Better Bridge in Barry County October 3 2015

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

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

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

East Both 4♠

 

North   1♠ 4NT 6♥	East Pass Pass Pass Pass	South 1♥ 3♥ 5♠ Pass	West Pass Pass Pass Pass

In a recent club game in Kalamazoo, today’s North/South pair reached a solid 6♥ contract after South opened 1♥. While this hand was played twelve different times, only two teams reached the small slam in hearts. One daring pair reached a small slam elsewhere. Can you guess where they ended up?

The question of the day is this: how is it that of twelve attempts, only two pairs reached the 6♥ contract? The other team who made a small slam made it, of course, in 6NT. What was the road map for three pairs to reach the small slam status? Let’s take a look.

With six strong hearts and five strong clubs, it was South’s turn to shine. The old bridge adage of “Six-Five Come Alive!” aptly fits South’s hand. With 17 total points, South was prepared from his first bid to reach game at the very minimum. Aspirations of slam danced merrily in his head.

North, with a strong hand as well with 18 total points, bid her spades without a jump bid, choosing instead to bid up the line and taking a slow-but-sure approach to see what South would do. With North’s hand as undetermined and an un-passed hand, South was forced to bid again, and South promptly jumped in hearts, his suit of choice. There was no need to mention the clubs. He wanted North to know he had good hearts and a strong hand as well.

Now North came alive, using the Roman Key Card convention to ask for key cards. “How many of the five key cards do you hold?” was her message to South. Many bridge players now have given up the regular Blackwood Convention in favor of the Roman Key Card convention where the four aces and the king of trump constitute the five key cards. The advantages seem to be extra information, including whether there is a concern about the missing trump cards.

In this case, South had two key cards: the K♥, the agreed-upon trump suit, and the A♣. But there is more to Roman Key Card convention than that. South has two ways to show how strong his hand is by his response to the question of key cards from North. The two choices are as follows: a bid of 5♥ would have shown two key cards without the Queen of trump. The other choice was 5♠, the showing of two key cards and the Queen of trump. South bid 5♠ showing two key cards and the Q♥. North as Captain of the Hand placed the contract at 6♥.

The lead from West was the 4♠, and North tabled her cards, much to the delight of partner South. With a “Thank you, Partner,” South began to make his plan. Twelve tricks were needed, and it was easy to figure out that the A♥ was going to be a definite loser. The club suit would take care of the rest of the losers once the trumps were drawn.

South won the first trick with the A♠, promptly led a small heart from the board, and played an honor card from his hand. When West ducked the first time, South persisted with another honor card, and West took her A♥. A spade return or a club return would not hurt South nor a diamond return as South never had any plan to take a finesse. There was no need to jeopardize the contract with a finesse when the clubs were so strong. It was just a matter of unblocking the K♣ and returning to the South hand.

South drew East’s last small trump and claimed with the good clubs taking the rest of the tricks. The only loser was the A♥ as South had realized immediately. North and South claimed a fine score of 1430 for making 6♥ vulnerable. Only one other North/South pair made that contract as well.

What about that daring pair who reached 6NT? While it makes twelve tricks as well with the loss of the A♥, it seems that this is a dangerous bid with two singletons in the South hand and one singleton in the North hand. Still it is hard to argue with success as that extra ten points for bidding 6NT and making 1440 vaulted them into first place and top board on that hand. So three of the twelve times the hand was played only resulted in three slam bids when all of those points were there for the taking.

Where did most of the other nine pairs play? Most opted to play in 3NT usually making six for 690, far below the points for small slam. Others chose 4♥ making six as well for a score of 680. The takeaways today seem to be quite evident. Counting the points in both hands is crucial to reaching slam level. Remember that usually 33 points are needed for a small slam while 37 will usually be enough for a grand slam. Using Roman Key Card convention adds additional information for the bidders in a slam situation. Consider upgrading your Blackwood Convention to Roman Key Card. As always, enjoy playing and bidding the big hands when they show up. You will remember them a lot longer than those part score bids of 1NT or 2♥. Enjoy playing bridge in Barry County.

