BRIDGE Number One Hundred and Sixty-Two June 2016 Bernard Magee’s Acol Bidding Quiz This month we are dealing with the major suits. You are West in the auctions below, playing ‘Standard Acol’ with a weak no-trump (12-14 points) and four-card majors. N W E S 1. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ A K 8 7 6 ♥ A 9 4 ♦ Q 3 2 ♣ 7 6 West North East South ? N W E S 2. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ 7 6 ♥ A K 8 7 ♦ Q 9 4 ♣ A K 4 3 West North East South ? N W E S 3. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ K 8 7 6 3 ♥ A K 9 8 2 ♦ 10 ♣ J 6 West North East South ? Answers on page 7 N W E S 4. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ A K 2 ♥ K 8 7 6 5 4 3 ♦ Void ♣ A K 2 West North East South 1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass ? N W E S 5. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ A 9 8 3 ♥ K Q 8 7 3 ♦ 5 4 ♣ A K West North East South 1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass ? N W E S 6. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ 7 ♥ K Q 10 8 7 ♦ A J 3 2 ♣ Q 8 4 West North East South 1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass ? Answers on page 11 N W E S 7. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ 9 4 2 ♥ A K 7 6 5 ♦ A 6 ♣ K Q 3 West North East South 1♥ Pass 4♣ 1 Pass ? 1 Splinter: singleton or void club, heart support, game values N W E S 8. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ K Q 4 ♥ K Q J 8 7 ♦ K Q 4 ♣ K 3 West North East South 1♥ Pass 4♥ Pass ? N W E S 9. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ Void ♥ A K Q 9 8 ♦ 10 9 8 ♣ K Q J 4 3 West North East South 1♥ Pass 3♥ Pass ? Answers on page 13 N W E S 10. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ K Q 5 4 2 ♥ K 2 ♦ 9 6 ♣ A 8 7 6 West North East South 1♥ Pass 1♠ Pass 3♠ Pass ? N W E S 11. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ 7 ♥ A 6 5 4 ♦ 9 8 7 6 2 ♣ J 5 4 West North East South 1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass 2NT Pass ? N W E S 12. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ K J 10 ♥ 4 ♦ A 7 6 5 ♣ K Q 9 8 7 West North East South 1♠ Pass 2♣ Pass 2♠ Pass ? Answers on page 17
Transcript
BRIDGENumber One Hundred and Sixty-Two June 2016
Bernard Magee’s Acol Bidding QuizThis month we are dealing with the major suits. You are West in the auctions below, playing ‘Standard Acol’ with a weak no-trump (12-14 points) and four-card majors.
NW E
S
1. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ A K 8 7 6 ♥ A 9 4 ♦ Q 3 2 ♣ 7 6
West North East South ?
NW E
S
2. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ 7 6 ♥ A K 8 7 ♦ Q 9 4 ♣ A K 4 3
West North East South ?
NW E
S
3. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ K 8 7 6 3 ♥ A K 9 8 2 ♦ 10 ♣ J 6
West North East South ?
Answers on page 7
NW E
S
4. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ A K 2 ♥ K 8 7 6 5 4 3 ♦ Void ♣ A K 2
West North East South 1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass ?
NW E
S
5. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ A 9 8 3 ♥ K Q 8 7 3 ♦ 5 4 ♣ A K
West North East South 1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass ?
NW E
S
6. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ 7 ♥ K Q 10 8 7 ♦ A J 3 2 ♣ Q 8 4
West North East South 1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass ?
Answers on page 11
NW E
S
7. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ 9 4 2 ♥ A K 7 6 5 ♦ A 6 ♣ K Q 3
West North East South 1♥ Pass 4♣1 Pass ?
1Splinter: singleton or void club, heart support, game values
NW E
S
8. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ K Q 4 ♥ K Q J 8 7 ♦ K Q 4 ♣ K 3
West North East South 1♥ Pass 4♥ Pass ?
NW E
S
9. Dealer West. Love All. ♠ Void ♥ A K Q 9 8 ♦ 10 9 8 ♣ K Q J 4 3
West North East South 1♥ Pass 3♥ Pass ?
Answers on page 13
NW E
S
10. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ K Q 5 4 2 ♥ K 2 ♦ 9 6 ♣ A 8 7 6
West North East South 1♥ Pass 1♠ Pass 3♠ Pass ?
NW E
S
11. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ 7 ♥ A 6 5 4 ♦ 9 8 7 6 2 ♣ J 5 4
West North East South 1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass 2NT Pass ?
NW E
S
12. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ K J 10 ♥ 4 ♦ A 7 6 5 ♣ K Q 9 8 7
West North East South 1♠ Pass 2♣ Pass 2♠ Pass ?
Answers on page 17
on board Minerva
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VOLCANIC ISLANDS and VISTASCANARY ISLANDS • MADEIRA30 January – 12 February 2017 14-day cruise from £1,499pp
Minerva’s journey begins at the volcanic island of Tenerife, with Gran Canaria, described as a continent in miniature, next to be explored. Step ashore in Fuerteventura followed by Lanzarote, home to the spectacular Timanfaya National Park, and take in Madeira’s highlights during a two-night stay in Funchal. Discover the greenest of the Canary Islands, La Palma, and continue to fascinating La Gomera before Minerva makes her maiden call to El Hierro, a UNESCO-listed biosphere reserve.
El Hierro
Tenerife
MADEIRA
Funchal
Lanzarote
CANARY ISLANDS
La Gomera
Gran Canaria
La Palma
Fueteventura
TIMANFAYA MOUNTAINS
SANTA CRUZ
BOTANICALGARDENS
Highlight port (3 days)
• Stroll through the lava fi elds of Mount Teide on the volcanic island of Tenerife
• Explore the beautiful Botanical Gardens of Funchal
• The UNESCO-listed Garajonay National Park o� ers beautiful panoramic views of La Gomera
• Join Minerva on an inaugural sailing to the smallest of the Canary Islands, El Hierro
• This will be the fi rst time Minerva visits all 7 canary islands in one cruise
Telephone number 01483 489961Terms & conditions apply. See website for details or request a copy to be posted.
