Restricted View by Foxymoron

 I always avoid any seats at the theatre, opera, or sports stadiums that have a restricted view. As the number of attendees that will be allowed when lockdown eases will be restricted, I expect that those seats will be taken out of circulation for a while. In bridge, restricted choice refers to the principle that one is less likely to have the other of two touching honours because one might have played it.

Wikipedia sums it up well: In contract bridge, the principle of restricted choice states that play of a particular card decreases the probability its player holds any equivalent card.

There were several conflicting pieces of evidence on the following hand last night, but I think I gave the wrong amount of weight to restricted choice and took the wrong view:

My marginal 1D overcall was perhaps ill-conceived and I soon reached a thin 3NT. In almost all other rooms, West had opened a weak NT and gone for a penalty, usually undoubled, but here EW were playing a strong NT. All NS, except Muggins, went plus.

East led the three of clubs to West's king and the two of clubs was returned. My thinking at the time was that the two relevant holdings are AKxx with West and KJxx with West. With the former, West has free choice which honour to play. With the latter she does not have.

West can easily have an opening bid without the ace of clubs. For example, Qxx Qxxx Ax KJxx or even Txx QJTx Ax KJxx, but I think it is a bit more likely that West has the ace of clubs than not on the bidding. However, it did occur to me that something like QTx Qxxx Ax AKxx would be a strong no-trump, so West does not have that. Also West did not double 3C, so I thought it less likely that she had AKxx in clubs.

The other factor I considered was that West might return the jack from KJxx to pin the ten, in case her partner has A9xx. Of course that saves North a guess when he has the nine of clubs, so it is very much a two-edged sword.

In the end I decided to just play restricted choice, and played low, but that was one off and zero match points instead of the 90% for making, losing out to a couple of 500 penalties only. And egg on my face.

As Lord Chalfont reflected in 'The Times' of London in 1972: 'There is something reassuringly changeless about the capacity of the highest [military] authorities for getting egg on their face."

Poetry in Motion by Foxymoron

 A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist - Vladimir Nabokov

The above is one of my favourite quotes, and I was reminded of it when admiring a precision auction by Michael Klein and Web Ewell on Sunday. It was poetry in motion, and this phrase I first remember from the Johnny Tillotson number 1 hit single of 1961, but it goes back a lot earlier than that.

In 1813, in Lady Morgan Wild Irish Girl, "I seldom dance,'" said I. "Ill health has for some time coincided with my inclination, which seldom led me to try my skill at the Poetry of Motion."

Precision auctions often cause opponents to run out of pass cards in real life. On the Internet they make it hard to display the full auction as here. South opened a strong club, 16+ and North bid 1D which was any 0-7. Now South bid 1H, his singleton (!) but that was 20+, any shape. North's 1NT was a game-force with spades, and 2C asked about shape, North's 3S showed precisely 7-2-2-2, the precision of a poet. South's 4C asked for controls and North's 4D showed 0-2. GIven that North has 0-7 points, he is likely to have 0-2 controls, so I wonder if an improvement can be made here, so that, say, 4D is 0-1 and 4H is 2.  4H asked again, and North's 4NT showed one ace or one king. South could almost write down the North hand, and leapt to the good 6S. They were the only pair to bid this, unsurprisingly.

On the heart lead the play was not trivial. Declarer won, cashed two rounds of spades and played three rounds of clubs discarding his losing heart while West ruffed with his queen of spades. As long as the person with three spades had two clubs, he was home. An alternative line was to play one round of trumps and then play on clubs, but that would fail if the second round of clubs was ruffed with a small trump, and I don't think it ever gains, so the line chosen by Web was best.

Giving a Hand by Foxymoron

"Can I give you a hand?" I asked when Stefanie was cooking in the kitchen. "Sure, you can peel some potatoes", she replied. "I didn't mean that," I continued undeterred, "You are playing matchpoints and you hold, with both sides vulnerable:

♣AT7 ♥K97 ♦542 ♠A762. Partner opens 1NT, 12-14 and the next player passes, Do you invite game?"

"I would pass opposite you", she replied unkindly. I did pass, opposite her, so I suppose I deserved that. The hand evaluates at 11.35 on the K-R scale so is a marginal invite. One can get close to this as well by adding half for each ace, deducting a quarter for each queen and jack, deducting a half for 4-3-3-3, leaving 4-4-3-2 as it is and adding a half for 5-3-3-2. Tens are interesting,. Add a quarter for each ten over 1 and deduct a quarter if you don't have one. So this hand is around 11.5 

I plugged in partner's hand as well and that came out at 13.2. So game is no bargain.

