Dummy Reversal by Foxymoron

The expression "dummy reversal" is normally used when you ruff twice or more in the hand with more trumps. But it has come to be used for ruffing in hand twice when you have a 4-4 fit before drawing all the trumps. That opportunity presented itself in the weekly game yesterday:

We bid 1C-(2S)-Dble-(3S)-4H-All Pass, which was an auction replicated at a good number of tables. Looking at the hand in the pub afterwards I wondered if I should have made 12 tricks as Deep Finesse does on this hand, but it was not without risk. East led the ace of spades and switched to a diamond at my table, to West's king and North's ace. Now it looks normal to play a heart to the queen, as you can pick up Hxxx in either opponents' hand. It is more likely that East will have a singleton heart if anyone does. Now the plan is to ruff two spades in the North hand, but that runs the risk that the trumps are 4-1 when you will lose control. The winning line is spade ruff, club to the queen, spade ruff, cash the king of hearts, ruff a club, draw trumps and make twelve tricks when clubs are 4-3. I just drew a second round of trumps and could only make 11 tricks.

If you draw a second round of trumps with the king, then you do not have enough entries to ruff two spades, while if you draw a second round of trumps with the ace, you cannot afford to ruff a spade with the king as you will promote the jack for East. I think in 6H the right line is to cash the king of hearts at trick two, as you will not make six when trumps are 4-1. Now you can play a second round of trumps to the ace, and can ruff two spades in North. When trumps are 3-2 and clubs are 4-3, "Bob's your Uncle".

The origins of that expression are unclear but it is thought to come from the occasion when Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, ("Bob") appointed his nephew Arthur Balfour as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1887, which was apparently both surprising and unpopular.

In Spades by Foxymoron

The expression "in spades" seems to be derived from bridge. Vanderbilt set out the rules of the modern game in 1925. "In spades" appeared in print around then and is often used to show a lot of something. Trivia Origin tells me:

The idiom wasn’t used prior to the 1920s, so it is said to be derived from the card game Bridge, which was popular during that time. Spades were the highest ranking suit in that card game, so the more spades you had, the more likely you were to win.

One of the advantages of being the highest ranking suit is that you don't need to bid one more than the opponents. The same number will do, and this was a lesson the three Souths who bid too many spades might have followed on this hand:

Four pairs made eight tricks in spades and four made nine or more, so the defence strayed on occasion. At our table, where the auction began 1C-Pass-2C, South bid 4S which ended the auction. I would bid 2S, but have no problem with 3S. If East-West compete to 3C you can then go to 3S. Accurate defence holds declarer to eight tricks. 

It is worth noting that partner could not bid.
Gregory: Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?
Holmes: To the curious incident of the 1H overcall.
Gregory: There was no 1H overcall.
Holmes: That was the curious incident.

Liz Clery and Ken Barnett had the top on the board when the defence against 4S doubled was very poor, with West leading the ace of hearts and then the ace of clubs. Now he played for East to have a singleton heart by playing another one, but when South had the singleton both diamonds went away. Anti-percentage as South is unlikely to have three hearts.

Andy Clery was the culprit, giving his sister an early Xmas present, but he did not discriminate and many of the other members received seasonal gifts during the evening. Next week is the Woodberry Christmas party and I hope that Andy will be in as generous a mood then!

The noblest art is that of making others happy― P.T. Barnum of Barnum's Circus

The Strip by Foxymoron

Americans like to have different words to us. A strip is a steak which we call sirloin. In the nineteenth century, striploin was a cut of meat in the US and now a New York Strip is famous.  Another interesting expression is The Strip, for a series of casinos in Las Vegas, the other side of the city to downtown. This seems to get its name from Sunset Strip, a stretch of the Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

In bridge, the strip (or strip squeeze in full) is a declarer technique which is usually a two-loser situation in which the opponent is stripped down to all working cards and then thrown in to be endplayed.

Nobody made 12 tricks on this hand, from the weekly game last night, and it is not clear to do so. We began 1S-(2H)-Double-(4H)-4S and everyone passed, although I think that the EW save in 5H should be tried and would force NS to go on to 5S. 

