Greater reward

The same match I picked up:
8
T98
AK642
AQ42

All red and partner passes, my RHO opens 1D natural (4+) and I pass. LHO jumps to 2S weak and partner surprisingly comes to life with a takeout double! Next guy passes and it's your call. What do you choose?

What are the choices? We could bid a feeble 3C or probe with 3D/3S. Maybe an invitational 4C or just stab 5C. What does partner have? This is a somewhat dangerous position for partner to get into, passed hand or not, and he should have some useful shape, maybe 5-card hearts.

Forsaking science for practicality, and with the extra chance that RHO might sacrifice with 4S with some hands he checked with this round, I pretty quickly decided to bid a confident 4H on my 'nice' T98. For 5C to be right it has to be a 2-trick better contract (11 vs 9) and I should be able to ruff some spade losers.

This was the layout:

_______A962
_______AJ62
_______T
_______9865
KQT753_______J4
73___________KQ54
53___________QJ987
J73__________KT
_______8
_______T98
_______AK642
_______AQ42

After West failed to find the trump lead (confident 4H instead of wiggling into it, maybe helped), instead opting for partner's suit, the hand played itself for a crossruff and +620.

Imps is sometimes, bidding wise, a strange mix of taking chances, going scientific and being practical with a sense for the auction. The trick is knowing when to pick the right club out of the bag and then the 'big shuffler in the sky' has a propensity for rewarding you.

Or am I only rambling to cover up dumb luck...?

Satisfaction not guaranteed

Technique in card play has its own rewards. By trying to cater for various layouts you may, or may not, get the prize. Here's a hand from this weekend that came close to making a difference in the scoring.

K
Q97
AJ42
87652

AQ9653
AK54
9
A3

I played 4S after opening a 2-way Swedish 1C and getting a 1D-overcall to my left and got a K of clubs lead. How to play it?

It seems like a rather trivial deal with 5 likely spade tricks, 3 hearts and 2 aces. If spades or hearts break or a squeeze developes, we may get more. Is there any danger?

Well, if neither major breaks we may have problems. Say spades are 1-5 and hearts 4-2. So we immediately win the club, ruff a diamond, go back with a spade to the K and ruff another D. Now when I cashed a high spade, my LHO discarded a diamond. Ace of H, heart to the queen and the last diamond from dummy assured 10 tricks and an inner sense of satisfaction.

That feeling lost some luster when this was the whole layout:

______K
______Q97
______AJ42
______87652
7____________JT842
832__________JT6
KQ763________T85
KQJ9_________T4
______AQ9653
______AK54
______9
______A3

With hearts breaking, anyone could take 10 tricks and you could actually make 6 by playing for hearts 3-3 before leading the last diamond off dummy (the only declarer in slam, in another match, went 2 down). Just another wash at the comparison (don't know which line the other table in our match took though).

Just beat the drum. Next time...

Perfect play

Once again playing the top division in Copenhagen with Håkan Nilsson this weekend, I had this collection:

AT7
765
A72
JT98

Partner opens 1NT (14-16) and next hand overcalls 2S constructive. What to do at all white when X is negative and 2NT is artificial?

I stabbed 3NT as a practical shot and Håkan got a low spade lead and this was what he had to work with:

AT7
765
A72
JT98

J6
AKT4
J95
KQ76

Not too shabby with 14 vs 9. Seems the contract hinges on finding an extra trick in hearts, either playing for H/Hx with overcaller (cashing AK and leading towards the T later) or hooking the T, playing for both QJ to be onside.

We can stall our decision a bit and after winning the J at trick 1, we play a high club which LHO wins and continues with the queen of spades and another one, RHO following 3 times. Håkan now cashed one high heart (dropping the 9 to his left) and played 2 rounds of clubs, ending in dummy. LHO followed and RHO tanked before discarding an encouraging low diamond. How do you tackle the hearts?

Håkan figured it was more likely that overcaller was 5-1-4-3 for his constructive overcall as he seemed to lack a high diamond H than for him to be 5-2-3-3 so he cashed the last club and hooked the heart for a wonderful +400. When teammates were +110 in 2S this translated to +11 imps.

______AT7
______765
______A72
______JT98
KQ542_____983
9_________QJ832
KT83______Q64
A53_______42
______J6
______AKT4
______J95
______KQ76

It wouldn't have helped East to insert a heart honour as we can just duck and still have the ace of D for a re-entry.

When faced with a choice (guess), try to postpone the decision as long as possible and hope to gather some clues along the way. Sometimes this actually works.

Meeting people

Going to US nationals means, among other things, meeting old friends and new interesting people (and reconnecting with those you haven't seen for a while). One of my rising favourites is a relatively new acquaintance, Migry Zur Campanile from Israel. She's one of the best female players there is and her articles in Bridge Today is a great read.

