Our website is www.pattayabridge.com                             Club News Sheet – No. 317

Our blogsite is www.pattayabridge.wordpress.com                                 

My home phone is 038 422924 and my mobile number is 083 6066880              7th Dec 2008

It is best to use my home number to contact me unless I am at the bridge club.

My e-mail is terry@pattayabridge.com or pattayabridge@yahoo.com

My MSN messenger ID is tj_quested@hotmail.com

       
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Mon 1st        N-S     1st  Jeremy & Sally               61%       2nd    Jean-Charles & Richard    55%

                    E-W     1st   Asmund & Knut N         64%       2nd    Derek & Gerard               56%

Wed 3rd        N-S     1st  Hans & Lars B               67%       2nd    Arne & Svein                   57%

                    E-W     1st   Ivy & Terry                    62%       2nd    Agne & Britta                   60%

Fri 5th                       1st  Lars B & Jean                60%       2nd    Lars G & Lennart             57%

 

 

Bidding Quiz                    Standard American bidding is assumed unless otherwise stated.

 

Hand A           Hand B           With Hand A ’s are agrees and partner bids 4NT (RKCB),

what do you bid?

KJ87            A1042

KQ2             J                   With Hand B it’s favourable vulnerability. LHO opens 1and

AKQ1096    J10976         RHO bids 1. LHO raises to 2 and this is passed to you, what

-                   J72               do you do?

 

Hand C           Hand D           What do you open with Hand C?

 

-                   -

9                   9                   What do you open with Hand D?

AKQ86        AKQJ10

AK87543     AKQJ543

 

Hand E            Hand F            With Hand E RHO opens 1, what do you bid?

 

K754            J9

AKQ4          AK3             With Hand F you open 1 and partner responds 1,

J5                  A6                what do you bid?

J92               AK10652                                                    

                       

   

     
 
     
Ron Klinger web site
     

                                         

Bidding Sequence Quiz

 

G     1      pass     3    pass       You are playing RKCB

4NT   pass     5NT/6/6    What is a 5NT, 6 or 6 response?       

H     1      pass     3    pass       You are playing RKCB

5                                       What is the 5 bid?

J      1     pass     1    pass      

2NT                                     How many ’s does opener promise? 2,3,4 or more?

K     1     pass     1    pass      

3NT                                     What sort of hand does 3NT show?

L      4NT                                     What does a 4NT opening bid mean?

 


Play of the suit                                                        Board 3 from Monday 1st    

 

I was asked how to play the suit on this deal, and what the odds are of dropping a singleton or doubleton honour if you play the A first. Now I do not pretend to be an expert on play, but I said that I would play the 9 from dummy and run it if not covered. If this loses, I re-enter dummy and finesse again.

 

Dealer:             KQ2                                           West          North         East          South

South               Q92                                            -                 -                 -               pass

E-W vul           QJ87                                          pass           pass           1            pass

                        1064                                          2              pass           3    (1)    pass

                                                                              4    (2)      all pass

9873                   N             AJ1065                

A10                W    E          J863               (1)  A help suit game try, which can also be      

K104                  S              5                           natural.

9875                                  AKQ              (2)  With A10 and 4 trumps, accepting is fine.

                        4                                          

K754                  South apparently led the A and switched to a , declarer 

A9632                was reluctant to use up his A entry and so played the A.

J32                     Is this a reasonable play of the suit?

.

I put the cards into the Suit Play Calculator on the website, and it ran the 9. If this lost it then re-entered dummy and finessed again. I put the missing cards into the Suit Split Calculator on the website and it came up with the table below. The problem with this recommended line is that there is only one quick entry to dummy, but there is a second with a ruff and a can be pitched from hand on the K before taking the 2nd finesse.

 

No

W

E

Probability

Times

Total

1

-

kqxx

4.783

1

4.783

2

x

kqx

6.217

2

12.435

3

xx

kq

6.783

1

6.783

4

q

kxx

6.217

1

6.217

5

qx

kx

6.783

2

13.565

6

qxx

k

6.217

1

6.217

7

k

qxx

6.217

1

6.217

8

kx

qx

6.783

2

13.565

9

kxx

q

6.217

1

6.217

10

kq

xx

6.783

1

6.783

11

kqx

x

6.217

2

12.435

12

kqxx

-

4.783

1

4.783

 

And what happened? Three pairs were in 4, this declarer went -1 and the other two made the contract. The other three pairs were in 3 with just one making 10 tricks.


