2020

 The last blog of 2020 had me wondering when the next year will be which can be scored at bridge; I will leave you to calculate that, as there has not been once since I went for 2000, non-vulnerable, in an Intercity Match, and you cannot score 2020 (nor 2010). My friend Paddy Murphy, a Welsh International as his name might suggest, tells me there is a name for some of the more common penalties:

                    -1100 = sticks and wheels

                    -1400 = an Owain, after the rebellion of that year

                    -1700 = a GT

                    -2000 = Y2K (pronounced why2K?)

                    -2300 = a Nokia

My answer to Y2K?, when I went for 2000, was that we were not playing the same system!

There was nothing unusual about our score here as NS, -850, which I have suffered many a time. The highest score in the other direction was -1110, as a club lead is needed to save the second overtrick in 4Dx, so that made up 2. I think I was a bit naive here, bidding 3NT on the South hand, as that will be -700 if the opponents pass it out. This might be the last making game, of course, but the odds were against it, and I think I should have started with 5D. After 3NT, Derek Essen did well to bid 4S on his shapely 5-count, and I could do little but try 5D, which would probably have made. But Maria Essen went on to 5S. North had no reason to double that, but it only cost one matchpoint as there was no defence. Next time I think I will bid 5m whenever I have an 8-card minor, an ogdoad as readers of this blog will know.

2020 is soon behind us. It has given its name to two strange expressions: 2020 cricket, where there is really only one 20, the number of overs, and 2020 vision, where again there is only one 20, the distance of 20 feet. An odd year, but leap and even as well.

A Xmas Puzzle by Foxymoron

Sherlock Holmes arrived at the Baker Street Bridge Club after they resumed face-to-face bridge recently. “What do you make of this travelling scoresheet, Watson?”, he asked.

“Very strange,” replied the learned doctor. “EW made 7S, 7H or 7NT at every table except one where NS made 6NT. It must have been mis-boarded on the last one, I assume.” “What were the NS hands?”

“No it was not misboarded, Watson,” “But did you not notice that when  South made 6NT, East-West were a retired colonel playing with his disabled wife?”

“Good gracious, how did you deduce that?” came the response.

“Well, it was clearly a 5-table Howell movement, with 18 boards, and pair 10 was stationary, allocated to Colonel Cathcart and his wife Lady Cathcart who would have been unable to move. Also the Colonel always scores, even when he is East or West, using a distinctive purple ink, identical to his invitation to me to speak at the Rotary Club Christmas Dinner. Finally, Lady Cathcart, who has arthritis, uses one of those much criticised cardholders which have a habit of collapsing. Clearly her hand fell forward during the auction and she then had 13 penalty cards. When she became on lead, the declarer could direct her play at each trick. And I heard the TD, Professor Pedant, discussing the ruling as we arrived.”

“But surely that made no material difference?” pressed Watson rather dimly. “South could not have made 6NT” 

“Not so, South could claim at trick one on the actual layout.” Holmes replied “Which is for you to work out, Watson.” He concluded. “And note that while all West’s cards are penalty cards, they are authorised to all players under Law 50E1 of the new 1917 Laws of Duplicate Bridge, so East is not constrained at all, unless he gains the lead. And I find that West can only make 7NT on a club lead, which makes the EW hands unique.

What were the exact EW cards which allowed South to make 6NT against best defence?

Acknowledgements are due to Nigel Guthrie, Paul Barden and Julian Pottage for cooks and corrections to the original composition. 

