What’s it to be? Concluded

The question was, with this hand, what bid to make with the following information:

AK10xxx
xx
xxx
Qx

Partner opens 1NT 13-15.

After a system discussion of 5 minutes with your inexperienced partner, it seems to you that your options are:

(1) 2S natural and weakness takeout
(2) 3S 5+ forcing
(3) 4S
(4) 3NT

So what’s it to be?

	NORTH AK10632 98 1043 Q8
WEST Q854 A1054 852 92		EAST J Q62 KJ97 K7643
	SOUTH 97 KJ73 AQ6 AJ105

For playing 2S making 11 tricks I got 41%. Half the field was in game, most in 4S, a couple in 3NT.

I was playing at the Adelaide Bridge Centre, Phil Gue’s club. It is a most pleasant place to play and has excellent MP scoring in place. Your scores are available the instant you finish and during the night you can see all the scores so far on each board after you enter your own score. Great fun. For a link to the sort of thing I’m talking about, go here.

Tomorrow, something COMPLETELY different. Do drop by.

Man or mouse? Continues.

	NORTH 86 A872 — AK109762
WEST AKQ5 4 AKQ109832 —		EAST J107 10953 J54 J84
	SOUTH 9432 KQJ6 76 Q53

The hand is from the Spring Nationals semifinal. In one room the West hand asked for specific aces with 4NT, North passed, East showed none and West signed off in 6D. Should this ambition to bid seven by West encourage North to bid on principle? Pauline Gumby thought not. +1370.

In the other room Simon Hinge thought nothing of trying his luck at the seven level, doubled and -500 for a swing to the eventual losers. All that rubber bridge, no doubt. Steels the nerves.

Thanks to Rainer for doing a simulation, see his comments under yesterday’s post.

I think we could call this a man nor mouse situation as well:

WEST A1093 7 7532 KQ65
	SOUTH 4 QJ10432 J1086 J4

You sit West:

West….North….East….South
……………………………Pass
Pass…..1H…….Pass…..4H
Pass…..6H…….All Pass

Partner leads the DK, taken by declarer’s ace. Then ace and another trump to dummy and partner discards the S5, playing reverse count. I’m not sure why declarer did this as it must be wrong on principle to let the defenders make a possibly useful discard here. Still, there you are. You now have all weekend to make the decision about what you are going to do SMOOTHLY and in tempo on the spade off dummy at trick four. I’d prefer to give you one nanosecond to do that, but unfortunately it is out of my control.

See you Monday.

Man or mouse?

All vul you pick up:

86
A872
—
AK109762

Third in hand RHO opens 6D. What are you doing over that?

Comments suppressed for now.

Two bidding problems. Concluded.

Regarding the first of these hands, it’s clear there are a lot of issues. What is the forcing status of 2D and of 2H, if bid over 2D? I’m with the majority who begin with 2C on this hand. If you start with 1H the only way you get lucky is partner raising them. In my opinion the forcing status of 2D doesn’t really matter. Even if it is limited and non-forcing, which is my preference – ie it is a bid which is descriptive – it still does’t mean that hearts isn’t cold for game.

The hand was given to me by Khokan who suffered playing 3C on his six heart hand when this was the layout and the auction:

xxx
AKJx
A10xxx
x

x
109xxx
-
AKJ10xxx

N S
1D 2C
2D 3C
P

Meanwhile in the other room, South hit the jackpot with a 1H initial response which got his side to 4H.

As Khokan notes, it would be useful to generate a bunch of hands and actually see statistically what is best to do. One of those things bridge players always think about doing but rarely find the time for!

Firstly:

x
109xxx
—
AKJ10xxx

(1) What do you respond to 1D? More questions to come on this one, but we’ll start there.

There is consensus to respond 2C.

(2) So, what now after 2D from partner?

See you all tomorrow for a defence problem.

Two bidding problems continued.

Firstly:

x
109xxx
—
AKJ10xxx

(1) What do you respond to 1D? More questions to come on this one, but we’ll start there.

There is consensus to respond 2C.

(2) So, what now after 2D from partner?

Secondly:

K3
AQ9
AK10964
Q2

West….North…..East….South
……………………………1C (3+)
Dble…..1S………2D…….Dble (3 card raise)
?

Your partnership arrangement is that once they have bid 2 suits cues show, not ask for, stoppers in that suit.

I must say, 3NT looks like a completely normal punt to me. Sorry, I’ve added the information that opener showed support, which probably increases the chances of a spade lead. Clubs might break…and 5D is going to be way off, with 2 club losers and some if partner can’t help bolster your holding there.

Still, we played it on BBO and one of my esteemed opponents said to me, after my partner bid 3NT and made it opposite QJxxx diamonds and the ace of clubs, that ‘no bridge player in the world would bid 3NT with that hand’. Now, I’m sorry, I’m not trying to insult you guys all of whom quite like the bid. I’m with you! But I am pleased to see support for the idea…

Having said that, however, after the game I talked to David about it. It transpired he thought the opening bid was 1H, his double stopper. And there I was – and you all – supporting his thoughtful solution to the problem!

Comments suppressed for now.

Two bidding problems.

Firstly:

x
109xxx
—
AKJ10xxx

(1) What do you respond to 1D? More questions to come on this one, but we’ll start there.

Secondly:

K3
AQ9
AK10964
Q2

West….North…..East….South
……………………………1C (3+)
Dble…..1S………2D…….Pass
?

Your partnership arrangement is that once they have bid 2 suits cues show, not ask for, stoppers in that suit.

Comments suppressed for now.

Still in the stratosphere continued

The question yesterday was this: playing matchpoints, all vul, sitting West:

5
AJ10964
AJ5
Q86

West…….North……East……South
………………………3D……..Pass
3H……….4S……….5H………5S
?

