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Topics - OliverC

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1
IAC Teaching Sessions / New OCP Teaching Sessions
« on: March 28, 2021, 07:59:35 PM »
Hi All!!


I'm BAAACK!!!

After my year-long sabbatical (without leaving my flat apart from essential shopping) I'm back in the business of playing and teaching Bridge. Apologies for my long absence, but I was getting a bit too frustrated with BBO, not being able to announce lessons and the BBO V3 software not working properly. I realise things are hardly better (and probably worse) now, but after a break of a year, I feel I can face the trials and tribulations of BBO once again.


I'll be starting a new OCP Series on Saturday 17th April at 9pm UK time (8pm UTC).
The sessions will always be at that time up till the end of October when European Daylight Savings ends, when they will move to 9pm UTC/UK.


Hope to see old and new faces in the [public] LESSON Club rather than in the Private IAC Club, as we can no longer[/size] do any kinds of announcements to IAC Members only. The silver lining to that cloud is that anyone can attend, including those who are not IAC Members. If, therefore, any of your mates might be interested, please tell them to come along.

[/size]Best Wishes,
[/size]Oliver

2
IAC Teaching Sessions / OCP Session on Saturday 6th July
« on: June 30, 2019, 10:42:08 PM »
Hi All,


Just a quick reminder for anyone who might be interested that I will be restarting the course on OCP Super-Precision this coming Saturday in IAC at 8pm UTC (9pm UK, 4pm EDT). The times of the sessions will be changing from week to week, but the times are accurately shown in the IAC Diary and on the OCP website.

3
IAC Teaching Sessions / OCP Simple Series Sessions
« on: May 10, 2019, 09:23:15 PM »
Apologies, but it's not going to be worthwhile my starting the OCP Simple Series until July because of commitments that have cropped up in June (I'd now have to miss 3 of the Saturdays in June). Accordingly the first session in the new "Simple" series will be on Saturday 6th July at 9pm UK time (8pm UTC, 4pm EDT).

Because my lesson times are now dictated by my shift pattern (which takes no notice whatever of Daylight Savings), I have to keep my lesson times in the same pattern UK time rather than UTC, as previously. Consequently the session times will appear to become an hour earlier between April and the end of October.
Starting on 6th July, the repeating 5-week pattern will start:

  • 6th July 2019: 8pm UTC (9pm UK, 4pm EDT)
  • 13th July 2019: 8pm UTC (9pm UK, 4pm EDT)
  • 20th July 2019: 7pm UTC (8pm UK, 3pm EDT)
  • 27th July 2019: 9pm UTC (10pm UK, 6pm EDT)
  • 3rd August 2019: 8pm UTC (9pm UK, 4pm EDT)
My apologies in advance to anyone who is effectively excluded by some of those times but my only alternative is only to teach on 3 Saturdays out of every 5. The Sessions Calendar and Index page on the OCP site and the Diary on the IAC site will always show the correct times for each week (once I set things up).

4
The IAC Café / Leaping About the Place...
« on: January 08, 2018, 02:21:41 PM »
Another post about super-aggressive bidding and precipitate decisions about the Contract :) (I've switched the directions by 90 degrees)

EW Game, Dealer East

North
!S A1092
!H AQ6
!D J5
!C AK72

South
!S 743
!H KJ92
!D AQ6
!C J105

All the participants in this match were playing 2/1. At the other table, the bidding was passed round to North, who opened 1 !C, South responded with a 2NT limit bid and North signed off in 3NT. 11 tricks. NEXT!

At our table South opened this hand with 1 !C and the bidding proceeded:

South     North
1 !C         1 !S
1NT         2 !D
2 !S         6 !C
All Pass

Declarer found West with the !C Qxx, but the !D King was offside and there was no way to get rid of all of the !S losers, so 6 !C was -1. My point on this hand is this:

North's 2 !D New Minor Forcing isn't game-forcing as such. That gives North something of a problem over 2 !S, I concede, because 2NT and 3 !C will not be forcing (NMF is normally forcing to 2NT but no further, in my experience). I do feel the leap to 6 !C, however, is precipitous.

