We had some good luck on the challenge yesterday. I'll post the last hand. I am curious as to what everyone thinks should happen. For example, what is the par contract? Is it plausible to reach it? NS have 17 cards in the majors, and so EW have 17 cards in the minors. Is LOTT accurate and can it be confidently applied during the bidding?


https://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?lin=st||pn|S,W,N,E|md|4SKQ8763H973DT82C2,SA95H4DK654CAQJ54,ST42HAKJT6D7CKT73,SJHQ852DAQJ93C986|sv|b|rh||ah|Board%2010|mb
 

I am assuming that a discussion of these boards is welcome. There were more than the usual number of shapely hands yesterday, and that always leads to some guesswork.

Drury is played in different ways.
Bridge World Standard, for responses after a third or fourth hand opening bid of 1 or 1 , says

Passed-Hand Situations: These methods apply to responding to a major-suit opening by a passed hand:
(a) one notrump is semiforcing (6-12 points);
(b) two clubs is a strong raise (a hand too strong for a single raise, but unsuited to a higher bid);
(c) three clubs is natural, similar to two diamonds but with long clubs;
(d) a jump-shift other than three clubs is a strong raise with length in the suit bid;
(e) a double jump-shift is a splinter raise.

So 2 is Drury, 2 is not Drury.

We also have to decide when Drury is on. Say we open 1 in third position and fourth hand enters the auction. My own preference is that if 2 is available as a bid then 2 is Drury. I am not sure what BWS says about that.


Anyway, here is a hand:


  Q5
  KJT73
  K96
  A84

Matchpoints, nobody vul, three passes to you, you open 1 .

Opponents stay out of the auction


Pass     1
2      2
2      2NT
3

What now? The 2 shows a full opener, or, as I like to think of it, a hand where it seems at least possible that we should be in 4 .
I was playing with robots so they told me that 2 showed at least three spades headed by the Q or better.
I intended my 2NT as passable, I think that is reasonable, but the bots claim it is forcing to 3 .
And the bots tell me 3 shows at least 3 diamonds headed by at least the Q.

Ok, maybe the bots and I were not on exactly the same page. The way I see it, the bot could have bid 3 , so bidding 3 should be a hand with a little more than a minimum 2 call.

So should I bid 3 or 4 ?

Part of my reason for posting is so others can comment on whether they think 3 should be more encouraging than 3 .

Well, I bid 4 . I made 4 . But it required a bit of luck.

  A864
  854
  AQT7
  97


  Q5
  KJT73
  K96
  A84

So: Did we overbid? And if so, who?

It seems useful to have some hands where it is maybe not certain whether or not we belong in game and discuss what to make out of the Drury bid and the follow-up.

 

Donna's hand are for discussion of agreements. That's a good idea in general that also could be useful as we have another match with the acols.
So here is one of her Thursday hands:


  AQT
  KQT76
  976
  T9


Vulnerability and scoring unknown, So if it affects your choices say so.

Lho deals, three passes to you, your choice? I gave this to the robots and they passed it out.I think it is close. There is something called the rule of 15 for 4th hand openings. It requires that if the number of hcps plus the number of spades is less than 15 you pass it out. Ok, I have 11 highs and 3 spades but this hand is better than that.
I opened 1 , pard bids 1 .

Pass Pass Pass 1
Pass 1   Pass  ?

I passed.
 
  AQT
  KQT76
  976
  T9
 



  KT864
  953
  8
  AQJ5

Do we want to play this in 4 and if so, 4 or 4 ? And what are the choices?

Drury was available and pard mentioned he might have bid 2 instead of 1 . Or I might have raised 1 to 2 . Otoh, pard could reasonably think "I will bid 1 . If pard passes that because he opened light then we probably don't belong in game. If pard bids again I can then show my hearts and give him a good picture of a hand with spades, with heart support, and with good values."

As mentioned the bots passed it out. Your thoughts?