Solution                                                    ª  5
                                                                  ©  5
                                                                  ¨  J9832
                                                                  §  J65432
                                               ª  AKQJ                       ª  9876
                                               ©  AKQJ                       ©  9876
                                               ¨  AKQ                         ¨  7654
                                               §  AQ                            §  T
                                                                  ª  T432
                                                                  ©  T432
                                                                  ¨  T
                                                                  §  K987

The above is the layout. Clearly 7NT makes for West on a club lead, but not on any other lead. In 6NT by South, West is directed to lead the ace and another club. South wins, cashes the nine of clubs and overtakes the eight and cashes the six, directing West to discard diamonds while he throws the ten of diamonds and now he leads the two of clubs:

                                                                  ª  5
                                                                  ©  5
                                                                  ¨  J9832
                                                                  §  2
                                               ª  AKQJ                       ª  98
                                               ©  AKQJ                       ©  98
                                               ¨  none                         ¨  7654
                                               §  none                         §  none
                                                                  ª  T432
                                                                  ©  T432
                                                                  ¨  none
                                                                  §  none

Now, if East discards a major, South discards from the other major, and directs West to discard from the same major as East. All West’s major suit winners go way on the top diamonds and South makes four(!) tricks in the major East unguarded. Note that declarer cannot cash the top diamond first, as he squeezes himself as he has to discard before East makes his choice. A felo de se, in fact. So East discards a diamond and Now declarer cashes four diamonds, discarding from each major to reach:

                                                                  ª  5
                                                                  ©  5
                                                                  ¨  32
                                                                  § 
                                               ª  AK                            ª  98
                                               ©  AK                            ©  98
                                               ¨  none                         ¨  none
                                               §  none                         §  none
                                                                  ª  T4
                                                                  ©  T4
                                                                  ¨  none
                                                                  §  none

Now the penultimate diamond squeezes East again and West is forced to discard from the same major while South discards from the opposite major to complete the denouement.

Several other layouts failed because West either could not make 7NT or because she could make it on any lead. As Holmes observed, only a club lead lets Lady Cathcart make 7NT.

Available Spaces by Foxymoron

The £150 million appropriately named Spirit of Britain, above, has spaces for around 180 lorries and makes several crossings per day from Dover to Calais. As it is one of about a dozen ferries, which set off at half hour intervals, it should not take that long to clear the 4,000 lorries queuing on the M20 or parked at Manston airport. I always struggle with maths, but I think they should be cleared in around 12 hours. Of course, that assumes that the ferries all start running again and that there are spaces for lorries and covid tests do not add to the delay.

Available spaces was the theme of a hand last night:

Only two declarers made 4S. One was the lucky beneficiary of a heart lead which cost the overtrick, but Robot East (clearly the wisest robot from the East) embarrassed us all by showing how the hand should be played. Vampyr led her singleton and North played the queen, ace and a third diamond. Most declarers ruffed with the nine and when South overruffed they could not make it. 

Robot East, one of the three wise robots, had no problem. There are 12 available spaces for the queen of spades in the South hand and 6 in the North hand, so ruffing with the nine is wrong. It ruffed with the king, ran the jack of spades, covered by the queen and ace and then ran all the trumps. Poor South was squeezed in hearts and clubs. She played her partner for the ace of clubs (or declarer for a singleton ace) but that just led to an overtrick, although 4S making was almost a top. I tell you, these robots are getting better.

Phantom Sack by Foxymoron

 My partner set out a road map which suggested the winning defence on the following hand, but I felt that it was unlikely to work and ended up with a phantom sack. This phrase comes from American football where a Rams player, Jim Everett, playing against the 49ers, collapsed in a heap even though he had not been tackled. In bridge its full name is phantom sacrifice where you deliberately go for a penalty hoping it is less than the game that you could beat.

I should just defend here, and partner's imaginative pre-empt of 3C should have told me how to defend. I can cash the ace and king of diamonds and then underlead the ace and king of clubs to get a diamond ruff. Fortunately that defence was not found at the other table where 4H was bid and made so we emerged with an undeserved average.

