Think a little more!

Last night on BBO I typed "Thinking..." a couple of times and when I made the contract Anusha prompted "So thinking works :)". Well of course thinking works, and the lack of forethought can end up losing your board. Case in point, this board came up a couple of boards after the "thinking" board and this time I didn't think much:




Anusha had opened a heart but led a diamond. As you can see, lazy play result in a quick -1. I should have immediately realized that if she had a 5-carder diamond to go with her 5+ cards in hearts, I wouldn't have time to set up all my tricks. Accordingly I need to play her for a singleton or doubleton club ace. This would require some careful entry management:


- Win the DA
- Cash the SK and the SQ. If they break 3-2, overtake the SJ with the SA to generate a second entry.
- Lead a club up to the J. If Anusha doesn't play the club ace, I play the CJ and duck a club back.


This gets me 3 club tricks if she has a singleton or a doubleton club to go with 4 spade tricks, the DA and one trick in whichever red suit they attack.


What if the spades break 4-1? Now I can try to sneak a finesse of the S9 and hope that Vinoth doesn't realize he has to hop up with the S10. But for a legitimate chance of making, I have to hope for diamonds 4-3 which would give me time to set up a heart trick and end up with 4 spades, a heart, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs. So it depends on how sleepy Vinoth looks ;)


Finally, how can I improve upon the line if the club ace is with Vinoth? Duck the first round of diamonds and take the second. Now he doesn't have a diamond to return; if he returns a heart, we gain the tempo to make the contract.


Cheers,
Prashanth.

Bowring Squeeze

This hand came up in the recently held Karnataka State Championships in Bengalooru's Bowring Club.

I'll present the North -South hands ( no need to rotate the deal; South was actually the declarer ;p) Opponents do not bid at all; so auction & Vul don't matter. [Assume you are playing IMPs, though the deal came up in the MP event ]

954
K4
AK3
A9873

A6
AQ95
Q974
Q62

The lead is spade 3 to which RHO plays the Ten.
Plan your play.

If you decide to play a low club to the Queen, it loses to the king ( RHO plays the 4 of clubs) and the opponents cash - hold your breath - three rounds of spades (lucky, spades are 4-4) State your two discards from hand and one discard from table.
Say RHO keeps the lead at trick 5 and returns heart 2, 5, 8 to dummy's King. There is no way clubs will yeild 2 tricks. The ninth trick can come if Diamonds break 3-3 - how will you go about playing the cards?
If you play Club Ace at trick 6, you'll see Rho discarding a Heart.
Figured out the distribution of the whole deal?

Here is the hand RHO held.

QJT2
762
JT62
4

Also, do you see how this comfortable position is broken?


Cheers
Guthi

Co-operative coup

Remun is one of the fairly regular Chennai bridgers who's family has been playing bridge for 3 generations. He is known for the 4 card major system that he favors. Like other gold age bidders, Remun is not fond of using too many conventions but his card play and defense is immaculate. Those who have played against him will know about his excellent table presence. For the second time I played in his team this year at Lotus Club, Ernakulam. We had horrible run at TO4 and Pairs. I partnered Prajwal in Pairs. BAM turned out well, which our team won with 92 while the second score was meager 76.

The only highlight of TO4 event was a deal that Remun played. LHO opened 1D, P doubled, RHO bid 1H and Remun holding ATxx Jx Jx ATxxx jumped to 4S to hear 3 passes.

LHO led QH and dummy tabled,

xx

AKTxx

AQxxx

K

Remun is not the man of strip squeeze or crocodile coup.. but he is an expert in "co-operative coup", a term coined by himself to refer to impossible contracts that he makes with some help from defender; here it was in the form of the lead.

Seemingly hopeless contract of 4S was played with high confidence by Remun. The QH lead was won with the A in dummy and a low S was let run. LHO who won the trick, returned another H. The J in hand won the trick and R played A and low S, to notice Q and J of S crash. LHO returned a club. R won in dummy with the K and played AH discarding C from dummy. RHO was forced to ruff with the K, who returned a D. After finessing the Q, R discarded all the club losers on H and claimed the contract.

Bravo! Always nice to make impossible contracts in miserable trump fit.

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.

Sacrifice now? or later!

Study the deal below.