Yesterday's Dare, Board 2, defense:

The uncontested auction begins on your left
1 - 1
1 NT - 3NT

This being acol, that 1NT rebid is like an opening 1NT in std 2/1.

Partner leads the J

Dummy hits, shown to the right,  you hold, as shown below:
                                        AJ83
                                        QT
                                        KQ95
                                        853

        K62
      KJ3
        8643
      742

A small from the table, taken by the Q (at our table taken by the A but taken by the Q is better I think).
Declarer leads the Q, pard shows an odd number of cards, declarer plays low from dummy, let's say you forget the duck and take your K. Now what?
Suppose the object is to set the hand, overtricks and undertricks are ignored.
Now what?

I considered a small . If pard has the A we get 3 tricks. But surely declarer then has the rest.

Ah, but this is acol. There is no way I was going to find the setting switch to the J even if I did remember this is acol, but it would have worked.

Parter holds A972
So: J to the A, 2 to my K, and now a third to pard's 97, declarer holding 86.

no, I am not doing that.


Still, I thought I would post the hand. We will be playing against the acols on Ap 3 and it is good to keep in mind how they bid.

Acols open four card majors. Goren opened for card majors but even Charlie did not open 1 on 8654. Apparently acols do.

Something to keep in mind, although not dwell on, for Ap 3.

Btw, I duclke the first after which declarer had a clear 9 tricks. But even if I took the first I was not switching to the J.

Hi
I previously posted board 3 of the second half, my message being that I should have made it.
Board 4 of the first half is a different story. Double dummy I can make my 5 contract (Gib says so and can Gib ever be wrong?) but even DD it takes a bit to see how.


The hands:

                                      AKJ4
                                      842
                                      AQT743
                                      void


Q86                                                      T97532                                   
Q9653                                                  7
KJ85                                                     2
T                                                          AQ643

                                    void
                                    AKJT
                                    96
                                    KJ98752

I decided not to rotate the hands since you might want to compare with other tables. N is declared in 5 .
                                   

I will get to the bidding later, right now I want to look at double dummy play on the lead of the 7

We need 11 tricks. Where from? Well, five tricks in , one ruff, three top after the ruff, two tricks, that makes 11. But if we use a trump in dummy ruffing a , how do we bring in 5 trump tricks?

Oh. A trump coup. Of course

T1 Win on the board
T2 lead a , cover whatever W plays. Say it goes 6.8,T
T3,4,5 A,K,4, throwing two clubs and ruffing the 4
T6 small from table, ruffed in hand
T7 to the board.
T8 Another . We could hope W ruffs and we overruff, but W is not that helpful. So he tosses a since that's his only other choice. Weruff

We have the first 8 tricks, we need 3 more. Let's look at what is left.



                                      J
                                      8
                                      AQ7
                                      void


                                                            T97                                   
Q9                                                       
KJ5                                                     
                                                            AQ

                                    void
                                    JT
                                   
                                    KJ9

N is on lead.
T9 lead a

W wins and must lead. The choices are ugly. Presumably he leads a !G. We ruff for the 9th trick. We lead the . W ruffs (no choice) and is on lead We get the A and Q for 11 tricks. Note that it doesn't matter whether the J is the highest remaining . This is, I guess, a repeating coup.

Thihs appears to work.  I think.

If I could find that line at the table I could make a lot of money. Until I was caught peeking. Actually, peeking wouldn't help unless I am given an hour or so to figure how to make use of it.

5 is easier double dummy. Declarer, noting the stiff T, plans to establish clubs by leading the K and then, when next in hand, the J E gets his AQ, that's it. And I guess 3NT makes, also be establishing clubs. Establishing Ds won't work so well since after they are established you can't get there.

Bidding: I opened 1 , E bid 2 and S bid 3 . Even with 7-4 I probably would have made a negative double as S. It could get interesting after that if W bids 3 . In theory the defense gets 2 red aces, a club ruff and the AKJ of spades for down 2. And maybe S gets an eventual club trick. He can't ruff them all away. I have not thought through just what ha[[ens against a spade contract by E with optimal NS defense.