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FARES PER PERSON MIN161102
AEGEAN CLASSICSCYPRUS • TURKEY • GREECE2 – 15 November 2016 14-day cruise from £1,299pp
Embark Minerva in Larnaca, your gateway to the divided city of Nicosia, and on to Antalya with its historic treasures. Next port of call is Marmaris, from where ancient Knidos can be visited, continuing to Kusadasi, with plenty of time to explore the ruins at Ephesus and Miletus. Discover ancient Pergamon from Dikili before Minerva sets her sights on Greece. From Kalamata discover Olympia and then sail to pretty Nauplia before arrival in Piraeus to experience the wonders of Athens.
Kusadasi
MarmarisKalamata
Dikili
Antalya
Larnaca
NaupliaPiraeus
GREECE
TURKEY
CYPRUS
EPHESUS
ANCIENTOLYMPIA
PERGAMON ACROPOLIS
TERMESSOS
KHIROKITIA Highlight port (2 full days)
• Five overnight stays in port maximise your time ashore
• Explore Turkey’s Lycian coast and uncover its ancient treasures
• Take in the ruins of Ephesus, including its magnifi cent library, theatre and Roman houses
• Discover the wealth of the Roman Empire on a range of tailor-made shore excursions
• An extended stay in Piraeus allows ample time to explore ancient Athens
Time flies by faster as we grow older. At least it does according to recent newspaper reports. It certainly seems that way to me.
There is nothing new under the sun. Most innovation is just the latest tweak on an old idea. Losing my (very) old mobile phone recently has forced me into signing up for a new android with all the relearning that involves. And my iPad, which I haven’t used for all of eight weeks, seems to be from another world. I am having to rediscover the meaning of remember. I will have done so soon enough, but those few days will be frustrating.
To help bridge grow, new technology initiatives are needed. Weekend events need fresh venues. The growing cruise market needs suitable ships.
Many larger bridge clubs have already invested in card-dealing machines and Bridgemates are now relatively common. I can see from all my weekend and holiday feedback forms that the majority would welcome computer dealt hands. One reader has gone so far as to send me a Round Tuit cut out from the last issue. So a card-dealing machine will be used for our annual visit to the Trouville Hotel, Sandown, Isle of Wight in February 2017.
SURPRISE
Subscribers should find a 2017 diary enclosed with this issue of BRIDGE. If you have no use for it, please pass it on. Extra copies for are available at the special rate of £8 each including postage. Choice of cover colours; ruby red, navy blue or bottle green.
SEA CHANGE
In mid November, at the end of her 2016 season, Aegean Odyssey will be going into dry-dock for the winter. To keep our growing band of cruisers happy, we are to provide a full bridge service on Minerva during the winter and spring, see adjacent list.
She has two suitable public rooms for us to use, both of which we may use if numbers on board justify it. There will be a large enough team to ensure no half-tables and a non-playing director.
A BIT OF VISION
From time to time, I remind readers that card-players back in the 1890s took up the new game of auction bridge principally because whist, the universally popular card game of the time, had become far too complicated.
Auction bridge slowly developed to be superceeded in the United States, by contract bridge (1926). It would be more accurate to say swamped, so great and complete was the takeover. The possibilities of this new game were quickly recognised by a Russian-born entrepreneur, namely Eli Culbertson. The rest is history.
Bridge could be described ‘as being very like cricket’
before the introduction of the limited-over game more than 30 years ago. Now cricket has the 20/20 game to complete its transformation.
Like cricket, bridge has been slowly dying and is in need of a similar revolution. The trouble is that most of the content of this publication would be thrown out of the window, so it won’t happen overnight… but we do need to watch out for mealy-mouthed holders of vested interests that will fight and resist any sort of change. What needs to be devised is a duplicate bridge version of 20/20 cricket.
To make it work, the bridge would need to be simple systems, so there are no alerts, just announcements.Only Acol with 12-14 no-trump, Stayman, transfers and Blackwood would be allowed. Those wanting to play the county or test cricket equivalent, standard American or precision will need to go elsewhere with their skills. The new regime will have no place for them.This needs to be played at a proper pace, 24-26 boards in three hours, so that it isn’t boring.
Those wishing to take part, should arrive for a three hour session and play a singles movement, each player drawing for a seating position on arrival at the venue.
I do hope this column will be copied and passed around. We need a revolution. Come on EBU, do something about the decline or it will be too late… believe me.
All good wishes,
Mr Bridge
on board Minerva
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TAPESTRY of BYZANTINE & OTTOMAN EMPIRESGREECE • TURKEY15 – 27 November 2016 13-day cruise from £1,499pp
Departing Piraeus, Minerva sails towards Volos, from where you can discover the spectacular Meteora Monasteries. On to Thessaloniki, Greece’s vibrant second city and your gateway to ancient Pella and the intriguing archaeological site of Aigai. Step ashore in picturesque Kavala before sailing for Istanbul, whose highlights include the Topkapi Palace. Continue to Kusadasi, gateway to the ruins at Ephesus, and fi nally return to Piraeus, from where you can follow St Paul’s journey to the Areopagus Hill.
EPHESUS
BLUEMOSQUEXANTHI
MOUNT PELION
Kusadasi
IstanbulThessalonikiKavala
Volos
Piraeus
GREECE
TURKEY
Highlight port (3 days)
• Visit the awe-inspiring monasteries of Meteora, perched high atop towering peaks
• Visit Pella, the birthplace of Alexander the Great
• A two-night stay in Istanbul, with plenty of time to discover its unique highlights including the ornate Ottoman Blue Mosque
• Overnight in Kusadasi to make the most of Ephesus with its magnifi cent library, theatre and Roman houses
• During an extended stay in Piraeus, visit Ancient Corinth where St Paul preached and lived for two years
CRUISE HIGHLIGHTS
Blue Mosque, Istanbul
SH_16_2065__Mr Bridge_Tapestry of Byzantine_A5.indd 1 05/05/2016 15:58
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 7
NW E
S
1. Dealer West. Love All.
♠ A K 8 7 6 ♠ Q 4 2
♥ A 9 4 ♥ K Q 3
♦ Q 3 2 ♦ A J 10 5 4
♣ 7 6 ♣ J 2
West North East South
?