Q1) What will you bid in Prajwal's (akjq) seat?

Q2) Anyone wants bid 5H over West's 5C?

I paused a little long at that moment, then passed. East bid 6 in a flash. I took a little time and decided to sacrifice in 6H.
I lets analyze the various cases that were flashing in my mind that time.
5H is a winning bid

• if we push opponents into a hopeless slam, but this is counting too much on opponents, but we will study this option.
  
• (look at the vul) when 5C makes and 5H is <3>=3 imp save, rite?)

5H is a losing bid

• if we push opponents into slam which otherwise opponents may bid (and make it).
  
• if 5C dosen't have a play.
• if 5H is down more than 3.
  

(Are there any other cases? )
I (rightly?) jugeded that my hand falls into the 3rd category.

Too bad the jerk bid 6 anyways. Passed around to me, time to think again.
This time however, there are not that many possibilities. I quickly bid 6H.
The defence took their tricks. two black aces and a diamond ruff.
Just a 500 as opposed to their 6c which would have given them 1370.
My best save ever! Yippee. ;-)

Wait, there is one more interesting sutiation,
Q3) What will you call in my position with that holding? 4-7-1-1 ? Do you preempt?

PS:
It is not clear to me when and how junta realise that they might be pushing opponents into a game and so refrain from preempting. Most of these are in situations where one has to raise a preempt. Can someone please post about it?

--------------
Khuda Hafiz

Guthi

Vinoths BBO-table presence?

This deal came up on BBO when I was playing Vinoth. We were playing Polsih Club, with 2/1 style over 1M opening. (rebid non-forcing).

Scoring - IMPs; Red on white.

LHO as dealer passed and Vinoth opened 1S. I held
AT87 AK974 87 Kx
I responded 2H.

Q1) Playing 2NT as artificial raise with 4 trumps, do you think that should be used here? Since there is an outside source of tricks in Hearts, is it recommended to bid 2H (establishing a GF, but hiding the support)

Over partners rebid of 2S, I raised to 3S. I hope you will agree its the right bid. (2S; is our catch-all bid, doesn't deny extras, doesn't promise 6 carder) The partnership also agreed on playing 3NT as frivolous and cue bids as serious. The auction went. 1S-2H; 2S-3S; 4C - 4H; 5C* - 5S; 6S - end 4C was a cue bid, showing slam interest. 1st or 2nd round control. 4H is 2 of the top three honours in Hearts, denying 1st or 2nd round control in D. 5C - I understood it (rightly) as voidwood and responded (honestly) two key cards w/o the Q. Q2) Do you think the treatment of 5C as exclusion blackwood is good? Q3) Do you think in response to keycard ask, I should respond 2 with Queen, (lying about the Queen) because partner will expect only 3 card support from me ... etc Vinoth's holding was: KQ943 Q85 KT632 void

Yes, partner doesn't have any extras. infact, I think in terms of high cards he has a minimum. Q4) Do you think he can sort of upgrade, looking at his Q of Hearts? and bid 4C? ( playing serious cue bids) Q5) This is a general question, do you think its a good % to bid slams with one key card and the Q of trumps missing? on 8 and 9 card fits, in MPs and IMPS. Q6) Also, you might ask why opener did not bid 3D over 2H, we were taught to play crossing 2NT as showing extras ( atleast a King more than normal opening) Hence the D suit stayed buried. Do have any suggestions on how to handle these situations generally? ******************************

KQ943 Q85 KT632 void

AT87 AK974 97 K4

Our friendly opponent lead a D. Hearts and spades broke evenly too. so, did not pose a play problem.

******************************
All readers are encouraged share their views on this (blog needs some action?)

My views;

A1) 2NT is not cool. with a good 5 card suit, I prefer to bid it. Reserve 2NT for more balanced hands, 4432 and 4333(?)

A2) 5C as voidwood is cool. (and not 5-5)
A3) I think its cool if we lie about the Queen of trumps in this position.

A4) The 4C I think is not good. but then, had he bid 3NT/ 4S, I would have passed, and never bid the slam. So, it worked.
A5) I don't think in 8 card fits is a good idea at any vulnerability. in 9 card fits, I think slam should bid bid, especially when red. (Waiting for Ashok to give me the numbers associated with it ;) )

A6) Some one needs to detail full fundaes behind crossing 2NT barrier. Vinoth does is all the time with just 13 point hands. As he understands in, only sub minimum openings like this, should not cross 2NT.

