contains an interesting position which is easy to miss.

	S 3
	H Q10654
	D J86
	C AK64
West		East
	S AQ9876
	H A2
	D Q732
	C 3

Partner passed and you (South) open 1S in third chair. Partner bid 2H and you rebid 2S which was passed out.

 

The opening lead was the C9 and you won the club ace in dummy and played the club king throwing a heart.  You now played a spade to the queen, cashed the spade ace and played another spade finding that West had started with four spades KJ10x.  West cashes his last spade and plays a club which you ruff.  East threw two clubs under the spades and on the club discards the D5

	S
	H Q106
	D J86
	C
West		East
	S 9
	H A
	D Q732
	C

 

 

At this point you are certainly happy you didn't get too high.  How do you continue?

From the play so far you know that East started with S KJ10x and C QJ10x.  He also is very likely to have one of the diamond ace or king (since West did not lead a diamond.)  West is know to have S XX C XXXX, a diamond honour and almost certainly the heart king.  West will not have pitched down to a stiff diamond honour so he started with at least three diamonds, but more likely four. 

East therefore doesn't have more than three diamonds.  If the diamonds were three-three you have no legitimate way to make the hand at this point unless West does have both diamond honours.   But if the diamonds were four-two or five-one you can still succeed, even with split honours. 

The best play now is to lead the diamond queen from hand (and one we missed).  If  East wins and returns a heart or a club, you win and play another diamonds.  Now West has to win the DA and your DJ is the game going trick.  If West wins and returns a heart you win and play a diamond up.  Your plan is to duck the diamond to East's now doubleton honour. 

You will pay off to East holding the diamond AKXX and not leading one.

 

	S 3
	H Q10654
	D J86
West	C AK64	East
S 52		S KJ104
H K3		H J987
D A10954		D K
C 9872		C QJ105
	S AQ9876
	H A2
	D Q732
	C 3

Here is my bidding problem.  I held S void H A532 D AQ54 C QJ1085.  All white, partner in second chair opened a 10-12 notrump.  We are playing forcing and nonforcing Stayman.  If you bid 3C immediately it is invitational (generally looking for notrump).  I decided I wasn't good enough to force to game opposite a possible ten count and no certain fit.  Do you agree?  So I started with 2C.  Colin bid 2D no major.  Now I was even more confused.  I suppose notrump could be right if Colin had a lot of spade points.  Four hearts could be right too if Colin has three good hearts and 5 of a minor is definitely a possibility.  What to do?  At the table I bid 3C (for play).  One other choice is 4C.  I think it has to be invitational in clubs since I didn't start with 4D.  I didn't want to spring this on his at the table.  This has the advantage that Colin can bid 4H with three good hearts, on the way to five clubs.  If I want to just play five of a minor I think 4NT should ask Colin to bid game in a minor.  As it turns out 4H and 6D makes and 6C makes if you guess hearts.  Colin held S 964 H KJ10 D K1-83 C A92.  I wonder what Colin would have thought if I bid 4NT at the table!

Playing a grand slam, not against Jeff Smith

This hand was going to be one I loved or hated.  Let me set it up for you.  I held S KQJ53 H 7652 D K62 C 8

We are vulnerable against not and Colin opened 1C strong.  I bid 1H showing a positive response with five spades or a balanced hand with 11-13 HCP.  Colin bid 2H which shows at least four card spade support and is unlimited. 

Now RHO bid 3C. What does this mean?  Is it lead directing?  Why would you bid 3C now and not over 1C?  This was an established partnership so they had agreements here. 

We have had some discussions that in this type of auction we play serious 3NT so probably 4C doesn't show extra and it seems unlikely to deny all red suits.  I tried that.  West on my left bid 5C and partner bid 5NT grand slam force.  What should I bid now?  I missed the best bid at the table.  I should bid 7C.  It must be asking partner to play the hand from his side and  that has to be right.  I bid 7S and set myself up for what was to follow.