Vampyr wondered if declarer would guess the QS if we did not find this defence. Say South leads the ace of clubs and then cashes the top diamonds and plays another club. Declarer will ruff and run all the trumps throwing spades from dummy. Now he will make the contract whenever the diamonds are 3-3, whenever the queen of spades drops or when the queen of spades is with the long diamonds, so I think he will in practice. I had hopes of 5C doubled making opposite something like Ax x xxxx QJxxxx which is a more standard pre-empt, but as Bob Hamman says, "Don't play me for perfect cards; I never have them".

Duck Soup by Foxymoron

The phrase "duck soup" first appeared in a newspaper cartoon drawn by T.A. Dorgan in 1902, and showed up again in a work by someone named H.C. Fisher in 1908. It means that something is easy to perform and should be second nature but its origin is shrouded in mystery,

In the immortal words of Chico Marx, “Why a duck?” Groucho was asked to explain the title of the 1933 Marx Brothers film “Duck Soup,”. I’ll leave the last word to him: “Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you’ll duck soup the rest of your life.”

Nobody found the right play in Four Spades here, and the winners benefited from a misdefence to be the only pair to make the cold contract. When South leads the king of hearts it should be duck soup to duck as East, as there can be no benefit in allowing the defenders communication in hearts. If East had the ten of clubs there would be some end-play chances, but here there is not. Liz Clery won, drew two rounds of trumps to find they were 4-1 and now played ace, king and another diamond. North winning. Now South has to discard the ten of clubs. Then North can put South in with a club, and South can underlead the  queen of hearts to get a club ruff. Unsurprisingly this fine defence was not found, but ducking the first round of hearts would have prevented it. Then the contract makes when you play South for Ax of clubs, the best chance in view of the overcall. Making 4S was, surprisingly, worth 100% of the matchpoints. The last mistake was the fatal one, as ever.

Martin Baker rebid 3NT after his partner raised spades. I think he was wrong as his hand is better for a suit contract. Anne Catchpole led the king of hearts, and David Schiff, North, should play the jack on this after which the heart continuation scuppers the contract. He played the five, presumably normal count, and East ducked. South was worried about a Bath Coup, and switched fatally. Not easy, but if North plays the jack on the first round it would be Duck Soup for the defence even if East does duck. As the advert said:

Promotion Party by Gerry Weston

 

Woodberry B, one of 3 teams in the EBU lockdown league, has had a successful last sprint. We were lucky last 6 weeks ago to get promoted to Division 4 (only because some teams above dropped out) and then faced a tough challenge. Two weeks ago we were climbing up the group but suffered when the team made costly mis-clicks in play of two hands what with other mistakes we were humiliated, losing by 51 IMPs over the 8 boards! However, we climbed back steadily from that disaster and in the last match on Friday the team got some crucial high level judgements correct, giving a win by 41 IMPS, and putting us narrowly at the top of the division (with promotion to Division 3). Thanks go to all the squad; Ken Barnett, Gary Diamond, Chantal Girardin, Paul Huggins, Paul Lamford, Stefanie Rohan and Paul Thornton. But especially to Paul Lamford who not only is a great player, but amuses and inspires the team with instructive reports and blogs on the interesting hands. Some of these can make difficult reading as he spares no one; people reading these blogs will be familiar with the style.

Showing Up by Foxymoron

One recent quote I liked is "it's not always about being the perfect person in the perfect position - it's about showing up when you're needed" - Jill Biden, the new first lady, who is also the first to hold both a professorship and a doctorate. [Twitter caveat: "The claim of first lady is disputed by Donald Trump"]

Showing up was the theme of the hand here:

I think I would have used Stayman and then bid 6H over the 2NT opener, but NS were attracted by the greater prize of the no-trump slam. 6H rates to be better for two reasons:

a) the 12th trick might well come from a ruff in the South hand

b) the 13th trick might well come from a ruff in the South hand

It is true that when both contracts are making the same number of tricks, you want to be in no-trumps, but that might only happen a third of the time. This was that third, and Tony Moloney, North, used his good luck to help him to a fine win in the Thursday Pairs in partnership with Mike Klein.

