Playing IMPS in a practice match, you pick up Ax Ax xxx AKJTxx Vul vs Not and hear it go 2H* on your left, P P to you. 2H is a weak 2 suiter with Hearts and another unknown 5 card suit.
I think the main options on this hand are Double, 3C, and 2 or 3NT. I could not bid 4C since that was leaping Michaels and would show a strong 2 suiter in Spades and Clubs. The first 2 bids I rejected since Double I just thought would get me into trouble in Spades. If partner bid any number of Spades, I would have to bypass 3N to bid Clubs, or decide if I was going to bid over 4S, knowing my hand is going to be a disappointment to partner. And 3C would be passed out on many hands where I could make game. The Clubs missing rated to be on me right, since I assumed that the second suit for the 2H bidder was most likely Spades or Diamonds. 2C might very well be right, and probably would be if we were best suited for 5 or even 6 Clubs, but that is about the only time it would be right, and a lot of hands where we can make 5C are going to be passed out in 3C.
This left the 2N and 3N choices. I had a source of tricks and stoppers in 2/3 of the remaining suits, including the primary known suit, so lots of upside on the hand. But the 3 little Diamonds are a large worry, since it was just as likely for the 2H opener to have either of those 2 suits. If Spades, I had little worry, since partner would rate to have Diamonds now. If it was Diamonds, I might not have a stopper in that suit at all. The big questions is what does justice to your hand. You are worth 7 1/2 playing tricks, the A of Diamonds or a stopper and 1 other card will give you at least some play for 9 tricks. So does 2N cover it, or do you have to bid 3N?
The plus for 2N is that partner can show a suit over it, but will you be able to judge where to play the hand when it goes 2H P P 2N P 3S P ?, you have essentially delayed your decision between 3N and 4C for 1 round. The big advantage here is that bidding 4C after 2N describes your hand, it just takes you past 3N :)
The plus for 3N is it makes for a blind lead that may allow you to make a hand you are not entitled to. The down side, it may be a hopeless wrong contract.
At the table I finally decided on 3N. Partner put down not the hoped for dummy with KJxxx KQx x xxxx after the opening Diamond lead. The opps quickly cashed 5 Diamonds winners and exited a Heart. This looked pretty bleak since it appeared 6C was odds on (not sure how you get there) whereas 3N was down 1 on the opening lead. Except when a Club was led from dummy, RHO showed out, LHO was 0553, meaning 6C had 2 losers. Of course this also meant I was down 1 more trick, but that was mostly OK. I thought the only makeable contract was now 5C, kind of hard to get to.
Turns out the other table got to 4S, and made it. Not sure how that worked, and did not ask. Seems like there are only 8, maybe 9 tricks there, with the foul splits. But that is a discussion for another day. And I still think I would bid 3N given another chance, although that 2N-4C auction would sure work well on this hand :)
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
High Level Shenanigans
Playing IMPS at the local club game, you pick up K75 KQ K82 A9842 with all vulnerable. Partner open 1S, you bid 2C GF, and partner now jumps to 4D, supposedly a splinter in support of Clubs, which RHO doubles.
Since you do note really have any first round controls, even though your hand is awfully good, you pass to see what partner will do here. Partner bids 4H and RHO passes, what now?
At the table, the person holding this hand bid 4N, Key Card in Clubs, over which partner bid 7C (a lot) and RHO now wandered in with 7D. This was doubled, although pass seems like a very workable alternative with all the stuff in the majors, and when dummy put down xxxx xx Qxxx xxx, declarer went for 1400 with his x xxxxx AJxxxx x hand to pick up 2 Imps when they played in 6S at the other table.
The discussion after centered around how to get to 7S in an intelligent manner on this auction once the opps decide to save in 7D. 7C is obviously the first choice of where to play the grand, but you were not allowed to play there. How do you find out partner has the very good Spades required to play in 7S, with the probably bad split.
Giving it to a local expert, he said he would have bid 4S over 4H. This almost has to be forcing, since you passed the double of 4D and then bid it over another cue bid. It turns out partner also would have bid 7C over that bid, but now it is a lot easier for you to pass over 7D and a LOT easier for partner to bid 7S.
