Monday afternoon April 16, 2007

The Employee should have subtracted points for his ratty spades and taken a more cautious approach. Everyone else stopped at four, but NOooooo, The Employee had to barge right to slam. Club out and back, strip the diamonds, draw the trump, then hope the king-jack is in South's hands and that she falls asleep. Down one.

Monday afternoon April 16, 2007

I would have bid 3H with North's hand all day long, favorable vulnerability and a short suit. But, in this case it was a bad day at the office for North. The ace of clubs lead says "don't lead the king!" after seeing the board. This is a defensive point to remember. You have the side suit covered. How is declarer going to pitch all those clubs? Answer: she can't. Hold onto the king of clubs. If declarer has to come to you, you'll be ready with the K to take a trick. DON'T LEAD THE KING!

East is obviously stuck for a lead, so she leads a low diamond from the ace. Two more diamond tricks for the defense. Declarer finally gets in and finesses the queen--losing to the singleton king! Like I said, bad day at the office. North ends up having to play spades badly Down two doubled. Thank goodness a bridge hand only takes seven minutes!

Monday afternoon April 16, 2007

This didn't happen at a bridge table either. With a queen of spades lead, what would you do? Ten of clubs to the ace; back comes the last spade, ruffed medium high. Spades are gone from dummy. Draw the last trump, play the ace of diamonds and exit with a diamond, East taking North's 10 with the queen. South has no spades, no diamonds. If East tries to cash the big diamond, it's ruffed by declarer, over to the board with a heart; sluffs the third heart on the good jack of diamonds and claims. A spade lead causes South to finesse for the heart queen, still a winner.

Monday afternoon April 16, 2007

This was one where we went back to Momma Says. Eighteen plus 12-15 equals? Just do it. It's a game. It takes seven minutes. Then we get to play another game! What fun. The play was routine after a heart lead to declarer's queen. Six spades, two hearts, two clubs and three diamonds. The other teams ended up in 4S making 7, six spades down 2, and 5NT making 7.

Monday afternoon April 16, 2007

Oh...my...God. In the middle of this bidding Employee went was called to a five-minute hoo-ha at another table over a revoke; who had what cards, etc. No excuse. The proper bidding in minor suits is to bid clubs when you hold 3-3, however Employee should have known the diamond suit could be short. Regardless, North was in a pleasure zone during the play. Down five, not doubled--a good no double because West would have switched to 5C, which was only down two. It was a VERY long 7 minutes. Next hand, please!

Monday afternoon April 16, 2007

The four heart bid shows a limit raise or better in spades, agreeing on spades as the trump suit plus a control in hearts; five clubs shows the club ace, five spades denies the diamond ace. Because of the lack of jacks, tens and nines, 6S seems like a good stopping point. Other teams bid 4s making 6. One bold team went to 6NT, down 3 on a club lead.

Thursday morning April 19, 2007

With a neutral club lead from East, North scampers home with 6, losing only the ace of trump. After trumping the losing spades, all of his diamonds are sluffed on the good clubs after trumps are drawn. However, one pair ended up in 6C. West's obvious lead is the ace of hearts followed by a heart. There's no way to get around the K of diamonds, down 1.

Thursday morning April 19, 2007

Five hearts doubled and making 5 is 850, an unusual score. The opening lead was the king of spades, declined by East. This was followed by the ten of spades, ace taking the queen. A small spade was then played to the 10 of trump, followed routinely by knocking out the ace of trumps and a claim of the rest with the wonderful diamond suit. Note that four spades has a shot at making, assuming a heart lead, followed by a heart trump on the board and a low spade back to the 10; but most likely goes down 1 for a good score. Five clubs is also a good bid over four hearts, also only down one.

Thursday morning April 19, 2007

In bridge as in the rest of life, it never hurts to get lucky. If you're West holding a balanced hand and 12 HCP, 2NT is legit. Aggressive bidding oft-times pays off; that old opening-hand-over an opening-hand-equals-game saying. But, once the jack of hearts floats around to West's queen, it's a case of where's the queen of clubs. Spades present nothing to develop. Run the four diamonds then cross your--WAIT A MINUTE THE QUEEN FELL! The sound you hear is West scampering home with nine tricks and a top board.

Thursday evening 49er game April 19, 2007

This didn't actually happen; although it should have. Three NT made 6; 4 hearts made 5/6. The problem is in the bidding. 3NT is such a comfortable place to stop. West should jump to 3H first to show points (15-18) and a five-card suit. With her own 16 points, East is alerted to slam. With no suit identified as trump, East should take partner's 4 diamonds as a second suit; ie most if not all of her points are in hearts and diamonds. With the black aces in hand, East should have a mental picture of ten tricks plus the black aces; which is exactly the way it worked out, or should have worked out.

