Recap Of 5/23/2016 28 Board IMP Individual

Well, a mostly different group played again Monday and…no whining from me for once.  I can’t complain, most of the swings went my way, not from any brilliance, but often a missed opportunity by the opponents.  But, the theme of “bid the games and let them try to beat you” that has been mentioned before was often the theme of the day.

Board 6

 

 

Wow.  We thought we lost 11 IMPs when we failed to enter the auction.  We were cold for 11 tricks in 5 of either major (+650 with a simple heart finesse (that fails) to make a slam).  Meanwhile we were letting them play a quiet 5♦ with no double, down 2 for +100!!?!   Instead of losing 11 IMPs, we were stunned to win 12 IMPs when our opponents found the unfortunate opening lead of the ♥A, allowing our teammates to score up +510 in their 4♣X contract as one spade loser went away on the ♥K, losing just a spade and 2 diamonds.

East has a difficult opening call.  Pass? 1♥? 1♠? 2♥?  All bids, including pass, seemed (to me) flawed, but I think 2♥ is the worst of the lot and I don’t know what I would have chosen at the table.  One favorite partner called this an ‘easy 1♠ bid’ – clearly below reverse values (so not 1♥), but it clears the hurdle for an opening bid.  It satisfies the ‘rule of 20’ (11 (2 long suits) +9 HCP), but the hand does not hold 2 quick tricks and ♦Q5 is a soft 2 point contribution to your meager total of 9.  As dealer, both players chose pass and, talking with them after the hand, they both thought ‘well, I can just enter the auction later’.  One did enter later, the other didn’t, but neither found their way to 4 or 5 of a major suit.  Should West come in over the opening bid of 4♣?  West holds nice HCP, but sterile distribution and partner is a passed hand, so both Wests passed over the 4♣ opening bid.

Partner must have shape for the reopening double at this level after an initial pass.  Should West bid over 4♣X?  Or ‘pass and take the plus score?’  On this hand, bidding was clearly right, and perhaps that is the percentage action whenever this strange auction might occur again.  If you do bid over partner’s reopening double, I’m sure the opponents will bid 5♣(perhaps North should bid 5♣ immediately, preventing the balance over 4♣?).  Bidding 5♥ will be very hard (over 5♣).  It looks like the answer is that East needs to open 1♠.  If you pass 4♣X, then you have to find the lead!  That makes another reason to bid over the reopening double.  I thought this was a tough hand, lucky result.  Win 12 IMPs

Board 11

 

 

East-West hold modest HCP with no 5 card suit and a bunch of 4-3 fits, but the spots (10s, 9s, 8s) allow the hand to play quite well in NT.  As you see, one tried 2NT, the other 3NT.

Start with the bidding – does South have a 2♦ opening bid in first seat?  Probably not, with such a terrible suit, but I did open 2♦.  If South does open 2♦, should West penalty pass partner’s reopening double?  Probably.  Best defense vs. best offense will net +500 and it is often good, in IMP scoring, to take the plus score, even if you don’t get optimal defense.  However, West, responding to the reopening double, bid 2NT (often treated as lebensohl over a weak 2, and specifically over a weak 2♦, 2NT would often indicate limited values (less than 8 HCP) and a desire to play 3♣.  Here, 2NT was bid as natural, not lebensohl.  East, deciding partner can’t be THAT good or they would have just passed the double, decided to pass 2NT.

At the other table, when South did not open 2♦, North opened 1♥ in third seat. East has an awkward hand.  It is certainly a sound opening bid, but far from an ideal takeout double with a singleton in an unbid suit.  Here East decided to double anyway and South, with a big misfit for hearts decided to stick in a 2♦ bid (after a double, this bid is weak, but usually a stronger suit – however failure to open 2♦ suggests that this 2♦ bid is likely flawed in some way).  Now, with the ♦Q as a bonus card to help with the diamond suit in NT, East raised 2NT to 3NT.  Both tables got the opening lead of the ♦J, covered by the ♦Q and ♦A.  From here, double dummy and single dummy play diverged quite significantly.  At double dummy, a spade or heart lead at trick 2 is required to hold declarer to 10 tricks.  A club or diamond at trick 2 allows 11 tricks.