I thought it was a simple case of bidding on, just because it’ll be cheap. And I assume, if you decide to bid on that it should be in hearts…why reveal the double fit? Perhaps it’ll make it harder for them to bid on if slam happens to be the right level for them.

This is the whole deal:

Victoria State Pairs Final
Board 26
Dealer East
Both Vul

	NORTH AKQ863 5 102 AK74
WEST 5 AJ10964 AJ5 Q86		EAST 72 K72 KQ98763 9
	SOUTH J1094 Q83 4 J10532

I asked Neil Ewart what he and Blaine Howe did on the hand, they having won the State Pairs, and he commented:

“It went 3D from Traian and 3H from Dan – I bid 4S and in pass out seat Dan bid 5D. I took the push to 5S and Traian led a low heart which Dan won – he cashed the ace of diamonds and and exited with a heart. I played spades so now was pretty sure Traian was a 2371, cashed the Club ace and took the hook.

In retrospect I think Dan’s 3H was uncharacteristically naïve because he knows a spade bid is coming fast. A direct 5D bid would have been better. It might be harder for me to get the count without the low heart lead.’

I must say, although it seemed obvious to me to bid to the six level on the way out, I was obviously prepared to be chicken on the way in: I suggested 4D. Pusillanimous?

See you tomorrow for a hand from the weekend’s Cayne match.

Still in the stratosphere

What about this one, playing matchpoints, all vul, sitting West:

5
AJ10964
AJ5
Q86

West…….North……East……South
………………………3D……..Pass
3H……….4S……….5H………5S
?

The modern psyche.

Opportunities abound these days for creative psychic activity which attempts both to exploit the new technology and punish it.

Take this hand:

A103
A10
5
AKJ10843.

The occasion is the final of a pairs event and you are vul versus not. RHO opens 2NT showing a preempt in either minor. What now? Anyone for 3NT?! Well, I couldn’t resist. How often do you get dealt such a perfect opportunity? The sophistication of the opponents’ convention lends itself to psychic action that is a good chance to work. You have turned the tables on the opponent. He has said with his opening bid “Here, have a guess what’s going on” and you’ve replied “No, you guess”.

There is no such thing as a perfect bid. Precisely because some parameters are attached to a bid, others perforce must be lost. If the advantage of the 2NT opening is its economy, then its disadvantage is the ambiguity that results from that same action. The way to punish ambiguous bids is to maintain their ambiguity.

West easily led a club and on this occasion the whole layout was:

	NORTH K86 J9532 107 975
WEST Q75 K87 KJ62 Q62		EAST J942 Q64 AQ9843 —
	SOUTH A103 A10 5 AKJ10843

The monumental gravity of West’s error on opening lead was immediately apparent to all. It cannot be said that the opponents took the misadventure in the best of spirits. Before a card was called from dummy, East (a player of reputation) screamed, “You idiot, you know you must lead your shorter minor!” West, as angry as East at the layout, yelled back “But I did lead my shorter minor!”

This was a useful top, the field going down in 5C, a contract in which West found it far easier to take a trick with the protected club queen.

It was playing a Moscito style system that the following auction took place. If the first example is something of a sledgehammer, this next one is so subtle that it required just the right sort of opponent to arrive at the trap answer. Artificial methods create opportunities for artificial psyches. There was no need for the brazen psychic action of bidding what one doesn’t have. Here it was enough to intimate a holding that was far from the truth….

WEST AKQ3 A2 K105 AKQ5		EAST J1064 87 Q98 8432

Again the scoring is matchpoint pairs.

West……….East
1C (1)……..1D (2) …….1) 15+, any 2) 0-8
1H (3)… .. ..1S (4) ……..3) 18+, any 4) 0-4
1NT(5)…. . .2H (6) …….5) relay 6) balanced
2S (5)……. 3C (7) ……..7) 4 spades
3D (5)…… .3S (8) ……..8) 4 clubs
4C (5) …….4H (9) ……..9) 2 hearts
4NT………. Pass

At the point when relayer found out that partner was 4-4 in spades and clubs, it was not clear to go for the spade fit. The bidding might frequently go 2C 2D 3NT and if East holds the king of hearts (or sometimes the queen) doubleton, 3NT will make the same number of tricks as four spades. Courtney attempted to continue the bidding in such a way that he could play no trumps without the worry of a heart lead.

The four club and then 4NT bids combine to provide an example of how subtle and creative the modern day psyche can be. Together these two bids gave the following message to the opening leader: the relayer found out that responder had only two hearts rather than three hearts and then he signed off in no trumps. The inference to be received from this information was that West was looking for a five-three heart fit!

Some defenders would remain blithely ignorant of this message. In this case the opening leader was a thoughtful junior who worked out with no assistance the implications of the auction. He stayed off the otherwise natural heart lead for the quite sensible reason that it appeared his hearts were sitting over declarer. Having inhibited the only lead to trouble no trumps, 4NT made eleven tricks and an equal top after declarer guessed diamonds.

It seems to me, having suggested that opportunities for interesting development of the psychic bid are rife these days, that in practice it is not the case. I’d like to think I’m wrong, so, please, if you have interesting creative examples of psychic bidding, do share them with us.

Apportion the blame.

It’s off the topic, but I’d like thoughts on what went wrong here:

Board 19
EW Vul
Dealer South

	NORTH J AJ10642 986 K76
WEST K109432 98 AK Q102		EAST Q8 K5 J753 AJ954
	SOUTH A765 Q73 Q1042 83

EW’s system is Acol

West…..North….East….South
……………………………..Pass
1S……..2H……..3C…….3H
Pass…..Pass…..Dble….Pass
3S……..All Pass