The dime that is four minor

It's usually somewhere you end up by accident; passing a cue, minor-wood, splinter. Sometimes though, it's perfect. 10 tricks available and not a hint of an eleventh.

Yes it's weird auction time:

South	West	Me	East
1♥	2♥	X	3♣
Pass	3♦	Pass	Pass
3♥	Pass	3♠	Pass
4♣	end

Phew! 2♥ is Michaels of course but sadly we hadn't discussed how we might defend. I started with a double but couldn't really have another swing when 3♦ came back.

Partner bid 3♥ and I had a real problem. What would you have bid?

♠	A K J 5 4
♥	K
♦	J 6 3
♣	J 8 7 3

So many contracts could be right here. 3♥, 3NT, 4♣, 4♥, 5♣ all seem possible end points.

Since I believe a double from partner would have been penalties 3♥ doesn't show extra length, merely "I can't double". Now heart contracts start to seem unlikely.

Partner could still have a diamond stop though, Kx is a stop but not a double. I thought 3♠ was a good way to transfer the blame.

When partner bid 4♣ I gave up. No diamond stopper and poor clubs in my hand make 5♣ a long shot plus partner with a better hand might have bid clubs immediately over 3♦.

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

As discussed earlier there were precisely 10 tricks.

Usually 4 minor is a matchpoint thing. At teams you must bid the game as it's just too dangerous to pass when that 11th trick might magically appear. But if you get doubled in four like happened to my partner this week:

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

Partner had opened a club and NS entered into an invitational sequence in spades. We pushed on regardless and when they doubled we stopped. Clubs were 3-1 and the ♦A offside but a good decision in hearts made the 10 tricks worth 59 points each.

Too Many Quacks

I got a really good board the other night for recognising a fundamental truth:

Queens and Jacks are worth diddly squat

That's maybe a little general and anyone who's gone down in a slam after miss guessing a two way finesse to a queen might rightly feel aggrieved. Here, I'll show you the hand:

♠	Q J 8 7 6
♥	Q J 6
♦	J 9
♣	Q J 9

Sparkling isn't it. Third round control of all three suits. It's fair to say that you don't have a lot of trick taking potential.

Pretend you're North and the auction starts like this:

West	North	East	South
Pass	Pass	Pass	1♠
2♦	?

I like opening the bidding a bit light especially with spades but this hand doesn't cut it. Still it's a surprise to see partner with five of them too.

Ever heard of the law of total tricks? This is a great example of when it's going to be horribly wrong. I bid 2♠ sadly admitting to myself that if partner made a game try I'd probably have to raise.

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

That was the end of it. The defence carefully got the five tricks they deserve but it wasn't worth much to them. The field was evenly split down two in game or down one on an invite.


Back to what I said about the law though. Is it really wrong? The best fit of each side sums to 19. Double dummy they have 11 tricks in diamonds and we have 8 in spades. Maybe the law isn't so bad.

69 for the win

Playing the last session of a long running pairs event we needed to score 69% to beat an absent but leading pair and beat another playing pair by 6%. A tough ask but not impossible, we'd score high 60s in this event a few times before. Here are some hands from the attempt:

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

Partner, East, passed and South opened a weak 1NT. I like passing this sort of hand hoping to secure +300 against 3NT so pass I did. North bid Stayman and South denied a major. I started salivating thinking of the match points we were getting for +300 but the auction stopped right there!

Not only that when we didn't defend perfectly (did you imagine that dummy when you led?) it made for -90. Still we weren't -1370 like some poor sods so we got 58% for going minus. Problem is when you need 69% getting less than 60 on a board is a drag.

The next board is a strong contender for the worst auction of the night but for 92% of the MPs I'm not complaining...

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

South	Me!	North	East
2♠	Pass	2NT	3♥
X	4♥	4♠	5♥
5♠	X	End

The weak two could have been 5 card but the double on the second round showed a 6-card max. None of the rest of the bidding makes any sense to me. The play wasn't much better, figuring they had no tricks I led a trump allowing declarer to pitch two clubs, draw trumps and end play me with my annoying diamond holding. Down one.

The real disaster of the night came when we bid a pushy 3NT (as you do when you need a score right?) and caught a well judged double:

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

I was North now and had opened spades. East worked out his hand was gold and swung the Axe. My partner actually played quite well for down only one and 3%.

