Everyone is familiar with the expression: "the operation was succesful but the patient died". My partner, Magnus Eriksson managed to get it right the other way around: "the operation was a failure, but it was only way to save the patient"!
First look upon these hands as a play problem:
AQ43
AJ
AKJ87
T3
K972
Q62
54
AK92
After you open 1C (red/white), the next hand jump overcalls 3H and there's no stopping your partner after you admit to a spade suit over a takeout double. She puts you in a grandslam in spades after checking the 'vitals'; how would you play it on the ten of spades lead?
I think the best way, taking the preempt into consideration, is to cash two rounds of trumps and go about establishing the diamond suit in dummy. With the last trump with RHO, you're fine. A, K and another diamond ruffed, heart finesse and another diamond and finally enter dummy with a club ruff to draw the last trump and enjoy your grand, taking the final trick with the 'beer card', the mighty 7 of diamonds! Ain't life great?
Not so fast! Magnus was dealt:
865
9
QT632
J865
... and decided to 'fake' a heart void by doubling 7S! He of course hoped to scare the opponents into 7NT instead, making them think a heart lead would then give him an immediate ruff and he liked his chances much better in 7NT with those minor suit holdings.
Some people can't be bluffed (as many poker players probably have learnt the hard way) and everyone sat for it without any particular deliberation. I was about to lead a spade but now of course led a heart away from my K empty-seventh instead.
Oh, yes. You are right. This deprived dummy of an entry prematurely and he was belly up. Amusing? Yes. Deserved? Maybe less so..
Sometimes being too clever for your own good, is exactly what's best for you!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Shifting gears
Temporarily reviving an old partnership, I played a 2-day pair event over the weekend with Magnus Eriksson. Neither exactly remembered the old relay club system that we used to get to the Spingold semi back then and we went with old familiar stuff, the Swedish 2-way 1C. Midway through the event, I picked up:
Ax
xx
xx
JT9xxxx
Partner opened 1C (11-13 bal or any 17+) and I bid 1D negative. Now I had a choice when partner rebid 1NT showing 17-19. Should I pass, maneuver to play in 3C, invite 3NT with 6+C or just blast 3NT?
People playing 4-way transfer would probably start by doing just that, but we weren't playing anything that sophisticated (dropped the relay club, remember ;-).
I opted for the straightforward 3C-bid; invitational. This triggered a slightly surprising 4C bid in return! What!?
Well, this was great news. My hand improved by a whole lot and I cuebid 4S and Magnus jumped to 6C, making 7. His hand was:
Jxxx
AKJx
A
AQxx
He picked off a couple of offside honors enroute to all the tricks and a shared top. The 1NT-rebid may appear questionable in some people's eyes. But, it isn't that strange in the 2-way club setting with a stiff high honor, because a 1M-rebid is still 2-way and may be a 3-card suit with 11-13. 1NT gives partner a better picture although it comes with a price with both majors considering it was matchpoints; a better partscore could easily go begging now.
As it turned out, bidding the correct, value bid (3C) led to the optimal contract. When in doubt, that (i.e. the bid that strikes you as normal/correct) should always be your choice.
Ax
xx
xx
JT9xxxx
Partner opened 1C (11-13 bal or any 17+) and I bid 1D negative. Now I had a choice when partner rebid 1NT showing 17-19. Should I pass, maneuver to play in 3C, invite 3NT with 6+C or just blast 3NT?
People playing 4-way transfer would probably start by doing just that, but we weren't playing anything that sophisticated (dropped the relay club, remember ;-).
I opted for the straightforward 3C-bid; invitational. This triggered a slightly surprising 4C bid in return! What!?
Well, this was great news. My hand improved by a whole lot and I cuebid 4S and Magnus jumped to 6C, making 7. His hand was:
Jxxx
AKJx
A
AQxx
He picked off a couple of offside honors enroute to all the tricks and a shared top. The 1NT-rebid may appear questionable in some people's eyes. But, it isn't that strange in the 2-way club setting with a stiff high honor, because a 1M-rebid is still 2-way and may be a 3-card suit with 11-13. 1NT gives partner a better picture although it comes with a price with both majors considering it was matchpoints; a better partscore could easily go begging now.
As it turned out, bidding the correct, value bid (3C) led to the optimal contract. When in doubt, that (i.e. the bid that strikes you as normal/correct) should always be your choice.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
'Creative' effort
Against Thomas Berg, former teammate and the sports agent for rising female tennis star Caroline Wozniacki (http://www.carolinewozniacki.dk/), we got outmanuevered in a shrewd operation. He had
Q862
863
T5
9632
Vul vs not, partner opened 1NT showing 12-14 and the next hand doubles showing a strong hand. Any last thoughts?
Thomas found the creative 2H which was a success when we happened to play doubles as penalty over 2m and negative over 2M! I had an opening hand with 5H and eagerly awaited a reopening double that never came when Håkan had too many hearts and the contract drifted 5 off for a 2 imp gain vs 4H making +420 at the other table!
