Our website is www.pattayabridge.com                           Club News Sheet – No. 459

Our blogsite is www.pattayabridge.wordpress.com                                 

My mobile phone number is 083 6066880                                                              4th Sept 2011

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

My Windows Live Messenger is tj_quested@hotmail.com

 

Mon 29th        1st   Janne & Sigurd           63%            2nd         Paul Sc & Guttorm          57%
Wed 31st        1st   Gus & Dave C            67%            2nd  =    Paul Sc & Dave H           56%
                                                                                     2nd  =    Bob S & Kriss                56%
Fri 2nd             1st  Frode & Niels             55%            2nd         Bob S & Kriss                55%

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

Hand A           Hand B           With Hand A everybody is vulnerable. Partner passes and RHO
                                                opens 1♥, what do you bid?
♠ K764            ♠ J72
♥ 63                 ♥ 7653             With Hand B it’s love all. You pass as dealer and partner opens
♦ AQ2               ♦ 9843             1♥. RHO passes, what do you do?
♣ QJ97            ♣ 63


 

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

1821.9  Hans Vikman
1812.8  Janne Roos
1789.6  Bob Short
1761.0  Paul Quodomine
1755.5  Sigurd Zahl
4737.9  Gerard Hardy
1725.0  Tomas Wikman
1718.0  Bob Pelletier

647.4  Hans Vikman
639.9  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
617.9  Gerard Hardy
616.8  Derek Tyms

334.0  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
319.7  Niels Steino
319.5  Dave Hurst

Don’t play on a suit that Declarer has led.        Board 17 from Wednesday 24th

Dealer:             ♠ J9                                               Table A
North               ♥ 853                                             West          North         East           South
N-S vul            ♦ J32                                              -                 pass           pass           1NT
                        ♣ KQJ76                                       pass           2NT  (1)     all pass
                                                                       
♠ K853                  N             ♠ Q764                    Table B
♥ Q74                W    E          ♥ J962                     West          North         East           South
♦ KQ87                 S              ♦ A65                      -                 pass           pass           1NT
♣ 54                                       ♣ 93                        pass           3NT (1)      all pass
                        ♠ A102                                         
                        ♥ AK10                                        
                        ♦ 1094                                          
                        ♣ A1082                                              

Table A:    (1)  What would you bid with this North hand? This 2NT is the obvious prudent bid.
Table B:     (1)  But the ♣KQJxx is a great holding and two players reasonably upgraded to 3NT.

But this article is about the play, in either 2NT or 3NT. You are West and have the choice
between a low ♠ or a ♦. You choose to play a low ♠ to partner’s ♠Q and declarer’s ♠A. Declarer
then leads back a ♠ which you win with the ♠K. What do you do now?
At the table I witnessed West continue with a ♠ and that was declarer’s 9th trick. A ♦ switch
would hold declarer to eight tricks.
How should West know to switch? A good maxim is not to lead a suit that declarer has just
Led – this is, if you think declarer knows what he is doing.
                 
                 

Dave’s Column

Dealer:            ♠ K764                                          Bidding
South              ♥ 63                                               West          North         East           South
Both  vul          ♦ AQ2                                           -                 -                 -                 pass
                       ♣ QJ97                                          1♥              pass           2♥              pass
                                                                              3♦              pass           4♥              all pass
                              N             ♠ AQ                      
                          W    E          ♥ J10852          
                              S              ♦ 1086                    
                                              ♣ 654                     

You are North, defending 4♥. You lead the ♣Q and South won the ♣A and returned the ♣2
to West’s ♣K. West cashed the ♥A, led a low trump to dummy’s ♥J and ran the ♦10. Plan the
defence for North.


Dave’s Column Answer                 Board 7 from Wednesday 31st Aug
     
Dealer:             ♠ K764                                          Bidding
South               ♥ 63                                               West          North(A)   East           South
Both  vul           ♦ AQ2                                           -                 -                 -                 pass
                        ♣ QJ97                                         1♥              pass (1)      2♥              pass
                                                                              3♦    (2)      pass           4♥    (3)      all pass
♠ 83                       N             ♠ AQ                      
♥ AKQ97          W    E          ♥ J10852           (1)  What did you bid with this North hand A in
♦ KJ97                   S              ♦ 1086                     this week’s quiz? Dbl looks automatic to me
♣ K8                                     ♣ 654                      (Terry) and was the bid chosen by the majority
                        ♠ J10952                                       of our club.
                        ♥ 4                                           (2)  help suit game try.
                        ♦ 543                                        (3)  East does not have much help in ♦’s, but
                        ♣ A1032                                       decides to accept because he has five trumps.

