02.04.13 Board 20

V North ♠ A 10 7 ♥ J 9 7 2 ♦ 10 9 ♣ Q J 6 4
D V West ♠ Q J 6 5 ♥ K 10 4 ♦ A J 7 4 2 ♣ 5	Board20	V East ♠ K 9 8 4 2 ♥ 8 3 ♦ K 6 ♣ K 9 7 2
	V South ♠ 3 ♥ A Q 6 5 ♦ Q 8 5 3 ♣ A 10 8 3	8 9 11 12

I am writing about this hand to illustrate a principle about opening fourth in hand.

I suspect that most players West players would open one diamond as dealer. However, at our table, there were three passes to South. I passed the hand out because my singleton was in spades. At most tables, East played in 2S making with overtricks due to the fortunate lie of the cards. So we achieved a good pairs score.

The point I wish to make is that, where the points are equally shared between the two partnerships, the side with a spade fit will usually win the contract. Therefore, if you do not have spades, you need a good hand to open in 4th position. 

A good rule of thumb is the "rule of 15". You should open in 4th position only if your high card points plus your number of spades equals 15. The extra "spade points" are sometimes known as "Pearson points".

05.03.13 Board 3

Should you make a passive or an attacking opening lead?
Often a passive lead is better in pairs scoring, because an attacking lead could give away a vital overtrick - not so important in teams where your priority is to defeat the contract. But there are exceptions.

NV North ♠ 5 3 ♥ K J 8 6 ♦ 9 7 5 ♣ K 7 3 2
V West ♠ K Q J 10 9 7 ♥ 9 7 2 ♦ Q J ♣ Q 10	Board3	V East ♠ A 8 4 ♥ A 10 4 ♦ K 8 4 3 2 ♣ J 8
	D NV South ♠ 6 2 ♥ Q 5 3 ♦ A 10 6 ♣ A 9 6 5 4

On this board, South dealt and N-S passed throughout. The bidding was 1S-2D-2S-4S.
North can tell that the diamonds are likely to break, and the bidding suggests that West may have losers to discard on the long diamonds.
So it is important to cash your winners before declarer can establish his suit.
The North players who found a heart lead (or cashed their club winners first) were rewarded; and those who made a "safe" lead of a diamond or a trump were punished.

29.01.13 Board 5

The law of total tricks

This is from the cross imps session last Tuesday,

If you don't use this law much maybe this hand will persuade you of it's importance.

The law tells you that normally both sides can make a total number of tricks which add up to the total number of cards in their best suits . So here it's a total of 21 tricks based on spades and clubs. Its not exact but always a good guide.  So here north south should compete to at least 5 spades and east west to at least 4 clubs.  But east west are green so they should be the most aggressive especially east when partner bids clubs.

At our table the bidding went 2 spades pass 4 spades 5 clubs pass pass 5 spades passed out.

North south have bid to their  "level of fit" based on their number of trumps. East west should know this given the vulnerability. They should not allow north south to play  there. East west have a known fit and should bid 6 clubs probably passed out and making. Allowing opponents to play at their level of fit is usually bad.  Here if 5 spades makes they go off 2 in 6 clubs. If 5 spades goes down 2 then 6 clubs should make. So LTT takes any guessing away.


Hand 5 date: 29. 01 13                          

                          North
                         ♠ K Q J 10 7 2
                         ♥ J 10 7
                         ♦ 6 3
                         ♣ 7 4


West                                                  East
♠ 9 5.                                               ♠ -
♥ Q.                                                 ♥ A 8 6 2
♦ A K 8 5                                         ♦ Q 9 7 4 2
♣ K Q J 10 8 2                                  ♣ 9 6 5 3



                              South
                             ♠ A 8 6 4 3
                             ♥ K 9 5 4 3
                             ♦ J  10
                             ♣ A


Dealer:      North
Vul:            NS

12.02.13 Board 24

You have done well to reach 6NT by South on this board.
West leads the KS and you plan the hand before touching the dummy.

rth ♠ A 7 5 4 ♥ J 7 ♦ K Q 10 7 6 ♣ A Q
D NV West ♠ K Q J 6 3 ♥ 10 9 4 3 ♦ 9 5 ♣ 9 4	Board24	NV East ♠ 9 2 ♥ Q 8 6 ♦ J 8 4 3 ♣ 7 5 3 2
	NV South ♠ 10 8 ♥ A K 5 2 ♦ A 2 ♣ K J 10 8 6	16 3 6 15

You see that you have 11 top tricks, and, if the JD drops, you can make all 13.
But you realise that most pairs will not have reached 6NT, so you must maximise your chances of making the contract.
You have potential threats in three suits, so you prepare for a squeeze by ducking the opening lead. This is the key play to make your contract. It is known as "rectifying the count".