1♠. With a strong five-card major you should open 1♠. Some teachers advocate opening 1NT with hands that include five-card majors, but with a spade suit this good you should see past this. Spades are the most important suit in bridge and should be bid as much as possible.
Here the two hands can make a comfortable game in spades. However, a 1NT opening would result in 3NT going off.
NW E
S
2. Dealer West. Love All.
♠ 7 6 ♠ A J 10 5 4
♥ A K 8 7 ♥ Q J 4 2
♦ Q 9 4 ♦ 5
♣ A K 4 3 ♣ 8 6 2
West North East South
?
1♥. With two four card suits, what do you open when you are too strong for 1NT?
You are planning to rebid in no-trumps, so generally you should bid the more im-portant suit: major before mi-nor. Some teachers advocate opening the lower suit, but
that will often require more conventions.
Here, if you open 1♥, you find your fit right away and should reach 4♥ easily.
However, if you open 1♣, your partner will respond 1♠ and you would rebid 1NT. Playing naturally, East wants to invite game, so will proba-bly bid 2NT, which means you are likely to miss your fit (2♥ would be non-forcing). There is a convention you can play to rescue this situation (called Checkback – using the 2♣ over the 1NT rebid artificial-ly), but why complicate things – you will find it easier if you open the major suit instead.
NW E
S
3. Dealer West. Love All.
♠ K 8 7 6 3 ♠ A 4 2
♥ A K 9 8 2 ♥ Q 5
♦ 10 ♦ A 9 8 7 6
♣ J 6 ♣ A 8 4
West North East South
?
1♠. With two five-card suits you are planning to bid both, so open the higher ranking suit, allowing you to rebid in the second suit later. The quality of the two suits is not relevant – you want to show both majors and would like partner to select the one which he has the longer support for.
You open 1♠ and rebid 2♥ over the 2♦ response. Your partner can now jump to game, knowing of your spade fit: 4♠. ■
Answers to Bernard Magee’s
Bidding Quizzes 1-3 on the Cover
DEFENCEQUIZ
by Julian Pottage (Answers on page 9)
You are East in the defensive positions below playing matchpoint pairs with neither side vulnerable. Both sides
Partner leads the ♦5: ♦J, ♦Q and ♦4. What is your plan (including in the suit you expect declarer to attack) from here?
NW E
S
4. ♠ Q 5 4 ♥ Q 8 5 3 ♦ A 7 ♣ A K Q 7 ♠ A K 3 ♥ K 7 ♦ Q 10 9 3 ♣ 10 9 4 3
West North East South 3♥ Pass 4♥ All Pass
Partner leads the ♠J. What is your plan?
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ITALIAN OVERTUREITALY • MONTENEGRO9 – 21 December 2016 13-day cruise from £1,499pp
Join Minerva in the amazing fl oating city of Venice and then head to Ravenna, home to the important Basilica of San Vitale. Sail to Montenegro and the charming walled city of Kotor before returning to Italian shores, stopping at Brindisi. From here discover the iconic Trulli houses of Alberobello and then continue to Naples, a stone’s throw from Pompeii. Experience Tuscany’s treasures from Livorno, enjoy an extended stay in Florence and arrive in Civitavecchia to uncover Rome’s ancient treasures.
Ravenna
Civitavecchia MONTENEGRO
Venice
Naples
LivornoKotor
Brindisi
ITALY
DOGE'S PALACE
PISA
POMPEII
LECCE
Highlight port (2 full days)
• Embark Minerva in Venice before spending the day exploring this remarkable city
• Discover Ravenna, a glittering showcase of Byzantine art and culture
• Wander the ancient cobbled streets of Kotor, dramatically situated at the head of Southern Europe’s deepest fjord
• Uncover the fascinating treasures of Pompeii and Herculaneum from Naples
• Enjoy an overnight stay in Livorno, gateway to Florence and Pisa
• Extend your cruise with an optional 3-night pre-cruise city stay in Venice and Verona or 3-night post-cruise stay in Rome
Answers to Julian Pottage’s Defence Quiz on page 7
NW E
S
1. ♠ K 6
♥ Q J 8 5 3
♦ Q 7
♣ K J 9 7
♠ J 9 7 5 2 ♠ Q 8 3
♥ A K 2 ♥ 10 9 7
♦ 9 8 6 2 ♦ K 3
♣ 6 ♣ Q 10 4 3 2
♠ A 10 4
♥ 6 4
♦ A J 10 5 4
♣ A 8 5
West North East South
Pass 1♥ Pass 2♦
Pass 2♥ Pass 3NT
All Pass
Partner leads the ♠5: ♠6, ♠Q and ♠4. You return the ♠8: ♠10, ♠J and ♠K. What is your plan when declarer calls for the ♦Q?
Assuming declarer holds the ♦A, you cannot make a trick with your ♦K what-ever you do. If you duck, the ♦Q holds the trick and the ♦A swallows your ♦K on the next round. If you cover, the ♦A takes your ♦K at once. The difference between covering and not is that covering obliges declarer to use two honours on the same trick. If your partner holds ♦10-x-x or ♦9-x-x-x, covering will create a slow win-ner for partner. In the former case, you will cut down on overtricks; in the latter case, you might well beat the contract.