Partners hand was AQJT4 AJ97 void KQJT, and with Spades no worse than 4-1, both black grands will make.
Since you do note really have any first round controls, even though your hand is awfully good, you pass to see what partner will do here. Partner bids 4H and RHO passes, what now?
At the table, the person holding this hand bid 4N, Key Card in Clubs, over which partner bid 7C (a lot) and RHO now wandered in with 7D. This was doubled, although pass seems like a very workable alternative with all the stuff in the majors, and when dummy put down xxxx xx Qxxx xxx, declarer went for 1400 with his x xxxxx AJxxxx x hand to pick up 2 Imps when they played in 6S at the other table.
The discussion after centered around how to get to 7S in an intelligent manner on this auction once the opps decide to save in 7D. 7C is obviously the first choice of where to play the grand, but you were not allowed to play there. How do you find out partner has the very good Spades required to play in 7S, with the probably bad split.
Giving it to a local expert, he said he would have bid 4S over 4H. This almost has to be forcing, since you passed the double of 4D and then bid it over another cue bid. It turns out partner also would have bid 7C over that bid, but now it is a lot easier for you to pass over 7D and a LOT easier for partner to bid 7S.
Partners hand was AQJT4 AJ97 void KQJT, and with Spades no worse than 4-1, both black grands will make.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Interesting 3N
Playing IMPS at our local game, I picked up this hand, AK74 AK3 95 AQT6, all vul. I opened 2N and partner bid 3C, Puppet Stayman, I bid 3D showing a 4 card major and partner bid 3N, ending the auction.
The opening lead was the 2 of Spades and this dummy hit, J6 754 AQ843 852. The opps were playing attitude leads, so I hopefully put up the J of Spades, but RHO played the Q, attitude huh? :) Since I did not want a Heart shift, and had a bunch of work to do, I won the A at trick 1 and led the 9 of Diamonds, planning to duck it. LHO put the 10 on this, but the original plan was still in force so I played low from dummy, the only possible way to set the Diamonds up. RHO overtook the Diamond with the J (?) to play the 9 of Spades, not a card I liked to see. Now was as good a time as any to try to cut some of their communications so I ducked this, and LHO overtook it with the 10 (interesting spots) and returned a small Spade (?). I pitched a Heart from board and RHO played the 8 of Spades, so I won the King. I now had an unexpected 3rd Spade, and might not need the Diamonds if something good happened in Clubs. Plus it was starting to look like LHO had made a very strange lead in Spades.
Wanting to find out about the Clubs, I led the 10 of Clubs out of my hand. I had the timing to save the Diamond decision now, and wanted to have some options if that suit did not pan out. LHO went into a serious tank over the 10 of Clubs, but finally played low, and RHO won the K. So I was pretty sure that LHO had the J and a few Clubs, made even more certain when RHO led the 6 of Spades (!) to my good 7, and LHO pitched a Heart. Why had he led a 3 card Spade suit, looked like he was probably 3334 or something like that, which gave me hope on this hand, even if the Diamond K was offside now.
I cashed the A and Q of Clubs from my hand, and sure enough the J did not appear, and RHO pitched a Heart, from his presumed 4 card holding. It certainly looked like I was right about the hand, which left LHO with 2 Hearts, 2 Diamond, and the J of Clubs, and RHO with 3 Hearts and 2 Diamonds. At this point, it didn't matter who had the K of Diamonds, easy matter to play 3 rounds of Hearts and claim when RHO was forced to win the 3rd Heart.
Turns out this was an easy hand with any kind of technique (duck an initial Diamond) since KTx were onside in LHO's hand and the K of Clubs was onside. But I thought it was still a neat technical hand for counting and extrapolating the opps hands to make it this way. And next time, the K of Diamonds will be in RHO's hand and this was the only way to make it
The opening lead was the 2 of Spades and this dummy hit, J6 754 AQ843 852. The opps were playing attitude leads, so I hopefully put up the J of Spades, but RHO played the Q, attitude huh? :) Since I did not want a Heart shift, and had a bunch of work to do, I won the A at trick 1 and led the 9 of Diamonds, planning to duck it. LHO put the 10 on this, but the original plan was still in force so I played low from dummy, the only possible way to set the Diamonds up. RHO overtook the Diamond with the J (?) to play the 9 of Spades, not a card I liked to see. Now was as good a time as any to try to cut some of their communications so I ducked this, and LHO overtook it with the 10 (interesting spots) and returned a small Spade (?). I pitched a Heart from board and RHO played the 8 of Spades, so I won the King. I now had an unexpected 3rd Spade, and might not need the Diamonds if something good happened in Clubs. Plus it was starting to look like LHO had made a very strange lead in Spades.