We certainly got lucky overall. Twice we played in 3NT with a major fit and twice it was right. On one hand it was simply a case of the same tricks being available in both contracts but on this hand:

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

Those who found the major suit were in trouble. No matter how well you play you can't do better than 10 tricks. In no trumps however you can afford to run the diamonds before touching spades and. West who'd led a heart got a little uncomfortable having to make three discards and 11 tricks were suddenly possible.

All up we managed 90% or better on 11 out of 26 boards but the 3NT doubled along with a couple in the 20s held us to 67%. Worse, the playing pair we needed to crush scored 66% so we wound up third in the event. 67% has never felt so bad.

Getting bridge (de)based

I don't play a lot online. In fact unless I'm partnership bidding or playing a pre-prepared match I'm hardly ever logged in. I'd like to think it's because I have better things to do but it isn't.

I have played a little recently and I like the individual tournaments. They're quick, relatively painless and if you keep your wits about it's quite easy to do well. The nature of individuals mean you rely on your almost completely unknown partner which can be disheartening when they do something silly.

In this story I'm the partner that did something silly.

♠	K T 9 6 4 2
♥	Q T 8 5
♦	K Q
♣	7

I picked up this hand. Relatively mundane hand given this is a goulash tournament. The auction started with partner 1♦ - (4♥) - ?

Maybe a double is the clear action here but I'm not thoroughly convinced. We're red on white and 4♠ figures to have play on many layouts. If it's wrong and partner retreats to 5♦ I've at least got some help there.

I made the bid, partner raised to slam and when the ♣A was led this is what I saw:

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

Clearly not a good contract. The lead held and West continued in clubs. I won the King pitching a heart. First mistake, I should have tried the Jack, then I could have gone down 2.

From here I should draw one round of trumps with the ♠Q then shift to cashing diamonds which forces the defence off just enough to go down 3.

Sadly I saw hope that West might hold the ♠A and a heart void. After all, he didn't lead his partners suit. In that case playing on trumps I might just have a chance at down one or two. The ♠Q held but then East won round two, cashed some hearts and I went down 4.

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

At which point my partner called me a moron, swore and derided my bridge ability.

Unnecessary. If you don't want to be at the mercy of your partners stupidity don't play free individual tournaments that advertise as being for fun. Or online. Or bridge.

I did take some small delight in said partner scoring below 50% over the 6 boards of the event whereas I, despite scoring only 3% on this hand, got 65. Don't worry, I'll play again, I'm far too thick skinned to worry about some idiot who rides their ego on winning casual events.

Roll call

It seems I've been quite remiss. No where on this site except for the occasional mention in a post have I linked to any of the wonderful bridge sites and blogs that I visit each week. The list will now be appearing permanently on the main page but I'll blab on a little about each one here. Without further ado, my official bridge reading list:

Bridge Blogging
If you're here you probably already know bridge blogging because a significant portion of my traffic comes via there. Bridge blogging is a key reference point for all things bridge. They have many writers and supplement them with syndications from dozens of other blogs. Through bridge blogging I've found many other blogs, sites and people that I now follow.

The Beer Card
Paul's site is regularly updated and covers lots of material: hands, trials, selections, major events etc... Always something new.

Justin Lall
Justin is a US pro who writes a blog about how he sees the game. Often technical but always engaging.

Howard Bigot Johnson
Go read. You'll see.

Robin's Bridge Blog
Not updated very often but Robin's page is mostly systems discussions along with some hands and problems.

The Gargoyle Chronicles
Phillip Martin's bridge blog is a great experience. He plays tournaments against his computer and analyses each deal in turn with an experts eye. Anyone wanting to sharpen their game should read, study and understand; expert opinion on such a varied set of problems is hard to find.

RP Bridge
One of the most comprehensive bridge sites on the net. Go check it out. I'll wait.
Done?
No you're not, there's years worth of reading material in there. I especially like the play and bidding challenges, even though they're no longer run the back catalog is available to humble those of us who like to think we know the game.

Bridge hands
It's a massive site and there's hundreds of places I've yet to explore. I mainly use them for when I want to know that the chances of picking up 24 high card points is 0.06%.



Defunct:
These are sites that I would happily include in my list if only their authors would come back and write some more excellent material.

The Imp Chimp
Sataj has analysed some nice situations and provided some insight into how professionals think. It makes good reading but seems unfini

Poor bridge
Very few bridge sites leave me with tears in my eyes. It was dangerous to read in a quiet room lest an impossible to contain outburst of laughter should spring off the pages.
Sadly I cannot find a working link for any poorbridge articles, if anyone does know a source or has an offline archive please get in contact with me.