NW E
S
2. ♠ A K 5 4
♥ K J 8 6 5
♦ Q 9
♣ J 7
♠ J 9 7 2 ♠ 10 3
♥ A 4 2 ♥ Q 10 7
♦ 8 ♦ K 6 5 4 3
♣ Q 8 6 5 4 ♣ K 10 3
♠ Q 8 6
♥ 9 3
♦ A J 10 7 2
♣ A 9 2
West North East South
Pass 1♥ Pass 2♦
Pass 2♥ Pass 2NT
Pass 3NT All Pass
Partner leads the ♣5: ♣J, ♣K and ♣2. You return the ♣10: ♣9, ♣4 and ♣7. What is your plan (including in diamonds) from here?
Your immediate question is what to do at trick three. It looks as if declarer is holding up the ♣A. Continuing the suit looks, and is, right. Partner can easily hold an entry via the ♥A.
The main issue is what to do after declarer crosses to dummy with a spade and calls for the ♦Q. Do you cover? Your diamond length and poor spot cards should tell you what to do. You will make your ♦K if you save it; you have nothing to gain by covering. Partner might even hold the singleton ♦A so you will duck.
NW E
S
3. ♠ 10 8 5 4
♥ K 9 5 4
♦ J 7
♣ Q 10 7
♠ A 9 2 ♠ J 7 3
♥ J 8 6 2 ♥ 7 3
♦ K 10 8 5 2 ♦ Q 9 6 3
♣ 6 ♣ K 9 4 3
♠ K Q 6
♥ A Q 10
♦ A 4
♣ A J 8 5 2
West North East South
2NT1
Pass 3♣2 Pass 3♦3
Pass 3NT All Pass
120-222Stayman3No 4-card major
Partner leads the ♦5: ♦J, ♦Q and ♦4. What is your plan (including in the suit that you expect declarer to attack) from here?
Since the ♦2 is missing, it looks as if the lead is from a five-card suit and you should indeed return it: the ♦3 is the normal card.
With no four-card major and only two diamonds, you expect declarer to hold a five-card club suit and (after crossing to the ♥K) to attack it. If you cover the ♣Q on the first round, declarer can cross back to the ♣10 and take a marked finesse against your ♣9 on the next round. Ducking both the ♣Q and the ♣10 also fails because the lead stays in dummy. Instead you must duck the ♣Q but cover the ♣10 on the second round.
NW E
S
4. ♠ Q 5 4
♥ Q 8 5 3
♦ A 7
♣ A K Q 7
♠ J 10 9 2 ♠ A K 3
♥ Void ♥ K 7
♦ K 8 6 5 2 ♦ Q 10 9 3
♣ J 6 5 2 ♣ 10 9 4 3
♠ 8 7 6
♥ A J 10 9 6 4 2
♦ J 4
♣ 8
West North East South
3♥
Pass 4♥ All Pass
Partner leads the ♠J. What is your plan?You begin by letting the ♠J hold; you
do not need to worry about being unable to signal. Partner will work out your holding when the ♠J wins.
You will then cash or at least try to cash two more spades. With dummy’s clubs poised to deal with any side-suit losers, any further trick must come from trumps...
Knowing that partner will be very short in hearts, quite possibly void, you cannot gain by covering the ♥Q with the ♥K. If you are ready to duck smoothly, declarer will surely overtake the ♥Q with the ♥A – going for the drop is normal with 11 trumps missing the king. ■
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 11
NW E
S
4. Dealer West. Love All.
♠ A K 2 ♠ 7 6
♥ K 8 7 6 5 4 3 ♥ A J 9 2
♦ Void ♦ 9 8 7 6
♣ A K 2 ♣ J 8 5
West North East South
1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass
?
4♦. It is not often that after a simple raise to 2♥, the opener is excited enough to contemplate a slam, but with this hand that is exactly what you should show. You have just four losers and your trump fit is at least 10 but quite likely 11 cards. Imagine your partner with an average 6 or 7 point raise and you could see 12 tricks for the making.
How can you possibly bid slam when it is right? All you can do is show your partner that you have a void in diamonds and let him decide. Jump to 4♦, which should be a splinter, and then over his 4♥, bid 5♦. Now you have shown your hand and your partner with the perfect fit (rubbish in diamonds and all his points outside) can bid on to 6♥.
NW E
S
5. Dealer West. Love All.
♠ A 9 8 3 ♠ 7 6 5
♥ K Q 8 7 3 ♥ A J 9 2
♦ 5 4 ♦ Q 8 6 2
♣ A K ♣ J 8
West North East South
1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass
?
2♠. You have 16 HCP and five hearts, so there is definitely a chance for game. The losing trick count tends to overvalue hands like this: 5-4-2-2 shapes are not as good as 5-4-3-1 shapes, but they are both valued the same in the losing trick
count. Move the ♦4 into the club suit and the West hand would be worth a jump to game. Instead, with this hand you should make a game try: bid a suit in which you need help. Remember that you have agreed hearts, so you can use any subsequent bid as a game try, allowing your partner to look at his hand and see how it fits.
Here, you would bid 2♠, but East with ugly spades would sign off in 3♥. Your hands do not fit well and nine tricks are the limit.
NW E
S
6. Dealer West. Love All.
♠ 7 ♠ J 8 5
♥ K Q 10 8 7 ♥ A J 9 2
♦ A J 3 2 ♦ 9 8 7 6
♣ Q 8 4 ♣ 7 6
West North East South
1♥ Pass 2♥ Pass
?
3♥. Where are all the spades?You certainly have no ambitions for
game, but the danger is that if you sell out too early your opponents might stumble across their spade fit. With the points rel-atively even, letting their spades in might well allow them to steal the contract.
When you want to keep the opponents out, raise your suit. As you saw on the previous layout, you are able to make a game try by bidding any new suit (as well as no-trumps) so that leaves the raise to 3♥ available as a pre-emptive raise: an attempt to keep the opponents quiet.