(RKC) Blackwood with a void                             Board 28 from Monday 1st

 

One pair ended up in an undignified final contract of 6NT on these unsuitable (for NT) hands. I won’t give full auctions; but concentrate on the situation when ’s have been agreed, both North and South are in a game-forcing auction, that North has shown very good ’s and 4 ’s and that South has shown ’s and values in ’s and that the last bid was 3 before the other player uses RKCB. I am not necessarily suggesting that these are the best bidding sequences, but am using the deal to demonstrate what to do with a useful void in a Blackwood situation. I have interchanged the J and Q and the Q and 10 from the actual deal for convenience/clarity.

 

Dealer:             KJ87                                          Option A: - South asks

West                KQ2                                           West          North(A)    East          South

N-S vul            AKQ1096                                                3              pass         4NT

                        -                                                 pass           5NT   (1)    pass         7    (2)

all pass

643                     N             109                      

65                   W    E          109743                Option B: - South asks

J854                    S              2                          West          North(B)    East          South

10974                                AKQ87                                                        3

                        AQ52                                         pass           5   (3)      pass         5NT (4)

AJ8                                           pass           7              all pass

73                                             

J653                                          

               

Option A:   (1)  What did you bid with this North hand A in this week’s quiz? If you have no agreement about how to show a useful void then it’s best to bid normally, so 5, showing two keycards without the Q. However, with a useful void it’s usually best to show it. What you do not do is indicate it as an additional ace! I play that 5NT here shows 2 (or 4) keycards and a useful void.

                  (2)  South knows (from previous bidding) that the void is ’s and so bids the grand.

Option B:   (3)  There are options here, but normal RKCB is a terrible bid with a void. If you want to find out about keycards, then a jump to five of a suit (when 4NT would be RKCB) is Exclusion RKCB – showing a void in the suit bid and asking for keycards outside of that suit.

(4)  2 keycards plus the Q – the same steps as normal RKCB but obviously one bid higher here as 5 was used to ask instead of 4NT.

 

And what happened? Two pairs bid the excellent 7, there were various other contracts such as 6, 5, 4 and 6NT-4.

The bottom lines: -

-         It’s up to your partnership if you want to show useful voids after RKCB, but if you do – then do NOT do so by indicating an extra ace.

-         The RKCB responses to show a void are on the website:

      conventions > section 1 > RKCB.

-     Exclusion RKCB is also briefly described on the website on the conventions main page.


Balancing                                                              Board 12 from Wednesday 3rd 

 

When the opponents have found a fit and stop bidding at the two level, then it’s usually right to make a noise in the pass-out seat.

 

Dealer:             J9                                               Table A

West                Q9853                                        West          North         East(B)     South

N-S vul            KQ42                                        pass           pass           pass         1

                        54                                              pass           1              pass         2

pass           pass           pass (1)

Q653                  N             A1042                 

K62                W    E          J                          Table B

85                       S              J10976                 West          North         East(B)     South

AQ63                                 J72                       pass           pass           pass         1

                        K87                                            pass           1              pass         2

A1074                                       pass           pass           dbl   (1)    pass

A2                                             2              3    (2)      3    (3)    all pass

K1098                                      

               

Table A:     (1)  What did you bid with this East hand B in this week’s quiz? Virtually everybody in the room lazily passed here, presumably hoping that there was a bad split for declarer.

Option B:   (1)  This East (and I believe two others) found this double, the answer to question B – it’s usually best not to let the opponents play in a known fit at the two level, especially if you are non-vulnerable.

(2)   This is totally correct – North has one more trump than already shown and with a presumed 9-card fit should compete to the 9 trick level.

(3)   East knows that it’s probably only an 8-card fit, but with a singleton it should play well and being non-vulnerable it’s quite acceptable to go one above the level of The Law.

 

And what happened? The cards lay well for E-W and 3 made exactly for the E-W top. The two other East’s who competed with a double failed to bid on over the opponents’ 3 and all of the N-S’s who bid 2 or 3 made 9 tricks except for one who somehow made 10 tricks. The bottom lines: -

-         If the opponents have found a fit and stop bidding at the two-level, then it’s usually best to compete.

-     Obey The Law in competitive auctions. And if you feel that the opponents are going to make their contract, then you can usually safely bid one more than The Law dictates if you are non-vulnerable.

