1. Always ask what the opponents discards are.
2. When there's only one way to make the contract, do NOT let opponents discards change your plan.
That is all.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
How to Read Your Opponent's Cards
I simply can't say enough good things about this book.
One of my big falling down points as declarer was marginal hands - hands with lots of high cards out against me, and few controls.
This book gave me a methodology and approach, both to part score contracts and thin games, as declarer. It certainly won't apply to every hand out there, but the good habits picked up while working through the book can only help me going forward.
Now, I just need to play a bunch of hands, to reinforce good habits.
Next to be read, I think, is Thurston's 2/1 book. Time to stop "winging it".
One of my big falling down points as declarer was marginal hands - hands with lots of high cards out against me, and few controls.
This book gave me a methodology and approach, both to part score contracts and thin games, as declarer. It certainly won't apply to every hand out there, but the good habits picked up while working through the book can only help me going forward.
Now, I just need to play a bunch of hands, to reinforce good habits.
Next to be read, I think, is Thurston's 2/1 book. Time to stop "winging it".
Three From Saturday
I was back playing in the Saturday night IAC teams match. I was with a new partner who joined the team in January. We managed to eek out a 3 point win in a high scoring affair, 39-36, over 12 boards. Overall, I was generally pleased with our pair's play.
Hand 1:
The bidding caused partner some alarm, as she felt that she was competing, and not encouraging me. I could have let it hang at 1 heart, but felt that I might still have game on the cards. It turns out that 4 hearts had no play, off the AK of clubs, A of spades and with a 5-0 trump split. 5D had no play either, but only because diamonds were 4-1, if they'd been 3-2 I was cold.
This was a flat hand, as at the other table opponents wound up in 4 clubs down 1. (Good on our teammates for not bidding 4 hearts).
Hand 2:
Thanks to a partnership misunderstanding (as I said, partner was new, and we'd only played a few hands together before), I wound up declaring the exciting contract of 2 Diamonds.
The lead was the 9 of spades, and I was already under the gun. While the 9 doesn't look like an underlead of the king, there is an opportunity to pick up a valuable trick here. However, I rose with the ace, which turned out to be right.
In my head, almost right away, was that I needed hearts to be 3-3. I didn't have a firm trick count, but that seemed right.
I ruffed a spade, cashed the ace of clubs, returned to the board via the king of hearts, and ruffed another spade. Now, I exited a club.
By now, defense was on to me, and a diamond was returned, as expected. Thank goodness I had the ace! Unfortunately, a club to dummy was overruffed, and trump was drained. But I had my 6, and now I had to hope that the remaining hearts were 2-2. They were, and 2!D making unexpectedly brought home 4 IMPs.
Hand 3:
East opened 1NT, and played it. I led the 5 of hearts.
While I haven't been able to touch Lawrence's book in a day or two, this hand showed that I'm at least occasionally able to count out a hand. Let's see...
For starters, declarer had 15-17. I had 10, dummy 5, so partner was 8-10.
The ten of hearts won on the board, partner dropping the 3. Ergo, declarer started with Ax of hearts. The 6 of clubs came off the board, J, K, A. The King of hearts drew the Ace from declarer, as expected. The 4 of clubs went to the queen, partner discarding the 5 of spades, which looked like it might not be partner's lowest. I made a mental note to watch for the 2 of spades. I also noted that clubs were 4441 around the table.
The 3 of spades from dummy drew the queen from declarer, partner playing the 2. Aha. So partner had something. Maybe her king had just been finessed?
Declarer slapped down the ace of diamonds, and now declarer's hand was becoming clear. QS, AH, AD and KC had been played, for 13 points. If declarer had the AS, that was 17 points, and she was done.
However, declarer played the Jack of diamonds, which held. Clearly, declarer did not have the ace of spades! Had partner ducked from AK of spades?
