Monday afternoon June 25, 2007

Lead J of clubs.

This slam wasn't bid by any of our NS teams today. Two EWs made a nice sacrifice (non-vulnerable vs vulnerable), down two. Seven clubs down four is a great sacrifice for -800, but not today since no NS found the slam. As North I'd use the Rule of 20 and open 1S (not 1H). East should interfere, making South's 3H not the accurate description of the hand. An expert might cuebid 4C to show a powerful hand. Alas, we are novice and intermediate players--but we have fun! The two Easts that got in the way bid 5C over North's 4H preventing any ace-asking. (sound of chicken cluck-cluck in the background). The interference itself should trigger a slam response from South. The play is routine, only losing the 13th trick.

Monday afternoon June 25, 2007

Lead: six of hearts.

What would YOU do with West's hand? Do a 2C-2D, 2S-3S, 4NT-5C, 6S sequence? What if partner passed something along the way? This is a Star Trek situation; boldly go where no one has gone before. Go ahead, open with 6S. What the heck. The remaining points have to be someplace. If the J or 10 of hearts was led instead of the six, or the singleton jack of diamonds, the contract would have been defeated because West can't swizzle the hearts. But, bridge does have some luck in it. All other leads other than the 8-6-3 of hearts defeat the contract. Way to go.

Wednesday morning June 27, 2007

Lead: jack of spades.

Two teams stopped at 3D, two stopped at 5D. You asked how to get to slam. South needs to jump on the second round to indicate a big hand. With three support trumps, an outside ace and a really nice outside suit, North should upgrade her hand significantly. We all know that long suits have more value than standard point count. There is no lead that puts this contract (or 6C) into jeopardy. Also, EW's sacrifice of 6H or 6S is a good one; down four doubled and not vulnerable, 800 points. In this case, since no team bid slam, the Good Sacrifice would net a bottom board!

Wednesday morning June 27, 2007

Lead: Ace of clubs.

Playing against a tough unnamed team, Jerrie pulled in seven tricks. One spade makes NS. One heart goes down 2 EW, and 3 clubs doubled by South went down 800. The A-K-Q of clubs were led, followed by a spade, the ace taking the jack. A spade followed, finessing the 10, followed by a heart finesse; three hearts, three spades and a diamond. Thank you very much.

Wednesday morning June 27, 2007

Lead: ace of spades.

South needs to escalate the spade preempt with an equally-weak hand. This is Marty Bergen's Law of Total Tricks in action. Against vulnerable opponents holding 13 points max, the opposition has game someplace, maybe even slam since the suits are skewed so. NS goes down two doubled for 300 while EW can make 6D all day long, losing only a spade--if it's led; if not, the hand makes 7D. You asked for bidding sense. There is none. This is a leap of faith; is the 4S bid by the opponents a fake-out or semi-legit? The only available bid is 6D.

Thursday night June 28, 2007

Lead: 8 of diamonds

I had it in my brain to come back with 2NT over our step-bidding response of 2S, a bid that means 9-12 HCP and says nothing about spades; 0-4 without an ace is 2D, 5-8 is 2H, 9-12 is 2S, opening hand is 2NT. But, instead I replied 3H. Linda rebid her 6-card suit. I didn't really need to go to 5NT but I wanted time to think about running spades and 7NT.

The lead was actually the 8 of diamonds, which given all the possible leads I could have expected, this was close to the worst. A nice low spade lead would be good, or a comfortable club. The play was harder than I expected, although at 7NT what do you want? North discarded a heart on my spade conundrum. I fretted and fretted over the spade break, FORGETTING TO COUNT TRICKS. There was no way to pick up the spades, no way to get back to the board. It all came down to hearts; three spades, five hearts, three diamonds and two clubs; 13 tricks.

Thursday evening June 28, 2007

Lead: seven of spades.

Momma always said a 1NT hand over a 1NT hand equals 6NT. That said, the proper way to bid this hand is for North to make a stop at 4NT and ask South if she would like to play 6NT. In this case 4NT would not be Blackwood, but instead is called a quantitative bid; "NT is where we should play, I have a balanced NT opening hand, do you want to stop here or play for slam?"

The proper bid would have been PASS after a 4NT quantitative bid because South only has a minimum hand, as does her partner. The slam should go down. Instead of the killer lead of the spade queen, South received the standard fourth-from-her-longest-and-strongest, the 7 of spades. This allowed South to skate a winner with the 9, which turned out to be the 12th trick.

Thursday evening June 29, 2007

Lead: 6 of diamonds.

If there is such a thing as a bad 8-card suit, East has it; but reckless by nature, the bidding rocketed to slam. Resigned to down 1 after discovering partner had both red aces instead of the ace of trumps, the eight of spades was led from the board and allowed to ride around to South, who took the ace. With no second chance at leading a trump from the board, East's next play was to drop the spade king, felling North's poor queen. Sometimes bold moves are rewarded by Lady Luck, other times The Bold get what they deserve, down 1.

Friday evening June 29, 2007

Lead: seven of diamonds.

Not one of the teams this evening attempted slam, all settling for the comfort of four hearts. A spade lead from East makes North feel uncomfortable, but he didn't get it; giving declarer plenty of time to establish the hearts to go along with his five diamond tricks and the outside aces.

Friday evening June 29, 2007

Lead: 2 of hearts.

Sometimes you just can't figure a way. I think this is one of those hands. It's a laydown 7 regardless of the lead; but the QJ fall and the Q of clubs falls. I don't think it's biddable.