Slam Bidding

Years pass by with us still trying to get the hang of slam bidding. Each person has his own idea/ style of bidding, which doesn't make any sense to the partner at the other end.

I was playing on bbo today when I came across an interesting deal. As dealer, P opened 2C (strong). The bidding went as below:

2C-2D-2H-2S-3H-4C-4D... Let me stop here for a moment and review the auction.

2C is strong; 2D is GF waiting bid; 2H is puppet to 2S; 3H is showing 6 H.

Question 1: What is 4C here?

I think it has to be cue. Assuming 4C is cue, 4D should be cue by p. I held xx xx KJTxxx Kxx. I felt the need to show p that I had nice D values which could be useful to make a slam. Hence, I made a call of 5D. His 5H bid became the contract.

I was totally shocked to see that his hand was Ax AKQxxx AQ Axx. Clearly P didn't get what I wanted to convey with my 5D bid. Otherwise, he wouldn't have missed a grand.

I was about to discuss this with Guthi to know what would have happened if I was playing with him; in the process, I realised there were some more basic misunderstandings between us.

Question 2: Would you show the D suit after 2C opening (in our system by bidding 3C )?

In my opinion is that it affects p's bidding space, hence should bid 2D unless u have a good suit of your own and would like to set it as trump. (KQT 6 carder will do)

Question 3: After 4C cue, should opener bid 4H with minimum hand for 2C opening even with controls both in S and D?

(Guthi, could you explain your point on this?)

Question 4: Could someone throw light on voidwood? Is 5D in the sequence I gave played as voidwood?

My understanding is voidwood is a jump bid after trump has been set. In the above case, 5D bid after 3H would be voidwood.

The Right Spot

Jubilee Hills Tournament '09 had quite many interesting deals to learn from. Let me start with a small bidding deficiency that came up when KRV-D.Vijay pair played against Kachchu and Co. in the Pairs Finals.

Kachchu held Ax; T9xxx; xx; KJxx opposite a NT opening by partner. A transfer and 2NT invite landed the pair in 3NT as partner accepted the invite. Result was 3NT-1. Partner's hand was J9x; KQx; AKQx; Qxx. On a S lead, there are 3 spades, a H and a C loser. While, 4H has a good chance even on S lead. Either J H on side or D 4-3, contract is home. KRV with a smile commented "Kachchu! If only you had shown your unbalanced hand with 4 card club, you would have been in the right spot". Though he did not suggest any system for that. It's not difficult to frame one.

This is what I suggest: After a transfer and 2NT invite, when NT bidder has maximum, he can use 3C enquiry for finding the right spot.

1NT - 2D

2H - 2NT

3C - ? 3D - one 4 card minor suit

- 3H is relay over which 3S is 4 card C, 3NT is 4 card D

3H - 3=5=3=2

3S - 3=5=2=3

3NT - 2=5=3=3

This system also helps when the NT opener has a 5 card minor, 5 of a minor might be the right spot while 3NT has a suit open.

Just 3 Losers!

This was the first board of Ubayakar Trophy, 2009. No doubt, I was waiting to see the first "theamatic" deal. 

Sitting East I heard North opening 1S as dealer. My hand was QJ932; A; 86; JT987. Vulnerability being none vul, I should have made a Michael's cue. But I refrained from doing it. South raised to 4H; 2 passes to me. With a sense of regret I took a chance bidding 4S hoping to find p with honor doubleton or 3 carder S. North balanced with 5H ending the auction there. Result was 1 down, while 4S looked promising. (Atleast better result than 4H making for N). 

The four hands are shown below.

              North
       T75

        KQ986

        A42

       K6

West             East

AK86          QJ932

732             A

KQ75            86

32            JT987

       South

       4

       JT54

        JT93

       AQ53

At first glance, it looks as though, at 4S, E have only 3 losers in the minors ( 2 C and 1 D losers). 

Well! Take a moment and plan the play. See if you can make it.

The following is the line of play adopted by one of the decent players at TNSC.

East took the Natural H lead with A. He played low D to Q at trick2. North took the Ace and backed a H. ruffed in hand, cashed QS. East now played JC from hand. North took the K and backed a H, ruffed in hand and played an other club. South took with A and played a club. Time to count! 

If clubs are 3-3, East could ruff this club and pull trumps to enjoy the good clubs. But if clubs are 4-2?? Dummy ruffed the club with A S and North discarded a H. 