 

Dave’s Column                   Here is Dave’s input involving the bidding.

 

North               South                       You are South, declarer in 6.

AQ8             KJ964                  Would you prefer to be in 6?           

KQ1053       A74                      West leads the 4 which East wins with the A and

Q9                AKJ5                    returns a . You ruff and play a to dummy’s A,

1062            Q                         but East discards a . How do you continue?

Now would you prefer to be in 6?


Dave’s Column answer                      Board 23 from Wednesday 4th  

     

Dealer:             AQ8                                           West          North         East            South

South               KQ1053                                     -                 -                 -                 1

Both vul            Q9                                              pass           2    (1)      pass           3

                        1062                                          pass           4    (2)      pass           4NT (3)

pass           5    (4)      pass           5    (5)

107532               N             -                          pass           6    (6)      pass           6

J92               W      E          86                        all pass

74                       S              108632          

K84                                   AJ9753          (1)  Game forcing, playing 2/1

                        KJ964                                  (2)  Setting ’s as trumps and showing a minimum

A74                                           (fast arrival).

AKJ5                                   (3)  RKCB with ’s as trumps

Q                                         (4)  One keycard

(5)   Do you have the Q?

(6)   Yes, and the K (but not a cheaper king)

 

The expert South worked out that he could make the contract if West had started out with exactly 5323 distribution.

He cashed three tricks and dummy’s Q, played a to his A and led the K. If West had ruffed, declarer would have over-ruffed with dummy, trumped the 10 in his hand and taken the last three tricks with a high crossruff. So West discarded his K. But South threw dummy’s 10 and continued with the J from hand. West ruffed perforce, dummy over-ruffed and declarer had the rest with high trumps.

In theory, 6 is worse than 6, and here a lot worse if East is clairvoyant and desperate to get his name in the news-sheet. Then he would have led the 9 (a Lavinthal signal), which West would win with the K and shift to a for the lethal ruff.

 

Terry’s Comment. Unfortunately the author does not say why 6 is in theory better. I would have thought that 6 is better as you can then take the ruff in the short trump hand.

 

And what happened at the Pattaya Bridge Club? 6+1, 6= 3 times, 6-2, 4+3, 4+2, 6= and 4+2.

 

 

Dave’s 2nd Column   Here is Dave’s 2nd input involving a defensive play.

 

Dealer:             A96                                            West          North         East            South

East                  J63                                             -                 -                 2    (1)      pass

E-W vul           Q10653                                     3              pass           3              pass

                        52                                              4              pass           4NT           pass    

5              pass           6              all pass

J102                   N                   (1) Strong    

104                 W    E               

AK8742             S                   You are North, defending 6. Partner leads the 5 and dummy

43                                            plays low, which do you play?  


Dave’s 2nd Column answer              Board 22 from Wednesday 3rd  

     

Dealer:             A96                                            West          North         East            South

East                  J63                                             -                 -                 2    (1)     pass

E-W vul           Q10653                                     3              pass           3              pass

                        52                                              4              pass           5             pass

5              dbl   (2)      5              all pass

J102                   N             KQ8              

104                 W    E          AKQ972        (1)  Playing Benjamin – their strongest bid.

AK8742             S              -                     (2)  What a silly double! Do you really want a

43                                      AKQ10                lead?

                        7543                                    

85                                        This was the bidding at out table. Because of the

J9                                         double South led a and 12 tricks were made.

J9876                                  

 

Let’s suppose that North does not double a bid, then there are four suits for South to choose from for the opening lead. And none is totally obvious.

With a lead, declarer gets a free finesse and makes the contract comfortably. After drawing trumps he leads a low to the J and if the opposition do not take their A he actually makes 13 tricks.

A lead also makes things easy, allowing South to discard the 10 and claim 12 tricks.

With a lead declarer plays the J from dummy and is ensured of a entry to the ’s for the discard of the 10.

The best lead for the defence is a trump, but North must be alert and forget about ‘third hand plays high’. If he goes up with the J then declarer has the 10 as an entry to the A for a discard. North must play a low to the first trick, keeping the J over dummy’s 10, and declarer is  then held to 11 tricks. Having got this right, North also has to stay alert and duck both the K and Q when declarer plays them.

 

And what happened at the Pattaya Bridge Club? 6NT=, 6=, 6-1, 4NT+2, 5+1, 4+2 three times and 6-3.