EW really do not want to play this in spades. or in clubs. NS can actually make something although it's very double dummy to make game. EW can't make anything.

Added: I don't know if I have ever seen this double use of the trump coup before. It depends on spades being 6-3, reasonable on the auction we had, and on W having at least four hearts including the Q, also reasonable on the auction and the lead. But it also depends on diamonds being 4-1 with W holding the K and J. It doesn't depend on the clubs being as distorted as they are. Eg 3-3 clubs, and thus 3-3 hearts will be fine. And we don't care which three spades W has.
It's the split that is hard to assume. Not impossible though.
Of course when you run the finesse you should lead the 9 from the board, not the 6, in case E has the stiff 8. I was just doing full DD when running the 9. Probably the 9 will not be covered by the J since W can reason that if E has the T there is no need to cover and if N has the T there is no purpose in covering.

Taking a specific case:

                                      AKJ4
                                      842
                                      AQT743
                                      void


T86                                                      Q97532                                   
Q65                                                      973
KJ85                                                     2
AT3                                                      Q64

                                    void
                                    AKJT
                                    96
                                    KJ98752

We suppose the lead is still the 7 (2nd from spots)

We proceed as before and after 8 tricks we have:

                                      J
                                      8
                                      AQT
                                      void


                                                             Q97                                   
Q                                                         9
KJ8                                                     
A                                                         Q

                                    void
                                    JT
                                   
                                    KJ9

Just as before we lead the from hand and W is in. He can give us our first trick of this end position by leading a , we take it and get out with the , not carding who wins, or W can lead the A, we ruff, and get out with the not caring who wins.
So we get all 6 of the s in our hand, the top 2 s, the top 2 s, and one ruff. 6+2+2+1=11.

It seems to me that the main issue is to bet that E has a stiff that is not the K or J. That's a tough thing to rely on. But once we decide to play on that assumption, the rest falls into place. I just needed to tell the opponents that I needed to think about the hand for a day or two before playing it.

I like to revisit DARE hands. Often I find errors in hands that went well. Board 5 was an example. I'm pretty sure I have it right now.


You hold

AQ
KQ843
AJ
KQT3

You are told to open this 2NT so you do. Partner raises to 7NT.
The prescribed lead is the 8
Dummy hits

KJ
AT52
KQ
A9542

AQ
KQ843
AJ
KQT3

this is one serious duplication of values, with 20 highs tied up in the four tricks in the pointed suits. But the only issue is that hearts or clubs or both might split 4-0.

Cashing the K will tell you if the are 4-0  9they are) and you can pick up the suit by a finesse. But we still have to worry about hearts. Also, if the four clubs are on the right (they are) then after cashing the K  you block the suit when/if you then lead small to the A and back to your QT. Of course there are other entries but you don't really want to use them up before the heart situation is clarified. That's the point I missed.

So a good strategy is take the first in hand. Then when the k shows that all four clubs are on your right you can go back to the board in and lead a to your QT3.

In this way you will be able, if you wish, to take all five tricks w/o touching the entries n and .

However, you get a bonus since when you go back to the board in , Rho shows out.

So it has been:

T1: 8 to the T on your right and your A.
!2: K, Lho tosses a , dummy the 2, Rho the 6
T3: D J from hand, Lho follows, K from board, Rho throws a small .

Who has four hearts? It doesn't matter. We can now claim the hand.

I played the first three tricks differently. Eventually I decided that if hearts were 4-0 ut seemed more likely to be Rho who had them Luckily this was so. With the first three tricks as above, it doesn't matter who has four hearts.

A very interesting hand.

PS I am not saying that what to do next is obvious.

The robots use the auction 1NT-3M to show a singleton. Often (although maybe the robots don't require this) the 3M call also stipulates that the other major will be a three card suit.

