It is no secret that my preferred bidding system is precision. Various partners have helped me iron out the kinks in our system over the years, but most of the time the strong club bid proves itself the winner without any of the fancy bidding tools that are options in precision. The following hand propelled my partner and I to a 60% matchpoint game the week before I left the US.
North (Don):
A
Jxxx
xxx
AKxxx
South (Me, Dealer):
xx
AQx
AKQTx
J9x
The bidding:
1C*(1) - 2C*(2)
2D*(3) - 3D*(4)
3H*(5) - 4H*(6)
5D*(7) - 6D*(8)
1 - Strong club: 16+ pts, any distribution
2 - 8+ pts, 5 carder club
3 - 5 carder diamond
4 - Choosing to show diamond support rather than the ragged heart suit (still time to find a heart fit)
5 - No spade stopper, wanting to play 3NT from the other end
6 - Showing 4 carder heart: 1435 distribution now known
7 - No 4 card heart, no extras for a minor suit slam, no ruffs in hand so no point showing club support
8 - Knowing none of my 16+ pts are in spades, visualizing my small spade(s) getting ruffed in dummy.
Nothing much to the play, ruff a spade in dummy and give up a club early. You need diamonds to be 3-2 and a reasonable lay of the club suit. This hand would have made a bigger difference in an IMP game. Playing precision you rarely miss out on the 5-3 and 4-4 minor suit slams and your ability to bid major suit slams is unaffected. Now that I am in Chennai I will bug you guys to learn precision until one of you does :)
Cheers
Prashanth.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
High Seas, Strong winds, Driving rain.
High Seas, Strong winds, Driving rain. All that did not stop Vinoth and I from going to TNSC weekly pairs tournament. There were only seven tables, so it was decided, rightly that the scoring will be IMPs.
I picked up,
Kxx
AKJTx
xx
AKx
Partner held
AQJxx
Qx
AJxxx
x
The auction was uncontested.
I started the auction with a routine 1H, but messed it up later.
What should have happened:
1H - 1S
2NT - 3C*(1)
3S*(2) - 4NT
5D*(3) - 5NT*(4)
6C *(5)- 6H*(6)
7S - 7NT#(1)
*(1) Kind of a stayman / New minor forcing.
*(2) Showing 3S, exactly three spades.
*(3) Showing 0 or 3 key cards.
*(4) I fancy a grand slam, (All key cards are between us) Bid your kings. (Specific King ask)
*(5) Showing club King.
*(6) If you have Heart King, bid 7, otherwise 6S.
#(1) If its Match points. :)
The play offers no challenges.
What is of interest is the bidding. The general agreement in such situations is as follows: after a response to the number of key cards, the next step asks for the Queen of the agreed trump. Two steps from that will be asking for specific kings or the number of kings ( depending on the agreement) Its important to get the 6H bid's meaning right. It can only be asking for King of hearts, and denying King of diamonds. With Heart King, directly jump to grand slam.
---------------------------
More deals to come soon.
Cheers
Guthi.
I picked up,
Kxx
AKJTx
xx
AKx
Partner held
AQJxx
Qx
AJxxx
x
The auction was uncontested.
I started the auction with a routine 1H, but messed it up later.
What should have happened:
1H - 1S
2NT - 3C*(1)
3S*(2) - 4NT
5D*(3) - 5NT*(4)
6C *(5)- 6H*(6)
7S - 7NT#(1)
*(1) Kind of a stayman / New minor forcing.
*(2) Showing 3S, exactly three spades.
*(3) Showing 0 or 3 key cards.
*(4) I fancy a grand slam, (All key cards are between us) Bid your kings. (Specific King ask)
*(5) Showing club King.
*(6) If you have Heart King, bid 7, otherwise 6S.
#(1) If its Match points. :)
The play offers no challenges.
What is of interest is the bidding. The general agreement in such situations is as follows: after a response to the number of key cards, the next step asks for the Queen of the agreed trump. Two steps from that will be asking for specific kings or the number of kings ( depending on the agreement) Its important to get the 6H bid's meaning right. It can only be asking for King of hearts, and denying King of diamonds. With Heart King, directly jump to grand slam.
---------------------------
More deals to come soon.
Cheers
Guthi.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Common Slams hands.
Date: Dec 4th 2007, Tuesday.
Venue: TNSC
On the last but one board of the session, (N-S vul) I picked up this:
AJ
Axxxx
xx
Kxxx
RHO was the dealer and he passed. I opened 1H and the auction was uncontested till the end.
This was the auction Vinoth and I (Guthi) had.
1H - 2D*a
3C*b - 3D*c
3NT - 4C*d
4H*e - 6D*f - End.
*a - I remembered that we are playing 2/1. Yay. The first time it happened in over 3 sessions!
