Jennbridge: A Trump Coup

Here is a fun hand from the San Francisco sectional a couple of weeks ago.  My partner was Jo Ginsberg.  As dealer at unfavorable vul., I opened two spades:

♠ AQ10976
♥ Q8
♦ 876
♣ J8

LHO doubled and everyone passed!  I had a little anxiety as the ace of  clubs was led and the dummy was put down:

♠ 85
♥ 9643
♦ AQ109
♣ 754

♠ AQ10976
♥ Q8
♦ 876
♣ J8

A quick assessment revealed that I only had 4 quick losers and the spades were very good--only missing the
king and jack.  The king and queen of clubs followed as RHO pitched a low diamond (ostensibly encouraging) and I ruffed.

Hoping that LHO had both diamond honors I led a diamond to the 10 and it held.  I followed this with the 5 of spades to the 6 in my hand and LHO showed out.  Not surprisingly, RHO started with KJxxx of spades.

I led another diamond and LHO played the jack and I won the queen, RHO following again.  It looks like diamonds are 3-3.  I then played the 8 of spades from the board and let it hold.  What now?

I have won 5 tricks and here are the remaining cards:

♠
♥ 9643
♦ A9
♣

♠ AQ10
♥ Q8
♦ 8
♣

I decided to lead a heart from the board and, to my surprise, RHO won the king and cashed the ace before he continued with another heart which I ruffed.  I now played my last diamond, and as RHO was down to all trumps, he had to ruff and lead a spade into my AQ tenace!  Plus 670 was worth 21 out of 25 matchpoints.

Thinking about the hand later, I started wondering whether I really needed to risk the double finesse in diamonds and also whether they could actually beat me.  Here is the entire hand:

SF sectional

Board 6 East Deals E-W Vul	♠ K J 4 3 2 ♥ A K 10 ♦ 5 3 2 ♣ Q 3
♠ 8 5 ♥ 9 6 4 3 ♦ A Q 10 9 ♣ 7 5 4	N W E S	♠ A Q 10 9 7 6 ♥ Q 8 ♦ 8 7 6 ♣ J 8
	♠ — ♥ J 7 5 2 ♦ K J 4 ♣ A K 10 9 6 2

West	North	East	South
		2 ♠	Dbl
Pass	Pass	Pass

2 ♠ x by East

As it turns out, I can always take 6 spade tricks as long as I don't do anything silly like play a high honor prematurely.  I can always take 2 diamond tricks as well, bringing the total to 8.  It is important to pay some attention to the timing, playing two rounds of spades before exiting with a red card.  But, interestingly, if these precautions are taken, the contract is cold.

The contract can be made even if the defenders manage to cash their 4 winners before I ruff in.  In that case, after ruffing in at trick 5 and playing two rounds of diamonds and two rounds of spades, as described, a heart can be led from the board to ruff and continue to shorten my trumps--the key to executing a trump coup. This leads to the same ending as above:  exit with the last diamond which RHO will ruff perforce, and win the last 2 tricks with the AQ of spades.

One last scenario:  If the opponents cash their 4 winners and shift to a diamond, the timing for the trump coup will be destroyed, but I'll be able to take 3 diamond tricks and 5 trump tricks--losing a trump trick at the end. 

See you at the table!

Endplay + avoidance play ****

I found myself in a tough contract today at matchpoints.  None vul., partner opened 1H and I bid 1NT, forcing, bypassing my 4 card spade suit because we were playing Flannery.  He now bid 2C.  What is your call?

♠ K10xx
♥ void
♦ 109xx
♣ AJ98x

I counted my points and counted my losers and considered the merits of 3 clubs.  I finally settled on 2 spades, artificial, showing a good club raise.  Partner now jumped to 3NT.  A diamond was led.

♠ xx
♥ AQJxx
♦ KQ
♣ Kxxx

♠ K10xx
♥ void
♦ 109xx
♣ AJ98x

A lot of work to do.  RHO won the ace of diamonds and returned a diamond, LHO showing out and pitching an encouraging spade.  The good news is I have a second diamond stopper; the bad news is I can't count to 9 tricks.  The other bad news is that if I let RHO in with a diamond, he'll lead a spade through my K10.  What to do?

I've got to get a couple of tricks in hearts, so I play the ace and the queen, LHO winning.  On the ace and queen of hearts I pitch spades.  I can now count 8 tricks if I can get 5 clubs.  LHO does my work for me and returns a club to the queen and my ace.  I play another round of clubs and RHO pitches a heart.

These cards remain:

♠ xx
♥ Jxx
♦
♣ Kx

♠ K10
♥ void
♦ 109
♣ J9x

I still can't let RHO in the lead, so I have to hope that I can endplay LHO and force a spade lead.  I therefore cash another club (extracting the last club from LHO) and the jack of hearts and lead the 4th round of hearts, hoping...

Yes! RHO shows out and LHO wins and has only spades left.  I therefore score my spade king and fifth club for 9 tricks. (5 clubs, 1 diamond, 2 hearts and 1 spade).

RHO held:  Qx/9xxx/Axxxxx/Q
LHO held:  AJxxx/K10xx/x/10xx

Plus 400 was worth 7 out of 8 matchpoints.  Maybe next time I'll bid 3 clubs--but then there wouldn't be a story.

See you at the table!

Jennbridge: Two from Monterey

I had a successful tournament in Monterey last week.  I won a Bracket 1 KO with Dave Neuman, Larry Hansen and Erwin Linzner, came in second in another Bracket 1 KO with Jenn, Ellen Anten and Steve Gross, and won the Fast Pairs with Jenn on the final day.  Here are one hand from the first KO and one from the Fast Pairs.

The first one, from the KO, illustrates the importance of bidding vulnerable games in IMPs.  Dave was in third seat, both sides vulnerable.  I dealt and passed, and so did his RHO.  He looked at

♠  x
♥  AQxxx
♦  AKxxx
♣  xx


He opened 1 Heart.  I responded 1 Spade, which showed a 5-card suit since we play Flannery.  He rebid 2 Diamonds, which I raised to 3 Diamonds.  Now what?

