Club News Sheet – No. 248    www.pattayabridge.com        5th Aug 2007

My home phone is 038 422924 and my mobile number is 083 6066880

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

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

My MSN messenger ID is tj_quested@hotmail.com

         
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Mon 30th          1st  Paul Sc.. & Ivy                     63%         2nd Derek & Gerard                   62%

Wed 1st           1st Paul Sc.. & Terry                 65%         2nd Paul Sav.. & Mike G            61%

Fri  3rd              1st  Kees Pr.. & Guy                  59%         2nd Bjorn & Sally                        58%

 

Bidding Quiz                           Standard American is assumed unless otherwise stated.

 

Hand A           Hand B           With Hand A partner opens 1NT and you transfer with 2 and

partner obediently bids 2. What do you bid now?

AQJ63          K1064                       

96                 J1063                      

10842           KQ6             With Hand B partner opens 1 and RHO overcalls 1, what

Q7               A8                do you bid?

                                                              

 

Hand C           Hand D           With Hand C you open 1 and partner bids 2, what do you bid?

 

54                 J                      

KQ98           K7                      With hand D there are two passes and RHO opens 3,

QJ94             AKQJ10654       what do you bid?

A82              K6

 

 

 

Bidding Sequences Quiz            All of these sequences occurred this week

 

E      1      pass   2     pass       (a) How many ’s does opener promise?

2                                        (b) How many points is opener showing?

F      1      pass   2NT                 (a) How many points is 2NT by responder?

(b) How many ’s and how many ’s?

G     1      pass   3NT                 (a) How many points is 3NT by responder?

(b) How many ’s and how many ’s?

 

The Club Championships       The current standings are: -

Gold Cup = Best 30                 Silver plate = Best 10       Bronze medal = Best 5

 

1816.8  Janne Roos                  666.8  Janne Roos            350.4  Janne Roos

1793.3  Jan v Koss                  650.5  Jan v Koss            340.2  Jan v Koss

1763.4  Dave Cutler                 634.9  Paul Savelkral        336.2  Bengt Malmgren

                                                634.5  Lars Gustaffson     332.9  Paul Savelkral

627.2  Dave Cutler           325.6  Gunnar Barthel

Please note

 

My mobile phone number has recently changed. It’s now 083 6066880.


Tell partner your hand                                         Board 22 from Monday 30th

     

Dealer:             AQJ63                                        Table A

East                  96                                               West          North(A)    East            South

E-W vul           10842                                         -                 -                 pass           1NT    

                        Q7                                             pass           2              pass           2

pass           4    (1)      all pass

107                    N             9852                    

10872             W    E          KQ4                     Table B

KJ96                 S              A5                        West          North(A)    East            South

J92                                     10543                  -                 -                 pass           1NT

                        K4                                              pass           2              pass           2

AJ53                                          pass           3NT (1)      all pass

Q73                                           

AK86                                        

 

Table A:     (1)  What did you bid with this North A in this week’s quiz? The hand is worth game, but with two doubletons and a meager suit, this North chose 4.

Table B:     (1)  This North knew not to bid a 5 card suit having transferred and so chose 3NT. Should North bid 3NT or introduce a 2nd 4 card suit with 3? Experts disagree on this, 3NT is obviously very reasonable (better than 4) but I would bid 3. This is game forcing and warns partner of the shortage in the two unbid suits. With this particular South hand he would always opt for 3NT of course as ’s and ’s are well covered, but with a weakness in either ’s or ’s then a 5-2 fit may play best.

 

And what happened? Three pairs bid and made 3NT (one with an overtrick). Two pairs bid 4 and both went down 

The bottom lines: -

-         If partner opens 1NT and you have game values with a 5 card major and a 4 card minor, then transfer and then bid the minor – this warns partner about the shortage in the other two suits.

-         To transfer and then rebid the major promises a six card suit.

