Plan Your Discards

Dealer:  East Vul: E-W	Charlie ♠Q53 ♥Q6 ♦J42 ♣QJ532
Eddie ♠8762 ♥AKJ854 ♦76 ♣4		Michael ♠JT9 ♥92 ♦T985 ♣AK98
	Irene ♠AK4 ♥T73 ♦AKQ3 ♣T76

South	West	North	East
Irene	Eddie	Charlie	Michael
			Pass
1NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♥ K

This hand came up in a lunchtime game. I want you to put yourself in Irene's shoes.

Dealer:  East Vul: E-W	Charlie ♠Q53 ♥Q6 ♦J42 ♣QJ532
Eddie ?		Michael ?
	Irene ♠AK4 ♥T73 ♦AKQ3 ♣T76

Eddie starts out by cashing his hearts from the top. When he plays the ♥J, east shows out. It's a good idea to count when this happens. Dummy started with 2 hearts, east started with 2, and Irene started with 3, so that means Eddie started with 6. It is clear that Eddie is going to run the hearts, meaning Irene is going to have to find a lot of discards.

What would you discard if you were Irene? What would be left in your hand (and dummy's hand) when Eddie finally runs out of hearts?

You are going to be left with 7 cards. You would like to keep cards that can win 7 tricks if Eddie doesn't switch to a club. But you also want to keep enough clubs to keep E/W from getting a bunch of club tricks if Eddie does lead a club.

Here is a possible last 7 cards she could have discarded down to:

Dealer:  East Vul: E-W	Charlie ♠Q5 ♥ ♦J4 ♣QJ5
Eddie ?		Michael ?
	Irene ♠AK4 ♥ ♦AKQ3 ♣

With this holding, if Eddie leads a spade or diamond, you'll take the last 7 tricks and make your contract. Even if Eddie leads a club, they won't be able to take more than 2 club tricks. As long as you play a low club if Eddie leads a high one, or play a high club if Eddie leads a low one, you'll have a club stopper.

Unfortunately, at the table, Irene was too afraid of clubs and she kept two clubs in her hand. This meant when Eddie led a spade, Irene was only able to take 5 tricks, and still had to lose two clubs.

Figuring all this out is easier if you plan you discards all at once (when you see what the split is), rather than deciding one trick at a time. So plan ahead, and remember that it is often good enough to keep stoppers in just one of your hands.

Planning Ahead

Dealer:  East Vul: N-S	Annie ♠A ♥KT64 ♦AKT973 ♣A5
Leah ♠Q86 ♥AJ985 ♦Q85 ♣82		Michael ♠T54 ♥Q72 ♦6 ♣QJ9643
	Betty ♠KJ9732 ♥3 ♦J42 ♣KT7

South	West	North	East
Betty	Leah	Annie	Michael
			Pass
2♠	Pass	4♠	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♣ 8

At a local club game, Leah and I had this hand come up. This is a pretty average hands. The 4♠ contract is straightforward to make. Betty has to lose a spade and a heart. The only question is, will Betty lose a diamond?

Betty won the initial club lead in her hand and then led a heart up to the board, won by Leah's ace. Leah led a 2nd club, won by dummy's ace. Betty then cashed the ♠A, and then the ♥K, pitching her club loser. She then ruffed a heart, played two more trumps (losing the 2nd to the queen), and then trumped the heart return. Now all she has left was a trump and 3 diamonds. Should she play for the ♦Q to drop by playing the AK or should she finesse?

The rule of thumb is "8 ever, 9 never" meaning with a 9 card fit you should play for the drop, not the finesse. Betty led the ♦J. What should Leah do? Despite the rule of "cover an honor with an honor", seeing the ♦T in dummy makes it clear that playing the queen won't help. More importantly, Leah had foreseen that Betty was going to lead diamonds at some point and she had decided ahead of time that she was going to play low. As such, she was able to "duck smoothly". When Leah didn't hesitate, Betty saw no reason to finesse and so played the ♦AK. Betty still made her contract, but this kept her from getting an overtrick and a top score.

What happens if Leah hadn't planned ahead? Well now Leah would have taken time to think about whether to play the ♦Q. Betty would have seen that and might have decided to finesse.

As a defender it is sometimes obvious that a suit will be led eventually. If you can, think about what you are going to do early in the hand, so that when the time comes you can play smoothly and not give anything away.

Finesses Aren't the Only Option

Dealer:  South Vul: All	Molly ♠Q ♥J63 ♦AJ8753 ♣A65
Kathleen ♠97652 ♥KT ♦T4 ♣T843		Michael ♠JT83 ♥842 ♦Q62 ♣QJ2
	Eddie ♠AK4 ♥AQ975 ♦K9 ♣K97

South	West	North	East
Eddie	Kathleen	Molly	Michael
1♥	Pass	2♦	Pass
3NT	Pass	4♥	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♠ 5

Playing with a friend, Kathleen, at a local club we had this hand come up. Put yourself in Eddie's shoes. How many tricks do you think you would win?