Dave decided to jump to 5 Diamonds even though I was a passed hand.  Although the hand had only 13 HCP, it only had 5 losers.  There are two key principles at work here:  5-5 come alive, and bid your games at teams. 

LHO led the ace of clubs, and Dave looked at:

♠  AQTxx
♥  xx 
♦  Qxxx
♣  xx


♠  x
♥  AQxxx
♦  AKxxx
♣  xx


After the opponents cashed two high clubs, they shifted to a spade.  Now while this contract isn't cold by any means, the IMP odds favor bidding it.  You need the king of hearts onside, plus either (1) 2-2 diamonds and no worse than 4-2 hearts, or (2) 3-3 hearts and no worse than 3-1 diamonds.  In the first case, you can draw trumps, finesse the hearts, and ruff two hearts in dummy to set up the fifth one.  In the second case, you draw 2 trumps, finesse the hearts, cash the third trump and the ace of hearts, and ruff one heart in dummy to set up the suit.  Case (2) actually came in, so we were +600 for a 10-IMP win, which we needed as we won the match by only 4 IMPs.

The second hand, from the Fast Pairs, illustrates that sometimes a psychic bid backfires.  With neither side vulnerable, my LHO held, in third seat:

♠  AJ653
♥  63
♦  J9876
♣  J


His partner opened 2 Spades, weak.  I doubled.  Now, looking at this hand, he saw that he had virtually no defense against either hearts or clubs, so he had to do something to get in our way.  Usually, the best approach here is to take up a lot of bidding space by raising to 4 Spades, or even 5 or 6 Spades, making it hard for the opponents to exchange information and find out that they are cold for slam.  I think that if I held this hand, I would have just bid 6 Spades, an advance save.  What he did was try and confuse the issue by bidding 3 Hearts!  This might have worked, but here it backfired.  Jenn, in fourth seat with

♠  87
♥ 987
♦  54
♣  AKQ865


came in with 4 Clubs, which was passed to me.  I was dealt this 3-loser monster:

♠  void
♥  AKQT52
♦  AKQT
♣  T93

I knew that the opponents had to have a lot of spades, and was virtually certain that my LHO didn't really have hearts.  So I took his bid as an admission of weakness and an attempt to confuse the issue.  Jenn's bid of 4 Clubs enabled me to determine that she would be covering most if not all of my losers, so I just closed my eyes and jumped to 6 Hearts!  We made 7 easily for +1010 and 12.5 out of 15 matchpoints.

Good luck!

Jennbridge: An Unexpected Bonus

Enroute to a win in the Fast Pairs at the Monterey Regional yesterday, I made a bid which turned out well in an unexpected manner.

At favorable vul., Bob opened 1NT, 14-16, and I held:

♠ 6542
♥ 9875
♦ KQ93
♣ 6

The field was weak and there were more mistakes than usual, perhaps due to the pressure of playing a little faster than normal.  Things were going pretty well and I decided to bid Stayman.  When partner bid 2 diamonds, I passed and hoped for the best.

But wait!  LHO balanced with 2 hearts and we all passed.  Maybe she didn't comprehend the fact that I almost certainly had 4 hearts, but the various inferences were not lost on my partner.  Knowing that I had to be short in clubs, he didn't waste any time leading the ace of clubs!

North
♠ 6542
♥ 9875
♦ KQ93
♣ 6

South
♠ K97
♥ A6
♦ A62
♣ A9732

He continued with the deuce of clubs (suit preference for lower ranking suit--in this case, diamonds) which I ruffed.  I returned a diamond to his ace and ruffed the club return.  I then cashed one of my diamond honors and we still were due the ace of hearts for 6 tricks and plus 100.  This netted us 14 out of 15 matchpoints as we really couldn't make anything our way.

Declarer (East) held QJ10/KQJ103/75/Q104
West held A83/42/J1084/KJ85

Note that if I hadn't bid, East probably would have balanced with 2 hearts anyway.  This would almost certainly have made as we wouldn't have had a roadmap to the killing defense!

See you at the table!

Jennbridge: Plays and Counterplays

I played some imp pairs online the other night with some expert friends.  Here is the hand that we are still talking about:

♠ xx
♥ Jxx
♦ A10
♣ J10xxxx

LHO opened 3H, partner doubled, RHO passed and I bid 4C which partner raised to 5.  The king of hearts was led.

♠ AKx
♥ Ax
♦ Q987x
♣ AQ9

♠ xx
♥ Jxx
♦ A10
♣ J10xxxx

I won the ace and studied the hand.  I wasn't comfortable trying to get to my hand to take a club finesse, and since RHO was likely to hold the king anyway, I played the ace of clubs.  LHO showed out.

The only feasible way to make the hand was if RHO had no more hearts, as was likely on the bidding.  I therefore continued clubs, RHO winning the third round of clubs and returning a club.  So far, so good.  Now it was time to start the diamonds. 

I played the ace and then the 10 of diamonds, relieved when LHO did not win the king and cash a heart.  I let the diamond ride to the jack and a spade was returned.  Now I am in control.  With the diamond king on my right and my good diamond spots, the diamonds will be easy to set up whether RHO started with KJx or KJxx.  I play a diamond from board, the king comes up on my right and I ruff it.  Now I have my second spade entry to my good diamonds and am able to pitch my two losing hearts. 

Plus 600 was worth quite a few imps.

Our post-game discussion has revolved around how the play could have/should have proceeded.  First, the defense:  When RHO wins the club king, holding up until the third round (best), he should then return a spade.  This attacks my entries to the board which I need in order to both set up and then run my diamonds.  If a spade is returned, I can play two rounds of diamonds, but will need to use my second spade entry to set them up with a ruff.  Now they are good but I can't get to them so I have to lose two hearts and go down.

Next, the play:  After the ace of clubs play reveals that LHO has none, it is best to start on diamonds immediately so as not to risk my dummy entries being attacked.  The combination of the Q9 of clubs left on the board would give me flexibility in my dummy entries so as not to risk coming up short.