East deciding to learn more about the defenders' distribution, cashed KD and a D ruff in hand.

Now North's distribution is..  2 or 3 Ss, 5 Hs, 3 or 4 Ds, 2 Cs. If Spades are 2-2, a club can be ruffed high to pull the last trump and take home the contract. If spades are 3-1 (only 3 with North is possible), a club should be ruffed high in dummy, and T S with North should be finesed to claim 10 tricks. Declarer with not much hesitation, ruffed club high and finesed the T to book a top on a very tricky board. "It's Ubayakar! How else will you play" was his explanation for the line. 

Considering, I would not have got line right, 5H-1 by N was the best result at our table.

Dethrone the King

This happened on bbo tonite in a TM. 

LHO opened precision 2C (God I hate precision!), P overcalled 2S, I boldly bid 3NT, hoping it's the right spot. 

Lead was a low club, South took the K; backed a club, Q-A-x; North continued with T of clubs for which South followed. 

I counted 8 tricks. 1 Club, 1 Spade, 1 Diamond and 5 Hearts. For the 2C bid, North's got to have the remaining Kings (S and D king). whenever he gets in, he's going to cash the winning clubs for down 1.

But wait... He's got the remaining Kings!! That's it.. that's all is needed to make the contract. After winning the club return, enter dummy with K H, cash A S discarding a D and run the Hs. At the end of Trick 9, the four card ending will be:

North

J

-

QTx

-

South

-

-

Axx

7

Now what does North keep at this position? (Notice that North's shape is clear at trick 4 when he discards on the first H trick: 4045). He has to keep 2 Ds, otherwise A and Q of Ds give the 8th and 9th trick for the declarer. Hence he only has space for 2 clubs or 1 club and K S.  Now a club exit will end play North for the 9th trick. 

Best way to beat the contract is to discard KS on AS played from dummy at trick 5. Now, North could keep, Kx of D, 1 C and 1 S. Club exit will do no good as South will get 2  more Spade tricks to beat the contract. (Also, the defence can prevail if South played 8C at trick 1.)

THE GREAT 88 - Problems 1:

Thus starts the GREAT 88 series! The deals in this series come from the book "Double Dummy Bridge", written by George Coffin. All 88 are available here. I am selecting a few which I found interesting!


South to play. It is a NO-TRUMP contract. What is the maximum number of tricks South can win? And how?

Cheers!

Ruff and Sluff

I found this puzzle while going through some puzzles online. Here is the hand -


You find yourself in a contract of 6S, in a 7-4 fit! LHO is kind enough to lead a club. How will you plan your play to maximize your chances of winning?

Will you ruff in hand and discard a diamond (or heart) in dummy, or will you discard a diamond (or heart) from hand and ruff in dummy?


Solution :

You ruff in dummy, and smile at LHO as you discard a diamond from your hand. Without thinking twice, you pull out the pesky trumps your opponents are holding. Then, you relax, and play one heart after the other, awaiting the ace to come, so that you can claim the rest.
Alas, RHO ducks the first two hearts, and blocks you out of dummy. Another heart will be disaster, as there is definitely one more diamond loser to manage (once you win the ace). What do you do?

To make this contract, on the first trick, declarer has to ruff in both hands! After over-ruffing (!) in hand, pull out the remaining trumps, and play two rounds of hearts. This is how the hand will look (with declarer to play from dummy) -

Play the Jack of Diamonds from dummy.
(a) If East covers with the queen, play the ace and play back a diamond.
(b) If East doesn't cover with the queen, let West win the king, and keep attacking diamonds (whatever west plays, you can reach into dummy again!)


Looking at the problem double-dummy, this does appear to be the best solution, but I am still not convinced that this forms a reliable line of play with East and West hands concealed. Any comments?

The ubercool 6S from TNSC # March 31st

East - West got this awesome deal.

A7x
Kxx
AT9xx
xx


KJ9xx
AQ
-void-
AKJT9x


Most tables bid and made 6S. The fun is in the play of the deal. Think if a line of play to maximize your chances. Lead is a small D or a small H, shouldn't matter much.

Vinoth and Kedar like this: play for one of the black queens with RHO. i.e finesse spade first then the clubs. It will also cater to certain 4-1 breaks. (?)
Prajwal and I like this: Play of two top spades, followed by top two clubs, saving a trump to ruff a club in dummy. This caters to the case where Qxx of both spades and clubs are with LHO.

