The strong club universe

Strong clubs are something that is new to me. Up until a couple of months ago I had never tried playing one and wasn't really convinced I wanted to. Lately I've had a couple of chances and it's been a learning experience. Symmetric relay is nice for uncontested auctions but lets face it, people love interfering with strong clubs.

Here are two hands that came up yesterday that presented me with problems at the table. If there are any strong club players out there who could give me some pointers or reassure me that this is normal I'd be grateful. On the first one all were vul and I held the West hand:

♠ A T ♥ A ♦ K J 9 5 ♣ Q J 7 6 5 3		♠ Q J 9 6  ♥ T 8 2  ♦ T 8 4  ♣ K T 9

I opened our 15+ club and the next hand bid 2♥ (weakish showing hearts), my partner doubled showing 6 - 9 highs and for lack of anything else to do I bid 3♣. Partner passed and 3♣ played very well but how did my partner know I didn't have 19? How did I know my partner didn't have 9?


On the next hand I'm still West but this time we're at unfavourable:

♠ Q J 8 7 4  ♥ Q J 5 3 ♦ - ♣ J 9 6 3		♠ A K 9  ♥ A 6 2  ♦ 9 8 2  ♣ A K 8 4

My partner opened the strong club this time and after 1♦ I doubled to show the same 6 - 9 I mentioned earlier. 3♦ by my LHO got passed back to me and I made a takeout double which was passed out. Sadly there's only 3 spades, 2 hearts and 2 clubs for the defense (+500) whereas 4S (+620) makes on a lot of layouts. Not a disaster playing Imps but we weren't.

It wasn't all bad though, on this hand some Easts got a bid overboard:

♠ T 9 6 ♥ A J 4 3  ♦ K 7 6 ♣ K 5 2		♠ A J 8 4 2  ♥ 6 2  ♦ A Q 8 5 3  ♣ A

I guess all the aces and shape dazzled them so much that when the auction went 1♠ - 3♠ many couldn't help drive to 5 or 6 spades. 11 tricks are available double dummy but only 10 are there for humans. By relaying my partner found the unattractive 3433 shape and signed off nice and low.

In a hurry

At last weekends tournament there were a couple of times when the buzzer went and we hadn't quite finished the hand. This wasn't unusual, it seemed to happen to most pairs at some stage, of course it wasn't us who was slow. All the excuses you'd normally hear for slow play were pulled out by both sides and there were no official penalties. On one board, just after an opponent had opened 2♣ the director came over and stated that if we weren't finished in the next 2 minutes he would grumble most seriously at all involved.

	♠ A ♥ A K 7 ♦ A K Q ♣ A K 8 7 4 3
♠ K J 7 6 5 3 ♥ 8 5 2 ♦ 9 2 ♣ Q 6		♠ T ♥ J 6 3 ♦ J 7 6 5 3 ♣ J 9 5 2
	♠ Q 9 8 4 2 ♥ Q T 9 4 ♦ T 8 4 ♣ T

Under time pressure the NS players bid:

North	South
2♣	2♦
3♣	3♠
3NT	4♥!!!

at this point North fidgeted for may precious seconds then on spying the directing wandering menacingly nearby bid 6♥ announcing something like "I don't know. There isn't time for a real auction".

South let the opening heart run around to the Queen, played off the two top clubs and proceeded to ruff two clubs with the 9 and T of hearts claiming 13 tricks when hearts were 3-3. Ouch. We weren't able to share -1460 with any other unfortunate EW players so zero matchpoints was our lot. The popular contracts were 3NT which is correct and successful and 6NT which is doomed. Would North and especially South have bid like that if they were allowed a more relaxed auction? Maybe, maybe not but it didn't feel good.