	Colin
	S A10872
	H AKQ
	D AJ105
	C A
	Linda
	S KQJ53
	H 7652
	D K62
	C 8

The opening lead was the C3, East playing the C2.  My job (and yours) is to find the diamond queen.  You play a spade to the King and a spade to the S10.  East shows out throwing the C5.  You play three rounds of hearts and all follow the hearts are 3-3.  You cross to your hand with the SQ and play the last heart.  The opponents throw clubs.  You know play off another spade and East throws the CQ and West the CJ.  When you play the last spade something funny happens.  East throws the D3 and West throws the C4.  West has been playing pretty random spot cards through this whole process.  It seems very likely that East held S 9 H 1043 D ?X3 C KQ10752.  Who has the DQ?

First I tried to decide if East was more likely to bid 3C (the second time round) with or without the DQ.  It didn't really seem to matter.  Could East really have only five clubs and hold four diamonds?  So he held Q10752 Q943 in the minors.  No I couldn't believe that he would do this on such a rotten suit.  Why was he throwing a diamond?  Did he have the queen and want to confuse me?

My experience here is that most people don't throw a diamond from QXX.   Jeff Smith might do it.  He loves getting me on plays like this.  But he wasn't at the table.  So if you played West for the DQ you were right.  I however blew it.

 

	Colin
	S A10872
	H AKQ
	D AJ105
West	C A	East
S 64		S 9
H J98		H 1043
D Q87		D 943
C J9643	Linda	C KQ10752
	S KQJ53
	H 7652
	D K62
	C 8

 

Why should we play it Colin's way (apart from the fact that he guesses better)?  With Colin as the closed hand he has the opportunity to lead the DJ and see if East will cover.  With dummy exposed that really isn't much of a chance.

Paul we can find the right opening lead

Paul Thurston's column in the National Post included the comment that players often made the wrong opening lead.    During our session last night I couldn't help but think that a lot of bridge players are pretty good at finding the right one.  Exhibit is one is the lead Colin made on our fourth board.

He held S Q62 H 932 D J8 C J9653

With all vulnerable the auction went:

West	North	East	South
1C	pass	1S	pass
1NT	pass	2NT	all pass

What do you like?  Colin lead the DJ and found me with the DKQ762.  The opponents were not in the best contract and would probably have gone down on any lead except a spade but this certainly made it easy.  Some might argue for a heart lead but on this auction I am quite likely to have diamonds and his DJ is a helper card. 

My opening lead was a lot easier.  You have S K1083 H 64 D Q73 C K872.   You are vulnerable against not and the auction goes:

West	North	East	South
		1S	pass
1NT	pass	2H	all pass

I think a heart lead is completely clear, don't you.  It is the only lead to beat the hand.

	Colin
	S AJ62
	H AJ85
	D K9
West	C J94	East
S void		S Q9754
H 72		H KQ1093
D J1086542		D A
C AQ65	Linda	C 103
	S K1083
	H 64
	D Q73
	C K872

After a heart lead and heart continuation declarer has no chance.

I wasn't sure how to bid this hand which lead to some discussion after the game. 

S K103 H A72 D KQ1098 C 65

What do you think?  Colin opened 2C showing 6C and a limited hand.  He can have a four card major or a five card one if he is 6-5. 

I think in retrospect I should just bid 3NT but I thought we could easily have a big problem in one of the major suits.  I can find out more about his shape by bidding 2D so I did.  I wasn't sure where I was going with it though.  It went double and Colin bid 2H showing a four card major.  Expecting him to be short in diamonds now (and with a likely diamond lead) I bid 3NT which turned out the be right.  He held SQ72 H KJ54 D Void C AQJ743.  The question was what would I have done over 2H without the double.  I suppose I would probably have bid 3NT anyway.  What would I do if he bid 3C, minimum no majors.  I probably still should bid 3NT.

Do you ever have hands where you hate your bid and it turns out perfectly?  Here was a hand where I just bid and it worked out well when partner had the hand of my dreams.  I held S QJ H 64 D J7532 C A986.  With all white, West opened 1H and Colin overcalled 2C.  East bid 4H.  Do you like 5C here?  This is a momentum bid isn't it?   I knew that Colin would make some allowance for the fact I was under pressure.  David Silver, one of my favourite humorous writers has a name for this.  He calls it certainty principle.  On some hands whatever level you bid to, the opponents will be their suit over it.  So you get to place the contract!    It went pass pass 5H.  Now I really didn't want him to bid again so I doubled 5H.  As it turns out if I lead the SQ we can take 5 tricks (and 4 tricks on any other lead) so this would have been safe.  But Colin was ready for bigger things.  He figured I had to have some high cards for my double and he bid 6C.  East doubled and here was Colin's wonderful hand.

