My Blog

I played at the Fort Lauderdale Bridge Club yesterday, just as I do every Tuesday when I am in town.  My Tuesday partner is Missy. I call her Missy because even though she is my age, she is so tiny (size 0) that she looks like a 12-year-old.  

 

We were having a pretty good game, judging by the early results on our Bridgemate device, when Ideal and Lovely came to the table.  I picked up my cards - they were awful:

 

♠98543     ♥T82     ♦J86     ♣65

If Missy opened 1NT I would transfer to spades and then pass.  Otherwise I’m bidding green cards all the way.  Missy was dealer and opened 1♦. My RHO overcalled 1NT.  Boy, was I glad.  I just hoped Missy wouldn’t make a re-opening double. LHO bid 2♣ (Stayman) and the opponents quickly reached 3NT so I was on lead.

As a rule, when Opponent is prepared to handle my partner’s suit I don’t always lead it.  This is especially true if I have a better lead, one which will get tricks for our side.  On this deal, I have nothing.  I don’t expect to win a trick.  Even though I have 5 spades, I don’t have entries and the ♠9 is a very long-shot winner.  I decided to lead my partner’s suit (the suit Declarer is known to have) and not finesse her out of an important card in a different suit.

Having decided to lead a diamond, which one should I choose?  I never lead a singleton against notrump, not even in my partner’s suit, so the lead of the Jack will tell her that I have at least two.  Declarer will also assume that I have two diamonds so a little sneakiness is always a good thing.

Here was the whole hand (rotated for convenience):

 

                       

                                    Ideal

                                    QJ76

                                    ♥K43

                                    ♦A9

                                    ♣J743

 

               Me                                           Missy                                                                          ♠98543            3NT by S           ♠KT2                                                                            ♥T82                                        ♥AJ6

               ♦J86                Lead = ♦J          ♦T532                                                                          ♣65                                         ♣AT9                                                             

                                     Lovely

                                     ♠A

                                     ♥Q975

                                     ♦KQ74

                                     ♣KQ92

 

Here’s the auction:

 

            Missy               Lovely             Me                   Ideal

            1♦                   1NT                 P                      2♣

            P                      2♦                   P                    3NT

 

Declarer won ♦A in dummy and continued to play diamonds.  She led the ♦9 from dummy, covered by my partner’s 10 and won in her hand with the Queen. She now cashed ♠A and tried to reach dummy with a heart.  Missy won the ♥A and continued diamonds.  Lovely “knew” I had only two diamonds as I started with the Jack, so she played the ♦7, beaten by my little 8.  Wow!  Whoever would have thought my hand would win a trick?  But we weren’t done yet. I had to find another card to lead.  I chose the ♠9, top of nothing as I did not want to encourage my partner.  Lovely called for dummy’s Queen which was taken by Missy’s King.  She returned a spade which Lovely won in hand, but she still has to lose to the ♣Ace and she still hasn’t set up a heart trick.  In fact, she led towards her hand and put in the ♥9 losing to my 10.  Two tricks won by my almost yarborough!

 

Poor Lovely!  But what went wrong?  Let’s count her tricks.  On the diamond lead, she has 1♠ + 3♦. These are sure tricks. She needs to establish 5 more.  Where can she get them?  If she knocks out ♣A then she has 2 more tricks, maybe 3 if the suit splits 3-2 (it does).  She can also set up a second spade trick and a heart trick.  After winning the first trick in dummy I would play a spade to the Ace and then play K♣, Q♣ and, if Missy holds up till the third round (you’ll see her 10 drop) you will have established an entry to dummy via the ♣Jack. Once in dummy, you can set up a spade trick. They can continue diamonds when they win a trick but you still have time to establish your heart trick.

 

It’s certainly a tricky hand.  Missy and I took 5 tricks.  She won ♠K, ♥A and ♣A.  I won ♦8 and ♥T.  Deep Finesse says that Declarer can take 10 tricks in Notrump, hearts or diamonds. They can even make 5♣. 

 

I’m just glad I didn’t have to play it.

I'm truly ashamed for not writing regular posts.  But it's a New Year and time for a New Year's resolution.  Yes I know it's already May, but better late than never with the resolutions.   Right?

So what happened to this year so far?  The Orlando Regional for a start. I had great fun playing with BETTY TRILIEGI.  Then it was home to Ft Lauderdale and my 2/1 class, a continuation of my Absolute Beginner class which began last October.

I then spent a month teaching at sea and now I am back, teaching Bid Like the Big Boys, a series of lessons designed to handle problems with which our basic toolkit can't cope.