Most people are used to Minor suit openings potentially being less than 4-card length when you're playing any natural system that uses 5-card Majors. North here has assumed South has 4+ Clubs with no evidence to back it up. Although it's possible that South might pass 3 !C, I feel it's unlikely, fr the following reason:
  • If North doesn't have 5-card Spades, they can't have 4-card Hearts (or they'd respond 1 !H over 1 !C), so why are they using NMF?
  • The only reason has to be that they have a strong responding hand and needed to create a forcing sequence.
For that reason, I feel that North should show the Club support, confident that Partner ought to be able to work this out. Now South simply rebids 3NT and we're all happy.

Natural bidding provides a wealth of opportunities for constructive bidding. If you are playing a system such as 2/1, Std American, or Acol, I feel that time spent considering situations like the above, and discussing them with regular partners, is time well spent. It's probably going to teach you more about bidding theory and be more productive and helpful in improving your partnership than spending half an hour agreeing to play McGruder's 2nd Variation on Extended Stayman (or whatever - you get the point).

5
The IAC Café / Happy Christmas!!!!
« on: December 25, 2017, 11:38:13 AM »
I wish you all a very peaceful and joy-filled Christmas and all good things for the coming year. May your contracts always be fulfilled, your defences inexorable and your squeezes anaconda-style!

6
IAC Teaching Sessions / OliverC 2017-2018 OCP Super-Precision Course
« on: September 14, 2017, 11:15:37 PM »
Just a reminder that Oliver's year-long course on OCP Super-Precision starts all over again on Saturday 23rd September, always at 9pm UTC (10pm UK, 5pm EDT).

Prior knowledge of Precision is definitely not required, but a thorough grounding in natural approach/forcing bidding will be a great help (even though Precision does a lot of things rather differently).

All welcome!

7
Sleight of Hand / In Praise of the Pointless Finesse...
« on: September 02, 2017, 08:10:14 PM »
Have you noticed that finesses are like a red rag to a bull sometimes?

We were defending on this hand. Eszter and I essentially played a fairly passive defence. We could have played it more aggressively, but it wouldn't have made a single bit of difference to the outcome. Declarer here defeated himself, pure and simple:

EW Game, Dealer East (Hands re-arranged as per the posts below)

East (Dummy)
 !S AJ97
 !H 954
 !D K973
 !C 32

West (Declarer)
 !S KQ842
 !H KQ
 !D AJ
 !C K974

Bidding
East     South     West     North
No        No           1 !S       2 !H
2 !S      No           4 !S       All Pass

My Partner, who was North, led a small Spade. Declarer drew trumps in rounds, ending in Dummy (Spades were 2-2). Next he Led a Diamond to his Ace and then ran the Jack of Diamonds, losing to South's Queen.

WHAT??

Before you take any finesse you have to think what you can possibly hope to gain from it (win or lose). EW are in the par contract here. Trumps have split and there are only three possible losers for Declarer on this hand (The Ace of Hearts and 2 Clubs if the Club Ace is offside) West can ruff East's red-suit losers and East can ruff West's Club losers. The only ways you can possibly go off on this hand it (1) to needlessly draw a 3rd round of trumps, or (2) to lose a Diamond trick.

Aside from the idiotic "chinese" finesse in Diamonds (East will surely cover with !D Qx(x) or any number of Diamonds with !D Q10x), what West needed to ask himself is this: "Is my position going to improve if this finesse somehow succeeds?". Of course the answer is no. If the Jack wins and West gets to discard a Club (or a Heart) on the !D King, he is still going to lose 2 Clubs and a Heart. It doesn't even matter if Declarer finesses against South in Diamonds - he's still going to lose three tricks on this hand because the discard on the !D King doesn't gain him anything. It can only lose if the finesse loses.  Even if NS tried to commit suicide and started chucking the !D Q and 10 under the A, K and J and West somehow managed to gain two discards on the Diamonds, he's still only making 10 tricks, depending on the position of the !C Ace.