I just ran the ten of clubs at some point and had to lose two clubs. The line to make 12 tricks is pretty. Say East leads a top heart. You win in dummy and finesse the spade and draw trumps. Now you need to run all the trumps but one so that East has to come down to KJx of clubs and two red cards. Now you need to extract his exit cards so you cash the top two diamonds throwing a club from North, and ruff a heart if necessary. Now for the coup de grâce. You lead a club from North. East has to win with the jack but is then endplayed. You need to read the ending and know how many clubs East has, and playing the last trump too soon is fatal.

The phrase coup de grâce not unexpectedly comes from French, around 1690, and originally meant a merciful stroke finishing off a fatally wounded person, but in most games and sports it now just means the winning move or play.

Ruff and Sluff by Foxymoron

Pevensey Bay

The Woodberry Bridge Club held its traditional tournament at Eastbourne this weekend, and despite the wet weather, several hardy souls and one dog walked along the promenade to Pevensey. The event was splendidly organised by Shelley Shieff with the bridge being directed well by Nigel Freake and a good quiz run by Stefanie Rohan.

"Bridge is sixty percent bidding" is a quotation attributed to the great multiple world champion Benito Garozzo. Unfortunately, even good rules cannot help you reach the right contract, and on the following hand, Four Spades was quite a bit less than 60%, around 30% in fact.

I am all in favour of opening 11-counts at matchpoints, but the lack of intermediates might have deterred me on the West hand, but my partner opened 1D. North overcalled 1H and East doubled which in our methods showed four or more spades. South raised to 2H and this came back to East, who doubled again, still takeout. Now West bid 2S, and East, with a six-loser hand, raised to game in the known 3-5 fit. North led a heart and declarer played on trumps, North winning the second round. Now North exited with a club and declarer had nothing other than drawing the trump and playing a diamond to the king. An alternative and equally unsuccessful line was to duck two rounds of diamonds. Declarer could test North a little by cashing the ace and king of clubs, crossing to the ace of hearts, ruffing a club and only then playing ace and another spade. Now North has to find the winning defence of conceding a a "ruff and sluff". It is not clear where the phrase comes from but seems to have been invented by Oswald Jacoby. A ruff is a rare bird, and to sluff is to discard one's skin if a snake, but the combination of the two means a ruff and discard. When the opponents have a 4-4 fit, this is usually the right defence, as the fourth card is usually a winner anyway.

Curate's Egg by Foxymoron

In May 1895, the satirical British magazine Judy published a cartoon by artist Wilkerson, showing a timid curate and a fierce-looking bishop at breakfast in the bishop's house. The bishop says, "Dear me, I'm afraid your egg's not good!" The curate, desperate not to offend his host and superior, replies, "Oh, yes, my Lord, really – er – some parts of it are very good."

The expression "Curate's Egg" is now used for something which is "good in parts", and such was the case in our auction on the following interesting hand at the Wing Cup, an annual tournament in aid of the Alzheimer's Society at the Woodberry this week. As my mum died of that horrible illness, I always try to take part.

At our table, East opened a strong NT, West transferred to hearts, and East bid 2S. This, a transfer break, showed a maximum with four trumps. West continued with 3C, natural, and East bid 3H, waiting, and showing a stronger hand than 4H. Now West's 3S and East's 4D were cues, and West bid 4NT, Roman Key Card Blackwood. In my partnership with Leonid, West, we play what is called 1430, and my 5C bid showed 4 key cards. Now West asked for the queen of trumps with 5D and I denied it with 5H. West, looking at a possible trump loser, bid 6H which ended the auction. I might have bid 6D on the West hand, asking partner to choose between 6H and 6NT, but that is with a considerable amount of hindsight and there was no guarantee East would get that right. He should, with the fitting Qxx of clubs, choose 6NT. Maria and Derek Essen scored the top here when they sailed into 7NT and made it. Unfortunately, they did not do as well on the other 23 boards!

The play in 6H was interesting. South will lead the queen of diamonds, perhaps, and declarer wins with the ace and lays down the ace of hearts. When South drops the queen, it is right, according to the principle of restricted choice, to play for this to be a singleton rather than QJ doubleton, and all the declarers in slam made 13 tricks. They crossed to the ace of diamonds and finessed the nine of hearts, getting a good score. Strangely all the declarers who languished in game only made 12 tricks.