The heart finesse loses, and it looks like you have a club loser. So it should make 5♥. There's nothing you can do about the heart loser, but can you get rid of the club? Here's how Eddie tried.

After winning the opening spade in dummy, he took the heart finesse. He won the club return in hand, drew trump, and then played the ♦K and then finessed the ♦J. This was a pretty good plan. If the finesse worked, he could use the ♦A to throw away his club loser. If the finesse failed, well, he loses a diamond he didn't need to but can still throw away a club on the ♦A to make 5. Unfortunately for Eddie the diamond finesse failed, and he only made 5.

Could he have done better?

He has an 8 card ♦ fit. When you have an 8 card fit, the outstanding cards will split 3-2 approximately 68% of the time. This is a higher percentage than the 50% odds that a finesse gives you. Eddie should have played the ♦K and the ♦A and then ruffed a diamond. If diamonds split 3-2, dummy's long diamonds are now good, and he can use dummy's ♣A to get over to them.

Setting up a long suit seems to be less obvious than a finesse. No one else at the club made 6 either. However, finesses are only 50-50 propositions. It never hurts to see if there is a different option that is more likely to work first.

Second Hand Low

Dealer:  West Vul: E-W	Kathleen ♠KQT843 ♥AKT3 ♦4 ♣T7
Irene ♠976 ♥J9852 ♦KQ93 ♣K		Freddie ♠J5 ♥Q4 ♦8762 ♣A9432
	Michael ♠A2 ♥76 ♦AJT5 ♣QJ865

South	West	North	East
Michael	Irene	Kathleen	Freddie
	Pass	1♠	Pass
2♣	Pass	2♥	Pass
3NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♥ 5

Playing with a friend, Kathleen, at a local club we had this hand come up. When dummy came down I figured I had 9 tricks if spades split - 6 spades, 2 hearts, and a diamond. But there's no immediate danger so I might as well try for some overtricks. Clubs look like a possible candidate, so after winning the initial ♥ in dummy, I led the ♣T at trick 2. Freddie thought for a little while and then played his ace. I don't know why he didn't follow the rule of "2^nd hand low" but it really cost him this time.

As you can see, Irene had to play her singleton ♣K under her partner's ace. Not only that, but now I knew Freddie had the ♣9, so I could finesse clubs and get my ♣8 good. I ended up getting 6 spades, 2 hearts, a diamond, and 3 clubs, to make 6. Needless to say, this was a very good result for us.

Moral of the story - play 2^nd hand low unless you have a good reason not to. (or you are playing against me. I'm always happy to accept gifts.  :-) )

How Could You Double With Only 3 Points?!?

Dealer:  South Vul: N-S	Michael ♠865 ♥J872 ♦J753 ♣J6
Charlie ♠932 ♥653 ♦KQ86 ♣KT3		Betty ♠A7 ♥K9 ♦T94 ♣A98754
	William ♠KQJT4 ♥AQT4 ♦A2 ♣Q2

South	West	North	East
William	Charlie	Michael	Betty
1♣1	Pass	1♦2	2♣
Pass	Pass	Double	Pass
2♠	All Pass

1♣¹ = 16+ Points
1♦² = 0-7 Points

Opening Lead: ♣ K

At a local club game, William and I had this hand come up. The title of the post comes from the comment Betty made when I put down the dummy, "How could you double with only 3 points?!?!"

First, some background. We are trying to learn Precision and so were trying it out at the club. In Precision, all strong hands are opened 1♣. The idea is that you know the approximate point range of the partnership, and therefore if you belong in game or not, right away. However, a disadvantage is that a strong hand doesn't get to show its suit until the second round of bidding. The opponents can take advantage of that by interfering.

Since we are new to Precision, we haven't had much experience with competitive auctions. While this isn't a rare situation, it is new for us. We hadn't discussed what bids meant after a fourth seat overcall.  Put yourself in my shoes. William opened 1♣, showing 16+ points, and I responded 1♦, showing 0-7 points. Betty then overcalled 2♣ and it passed around to me. What would you do with:

♠865 ♥J872 ♦J753 ♣J6

Do you agree with Betty? Was I crazy to double with only 3 points?

My thinking was, defending 2♣ won't be a good score for us. William has strength, and I have support for all the other suits, so making a double should be safe even though I'm broke. Plus there is a slim chance that William has a good clubs suit and wanted to double 2♣  for penalty, but couldn't double directly because it would be takeout.

It's really easy to be "point-blinded". i.e. just pass because you have a weak hand or keep bidding because you are strong. Shape can make up for a lot of points. Especially at low levels, you should be willing to compete when you think you have a fit (and slow down when you don't)

Of course, there were a lot of other questionable decisions on this hand. Should William have bid directly over the 2♣ bid? Should Charlie have raised Betty? And why did Charlie lead the ♣K?!? This cost them a trick when Betty was convinced Charlie was short in clubs and tried to give him a ruff. The net result was a very good board for us.

Don't Lead Unsupported Aces!