The whole world, practically, was in 4 !H making exactly or with an overtrick. This guy and only one other West (who did exactly the same thing, except that that West didn't even play the !D Ace first LOL). were the only two going off. North had the !C AQ and the !H Ace.

Swapping a 100% cold game for a 50% finesse which, even if it wins, doesn't gain you an overtrick and if it loses means you might go off, is pure insanity, yet I see people doing it nearly every day. Finessing is a valuable tactic, but sometimes you need to give yourself a reality check. "Am I actually going to gain anything if this finesse wins?"

8
Sleight of Hand / A Classy piece of Play
« on: August 21, 2017, 11:34:51 PM »
Throw-ins are sometimes easy to spot and execute, and you can be fairly certain of the lie of the cards. Other times it is much harder. I was the Dummy on this really nice piece of Declarer play in a recent Teams Match which had me paired up with ZsK, a turkish gentlemen, who showed his metal on this hand against good defence and deceptive carding by Opps:

Game All, Dealer South

South (Dummy)
 !S 10863
 !H J953
 !D 2
 !C AQ106

North
 !S AKJ754
 !H K62
 !D 7
 !C K83

Bidding
South     West     North     East
No           No         1 !S        2 !D
3 !S (1)     4 !S       X            No
No           5 !D       No          No
5 !S         All Pass

I must confess, Declarer's shortage in Diamonds was a disappointment when my hand went down as Dummy, as I was expecting more Diamonds and fewer cards in the round suits. ZsK said after that he in turn was expecting at least 2 small Diamonds in my hand and maybe a Heart shortage. East led the Ace of Diamonds (West playing the 10 to ask for a !H switch, which duly came when East switched to a small Heart at trick 2.

Declarer tried the !H 9 from Dummy and West expertly inserted the 10. In with the !H King, Declarer ran 4 rounds of trumps, then the Ace King of Clubs, then his last 2 trumps. East had 2 Spades and then discarded Diamonds and West discarded Diamonds all the way after following to 1 trump.

Everyone followed to the AK of Clubs, East with the 2 then the 9, and West with the 4 and 5. On the last two Spades, East threw the 6 and Queen of Diamonds, while West discarded the !D King and then the !H Ace. Dummy threw 2 small Hearts. This was the end position:

South (Dummy)
 !S -
 !H J
 !D -
 !C Q10

North
 !S -
 !H 62
 !D -
 !C 8

This was the end position after the last Spade was played. Most people would play a Club at this point, but I feel that is ignoring part of the bidding: West's 4 !S bid must be showing a reasonable hand, at this vulnerability. East has already shown up with !D AQ and the !S Queen, and East with 5 Diamonds to the King, a singleton Spade and the Ace and 10 of Hearts. The question is (1) Where are the !H Queen and where is the Jack of Diamonds (which was the last Diamond that hadn't been played) and (2) Are the Clubs 3-3 or 4-2?

West was trying to make Declarer believe he had started with !H A10x, !D KJ1098x, and !C Jxx, but crucially, West had not discarded a small Heart at any stage, only the Ace on the very last Spade. If West really started with A10x in Hearts, they would not have inserted the 10 at trick 2, but would have taken the Ace and returned a Heart in case Partner had led from !H Kxx.

Declarer worked this out and at trick 11 he exited with a Heart to Dummy's Jack. West won the Queen but now had to lead a Club into Dummy's Q10. Bravo!

I'd like to say that this earned a worthy game swing, but although the contract was the identical at the other table, Declarer was not remotely tested, since East's opening lead was the !C 9, which set up 4 Club tricks for Declarer by simply covering with the 10 in Dummy. With the !H AQ10 onside, they couldn't go wrong thereafter and so it was a push.

9
Sleight of Hand / Ensuring Your Contract
« on: August 18, 2017, 09:36:32 PM »
This was an interesting and illustrative hand: At Love All, with no opposition bidding after you have shown Hearts and Partner has shown Spades, you end up the Declarer in 3NT.

North (Dummy)
!S AQJ73
!H AJ
!D AK
!C Q1094

South (You)
!S 108
!H K10954
!D J64
!C A53

LHO leads the !D 10. Dummy's King takes the trick, East contributing the 3. How do you plan the play?