Collecting a penalty

When I wrote the system outline for Electric Ant I stated that systemically opening quality at the two level is great because you catch your opponents in overcalls a level higher than everyone else. I wasn't playing the Ant on this occasion (hence the different range) but this is what I meant:

Vul: NS Dealer: East Matchpoints	♠ A Q T 9 4 ♥ J 7 2 ♦ T 8 7 5 ♣ 5
♠ 8 6 ♥ A 4 ♦ K J 9 4 ♣ Q T 9 8 4		♠ J 5 3 ♥ K Q 9 8 5 3 ♦ A 6 2 ♣ 7
	♠ K 7 2 ♥ T 6 ♦ Q 3 ♣ A K J 6 3 2

My partner as East opened 2♥ showing 9 - 12 and 5 or 6 hearts. These hands are supposed to have the old style 1.5 defensive tricks to keep the discipline up. As south you could be forgiven for overcalling, some might not but I suspect that most players will try 3♣ here. The penalty double is clear cut from West and when North runs to 3♠ it won't be enough to escape a red card.

Reliable partner followed the golden rule of doubled part scores and led trumps. It's always right. Promise. He won the heart return and continued trumps, I won the second heart, put my partner in with the A♦ for the final round of trumps. +500. Declarer got just 5 spades and 2 clubs.

Opening the East hand 1♥ you can only defend 2♣x and if you open it a weak two partner won't have enough confidence in the defensive strength to double 3♠. It's true that you can find a hand to make any system look good but this happens profitably often.

Win for the system

One of the systems I play with my current partner I designed wholly myself. It's what we do after we open our weak NT. I find system design fascinating, the whirl of trade offs: efficiency, memory load, naturalness, legality, safety, frequency, pre-emptive nature... make it practically a game in itself.

One of the noted problems with 'normal' systems over 1NT is you can't stop below 2NT when partner invites. Usually this doesn't matter but sometimes you find that 2♦, 2♥ or 2♠ is a great spot and 2NT is unplayable. Here's a hand that came up playing in the South Island pairs yesterday (largish and importantish):

♠ T 6 ♥ Q J T ♦ A J 9 8 6 ♣ A 6 5		♠ 9 4 ♥ K 8 7 2 ♦ K 4 3 ♣ K Q 8 2

The west hand opened 1NT weak at every table that played one. At some tables the opponents helped out by bidding spades aggressively stealing away the contract and probably going down one in 3♠. But at others the auction was invariably 1NT - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2NT - pass which fails immediately on a spade lead and the opponents get another shot when the Q♦ is offside. At my table the opponents were silent and we bid 1NT - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♥ - pass. On generous defense this made +170 but +110 is almost certain. Let me explain, 2♣ was invitational and 2♦ said no. If I had good diamonds here I would pass but as it happens I can suggest 2♥, partner liked it and there we stopped.

How would you have bid the hand? If you play a strong NT move the K♣ to the other hand, now what would happen? Are you wallowing in -100 or safely in a suit at the two level?

Responding is easy right?

A couple of weeks ago I was playing Acol with a relatively new player (an intelligent one that's learning fast) and I picked up pretty useless hand. Normally at this point I decide that this hand must be easy to bid, switch my brain off and start thinking about the cheese and jam on toast I'm going to have when I get home. Or whatever. But just as I was getting to the decision of whether to grate or to slice my partner opened a diamond and RHO bid a spade. I looked at my hand and despite my earlier prediction I couldn't think of anything that fit.

♠ x x x ♥ J x ♦ A T x ♣ Q T x x x

Bother.

Lets see, double is going to land me in a world of trouble if partner has 4 hearts, partner will probably expect a better spade stop from 1NT and pass seems a bit wimpy. Think of the disaster if I pass and the next hand bids 3♠ or  4♠, partner will be left in the dark (as will I if it's passed back to me).
What could go wrong if I bid 2♦? If the contract is left here we're in an ok spot and it doesn't promise things I haven't got in the majors. I bid 2♦, LHO pushed with 3♠, partner bid 3NT in tempo and there it ended.

♠ A J ♥ A K Q x ♦ K J x x x ♣ x x		♠ x x x ♥ J x ♦ A T x ♣ Q T x x x

My partner managed to find the missing diamond royalty and bring in ten tricks. Well at least I didn't double. 4♥ will make on the very same diamond guess but I've found that sort of justification never makes my partners less angry.

