Our website is www.pattayabridge.com                           Club News Sheet – No. 461

Our blogsite is www.pattayabridge.wordpress.com                                 

My mobile phone number is 083 6066880                                                              18th Sept 2011

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

My Windows Live Messenger is tj_quested@hotmail.com

 

Mon 12th        1st   Bob S & Sigurd                   64%            2nd  Bengt D & Hans V        56%
Wed 14th        1st   Espen & Jan                         61%            2nd  Phil & Kenneth              57%
Fri 16th           1st  Fred & Helge                       56%            2nd Niels & Niclas                55%

Bidding Quiz          Standard American (short ♣) bidding is assumed unless otherwise stated.

Hand A           Hand B           With Hand A you open 1♥ and partner bids 4NT, what
                                                                do you bid?
♠ -                    ♠ K43                                           
♥ QJ954          ♥ 543               With Hand B it’s favourable vulnerability. Partner opens 2♠,
♦ A73               ♦ J10874          what do you bid?         
♣ KQ1054      ♣ 85                                             

Hand C           Hand D           With Hand C partner opens 1♥, what do you bid?

♠ AQ7             ♠ K962
♥ AK86           ♥ 9764             With Hand D LHO opens 1♦ and partner overcalls 1♥.
♦ KQ9              ♦ QJ9               RHO bids 1♠, what do you bid?
♣ A32             ♣ A7                                            
                                                             
Current club championship standings

 

Gold Cup = Best 30

Silver Plate = Best 10

Bronze Medal = Best 5

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

1822.2 Hans Vikman
1812.8 Janne Roos
1799.8 Bob Short
1766.0 Sigurd Zahl
1761.0 Paul Quodomine
1741.5 Gerard Hardy
1735.5 Derek Tyms
1725.0 Tomas Wikman
1722.5 Paul Scully
1718.0 Bob Pelletier

647.4 Hans Vikman
643.5 Bob Short
639.8 Per Andersson
640.2 Paul Quodomine
631.1 Janne Roos
624.0 Lars Broman
619.5 Sigurd Zahl
619.4 Paul Scully
618.3 Jan v Koss
617.9 Gerard Hardy

335.4 Bob Short
332.2 Per Andersson
329.9 Hans Vikman
325.3 Paul Scully
321.9= Gerard Hardy
321.9= Derek Tyms
321.7 Lars Broman
320.4 Janne Roos
319.9 Dave Hurst
319.7 Niels Steino

 

Dave’s Column

♠ A43                    N                                       Bidding          
♥ 3                     W    E                                    West           North          East           South     
♦ AK8532             S                                        1♦                1♥               1♠              3♥
♣ 943                                                             pass             4♥               all pass         
                        ♠ K962                                   
                        ♥ 9764              You are West, defending 4♥. Partner leads the ♦10 which you
                        ♦ QJ9                win with the ♦K. You can see three defensive tricks, where is
                        ♣ A7                 the fourth trick to set the contract to come from? Plan the defense.


Dave’s Column Answer                     Board 12 from Wednesday 14th Sept. 
     
Dealer:             ♠ J                                                 Bidding            
East                 ♥ AKJ82                                       West          North         East           South(D)
Love all            ♦ 76                                               1♦              1♥              1♠              3♥     (1)
                        ♣ KQJ62                                       pass           4♥              all pass      
                                                                             
♠ A43                    N             ♠ Q10875               
♥ 3                     W    E          ♥ Q105                  
♦ AK8532             S              ♦ 104                
♣ 943                                    ♣ 1085               
                        ♠ K962                                   
                        ♥ 9764                                    
                        ♦ QJ9                                      
                        ♣ A7                                      

  1. What did you bid with this South Hand D in this week’s quiz? I don’t like this bid from

Dave’s book as I play it as pre-emptive. This hand is well worth a sound raise to 3♥ and the
way to bid that is to use the Unassuming Cuebid. So bid 2♦.
                                                                       
Anyway, onto the play. East leads the ♦10 to the ♦J, ♦K and ♦7. West can see three
defensive tricks, where is the fourth trick to set the contract to come from? Plan the defense.

West has three tricks, two high ♦’s and the ♠A. As long as East has ♥Jxx or better, a third ♦
after cashing the ♦A will promote a trump trick for East.
This is true, but there is a problem. If West does return a third ♦, North can discard a ♠
(loser on loser). To prevent this, West must cash the ♠A before leading the third ♦.


Responding to RKCB with a void                     Board 27 from Wednesday 14th  

There were actually two examples of this last week, here’s one.

