A slight extra chance
9.3.25
A hand from BBO. South is in 6C, the lead is QS. Both opponents have bid Spades.
Looks like a good contract. Either the H finesse or the D finesse will roll up twelve tricks. That's a 75% chance. But there is another slight chance which improves on the 75%. Can you see it?
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Stay awake and don't dump your partner 'in it'
A hand from 7.2.25. It illustrates the difference between 'bidding on' to get to a better final contract and 'bidding on' to get to game.
North
♠ J10 93
♥ AK5
♦ Q1084 32
♣
N opened 1D - the hand is worth an opening, adding a couple of points for the length in D. Some might want to open a weak 2D, which is awful - not because the hand is too strong particularly (though it is), but because of the secondary 4-card major. Don't pre-empt if you have an outside 4-card major because you have little chance of finding the major fit if partner also has 4 or even 5 cards in the major. So, a 1D opening and South responded 1H. N now showed his spades with 1S. Novices might be tempted to bid 2D but, to reinforce the point: the first rule of bridge club is 'keep looking for major fits'. The second rule of bridge club is, of course, 'keep looking for major fits' and the third rule ... well, you get the message ...
South now bid 2NT. So, we've had 1D-1H-1S-2NT. What are N's options? Try not to scroll down until you've decided ....
Pass -- awful. Your hand is simply not suitable for NT in any way. If you pass, your partner will have a strong sense that he was dumped into 2NT because you were scared to bid.
3H -- awful as it happens. A return to partner's major after a previous NT bid is forcing. This can only show 3-card support because if N had 4xH he would have raised H immediately (did I say what the fourth rule of bridge club was?). And it must be forcing because if South only has 4xH, he will have to go back to 3NT in any case (I never said 'look for 4-3 major fits'). But with a 3H bid here, N at least tries to help his partner out.
3D -- the only swinger in town. A return to your own suit after a 2NT bid is sign-off.
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Innocuous but Fascinating. A triple missed, a strip declined
A hand from 4.2.25. The contract was an apparently uninspiring 3D (by N) but in fact, it turned out a number of complex problems at the end of the hand.
♠ K3
♥ A1052
♦ KQJ83
♣ Q6
♠ Q98 ♠ J754
♥ Q7 ♥ KJ643
♦ A92 ♦ 107
♣ J10873 ♣ K5
♠ A1062
♥ 98
♦ 654
♣ A942
E made the best lead of 10D, which was allowed to run to N's KD. N was now looking at 8 tricks. A ninth would come from a H ruff in Dummy, but surely, when N tried to clear the Hs, the defence would continue AD and another to get rid of all of Dummy's trumps. There was some chance of the ruff, however, and so N led a low H, taken by E, who continued another D. Surprisingly, this was allowed to run to N's QD. Nine tricks were now secured. N played off AH and then a third H which was ruffed in dummy and overuffed by W's AD. W continued with 9S and N saw no advantage in allowing this to run to dummy, as he could not ruff down the top S's and get back to Dummy to enjoy 10S. So N took it with the KS in hand and proceeded to play off AS and ruff a third round, attempting to set up the strip squeeze against E. N expected E to be 3523. As the cards lie, E must find 2 discards on Ns remaining Diamonds. One H can be thrown but for the second discard, E cannot discard any suit without giving away a trick to N. E decided to throw his last H, which was unfortunately, the worst discard he could make as he was now open to another squeeze on 10H, conceding another trick and eleven tricks was the score N should have achieved. Sadly, N had taken his eye of the ball and didn't notice that all the Hs were now gone. He was still cogitating whether he could throw E in with the 'final' H, forcing E to underlead KC. He eventually decided against that and simply took AC, conceding the final two tricks. Nine tricks scored. Three-suit squeezes don't often come up and N was depressed until he saw that his final score for the evening was 71% ... for which he took full credit though, to be fair, his partner had also illuminated the table.
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Diamonds are blocked.
♠ Q109 Vul NS
♥ 5432 Dealer N
♦ AKQ
♣ AKQ
♠ 5 ♠ 8764
♥ QJ10 ♥ A9876
♦ 7632 ♦ 54
♣ J10765 ♣ 98
♠ AKJ32
♥ K
♦ J1098
♣ 432
N E S W
1♣ pass 2♥ pass
2♠ pass 3♠ pass
4♣ pass 4♥ pass
6♠ all pass
Alerts were: - 1♣ 16+ any distribution.
2♥ transfer to spades.
4♣ Gerber
4♥ Roman 1 or 4 aces
West led the queen of hearts. Count and plan indicate enough tricks, but the diamonds are blocked.
East won with ace and returned the seven of hearts. I would look silly if an unlikely over-ruff occurred, so I ruffed with the ace. I drew two rounds of trumps with the nine and ten. This revealed a 4 1 split.
I could draw trump but considered the blocked diamonds. I cashed two rounds of diamonds, all followed. Then back to trumps. On my last trump I ditched the blocking diamond.
Slam made.
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Suicide Squeeze
Interesting hand from 21.5.24 ... how is E to make 4NT on a small C lead?
With the KC knocked out, it looks like any time E loses the lead, he will also have to give away another 3xC tricks, limiting him to 9 tricks. However, as the cards lie, E can make 10 tricks by immediately giving up a club and hoping the defenders cash their 3xC. When S cashes his third club trick (the 4th club played), N is under pressure. He can avoid giving anything away for the moment by throwing a D but when E cashes 3xD, N will have to find 2 discards, which he cannot safely do.
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Lessons on Six Week Rolling Basis -- next lesson Feb. 24th 2025
If anyone seriously wants tuition, let me know. Also, please pass on the opportunity for lessons to anyone outside the club who may be interested
Peter -- 0777 124 1015
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