Well bid?

Fourth board in on a club pairs night this week I picked up this collection at nil vul:

♠	J 6 3
♥	Q 8 7 5 4 3
♦	7
♣	J 8 7

Over the previous 3 board combined I'd picked up 17 high card points. It was going to be one of those nights.

Partner, having marginally better luck with the cards, opened 1♥. At least I'll get to make a bid. What though?

The next hand simplified things a little by offering 1♠. This is now a pretty common situation and I believe I'm banned from bidding 4♥. It won't buy this auction, our opponents will bid 4♠ and we'll be the last to guess.

Five or three, three or five, 5 or 3? What about psyching some thing stronger? What about bidding something stronger? Partner with a short spade might be able to bid 6 if we splinter in diamonds! It'll go down when the cash the black aces though.

	Chances?
♠	9
♥	A K T 6 2
♦	A J 5 4
♣	K Q 9

I settled for the pressure bid; 5♥. If they bid when it's wrong partner will be well placed to double plus we have a good chance they'll succumb to the barrage and pass.

The next player passed and partner frowned, thought, and then frowned some more. It occurs to me that we've never discussed this sort of jump.

6♥, no double... The club lead goes to the King and partner ace, she draws the two outstanding hearts in one round then frowns, thinks and frowns some more.

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

Finally claiming 12 tricks deciding there really wasn't a play for 13.



I've been collecting weird auctions lately. Here's a nice one on the ever popular theme of passing forcing auctions:

	West	East
(Precision)	1♦	2NT	(13+ GF)
(Stayman)	3♣	3♥
	3♠	4♦
	pass

Reminds me of when I sat down against a pair who announced they were playing "A strong 1NT and 2 over 1 game-forcing" to which the other replied "But it's not really game-forcing is it? Not all the time?"

Of course I bid 1NT

If you didn't see my last post here's the hand:

♠	K 2
♥	K 5 3
♦	K T 8 2
♣	A J 8 7

The question was what to rebid on the following auction:
1♣ - (pass) - 1♦ - (1♠) ?

1NT is the obvious choice (instead of 2♦) but I didn't feel good about it when this happened:

South	West	North	East
1♣	pass	1♦	1♠
1NT	pass	pass	2♠
?

Now I feel like I've kept a secret from partner and because of that he won't know whether to compete or not. I've got a max for my earlier bidding and that's a justification right?

South	West	North	East
1♣	pass	1♦	1♠
1NT	pass	pass	2♠
3♦	3♠	4♣	4♠
?

Eek! What have I done? I can't possibly bid again. Pass smoothly and hope.

South	West	North	East
1♣	pass	1♦	1♠
1NT	pass	pass	2♠
3♦	3♠	4♣	4♠
pass	pass	5♣	pass
pass	pass

And why did nobody double? This is definitely the weirdest auction I've seen in a while. Let me count the ways:

1. West forgot about his spade fit the first time.
2. We signed off in 1NT then bid 5 minor
3. We agreed one minor then played in the other
4. EW might have left 1NT but now think we can make 11 tricks

It is a pity they didn't double.

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

The play wasn't too taxing. You must lead a small club off the dummy rather than the Queen so you don't lose a club trick. After that it's just a case of dithering around until you get the count and hook East for the ♦Q.

Eleven tricks, a little sad that we couldn't bid it unaided but I guess that's the problem with playing a 1♣ opening that doesn't really show anything.

Double when they don't have any tricks

I think I've learnt something about doubling lately. I used to ask myself 'how many tricks have I got'. It seems very reasonable, after all the more tricks I had the smoother the defence and the bigger the penalty.

So often though you don't have that many tricks. You don't double and it turns out that they didn't have many tricks either.

♠	T 5 2
♥	3
♦	K Q T 3
♣	A T 7 6 5

Fourth in hand and all vul the auction starts quickly, (1♠) - 4♥ - (4♠). How many tricks do you have? Two? A diamond and a club is all you count for sure. Hopefully partner has a trick, that makes three.

Stop. How many tricks do they have? Lets award partner something like the KQ of hearts and a minor suit Jack. Still only three tricks for us but how many for them? If you think 1 in each minor and 1 heart your pass must say that you expect they'll take 7 spade tricks. Who's to say they haven't overstretched:

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

The key is that none of your values are in spades or in hearts. You're unlucky if partner has neither the ♥A nor a singleton club. Then it will go down immediately.


