Our website is www.pattayabridge.com                           Club News Sheet – No. 400

Our blogsite is www.pattayabridge.wordpress.com                                 

My mobile phone number is 083 6066880                                                          11th July 2010

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

My MSN messenger ID is tj_quested@hotmail.com

Mon 5th            1st    Bob P & Robbie            61%       2nd    Dave C & Terry Q                 58%

Wed 7th            1st    Hans V & Janne                      =           Dave C & Paul Q                   59%

Fri  9th              1st    Gus & Mark                   59%       2nd    Janne & Per-Ake                   57%

       
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Bidding Quiz                    Standard American bidding is assumed unless otherwise stated.

 

Hand A           Hand B           With Hand A partner opens 1, (a) what do you bid?

                                                (b)  Suppose you bid 1 and partner rebids 3, what now?

AKQ10973  KQJ9743                                  

J84               2                                                

2                   98                With Hand B partner opens 1, what do you bid?

98                J84

                                               

Hand C           Hand D           What do you open with Hand C?

                                               

AQ109         Q4             

-                   J3                 With Hand D LHO opens 1NT and RHO transfers with 2,

KQJ10          A9862         do you double or pass?

K9654         8762                                         

                                                                       

Bidding Sequence Quiz

 

E      1NT   pass   2      dbl            2 is a transfer and the dbl shows ’s,

pass                                          what does opener’s pass signify?

F      1NT   pass   2      dbl            2 is a transfer and the dbl shows ’s,

redbl                                         what does opener’s redouble signify?

G     1      pass   1      pass          What is the jump to 4, strong with good ’s or

3     pass   4                        weakish with good ’s and fast arrival?

     
Ron Klinger web site
     
 

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

1871.9 Janne Roos

1848.0 Paul Quodomine
1846.2 Hans Vikman

669.2 Janne Roos

654.6 Hans Vikman

640.1 Paul Quodomine

626.8 Tomas Wikman

622.1 Sally Watson

619.8 Lars Broman

615.9 Jean Wissing

609.5 Duplessy & Coutlet

597.8 Bengt Malgren

597.3 Jan v Koss

344.6 Janne Roos

337.6 Hans Vikman

329.6 Tomas Wikman

325.4 Sally Watson

323.4 Paul Quodomine

322.9 Lars Broman

320.3 Jean Wissing

319.5 Duplessy & Coutlet

316.0 Sigurd Zahl

314.2 Niels Krojhaard


When a transfer bid is doubled                     Board 3 from Friday 9th July

 

Dealer:             KJ72                                          West          North         East(D)    South

South               A10852                                      -                 -                 -               1NT   (1)

E-W vul           7                                                 pass           2      (2)   dbl   (3)    pass   (4)

                        A43                                            pass           redbl  (5)    pass         pass   (6)

pass

965                     N               Q4                     

K764              W    E            J3                      

KJ104                S                A9862               

105                                      8762                 

A1083                                       

Q9                                             

Q53                                          

KQJ9                                  

 

(1)   South decided to upgrade his hand to 15 because of the good intermediates.

(2)   I prefer 2 Stayman with a game forcing 5-4 or 4-5 in the majors.

(3)   What did you bid with this East hand D in this week’s quiz? These ’s (and the hand) are not good enough for a double in my style and I would pass.

(4)   Denying 2 or 3 ’s.

(5)   North did not understand the pass from partner and so redoubled believing that partner had good ’s.

(6)   South assumed that North hand good ’s.

 

And what happened? The bidding was not perfect, the defence was not perfect, but the declarer play was and 2** making scored 560 for a top. Other results were 4+1 three times and 3NT=

The bottom lines:

-     Playing in a 2-1 fit redoubled is not usually recommended.

-         It’s up to you what you play, but I believe that the following treatment after a transfer bid is doubled is fairly standard:

.   Complete xfer   = 3 cards, or 4 cards but not good enough to super-accept.

.   pass                 = 2 cards but not a good holding in the cipher suit.

.   redouble           = a good holding in the cipher suit.

 

 

 

Dave’s Column                         Here is Dave’s first problem, on the play of the hand.

                                                                                                                                   

West                East                                          Book Bidding

Q6                AJ2                                       West              North           East            South  

A92              KQ                                       -                     pass             1              pass

KJ96             A107543                             2NT               pass             3              pass

Q963           K4                                       3NT               pass             6              all pass

                       

You are East, declarer in 6. South leads the 4. Plan the play (trumps are 2-1).