S AK52 H J D A C KJ107542

Or as Ray likes to joke, there were 21 total tricks on this hand (roughly) unfortunately (for the opponents) 12 of them were ours.

Whatever has happened to the ACBL Bulletin

The July edition of the 2008 Bulletin arrived on my desk this morning.  Over the years I more or less got used to ignoring it.  It was full of tournament results and later articles for beginners and very little that an "expert" might want to read.  Over the last few years that started to change.  I have always liked the Granovetter column and it was a fast fun and occasionally instructive read.  The best part was the letters to the editors and of course the Eddy Kantar play problems.  Beyond that I would flip the pages and look to see if there was anything else of interest.  It didn't usually take that long to finish.

But when I read the Bulletin today I realized that there had been a gradual transformation and there was a lot more fun stuff.  Let me start with one article that might interest you.  There was a discussion of the stop card with all sorts of comments including an editorial by Brent Manley.  Apparently a reader had written a letter to the editor questioning the value of the stop card.  This caused lots of other letters, apparently all agreeing that it was of no use at all and actually fostered cheating or at least unethical practices by calling attention to some bids.  I thought about this.  Yes, it was true.  The stop card had served its purpose.  It was unnecessary and did more harm than good.  As someone who usually plays online I tried to remember did people still use it?  It seemed to me than when I was playing in tournaments it was hardly used at all.  So I agree with all the readers, lets ban the darn thing.

Than there was a letter about players not wanting to play against pros.  I guess at some level the idea of professional bridge players and how they affect the tournament world just won't go away.  The reader suggest very high masterpoint limit events (like 5000) which would allow in most of us (at least those who have lives) but exclude most experts.  I think the role of professionals in bridge is still evolving and I would like to see all pro events (like world championships) but perhaps that is impossible.  Its not that I don't want to play against them (see next paragraph) but I want to see them play against each other and show us a lot of really top expert bridge.  But I suppose there is an argument for amateur events.

Then in George Jacobs article something I enjoyed Stacy (his wife?) and a number of mostly very young but talented players won the top flight of a knockout beating a star team Bob Hamman (with Jerry Helms, Berkowitz-Cohen, Levin and Weinstein) as well as a mostly star team which included Meckwell.  I thought that must have been fun.   I would have like to go to Gaitlinburg and I admit lost to teams like that.

Sabine Auken wrote a really fun column where you have to guess who was the young player (18) and who were the older ones based on some hands from a team league she played in.  However, she didn't get me on the grand slam off an ace.I have seen too many competitive auctions where someone just bids the grand.  

I really like anything Larry Cohen writes.  His "The Real Deal" column is always interesting and its fun to see how an expert can get "got" by a relatively innocent opponent.  I won't spoil the story for you.

I will spoil one story because I loved this hand.  Barry Rigal wrote a very good article about the Cavendish Pairs.  Here is the hand and see if you can figure out the great defensive play that Bob Hamman made.

	S J8742
	H 762
	D K
	C AKQ9	Hamman
S 65		S KQ109
H 8		H KJ95
D 108743		D Q65
C 87652		C 43
	S A3
	H AQ1043
	D AJ92
	C J10

South plays in 6H.  The auction is not reported.  West leads the S6 after Bob Hamman has doubled a spade bid.  Declarer wins the SA, cashed the DK and played three rounds of clubs - over to you?

Bob Hamman ruffed with the HK.  If he had ruffed low than South would overruff, ruff a diamond.  Whatever line declare takes now will likely make the contract.  (Try your favourite).  But what did you do when you see the HK.  South did what most of us would do he threw his spade loser.  Now he had a reasonable but losing option.  He played to ruff two diamonds in dummy and drop the HJ.

Of course one special section for me this month was the Book Reviews and there was The Lone Wolff scoring an A++ as the lead off book.  I have to say that I think that the reviewer needs to rethink their marking scheme since another book scored an A++, a series scored an A+ a fourth book scored an A and there was a lonesome B at the end.  It seemed like mark inflation.  Does someone tell the reviewer that pretty well everything has to get an A so give the real A's an A+?