(1) Count your tricks: A !S, AK !H, AK !D and the A !C leaves you needing to find 3 tricks from somewhere.
(2) Plan: Crossing to hand and running the !S 10 will setup the Spades as long as East doesn't have !S K97xx. The problem is that if you use the K !H or the !C Ace to come to your hand you're either blocking the Hearts or potentially leaving an easy trick (or 2) for Opps in Clubs. The other problem was that if East did have 5 Spades to the King and my 10 lost to their King, they'd clear the Diamonds and I'd have to get the Hearts right (and find a lucky lie) to make 9 tricks before they ran their Diamonds. What, then?

I decided that if I was guarding against !S Kxxxx in the East hand, the best line was a small Spade from Dummy at trick 2. East played low and my 10 held the trick. Having "stolen" a Spade trick, I could now turn my attention to the Hearts. I crossed to the Ace and ran the Jack. Once again, I didn't even mind if West showed out at this point. If they did, I simply switch back to the Spades and lead the Queen or Jack. I didn't even mind of West won this trick with the doubleton Queen of Hearts, because now the Hearts would be 4-2.

Either way I'm absolute assured of the 9 tricks I need for my contract. In practice West did win the Queen (and yes it was a doubleton), but I didn't care: I had 2 Spades, 4 Hearts, 2 Diamonds and the Ace of Clubs, regardless of the distribution of any of the suits.

Several Declarers were going off in 3NT. I'm not entirely sure how, because the Spades were 3-3 and if I risk East having !H Qxxxx and just play off the !H AK, I drop West's Queen and come out with 12 tricks. Even the !C King is onside with West and the Clubs 3-3.

My play at trick 2 is a variation on "Morton's Fork". If East has the !S King they're stuck: If they rise with it, I'm assured of 4 Spade tricks (and my contract) If they don't, my 10 wiil win the trick and I can abandon the Spades (for the time being, anyway) and turn my attention to hearts, because now I only need 2 additional tricks, having stolen one in Spades. If West wins the !S King, I am still fine as long as the Spades are no worse than 4-2.

Note: It's right to try the Spades first, because Spades will always give me the 3 tricks I need if the Spades are no worse than 4-2 or in any case where East has the King (Morton's Fork, as above). If I try the Hearts first and have to lose a trick to the Queen, Hearts will only generate two of the 3 additional tricks I need for my contract.

10
The IAC Café / "Pass" is a Legal Bid
« on: August 10, 2017, 08:51:55 AM »
Just becuase you have been dealt a fairly strong hand doesn't automatically mean that the hand belongs to you and partner. Too often I see the red mist descend. Take this hand, on which you are North.

NS Game, Dealer South

North
!S AJ85
!H KQJ109
!D 98
!C AQ

Bidding
South     West     North     East
No          1 !C        1 !H        2 !C
No          2 !H        2 !S        No
No          3 !C         ??

What do you do at this point? I think it's fairly clear to Pass. You've already shown a very strong hand with 4-card Spades and longer Hearts. Partner passed initially, showed no interest over 1 !H, and critically passed over 2 !S, showing a preference for Spades but absolutely no interest in going further, despite knowing that you have a very good hand (in fact you've advertised a better hand than you actually have, because your reverse opposite a silent partner should be 19-20+).

My Partner (I was the luckless South) was in full flow, however, and refused to go quietly.

Bidding
South     West     North     East
No          1 !C        1 !H        2 !C
No          2 !H        2 !S        No
No          3 !C         X           3 !H
No          4 !C         X

The thing is, What does North think EW are bidding on? It should be absolutely clear at this point that Partner has nothing to speak of. North has exactly 3 defensive tricks, no more. You might get a Heart, but the cue-bid in Hearts by West doesn't make this sound promising.