Back to more normal bidding:

♠	K 2
♥	K 5 3
♦	K T 8 2
♣	A J 8 7

You deal and the auction begins 1♣ - (pass) - 1♦ - (1♠)
1NT or 2♦?

Deceptively safe

Some contracts are great spots to be in even though they may not immediately look like it. The actual auction was long and torturous so instead I'll give you a simplified version:

Dan:	I've got some spades!
Partner:	My hand is bad, don't get too excited.
Dan:	Completely pathetic?
Partner:	Well, no, not completely.
Dan:	What if I said I had hearts?
Partner:	I don't really care.
Dan:	Spades is where I really want to play though.
Partner:	You just bid whatever you like.
Dan:	Fine, 6♠ it is.

It's a wonderful system.

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

6♠ indeed. It's nice that there's no wastage in clubs but the diamond situation is a disappointment. The contract looks woeful actually. That is until you consider one small detail, the ♥8 that's sitting in front of West.

Yes that little heart makes all the difference. Why into an auction where there are two suits completely unbid would you lead into the second suit of a hand that has driven to slam with almost no encouragement?

Singleton.

Only one reason to lead a singleton - to get a trump trick.

Only one reason to want a trump trick - you don't already have one.

Win the ♥A, cross in diamonds, take the marked spade finesse, draw trumps, pitch a heart on a diamond and claim?

Yes but we can prove our theory first. Win the ♥A and lead back another! West ruffs and gleefully cashes the ♣A. Ruff and complete as above. If West had followed to the second heart maybe the spades need to be rethought.

7 - 4 double more

I know we're supposed to bid a lot with such hands but consider this one:

♠	8
♥	K T 8 7
♦	3
♣	A Q 9 6 5 3 2

Shapely indeed but in fourth chair you have to wait. Here's how it starts:

West	North	East	South
-	1♦	1♠	2♥

Both opponents bidding, they in a forcing auction and we have only the 8 in partners suit. I can't see bidding at this time.

West	North	East	South
-	1♦	1♠	2♥
Pass	3♥	Pass	4♥

Now the opponents declare a fit which greatly increases the chance that we have one. Presumably it's in clubs as partner would have bid more aggressively holding seven or more spades. But even if partner has a couple of clubs, we still figure to lose a club a heart and a diamond.

There's another dilemma though. Even though we're red against green there's money to be made against 4♥. It's never making and so with a club contract uncertain I'll double.

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

Sadly not only does 5♣ make but when the trumps splint 1-1 it's possibly to ruff three hearts to make 6. However, lots of others thought as I did and doubled hearts.

Down 3 is optimal but several tables slipped a trick. On a spade lead the Ace and King were taken and I pitched a diamond. Partner figured that out pretty quick and gave me a ruff. I could, for style points, under lead in clubs here for a second ruff but playing off Ace and another does almost as well. Declarer ruffs on dummy but later when I win my ♥K I can play another club forcing declarer to either give me an upper cut (ruff in dummy) or concede a spade in the end game (ruff in hand). +500 was worth 11/18 match points.

Bidding challenge time again:

♠	K 9 8
♥	A 8 6 5
♦	A Q 8 6 5
♣	K

With silent opponents you open 1♦ and your partner bids 1♠.

Interfering with Blackwood

Especially against inexperienced or new partnerships attacking their lack of agreements is highly profitable. One of the best chances to do this is over Blackwood. People who have systems lose resolution and people who don't just guess.

So here's a hand, LHO opens 3♠ and RHO bids 4NT:

♠	7
♥	A Q J 8 7 3
♦	T 7
♣	Q 9 4 3

It's the machine gun that Bill commented on last post. You'll rarely if ever get doubled in 5♥ and because it's suit below theirs you leave them almost entirely blind. Even if they do decide to take a swing they can surely make 5♠ so you're unlikely to lose by too much.

Sadly:

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

Opener doubled and responder holding the instantly attractive ♥K2 left it in. Not only does the slam go down but if the defence start with hearts it's possible to defeat game.

Enough of the tragedies. How about a problem?

♠	K J 9 8
♥	K J T
♦	K Q J 7 5
♣	K

West	North	East	South
-	Pass	1♠	1NT
Pass	2♦*	3♠	?