-         Some experts believe that a 2nd suit having transferred should be five cards but most agree that it only promises four. I strongly go along with this 2nd group and this topic is fully discussed in the No Trump bidding book.

 

.


Negative double or show your stop?                   Board 12 from Monday 30th

 

K1064          Suppose you hold this hand. Partner opens 1 and RHO overcalls 1.           

J1063           What do you do? Should you show your 4 card suit (with a negative double)

J62                or should you show your excellent guards by calling 1NT? It’s a close call,

Q8               your hand is worth just one bid and you have to choose. Either may turn out best.

But give the hand more points and you can do both! South at Table A could not work it out and ended up making a ludicrous bid that stopped short of game.

     

Dealer:             Q9                                              Table A

West                AK98                                         West          North         East            South(B)

N-S vul            1094                                           pass           1             1              2NT   (1)

                        K543                                         pass           pass (2)      all pass

 

72                      N             AJ853                   Table B

Q542              W    E          7                           West          North         East            South(B)

52                       S              AJ873                   pass           1             1              dbl     (1)

QJ972                                106                      pass           2              pass           4      (3)

                        K1064                                        all pass

J1063                                        

KQ6                                          

A8                                             

 

Table A:     (1)  What did you bid with this South hand B in this week’s quiz? Should you show your ’s or bid NoTrumps? This South chose to bid 2NT but unfortunately that shows just 11-12 points and is not forcing

(2)  And with this 12 count North correctly passed.

Table B:     (1)  This South got it spot on. With game forcing values you negative double first to show four ’s (and 6+ points) and if partner does not bid ’s you bid 3NT next go, easy.

(3)   Here the 4-4 fit is located and the easy game reached.

 

And what happened? 4 is the best contract, even with the adverse 4-1 split. Three pairs bid 4 which should make +1 but one managed to go down. 2NT should make 10 tricks easily but this South vindicated his bidding by totally mis-playing the hand and making just 8 tricks - a was led, East played the J and South ducked! At another table South got a complete top for 3NT +2. 10 tricks in No trumps is easy: (2 ’s, 4 ’s, 2 ’s and 2 ’s).

The bottom lines: -

-         A 2NT bid by responder is always a balanced 11-12 unless you have another agreement.

-         Don’t let the J win when you have 6 cards in the suit including the K, Q, 10 and 9!

 


A Reverse?                                                          Board 23 from Monday 30th

 

Dealer:             AQ108                                       Table A

South               3                                                 West(C)     North         East            South

Both vul            72                                               -                 -                 -                 pass

                        J109763                                     1              pass           2   (1)      pass

2      (2)    pass           4NT (3)      pass

54                      N             K73                      5              pass           6              all pass

KQ98             W    E          A102             

QJ94                   S              AK85                   Table B

A82                                    K54                     West(C)     North         East            South

                        J962                                           -                 -                 -                 pass

J7654                                         1              pass           2   (1)      pass

1063                                           2NT   (2)    pass           3NT (4)      all pass

Q                                              

 

Table A:     (1)  This is the best response unless you have agreed to play Inverted Minors or Baron 2NT. A 2NT bid here is normally 11-12 and 3NT is normally 13-15.

(2)  What did you bid with this West hand C in this week’s quiz? This 2 bid is a reverse and promises 16+ points unless you have agreed that a reverse over a two level response does not guarantee extra values. However, this 2 bid is incorrect as a reverse always guarantees 5 + cards in the first bid suit.

(3)  East thought that West had a bigger and more shapely hand and charged off into the rather fortunate slam.

Table B:     (2)  This West got question C spot on. 2NT here shows 12-14 and may or may not contain a 4 card major. You should not bid a 4 card major here as partner has generally denied one and to reverse into a major promises 5+ ’s whether or not you play it as 15+ points.

(4)   East knows that there is a probable 4-4 fit but it’s a dicey slam with a combined 29-31 points.

 

And what happened? The hands fitted well and with the A onside 6 made at the two tables where it was bid (pretty much identical auctions).