I was sat in the South seat, holding

South
!S 10932
!H 65
!D K76432
!C J

It was obvious Partner didn't have much, if anything, in Diamonds, or they would probably have doubled for takeout earlier. Similarly, the 2 !H bid had be worried, because I was already envisaging West with a !H shortage and Partner cannot have much in Clubs given that they have at least 9 cards in the Majors. I couldn't let 4 !CX stand (4 !C romps home with ease, losing just 2 !C and a Spade), so I bid 4 !S, which was doubled by West. Totally incompetent defence  by both defenders allowed this to escape for only -1 (it should be at least -3), but it was still a minor disaster when even 4 !C making was a poor score for NS, because too many NS Pairs were being allowed to play in 1 !H, or the EW Pairs were pushing on to 5 !C, which has no chance. The full hand:

                  North
                  !S AJ85
                  !H KQJ109
                  !D 98
                  !C AQ
West                          East
!S KQ76                       !S 4
!H 7                             !H A8432
!D AQJ                         !D 105
!C K8754                      !C 109632
                  South
                  !S 10932
                  !H 65
                  !D K76432
                  !C J

I think North has shot his bolt with the 2 !S bid and should clearly pass over 3 !C. Actually it's interesting to speculate what would have happened if North had passed over 2 !H, because the 3 !H bid by East overNorth's double of 3 !C, suggests East might possibly have misunderstood West's 2 !H bid and they might even have passed 2 !H out :). East is hardly strong enough for a cue-bid of Hearts with their 4-count, and a pass of the double of 3 !C seems self-evident otherwise.

The bottom line here, is that once you've bid your hand, you've bid your hand. It's perfectly permissible to pass. Pass is a perfectly good bid. In some places (not here) it conveys more accurate information to partner than making an actual bid does.

11
Sleight of Hand / Efficient Defence
« on: August 06, 2017, 10:06:19 PM »
Speaking of Transfer Lebensohl and the advantage of using a mini 1NT Opening, here is a nice hand I played with Eszter today:

Love All, Dealer West

You are South, holding:

South
!S Q
!H 94
!D AQJ973
!C 7542

Bidding
West      North       East       South
No          1NT(1)       2 !H(2)   3 !C(3)
3 !H        4 !D           4 !H       All Pass

(1) 10-12
(2) Not alerted
(3) Transfer to Diamonds, weak or forcing

I led my singleton Queen of Spades. Dummy went down with

West (Dummy)
!S K973
!H 1086
!D 54
!C AQ106

This is a pushy game, no question, but everything seemed to be set right for Declarer, so it was usually bid (and made).

Declarer played the King of Spades on the Opening lead. Eszter took the Ace of Spades and returned the 4 !S, which I ruffed. The 4 !S was a lazy return by Eszter (She had started with A864 and should return the 8), but her 4 !D bid really helped persuade me that she didn't want a Club returned, but almost certainly had something like !D Kxxx. That meant Declarer only had one Diamond, so at trick 3 I led the 9 !D, won by Eszter's King and another Spade ruff duly followed to take this contract -1 (which I expected would be the par result).

Defensive signalling is terribly important. Here Eszter (who held !S A864, !H Q2, !D K1086, !C J93), should realise that I probably have the Ace of Diamonds and probably have at least 5 if not 6 of them. to get the second Spade ruff in, she should signal where her entry is when she leads a Spade back for me to ruff at trick 2. Similarly, my 9 !D is high enough to convince Partner that I have a Heart left, but not to high that she'll remotely be tempted to duck it.

Taking 4 !H -1 was, amazingly, worth 8½ IMPs, because it was the only NS plus score. The rest of the field were making 10 or more tricks in Hearts (games and part-scores). Clearly most Souths tried to cash the Ace of Diamonds first, before seeking a second ruff. Probably NS had never entered the bidding at most tables, so North's possession of the !D King had not been shown.

12
Sleight of Hand / Maintaining Trump Control
« on: August 05, 2017, 11:33:13 PM »
Maintaining trump control is a crucially important aspect of playing in a trump contract. Yes, there are times when you might go all out for a cross-ruff when you hold all of the high trumps and deliberately lose trump control in favour of making all of your trumps separately, but that is the exception. Take this hand. You are East at EW Game, and Partner was the Dealer.

