Our website is www.pattayabridge.com                           Club News Sheet – No. 446

Our blogsite is www.pattayabridge.wordpress.com                                 

My mobile phone number is 083 6066880                                                              5th June 2011

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

My Windows Live Messenger is tj_quested@hotmail.com

 

Mon 30th         1st  Jeremy & Sean                  60%       2nd    Terje Lie & Svein                   59%

Wed 1st           1st  Terje Lie & Svein               62%       2nd    Sigurd & Terry                       58%

Fri 3rd              1st  Michael C & Alan K          65%       2nd    Sigurd & Janne                       60%

 

 

Bidding Quiz           Standard American bidding is assumed unless otherwise stated.

 

Hand A           Hand B           With Hand A partner opens 1 and RHO overcalls 1♠,

what do you do?

A2                AKQ62     

J985             10                 With Hand B you open 1 and partner bids 2, what do

J2                  AK7             you bid now?

Q9765         Q873                                        

                       

 

 

Bidding Sequence Quiz             

                 

C      1    1      dbl                   How many points should the negative double show?

 

D      pass  1      pass   2

pass  pass   dbl     pass         The double is a take-out double in the pass-out seat.

2     3     pass   pass       What sort of hand does the 3 bid show?

3                        

 

E       1     pass   2NT   pass       2NT is Jacoby, promising 4 card support. 3 shows shortage.

 3     pass   4NT                 4NT is RKCB, but for ’s, the last bid, or for ’s?

        

 

        


 

Bid out your shape                                               Board 17 from Wednesday 25th May

 

Dealer:             AKQ62                                      Table A

West                10                                               West          North(B)    East            South

Love all            AK7                                           pass           1              pass           2

                        Q873                                         pass           3    (1)      pass           4     (2)

pass           4NT (3)      pass           5

1053                   N             974                       pass           5              all pass

43                   W    E          Q75               

98632                  S              Q1054                  Table B

K95                                   AJ6                      West          North(B)    East            South

                        J8                                               pass           1              pass           2

AKJ9862                                   pass           3   (1)      pass           3

J                                                  pass           3NT           pass           4     (4)

1042                                          all pass

 

Table A:     (1)  What did you bid with this North hand B in this week’s quiz? This bid is certainly forcing but I don’t like it – it’s too unilateral when the final strain is by no means certain and NT is very likely to be best, especially at pairs.

(2)  With two decent trumps and expecting partner to have ’s about as good as his ’s, South decided to support partner.

(3) With two possible top losers in a suit (’s) it’s a bad idea to use Blackwood. Additionally, partner has shown nothing more than minimal support and looking for a slam is a bit optimistic.

Table B:     (1)  This was the popular and fairly obvious answer to question B. Game forcing and showing a good hand with five ’s and four ’s.

(3)  It’s easy for South now, partner has nine or ten black cards and presumably two stops for his NoTrump bid. That leaves probably just one and so simply bidding the game is very clear.

 

And what happened? Especially with the bidding at table B there was no reason for a lead and most chose a . Twelve tricks when playing in ’s are then easy without need for the finesse. Playing in ’s it’s not so easy and even with a non- lead 5 went -1.

The bottom lines:

-         Bid out your shape and don’t fix trumps prematurely.

 

 

Dave’s Column

 

4                         N                           West          North         East            South                 

A3                  W    E                        -                 1              pass           2

QJ10983             S                            3              3              4              4

10984                                              all pass

                  A106                                   

J854                                    

K                     You are West, defending 4. Partner leads the A, any ideas

KJ763             how you can defeat the contract?  

What do you play at trick one?


Dave’s Column Answer                  Board 21 from Wednesday 1st

     

Dealer:             KQJ973                                     Bidding

North               Q109                                          West          North         East            South

N-S vul            62                                               -                 1              pass           2

                        AQ                                             3              3              4              4

all pass

4                         N             852                      

A3                  W    E          K762             

QJ10983             S              A754              East leads the A, any ideas how West can defeat

10984                                52                  the contract?

                  A106                                   

J854                                    

K                 

KJ763                       

 

West saw that there were a couple of possibilities to defeat 4. If East had the K there might be a ruff for the defence. Also, if East had the Q and the A there might be two tricks and a trick coming.

West decided to give East some hints on how to defend. How did he do that?

West played the Q on the first trick. This is an unusual card and is suit-preference asking for a . A low from East then leads to one down.

If West had not signaled, it is not unlikely that East would have switched to a or a trump and declarer would then take a lot of tricks.

 

And what happened at the Pattaya bridge club? 4+2, 4+1, 4=, 4-1, 4-2 and 5*-1.

 

 

Dave’s 2nd Column

 

West                                                 West          North            East            South

AJ8                                                -                 -                    1              pass

Q2                                                2             pass              2              pass

Q93                                               2NT  (1)     pass              3              pass

KJ876                                          ?       (2)

 

2NT at (1) was forcing in their system. What should West bid at (2)?


