The Grosvenor Gambit by Foxymoron

The American expert Philip Grosvenor met an untimely and unexplained death in Florida in 1968. He made a habit of deliberately letting contracts make only for his opponent to go off anyway as they could not believe he would defend this way. His aim was to annoy the opponents who would play badly on the next hand as a result. This was the original hand on which he earned his infamy, courtesy of The Bridge World in 1973.

West led the ace of clubs against Six Hearts and continued the suit. Now declarer played the top spades and ruffed the third spade in dummy with the jack. East discarded a diamond on this trick. Naturally enough declarer cashed the two top hearts and was dismayed and angry that East had the queen! An excellent Grosvenor which was always going to work.

I inadvertently tried a Grosvenor Gambit on a hand at the Woodberry this week.

East opened 1NT, 12-14, and West bid Stayman and then bid 2NT over East's response of 2H. This was invitational without four spades and East continued with 3NT. South led the five of diamonds to my king and East's ace. Nothing was lost by ducking and that would have been my choice, but East won.

Now declarer led a spade and finessed the queen and I ducked smoothly. 

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly". Any break in tempo would give the game away.

I did not know whether partner had both diamond honours but ducking could hardly cost. My aim was not to irritate the declarer, Martin Lerner, but to know more about the hand when I did win. I suppose it was a Grosvenor Gambit in that declarer now had nine tricks. But, as expected, declarer returned to hand, with the ace of clubs, to repeat the spade finesse. I now knew declarer had five club tricks. I still did not know if he had the jack or queen of diamonds, but my partner had to have one of them for his fourth best lead, so I played back a diamond and we cashed out for two off. Martin recovered from the dagger and went on to win the event and is still speaking to me. Well done to Martin Lerner and Fabien Dunlop on their excellent result.

The Gambler by Foxymoron

One of my and Stefanie's favourite songs is The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, and was our first choice for the annual Karaoke in Pula. I was reminded of a few lines of this song by a hand at the Woodberry this week.

He said, "Son, I've made a life

Out of readin' people's faces

Knowin' what the cards were

By the way they held their eyes

So if you don't mind my sayin'

I can see you're out of aces

For a taste of your whiskey

I'll give you some advice"

If I was South on this hand I would certainly have responded after the opening lead, "So if you don't mind my sayin', I can see you're out of aces".

At one table, West opened a gambling 3NT showing a solid minor with little outside. That would have been my choice too, despite the queen and king outside. as  you only have three major suit cards. Everyone passed and North led the ten of hearts, an interior sequence. This was wrong against a gambling 3NT, and the general advice is to lead an ace, or, if you don't have one, the highest card in your hand. Here I would lead the ace of hearts, after which the switch to the ace of spades is easy to find and the defence takes the first seven tricks. Instead declarer made all 13 when South pitched a club at some stage, but even 11 would have been a top.

Several Wests played in 4D, the defence to which is quite tough. Say North leads the ace of spades and his partner encourages. Now if North plays a second spade and South wins and plays the jack of spades, West has to discard the king of hearts to avoid the immediate trump promotion. Now South can play a fourth spade and a trump is promoted.

An alternative defence is to cash the ace of hearts before playing a second spade, but that would be fatal if West is void. Then South can play a third spade to promote a trump trick. 

Chalk and Cheese by Foxymoron

Some years ago there was a bridge match between the Naturalists and the Scientists. The former were not allowed to use any conventions while the latter could use any system they wanted. The latter triumphed by a small margin. I think that conventions are fine with a regular partner but one should avoid them with a pick-up partner or when acting as a host.

Trying to mix conventions with natural bidding does not really work. If a bid is used conventionally it cannot also be used naturally. The two methods are like chalk and cheese. Rubber bridge players stand by natural methods with penalty doubles in many situations that tournament players treat as takeout.

"Like chalk and cheese", meaning incompatible or dissimilar, predates bridge by a long time. It was first used, I believe, in 1390 by John Gower in his text Confessio Amantis:

Lo, how thei feignen chalk for chese,

For though thei speke and teche wel,

Thei don hemself therof no del:

For if the wolf come in the weie,

Her gostly Staf is thanne aweie

I adopted the natural approach when playing as a host this week at the club.

Playing a relatively simple system, I responded 3NT to South's opening bid of 1H, showing 13-14 balanced. I foolishly thought that the opponent would have to find a blind lead. Unfortunately for me East led a small diamond (I would have chosen a spade) and I only made nine tricks instead of the twelve I could have made on any other lead. I could have made ten but that would have involved looking through the back of the cards.

The winners, Ken Rolph and Stefanie Rohan, bid 1H-2C-2H-4H. Stefanie thought 2H probably showed six, Ken thought it showed only five and 2S would have shown reversing values. I would have chosen 3NT on my second turn as North but there is no arguing with success. With all the suits behaving, twelve tricks in hearts were relatively easy and this turned out to be a complete top, with almost everyone in 3NT!

Playing 2 over 1, one might bid 1H-2C-2S, which does not show extras. Now North might ask for shape with 2NT and South bids 3C, showing three. North's 4H completes the auction of the scientists. But that would be like chalk and cheese compared with the auctions of the rest of the Woodberry.

The Count by Foxymoron

Those of us who watched Sesame Street in the seventies will know The Count, or Count von Count to give him his full title. 

He is Romanian, by birth, and first appeared in the programme in 1972. Many bridge players stand by The Count, and the most common method of giving count is to play high showing an even number of cards in a suit and low to show an odd number of cards.

However, there is another count in bridge. It is the number of tricks remaining to be played, one of which is a loser, and is most relevant in squeezes. Terms like a "squeeze without the count", and "rectifying the count", are known to bridge players. For a simple squeeze, one has an ending with all but one of the remaining cards being winners and a defender holding guards in more than one suit. The Count's erstwhile girlfriend, Count von Backwards, is an expert on squeezes as she counts backwards anyway. She quickly works out how many cards will be left in the ending. A hand from yesterday's duplicate:

Our opponents had the simple auction 1D-6D, which had the virtue of giving plenty of time to get a coffee after the hand, as declarer just ruffed a club in dummy. I think I would have started with 1D-2D, inverted and forcing. Now North might bid 3C and South would bid 3S, showing spade cards and 6D would probably be reached, not 6NT. I was surprised nobody was in the failing 7D.

6D was an average, but more ambitious souls reached 6NT. If East leads a passive spade, then declarer can "rectify the count" by ducking a club at some point. In the three-card ending, West will have sole guard of clubs and hearts and will be squeezed.

A heart lead prevents this line, as West will cash his heart if you duck a club. You now need to play a squeeze without the count, cashing the diamonds and two spades to reach this position.

It is important that South has an entry outside clubs at this point. Now you cross to the ace of spades and West is squeezed. If he pitches a club you make an unexpected overtrick. He must therefore pitch the six of hearts and now you duck a heart to West and make the last three tricks. A squeeze without the count.