When successful, bids like 2H is called 'creative' or 'imaginative' or 'brilliant' (if Zia makes them), when unsuccessful, they're 'idiotic', 'lunatic', 'madness' etc. As always it's the outcome that decides the label... ;-)
Lesson of the day: play penalty doubles over 2M as well (if you don't already).
Q862
863
T5
9632
Vul vs not, partner opened 1NT showing 12-14 and the next hand doubles showing a strong hand. Any last thoughts?
Thomas found the creative 2H which was a success when we happened to play doubles as penalty over 2m and negative over 2M! I had an opening hand with 5H and eagerly awaited a reopening double that never came when Håkan had too many hearts and the contract drifted 5 off for a 2 imp gain vs 4H making +420 at the other table!
When successful, bids like 2H is called 'creative' or 'imaginative' or 'brilliant' (if Zia makes them), when unsuccessful, they're 'idiotic', 'lunatic', 'madness' etc. As always it's the outcome that decides the label... ;-)
Lesson of the day: play penalty doubles over 2M as well (if you don't already).
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Little contract
There's a reason written up hands seldom features the small partscores. There isn't often an early decision time that is suitable for that format. Both sides win tricks and the variation of continuations makes bad reading material.
Last match in Denmark I played a 2C-contract though after opening a 2-way 1C (11-13 bal or any 17+) and partner bid a nonforcing 2C after a 1S-overcall. I got the ten of diamonds lead and saw this:
8764
Q63
J
AK753
AQ5
T94
AQ54
864
After the first trick collected the J, K and A, I paused for reflection. How should we make this?
Clubs need to be 3-2, giving us 4 tricks and we have AQ of D and the ace of S. This brings the total up to 7. The final contract-winning trick could come from an endplay of West, giving us an extra spadetrick, from being able to ruff dummy's last spade in hand, the AKx(x) of hearts onside or HJx of hearts onside and a defensive slip with West failing to cover the 9 of hearts from hand or
The endplay seems pretty remote as this requires West to have AK of hearts so that East can't push a spade through, the same requirement as getting a trick with the queen of H unless West is bare AK. We can rule out AK onside as West would have led one of those puppies with that holding (not necessarily true 100% of the time but something to rely on when analysing the hand).
The best chance is therefore ruffing a spade in hand, but then we need West to be 5-3-3-2 and the last club with East and sever the defensive communication so that East can't remove our last club in hand as we'll have cash ace-king or suffer the loss of extra trump trick promotion by the defence.
Having reached this conclusion, we cash the queen of D pitching a H and lead a H to the queen and K. East shifts to his singleton spade and we win and continue hearts and are safe from harm, scoring +90.
______8764
______Q63
______J
______AK753
KJT93_______2
A76_________KJ82
T96_________K8732
QT__________J92
______AQ5
______T94
______AQ54
______864
Check for successful opposing layouts and play for the most (legit) likely one. Surprisingly often this gains; at least you can rest assured you gave it your best shot!
Last match in Denmark I played a 2C-contract though after opening a 2-way 1C (11-13 bal or any 17+) and partner bid a nonforcing 2C after a 1S-overcall. I got the ten of diamonds lead and saw this:
8764
Q63
J
AK753
AQ5
T94
AQ54
864
After the first trick collected the J, K and A, I paused for reflection. How should we make this?
Clubs need to be 3-2, giving us 4 tricks and we have AQ of D and the ace of S. This brings the total up to 7. The final contract-winning trick could come from an endplay of West, giving us an extra spadetrick, from being able to ruff dummy's last spade in hand, the AKx(x) of hearts onside or HJx of hearts onside and a defensive slip with West failing to cover the 9 of hearts from hand or
The endplay seems pretty remote as this requires West to have AK of hearts so that East can't push a spade through, the same requirement as getting a trick with the queen of H unless West is bare AK. We can rule out AK onside as West would have led one of those puppies with that holding (not necessarily true 100% of the time but something to rely on when analysing the hand).
The best chance is therefore ruffing a spade in hand, but then we need West to be 5-3-3-2 and the last club with East and sever the defensive communication so that East can't remove our last club in hand as we'll have cash ace-king or suffer the loss of extra trump trick promotion by the defence.
Having reached this conclusion, we cash the queen of D pitching a H and lead a H to the queen and K. East shifts to his singleton spade and we win and continue hearts and are safe from harm, scoring +90.
______8764
______Q63
______J
______AK753
KJT93_______2
A76_________KJ82
T96_________K8732
QT__________J92
______AQ5
______T94
______AQ54
______864
Check for successful opposing layouts and play for the most (legit) likely one. Surprisingly often this gains; at least you can rest assured you gave it your best shot!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
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...?
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...?
Monday, January 7, 2008
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...
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...
Sunday, January 6, 2008
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.
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.
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