When no one is watching

I like computer bridge programs. They always follow the system, patiently allow you to test several lines of play and don't get fidgety if you leave for an hour to think about a really tough hand. Most of all though you can commit the most outrageous sins of bidding and play free of rebuke. Sure it'll chalk up -21 imps but you won't hear about it at the bar afterwards or in two years time when it's in danger of losing an argument.

This might of course teach bad habits and instil a reliance on the 'back' button but to me it proves again and again how disciplined you must be when partner is trusting your every move. When the difference between throwing the 9 or the 7 is the difference between 3NT+2 and 3NT-1 you'd better have done the right thing. It also means when I do make atrocious bids I get great practise at playing contracts that require planning, imagination and lots of luck to bring home.

Here's one that happen playing against WBridge on its tournament settings, the auction went like this:

WBridge	Me	Wbridge	Wbridge
(2♥)	X	(3♥)	/
(/)	X	(/)	3♠
(/)	4♠	end

I got the QH lead and this is what I saw:

	♠ K Q T 4 ♥ K ♦ A K 4 ♣ A Q T 3 2
	♠ 8 7 6 5 ♥ 9 3 2 ♦ Q 9 6 5 3 ♣ 6

The hand I held during the auction is now dummy and I get to play it. I have no justification for 4♠ it's truly in the 'punish partner' category of actions. In the mean time the heart lost to the Ace and another heart came through which I ruffed on the dummy. Counting up my tricks seemed like a pretty negative thing to do, 1 club, 5 diamonds and that's if I can draw trumps. What about a cross ruff, I could cash two diamonds then ruff hearts and clubs... but the clubs are almost certainly wrong, my biggest trump is the 8 and the 2 heart opener might only have 2 clubs. So I went for a run.


Surely any working strategy needs the diamonds working and to use them I must draw trumps. Wouldn't WB have made a wee double with AJ9x sitting over my hand? Well ok, I'll bang down the K♠, ruff the heart return, cash the Q♠ leaving out one trump then run the diamonds until someone ruffs and claim. Great! Solved! Too bad I was still halfway round the park.

Oh no. What if they don't return a heart? Well I could still ruff one myself, doesn't seem too hard. What if they duck the spade? That would be tricky, if I continue spades WB can take the Ace and cash the Jack destroying my second heart ruff. So if the K♠ is ducked I need to cross to the Q♦, ruff a heart with the T♠ and exit the Q♠. Now the spade duck is for nothing because East can't return a heart to complete the force off. This was the full hand:

	♠ K Q T 4 ♥ K ♦ A K 4 ♣ A Q T 3 2
♠ 9 3 ♥ Q J T 8 7 6 ♦ J T 8 ♣ K 8		♠ A J 2 ♥ A 5 4 ♦ 7 2 ♣ J 9 7 5 4
	♠ 8 7 6 5 ♥ 9 3 2 ♦ Q 9 6 5 3 ♣ 6

WBridge had the good graces to award 11 Imps to this failure of bidding but success of play. It was excellent to have time to think about the hand without being able to play it, that way I couldn't ruin it before my plan was complete.

Leads

After a tournament some time ago a group of us were discussing hands and that day there had been the opportunity to lead from KJ9x to beat 3NT. Unsurprisingly not many had found the lead and when asked about which card they might pick preferred "we don't lead from that sort of holding" rather than giving an answer. But, said a friend of mine, what if you had KJ9x in all four suits?

Any card from any combination of cards can be the right lead on a hand. The rules we're all taught are good starting points but they don't substitute for thinking. One of my favourite leads is K from Kx into 3NT contracts. If your partner has bid the suit it doesn't count. Here's a recent example:

♠ K 6 ♥ T 9 7 2 ♦ J 9 4 2 ♣ J T 7

And the auction:

LHO	RHO
-	1♣
1♥	1NT1
2♣2	2NT3
3NT

¹15-16
²Checkback
³Not 3♥ and not 4♠

So we know that RHO is either 2335 or 2344, no other shape fits with the bidding. A priori 4432 is more likely occurring about 4 times out of 7. Lets go through the suits, Clubs would lead into declarers suit but given our holding probably won't cost - good if we want to be passive. Diamonds seem wrong, Jxxx is always a bad combination and more often than not declarer will have as many as we do. Hearts are on our right and there's quite likely to be 5 of them. So I get to lead the K♠.