Happy New Year--sure hope it's warm in Monterey!

See you at the table!

Jennbridge: Defensive Problems

An up-and-coming player who held my cards in the team game last night asked how we managed to score up 500 when she and her partner only got 50 defending the same contract.  Here's what I told her.

Vul. vs. non-vul., I loved my hand and was a little surprised when RHO opened 1 diamond.

♠AKxxx
♥ x
♦ AK
♣ KJxxx

I doubled and LHO bid 1 heart. Bob, my partner, now made a free bid of 1 spade. RHO bid 2 diamonds and I jumped to 4 spades. I was surprised and annoyed as it was passed around to RHO who now bid 5 diamonds. Even though I have a powerhouse 4 loser hand, I decided to take the "sure money" and doubled.

I led a spade honor and declarer ruffed. Dummy had:

♠ Jxxx
♥ KJ10xx
♦ xx
♣ xx

I figured we were making 4S (we were) so we needed to get the maximum we could out of 5 diamonds doubled to compensate.

I hoped that Bob had one of the round suit aces and I had two chances to figure out which one. I won the first diamond and shifted to hearts. Bingo! He won the heart ace and returned a club--just what needed to be done. He knew I had a really strong hand and had to have club values.

Now when I won the second diamond I was able to cash my king of clubs and--a bonus--give him a club ruff!

If he hadn't been able to get in with a heart, I would have been forced to try leading a club next--looking for the setting trick. I knew he had a few values because he made a free bid.  I didn't want to lead a club first, because if I led into declarer's ace-queen it would be a disaster.

Just like we form a plan for the bidding and the play, we can make plans for the defense.

************

Here's another defensive problem from an earlier match.

I opened 1 diamond with:

♠ AKxx
♥ xx
♦ Axxx
♣7xx

LHO overcalled 1 heart, partner passed and RHO bid 1NT.
I passed, LHO bid 2 clubs and all passed.  Bob led a club (trump) and dummy held:

♠ xxx
♥ xx
♦ QJ10xx
♣ Kxx

When declarer tried to ruff the third heart in dummy, I overruffed.  With these cards remaining we had to get the timing right if we were to have a chance to beat the contract:

♠ AKxx
♥
♦ Axxx
♣ x

I lead the spade king to get an attitude signal from partner.  He discouraged.  As diamonds was my only other viable choice and he knew it, he must want a diamond shift.  He must have the king.  Even though I was looking at QJ10xx of diamonds in dummy, I underled my ace of diamonds to his king and he returned a diamond to my ace, all following. 

Now was the time to be careful.  Before I gave him his diamond ruff I had to cash my other spade honor.  Otherwise declarer could just throw her losing spade away on the good diamonds.  I therefore cashed the ace of spades before returning a diamond--giving my partner an uppercut and scoring the setting trick.

Down 1 netted us 5 imps.  This exact situation comes up frequently on defense and it's important to get it right.  Lead an honor to get an attitude signal from partner.  This should enable you to cash your tricks in the right order AND to cash all of your winners before administering the coup de grace.

Merry Christmas!

See you at the table!

Jennbridge: A Gerber Bluff

At last night's team game at the club, Jenn made an amazing bid that won 9 IMPs for our team. With only our side vulnerable, she was dealt this in third seat:

♠  K
♥  Jxx
♦  KQxxx
♣ Kxxx

I dealt and opened 2 Diamonds, a weak 2 bid, and her RHO passed. Now stop and consider this situation. We have 11 diamonds between us. Since I would not have bid 2 Diamonds in first seat with a 4-card major, the opponents must have a big double major suit fit with at least 9 spades and 8 hearts, and likely more. We have little defense against a major suit contract. LHO must have a big hand and will want to get into the auction.

The best result possible here is to buy the contract for 5 Diamonds undoubled. You don't expect to make it missing 3 aces, but it probably will only be down 1 or 2. If I had held these cards, I would have just bid 5 Diamonds, making RHO guess whether to come in at that level, but announcing our big fit. After this, we would run the risk of either being doubled or pushing the opponents into a makeable game, or, worse, slam.

Jenn found an ingenious way to achieve the ideal result. She decided to play a poker game with the opponents by bluffing strength. The best way to make a show of strength is to ask for aces. Now, it just so happens that Jenn and I play a convention which enables us to use a variation of RKC after partner's preempts that is an improvement over traditional Blackwood. It is often referred to as preemptive Gerber. So she bid 4 Clubs, which I alerted as our version of RKC. This had the intended effect of silencing LHO. I made the expected response, showing one keycard without the queen of trumps*, she rebid 5 Diamonds, and everyone passed. The two hands were:

♠  K
♥  Jxx
♦  KQxxx
♣ Kxxx

♠  xx
♥ Q
♦ ATxxxx
♣ QJTx

We lost the 3 missing aces for down one, -100. Our teammates played it in 5 spades, making seven for +510, so the team was +410 for 9 IMPs.

* The responses to 4C are: 4D is no keycards (first step), 4H is one without the queen (second step), 4S is one with the queen (third step), 4NT is two without the queen, 5C is two with the queen, and 5D is the AKQ. If the opening preempt is 3C, then 4D becomes RKC for clubs and all responses are one step higher. (You don't want to use 4C over 3C as RKC, since it is better used as a continuation of the preempt.) This sometimes enables getting out at the 4-level when you don't have the cards for slam, which you cannot do using standard Blackwood.

Good luck!

Jennbridge: Michaels and Leaping Michaels

A direct cue bid in a suit the opponents have opened is known as a Michaels cue bid.  If the opponents open one of  minor, a cue bid of 2 of that minor shows the majors; if they open one of a major, it shows the other major and one of the minors.  A jump cue bid, conversely, asks partner to bid 3NT with a stopper in the opener's suit.

When they open with a weak 2 bid, it gets more complicated.  Jenn and I, along with many pairs, use a convention sometimes called Leaping Michaels.  With a 2-suiter including the other major and a minor, we jump to 4 of the minor.  For example, if RHO opens 2H and I have 5 clubs and 5 spades I can jump to 4 clubs to show the 2-suiter.

