Better Bridge in Barry County October 11 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  10 8 7 6 5 ♥  J 2 ♦  A Q 6 ♣  J 10 5
West ♠  J 9 3 ♥  K 10 9 3 ♦  10 7 4   ♣  A 8 2		East ♠  A 2 ♥  Q 8 6 5 4 ♦  J 9 8 2 ♣  4 3
	South ♠  K Q 4 ♥  A 7 ♦  K 5 3 ♣  K Q 9 7 6

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

North East/West 10♥

 

North Pass 2♥ 2NT Pass	East Pass Pass Pass Pass	South 1NT 2♠ 4♠	West Pass Pass Pass

 In today’s column, let us take a look at the bidding as well as the play of the hand, the two aspects of playing bridge successfully. A bridge player must not only bid well, but must also play the hand well. In today’s hand, check to see if North/South both bid the hand correctly and then check to see if North made a good plan to make the 4♠ contract.

After two passes, South opened the bidding with a strong one no trump bid, promising his partner North that he had a balanced hand with 15-17 high card points. While South does have all four suits stopped in this hand, it is not necessary to have that kind of control. Usually having three suits blocked with a balanced hand and the requisite points is enough to open the bidding at one no trump. After all, what is a partner for if not to be there for the fourth suit?

After a pass from West, North used the Jacoby Transfer Convention, a partnership agreement between North and South, to transfer his five spades to his partner by bidding one suit under the spade suit. North bid two hearts, informing his partner that he had five spades and required South to bid the spade suit immediately. It is a forcing bid, and a good partnership honors the agreement. The benefits of the Jacoby Transfer Convention are most obvious: North was able to tell his partner South about his five spades, knowing that South must have at least two spades in his hand to make the opening one no trump bid. (No voids or singletons for a no trump bid, and only one doubleton.)

South bid the 2♠ bid as requested, and it was back to North who revealed more information about his hand. In this case, bidding 2NT now informed partner South that he had 8-9 high card points and was inviting South to consider game in either no trump or spades. With three spades and at the top of the no trump range with 17 high card points, South readily bid 4♠, and the bidding was complete. So far, the North/South team had done everything right, but this is only one-half of the bridge game. The play of the hand is next.

The lead was up to West who had listened to the bidding as all defenders must do. West picked the 10♥ as her lead. This was an excellent lead, the top of an interior sequence, suggesting to her partner East that she had the 9♥ below the ten and that she might have something above the ten. In this case, the K♥ was the missing card.

South surveyed the dummy hand and duly thanked his partner North. Pausing for time to make a plan was second nature to South by this time in his bridge career. Instead of counting winners as is the case in a no trump contract and trying to figure out how you can win additional tricks, in a trump suit, the opposite approach is the way to make the plan. South must count not the winners, but the losers in both hands and figure out how to make those losers go away if there are too many or how to take enough tricks to make the contract.

South knew his objective was to take ten tricks with spades as trump. He could afford only three losers, or the contract would be defeated. South counted the losers before he called for even one card. What were his losers?

With an eight-card trump fit, South knew that a bad trump split of 4-1 or 5-0 would be disastrous. Hoping for the normal percentages of a 3-2 trump split, South counted one spade loser, the A♠. Looking next at the hearts, it was easy to see that there was one heart loser as well. The diamond suit was very solid, and there were no apparent losers in the diamond suit. There was a sure club loser of the A♣ for the third loser. If everything behaved as planned, North could be confident that he could bring home the contract of 4♠ for the partnership.

With his plan in place, South was now ready to call for the play of the cards. Taking the A♥ first, and then crossing to a good diamond, South led a small spade toward his K♠. The spade suit split 3-2 as hoped, and South lost the A♣, the A♠, and a heart. West’s good lead of the 10♥ paid off, as she used the K♥ immediately after East took the A♠ to limit the North/South team to their 10 tricks and no overtricks.  

Both teams played well on this hand. North/South bid and made their 4♠ contract through good bidding, a good plan, and a good play of the hand. East/West defended properly with an excellent defensive lead of an interior sequence, and they kept the North/South team to just what they deserved and no more.

Gerald Stein

October 4, 2012

Number of words: 1014

Answer to last week’s bridge question: Can the North/South team pick up another setting trick to defeat East/West even one more? The answer is yes if North does not lead out his A♦ and K♦ so quickly. North must lead a heart back to his partner who had a singleton. Then a trump on the heart lead from North puts East/West at minus 1400 points, a mighty score.