*b I confidently bid 3C. Playing SAYC, I might have considered bidding 2NT as 3C needs some extras.
*c - Parnter is confident that I won't pass it. Why? We are playing 2/1. :D
*d- Guthi- Cue bid, obviously. He has lots of diamonds, rich boy.
Vinoth- Gerber, obviously. What is the point showing clubs now?
*e- Showing Ace of Hearts.
*f - Showed only one Ace, I will bid slam anyways!
Mr. Declarer's and dummy's hand is here.
AJ
Axxxx
xx
Kxxx
Kxx
Kx
AKQJxx
xx
Chalo, now children count your tricks. 2+2+4+0 = top tricks. Tricks needed = 12. Tricks to be developed = 4. If diamonds split is friendly - 2 more. If heart suit is super friendly(3-3) - 2 more tricks. We reach home safely.
The lead is a friendly small Spade. Declarer played the Jack and it held. - Good, no need to ruff any spades in dummy. Declarer thinks for a while and plays a low heart to his king, small one to his Ace. Opponents following with LHO playing Q on the second round. This doesn't change declarer's plan. Now played a low heart and ruffed in hand. Voila! all followed. Now declarer played 3 rounds of trumps and claimed. All. Made 13 tricks for 940.
Analysis - Bidding:
Does Gerber 4C Ace asking apply in this situation? I remember reading that on auctions like this, when opener bids two suits and then bids no trumps, it doesn't apply.
Vinoth bid 6D: I do not know if he realized that I meant 4H as cue, if it was Ace showing, then its a wrong bid. He should have signed off in 5D.
Assuming that I take 4C as Gerber and respond 4S and now he bids 6D, I should bidding 6NT, considering it is Match Points. I am glad that I was able to reason out that we may need to ruff hearts in his hand to set up the suit for black suit discards. But clearly a club lead will kill the contract if partner doesn't have either the Ace or the Queen. If I bid 6NT and partner has KQ double ton of hearts, and no club honour, it is safer. Our present bidding sequence did not allow be make any judgment.
Analysis- The play.
I think the line adopted by the declarer was not very safe. There are enough entries to cash the hearts if they split 3-3. After Jack of spade holds, he can afford to pull 3 rounds of trumps, hopefully splitting 3-2, he has to ruff a third heart in hand. If they split 3-3. All is well. If it is 4-2, Then low club to King is the only hope. If the diamond break is 4-1, We can only hope that the defender with 3 or more hearts also holds the 4 carder diamond. 5-0 break is pretty tough to handle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some time earlier I picked up
Txxx
-void-
KJxxx
AKxx
LHO was the dealer and started the auction with 1H. Partner over called 1S, and RHO bids 2H. What is your call? Oh wait, look at the vulnerability. Its both-vul.
There are lot of options to choose from. I remember reading this auction.
1H-1S-3H-4H* - 4H says - Partner I am bidding 4S based on values, not just distribution, thus differentiating it from a direct 4S bid.
I stared blankly at my cards and remembered what Mr.Tota told me once. Just think what partner might interpret. That was some useful advice, but I panicked and called 3H. LHO bid 4H, Partner competes(?) to 4S, goes passed to LHO, who bids 5H, two passes to me and I bid 5S.
Lead was a small heart.
Txxx
-
KJxxx
AKxx
AKJxx
xxx
QT
xxx
After ruffing the heart in the dummy, declarer expertly plays low Spade to Ace and then bangs the king on the table felling the Queen. Just one Diamond conceded and made six. But not bid.
Vinoth was quick to say that I should bid 4S right away. I disagree. Now I feel 4H should have been the call. Shows spades + values + Heart void ( /singleton depending on agreements.) What say people?
If he had a maximum over call with Diamond Ace, there is even a grand slam. Ah!
PS: Ashok or SP, feel free to edit this post. I posted this in a hurry.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One small obvious thing I missed at the table,
LHO opens 1NT(15-17) and through stayman they reach 4S. Partner leads A of diamond and dummy has JT75 in diamonds. I held Q864. I carefully played the 4, declared playing the 2. Partner casually played diamond 3 now, covered by dummy's Jack. I paused to think. Partner continued the suit in spite of me discouraging. I played the Queen, declarer won it with the King! Aah, it was so simple to count. Partner held 2, dummy has 4, I have 4. This leaves declarer with K92. (Yes I noticed the spots this time!) All I had to do was to play the low diamond, by covering, all I did was enable declarer to discard a club on the established diamond and make an expensive over trick. Hard luck? No! Bad defense.
Zzzz...
Guthi
Venue: TNSC
On the last but one board of the session, (N-S vul) I picked up this:
AJ
Axxxx
xx
Kxxx
RHO was the dealer and he passed. I opened 1H and the auction was uncontested till the end.
This was the auction Vinoth and I (Guthi) had.
