Better Bridge in Barry County Number Five

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

North

                                                                                     ª: 2

                                                                                     ©: 10 8 4

                                                                                     ¨: A K 10 6 5 4

                                                                                     §: 8 7 6

West                                                                                                                      East      

ª: J 8 6 5 3                                                                                                          ª: 9 7 4

©: Q 5                                                                                                                  ©: A K 9 3

¨: Q 8 3                                                                                                               ¨: J 9 2

§: J 10 5                                                                       South                                §: Q 4 2

                                                                                     ª: A K Q 10

                                                                                     ©: J 7 6 2

                                                                                     ¨: 7

                                                                                     §: A K 9 3

Lead: ª5

As Captain M. North finished the last of his Crème brulee and started to sip his after-dinner coffee, he thought back over the afternoon bridge game on board the USS: Barry County Bridge Barge. Most bridge players were quietly finishing their dinner and enjoying the evening coolness on the river. This was the post mortem deal that he as Captain and Bridge Director of the ship was now mulling over. How had 50% of the teams missed this contract while the other 50% had made it with ease? Had there been no plan, no compass to guide them?

The bidding had been routine on all of the hands: North had been the dealer, and bid according to their convention, using a weak two bid, promising six diamond cards, five to eleven points, and not much more. It was a most effective preemptive bid unless it caused problems for the partnership. Is that what happened this time?

The bidding went as follows:

North               East                 South               West

2¨                   Pass                 2NT                  Pass

3¨                   Pass                 3NT                  All Pass

The opening lead: 5ª (Standard lead of fourth down from longest and strongest suit). As South saw the dummy go down, he stopped to make his plan, using a full minute to look over his options. With the spade lead, South saw four spade tricks, two club tricks, and two diamond tricks for a total of eight tricks. He needed nine tricks to make the contract of 3NT.

The ninth trick, then, must come from the heart suit. South formulated his plan: I will win four spade tricks, cutting off communication with the defenders. I will then lead a heart from my hand toward the ©10, planning to eventually set up my J© as my ninth trick.

South then began his plan, calling for ª2 from the dummy and winning trick number one in his hand with the ª10. He next led the ªA, discarding a diamond from the board. Trick number two was in their pocket. On the third play, South confidently played the ªK, knowing that East would now be out of spades. South then led the ªQ collecting the four spade tricks as planned.

South then led the ©2, putting West in a predicament. With only two hearts, West could not afford to duck the trick, and she put up the ©Q, winning the trick for the East-West pair. A lead of the good ªJ was returned, and the East-West team had won two tricks for its side. West next played her ©5, South put up the ©10 and East took the trick with the ©A. Now East was in a predicament. He surveyed the dummy, and he knew that he must not lead a diamond to the solid diamonds on the board. He could take the ©K, or he could lead a small club.

It really did not matter which lead he chose as South had done his homework. The plan was almost complete. If East took his ©K, then South’s ©J was now his winning heart trick. If East tried a sly lead of the §4, South would take the §A and the §K setting up the §9 as a winner.  East and West were both being end-played at this point, not wanting to throw anything away.

East finally led back the ©K. South had finally set up the hearts with the ©J in his hand. He had entries left in his hand with the §A and§K and the good heart trick. All the pressure had been on East because he did not know who had the ¨Q although if South had it, he would have claimed a long time ago with three diamond tricks. But who thinks of those things under intense pressure? He did know that South had the ©J so he knew not to lead his last heart. He finally succumbed to the pressure and led the §4. South took the §K, the ©J, the §A and led the ¨7 to the ¨A and ¨K on the board, making his contract.

Captain M. North reflected on this hand as he wiped the last traces of dessert from his lips. “If East had only led the ¨J, his partner would have taken eventually the ¨Q and if she had saved her ªJ, the contract would have been set with three heart tricks, one diamond trick, and one spade trick. If…if…if….”

Captain M. North stood up from his dessert. “So … a great dessert and a great plan,” he mused. “That combination seems to be a recipe for 100% success.” He smiled as he strolled down the deck toward the galley.

