Takeout Doubles are (Nearly) Forcing

At our table, I passed for 100% of the matchpoints. The only other table that duplicated the auction to this point passed also. East tried to save in diamonds, but was doubled for 87.5% of the matchpoints.

One other table played in diamonds, undoubled, for 50% of the matchpoints.

North/Souths who declared did not, in general, fare well. 3C-1 by south was a common result.

Normally, partner's double would have forced me to bid. With 7 strong clubs, I was happy to make a rare exception.

Simplicity

Board 10 from Monday's Matchpoints game. Almost everyone is in 4 hearts. A low spade is led to east's queen:



I won with the ace, and the ace of hearts showed that trumps are no worse than 3-1.

At this point, I think, there's a pretty trivial play to try for an overtrick. At the table, most found it, and 4H+2 scored 75% of the matchpoints, while 4H+1 only scored 18.75%.

I drew 2 rounds of trump ending with the king, and cashed the king of spades, discarding a club. One player discarded a diamond, which is wrong. I then played the Ace and King of clubs, and ruffed a club, everyone following. Now I played a diamond to the ace (one player had cashed the ace of diamonds earlier, leaving no entry to dummy). Now, I played the thirteenth club, and discarded a diamond (one player got this far then ruffed a spade).

Granted, clubs being 3-3 is only something like a 36% chance of happening, but there was no harm in trying. Would you have found this at the table? In a 12 board ACBL game, finding this play adds over 4.6% to your final matchpoint score.

Sorry, But....

Playing in the Sunday IMPs league, I had this awkward bidding situation:



Maybe you agree with my pass, maybe not. Certainly, playing with a new partner, I felt that any other bid was going to be a lie, and I trusted partner to reopen. Ok, so partner reopened, now what?

It's really easy to foresee losing the first 5 tricks in 3NT. I have some spade length, but even IF partner has 2 spades Notrump isn't going to go well. If not notrump, then what?

Well, hearts might be right, but 3 card support with a 4333 is not great news for partner. In fact, it's not impossible that partner has only 3 hearts himself.

On the other hand, partner probably has passable clubs. He opened clubs instead of diamonds, and is shortish on spades, so clubs is probably a real suit.

I opted for 3 clubs, which got passed out. Partner held:



30 HCPs, and no game to be had. At first, I felt like apologizing to partner, but as it turned out stopping short of game was going to be worth IMPs, 6 as it turned out.

Despite the awkwardness of the situation, this bidding was easy, I think, right or wrong. It was a good reminder, though, that there's more to life than high card points.

Learning, or Lack Thereof

Saturday night, before I went to bed, I checked the BBO Beginner/Intermediate forum, and came across this problem. It took me until the next morning to figure it out.

6 hours later, I played this hand, and completely forgot the lesson I'd learned.



Sad part it, it's the same bloody problem. I was just in too much of a hurry to think it through.

*sigh*

We had our third narrow loss in the Sunday morning teams match. This time, the key hand was my mistake, and it was a rookie one. Really awful play by me, as I saw the risk, miscounted, and talked myself into making the mistake. Sad part is, there's probably no upside to the way I played it anyways (or at least very VERY little).

Still, despite being only 1-3, we're third in an 8 team league, only 9 VPs out of first. Of course, we're only 4 VPs out of 7th. :)

The Science of Selling Yourself Short

If I have one regret over the past 2 years, bridge wise, it's this - a while back, I was in the same tournament as a player who I consider to be at least high expert, possibly world classed. We talked a bit after the tournament, and the expert said "we should play a few hands together sometime". I never followed up on that offer.

It's not that I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of playing with a far better player. It's just that I lacked, and still lack, confidence in general. I'm no expert, but I'm not really a rank beginner anymore. I'm especially pleased with my improvement over the last 12-15 months - I'm not exactly pulling off complex squeezes yet, but my awareness and even my judgement (gasp) have vastly improved over that timeframe. If I continue to improve at this rate, goodness only knows what I'll be capable of by next year.

That said, I still get intimidated by situations and people all the time. I'm a bundle of nerves at the club games, and figure the better club players could clean my clock (probably true, but untested). In situations where a partner or better player compliments me, I tend to shrug it off.

