Our website is www.pattayabridge.com Club News Sheet – No. 315

Our blogsite is www.pattayabridge.wordpress.com

My home phone is 038 422924 and my mobile number is 083 6066880 23^rd Nov 2008

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

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Mon 17^th 1^st Janne & Lars 66% 2^nd Guttorm & Tomas 62%

Wed 19^th N-S 1^st Alan & Jean 61% 2^nd Lewis & Paul Q 59%

E-W 1^st Terry & Guttorm 62% 2^nd Lars & BamBam 59%

Fri 21^st N-S 1^st Terry & Bob P 59% 2^nd Lars G & Lars B 57%

E-W 1^st Derek & Gerard 64% 2^nd = Guttorm & Tomas 55%

= Knut & Rejar 55%

Bidding Quiz Standard American bidding is assumed unless otherwise stated.

Hand A Hand B With Hands A and B you are in first seat, vulnerable

against not.

♠ AQJ10432 ♠ AQ87643

♥ 65 ♥ 83 What do you open with Hand A?

♦ 863 ♦ J3

♣ 8 ♣ 94 What do you open with Hand B?

Hand C Hand D With Hand C partner opens 1♣, what do you bid?

♠ A943 ♠ 6

♥ A952 ♥ QJ43 With Hand D partner opens 1♠, what do you bid?

♦ 864 ♦ AK96

♣ 76 ♣ Q875

Bidding Sequence Quiz

E 1♣ pass 1♦ 1♠

dbl What is dbl? – does it show 4 ♥’s or ♠’s?

F 1♣ pass 1♦ 1♠

pass pass dbl What is dbl? – does it guarantee 4 ♥’s?

The 2NT Response Board 6 (North) from Wednesday 19^th

♠ 6 What did you bid with this hand D in this week’s quiz.

♥ QJ43 Assuming you do not play Jacoby 2NT or similar then 2NT is11-12

♦ AK96 points and that is what one North bid. However, the bid is incorrect

♣ Q875 and 2♣ is best. Why? Because 2NT is not forcing and partner may have a

4-card ♥ suit and a 4-4 ♥ fit may get lost.

A Psyche? Board 3 from Wednesday 19^th

I was not impressed with North’s (a grandmaster) bidding on this board.

Dealer: ♠ A943 West North(C) East South

South ♥ A952 - - - 1♣

E-W vul ♦ 864 pass 1♦ (1) 1♠ pass

♣ 76 pass dbl (2) pass 2♣ (3)

all pass

♠ 105 N ♠ K8762

♥ J10 W E ♥ Q83 (1) What did you bid with this North hand C

♦ 10532 S ♦ AK in this week’s quiz? This 1♦ bid is ridiculous

♣ A10842 ♣ J of course and not approved of in this club.

♠ QJ (2) Attempting to recover from the bad turn of

♥ K764 events.

♦ Q9 (3) Seems very reasonable to me

♣ KQ953

So what’s this all about? North’s reasoning was apparently that if partner has a 4-card major then she will bid it and a psychic 1♦ bid could do no harm and a major suit fit will not be lost. Unfortunately East threw a spanner in the works and N-S’s ♥ fit was lost. North said that his double at (2) promised ♥’s – I (and South) disagree, it simply shows values.

And what happened? 2♣ went -1 for a poor score. Everybody else found their ♥ fit of course. The bottom lines: -

- Bidding like this North’s 1♦ bid is not appreciated at this club, with a number of beginners around who think that they might learn from grandmasters.

- There is absolutely no logical reason for bidding 1♦ other than hopefully preventing a ♦ lead against the final contract (i.e. a psyche). The drawbacks of this silly bid are that you may end up in a ♦ contract or a major suit fit may get lost (as actually happened) and also that your shenanigans will be reported to the director.

- Psyches are not allowed at this club.

- Why is it that good players have to resort to these silly tactics of stupid bids? Only a little while ago a good player was thrown out because of his subsequent rude and arrogant attitude having made a similar silly bid upon which I obviously commented.

- Is it just that good players simply have to show ‘how clever they are’ by making ridiculous bids when straightforward good accurate bidding and good play will presumably get them good scores?

- I believe that the answer to the above is no – we have had numerous internationals and grandmasters at our club, only two proved to be a problem. Most good players realize that they do not need to resort to silly bids when playing at club level.

Dave’s Column Here is Dave’s input involving the opening bid.

South What do you open with this Hand A, first seat, vulnerable against not?

♠ AQJ10432

♥ 65

♦ 863

♣ 8

Dave’s Column answer Board 11 from Wednesday 19^th

Dealer: ♠ K7 West North East South(A)

South ♥ AK32 - - - 3♠

Love all ♦ A9752 pass 4♠ all pass

♣ 64

What did you open with this South hand A in this

♠ 6 N ♠ 985 week’s quiz? You should open with 3♠, the hand

♥ Q109 W E ♥ J874 has a fine seven-card suit and a little distribution.

♦ QJ104 S ♦ K This might be viewed as a slight overbid if

♣ AJ1072 ♣ KQ953 vulnerable, but there are good reasons why bidding three is better than bidding two.