The bottom lines: -

-         A reverse guarantees 5+ cards in the first bid suit.

-         It’s up to you whether a reverse over a two-level response shows extra values (standard is that it does) but the above statement (5+ cards) is true whichever option you choose.

 

 


If 3NT is an option …                                          Board 19 from Monday 30th

 

We had 5 different auctions on this board from Monday (South passed as dealer at every table): -

     

Dealer:             K62                            Table A    West          North         East            South

South               852                                             pass           pass (1)      5    (2)      all pass

E-W vul           3                                                

A109754                    Table B    West          North         East            South

pass           pass (1)      2   (2)      2

AQ1094            N             J                           2              3              4    (3)      pass

1093               W    E          K7                        5              all pass

82                       S              AKQJ10654        

J82                                     K6                      

                        8753                           Table C    West          North         East(D)      South

AQJ64                                       pass           3   (1)      5    (2)      all pass

97                                              

Q3                             Table D    West          North         East(D)      South

pass           3   (1)      3NT (4)      all pass

                                                     

Table E    West          North         East(D)      South

pass           3   (1)      3NT (4)      4

4              pass           5    (5)      all pass

 

Table A:     (1)  At this vulnerability I prefer the bid chosen at tables C-E

(2)  A silly opening bid with this huge hand.

Table B:     (1)  This North also passed.

(2)  Much more sensible.

                  (3)  But East made a poor choice here. It looks like you’re getting a lead and I would bid 3NT.

Table C:     (1)  A sensible pre-empt in this seat at this vulnerability.

(3)   What did you bid with this East hand D in this week’s quiz? This hand has a stop and I would never bid 5 if 3NT is a reasonable option.

Table D:     (4)  This East got it right.

Table E:      (5)  This East was a bit unlucky to get pushed up to 5.

 

And what happened? The defence has to be very accurate to defeat 3NT. At table D they should have done because of the opening 3 bid! The Q was led and North won with the A. A switch looks like the only chance to defeat the contract but North woodenly continued with a . I’m not sure at which table, but at one table E-W pushed on to 6 and went one down. 4 made exactly and the 5 contracts made once and went two down once.

Deep Finesse says that 4 and 1NT are the limit, but the defence has to be spot on to beat 3NT and that is where I would want to play.

The bottom lines: -

-         If 3NT is an option – then bid it.

-         With a ling solid minor, think No-Trumps.


Totally Insane !                                                     Board 10 from Friday 3rd

 

I nearly got very angry (with myself?) on this deal from Friday.

     

Dealer:             87                                               West          North         East          South

East                  K93                                            -                 -                 pass         pass

Both vul            KQ10965                                   1             2              2  (1)      pass      

                        73                                              3NT   (2)    all pass

 

94                      N             KQ102                 I was West and calling for dummies. I was

A842              W    E          QJ5                      playing against a poor pair and had called

A                        S              842                     over an equally poor bidding partner.

AQJ842                             K96                    

                        AJ653                                   (1)  This East does not know about negative doubles    

1076                                     (2) You know me, if 3NT is an option… 

J73                                             

105                                           

 

North led the K and I won with the A perforce. I had 8 tricks and the only hope of a 9th (before North runs the ’s) is that the K is with South. So I cashed the A, went over to the K and played the Q – it held! I now had 9 tricks, but I knew the caliber of the defenders, so I thought that I might as well try the J for an overtrick – South may not cover or they may throw their ’s away on the run of the ’s.

To my utter amazement North won the trick with the K! I had been gifted 9 tricks and then, stupidly assuming that the defence had some idea of what they were doing – I blew it!

So North belatedly won his K and cashed the Q. I was muttering all sorts of unprintable comments under my breath but then North played the 10 and South won with the J – he had failed to unblock the suit. So my faith in these defenders abilities was totally vindicated when I made 9 tricks anyway!

