Ubhayakar Trophy hands

Here are a couple of interesting hands from the Ubhayakar Trophy pairs conducted on 27th May:


Deal 42:

















East-West bid their way to 4S. South led a high club and shifted to a heart which I won in hand. I gave away a club, won the trump return in dummy, ruffed out clubs as well as hearts, and pulled another round of trumps ending in dummy. Fortunately the trumps broke 2-2 and I played a diamond to the 9, endplaying south. Note that this would work even if north had three trumps and south had one, but not the other way round as south would have the trump as an exit card. Also note that north should put up a high diamond on general principle - that would prevent the endplay if my third diamond had been lower than the 9.


The defense can beat the contract by playing trumps early. That way, the entries to dummy would get used up prematurely and I would be forced to fall back on the diamond finesse, which does not work here.


Deal 45:



















North-South reach 4S and west leads out his high hearts. The third heart is ruffed in dummy and over-ruffed by east; a club return strands declarer in dummy, with no way to return to hand to pull the trumps before cashing the diamonds. He is forced to run diamonds straight away and hope for a 3-3 diamond break, which does not happen. In reality, I did not find the club shift (don't ask me why).

Declarer can avoid this communication problem by refusing to ruff the third heart. This way, he can win the club shift in dummy at trick 4 and return to hand via trumps.

Cheers
Prashanth.

Slam hands on May 8th.

The famous T.Nagar club in Chennai has experimented with computer generated deals, This is a good boon for us as it we can come back and discuss the deals and in depth analysis can be done. Also, there are good number of slams. Here is one which we bid.

You hold
♠ A 9 6 5
♥ A
♦ A 9 7 5 3 2
♣ Q 9

Your LHO deals and starts the auction with Pass. Partner bids 1C (SAYC) and RHO passes. What is your call ? With 6 Diamonds you obviously bid 1D, partner bids 1H. The auction is uncontested. Now how often do you get to bid 1S on your second bid ? So, you just bid it. Siddarth was my partner and since he dosen't play the 4th suit force convention, But we agreed on new suit by responder is forcing! That was enough. Partner bids 2D.

Just to go over it - 1C- 1D; 1H - 1S; 2D - ?
What is your call now ? Clearly game is a huge favorite. If you are looking for slam there is no point asking for Aces unless you are looking at Grand Slam, which is unlikely as partner has 12-14 points and You don't hold many either, just 14. Just 27 between you. If partner holds Qx in spades, QJxx in hearts,D: Qxx, C: AKxx, not a good hand. You might lose one diamond and a spade. Say Partner Q Diamond instead of Q Spade then 6D has a great chance. How do you bid it ? I held this hand and I just bid 6D which ended the auction.

Lead was Spade King and Dummy came down:

♠ J 3
♥ 10 8 7 3
♦ K Q 6
♣ A K J 7

The only danger is a bad diamond split, and since there is no scope for any kind of over trick, might as well think of safety play. If LHO has all the missing diamonds there is nothing you can do about it, so play low to King is the right play. So, winning the Lead in hand, I led a low Diamond to King, seeing both opponents follow suit, I claimed 12 tricks. A rare perfect claim by me :D Surprisingly, Only two

Here is the entire hand:

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

A few boards after that another interesting deal came up:

I held:

♠ K 4
♥ J
♦ K 10 5 3
♣ A K 10 9 4 2

Your LHO deals and starts with a pass, partner bids 1H, RHO passes too. I bid a routine looking 2C. The opponents did not interfere and partner bid 2D. Now the hand looked very good to me. 1H and then 2D shows a 5-4 or better like 5-5. It could be a 6-4 too, 2D being the cheaper rebid, is a better option unless the suit quality is really bad (isn't it the popular agreement?) Anyways, I got excited and envisioned a Diamond Slam. Lacking controls, I thought I will bid 4NT, asking for Aces, yes we played simple Blackwood. If he responds with 1 Ace i.e 5D, I would pass it, on a 5H or 5S response I was planning to bid 6D. Sounds fine right ?

The bidding went: 1H - 2C; 2D-4NT; 5H - 6D.

Lead was ♥10. Here is the entire deal with Declarer as South.

