Club News Sheet – No. 231    www.pattayabridge.com        9th April 2007

       
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My home phone is 038 422924 and my mobile number is 086 6089887

It is best to use my home number to contact me unless I am at the bridge club.

Mon 2nd     1st N-S     Paul S & Jeremy                 66%         2nd    Bob & Mike                     56%

                  1st E-W    Kjell & Tyrone                   64%         2nd    Harry & Paul                    61%

Wed 4th      1st N-S     Alain & Jean-Charles          59%         2nd    Kenneth & Terry              59%

                  1st E-W    Janne & Lasse                    57%         2nd    Arne & Oysten                 57%

Fri  6th        1st            Johannes & Jan                  58%         2nd    = Janne & Lasse               55%

                                                                                            2nd    = Alain & Jean-Charles    55%

             

Bidding Quiz                           Standard American is assumed unless otherwise stated.

 

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

 

♠ AK43           ♠ K1084          With Hand B you open 1NT and partner transfers with 2♦, 

♥ Q86              ♥ AKQ            what do you bid?      

♦ K5                ♦ A874           

♣ 8752            ♣ 64

With Hand C partner opens 1♠ and you bid 1NT. Partner

Hand C           Hand D           then bids 2♥, what do you do?

 

♠ 9                   ♠ Q954            With hand D it’s unfavourable vulnerability. LHO opens

♥ Q32              ♥ 1097653       1♣ and RHO bids 1♦. (a) What do you do?

♦ A8642          ♦ A                  (b) Suppose you pass, LHO bids 1NT and this is passed round

♣ Q1083         ♣ A7                      to you, what do you do now?

                       

Hand E            Hand F            (a)  What do you open with Hand E

(b)  What would you open if you played Benjamin twos?

♠ AK72           ♠ A3                       

♥ -                   ♥ AKJ76         With Hand F it’s love all. Partner opens 1♠ and you respond 2♥.

♦ A103            ♦ J5                  LHO bids 3♦ which partner doubles. What do you do?

♣ AKQJ54      ♣ QJ52

                       

Hand G           Hand H           With Hand G partner opens 1♠ and RHO doubles. What

do you bid?

♠ QJ87            ♠ Q5                     

♥ J64               ♥ Q5                With Hand H it’s love all. LHO opens 1♠ and RHO bids 2♥,

♦ KQJ              ♦ Q106432      what do you do?

♣ 765              ♣ A43             

Hand J            Hand K           With Hand J partner opens 1NT, what do you bid?

 

♠ KJ32            ♠ K6                                       

♥ 109842         ♥ AKJ9           With Hand K partner opens 1♦. (a) what do you bid?        

♦ 2                   ♦ Q8                (b)  Suppose you choose 2♣ and partner raises to 3♣, what

♣ Q97             ♣ KQ762              do you bid now?      

                                                                                                                 


Bidding Sequences Quiz            All of these sequences occurred this week

 

L      1♦      pass   1♥      pass       (a) What is the 2♥ bid – Weak, invitational or forcing?

1NT   pass   2♥                    (b) How many ♥’s for the 2♥ bid?

M    1♠      pass   2♥      3♦          (a) What is the dbl – penalties or ‘optional’?

dbl                                       (b) Does the double show extra values?

N     1NT   pass   2♣     pass       What is 2♥ – weak, invitational or forcing?

2♦      pass   2♥     

P      2♦      dbl                             2♦ is multi, what is dbl?

                 

 

Editorial

Bridge during Soncran

The Soncran days this year are Wed 18th for Naklua and Thu 19th for Pattaya. It is only the Pattaya day that’s a problem and as that’s a Thursday all bridge is as normal during Soncran week. On Wednesday the traffic will be OK but you may get a little wet if in a taxi or on a motorbike.

Where do the French fries go?

As some of you may have noticed, I collect all of the left-overs for my dog (please don’t throw them away, but give them to me). Cheryl noted this and said that I must have a big dog, maybe a Rottweiler? Actually, my dog out-sizes a Rottweiler by about 30% and weighs far more than me! – about 80 kilos; ask Phil if you don’t believe me. It is a huge, healthy, ginormous (I think that’s the ‘word’ Phil used) male and has an enormous appetite, eats far more than me, and simply loves fatty foods like the Tropicana French fries. I have had Great Danes and bred them for about 15 years but my current dog is the biggest I have ever had.

I have no problem with burglars/intruders.

Great Danes are fabulous dogs; they are gentle but when necessary will defend you to the death. My dog ‘Engine’ follows me wherever I go. Unfortunately my beautiful female died during her pregnancy (she had 19!! pups inside her – simply too many – her death was devastating for me) and I am currently looking for a female Great Dane (black, blue or harlequin). If anyone knows of one for sale or for breeding, please let me know. My male is a spectacular black and in his prime (ask Phil, Hugh, Sally or Jeremy who have all seen him). He is imported from the UK and now lonely and looking for a good partner (just like a number of players at the Pattaya bridge Club).

Play Roman Keycards and count 13 tricks        Board 23 from Monday 2nd

 

Sometimes Roman Keycards Blackwood comes in very handy even when you have no intention of playing with the key suit as trumps: -

Dealer:             ♠ J                                                 Table A

South               ♥ 83                                               West          North         East          South

Both vul            ♦ AKQJ764                                   -                 -                 -               1♠

                        ♣ AQ6                                           pass           2♦    (1)      pass         3♣

pass           4NT (2)      pass         5♥    (3)

♠ K652                 N             ♠ Q108                    pass           5NT (4)      pass         6♥    (5)

♥ J9762             W    E          ♥ 1054                     pass           6NT (6)      all pass

♦ 85                       S              ♦ 1093                   

♣ 93                                      ♣ 10852                  Table B

                        ♠ A9763                                        West          North         East          South

♥ AKQ                                          -                 -                 -               1♠

♦ 2                                                 pass           2♦    (1)      pass         3♣

♣ KJ75                                          pass           4NT (2)      pass         5♣   (7)

pass           5NT (8)      pass         6♦    (9)

pass           7NT (10)    all pass

 

Table A:     (1)  If you play traditional strong jump shifts then you can bid 3♦.