Try analysing the various combinations, there will only be few where one works and the other doesn't.
Notice that the Ten of spades is missing, but the ten of clubs is in hand.

Ashok passed this double dummy analyser link to me. I've tried it and I like it. But it needs all the hands to be known, so it can't answer single-dummy problems. Ideas anyone?

Cheers
Guthi

The Mysore 5C

I picked up this awesome 1=0=4=8 hand Mysore BAM event. SP was dealer and started with a pass.

x
-void-
AQTx
KQJ98xxx

White on red, I overcalled 2C after partner passed and RHO opened 1S. What is your choice of overcall?

The bidding went
P - 1S - 2C - 2H
P - 4S - 5C - P -
P - X -end

The lead is Spade King and dummy tables :

xxx
QTxxx
KTx
xx


x
-void-
AQTx
KQJ98xxx

RHO overtook the Spade King lead with his Ace and pushed another spade. I ruffed and played club King. LHO showed out, discarding a low heart (showing interest). RHO takes the trick with Ace of clubs and bangs Heart Ace on the table. I ruff it and start running trumps. None of the opponent discarded a diamond.
And reaching this position with 5 cards in every hand.

---
Qx
KTx
---

---
---
AQ9x
x

The last trump in hand being a winner. Notice that I can take the diamond finesse either way. On the bidding and play so far, its more likely that LHO has longer diamonds , and with that the Jack. On the play of my last trump, my LHO hesitantly discarded a small diamond. Clearly LHO can't let go the king of heart! 5C doubled made. No extra points for the squeeze. :|
I excitedly opened the scoresheet, only to find that the result was duplicated at the other table too! Later when I enquired how the play went, I was shocked.
Play was the same till Ace of heart was led. then after drawing trumps in 2 more rounds he played low diamond to the ten!

Bidding is another point of interest in this deal. Bidding at the other table was 1S - (5C) - X end

Though this hand dosen't offer much in defence, I judged that I had too much to preempt. One of the black suit aces and king of diamonds is all I need from P to make 12 tricks in clubs. ( need to guess the Jack of diamond again) On the other hand, opponents might have a 5 level game which they may not find if the overcall is 5C, clouding their bidding space.

Cheers
Guthi

Defense Is So Simple.

Counting declarer's hand and declarer's tricks (winners and losers) makes defense much simple. One simple example which illusrates the latter point (counting declarer's tricks) is below:

You hold:
Q x x
x x x x
J x
A x x x

Your RHO is dealer and he opens strong 2C.
Bidding:
2C-P-2D(1)-P
2H-P-4S-P
4NT-P-5C(2)-P
6S-P-P-P

Partner leads Club Queen. Dummy is :

A x
A Q 10 x x
A K Q 10 x
K

Now plan the defense. Think before looking the solution.
Decalrer must be having K J 10 x x x in Spades for his 4S bid.
Now count declarer's tricks.
6S tricks (with Spade finnese), 5D tricks and 1H trick. i.e. total of 12 tricks.

If declarer has 7 carder Spade, then he might play for drop of Spade Queen, then you will get 2nd trick.
But there is one foolproof way of setting the contract. Partner is marked with Club Jack. So play a Club and force declarer to ruff the club in dummy. Now declarer cant take spade finnese to catch your Spade Queen.
A very simple defense indeed if you figure out the way in which declarer will be going about to make 12 tricks.

Prajwal

Laugh please

One forlorn looking bridge player to another bridge player:
"I don't think I'll ever make a good player."
"Why is that?"
"For two important reasons. I am very bad at counting."

Sapan's magic

Sapan Desai is a star player and probably one of the few in that age group in India who can play competitive bridge at the world level. Prajwal witnessed his awesome game play skills on BBO.
Here is the deal.
Plan your play on the lead of Heart Q.



Even on the friendly looking lead, there don't seem to be enough tricks.
Looks like the lead is from Qx, so even if we guess the spades correctly (which is easy) we are one trick short.

Here is the full deal.

Here is how the play went.
Heart Q to King.
Spade to the King
Low club from dummy. RHO plays the T and then King; LHO follows with 4 and 5.
Low spade from RHO. (remember the Dbl)
Sapan perfectly chose to finesse. Reaching this position....