So, having this agreement, what does a direct cue bid of 3 of their suit mean?  I confess that I had not discussed this with Jenn or any of my other partners.  Does it still show a 2-suiter, but perhaps weaker than a jump to 4 of a minor, or does it ask partner to bid 3NT with a stopper, just as if the opponents opened 1 of the major? 

I was playing on-line the other night.  RHO, non-vul vs vul, opened 2 Spades.  I held:

♠  K
♥  A8
♦  AKJT8753
♣  84


It looks like 3NT would have a good chance if partner had, say, Qxx of spades, as diamonds are likely to run.  If not, 5 Diamonds may be right if partner has something useful in hearts or clubs.  Since I was playing with a pick-up expert partner, I probably shouldn't have risked a 3 Spade cue bid, but I did, hoping partner would be familiar with Leaping Michaels and interpret this as asking for a spade stopper.  A more practical solution would be to just bid 5 Diamonds or 3NT and hope for the best. 

Unfortunately, LHO raised to 4 Spades and partner, holding

♠  A43
♥  K9764
♦  2
♣ QJT2

 bid 5 Hearts, which went down.  5 Diamonds or 5 NT would have made, and we'd even have done well doubling 4 Spades, which would have gone for -500.  He expected me to have hearts.  I asked him if he played Leaping Michaels and he did, but he said, correctly, that to expect him to work out that this wasn't showing hearts put too great a strain on a casual partnersship.  If you were playing with your regular partner, would you have gotten this right?

Good luck!

Jennbridge: Round One Stories

The Experts, Bob and Jenn vs. Gary R. and Larry H., faced off in the first round of the afternoon STAC game today.  While the game was being organized, Gary and Bob shared hands from the Fall NABC in Orlando.  Gary gave us this play problem from a pair game.  He found himself in 7 notrump with these cards:

1.
♠ KJxxx
♥ void
♦ Qx
♣ KQJ10xx

♠ Ax
♥ AQ10xx
♦ AKxx
♣ Ax

How would you play it after the jack of diamonds lead? (Answer below).

2. Bob followed it up with a hand that helped his team get to the finals of the North American Swiss.  At favorable vulnerability, what would you do with this hand after your partner opens 3H and your RHO jumps to 4S?

♠ Jx
♥ K
♦ AKQxx
♣ AKxxx

Answers below:

***************

1.  There was general agreement that we would cash the top 3 diamonds (LHO started with 5), then the ace of hearts, then start running clubs.  Either LHO will be squeezed or there will be a double squeeze.  The ace of hearts is cashed before the clubs are run because 4 discards are needed on the clubs and the queen of hearts serves as a threat card (Vienna Coup). Quite possible that RHO will be squeezed in hearts and spades and be forced to unguard spades to hold the king of hearts.  If the heart king doesn't appear, the queen is discarded.

Then LHO will be squeezed in diamonds and spades.  Cute hand.  Gary made it for a great score.

2.  If you double 4 spades, you are minus 990.  If you bid 5 hearts and then double 5 spades, you are minus 850!  The only winning action is to push on to 6 hearts over 5 spades.  Both 5 hearts and 5 spades make.   Quite an interesting hand!  Bob bid 5S over 5H and scored up 850.

E-W Vul	♠ — ♥ J 10 9 x x x x ♦ x x x ♣ Q x x
♠ K x x ♥ Q x x ♦ J 10 x x x ♣ x x	N W E S	♠ A Q 10 x x x x x ♥ A x ♦ — ♣ J 10 x
	♠ J x ♥ K ♦ A K Q x x ♣ A K x x x

See you at the table!

Haste Makes Waste

Oftentimes you are alerted to the proper line of play by the opponents' apparent discarding problems.

I found myself in a rather inelegant 2 notrump contract yesterday at matchpoints, vul. vs. not. (Board 21).

♠ AJ10xx
♥ Jxx
♦ Axx
♣ K9

I opened 1 spade, LHO overcalled 2 diamonds, partner made a negative double and I chose 2NT as one of my unappealing choices of bids.  All passed and LHO led the king of diamonds.
 
♠ 9
♥ AK74
♦ 98xx
♣ QJxx

♠ AJ10xx
♥ Jxx
♦ Axx
♣ K9

I won the second diamond as RHO discarded an encouraging low heart.  I didn't like my chances as I could only count 6 tricks (1S, 2H, 1D, 2C).  I decided to lead a club out of my hand immediately, figuring if LHO had the ace he might be anxious to take it to cash his diamonds.  I was right--he hastily grabbed his ace.  On the run of the diamonds, I discarded 2 spades from my hand and a heart from the board, while RHO, oddly, discarded 2 more hearts and a club.

LHO now shifted to a heart and it was time to assemble the clues.  What was going on here? 

At this point there were only 3 hearts outstanding.  Was it remotely possible that LHO would underlead Qxx?  No.  I therefore won the ace of hearts and cashed the king as RHO followed with her remaining queen doubleton.  Now I had my 8 tricks:  1S, 3H, 1D, 3C.

There was only one rational reason why RHO discarded down to Qx of hearts--she had to be holding both the king and queen of spades and was squeezed.  And so it was. 

She started with KQxx/Qxxxx/x/xxx and needed to find 3 pitches.  If she had kept her queen of hearts protected, she would have been squeezed in the majors when I played all of the clubs.  She would have had to unguard either the hearts or the spades, and my simply playing my winners would reveal which of my major suits would run.

Of course, LHO can prevent all of this by ducking the first club and later winning my king with his ace.  Then I won't have the necessary number of winners to cash to squeeze RHO.

Plus 120 was worth 80% of the matchpoints.

See you at the table!

Jennbridge: An Interesting Hand at the Club

By Bob Klein.  Kathy and I were having a ho-hum game at the club Friday until the last hand of the day.  With neither side vulnerable, I was dealer and picked up:

♠  K87
♥  AT5
♦  AKQ765
♣  J


I opened 1 Diamond.  LHO passed, and Kathy bid 2 Clubs, a game force.  How should I proceed?