3♥ is likely to win the deal: you may well go down in 3♥ for -50 but that is much better than allowing the opponents to make 3♠ (-140). Against meek oppo-nents passing 2♥ out might work, but against wise opponents, they should try hard to reopen the auction and if they choose to, they are sure to finish in clubs or spades. ■
Answers to Bernard Magee’s Bidding Quizzes 4-6
on the Cover
TRAVEL INSURANCEFor your own quote from
( 01268 524344www.covercloud.co.uk
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Mr Bridge ( 01483 489961www.mrbridge.co.uk
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GATEWAY to ATLANTIC ISLESFRANCE • SPAIN • GIBRALTAR • PORTUGAL • MADEIRA • CANARY ISLANDS3 – 17 January 2017 15-day cruise from £1,499pp
Minerva begins her journey in Marseille and then continues to Sète, known as the ‘Venice of Languedoc’. In Spain, step ashore in Cartagena followed by Motril, from where you can visit the magnifi cent Alhambra Palace. The Rock of Gibraltar, whose imposing silhouette can be seen for miles, is next to be discovered, then on to historic Cádiz. Explore cosmopolitan Portimao in the Algarve and enjoy an overnight stay in picturesque Funchal before your cruise concludes in Tenerife.
MONTPELLIER
MOUNT TEIDE
Sete
Tenerife
PORTUGAL
Marseille
Funchal
Cartagena
SPAIN
FRANCE
Portimao
CANARY ISLANDS
Motril
Cadiz
Gibraltar
ALHAMBRAPALACEFERRAGUDO
Highlight port (full day)
• Discover the pristine harbour of the cosmopolitan town of Sète on the French Riviera
• Spend a day marvelling at the Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada
• Explore Cádiz, which was founded by the Phoenicians in around 1100 BC and boasts a rich maritime history
• Visit Portimao, a small, colourful city with a thriving fi shing port and an old centre dotted with manicured parks and plazas
• Overnight stay in Funchal, with plenty of time to appreciate its gardens and vistas
• Extend your cruise with an optional 3-night pre-cruise city stay in Aix-en-Provence
CRUISE HIGHLIGHTS
Alhambra Palace, Spain
SH_16_2065__Mr Bridge_Gateway to Atlantic Isles_A5.indd 1 05/05/2016 15:56
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 13
NW E
S
7. Dealer West. Love All.
♠ 9 4 2 ♠ A 10 6 5
♥ A K 7 6 5 ♥ Q J 9 8
♦ A 6 ♦ K Q 8 4
♣ K Q 3 ♣ 7
West North East South
1♥ Pass 4♣1 Pass
?1Splinter: singleton or void club,
heart support, game values
4♥. Your partner has shown the strength and shape to bid 4♥, but has also shown short-age in clubs and is asking you how you fit with him. If you fit well, a slam might be make-able on fewer than the usual values. An ace is the ideal holding, any other high cards are ‘wasted’. I tend to throw out those high cards and see what is left. With just 11 HCP outside clubs and a relatively flat shape you should sign off: bid 4♥.
A 4♦ bid would be wrong because this would suggest excitement at your good fit with the club singleton. If you swap your clubs and spades around, then you would bid 4♦ and the two hands could bid towards an excellent slam.
NW E
S
8. Dealer West. Love All.
♠ K Q 4 ♠ 3
♥ K Q J 8 7 ♥ A 9 6 5 2
♦ K Q 4 ♦ 5 2
♣ K 3 ♣ Q J 7 6 5
West North East South
1♥ Pass 4♥ Pass
?
Pass. A 4♥ response to 1♥ is not a strong bid; it shows a distributional raise to game. You do have a lovely hand with just four losers, but with no aces, you would need three aces from your partner to have a chance for slam. He should not have a hand as strong as that for his bid. With stronger responding hands he would take his time or give a conventional response.
Pass 4♥ and hope that you only lose the three missing aces.
NW E
S
9. Dealer West. Love All.
♠ Void ♠ J 8 7
♥ A K Q 9 8 ♥ J 10 4 2
♦ 10 9 8 ♦ A J 3 2
♣ K Q J 4 3 ♣ A 6
West North East South
1♥ Pass 3♥ Pass ?
3♠. Your partner has shown 10-12 points (8 losers). You have a four loser hand with great potential and so should try for a slam. What you would like to do is show your most important feature: your void in spades. Cue bid 3♠ and then follow up by cue bidding 4♠ and your partner should get the message.
The auction may well pro-gress: 1♥-3♥-3♠-4♣-4♠-5♦-6♥.
Your partner shows his ♣A and then over 4♠ he can see that he has little wasted in spades so he would go on to show his ♦A, which allows you to go for the slam. ■
Answers to Bernard Magee’s
Bidding Quizzes 7-9 on the Cover
NW E
S
1. ♠ A 2
♥ 8 6 4
♦ K Q J 10 7 3
♣ 7 3
♠ Q 10 6 3
♥ A 5 3
♦ 9 2
♣ A K 6 4
You are declarer in 3NT and West leads the ♥Q. East plays the ♥9. How do you plan the play?
NW E
S
2. ♠ K 7 4
♥ J 10 8 3
♦ 7 5 3
♣ K J 2
♠ A 5
♥ Q 9 7 6 4 2
♦ A K 6
♣ Q 7
You are declarer in 4♥ and West leads the ♦Q. How do you plan the play?
NW E
S
3. ♠ 5 3
♥ 7 4
♦ A 7 5 3
♣ Q J 10 6 3
♠ A K J 10
♥ A 8
♦ K J 9 2
♣ A K 7
You are declarer in 6NT and West leads the ♥Q. How do you plan the play?
NW E
S
4. ♠ A 10 9 6 5
♥ K 7 4
♦ K 5 3
♣ 7 5
♠ Q J 8 4 3
♥ A 6
♦ A J 10
♣ A K 8
You are declarer in 6♠ and West leads the ♣3. East plays the ♣J. How do you plan the play?
DECLARER
PLAY
QUIZby David Huggett
(Answers on page 15)
You are South as declarer playing teams or rubber bridge. In each case, what is your play strategy?