 

Gerald Stein

September 27, 2015

Number of words: 999

 

 

Better Bridge in Barry County September 10 2015

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  10 x x x       ♥   x x  ♦  A Q J x x  ♣  A x
West ♠  x x     ♥  6  ♦  10 x x x    ♣  x x x x x x		East ♠  Q x x  ♥  10 x x x ♦  x x ♣  x x x x
	South ♠  A K J x ♥  A K Q J x x    ♦  K x    ♣  8

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

North Neither 6♥

 

North 1♦ 1♠ 5♥ Pass	East Pass Pass Pass Pass	South 1♥ 4NT 7♥	West Pass Pass Pass

One of the highlights of going to major bridge tournaments is the chance to play with other players. Many have traveled great distances to play bridge at a huge tournament. At the National American Contract Bridge League Summer Tournament held in downtown Chicago a few weeks ago, this hand came up in a team game. North, my favorite partner, opened with 1♦, promising at least 12 or 13 high card points and in our system agreement promised at least 4 diamonds. I had a blockbuster hand as the South player. Slam was in the realm of a real possibility. Just put the two hands together, and you will see what I mean. Which slam would it be and how high were, of course, the leading questions in my mind.

I bid my heart suit knowing that it would be a source of at least six tricks and with the two top spades two more tricks for eight tricks in my own hand. When my partner bid 1♠, bidding up the line, I knew that her hand was limited, but that she probably had five diamonds and four spades. What I did not know was this: did she have any aces?

My jump to 4NT was Standard Blackwood, asking for aces. The normal response is 5♣ for all or no aces; 5♦ for 1 ace; and 5♥ for two aces. When she bid 5♥, my heart gave a jump, and I knew we had all of the aces. I placed the contract at 7♥. Our opponents let out low whistles, and my partner prepared to place her cards on the table.

The lead was the 6♥, a singleton, and a good lead for me as the declarer. My partner placed her cards down, and I looked at the wonderful diamond suit and the A♣ and nodded my approval and thanked her for her hand. Playing small from the board, I saw East play the 10♥, and I pulled in the first heart trick with the J♥. Drawing three more rounds of trump finished off the East player.

I next played the K♦ from my hand and a small diamond from the board. I then led my remaining small diamond from my hand to the A♦, played the Q♦, the J♦, and dropped the 10♦ from the West hand. I still had the A♠, the K♠, and the A♣ plus two trumps left over for a 7♥ contract bid and made. We scored 1510 points for our team. When we compared scores, our opponents who played the exact same cards as we had just played only managed to get to 6♥. We picked up 500 points on just the one hand. What a thrilling experience for us at a National Tournament.

While bidding and playing a Grand Slam is a relatively rare occurrence, when it happens at a National Tournament where there are 10 days of competitive bridge from 9 AM in the morning until the last game starts at 11:00 PM each night, you remember that hand and that success. Of course, you also try to forget the hands where there were missteps along the way.

 At a National Tournament, you can play as much bridge as you can stand or in this case, sit. Over 12, 000 tables of bridge were played at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago during this tournament in early August, 2015.

We were part of a bridge bus trip that picked up bridge players in Grand Rapids, swung down to Kalamazoo to pick up others, and motored into the Windy City on a Monday morning. On Friday evening as we prepared to leave after four nights and five days of bridge, most of us recounted that we had played over 175 hands of bridge. Some of us wisely took a day off to enjoy the sights and the sites of downtown Chicago. All in all, this was a wonderful experience to ride in a coach where someone does the driving for you, drops you off at your hotel, and five days later, returns to take you back to your car. Traveling and bridge playing! Now that sounds like a winning hand.

 

Gerald Stein

Number of words: 811

September 3, 2015