Dealer:             ♠ 65432                                         Table A
South               ♥ 102                                             West(A)    North         East(C)      South
Love all            ♦ J1085                                          -                 -                 -                 pass
                        ♣ 96                                              1♥              pass           4NT (1)      pass
                                                                              5♦     (2)     pass           6♥              all pass
♠ -                          N             ♠ AQ7                            
♥ QJ954            W    E          ♥ AK86                   Possible Auction
♦ A73                      S              ♦ KQ9                    West(A)    North         East(C)      South
♣ KQ1054                             ♣ A32                     -                 -                 -                 pass
                        ♠ KJ1098                                      1♥              pass           2NT (1)      pass
                        ♥ J93                                             3♠    (3)      pass           4NT (4)      pass
                        ♦ 642                                             6♥    (5)      pass           7♥    (6)      all pass
                        ♣ J87                                            
                                                                                                        

Table A:    (1)  What did you bid with this East hand C in this week’s quiz? Jumping to 4NT is
                        hardly ever sensible, but I believe that that was the bid chosen by most.
                 (2)  What did you bid with this West hand A in this week’s quiz? 5♦ shows one keycard,
                        but this response says nothing about the void.
Table B:     (1)  Jacoby 2NT, setting ♥’s as trumps. This is much better than an immediate 4NT
                        in answer to question C.
                  (3)  ♠ shortage (singleton or void).
                  (4)  Now is the time for RKCB, having found out more about partner’s hand. You
                        could cuebid first if you wish.
                  (5)  One keycard and a void above the trump suit. (Using RKCB void responses as
                        recommended by Eddie Kantar). This is my answer to question A.
                  (6)  East knows that partner has a ♠ void and so the ♠KJ are missing. That is of no
                        consequence to East and there are at most two more points missing and so the
                        grand slam is easily odds-on.
                         
The bottom lines:

Do not jump into Blackwood if you have more constructive bids available that may find out more
about partner’s hand.

With this actual deal, the void responses were actually not necessary as long as East responded
with the Jacoby 2NT and found out about the ♠ shortage; knowing that West has
at most one ♠ is good enough to go for the grand.

Anytime that a convention is invented, there is always somebody who wants to change it.
Eddie Kantar is the World’s acknowledged expert on Roman Keycard Blackwood and I
use his responses as below. But the Scandinavians, for some unknown reason, have inverted
the meanings. I see no reason to change the Kantar responses.

Eddie Kantar’s RKCB void responses

5NT                                   =    2 (or 4) keycards with a useful void.
6 of a suit below trumps      =    1 (or 3) keycards with a void in the suit bid.
6 of the trump suit               =    1 (or 3) keycards with a void in a suit above the trump suit.


Raise the pre-empt to the max IMMEDIATELY
              Board 9 from Friday 16h 

Dealer:             ♠ QJ8762                                      Table A
North               ♥ 82                                               West          North         East           South(B)
E-W vul           ♦ A65                                            -                 2♠              pass           pass  (1)
                        ♣ K4                                             3♥              pass           4♥              4♠     (2)
                                                                              Pass           pass           dbl             all pass
♠ 95                       N             ♠ A10                     
♥ AK976           W    E          ♥ QJ10                    Table B
♦ KQ                     S              ♦ 932                       West          North         East           South(B)
♣ Q973                                  ♣ AJ1062               -                 2♠              pass           4♠     (1)
                        ♠ K43                                            pass (3)      pass           pass (4)
                        ♥ 543                                            
                        ♦ J10874                                 
                        ♣ 85                                             

Table A:    (1)  What did you bid with this South hand B in this week’s quiz? This pass is a bit
                        feeble and 3♠, as chosen at another table is better (but not best!).
                 (2)  South judges (correctly) that E-W will make game easily and that at this
                        vulnerability 4♠ doubled may be a good save.
Table B:     (1)  This is my answer to question B. You know that the opponents have an easy
                        game (slam even!) and you are prepared to sacrifice in 4♠ - so bid it NOW. The
                        added advantage of bidding game now is that nobody but you knows what is
                        going on; you may have a hand like this or you may have a very strong hand.
                  (3) West has no idea that partner has a decent hand (and South does not) and so is
                        obviously reluctant to bid.
                  (4)  East has no idea that partner has a good hand (and South does not) and so is
                         obviously reluctant to bid.
                   
The bottom lines:

Raising partner’s two bid opening to game is a double edged sword; it may be strong or weak.
There is no problem with this ambiguity as you are the captain and partner will not bid again.

Always raise partner’s pre-empt immediately and to the maximum.

Raising a pre-empt (or passing) and then raising the pre-empt later allows the opponents to
gauge strength and you will get doubled if the opponents think that that is the correct option.

And what happened at our club? 4♥+1(W), 4♠*-3 twice, 4♠-4.

 

Bidding Quiz Answers  

Hand A:   6♥, showing one keycard and a ♠ void (assuming you play Eddie Kantar’s RKCB
                   void responses).
Hand B:    4♠. Bid with conviction and the opponents may well not bid! You know they have
                  a vulnerable game so pre-empt now to the limit (and the opponents don’t even
                  know it’s a pre-emptive raise). Partner will not bid again of course.
Hand C:   2NT (Jacoby 2NT). An immediate 4NT RKCB is premature.
Hand D:   2♦, an Unassuming Cuebid showing a sound raise to 3♥ (or better). A 3♥ bid here
                  is best played as pre-emptive.