Monday, January 31, 2011

Nasty Lead Part 2

In the previous post, I gave a play problem in 6H after a Spade Lead. Here is the whole hand for any interested to see how their choices worked out.

N   E   S   W

1C P  1H  P
1S P  2D  P
3C P  3H  P
3N P  6H  P
P   P

                           AQ73
                           T6
                           53
                           KQJT4
KJ84                                     T962
8                                            J52
KJ97                                      864
9852                                      A73
                         5
                         AKQ9743
                         AQT2
                         6

Of course, the only way to make the hand on a Spade Lead is to take the round 1 finesse, but that is something that most people hate to do. At the table, declarer after some thought, played the A of Spades and took the Diamond finesse, losing to the K, and a Club came back to the A for down 1.

The interesting part was the same boards were in play in both semi-finals, and at both tables where 6H was reached (I am not sure of the other auction), the lead was the same card, the 8 of Spades, with the same result.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Nasty Lead

Playing in our local Sectional this weekend, you are playing in the first half of a KO match. With everyone Vul, you pick up 5 AKQ9743 AQT2 6 and hear partner open 1C in first seat. You bid 1H, partner bids 1S, and then bids 3C over your 2D 4SF. You bid 3H and partner now bids 3N. Hearing about a probable Diamond card encourages you to jump to 6H, ending the auction. For ease of viewing, here is the auction again.


N   E   S   W
1C P  1H  P
1S P  2D  P
3C P  3H  P
3N P  6H  P
P   P

LHO thinks for a minute and then leads the 8 of Spades and this dummy appears

AQ73
T6
53
KQJT4

5
AKQ9743
AQT2
6

What do you play at trick 1, and how do you plan for the play. And besides the fact that partner should have bid 4H over 3H, not 3N, any other problems with the bidding. Finally, does it make any difference as to the style of the person on lead, whether they listen to an auction before leading, or just lead 4th best all the time? And of course, the leader found the only lead available to present a problem on the hand, don’t they always.
 
Think about the hand and I will post the whole hand in a day.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

An Unfortunate Tale

Playing IMPS on BBO, you pick up this hand with All VUL, 7 KQT9753 J KJT4 in first seat. First question, is this an opener. I think it is, this hand is going to play very well in Hearts, but not very well anywhere else, so let your partner know that early. But the person that held this hand thought it would be easier to show it later, so started with a Pass.


The auction now went 1D on his left, 3S by partner, Double (Neg) on his right. Oops, looks like you have trapped yourself. Do you really want to bid 4H Vul opposite a partner that pre-empted in your short major, with RHO showing Hearts? Again, this hand passed, and LHO now bid 3N, which was passed back to this hand. It does not feel right to never take a call with this hand, but there is no real way to describe it now, so this hand passed for the third time. See why it is right to open.

The opening lead was the 9 of Spades from partner, and this dummy tracks, Q82 J6 A84 QT853. A truly interesting negative double, what it was going to do over 4H by their partner is unknown, but the 3N was a welcome bid. Declarer puts up the Q of Spades which holds at trick 1, and quickly claims 10 tricks with 7 solid Diamonds in his hand and the 2 Black Aces. Turns out your partners hand was KJT9643 A8 72 62. You had the first 7 tricks in Hearts if they were led, and excellent play for 4H. At the other table, the opponents sacked in 5D, down 2, over 4H, meaning your team lost 13 IMPS.

This is why I believe you have to open a hand like that when you have the chance. With Spades, you can consider waiting since you can always bid at the level of current bid, even though that may be uncomfortable. With Hearts, you are subject to the whim of who has Spades, and may have to come in at a level higher, as in this case. By passing, it turns out that a hand that had play for game in their suit, never took a bid and allowed the opponents to steal a double game swing back the other way.

I was lucky enough to be on the plus side of this, having bid the 1D and 3N on the hand. I was very surprised with dummy when it came down, and could not figure out where the Heart suit went until I saw that hand after. I originally thought the 3S preemptor had a bunch of Hearts as well, never suspecting that kind of hand. And I am still not sure what partner intended if I ever bid 4H, did not really want to ask, it would not have been fun to play in 4H with Kxxx in Hearts in my hand opposite that.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

3 Hands

Had 3 very interesting hands this last week involving some tough decision making at the 6 level. For the first, you are playing IMPS and are Vul vs NV opps. You hold 3 J9753 K643 A87 and Pass in first seat. It goes P on your left, 1H by partner, and 3S on your right. You raise to 4H and over 4S on your left, partner bids 5C. It goes P on your right, you take the intermediate road with 5H, but now it goes 5S on your left, P, P back to you. So the auction has gone


N   E   S   W
P   P   1H  3S
4H 4S 5C  P
5H 5S  P   P
?