 


Dave’s Column Answer                   Board 9 from Wednesday 8th July

 

     

Dealer:             9854                                           Book Bidding

North               1086                                           West          North         East            South

E-W vul           Q2                                             -                 pass           1              pass

                        AJ105                                        2NT (1)      pass           3              pass

3NT           pass           6    (2)      all pass

Q6                      N             AJ2                      

A92                W    E          KQ                 (1)  10-12 balanced, no 4-card major  

KJ96                   S              A107543       (2)  4 as RKCB is an alternative here. 

Q963                                 K4                      

                        K1073                                      

J7543                         South leads the 4, plan the play; trumps are 2-1  

8                                 with North starting with Qx.                         

872                                           

 

Some might win the lead, draw trumps and try the finesse. When that fails the slam is one down. As long as you can deduce which opponent has the A you can make sure of the slam if you have no trump loser.

After drawing trumps, if you place the A with South, lead a low from hand. If South takes the A you have two winners in dummy, the A and the Q. If South plays low the Q wins and the K can later be thrown on the A.

Martin Bloom of Sydney reasoned that if North had the K then the slam was safe. If South had the K then the A was slightly more likely to be with North. In addition, against a slam South might have led the A.

He therefore placed North with the A. He won trick one with the K and played the A and a to dummy’s K. Then came the 3. If North rose with the A declarer then has twelve tricks. In practice North played low and the K won. Then came the Q, a to dummy and the A pitching the 4. The finesse then lost but the slam was made.

This is a classic Morton’s Fork.

 

And what happened at the Pattaya bridge club? 3NT+3, 3NT+2 three times and 3NT=.

 

The bottom lines:

-     I note that the author recommends 4 as RKCB here. There are often problems with using 4NT as Blackwood with a minor suit as trumps and Paul Q and myself have agreed that four-of-the-minor is RKCB.


Dave’s 2nd Column                              Board 7 from Wednesday 8th July

 

Dave’s second article this week is a simple bidding problem – what was your answer to question A(a) in this week’s quiz?

     

Dealer:             AKQ10973                                Table A

South               J84                                             West          North(A)    East            South

Both vul            2                                                -                 -                 -                 1

                        98                                              pass           1    (1)      pass           3   (2)

pass           4NT (3)      pass           5   (4)

862                     N             5                           pass           5    (5)      pass           pass (6)

A1076            W    E          KQ953                 pass

86543                 S              109                      

7                                                                  Q10653               Book Bidding

                        J4                                              West          North(A)    East            South

2                                                 -                -                 -                 1

AKQJ7                                      pass           1    (1)      pass           3   (2)

AKJ42                                       pass           4    (3)      pass           4NT (7)

pass           5    (8)      pass           6    (9)

all pass

 

Table A:     (1)  What did you bid with this North hand A(a) in this week’s quiz? It is absolutely right to bid 1. Some players bid 4, saying that they want to keep the opponents out of the bidding. Not wise. North has a very nice hand, not a pre-emptive hand, and bidding 4 initially would not describe the hand well. A 4 bid would show something like Hand B – seven spades to the KQJ and maybe a singleton.

(2)   Forcing to game.

(3)   What did you bid with this North hand A(b) in this week’s quiz? Mike Lawrence’s answer is below but I’ll just say my bit about this 4NT RKCB bid – it is appalling! Not only is it poor bidding to bid Blackwood with a weak suit in which partner has shown no values (’s here) as there may be two losers off the top, but here 4NT is asking for keycards with ’s which is pretty pointless.

(4)   0 or 3 keycards for ’s.

(5)   Apparently North was worried that partner may have zero keycards, this is ‘impossible’ of course.

(6)   Normally when you have 3 keycards, partner asks, and then signs off at the five level, you should correct to six. But here South has my sympathy as he obviously has three keycards and partner was presumably hoping for four?

Book:         (3)  So what did you bid with this North hand A(b) in this week’s quiz? Mike Lawrence says: ‘North should bid 4. It is completely unnecessary to jump because 3 would be forcing. A jump now should say something special about the suit and promise a prime card outside.’ I (Terry) would bid 3 as 4 may be construed as fast arrival rather than a solid suit and good hand. 