The real problem arises when I reach a difficult spot in the bidding or play of a hand. Rather than trusting my judgment, or my ability to work out a difficult problem at the table, I shy away, and make some snap decision based on fear or uncertainty. The post-mortem often shows that the solution was easier than I'd thought, or that I'd made the same mistake before and should have known better.

I'm not sure what it's going to take for me to start playing and approaching bridge in general with confidence, but I really look forward to that day.

Beyond High Card Points

Playing 2/1 this week, I had to decide how to respond to 1 spade with:



I took a moment to consider, but decided that I was worth a game forcing 2 hearts raise. I solicited a few opinions on this decision, and have met with nothing but approval.

It does take a bit to break away from the high card point mindset, but I'm getting there.

Not Drawing Trump

Normally Sunday night social games are the opportunity for me to turn my brain off and play some lousy bridge. Last night, perhaps buoyed by a big win in our teams match Sunday morning, I was fairly alert.

The following hand stood out, not because I made a brilliant play (I can't tell, but it might not even matter in the end), but because of what I was looking for....



At trick 2, the automatic thing to do, I guess, would be to lead trump. My losers in trump and hearts are completely inevitable, however, spades look at least interesting. If I'd had AQ instead of AJ, the possibility of an endplay looks far clearer, but I decided to take a shot, anyways. I decided there was very little risk.

So I claimed my 3 diamond tricks, throwing a heart. I then led trump, won on my left. The queen of hearts held, and I smiled. LHO wound up leading spades twice, and my JS ended up being the overtrick.



Granted, the JS probably sets up anyways, so it probably made no difference on this hand. Still, I was pleased that I'd struck on the idea of playing this way. If I'd held the queen of spades instead of the jack, or if I'd lacked sufficient entries to finesse spades twice, this approach might have helped me win an extra trick.

Right Play, Wrong Hand

Last night, I got to declare a fairly mundane 4 hearts contract.



At trick 4, knowing the hearts were 3-2, I took a misstep, and led the queen of clubs. LHO won and returned a spade, and right away I could see why I hadn't needed to worry - I could have taken the final trump straight away.

However, if dummy had stared with 3 or more spades, my play would have been correct.

The issue is whether opponents can run you out of trumps to promote a spade winner before the clubs are promoted. In this case, you draw the oustanding trump, lose one club, ruff a spade in hand, lose another club, ruff the next spade on the board, and even though you're now out of trump, you're good.

Note that there's no reason to ever take the diamond finesse.

This was a classic case of seeing something, but not thinking quite deeply enough.

1 Step Forward...

This weekend I played quite a few hands, and learned 2 things:

- I don't overcall or balance enough.
- When playing for fun, I let my brain shut off, and make very poor decisions.

The only thing that makes me feel good about my play this past weekend was this hand:



Not sure if this was the best line, but I started on clubs. A low club yielded the King from LHO, so I won. I then returned to hand, and ran another low club. Both times, I was prepared to duck if LHO did. This time he did, and I did, too. RHO won the with the ten, which meant that I was safe.

He was even nice enough to return a diamond for an overtrick.

This line fails to 4-1 clubs, and KJT on my left, but if the JT are split, I can make on any 3-2. The key is not to let LHO lead a diamond, especially if they wind up being 5-3.

I Should Know Better

My biggest frustration lately is making mistakes that I feel that I shouldn't be making.

Playing in a very close team match, the last hand looks like this:



Get it right, you win. Get it wrong, you lose.

At the table, my mind went "if partner doubles, I have to pull - I have less controls than I've shown, and double will just be showing extras". So I pulled.

This is of course completely wrong. That thinking is the old me, back before I started reading, asking questions, and thinking. What's really going on? Opponents are likely no better than 4-4 in hearts. With my short hearts, partner rates to have some hearts. Also, my 4 diamond bid didn't show anything more than what I have really, even vulnerable. And while I had never played with this partner before, 11 previous hands had shown him (her?) to be completely competent.

All I have to do is trust partner, not rescue him/her, and we win.

The team captain was very gracious after the match, but our opponent, my Monday partner, had some sage advice. Just play more often.