	♠ T 9 7 2 ♥ K 3 ♦ Q 7 5 ♣ A Q 9 4
♠ A Q 4 3 ♥ Q J 8 4 3 ♦ T 6 3 ♣ 8		♠ J 8 5 ♥ A 5 ♦ A K 8 ♣ K 6 5 3 2
	♠ K 6 ♥ T 9 7 2 ♦ J 9 4 2 ♣ J T 7

Everyone gets to have a giggle when the AQ of spades comes down on the dummy but it's not much of a problem. If declarer needs spade tricks the hook was working and my King dropping. As expected we've hit partners suit but sadly dummy has 4 as well.

The KS has actually been good even though partner doesn't have an attractive QJ9xx holding. The entries to the heart suit are now few and if declarer plays for hearts 3-3 rather than for the exact holding shown there's only 2 tricks to be had. With only  2 hearts, 3 spades, 2 diamonds and a club the contract failed. 

Is this contract ever going to make? Probably not though a prescient declarer might manage it and careless defense is all too easy. Regardless, I got to lead from my favourite holding and it worked in so far as it didn't cost. Incidentally from KJ9x I'd lead the Jack as it makes you look like a superstar when you surround the Ten in this position.

	8 4
Q 5 2		A T 7 5
	K J 9 3

The Winners Trophy

The last event on my clubs calendar for a Tuesday night is called the Winners Trophy and it's run as Butler Pairs. I don't know why it's called Winners or if the should always have a capital letter but those are questions for another day. I'm playing with my regular partner against 15 other pairs.
All vul playing against a pair of Womens internationals you hold:

	♠ T 4 3 ♥ A T 5 4 2 ♦ 7 3 ♣ K 8 5

Your partner starts with a short club and righty bids 4♠. Have a think, I'll come back to it.

Next hand is much more exciting because you have loads of points and everyone is vul:

	♠ T 8 5 ♥ A Q T ♦ A K J 8 7 3 ♣ A

See you're already more into this question than the last one. You open a diamond, lefty doubles, partner makes a disappointing pass and you need to make a bid when RHO jumps to 2♠. Wait do you need to? If partner can't bid over.... no... you need to bid. There's only 2 serious options, double or 3♦ and with such a gorgeous suit 3♦ feels right. Pass 3♥ pass. Going to go? It's Imps and those vulnerable games look fantastic when everyone else scores +170 or -200 in 3NT.
Nah, I'm going to put a little faith in my ops, believing that they have 18+ highs and trusting that my partner would bid the first time if he wanted to be raised later. So I passed a little anxiously and when a club was led I tabled my hand and waited for judgment.

Vul: All Dealer: North	♠ T 8 5 ♥ A Q T ♦ A K J 8 7 3 ♣ A
♠ K 9 7 6 ♥ - ♦ Q T 9 6 5 ♣ K J T 6		♠ A J 3 ♥ K J 9 7 ♦ 4 2 ♣ Q 9 5 4
	♠ Q 4 2 ♥ 8 6 5 4 3 2 ♦ - ♣ 8 7 3 2

On winning the club my partner pitched two spades on the AK of diamonds and exited a spade East winning. Balking at the thought of leading trumps into the tenace East tried another spade. Ruffed, club ruff, spade ruff, club ruff, Ace of hearts leaving me on the edge of my seat and this end position:

	♠ - ♥ - ♦ J 8 7 3 ♣ -
♠ K ♥ - ♦ Q T ♣ K		♠ - ♥ K J 9 ♦ - ♣ Q
	♠ - ♥ 8 6 5 ♦ - ♣ 8

When a diamond is played off dummy if East ruffs South discards and makes one more trick and if East discards South makes the trick immediately ruffing the diamond. The play is called an en passant and isn't that unusual but I've never seen one where the players have 3 trumps left! +140 was worth a healthy 8 Imps when 1♦ failed a trick, 3♦ failed several and 3NT (!!!) failed by so many tricks that the defense argued for the rest of the night over who might have doubled.


