Better Bridge in Barry County November 28 2013

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

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

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

East Both 4♥

 

North   Pass	East Pass	South 2NT	West Pass

Today’s column uses player judgment as its main deciding factor. With both sides vulnerable, South elected to stretch his no trump opening bid and opened 2NT with a balanced hand and 19 high-card points. Normally, a two-no trump opening bid is in the 20-21 high-card point range, but this time, South chose a different route. With stoppers in all four suits, South chose the 2NT bid, and all passed.

West chose an unusual lead with the fourth card down in his heart suit, the 4♥. Probably West was hoping to set up the spades later when East led back to him. At any rate, South surveyed the dummy when it came down, and did not see much except for two queens that might help out later. South covered the lead with the 7♥, the J♥ from East, and South won the first trick with the A♥.

Making a plan, South next considered the clubs with some possibilities. South led the 3♣, the 4♣ from West, played the Q♣ from the board, and East won with the A♣. Back came the 8♥ from East, won by South with the K♥, with low cards from West and the dummy.

Switching suits, South led the 5♦ toward the Q♦ on the board. West jumped in with the K♦, setting up some useful diamonds for South. Transportation might be a problem, but there were at least two diamond tricks for South to use later.

West led the 10♥ next, knocking out the 9♥ on the board, a club discard from East, and South won with the Q♥ in his hand. South considered the spade suit next and wondered why West had ignored that suit so long. South led the 2♠, and West in a hurry as a defender put in the J♠ instead of smoothly playing low. That put East in a precarious position, and instead of unblocking the K♠, chose to play the 8♠, probably a bad move as a defender.

West had finally set up the heart suit and played the 6♥ winning. Here again, West seemed to be in a big hurry to use up his high cards and next played the A♠. Of course, this dropped East’s K♠, and South was smiling inside at his fortunate luck. Trying to make something happen, West played the 9♠, and South won with the Q♠ in his hand for only his fourth trick. East/West had taken five tricks already, and South needed all the rest to make his two no trump contract.

South’s judgment about playing in no trump had been right on, and he next proceeded to take the winning Q♦ on the board by leading the J♦ from his hand. The good 10♠ on the board was played next, with South discarding a small club. A small club from the dummy came to the K♣ in his hand for his seventh trick, and the winning trick was the A♦, making eight tricks and a top board of 120 points.

South had been very patient setting up tricks efficiently and effectively. West, on the other hand, had been in a hurry as a defender. Even East erred on the K♠ trick as that would have been a good time to trap the Q♠ in the South hand with a spade return. East/West missed out as defenders and could have set the contract with better defense. Of the 35 tables that played this hand, only one South found the correct bid and correct play of the hand. Others who chose to ignore the two no trump opening, bid a 1♣ convenient minor. That was a tough place to play as it was passed around, and the South player found himself scrambling to find seven tricks with clubs as trump. Making a 1♣ contract did not pay well: it gave the North/South team 70 points for making 1♣, and if they were lucky to make an overtrick, it was hardly enough with 90 points versus the 120 played in the no trump contract.

The takeaway for today? There are several to consider: first, South looked at his hand and saw the balance and the stoppers in four of the suits. South was patient setting up tricks and letting the opponents make the mistakes. When South first looked at his hand, he saw only four tricks that he could count on. He needed another four to make a difficult contract. Bidding and playing against defenders who were in a hurry to use up their high cards certainly helped, but South deserved high praise for finding the right contract and bringing home the winning line of play.

 

Gerald Stein

November 18, 2013

Number of words: 874

Better Bridge in Barry County November 21 2013

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

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

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

East Both A♥

 

North   Pass	East 2♠ (1) Pass	South Dbl	West Pass
(1)   Weak Two-bid

 

For the last two weeks in this column, we have looked at having the spade suit as the control suit, the boss suit. Today’s hand is a wonderful indication of what can happen when you “think” you have the boss suit, but you find out differently very quickly into the play of the hand. Let’s take a look and see what happened to the East declarer.

Vulnerable and the dealer, East elected to open her weak hand with a preemptive two-spade bid. This bid is similar to the three-level bids used so effectively to interrupt the bidding for the opponents. With only six high-card points, and six suspect spades, East stepped into a hornet’s nest that she will long remember. Her bid was 2♠, and she promised six spades and 5-11 high-card points.

South  had a solid bid and was surprised to hear East open the bidding. The bid that South first contemplated was to bid the five-card diamond suit, but she reconsidered when she realized that she had a much better bid. With a shortage in spades, the suit bid by East, South chose to use the takeout double as her bid. With seventeen high card points, South effectively told her partner North that she was short in spades, but she had support for the other three suits and good high card points. South doubled for take-out.

West looked at her absence of spades and shuddered for her partner. She had no bid, and she passed. North with eleven high card points and those powerful spades smoothly passed, turning the take-out double into a penalty double. The contract was placed at 2♠ doubled vulnerable.

The play of the hand followed with South as the leader. Choosing the strong heart suit and the A♥ and K♥ combination, South chose the A♥ as her lead, promising the K♥ per their partnership agreement. Here is where the defenders would shine with their defensive signals. North played the 2♥ as a discouraging signal, telling partner there was no future there and to find another suit instead of continuing the heart suit. South obliged by trusting her partner’s attitude signal card. South shifted to the 7♣ saving her A♦ and Q♦ for a lead from her partner, another smart defensive move.

North won the second trick with the A♣ and immediately led back her last club, the 8♣. East ducked the trick and South won the trick with the J♣. South continued with the K♣, and North pitched the 8♦. South saw that as a good sign and she led the A♦, and North pitched the J♦. A small diamond from South was trumped by North with the 3♠. So far, the North/South pair had taken the first six tricks. East was growing physically sick.