There are a thousand good reasons why I can't play 100 hand a week, or devour a bridge book a month to further my game. All that is fine, but maybe, just maybe, I know enough now that in order to jump to the next level I need to play a few hundred (thousand?) hands. I feel like I'm becoming more aware, and that my head has much more good bridge knowledge in it than it did a year or two ago. Maybe if I just start playing, and playing with confidence rather than fear, the patterns that I should already know will influence my thinking at the table, for the better.

No Chance

My bidding judgment is being refined as time goes on. There's a time where I would never have accepted a game invite after opening 1NT with 4333 and 15 HCP.

I never said my bidding judgment was getting BETTER....



The jack of diamonds was led. Not bad - we're light point wise, but the extra trump means that if hearts are 2/2 I'm making.

LHO showed out on the second heart.

Ok, so there's no chance. I look it over. No chance. No chance.

Well, some chance.

I eliminate diamonds, and lose my first club. LHO wins and fires back a spade to partner's jack, and my ace. That spade return was a huge help.

Now, I know that RHO has the last trump. If he's got the queen of spades, maybe, just maybe, I can get endplay him into leading spades for me.

On the second club, LHO played the king, and RHO overtook with the ace. (Yay!) RHO played his jack of hearts, then exited a low spade.

Well, it was only ever a faint hope. I duck, and win with the ten.

Yay me.

Well, sort of. Turns out RHO still had the ten of clubs. If he exits with the club, I'm down 1, which maybe I deserve to be. Still, I made a plan, watched the spots carefully, and gave myself an extra chance to make.

It's something.

Cookie

What would you do?

My partner, given this problem, passed, and earned himself a cookie (and 100% of the matchpoints).

Blind Spots

Thanks to some excellent comments on an earlier post, as well as a simple defense problem posted on the BBF Beginner/Intermediate forum, it's becoming clear to me that I've got a blind spot - namely, overtaking on defense.

I've put aside Kelsey's Killing Defense, as I felt like it was a little over my head. Maybe it just required more effort than I was able to put into a read just now.

I'm going to have to find a way to address this problem.

Knowledge is Power

Even though I still have a lot to learn, every so often a hand comes along that I just seem to know what's going on around the table. I'm finding that these types of hands are a lot of fun.



Opening lead: Ten of diamonds

So why didn't west lead a spade? Well, if east has 7, that leaves none for west!

Ok, so west has AKxxxxx in spades. Any chances he has either of the minor suit kings? Unlikely, as he might have opened 1S with 10 HCP and a 7 card suit.

I decide (rightly or wrongly) to try for a 3-3 diamond split with the king on my left, so I won in hand and led a diamond towards the 8. It held, but RHO showed out.

I continued with the jack, LHO winning. A diamond was returned to the board. I lost a spade and the ten of hearts from my hand.

Ok cashing the ace of diamonds would be catastrophic, as I'd squeeze myself. I'm still guaranteed a club entry to dummy, though, so I'm still ok. Expecting that the finesse would fail, and knowing that a holdup could cause me problems, I led a club to the ace, then a low club back, which was covered by west. When the ten of clubs fell out of east's hand, I was guaranteed 3NT+2, for 100% of the matchpoints.

Gutted

You win the third round of hearts, and immediately attack clubs.

I'm completely gutted that I did not duck the first club trick. This is a play that I would expect to make.

After his hand, I (somewhat melodramatically) messaged the following to my mentor: "Apparently I have no idea how to play bridge."

VuGraph Tricks

I seldom watch VuGraph, but yesterday decided to try to watch a few hands from the Bermuda Bowl. Thanks to one of the commentators, I learned a new trick yesterday.



I happened to observe the open room between Germany and Bulgaria. West (the dealer), Andreas Kirmse, played in 3 spades, after a competetive auction in which all four players bid. If I had to guess, I would say that east opened and south overcalled along the way.

The opening lead was the 5 of hearts. While I don't recall exactly how things went, south presumably took the ace. For the sake of illustration, we'll say that south, Bulgaria's Diyan Danailov, returned the 9 of clubs. North cashed his two club winners, and returned a third club, which south ruffed.

At this point, my feeling was that it didn't matter, much, what south returned. His ace of diamonds should always be cashing (the Germans don't appear to have a running side suit for discards).

