Our website is www.pattayabridge.com Club News Sheet – No. 273

Our blogsite is www.pattayabridge.wordpress.com

My home phone is 038 422924 and my mobile number is 083 6066880 3^rd Feb 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 28^th N-S 1^st Hans V & Lars G 62% 2^nd Dave & Holger 60%

E-W 1^st Kees Pr. & Paul Sav. 58% 2^nd Agne & britta 55%

Wed 30^th N-S 1^st Olefur & Stefan = Sally & Charlene 57%

E-W 1^st Dave & Terry 67% 2^nd Holger & Lars G 66%

Fri 1^st N-S 1^st Bengt & Terry 65% 2^nd Gastone & Jean-Charles 60%

E-W 1^st Michel & Holger 65% 2^nd Agne & Britta 61%

Bidding Quiz Standard American is assumed unless otherwise stated.

Hand A Hand B With Hand A you choose to open 1NT. Partner bids 2♣ and

you bid 2♦. Partner then jumps to 3♠, what do you do?

♠ A85 ♠ KQ752

♥ A32 ♥ A With Hand B you open 1♠ and LHO overcalls 2♥. This is

♦ K73 ♦ AJ2 passed round to you, what do you do?

♣ A732 ♣ AQ62

Hand C Hand D With Hand C Partner opens 1♠ and RHO overcalls 2♥, what

do you bid?

♠ 109 ♠ A6

♥ K10852 ♥ K4 With hand D you open 1♣, LHO overcalls 1♦ and partner bids 1♠.

♦ K10963 ♦ J874 You bid 1NT and partner bids 2♥, what do you do?

♣ 9 ♣ A7643

Hand E Hand F With Hand E partner opens 1NT. (a) What do you bid?

Suppose you choose 2♣ and partner responds 2♦,

♠ KJ1094 ♠ AJ875 (b) What do you bid now?

♥ KQ108 ♥ Q1074

♦ J8 ♦ 6 With Hand F you open 1♠ and LHO overcalls 2♦. This is

♣ K9 ♣ AK4 passed round to you, what do you bid?

Bidding Sequence quiz

G 1NT pass 2♣ pass What is 3♠? Is it forcing?

2♦ pass 3♠

H 1♥ 1♠ 2♠ What is 2♠?

J 1♣ 1♦ 2♦ What is 2♦?

.

The automatic re-opening double – pt 1 Board 23 from Wednesday 30^th

Dealer: ♠ A8643

South ♥ 93 West(C) North East(B) South

Both vul ♦ 874 - - - pass

♣ J84 pass pass 1♠ 2♥ (1)

pass (2) pass dbl (3) all pass

♠ 109 N ♠ KQ752

♥ K10852 W E ♥ A (1) A bit dangerous, especially when vulnerable

♦ K10963 S ♦ AJ2 and playing against opponents who know

♣ 9 ♣ AQ62 what they are doing.

♠ J (2) What did you bid with this West hand C in this

♥ QJ762 week’s quiz? Playing negative doubles you

♦ Q5 should pass and pass partner’s subsequent double.

♣ K10753 (3) What did you bid with this East hand B in this

week’s quiz? Double is ‘automatic’

And what happened?

- 2♥ doubled went for 800 and a clear top to E-W.

The automatic re-opening double – pt 2 Board 1 from Wednesday 30^th

Dealer: ♠ - West(F) North East South

North ♥ KJ63 - pass pass (1) pass

Love all ♦ QJ874 1♠ 2♦ (2) pass (3) pass

♣ J1082 dbl (4) all pass

♠ AJ875 N ♠ K9632 (1) This hand conforms with the rule of 20, but

♥ Q1074 W E ♥ A a singleton ace does not pull its weight and

♦ 6 S ♦ K10953 pass is best.

♣ AK4 ♣ 95 (2) This is asking for trouble; if North wants to bid

♠ Q104 then double is surely better.

♥ 9852 (3) Although East knows there’s a 5-5 ♠ fit he

♦ A2 decided to go for the penalty at equal vulnerability.

♣ Q763 (4) What did you bid with West hand F in this

week’s quiz? Double is ‘automatic’

And what happened?

- 2♦ doubled went for 800 and a near top to E-W.

The bottom lines: -

- Do not make dodgy 2-level overcalls, especially if the opponents understand how to extract a penalty (they understand negative doubles).

- In order to take advantage of the opponent’s dubious overcalls, understand negative doubles – i.e. the penalty pass and automatic re-opening double.