♠ AQJ10432 The main reason is that 2♠ promises a 6-card suit

♥ 65 and South has 7 ♠’s. The second reason is that a

♦ 863 3♠ bid puts more pressure on the opposition.

♣ 8

And what happened at the Pattaya Bridge Club? 4♠ was bid 5 times, 3 pairs stopped in 3♠ and one pair stopped in 2♠. Everybody made 10 tricks except one pair who managed 11.

Note that Dave actually put the hand in as non-vulnerable, whereas I think that part of the point was that the dealer was vulnerable, as I said in the quiz.

The Club Championships

Here are the latest standings in the club competitions. Not much movement this week, except that Lard G has entered the race for the Gold Cup.

	Gold Cup = Best 30	Silver Plate = Best 10	Bronze Medal = Best 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	1875.8 Hans Vikman 1843.8 Dave Cutler 1841.8 Sally Watson 1836.8 Lewis Berg 1825.1 Janne Roos 1802.2 Bob Pelletier 1801.8 Lars Gustafsson 1782.5 Ivy Schlageter 1727.5 Jan v Koss	672.7 Hans Vikman 663.6 Sally Watson 661.8 Dave Cutler 661.1 Jeremy Watson 653.4 Lewis Berg 650.9 Lars Gustafsson 642.9 Janne Roos 642.7 Ivy Schlageter 637.7 Tomas Wikman 636.1 Bob Pelletier	347.2 Hans Vikman 342.3 Dave Cutler 341.1 Jeremy Watson 341.1 Sally Watson 339.7 Lars Gustafsson 335.8 Lewis Berg  335.3 Ivy Schlageter 329.9 Derek & Gerard 327.4 Tomas Wikman 326.2 Bob Pelletier

Dave’s 2^nd Column Here is Dave’s 2^nd input involving the play of the hand.

West East You are West, declarer in 7♠ and North leads the ♣K.

♠ AKQ64 ♠ J532 Plan the play when North shows out on the first round

♥ A94 ♥ KQJ of trumps to the ♠A.

♦ Q652 ♦ AK3

♣ 8 ♣ A64

Dave’s 2^nd Column answer Board 26 from Wednesday 12^th

Dealer: ♠ - West North East South

West ♥ 86532 1♠ pass 2NT (1) pass

N-S vul ♦ J987 3♣ (2) pass 3♦ (3) pass

♣ KQJ9 3♥ (3) pass 4NT (4) pass

5♣ (5) pass 5♦ (6) pass

♠ AKQ64 N ♠ J532 5NT (7) pass 7♠ all pass

♥ A94 W E ♥ KQJ

♦ Q652 S ♦ AK3 (1) Jacoby 2NT

♣ 8 ♣ A64 (2) ♣ shortage

♠ 10987 (3) cue bid

♥ 107 (4) RKCB

♦ 104 (5) 3 (or 0) keycards

♣ 107532 (6) do you have the trump queen?

(7) yes, but no outside king (5♠ denies the ♠Q).

North leads the ♣Q, plan the play.

It’s a lay down if trumps are 2-2 or 3-1, so you must consider a 4-0 break. You win with the ♣A and should play a trump to the ♠A. When North discards you could hope for a 3-3 ♦ break or for South to have at least 4 ♦’s, but there is a much better play.

Cross to table with the ♦K and ruff a ♣ in hand. Return to dummy with a ♥ and ruff another ♣. Cash the two remaining ♠ honours in hand, return to dummy with a ♥, and remove South’s last ♠ with dummy’s ♠J, discarding your ♦ loser. Your 13 tricks are 4 ♠’s, 3 ♥’s, 3 ♦’s, 1 ♣ and 2 ♣ ruffs in hand. This is a textbook dummy reversal.

And what happened at the Pattaya Bridge Club? Just one pair (Lars & Bam Bam) bid 7♠ and they made it, well done. Seven pairs stopped in 6♠ and 4 of then made 13 tricks. The last pair stopped in 4♠ making 12 tricks.

The bottom lines

- Sometimes you can generate an extra trick by ruffing twice (or 3 times) in the long trump hand and then draw trumps from the short hand, this is called a dummy reversal.

Bidding Quiz Answers

Hand A: 3♠. It’s a good 7-card suit with reasonable distribution.

Hand B: 2♠. This hand has the worst possible shape outside the 7-card suit and the ♠ suit is not very solid. This is a rare example of when 2♠ might be better than 3♠ even though you have a 7-card suit.

Hand C: 1♥, obviously. 1♦, apart from being a silly bid, is a psyche.

Hand D: 2♣, 2NT is incorrect as it denies a 4-card ♥ suit.

Bidding Sequence Answers

E 1♣ pass 1♦ 1♠ This is up to partnership agreement. Traditionally it shows

dbl a 4-card ♠ suit. These days some play it as similar to a negative double (so showing 4 ♥’s).

F 1♣ pass 1♦ 1♠ This is an ‘Action Double’. It shows the balance of power

pass pass dbl and gives the partner an opportunity to bid on or possibly pass for penalties. It does not guarantee 4 ♥’s, simply points.