When first played, South scolded North about the poor defense against today’s solid game.
Look over what happened and see if you can spot North’s mistake. The opening lead was the ♣Q. 
South won the ♣A and returned the ♣2 to West’s ♣K. West cashed the ♥A, led a low trump
to dummy’s ♥J and ran the ♦10 for a losing finesse to North’s ♦Q. North led a deceitful ♠7 but
declarer took the finesse anyway . Declarer later conceded a ♦ and the defence was held to three
tricks.
Where did North go wrong?
North made the ‘mistake’ when he won the ♦10 with the ♦Q. Instead, he should have won the
trick with his ♦A and switched to a ♠. Thinking that the ♦Q was with South, declarer would
likely have risen with the ♠A to repeat the ♦ finesse, and North’s hidden ♦Q and the ♠K would
have beaten the contract.

And what happened at the Pattaya Bridge Club? Only one pair played in 4♥ and they made it.
Every other N-S sacrificed in 4♠ (one actually made it, doubled).
Terry comment. I do not think that this is a very sensible problem. Most North’s will double
initially and then it’s fairly obvious for West to play North for the ♠K, especially as South has
already turned up with the ♣A.

 

Dave’s 2nd Column

            N                  ♠ Q962                           West           North             East           South  
        W     E              ♥ 2                                 pass             1♥                  pass           2♣
            S                   ♦ QJ92                            pass             2♥                  pass           4♥
                                 ♣ J1087                          all pass
         ♠ 74                                                       
         ♥ 1043                               
         ♦ K87                                              
         ♣ AKQ54                                       

You are East, defending 4♥, and lead the ♦Q to the ♦7, ♦3, ♦4. You continue with the ♦J to the
♦8, ♦6, ♦5. How should you plan the defence to find two more trick?


Dave’s 2nd Column Answer           Board 9 from Wednesday 31st  Aug  
     
Dealer:             ♠ A103                                          Bidding            
West                ♥ AKJ876                                     West          North         East           South
E-W vul           ♦ 54                                               pass           1♥              pass           2♣
                        ♣ 63                                              pass           2♥              pass           4♥
                                                                              all pass
♠ KJ85                  N             ♠ Q962                   
♥ Q95                W    E          ♥ 2                         
♦ A1063                S              ♦ QJ92              
♣ 92                                      ♣ J1087
                        ♠ 74                                        
                        ♥ 1043                               East leads the ♦Q to the ♦7, ♦3, ♦4. East continue with
                        ♦ K87                                 the ♦J to the ♦8, ♦6, ♦5. How should East plan the
                        ♣ AKQ54                         defence to find two more trick?
                                                                       
When first played, East continued with a third ♦. However, declarer ruffed and accurately
led the ♥J from hand.  West was welcome to his ♥Q, but now declarer was in control. He won
the ♠ switch with his ♠A, drew another round of trumps with the ♥A, played a ♣ to dummy’s
♣Q, cashed the ♣A and ruffed a low ♣ in hand. He then drew the last trump with a ♥ to
dummy’s ♥10 and declarer discarded his two ♠ losers on the two established ♣’s.
East went wrong at trick three. If North had started with ♦1054, he would have covered the
♦J with dummy’s ♦K. So East should switch to a ♠ at trick three. Then, to make the contract,
declarer must ruff a ♠ in dummy and guess the trump suit; and he is likely to play for the
trumps 2-2 and ♣’s 3-3 and here that will fail.
And what happened at the Pattaya Bridge Club? 6♥-2, 4♥= twice, 4♥-1 and 3♥+1.

No Psyches please                                                East hand 14 from Friday 2nd

♠ J72               One player responded 2♥ to a 1♥ opening from partner with this hand.
♥ 7653             Normally, I would inform the player that psyches are not allowed in our club
♦ 9843             but this player has done similar things on many previous occasions and so this
♣ 63                time I awarded a 10% score (the computer would not let me award 0%).

His partner protested. Saying that there are many situations where it is obvious to bid with
just one point. That is certainly true, but this is not one of those cases. Some of the situations
where you can bid with zero points are:
.     Stayman or transfer
.     weak jump shifts
.     responding to any forcing bid, take-out double etc. from partner.
.     A pre-emptive jump to game with a shapely hand when partner has opened or overcalled
.     At our club we also allow very weak pre-emptive bids with shape if you have already passed.
.     There may be a few more that I cannot think of at the moment.

But what you are not allowed to do is make a constructive bid that promises a certain number of points
when you are way out of range. Here 2♥ is generally played as 6-10 and to make a bid which
shows 600% more in values is totally out of order.

Bidding Quiz Answers

Hand A:   Double, this hand has near perfect shape with no points in ♥’s. I don’t think that being
                  vulnerable or a passed partner should deter you from making the ‘obvious’ bid.
Hand B:    Pass is pretty obvious, isn’t it? But one player did bid 2♥ !