Our website is www.pattayabridge.com Club News Sheet – No. 325

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My home phone is 038 422924 and my mobile number is 083 6066880 1^st Feb 2009

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Mon 26^th N-S 1^st Gerry & Hans Bij 57% 2^nd Hans V & Janne 57%

E-W 1^st Derek & Gerard 55% 2^nd Elizabeth & Marlene 54%

Wed 28^th N-S 1^st Flurio & Pezzini 61% 2^nd Hans V & Lars B 54%

E-W 1^st Jens & Vali 64% 2^nd Bob P & Nick 57%

Fri 30^th N-S 1^st Janne & Lars B 66% 2^nd Flurio & Pezzini 62%

E-W 1^st Bob S & Johan 59% 2^nd Hans V & Sally 58%

Bidding Quiz Standard American bidding is assumed unless otherwise stated.

Hand A Hand B With Hand A partner opens 1♠, what do you bid?

♠ QJ108 ♠ A

♥ Q85 ♥ A10 With Hand B LHO opens 4♠ and this is passed to you,

♦ A2 ♦ K865 what do you bid?

♣ KQJ9 ♣ AQ7542

Bidding Sequence Quiz

C 4♠ pass pass dbl What is dbl?

D 4♠ pass pass 4NT What is 4NT?

A RKCB mix-up Board 26 from Monday 26^th

Two pairs messed up their (Roman Keycard?) Blackwood on this deal and both ended up in the impossible 6♠.

Dealer: ♠ 64 Table A

West ♥ J9632 West North East(A) South

N-S vul ♦ QJ65 1♠ pass 2♣ (1) pass

♣ 106 3♣ pass 3♦ (2) pass

3NT pass 4NT (3) pass

♠ AK932 N ♠ QJ108 5♥ (4) pass 6♠ (5) dbl

♥ K7 W E ♥ Q85 all pass

♦ K4 S ♦ A2

♣ 8542 ♣ KQJ9 Table B

♠ 75 West North East(A) South

♥ A104 1♠ pass 2NT (1) pass

♦ 109873 4♠ (6) pass pass (7) all pass

♣ A73

Table A: (1) What did you bid with this East hand A in this week’s quiz? This 2♣ is the only option if you do not play something like Jacoby 2NT, Swiss or Steenberg.

(2) Apparently meant as a cue bid agreeing ♠’s. I would play it as a cue bid agreeing ♣’s.

(3) This was some kind of Blackwood I believe.

(4) Two keycards; quite why West thought that East had agreed ♠’s I do not know.

(5) Presumably East was playing normal Blackwood (or RKCB for ♣’s?). Either way this auction is a total shambles, from the second bid onwards, by two of the clubs better players.

Table B: (2) Most of the club play 2NT here as agreeing ♠’s; either Jacoby 2NT or Steenberg.

(6) This shows a minimal hand playing Jacoby 2NT. Playing Steenberg then 3♣ would show a minimum I believe.

(7) Opposite a minimum East simply signs off in ♠’s. Note that if East had a better hand then ♠’s are agreed and 4NT would definitely be RKCB for ♠’s.

And what happened? Everybody was in 4♠+1 except for the two in 6♠ who both went down.

The bottom lines: -

- In my opinion it really is essential for a pair well past the beginner’s stage to have a forcing raise of partner’s 1♥/♠ opening available. Jacoby 2NT is the obvious choice but there are other options.

- If you do not have this simple tool in your bidding armory then you will get into mix-ups like at Table A when responder has a good hand in support of partner’s major – how can he show good support and later bid RKCB with ♠’s as trumps (as necessary here as the ♠K is an important card) if the auction starts 1♠ - 2♣?

The 2009 Club Championship Standings

It’s already getting very interesting, with now ten people with 5+ qualifying results. Janne has overtaken Hans in the Bronze but Hans has just achieved qualifying results for the Silver. It’s early days, but it looks like a fight between these two for the Gold Cup this year.

	Gold Cup = Best 30	Silver Plate = Best 10	Bronze Medal = Best 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10		594.1 Hans Vikman	319.5 Janne Roos 317.3 Hans Vikman 301.8 Bob Short 297.7 Sally Watson 295.4 Johan Bratsberg 293.5 Lewis Berg 293.5 Paul Quodomine 288.7 Bob Pelletier 282.9 Gene Moats 282.9 Paul Scully

Play Quiz

West East You are East, declarer in 5♥ after both opponents have bid ♣’s

♠ J642 ♠ A109 and pushed you up to the five level. South leads a ♣ and you

♥ A976 ♥ K10832 ruff in dummy. You lead the ♥A, North plays low and South

♦ K10942 ♦ 876 plays the ♥Q. Who do you play for the ♥J? Which is more likely,

♣ - ♣ A2 that North has ♥Jx and South none, or that North has the other

small ♥ and South now the bare ♥J?

8 ever 9 never or restricted choice? Board 13 from Monday 26^th

We all know that playing for the drop with 4 cards including the queen missing is slightly with the odds; but what when missing the QJ and one of them appearing on the first round?

Dealer: ♠ K

North ♥ J54 West North East South

both vul ♦ QJ53 - pass pass (1) 1♠

♣ J9654 2♦ pass 2♥ 3♣

4♥ 5♣ pass pass

♠ J642 N ♠ A109 5♥ all pass

♥ A976 W E ♥ K10832

♦ K10942 S ♦ 876

♣ - ♣ A2 (1) With two working tens, a 1♥ opening is

♠ Q8753 reasonable.

