Triple squeeze and dangerous double

 Only six pairs logged in to the Woodberry game today.

It will be difficult to continue to offer this session unless more of you play, so please give it a try.

There were several interesting hands including these two slams:

On board 12, 13 tricks can be made on a triple squeeze. 

Winnie led a heart, and Stefanie must have felt quite optimistic when her 10 was taken by the Ace.

But when Anne ran all of dummy's clubs, discarding all of her major suit cards, South had to throw two diamonds in order to keep the heart king and the spade Ace. Anne was able to cash diamonds to make all 13 tricks.

I was also in the South position against the same contract. The play was similar, but declarer made the mistake of discarding two diamonds on the clubs, and was held to 12 tricks. 

Board 18 was an example of how it can be unwise to double a contract, even if you are confident of defeating it:

The bidding started: 1D-1H-1S.

I then decided to bid 4NT (RKCB). After Keith showed 3 Aces, I bid 5D to ask for the spade queen.

5S denied the queen, so I signed off in 6 spades. 

When Richard doubled, it seemed clear that spades would split badly, so I converted to 6NT.

I took the queen of clubs lead with the king, played a heart to the Ace, and led a diamond. Richard played low and Debbie played the queen on my jack. She then returned a club.

I took the Ace and ran my red suit winners, squeezing South in spades and diamonds. 

Grand Slams by Foxymoron

 I don't think you can win a Grand Slam and not be confident in yourself. Naomi Osaka

The above were the thoughts of the first Japanese girl to win a Grand Slam title in tennis, Naomi Osaka beat the great Serena WIlliams in an ill-tempered match and then went on to win three more grand slams. Not to be outdone, this year at the Masters, the Land of the Rising Sun had its first Grand Slam title with the success of HIdeki Matsuyama. 

A Grand Slam in bridge is always a special event, and the opportunity was there yesterday at the Woodberry Bridge Club for a grand slam to be bid. But would it have made?

Sadly we were North-South on this board, but we might well have replicated the auction that Phill Mattacks and Ken Rolph produced. Certainly it is right to play 6NT in anything other than a World Class field. You don't want to be bidding 6C, and certainly 5C as one pair reached, deserved a very poor score.

I would open 1C as West and the auction might go 1C-1H-1NT(15-17)-2D (any game force)-2H-3C-(forcing) but I think I would just choose 6NT now. I will ask my Precision friends if they could reach 7C here. I originally thought Phil Mattacks line of cashing two top hearts was right, but on reflection it is better, to win the diamond lead, cross to a top club and play a heart to the jack. If that loses you can cash the top hearts and then take the spade finesse. Overall this works if South has the queen of hearts, if the ten of hearts is doubleton, if hearts are 3-2 or if South has the king of spades. Around 88% overall.

How would one play 7C? I think it is right to play a dummy reversal and try to ruff two spades in the East hand. Here the king of spades comes down doubleton so all is plain sailing. Declarer can just draw three rounds of trumps. 

These days we are pretty unequivocal in our spelling - 'plain' means 'ordinary and uncomplicated' and 'plane' means 'flat'. The vagaries of spelling in the 17th century made no such distinction and 'plain' and 'plane' were used interchangeably. It is the 'plain' spelling that is found first in print, in Adam Martindale's A Collection of Letters for Improvement of Husbandry & Trade, 1683:

A token for ship boys, plain-sailing made more plain and short than usually, in three particular methods.

Hamman's Law by Foxymoron

 The multiple American Champion Bob Hamman has won fifteen World Championships including ten Bermuda Bowls, a record that is unlikely to be surpassed. It ranks up there with Nicklaus's 18 majors, which it now seems will stand for all time. He gives his name to Hamman's Law:

If you have a choice of reasonable bids and one of them is 3NT, then bid it.

I followed the rule today, and it worked!

At one table East opened a weak 2D, and North-South ended in 4H which has to lose two clubs and a spade. When declarer misguessed the spades he was off. At my table I decided to follow Hamman's Law, fearing a club lead through my king and it going queen of clubs, ace of clubs, club ruff so I plumped for the nine-trick game. West led the queen of clubs and East won and switched to a diamond.

The contract was secure, but overtricks might come into play, as 4H will make if declarer guesses spades. I won the diamond switch in dummy and led the jack of spades. East thought I was trying to sneak a spade trick and rose with the ace to play a second diamond, but this was fatal. I won in South, and cashed the king of clubs and ran six rounds of hearts. West was squeezed with the nine of clubs in dummy a threat and the ªK7 in South a menace as well. As it happens even making one overtrick was enough for a top. I will follow Bob Hamman's Law again!

