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.

Creating Extra Chances

Dealer:  South Vul: All	Michael ♠A62 ♥A9753 ♦86 ♣QJ3
Harry ♠KT4 ♥QT2 ♦942 ♣T985		Annie ♠J73 ♥86 ♦AKT75 ♣742
	William ♠Q985 ♥KJ4 ♦QJ3 ♣AK6

South	West	North	East
William	Harry	Michael	Annie
1NT	Pass	2♦	Double
2♥	Pass	4♥	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♦ 9

I played this hand at a recent club game.  As you can see, there is no legitimate way to make 4♥, but I could have given myself more chances than I did.

First, a note on the bidding.  Michael and I had discussed that my completion of the transfer showed 3+ hearts.  However, what do the follow-up bids mean?  If Annie hadn't doubled, a Jacoby transfer followed by a jump to game would show mild slam interest (otherwise, just he would just transfer at the 4-level).  Now that the situation has changed, the jump to game is just that.  There is no need to bid 3NT before 4♥ since he knows there is a fit.  A 3♦ bid would now show the slam interest.

On the play, Harry dutifully led a diamond, Annie cashed the top two diamonds, and then thought for a while about what to do next.  I was also thinking about what to do and saw that if she led a spade, I would need to pitch my second losing spade on the ♦Q immediately to avoid losing 2 spades.  Since I had a spade to lose regardless, I needed to play hearts for no losers; the simplest way was to find Annie with the queen.

After a long deliberation, Annie led a club.  Not thinking about the tempo advantage gained from this, I went ahead with my plan.  I cashed the ♦Q, pitching a spade, led a heart to the ace, and finessed the ♥J on the way back.  It lost, and I lost the ♠K as well for down 1.

So what could I do?  I'm always going to lose the protected, offside ♥Q and the ♠K in addition to the two top diamonds, right? On this hand, sure, but in general, the cards are not always poorly placed.  I should have thought about what the club lead at trick 3 meant.  Why didn't Annie lead a spade as I expected her to?  Maybe she didn't want to lead away from her ♠K.  If that was the case, I could have tried for a swindle.  If I let the club run around to the board and lead a low spade, she may now expect that I have the AK of clubs and play her partner for the ♠Q, ducking the low spade lead.  Suddenly my spade loser disappears.

I have a tough time looking past the "real" chances for a contract to see where I might induce mistakes from my opponents.

Implicit Length Showing

Dealer:  South Vul: N-S	Betty ♠Q ♥KQT63 ♦J832 ♣JT9
William ♠A4 ♥J9752 ♦T ♣A8762		Michael ♠JT852 ♥84 ♦75 ♣KQ54
	User123 ♠K9763 ♥A ♦AKQ964 ♣3

South	West	North	East
User123	William	Betty	Michael
1♦	2NT	Pass	3♣
3♠	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♣ A

Playing on BBO, William and I were playing against a partnership that didn’t know each other. We set their 3♠ contract, but why were they playing spades instead of diamonds?

First, some background for those of you not familiar with BBO. It’s a great place to play bridge online, either with people you know, or with random people. However, if you are playing with a random partner, it is easy to end up on a different page from your partner as to what bids mean.

Put yourself in Betty's shoes. You hold:

♠Q  ♥KQT63  ♦J832  ♣JT9

What do you think your partner has after the bidding has started as follows?

1♦  (2NT)  P  (3♣)
3♠   (P)   ?

The only thing you know about your partner's 1♦ is that it could be short, but otherwise, your partner is playing Standard American. Betty's reasoning was that since partner didn't rebid diamonds, his diamonds must be short. Therefore she couldn't risk going to 4♦. Do you agree with her?

Let's think about what User123 has. First, could he have only 4 spades? It seems odd to compete to the 3 level with only a 4 card suit, but I suppose it is possible. If south only has 4 spades, diamonds is clearly a better fit than spades, so Betty should correct to diamonds even if User123's diamonds are short.

It is more likely that User123 has at least 5 spades, in which case playing in spades isn’t horrible. Except… if User123 has 5+ spades, why didn’t he open spades? Why would he open 1♦ with a 5 card major? The only reason is because south’s diamonds are even better than his spades. If this is the case, clearly diamonds is a better contract than spades.