     


A Huge two-suited hand                                      Board 3 from Friday 3rd 

 

Dealer:             A9862                                        Table A

South               72                                               West(E)     North         East          South(C)

E-W vul           10972                                         -                 -                 -               1   (1)

                        Q6                                             2   (2)      pass           2            3    (3)

3              4              pass         5    (4)

K754                  N             QJ103                  dbl             all pass

AKQ4            W    E          J108653             

J5                        S              43                        Table B

J92                                     10                        West          North         East          South(C)

                        -                                                 -                 -                 -               2   (1)

9                                                pass           2              pass         3

AKQ86                                     pass           3              pass         4

AK87543                                   pass           5              pass         6

all pass

 

Table C

West          North         East          South(C)

-                 -                 -               4NT (1)

pass           5    (5)      pass         6    (6)

all pass      

               

Table A:     (1)  What did you open with this South hand C in this week’s quiz? It has 11 playing tricks and so a strong 2 is reasonable; but with a void 1 will not get passed out and I prefer this slow approach.

(2)   What did you bid with this West hand E in this week’s quiz? This West chose a Michaels Cue Bid, showing the majors. But I need at least 9 cards in the majors and I will also only bid Michaels if weak or very strong. With this hand I would pass as double should also be playable in ’s.

(3)   A reverse and obviously forcing and very strong.

(4)   With 11 playing tricks and support from partner this is a bit feeble. Think about it; partner presumably has 4+ ’s and so now look at the suit. If partner has 3+ ’s then the suit should run and if partner has less you should be able to ruff them good. So there should be 12 tricks or 13 if partner has the A (or they don’t lead a ♥).

Table B:     (1)  This South decided to open 2, Ok if that’s your style.

Table C:     (1)  Now this is an interesting opening! What does it (sequence L) mean? “Standard” is that it asks for the suit of partner’s ace (if he has one). It’s quite a sensible bid although I would like the minor suits to be more solid, like Hand D which is a classic 4NT opener.

(5)   North did not know the meaning of the bid and so answered to Blackwood.

(6)   Apparently South had a different meaning for his 4NT bid – ‘bid your best minor’. I’ve never heard of this meaning but it luckily got to the correct contract played by the correct hand (no A lead).

 

And what happened? 6**+1, 6+1, 6= twice, 5*+1 and 5+1.  


The bottom lines: -

-         This South hand has enormous playing strength and should make slam opposite most dummies. If you take it slowly and find that partner has support then you should reach 6 easily.

 

 

The 4NT opening

 

-                         The 4NT opening uses up a lot of bidding space and needs to be very

9                         specific. The normally accepted use of the bid is asking partner to bid

AKQJ10            the suit of his ace if he has one.

AKQJ543                           

Responses are 5 = no ace; 5///6 = that ace; 5NT = two aces.

 

A 4NT opener usually has two aces, a void, and one or two solid suits with just one singleton outside loser.

This hand D is typical. Open 4NT; if partner responds 5 then bid 7; if partner responds 5 or 5 then bid 6; if partner responds 5NT then bid 7NT.

 

 

 The Club Championships

Here are the latest standings in the club competitions.

 

 

Gold Cup = Best 30

Silver Plate = Best 10

Bronze Medal = Best 5

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

 

1887.5 Hans Vikman

1846.0 Sally Watson

1843.9 Dave Cutler

1836.8 Lewis Berg

1825.1 Janne Roos

1812.1 Lars Gustafsson

1803.9 Bob Pelletier

1790.3 Ivy Schlageter

1727.5 Jan v Koss

 

675.2 Hans Vikman

663.6 Sally Watson

661.8 Dave Cutler

661.1 Jeremy Watson

653.4 Lewis Berg

651.0 Lars Gustafsson

643.6 Ivy Schlageter

642.9 Janne Roos

640.6 Derek & Gerard

639.0 Tomas Wikman

 

 

347.2 Hans Vikman

342.3 Dave Cutler

341.1 Jeremy Watson

341.1 Sally Watson

339.7 Lars Gustafsson

335.8 Lewis Berg 

335.3 Ivy Schlageter

329.9 Derek & Gerard

327.4 Tomas Wikman

326.2 Bob Pelletier

 


Chicken!                                                               Board 19 from Friday 3rd 

 

There was a humorous post-mortem after the end of play at table A. Somebody called North ‘chicken’ for bidding only 2NT at (3). North said that South was chicken for not biding 3NT when holding the ‘important’ Q. So who really was the chicken? My opinions follow: -

