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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fri 5^th 1^st Lars B & Jean 60% 2^nd 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 1♣ and

♦ 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

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 1^st

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 1^st

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 3^rd

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 4^th

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

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 3^rd

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 3^rd

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 6♣ and 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.