Our website is www.pattayabridge.com                       Club News Sheet – No. 473
Our blogsite is www.pattayabridge.wordpress.com                                    
My mobile phone number is 083 6066880                                                            11th Dec 2011
My e-mail is terry@pattayabridge.com or pattayabridge@yahoo.com
My Windows Live Messenger is tj_quested@hotmail.com

Mon 5th    N-S      1st   Sean & Jeremy               71%            2nd  Bob P & Robbie             52%
                 E-W     1st   Frode & Dino                 59%            2nd  Jan & Henry H               55%
Wed 7th    N-S      1st   Ian W & Peter L            59%            2nd  Bengt & Bam                 56%
                 E-W     1st   Jeremy & Sigurd            60%            2nd  Frode & Olaf                 56%
Fri 9th       N-S      1st  Jean & Helligier               57%            2nd Frode & Dino                 54%
                 E-W     1st   Hans V & Pars               66%            2nd  Jan & Olaf                      58%

 

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

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

♠ AQ862         ♠ -
♥ 9765             ♥ 9842             With Hand B RHO opens 1♠, what do you bid?
♦ 103                ♦ K9853
♣ 97                ♣ J872                    

 

Bidding Sequence Quiz        

C      1♥     pass   1♠      pass             Is 2♦ forcing?
2♦

D      1♥     pass   2♣     pass             Is 2♦ forcing?
2♦

The New Year’s Teams

The yearly teams event will be held on Sun 8 Jan provided 4 or more teams sign up. Please put
your name(s) down (as an individual, pair or team) on the sign-up page on the notice board on
the right as you leave the bridge room. The entry fee is 100 bht per person regardless of membership.
50 bht is automatically taken by the Bowling Green and the rest will be distributed between the tw
winning teams. There will be some sort of free buffet or lunch snack which has yet to be determined.
                                     

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
11

1891.9 Hans Vikman
1838.5 Bob Short
1817.0 Janne Roos
1812.9 Sigurd Zahl
1800.8 Paul Quodomine
1771.9 Gerard Hardy
1769.5 Lars Broman
1763.7 Derek Tyms
1761.3 Alan Kleist
1758.0 Paul Scully
1754.6 Jan v Koss

658.5 Hans Vikman
648.3 Bob Short
650.3 Paul Quodomine
639.8 Per Andersson
631.9 Lars Broman
631.6 Sigurd Zahl
631.5 Jeremy Watson
631.1 Janne Roos
627.9= Gerard Hardy
627.9= Derek Tyms
626.5 Paul Scully

335.5 Bob Short
335.1 Hans Vikman
332.2 Per Andersson
328.9= Gerard Hardy
328.9= Derek Tyms
327.4 Lars Broman
325.9 Jeremy Watson
325.8 Paul Scully
325.4 Paul Quodomine
322.6 = Dave Hurst
322.6 = Sean Burgess

 

No Psyches Please.

As you know, psyches are not allowed in this club.
                       
♠ -                    On player doubled a 1♠ opening with this hand. When I later explained to him
♥ 9842             that an immediate double should be about opening strength he said that four
♦ K9853          points and seven for the void was fine!!!  He may even have been serious??
♣ J872             In News Sheet 407 Paul Quodomine wrote an article called “perfect shape Doubles”
                        where he explained that with perfect shape you can double with as few as ten points.
                        That’s clearly very sensible, four points is not! In fact this hand is not even good
                        enough for any type of pre-emptive overcall.

Just for clarity, the definition of a psyche is “… bluffing calls to create the illusion of strength or length…”. 
Clearly a call which is expected to be 10+ points and is in fact 4 points is a psyche.                       

 

Dave’s Column

North               South                                  West           North        East            South
♠ Q94              ♠ AK3                                -                 -              -                 1NT 
♥ K7                ♥ AQ                                  pass           3NT         all pass
♦ QJ10543       ♦ 986                                      
♣ A9               ♣ K5432                                      
                       
                                                                                     
You are South, declarer in 3NT. West leads the ♥2, plan the play.  
                                     


Dave’s Column Answer                           Board 11 from Wednesday 7th Dec. 
     
Dealer:             ♠ Q94                                            Bidding            
South               ♥ K7                                              West          North         East           South
Love all             ♦ QJ10543                                     -                -                 -               1NT
                        ♣ A9                                              pass           3NT           all pass      
                                                                             
♠ 10862                 N             ♠ J75                      
♥ 10642             W    E          ♥ J9853            
♦ AK                     S              ♦ 72                       
♣ Q87                                   ♣ J106              
                        ♠ AK3                                          
                        ♥ AQ                                      
                        ♦ 986                                
                        ♣ K5432                           Plan the play for declarer on the ♥2 lead.        

