Free Clue With Every Defense

I was playing in a teaching session last night. I did ok, for the most part, though being dummy twice in mundane 3NT auctions helps.

I did make one noteworthy oversight.

Opponents bid 1D-1S-2D-all pass. After my opening lead (ten of clubs), I see dummy holding:
Qxxxxx
x
QT
xxxx

From what I remember, I held something like:
xxxx
AKJx
643
T9

Declarer overtook partner's queen, then led the king of spades, which partner won with the ace. Partner cashed the queen of clubs, then led a club for me to ruff.

I'm embarrassed to say that I cashed my ace of hearts, and I think exited with a spade.

What a great opportunity to think. First of all, 11 clubs have been played, so I'm not getting another club ruff. Second of all, and even more importantly, declarer isn't drawing trumps. Why?

With long spades and short hearts on the board, it really looks like a cross ruff, doesn't it? Even better, I know that if declarer has hearts, they're bad. So declarer very likely wants to ruff hearts on the board.

Having ruffed the third club, I should have exited a diamond. As it turned out, this would have defeated the contract.

Dummy was a huge clue to the proper defense, but alas I wasn't listening.

The Little Details

Having been urged to bid slowly with a big hand, I faced the following:
P 1H P ?
holding:
AJ432
6
AK7
KQ92

Ergo, I opted for 1S. The bidding came out as follows:
P 1H P 1S
X 2S P 4S
P P P

After the bidding, it occurred to me that partner had at most 4 minor suit cards. Maybe slam was decent, despite partner's concentration of values.

Dummy came down:

KQ97
AKJT2
T
864

The diamond 6 was led, taken in hand. I dropped the ace of trump, and LHO showed out.

Ok, now I'm glad I'm not in slam.

I opted for the ruffing finesse in hearts. 7 of diamonds ruffed, ace king of hearts, throwing a club. Then I ran the jack of hearts, overtaken by LHO, who returned the ace of clubs. Making 4S+1, for +2.1 IMPs.

5 hands bid 6S, and 1 bide 6NT. Only 2 slams made. Curious, I looked at the 6S=.

Rather than taking the ruffing finesse, declarer ruffed out two rounds of hearts, setting up the 13th heart on which to throw a second club. The way it turned out, declarer only lost the ace of clubs, and did not lose a trump trick at all. (Hearts were 4-3, and whatever RHO does on the 4th round of hearts, 12 come home, I think)

While pondering the two different lines of play, I noticed one small clue that pointed to the second line as being superior - LHO's double. I had completely forgotten it while playing the hand, but it does tend to hint that the high cards are on declarer's left.

Little details like an overcall or double along the way can be important. I need to be alert for them.

Should Have Known Better

It's always frustrating when you see the trap as you're just stepping into it. Sadly, I was thinking to myself "does it matter how I play this?" right before the answer occurred to me.



Holding:

KQ864

T

K43

K875



The bidding goes:

W N E S

================

1C P 1H 1S

2C 3S 5C P

P P

--------



Aside: I was very close on the 1 spade overcall. What convinced me was the thought of west bidding 4 hearts on his next bid. Clearly, this was a happier result.



Partner led the jack of spades. Dummy shows:



953

AKQ7

AQ86

J6



I ducked (what does the 4 mean here?) to the ace. Declarer crossed to the ace of hearts, and played two clubs through me, partner showing out on the second round. Declarer cashed the ace of clubs, then played a heart to the king.



What do do?



The king of clubs is good now or later, and I can always exit a spade, right?



Ok, so I threw the 6 of spades on the heart king, and the 8 of spades on the heart queen.



Declarer also threw a spade on the queen of hearts. Oops.



Spade back to my king, ruffed by declarer. Declarer now exited with a club. I cashed my queen of spades, to which declarer threw a diamond. The position is now:



Dummy:

-

7

AQ

-



Me:

-

-

K43

-



...and my diamond trick is now gone. I have been endplayed.



Much better is to ruff the heart, cash my king of spades, and exit a spade. Now, I can't be endplayed in diamonds.



I was asking myself the right question, and I was even thinking to myself that I needed to hold a spade to avoid getting endplayed. Alas, I didn't think it through well enough, and got burned. 5C making, lose 9 IMPs.

Unblock

Playing in a beginner/intermediate tournament, my pickup partner wanted to play odd/even discards.

LHO open a strong 2S in 3rd position, and raises 2NT to 3NT.

I hold
S QJ82
H QT4
D 865
C KJ5

From the bidding, I liked a heart lead, but decided leading from KJx was safer than from QTx. Declarer won the ten, ran the queen (covered) to the ace, and returned a club to my jack, partner discarding the 7 of hearts. From odd/even discards, I knew partner liked hearts.

With Ax hearts on the board, I led a low heart to partner's king. Partner returned a heart...and I dropped the ball.

Fortunately, partner had 2 entries in diamonds, and we were able to set the contract anyways. Still, I saw that I might need to unblock (discarding the queen of hearts under dummy's ace), and I just couldn't decide whether or not it was the right play.

It's encouraging, I guess, that I saw the play, but I need to start sharpening up my analysis, and actually making these plays.

Control Bids are Tricky

Playing with GiB (BBO) last night, I held this hand:

S AK9
H K2
D 42
C AKQJ74

I opened 1 club. Partner bid 1 diamond. I opted for 3 clubs, which partner raised to 4.

Rightly or wrongly, I decided to make a slam try. I bid 4 spades, and partner bid 5C.

Partner came down with:

S 75
H J854
D AK943
C T2

Slam is 50% on the finesse of the ace of hearts. Granted, partner only having 2 spades helps immensely, but I can't help but feel that this is a slam I want to be in.

I started to wonder if I shouldn't have control bid hearts, but based on some feedback I don't think that this is correct. My 4 spade bid says that:
- I'm interested in slam
- I have spades stopped.

With partner's AK of diamonds, he should know that my diamonds were wide open. However, logically, can my hearts also be wide open? If I was really xx in both reds, would I even be considering slam?

In the end, I don't know if my 4 spade bid was right or wrong. I don't even know if GiB's 5 club bid was right or wrong. The lesson to be learned, I think, is that north should be able to infer at least a partial heart stop in south's hand based on his diamond holding.

I can only hope that I take the time to think this deeply when my partners control bid. Clearly, there's some reasoning and thought involved in the process.

Post One

I started playing bridge at the age of 6, watching my parents and godparents play at the dining room table. I cut my teeth on Goren and Scheinwold - 4 card majors, rubber bridge, and relaxed, social games.

It wasn't until my late 20s that I tried duplicate. I played weekly for about a year and a half before life got busy, and I had to drop out. The highlight, for sure, was the flight C pairs at NABCs.

Now, I'm in my 30s, and I still love nothing more than to sit down and play some rubber bridge. There's a part of me, though, that wants to improve at this game. Someday, I'd like to be very good at this game.

Hopefully, this blog will record some of my follies and lessons learned.