How good is partners hand for the 5 level second bid and pass of 5S. And is your singleton Spade a duplication of partners values in that suit? The main question is, assuming the Pass of 5S is forcing, which it should be, how many losers should partner have? Partner freely bid over 4S, so should have distribution, and you have good features in both suits, a 5th trump and the A of partners second suit. So give partner something like AKxxx of Hearts and KQxxx of Clubs, there should be no losers there, so what about the side suits, x Ax in the pointed’s makes a slam almost a laydown, so the problem is if partner has less. Is x AKxxx Qx KQxxx good enough for this auction, free 5C and a P opposite a passed hand?, how about x AKxxxx x KQxxx, which requires 2 Aces and trumps from partner?

The other consideration is if partner has a very distributional hand, can you even beat 5S? A lot of your ‘tricks’, may not score on defence. For those 2 reasons, I think this hand should go on, besides, if the opps take out insurance at IMPS against 6H, you will feel a lot better doubling 6S.

Turns out 6H is a maker and you may be allowed to play there, partner has an unusual hand, KQ AQKxxx --- KQxxx, so 6H only loses the A of Spades, their 2nd Ace does not cash, also making it hard for them to sack. At the table, the above hand doubled, and was able to beat 5S 1 trick when the Hearts were 1-1, somewhat luckily getting a plus.

The next hand is a little tougher, playing MP’s, with no one vul, you pick up K932 AQ75 AQ974 --- and hear partner open 1C in first seat. You bid 1D and partner bids 1N, showing a 15-17 HCP NT, since you play weak NT’s. You bid 2D, GF Stayman, and partner bids 3C, denying a 4333 hand, or either 4 card major, but showing 5+ Clubs, what now?

N    E    S    W
1C  P   1D   P
1N   P  2D  P
3C   P   ?

The big question here, I think, comes between 3D and 3N. Can partner have Diamond support, and does 3D here promise 6, or just 5? You are only on the borderline of the slam zone, and partners 3C call did not improve your hand at all.

I think at IMPS or in a very strong field, this is a lot tougher hand, since missing out on 6D when it is available can cost a lot, even if only in lost opportunities. At MP’s, it is a lot tougher if you should bid on, since partner needs a fitting hand for much play in 6. But the other consideration in a medium field, how many people are going to hear partner open a strong NT, and after checking for a major, blast to 6N with this hand? Not really sure what is the best idea here.

At the table, this hand bid 3N, ending the auction. 6D and even 7D are actually very good contracts, since of course partner has the perfect hand, A5 KJ K83 A97652. 3N also looks like it has a lot of tricks, and in the interest of self serving reporting, I will not go into my line of play, except to say that I took at least 9 and much less than 12 tricks on a Spade lead when Diamonds went 4-1. Who needs to preserve communication!

The last hand, again back to IMPS, All Vul, you pick up a nice hand, AKQ74 KQJ85 3 AK and open 2C in first seat. Partner responds 2D, showing at least 1 control and values. Over your 2S, partner bids 3D, and over 3H, bids 4S. What does that show and now what? First, with a 1 suited Diamond positive, partner did have a way to show that and did not, also, 2D placed you in a GF auction, so 4S is weaker than 3S on this hand. Either way, with a positive and some support you want to make a slam try, so over 4N, partner bids 5C, showing 1 or 3 KC’s.

At this point, you have 3 choices, bid 6S to play there, bid 6N, or bid 6H giving partner a choice of slams. I think 6H is the best bid here, since partner does not know you have 5 Hearts, it was not required on this auction. At the table, this hand bid 6S, and partner put down 85 973 AJT85 J96, about the minimum possible for a 2D bid. When Spades went 4-2, 6S was down 1, with 6H having a lot more play.

A bunch of discussion ensued later about what responder should bid over 3H. The available bids are:

3S – Slam try in Spades, has to have better Spades, out
3N – No Club stopper, out or at least should be a low option when partner is showing the majors
4C – Cue bid on Jxx, out, partner is really not going to be happy playing in 6S with AKQJxx AKQx x xx which is a possible holding
4D – Should show a 6th Diamond since Diamonds may be the best slam, out
4H – on a possible 4-3, out
4S – By process of elimination, about only bid left?

This brought up the problem with these sequences, is there a bid that indicates real support but a min hand, vs a bid that indicates a doubleton and wanting to really sign-off? And it must come from the list of 6 available bids listed above. The only bid that comes to mind is to have 4D as a kind of temporizing bid, but that really perverts it in my mind, and precludes most hands where that might be the only spot to play when you do have a 6+ card suit. Switch the K from Clubs to Diamonds in the other hand, and 6D becomes the place you want to play this hand if it is opposite a decent 6 card suit.