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You are declarer in 3NT and West leads the ♥Q. East plays the ♥9. How do you plan the play?
It may be reflexive to duck the opening lead, but that would be a grave mistake. Whether hearts are 4-3 (only three losers) or if they are 5-2 (and are now probably blocked since you can place East with the king) you have more serious things to worry about. You have to make sure your opponents do not have the chance to switch to spades and take out that precious entry to your diamonds. (East, of course, will duck the first diamond lead.) So win the opening lead and play diamonds until the ace appears and you will find you have the nine tricks you need.
NW E
S
2. ♠ K 7 4
♥ J 10 8 3
♦ 7 5 3
♣ K J 2
♠ J 9 8 3 ♠ Q 10 6 2
♥ A ♥ K 5
♦ Q J 10 8 ♦ 9 4 2
♣ 10 9 6 3 ♣ A 8 5 4
♠ A 5
♥ Q 9 7 6 4 2
♦ A K 6
♣ Q 7
You are declarer in 4♥ and West leads the ♦Q. How do you plan the play?
At first glance it looks as though you can only lose two trumps and a club, but if you are not careful things can take a nasty turn.
Suppose you win the opening lead and play a trump. The defence will probably play another diamond knocking out your last stopper in that suit, so that when you eventually lose a club the defenders might well be in a position to cash a diamond, giving you four losers in all.
The solution is simple enough though – play the queen of clubs at trick two to knock out the ace and aim to park your losing diamond on a club winner in dummy before touching trumps.
NW E
S
3. ♠ 5 3
♥ 7 4
♦ A 7 5 3
♣ Q J 10 6 3
♠ Q 7 6 ♠ 9 8 4 2
♥ Q J 10 6 3 ♥ K 9 5 2
♦ Q 4 ♦ 10 8 6
♣ 9 8 2 ♣ 5 4
♠ A K J 10
♥ A 8
♦ K J 9 2
♣ A K 7
You are declarer in 6NT and West leads the ♥Q. How do you plan the play?
The contract is reasonable enough, but you have only ten tricks immediately available to you and they have undoubtedly found the best lead from their perspective.
If you can make four diamond tricks, you will have enough for your contract, but equally, if you can make four spade tricks you will also have enough.
So the problem is to combine your chances. This can be achieved by playing
the top two diamonds (the suit with the most cards and so best chance of dropping a high card) to see if the queen appears and, if not, to take the spade finesse.
Of course, it is important for you to play the king of diamonds before the ace, because if the queen of diamonds does not appear you need two entries to dummy in order to take two finesses in spades.
NW E
S
4. ♠ A 10 9 6 5
♥ K 7 4
♦ K 5 3
♣ 7 5
♠ 2 ♠ K 7
♥ Q 8 5 ♥ J 10 9 3 2
♦ Q 7 6 4 2 ♦ 9 8
♣ Q 10 6 3 ♣ J 9 4 2
♠ Q J 8 4 3
♥ A 6
♦ A J 10
♣ A K 8
You are declarer in 6♠ and West leads the ♣3. East plays the ♣J. How do you plan the play?
This is a huge contract and surely only in danger if you lose both a trump and a diamond. While just taking two finesses would be a reasonable plan, it is not the best.
So, win the opening lead and play the ace of trumps. If the king falls your problems are over, but if not, eliminate both hearts and clubs by ruffing the third in each suit and exit with a trump. Whoever wins will be forced to either open up the diamond suit or give you a ruff and discard.
This plan is bound to work unless trumps break 3-0 when you will have to sniff out the missing queen of diamonds. ■
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4♣. Remember that you are the responding hand, so could have as few as six points for your response. You hold a good opening hand with a king in your partner’s first suit and your partner has jumped to 3♠ to show a better than minimum opening: you should have hopes for a slam. Using the LTC, you have six losers and should expect six losers from partner as well. With a weak diamond suit, you should not use Blackwood, but should start by cue bidding: 4♣, showing your ♣A. When East bids 4♦, you can bid 4NT and after a three-ace response you jump to 6♠.
NW E
S
11. Dealer East. Love All.
♠ 7 ♠ A 8 4
♥ A 6 5 4 ♥ K Q 9 2
♦ 9 8 7 6 2 ♦ A J 3
♣ J 5 4 ♣ A 6 2
West North East South
1♥ Pass
2♥ Pass 2NT Pass
?
3♥. You supported your partner’s hearts on the first round: showing a weak raise.
However, East has now bid 2NT. What has he done that for?
He knows you have just 6-9 points but he still thinks there is a chance for game. He should have a flat hand with 17-18 points and he is asking you to choose the best final contract: it could be 2NT, 3♥, 3NT or 4♥.
You have a minimum hand and certainly prefer hearts to no-trumps, so you should sign off in 3♥. 2♥ would have been easier, but your partner had to try for game with 18 HCP.
NW E
S
12. Dealer East. Love All.
♠ K J 10 ♠ A Q 8 6 5 3
♥ 4 ♥ 8 7 6
♦ A 7 6 5 ♦ K 2
♣ K Q 9 8 7 ♣ A 2
West North East South
1♠ Pass
2♣ Pass 2♠ Pass
?
4♥. You have a very nice hand, but started with a simple 2♣ response. However, after the 2♠ rebid, your hand has got even nicer. With a fit in spades you can include the value of your singleton: your hand is worth 16 or 17 points (5-6 losers). Game should be the least of your ambitions. You would like to try for slam as well. A splinter bid is the perfect way to combine your chances. An unnecessary jump to the four-level is used to show shortage as well as support for partner’s suit. Here, 4♥ is the perfect bid.
East is going to love you for it. His hand is the perfect fit for a singleton in hearts – his weakness can be ruffed away. He will continue with 4NT and you will end up in 6♠. ■
Answers to Bernard Magee’s Bidding Quizzes 10-12
on the Cover
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SET 27 Leads Bernard takes you through the basic leads and the importance of your lead choice. If you start to think about your partner’s hand, you will get better results. (95 mins.)