How do you play 6NT on the lead of the seven of spades, denying an honour in the suit? Well, the first thing to do is to play three rounds of hearts, ending in dummy, and keeping a heart entry in South. West comes under pressure. In practice he let go a club, and that gave declarer 3 club tricks and his contract, but say that he discards a spade and a diamond. Now you take the club finesse, running the jack, and East wins and continues with another spade which you win in dummy. Now, before guessing how to play the clubs, it does not cost to cash the ace and king of diamonds, and cross to the king of hearts, and cash the third spade. West is squeezed in the minors and has to let go a club, but now the ten of clubs shows up on the third round of the suit, and the slam comes home. This line works whenever West has four diamonds unless East has four clubs including the ten. A sort of show-up squeeze, but a trick later. If East had KTx of clubs you would still make it. East can test you a bit more by ducking the jack of clubs, but another squeeze operates when you then play a club to the queen. East wins and exits with another spade. The ten of clubs does not show up, but when you cash the major suit winners West gets squeezed in the minors.

The theory of available spaces says that West is 12:9 on to have any card outside hearts, and the chance of success of the above line is around 70%. The declarer who finessed the nine of clubs early on gained no marks for artistic impression or technical merit. But then he didn't have any from the auction either, reaching only 3NT.

Trump Pressure by Foxymoron

The last week has seen further pressure on Trump to concede, with more and more of the GOP deserting him. On a hand today, the run of the trumps exerted a similar amount of pressure.

Some players think there is a gap between a weak two and a one-level opening bid. I would also prefer to pass with a flawed weak two, and I would not open a weak two with more than one of the following flaws (although third in hand I would relax the requirements):

a) Two aces
b) A side 4-card major

c) More than half my points outside the suit

d) A void

e) A suit worse than QJTxxx

f) Ten or more HCPs

I would have opened 2S on Vampyr's hand below, but it is close. It only fails on rule (c) and only just. I don't mind pass, and I don't mind 1S. It meets the rule of 18 in that the points plus the two longest suits total 18 or more.

West expressed her hand quite well, by jumping to 3S over the reverse of 2D. What could that be other than a good weak two with a flaw or two? Ken Rolph was not going to pussyfoot around and jumped to 6S. A couple of well-placed kings is about all he needed and the good slam was reached. The cold slam in fact.

But it is matchpoints and there might be a bonus for 13 tricks. Indeed, there was as 6S= only gets 65% while 6S+1 is over 90%. North leads a passive heart and you ruff a heart, draw a trump, play the ace of diamonds and ruff a diamond and ruff another heart. Now you ruff a diamond and the king does not fall. Time to broach the clubs and a club to the queen holds. Now run all the trumps. If North has the king of diamonds and the king of clubs he will be squeezed. As it happens, the king of clubs is doubleton, so good technique does not get an extra reward, but +1010 does get almost all the matchpoints.

Vampyr played the slightly inferior line of playing to pin the doubleton ten of  clubs, so NS escaped gratefully with a 35% board. This was still enough for Vampyr and KenRolph to win the event by less than 1%.

Elimination by Foxymoron

Elimination in bridge has a couple of possible meanings. In one sense it is removing the opponent's safe exit cards and then throwing him or her in to concede a ruff and discard or lead into a tenace. The second meaning is eliminating possible layouts and finding the only one that is possible. Both were applicable on the deal below:

Vampyr's 4D bid was a bit aggressive, but partner rated to have a good hand vulnerable, and North chose 4H. East made the normal lead of the three of diamonds and West played the nine. North won with the ace, crossed to the queen of spades, and played a heart. West tried a deceptive king, but Michael brushed that aside, and won, cashed the queen of hearts, and played three more rounds of spades ending in dummy. West discarded the four of diamonds, current count, showing an even number originally, and then a diamond and a club. Now declarer led a club off dummy to the nine. West should put in the ten, but not the king, although it should not matter. Now East won with the jack of clubs, cashed the jack of hearts and continued fatally with the ace of clubs after which he was endplayed, forced to concede a ruff and discard. The winning defence was to underlead the ace of clubs and declarer has to lose a diamond trick.