Against 2NT, I chose to continue diamonds at trick 2 rather than break another suit.  Declarer made the optimal play of the ♦8, throwing a club from dummy.  How should declarer continue?  If they cash their 2 diamond winners, not only is dummy squeezed out of possible length tricks, but they would be setting up 2 diamond winners for South in case South held one of the black kings.  At this point declarer is cold for 11 tricks, but only if they are seeing all the cards.  To score 11 tricks they must take only two heart finesses and then lead a spade honor and force North to cover.  Then a spade to the ♠8 will bring in 3+4+3+1 for 11 tricks, since, at this point, transportation is available and they can untangle their tricks.  But, this requires knowing that South holds exactly ♠9xx.  Still, continuing a third round of hearts (after winning two finesses) is fraught with danger.  Our declarer did take the third heart finesse and then cashed the ♥A, throwing a club.  Next, a spade to the ♠10, losing to the ♠J.  Now, when North cashed the ♥K declarer is seriously squeezed.  At the table, they threw away another club.  Now if North exits with the ♣K, it squashes declarer’s now singleton ♣Q, removing the vital entry to the diamond winners.  However, partner guessed to get out a small club which rode around to the ♣Q so declarer achieved the needed entry to cash diamonds and score 10 tricks, -180 for our score.  At the table, we thought we actually would defeat 2NT had partner found the ♣K exit (no entries to the diamonds), but as long as declarer throws away their diamond winners, the power of the ♠Q8 over the ♠9 still allows declarer, in the end, to reach 8 tricks since the defense has no long suit to cash.  Saving all my black cards, I had thrown all of my remaining diamonds on the 4 rounds of hearts when I could not follow suit to the heart leads.

At the other table, our teammate, in 3NT had the opportunity for a white game swing.  After winning the ♦A at trick 1, the defense tried clubs, the other continuation that allows declarer to score 11 tricks (leading spades or hearts to ‘hold’ declarer to 10 tricks is hardly obvious at the table, but both club and diamond continuations by the defense at trick 2 allow 11 tricks when subsequent play by declarer follows the best line).  The ♣4 was covered by the ♣10, ♣K and ♣A.  Now, if the heart finesse is onside (North did open 1♥), declarer is up to a minimum of 9 tricks (1+4+2+2) with other chances for 1 or 2 overtricks.  However, declarer didn’t count their tricks and lost their way in the play of the hand to finish with 8 tricks.  -50 to go with our -180, lose 6 IMPs.  If declarer brought home 3NT, we would win 6 IMPs, so I counted this as a double digit swing (win 6, lose 6), since the bidding, the play, the defense and the double dummy opportunities were interesting (to me, anyway).

You could say I got what I deserved here (losing IMPs after opening a very poor 2♦), but, with the friendly lie of the cards, we kept them out of a decent 3NT.  When faced with a borderline decision to preempt, or not, I will usually choose to preempt – often it leaves the bad guys with a problem.

Board 14

 

I don’t exactly have reverse values in terms of traditional high card points (on 4=5 hands I want 16 good working points as my bare minimum), but I sure like to open my 6 card suit when possible, so if the auction stayed low, I intended to reverse into 2♥.  One regular partner suggests this is still worth a reverse without the ♣K.  I’m not sure I would go that far, but clearly the minimum to reverse with 5=6 is lower than with 4=5.  I did a quick search on Google to see what could be found about the minimum values for a reverse.  The Bridge World opinion polls talk about it a lot, but only in the context of ‘a minimum hand too weak to reverse’ but I didn’t find any attempt to define/judge ‘minimum’.  Everyone judges their own, and that is part of what makes bridge such a great game.

The auction did not stay low.  So, partner, who thought they had a NT bid in reserve (for their next bid) when they overbid slightly with 2♣, had to deal with my ‘reverse’ at the 4 level.  They passed, and there we were in 4♥, needing to find 10 tricks.