I had several choices.  I could rebid 2 Diamonds, 2NT, 3 Diamonds or 3NT.  I decided that a NoTrump bid would be best, since I didn't want to bid diamonds and have partner bid NoTrump, which could wrong-side the contract.  If I had been playing with Jenn, I would have bid 2NT since we discussed the pros and cons of bidding 3NT in this position and decided that it took up too much space.  However, I hadn't played with Kathy in a long time, and decided to make the value bid of 3NT, which showed about 18-19 HCP.  (I only had 17, but with the great suit and jack in partner's suit, I felt I could upgrade.)  Now Kathy bid 4NT, inviting slam.  Since it was the last board, and not much had been happening for us, I said "what the heck" and just took a shot and bid 6NT. 

LHO led the Jack of Diamonds, not a good sign.  When the dummy came down, I was looking at:

♠  JT
♥  Q642
♦  void
♣  AKQ9643


♠  K87
♥  AT5
♦  AKQ765
♣  J

Well, I wasn't going to make it by running diamonds, but I had a chance because Kathy gave me 7 good clubs.  The suit looks solid, but because she had no entries outside, I had to hope clubs were 3-2 or there was a stiff ten, since I had to overtake the Jack to get to them.  Assuming the clubs ran, I had 11 tricks: 7 clubs, 3 diamonds and the Ace of hearts.  The 12th trick had to be in spades, since if I lost a heart they would cash the Ace of spades for down one.  So I had to win trick one and immediately run the clubs, coming down to

♠ K8
♥ A
♦ AK
♣ none

and hope I could guess the spades. 

Now psychology came into play.  The clubs split 3-2, so I ran them.  During the run of the suit, LHO played high-low in spades.  I asked what their carding agreements were, and they said standard.  So, should I believe this as an honest signal, assume he was trying to fool me, or just ignore it and flip a coin? 

LHO was a good Flight B player.  If he had been an expert, I would have had a real conundrum.  He would know I wouldn't expect an honest signal, so he might just give me one, since I'd likely assume he was lying!  I didn't think this opponent would play such a deep game, but would he try to fool me, or perhaps give an honest signal to help partner with discarding?  Finally, I decided on the latter, ran the spade jack and was rewarded when he won it with the Ace.  6NT bid and made, for 8 out of 8 matchpoints. 

Good luck!

Jennbridge: Final Qualifying Round

Picking up the penultimate board of the third and final qualifying session of the World Mixed Pairs, I was pretty confident that we would be in good shape with a good round;  not so sure with a bad round.  We had to deal with an unusual bid and also make a critical decision in the play.

Board 25. Unfavorable vulnerability.

I had a nice hand and opened 1club after RHO passed.

♠ K109
♥ AKJ7
♦ A62
♣ K87

LHO then bid 2 clubs, described as a 2-suiter with spades.  Partner, Bob bid 2 diamonds.  RHO bid 2S and I bid 2NT.  Pard bid 3D, and although we had a later discussion what our bids meant over this relatively unusual treatment, I bid 3NT.

♠ 54
♥ 432
♦ KQ10973
♣ A3

♠ K109
♥ AKJ7
♦ A62
♣ K87

Later, when we discussed the bidding, I noted that I thought Bob's 2 diamond, followed by 3 diamond bid showed weakness, as it would have over a Michaels cuebid.  Therefore, I meant my 2NT bid as strength-showing. He thought his bidding showed 10 + points as it would have over an overcall and therefore took my 2NT bid as nothing more than a minimum.  Check out your agreements with your partner!

A spade was led and RHO won and returned a spade to my king.  I cashed the heart ace to get a look at the hand and RHO showed out. As LHO obviously had hearts and spades, I had to play the diamonds carefully--playing RHO for all of them.  I led a diamond to the king and LHO showed out.  I ran the 10 of diamonds, won the ace and went back to the board with the club ace to run the diamonds.

After reviewing this hand, and unable to accurately reconstruct it even with the hand records, I finally realized that an odd thing happened on the run of the diamonds.  Due to the lateness of the hour (and possibly due to the fact that Bob was studying the score handout, trying to calculate our percentage), dummy's cards weren't played properly and I only made two discards on the diamonds. 

I came down to these cards:

♠ 10
♥ KJ
♦
♣ K

When I led a club to my king, LHO showed out.  She had discarded several hearts and the queen or jack of spades.  I had to decide whether to cash out for 10 safe tricks or to go for the endplay for the extra trick.  LHO rated to have the remaining spade honor, but if RHO had it, holding myself to 9 tricks would net a pathetic score. This situation, (trying to decide whether to go for a top and risk a bottom) is not for the faint of heart. I finally decided I had to go for it so I closed my eyes (not really) and played the spade.  LHO won and led into my heart tenace.  Making 5 the hard way.  After the game I was rather surprised that plus 660 didn't score better than 68%, and only now realize that making 5 would have been relatively easy if we had kept better track of the cards (6 diamonds, 2 hearts, 2 clubs and a spade).

LHO (South):  QJ876/Q109865/void/Q5
RHO (North): A32/void/J854/J109642

All was well that ended well, as we played in the finals starting later that evening.

Go Giants!
See you at the table!

Jennbridge: Handling Difficult Auctions

Here is the first of two hands from the final qualifying session of the World Mixed Pairs where we had to deal with unusual bids:

Board 4, All vul.

♠ A10763
♥ A
♦ AJ3
♣ AQ83

I was rather enamored with this hand, especially when partner opened 1 diamond, but then RHO overcalled 1NT, alerted as unusual, for the two lower unbid suits!

Well, this throws a wrench in the bidding.  My only forcing call is double, so that's what I do. 

LHO bid 2 hearts, partner passed and RHO bid 3 clubs.  These bids were alerted and complex explanations were forthcoming, but I wasn't really very interested as I was busy thinking about what slam to bid.  At this point we were in undiscussed territory and I wasn't about to make a bid I thought was forcing only to have a bidding accident.  I couldn't really show my spades and so I just bid what I thought I could make...

Six notrump!