Jump Scare by Foxymoron

 The jump scare is a technique in horror films causing the audience to suddenly sit up and take notice. It featured in Friday the Thirteenth, and was notable in Carrie. Drag Me to Hell was criticised for overusing the technique.

Bill Linton, East on the hand below, tried the technique tonight after a horror auction. He had misclicked on 2D instead of 2H at his first turn and was now trying to make amends. He jumped to Six Hearts hoping to scare Andy Clery into passing. But no such luck. Andy had three diamonds and no hearts and gave preference at the seven level. North unsportingly doubled and that was no matchpoints for EW.

What should Six Hearts actually mean? AQxx Ax AKQJxxx none springs to mind. Partner is given a choice between 6S, 6NT, 7S or 7D. It probably has a void, as it has not gone more slowly. Of course, all this is conjecture as the bid cannot exist. What would I bid on the West hand? I think 6NT. I have both black suits stopped and this cannot score badly even if makes an overtrick.

So the difference between bidding 6NT and 7D was all the matchpoints. I think 7D must be wrong, whatever partner has. Your diamond support cannot be worse, 6NT on a spade lead is interesting, You win with the ace, drive out the heart and then guess whether to take the diamond or club finesse. Cash the top clubs first, I think, if you can.

Of course, one cannot bid sensibly on the assumption that partner has misclicked.  It is very hard to recover from bidding 2D on the East hand, particularly as online bridge generally does not allow even "mouse errors" to be corrected. And you certainly cannot tell the table that you have misbid. That would be illegal.

Vienna Coup by Foxymoron

The Vienna Coup was originally a play in whist.  It is so named because it was originally published by James Clay (1804-1873) after observing it being executed in the days of whist by "the greatest player in Vienna". James Clay (20 December 1804, London – 26 September 1873, Brighton) was an English politician and a leading whist authority. A colourful character, he lost his seat in 1853 after a bribery scandal. His son was the musical composer Frederic Clay. Sadly, the Vienna Coup did not get known as the Clay Coup, which does not have the same ring to it. Its prime feature is the cashing of an ace in a suit in which you do not have the king, to avoid that hand being squeezed first. A good example occurred today:

Given that NS were playing a strong club, and the South hand comes in at 18.95 on the K-R evaluator, I would have opened it 1C, and I presume that South was able to show a 4-4-1-4 16-19, but if not then some improvement in the methods are needed.

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Even opposite the actual hand, 6D or 6NT was no more than 50%, and North could have been facing AK32 A432 2 A432 which is certainly a maximum, but no more, which would be a claim in 7NT. I presume North could have asked how many controls South had and the answer "six" might have interested him. I must admit that I would have jumped to 6D on the North hand, and 3NT was too conservative. And in the play, North might have done better. East led a small club, a bit naive as South had shown four of these, and North won with the jack. Now North should cash the ace of spades, a Vienna Coup, and then run the diamonds. West get squeezed on the last of these, and even if East is guarding hearts there will be a double squeeze. Making 13 tricks scored the same as making 12, strangely.

The odd thing about this hand was that there were six different results at the six different tables. At one table declarer made an overtrick as South when West threw too many hearts, at another, declarer guessed to play a club to the king in the ending and made. And, finally, another declarer took the spade finesse in 6NT as South and went off. So, a tricky board, but you do want to be in slam, by South, so that they cannot attack your options.

Despite the above below average result, Klein and Ewell had another fine win, with 63%.

Wastage by Foxymoron

 If it doesn't add value, it's waste - Henry Ford

The above quote came to mind when looking at a hand from the EBED SIM Pairs played in a number of clubs nationwide. This supported education and development of young bridge players and was a very worthwhile cause.

Nobody bid the slam on this board, with the ace and king of diamonds not adding much value opposite the void. But they weren't wasted, as they were perfect for discarding declarer's spade losers in slam. 

The start to the auction was as suggested by the noted writer Julian Pottage, a fellow Welsh International who did the commentary. Tom's 3S at this table asked for a spade stop. Harvey, West, did not like bidding 3NT with a void, and I must say I agree. Now I think I would cue 4D on the East hand and West should cue 4S denying a heart control but promising a spade control. East might well bid 6C now, but hindsight is wonderful. 