Nevertheless if you haven't had a chance to read the Lone Wolff check it out at www.masterpointpress.com. You can read a long excerpt from it.

Well done Brent.  I have already spent 45 minutes on the darn magazine and I still have lots to go.  I will save it for later.

 

So here it is 45 minutes later and I still have lots to read.  I will save it for later.  Great job Brent Manley.

Ecuador versus the stars

Last night Colin and I played in a 12 board tournament set up by Eqqus and the bridge was quite a lot of fun.  Our team the stars did lose 37-36.  It would have been a lot better but Colin and I lost 13 imps on a bidding misunderstanding. 

The match started out when we gave up a couple of overtricks against 3NT when I failed to find the right switch at trick 2.   Colin overcalled quite a weak heart suit with a weak hand which made it harder for us.  Do you like his overcall all not vulnerable?  He held S void H A8764 D 8743 C QJ103 and he overcalled a third chair 1D with 1H.  We do like to overcall at the 1 level when we can to get into the auction but with a bad hand and a bad suit this overcall is questionable especially because it doesn't take any bidding space from the opponents.

See if you can find the killing lead on board 2.  I held S 643 H AJ5 D AQ9 C KJ74.  North South vulnerable.

Colin	MCobos	Linda	Jfvc
		1D	pass
pass	1H	pass	1NT
pass	3C	pass	3H
pass	4H	all pass

The only lead that beats it is the H5.  Did you get that?  Here are the North South hands

S KQ5

H KQ653

D void

C AQ952

S A1082

H 84

D K85432

C 10

At the other table our partners were inexplicably in 4S which has no play.  We were now down 14 imps.  The next board we defeated 2C a trick when our opponents misguessed and we defended very well to pick up 5 imps.  We won 5 imps on the Board 5 when we we pushed the opponents to a minus and the score was now 15-10.

Nothing much happened until board 7 when Colin and I had a misunderstanding.  I take responsibility but the issue is how should you play this sequence.  Help from big clubbers would be nice here.  Colin held S A H AK975 D KJ762 C Q5.  He opened 1C and North bid 1S.  I bid 2C natural and game forcing and Jfvc bid 3S preemptive and putting it to Colin.  What are your methods here?  Colin doubled which I thought showed no clear bid, do what you think and I passed on S 102 H QJ8 D 853 C AJ942.  Okay, that was pretty bad and I guess I should bid 4C.  We have now decided that doubles by opener in this position are strongly for takeout.  But we are looking for advice.

After this disaster (they made it) we were down 28-11 but we came back on the very next board with a game swing.

Here is my hand.  Do you agree with my bidding?

Colin opened 1NT 10-12 and Mcobos overcalled 2H.  I held S KQ62 H K4 D J862 C A43.  I wasn't sure what to do.  My heart stopper was a bit weak but notrump might be the right spot still.  Spades look promising if Colin had four.  I also wasn't sure I wanted to force to game.  Anyway I decided to bid 2NT (lebensohl) and then bid 3H which would be stayman with a heart stopper.  Colin bid 3C forced and North ruined my plan by bidding 3H.  What now?  Well by this time I decided I didn't want to play notrump so I decided to take a chance on spades.  I bid 3S which in this auction is invitation.  With a full heart stopper Colin can still bid 3NT but he will think I have 5 spades.  Do you hate this bid?  Anyway Colin bid 4S and there we were.  Here is the hand.

Colin

S A43

H 98

D A1043

C KJ85

Linda

S KQ52

H K4

D J862

C A43

The open lead was the HJ and Mcobos continued the H10 as I won the HK.  I have a lot of work to do and I can't draw trump before I do it.  I started with a club to the CJ which held and the lead a diamond off the dummy which fetched the D9 DJ and DQ.  My thought here was that Mcobos figured to be short in diamonds and if the diamond honours were split he was likely to have the diamond doubleton.   Jfvc won the DQ.  I think this is the place for a falsecard with the DKQ don't you?  I was pretty sure now that Jfvc had both diamond honours since if Mcobos held the DK9 he wouldn't have ducked but he would have ducked the DQ9.  Jfvc returned a trump but in any case the hand is now cold as long as you finesse diamonds.  I drew three rounds of trump (which broke 4-2) and then finessed diamonds playing winners until the opponents took their final trick, the long trump.