Bidding
West      North      East     South
No          No           1NT(1)  No
2 !D        X             2 !H      All Pass

West (Dummy)
!S K108
!H J10983
!D K
!C K542

East (You)
!S A74
!H AK2
!D Q653
!C Q106

West leads the Jack of Diamonds and Dummy's King is taken by North's Ace. East switches to the 8 of Clubs. South wins the Ace and returns a small Club, which North ruffs. North now leads the 10 !D. How do you plan the play from here?

Well the play of the hand hasn't started too well for you. Given the Double of Partner's transfer bid, there is a distinct possibly the J!D was singleton, so best to play low on the 10 !D and aim to ruff in Dummy. South follows with the 8 !D. Now you lead the Jack of Hearts and North shows out, discarding a small Spade. Ouch! Now what?

The thing here is not to panic. Yes, you're going to have to give South a Heart trick, but the good news is that that is that is all you are going to have to give them. Dummy's losing Spade will eventually go on the Queen of Diamonds, and your losing Spade will go on Dummy's King of Clubs. You can be absolutely certain that East started with 5 Spades, 6 Diamonds and a singleton in each round suit. Similarly, South started with 2 Spades, 4 Hearts to the Queen, Jx in Diamonds, and AJ973 in Clubs. Simply win a top Heart, cash your other top Heart, cash the Queen of Clubs and exit with a Heart.

If South takes their Queen, they only have Hearts, Spades or Clubs to play so the next trick you'll be in Dummt. Draw the last trump if necessary, cash the K !C if it's still there, discarding your losing Spade (Your losing Diamond went on the last Heart), and 2 Spades and the Queen of Diamonds are the last three tricks.

If South doesn't take their Queen of Hearts, you leave them sitting there with it, cross back to the Ace of Spades and cash the Queen of Diamonds, discarding Dummy's losing Spade. Whether South ruffs this with their Q!D or not, that's the only trick they can make.

What you mustn't do (and what Partner did) is to win a top trump when North showed out. Cash the Queen of Clubs, and then cross to Dummy by means of a Diamond ruff. Now you've lost trump control and in the process South has an easy discard of a losing Spade. You can cash the King of Clubs and discard your Spade and cross to the Ace of Spades, cash the King of Hearts. and lead the Queen of Diamonds. You're assured of 8 tricks, because you'll make the J !H "en passant", but you can't now make the 9 tricks you were certain of before.

Actually, South gave Declarer a second chance to make 9 tricks, because they ruffed in with the Queen of Hearts and led a Club. Instead of ruffing this in hand with the 2 and then winning the last trick with Dummy's Jack, Declarer ruffed the Club with the Jack, and then had to concede the last trick to South's !H 7.

Here Declarer was certain of 9 tricks  as long as she unblocked the Hearts and Clubs and didn't attempt to cash the Queen of Diamonds until after South's trumps were all gone, or South only had the Queen of Hearts left. All the tricks she needed were there (Q !C, K !C, Q !D, AK !S and the Hearts.

13
Sleight of Hand / Getting More Trumps
« on: August 04, 2017, 10:47:22 PM »
It would sometimes be nice if one had an almost limitless supply of trumps. It may surprise some of you to know that it is sometimes possible to increase the number of trumps you were originally dealt. If you think that's a joke, I assure you it's not (well just a little LOL). Take this hand:

You are North. It's EW Game and East is the Dealer. You and Partner are playing Precision

South (Dummy)
!S 98742
!H Q4
!D J864
!C K10

North (You)
!S AQ103
!H 1062
!D AK95
!C A6

Bidding (Opps silent throughout)
South         North
No               1 !C(1)
1 !D(2)         1NT(3)
2 !H(4)         2 !S(5)
All Pass

(1) 16+ any shape except 4441
(2) 0-7 any shape
(3) 16-18 balanced
(4) Transfer to !S
(5) Although we play super-accepts of transfers to Spades and maximum and with good 4-card support, I think this North hand qualifies (7 Controls, 4432 shape), so I think 3 !C (a cue, our way of super-accepting) would be better here, and now South might well bid game.