Wanting to find out about the Clubs, I led the 10 of Clubs out of my hand. I had the timing to save the Diamond decision now, and wanted to have some options if that suit did not pan out. LHO went into a serious tank over the 10 of Clubs, but finally played low, and RHO won the K. So I was pretty sure that LHO had the J and a few Clubs, made even more certain when RHO led the 6 of Spades (!) to my good 7, and LHO pitched a Heart. Why had he led a 3 card Spade suit, looked like he was probably 3334 or something like that, which gave me hope on this hand, even if the Diamond K was offside now.
I cashed the A and Q of Clubs from my hand, and sure enough the J did not appear, and RHO pitched a Heart, from his presumed 4 card holding. It certainly looked like I was right about the hand, which left LHO with 2 Hearts, 2 Diamond, and the J of Clubs, and RHO with 3 Hearts and 2 Diamonds. At this point, it didn't matter who had the K of Diamonds, easy matter to play 3 rounds of Hearts and claim when RHO was forced to win the 3rd Heart.
Turns out this was an easy hand with any kind of technique (duck an initial Diamond) since KTx were onside in LHO's hand and the K of Clubs was onside. But I thought it was still a neat technical hand for counting and extrapolating the opps hands to make it this way. And next time, the K of Diamonds will be in RHO's hand and this was the only way to make it
Monday, August 24, 2009
Different Problem
Playing IMPS on BBO with a partner you have had no discussion with, you hold the following hand All Vul, 8 A9853 AKJT974 -- and hear it go 1D on your right.
You decide to overcall 1H, not much else seems right, and it goes Pass on your left, 2C by pard, Pass on your right. You rebid 2H and it goes Pass on your left, 4H by pard, Pass on your right. Now what?
Not sure what is right or makes sense on this hand, freaks make it tough to decide what, if anything, is right. Plusses on this hand are you have a fit, you have a real source of tricks outside of your Heart suit, and you have the potential for a good opening lead for your side if LHO leads his partners suit. Minuses are the void in partners suit, the loser in Spades to potentially go with a secondary loser somewhere and the fact partner did not show primary support for Hearts (by a cuebid or something), only secondary support, even if did jump to 4H. I do not honestly know if I would bid again on this hand or go for the Vul game, I think it is close either way.
Anyways, at the table, this hand decided to jump to 6H, which went double on his left, Pass all around. The opening lead was a Diamond, and this dummy hit.
QT3 QT4 6 AQJ875
RHO played low on the diamond and declarer won the 9. There are 3 problems on the hand, how to play the Hearts, how to finish setting up the Diamonds (assuming opener has the Qxx remaining), and how to get to dummy to pitch the Spade on the A of Clubs. Points 2 and 3 can probably be covered together by ruffing a Diamond, then playing the A of Clubs, but that then leaves the Hearts.
If you ruff a Diamond, how are you going to play the Hearts. LHO almost has to have the KJx for the double, and if he has KJxx, not sure I see too many ways to make this. So if you ruff a Diamond, then ruff a black card back to your hand to lead a Heart, it does not take much work to figure out that winning the K of Hearts and tapping your hand with another black card means you are short 1 trump to do everything. (Try it, cant get back from dummy after playing a Heart to the Q)
Next, if you lead a Heart, with that Heart holding in dummy, it looks like you will force LHO to win the K and lead a Spade, which will set you right away.