Is it forcing? Board 7 from Wednesday 30^th

Dealer: ♠ KJ1094 Table A

South ♥ KQ108 West North(E) East South(A)

Both vul ♦ J8 - - - 1NT (1)

♣ K9 pass 2♣ (2) pass 2♦

pass 3♠ (3) pass pass (4)

♠ 632 N ♠ Q7 pass

♥ J95 W E ♥ 764

♦ Q92 S ♦ A10654 ‘Expert’ Table

♣ QJ86 ♣ 1054 West North(E) East South(A)

♠ A85 - - - 1NT (1)

♥ A32 pass 2♣ (2) pass 2♦

♦ K73 pass 3♥ (5) pass 3♠ (6)

♣ A732 pass 3NT (7) pass 4♠ (8)

all pass

Table A: (1) I personally would not open 1NT with this totally flat hand, it’s not good enough.

(2) What did you bid with this North hand E(a) in this week’s quiz? Transferring into ♠’s and then bidding ♥’s is an option but most experts play that as promising 5-5. With 5-4’s it’s best to bid 2♣, Stayman.

(3) What did you bid with this North hand E(b) in this week’s quiz? This depends upon your methods. In Standard American this bid shows 5-4 and is forcing. A supposed improvement on this is Smolen (bid 3♥ to show 5-4 and forcing). Anyway, with no agreement to the contrary, 3♠ is correct.

(4) What did you bid with this South hand A in this week’s quiz? Partner’s 3♠ is forcing and South should obviously bid 4♠.

‘Expert’ (1) Let’s assume that our expert also opens this hand with a dubious 1NT.

Table: (2) Our experts always bid Stayman when 4-5 or 5-4 in the majors, whatever strength.

(5) But here comes something ‘new’. This is a Quest transfer – showing exactly 5 ♠’s, 4 ♥’s and invitational or better values.

(6) South shows his minimum by simply suggesting playing in 3♠.

(7) If North had just an invitational hand he would now pass, but North can bid on to show his game forcing values and offer partner the choice of game contracts.

(8) And South has a comfortable bid to the best spot.

The bottom lines: -

- Most experienced players play transfer followed by a major suit as 5-5, a typical treatment is 1NT - 2♦ - 2♥ - 2♠ as 5-5 invitational and 1NT - 2♥ - 2♠ - 3♥ as 5-5 game forcing.

- If you (very sensibly) always use Stayman when 5-4 in the majors, then you do not have both invitational and game forcing bids available after a 2♦ response unless you play Quest transfers.

- Quest transfers are on the website. Conventions > Section 2 > Quest transfers

Dave’s Column Here is this week’s Dave input involving the best play for the contract.

West East You are West, declarer in 7♠. How do you play on the ♣10 lead?

♠ AKJ109 ♠ Q32

♥ 2 ♥ A1065

♦ A764 ♦ KQ3

♣ KQ3 ♣ AJ2

Dave’s Column answer Board 24 from Wednesday 30^th

Dealer: ♠ 76 West North East South

West ♥ Q983 1♠ pass 2♣ pass

Love all ♦ 10852 2♠ (1) pass 4NT pass

♣ 1098 5♣ (2) pass 5NT pass

6♦ pass 6♠ pass

♠ AKJ109 N ♠ Q32 7♠ (3) all pass

♥ 2 W E ♥ A1065

♦ A764 S ♦ KQ3 (1) This pair were playing 2/1, so a jump is

♣ KQ3 ♣ AJ2 unnecessary as the sequence is game forcing.

♠ 854 (2) 3 keycards.

♥ KJ74 (3) 5NT promised all keycards, so West bid the grand.

♦ J9

♣ 7654 North leads the ♣10, how do you play?

You have 12 tricks and, of course, one possible loser – the 4^th ♦.

The best play by far is to win the ♣ in hand and play the ♠A,J. If ♠’s break 4-1 you should try the ♦’s – if they split 3-3 you make and if they split 4-2 the you will make if you are lucky enough to find the player with 4 ♠’s also holding 4 ♦’s.

However, with a 3-2 ♠ break things are looking up. Play the ♥A and ruff a ♥, cross to dummy with a ♦ and ruff another ♥. Back to dummy with a low ♣ to the ♣J and ruff dummy’s last ♥ with your last trump. Now re-enter dummy with a ♦ and discard your ♦ loser on dummy’s ♠Q.

And what happened?