So yes, Betty was correct that south didn’t explicitly promise longer diamonds, but had she thought through what partner could have to bid the way he did, she would have rebid the diamonds. This would have prevented a bad board for them (and the online recriminations that came afterwards in the chat window).

This Convention Is Simple

Ever have a partner try to get you to learn a new convention by telling you, “It’s easy. All you have to know is…”? Let me tell you, System Happy Stella is lying to you! If you are Stella, you either have a better memory than most, or, more likely, you haven’t thought through all the ramifications.

“Simple” Conventions

Let’s briefly look at some “simple” conventions that you are probably familiar with.

Takeout Double

What could be simpler? You’ve got the other 3 suits. But are you sure you are on the same page as your partner. Could you have a side doubleton? What does it show if you bid a new suit after doubling? What does NOT doubling mean? What does it mean if your partner bids 1NT? 2NT? Jumps a level? Jumps 2 levels? Bids the opponent’s suit? Is it still a takeout double if the opponents opened at the 3 level? What about the 4 level? What about 4♠?

Are you confident your regular partner(s) would give the same answers to all those questions as you do? What about that pick-up partner you are playing with tomorrow?

Stayman

This has to be simple, right? Maybe. Are you allowed to pass your partner’s response? What does it mean to rebid a new suit over partner's response? What if you jump in a new suit? What if you bid 4NT? What if the opponents double the 2♣ bid? What if the opponents bid a new suit?

Blackwood

This is the first convention a lot of people learn, because it is fun and so simple. Just count your aces. What about voids, what do you do with them? What do you do if the opponents interfere over the 4NT ask?  And are you always sure that you know when 4NT is asking for aces vs. invitational vs. a place to play? Based on a recent article in the ACBL Bridge Bulletin, not even experts are in agreement to that last question, so it isn’t as easy as it looks.

Our Story

This came up because William and I recently came across a convention that we both thought would be helpful, easy to remember, and not take away any already useful bids: “XYZ”. The real short version is that if your side has made 3 bids at the 1 level, with neither of you passing (e.g. 1x - 1y; 1z - ?), 2♣ and 2♦ as the fourth bid are now artificial. 2♣ shows an invitational hand and 2♦ shows a game forcing hand.

What could be simpler?

I won’t bore you with all the questions and complications we had, but the questions I raised for the above conventions should give you an idea. William and I started exchanging emails asking about different scenarios, and proposing meanings. Each proposal brought up more questions and each email was longer than the last. We tried asking almighty Google for guidance, but different sites contradicted each other and just raised more questions. Pretty soon we were both ready to throw in the towel.

Except it really looks useful.

That is the siren’s song of new conventions. Wouldn’t it be useful to be able to do <x>? What the Stella’s of the world don’t see is the possible confusions that the convention could add and the places where you get a horrible result because you and your partner were on different pages as to what a bid meant.

What we eventually decided to do was to add XYZ to our system, but as simply as possible. It’s not on in competition. All non-XYZ bids (i.e. not 2♣ or 2♦) mean what they used to mean (except they're not forcing). I’m not suggesting this as a good treatment. As a matter of fact, I think it is less than ideal, but it has the advantage that it is simple enough that we are likely to not get confused. As we get more comfortable with it and see how it comes up in real games, we’ll try adding in the subtleties that will make it more powerful. Or maybe we’ll drop it because we hate it.

The important fact is that William and I have discussed many permutations and have some hope that we’ll be on the same page when the convention comes up.

A Simple Hold-Up

Dealer:  North Vul: N-S	Betty ♠96 ♥A85 ♦A9 ♣AQT953
Charlie ♠Q74 ♥KQJ763 ♦Q83 ♣8		Irene ♠T85 ♥T4 ♦T652 ♣K642
	William ♠AKJ32 ♥92 ♦KJ74 ♣J7

South	West	North	East
William	Charlie	Betty	Irene
		1♣	Pass
1♠	Pass	2♣	Pass
3NT	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♥ K

Drats!  Charlie found the correct red suit to lead.  I had hoped that by bidding straight to 3NT, I might keep him in the dark on what to lead.