So anyway, you're in the lowly contract of 2 !S. East leads the !C 3. What thoughts are going through your head?

.
.
.

Initially, you should be thinking along the following lines: Losers: I can afford to lose 2 Spades, 2 Hearts and 1 Diamond and still make my 8 tricks. On the other hand, if West has !S Kx and the Diamond Queen is dropping, we've missed a good game here, because everyone will be making 11 tricks.

What can possibly go wrong? Well East having !SKJxx would be a little awkward, especially if West has Q10xx in Diamonds. On the other hand, there's not much I can do about the Spades if they're 4-0 offside. How about West having 4 Spades? I can potentially do something about that, but I only have one easy entry to dummy (the Club King).

The other thing that should be going through your head is that if 10 tricks are easily available, you're going to get a rotten score here, because for sure half the field will be in game, so you almost need to play for a distribution that will make game very hard, but not impossible, because now most of the people in game will probably go off. West having 4 Spades fits the bill 100% (If East has 4 Spades, 4 !S will inevitably fail and you're already booked for a really good score by stopping low).

Cogitations over, rise with the K !C at trick 1 and run the 9 !S if West doesn't cover. As the cards lie on this hand, East shows out and now you can lead a small Spade and just cover whatever West plays. Exit with a Heart. Eventually ruff the 3rd round of Hearts in Dummy and take another marked Spade finesse. Try cashing a Diamond and West drops the singleton Queen. Draw the last trump and run all of the Diamonds.

As it happens on this hand, Partner played a small Spade to the Queen at trick 2. When East showed out she led a Heart towards the Queen. East took their King and exited with the Club Queen. Declarer led a second Heart to the Queen and West's Ace. West now led the Queen of Diamonds (a fairly obvious singleton). Declare won, ruffed a Heart in Dummy and now led the 9 !S. West ducked. now another Spade to West's J and Declarer's Ace.

This is where the bit about co-opting some more trumps into your hand comes in. West just has the King pf Spades and some number of Clubs and Hearts left. You have one lower trump left in each hand and 3 Diamonds in each hand (K9x opposite J8x). To retain trump Control, it's simple enough to lead the K !D. Whatever West does, he can only make the King of Spades whenever he decides to ruff, and now he's endplayed to give you a ruff 'n' discard. If he doesn't ruff you make your 3 Diamond tricks with the aid of the marked finesse against East.. 10 tricks would have been worth +3 IMPs (Surprisingly few people in game, but all who were were -1 in 4 !S.

Unfortunately, Partner played a further round of trumps, leaving West to win and cash 3 Club tricks for -1, which was worth -3½ IMPs. Oooops!!

14
Sleight of Hand / Counting Your Tricks
« on: August 04, 2017, 09:49:26 PM »
A classic hand for accurately assessing the hand came up today: You are South, the Dealer, EW Game. With your partner you bid 1 !H - 1 !S - 2 !C - 4 !H - All Pass.

North
 !S AQJ963
 !H A842
 !D J2
 !C 8

South
 !S 52
 !H KQ9765
 !D K
 !C KJ107

West leads the 8 !S . How do you assess the hand? The thing about this hand is that (1) You don't need the !S finesse unless West has led from Kxxxx, and (2) On a normal 2-1 !H split, the only way you can possibly go off on this hand is if you take the !S finesse at trick 1 and the 8 !S turns out to be a singleton (K !S , !S ruff, A !C , A !D ). If the Hearts turn out to be 3-0, then you have to hope that the Spades are, in fact, 3-2 or you can find a favourable Club position.

Either way, you have to be certifiable (as half the field were) to take a 1st-round Spade finesse on this hand, because you can afford to lose a Spade, a Diamond and a Club. What you cannot afford is a Spade ruff if the Spade finesse is losing (and it really does look as if it's losing).

I went up with the Ace at trick one, drew trumps in 2 rounds endig in hand and led a Spade towards the QJ in Dummy. East, holding !S K10xx originally, was powerless. I have two entries to Dummy in Club ruffs and in the meantime can set up the Spades. West had a singleton Spade and both Minor suit Aces. If you take the !S finesse, you're dead in the water.

