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Monday 16th November Board 5
Which element of the game is the least discussed by most partnerships? I think the answer
is signals. Most partnerships agree to play a form of discards - high encouraging, Mckenney,
reverse or the bizarrely complicated Dodds. But signals are different - there are 2 basic types.
One is encouraging where usually a high card demands a continuation. The other is count
- where partner shows you how many cards they have in the played suit and you have to work
out what to do. Which system is best? Have a look at this hand.
The sensible auction is 1H pass 2D pass 4H and South leads a top spade. Partner plays the 2.
Now if you are playing encouage/discourage South knows partner hasn't got the Queen of
Spades because a higher card would be played by North. But South doesn't know how many
Spades North has.
Playing count South knows North has an odd number of Spades but doesn't know if he has
the Queen or not. So which is the best system of signals? The answer is both! It is possible to
combine them playing count most of the time but high encouraging in what are called
"cash out" positions - where you want to know if partner has a specific card eg a King when
you hold the Ace. But even that relatively sophisticated arrangement doesn't always work.
As its possible even to write books on this subject I haven't got room here to explain which
system is best and will work on this hand - maybe one day. For the moment let's congratulate
the 3 North/South pairs who managed to cash their 4 defensive tricks!
Monday 2nd November Board 12
This hand caught my eye because those declarers who played correctly will make less
tricks than those who misplayed. Most pairs played in 3NT and every East led a diamond.
How should you play. On top you have 4 diamonds, 3 hearts and 1 club. Where does the
9th trick come from? Some declarers saw no further than the club finessse. When that
worked they rapidly ran for home and found a 10th trick when the hearts broke 3-3.
Well played? Sadly no - because if the club finesse had lost to the King the defence can
cash 5 spade tricks. If North counts potential tricks it can be seen there are 4 diamonds,
1 club and potentially 4 hearts if they break 3-3. If they don't then - and only then - fall
back on the club finesse. Your chances have improved dramatically. When the hearts break
you don't risk the club finesse. Only 5 Norths took the correct line for a poor result - so to
give them due credit they sat North in the partnerships of Joan Harvey & Betty Shotton,
Bryan Morgan & Philip Lowe, Lily Richardson & Jane Coxon and Frank & Jeanne Gannon.
Monday 26th October Board 10
There is an old saying in bridge of 8 ever 9 never. Its really a piece of shorthand for the
correct play in a suit where you are missing 4 or 5 cards including the Queen. In other
words words if you have 8 cards (missing 5) you should finesse the Queen but with 9 cards
you should usually play for the drop.
Like most rules of thumb it is not always correct. Consider this hand -
Some Norths will be in 4 spades - assume the Club
King is led. You are missing 5 trumps
to the Queen but look what happens if you follow the old adage and finesse. The defence
cash the Queen of Clubs and give their partner a Club ruff.
This hand is a good example of being flexible in the play. As declarer you can spot the
danger of a club ruff so you should ignore the odds and cash the Ace and King. On a good
day the Queen will drop or East will hold Qxx and you will have stopped the club ruff at least.
If of course the defence start with another suit then it is correct to finesse in trumps.
As a postscript some Wests were on lead and were dealt QJ1043 in hearts to lead from.
My piece from last week has clearly not reached a wide audience as someone ignored the
suit all together, someone led the 4 and someone else the 3. It didn't matter on this hand.
Never mind - I'll keep trying .....
Monday 19th October Board 1
Philip Jackson has kindly arranged for the opening lead to be recorded on each hand. Its
fun but sometimes reveals a spine chilling story good enough to make a Hammer horror film.
Most pairs playing a weak no trump will reach 3NT by East on this hand. You may be
forgiven that thinking this is one of the most routine defences and results.
What does South lead? If the man making kebabs in the shop below had read a bridge book
I imagine he would lead the jack of spades, the higher of touching honours.
On the jack of spades lead declarer must lose 4 spades and the Ace of Hearts. Careful
declarers will play hearts twice from dummy in the hope of making 10 tricks and will end
up with 8. Imagine the suprise that North, having poked the bridgemate, feels to find that
over half the room had made 3NT and this scores around 10%.
The records reveal that a number of Wests started
with the 7 of spades - presumably as a
homage to the 4th highest principle. I am all for leading low from a long suit but not when
I have consecutive cards like J109. If your God (or in this case the duplimate machine)
deals you J109 in your longest suit he expects you to lead the Jack against NTs.
But if you do lead the spade 7 I still cannot see how this contract makes. The routine play
is the king from dummy and down you go again. I can only assume that either East has
ducked the ace of spades and the suit has not been touched again or has taken the Ace
(on the lead of the 7) and switched to another suit. The only alternative explanantion is
that declarer has taken the third round of spades and run the clubs. At this point North
should discard so as to encourage in diamonds by whatever methods are used. South
throws diamonds and down declarer goes yet again.
So how has this contract made 7 times? If you know how it made even once please e-mail me
at john_gladders@hotmail.com. Perhaps on the run of the clubs South has adopted the
highly unsafe strategy of discarding winners and keeping losers, pitching winning spades
to keep diamonds guarded.
