Keeping focus

On the very next board, the opponents bash to 3NT after strong 1C, neg 1D and 1NT showing 17-18. It's my lead and I have QJx/J98/xxx/KQxx. I go with a spade honor and dummy comes down.

______Kxx
______xxx
______K987
______JTx
QJx
J98
xxx
KQxx

Declarer takes the K as partner encourages and ducks a H to your 8, partner playing the 2, even number or a holding unsuitable for other contribution. You're up.

What's going on? Is declarer trying to steal a game with something like Axx/AKTxx/AQx/xx or is he perhaps just building a potential heart trick with AKxx? How should we defend to beat this contract against the maximum number of layouts? Why did we just go down in a slam?

The decision to go active or passive when in defence is sometimes the hardest one to make. I decided to shift to a club honor. This would avoid the 'steal' and while giving up a trick when declarer has the ace, it might not be over as it also builds a trick for the defence.

This was the full deal:

________Kxx
________xxx
________K987
________JTx
QJx___________Txx
J98___________QTx
xxx___________AJTx
KQxx__________xxx
_______A98x
_______AKxx
_______Qx
_______Axx

Wrong - but not fatal. Declarer grabbed the ace and played the 9 of spades from hand to Frederic's ten. Nothing mattered now. We could always get five tricks before declarer could get nine and a bullet was dodged. A low club shift would have been the end of the defence's chances.

Teammates were +150 when North (Mårten) found a minimum (within 17-19 range) with 4-4 in the majors and the auction halted at 2NT. He didn't let any fear of missing a [possibly] playable game affect his evaluation of the hand's worth.

Don't panic on defence and, whenever possible, look for ways to hedge your bets.

'A cow flew by'

This is an expression I picked up in a Hugh Kelsey book. It means that your mind wandered off to something you saw outside the closest window (like a flying cow ;) and you just dropped the ball. That's what happened to Frederic in this 6NT on deal 3 from the final match against Aronov-Mihov:

Ax
JT
AJxxx
K8xx

K9x
AKQxx
87
AQx

We reached 6NT after a strong club auction where South showed hearts and dummy diamonds and clubs. A low club lead to the J and Q followed by a diamond floated around to the 9. Diamond continued to Q and ace and when entering the hand after unblocking the hearts, RHO discarded a spade. The deal is now an open book and this is the remaining cards:

_____Ax
_______
_____xxx
_____K8
Txxx______QJx
__________xx
__________KT
T9x_________
_____K9x
_____AKQ
_______
_____x

This is a classic double-squeeze position and and cashing the hearts means West must release the spade guard and dummy can discard the 8 of clubs on the final H honor. After a club to the K, East is finished and dummys small diamond or the 9 of spades is the slam-going trick.

Then came the 'cow', and declarer called for the last diamond instead of the club on the final H. Endposition ruined and -50 on the scorecard. What we didn't know was that declarer went 2 down at the other table in the same contract.

Frederic is a very good cardplayer; things like this happen to even the best. I'll show you a deal later where I fouled out, but first two more crucial deals from the very last match.

Beware of the cows.

Numero uno!

The long weekend in Italy went very well. First a 2-session pairs with 160 pairs. We ended 3rd with 62+%. Then the main event; the teams with 99 entries this year. Italian top dogs, Bocchi-Duboin, Lauria-Versace and Fantoni-Nunes, was missing this year because ACBL Nationals. Apart from that the field was pretty good but very uneven with many weak teams entering as well.

The format was 8 board matches, first qualification (7 matches) in 8 team groups then the field was divided into A, B, C-groups for another 6 matches, Swiss-style.

Our team (Wrang-Nilsson, Ahlesved-Gustawsson) had the highest score going into the Swiss with 156 (out of 175) and never looked back. We did lose 2 matches, against Allegra (= Lavazza) with Lanzarotti-Ferraro and against Bulgaria including Mihov and Nanev. We actually played Bulgaria the final 3 matches, winning the last 2. I've got plenty of deals to share, albeit not always with a 'point'.

Let's kick off with a declarer problem from the Q-phase. I had Ax/J8xx/KT9xx/Jx, all vul, and partner opened 1S (11-15, 5+), RHO overcalled 2H and I passed. Partner reopened with 3C and I closed precedings with 3NT.

KQ87xx
x
J
AQT8x

Ax
J8xx
KT9xx
Jx

Not so good playing 3NT with 4S a seriously superior contract. Well, no time for whining as RHO grabs the H7 lead and shifts to a low D. Decision time - what to do?

To make 3NT we need the club K onside and either black suit breaking. Since K of C needs to be with LHO then ace of D is more likely to be with East for the overcall. East might also have contemplated shifting to the queen of D in case partner has AT to beat it legitimately (this particular East I was not so sure about though).

It's important to keep focus even when in 'wrong' contracts. Going for the inferential logic, I rose with the K and made 6 when both clubs and spades behaved with East having 3-5-2-5 and Ax in diamonds. This game was missed against our teammates.

The definition of a good game at imps is 'one that makes'.

3NT is an asking bid

After a 1NT-opening many choose to have two ways to show a 5-card major as responder. One way to get to 4H/S vs all hands with 3+ support and one way to offer a choice of games, letting opener pass with 4333 (typically). A normal way to do this is to use a 2-level transfer followed by a jump to 3NT as the "choice"-bid.