At this point, North opted to lead back a heart, fully expecting it to be trumped by East. East trumped low for the first trick for East/West. South played a small heart, and East played a small heart from the dummy. Stuck in her hand, East had few options. She played the 10♠ hoping for some kind of split, but the only kind of split that she would see on this hand was a 6-1 split, about as bad a split as there can be in a trump suit. North won the trick with the J♠.

At this point, East still did not know how bad the trump split was as South had played the 9♠ on the first trump lead from East. When North led the 7♠ from her hand, East rose with the A♠ hoping to capture one of the honors in the spade suit from the South hand. Alas, there were no more spades there.

East led a diamond toward the K♦ on the board, but North again trumped in with the 6♠. The 8♥ from North was trumped by the 8♠ in the East hand for their third and final trick. The last two tricks were the K♠ and the Q♠ in the North hand.

What was the final damage to the East/West pair? 2♠ doubled, and vulnerable, East had managed to take just three tricks. North/South had taken ten tricks of the thirteen, for down five tricks and a minus 1400 score for East/West. That, of course, was a great score for the North/South team, and a bottom score for the hapless East/West team.

What is the takeaway for this hand? First of all, East chose an inappropriate time to bid her spades. True, spades are the boss suit if you have control of the spades. In this case, East was missing too many honors in the spade suit. The rule of thumb for a weak two bid is to have at least three of the top five honors. In this case, the A♠ and the 10♠ left a lot of gaps for the trump suit. A bad trump split hurt as well and that happens from time to time. North/South were careful defenders, watching the attitude signals as well as watching the discards. So, to conclude this three-week series on the spade suit as boss suit, remember this: be sure you are the declarer with the powerful spades and all may be well.

 

Gerald Stein

November 11, 2013

Number of words: 979

 

Better Bridge in Barry County November 14 2013

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

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

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

West North/South Pick it

 

North   Pass	East   Pass	South   ?	West Pass

Last week we looked at the spade suit. The pair who controls the spade suit has the boss suit in the game of bridge. Let’s see what happened in a weekly duplicate game at a local club. The bidding was fairly uniform until it came around to South. With not quite enough total points to open the bidding in the West, the North, and the East, it was up to South to determine the fate of this hand. How would you have bid this hand? Are there any guidelines or rules to help you out of this particular pickle? Let’s take a look.

Sitting in fourth seat in a game of bridge is a particularly hot seat. You determine the fate of the hands and your decision, right or wrong, can influence the way the hand is played. South looked at her beautiful diamonds and became attached to them. With only nine high card points and some length points in diamonds, she thought she would have no trouble winning the bid. It was evident to her that the other three players had something but what she failed to realize is that she did not have the boss suit. The boss suit is, of course, the spade suit. With only one spade in her hand, that should have sent a warning shot across the bow of her bridge ship. South’s bid? Did you guess one diamond or two diamonds? A two diamond bid would be construed in the North/South partnership as a weak two diamond bid, promising at least six diamonds with most of her points in the diamond suit. That appeared to be South’s thinking on her bid of either one diamond or two diamonds. The problem with weak two bids is, of course, is that they are preemptive and weak by nature, and all know that. Weak two bids are better used in first, second, or third position rather than broadcasting your weak hand to the table in fourth seat. There does not seem to be a reason to preempt when you are the last bidder. Buy the contract as cheaply as you can or pass out the hand.

Once the door was opened, however, it was not long before East/West found their fit in spades. They had been given an opportunity to enter the bidding that they should not have had and they took full advantage of the mistake that South had made. East/West easily bid the spades to the two or three level and easily expected to make that bid, especially when West knew that her singleton diamond would be very useful on this hand. The bidding information given out by South on her disastrous bid gave away lots of useful information to the East/West pair.

Perhaps, North should have recognized his partner’s predicament and supported the diamond suit immediately, pushing the East/West to an unmakeable contract. North knew that North and South had nine diamonds between them, but, alas, that did not happen either. North/South ended up with a bad score on this hand, and the East/West  team who had been granted a gift took top scoring honors on this hand. What could South have done to reverse that situation so that it would not happen again in the future? Bridge is always about learning from our past mistakes. What is the lesson to learn here?

Today’s hand illustrates the need to know and apply a useful rule or guideline of bridge. Called the Rule of Fifteen, it simply states the following: The Rule of Fifteen allows the bridge player in the Fourth Seat, after three passes, to determine whether or not she should open the bidding. The Rule of Fifteen states that the Fourth Hand should only open the auction if the number of high card points and the number of SPADES equal the sum of 15 or more.

Also called Pearson Points, the Rule of Fifteen’s logic and reasoning is as follows: with the high cards most likely spread evenly around the table, as evidenced by today’s hand, the Fourth Seat should only open with a preponderance of spades, implying that she has the boss suit of spades. Having the spade suit prevents the opposition, as happened in today’s hand, from getting into the auction and stealing the bid away. So…what should South have done with today’s hand?

Using the Rule of Fifteen, she should have counted her high card points and her spade(s). Counting South’s high card points, we can see that she only had nine high card points. Counting the singleton spade and adding it to the nine high card points, South easily can see that she had only ten points, not even close to the needed fifteen required by the Rule of Fifteen. South’s choice at this point? A quick and decisive use of the Pass card! She would have saved her partnership from a bottom score and vaulted them into a top score. East/West might have reached the spade contract on some very light bidding on their own before it reached the Fourth Seat, but why help the opposition? Using the Rule of Fifteen is an effective and useful rule or guideline to have. Once again, this is something that partnerships must be aware of and help each other, reviewing such strategies from time to time. Use fifteen minutes together and review the Rule of Fifteen.

 

Gerald Stein

Number of words: 1000

November 6, 2013