Bridge is a funny old game although I'm not sure its meant to be as funny as that.
Monday 12th October Board 17
The game of bridge has thrown up all sorts of odd words and phrases. Contracts
are described as "cold" or "on ice". Players thinking for a time are "in the tank"
and squeezes have even more exotic names - "winkle" and "stepping stone" are
two of the better known. This hand is an example of an "uppercut" and was sent
by a kind correspondent wishing to remain anonymous. North opens a beefy
Weak 2 and probably plays there. East led Ace of Diamonds followed by a club.
Declarer seems to have eventually ruffed a diamond, set up the clubs and played
the King of Spades from dummy. Now declarer follows with anothe club from
dummy. What should West play? To discard now means North throws a losing
heart and East has to ruff. When declarer subsequently plays the Ace of Spades
both the Jack and Queen fall on the same trick. But if West ruffs with the Jack
East-West must now make 2 trump tricks. Note that in addition North must
discard a heart on the Jack of Spades rather than over-ruffing with the Ace.
If declarer does so this will lead to the loss not only of 2 trump tricks but also
a heart in the fullness. The motto of this piece are threefold - Firstly if you have
an apparently useless trump you may be able to use it to promote a trump in
partners hand. Secondly if your opponents do find an uppercut in defense
consider throwing a loser away at that point rather than over-ruffing and losing
an extra trick. Thirdly be careful when using bridge parlance in a non-bridge
environment. People may be alarmed and fear your boxing skills to hear you say
you have executed "an uppercut". Worse still I remember well the shocked
expression on a taxi drivers face listening to his back-seat passenger - a lady
member of the club - innocently refer to "holding a stiff King".
Monday 5th October Board 9
Most pairs play some form of 2 suited overcalls. The most popular convention
(although not the best) is the Michaels Cue bid. We see its limitations on this hand.
North opens 1Heart and playing Michaels East has 2 choices - either bid 1S and
potentially lose the diamond suit or overbid slightly and bid 2 hearts showing spades
and another suit. Partnerships should have some definition of the high card strength
of this bid - many play it as weak or very strong but vulnerability must play a part.
Some players are fond of using this convention with 5-4 in the majors, but sadly I
expect they will not play for money.
However South should now bid 4H (or better still 2S (the implied opponents suit)
showing a value raise to 4H). Where does 4H leave West? It seems as though partner
is at least 5-5 in spades and clubs and there is a real possibility that 4h will go down.
West passes and North makes 10 or 11 tricks in hearts.
Interestingly if South bids 2S West can join in with 2NT - asking for partners minor -
but 4H makes things very difficult.
However if you play a more sophisticated convention - namely Ghestem - East can
specifically describe the hand. Over 1H East bids 3C which shows specifically the
other two suits excluding clubs - in this hand spades and diamonds. West has a huge
fit and will certainly not sell out below the 5 level, guaranteeing a good board.
I should say one thing about Ghestem - it is easily forgotten and history is littered
with enormous minus scores because the 3C bidder has 6 or 7 good clubs and cannot
extricate themselves from the ensuing carnage.
When the board was played at one table North opened 1H, East bid 1S and for some
reason which still escapes me West (who does not embrace silence as often as most)
hose to introduce her diamonds, apparently at the 3 level. This was welcome news to
East and somehow the partnership staggered to 6 diamonds.
As you can see this contract makes 13 tricks on a heart lead as dummy's clubs
disappear on declarer's spades. A slam with only 17 high card points and 3 of those
are waste paper.
Congratulations to Irene Foggett and Estelle Fox, who were understandably the only
East/West pair to bid the slam or indeed any final contract.
Who needs Michaels, Ghestem or any other convention you may say? Over the long
term science will pay dividends but a mixture of good luck, confidence and sheer
bravado certainly worked here.
Monday 28th September Board 7
Sometimes its difficult to choose a hand of the week. If as North like me you picked out
your cards from this board you knew for sure that it would be easy to make the choice!
All Souths will open 1D. The first variable is East. At our table Phil Jackson made an
uncharacteristic but winning pass. If West preempts North might just guess the lie of the
cards later. With the North hand you can force with 3C or even eventually ask for
Kings but all roads should lead to 7NT.
This is an excellent contract making if the diamonds break or the DJ drops or the clubs
are 3-2 . I make that just short of 95%. Grand slams as good as this are winning bridge
but here North is frustrated by the breaks and it drifts 3 off for a terrible score.
Bridge can be a cruel game. Going off in this contract actually makes 8% difference to
your final score. Hard luck to Nan Bell and Vera Webster who bid well to 7NT and
deserved better fortune, particularly as 7NT has more chances than 7C.
The other important point is that if you are in 6NT make sure of your contract. The only
way to do that on this hand is to play on the long suit with the entries first. Once both
defenders follow to one round of clubs you are guaranteed 6C 3D 3H and 1S - all the
tricks once East has collected a club trick.
At the other end of the scale I would just like to mention Board 8 on which South appears
to have made a slam missing 2 trump tricks and 2 diamond tricks. To make matters even
less understandable South seems to have led against his own contract! I rather think that
Board 7 may have been either played twice or scored twice!