Asking for More by Foxymoron

Oliver Twist was perhaps the most famous example of someone asking for more, when the soup he received was not sufficient and he asked, politely enough, for more. It is depicted in many Dickens articles:

Oliver asked for more by Harold Copping

"What has this to do with bridge?", I hear you ask. Well, when you have all the key cards, you can ask for more, in particular the queen of trumps and any kings. It does not quite stop there, however, and in our game this week Mr Bumble gave the wrong response to "asking for more". This was the hand:

South opened a weak 2D and our auction began quite well with West doubling as he is too strong to make a simple overcall. North might have raised but did not and East bid 2NT, Lebensohl, intending to show a diamond stop on the "slow shows a stop" method. West bid 3S, showing a good hand and East cued 4D, showing spade support and the ace of diamonds. Then West bid Roman Key Card Blackwood, 4NT, and East showed one key card with 5D. Now West's 5H asked for the queen of trumps, and anything more that East had to show. The right response to this was 5NT, saying that East does have the queen of spades, does not have any kings, and does have "more", being the two rounded-suit queens which West needs for grand. Instead East bid 6S, and West could not do more. We were surprised to find that 6S+1 was worth 75%, and I recalled Erasmus in Adagia: regione caecorum rex est luscus.

Second Bite by Foxymoron

Defence is the most difficult part of the game. Try the following defensive problem which was faced in the Metropolitan Cup today. When the opponent did not solve it, Dave Cleal made his contract, helping himself and his partner Paul Felton to the top spot on the Cross Imps with a fine average over 49 boards of +0.89. The Woodberry Bridge Club represented London B in the event, and were second behind Surrey B.

                                                            South

You are South and the auction is shown. Partner leads the three of spades and declarer plays low from dummy and your king wins. How do you proceed? The full hand shows that you need to lead a low club, which is a remarkable defence.

Real Bridge, which hosted the event, produces a colourful and informative record of the play. After South won the spade and not unreasonably returned a diamond to the queen and ace, Dave drew a second round of trumps. I think this is wrong as South surely does not have a second spade or he would have played one. Only now did Dave lead a club from dummy and South had a second bite at the cherry. If he had ducked this, declarer would have no way home, but when he won and cashed the king of diamonds, declarer was able to cash his winners and cross ruff for ten tricks. 

The phrase "second bite at the cherry" predates "second bite at the apple" which both originated in the mid 19th Century but a search of the Internet for the exact earliest use proved fruitless ...

Noli Me Tangere by Foxymoron

The above phrase, which means "Touch me not" was reportedly spoken, according to John 20:17, by Jesus to Mary Magdalene when she recognised him after his resurrection. It was depicted in art in a painting, also called Noli me tangere, by Correggio. This is in the Museo del Prada in Madrid, which is well worth a visit.

Its relevance to bridge is that one often has to decide whether two adjacent honours are touching or not, particularly when the opponent plays one. The principle of restricted choice is a key one in bridge; it states that when someone plays one of two touching honours, their partner is twice as likely to have the other touching honour. When I got this wrong this week at the Woodberry, I scored a complete zero.

We bid, P-(P)-1H-(2H)-3H-(3S)-4H-(4S)-P-(P)-5H-(All Pass). I expected a bit more for my partner's 3H bid, but we would have had a bad score for defending 4S, which only one other pair bid. Malcolm Morris, East, and Matthew Hendrickson, West, did well to push us to Five Hearts. East led the queen of diamonds which was interesting, and I thought that this was more likely to be QJ doubleton than a singleton, and definitely was not Qx. It is not clear that the rule of restricted choice applies here, as players very rarely lead the jack of a side suit when they have QJ doubleton as partner is likely to be confused. Also a singleton queen, on this auction, is a dangerous lead which might save declarer a guess. To cut a long story short, I drew trumps and when I discovered that East had one trump, I played for East to be AJxxx x QJ AQxxx, or the like, unsuccessfully. Had East led a normal jack of spades, and provided the defence cashed their club winner at trick two, I might well have gone off anyway. It seems normal to play for West to have QJx or QJxx in diamonds.  In the end, virtue had to be its own reward, a phrase that seems to have originated from Cicero.