Here's a deal from San Francisco (Women's BAM) where she showed off her lead capabilites. As I have a soft spot for great leads, I got to share this one:

The auction was:
pass - pass - 1D - pass;
1H - pass - 1S - pass;
1NT all pass

What would you lead from:

AT42
A63
J62
J83

Migry tabled the J of diamonds, a great choice from that holding, which is often overlooked by lesser players. Actually one of Gunnar Hallberg's favorites also. Layout:

______QJ73
______94
______Q875
______AK5
AT42________985
A63_________QJ42
J62_________AT93
J83_________Q2
______K6
______KT87
______K4
______T8764

The J went to declarer's K and after a club ducked to the queen, Val Westheimer could reach Migry's hand twice for diamond lead through and down 1 was good for a win on the board.

Check Migry's website at www.migry.com.

San Francisco NABC

Bob, Fred, I and Jerry

San Francisco was a great place for the US Fall Nationals. We did so and so, nothing I would call a success but I guess we didn't embarass ourselves totally either. We won a 1-session BAM, a top-bracket consolation knockout (losing our first match on American soil a mere 14 hours after a 20 hour trip and 9 hour time-zone skip) with Mårten Gustawsson and Gunnar Andersson.

The Blue-Ribbons had us finish 31th out of 104 reaching day 3 (416 pair entering) and the North American Swiss saw us fade to 28th place day 3 (160 teams entering, 40 made it to day 3), playing with Robert Bitterman, Jerry Helms, John Diamond and Brian Platnick.

In the Swiss, a distributional layout started off day 3. The first 2 days boards were shuffled each match but the final day all matches played pre-duplicated boards. South, all white (deal rotated):

______T
______653
______AKJT9865
______A
A876_________KQ953
7____________982
Q73___________
98732________KJT65
______J42
______AKQJT4
______52
______Q4

The auction went:
1H - pass - 2D - 2S;
pass - 4S - 5D - pass;
6H - pass - pass - X all passed

1H was 11-15 5+suit, 2D was artificial gameforce with at least 3 hearts, pass after 2S denied shortness in spades and 5D was natural. 6H was a reasonable guess, or so I thought.

West obviously thought X was a general vote of mistrust for the contract and failed to lead a diamond, which of course would have resulted in a swift 2 off, instead opting for a surprise attack in clubs. This was lucky for us and I managed to take the first round finesse in diamonds after collecting the trumps for +1310 (need to, no re-entry otherwise after drawing trumps) for +9 imps vs 6D making at the other table.

Britain's David Bakshi found the text-book switch to a heart at his table against 6D, removing the entry to dummy prematurely and declarer was not prepared to finesse in trumps first time around and went down. Well done David!

Overcalling for the lead - the other way around

Most are familiar with light overcalls with good suits to help partner finding the best lead. What may be overlooked is that overcalls may be made for the opposite reason, to find out what YOU are going to lead.

Still 1st division in Denmark, round-robin 36 board matches. I was dealt this one (red/white):

KT9863
J842
4
65

After pass on my right, I passed and LHO opened 1C. My RHO responded 1D and I slipped in a seemingly meaning-less 1S, Lauria-style (he's overcalling-crazy btw - and ranked no 1 in the world).

The next hand doubled, showing a good hand without suitable rebid and after partner passed and the guy on my right rebid 1NT, leftie raised to 3NT.

So now we pretty mych know a spade lead is unlikely to be successful. Therefore I led a heart.

_______A7
_______KT
_______AK2
_______AJ9843
KT9863______Q2
J842________AQ965
4___________T873
65__________Q2
_______J54
_______73
_______QJ965
_______KT7

Jackpot and we cashed out for +50 and 11 imps vs 520 and the other table.

If you think the opponents messed up an easy board, you are maybe correct, but this was arguably one of the best pairs in Denmark and when playing good opponents you certainly need to 'shove' them a little bit.

For whatever reason we won the imps, and you might come to a different conclusion than I do as to the reason for that occurence, we happily took them.

Analysing the auction

Blind leads aren't always that blind. While there may not be much useful info at first glance, there can be inferences to guide you when taking a closer look. Here's a lead problem from the first division in Denmark against declarer Lars Blakset.

My hand:
Q52
J63
T7532
K5

The auction went:
1S - 2D (FG)
2NT - 3S
4S - 4NT (showing 3+ aces)
5C (cue) - 6S

So, what do we know? What would you lead?

Declarer seems to have hand with scattered minimum strength from 2NT-rebid and refusal to cuebid after 3S. Dummy jumped to slam after hearing a 5C cue. That indicate tricksource and weak clubs. So, I tabled the K of clubs. This was the layout:

_______AK4
_______A94
_______AQJ94
_______82
Q52____________83
J63____________QT52
T7532__________86
K5_____________QJ973
_______JT976
_______K87
_______K
_______AT64

Declarer can always make the hand by finessing in spades but went for the percentage line of AK of trumps and running diamonds, pitching clubs. One down when the diamonds didn't break and the trump queen didn't come down. After anything but a club lead, declarer can take the trump finesse in comfort and then try to run diamonds, combining the chances. With a club lead it was decision time right away.

Reaching for opp's bidding motives, i.e. why they bid the way they did can provide the crucial indicators. As always, buyer beware, remember some people just can't be trusted!