Our snowbirds have flown back to the north and those of us left behind are beginning to make our summer plans.  Last year I attended Regionals in  both New Jersey and Pennsylvania and hope to do the same again this year.  Then there is always the lure of foreign travel - perhaps England again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                         J                                             976

                                         5432                                       J

                                         AJ85                                       K7632

                                                                Q74

                                                                AKQ842

                                                                T

                                                                 QT4

 

The bidding should have gone:

 

                    Red Bird           Tolerant           Rosie         Voluble

                    1H                    P                      2D               X

                    2H                    P                      3H               P

                    4H                    P                      P                 P

 

Result   4H making 5    +650

 

Tolerant would have lead S10 and all the defence can do is cash its 2 black Aces.

I would not have looked for the doomed slam without Red Bird's jump.  The beauty of the Two Over One system is that we knew we had Game as soon as I bid 2D, so we can take our time.

 

Rosie's Rules

 

Red Bird and I were playing in a club game, when two of my friends came to the table.  They were dealt pretty good hands and soon reached a contract of 4S even though Red Bird had overcalled 2H after Miss M opened 1S.  Red Bird was on lead and placed a low diamond on the table, which I ruffed. 

 

I'm a good partner so I led my partner's suit, high from my doubleton 9 4.  Red Bird won the Heart Q and led another diamond and I scored my second ruff.  Naturally, I played my second heart showing high-low, a doubleton in her suit.  She won the Heart Ace and played a THIRD diamond for my THIRD ruff.  There was only one possible way to reach Red Bird for my heart ruff and I found it.  I led a club, Red Bird won her Ace and gave me a heart ruff.  Even though Dummy was out of hearts, I could over-ruff the dummy.  Down 3!

 

"How come you led a diamond?" asked Miss M.

"Well, I have to follow Rosie's Rules," replied Red Bird.

"What do you mean?" asked Miss M.

"I'm not allowd to lead my singleton trump;  I'm not allowed to lead the Ace of clubs, because I don't have the King.  Same with hearts - I don't have the King to go with my Ace and I can't lead away from either of those Aces.  So the only thing left was a diamond."

 

Miss M left the table muttering something about how she would be having nightmares about those diamonds.

 

Here is the whole hand:  Miss M had the South hand (rotated for convenience).

 

 

North          East          South          West

Mr A          Rosie         Miss M        Red Bird

 

P               P                1S               2H

2S             P                 4S              all pass

 

 

                                  832

                                  52

                                  AQJ643

                                  T7

      J                                                          9754

     AQT763                                                 94

     852                                                       ------

     A82                                                      KJ96543

                                 AKQT6

                                 KJ8

                                 KT97

                                 Q

 

 

Last Friday evening I played with Icelandic pro, Bjorkgvin Kristinsson, at a local bridge club.  He is almost six foot six and very slender.  He practically folded himself in half to get down to the little bridge chairs to which we are accustomed.

 

I had made up a a card and he spent about two minutes absorbing all the conventions I like to use, including our signals (upside down) and discards (odd-even) thus passing the first test with flying colors.

 

Things were going pretty well, a few tops and lots of averages, no disasters, all signals correctly made and understood by both of us, including Smith Echo, a personal first for me :)

 

Then I picked up this hand:    xx     AJxxxx     x     Qxxx

 

My partner opened 1S and RHO overcalled 2C.  Although I had only 7 high card points (HCP) I felt safe enough to make a negative double.  If he bids hearts I am thrilled.  If he rebids spades, I'm OK with that.  If he bids 2D I can now take a preference to 2S.

 

After my negative double, LHO bid 2D and my partner passed in a heartbeat.  I 'knew' he must have diamonds as he did not take any action.  Now RHO bid 3C and I counted my tricks, One natural trump trick plus a diamond ruff, plus AH plus two tricks from partner.  So,  I decided to make a penalty double

 

To my amazement, LHO now re-doubled!  What was that again?  Yes, a redouble.  Everyone passed and my heart was in my mouth.

 

I led my singleton diamond and the dummy was tabled:     xx     KJxxxx     KJxxx     void

 

Five minutes later they were down 3, and we were +1600.  Did I mention they were vulnerable?

 

The full auction:

 

Bjorkgvin     RHO     Me     LHO

 

1S                 2C      X        2D

P                  3C       X        XX

 

Poor Leftie.  He thought his XX (redouble) was SOS (please rescue us - do something intelligent, Partner) but they were NOT on the same page.  I think he should have passed my negative double - Pass and lie in wait like a snake in the grass.  Now My partner will probably show his diamonds, and I will take him back to 2S.  We might even make it.

 

 

The Sacrificial Lamb

 

I was so proud of two of my students last evening.  They came to the Club to join in a wonderful Passover Dinner Celebration followed by bridge.  They were the only novice pair in the game, and there were twenty-six pairs, so the going was pretty tough.

 

This may have been only the second or third time they played in an Open Game, but they were still smiling when they reached my table for the final round.