Gerald Stein

February 6, 2012

866 words

Recent photo taken at J-Ad Graphics in Hastings

Better Bridge in Barry County Volume Number Four February 16 2012

Barry County Bridge

By Gerald Stein

 North

                                                                             ª:    9 7 5 4 

                                                                             ©:    A Q 8 7 5

                                                                             ¨:    A

                                                                             §:     9 8 5

West                                                                                                                 East

ª:   A 3                                                                                                            ª:  K J 8 6 2

©:   K J 4 3                                                                                                       ©:   ____

¨:   Q 10 8 6 2                                                                                                 ¨:   J 5 4

§:    Q J                                                                                                            §:  K 10 7 3 2

South

                                                                             ª:    Q 10

                                                                             ©:    10 9 6 2

                                                                             ¨:     K 9 7 3

                                                                             §:     A 6 4

As Captain M. North glanced over the dining room of his ship, he smiled. All had gone well on the maiden voyage of the USS: BCBB. Leaving Port Nashville earlier in the day, the 36 passengers had embarked with high expectations. They were looking forward to a scenic river cruise, crossing the mighty Thornapple Lake, gliding silently past the quiet Quimby, and calling at Port Hastings for a brief respite, before reaching their final stop of the day at Port Irving on the Thornapple.  Yes, the voyage of the first ever USS: Barry County Bridge Barge had gone flawlessly on his part. No rocks, no snags, no hidden logs to hinder their way.

But there was a decided unhappiness about the nine tables of bridge players. One of the hands that all had played sometime throughout the voyage had caused a lot of commotion and admitted failure at eight of the nine tables. Was it poor bidding, bad luck, poor playing or a combination of all three of these that had caused a ripple in the bridge world for these bridge-playing passengers?

As the passengers were finishing their dinner on board the USS: BCBB, Captain M. North sought to find out just what had happened for only one table on the trip to make the proper contract. He approached the smiling pair at their table and asked them, “How did you do it?”

“The bidding went like this,” interjected Sir Eager East. “North was the dealer… Here let me show you the bidding as I remember it.” He scribbled down the following bidding notations on a napkin.

North   East        South                                                    West

I©           Pass       *1NT (forcing for one round)       2¨

2©          3¨!        All pass

“Yes,” spoke up Ms. Winsome West, Sir Eager East’s partner. “I was surprised to see that we had won the contract. When I saw my partner’s hand, I knew that he expected me to make a good plan and win the day for our team.  With neither team vulnerable, it was up to me to do my best.”

“The lead was the §9,” commented Sir Eager East. “It looked to be the top of nothing.” He smiled. Ms. Winsome West continued, “Before I dared make a play, I had to look carefully at both of our hands to see what my plan would be. This is what I discovered by stopping for a full minute to see how many losers I had in my hand. I needed nine tricks of the 13 to make our contract of 3¨.

Here Ms. Winsome West sat back recalling her hand: “I had no losers in spades with the ªA and ªK; I had 4© losers in my hand; I had 2¨ losers, the ¨K and the ¨A; and I had one club loser, the §A. I had a total of seven losers. How was I going to make some of those losers go away?”

She munched daintily on a radish. “Here was my Plan, and I formulated it silently in these words: I will not draw trumps immediately. I will use the three trumps that my partner provided for me to trump three heart tricks from my hand, and I will try to use a long suit to dispose of one other loser.”

“And that is just what she did,” interjected Sir Eager East. “After the lead of the §9, she called for a small club from the dummy. South put up her §A, and Ms. Winsome selected the §J.  South huddled for a bit, but then resolutely returned her partner’s lead, much to the delight of my partner who took the second trick with the §Q in her hand. She immediately began to follow her plan by leading the ©3 from her hand, and she trumped it with the ¨4. For the next trick, she led the good §K, and she pitched another heart loser from her hand. She next led a small spade from the dummy and took the ªA in her hand. She led another heart and trumped it with the ¨5, making three of her hearts go away.”