Force Majeure by Foxymoron

The origin of the phrase force majeure is around 1820. The principles behind the force majeure clause originated in England. In Taylor v. Caldwell, an English court decided that circumstances beyond the control or fault of two contracting parties excused performance under their contract.

In bridge, force majeure should not really apply, as one or other partner is usually to blame for reaching the wrong contract. Disagreement on whether a bid is forcing is a common reason for a debacle and this is within the control of the contracting parties. As there are a mere (4*(22)^35-1)/3 distinct bidding auctions (around 10^50), comfortably less than the number of atoms in the universe (around 10^80), the keen student can agree which bids force partner to bid again. One of the contestants on BBC's Mastermind had a misunderstanding of what a "force" was when he responded (from Dumb Britain):

But I digress. In this week's duplicate, two strong players had a disagreement on whether 3H was forcing on the following hand:

The auction, uncontested, was 1H-1S-2C-2NT-3H-Pass. West thought he had limited his hand by 2NT, and East was showing a weak 6-4. East thought that 3H was forcing, showing six hearts. Readers might like to decide whether 3H would be forcing in their methods. My view is that it is non-forcing as that is how one bids with a weak 6-4, just worth an opening bid.

Nobody reached the reasonable 6H which will make if the heart finesse is right and has chances when it is not. However, only one person made 12 tricks in 4H. The right line, on the spade lead is to win and run the jack of hearts. South will win and exit with a trump, but declarer can run all the hearts and South is squeezed in the minors. In the six-card ending he has to keep four diamonds and three clubs and this cannot be done. The only better results for EW was when North injudiciously saved in 4S for -1400, an Owain - after the rebellion of 1400.  A clear case of monochromacy.

Cut the Link by Foxymoron

Four Musketeers from the Woodberry had a successful day at the London Metropolitan Bridge Association Teams of Four on 9th July. There were quite a few Woodberry members who also did well, in particular Andrew Clery and Bill Linton in the team that finished fifth.

One of the most interesting and complicated boards was the following:

Stefanie Rohan did well on this hand. East, Paul Lamford opened 1C and John Cox, also a Woodberry member, doubled as South. Stefanie, West, redoubled and David Willis, North, upped the ante with 2S. East and South passed and Stefanie made the practical bid of 3NT.

North led the seven of spades to the ace and South continued with the ace and another heart to West's ten (ducking works well) and North's queen. Now North switched to the eight of diamonds which South won with the king. At this point South needed to cut the link with a club shift, but instead missed his chance by playing a third heart. West won and cashed her red winners to squeeze North in the black suits. John, an expert who has won the Camrose for England, realised he had to play a club quite quickly afterwards.

As David Burn once said, "An expert is one who knows what he should have done just after he did something else".

The winning team, left to right, Paul Lamford, Stefanie Rohan, Chantelle Girardin, Ken Barnett.

Quant by Foxymoron

Years ago the only meaning of "quant" was a punting pole used by those going up and down our canals. And it was a useful word in Scrabble.

The computer era spawned a number of new words and quant was one of them. It is short for quantitative analysis and any trader in the stock market is familiar with it and the quant network.

In bridge, the word QUANT is used on convention cards most often to explain the raise of 1NT or 2NT to 4NT, and here it means quantitative. The convention card police asked me to explain QUANT on my card in the Camrose, which seemed very petty. Partner is invited to go to six or to pass. A more refined version deals with what happens if partner then bids at the five-level or six-level in a suit. The former is best played as the response to simple Blackwood, to avoid bidding a slam off two aces. The latter is usually played as showing a good 5-card suit which might play better than no-trumps. 

Shelley Shieff judged well on the following hand.