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

Alas! The declarer had only a three carder diamond. How do you plan your play ? Siddarth started out rightly by praying for a 3-3 diamond split, but stopped at that ! He forgot about the spades ! He should have prayed for spade Ace to be with his LHO, and play three rounds of trumps, and play a low spade to dummy. Now only a 4-0 club break can be trouble some which also doesn't happen to be the case.

Forget what happened. 2D is not the right rebid, what is it then ? 2H right ? 2NT is too shaky with just two rags in spades. But the suit quality is also not good. 3C is another option, not a great one either. As you can see, 6C is a safer contract which two pairs have bid. I have no clue how. Can somebody tell me how ?

Evil Problem. - 1

We all know how demanding end semester examinations are, especially in the final year- final semester. What do I do when I have no inspiration to 'mug' for the next days end-sem ? Play Bridge of course. (On Baron) Once, I had asked Ashok for a play problem and he shot one brilliant one from a Frank Strewat's column on DC. I present that to you now.

In a duplicate event, You are Vul andYou hold:
S: A 4 2
H: Q 4
D: 9 8 2
C: K Q 7 4 2

Partner deals and opens the auction with 1 D and RHO passes, You bid the not so routine 2C (denying a 4 card major - any exceptions to this ? a 6-4 ? ) Partner bids 3D - a non-forcing bid showing a 6 card suit with 15-17 points. You bid 3NT which ends the auction. 3 of Hearts is the lead. The Dummy comes down -

Dummy
S: 8 6 3
H: A J 7
D: A Q J 10 5 3
C: A


S: A 4 2
H: Q 4
D: 9 8 2
C: K Q 7 4 2

I have Reproduced the declarer's hand for your convenience. How do you play the hand to make sure of your 9 tricks - ? Lets see. Counting our top tricks - one Spade, two hearts, one diamond and three clubs. Seven top tricks. Assuming the diamond King is off-side, we have to let in the defenders once to get to get 3 extra diamond tricks. Say Heart King is with your RHO, he might knock off the spade Ace immediately and if the diamond finesse fails, you might be in deep trouble, so going up with the Ace on the heart lead is the safest. The suit is still stopped. Clearly there is a problem with entries, so you give up on the diamond finesse and play this way - Go up with H A first time, then unblock the Ace of clubs, and Play Diamond Ace (King might drop ?) and continue with a small diamond.

The problem looks so simple, at the first glance, but remember your opponents are good. So, what if ? what if ? - Do you see any danger ? Let us say this happens, on tirck 4, East discards Heart 2 on your small Diamond. i.e Diamonds divided 3-1 and the defender with 3 cards ducks.
So now you have 2 Diamonds- that is all !! 3 clubs, 1 spade and 2 hearts, again a trick short. A 4-0 distribution will be equally bad. What is the way out ? Are you thinking of keeping club Ace for entry ? After playing two diamonds, lets say you continue with another, RHO takes it with king and returns a spade. What now ? stuck in dummy with 1 S,1 H, 5 D and 1 Club. Again one short. Note you cannot get 2 hearts i this case. Once opponents get in with King Diamond, they will knock off Spade Ace and keep King of Hearts and 3 top spades - 5 tricks => down one.

This is a duplicate event. So Think SAFETY PLAY.
Think
Think
Think.

I could neither crack this problem nor the next day's exam. The solution is pretty simple and elegant.Catering to the worst possible distribution, this is the best play: Go up with Heart Ace, Unblock the Ace of clubs, and play the Diamond Queen ! If the Diamonds are 2-2 no hassles. 10 tricks are assured. If diamonds are 3-1, its easy again. If Diamonds are 4-0, and the defenders duck the second small diamond, then you will be in hand, now, play heart Q. Let us say defenders take it with King and return a spade honour. Then go up with the Ace and cash two clubs and play a diamond to the Ace. So far - 1 spade, 1 heart, 3 diamonds and 3 clubs = 8 tricks. And the 9th trick is already established - Heart Jack and you are in the right place to cash it. If defenders ducked the heart Queen then you already had your 9 tricks. Perfect - simple - and elegant isn't it ?