The opening lead was the ♠10, covered by the ♠K, ♠A and ruffed.  A glance at dummy shows we have 2 sure trump losers and the ♣A, so no other tricks can be lost.  At trick 2, I had a choice (either works) of establishing clubs for diamond discards, or establish diamonds and making my hand good.  There are entry considerations (how can I get to the good clubs?), but I thought trying for 3-2 clubs seemed better than 3-3 diamonds.  At trick 2 I led the ♣K which was won by the ♣A.  In the post mortem, we thought possibly ducking the ♣A would help cut my transportation, but as the cards lay, I can actually score 11 tricks if the ♣K is allowed to hold!  Also, in the post mortem, we thought continuing clubs after winning the ♣A, severing my link to dummy’s long strong suit, might give me trouble.  But double dummy analysis shows there is no defense able to beat best offense.  The actual defense, after winning the ♣A was another spade, which I ruffed, saving my ♠Q as a possible stepping stone entry (a suit the opponents lead for you) and/or a late stopper.  I then led a small heart which the defense won and led yet another spade with the ♠Q winning.  But, I was in control.  I could simply cash the ♥A (trump breaking 3-2, leaving 1 trump outstanding) and lead my remaining club to dummy.  The opponent with the high trump could ruff clubs whenever they wanted, but dummy’s heart could provide the entry and dummy’s clubs would provide all the necessary tricks to fulfill the contract.

What if the defense continued clubs after winning the ♣A, removing my last club?  At this point, 3 tricks have been played, 10 cards remain.  Amazing (to me), I can lead any of dummy’s ten remaining cards and still make the contract.  If I lead a high club, the long trump hand must ruff and I remain in control of the hand.  If they don’t ruff, I can go about setting up diamonds (via the ruffing finesse).  Since RHO had preempted with 3♠, I thought they likely had little outside of trump, and since and LHO overcalled 1♠ with no top spades, I felt it was likely they held the ♦K and they did.  So, I had started with plan A (set up clubs), but I can revert to plan B (set up diamonds) if they lead clubs at trick 3 and remove my remaining club.

This is a very common trump situation where you start the suit by losing 1, then cash the trump A, hoping for a 3-2 split and just leave the remaining high trump outstanding.  A similar, but more difficult holding of Axxx opposite xxx requires you to lead low trumps twice prior to cashing the A, hoping for 3-3, or, if they are 4-2, just leave the remaining high trump outstanding and go about your business taking other (hopefully) good tricks.  Beginning bridge players are taught to draw trumps, and sometimes that is best.  But I think the vast majority of hands require handling trump differently – there is too much important work to do, either with dummy’s trump or your own, to spend them drawing all of the opponents trumps.

What did declarer do to go down at the other table?  Sorry, I don’t know.  But +420 and +50, 10 IMPs.

Board 15

 

I’m not a very big fan of weak jump shifts, but I must admit that is what my card says (when in competition).  But, you need the right hand.  And a weak hand.  I have seen a lot of games missed due to a ‘weak’ jump shift that was too strong, partner passed, but game was available.  On this board, the ‘weak’ North hand proved to be too strong when the contract ended in 3♥, while at my table, my partner, hearing me rebid the suit where he was void, decided it was best to mention his hearts one more time and I raised him to game with my partial fit (singleton in their suit, doubleton ace in partner’s suit).  Unfortunately, I don’t have the auction for this board at the other table, but someone said something about a weak jump shift so I assumed that was the cause for the missed game.

There is no defense against 4♥.  Even though declarer has 4 diamond losers remaining after losing the opening diamond lead, there are opportunities for discarding those losers on clubs and spades and even ruffing one.  At our table, the actual defense started with the lead of the ♦Q, overtaken by the ♦K to shift to the ♠2.  East won the ♠A and led a diamond to tap dummy.  Declarer cash the ♥A, ♣A, ♣K and when the ♣Q fell, continued with the ♣J, ruffed and overruffed.  Then cashed the ♥K, leaving one high trump outstanding and played spades, pitching the remaining diamond.  So, there were only the pointed suit aces and the high trump to lose, 10 tricks, +620.  The other table managed 11 tricks, but since they only reached 3, our teammates were -200, win 9. 