“Yes,” continued the Ms. Winsome West. “Everything was going according to my plan. I next led the ªK, and I noticed that the south defender had played the ªQ while I played my last spade, the ª3. I led the ªJ next expecting her to trump. She did with the ¨3; I overtrumped with the ¨6, and I was back in my hand, right where I wanted to be. I led the ©K, my last losing heart, and I trumped it with the ¨J. I was on the board with eight tricks for our side, and I still had four trumps left in my hand. I led a small spade and when South followed with a heart discard, I trumped it with the ¨2 and North had to follow suit with his last spade. I led the ¨8 to North’s ¨A, a club discard from the dummy, and South’s lowest diamond.  North then led the ©8; I pitched the ª8 from the board, and South played the ¨K while I played my ¨10. The last trick was mine with the ¨Q. We made our contract of 3¨ with an overtrick. ” She finished with a flourish and a huge smile.

Captain M. North walked away slowly. “Playing bridge like that,” he thought, “is a lot like navigating the Mighty Thornapple. Watch out for snags; follow your compass, and you will make it to a safe port.” He smiled too. It had been a good day.

Gerald Stein

January 29, 2012

1020 words

Better Bridge in Barry County Volume Number Three February 9 2012

Barry County Bridge

By Gerald Stein, ACBL Bridge Instructor

North

                                                                                     S:  Q 10 4

                                                                                     H: 9 8 6 2

                                                                                     D:  10 9 4

                                                                                     C: A 9 2

West                                                                                                                              East

S: A 2                                                                                                                            S: K 7

H: K 3                                                                                                                           H:  10 5

D: A K Q J 7                                                                                                                 D: 8 5 3 2

C:  J 10 7 3                                                                                                                    C: K Q 8 6 5

South

                                                                                             S: J 9 8 6 5 3

            H: A Q J 7 4

                                                                                             D:  6

                                                                                             C:  4

In William Shakespeare’s masterpiece The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, young Prince Hamlet is confronted with his Uncle Claudius’s wrongful deeds. “The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King,” Hamlet says to himself.  (Act III, Lines 633-634). In today’s bridge hand, Princess South says to herself much the same: “The lead’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch the bidding of the West.”

The bidding with South the dealer, North-South vulnerable, went as follows in both played hands:

South                    West                     North                    East

Pass                       1D                           Pass                       1NT

Pass                       2NT                        Pass                       3C

Pass                       3NT                        Pass                       Pass

Pass

The contract is 3NT played by East but pushed to the limits by West.  Let’s see the Play of the Hand.

Princess South looks at her hand carefully and deliberates about the opening lead. Long-schooled in playing bridge and especially playing in No Trump hands, she first considers the standard lead of the 4^th card down in her longest and strongest suit. That would be, of course, the spade suit with the 6 of spades as her potential lead. But the Princess South knows her Shakespeare, and she knows that the “lead” is the thing a defender must always keep in mind. She looks at her strong heart suit, and she considers the interior sequence of the Q J of Hearts as a potential game-killing lead. Which lead should the Princess South choose? The standard lead or the judgment lead? Let’s look at both scenes in this mini-drama.

At Table One, Princess South chooses the unusual lead of the Queen of Hearts. East is in trouble immediately. He knows that “Something is rotten in the State of Denmark.” He has no choice but to look at the dummy with all of those diamonds and clubs and know that he is in bridge trouble with that lead. What happens is, of course, a great defensive lead for the North-South team. East covers the Queen of Hearts with the King from the dummy, and North and East both play a heart.  A small club from the dummy is led by East in hopes of knocking out the Ace of Clubs allowing him to run the clubs, diamonds, and two spade tricks. North appreciates his partner Princess South’s lead and immediately takes his Ace of Clubs and returns a heart to his partner. The North-South team has won the applause from the groundlings and takes four heart tricks and the ace of Clubs to set the East-West team down one trick for minus 50 points. Happiness reigns in the North-South Kingdom.