Once he bid 3C after I made a 2/1 (1H-2D) holding x JTxxx Kx AKJxx. He wanted to show his good clubs.

(Post your answers as comments, I'll add them into the post later)

Adios
Guthi

******************************

JP said:

1. Personally, I would have made a 2N call to begin with, considering that all my values are controls. A 3C response showing shortness followed by 3H shows your hand quite well (whether you play it as a control bid or a good side suit).

In your particular auction, I agree with 3S. I am ok with 4C, but certainly not with 5C as voidwood. Vinoth is not strong enough to push for slam by himself.

2. I dont like 5C as voidwood as it seems to assume captaincy and does not have the flexibility that cue-bidding has in terms of involving both partners in the decision process. If you had a cue-bidding auction, you would have figured that you have two potential losers in diamonds and stopped short of slam (I think 5S is the right place to be).

3. I agree with 2 without Q. If I had a 5th spade I would have responded with Q. With a 9 card fit, it is less that 50% that you are going to drop the queen.

4. Yes, the Q of H is an awesome card to have.

5. No. Thats precisely why the queen of trumps is included in keycard asking responses. It is anti-percentage to bid slams missing a keycard and the Q of trumps, when you don't have a 10 card fit.

6. I like to play anything more than 2N to show extras (after a 2 over 1 game forcing response), even while playing precision with 11-15 HCP openers. It really helps to limit the hand. Its fine to not show the diamond holding. Going with the philosophy of precision, opener shows his point range as narrowly as possible within the first two bids.

Cheers,
JP.


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Manoj (joemanjo) said:

1) NO. If your suit were say Qxxxx or Kxxxx where your values are primarily outside that suit, then you may employ 2N in lieu of 2H. Here, 2H shows a real source of tricks and concentration of values.


2) Usually, to avoid confusion, direct jumps to 5 level are used as EKCB. What is direct jump to 5C over 3S? What does it mean if partner does not use the direct jump but goes slow? He certainly expected your 4H cue over his 4C (perhaps wanted to hear 4D but you could not oblige), so in effect he has not gained any valuable information after 3S where he could not have employed a direct jump to 5C as RKC. Is it good?

3) When you know with assurance that your partnership has ten trumps, but your partner may not know that, you can lie about the Queen. What is your partnerships expected rebid after 1S-2H with KJTxxx, Qx, AKxxx, - or Kxxxxxx, xx, AKQx, - or KQJxxxx, xx, AQxx, - Would you rebid 2S with both these? If so, then the 5C bid shows a void in partners hand and is more gainfully employed to find out secondary controls needed for GS.

4) Yes and No. Not enough for a serious slam try. Not even enough for courtesy cues from his side.

5) Nope. It is only in 10 card fits.

6) I will question not about 3D but the more obvious 3H. Both of you need to reevaluate your hand after each round of bidding. After 1S-2H, partner can give near full value for his hand. I would reevaluate this hand at about 13 hcp. Still not enough to bid 3D.

Some competitive bidding gadgets.

In preparation for Beijing, our bidding knowledge has improved for sure.
I'm posting here about some of them. There are many minor variations/adjustments made by many partnerships, I'm posting the ones SP and I have agreed upon.

Meckwell transfers.

It applies in these situations:
1M -(x) - bid
Yes, only one situation! Lets look in detail in this situation 1S-(X)-bid

• 1NT is transfer to clubs. 5+Cs at least
  
• 2C is transfer to diamonds. 5+Ds at least
  
• 2D is transfer to hearts. 5+Hs at least
  
• 2H is a good 3-card raise. 7-9 points
• 2S is a bad 3 card raise. 4-6 points
• 2NT is a good raise with 4 cards.
  
• 3C, 3D, 3H (all jump shifts and double jump shifts) are fit showing, with 4 card support at least and ability to play at that level.

