Our website is www.pattayabridge.com                       Club News Sheet – No. 470
Our blogsite is www.pattayabridge.wordpress.com                                    
My mobile phone number is 083 6066880                                                            20th Nov 2011
My e-mail is terry@pattayabridge.com or pattayabridge@yahoo.com
My Windows Live Messenger is tj_quested@hotmail.com

Mon 14th  N-S      1st   Hans V & Johan             60%            2nd  Jean & Fred-Arne          55%
                 E-W     1st   Bob S & Gus                  59%            2nd  Gerard & Derek             58%
Wed 16th  N-S      1st   Peter L & Dino              60%            2nd  Dave C & Paul Sc          54%
                 E-W     1st   Alan K & Jan                 62%            2nd Jeremy & Sigurd            60%
Fri 18th     N-S      1st  Jean & Claus                  60%            2nd Bob S & Robbie             60%
                 E-W     1st   Svein & Arnt                  59%            2nd  Paul Sc & Gus                58%

 

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

Hand A           Hand B           With Hand A you open 1♣ and partner bids 1♥, what is your rebid?
                                               
♠ QJ4              ♠ QJ4                                     
♥ 3                   ♥ 3                   With Hand B (here you have the ♦A instead of the ♦Q) you open
♦ Q43                ♦ A43              1♣ and partner bids 1♥, what is your rebid this time?          
♣ AKQJ64      ♣ AKQJ64   
                                                                                               

Bidding Sequence Quiz            
                 
C      1♣    pass   1♥      pass
         3♣                                      Is the jump to 3♣ forcing?

 

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

1874.6 Hans Vikman
1829.7 Bob Short
1812.8 Janne Roos
1801.5 Sigurd Zahl
1792.0 Paul Quodomine
1771.9 Gerard Hardy
1763.7 Derek Tyms
1754.9 Paul Scully
1740.5 Alan Kleist
1735.1 Jan v Koss

658.0 Hans Vikman
648.3 Bob Short
648.1 Paul Quodomine
639.8 Per Andersson
631.1 Janne Roos
629.7 Sigurd Zahl
627.9= Gerard Hardy
627.9= Derek Tyms
626.5 Paul Scully
624.6 Lars Broman

335.5 Bob Short
335.1 Hans Vikman
332.2 Per Andersson
328.9= Gerard Hardy
328.9= Derek Tyms
325.8 Paul Scully
324.9 Paul Quodomine
322.6 Dave Hurst
321.7 =Lars Broman
321.7 =Alan Kleist

 

                                                             

 

 


Another look at this board from last week       Board 27 from Friday 11th Nov

Dealer:             ♠ 106                                             Table A
South               ♥ KQ72                                         West          North         East           South(A)
Love all           ♦ AK5                                           -                 -                 -                 1♣
                        ♣ 10985                                        pass           1♥              pass           3♣    (1)
                                                                              pass           3♦    (2)      pass           3NT  (3)
♠ A8732                N             ♠ K95                    pass           4♣   (4)      pass           5♣    (5)
♥ 1098               W    E          ♥ AJ654                pass           6♣   (6)      all pass
♦ 1082                   S              ♦ J976                     
♣ 73                                       ♣ 2                         
                        ♠ QJ4                                     
                        ♥ 3                                          
                        ♦ Q43                                     
                        ♣ AKQJ64                                           
                                                                                                        
Table A:    (1)  What did you bid with this South hand A in this week’s quiz? To me this jump
                        to 3♣ is so obvious that I did not even bother to mention it last week. But read on…
                 (2)  This North, a very experienced player, found the 3♦ bid that I mentioned last week.
                 (3)  And of course South was delighted to bid 3NT.
                 (4)  But North was ‘looking’ for slam!
                 (5)  What the hell is going on?
                 (6)  So it looks like North was bidding slam regardless.

And what happened? 6♣-2 was a total bottom, 3NT+1 three times was the joint top.

The bottom lines:

  1. Apparently North thought that 3♣ was forcing – it most certainly is not.
  2. North also claimed that the South hand is not good enough for 3♣ which promised about 18 points, this is totally incorrect. This South hand is a near text-book jump to 3♣ and actually on the top end, with two more points the best rebid would be 3NT (Hand B) and I would not argue if you chose to rebid 3NT with this hand A.