The only option that might work is a bit of misdirection. If you lead out the A of Diamonds at trick 2, it will be very hard for LHO not to ruff it. And if he does ruff with anything other than the K, you have him. You can now overruff, play the A of Clubs for a Spade pitch, play a Heart back to your hand, and ruff the necessary last Diamond now. Now when you ruff a black card back to hand, if LHO started with the hopefull KJx of Hearts, you can exit a Heart, win the return and run the Diamonds to make the slam. LHO can always defeat this, if paying attention, by either refusing to ruff, or by ruffing with the K of Hearts again and playing a Spade, but there is nothing that can be done if he decides on that course anyways. At least this puts out a psychological ploy that LHO will assume that you assume that the A of Diamonds will not get ruffed. It looks like you are trying to get a couple of fast Spade pitches off dummy. Of course all of this is based on a supposition of what LHO doubled 6H on. But it turns out that was the exact hand LHO had.
Of course all of this works better than the way the declarer at the table played the hand. Won the 9 of Diamonds at trick 1, ruffed a Diamond at trick 2, took the Spade pitch, and ran the Q of Hearts at trick 4. LHO took his 2 Heart tricks and went home with +200. The result at the other table, they played in 2H making lots. 4H would have won 10 IMPS, 6H only got it up to about 15, instead of losing 9 IMPS as happened in real life. Looking at gain/loss on this hand, 6H gambled 19 IMPS to gain an additional 5, 4-1 against.
Still not sure what the best bid or line for this is, but sure makes up an interesting and fun hand.
You decide to overcall 1H, not much else seems right, and it goes Pass on your left, 2C by pard, Pass on your right. You rebid 2H and it goes Pass on your left, 4H by pard, Pass on your right. Now what?
Not sure what is right or makes sense on this hand, freaks make it tough to decide what, if anything, is right. Plusses on this hand are you have a fit, you have a real source of tricks outside of your Heart suit, and you have the potential for a good opening lead for your side if LHO leads his partners suit. Minuses are the void in partners suit, the loser in Spades to potentially go with a secondary loser somewhere and the fact partner did not show primary support for Hearts (by a cuebid or something), only secondary support, even if did jump to 4H. I do not honestly know if I would bid again on this hand or go for the Vul game, I think it is close either way.
Anyways, at the table, this hand decided to jump to 6H, which went double on his left, Pass all around. The opening lead was a Diamond, and this dummy hit.
QT3 QT4 6 AQJ875
RHO played low on the diamond and declarer won the 9. There are 3 problems on the hand, how to play the Hearts, how to finish setting up the Diamonds (assuming opener has the Qxx remaining), and how to get to dummy to pitch the Spade on the A of Clubs. Points 2 and 3 can probably be covered together by ruffing a Diamond, then playing the A of Clubs, but that then leaves the Hearts.
If you ruff a Diamond, how are you going to play the Hearts. LHO almost has to have the KJx for the double, and if he has KJxx, not sure I see too many ways to make this. So if you ruff a Diamond, then ruff a black card back to your hand to lead a Heart, it does not take much work to figure out that winning the K of Hearts and tapping your hand with another black card means you are short 1 trump to do everything. (Try it, cant get back from dummy after playing a Heart to the Q)
Next, if you lead a Heart, with that Heart holding in dummy, it looks like you will force LHO to win the K and lead a Spade, which will set you right away.
The only option that might work is a bit of misdirection. If you lead out the A of Diamonds at trick 2, it will be very hard for LHO not to ruff it. And if he does ruff with anything other than the K, you have him. You can now overruff, play the A of Clubs for a Spade pitch, play a Heart back to your hand, and ruff the necessary last Diamond now. Now when you ruff a black card back to hand, if LHO started with the hopefull KJx of Hearts, you can exit a Heart, win the return and run the Diamonds to make the slam. LHO can always defeat this, if paying attention, by either refusing to ruff, or by ruffing with the K of Hearts again and playing a Spade, but there is nothing that can be done if he decides on that course anyways. At least this puts out a psychological ploy that LHO will assume that you assume that the A of Diamonds will not get ruffed. It looks like you are trying to get a couple of fast Spade pitches off dummy. Of course all of this is based on a supposition of what LHO doubled 6H on. But it turns out that was the exact hand LHO had.
Of course all of this works better than the way the declarer at the table played the hand. Won the 9 of Diamonds at trick 1, ruffed a Diamond at trick 2, took the Spade pitch, and ran the Q of Hearts at trick 4. LHO took his 2 Heart tricks and went home with +200. The result at the other table, they played in 2H making lots. 4H would have won 10 IMPS, 6H only got it up to about 15, instead of losing 9 IMPS as happened in real life. Looking at gain/loss on this hand, 6H gambled 19 IMPS to gain an additional 5, 4-1 against.