Danailov cashed his ace of diamonds before exiting. One of the commentators pointed out that he was pretty much marked with the king of spades from the bidding (his partner has already shown all 6 of his points). Cashing the ace of diamonds can be seen as an attempt to show all his points, to give declarer more of a guess as to the location of the king of spades.

Alas, declarer Kirmse wasn't to be fooled. He won, and led a low spade to dummy. After a moment's consideration, he correctly rose with the ace, dropping the king.

A Deeper Example

Partner opens 1 diamond. RHO overcalls 1 heart, which LHO raises to 2.

A diamond lead seems obvious, and I see this:



Declarer wins the 9, cashes the ace of hearts, then runs the ten of spades around to partner's jack. Partner cashes the king of clubs and ace of diamonds, then leads the 5 of diamonds to us for a ruff.



I was taking my time, and had a decent idea what was going on. Partner had both the queen of clubs and king of spades, and was likely out of hearts. I felt like there was a chance that declarer could rise with the ace of spades and run out, so I underled my ace of clubs. Partner rose with the queen, and returned the two of diamonds. Declarer discarded a spade, and I ruffed for down 1.

...earning roughly 45% of the masterpoints. I was crushed, after all the analysis I'd done.

Turns out some people put 2 hearts down 2. Reviewing their play, the key play was to return a spade, NOT a club. It turns out that declarer was 3433. The club trick was never going away, but the spade could. I had feared that declarer was 2533 and would simply rise with the ace if I returned a spade, and never lose the king. As it turned out, if declarer did rise with the ace, he would wind up stuck on the board, and would be forced to either lose an extra club, or the trump trick that I wound up with anyways.

I'm pleased when I take the time to analyze hands like this. I just need to keep thinking, and not stop when the process gets a bit deeper, a bit more complicated.

Trickery

Ok, so this isn't exactly a story of brilliance, but sometimes you can't get lucky unless you give yourself a chance.

In a strictly-for-fun total points game, parnter opens 1NT, and you raise to 6 clubs. Opponents lead a small spade:



Obviously not the best slam I've ever bid. It looks like I need to guess diamonds right, AND pick up hearts for no losers. At first blush, it would seem that if east has the king of hearts, I have no chance. That's now QUITE true, though.

The key play, I think, is trick one. I won the spade lead with the ace on the board. When trumps split 2/2, I led the jack of hearts. East won with the king (a holdup would have been bad for me).

At this point, if I'd won trick 1 with the king, the ace sitting out on the board would have made a diamond switch crystal clear. Since I'd won with the visible ace, east had to chose between the diamonds (with KJx visible) and spades, with no honours visible. Note that west's opening lead was spades.

Back came a spade, and now all I needed was for the ten of hearts to fall on the AQ. When it did, my slam was home.

Again, I was mostly lucky, but sometimes by hiding the situation from the defenders, a bit of luck can come your way.

Thinking Deeper

I'm currently reading through Kelsey's Killing Defense at Bridge. Some of the bidding is strange, but even though I've only gotten through one chapter I'm already appreciating the book.

By and large, each problem, I seem to see part of the problem, but I don't quite think deeply enough. Maybe I'll analyze the suit distribution, but I'll miss a key point about the high card locations. Or maybe I'll figure out the general layout, and figure out the correct suit to lead/continue, but I'll overlook that the specific card I play matters.

It's like there's a big well of laziness in us. We push against it, gain some information, and then stop. None of the logic in this book is overly complicated. The trick seems to be to keep thinking even when you think you've already got the answer.

This is going to take some practice, but it's also going to take some discipline.

Change of Plans

Playing in a dicey 3NT, I needed to bring clubs home with no losers. Dummy held:

T965

I had:

AKJ74

I had lots of entries, so I ran the ten towards my ace. LHO hesitated noticeably. When I later ran another club towards hand, LHO hesitated again.

8 ever, 9 never, but time to change plans? I did so, and was rewarded with 70% of the matchpoints when the jack held the trick.

Ok, so I felt a bit cheap for winning this way, but it's a good reminder for me - always plan out your play ahead of time, and play in tempo!