Thursday evening 49er game April 19, 2007

This was a discussion hand at our table. What should West open? Our recommendation was a forcing bid of 2C. While HCP aren't there (22+), an indeterminate number of points can be added because of the void in spades. Two teams ended up in diamonds, not at game; one at 4 hearts making 7. We teach 2D "waiting" unless partner has 8 points. If you wish to play 2H as a bust, peace be with you. It's OK. We think it clutters up the "2" space and over-thinks the hand. That's why we play steps; 2D = 0-4 (no ace), 2H = 5-8, 2S = 9-12, 2NT = 13+. For us, steps work. It defines the point range at the 2 level, which we feel is very important.

Friday night April 20, 2007 (potluck pigout)

Everything worked out OK, but what if South has the Ace of clubs instead of the Ace of diamonds? As the cards lay, it doesn't matter because that would give declarer the AKQ of clubs to sluff his spades onto. An elegant way to get there is 1H-2NT, 5H-5S. This is a slam-asking bid. Partner bids 5S to show the ace of spades. Now declarer can at least have a thought about 7H. Partner's 2NT is going to fill a lot of holes. With no controls, partner can pass 5H. With a club control, bid 6C. Declarer opts for a small slam and may have to work for it.

Friday evening April 20, 2007

I just had to show a 9-card hand in real life. No one had the .... to open 6H, or even bid slam. A five-heart opener would be passed by West because of zero controls. With the contract doubled, I'd mark South with the points and finesse through the jack, which WINS!

Friday evening April 20, 2007

I'm not going to speculate on some of this; it's too weird. In addition to 4H making once, it also went down once and made 3 once (it's actual destiny). THE OTHER WAY it MAKES 3NT and 5D by East. Ain't bridge great? With East playing diamonds and doomed to lose a heart, a diamond and a club, some genie magical pixie dust must have dropped on the table. Oh, the jack of spades was led. NS never got into the game. East has time to knock out the trump king, then develop spade winners. No one leads the jack from jack-queen, thus North has the queen. Well done East. Now, about that 3NT...Well, after a queen of hearts lead to the king, East has no choice but to finesse the diamond--failing. Fearing a major run in hearts, instead of returning partner's lead, declarer gets a club return. Yah-hoo, Mountain Dew. Five diamonds, two spades, a heart and a club.

Friday evening April 20, 2007

Do you hear the music in the background? Can't you hear it? Quiet now. It's the eek-eek music when someone's going to get killed in the Halloween Part N movies. An AQsix is not something to fall in love with. This hand should have been played LAST Friday, the 13th! Three diamonds down 4 twice, down three twice, three clubs east down 1, two clubs by east down 3, and finally two hearts by north (where did he come with that?) down 2. All in all, A HORROR SHOW!

Saturday morning April 21, 2007

No team actually bid this hand; everyone ended up in 4NT making 4 or 4H making 6. Once hearts is established as the suit, South should probe to see if there is slam interest. Instead of shutting out a 4H bid, South should bid 4C indicating a control in clubs. North then communicates interest by cuebidding 4D. South has the option of allowing North to be completely in charge by bidding 4S, showing a control in spades. In any case, 6H is a good contract. The K of spades is captured by the ace. South knows to save the diamonds for last. First find out where our loser is going to be; most likely in hearts. Ruff a spade, lose the heart finesse, win the club return overtaking East's King. Ruff a spade, draw trump, then run 6 diamonds; ending up with six diamonds, a spade, four hearts and a club. Nicely done. Sorry, nobody did it.

Saturday morning April 21, 2007

The question after our game was how does this slam get bid? I've tried to show a cuebid response above that gets the team to slam. When does the team agree on a trump suit? After round three of the bidding. It's either diamonds or some unnamed No Trump. West cues the ace of hearts, East cues the ace of Clubs, West cues the ace of Spades. East is the one to place the final contract of 6D. This is a 30-point slam that is cold.

Saturday morning April 21, 2007

Which five-card major would YOU lead away from as West? Regardless, declarer takes a king (hearts or spades), runs the clubs, then gets lucky with the diamonds. Case closed. Other bidders are in 3D making 4, 5C down 1 and 2D making 4. When floundering with minors, don't forget to end up in No Trump.