Recap Of 9/8/2014 28 Board IMP Individual

Per usual, I’m just reporting the hands where the large swings occurred.  One swing was due to different defense, but the rest were all either bidding judgment or in some cases confusion about bidding systems.

I want to open the blog with one opening lead problem.  After this auction:

You are on lead with this:

What’s your choice?  “answer” at the end…

Now onto the hands with the big swings

The first hand was especially disappointing because we (many of the players who play in this game including me and my partner) have had recent discussions (phone call, email, live) with Gene Simpson about a particular auction.  Gene has proposed that (opponents passing), after 1♣-1♥-1♠-2♦ that partner may be stuck for a bid and the partnership should agree that 2♠ is a punt, simply stating that you cannot support partner’s suit, nor bid NT due to no stopper in the unbid suit and, when you hold a real 5-x-x-6 hand, bid just bid 3♠ over 2♦.  Unfortunately, I was playing with my regular partner and I thought we had this ‘agreement’ based on the extensive discussion that had been held.  He did not think that agreement was in place!  So, we floundered into 4NT, making 11 tricks.  I’m not sure 6♠ is a great slam, but it made.  Bruce and I were playing X-Y-Z where 2♦ was game forcing, much like a normal 2♥ bid which is a 4th suit game forcing bid.  With the friendly suits, the 6♠ contract made easily in the other room, lose 13 IMPs.

It seems like there are lots of hands coming up where opener has 4=4 in the minors and must choose a suit to open.  Bruce and I have adopted ‘nearly always open 1♣‘ (very long side discussion I won’t get into here) but others still use judgment and vary the suit to be opened based on various considerations.  Here, I am not sure it should have mattered (1NT can still be the overcall bid whether diamonds or clubs are opened), but but after the 1♦ opening bid, Mike opted for 2♣ and bought it there, making an overtrick.  When our teammate (Dan, South) heard the 1♣ opening bid, he overcalled 1NT, Ed (North) bid 3♠ (a game forcing 5-5 in the majors) and Dan closed out the bidding with 3NT, making when the suits and cards were friendly.  Win 10 IMPs for the red game bid by our teammates.

This was the hand where defense made the difference.  At my table, Jack had no trouble, seeing club ruffs in dummy, so he led his spade at trick 2.  When the ♠A was won and another spade led to trick 3, I was looking at very limited possibilities for 10 tricks.  I thought it was barely possible to lose a heart to RHO, get a club ruff, draw trump and run hearts, scoring 5+4+0+1.  So, at trick 3, I won the ♠10 in my hand to start the heart attack.  LHO (Ed) went up with the ♥J.  So much for ducking a heart to RHO.  Now, I think my only legitimate play to make the hand is for ♥QJx onside.  So, I won the ♥A, drew trumps, took the heart finesse and was quickly down 3.  After the spade return at trick 2, I can easily score 8 tricks by getting my single club ruff, but 8 was the max possible on this defense, and since I was contracted for 10 tricks, I tried to find 10.

A remarkably different auction at the other table with the same cards, with EW also arriving in 4♠ with the same ♦10 lead.  South saw an opportunity to give partner a diamond ruff and after the ♦AK start, declarer soon had 10 tricks (6+2+1+1) with 2 club ruffs and the ♦J scored in dummy.  -420 and -150, lose 11 IMPs.

South didn’t open at the other table and Bruce (as do I) viewed the West hand too strong for opening 1NT (17 HCP plus 1 length point makes 18 and out of range for 15-17).  After Bruce opened 1♦, a Michaels 2♦ bid quickly got NS to the spade game, making 5.  But, at my table, as you see above, Jack decided to open this hand (rule of 19?) with 1♦.  Here, I did not think I was too strong to overcall 1NT which is 15-18.  Most players in the group play Hamilton by North in this situation, but Ed thought it wasn’t really right to come out and say ‘do we play Hamilton after 1NT overcalls?’ and, playing with an unfamiliar partner, he simply bid what he thought he could make.  His 2♠ ended the auction, making 6 when declarer ruffed out my ♣K, allowing the diamond to be pitched.  Win 9 IMPs.  Very strange that when South did not open, 4♠ was quickly reached by NS, but when South did open, the 1NT interference resulted in game being missed.  But, in fairness, Ed was severely hampered by not feeling right about having a bidding discussion at that point in the auction.  A Hamilton bid (by North) of 2♦ showing both majors would have gotten to the lay down game.

Dan decided to open 2♣, and, eventually, when 7♦ came around to him, bid one more.  When the ♣A was offside, he finished -1.  Ed opened 1♠, and I offered a rather bare bones splinter.  Soon we were in the cold slam when I failed to show Ed the ♣A.  Win 17 IMPs.

This was the last hand of the day, and a sad one.  In 4th chair sandwiched between 2 bidding opponents, I noticed that spades had not yet been bid and thought it highly unlikely that partner could have the cards needed for our side to make 3NT.  On top of that, I thought my preempt in this situation (red vs. white with a passing partner and bidding opponents) showed a very fine hand.  So, I opted for the preempt of 3♣, buying it and making 5 when the opponents set up the ♠10 for a heart discard.  When a mere 2♣ was bid at the other table, partner responded 2NT and was raised to 3NT, making 4.  Our side lost 10 IMPs.  Sorry teammates.

Here is the opening lead problem from the start of the blog.  I mentioned in a prior post that Bob Richardson has developed a program to take any hand and find the best opening lead against any contract (using user defined bounds for the remaining hands at the table).  You can then find 5000 (or whatever you choose) hands that fit those paramenters, play them double dummy, and determine which card is the most successful lead the most often.  On the hand I gave at the start of the post, here is the output from Lead Captain.

I’m new at trying to insert images like this and it looks pretty blurry, but if you want to view it in detail, just click on it and it will be bigger.  The image above shows the output from Lead Captain suggesting the ♦A is the best lead (but not by a wide margin) based on a sampling of 5000 hands.  This assumes that I accurately described LHO, Partner and RHO.  You can learn more about Lead Captain here:

 http://www.bridgecaptain.com/LeadCaptain.html

So, what happened at the table?  Nothing good.  The lead of the ♦A was the only lead to ensure defeat, but that lead was not found at the table that was defending 4♠X.  Due to the ill-advised double, declarer found the ♠Q (so now the contract is cold), but declarer never led diamonds, compressed club honors and found a way to go down.  I was North at the other table.  Not knowing what to lead, fearing that with my meager defense that 4♠ was making (it was not, without the double, even if the ♦A isn’t led), and thinking with a magical fit, 5♥ might make, I bid the ridiculous vulnerable 5♥, which got doubled and when all 3 aces cashed, I was down one.  -200 paired with -100 to lose 7 IMPs.   Had 4♠X come home, we could have won 9 IMPs.  A 16 IMP swing in spite of my 5♥ bid.  Here’s the hand: