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