How can East figure this out? Well, West has one spade and two hearts for sure. He might have seven diamonds, but the carding in diamonds says that is not the case. North might have Kx of clubs, in which case partner should have put in his highest club on the first round of the suit. Also, underleading the ace of clubs does not cost at all, as cashing the ace of clubs would leave you endplayed. So, the only possible remaining layout is for North to have two small clubs. So, you should underlead the ace of clubs and partner will exit with a diamond for one off. A complete top-to-bottom swing on one card, a little unluckily.

Knavery by Foxymoron

    

The Knave of Hearts. Illustration by W.W. Denslow.

The Knave of Hearts

 He stole those tarts,

And took them clean away

This extract of a rhyme by an anonymous author first appeared in the European Magazine in April 1782. There are more verses than are normally published, but I guess what the King of Spades did with the maids has been deemed unsuitable for the target audience. Ryan Stephenson used the jack of hearts well on this hand:

West opened a multi and Ryan made a practical bid of 2NT on the South hand. Many play here that double is either hearts or not hearts, which is a bit Humpty Dumpty I know (wrong nursery rhyme - Ed.). Andy Clery had an easy raise to game as, even opposite South's maximum, slam is unlikely. West led the king of hearts, but Ryan ducked in both hands. West could do no more than play a second heart, but Ryan ran his eight minor suit winners and West was strip-squeezed down to the queen of hearts and Kx of spades. Ryan exited with the knave of hearts in the ending and completed a well-earned +660.

The knave of hearts was key to the following hand as well, and Ryan tested declarer's technique with the best defence:

The above auction was fairly common last night, although some Souths passed (only six of them, partner). North avoided the king of hearts lead, which would have led to the contract making immediately as the dreaded jack of hearts pops up in dummy. Andy Clery dutifully led his partner's suit and Ryan won and switched to the ten of hearts. It looks normal to duck that now, but Frances Loughridge, perhaps fearing a singleton heart with South, won with the ace and should now ruff a club, draw a round of trumps, ruff the last club and draw the final round of trumps. Now she can lead towards the jack of hearts. North can take his two heart winners but is then endplayed. If South does have a high heart, nothing is lost as there is still the diamond finesse. Instead she took the diamond finesse and North cashed out for one off. These two hands helped Ryan and Andy to a narrow first place less than 1% clear of the field.

There were quite a few points of interest on this hand. Gerry Weston, North, led a passive trump as his partner, Paul Thornton, had "meekly" passed as South. Now declarer drew trumps and played ace and another diamond. North needed to duck this, but when he won that was 11 tricks and a near bottom;  this misdefence was also found by Kevin Robins in the North seat. It was even tougher for Nigel Stuttard, North, when East opened a Lucas Two Spades and was raised to game. South led a diamond and now. when declarer played low from dummy, he needed to put in the ten to hold declarer to ten tricks.

On a heart lead by South, declarer has to duck  and if North returns a club followed by another heart by South, declarer needs to rise. Then he ruffs a club, crosses with a trump, ruffs another club and exits with the jack of hearts, making in much the same way as Frances could have done.

The careless declarer was Mike Eden who had a club lead and a heart switch, which he ducked. North persisted with a second club, ruffed in dummy. Now declarer drew two rounds of trumps ending in dummy before taking the diamond finesse, and then he claimed. But he had not preserved the eight of spades to get to dummy. His claim was accepted by NS  but then disputed. The TD correctly ruled one down, as it was likely that the defence would now win a trick as all they have to do is force dummy while the diamonds are blocked. "Likely" in this claim law is interpreted as a not insignificant chance. Edgar Kaplan used to think it was about a one in six chance.