We did not come to any solid answer on the above, other than the other hand needs to be aware of the problem that responder may have, and bid 6H to give an option on these kind of auctions.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Fun (!) on BBO

Playing in a pickup team game on BBO with a new partner I got to see the following up close and personal. You pick up, NV vs Vul, QJ9 K97 65 KJT53 and hear it go 2D (Weak) from partner, double on your right. You pass, and it goes 2S on your left, P, P back to you. Since this is a part score hand, and you have no fit (or defence), you decide to compete with 3D, hoping they will get a little higher. Sure enough, they listen to your wishes, it goes 3H on your left, P by partner, 4H on your right. You now pass, and they proceed to wrap up 4H for -620, instead of the -140/-170 you had wrapped up for passing out 2S, and the 10 IMPS.


Next, you pick up this fine hand, Vul vs Not, T8765 8 KQJ7642 -- and hear it go 1C by partner, 3H on your right. Not wanting to get partner involved, or allow any decisions, you leap to 4S, ending the auction. Partner is a nice person and puts down a good hand, AK 43 T983 AKQ52, no problem except the 3H pre-empt meant it, he did not have Spades, they go 5-1, and you go down -300 in 4S, cold for 5D.

Finally, a play problem, you hold, All Vul, AKT8 Q73 A7 JT83, and with the opps silent throughout, you bid 1S over partners 2nd seat 1D opener, and raise his 2S bid to 4S. The opening lead is the 4 of Clubs, and partner puts down J952 KJ84 KT4 A2. You win the A, and decide to follow the old Zia rule by playing the J of Spades, to see if LHO has the Q or not. When he plays the 4 of Spades, you decide not and play the A, LHO following low. Now when you play the K of Spades (forget about those Club losers), LHO follows low again, and RHO pitches the 3 of Diamonds, oops. You play a Heart to the K and A, and LHO cashes the K of Clubs, before exiting a low Diamond. You cash the 2 Diamonds, ending in hand, and play the J of CLubs. It is kinda late, but you probably need the Q onside, but who cares, ruff the Club, Heart to the Q, ruff the Club, cash the K of Hearts, except RHO ruffs this, and nastily cashes the Q of Spades for down 1. The other table bid 3N, an easy contract, so they did not have to play carefully in 4S, but with any type of care, like starting with A and out a Club at tricks 1 and 2, it also has lots of play.
 
Sigh, have to think about deleting my account again, or perhaps not play on there for a while.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Pair of 7S Auctions

Had 2 hands in the last couple of days that involved 7S being an option, 1 of them worked out, the other, not so much.

On the first hand, you pick up the following hand Vul vs Not, A987 KT AJ54 AQ2. With the opps silent throughout, partner opens 1S in 2nd seat. You decide to bid 2D, you have never played with this person before and on BBO, the only discussion you had was playing 2/1. Partner bids 2H, and over your 3S, bids 4D. The fact that partner did not bid 4S and raised Diamonds, has improved your hand, so you cue-bid 4H, and partner now bids 5C.

Couple of things come to mind here, partner did not key-card, but bid 2 suits and cue-bid the other 2, making 2 slam tries. Why? You decide to bid 6C, and partner now bids 6S. The question is, do you have enough and/or know enough to bid 7S. Partner should be something like 5431 on this auction, or perhaps less Clubs to cue-bid 5C. And that makes some sense since partner signed off in 6S over your Club cue-bid, so perhaps that was bad news. And with 4 Diamonds, would he not of raised Diamonds first over 2D? So this kind of implies partner is likely 5530 instead, or perhaps 6430, either of which make your hand better. KQ of Spades, A of Hearts, and K of Diamonds give pretty good play for the grand.

This hand decided that partner had to have 1 of those hands and made a nice bid of 7S. Of course it is easier in a fun rubber game, but still a nicely reasoned auction. Partner actually has the expected hand, KQ642 A9873 KT8 – so there are lots of chances in 7S. And the hand plays pretty easy when Spades go 2-2 and Hearts behave. There are other chances, but they do not have to be even tried. I held the opposite hand, and was very pleased when this partner believed me and raised to 7S. Playing with a regular partner, I should bid 6H over 6C, but with a pickup partner I have played 2 hands with to that point, I did not want to put too much pressure on.

The other hand occurred with a fairly regular partner in our weekly IMPS game. You hold QJ974 A973 KJ9 3 and open 1S in first seat. It now goes P on your left, 5D by partner, P on your right?

Can partner have super long Diamonds and want to play there? And if so, why are both opps silent in this auction. After joking that this must be Exclusion Key Card, partner passed here, assuming it was Diamonds. Problem was, it was EKC in Diamonds, so the hand did not play that well in our 3-0 fit.

At the other table, the auction went the exact same way, except that the opening bid woke up to what the 5D bid was as she was thinking of passing. So they got to the cold 6S. The other hand was AKT853 KJ --- KQT97.

Grands do not come along that often, so to have 2 at least possibles in as many days is kind of fun.