Monday 21st September Board 26
This hand rewards good play by both declarer and defenders - quite a rare specimin.
East should proably open 1NT (and if so should end up doubled in something) but may open
1S. If the latter, N/S reach 3NT on a spade lead from West. On the face of things this is a
hopeless cause. However, take a deep breath win the ace and lead Ace and another Club.
East wins the King and leads another Spade. South wins and plays another Club. West wins
and should of course lock declarer in dummy.
However some Wests led another spade (West discarding a heart) which left East with 2
Spade winners and an Ace (of Hearts) to get in with for at least one off. But things are not
what they seem! South wins and cashes 2 club tricks. What does East throw away? The
answer is it probably doesn't matter, declarer can always make the contract.
If East discards a Diamond declarer makes 3C 3D and 3S. If East throws a Spade and a
Heart (a Heart will already have been discarded on the third round of Clubs) all declarer
does is play a Heart and duck in dummy. Declarer knows from the bidding that the AH must
be with West. Remember the hand opened the bidding and has only revealed JS and KC at
this point! East wins, cashes a Spade and then has to lead from Qxx of Diamonds into AKJ.
Very elegant indeed!
This is a variation of what is known in the bridge world as a "strip and end play" but I do
not recommend use of the phrase elsewhere.
Well done to the 3 pairs who made it, 2 of whom were Irene Easton and Linda Pyke &
Rhona Stead and Gill Sporton.
The hand also rewards good play in defence by preventing declarer reaching the last 2 Club
tricks. 4 pairs defeated the contract by 2 tricks and deserved the good score they obtained.
Thursday 17th September Board 16
Many pairs play Michaels Cue Bids. They are a useful tool but not a perfect one because
on some occasions they identify only one of the two suits. But have you heard of the
variant to the convention called Leaping Michaels? This board gives those of you who
play Leaping Michaels a chance to show how useful it can be.
West opens a weak 2 Spades and if you don't play Leaping Michaels you are a bit stuck.
Double is unrepresentitive of your shape. If you do play it you bid 4C - this shows at least
5/5 in Clubs and Hearts. 4D is similar showing 5/5 in Hearts and Diamonds. In the hand in
question South has a great hand well worth a slam try. I suggest a cue bid of 4D (agreeing
one of partners suits by implication) and this should be sufficient to drive North to Slam.
The play is trivial and you will score at least 75%.
Incidentally some pairs also play Non-Leaping Michaels (I am not making this up!) over
pre-empts by the oppositon. Here bids of 4C and 4D over major suit preempts show 5/5
or better in the bid suit and the other major. These are very useful conventions but I urge
caution on two fronts. Firstly you lose a natural bid in the minor. Secondly it doesn't occur
all that often so its sometimes difficult to
remember!
[Back to Top]
Monday 7th September Board 15
Pre-empts are usually destructive weapons but sometimes partner has a very good hand
opposite. There is a very wide range of preempting style ranging from the ultra
conservative Rule of 500 (the maximum penalty that will be conceded if doubled) to one
club member (who shall be nameless) whose preempts only comply with a Rule of 2000
on a good day.
In this hand West has a fairly standard non-vulnerable preempt with an extra trump
to make amends for the lack of a higher Diamond honour.
What do you respond with East's collection? At our table Pam Gladwin raised Joan
Monkhouse's pre-empt to 6 Diamonds - an excellent practical bid and 12 tricks rolled in
when the Heart King fell on the 2nd round of the suit.
What happens if the preempting hand held KQJxxxxx? Can 7 be bid? Only with a lot of
system -
3D (preempt)
4NT (Key Card Blackwood)
5C/D- whichever you play (one card - must be trump king)
5H (have you got the trump Q and any extras?)
5NT (Yes I have the trump Queen, no outside cards but extra length)
Without the trump Q opener responds 6 Diamonds.
Responder can now bid 7NT with 13 tricks.
It is a lot to learn but when it comes up your result will be so spectacular!
Friday 4th September Board 1
Do you know what the score is for a non-vulnerable minor suit slam? The answer is 920
but there is another way to get exactly that score and you don't have to go any higher
than the 1 level!
Rick Harrison kindly sent me details of the bidding when he played against Pat Tuff and
David Morrison. After 2 passes South opened 1 spade. Rick has a tricky bid with the
West hand and chose to double. North redoubled and this was passed back to Rick. He
could hardly bid 1NT now as this would show extra values and he thought any other bid
by him would be doubled for a poor score.
Showing considerable fortitude he passed and recorded minus 920 the hard way.
There are some hands which do not conform precisely to system requirements. A good
rule of thumb is to make the bid which most closely resembles the system bid even if it has
a flaw or two. The other way to prevent this happening is to agree with your partner that
in auctions such as 1C x xx the doubler's partner must bid unless he or she is content to
defend and defeat the contract. Many thanks to Rick for being good enough to share his
trials and tribulations.I am equally happy to record triumphs if anyone would like to send
them to me at john_gladders@hotmail.com