Board 17

 

 

Well, the North hand, what there is of it, is prime (ace, kings) with 2 quick tricks and satisfying the rule of 20.  So, terrible as it is, I am certain I would have opened 1♠.  Once opened, how can South stay out of this terrible slam?  South has a fit, a source of tricks, controls, HCP, what more could you want?  Well, you could check on key cards.  Missing 2, the slam would normally not be bid.  The resulting slam has very little chance of success.  While you could alter your play, double dummy, to handle a few rare distributions, but the basic chance (after losing the ♣A on the opening lead) is to find the ♠K onside.  But, that is not nearly enough.  Missing the ♠10, declarer has to find a doubleton ♠10, either ♠K10 doubleton onside, or ♠10x doubleton offside.  Or, there is the additional chance of Any Kx onside and the defender mistakenly fails to cover.  If you guess that correctly, your chances improve somewhat.  Unless there is something I am missing, if I have done the math right, the legitimate chance of success is barely above 10%.  Not the sort of slam you want to be in.  Unless, this is one of those 10% hands.  And it was.  So, thanks to my teammates, we won a very lucky 11 IMPs on this one.

Board 20

 

Once South balanced, we were losing IMPs.  I (East) needed to pass 2♥ and they would have played it there, for -170 for us.  Instead, I bid, and that propelled them into the cold vulnerable game (-620) while our opponents at the other table were able to play 1♠ and make it, -80 for our teammates and lose 12 IMPs.

I must confess balancing 1NT would not have occurred to me, but it was sure the winning action on this hand.  It seems as though a double is an alternative balancing action (vs. 1NT).  It is minimum (I think of 10 HCP as the bare minimum bottom of a double), and it lacks 4 hearts, but you do have strong 3 card heart support which proved to be the key to making the game.  I think I would have doubled.

Back to my initial third seat action (pass) – I have seen top players in world championships respond 1NT with hands like mine, more as a blocking bid against the opponents than any kind of constructive bid for partner.  That hasn’t been my style, but it looks like I better start looking at that more closely.  Thoughts?

Board 23

 

 

This hand was not a double digit swing, but it could have been if I guessed right at the table.  Preempts are tough.  Since we can make 5♦, 6♣X down 1 is the par contract.  If I had doubled 6♣ instead of bidding on, we score +200 to go with +500 and win 12 IMPs.  But, I was drawn in to the fantasy of making our slam.  Since there are 2 kings offside, we must lose them both, and, in a heart contract, an opening diamond lead allows 1 more trick for the defense by ruffing, and still scoring the ♦K and ♠K later.  High level decisions are tough.  Are they making 6♣?  Are we making our slam?  Are both/neither making?  That is why preempts are so popular.  So, only 10 tricks at both tables in 6♥, but with the double by our teammates, we won 7 IMPs.

Board 24

 

 

Same auction, same contract, same lead at both tables.  Assuming the ♥K is onside and ♦A is also onside, I have 2+2+1+4 if I can find the ♣Q (2-way finesse).  This may seem like wishful thinking, but I have to start somewhere with assumptions about how I can come to 9 tricks.  There is also the problem in spades – while I have the power (with a lead into my spade holding) to force 2 spade tricks, they may come rather slowly.  I decided, at trick 1, to fly the ♠Q and see if I can get my spade tricks quickly.  The ♠Q won.  Because it looked like LHO might have 4 spades and RHO 2 spades, I decided to play RHO for the ♣Q (I understand – I still I need them to be 3-3 if I am going to get 4 tricks in clubs).  I can lead a club to the ♣K and run the ♣10 (winning play), but I led a club to the ♣10 which lost to the ♣Q.  Now, after some thought, LHO laid down the ♠K, dropping his partner’s ♠J and making my remaining ♠97 opposite the ♠8 a power trick by forcing out the ♠10.  When LHO won the ♠10, they led a diamond to the ♦A, and RHO returned a club.  So, now all I had to do was lead the ♥Q.  When LHO covered with the ♥K, I was home.  My 3rd spade trick allowed me to total 9 tricks for +400.

At the other table, they did not fly the ♠Q at trick 1, so the ♠J forced the ♠A.  Still, since a diamond wasn’t led early, the same 9 tricks I was counting on (find the ♣Q) were available to this declarer.  Lead up to the ♠Q to score 2+2+1+4 (again, assuming the ♥K is onside and ♦A is onside).  I don’t know what line of play was chosen, but our teammates were able to defeat this contract (possibly due to misguessing clubs) for +50.  Win 10 IMPs.