Dealer:  West Vul: N/S	Michael ♠AJ53 ♥5 ♦AQ32 ♣T652
Eddie ♠84 ♥A8632 ♦JT7 ♣J84		Molly ♠K9 ♥T94 ♦K965 ♣KQ97
	Leah ♠QT762 ♥KQJ7 ♦84 ♣A3

South	West	North	East
Leah	Eddie	Michael	Molly
	Pass	Pass	Pass
1♠	2♥	4♥1	Pass
4♠	All Pass

4♥¹ = Splinter

Opening Lead: ♥ A

Playing with Leah in a recent STaC, we played in 4♠ with this hand. Despite the fact that I didn't think my hand was strong enough to open, I thought it was strong enough to force to game when Leah opened 1♠. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to pull out a convention Leah and I recently agreed to play, a splinter bid.

Unfortunately Leah's points were mostly in hearts, making my singleton heart not very valuable. Luckily we were playing against Eager Eddie. Eddie led his ♥A, hoping I had one. I guess he was worried that if he didn't take his ace now, my singleton might go away.

I can't tell you how many doomed contracts I've made because the opponents led an unsupported high card for me. This hand was no different. If Eddie leads anything other than a heart, Leah will eventually lose 4 tricks and get set. But by leading the ace Eddie made Leah's KQJ of hearts good. She was able to use these hearts to discard 3 clubs from dummy, allowing her to ruff her ♣3, and make the contract.

Look what happens if Eddie never leads hearts. He can save his ♥A to take Leah's ♥K (or Q or J). Now she only has 2 good hearts and that isn't enough to get rid of either of dummy's minor suits.

Why do people like Eddie like to cash their aces early?

I think this is a psychological issue. People remember when they didn't take their ace and then never got it good. What they don't recognize is all of the times they led their ace prematurely and gave up tricks because of it. Make declarer work to knock out your aces, don't give gifts!

Congratulations to Unit 109

One of my favorite local bridge traditions is the annual Challenge Match between Units 109, 110, and 146 (Richmond, the Peninsula, and Tidewater, VA). Every year, these 3 units send a group of teams from different flights (this year it was 10 teams), and they play against each other in team matches. The unit whose teams do the best takes home the trophy.

At the very top level bridge players represent countries in world championships. There's no reason not to do this at smaller scales too. I find that it adds a level of fun and camaraderie in something that we often forget is just a game.

Like the past few years, William and I had the honor of being on one of the teams for our Unit (110). Unfortunately, like we seem to do in a lot of events, we started slow, including bidding to two unmakeable slams due to miscommunication.  After lunch we came back strong, winning 3 of our last 4 matches. This was aided by two (makeable) slams that we bid that were missed at the other table. Though we won only 3 out of 6 matches, we did win by slightly larger margins than we lost by to earn 67 out of 120 victory points.

Anyway, for the 2nd year in a row, the Richmond Unit (109) pulled out the victory and so, kept the trophy. I should have taken a picture of it to post here - sorry, I still need to work on my blogging skills.

And just so this isn't a completely bridge free post, here is one of the auctions where we got to an unmakeable slam.

Michael ♠AKQT5                         ♥AQJ7 ♦AK ♣T5 William ♠J843 ♥K43 ♦8752 ♣J7

West East Michael William 1♣ 1♦ 2♠ 3♠ 4♦ 4♥ 6♠

William and I are trying out Precision. 1♣ shows a strong hand, 1♦ shows a weak hand, and the 2♠ shows a very strong hand with spades. (i.e. a strong 2 type hand). 3♠ shows 4-card spades support and the 4♦ and 4♥ are cue bids showing controls.

We showed controls in diamonds and hearts. What about clubs? This was the problem. The opponents won the first two tricks with the ♣A and ♣K, setting us a trick. Cue bidding is supposed to prevent this problem. I thought I had denied a clubs control when I cue bid 4♦. Therefore, I assumed that when William bid 4♥ he was implying a club control, too. (otherwise he would have just bid 4♠). Obviously William had a different thought.

Which of us was right? Well, there is no universal answer. It comes down to how you cue bid. Do you only show first round controls? Do you show shortness in addition to aces and/or kings? Different partnerships do it differently. What is important is to make sure you are on the same page as your partner.

We had a second chance to see if we were on the same page later in the day with this auction.

Michael ♠QT5 ♥KQJT5                         ♦KJT ♣AK William ♠K2 ♥A843 ♦A852 ♣973

West East Michael William 1♦ 2♥ 3♥ 4♣ 4♦ 4NT 5♥ 6♥

The 2♥ bid was a strong jump shift showing 18 or more points. Again we got into a cue bidding auction where 4♣ and 4♦ were cue bids. So what about spades? During a break we had discussed what went wrong on the first slam and we didn't make the same mistake again. This time William had a spades control (the suit I implicitly denied by bidding 4♣ rather than 3♠). The opponents led a diamond, giving me a free finesse, so I only lost the ♠A.  Yeah, maybe we were a little lucky, but at least we were on the same page.