Back to that hand I gave you first. For me it was the vulnerability that makes the difference, if it were even or more so favourable you'd assume a good hand for 4♠. Sure it's still pre-emptive but it'll have 8 spades and a king outside or something. At this vulnerability it could easily be 7 spades and nothing else and just an early sacrifice against 4♥/5♣ (or 3NT could make on a spade blockage). So I'll do what I always do when they sack over my game and I'm not sure 5 is right, I'll hit it! Partner pulled to 5♣ and there we played.

Vul: All Dealer: South	♠ T 4 3 ♥ A T 5 4 2 ♦ 7 3 ♣ K 6 5
♠ A K Q J 9 6 5 ♥ 6 ♦ 9 6 ♣ 9 3 2		♠ 8 2 ♥ Q J 7 3 ♦ K J T 8 5 4 ♣ T
	♠ 7 ♥ K 9 8 ♦ A Q 2 ♣ A Q J 7 6 4

Partners rather cute play of King and another heart after ruffing a spade at trick 2 avoids the diamond finesse if hearts are 3-2. They weren't but +600 is unavoidable gaining a couple of Imps.

Sometimes you fix and sometimes you get fixed

This post is about the latter. Here's a hand:

Vul: All Dealer: South	♠ A T 7 6 4 ♥ K Q ♦ K T 9 ♣ 6 5 4
♠ K 5 2 ♥ 8 7 5 3 ♦ J 6 2 ♣ 9 7 3		♠ Q J 8 ♥ A J T 9 ♦ A Q 5 ♣ A Q 8
	♠ 9 3 ♥ 6 4 2 ♦ 8 7 4 3 ♣ K J T 2

I was sitting South and passed as did West. My partner opening a spade and East doubled, so far the same auction as the rest of the room. Only it stopped, right there in 1♠x. It's not a bad spot, 2 spades, 1 heart, 2 diamonds and a club loser saw us collecting +160.
At every other table West bid 2♥, East raised to 4♥ or 3NT and went 2 or more down. Grumble grumble grumble. Is it worse when they don't do it on purpose?

Here's another hand, this story is a bit different because this is a genuine good play that I didn't anticipate, here's your 6♥ contract (disclaimer: we missed 6 and played in game but lets pretend).

	♠ A K 7 ♥ K 9 6 4 ♦ K 9 ♣ K 8 3 2
	♠ - ♥ A J 7 3 2 ♦ Q 8 5 2 ♣ A J T 7

Partner opened 1♣, East tried 1♠, I responded 2♥ and over partners raised to game I didn't push. Lead Q♠. It's reasonably clear that the goal should be to make 12 tricks but just how is up for debate. I chose to set up my hand by pitching 2 clubs on the spades and ruffing two diamonds in the dummy. Seems to work for 2-2 hearts or 3-1 with 3 on my left and I like it because I'm useless at finding club queens.

I won the spade pitching a club and pulled a heart, East played the Queen (nice!) and I won Ace. I continued a diamond to the King and Ace and on the spade return I dispatched another club (feeling good), returned to hand via a diamond to the Queen, ruff a diamond (getting ready to claim), club to the Ace ruffing my 4th diamond over ruffed (oh noes!).

	♠ A K 7 ♥ K 9 6 4 ♦ K 9 ♣ K 8 3 2
♠ Q J 9 5 ♥ 8 5 ♦ T 7 6 4 ♣ 9 6 4		♠ T 8 6 4 3 2 ♥ Q T ♦ A J 3 ♣ Q 5
	♠ - ♥ A J 7 3 2 ♦ Q 8 5 2 ♣ A J T 7

Well done Pavla. I didn't see it coming and there was only my lonely +650 on the sheet with all the +680s and +980s.