Here is the whole hand

	Colin
	S A43
	H 98
	D A1043
	C KJ85
Jfvc		Mcobos
S J8		S 10976
H J7		H AQ106532
D KQ75		D 9
C Q10972	Linda	C 6
	S KQ52
	H K4
	D J862
	C A43

I like an original 3H bid by Mcobos.  If he does that I have to place the contract and I can't get any help from Colin.  At equal vulnerability I probably would have doubled.  It goes down two tricks which isn't bad at all.  At the other table on a completely different auction our opponents wandered into 3NT after a heart overcall which had could not be made on the expected heart lead.

On Board 9 our partner's got into a bit of a trouble and we were now down 37-21 or 16 imps with 3 more boards.  But they weren't quiet ones. 

On board 10 Colin overcalled a four card heart suit and we arrived in 4H on our 5-4 on a hand which was passed out at the other table.  This made on a misdefence.  We arrived at the last board down 4 imps.  Colin made a great bid on this hand.

We were not vulnerable against vulnerable and Colin sitting West passed in first chair.  North Mcobos opened 1D and I passed.  South Jfvc, bid 2.  Colin held:

S KJ1052 H A742 D 3 C J87.

He doubled and Mcobos redoubled.  I bid 2S which showed that was the suit I wanted to play.  Jfvc held: S 8 H K109 D KQ85 C A10543.  He is soon to play a significant role in our drama.  What would you do on his hand?  It seems reasonable enough to pass and now Colin found a great bid.  He bid 3S.  North passed, I passed and now Jfvc was left with a decision.  He could hardly bid 3NT or double spades.  So he is going to play in five of a minor.  Should he play clubs or diamonds?  It seemed likely that Mcobos had some club support but he was looking at great diamond support so he decided to bid 5D.   I like 4D to let partner pick between the two suits.

Now to my hand.  I held S Q763 H Q5 D 107642 C K6.  I thought Colin was at least 5-5 in the majors for his bidding.  He would have opened any hand with 10 or 11 high card points with that shape so he didn't have as much as that.  He might have something like S AJXXX H AXXXX D -- C xx.  If I double will they run to 6C?  Will we beat 6C?  Okay so I am a wimp.  All of those who think I should double raise their hands!  Colin you don't get to vote. 

As it was we got 400 when we defended quite well and declarer didn't place all the cards perfectly.  The hand is cold for 2 down if declarer plays for a bad diamond break and places the high card better.  So perhaps if I do double we will only get 500.If they run to 6C they are likely to go 1 down. 

Here is the whole hand

	Mcombos
	S A94
	H J863
	D AJ9
Colin	C Q92	Linda
S KJ1052		S Q763
H A742		H Q5
D 3		D 107652
C J87	Jfvc	C K6
	S 8
	H K109
	D KQ85
	C A10543

 

At the other table the auction was much quieter and the opponents arrived in 3NT. Eqqus holding Colin's hand had doubled but there were no further bids from our side.  The hand is actually cold for 1 down if you play on hearts with such lovely spots.  I figure to have 2 hearts and if I have the heart queen (as I do) you can make 4 diamonds, a club, 3 hearts and a spade but the defence will take 4 spades and a heart first.  However out partner didn't play it that way and ended up 3 down.  If he could have held it to 2 down or if I double and get my 500 we win the match as it is we lost by 1.

I know this wasn't perfect bridge but it was fun and raised some interesting points.

Defending while bidding

Some years ago I help George Mittleman write an article about defence and how you could set up the defence with the bidding.  This article was republished in what I consider to be a terrific book called Northern Lights.  Here is a hand where Colin knew exactly how to defend from the auction.  I think the defence is very pretty see what you think.

Colin held S Q5 H KJ6 D 83 C KQJ987

This is how the auction started out

West	Colin	East	Linda
			pass
1S	2C	2S	3S
pass	4C	4D	DBL
4S	?

 

When I doubled 4D Colin knew just how he would defend.  If I could start off with a couple of diamond tricks.  So he doubled.  Here is the whole hand

	Colin
	S Q5
	H KJ6
	D 83
West	C KQJ987	East
S AK943		S J1087
H A10543		H Q98
D J10		D K9642
C 2	Linda	C 4
	S 62
	H 72
	D AQ75
	C A10653

 

Colin started of  with the diamond eight and I took the first two tricks with my AQ.  Just as he had planned.  I made the necessary play of cashing the CA before returning a spade promoting a spade trick in Colin's hand.  (If you don't cash the club declarer can discard one on the club return. Even if declarer ruffs high and throws Colin in to on the third spade he can give her a ruff-sluff with no damage.