 

Naughty Norma opened the bidding 1C and I overcalled 1S on my ten count (I did hold AQxxx in my suit.)  Playful Patti raised Naughty's clubs and MY partner, Red Brid, jumped all the way to 4S.  This gave Naughty pause for thought.  Feeling she was among friends (she was) she pondered as to whether she should quietly give up or whether she should give it her all and take a chance, a gamble, by bidding on.

 

As her teacher, I quietly explained about taking a sacrifice.  Did she think I could make 4S?  What did Red Bird have to justify her jump to Game?  If I doubled Naughty's bid, might she go down? By how much?  Would that be better or worse than my vulnerable game.

 

"I'm going to do it," she bravely said.  5C!.  Thank goodness I didn't double, because she made six!!!

 

Far from being a sacrificial lamb, Naughty turned out to be the lion at the table.  Red Bird and I earned just another zero in what was one of the worst games we ever had.  I remembered one of my philosophic pearls of wisdom - it's better to get ALL your bad boards on the same day.  THAT way, you'll get some good games later.

 

I played with Red Bird yesterday and was dealt this wonderful hand on the second board of the day:

                    AK9     AKQ654     9865     void

 

RHO opened 1C and I overcalled 1H.  Red Bird bid 2C (cue bid) to show her limit raise values and a good fit with my hearts.  I was so excited to get to Game that I just bid it right away, bidding too fast as usual.

 

I took all the tricks and scored up +710 and Red Bird graciously asked if she could have bid better.

 

"No," I told her.  "Your bid was perfect.  It's my bid that needed more thought."  On later reflection, I figured out a possible way to get there.  Since I am always going to get to 4H once Red Bird shows me the Limit Raise, I think I should jump to 4C (a splinter, or shortness) and now Red Bird can bid 4D to show first round control of the diamond suit.  That will give me courage and I can now bid 4NT.  I wouldn't normally do that with a void, but I know she has the diamond Ace so I want to know if she has the Ace of Clubs.  She doesn't. so she will have to bid 5C,one or four key cards in our system (1430). 

 

She promised me 10 points for her cue bid limit raise and all she has shown me so far is the AD.  Where are her other points?  She could have the heart Jack, the spade Q and J, the diamond KQJ and anything in clubs.  But I don't think she has much in clubs, because not only did opener bid clubs, he also doubled her club bue bid for the lead.  So I think all her points are in the pointed suits and will all be helpful.

 

So I can get to at least 6H.  7H is a little too rich for me.

 

Bidding 4H and making 7 produced a slightly better than average score so very few pairs reached a slam.  But I should have got there - I had the tools.  Next time, I will be braver.

AND SLOWER.

 

Here is the whole hand:

                                                     AK9

                                                     AKQ654

                                                     9865

                                                     void

                          T83                                           752

                          J7                                              98

                          QJT                                           7432

                          AKJ95                                       Q864

                                                    QJ64

                                                    T32

                                                     AK

                                                     T732

 

The lead was the club Ace, ruffed in hand.  I pulled trump in two rounds, cashed AK of diamonds, back to hand with the spade Ace, spade King, ruffed a diamond, cashed Q and J of spades, pitching my last diamond, making seven.

 

This is how our auction could/should have gone:

 

      RHO     Me      LHO     Red Bird

 

     1C         1H       P           2C

      X           4C      P           4D

      P           4NT    P           5C

      P           6H      all pass

 

 

If only all hands could be this delightful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm always saying that 'diamonds are for your finger' but the other day I fell in love.

 

I was playing with Perfect Pat at the local club when I picked up this hand:

 

5   32   QT987643    72

 

I promise you I did not plan to bid.  However, Pat opened the bidding 1 spade and my RHO overcalled 2 hearts.  I thought about jumping to 5 diamonds immediately but when you play with Perfect Pat you don't need to worry.  PP will do the right thing when it gets back to her.  I Passed and now LHO bid 4 hearts.  PP was ready, and out came the Double card.  Was this Penalty or was she trying to make me bid?  I was confident she wanted me to bid so I bid 5 diamonds and that ended the auction.

PP put down a wonderful dummy:  AJxxx   x   AJ52   Axx

 

LHO led the heart Ace and then switched to a club.  I won the Ace of clubs then called for the Ace diamonds.  PP was impressed when I picked up the King of Diamonds but didn't understand why I did not pull more trump. She didn't realize that there was no need.  We had twelve trumps bewtween us - how rare is that?  I was busy ruffing her spades.  Unfortunately, I needed one more entry to dummy than I had - I should have kept my 3 or 4 diamonds in my hand to reach dummy's diamond 5.  Had I done so, I would have made 6.  Nevertheless, bidding game and making it was still a top for us.

 

The moral?  Don't bid without points, unless your partner wants to hear from you.  Then you can bid what you love.