(2)   This pair play Normal Blackwood.

(3)    So two aces

(4)   Kings?

(5)   Two kings.

(6)   North has no idea which king is missing and so chickened out.

Table B:     (2)  This pair play RKCB, so 4NT here asks for keycards with ♣’s ‘agreed’

(7)   Zero or three (so two aces and the ♣K here) playing standard RKCB.

(8)   Kings (excluding the ‘trump’ king).

(9)   One.

(10)   North does not care which major suit king is missing – he can count a minimum of 7 ♦’s, 3 ♣’s, ♥A, ♠A and whichever major king partner has, so 13 tricks off the top provided that the ♦’s run.

 

And what happened? Four out of seven bid 7NT, although I don’t know how many punted it. Two stopped in 6NT and one pair stopped in an ultra safe 3NT.

The bottom lines: -

-         With 13 top tricks, bid 7NT.

-         RKCB can often locate a key king (or queen) even if you do not want to play with that suit as trumps.

Dave’s Column                                               Boards 11 (& 24) from Wednesday 4th

 

Here is this week’s Dave input involving the best play for the contract.

♠ AK43                     You play in 6♠ as South.

♥ Q86                        What is the best line for making the contract?

♦ K5                         

♣ 8752                      Answer next page.

 

♠ QJ1072                                                       

♥ AJ10           

♦ A                 

♣ AK93                

                                               

And what happened at Pattaya Bridge Club? The board(s) was played a total of 15 times. 6♠ was reached 10 times, 7♠ twice and 4♠ three times. Just three players bid and made 6♠.

 

Terry’s comments:  Not everybody at the Pattaya bridge club reached 6♠; Dave’s book gives a somewhat old-fashioned way to reach 6♠; I give one auction from the club that failed and an ‘expert’ auction: -

 

Table A                                                ‘Expert’ table

North(A)          South                           North               South

-                       1♠                                -                       1♠

2♣   (1)            3♣                               4♦    (1)            6♠        (4)

4♠    (2)            pass     (3)                    all pass

 

Table A:     (1)  What did you bid with this North hand A in this week’s quiz? You have the values for 4♠ but a direct 4♠ bid is a pre-emptive bid with a weak hand and 5 ♠’s. If you do not have a more sophisticated method like Jacoby 2NT or Swiss then it’s best to start off with two of a minor …

(2)   … and then jump to 4 of partner’s major – this shows a sound raise.

(3)   Obviously South should bid slam but he did not understand the delayed game raise – instead he totally incorrectly criticized partner for not bidding 4♠ at (1).

(as it turned out he only made 11 tricks anyway!).

Table B:     (1)  Many experienced players will bid a Jacoby 2NT here and I expect that that will be a popular choice of answer to question A. But to bid Jacoby 2NT with anything from 12 points upwards is not a good idea. Our experts play Keycard Swiss with 12-15 and so 4♦ here shows 12-15 points without 2 keycards plus a feature (third keycard, singleton or trump queen).

(4)   That enough for South to bid the slam and also enough information to stay out of the grand slam. He could perhaps check on keycards with 4NT just in case partner has a ♠ suit of xxxx.

 

The Keycard Swiss/Jacoby 2NT combination is excellent and is written up on the club web-site (Conventions > Section 3 > raising partner’s 1♥/♠ opening with a big hand).

                                                           


Dave’s Column answer

An elimination and throw-in                                         Boards 11 (& 24) from Wednesday 4th

Dave again put two virtually identical boards in on Wednesday. West had the South hand when it was board 24. South ends up in 6♠. How do you play the hand on the ♦Q lead?

Dealer:             ♠ AK43                                   Hint: It looks like you need the ♥ finesse but     

South               ♥ Q86                                      there is no need to rely on this immediately.

E-W vul           ♦ K5                                             

♣ 8752                                    Tip: In an elimination situation with trumps left

in both hands look for a suit such as AKxx

♠ 6                        N             ♠ 985                 opposite xxxx. When you exit in the suit after

♥ K743              W    E          ♥ 952                 taking the AK it may be that the defender with

♦ QJ1074               S              ♦ 98632             the Q has to lead into your tenace or give you a

♣ Q106                                 ♣ J4                   ruff and discard.

                        ♠ QJ1072                               

♥ AJ10                                   

♦ A                                         

♣ AK93

 

Play: After winning the ♦ lead you should play 3 rounds of trumps ending in dummy. You then play the ♦K throwing a ♣ from the South hand. Then you play ♣AK and another ♣. If East wins the 3rd ♣ or the ♣’s do not split 3-2 you will then have to take the ♥ finesse. As the cards lie West has to win the 3rd ♣ and is end-played; having to lead away from the ♥K or concede a ruff and discard. Since you have a further discard to come on dummy’s 4th ♣ you will make the contract.

                ______________________________________________________________________________

 

6NT making with three aces and a king off the top?  Board 32 from Monday 2nd

This result caused a great deal of comment on Monday. It was scored as 6NT doubled making for 1660 but a little detective work (consulting the score chart) indicated that the contract was actually 6♠ doubled.

Dealer:             ♠ 6                                                 Table A

West                ♥ 9653                                           West