On the initial survey of the hand, I saw just 6 top tricks, so I needed to promote some tricks. There were finessing possibilities in every suit; if they all won, I could get 6 clubs, 3 or 4 diamonds, a heart, and 3 or more spades. I could get all the tricks! However, I also considered what would happen if any of my myriad finesses might fail.  If the spade or diamond finesses lost, Charlie would gain the lead and would undoubtedly lead more hearts.  If the club finesse lost, Irene would be on lead and would also lead another heart...unless she didn’t have any more to lead.

To attempt to keep Irene from leading hearts, I played low to Charlie's first two heart leads.  On the third, I was gratified to learn that my patience had paid off when I saw Irene discard a low diamond. This meant Charlie had started 6 hearts (a little unexpected, given their quality, that he hadn't bid them), enough that he could set my 3NT contract were he allowed to take them. I won the ♥A and crossed to my hand in spades, not taking the finesse.  I led the ♣J, and it ran into Irene's king.  Success! Irene, depleted of hearts, led back a spade, but my king won, and I was able to claim the remaining tricks. Seeing that Charlie had started with both the ♦Q and the ♠Q made the hold-up all the more important.

Sometimes you're unlucky enough to have 3 of 3 finesses offside (about a 12% chance). However, sometimes careful planning and the willingness to lose tricks early can overcome that bad luck.

Look For Extra Chances

Dealer:  South Vul: None	Betty ♠AQ862 ♥743 ♦32 ♣A75
Freddie ♠KJ953 ♥J95 ♦JT964 ♣-		Charlie ♠7 ♥KQT62 ♦Q875 ♣T93
	Annie ♠T4 ♥A8 ♦AK ♣KQJ8642

South	West	North	East
Annie	Freddie	Betty	Charlie
1♣	Double	1♠	Pass
3♣	Double	4♣	Pass
6♣	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♠ 5

I kibitzed this hand in a recent casual game. While there are a number of things that could be discussed here, I want to discuss how Annie played the hand. Put yourself in her shoes. How would you play this hand in 6♣, given the lead of the ♠5?

She played it the way a lot of players I've seen would have played it. After thinking about the opening lead for a little bit she said, "Well, let's find out right away if we make." She played the ♠Q. When the finesse worked, she breathed a sigh of relief, drew trump, and claimed all the tricks except for the ♥8, which she conceded.

But what if the finesse had failed? What if Charlie had had the ♠K? She probably would have chalked it up to bad luck and moved on. However, there are ways that she can make, even if Charlie has the ♠K. I'm not sure this is the best way, but here is a simple way Annie could have improved her odds.

At trick 1 she could have played low from dummy and played the ♠10 from her hand. If Charlie had had the ♠K, that would have been ok. After drawing trump, Annie could throw away her heart loser on Betty's good ♠A and ♠Q. What if Charlie had had the ♠J, rather than the king? It looks like Annie would now be losing a trick she didn't need to. This is true, but Annie could still finesse the ♠Q later and, when it works, use the ♠A to throw away her ♥8. It's only when Charlie had both the ♠K and ♠J that Annie gets set.  That is, by playing this way she would have had two ways to make rather than one.

And, as the cards lie, Annie would have been doubly rewarded. Her ♠10 would win, and then she could still finesse the ♠Q, thereby winning 3 spade tricks and using the extra spade to throw away her heart loser. Then she would have won all 13 tricks for an overtrick.

The moral of the story, if you can find it: it is better try a play that gives you multiple chances.

Too Focused

Dealer:  South Vul: E-W	Michael ♠KQ932 ♥J73 ♦J85 ♣52
Molly ♠J76 ♥KQ2 ♦KT4 ♣QT76		Eddie ♠8 ♥865 ♦9632 ♣AJ984
	William ♠AT54 ♥AT94 ♦AQ7 ♣K3

South	West	North	East
William	Molly	Michael	Eddie
1NT	Pass	2♥	Pass
3♠1	Pass	4♠	All Pass

3♠¹ = Super-accept

Opening Lead: ♣ 6

At the 2015 Charlottesville regional, I ended up in 4♠ on this hand.