 

Dealer:             J9                                               Table A

South               AK3                                           West          North(F)    East          South

E-W vul           A6                                             -                 -                 -               pass

                        AK10652                                   pass           1             pass (1)    1    (2) 

pass           2NT   (3)    pass         pass (4)

A4                      N             KQ108                 pass

8654               W    E          QJ7                    

9872                   S              KQ10                  Table B

743                                    J98                       West          North(F)    East          South

                        76532                                         -                 -                 -               pass

1092                                          pass           1             pass (1)    1    (2)

J543                                          pass           3NT   (3)    all pass    

Q                                              

 

Table A:     (1)  This hand, with great intermediates, is just about worth a 1NT opener; but with no stop pass now is best; one player bid 1NT and went -3 for 300 for a near bottom.

(2)   It’s a matter of partnership style if you bid or pass in a situation like this, I too would bid 1.

(3)   What did you bid with this North hand F in this week’s quiz? This 2NT shows 18-19 and is an underbid in my opinion. Another popular (3 time choice) bid was 3, which I also think is an underbid. I would bid as table B.

(4)   Pretty obvious with just 4 points.

Table B:     (3)  This North found the best bid, 3NT shows a good hand with a good long minor.

 

And what happened? 3NT=, 2NT+1, 3+1, 3= twice and 2NT (by East) -3.

 

At Table A somebody suggested that North should have bid 3NT at (3). North dismissed this opinion and said that South should have raised to 3NT because he had the Q. What’s more, I think that North was actually being serious!! This is total nonsense of course; South has scraped up a bid on 4 points and has no reason to know that partner has a good 6-card suit (indeed, the 2NT rebid denies this). North could easily have a 3433 19 count and a raise to 3NT by South would be preposterous. 3NT is lucky to come home of course (losing just 4 tricks when the ’s break 3-3), but North should bid it once South has responded.

The bottom lines: -

-     With a good hand and a good long minor, rebid 3NT rather than 2NT.

 


Bidding Quiz Answers

 

Hand A:    5NT. 5 is the normal response, but there is a way to show a useful void and the recommended method is that 5NT shows 2 or 4 keycards and a 6-level bid shows 1 or 3 keycards (both with a useful void of course).

Hand B:    Double. The opponents have found a fit and have stopped biding at the two level. So compete; you too probably have a fit.

Hand C:    1 or 2. I note that one player opened 1 and then jumped in ’s – this is wrong as it lies about the distribution of the minor suits. The hand has 17 HCPs and 11 playing tricks and easily qualifies for 2, but I personally prefer to bid naturally with two-suiters like this and I would open 1.

Hand D:    4NT. Obviously 2 is reasonable, but this is a rare example of the 4NT opening bid – it asks partner to bid the suit of his ace. If partner has the A you bid 7. If partner has no ace or the useless A you bid 6and if partner has two aces you bid 7NT.

Hand E:    Pass. I don’t like a 2 Michaels cue bid for two reasons: (a) it’s not the correct strength (either preemptive or very strong), and (b) I require 9-10 cards in the majors. So double? I don’t like this with a doubleton . I would pass but would not argue with 1 if you sometimes overcall with good 4-card suits.

Hand F:     3NT. With a 6-card minor headed by the AK, this hand is far too good for a non-forcing 3 or 2NT. AK10xxx is NOT 7 points, it is far, far more. Any bid other than 3NT is feeble.

 

Bidding Sequence Answers

 

G     1      pass     3    pass       (a)  5NT = two keycards and a useful void.

4NT   pass     5NT/6/6    (b)  6 = 1 or 3 keycards and a void

(c)  6 = 1 or 3 keycards and a void in a suit higher ranking than trumps, so in this case a void.

H     1      pass     3    pass       5 is Exclusion RKCB, asking for keycards outside the suit,

5                                       opener has a good hand with a void.

J      1     pass     1    pass       Opener may well have just 3 ’s (3433). He cannot have just

2NT                                     two as he would then have 4 ’s. He may have 4+ but has not promised anything other than 3+ and 18-19 points.

K     1     pass     1    pass       3NT shows a good hand with a good long suit (or possibly

3NT                                     a 1444 or similar hand with 20+ or so points).

L      4NT                                     A 4NT opening asks partner for the suit of his ace, if he has one.

       

 Ron Klinger web site