8 Losing Trick Count A way of hand evaluation for when you find a fit. Bernard deals with the basics of the LTC then looks at advanced methods to hone your bidding. (92 mins.)
9 Making a Plan as Declarer Bernard explains how to make a plan then expands on how to make the most of your long suits, both in no-trumps and suit contracts. (87 mins.)
10 Responding to 1NT This seminar deals with Transfers and Stayman in detail. The 1NT opening comes up frequently, so having a good, accurate system of responses is paramount. (93 mins.)
11 Signals & Discards This seminar deals with Count, Attitude and Suit-preference signals: aiming to get you working as a partnership in defence. (92 mins.)
12 Endplay Bernard takes you through the basics of endplays before showing some hands where you can take extra tricks, then looks at how to avoid being endplayed. (80 mins.)
SET 11 Ruffing for Extra Tricks This seminar deals with declarer’s use of ruffing to make extra tricks and then looks at how the defenders might counteract this. (74 mins.)
2 Competitive Auctions This seminar focuses on competitive auctions from the perspective of the overcalling side and then from the opening side in the second part. (86 mins.)
3 Making the Most of High Cards This seminar helps declarer to use his high cards more carefully and then looks at how defenders should care for their high cards. (83 mins.)
4 Identifying & Bidding Slams The first half of this seminar identifies when a slam might be on. The second half covers some slam-bidding techniques. (96 mins.)
5 Play & Defence of 1NT Contracts This seminar looks at the most common and yet most feared of contracts: 1NT. The first half looks at declaring 1NT and the second part at defending. (88 mins.)
6 Doubling & Defence against Doubled Contracts The first half of this seminar explores penalty doubles and the second half discusses the defence against doubled contracts. (88 mins.)
BERNARD MAGEETUTORIAL DVDS
SET 313 Hand Evaluation Going beyond just the point-count is important. Reaching & making 3NT on 24 HCP; and avoiding 3NT on 26 HCP when there are only 7 or 8 tricks. (110 mins.)
14 Pre-Emptive Bidding The art of pre-empting is so important in the modern game. Understanding the right hands to bid up on and realising the importance of position and vulnerability. (96 mins.)
15 Splinter & Cue Bids Splinter bids are a vital tool to add to your slam bidding armoury & try your hand at Italian style cue bidding. (116 mins.)
16 Avoidance Play As declarer, an important tactic is to be in control of the defenders: avoiding a particular defender getting the lead. As a defender, you can try to make sure the right player gets the lead. (88 mins.)
17 Play & Defence at Pairs Duplicate Pairs is the game most of us play and getting used to the tactics will make a lot of difference to your performance. (90 mins.)
18 Thinking Defence By far the hardest aspect of bridge, but if you can improve your defence your results will quickly improve. Learn how to think through the defence. (87 mins.)
SET 419 Defensive Plan Looking at your own hand, then at dummy and envisaging how partner’s hand will allow you to make a plan for the defence. (112 mins.)
20 Further Into the Auction The first two bids of an auction are usually easy, but beyond that the complications increase. Learn how to ‘talk’ to your partner during the bidding. (95 mins.)
21 Weak Twos It is important to bid more in the modern game and weak twos are an important choice for the competitive player. (104 mins.)
22 Trump Control Handling the play of the hand when trumps break badly is an important attribute: playing calmly and using a variety of tactics to pave the way to success. (76 mins.)
23 Sacrificing An exciting aspect of the auction is outbidding your opponents and going down, but gaining by doing so. Learn to bid more aggressively. (105 mins.)
24 Improving Bridge Memory Remembering every card is a dream for most of us. However, learn ways in which to remember the important things. (90 mins.)
SET 525 Defence as Partner of the Leader Defence is the hardest aspect of the game, it is where most players can make great progress. (104 mins.)
26 Aggressive Bidding at Duplicate Pairs Years ago, you needed 13 HCP to open the bidding and rarely competed for a partscore. Now its usual to open lighter and compete for every hand. (114 mins.)
27 Strong Opening Bids Managing your strong bids carefully can give you joy, particularly when you have a neat bidding sequence to a lovely slam. (122 mins.)
28 Take-Out Doubles Bernard deals with basic take-out doubles and their responses, then progresses to talk about competing for every partscore. (99 mins.)
29 Suit Establishment in Suit Contracts Long suits are powerful things: Bernard tries to get across his passion for them by showing you how to develop your extra tricks. (81 mins.)
30 Landy / Defending Against a 1NT Opening Competing against a 1NT opening allows you to challenge for the partscore. Bernard talks about competing over 1NT in general and then about Landy. (85 mins.)
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BRIDGE June 2016 Page 19
Today’s two deals have a lot in common in that each features a
truly enormous opening hand. The first was sent in by John Upson.
NW E
S
♠ Void
♥ 9 8 7 6 4 3
♦ K 8 5 4
♣ A 8 7
♠ A K Q J 9 4
♥ A
♦ A J 9 7 3 2
♣ Void
At the table, South opened 2♣ (playing Benji) and over the 2♦ response could no longer bid 2♠, as partner might have passed. So he rebid 4♠ and that ended the auction.
Much better would have been to open 2♦. Then he could have rebid a simple 2♠ after the 2♥ response (straight Acol, after a 2♣ start, would arrive here too). North does not have an at-
tractive bid over 2♠, but a six-card suit should not be ignored. This would lead to the following sequence:
North South
2♦
2♥ 2♠
3♥ 4♦
5♣ 6♣
7♦
North’s 5♣ should agree diamonds and South now just needs ♦K-x-x-x for the grand slam. 6♣ is a grand slam try and North should know that his ♦K must be what his partner is looking for.
Playing straight Acol, the auction would be the same, but starting with 2♣-2♦-2♠.