5♦ is laydown, but minor suit games are difficult to bid and score badly if 3NT makes an
overtrick or two (as it will here if a ♥ is not led).
Anyway, you are in 3NT and they have attacked your weakness and you have terrible
duplication in ♥’s. Normally it would be correct to attack ♦’s because it’s usually best to
establish tricks in our longest suit. But here you cannot as here the defence will win the ♦
and play another ♥. They will then cash their ♥’s when they win the next ♦ trick. The reluctant
conclusion is that the ♦’s cannot be established on a ♥ lead and you have to ignore them.
Instead, you have to hope for a 3-3 ♣ split. So win the ♥ and play three rounds of ♣’s.
On a good day like today they will divide evenly and you make game with three ♠’s, two ♥’s and four ♣’s.

And what happened at the Pattaya bridge club? Since West has no particular reason to lead ♥’s
rather than ♠’s, most made 11 tricks.

Dave’s 2nd Column

West                East                                     West          North         East           South
♠ A54              ♠ K63                                 1♣               1♥             3NT           all pass
♥ 643               ♥ A108         
♦ 753               ♦ AQ94                                 
♣ AKQ2         ♣ 654

You are East, declarer in 3NT. South leads the ♥7, plan the play.
                                                                       
                                                       
                                                                        
Dave’s 2nd Column Answer           Board 12 from Wednesday 7th Dec. 
     
Dealer:             ♠ 982                                             Bidding    
West                ♥ KQJ92                                       West          North         East           South
N-S vul            ♦ KJ6                                             1♣             1♥             3NT          all pass
                        ♣ 83                                             
                                                                             
♠ A54                    N             ♠ K63                     
♥ 643                 W    E          ♥ A108             
♦ 753                     S              ♦ AQ94                 
♣ AKQ2                               ♣ 654               
                        ♠ QJ107                                       
                        ♥ 75                                        
                        ♦ 1082                              
                        ♣ J1097                             Plan the play for declarer on the ♥7 lead.        
                       

You duck two rounds of ♥’s but win the third as South shows out, pitching a ♠. If ♣’s divide 3-3
you still need to make two ♦’s, while if the ♣’s are not breaking kindly you will need to make three ♦’s
whilst making sure to keep North off lead.
So, at trick four you play a ♣ to dummy and lead ♦, playing the ♦9 from hand or covering a higher card
from North. As it happens, South will win with the ♦10 and play a ♠, but you win in dummy and then
play a ♦ to the ♦Q. When this wins, you are home if either ♣’s or ♦’s break evenly. If the ♦Q lost to the
♦K with South you would still make the contract if both minor suits broke evenly.
If you had mistakenly played a ♦ to the ♦Q earlier, you would have been unable to establish three tricks in
the suit without letting North gain the lead (and you would have blown a ♦ trick if North held ♦J10x).

And what happened at the Pattaya bridge club?  Again, the majority made the contract – but not, I suspect,
with this line of play. At at least two tables South led the ♠Q which in my opinion is a beginner play which
ignores partner. You should lead partner’s suit unless you have a very good reason not to; with no outside
entry the ♠Q lead cannot be a good bet and the ♥7 is “obvious’ to me and I doubt if the majority of our
club would find the ♦ to the ♦9.

Bidding Quiz Answers  

Hand A:   2♣, I was asked about this North hand 7 from Monday. Provided that you play Garbage Stayman
                 this is better than a transfer to ♠’s when a possible 4-4 ♥ fit will be missed. So bid 2♣, pass a major
                 suit response and bid 2♠ (weak) over 2♦. The fact that the ♠’s are stronger is pretty much irrelevant;
                 you do not want to play in a 5-2 ♠ fit if there is a 4-4 ♥ fit and a 4-4 ♥ fit will almost certainly play
                 better that a 5-3 ♠ fit.
Hand B:    Pass, of course. This is only here because one player doubled!  This hand is nowhere near worth any
                  sort of pre-emptive bid, let alone a constructive double.

Bidding Sequence Quiz        

C      1♥     pass   1♠      pass             2♦ is not played as forcing by the majority, although I
         2♦                                               believe that the Scandinavians play it a s forcing.

D      1♥     pass   2♣     pass             But after a two-level response 2♦ it is played as forcing
          2♦                                             but a few do appear to play it as non-forcing.