I guess I should invite, however, as defence is harder than offence. On a diamond lead, declarer should play the hearts from the top, making three tricks in that suit when they are 3-3 or a doubleton honour appears, but most lines work. With the club finesse right, that is two spades, three hearts, one diamond and three clubs. Some did not manage those, so we got only a little below average. And game is only around 50% on a double dummy simulation, which tends to bias in favour of the declarer.

Matchpoints is a difficult game and in top events it might be right to pass with a 11-count as going one off in 2NT or game is always a bad score. But in the average club duplicate, perhaps one should try to do what you think the field will do. Some play in response to 1NT that 2S is 11 points or to play in 3 of a minor, the so-called McKendrick Convention. That would have worked well here.

At Sixes and Sevens by Foxymoron

The above phrase was originally 'to set on six and seven' and is thought to have derived in the 14th century from the game of dice. The meaning then was 'to carelessly risk one's entire fortune'. The earliest citation in print is Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, 1374:

"Lat nat this wrechched wo thyn herte gnawe, But manly set the world on sexe and seuene."

I am sure some Chaucerian thoughts were going through the minds of those in six of a major on this hand today. Should one try for seven, in the bidding and play, or should one settle for six? Stefanie and Andy were very unlucky:

Derek and Maria Essen reached the good contract of 6NT. If East finds the club lead, then you will either have to risk the contract on the diamond finesse or settle for making six. The diamond finesse was off and the king of diamonds ruffed out in two rounds but 6NT was still a top. Those in six of a major just took the diamond finesse (or did not risk it when East-West found the club lead). 1430 was a little above average, but 1440 was, surprisingly, all the match points.

Seven hearts is quite a bit against the odds, as the percentage line is the diamond finesse, and you may need spades 3-2 to boot. In Six Hearts, you can play to ruff out the king of diamonds in three rounds which you will try if getting a club lead. In a funny way, 6NT is likely to score very well. It will make whenever spades are 3-2 and has some chances of an overtrick when West has the king of diamonds and the king and queen of clubs as West gets squeezed. Especially played by North, which Maria and Derek managed.

6NT is usually the right contract when the alternative is 6 of a minor, as it beats the latter with an overtrick. The same argument does not apply to 6 of a major, and the decision is very close.

Second String by Foxymoron

 The beginner is taught to cover an honour with an honour, and often does so religiously. I have lost count of the number of times Zia has guessed the layout on the principle that if they don't cover an honour it is because they don't have it!. And it often costs little to try and induce a cover.  The power of the closed hand means that they cannot see what the right defence is.

North did a bit too much on this board and South's hand was a bit of a disappointment to him. East led the normal king of hearts, asking for count which West gave. Now declarer drew trumps and played for clubs 3-3. A very reasonable but unsuccessful line. Given that there could be a trump loser, this is a poor slam, but a bit of cunning might have made it. At trick two declarer should lead the ten of clubs from dummy. West will surely cover this (after all North might have Axx) and North wins and draws trumps and crosses to the king of clubs. Declarer can still play for clubs 3-3, but now has a second string to his bow. He should lead the nine of clubs from dummy and see what reaction he gets from West. It costs nothing, and if West plays low you might decide to play for clubs 3-3 still. Or you might reason that West would not have covered at trick two with ♣Hxx. If West covers another honour with an honour you are home. With an unexpected overtrick as well and probably all the matchpoints in the country on this SIMs board. To save the overtrick, West has to duck the ten of clubs at trick two!

The expression "second string to your bow" is very old and comes from archery. It appeared in John Heywood, Proverbes (1546):

Yee have many strings to your bowe, for yee know,

Though I, having the bent of your uncles bow,

Can no way bring your bolt in the butte to stand ;

Yet have yee other markes to rove at hand.

Sadly, in today's climate of allegations of cheating in online bridge, any pair scoring +1460 will be viewed with suspicion. There has been a plethora of suspensions including county directors and internationals, Chess is worse with tens of thousands of online accounts closed for cheating.

20210413_commentary.pdf (ebu.co.uk)

gives all the hands with interesting commentary by Paul Bowyer. Congratulations to Dominic Flint, the London President, and his wife Pamela Reiss, for their splendid 72% defending the human race against the robots who were second.