1H - 2D*a
3C*b - 3D*c
3NT - 4C*d
4H*e - 6D*f - End.
*a - I remembered that we are playing 2/1. Yay. The first time it happened in over 3 sessions!
*b I confidently bid 3C. Playing SAYC, I might have considered bidding 2NT as 3C needs some extras.
*c - Parnter is confident that I won't pass it. Why? We are playing 2/1. :D
*d- Guthi- Cue bid, obviously. He has lots of diamonds, rich boy.
Vinoth- Gerber, obviously. What is the point showing clubs now?
*e- Showing Ace of Hearts.
*f - Showed only one Ace, I will bid slam anyways!
Mr. Declarer's and dummy's hand is here.
AJ
Axxxx
xx
Kxxx
Kxx
Kx
AKQJxx
xx
Chalo, now children count your tricks. 2+2+4+0 = top tricks. Tricks needed = 12. Tricks to be developed = 4. If diamonds split is friendly - 2 more. If heart suit is super friendly(3-3) - 2 more tricks. We reach home safely.
The lead is a friendly small Spade. Declarer played the Jack and it held. - Good, no need to ruff any spades in dummy. Declarer thinks for a while and plays a low heart to his king, small one to his Ace. Opponents following with LHO playing Q on the second round. This doesn't change declarer's plan. Now played a low heart and ruffed in hand. Voila! all followed. Now declarer played 3 rounds of trumps and claimed. All. Made 13 tricks for 940.
Analysis - Bidding:
Does Gerber 4C Ace asking apply in this situation? I remember reading that on auctions like this, when opener bids two suits and then bids no trumps, it doesn't apply.
Vinoth bid 6D: I do not know if he realized that I meant 4H as cue, if it was Ace showing, then its a wrong bid. He should have signed off in 5D.
Assuming that I take 4C as Gerber and respond 4S and now he bids 6D, I should bidding 6NT, considering it is Match Points. I am glad that I was able to reason out that we may need to ruff hearts in his hand to set up the suit for black suit discards. But clearly a club lead will kill the contract if partner doesn't have either the Ace or the Queen. If I bid 6NT and partner has KQ double ton of hearts, and no club honour, it is safer. Our present bidding sequence did not allow be make any judgment.
Analysis- The play.
I think the line adopted by the declarer was not very safe. There are enough entries to cash the hearts if they split 3-3. After Jack of spade holds, he can afford to pull 3 rounds of trumps, hopefully splitting 3-2, he has to ruff a third heart in hand. If they split 3-3. All is well. If it is 4-2, Then low club to King is the only hope. If the diamond break is 4-1, We can only hope that the defender with 3 or more hearts also holds the 4 carder diamond. 5-0 break is pretty tough to handle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some time earlier I picked up
Txxx
-void-
KJxxx
AKxx
LHO was the dealer and started the auction with 1H. Partner over called 1S, and RHO bids 2H. What is your call? Oh wait, look at the vulnerability. Its both-vul.
There are lot of options to choose from. I remember reading this auction.
1H-1S-3H-4H* - 4H says - Partner I am bidding 4S based on values, not just distribution, thus differentiating it from a direct 4S bid.
I stared blankly at my cards and remembered what Mr.Tota told me once. Just think what partner might interpret. That was some useful advice, but I panicked and called 3H. LHO bid 4H, Partner competes(?) to 4S, goes passed to LHO, who bids 5H, two passes to me and I bid 5S.
Lead was a small heart.
Txxx
-
KJxxx
AKxx
AKJxx
xxx
QT
xxx
After ruffing the heart in the dummy, declarer expertly plays low Spade to Ace and then bangs the king on the table felling the Queen. Just one Diamond conceded and made six. But not bid.
Vinoth was quick to say that I should bid 4S right away. I disagree. Now I feel 4H should have been the call. Shows spades + values + Heart void ( /singleton depending on agreements.) What say people?
If he had a maximum over call with Diamond Ace, there is even a grand slam. Ah!
PS: Ashok or SP, feel free to edit this post. I posted this in a hurry.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One small obvious thing I missed at the table,
LHO opens 1NT(15-17) and through stayman they reach 4S. Partner leads A of diamond and dummy has JT75 in diamonds. I held Q864. I carefully played the 4, declared playing the 2. Partner casually played diamond 3 now, covered by dummy's Jack. I paused to think. Partner continued the suit in spite of me discouraging. I played the Queen, declarer won it with the King! Aah, it was so simple to count. Partner held 2, dummy has 4, I have 4. This leaves declarer with K92. (Yes I noticed the spots this time!) All I had to do was to play the low diamond, by covering, all I did was enable declarer to discard a club on the established diamond and make an expensive over trick. Hard luck? No! Bad defense.
Zzzz...
Guthi
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