Some interesting continuations are possible after this convention. Of course the opener can reject the transfer depending on his hand - if he has say a two-suiter or a single suiter. If the 1M bidder completes the transfer into a new suit, return to the M by responder now will be 7-9 points and 3 card support; with 5 cards in the shown suit. Transfer and 3M is same but 10-11 points. This can be treated like a game try bid. This can apply by a passed hand too (Drury of any kind is off on interference) However we cannot play Bergen raises playing fit showing jumps in competition.
Over 1H-(X)-bid, logical changes shall apply, (2S can be used as splinter?) 1S is natural, forcing and tends to show good 5 cards (sitting over the doubler)

There is a variation of this given in WJ2005. In that 2C/D/H are natural, NF. But 1NT is a good raise ( probably giving opener to make game tries) and 2M is a weak raise. Rest are the same as given above.

One additional case where these can be played is when the 1M was over-called naturally and opponent makes a negative double.

This concept can be extended to many other situations. For instance, over opponents 3-level major preempts, say your are playing the common artificial responses, (4m is 5+m and 5+OM and game forcing). They can be applied when partner opens 1C/D (both precision) (not really sure if playing standard it will apply) , making the necessary corrections for playing strength and hcp.

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Cheers
Guthi

India vs Italy in China

Date: 10th Oct 2008 - Friday
Venue: Beijing International Conventional center.
Focus: U-26 team swiss round 15 of 17: India vs Italy.
India's aim: To retain the last position.

Players: Guthi and SP in Open Room
Dashu and Arijit in Closed room ( Vinoth & Karan were supposed to play - but we were
misinformed.)

You can find our results here.

I shall post about what happened in the first two deals here, others will follow. Most deals are intersting. A cute Italian girl who was my screen mate. Lets call her - cig and her partner aig (amorphous Italian guy?)


Board-1

Full credit to SP for finding a diamond switch at trick 2. ( little credit to Guthi for not stupidly leading Ace of spades?)

The auction.

P - P - 2S - X
4S* - X - End.

Q1) Do you agree with the first Dbl by West? (2S is a regular weak bid)
Q2) after winning the first heart with the Jack, what do you shift to?
Q3) do you agree with the 4S by north?

A1) Its fine by HCP count, and the rule that there is 3 card support for other suits, such auctions run into trouble w/o 4 cards in the other-M. What say? Another option is a 2NT overcall, especially because others have passed.
My order of preference is this X>2NT>Pass>3D. What is yours?

A2)
Play went: Heart to Jack; low D - Q - Ace - ruff; club A; club Q - discard H; spade A; low spade.
cig had no way of goin to dummy now. ended up losing 1S+1H+2D+1C.
I think declarer can hold the contract to -1 on this defence by cross ruffing the minors suits - losing 2S+2H only.

Full credit to SP for finding a diamond switch at trick 2. ( little credit to Guthi for not stupidly leading Ace of spades? Like in the other table?) removing the entry to the table incase clubs get set up. He did not cash Heart Ace thinking it could get ruffed - placing me with 4Hs - which is the right thing to do.

I can easily imagine what happened at the other table: spade Ace, heart shift, ruff the thrid heart, spade king, club to Q, then Ace, ruff one, ruffing finesse of D gives a total of 10 tricks.

Correction: Vinoth points out that after diamond switch the contract can be made peacefully by crossruffing. So it turns SP has to switch to a spade at trick two - stealing the first 4 tricks. It follows that the contract is cold after the lead of Spade Ace.

A3)
The toughest question? I wonder what is 3C in many juntas agreements ( in 2S-(X)-3C! )
by an unpassed hand its obly forcing, by a passed hand should it be fit showing? as in raise to 3S with values-length in clubs. 4C is surely that by a passed/unpassed hand. This will help partner to decide if its worth a save in 4S - if opps bid 4H of course.

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Board-2

Bidding was very intersting here.
1D* - 1S - 2C - 2S
P - P - 2NT* - End

1D was precision. 2NT was some kind of scrambling showing minors, denying 4 carder heart(?) with a 4 carder heart I would double. SP passed it to play.
I managed to get 1S+4H+1D+1C for down 1. I don't see any line to make it on low spade lead. Opps will run with 4 spades, 1 club and 1 diamond.


Q1) Do you open Easts hand K9xx;AKxx;J8xx;T

A1) I agree with opening a 2.5 trick hand which has both majors. Yes, even in standard.

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Cheers
Guthi