What about after a 2NT-opening then? I hadn't reflected much (strangely enough) about that until disaster struck in Holland. This was the deal:

K2
AT963
96543
T

QJ3
KQJ
AKJ2
J62

After 2D-multi by RHO, South overcalled 2NT and had to decide what to do after partner bid 3D (transfer) and then 3NT.

The board was played 4 times. At two tables this auction occured and South passed both times for -200, one time East opened 3S instead shutting everyone out (!) for -50 and at the final table East was silent throughout and N-S could relay in comfort to 4H for +620.

After a 2NT-opening space is scarce and we no longer have the luxury of two ways to show our major. How should we handle it? As it is far more frequent that we have a hand wanting to play 4 of a major whenever a fit is found than offering a choice, this should take precedence. The transfer bid of 3D/H followed by 3NT is therefore an asking bid; is asks for support.

No use of judgement from the 2NT-opener is involved any longer; he just looks at his major-holding. With 3 or more, remove to 4H/S even with 4333-shape (may cue-bid with suitable maximum). With 5332 and some useful high cards, the responder could suppress the 5th card and simply check for 4-card support via regular Stayman and play 3NT otherwise, which btw, is what some people do after a 1NT-opening. Fortunately the deal occurred in a practise match.

Next time, we know what to do.

EDIT 21/3/2007
Today I found an article at Larry Cohen's site on this very subject.
http://www.larryco.com/BG%20articles/A20--Which%20Game.htm
How weird. I can't find which date it was published, just listed under 'Recent articles'.

___________________________________________

I'm leaving for Montegrotto, Italy, today for 4 days of bridge. Posting resumes Monday.

The canapé jump overcall (CJO)

What's that? It's what I use instead of the weak jump overcall. The CJO is the equivalent of a Raptor 1NT-overcall; the jump to 2H/S shows 4-card in the overcalled major and 5+ cards in an unbid minor and about 11-15 hcp. This treatment lets you get this awkward hand off your chest in one bid and is more difficult to cope with for opps than the Raptor 1NT. We've been using it for over 10 years now, btw (Lindkvist-Fredin among others)

But, this doesn't solve the problem after a 1S-opening with 4H & longer minor. So what to do? Revert to Raptor here? No, you can still use the 'non-jump canapé overcall' of 2H and use 1NT to show a heart overcall! By interchanging the meaning you get to keep the meaning of 2M consistent AND get your heart suit in at a more convenient level.

The idea of using (1S) - 1NT as showing 5+ H is something I came up with -95/96. This convention lets us get hearts in the picture cheaper and provides room to play in 1NT/2m if doubled or misfit. With constructive values, we can start to explore strain and level with more accuracy. The biggest downside is that it may wrong-side an occasional 3NT-contract.

So what about (1H) - 1NT? I use it to show both minor suits (54+). Why? Because more points gets exchanged on 2-suiters than 1-suiters and by pinpointing both minors when we are potentially outranked by the majors gives us a chance to evaluate the fit and bump the level. Downside is wrongside (NT). Another plus is that you also make it a bit more difficult for the opponents to find spades (no neg X).

After (1C/D), I favor a natural 1NT-overcall. If you can't stand that, you can use 1NT as 54+ in M's (and let the cue-bid be specific 2-suiter with highest and lowest).

All this may take a while to digest, but I recommend it and it is battle-tested against the best. My current partnership is so new that we haven't gotten around to these 'extra' treatments yet (just the CJO).

We will.

Weak jump overcalls (WJO's)

A treatment that is popular with many is the WJO. I dislike it. Sure the WJO has its moments, but I've seen so many bad ones that I believe it to be a big anti-percentage action.

It gives away too much information to the opponents in a situation when it's unlikely to be your board. It's premptive, but not enough for the advantages to outweigh the disadvantages. For instance, if you push them into 3NT they're likely to make it because declarer can hold up etc. It's of course also a matter of the opposition playing strength; weaker opps may not be able to take advantage of the WJO's drawbacks. As usual, choose your poison, but do it by choice and not habit. For me, I have better uses for the 2-level.

Last weekend, another WJO came my way. All white (pairs) and I opened 1D (11-16 unbal 4+D) with Qx/Kx/AQT9xx/KJ9 as dealer. LHO overcalled 2H and after partner's take-out X, I jumped to 3NT. West, an old buddy of mine and a decent player, led a low H.

KJT2
T975
7
AQ54

Q6
K8
AQT962
KJ9

East played the J and I won. It's easy now to fall prey to the gut reaction of leading the Q of spades. Pause for reflection and you realize that few would make a WJO with A+AQ vs an unpassed partner. The K of diamonds is a distinct possibility however and I continued H to set up an extra heart trick first. West could have saved the defence by shifting to a spade immediately but this was hard to find. He cleared hearts and I set up spades for 10 tricks and 100% on the board when the K of diamonds indeed was offside.

And another WJO bit the dust.

Careful play

In this 3NT yesterday my partner, Håkan Nilsson (all time #2 master point holder in Sweden), showcased his good technique:

A752
52
AJ432
AQ

K94
AK8
K975
753

Dummy showed spades and declarer 11-13 balanced. West led H 6 (3rd/5th) to the Q and K. He decided right away that he wouldn't finesse in diamond and therefore started with a low diamond from hand for the safety play.

This was one of those occasions when it was needed as West discarded a small spade and when the club finesse was offside, 9 tricks was the limit (and a 90% score). Safety plays like this are easy when presented with the deal on paper but all to frequently missed at the table, especially in a pairs tournament.

This day, justice was served.