Play problem concluded.

Contract: 6S
Opening lead: DQ

KQJ3
Q43
3
AK982

A9874
A
A7652
65

Plan the play.

Please refer to yesterday’s comments for various suggestions. The deal comes from Kelsey-Bourke Bridge Quiz for Improving Players. The answer given there, p. 58 is

‘The safest line is to reverse the dummy and establish the clubs. You should succeed whenever the clubs are 3-3, and also when the clubs are 4-2 and trumps no worse than 3-1. Unblock the ace of hearts at trick two and then enter dummy to ruff a heart. Return to dummy with a second club and ruff the last heart. Crossing back to dummy with a trump, you ruff a club with the ace of spades. [In the example layout] the clubs fail to break evenly, but you simply draw trumps [3-1] and conceded a club, leaving dummy high.’

Having set about the hand pretty much as has everybody else, but knowing that I was up against two excellent analysts, I gave the hand to Robby van Riel, who played it thus:

Diamond ace, diamond ruff, heart ace diamond ruff. If diamonds are 4-3, then spade king. If everybody follows you are cold. If spades are 4-0 heart ruff, cash the ace and king of clubs, heart ruff, diamond ruffed, and SA9 must win – this is a cute ending. If someone pitches on the second diamond, heart ruff, club ace and king, heart ruff, diamond ruff, club ruff with the spade ace, diamond ruff and one of S98 makes a trick by weight.

See you Monday.

Play problem

Contract: 6S
Opening lead: DQ

KQJ3
Q43
3
AK982

A9874
A
A7652
65

Plan the play.
Comments suppressed today.

Be declarer for a change…

Double Bay $10 game

	NORTH J83 A1083 KQ K974
	SOUTH AK KJ75 109876 106

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

West begins with the spade ten. You win and play a diamond to the king and ace. (I hope you don’t mind this, it is what happened at the table.) East returns the queen of clubs, LHO follows low. Over to you. Back on Monday.

Four spades play problem continued

VCC Women’s
Round 3

Board 6
Dlr East
EW Vul

	NORTH Q72 J10 987642 AK
WEST A86 A73 AK105 987		EAST KJ1095 K94 Q3 J52
	SOUTH 43 Q8652 J Q10643

West……North…..East…..South
…………………….Pass…..Pass
1NT…….Pass…….2H…….Pass
2S………3D………3NT……Pass
4S………All Pass

Opening lead: D9

Okay….I won the DQ and ran a spade. So too did Phil Markey when given the problem over breakfast during the VCC.

But maybe the person with the best answer is Andrew Mill. He said it is completely ridiculous to get inside the head of this 3D bidder, as it is clearly a completely insane bid whatever she has. Giving her something like you’d have, or we’d have, for other people who answered this, is pointless. We aren’t even on the same planet as she. Therefore, he said, you simply play the hand the right sensible way you’d do with no auction. Cash two spades and claim when you can. How well would that have worked?

This match was a complete disaster for my partnership, we got four VPs. To our credit at the end of the day, which was four rounds, despite this result we were in third place.

It’s remarkable how easy it is to come out of a 14 board match with 4 VPs. There was, for example, a hand which we played the wrong way up (ie South took North’s cards etc). If I’d held partner’s cards I would have chosen a different way to bid her hand and we would have played 4S the right way up instead of the wrong way. Then again, we got to 4H with a 4-4 fit:

xxxx

AQ9x

Unfortunately my partner didn’t know to play a heart to the nine. I imagine almost nobody in the field did (sorry girls, if you are reading this), but still, it would have been handy if I’d gotten to play it.

A few results like that and voila. You’ve been decimated and you’re calling for more boards. Please? Just a few more boards….

Four spade play problem

Actually, now that I think of it, a play problem:

Dlr East
EW Vul

WEST A86 A73 AK105 987		EAST KJ1095 K94 Q3 J52

West……North…..East…..South
…………………….Pass…..Pass
1NT…….Pass…….2H…….Pass
2S………3D………3NT……Pass
4S………All Pass

Contract: 4S by West
Opening lead: D9

Play problem answer

BBO Practice Match
Australia (PABF) vs Victorian Open Team
Board 13
All Vul
Dealer North

	NORTH Q842 K62 3 K9765
WEST KJ107 10875 Q87 J4		EAST A93 QJ AK42 A1032
	SOUTH 65 A943 J10965 Q8

At both tables North begins with pass and NS then pass throughout.