You win the spade continuation, cash the Ace and Queen of clubs, cross to hand with AD, and cash the clubs.

This is the position before the last club is led:

N: ♠ 7  ♥ J  ♦ K Q 10 7       E: ♥ Q 8 6  ♦ J 8 4        S: ♥ A K 5 2   ♦ 2  ♣  6      W: ♠ J   ♥ 10 9 4 3  ♦ 9 

On your last club, West discards a heart, you throw a diamond from dummy, and East must discard a heart in order to keep his diamond guard.

You then cross to the KD and cash QD.
Now West has a problem. He must keep JS, so he discards another heart. 

You return to hand with a heart, and make the last three tricks with AK5 of hearts.

Well played!

Note: If you win the opening lead, East will be able to keep his hearts and the squeeze will not work.

29.01.13 Board 12

Sometimes life can be very unjust.

You reach the excellent contract of 6S by East on this board.
South leads a club which you win with the ace, discarding a heart.
The next task is to draw trumps.
You don't know who has the queen, and, if they split 3-2, it is an even money guess.
But what if they split 4-1? The best hope seems to be to cash the ace then run the 10. This will be successful any time north has 4, or if North has the singleton queen. Overall this line avoids a trump loser 51% of the time.
In this case you will be unlucky as South wins trick 3 with the queen, returns a club which you ruff and draw the last trump.

The contract now depends on avoiding a diamond loser.
Again, if the diamonds split 3-2 you have an even money guess. So you consider the options if they split 4-1.  You could lead the King and then run the Jack. This will be successful if South has either the singleton queen or nine, or if North has the singleton queen - 3 of 10 possible arrangements of a 4-1 split. So you lead the 2 from the East hand finessing the 10. If the finesse is successful you will return to hand to repeat the finesse. This will succeed if South has Qxxx - 4 of the possible 10 combinations. Overall this line has a 45% chance of avoiding a diamond loser.
 - but in this case you will be unlucky again!!

Overall, the probability of success in this contract is about 73% - so you should certainly be there.

Before anyone else points it out, you already know that South has 3 spades and North has 2. This means that North has more chance of having a long diamond suit. This information slightly alters the probabilities, and may make the alternative line better. I will leave the calculations to others.

The basic probabilities of breaks in suits of various lengths may be found in Wikipedia under "bridge probabilities".

V North ♠ 8 5 ♥ J 8 7 5 ♦ Q 9 6 ♣ K J 7 2
D NV West ♠ A 10 9 ♥ A 10 4 2 ♦ K J 10 ♣ A 10 9	Board12	NV East ♠ K J 7 4 2 ♥ K 9 3 ♦ A 8 5 4 2 ♣ -
	V South ♠ Q 6 3 ♥ Q 6 ♦ 7 3 ♣ Q 8 6 5 4 3	7 11 16 6

26.01.13 Board 3

Congratulations to Winnie and Nigel on winning the Club Championship Pairs on Saturday; and a big thank you to Anne, Winnie and Nigel for organising the event.

Only one EW pair reached the par contract of 6S on this board.
Can anybody suggest a good bidding sequence?

Sorry, but I still haven't found how to stop the North hand shifting to the left.

NV North ♠ K 2 ♥ Q J 10 8 7 ♦ 10 6 3 ♣ 8 7 4
V West ♠ A 10 8 7 5 4 ♥ - ♦ A J 7 4 ♣ 9 5 2	Board3	V East ♠ Q J ♥ K 9 4 ♦ K Q 8 5 ♣ A K Q 6
	D NV South ♠ 9 6 3 ♥ A 6 5 3 2 ♦ 9 2 ♣ J 10 3	6 20 9 5