Author Topic: Mea sorta culpa, comments?  (Read 6728 times)

kenberg

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Mea sorta culpa, comments?
« on: June 07, 2017, 01:51:46 PM »
Bridge is a game of close calls. I regard that as a fact worth emphasizing.

From yesterday

http://tinyurl.com/ycv4xvop

Down 1.

i have a pretty good hand, and so my call of 4H.

I played the hand hoping for something like

http://tinyurl.com/y9n6mf9b

The opening heart lead to the J  and my A, back to the board in hearts, small diamond from the board. If W had Ax (any x whether J or deuce)  I would have made 11 tricks. Not to be.

I thought a bit about the bidding. My doubleton spade is a negative feature, it would be better if i had three. This would mean two spades, at most, in dummy and so I could go after a ruff in dummy where it gains a trick. Even if they start with a trump, as they did, it might help with the timing.
As to partner's 3H. I dunno. If he passes, I have the values to re-open with a double and then, when he bids 3H, I will pass. So maybe he should have. Of course  then W might have had Ax in diamonds we could discuss who should have bid more. The short version is that he knew we had a heart fit, he did not want to sell to 2S.

Your thoughts?











Ken

OliverC

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Re: Mea sorta culpa, comments?
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2017, 12:03:53 PM »
This is a really good hand for using Lebensohl in any natural competitive sequences. Over East's 2 !S bid, South now has two choices: a fast 3 !H, which is more encouraging, and a slow 3 !H (via 2NT-3 !C ), which is 100% competitive and not remotely invitational. If West bids 3 !S over 2NT, North will automatically pass (because they don't know what the 2NT bid is based on) and when this is passed round to South, they will also pass, because they're not prepared to compete to the 4-level, when their Spades are sat under West. End result 3 !S -2.


I can't really fault your line in 4 !H, in the sense that nothing is going to work against passive defence unless West has Ax in Diamonds. I might have tried to find out a little more about the hand before I opened up the Diamonds myself, but you have to assume that East has the Queen of Spades or the hand is definitely unmakeable. Ideally, we want Opps to open up the Diamonds, so I might well take 3 rounds of Hearts ending in Dummy and run the Jack of Clubs. This doesn't endplay East, but it's possible they will exit with a Diamond rather than a Spade, seeing !S KJx in Dummy (They may also assume partner has 5-card Spades [which gives you a singleton], so opening up the Spades will generate a discard for you). Like I said, nothing works on this layout, because Opps can always force you to open up the Diamonds.


This hand really about the bidding rather than the play, for me, however. Neither North or South have any "shape" and South has a very "quacky" hand, so the fact that NS don't really have enough hcp for game should determine the fact that we don't go that high. It's about having the methods that allow NS to make that determination.
Oliver (OliverC)
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kenberg

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Re: Mea sorta culpa, comments?
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2017, 12:53:56 PM »
If W has Ax of diamonds then, given the heart lead and the fact that it produced an entry to the board,  then I can bring in the contract regardless of the lie of the spades. Go to the board in hearts, lead the  diamond. If ducked, small diamond from hand and board. This is what had in mind. Had the A appeared on the second diamond, I have ten tricks: five hearts, four diamonds, one club. And since W is on lead they cannot take two hearts no matter how they lie.

But not a great contract to be sure. Slim to none, and slim is catching the next plane out.  As they say.

I have not included this version of Leb in any of my partnerships. It would have been very useful here. I only have one partnership that is at all regular, my f2f partnership' and I have just recently convinced him to play Lebensohl over reverses. You mentioned that your father did not like conventions. He and my partner Carl would have been fine together.

Carl and I play at a club, and often just decent bidding suffices. But there is a within easy driving distance Regional coming up, maybe I can push a bit.





Ken