A heart was led and Bob put down this dummy:

 ♠ K9
♥ Q73
♦ KQ87652
♣ 6

♠ A10763
♥ A
♦ AJ3
♣ AQ83

That 7 card diamond suit was a beautiful sight, and a quick count of my tricks revealed that I had 11.  A successful club finesse would land the contract, but as this was a qualifier for a world championship matchpoint game, I studied the hand for overtrick possibilities. 

After the run of the diamonds these cards were left, RHO having discarded the queen of spades along with 2 hearts and 3 clubs.

 ♠ K9
♥ Q7
♦
♣ 6

♠ A107
♥
♦
♣ AQ

I took the club finesse, lost a spade at the end and claimed my 1440 for 82% of the matchpoints.   Before I learned of the good score, however, I worried a little about not taking a club finesse, then leading a spade to the 9, and claiming all 13 of the tricks.  This would have been a disaster, however, if RHO started with the unlikely holding of QJ of spades.

LHO (South) held:  J8542/6542/109/52
RHO (North) held: Q/KJ1098/4/KJ10974

See you at the table!

Jennbridge: World Mixed Pairs Finals ****

We had a below average and an average game in the final two sessions of the World Mixed Pairs and finished above average--in the top third of the field. Bob says we should be proud, as dozens of stellar pairs finished behind us, but I can’t help feeling disappointed after our great start.

It was actually a fun event. We used screens in each session and used special World Bridge Federation convention cards . The men always sat North and West and the women South and East. In the 3 qualifying sessions we sat East-West and in the 3 final sessions we sat North-South.  We never played the same pair twice.

I’m writing up hands on the flight home and will be posting some of my favorite hands from the finals. It seemed particularly tense in the last session as each pair was jockeying for position and each hand could mean the difference between several places in the standings. These two hands feature interesting card combinations.

Board 4.

I opened one heart with:

♠ A104
♥ AKQ74
♦ 6
♣ K642

Partner responded 2 hearts, constructive, showing 3 trumps, 8-10 points and 9 losers. As I had the right loser count and was looking for a good board I made a help suit game try of 3 clubs. Partner accepted by bidding 3 notrump. With my singleton I wasn’t especially interested in notrump so I corrected to 4 hearts. A diamond was led and the dummy was not something to dream about:

♠ Q862
♥ J106
♦ A104
♣ Q95

♠ A104
♥ AKQ74
♦ 6
♣ K642

Barring some incredible luck I had two club losers and at least one spade loser, along with assorted handling problems. I won the diamond ace and made what turned out to be a key play: a low spade to the ten which forced the king.

LHO continued diamonds which I ruffed. I started trumps by playing a heart to the jack and a heart back to my hand and my problems were compounded when LHO showed out on the second heart.

I next tried a club to the queen which lost to the ace. RHO returned the 9 of diamonds (diamond 10 left in dummy) and I paused to consider the play. If I ruffed, I would be left with fewer trumps than my RHO which couldn’t be right, so I elected to pitch a losing club. LHO won the diamond and paused to consider the defense. He couldn’t continue diamonds without giving me a ruff/sluff and was probably reluctant to return a club, so he exited with a low spade. I played low from the board and won the jack with the ace.

I couldn’t afford to lose any more tricks with the remaining cards:

♠ Q8
♥ 10
♦
♣ Q95

♠ 4
♥ KQ
♦
♣ K6

I started thinking about the spades. What spade would RHO have played on the previous trick if she had started with J9x? As the jack and 9 were equals once the ten had been played, she probably would have played the jack, the card she was known to hold.  Her in-tempo play and my partial count on the hand, however, caused me to strongly suspect that she started with the jack doubleton of spades.  This meant that LHO started with K9xx of spades and I could finesse the 8. I therefore drew the remaining trumps, cashed the club king and led a spade to the 8, winning the last two tricks and scoring up my game! This was worth 82% of the matchpoints.

LHO held K953/9/KJ8753/73

RHO held J7/8532/Q92/AJ108

Board 11.

Playing 3 notrump with these cards I got a diamond lead:

♠ J963
♥ KJ4
♦ A5
♣ A1082

♠ A4
♥ AQ82
♦ K83
♣ Q954

With 8 winners available and only one more diamond stopper, the problem was how to play the club suit for at most one loser. Usually in this situation, it is right to lead the queen from your hand and then, if it loses, later lead toward the 10, a double finesse. This caters to the club honors being divided or LHO holding both honors, a 75% chance. Before starting on clubs, however, I decided to cash my 4 heart tricks to see if I could learn anything useful. Hearts broke 3-3 and on the 4th round of hearts LHO discarded the 3 of clubs!

Surely he wouldn’t throw a club with anything useful in the suit, looking at A1082 in the dummy, so I decided to change my plan and play clubs differently. Accordingly I led a club to the ace and was rewarded when RHO followed with the jack and then the king on the second round of clubs. She started with KJ doubleton! Scoring 430 was worth 76% of the matchpoints.

LHO held: Q75/1093/J642/763

RHO held: K1082/765/Q1097/KJ

Stay tuned for more hands from Philadelphia.  The world championship events will continue through Oct. 16.  For more information, daily bulletins and results, check out:
http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelphia.10/Information.htm.

See you at the table!

Jennbridge: High or Low?

Jenn and I are in Philadelphia playing in the World Mixed Pairs. We played 3 qualifying sessions, and managed to qualify for a 3-session final. We're off to a good start: we had a 60% game in the first session and are running fifth overall.

Here are two eerily similar opening lead problems that were very instrumental in our being able to qualify. I held one of them and got it right; the other one was held by a well-known Washington, DC expert who didn't. In each case, you hold a spade suit headed by the AKQ. Do you lead the ace or a low one?

1. You hold:

AKQ764
654
5
Q42

You are in second seat, both vulnerable. RHO deals and passes. You open the bidding with 1 Spade. LHO doubles, partner passes, RHO bids 1NT, and everyone passes. Do you lead the ace or a low spade?

