The best claim I've heard of

I was reading Terence Reese's book Play these hands with me, and I highly recommend it. The book helps you to get inside an expert declarer's head and think the way he does. This makes all the difference between simply reading about expert plays and figuring out all 52 cards in order to make those plays correctly.

The following hand had me smiling and shaking my head for a full minute after I read it.
The contract is 7NT and the 10 of diamonds is led. Reese won in dummy and led a club to his ace and east showed out. At this point Reese claimed all.

Can you figure out the line?

Here is his explanation: first test the spades by cashing AKQ.

If the spades break 3-3, then the marked club finesse provides the thirteenth trick.

If west has the long spades, then cash all the red suit winners, squeezing him in the black suits for the thirteenth trick.

If east has the long spades, then cash the king of clubs and the diamond winners, arriving at this position:
At this point, west has to hang on to three clubs so he can have at most one heart. Now pitch the club, take the club finesse and cash the CQ, squeezing east in the majors.

From reading Kelsey I can put a name to this squeeze: it is a positional double squeeze in the inverted form (yeah yeah I know all the theory :P).

Quite a claim! It would probably have been faster to just play the hand. But you must admit it makes for a highly entertaining read.

Cheers,
SP.

Junior teams for Beijing announced

The U-26 and U-28 teams for the World Mind Games at Beijing later this year have been announced.

U-28: Aniket, Sapan, Prashanth, Guthi, Sandip, Pravin. 7th man: Prasenjit.

U-26: Anurag, Ayan, Dashu, Rishabh, Vinoth, Karan.

The U-28 team looks in decent shape; although we have only two world-class players in Sapan and Aniket, there are three pairs, not six players, which is good. Compare that to the U-26 team in which apart from Ayan and Dashu, nobody has played with anyone else. Add to that the fact that Karan is fourteen years old and needs plenty of training.

The Bridge Federation of India, though, has reason to be concerned about the teams given the quality (or rather, the lack of it) of play at the trials. None of us played to our potential; we are all far better players than how it must have appeared that weekend. The defense in particular looked very shoddy, even from the relatively better players.

Consider the following two deals from a set Guthi and I played against Aniket and Sandip. Keep in mind that all of us are supposed to be among the top six junior players in India.

(I don't remember the exact bidding or spots, but they are not relevant to the moral of the story)

I started with three top spades, Guthi pitching the D6 and the C2 in that order. We were playing upside down carding with odd/even first discard, so this sequence discourages diamonds and encourages clubs. Obediently I shifted to a club.

Declarer won with the ace, cashed DA and ran trumps. Placing partner with Qxxx of clubs and declarer with DQ, I discarded all my clubs, hanging on to a top spade (over the 9 in dummy) and a top diamond (over the imagined Q in hand). Declarer now made all his clubs for the contract. Note that even if I had read the diamond position correctly, I was caught in a positional spade-club squeeze and there was no defense.

The organizers and I were both quick to criticize Guthi, but it was Aniket who pointed out that I could have solved all problems by leading a fourth spade and killing the menace in dummy. Now no true squeeze can develop, and by the time I come down to JT9 of clubs and K of diamonds partner would have found a way to undo his mistake and make the position clear to me (by pitching the queen of clubs or queen of diamonds or both).

On the following hand I was declarer and the misdefense was from them. (Hands rotated, EW hands approximate)


Needing little more than a spade honour from partner, I bid the vulnerable game but dummy came up with all the wrong honours. West led the D8 and I won with dummy's queen. Hoping that east will have a stiff spade honour, I led a trump but east played low and west won. Now a return through any of dummy's honours will ensure an immediate one-trick set but Aniket returned a trump, doubtless to prevent diamond ruffs. This works, too, as if I ruff a diamond with the third trump in dummy I will be stuck in the wrong hand. Sandip won with SK and returned the DT. I won, and with nothing better to do, ran the trumps and willed east to discard a diamond. Sandip obliged and I ran all the trumps and diamonds to catch him in a strip-squeeze.

Dummy: - / K 9 / - / Q 8
Declarer: - / 3 / 7 / A 5

The D7 is led and the H9 pitched. What does Sandip do on this trick? If he bares his ace of hearts, I can throw him in with the heart and force him to lead away from his CK. If he bares his CK, I can cash two club tricks. His hesitation on this trick was telling, and when he pitched a club I cashed the ace of clubs dropping his king.

I am not sure if Aniket's trump return was a mistake, but Sandip definitely made two errors. He must not pitch any diamonds (they lead low from three small cards in a suit bid by partner so he had the count) on the run of the trumps. Having made the mistake of pitching a diamond, he can see the strip-squeeze coming and must do his thinking early, baring the king of clubs well before the ninth trick. Since I can't be sure of the count in clubs and hearts I may play to throw him in with the ace of hearts.

Hopefully we will all get into shape before Beijing. The World Mind Games begin on October 3rd.

Cheers,
SP.

Put On Your Simulation Specs

It's your call after your partner bid 2NT (20–21 HCP) as dealer and your RHO passed. What do you do with ♠ 98 ♥ T6 ♦ AT962 ♣ 8743? (That was the Level 1 bidding question on BridgeClues on 14 June.)

Let's say your choices are limited to raising to 3NT and passing. What is the expectation gain (in IMPs) for bidding 3NT over passing, assuming whatever you do will end the auction? Estimate the two numbers, one for each vulnerability, before seeing the answer in the next paragraph. Let me make the question precise now. Your agreement is to open 2NT if and only if the hand has 20 or 21 high-card points, is balanced, and has no 5-card major. Play, starting with the opening lead, should be assumed to be double-dummy perfect. Put on your simulation specs and guess two numbers.

When vulnerable, bidding 3NT is two point two six IMPs better than passing, and when not vulnerable, bidding 3NT is zero point eight five better than passing. Now a different question. How useful are the diamond intermediates? What're the two numbers if you change ♦ T9 to ♦ 87?

When vulnerable, 3NT is zero point six nine better than passing; not vulnerable, 3NT is zero point two worse than passing (figures based on 500 random hands). Drastic change, don't you think?