Now the robots also play minor suit stayman. So I started thinking about this.

AJ2
8
J986
K9875

Partner opens 1NT.
I can bid 3H. I can also bid 2S. I gave it to the robots. They went with 2S.

1NT-2S-3D-3H(this also shows a stiff, or void)-5D. Making 5. NT is hopeless.

I have to think about this. I am inclined to think that when responder is 3-1-4-5 with game forcing values opposite a NT opening, the auction is apt to start 1NT-2S rather than 1NT-3H. That's what happened with the hand I gave them, Perhaps I will experiment around a little more.

I have played the 1NT-3M(3M=stiff) agreement with some people, including the robots, but I can't recall 1NT-3M  ever coming up. Maybe I can now see why.

Any thoughts?

Board 8 presented choices, my choice was not the best, but the bridge fairies were watching over me. And, as is often the case, there are some issues about defense.

Nobody vul, partner deals and opens 1D.

S: T32
H: AKJ432
D: 32
C: JT

The uncontested auction: 1D-1H-1NT-4H. A bit aggressive, the contract is not on ice (or it's maybe on slippery ice)


      S: AQ4
      H: QT5
      D: 7654
      C: AK6


      S: T32
      H: AKJ432
      D: 32
      C: JT


The defense begins, and I think that this was stipulated, D AKT. RHo follows to the AK with spots played in whatever order is encouraging in their agreements, and then Rho plays the DJ on the T and you ruff.

Ok, if hearts are 2-2 and both opponents follow to two rounds of clubs you are making this.
The play goes:
T4: HA
T5,6,7 CAK and ruff a C high:
T8: small H to the board
T9: D from the board tossing a spade, Rho is in and can lead a spade into the AQ or a club for a ruff sluff.

As it happens Rho has only three clubs and that saved me when I went at this wrong. I cashed two hearts ending on the board, then ruffed out the clubs but then had to lead another heart to the board to throw Rho in with the D. If he had another club he would lead it, I would ruff it, then I would take the spade finesse and go down. Lucky me, he did not have another club.



The defensive point: On the third round of D, Rho has the Q and J of D. I think everyone played the J. But that tells me where the Q is. Surely LHO, if he hand started with AKQT of D, would have played AKQ not AKT. So I know the throw-in is working. If Rho plays the Q at T3 I have to wonder where the J is. Restricted choice applies, I guess. After it goes AKT, with Rho playing 8,9, QI can reason that if Lho had started with AKJT then he had a choice at T3 of the J or the T. He would know that only the Q is still out and so either pard has it and declarer ruffs or declarer has it and partner ruffs, so the T and j are equals. So restricted choice says it is more likely that Rho has the missing honor.

In short, playing the DQ at T 3 gives me a puzzle I might work out, playing the DJ at T3 leaves me certain of where the Q is. It's a case of playing the card you are known to hold.

Anyway, the endplay worked, but it had a better chance of working if I had ruffed out the clubs before leading the second heart.

As always, this was an interesting collection of hands. Certainly the endplay was one option, there were other options, and just possible I would have gone with a different option had the DQ been played at T3. My line worked, but is it the best line? No, but maybe ruffing out clubs before the second round of trump and then making the throw-in is best. Your thoughts?

I continue to hope we can discuss these hands back and forth. I enjoy looking back at my choices, especially at my wrong choices.

Added: My general approach to DARE is to think things through afterward on my own, I find it the most useful approach. But with this one I remain curious as to just what the recommended line was.

I am thinking that if Rho's first three cards are the D spots and the DJ then the best line is to cash one H, then play three clubs ruffing the third, then back to the board with a trump, lead the D spot. It works as the cards lie, but is it the best bet, and, if Rho plays the D Q instead of the D J at T3, is it still the best bet? It still works of course, but is it still the best bet (assuming it is seen as the best bet when Rho plays the J at T2)? I have not decided.