Still not sure what the best bid or line for this is, but sure makes up an interesting and fun hand.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Tough Play Problem
Watching another Cayne match on BBO and saw this really interesting play problem come up. You are in 4S, all Vul, after you opened 1D (Precision) and JEC on your left overcalled 1H.
KQ74 KJ A87 J984
J985 A864 KT K52
The opening lead is the 2 of Spades, which RHO will duck whatever you play. The obvious problem is how to avoid 3 Club losers to go with the Spade loser. But you have real interesting spot cards in the suit to offer a few ways to play it. You also have a lot of entries to each hand to do almost anything you desire in terms of leading them. You also know that the opps are never going to break that suit for you, and you have no real way of throwing them in for it other than a Spade, and with the first round being ducked, you are almost sure any Spade played by you will go A and out a Spade.
Will let you decide on line of play, then say what the declarer here did and what I kind of think is right.
At the table, declarer led a second Spade, that went A on your left and another Spade. The Heart hook to the J worked, and he now led a Club to the K, loosing to the A and going down 1 when QT were in the other hand.
I think the spot cards in Clubs are the key. If RHO has either of the T or Q, are you not guaranteed a Club trick if you run the 8 off of dummy, covering whatever RHO plays? This only loses when the hands are reversed, and RHO ducks the A twice. But it is at least a 2-1 favourite to win on this hand.
Any comments?
KQ74 KJ A87 J984
J985 A864 KT K52
The opening lead is the 2 of Spades, which RHO will duck whatever you play. The obvious problem is how to avoid 3 Club losers to go with the Spade loser. But you have real interesting spot cards in the suit to offer a few ways to play it. You also have a lot of entries to each hand to do almost anything you desire in terms of leading them. You also know that the opps are never going to break that suit for you, and you have no real way of throwing them in for it other than a Spade, and with the first round being ducked, you are almost sure any Spade played by you will go A and out a Spade.
Will let you decide on line of play, then say what the declarer here did and what I kind of think is right.
At the table, declarer led a second Spade, that went A on your left and another Spade. The Heart hook to the J worked, and he now led a Club to the K, loosing to the A and going down 1 when QT were in the other hand.
I think the spot cards in Clubs are the key. If RHO has either of the T or Q, are you not guaranteed a Club trick if you run the 8 off of dummy, covering whatever RHO plays? This only loses when the hands are reversed, and RHO ducks the A twice. But it is at least a 2-1 favourite to win on this hand.
Any comments?
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Canadian Slams
This post is not even about my slams, even though they are often as bad. A comment I heard a while ago comes to mind on this post. Know why Canadians play the hand well, have you ever seen the contracts they get to :)
Watching a couple of Cayne matches on BBO, against 2 sets of Canadian International Experts, I saw the following 2 hands.
The first, Not Vul vs Vul, you pick up this hand A754 Q8 AK7 A532 and open 1C Precision. Partner makes a positive response of 1S and I guess they are not playing any kind of control or asking bids, just stone age precision, so this hand made a mild overbid of 3S. Partner now bid 4D, cue bid in your AK, making your hand worth less, so this hand Cue Bid 5C. Partner raised this to 6C, so this hand made a grand slam try with 6D, but partner signed off in 6S, passed out. Partners hand was KJT83 A97 J T876. Obviously this hand had very little play.
On this hand, I have to give most of the blame to East after the 1C opener. The 3S bid was a mild overbid, but quite survivable. But I really think you must have a LOT better hand to bypass 4S and cuebid 5C. On this hand, I really think that after 1C and 4S, with partner showing that at least some of your hand is wasted, you should be content with 4S. If partner can not bid over that after the previous bidding, are you missing anything?
The second hand was KQ2 JT73 AKQ87 9, vul vs not, and the auction proceeded 3S on your left, 4H by partner, pass on your right, 4S Key card in Hearts by you, 5H by partner showing 2 with the Q, 6H (???) by you. A Spade was led, LHO took the A, returned a Club, and RHO took that A, down 1.