In one room the auction is:

1C….1H
2NT..3C
3D…3S
3NT

In the other:

1D….1H
2NT…3D
3NT

Contract: 3NT
Opening Lead: DJ

I have no information as to the meaning of the auctions.

The play begins the same at both tables and as both declarers have played for Australia we’ll follow their judgment: the jack of diamonds is led and run to the king. Your queen of hearts is won by RHO’s king and he shifts to clubs. LHO wins the queen. Neither declarer unblocked the club, though I supposed it could be considered. LHO shifts back to diamonds.

North discards the H6 as you win – where? And to do what?

In one room Simon Hinge was declarer. He won the diamond shift in hand (North pitched a heart) and played the HQ which South took. He won the next diamond in dummy, North discarding a club. Spade to the ace and a spade finesse saw North in. He exited a spade…it was this position that prompted Simon to wonder about that first round of clubs since, if he had unblocked the jack, he would now be making instead of down one.

In the other room Tony Nunn was declarer. He won the diamond in dummy, played the jack of clubs, covered and won. Next the queen of hearts was ducked. He finessed a spade to North and claimed nine tricks.

In effect Tony did unblock the clubs, but I guess he did it in a rather safer manner than did Simon, by keeping it when it was still, after all, a trick by weight and then sorting the suit out pronto.

Any sympathy for Simon? When he gave me the hand I think he was hoping for some….

Play problem

WEST KJ107 10875 Q87 J4		EAST A93 QJ AK42 A1032

At both tables North begins with pass and NS then pass throughout.

In one room the auction is:

1C….1H
2NT..3C
3D…3S
3NT

In the other:

1D….1H
2NT…3D
3NT

Contract: 3NT
Opening Lead: DJ

I have no information as to the meaning of the auctions.

The play begins the same at both tables and as both declarers have played for Australia we’ll follow their judgment: the jack of diamonds is led and run to the king. Your queen of hearts is won by RHO’s king and he shifts to clubs. LHO wins the queen. Neither declarer unblocked the club, though I supposed it could be considered. LHO shifts back to diamonds.

RHO discards the H6 as you win – where? And to do what?

The NZ Playoff

Thanks for all the thoughts on bridge and aesthetics….I’m spending some time collating the ideas and will present them with some hands soon. By all means keep the discussion going as you may feel inclined.

Meanwhile, a hand from the NZ playoff, taken from Michael Ware’s report which will appear in NZ Bridge magazine.

WEST K3 AK6 KJ9 KQ987		EAST 10642 J9 1052 AJ105

You are West, opened 2C showing 18-19 balanced. Your partner bid 2S, puppet. Interestingly, in his article, Ware comments that this method ‘has the advantage….of preventing crappy 1 level lead-directing overcalls’. Still, here South doubles 2S, lead directing. You bid 2NT and partner raises to 3NT.

Contract: 3NT by West
Opening lead: J.

Plan the play.

3NT continued

Bd 10
Dlr E
All Vul

	NORTH J854 J109 632 AQ8
WEST AQ3 AK84 Q87 J104		EAST K109 Q532 J109 K53
	SOUTH 762 76 AK54 9762

Auction: 1NT 3NT all pass
Opening lead: S4

I’m with the cashing hearts first brigade. Make, sure, as Smilde pointed out first, that you cash them in such an order that South has to make his second pitch before North is able to help. Then diamonds, last clubs. There may be information to make the guess easier – if, that is, the guess has become necessary.

3NT, your play.

Bd 10
Dlr E
All Vul

WEST AQ3 AK84 Q87 J104		EAST K109 Q532 J109 K53

Sitting West, you open 1NT and partner’s 3NT ends proceedings.
North begins with the S4, fourths.

Are there best cunning ways of playing this, by one minor or the other at trick two? And if so, which one? And how? And from where? Or is it best simply to run hearts and hope the discards are to your advantage?