Bidding over preempts

In the club match point pairs session I played last night I had several opportunities to bid over pre-empts. Many of those decisions were clear cut passes and if they were all like that there wouldn't be a story. On the first one that wasn't everyone is vul and I'm in second seat looking at a 3♦ opening with this:

♠ A K Q J 8 2 ♥ K 9 5 ♦ 9 ♣ K T 4

Your bid?
I thought 3♠ was the normal bid on this hand. If it gets doubled I'm probably down a trick, partner will raise with most hands we're making game on. Most of the room bid 4♠ which incited their partner to bid 5♠ over the making 5♦ which gets doubled. Double dummy spades makes a measly 8 tricks but 5♠x -1 was the most common result. We left them in 5♦ making for no matchpoints.

I'm hopeful that the next hand is at least a little contentious, still all vulnerable but this time in fourth seat after 4H pass pass you hold:

♠ A K Q T 5 3 ♥ - ♦ A 9 7 6 4 ♣ J 6

Now what are you going to do?
Don't just read on. I'll wait. Come up with something then when you're done add it to the comments below.

There's a lot of playing strength in the hand, give the opener an 8 count and your expectation from partner is 9 highs. The main problem is to make 6 you're going to need help in both minors not just one and even both might not be enough for example opposite xx  Jxxx  KTx  AQxx you've little hope. While I was thinking this the thought crept into my head that it might be right to double, what if partners points were arranged more like this x KJxx Jxx Axxxx, now we might have 6 tricks against 4♥ and get +800 vs +620. I dismissed this as too hopeful, there's lots of hands where partner will pass that we'll get only 500 or partner will bid 5♣ and we'll go down in 5♠. Having successfully talked myself out of everything I bid a quiet 4♠, that ran to RHO who bid 5♥. Well the double option wasn't right was it but now I know partner doesn't have much in hearts so I competed to 5♠ all pass.

Here's the full hand, I'll have to thank West for leading a diamond making the rudimentary end play so obvious that even I saw it. Draw trumps, ruff two hearts, ace of clubs, exit in diamonds, 11 tricks. All the match points, most pairs went down or chose to double 5♥.

	♠ J 8 6 2 ♥ J 5 ♦ 8 5 2 ♣ A 9 8 7
♠ 4 ♥ K Q T 9 7 6 3 2 ♦ K Q J ♣ T		♠ 9 7 ♥ A 8 4 ♦ T 3 ♣ K Q 5 4 3 2
	♠ A K Q T 5 3 ♥ - ♦ A 9 7 6 4 ♣ J 6

Daniels Law

I was on BBO the other day and there was a viewgraph on and I decided to watch for a while. I can't remember the name of the tournament that was being played, I think it was the Norwegian Premier League or similar. I only watched 10 boards before one of my pet peeves came up, here's the hand:

Vul: Nil Dealer: West	♠ J 7 2 ♥ J 9 7 ♦ J 9 ♣ K Q J 8 7
♠ K T 6 5 3 ♥ K 6 5 ♦ T 8 6 3 ♣ 9		♠ A Q ♥ Q 3 ♦ A K Q 7 4 2 ♣ A 6 2
	♠ 9 8 4 ♥ A T 8 4 2 ♦ 5 ♣ T 5 4 3

At both tables the EW pairs played in 3NT and made all 13 tricks on heart leads. To say that 6D is a safe contract is an understatement. Short of 6-0 spades or 7-1 hearts nothing can go wrong; so how did they get to 3NT? Well East showed 20-22 balanced at both tables.

Daniels rule goes like this: "Balanced hands do not contain AKQxxx".

Ok so you might own up to having some cards in the other suits after you've shown the AKQxxx at least once. I'm not saying that 3NT or 6NT might not be the right contract to aim for but if you open the East hand 2NT then you're going to miss 6D. All the time.

If anyone has their own examples or counter examples I'd be interested to see them.

Also I've changed the layout since last post. Better? Worse?