Dave’s 2nd Column Answer
                 Board 22 from Wednesday 1st June

     

Dealer:             K10954                                      Book bidding

East                  K95                                            West          North         East            South

E-W vul           106                                             -                 -                 1              pass

                        1032                                          2             pass           2              pass

2NT (1)      pass           3              pass

AJ8                     N             2                         ?      (2)

Q2                  W    E          J108763        

Q93                    S              AK875             (1)  forcing in their system

KJ876                                A                    (2)  what should West bid?

                  Q763                                   

A4                                       

J42               

Q954                                  

 

  This is an easy little problem that causes more problems than it should. East opens 1 and West bids 2. East rebids 2 and West bids 2NT. In some methods (2/1) this 2NT bid is forcing to game. If you play that 2NT can be passed it is correct for West to bid 3NT instead. Here West bids 2NT forcing and East continues with 3.

What should West bid now?

 

Some players never get this kind of problem wrong and some never get it right. If you bid 3, you have got it right.

Why is 3 correct when you have such good stoppers in the black suits? The answer is that your stoppers are good, but not that good. Your partner has ten or eleven red cards which means he is short in one or both black suits. 3NT has no chance on a lead. If you bid 3, East will know you have just two of them because you did not support over 2.

You may think that East should keep bidding his suits but at some point in the auction he should stop doing that. West could have a lousy hand for ’s  or ’s and East has said repeatedly that he has lots of red cards. Time to quit.

 

Terry’s comment. This is a great advert for the 2/1 bidding system where 2NT at (1) is indeed game forcing and the bidding ‘easy’. However, most at our club play that it shows +- 11 points and is not forcing and so responder has to jump to 3NT. So the problem is not valid unless playing 2/1.

The author does not say what East should bid if West does indeed bid 3NT at (1). Without the extra bidding space available when playing 2/1, East is on a complete guess. Dave says that 4 is obvious with eleven red cards – but is it? Partner has bid ’s and jumped to 3NT and, as the author says, “West could have a lousy hand for ’s or ’s”. Give him AQ8 4 Q9 KQJ8763 or similar (quite likely on the bidding) and 3NT will make ten tricks, probably twelve or thirteen; but 4 makes only ten (or may go down) for a clear bottom. And if West has a similar hand with say KQx then 4 certainly goes down with 3NT cold and probably making overtricks. In my (Terry) opinion it is not at all obvious for East to bid 4 over a 3NT bid at (1), partner may just need the ’s stopped and have a totally unsuitable hand for either red suit. This is just one of the reasons that the extra bidding space available with no unnecessary jumping makes 2/1 the most popular bidding system worldwide for intermediate+ level players. It is so much easier to bid 3 over a forcing 2NT than it is to bid 4 over 3NT.

 

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

1780.0 Janne Roos
1750.2 Hans Vikman
1725.0 Tomas Wikman

639.8 Per Andersson
638.4 Hans Vikman
631.0 Paul Quodomine
627.6 Janne Roos
624.0 Lars Broman
617.8 Paul Scully
613.5 Bob Short
606.3 Jeremy Watson
605.3 Sean Burgess
604.4 Tomas Wikman

332.2 Per Andersson
326.2 Hans Vikman
325.3 Paul Scully
321.7 Lars Broman
318.9 Janne Roos
318.4 Dave Hurst
314.8 Bob Short
314.0 Paul Quodomine
312.2 Gerard Hardy
311.7 Jeremy Watson


 

Bidding Quiz Answers

Hand A:    Double, negative. In my style this shows 4 ’s, others play it as showing the two unbid suits. Either way this bid is perfect. Note that this is a poor 8 count, but still easily more than enough for the bid.

Hand B:    3, show your power and shape. 3 would be forcing but it’s a poor choice when 3NT is very likely to be the best contract.

 

 

Bidding Sequence Quiz Answers    

       

C      1    1      dbl                   You only need about 6+ points for this negative double. This is because you are not forcing partner to the two level (he can bid 1NT), and if he does bid at the two level you can pass.

 

D      pass  1      pass   2          What sort of hand does the 3 bid show? – I’m sorry, but I

pass  pass   dbl     pass       cannot envisage the hand. Partner has balanced in the pass-out

2     3      pass   pass       seat and succeeded in pushing them up. This 3bid is what I

3                                       call ‘hanging partner’ – he is bidding your hand and has succeeded in pushing them up a level.

 

E       1     pass   2NT   pass       RKCB here is for ’s, the agreed trump suit. The key suit is the

3     pass   4NT                  last bid suit only if no trump suit has been agreed. Note that I don’t really like jumping into RKCB, I don’t know responder’s hand but it’s usually best to initiate a cuebid sequence after the shortage bid before using RKCB.