Nearly half of the field on this hand were going off in 4 !H , 2 off in 5 !H , and one world class pair (Joke) were even going 3 off in 6 !H . The mental gymnastics required to think a slam is on here are beyond me. I can forgive the 6 !H pair for going 3 off, though, because on a !S lead, you need the K !S to be onside for 6 !H to have a prayer (so you can discard all of your Clubs). No such criteria apply when you're in game, however.

COUNT COUNT COUNT!!!!. Count your losers and winners before you touch a card at trick 1. Think about all of the pitfalls that can possibly befall you. At IMP scoring, try and figure out the safest way to make the number of tricks you're contracted to make.

15
Sleight of Hand / Being Flexible
« on: August 02, 2017, 12:33:21 PM »
Igo on sometimes about the need to have a plan for each hand. Plans aren't always set in concrete, however, and it's best to keep them flexible. This hand I played with Eszter yesterday is a case in point.

Game All, Dealer West
You are South and hold

South
!S K7
!H 1092
!D J95
!C KJ983

Bidding
West         North         East       South
1 !D           2 !D(1)         No         2 !H
No             3 !H             No         4 !H

(1) Majors, weak or strong

As an aside, if you don't already, best to use 2-suited overcalls as weak or strong, but never intermediate. If you use Michaels etc with intermediate hands as well as weak or strong hands, Partner never knows whether to invite when they are intermediate themselves

West led the Ace of Diamonds, and this is what I could see

North (Dummy)
!S AQ854
!H AJ875
!D 6
!C A5

South
!S K7
!H 1092
!D J95
!C KJ983

West won the opening lead and continued with the King of Diamonds, ruffed in Dummy. What's our plan? Clearly if the Spades are 3-3 or one of the Heart honours are onside, I can take 2 finesses in Hearts, losing only 1 !D, 1 !H and maybe 1 !S. That's a decent enough plan for the time being: West opened the bidding, so there's a decent chance they'll have one of the Heart honours.

On the other hand, if the Spades are 4-2 and both of the Heart honours are offside, that plan could run into trouble, especially if East started with !H KQx, because when I take the second Heart finesse, East will be able to play a 3rd Heart and now I'll have to concede a Spade trick as well.

See what happens, though: At trick 3 I crossed back to hand with the Spade King and ran the 10 !H, losing to East's King. East switched to a small Club. What now?

Well if I was going to stick to the original play, I might preserve Dummy's Ace of Clubs as an entry, win the King and run the 9 !H, but I decided to hedge my bets. I inserted the 8 of Clubs and took West's 10 with the Ace in Dummy. I might have played the rest of the hand differently if the 8 had drawn the Queen from West, but now the presence of the 9 !H in my hand gave me a much better option:

I left the Hearts alone and played the Ace of Spades and a small Spade, ruffed by my 9. This might be overruffed if West started with 2 Spades and the Queen of Hearts, but now I still have 3 top trumps in Dummy to cope with a !D ruff, drawing trumps, and the rest of the tricks will be mine. If the Spades turn out to be 3-3, I still have the option of a second finesse in Hearts.

In practice West discarded a Club on the third Spade, which mean one of 2 things: Either West had no Hearts or none that could beat the 9, or this might have been a clever duck from an original holding of !H Qxxx. At the table, West didn't strike me as a player good enough to try that kind of gambit, so when I led a Heart and West played low, I hopped up with the Ace, placing East with !H KQx or !H KQ. The Queen didn't drop, but East did follow to the trick, but now I simply ran the Spades, which were all winners and East could take his Queen whenever he wished.

Bidding and making 4 !H here was worth 10 IMPs. Lots of people stopped short of game or only made 8 or 9 tricks, presumably having stuck to the original plan of taking 2 Heart finesses and hoping for 3-3 Spades.  West had started with !S J3, !H 64, !D AKQ102, !C Q1076 and East with !S 10962, !H KQ3, !D 8743, !C 42 so any attempts to develop the Clubs were also doomed to failure.

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