Just the one pair bid the ♠ grand and they went -1, as did the pair in 7NT. 6♠ made +1 three times and there were the usual spurious results.

The bottom lines: -

- By ruffing 3 times in the long trump hand when playing a 5-3 fit you gain a trick. This is an example of a dummy reversal.

How to play a suit and the odds of a suit splitting.

How do you play AQxx opposite Jxxx ?

What are the odds of dropping a singleton king?

You can now find the answers to these and similar questions on our website. Links to these two programs are in the left hand links column.

The suit split calculator generates a table of the odds of all the distributions possible for a suit when you type in the cards missing. You can also input the number of cards known for each opponent in other suits.

The suit play program will show you how to play any particular suit combination, it assumes ample entries to both hands.

If partner doesn’t like 1NT, he won’t like 2NT Board 14 from Wednesday 30^th

Dealer: ♠ J1083 West North East(D) South

East ♥ J96 - - 1♣ 1♦

Love all ♦ 63 1♠ (1) pass 1NT pass

♣ KQJ9 2♥ pass 2NT (2) pass

pass

♠ K9542 N ♠ A6

♥ 107532 W E ♥ K4 (1) This seems fairly obvious, although I

♦ A9 S ♦ J874 understand that one player bid 2♦ in the

♣ 10 ♣ A7643 erroneous belief that it showed both majors.

♠ Q7 The other option is double which shows 4-4

♥ AQ8 in the majors but I prefer this bidding.

♦ KQ1052 (2) What did you bid with this East hand D in

♣ 852 this week’s quiz? This 2NT bid is terrible,

East should simply bid 2♠.

And what happened?

2NT went three down for a near bottom.

The bottom lines: -

- In a sequence like 1♣/♦ - 1♠ - 1NT - 2♥ opener should either pass or correct to 2♠.

Bridge Cryptogram Each letter denotes a specific letter in the alphabet.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

__	__			__		__		__		__		__		__	__			__			__		__		__		__		__		__		__		__	__		__
17	21			14		20		8		10		6		18	16			6			20		26		16		26		20		7		9		8	10		25
__		__	__		__		__		__		__		__			__	__		__	__		__		__		__		__		__		__		__			__
9		16	22		17		19		6		26		19			25	6		9	7		26		16		9		22		17		19		11			6

__	__		__			__		__		__				__	__	__	__	,		__	__	__	__		__	__	__	__	__
11	16		12			20		26		19				11	8	17	7			7	23	16	26		26	16	5	16	9
__		__		__				__		__		__			__	__	__	__	__	__	__	__		–	__	__	__	__		__	__
22		17		19				7		2		20			26	20	7	9	8	10	25	11			25	6	11	11		20	9
__	__		__		__		__		__		__		.
12	20		9		9		16		12		7

Bidding Quiz Answers

Hand A: 4♠. With no agreement to the contrary 3♠ is forcing – showing 4 ♥’s, 5 ♠’s and game going values; offering you the choice of 3NT or 4♠. Pass is not an option.

Hand B: Double – ‘automatic’. Partner likely has a ♥ penalty hand. If you think that you should bid 3♣ ‘to show your strength and shape’ then do not play negative doubles.

Hand C: Pass, and pass partner’s subsequent double.

Hand D: 2♠. Partner has a weakish hand with 5 ♠’s, 4+ ♥’s and did not like 1NT, he most certainly will not like 2NT.

Hand E: (a) 2♣. Most experts agree that it’s best to use Stayman when 5-4 or 4-5 in the majors and to use transfers and bid the other major only when 5-5.

(b) 3♠. This is game forcing. If you play Smolen then 3♥ is game forcing showing 5-4 but the best bid is a Quest transfer of 3♥ which shows 5-4 and invitational or better values.

Hand F: Double – ‘automatic’. Partner likely has a ♦ penalty hand. If you think that you should bid 2♥ ‘to show your shape’ then do not play negative doubles.

Bidding Sequence Answers

G 1NT pass 2♣ pass 3♠ is forcing, showing 5 ♠’s and 4 ♥’s.

2♦ pass 3♠

H 1♥ 1♠ 2♠ The 2♠ cue bid shows a sound raise to 3♥ or better.

J 1♣ 1♦ 2♦ The 2♦ cue bid shows a sound raise to 3♣ or better; in practice responder will not be looking for a ♣ game and so opener should bid NoTrumps with a ♦ stop. 2♦ here denies a 4 (or 5) card major but implies values in the majors and insufficient values in ♦’s to bid NoTrumps.