Author Topic: Surrounded, from the April 22 Dare.  (Read 2675 times)

kenberg

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Surrounded, from the April 22 Dare.
« on: April 23, 2019, 01:54:43 AM »
The study of offense and defense are linked, and one of the Dare hands today illustrates this:

Dummy:

!S: K74
!H: 3
!D: KJ9743
!C: AJT




Declarer:

!S: AJ
!H: JT754
!D: A5
!C: Q952


The contract is 3NT and we get an opening !S lead into the AJ. That's nice. Let's assume that !D can be set up after the loss of one trick in the suit. Do we care who wins that trick?

Otherwise put: When the opponents get in, they will switch to !H. Do we care whether the first !H comes from Rho or Lho?

Hint: The Bridge Encyclopedia begins its description of Surrounding Play as  " A group of defensive suit combination plays calling for the play of the second highest card from particular broken holdings.

It's late (for me) but I will say more about this tomorrow. The idea here is to recognize what the defense might do, and then see what you might be able do about it. Suppose that when you lay down the !D A the T falls on your right. That might be a false card, from QTx, but if it is not then the hand is cold whether the T is stiff or from QT.  Providing you don't get surrounded.

More tomorrow.
Ken

wackojack

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Re: Surrounded, from the April 22 Dare.
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2019, 10:16:05 AM »
This is new problem for me as I did not log in until the final hand. Here are my thoughts: I do not have the benefit of knowing the bidding and I am assuming the opponents didn't intervene and the bidding was something like 1 !H-2  !D -2NT-3NT.  I assume also the  !S lead was from a low spot so likely from a 4 or 5 card suit but this is probably not important.  If so, it seems apparent that the danger of defeat is West with  !H KQ9x and East with  !H A8x or similar and East leads the 8.  So if west gets in with a winning !D  you are safe.  If East does get in then perhaps a world class player or a double dummy nerd might find the 8 lead from A8x.  However, from say Q8x it would be even more difficult to find the 8 lead.  I am asking myself is this a serious iac problem?  If this is an avoidance problem, how can we prevent East from winning a  !D trick?  The card combination where we can stop East winning a   !D trick is when West has stiff Q  !D and West  !D 10xxx.  We could play 5  !D from hand and duck West's Q.  However this won't work since the only entry to dummy is the A  !C and west will switch to a club and you now  have to hope that west also has the K  !C
So this line of play is absurd. 

All I think I can do is to play off Ace and another  !D to the jack.  If East wins with the Q then if west does have the deadly !H combination H8x or H9x then she does not find the 8 or 9 lead.
 

kenberg

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Re: Surrounded, from the April 22 Dare.
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2019, 12:15:44 PM »
As to the seriousness of the problem, well, it's a Dare hand and Dare hands often consider extreme possibilities. In this case a llist of references was provided at teh end of the tourney:
"Hands today are from ACBL Bulletin: combining chances - Shafer201703; transfer loser - Alder201703a; card combinations - Cohen201703;
 restricted choice - Cohen201804; trump coup - Horton201711; cut def communiction - RosenbergBW201904; combining chances - Lawrence201703a; NO TIP yet on 8 |69".

This came from "card combinations - Cohen201703" and indeed this is exactly what Cohen addresses.

Rho has !H K96 and Lho has !H AQ82.  If Rho gets in and leads the !H 9 then they can take four !H tricks, if he leads anything else declarer at least can hold them to three !H tricks. If the 6 is led to the J and Q, and then the 2 back to the K, Rho now leads the 9 and, if declarer reads the lie right, he plays low. It might not be obvious to do so, but it works. If the 9 and 8 are interchanged then the defense could survive the lead if the 8 rather than the 8.


Dare hands are not to be thought of as matchpoints. the idea is always to ensure the contract. In this case, after the T falls under the !, there are a sure 9 tricks as long as the T is not a false card. If Rho holds the QTx in !D then you have a problem. But if the T is either stiff or from QT, then playing a small !D to the K ensures the contract. As it happens, this drops the Q and there are tricks galore. But if instead Rho shows out when you play the K that means Lho was dealt Qxxx and you just lead the j from the board, establishing the suit. Well, not quite. As Cohen also points out in the article, you need to cash the !S K at T3 before the !D to the K. This way you get 3 !S tricks, 5 !D tricks and 1 !C trick, and they cannot first take a !D and four !H.

So it's a Dare hand and Dare hands address hands where extra care pays off.

In the after game discussion I mentioned that this was what I thought was called a surrounding play but it was a sophisticated version of one, and that seems to be the case. In its more prosaic forms it comes up from time to time. Something likes this (just one suit shown):



Defender;  AJ9x (on lead)

Dummy:                  Txx

Defenders want to pick up the entire suit and they need to do it before declarer gets the lead. If partner has Kxx and declarer Qxx this can be done but only if defender starts with the J.  This is probably easier to see then the case from Cohen's article. Here, It's easy enough to imagine it going JQKx and then a spot coming back. And pard, after he takes the Q with the K, might ask himself why the J was led with the T on the board, and then he will come up with the answer.