♥ Q

♦ A

♣ KQ10873

So, onto the play. The ♣ lead is ruffed in dummy and you lead the ♥A to the ♥4, ♥2 and the ♥Q from South. Do you now play for an original 2-2 ♥ split or do you finesse?

If you ignore the inferences from the bidding you should finesse. This is a classic case of restricted choice (which is a rather complex mathematical topic which is beyond the scope of these news sheets).

And what happened? Only this E-W pair played in ♥’s; at every other table the contract was either 4♣ or 5♣ (doubled or undoubled) by N-S. 5♥ by East made for a complete top when declarer took the correct view in ♥’s.

The bottom lines: -

- Normally when there are just 4 cards out including the queen, then the odds are to play for the drop. But when you are missing the queen and the jack and one of these appears on the first round, then Restricted Choice applies and you should finesse. This is all explained in detail on the website:

- General bridge topics > 8 ever 9 never vs Restricted Choice

Coping with their 4♠ opening Board 28 from Monday 30^th

Dealer: ♠ 4 Table A

West ♥ K8762 West North East South(B)

N-S vul ♦ AQ1032 4♠ pass pass 5♣ (1)

♣ 106 all pass

♠ KQJ1097532 N ♠ 86 Table B

♥ 93 W E ♥ QJ54 West North East South(B)

♦ J S ♦ 974 4♠ pass pass 4NT (1)

♣ K ♣ J983 5♠ (1) pass pass dbl

♠ A all pass

♥ A10

♦ K865

♣ AQ7542

Table A: (1) What did you bid with this South hand B in this week’s quiz? This 5♣ is far too unilateral for me.

Table B: (1) This player found a much better bid – he apparently thought that 4NT was Unusual, for the minors. Anyway it worked well.

(2) I guess that this is an exception to bidding again having pre-empted. After South’s 4NT bid N-S are forced to reach a making game or slam and this is a good save at this vulnerability. Note that West cannot open 5♠ as that is a strong bid inviting slam when partner has a top honour.

And what happened? Unfortunately for West at table B; 5♠*, which is a good save, scored a complete bottom as no N-S in the room found a making game! Results were 5♠*-3, 4♠-2, 5♣-1 three times and 5♣*-2. Nobody found the ♦ fit.

The bottom lines: -

- You have to agree what bids mean over a 4♠ opening. Some play double as penalties and others as a three-suit take out (which partner can of course convert to penalties if he wishes). This then leaves 4NT available as a two-suit (any two suits) take out.

- Using this treatment, South should bid 4NT and North, with great support for either red suit can bid 6♦ (pass or correct to 6♥ if partner has ♣’s and ♥’s). Chickens could bid a simple 5♦ which would have earned a top on the day.

Dave’s Column Here is Dave’s input about the play of the hand.

West East You are East, declarer in 4♥. You get the ♦2 lead upon

♠ AQ5 ♠ 64 which North plays the ♦K. Plan the play.

♥ QJ98 ♥ AK10764

♦ J9 ♦ A4

♣ 10987 ♣ A63

Dave’s Column answer Board 6 from Wednesday 28^th

Dealer: ♠ KJ1032 West North East South

East ♥ 2 - - - 1♥

E-W vul ♦ K7653 pass 3♥ pass 4♥

♣ QJ all pass

♠ AQ5 N ♠ 64

♥ QJ98 W E ♥ AK10764 South leads the ♦2 and North plays the ♦K

♦ J9 S ♦ A4 Plan the play as East.

♣ 10987 ♣ A63

♠ 987

♥ 53

♦ Q1082

♣ K542

South led the ♦2 to the ♦K and at the table East won with the ♦A. He cashed the trump ace, led a low trump to dummy’s ♥9 and played a low ♣ from dummy. East won North’s ♣J with the ♣A and played another ♣, losing to North’s ♣Q. North then led a ♦ to South’s ♦Q and South had an easy shift to the ♠9. The finesse lost and the game was defeated; East losing 1 ♦, 2 ♣’s and 1 ♠.

Would East have made the game had he refused to win the ♣J? Close, but not close enough. North would have led a ♦ to South for a ♠ switch before the ♣’s were established, leading to the same one down.

To make the game, East must refuse to win North’s ♦K at trick one. If North returns a ♦ then East wins, draws trumps and leads a ♣ from dummy. When North plays the ♣J East ducks and the defence is finished. If South overtakes to lead a ♠ then East loses only one ♣ trick. And if North continues with his ♣Q the East wins and leads a 3^rd ♣ to establish a ♣ winner, eliminating the need for a ♠ finesse.

And what happened at the Pattaya Bridge Club? 4♥+2 twice, 4♥= twice, 5♥-1, 5♥-2, 2♥+1 and 3♥+1 and 4♠ by North *-3. Note that 4♠ by N-S is a good save and that it pushed the opponents into 5♥ going down on two occasions.

Bidding Quiz Answers

Hand A: 2NT, the Jacoby 2NT (or some Scandinavian variant if you wish). If you start with 2♣ you will probably get in a mess as you may want to later investigate slam and need to have ♠’s agreed in order to use RKCB.

Hand B: 4NT, take-out. But this does depend upon your agreements as explained below. I do not like 5♣ which is too unilateral with such a poor suit and I don’t like double if you play it as penalties.

Bidding Sequence Answers

C 4♠ pass pass dbl

D 4♠ pass pass 4NT

The 4♠ opening leaves you short of room and you have to agree what double and 4NT mean:

1) One treatment that I read is that double is penalties and 4NT a 3-suited take-out.

2) However, I’m not so keen on this and prefer double as a 3-suited take-out which is reasonably happy to be passed for penalties; and 4NT as a two-suited take-out.