North explained that he ducked the Q because he thought that I may have Jx and he needed a through from partner. With 842 on view on table and six ’s in his own hand I leave it to the reader to work out this tricky mathematical problem. Apart from the mathematics, any sane declarer would have ducked the K lead if holding AJx, but then can you name anybody at this table who appears to be remotely sane?

The bottom line : -

-     I guess two (or three?) absurd plays can cancel each other out?

-     Don’t be greedy?

-     If partner leads the K of his suit against NoTrumps then that promises the Q – so unblock if you hold the J.

-     If South had unblocked at trick1 then I doubt if even these defenders could have got it wrong?

-     To quote Lewis, who was playing with a partner a few weeks back who I won't name (not me!) against two equally competent opponents : "It's like playing in a zoo!"

 

 

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

 

North               South                   You are South, playing in a somewhat optimistic 4 contract.

K8                AQJ1092          How do you play when the defenders lead three rounds of ’s?

K762            3                

10962           54              

872              AQJ6


Dave’s Column answer                      Board 27 from Wednesday 1st  

 

   

Dealer:             K8                                              West          North         East            South

South               K762                                          -                 -                 -                 1

Love all            10962                                         pass           1NT           pass           3  (1)

                        872                                            pass           pass  (2)    pass

 

64                      N             753                 (1)  This looks about right to me, it’s encouraging

Q1084           W    E          AJ95                    but not forcing

KQJ3                S              A87                (2)  North has nice ’s (he has already denied 3 ’s)

943                                    K105                  but it’s still only 6 points and I agree with the pass

                        AQJ1092                             

3                                           Everybody played in a contract, but what is the         

54                                         best line for 10 tricks after the defence lead 3 rounds

AQJ6                                   of ’s?   

 

You need to take a repeat finesse in the suit. Since you may need both the K and 8 as entries you should ruff the 3rd round of ’s with the 9. You then lead a towards the K, hoping to set up a discard for the 4th . No luck there, the K loses to the A and East returns another . You ruff with the 10 and lead the 2 to dummy’s8. A finesse of the Q wins and you return to dummy with the K. After finessing the J you can draw East’s last trump and play the A. Luckily the ’s split 3-3 and the contract is made.

                                                                       

And what happened? Two Souths made 10 tricks, two made 9 and one managed just 8 tricks.

The bottom lines: -

-         If you are short of entries for a necessary finesse, you sometimes have to delay pulling trumps if the trump suit is your only source of entries.

 

 

 

 

 

Dave’s 2nd Problem

 

North               South                     This one is a bit easier (at least I think it's fairly easy).

A10765        KQJ9                 You are North, declarer in 7, how do you play the hand ?    

76                 AKJ1032           when East leads the Q?

A97              K                        This hand was played five times on Wednesday, three

A104            KQ                    pairs went down in the poor 7NT and the other two pairs both stopped in 6 but made only 12 tricks. Can you do better?

 

                                                                  !


Which grand slam?                                              Board 7 from Wednesday 1st 

 

All five N-S pairs went wrong on this deal; how did you play the 7 contract?

     

Dealer:             A10765                                     

South               76                                               West          North         East            South

Both vul            A97                                            -                 -                 -                 2

                        A104                                          pass           2              pass           3

pass           3              pass           6

-                        N             8432                     all pass

Q9854           W    E          -                    

86543               S              QJ102             This was the bidding at one table, and one other

852                                    J9763             table also stopped in 6. At the other three tables

                        KQJ9                                   N-S knew that there was probably a grand there,

AKJ1032                             but they ALL ignored the superb 5-4 fit and

K                                          charged into the doomed 7NT.

KQ                                           

 

And what happened? The three pairs in 7NT deservedly went down when the Q was offside. The two in 6 got a joint top when they both made the contract exactly.

So how did you play the hand set out on the previous page? 13 tricks in ’s by North looks automatic to me – win the K, go to North with a trump, ruff a , draw trumps, cash KQ and AK, over to North by trumping a and you have the A and A left – making 5 ’s, 1 ruff, 2’s, 2 ’s and 3 ’s. This line is 100% and cannot fail on any distribution; the finesse is not needed and the location of the Q is irrelevant as only 2 tricks are needed.