We had the simple auction 1NT-4NT-Pass and it transpired that 6NT needed the clubs to break 3-3, a 36% chance. Of course they did on this occasion and we scored well below average as many pairs just punted the slam. There was a certain irony that a quant was originally a punting pole. So, the operation was a success but the patient died.  This very old expression stems from 1829 in the US:

29 August 1829, Savannah Georgian (Savannah, GA), pg. 3, col. 1:

A successful operation!—A late paper has the following paragraph: “Amputation at the hip joint. This operation was performed about two months ago at Odinburgh (Edinburgh) by Mr. Liston. The operation was successful, but the patient died!“

Grand Scheme by Foxymoron

There was an exciting last board in an earlier match in the NICKO against Mike Bell's team, where the opponents had to find a successful lead against 7S Redoubled, and did so. Woodberry A thus found themselves in the NICKO plate, making a pleasant journey to Tunbridge Wells. This is one of the nicest clubs in Britain, a few minutes walk from the railway station, and with their own grandiose premises. 

There were not many swings in the match, with a game made in one room and a missed slam in the other room, but then a wild board occurred. Try it first as a play problem before you scroll down for the full hand. It is 7NT by South.

West led the king of clubs. As you can see there are 12 top tricks and an unlikely 3-3 diamond break would give you plenty of tricks. Declarer won the club lead and cashed the top diamonds discarding two clubs and a spade. Diamonds did not break so now declarer needed a diamond-spade squeeze but that did not work either and so he went one down, losing 17 IMPs against 6NT in the other room. What had he missed?

This was the full hand. There is no hurry to cash the top diamonds and declarer should first of all play six rounds of hearts discarding a club and three diamonds from South. Now declarer crosses to the ace of spades and cashes three top diamonds. West is squeezed in spades and clubs. If East were in sole guard of spades and diamonds, this would still work, as East would be squeezed in diamonds and spades on the last heart. Keeping the nine of clubs in dummy is the key to the hand.

At the table, West discarded the eight of clubs on the first diamond (!) but noticed that he had a diamond in with his hearts in time. The eight of clubs became a major penalty card and now declarer could have made the contract by playing a club to the nine. Of course this was an unlikely line, but the double squeeze was not.

Woodberry A, Lamford and Conway, Barnett and Bernard, ran out comfortable winners by 21 IMPs and now play away to Thame A in the next round.

Queen of Diamonds by Foxymoron

 

The playing card which seems to feature most in art is the queen of diamonds, a symbol of both wealth and greed. Surprisingly it is the playing card that features most often in tattoos as well. 

It is not my favourite card, and I failed to guess who had it in a hand from last week.

I opened 1H on the North hand, and playing fairly simple methods my partner could do little other than raise to 4H. This can be a bit weaker than South had, and I decided not to make a slam-try on the North hand. That was prudent, as I would probably not have made it. I would have led the queen of spades on the East hand, but Raoul Fishman led a trump. I won and played a second trump and now it looked normal to lead the king of diamonds and another diamond. 

West played low perforce, and I had to decide who had the lady. I could play the ace and ruff a diamond. This would make 12 if the diamonds were 3-3 and at least 11 if they were 4-2. I could ruff a club, ruff another diamond, ruff a club and discard a spade on the long diamond. Perhaps the best line.

But knowing that the queen of diamonds was indicative of greed, I decided to run the jack of diamonds. Now I would have made 13 if the diamonds were 3-3 with the queen onside, and still 12 if the diamonds were 4-2 with the queen on. Sadly, East won and now played a spade and the defence had two tricks. I was still hopeful that if East had the ace of spades he would not play one, but not to be. He led a spade and West won his ace.

The good result of only conceding -650 helped Raoul and his partner David Evans to a fine win.

Binkies by Foxymoron

The method of hand evaluation known as the Milton Work Count was deveioped for Auction Bridge, using the 4-3-2-1 system for ace, king, queen, jack. Sometimes ½ was used for a ten, and Milton Work wrote extensively on the subject in the early twentieth century. By the end of the century, Thomas Andrews had been exploring the inaccuracies of this system and published an article on his website entitled Binky Points. One of the prime advocates of this improved system of hand evaluation has been Brian "Binkie" Callaghan, the doyen of the Young Chelsea Bridge Club.

How did the sobriquet  "Binkie" come about? Well, not as some thought from Binkie Muddlefoot of Darkwing Duck fame. She is female, and doesn't look a bit like Brian Callaghan. 