 

Dave’s Column

 

♠ 109853                                                         Bidding          
♥ K1052                                                          West          North       East         South
♦ 1052                                                             2NT           pass          3NT         dbl
♣ 9                                                                  all pass
                                                                                               
You are North, what does partner’s double mean and what do you lead?         
                                     


Dave’s Column Answer                           Board 4 from Wednesday 16th Nov 
     
Dealer:             ♠ 109853                                       Bidding            
West                ♥ K1052                                        West          North         East           South
Both vul            ♦ 1052                                           2NT           pass           3NT           dbl
                        ♣ 9                                                all pass
                                                                             
♠ AK2                   N             ♠ QJ7                     
♥ AQ6               W    E          ♥ J87                
♦ KQJ9                  S              ♦ 8764              
♣ K52                                   ♣ 764               
                        ♠ 64                                              
                        ♥ 943                                      
                        ♦ A2                                  
                        ♣ AQJ1083                                  

What the author says:
When partner doubles 3NT with no suits bid, nine times out of ten partner has a solid suit, usually a major, and is asking you to lead that suit. Partner is also allowed to double 3NT with a strong one loser suit plus an outside entry, such as the South hand here. The question is, can you work out from the North hand which suit to lead?
♥’s are out, your ♥’s are too strong. Although it is possible that partner has five solid ♠’s, it is unlikely as South would probably run from the double with nothing in ♠’s.
You are reduced to ♣’s and ♦’s and the rule of thumb is to lead the shorter suit.

What others say:
To me (Terry) this is a somewhat manufactures problem (with a North hand that ‘makes it easy’) and, not surprisingly, nobody at the club doubled. It is not that easy to research this topic on the internet but this is what Eric Crowhurst says: Some play that the double demands a ♠ lead; probably there is a slight improvement in showing either ♥’s or ♠’s as the opponents have denied interest in a major, and partner should lead his weakest major.
I did find this on the internet: ‘Chemla, a former world team champion, doubled to ask for a heart lead and was not pleased when his partner produced the spade ace.’

Also, there is no guarantee that a ♣ lead will set the contract, declarer may well have 8 tricks plus the ♣K.    

So it seems to me (Terry) that all of the club got it right – it is far too dangerous to double 3NT in the hope that partner can find your suit and that you can set the contract.

 

Dave’s 2nd Column

South                                                                    
♠AK1053                                                                 Bidding
♥ 6                                                         West          North     East           South
♦ 765                                                       -                 -             -                 1♠
♣AQ43                                                   pass        2♦             2♥                ?
                                                                       
You are South, what do you bid? 
                                                                       
                                                                       
Dave’s 2nd Column Answer       Board 7 from Wednesday 16th Nov. 
     
Dealer:             ♠ 92                                               Bidding    
South               ♥ KQ105                                       West          North         East           South
both vul           ♦ AQ1092                                     -                 -                 -                 1♠
                        ♣ 97                                              pass           2♦              2♥              ?
                                                                             
♠ 86                       N             ♠ QJ74                   
♥ 84                   W    E          ♥ AJ9732         
♦ K843                  S              ♦ J                     
♣ J10652                               ♣ K8                     
                        ♠ AK1053                              
                        ♥ 6                                          
                        ♦ 765                      
                        ♣ AQ43                 
                       
Partner’s change of suit is forcing but if there is interference, you are no longer obliged to bid. You are also not obliged to pass. If you have a sound descriptive action, you may take it even with minimum values.
South’s rational choices include pass, 3♦ or double (if used for take-out). A 3♣ bid is definitely an overbid as it indicates 16+ points and is forcing to game.
In my (the author’s) opinion the best of these actions is double…
… the author then goes on in a verbose way to say how well this works…

Terry note: This is another dubious problem as I, and I believe the majority of players, play that the double here sitting over the overcaller is penalties. So the choices are between pass, 3♦, and 3♣ (if you play that as not showing extras over a two-level response - as some do).
                                                 

 

 

Bidding Quiz Answers  

Hand A:   3♣. This was the bid found by everybody, I believe, and is fairly clear unless you think the hand is worth 3NT.
Hand B:    3NT. With a little more and a stop in the two unbid suits, most players these days bid 3NT when holding a long solid minor.

 

Bidding Sequence Quiz Answers  
                 
C      1♣    pass   1♥      pass
         3♣                                      3♣ here is invitational of course.