Sometimes it all worked out just as it did in your head when you made the double.  Right, Colin?

Irate opponent

A fellow showed up at our table last night who wanted to play what he called random bids over forcing 1C.  The idea was that his bid could mean anything from 0 high and 0 cards in the suit to a real suit.  His partner was supposed to raise him only to the 2 level or (even better) bid 1NT with a raise, regardless of how good his support was.  I suppose though he didn't explain this that if he then bid another suit over 1NT it was his real one.  Who knows?

Regular readers will remember that we played against him before and he went for a bunch of numbers when he bid over 1C.  As he chatted I remembered him.  As you can imagine all his bidding was erratic and his partners kept leaving.  He would go through his routine again with  his next partner, at the same time making the case to us that this was not a pyschic and besides he was doing us a favour by bidding this way.

Now these methods are generally illegal and worse in a pickup partnership they are ridiculous and very likely (as previously) to lead to numbers and get his partner to walk away.  In the end after a long time of listening to him; we booted him.  He kept complaining to us but in BBO you don't have to play against an opponent and you don't have to listen to them either.  What do you think about booting opponents?

Our game started out rather well last night and I liked board 2.  Let me call it bidding one more. 

Do you have clear rules about forcing passes?  We don't really but it is clearly in play on this hand.  You ((me) hold S 4 H A2 D KJ1042 C AJ963.  The auction starts

Linda	West	Colin	East
1D	1S	2S	4S
?

 

Your opening 1D bid is limited and does not promise diamond length.  Colin's 2S shows a limit raise or better and at least 5 diamonds.  What now?  I like 5C here.  You can have a top of the line hand (you are limited) and with the right hand from partner slam is a clear possibility.  Suppose partner has the DA and the CKQ.  Slam is likely then.  So you bid 5C showing him where your house is and Colin bids 5D.

Now your vulnerable opponent bids 5S.  What next?  I think a pass here is forcing asking partner to consider 6D or double them.  Although you don't have 2 quick losers I think this hand has told its entire story and I doubled.

Colin held S 109 H K43 D AQ9765 and C 75 so as you can see 5D was the maximum and 5S doubled went for 500.  The 5S bidder held

S 87653 H Q106 D void and C KQ842.  The club cards figure to more useful offensively than defensive but partner may be short in clubs I suppose.  I think the vulnerability was just wrong for this bid.

Colin and I have started our discussion on forcing passes and he threatens to teach me undoubles where passing shows a desire to penalize the opponents and doubles don't.  I look forward to this with some trepidation.

I always thought that 2C and 2D openers would be weaknesses in the system.  In fact they work pretty well as this hand shows.  I suppose it is because they are so limited and so precise.

Colin held S Q1065 H Q87 D J95 C AQ5.  I opened 2D in third chair showing diamond shortness and my LHO doubled asking for a diamond lead, I suppose.  Colin bid 2NT asking my shape and when I bid 3H showing 4-4-1-4 he could confidently bid 4S even though he was minimum in high cards.  My singleton diamond was very helpful to him.  I held S AK43 H KJ53 D 3 C K763 and this was quite a good score.

Playing with Colin you always have to be prepared for the inventive.  On this hand what do you think 4D means?  You have:

S K94 H K65 D AQ1032 C AQ.  You open 1C and Colin bids 1S which is game forcing and shows at least 5H.  You bid 1NT showing a balanced hand with 17-19 HCP.  Now comes 4D?  You have no agreement here other than over 1NT all bids are natural.  Put yourself in my son's head and see if you can work it out.

This is what I thought.    He wouldn't take up this much room if he wanted to make a slam try.  This is a transfer to hearts since he thinks it will play better from my side.  So I bid 4H.  Guess what?  I was right!

He held

S A H Q109872 D K84 C 974.

He was right with the CK offside the hand does play best from my side but he was wrong in not having a bit more ambition, since as you can see 6H from my side, is a pretty good contract.