These Dare hands are, I think, meant for discussion such as this. They are extreme, but that's the point.

Added: You mentioned you just got into the tourney for the last part. I have been thinking about the last hand.  You are in 4 !H, missing the !HA and the !S AK so you cannot afford to lose another trick. The biggest danger seems to be from a ruff so I suppose the right line is to win the !D lead on the board, cash three top !C throwing the !D, and then lead a small !H from hand. This works. As the cards lie, the more everyday approach of winning the !D lead in hand and leading a small !H also works. Yes, Rho has a stiff !D but sine he also has a stiff !H no harm is done. I think cashing the !C firs is the best line but usually these hands are set up so if you do not play the hands along the envisioned line you pay for it, while on this one you are saved.  Maybe I am missing something but I don't see what. There was an earlier hand where this pitch to avoid the adverse ruff was exactly what was needed. Seems to be right here as well. OOPS: I see I would have, or probably would have, gone down. There are dangers and it is not possible to guard against all of them. By guarding against one, I was apt to be done in by the other. I am not so sure that the right choice is clear.


Oh, and added added: You asked about the bidding. It started on the right with 1!D:  1 !D - 1 !H - 2 !D - 2NT - 3NT. 
I decided against providing the bidding since however it had gone a defender is going to look four !h tricks when/if he is in with the !D Q.





« Last Edit: April 23, 2019, 08:43:00 PM by kenberg »
Ken

jcreech

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Re: Surrounded, from the April 22 Dare.
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2019, 03:23:10 PM »
At the table, when I shifted to a !H, my thoughts were to generate some tricks for partner and that, on the bidding, it was more likely that Declarer was looking at the A, not the JT.  As declarer abandoned the diamonds (partly because I false carded the Q), I was trying to build defensive tricks through brute force than find something elegant like a surrounding play.  And when I shifted to the !H K, it was hard to read the deuce as encouraging using standard signals despite declarer "allowing" the K to hold.

Fortunately, I was able to continue the !H 's later when declarer finessed into my !D T, but lost the chance at the surrounding play.























A stairway to nowhere is better than no stairway at all.  -Kehlog Albran

kenberg

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Re: Surrounded, from the April 22 Dare.
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2019, 05:16:34 PM »
At the table, when I shifted to a !H, my thoughts were to generate some tricks for partner and that, on the bidding, it was more likely that Declarer was looking at the A, not the JT.  As declarer abandoned the diamonds (partly because I false carded the Q), I was trying to build defensive tricks through brute force than find something elegant like a surrounding play.  And when I shifted to the !H K, it was hard to read the deuce as encouraging using standard signals despite declarer "allowing" the K to hold.

Fortunately, I was able to continue the !H 's later when declarer finessed into my !D T, but lost the chance at the surrounding play.

It was a great false card! To the readers who was not there:

After the forced lead of the !S 3 (forced by Dare rules) declarer won with the j and played the !D A. The trick went A23? and Jim, holding KT, played the K.  With only the !D T86 still out it is highly likely that a declarer would next play a small !D to the 9, expecting to run the suit. Instead declarer ran the !C Q, but later played to the !D 9.

A very very careful declarer might mutter to himself "Nice try but I wasn't born yesterday" and then cash the !S K and lead a !D to the K. Sure Jim will probably show out, but the contract is guaranteed. If Jim does show out he can give up a !D and be safe with 3 !S, 5 !D and 1 !C.  When Jim does not show out  and the t comes down, declarer calls the newspapers to report his success.

But few declarers would play it that safely, most would, after the K falls under the A, play a small !D toward the board, inserting the 9 and losing to the T!


I didn't mention the falsecard since I wanted to focus on the "intended lesson" of the hand, which was how to play safely, or as safely as possible, for 9 tricks. As Cohen says in his article, that would be to play the A of !D at T2, cash the A of !s at T3, and then play a small !D to the K.  That's tough enough to do when the T falls under the A, it is virtually impossible to do after the K falls under the A. Still, if declarer wants to play safely for 9 tricks, that's the way to do it.

These hands have many interesting features!

But yes, a very good falsecard. If he does as expected and plays a!d to the 9 and T then it all gets seriously interesting. On the play of the !H K I did indeed wish we were playing upside down signals. I find that it seldom matters but here it would have been nice. If it goes !H K and the a small !H to my Q I think I had better shift to a !C. As long as he did not unblock in !S before taking the !D hook he does not have 9 tricks ready to go.  If he unblocks before taking the !d hook, we are back to where we need 4 !H tricks pronto since 3+5+1=9!

 

I think that pulling these hands from the ACBL Bulletin, or similar sources, is a very good idea. Fun, and maybe even profitable.

« Last Edit: April 23, 2019, 05:20:59 PM by kenberg »
Ken