All would be clear soon, as a club was led. I took my ten, and played 3 rounds of hearts. The spade jack was overtaken by partner's ace, and the King of diamonds in partner's hand was the setting trick.
Down 1 gained us another 4 IMPs. It also raised some fist pumping. It felt really good to know pretty much everything that was happening on this hand. If counting that carefully is that much fun, I may have to start doing it on every hand.
Hand 1:
 | ||||||||
|
| West | North | East | South |
| p | p | 1♣ | |
| 1♠ | p | p | 2♦ |
| 2♥ | 3♦ | 3♥ | 5♦ |
| p | p | p |
The bidding caused partner some alarm, as she felt that she was competing, and not encouraging me. I could have let it hang at 1 heart, but felt that I might still have game on the cards. It turns out that 4 hearts had no play, off the AK of clubs, A of spades and with a 5-0 trump split. 5D had no play either, but only because diamonds were 4-1, if they'd been 3-2 I was cold.
This was a flat hand, as at the other table opponents wound up in 4 clubs down 1. (Good on our teammates for not bidding 4 hearts).
Hand 2:
| ||||||||
 | ||||||||
|
Thanks to a partnership misunderstanding (as I said, partner was new, and we'd only played a few hands together before), I wound up declaring the exciting contract of 2 Diamonds.
The lead was the 9 of spades, and I was already under the gun. While the 9 doesn't look like an underlead of the king, there is an opportunity to pick up a valuable trick here. However, I rose with the ace, which turned out to be right.
In my head, almost right away, was that I needed hearts to be 3-3. I didn't have a firm trick count, but that seemed right.
I ruffed a spade, cashed the ace of clubs, returned to the board via the king of hearts, and ruffed another spade. Now, I exited a club.
By now, defense was on to me, and a diamond was returned, as expected. Thank goodness I had the ace! Unfortunately, a club to dummy was overruffed, and trump was drained. But I had my 6, and now I had to hope that the remaining hearts were 2-2. They were, and 2!D making unexpectedly brought home 4 IMPs.
Hand 3:
|  | |||||||||
|
East opened 1NT, and played it. I led the 5 of hearts.
While I haven't been able to touch Lawrence's book in a day or two, this hand showed that I'm at least occasionally able to count out a hand. Let's see...
For starters, declarer had 15-17. I had 10, dummy 5, so partner was 8-10.
The ten of hearts won on the board, partner dropping the 3. Ergo, declarer started with Ax of hearts. The 6 of clubs came off the board, J, K, A. The King of hearts drew the Ace from declarer, as expected. The 4 of clubs went to the queen, partner discarding the 5 of spades, which looked like it might not be partner's lowest. I made a mental note to watch for the 2 of spades. I also noted that clubs were 4441 around the table.
The 3 of spades from dummy drew the queen from declarer, partner playing the 2. Aha. So partner had something. Maybe her king had just been finessed?
Declarer slapped down the ace of diamonds, and now declarer's hand was becoming clear. QS, AH, AD and KC had been played, for 13 points. If declarer had the AS, that was 17 points, and she was done.
However, declarer played the Jack of diamonds, which held. Clearly, declarer did not have the ace of spades! Had partner ducked from AK of spades?
All would be clear soon, as a club was led. I took my ten, and played 3 rounds of hearts. The spade jack was overtaken by partner's ace, and the King of diamonds in partner's hand was the setting trick.
Down 1 gained us another 4 IMPs. It also raised some fist pumping. It felt really good to know pretty much everything that was happening on this hand. If counting that carefully is that much fun, I may have to start doing it on every hand.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Book in Progress: How to Read Your Opponents' Cards
I'm about halfway through this book now, and I simply can't say enough good things about it. I've always read that Lawrence is one of the best bridge authors around, and now I know why. His presentation is simple, straightforward, and easy to understand. There's absolutely no question, though, that if I can adopt the habits he's preaching in this book, I will become a significantly better player.
Reading books on play is about a million times more fun than reading books on bidding!
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