Binkie Muddlefoot

Another possibility was Binky Barnes, a character in Arthur but that can be ruled out as it is spelt with a y at the end.

Binky Barnes

The truth is that it comes from the West End Theatre impresario who brought My Fair Lady and West Side Story to London.

Binkie Beaumont

So, how does the Binkie system work? Well, in Binkie's own words:  "It involves fractions, sixths, and includes the ten as follows: 4⅓, 2⅚, 1⅔, ⅚, ⅓. So aces are up ⅓, kings down ⅙, queens down ⅓, jacks down ⅙ and tens up ⅓. There are still 40 points in the deck to make it easy."

A hand this week at the Woodberry shows that a more accurate hand evaluation would have led to a good game being bid.

Let us look at the East hand first, after a pass by North. It has 14 "Miltons" but we can add ⅔ point for the two aces and ⅔ for the two tens, deduct ⅓ for the queen, and deduct ⅙ for the jack. That makes it 14⅚. A couple of other rules that are worth considering if you want refinement. Deduct ½ for 4-3-3-3 and add ½ for 5-3-3-2. Neither of those apply here. Having a doubleton queen or jack is a disadvantage, about ⅙ down. Finally three honours in the same suit is a bonus, about ⅙ up. The heart combination elevates the East hand to 15 points. After a few attempts you can get the Binkie count in about ten seconds.

I would have opened 1NT on the East hand, 15-17. West would have bid Stayman over that and bid game in no-trumps. The actual auction, 1C-1S-1NT showed 11-14 and now let us look at the number of binkies in the West hand. It has 11 HCP. We can add ⅓ for the ace, and deduct ⅓ for the two kings. So they cancel out. We add ⅓ for the ten and deduct ⅙ for the jack. So 11⅙. Only slightly better than the number of Miltons and at matchpoints one might well take the conservative view and pass. If partner has 11 or 12 points even 2NT might not make. But West was maximum for her pass, and East just about enough for a strong NT. The combination was a missed game.

How should the play go in 1NT (or 3NT) by East? Well on the diamond lead, declarer probably ducks in both hands and wins the second diamond in dummy and plays a heart to the ten. South will win and clear the diamonds. East will win and percentage in clubs is to run the queen but this is covered, and another heart finesse to the jack wins. Now declarer will lead a club to the nine but North wins and declarer is held to nine tricks. Many lines looking through the back of the cards lead to ten or eleven tricks, but not reaching game was a poor score.

Grand Canyon by Foxymoron

 A void in partner's suit makes it very hard to bid a grand slam, and, as a hand on Tuesday last showed, not that easy to bid a small slam.

Robots have no real problem with this hand, as they play what are called "Soloway Jump Shifts" after the US World Champion Paul Soloway who sadly died of a heart attack in 2007. Few know that his uncle was "Bugsy" Siegel, who saved his life in a swimming pool accident when Paul was three.

The BBO Robot plays Soloway Strong Jump Shifts by an unpassed hand in uncontested auctions. A jump shift shows one of the following types of hands:

1. Strong rebiddable suit, 17+ total points, 4+ controls (A=2, K=1), no side 4-card suit
2. Solid suit, 17+ total points, 4+ controls, may have a side 4-card suit
   
3. Rebiddable suit, 18+ HCP, 4+ controls, 5332 or 6322 shape.
4. Rebiddable suit, 17+ total points, 4+ controls, 4-card support for opener's suit.

And in case you forget, the Robot tells you what its bid means. And what your bids mean to it. But I digress.

South should open 1D, with a six-card suit and 11 points. Most responded 1H as North and South would probably rebid 2D. Now, at my table, my partner bid 3H which is non-forcing unfortunately and I put down the dummy. I sensed from the manner and tempo that it was probably intended as forcing, but both of those factors are what is known as "unauthorised information". So I decided to take my medicine, like  the swindler in Aesop's fable who produced fake medicine, and passed.