(7)   Now we have the right hand bidding RKCB and with ’s set as trumps.

(8)   Two keycards plus the Q.

(9)   Bid with almost certainty that there is just one possible loser.

 

And what happened at the Pattaya bridge club? 6NT=, 6= twice, 4+2 twice.


 

1NT opening with a void (or small singleton) is not allowed.

 

AQ109                               One player (not a beginner) opened this East hand 25 from

-                                         Friday with 1NT. This is not only a very silly bid, but it is

KQJ10                               against the rules to open 1NT with a void (or small singleton).

K9654                               It is also pointless as you will automatically get a zero score.

 

 

Paul’s Column                                       Mandatory falsecards

 

On Monday 5th, board 5, my partner and I reached 6:

 

                                    North               South                           North               South

Dealer:                         98643           AKJ                          -                       2NT    

South                           A3                QJ                            3      *            4      **

N/S vul                         A865            Q103                       5      ***       6      ****

                                     54                AKJ106                   all pass

 

*          Transfer to spades.                  

**        Super-accept

***      Delicate slam probe cue bid     

****    This South is not known for delicacy.

 

North realized that opposite a super-accept (a marginal call at best with 3) Aces might be golden.  Not all slams require 33 hcp to bring in 12 tricks.  The opening lead of the 9 was ducked to the K in East and a came back won in dummy to preserve entries to South.  A was played to the Ace with East playing low and West playing the 10.  South now banged down the K, dropping the Q10 in West and later established the clubs for 4 tricks giving 5, 4, 2 and 1 for 12.  When I asked at least 5 decent players at the club why South had rejected the idea of taking the spade finesse after re-entering dummy in © none could provide a quick answer.  It’s simple really … if the 10 was a “true” card only the Q10 would allow the contract to make since East would have begun with Qxxx if the 10 was singleton.

This led us later to discuss the importance of West making the mandatory false-card of 10 from 10x.  If N/S have a 9+ spade fit it doesn’t matter a bit, but if the layout is as above and both follow low on the first South will have little choice but to go with the odds and finesse East for Qxx.

 


This leads to another interesting situation on defense.  After an auction where South opens a 15-17 1NT, North raises to 2NT after Stayman, and South bids the game you are East on defense.  Partner leads a low and you see in North:

 

                                    KQx

                                    xxxx

                                    J9x

                                    Kxx                           You (East)

                                                                        Xxxxx

                                                                        Kxx

                                                                        Q10

                                                                        xxx

 

You win partner’s lead with the K and return a to his A, Q, and 10 declarer playing Jx and discarding a and a .  If you have been doing a little counting and reasoning South will need 5 cards in a minor to bring his total to 9 and partner exits safely with a .  South wins with the A and bangs down the A, low from partner, low from dummy and … did you drop the Q in tempo??  South will now reason that West must have begun with 10xxx and lead low to the 9 following the logical conclusion.  If you didn’t, South’s only option will be to bang down the K hoping to drop your Q doubleton and 9 tricks roll in.  As you win your 10 you may mutter “Ooops!” as partner blesses your black little heart and North glares at partner.

 

The South hand:                              Axx

Jx                         I’ll have a few more of these for

                                                      AK87x                future columns.

                                                      AJx                     Paul Quodomine.         

Bidding Quiz Answers

 

Hand A:    (a)  1. This hand is too good for a pre-emptive 4

(b)  4, at least that’s what Mike Lawrence says, showing a good suit and something good outside. I would bid 3 if the 4 bid had not been discussed as many play that a jump to game in a game forcing sequence is fast arrival.

Hand B:    4. You do not want the opposition coming in. The hand is clearly far too good for 2 if you play that as a weak jump shift.

Hand C:    1 (or 1 or 1 depending upon your system/style). The point is that 1NT is not allowed with a void (or small singleton) and this opening is 100% sure to score a zero.

Hand D:    Pass. I prefer better ’s and a better hand for a lead directing double.

 

Bidding Sequence Quiz Answer

 

E      1NT   pass   2      dbl            

pass                                                         I play that pass denies 3 (or 4) ’s.

F      1NT   pass   2      dbl            

redbl                                                        I play that redbl shows good ’s.

 

G     1     pass   1      pass           I guess that this is up to you. At least one expert plays that

3     pass   4                        it is a good hand with good ’s. Others play fast arrival.

       
       

 Ron Klinger web site