Breaking Bad by Foxymoron

When trumps break 5-0 it is very easy to give up hope, but Matthew Bingham emulated his wife's never-say-die attitude of a few weeks ago, on the way to another fine win. Breaking Bad was a popular neo-Western American crime series about ten years ago which was very popular. It had nothing to do with bad breaks at bridge, but featured a chemistry teacher who became a drug dealer after suffering one or two bad breaks in life.

4NT was key card in hearts, and 5S showed two and the queen, so South was forced to bid 6H. In theory this good contract cannot make, as West can always overruff a spade and play a trump and declarer is a trick short. The Polish Grandmaster Savielly Tartakower has a famous quote:  "No one ever won a game by resigning", He wanted to state that unless and until you continue to play the game till the very end, you would never know that you ultimately won or lost.

East led a spade which didn't really help, and declarer won in dummy, and crossed to a trump, West foolishly playing the ten, revealing the bad break. Undeterred, Matthew cashed three diamonds, pitching a club from North and two more clubs. Now Mathew led a club from dummy and West ruffed low, fatally, Now North could overruff, and ruff a spade with the nine of hearts and he was home. West needs to discard on the club, and when North ruffs and ruffs a spade high, he can overruff and return a trump and declarer is a trick short. Still nothing is lost by trying!

Careless Talk by Foxymoron

 The World Class player Michael Rosenberg once wrote that if you are declarer, you should regret every bid your side makes other than the final contract.  I was impressed a few weeks ago with Richard Creamer's approach of bidding slam on his second turn and I even tried opening Six Clubs on one hand in the Garden Citiies Heat. The idea that "careless talk" can be expensive stems from a World War II poster series, which are very much collectors' items nowadays. One example:

On one hand last night it was relatively easy to select the final contract after the initial exchange between our side as my partner defined her hand fairly well with her first response:

South's 3D showed an invitational raise in hearts, about 10-11 with 4 trumps. One could explore the slim chance of grand on the North hand, but it would need perfect cards. As Bob Hamman was fond of saying, "Don't play me for perfect cards, I never have them!"  Also even opposite four small hearts, slam will have play, so I think the practical choice is to bid it.

On the normal lead of the jack of diamonds the first thing to observe is that if trumps are 2-1 you can give yourself an extra chance by eliminating the pointed suits and then playing ace and another club. If West has Kx of clubs then you are home as he will be endplayed. But trumps were 3-0 so that will not work. Still one can ruff two spades in South and then play ace and another club,. If West has something like Qxx Jxx Kxxxx Kx he will again be endplayed. Here, of course, the slam comes in from the main chance of the king of clubs onside.

If West does have the KJx of clubs, you will probably go off, but it might still be made. You can ruff two spades in South and one diamond in North and now play three rounds of trumps ending in South. If West has KJx of clubs and the king of diamonds, he has been squeezed can be thrown in with the king of diamonds to concede the twelfth trick in clubs. Of course this line will fail if East had the king of clubs. Sometimes simple is best, especially as a club lead would have beaten you anyway if the king is offside!

Alarm Call by Foxymoron

 One of my favourite music videos is the above by Björk, with the lines:

It doesn't scare me at all

This is an alarm-call

So wake-up, wake-up now

Woo-oo-ooh!

Today has never happened

And it doesn't frighten me

The video was directed by the late and tragic Alexander McQueen. It can be viewed at the following link and you can skip ads after 5 seconds: 

björk : alarm call - YouTube

What has this to do with bridge you might ask? Well, in bridge an alarm call is the play of an unusual card to get partner to do something unusual and not to continue the suit he has just led. Sadly, this was pearls before swine when it occurred today:

North's 2S showed hearts and a minor and South's 3C was a poor 3-card raise. North leads the king of clubs, the system card from AK, and South would normally play the queen here, to show the jack. North knows that South has three clubs and therefore the jack is the unusual card and the alarm call.

If North reads it, the defence can take five ruffs in the red suits. North lead the ten of hearts, asking for a diamond and South ruffs, returns a diamond, gets another heart ruff, gives another diamond ruff and gets a further heart ruff to complete the dénouement. Sadly this inference was missed despite South playing the jack of clubs. No North-South managed a plus score, so this would have been an outright top instead of below average.