As North I think I would bid 6H on the second round. It is too difficult to find exactly where partner's values are to bid grand. The two that bid 6NT really were matchpoint maniacs, although they had 12 top tricks. How should the play go in 6H? Well, there are a few lines. Say East leads a passive trump. Now you can go hell for leather for 13, by cashing the three top spades throwing a club. You then cross to the king of clubs, throw a club on the ace of diamonds, cross to the ace of clubs and ruff a club. Return to North with a diamond ruff and claim.

The term "hell for leather" was first used in print in 1889 by Rudyard Kipling, specifically referring to riding a horse at breakneck speed. The leather in this case either refers to the leather in the saddle or the leather in the crop.

That line suffers badly if a top black winner gets ruffed, so the line  I prefer is to cross to the king of spades, play the ace of diamonds and ruff a diamond, cash the ace of spades, ruff the queen of spades, ruff a diamond and run the trumps squeezing West in the minors.

Finally a safe line is to draw trumps cash the king of spades, ace of diamonds and ruff a diamond, then cash the other top spades and trumps. Someone with the QJ of clubs and sole guard of diamonds will be squeezed. 

So three lines. One gung-ho and one belt and braces (or belt and suspenders for our US readers). Goldilocks would regard the third line as "just right", beating those in 6NT.

Mah Nà Mah Nà by Foxymoron

Most people will recognize the title of the blog as a Muppet song. By Piero Umiliani. Indeed it is the song with the fewest different words that has reached the top ten in Britain, peaking at number eight. We aren't taking up too much space giving the full lyrics. And each verse is the same!

Mahna Mahna Do doo be-do-do
Mahna Mahna Do do-do do 
Mahna Mahna Do doo be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do do do-doo do

What has this to do with bridge? Well, a hand on Tuesday intrigued me as only three of the ten pairs reached the normal contract of Four Hearts. Which should have been reached whether playing simple Stayman, puppet Stayman or muppet Stayman:

Nine of the ten pairs played in game, with only the Chairman, Ed Sanders playing with the treasurer, Kevin Robins, reaching slam as one of them was wearing his rose-coloured glasses. Liz and Andy Clery were the beneficiaries of this optimism and the resulting top helped them to a big 66%. 

East invariably opened 2C (or sometimes a Benjy 2D) and rebid 2NT to show a balanced 23-24. Some play that 2C-2D-2H shows either hearts or a balanced 23-24 and this is known as Kokish. Partner relays with 2S and 2NT then shows the balanced 23-24. There are versions with reverse Kokish so that 2H shows 25+ or hearts. Or, as I do with some partners, an opening 2NT can show 23-24 balanced.

After East has shown the strong balanced hand, West should bid some form of Stayman, invariably 3C. Now East will usually bid a 5-card major and bid 3D with one ore more four-card majors. Then West should show four spades, often by bidding 3H, which is the "muppet" element of the convention. East will bid 3NT and now West can complete the description with 4H which East will pass. At our table, we played simple stayman and played in 4H by East, in theory the top spot. Ken Barnett led an eccentric jack of clubs, and your author won and knocked out the ace of hearts. Chantal Girardin won and shifted to a diamond, East won, drew the trumps and finessed the nine of clubs. Now a spade to the ace, was followed by cashing the other high club, crossing to the king of diamonds and discarding a spade on the last club. A spade to South's king forced him to concede a ruff and discard. South had a chance to shine by unblocking the king of spades under the ace to avoid the endplay. Of course the unblock only gains if partner has the queen and ten of spades. And it would lose if declarer had the queen of spades, an unlikely scenario.

There is another interesting line of play which is called an "intra-finesse". I might have led a spade to the nine and if it forced the king or queen, I could potentially pin the doubleton ten on the way back. If South plays the king or queen, you can play him for KT or QT doubleton and this is the right play in isolation in the spade suit.

Twelve Tricks by Foxymoron

The Trojan Horse "Twelve Tricks" was one of the first viruses on the Internet, in 1990, and gets a Wiki page of its own. It changes one word in the boot sector of a computer and this causes chaos. Just as one wrong card in the play or one wrong bid in the auction causes chaos, as we know.

Making twelve tricks on both boards 7 and 8 last week would have been a very good score, as nobody bid the reasonable slam on either.

This was the first and David Schiff played it well, but normally, in 4H on a trump lead. He finessed the diamond and then finessed the queen of clubs. That lost but he could draw the other trumps and set up the long diamonds for twelve tricks and a good score.

