Mon 17th 1st Paul K & Sean 64% 2nd Dino & Paul S 61%
Wed 19th 1st Paul K & Sean 62% 2nd Paul Q & Terry Q 58%
Fri 21st 1st Dave & Tomas 60% 2nd Guttorm & Johan 57%
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Current club championship standings
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Gold Cup = Best 30 |
Silver Plate = Best 10 |
Bronze Medal = Best 5 |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 |
1830.9 Paul Quodomine |
649.0 641.2 638.3 626.8 Tomas Wikman 619.8 Lars Broman 615.9 Jean Wissing 615.9 Sally Watson 609.5 Duplessy & Coutlet 597.8 Bengt Malgren 586.4 Bob Short |
330.4 329.6 327.9 324.8 Sally Watson 323.4 322.9 Lars Broman 320.3 Jean Wissing 319.5 Duplessy & Coutlet 309.3 Jeremy Watson 308.2 Bob Short |
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A Psycic Pre-empt Board 25 from Friday 14th May
Psychic bids are not allowed in this club,
and that also applies to psychic (or extreemly light) pre-empts. In talking
about this particular opening psych, Ado and Gerard informed me that this
problem of psychic pre-empts had been resolved in Australia.
♠
108 One player opened 2NT (weak with both minors) in
first seat at
♥ 87 favourable vulnerability
and got a top score as a result.
♣
K10932 is now a part of the club rules. Any infringement and
the culprit will automatically be penalized.
The Australian Rule of 15 for pre-empts.
Any pre-emptive bid (opening or overcall) has
to adhere to the following rule. Add up the length of the two longest suits and
the high card points and if the total is 15 or more then you may pre-empt. The
example hand above is only 12 and way short – if it was 6-6 in the minors with
three points then that would be acceptable. The only exception to this rule that
I can think of is a weak jump shift which is often played as 0-5 with perhaps
just a 6-card suit and this continues to be allowed at the club and even zero
points is OK.
Is it Ghestem? East hand 10 from Friday 21st May
♠
QJ83 One player overcalled a 1♣ opening with 2♣ holding this hand. This was
♥ A10642 explained as both majors – fine of
course. After the hand was over his
♣
62 to
be 5-5. I witnessed this and commented that the 2♣ cue-bid when playing Ghestem did not show both majors, but that 3♣ did. The very experienced West disagreed,
saying that he had been playing Ghestem for 20+ years!
I suggested that he had in fact been playing
‘Inverted Ghestem’ which is written up on the website and I believe to be
superior. He later accepted, after phoning Tom Hanlon in Ireland(!), that he
was wrong and that I was of course correct.
And do you need to be 5-5? This is up to
partner ship agreement. I play that if playing inverted Ghestem or Michaels cue
bid, where the cue bid of a minor shows both majors, then I am happy for it to
be 5-4 although insisting that it must be 5-5 is an equally good treatment.
Incidentally, I was informed that Tom Hanlon recommends
a possible improvement to Inverted Ghestem (or Ghestem) where when over a 1♣ opening 2♦
is used instead of 3♣ to show both majors
(Ghestem) or highest and lowest (inverted Ghestem). This ensures that partner
is never forced to bid above the three level and does indeed look like an
improvement to me.
The trouble with
Just last week I pointed out a “problem” with bidding RKCB and ♥’s as trumps when you hold just one keycard. You’ve guessed it – somebody
did exactly the same this week!
Dealer: ♠
Q1052 West North East South
East ♥ 876 - - 1♣ pass
E-W vul ♦ AJ1073 1♥ pass 2♣ pass
♣ 6 3♥ (1) pass 4NT (2) pass
5♠ (3) pass 6♥ all pass
♠
J98 N ♠
K
♥ KQ952 W E ♥ AJ10
♣
A4 ♣
QJ97532
♠ A7643
♥
43
♦ 986
♣ K108
(1) I don’t like this as I don’t play it as forcing – presumably this pair do?
(2) RKCB for ♥’s.
The hand has nice ♥’s but 4NT RKCB is a poor bid when you have
only one keycard without the trump queen as you may get an unpleasant 5♠ response.
(3) And East gets exactly what he deserved (minus
two) for not reading last week’s news sheet.
And what happened? 6♥-2, 4♥-1, 4♥=
3 times and 4♥+1.
The bottom lines:
-
Let’s just repeat, word
for word, what I wrote last week: “Be wary of bidding 4NT RKCB when ♥’s
are trumps and you have just one keycard without the trump queen. Obviously
this and even more problems exist with a minor suit as trumps.”
- Maybe somebody
will actually read this and take note?
Dave’s Column Here is Dave’s only input this week, it’s on defence of the hand.
Dealer: ♠ 8643 Book Bidding
East ♥ QJ109 West North East South
Love all ♦ Q7 - - 1NT pass
♣
A42 3NT all pass
Dave’s Column
answer Board 14 from Wednesday 19th May
Dealer: ♠ 8643 Book Bidding
East ♥ QJ109 West North East South
Love all ♦ Q7 - - 1NT pass
♣
A42 3NT all pass
♠ 752
♥
742
♦ J10986
♣ K3
South leads the ♦J and North correctly unblocks by playing the ♦Q and East executes a hold-up play with good
reason. If East wins the first trick, North will return the suit when in with
the ♣A and declarer will be unable to prevent the
defense from establishing their ♦’s
before he can develop his ♣’s.
After declarer’s hold-up play at trick one,
what happens if North returns partner’s suit? Nothing good for the defense.
South has only one entry and the defense cannot clear ♦’s in time before declarer gets his ♣’s.
A thinking North looks ahead when his ♦Q is allowed to win. Dummy has 10 HCPs and
declarer about 16. Looking at 9 in his own hand North knows that South can have
only 4-5 points. If South had led from ♦KJ10xx
no defense will win, so North must hope that South has either the ♥K or the ♣K.
So, instead of “returning partner’s suit”,
North switches to his ♥Q at trick two.
Against this defense declarer cannot establish his ♣ winners before he loses five tricks.
And what happened at the Pattaya bridge club? 3NT=
four times, 4NT-1.
