Recap Of 1/12/2015 28 Board IMP Individual

Although there were many hands of interest, I’m just sticking with the double digit swings.  And, I’m excluding one of the double digit swings, since the swing seemed to me to be less about bridge and more about discussing leads and carding before commencing play.  It is very important to have a defensive partnership on the same page concerning 3/5th leads or 4th leads.  We weren’t.  For the 6 hands I include in today’s blog from the Monday game, 5 are mostly about the bidding, but the play/defense was also a factor on a couple of hands.

Here I (East) had a good hand, and it (barely) met my standard for a takeout double with intentions of bidding my own suit later.  As it turned out, with the very broken club suit, I actually held more defense than expected and less offense than expected for the first 2 bids.  When it came back around for my 3rd bid, the bidding had been the same at both tables.  I passed, thinking I had shown around 18 points with a 6 card club suit (pretty much what I had).  The auction was over, and we quietly set 3♠  1 trick.  As you can see, at the other table, Nick was holding my cards and thought he had to make one more bid (vulnerable).  It is likely that 3♠XX would have been 1 trick short, as it was at my table.  Double dummy, all leads that are not small red cards will defeat 3♠ exactly 1 trick, but the West hand was so weak, they decided to retreat to 4♣ rather than risk defending.  When 4♣ was doubled, it came up 2 tricks short.   +50 at my table and +500 for my N-S teammates at the other table resulted in winning 11 unexpected IMPs.

There is a back story for this next hand.  I had just played in the Monterey Regional the prior week.  In the Swiss on Sunday, I had a hand I would like to forget.  Every Monday, when we are in town, a group of 4 regular players in the Monday afternoon game take a walk.  Bruce couldn’t make it on this particular Monday (1/12), but Dan, Manfred and I had a walk Monday morning before bridge Monday afternoon.  And, as usual, we spent much of the walk giving the others bridge hands that occurred during the prior week which seemed interesting – usually hands that we got terribly wrong just to see if the others do likewise, or are more wise.  So, I gave them this hand:

So, we discussed this hand awhile with both Dan and Manfred heartily agreeing that I screwed up the bidding royally.  I said I am never doing this again without taking out insurance.  Bid 1 more.  If they are making the red slam, the cost will be great.  If they would have been down, well, there is always the next hand.  But, I cannot let them play 6♦.  So, with that background, I present the next hand.

Note that 3 of the 4 players at this table were on the morning walk!  I had a great hand as dealer, but passed to await developments.  I do think Pass is the correct start to the auction as dealer, since there will be plenty of time to judge later which suit is trump and how high to go.  After Dan opened, Manfred simply overcalled 1♥ and we were off to the races.  It is not at all clear that the East hand is a preemptive raise.  The ♥K may be a useful card on both offense and defense and perhaps a 2♥ cue bid comes closer to showing the values?  But, preempts often create problems/chaos in the bidding, so it can hardly be judged an error.  In this case, the preempt helped convince me that it was our hand and we were making a lot of tricks!  I decided to make a strong raise to 4♥ via the 4♦ cue bid.  I certainly have a strong offensive hand, but not so much defense.  

In any case, Dan remembered our morning chat and he was not going quietly.  He decided to let me guess at the 6 level by jumping to 6♦, and when I guessed to bid the small slam, he took out the (necessary) insurance and bid one more – 7♦!!!!!!!!

I’m not claiming that I bid the hand well.  I was clearly very lucky that the major suit kings both could be finessed away for no losers in hearts or spades.  Since I didn’t get my club ruff, we ‘only’ scored +1100.  The other table only had to contend with a 5♦ call and they played in 5♥, just making when they didn’t bother with one of the finesses.  We won 10 IMPs when our teammates were -450.

Here the bidding took on wildly different paths when East, as dealer with 2 quick tricks and a ‘rule of 20’ opener elected to pass.  Soon they were playing 3♣ and the cross ruff saw them produce 11 tricks (a late over ruff in diamonds prevented the 12th trick).

When Ed, East at the other table opened, they wound their way into the club slam (Sorry, don’t know the bidding).  After a trump lead, Ed played 2 rounds of diamonds and with the ♦Q coming down, the power of the diamond spots produced 1+1+4+6, 12 tricks with the spade ruff for +1370 vs. 150 for 15 IMPs.

Here again, the bidding took wildly different paths.  As North, I judged, with my 4-3-3-3 shape and modest strength, the prospect of game was marginal to non-existent.  At the other table, the player with my cards tried Ogust and heard ‘good suit, good hand’!?  I thought good suit meant 2 of the top 3, and looking at the ♠AK, that isn’t possible.  In any case, they decided 9 tricks were easier than 10 and bid 3NT.  Actually, double dummy, both sides are entitled to 9 tricks – NS have 9 tricks in the majors, EW have 9/10 tricks in the minors.  So, on  a diamond lead or small club lead (later shifting to diamonds), +600 for the EW pair after they take the first 10 tricks against 3NT.  But, in practice, East began the defense with the ♣AK, and then continued clubs, “knowing” they had 4 tricks and if partner gets 1, that is 5.  But the declarer took the next 10 tricks, leaving only the ♦A for trick 13 and -630 for our teammates.  In spades, it was trivial to score the 9 tricks that we were due, but our +140 resulted in losing 10 IMPs.  Wow!  22 IMPs swung on the opening lead and continuation.  Since it is not possible to signal holding the doubleton ♣Q, after 2 rounds of clubs, East has to guess the proper continuation.  I’m certain Lead Captain would start the defense against 3NT with a high club.  But then again, subsequent defense is always 100% double dummy, so he would always get the defense right.  Interesting hand.  One side or the other is getting 600 points when North-South is in 3NT.  One 600 for offense, one 600 for defense, depending on the lead and continuation.

With the opponents announcing a heart problem for NT, Bruce found the lead of the ♥8.  But, no lead beats it.  Finally, here is a hand where declarer play made the difference, not the bidding.  Here, the final contract was the same at both tables – I don’t know the bidding or the play at the other table.  But, Ed played it well at our table (double dummy it cannot be beaten) while the other table was down 2.   Ed ducked the heart lead, won the ♥A and led the ♣10.  I won the ♣A and tapped dummy with a heart.  Ed cashed the ♠A, ruffed a club, cashed 2 top trumps, finessed the ♦Q and played clubs until Bruce ruffed.  But Ed had control and took his 10 tricks.  So -420 and -100 resulted in lose 11 IMPs.

For our last hand, we had a pretty normal auction to a really optimistic contract.  Amazingly, double dummy, there is no defense to defeat 4♠.  When the hand with longer diamonds has no entry to provide partner a ruff, and trumps are 3-3 and declarer can finesse the ♠J, winning 3+1+3+3 for 10 tricks, +620.  I don’t know the bidding nor play at the other table, but our teammates were -110, so we were lucky to win 11 IMPs on this last board.