Should one reach slam? I wonder. After three passes, East opened a strong NT and West bid Stayman. East responded 2H and now West might bid 3S, either a splinter or a good heart raise. East can ask which with 3NT and West's 4H says it was a splinter (he cues without). East might move on and the reasonable slam would be reached.

The very next board was another potential twelve tricks:

This time West opened 1C, as he was playing a strong NT, and East responded 1H, with which I agree. Majors before minors. West rebid 1NT and this time David Schiff bid 3NT which was not the top spot. He should enquire with 2C or 2D depending on methods. The latter is usually played as game-forcing checkback. West will bid 2H showing three hearts, and now East can bid 2S showing four spades. West will raise to game and East might move on. But the right line of ruffing two clubs in East would make twelve tricks for a very good result.

So, there is no need to bid slam. As long as you make twelve tricks, the Trojan Horse will do the work for you.

Tricky slam

This fascinating hand came up at the Woodberry last night

West opens a weak 2 hearts.  How many spades do you bid as North?  I think 3S (strong jump overcall) is just right but I can understand 4S.  2S seems wrong to me as you do have a very powerful hand which a simple overcall doesn't describe but it might work well if you get another chance later.

At my table the auction went 2H-4S-5H.  Now the obvious action for me at this vulnerability is to double but it seemed likely to me that East would have a running club suit and if someone is void in spades we might not get enough compensation.  Meanwhile if partner has diamond values we could easily be making +510 vs +500 or +980 vs +800 in spades.  I decided to bid 6S which was right in theory but wrong in practice as it takes a precise series of plays to make 6S (which was doubled by East).

After a club lead you ruff, ruff a heart, ruff a club, play the queen of hearts covered and ruffed (only Jx of hearts in East gives you a chance).   Then play a trump to dummy, ten of hearts covered and ruffed and lead a diamond towards the jack.  Now you make if East has KQ(xx) of diamonds as he will have to give a ruff and discard or else lead away from their remaining royal allowing you to score the jack of diamonds.  East ducking is no better of course.  Either way you will not only have an extra trick you will also have an extra dummy entry to cash the winning heart.  

The alternative at the critical moment would be to play ace and a diamond winning if West has a stiff diamond honour but on the bidding I think the first line is indicated.

In practice my partner went one down and some declarers only made 10 tricks in spades which is hard to explain.  Sarah Bell was the only one to make 12 tricks in 5S but that was only slightly above average as others were making 4S and 5S doubled.  Doubling 5H would have been good enough for a joint top.

Quackery by Foxymoron

Quackery is defined as dishonest practice and is frowned upon in bridge. It is perfectly fine to duck with the ace when declarer plays to the king, queen, but not acceptable to feign that you have the ace. So, you have to decide to duck in tempo.

We had a distinctly below-par performance at last week's Woodberry Pairs. I suppose you know the only sport or game in which a below-par performance is good. The other conundrum arising from that is "Which are the only four-letter sports that begins with a T?" The official answers are TEJO, a sport with discs, and TREC, a French equestrian sport, but there is another. I digress. This was the hand which triggered off this blog.

We had an auction which at least complied with the World War II motto "Careless Talk Costs Lives". We bid 2NT-6NT which had the benefit of not tipping off North to the winning club lead and Andy Conway led the seven of hearts. I won and led a diamond at trick two, as that suit will have to be tackled some time, and played the king from dummy. And returning to hand with a top spade I led a second diamond. It is almost symmetrical and I played the queen after a little thought. My reasoning was that some of the time South would have won the first diamond if he had the ace. And Matthew Hendrickson was far too ethical to indulge in quackery by ducking slowly. In theory, the right technical line here is to run the nine of diamonds on the first round, as you pick up AJxx of diamonds with North, but the practical play of leading twice towards the king, queen, is the one I would choose. If North does have AJxx of diamonds, you can still fall back on the club finesse.

And if the queen of diamonds holds, you can show off your knowledge of squeezes by running all the major-suit winners. If North does have four diamonds and the king of clubs, you will emerge with an unexpected overtrick.