An alternative start to the auction is 1C-(2S)-3D which is natural and forcing. This might be preferable. West will bid 3NT this time, and now some play that 4C by East, a pull of 3NT, is Minorwood. West shows two and the queen of clubs with 4NT. However, West could have QJx Axx x KQxxxx or the like, and it is very hard for East to bid slam. One other possibility after 1C-(2S)-3D-(P)-3NT-(P) is to jump to 5C on the East hand. That should show two spade losers, and West might now bid 6C. But all pretty tough for a first-time partnership as was the case here.

Carelessness by Foxymoron

More matches are lost through carelessness at the beginning than any other cause - Harry Vardon, six times Open Golf Champion (1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911, 1914).

In bridge, carelessness at trick one can be very expensive, and not stopping to consider the whole hand is often the reason for the error. Today, Elsa Nelson, West, was careless at trick one, but her Guardian Angel was watching over her shoulder:

I don't think Elsa is worth a free bid of 2S on the West hand. East's Benji 2C was forcing, and she can safely pass to find out which is partner's suit. Still, there is no arguing with success and 6S was about a 50% contract, depending solely on the club finesse. The finesse is wrong, as you can see, but look what happened. North led a heart as her partner had overcalled in hearts and Elsa ruffed, but with the two of spades! Now there was no entry to the West hand and she was forced to drop the king of clubs offside after drawing trumps.

The Rabbi would also make Six Spades of course following his rule which, as Harvey explains, is that you have to drop the king of clubs when it is singleton offside. Elsa's Rule, created today, is that you have to drop the king of clubs offside when there is no longer an entry for the finesse!

Baron by Foxymoron

 There are several bids in bridge which are often prefaced by the word Baron, in particular the Baron 2S, the Baron 2NT and the Baron 3C, occurring in different auctions. They all originate from the same bidding system, developed in the 1940s by Adam "Plum" Meredith and Leo Baron, the subject of a book I have ordered recently from Amazon. Meredith was a member of the 1955 World Championship winning team, but less is known of Baron.

Leo Solomon Baron (13 October 1916 – 22 October 1985) was a British lawyer, Royal Air Force officer and contract bridge player who practised law in Southern Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) during the 1950s and 1960s, sat on the Supreme Court of Zambia during the 1970s, and briefly served as Acting Chief Justice of Zimbabwe in 1983.

The principle of the Baron convention is that it generally shows a strong hand, and opener is invited to bid 4 card suits in ascending order. It would have been very useful on a hand today:

We did not explore the hand fully, but avoided the bad 6NT, which does not make. At our table, my partner opened a Precision 1D, and rebid 1NT to show 11-13. My choice was 3NT or 4NT, invitational, and I went tor the former. 

I think South should open a 14-16 NT, and then I could have used a version of the Baron convention on the North hand. The way this is used with my Welsh International partner is that I transfer to hearts on the North hand and then bid 2S, cancelling the transfer and promising 18+ points. Now South will bid a five-card suit if he has one, else he bids 2NT. Then I bid 3D as North, showing 4. Now South can agree diamonds with 4D and North might just bid 6D. He knows the partnership has 33 points or thereabouts and a 4-4 diamond fit. That makes easily enough here, as declarer can cash two top diamonds and three spades, and two ace kings. Now he cross-ruffs the last four tricks and the defence just make a trump.

Splinters by Foxymoron

“I had a splinter once," Shallan noted. "It eventually got out of hand".- Brandon Sanderson from the fantasy novel Oathbringer. 

Lt. Col. Beasley played for England in the very first official Bridge World Championship in 1933. In one game against the American team, Beasley made (in the middle of the auction) a bid much like a modern Splinter, a double jump showing a shortage, and this enabled Beasley to arrive at a good Slam contract with only 22 HCP in the combined hands. The American "Bridge Hall of Fame" player Dorothy Truscott is generally credited with having developed the idea of Splinter bids, but only much later in 1964.

On the following hand, Andy Conway used a splinter bid.

Many would play that 3H here was a splinter bid, as 2H would have been forcing, in which case 4H can show a void. Of course one needs to agree this in advance. The simple agreement that a double jump is a splinter works quite well. Although the king of hearts was likely to be wasted, having six spades when partner promises four is a good thing. It is vital that a splinter always promises four trumps, as that increases the value of a singleton or void considerably. 

The king of hearts is not completely wasted although here it is not needed. The defence makes the ace of hearts, but only if South cashes it on the go. Rachel, South did that, as did I as South on a different auction, but that was only one match point and a joint bottom. This should be a fairly easy slam to bid. The other bid West could consider is 4D, showing  good diamonds and four spades, and that should get to the easy slam as well.