2. You hold:

AKQ75
T86
K76
J5

You are in first seat, none vulnerable. You open 1 Spade. It goes pass, pass, 1NT by RHO. You pass. LHO raises to 2NT and RHO accepts the invitation with 3NT. Do you lead the ace or a low spade?

It turns out that in both cases, it was necessary to underlead the AKQ.

Consider the first hand. What do you expect the distribution of the spades to be? LHO doubled, so he is likely to have a singleton. RHO bid 1NT, so he is likely to have 4 spades. This leaves partner with a likely doubleton. Your hand has no outside entries. The plan is to have partner get in with something, then lead his other spade to you so you can run the suit. Your lead is rewarded in a different way. Dummy had the stiff ten, partner had J8 and RHO had 9532! So we took the first six tricks. Jenn signalled what she wanted me to shift to (she had an ace), so we took the first 7 tricks for down one, which got us 79% of the matchpoints.

Now consider the second hand. Again, what do you expect the distribution of the spades to be? RHO should have 4 spades for his 1NT balance; the remaining spades are likely to be 2-2. Your hand has a potential entry with the king of diamonds, but if LHO has the ace, you'll never get to use it. So a low spade again is indicated. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for the DC expert, he chose to lead the ace, then the king, and found the spade suit to be T8 in dummy, J3 in partner's hand and 9642 in my hand, so once he led the ace, the spades blocked and couldn't be run for 4 tricks. The fourth spade trick was crucial, as I was able to set up 9 tricks without him ever getting in again. We got 89% of the matchpoints at a crucial time near the end of the last qualifying session.

Wish us luck!

Jennbridge: Prepping for Philly

Jenn and I are going to Philadelphia soon to compete in the World Mixed Pairs, which is part of the world championships being played there starting October 2. For more information about this, here is a link to their website: http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Philadelphia.10/Information.htm.

We decided to practice our matchpoint game on-line. Last night, we got into a matchpoint tournament and I picked up this hand:

♠ K75
♥ A92
♦ KJ85
♣ AQ3

Jenn dealt and opened 1 Spade. With a strong hand and 3-card support for a major, our approach is to bid 2 of a new suit to create a game force, then show our support the next round. So I bid 2 Diamonds, she rebid 2 Spades, showing a 6-card suit, and I bid 3 Spades. Jenn now bid 4 Spades, showing a minimum opener. What now?

I decided that with 17 HCP, a known 9-card or longer fit, and such good controls, there was a good chance we had the cards for slam. So I bid 4NT, RKC. She replied 5 Diamonds, showing one or four keycards. I bid 5 Hearts, which asked if she had the spade queen. She now made the nice reply of 6 Hearts, which showed the spade queen and also the heart king. What now?

We were missing a keycard, so we had to play at the 6-level. I decided that it was best to bid 6NT rather than 6 Spades. Jenn had the king of hearts, so I knew we had a second heart stopper. It was matchpoints so No-Trump scores more. But I would have made the same bid at IMPs, since it could have been important to have the lead come up to me with tenaces in both minors and we were missing an ace.

This worked out well, as I looked at:

♠ QJ10943
♥ KT
♦ AQ9
♣ 96

♠ K75
♥ A92
♦ KJ85
♣ AQ3

I got a heart lead, knocked out the ace of spades and scored 12 easy tricks. We got over 94% of the matchpoints. Note that 6 Spades will go down if they lead a club and the king is offside (it was).

Good luck!

Jennbridge: Searching for Matchpoints

Jenn and I were trying to make up some ground recently in the Great American Open Pairs when I picked this up in third seat, our side vulnerable:

♠ AK3
♥ 1087642
♦ AQ9
♣ 10

Jenn dealt and opened 1 Club. I bid 1 Heart and she rebid 2 Diamonds, a reverse. This is a nice hand, surely worth at least game and maybe slam, with uncertain direction. I didn't like my heart suit, so I made a forcing bid of 2 Spades. We hadn't discussed just what this meant after a reverse. We had agreed that anything but 2NT would be game forcing, and that the fourth suit was an artificial game force when needed, so it wasn't clear just what this meant. Jenn now rebid 3 Clubs. I tried 3NT (Hamman's Rule), but Jenn removed this to 4 Clubs. What now?

I considered what Jenn had for this sequence of bids. She didn't have much in diamonds, couldn't support hearts and didn't like no-trump. I decided that she had to have 7 or 8 solid clubs to have enough for a reverse, so I pictured her hand something like void/x/KJxx/AKQxxxxx. One thing was certain: she had to have a good hand to remove 3NT. So I decided to bid 6 Clubs. I was rewarded when the opponents led a spade, and she held:

♠ Q
♥ Q
♦ KJ42
♣AKQJ943

♠ AK3
♥ 1087642
♦ AQ9
♣ 10
She made 7 easily by pitching her losing heart on my spades. We got 32.5 out of 38 matchpoints.

Good luck!

Jennbridge: A Leap of Faith

By Bob Klein:  This hand is another in a series demonstrating how it pays to bid aggressively with distributional 2-suiters. In an on-line IMP match, I dealt, with both vulnerable:

♠  void
♥  J43
♦  AJT86
♣  KT875

I wouldn't always open this hand, but I felt feisty and liked my intermediate spots, so I bid 1 Diamond.  Partner bid 1 Spade, I rebid 2 Clubs, he rebid 2 Hearts (artificial game force), and I had an easy rebid of 3 Clubs.  Partner now leaped to 6 Clubs!  I passed, and LHO doubled.  Now I wasn't so happy that I opened the bidding. He led the king of hearts, and I looked at:

 ♠  K6432
♥  A96
♦  void
♣  AJ963

♠   void
♥   J43
♦  AJT86
♣  KT875

Here I was in slam with 21 combined HCP, not all of them pulling their weight.  Partner sure believed in 5-5, come alive!

How was I to find 12 tricks with this collection?  With only 2 quick tricks outside of trumps, I needed either 10 trump tricks or another trick or two someplace.  Now if this were the Spingold or a serious KO event, I might take 10 minutes or so to try to find the line with the best chance.  But this was on-line bridge, where that would be impossible; the opponents would keep asking me to play, and would be wondering if I fell asleep! 