 

-                                           The totally inferior line of drawing trumps and

                        -                                           hoping to pick up the Q somehow does

                        A9                                        not work as I believe there is insufficient

                        A104                                    communication between the two hands having

pulled trumps. Others (Dave, who I understand

-                        N             ♠ -                      put the hand in, and Guy) think it does.

98                 W    E          -                     Say you adopt their line and pull 4 rounds of

86                     S              J10                  trumps. Play a to the A and discover the 

8                                        J97                 position. You play K and J which West

                        ♠ -                                            covers and North ruffs. That leaves this position

1032                                     with the lead in the North hand.  

                                             How do you get all of the last 5 tricks? You have

KQ                                      5 top tricks but the entries are in a tangle.

Looks like you must lose one more trick to me.

Maybe the answer is to unblock the KQ earlier so that the A does not crash an honour, but you then have no entry to the 10. It’s all very complex and beyond a simple soul like me – I would simply ruff a at trick three and claim 13 tricks on any distribution whatsoever.

And how did I fare on the board? I got a shared bottom as my opponents were one of the pairs who stopped in 6 and made just 12 tricks having drawn trumps, but they scored a joint top anyway. The bottom lines: -

-         Good 5-4 fits play very well!

-         A ruff in the short trump hand is an extra trick.

-         Count your tricks; 5 trumps, a ruff (in the short hand), and 7 top cards in the other suits = 13 !


The Jump Cuebid overcall

 

In news-sheet 247 I wrote up the Jump Cuebid Overcall. There was nothing about it on the internet and so I wrote a new page and thought that I’d monitor how long it takes to be noticed by the search engines. I put links to the new page from my conventions page and the main news page. These are currently indexed by all of the major search engines and so at least the link from these pages should show up soon, although the actual dedicated page may take months to be indexed. The situation at the moment is that nobody has found the new page, but:

Google has an entry at number 12 (so near the top of page 2) for the Conventions page section and an entry at number 21 (top of page 3) for the main news-sheet page. There is currently nothing in Yahoo or MSN.

In a similar vein, in News-sheet 238 I wrote up a defence to the Multi 2. The page I wrote has not yet been recognised by Google (so 10 weeks so far) but Google does have the link from the convention section listed at entry number 10 on the first page. MSN has nothing but Yahoo has found the page and it is listed at entry number 6 on the first page.

Just why Google takes such a long time to recognise a new page is a mystery that they keep a closely guarded secret.

 

Bidding Quiz Answers

 

Hand A:    3, show the 2nd suit, even though it is only ten high. This is not offering 5 as an alternative contract but simply showing your shape and warning partner of your shortage in ’s and ’s. 3NT is a reasonable alternative but 4 is not as that promises 6 ’s.

Hand B:    dbl, negative and showing 4 ’s. If partner bids 2 then raise to 4 and if partner bids some other non-strong bid then bid 3NT.

Hand C:    2NT. A balanced 12-14. 2 is a reverse and is incorrect here (even if you have agreed that it does not show extra values over a two-level response) at it shows a 5-card suit.

Hand D:    3NT. You have a stop and probably 9 tricks. Partner must have some values and I would hope that he has something in ’s if it is needed.

 

Bidding Sequences Answers    

 

E      1      pass   2     pass       (a) A reverse promises 5+ cards in the first bid suit.

2                                        (b) A reverse is 15+ points unless you agree otherwise over a two level response.

F      1      pass   2NT                 (a) 2NT is 11-12

(b) 2 or 3 ’s and 2 or 3 ’s; 2NT denies a 4 card major.

G     1      pass   3NT                 (a) 3NT is 13-15

(b) 2 or 3 ’s and 2 or 3 ’s; 3NT denies a 4 card major.