 

 

Board 25

 

 

Does North, as dealer, have an opening bid?  I think so – I love to open spades and even though the rest of the hand is quite weak, there is distribution as well as some defensive potential.  At one table, North opened and they quickly got to an unbeatable game (with both red aces onside, declarer just needs to score the red kings, the ♣ A, and get a heart ruff in dummy, eventually establishing his last heart.  Declarer can choose to fully draw trumps and lose a second heart, or partially draw trumps and lose an overruff in hearts.  Either way, 10 tricks.

At the other table, the auction was more subdued after North didn’t open 1♠.  I’m not positive about the auction – I’m still working to find someone who recalls for sure what happened, I know the final contract was 3♦.  So, lose -420 and -130, lose 11 IMPs.

I need more BBO games (to blog) because then I have a complete record of every bid, every lead, every declarer and defensive line of play chosen.  Here, it is often difficult for me to get an accurate record of the bidding, let alone the declarer play and defense, reducing the quality of the comparative aspects and learning process.  Sorry readers.

This hand was particularly difficult to capture for the blog (end of a long day?) – When I inquired, I got 3 different auctions advising me of what auction had occurred at the other table, but I finally got agreement regarding what the auction was.  It is the auction I published above (the second auction).  For the first auction, I was THERE, and I still don’t recall the auction!  Embarrassing!  Darn!!  The first 4 bids were definitely what happened at my table, I just don’t know for sure after that.  But, what I found especially interesting was the general form of the auction:  opening 1 bid not Vul; Next hand, Vul, makes a takeout double; Partner of opening bidder redoubles; and…trouble is brewing.  The first of these auctions was reported 2 blogs back: +1400 was available (vs. 400 for 3NT), and 1100 was scored at one table.  The next 2 times this happened, nothing remarkable happened.  Here, 2♣X could achieve +800 if EW sit for it, clearly they do better if they know to run to diamonds.  Diamonds can score 7 tricks (Best offense/best defense), but somehow, at the other table, the diamond contract scored 10 tricks!!!  Go figure.  The point of mentioning this (Vul opponents entering an auction against non-Vul) is two-fold.  1 – Very large penalties might be available, have your antennae up to seek out these opportunities.  2 – Very large losses might be looming, have your scramble agreements/structures well understood to minimize your losses.  As West, would you run from 2♣X?  As East, would you run if West passes?

Board 26

 

 

This hand is the classic – bid a red game and let them try to beat you.  I like my partner’s choice of a game transfer instead of the invitational transfer.  Of course with 2 tricks to lose in both black suits, the game has no chance, double dummy.  But with empty aces over the NT bidder, how can South possibly lead (or underlead!) one of his black aces.  Even if that happened.  The defense would have to know to cash exactly 2 in one suit and then switch to the other black suit, or 10 tricks will be scored.  At the part score table, a diamond was led to the Q allowing 2 black discards and making 11 tricks for +200.  At my table, a trump was led, so I drew trump ending in dummy, finessed the diamond, got 1 discard and scored 10 tricks.  +620.  Win 9 lucky IMPs.

Board 27

 

 

Here, I was playing with a regular partner so we could use our regular convention over NT – Modified Hamilton.  Partner made a trusting pass (could have bid 2♥ as a transfer to 2♠ but you can see that would not have worked out as well).

There are various ways to achieve a 4 trick set for the defense and even possible to get down 5 if the defense guesses well and declarer does not.  I started with the ♦A (attitude) and partner played the ♦8 (upside down, does not like diamonds).  So, I shifted to the ♥K, declarer won the ♥A, banged down the ♣A and then another club.  Here partner does best to win the 2nd club after I give count, showing a doubleton, but he held up until the 3rd club, forcing me to make a discard.  I was fearful that if I threw away the ♠Q, it could look like a dramatic signal to ‘please lead spades’.  Of course, had I thrown away the ♠Q and gotten a spade lead, I would be down to a singleton ♠A and potentially end played out of some red tricks that I was due to win.  Not knowing if declarer had ♦Qx or ♦Qxx, I threw I high heart (♥8) asking partner to go back to my first suit (diamonds) instead of my second suit led (hearts).  As I played the 3rd and 4th diamond, declarer had to make 2 discards.  One was a heart, so my last heart was good, but I still needed to surrender a trick to the ♠K at the end for down 3, +500.

At the other table, not playing penalty doubles, my hand showed diamonds and a higher suit and played 2♦, just making for -90 for our teammates.  Win 9 IMPs.