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.

Christmas Conundrums

A couple of conundrums for Christmas. First a question I was asked was why snowmen always appear in Arsenal colours. Well, one obvious answer is that if they had Spurs colours, the white scarf would not contrast with the snow. On the other hand, the red of the Arsenal scarf is typical of Christmas. The holly berries and the robin are both red after all.

A colleague suggested that another reason is that Arsenal look good at Christmas but have melted away by the spring ... Whatever the reason, red and white does seem to be the snowman's traditional garb. And, while I remember, what is the word for a fear of chimneys?

Another conundrum was the following puzzle, which I gave to some on Christmas cards. You reach 6H after a poor auction. But the play's the thing. What is the only layout which allows you to make?

As some will have not seen it yet, I will wait until the 1st January to give the solution. It remains to wish all blog readers a Happy New Year.

And, as promised, the solution. The layout has to be exactly as follows:

West leads the jack of diamonds against 6H. You must cover with the king. East wins and returns a diamond (there is nothing better). South must win and draws trumps in three rounds, ending in dummy. Now he cashes the ace of clubs, then the queen and jack, and leads the remaining two hearts. West is squeezed in spades and diamonds. You need West to have exactly JT98 of diamonds so that the seven is a threat against him. You need East to have the stiff jack of spades for the squeeze to operate. If he has a singleton king you cannot make it.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, SANTACLAUSTROPHOBIA is the fear of chimneys.

Combinations by Foxymoron

One of the most valuable books in my bridge collection is one I reviewed for International Popular Bridge Monthly in 1999. It is long out of print and is on sale on Amazon at $300. It is the Dictionary of Suit Combinations and is inscribed: "To my friend Tony Sowter. Signed Jean Marc Roudinescu". When I reviewed it, Anne Catchpole correctly described my article, which listed the 30 or so mistakes I had found, as the most boring article she had ever read."

I quickly reached again for my copy when a very interesting suit combination occurred last week at the Woodberry, as I certainly did not know the right line.  Most Easts played in Three Spades as did Anne Catchpole, and her (presumed) failure to buy and read the above title did not matter as she played the right percentage line. The defence started with three rounds of diamonds and dummy ruffed. Now the two possible lines are to cross to the ace of hearts and lead a spade to the queen, or to play a spade to the ace and then a second spade. The Dictionary showed me that, for four trump tricks, the former line is 71.22% and the latter, which Anne chose, is 71.78%. On this occasion virtue had to be its own reward as she had to lose two trump tricks and scored an average, whereas the first line would have succeeded.

If you do play a spade towards the queen, when South plays the ten and North the king, you should finesse the nine on the second round, because with JT doubleton South might have played the other honour. And there is another issue that cashing the ace might lose three trump tricks, so the 100% safety play of low to the nine of spades can be considered. The Dictionary gives the best play for maximum tricks as low to the queen, as you can avoid three losers when South shows out, but you are in trouble if spades are 4-0 so I think the line chosen is right.

I was also surprised when I checked the origin of the phrase "Virtue is its own reward" which stems from Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), orator and lawyer, believed government corruption would lead to the downfall of the Roman Republic