Now the crucial part of the play.
Sapan cashed Ace of diamond
Spade to the Ace. ( RHO's distribution is now known 3=4=2=4 or 3415?)
Heart Jack, all following.
low heart to Ace, ( LHO discarding a small club)
last heart is ruffed in hand (LHO pitches another club)
now, small diamond! from hand
LHO must have thought declarer has the Queen of Diamonds and is playing for his partner to have Kx and played the Ten. Too bad, RHO won the Q and was endplayed into playing a club allowing the trumps to score seperately.
The crack is in cashing Ace of diamond as early as its safe making it difficult for RHO to unblock. If he had played the trumps and hearts and then tried this, RHO will figure out to unblock.
Bravo Sapan!

Prajwal and I think its a masterpiece indeed. But Vinoth disagrees, dismissing as a simple play. We are all eager to see him pull out such feats. :P

Tolani hands: #2 Sachin, an inspiration for bridge as well

Equal vul at IMPs you pick up this nice collection and are pleasantly surprised to hear your partner open 1H.
AKJx / Q8xx / Kx / Axx

You bid 2NT, Jacoby, and your LHO butts in with 3D. Partner passes and RHO ups the ante with a 5D bid. Now what? Double? 6H? 6NT?

At my table Tota chose 6H. At the other table Prajwal bid 6NT. Which do you think is better?

I would say 6NT. If partner has one small card in D, 6H may be better but mostly it won't make a difference. But if he has two small cards in D, 6NT will be the right spot.

Unfortunately, as the cards lie, 6H makes easily after the DQ lead, whereas 6NT is in a spot of bother (in both cases I am assuming the hearts come through without the loss of a trick). Prajwal went down, and as we were discussing the hand later while watching Sachin score up a century on the way to a win against England, inspiration struck him and he figured out the line to make it. Well, late is better than never I guess! Look at the NS cards and tell me, how will you make 6NT on a club lead, given the bidding and assuming you can cash five heart tricks.

Win the club ace and lead a low heart (not the queen!!) for a finesse. The king pops up so you happily take the ace and run your hearts, pitching a spade. Now cash a high spade and run the clubs, pitching a - diamond! Here is the end position:


I hope you have been counting west's diamond discards. If he comes down to the bare diamond ace, you can throw him in to lead into your spade tenace. If he comes down to three diamonds, you know to finesse the spade. If he comes down to a spade and two diamonds, the position is trickier. Do you try to fell the SQ, or do you take a spade finesse? Well. Look at west's face and decide :)

Cheers,
Prashanth.

EDIT: Anindya's comment made me realize that this hand came up at matchpoints and not IMPs. Not sure how that would affect the decision to bid 6H or 6NT.

Tolani hands: #1 The Other Side

I'll put up a couple of interesting hands that turned up at the Tolani Grand Prix.

It's the teams event and vulnerable against not, you pick up this ragged 11 point hand:
AJxxx / Qxx / xx / Axx

Do you open? Most people would say no. But holding a five card major, vulnerable at IMPs I am opening all 11 point hands. I open 1S and Tota, holding 18 HCP and four card support, drives to slam. He confidently tables dummy and I put on my best poker face and say "Thank you partner."

You are in 6S. Look only at the North-South hands and tell me, what are your chances? The lead is a low diamond; jack, king, small. Back comes a trump.

It looks like we need the diamond honours to be split to have any kind of a chance. A club can be ruffed in dummy and a heart can be thrown on a diamond, leaving us still a trick short.

I figure that the lead ought to be from diamond length. So if west has the king of hearts to go with Qxxx(x) of diamonds, he should be squeezed on the run of the trumps. I duly pull trumps, eliminate clubs, cash the ace of hearts (Vienna coup) and run the trumps.


I pitch hearts from dummy and the opponents throw away their clubs. On the last trump, west pitches the H10 without any apparent discomfort. So either east has the DQ (which I thought unlikely as he won with the DK on the first trick), or the HK, and my heart begins to sink.

But wait! East is squirming in his seat. After a long pause, he throws the HK. West had led from Qxx of diamonds, so east had to guard the fourth round of diamonds as well as the king of hearts. The squeeze I had planned had worked, but on the other side!

I cash the HQ and I have a choice of taking the twelfth trick in hearts or in diamonds. Tota comments, "When you opened 1S, looking at my hand I thought 6S would be easy." I shrugged and scored up +1430, expecting to find the opponents in game. But no, they too had bid the slam. Only, they went down! I asked if the lead had been a heart (which kills the contract) but no, the lead had been a trump, which does not change the chosen line of play. So that was a well earned 13 IMPs.

Cheers,
Prashanth.