Clearly there’s a club to lose, so my goal was to avoid losing 3 red-suit tricks. If the diamond finesse is onside, this is no problem, but if not, then I had to pick up hearts for just one loser. I knew that missing heart honors being split would help me accomplish that, so I set my sights on that line. After Eddie won the opening club, I won his club continuation and drew trump, ending on the board. I ran the ♥J, and Molly won the king. She sighed and thought for a bit before continuing with another club, which gave me the chance for a ruff and sluff. As I had put my faith in the second heart finesse, I ruffed the club in dummy (pitching a diamond in hand) and finessed the ♥10. Molly won again and exited with her last heart. This gave me a fourth heart trick, but I still had 2 diamonds in each hand, so I was forced to take the diamond finesse after all. It lost, and I was down.
After the hand, my partner, Michael, pointed out that the ♥9 gave me a 100% percent play on the third club lead. If I pitch a diamond from dummy instead of my hand, I can play the ♥10, losing to the queen no matter where it is, but the 9 is promoted to a winner for my other diamond loser in dummy.
I had gotten so caught up in my original line of counting on the heart honors to split, that I didn’t consider the additional option presented to me by the ruff and sluff. While changing strategies for no reason is usually a losing proposition, changing because of new information can often be the winning play.

Don't Freeze

Dealer:  South Vul: E-W	Charlie ♠T42 ♥A8743 ♦AQ32 ♣4
Michael ♠J73 ♥J95 ♦J765 ♣Q63		William ♠8 ♥KQT6 ♦K984 ♣AKT2
	Freddie ♠AKQ965 ♥2 ♦T ♣J9875

South	West	North	East
Freddie	Michael	Charlie	William
2♠	Pass	Pass	Double
Redouble	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♠ 3

William and I were playing at the 2015 Charlottesville Regional when we came to Free-Wheeling Freddie and Cautious Charlie’s table and I was dealt this uninspiring hand:

♠J73 ♥J95 ♦J765 ♣Q63

Freddie dealt and opened 2 spades. I passed, Charlie passed, and then William made the bid I dreaded: double. But before I had to bid Freddie made an unexpected redouble! William and I have never discussed how to handle this situation. What should I do?

What would you do?

What I did do was make the same mistake that I’ve seen lots of bridge players make over the years when faced with an unusual situation - I passed without considering the consequences. Charlie passed again, so what do you think William did? His takeout double already told me that he wants me to bid a suit other than spades and I chose not to. Therefore he concluded that I must want to defend against 2 spades, so he passed. The opponents proceeded to make 4 spades for a score of 1040 and a bottom result for us.

When Freddie made the unusual bid of redouble, I needed to do more than just focus on how awful my hand was. I needed to think about what partner was going to do. Had I done that I would’ve bid us to 3 diamonds. This would’ve gotten set, but would’ve been a good result since at most of the other tables north-south bid their making game of 4 spades.

Welcome to Bumblepuppy Bridge

Welcome to our blog. We are Michael Haddox-Schatz and William VanDyke, two software developers who are trying to become better bridge players. Since teaching is a great way of learning, we thought it'd be useful to create a blog sharing our experiences. As for the name of this blog, well...

Bumblepuppy - a game of whist played carelessly or contrary to rules and conventions. (Dictionary.com)

In his book, "Bumblepuppy Days: The Evolution from Whist to Bridge", Julian Laderman tells the story of how whist evolved into the game of bridge as we know it. Somewhere along the way, the delightful term "bumblepuppy" was lost. We think this word still has a place in modern bridge.

A lot of writers focus on amazing plays, but knowing that a world class player needed a moment of inspiration to find the right line makes finding that line feel a little unreachable. Since more than 50% of ACBL members are non-life masters we assume we are not alone in that feeling.

This blog will focus on bumblepuppy bridge. Every hand in this blog is a real hand played by real players. The plays made (or more often, missed) on these pages are plays that an average bridge player is capable of making, given concentration. We've rotated the hands for presentation and change the names to protect the innocent (guilty?), but otherwise these are all actual hands as they were played by actual players.

This is our story. We hope you enjoy these tales, and please comment with any questions, complaints, or suggestions you may have.