Excuse me, is'nt Blackwood designed to keep you out of these things, not get you into them? Anyways, enough on that for now, just have to hope some of these people remember to start doing these kind of things against me when I get to play them :)
Watching a couple of Cayne matches on BBO, against 2 sets of Canadian International Experts, I saw the following 2 hands.
The first, Not Vul vs Vul, you pick up this hand A754 Q8 AK7 A532 and open 1C Precision. Partner makes a positive response of 1S and I guess they are not playing any kind of control or asking bids, just stone age precision, so this hand made a mild overbid of 3S. Partner now bid 4D, cue bid in your AK, making your hand worth less, so this hand Cue Bid 5C. Partner raised this to 6C, so this hand made a grand slam try with 6D, but partner signed off in 6S, passed out. Partners hand was KJT83 A97 J T876. Obviously this hand had very little play.
On this hand, I have to give most of the blame to East after the 1C opener. The 3S bid was a mild overbid, but quite survivable. But I really think you must have a LOT better hand to bypass 4S and cuebid 5C. On this hand, I really think that after 1C and 4S, with partner showing that at least some of your hand is wasted, you should be content with 4S. If partner can not bid over that after the previous bidding, are you missing anything?
The second hand was KQ2 JT73 AKQ87 9, vul vs not, and the auction proceeded 3S on your left, 4H by partner, pass on your right, 4S Key card in Hearts by you, 5H by partner showing 2 with the Q, 6H (???) by you. A Spade was led, LHO took the A, returned a Club, and RHO took that A, down 1.
Excuse me, is'nt Blackwood designed to keep you out of these things, not get you into them? Anyways, enough on that for now, just have to hope some of these people remember to start doing these kind of things against me when I get to play them :)
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
?
OK
I am annoyed about this hand. Playing BBO last night with a pick up partner in a team game, I picked up A 9873 AK52 7532 in 2nd seat, no one vul. After pass on my right, I decided to open 1D with the AAK, even with bad suits and spot cards.
Opps passed throughout, pard bid 1S, I bid 2C, pard bid 2H, and I raised to 3H, I thought patterning out. Pard bid 3S and I thought about bidding 4S, but finally decided to bid 3N, ending the auction. Then partner put down this truly amazing dummy on this auction. QJ7643 AK42 7 K9. That is right, he had an unbalanced hand with 4 Hearts???
3N was not a success on the Q of Diamonds lead and I eventually went down 4, double dummy guess I can hold it to 2 down, but I did not read the hand best. 4H was cold for at least 1 overtrick with everything favourable in it.
I asked partner why he did not bid 4H or ever show Hearts. His answer was that I could not hold 4 Hearts, even for the 3H bid, since I had shown 5-4 in the minors and then bid 3N. I had to be 1354. And it was somehow my fault for not getting to 4H.
I did not have any method of answering that, so I finished the next, thankfully last, hand and just left. I still do not know how his reasoning went on that hand. Hopefully I never will.
I am annoyed about this hand. Playing BBO last night with a pick up partner in a team game, I picked up A 9873 AK52 7532 in 2nd seat, no one vul. After pass on my right, I decided to open 1D with the AAK, even with bad suits and spot cards.
Opps passed throughout, pard bid 1S, I bid 2C, pard bid 2H, and I raised to 3H, I thought patterning out. Pard bid 3S and I thought about bidding 4S, but finally decided to bid 3N, ending the auction. Then partner put down this truly amazing dummy on this auction. QJ7643 AK42 7 K9. That is right, he had an unbalanced hand with 4 Hearts???
3N was not a success on the Q of Diamonds lead and I eventually went down 4, double dummy guess I can hold it to 2 down, but I did not read the hand best. 4H was cold for at least 1 overtrick with everything favourable in it.
I asked partner why he did not bid 4H or ever show Hearts. His answer was that I could not hold 4 Hearts, even for the 3H bid, since I had shown 5-4 in the minors and then bid 3N. I had to be 1354. And it was somehow my fault for not getting to 4H.
I did not have any method of answering that, so I finished the next, thankfully last, hand and just left. I still do not know how his reasoning went on that hand. Hopefully I never will.
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