At Table Two, another South player forgets that she ever heard of Shakespeare and relies on the old standby of 4^th down from the longest and strongest suit. She leads the six of spades, and East sits back with a huge inner smile. He has escaped the wrath of the North-South team; he takes the Ace of Spades from the dummy, and he immediately leads a small club from the dummy driving out North’s Ace of Clubs. North has no clue that South has hearts and even if he were lucky enough to know that, the damage has already been done. North leads a spade back, and East grabs the King in his hand, runs all of the diamonds and all of the clubs and ends up making two overtricks instead of being set. This time the East-West Kingdom is the one who is rejoicing.

While one team was rejoicing and one was crying in both scenes from our little drama, the best contract for the East-West team is 5 Clubs making five for a good safe game. Five diamonds goes down one with another spectacular lead of the Ace of Clubs, a club ruff by South, and the Ace of Hearts. “The lead’s the thing!”

Gerald Stein

720 Words

January 23, 2012

 

Better Bridge in Barry County Volume One, January 26, 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein, ACBL Bridge Instructor

North

                                                                                S: A Q J 8 7

                                                                                H: K 9 8 6

                                                                                D: K Q

                                                                                C: Q J

West                                                                                                            East

S: 5 2                                                                                                     S: 10 9 6

H: 10                                                                                                      H: Q 4

D: A J 10 9 8 7                                                                                       D: 6 5 4 3 2

C: 8 7 4 2                                                                                               C: K 6 5

South

                                                                             S: K 4 3

                          H: A J 7 5 3 2

                                                                             D:

                     C: A 10 9 3

Take a look at this hand of bridge and decide where you want to play. As I see it, you have at least three final choices, perhaps more. Where do you want to be? North is the dealer; both sides are vulnerable. Here is the bidding through the first two rounds:

West    North   East     South

            IS         Pass     2H

Pass     ?          ?          ?

North has a blockbuster hand to open the bidding at 1 Spade; South has a strong hand as well with a void in diamonds and six hearts. There is a trump fit in two suits although North does not know that yet. The trump suit must be hearts then. North bids 4 hearts, content to play at game. “Not so fast, partner,”says South silently to herself. “Let’s do some exploring.  If hearts are our trump suit as you suggest, let’s see what an invitation to slam will produce.”  South uses the Blackwood Convention of 4NT to ask for aces. It looks like we have skipped by our first choice: 4 Hearts is gone for a game try. Are there actually three more choices to go? Five hearts? Six hearts? Or?

What is North’s response to the Blackwood Convention asking for aces? Showing just one ace, North uses the Convention response of 5 diamonds. South silently ponders a second. “ My partner probably has the Ace of Spades for his opening bid, and with my void in Diamonds and plenty of trump (at least 10 between us!), we should make a try for slam.” Gone then is the second of the remaining three choices, with South choosing to skip 5 Hearts and go to Small Slam at 6 Hearts, or go for all the marbles with a gutsy 7 Hearts Grand Slam bid. What would you do?

As it turns out, the bidding ended up in 6 Hearts at one table, and the same hand played at another table bid the 7 Hearts. West led the 2 of Clubs (?) as the opening lead, and South surveyed the Dummy with glee. Poor East is stuck when she sees the Q J of clubs on the board and properly covers the J with her King of Clubs. Declarer South takes the Ace of Clubs, draws two rounds of  trump, runs all of the spades and pitches the losing diamonds on the good clubs,  making seven easily.

How did you do? Were you content to play 4 Hearts, 5 Hearts, 6 Hearts, or the incredible 7 Hearts? Would you have led the Ace of Diamonds as the opening lead? Would it have made any difference? The biggest difference in this hand is the final score: one North-South Vulnerable pair bid 6 Hearts, making 7 for a score of 1460 while the other North-South team bid 7 Hearts Vulnerable, making 7 for a score of 2210. While the Grand Slams do not come along very often in the wonderful world of Contract Bridge, when they do, you will be sure to remember them with deep satisfaction. Happy Bridge in 2012.