I decided that 10 club tricks would be hard without the queen, so I looked around for other tricks.  The jack of hearts might be a trick, or the fifth diamond or spade king.  I decided to duck, hoping that either LHO would continue hearts or a possible squeeze might develop.   LHO cooperated by continuing hearts, which I ducked to my jack.  Now I started the cross-ruff by playing ace and another diamond, ruffed a spade, played a heart to the ace, holding my breath. It held. I ruffed another spade and another diamond.  Only low cards appeared.  I ruffed another spade and a fourth round of diamonds.  On the last diamond, the king and queen appeared.  Now I had to guess the ending.  I was now looking at

S  x
C AJ

D J
C KT

If LHO had all 3 clubs, I had to ruff the spade with the king and play a diamond, overruffing him.  This loses if he doesn't have the queen.  Or I could just play the ace and king of clubs, playing for any 2-1 split, and taking the last trick with the jack of diamonds.  I finally decided that LHO didn't need Qxx of clubs for his double, and in fact with that holding he might be reluctant to double for fear of giving away his holding.  With KQT of hearts, Kxxx of diamonds and the ace of spades, that would be enough to double.  If he had the queen of clubs also, he might have competed over 1 Diamond.  I decided to play for 2-1 clubs, the slam came home, and our team was +1540.  At the other table, they got all the way to 3 clubs for +150, so +1390 was worth 17 big IMPs. 

Good luck!

Jennbridge: Trying for Nine On-Line

I was fooling around on Bridge Base last night when I had a pleasant experience. A BBO friend invited me to his table where I was partnered by a well-known expert and we had about 35 kibitzers. I was dealer and picked up this nice hand:

♠  T72
♥  AQ84
♦   A52
♣  AKJ

I opened 1 Club, partner bid 1 Spade, I rebid 2NT and she raised me to 3NT.  LHO led the jack of hearts, and I saw: 

♠  Q954
♥  K2
♦  Q6
♣  97643

♠ T72
♥ AQ84
♦ A52
♣ AKJ

I wanted to set up the clubs and the heart king was my only sure entry to dummy, so I won the first trick in my hand with the ace, then started the clubs with the ace.  RHO showed out, pitching a heart (a critical error as it turned out), so the clubs weren't going to come in and I had to find a Plan B.  I saw a possible 9 tricks: 2 spades, 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs.  To get  there, I had to start the spades.  I led the deuce.  LHO won the king and continued a second heart (a diamond would have been better).   I won dummy's king, played a club to my king and played the ten of spades (to unblock).  It went jack, queen, ace.  RHO returned a heart, I won the queen and LHO followed with the ten.  My 8 of hearts was now good, so I was up to 8 tricks. If the spades came in 3-3, I would be up to 9, so I played my last spade to dummy's 9.  LHO showed out, but I still had a chance.  RHO had a good spade, but all his remaining cards had to be diamonds.  So I played dummy's last spade.  RHO won and returned a diamond, perforce.  I played low, holding my breath, and when LHO didn't produce the king, I was home with 1 spade, 4 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs. 

My expert partner sent me a nice message:  "I'm impressed!"  That's a great thing to read in front of 35 kibitzers!

Good luck! 

Jennbridge: Online Fun

By Bob Klein:  Bridge Base Online (BBO) is a fun place to play bridge.  I have developed a set of acquaintances who often invite me to play in team matches.  Some of them are players I can rely on to be experts; others, who claim to be experts, are of uncertain skill.  Often a good player will invite me into a game and pair me up with someone I haven't played with before.  When this happens, there are times when I have to make decisions without firm partnership agreements or confidence that my partner will know to do the right thing. 

Last night, I picked up this interesting collection in a team game with both sides vulnerable:

♠  Axxx
♥  AQJxxx
♦   Kx
♣  x

RHO dealt and opened 1 Club.  Do you double or overcall 1 Heart?  I decided to double.  There were only 5 losers, so I felt it was strong enough to bid hearts the next time if partner didn't respond in spades.  The auction proceeded pass, 1NT, pass back to me.  Now what?

The most important thing playing IMPs is to bid your vulnerable games.  Since partner has shown some values, I wanted to bid a game.  It looked to me as if this hand should be played in either 3NT or 4 Hearts.  If I had been playing with Jenn or anyone whom I could trust to be an expert, I would have bid 3 Hearts, which should be virtually forcing and giving partner a choice of games.  However, I was playing with a new partner and didn't want to risk being passed out, so I just bid 4 Hearts and hoped for the best.  Everyone passed, LHO led the jack of clubs, and I looked at:

♠  xx
♥  Kxx
♦  Jxxx
♣  KQxx

♠  Axxx
♥  AQJxxx
♦   Kx
♣  x

Not a bad catch.  Partner had nice trump support, so I had a reasonable play for the contract.  There were 3 obvious losers, one each in all of the plain suits.  I had to somehow take care of all of my low spades, and avoid a second diamond loser.  There were two possible approaches:  (1) ruff one spade low and one high, and pitch a diamond on a club winner; (2) ruff one spade, pitch one on a club winner and play a diamond toward the king, hoping RHO had the ace.  Line (1) risked promoting a trump trick for the opponents if trumps were 4-0 or if they could manage an uppercut by continuing clubs when LHO had 3 trumps and only 2 or 3 clubs.  Line (2) risked the ace of diamonds offside and had some problems managing entries to dummy. 

I covered the club.  RHO won the ace and shifted to the king of spades.  I ducked this trick as LHO encouraged.  He contined with the spade ten.  I decided to play him for the ace of diamonds and go for line (2).  I took the ace, ruffed a third round of spades low in dummy (LHO followed with the jack), pitched the last spade on a high club, played a heart to the ace and another to the king (hearts were 4-0 with LHO having all of them), then played a diamond toward the king.  RHO stepped up with the ace and played back a club.  I held my breath and ruffed low hoping that I wasn't being uppercut.  Fortunately, LHO followed, so I drew his trump and brought home the game. 

Good luck!