(Gerald Stein,  an Accredited Bridge Teacher for the American Contract Bridge League, teaches bridge classes at local schools and bridge clubs.)

Gerald Stein

623 words

January 16, 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County Volume 2 February 2, 2012

Barry County Bridge

By Gerald Stein, ACBL Bridge Instructor

North

                                                             S:  7 4 3

                                                             H: A 8 6 2

                                                             D:  A Q J 7 2

                                                             C: 8

West                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         East

S: A Q J 10 9                                                                                   S: K 6 2

H: J                                                                                                  H: 4 3

D:                                                                                                     D: 9 8 6

C: A J 10 6 4 3 2                                                                              C: K Q 9 7 5

South

                                                            S: 8 5

                                                            H: K Q 10 9 7 5

                                                            D: K 10 5 4 3

                                                            C:

With both sides vulnerable and North the dealer, two very different results happened recently at two bridge tables. What happened and why? What would have been your contract on today’s hand?

The bidding at Table One went as follows:

West     North      East        South

                Pass          Pass      Pass

1S           Pass          2S          Pass

4S           Pass          Pass       Pass

While the East-West team arrived at a nice 4 Spade Contract, and they make it easily with two overtricks with a poor lead, did you notice what they failed to mention in their bidding? What about those wonderful Clubs in the West hand? Shouldn’t West have mentioned them to East who also has a wonderful Club hand as well as support for partner’s opening spade bid? Did they miss a small slam in spades as well as in clubs?

As it turns out, trump for East-West in both spades and clubs can make 12 tricks if the lead is wrong. Six spades goes down one trick if the lead from North is the singleton 8 of Clubs, a good lead for sure. With no Clubs, South is sure to pounce on the Club lead with a small spade trump, and if she returns a Heart to the Ace that North has, the North-South team sets the Spade small slam one trick. With an East-West 6 Clubs small slam, they lose one heart trick to the Ace of Hearts held by North, and the East-West team easily makes the small slam. What happened, then, to the East-West team to miss the Club slam? Interestingly enough, there is no interference from the North-South team.

 What happens to the bidding when the North-South team becomes competitive and throws in some “get-in-your-face” bidding? How does that change the outcome of the hand?

Let’s look at Table Two as an extreme contrast. The same cards are held by four other players in another spot. Notice the difference in bidding and the results.

West     North      East        South

                Pass          Pass         2H

3H           Pass          3NT          Pass

Pass       Pass      

What just happened here? This is as close to a disaster in bridge as you would never want. What was South’s bid and how did it disrupt the easy road to a 4 Spade game as bid at the first table? The North-South team, in partnership agreement, plays weak two-bids, and in third seat, South has no problem throwing in a disruptive weak two-heart bid, a preemptive bid. South is promising between 5 and 11 high-card-points, at least six hearts headed by three of the top five honors, and she hopes to create some havoc with the East-West partnership’s bidding.

 In this hand, South did exactly that. West uses a cue bid of three hearts to let his partner know that he has a good hand, and he asks East to bid. East complies by bidding 3 No Trump, a most awful contract in the entire bridge world for this hand.  South passes smoothly; West huddles for a bit and then finally passes; North passes smoothly, and it is all over for the East-West team. It is time for the North-South team to run all of the heart tricks, and all of the diamond tricks to set the East-West team seven tricks, vulnerable, for down 700 points.  

 The question comes up immediately then: why did West allow such a travesty to happen? He has at least two places to go with 7 nice Clubs and 5 strong spades. With a void in Diamonds and a singleton in Hearts, the last place on earth in this bridge hand seems to be 3 NT. Bidding Spades or Clubs would have sent the East-West team on its way to a makeable game in Spades or possibly a Small Slam in Clubs.

By the way, did you notice that the North-South team can make 4 Hearts or 5 Diamonds if they bid on? Happy Bridge in 2012.

(Gerald Stein, an Accredited Bridge Teacher for the American Contract Bridge League, teaches bridge classes at local schools and bridge clubs.)

Gerald Stein

January 18, 2012

763 words