♣♦♥♠
The other deal was different in that opener had the mi-nors (hand in next column).
If you have the minors and open 2♣ or 2♦, there is a real risk of the opponents barraging you in the majors. It often works better to open at the one level, as that way you have already started to
Very Strong Opening Hands
Sally’s Slam of the Month
bid your suits.
NW E
S
♠ K 4 3
♥ A K 4 2
♦ 7 5 4 3
♣ 10 9
♠ A 10 9 6 5 2 ♠ Q J 8 7
♥ 10 7 5 ♥ Q 9 8 6
♦ 9 ♦ 10 8 6
♣ 8 5 2 ♣ 6 4
♠ Void
♥ J 3
♦ A K Q J 2
♣ A K Q J 7 3
I would recommend:
West North East South
1♣
2♠ Dbl Pass 3♦
Pass 3NT Pass 4♦
Pass 4♥ Pass 7♦
All Pass
Since North’s double in no way promised diamonds, South’s 3♦ should be forc-ing and natural. North then shows his stopper and South proceeds to show his 5-6 shape. When North cue-bids his heart control, South can bid the grand slam with confidence. ■
System Requirements: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 or 10, 8mb RAM, CD-ROM
BERNARD MAGEE’S INTERACTIVE TUTORIALS
ACOL BIDDING
l Opening Bids and Responses
l Slams and Strong Openings
l Support for Partnerl Pre-emptingl Overcallsl No-trump
Openings and Responses
l Opener’s and Responder’s Rebids
l Minors and Misfitsl Doublesl Competitive
Auctions
ADVANCED ACOL BIDDING
l Basics
l Advanced Basics
l Weak Twos
l Strong Hands
l Defence to Weak Twos
l Defence to 1NT
l Doubles
l Two-suited Overcalls
l Defences to Other Systems
l Misfits and Distributional Hands
DECLARER PLAY
l Suit Establishment in No-trumps
l Suit Establishment in Suits
l Hold-ups
l Ruffing for Extra Tricks
l Entries in No-trumps
l Delaying Drawing Trumps
l Using the Lead
l Trump Control
l Endplays & Avoidance
l Using the Bidding
ADVANCED DECLARER PLAY
l Making Overtricks in No-trumps
l Making Overtricks in Suit Contracts
l Endplays
l Avoidance
l Wrong Contract
l Simple Squeezes
l Counting the Hand
l Trump Reductions & Coups
l Playing Doubled Contracts
l Safety Plays
DEFENCE
l Lead vs No-trump Contracts
l Lead vs Suit Contracts
l Partner of Leader vs No-trump Contracts
l Partner of Leader vs Suit Contracts
l Count Signals
l Attitude Signals
l Discarding
l Defensive Plan
l Stopping Declarer
l Counting the Hand
£81
£66£96
£76
£76
FIVE-CARD MAJORS &
Strong No-Trump
l Opening Bids & Responses
l No-Trump Openings
l Support for Partner
l Slams & Strong Openings
l Rebids
l Minors & Misfits
l Pre-empting
l Doubles
l Overcalls
l Competitive Auctions
£89
BEGIN BRIDGE ACOL VERSIONl Card Play Technique
l Planning Card Play
l Bidding Balanced Hands
l Bidding Suits
l Responding to a Suit
l Supporting Partner
l Responding to 1NT
l Stayman
l Strong Two Opening and Response
l Overcalls
l Doubles
l Pre-empting
l Defence against No Trump Contracts
l Defence against Suit Contracts
BETTER BRIDGE
l Ruffing for Extra Tricks
l Doubling and Defence Against Doubled Contracts
l Play and Defence of 1NT Contracts
l Finding and Bidding Slams
l Making the Most of High Cards
l Competitive Auctions
£69
£66
MACCompatible
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BRIDGE June 2016 Page 21
Duplicate Pairs is the game most of you play in your clubs, but considering a lot of players
learn in a rubber bridge style, there are a lot of tactics that you need to know to the make the most of your cards. The DVD starts by dealing with declarer play and the importance of overtricks. Here is a classic type of hand:
You are West, declarer in 3NT after the straightforward auction of 1NT-3NT. North leads the ♠5 to South’s queen and you have to plan your play.
NW E
S
♠ A 10 8 ♠ J 7
♥ 8 7 ♥ K Q 4
♦ K Q 9 ♦ A J 7 6 3
♣ A J 9 3 2 ♣ K Q 4
You have eleven top tricks as long as the minors break reasonably, so that means you should aim for a twelfth. Win your ♠A and play a heart at trick 2. North is very likely to duck if he holds the ace, but South might even duck too. By playing it so early in the play the defenders will hopefully not suspect that you have running tricks. If they do duck the heart trick, you run for home, making 12 tricks: 10 in the minors, the ♠A and the ♥K. Your score will be the one that is commented on when people look at the traveller – how on earth did they make 12 tricks, there are two obvious losers? However, from the defenders’ point of view they are not necessarily aiming for just two tricks, so it is not unreasonable for them to duck once. Clearly if declarer took his 10 tricks in the minors after the ♠A then the defence will take their ♥A and their spade trick. Making 3NT+2 will score below average. 3NT+3 will be a very good score indeed – there will be very few people in a minor suit slam even though 6♣ and 6♦ are good contracts.
I show the travellers and explain why scoring an extra 30 points can be so important, let alone 10 points.
In the second half of the DVD, I turn to the subject of defence. One example is similar to the one above, but from the defence’s perspective. When you see a strong dummy, then you should tone down your objectives: rarely, unless your lead hits gold dust, will you defeat the contract if declarer has 28-30 points between his two hands. By being aware of your aims, you can sometimes settle for two or three tricks and the saving of an overtrick will get you a good score.
Perhaps the most important aspect of pairs defence is playing safe – trying not to give away tricks with careless leads or switches.
What do you lead from this West hand after the auction 1NT-3NT?
NW E
S
♠ Q 8 5 4
♥ 8 7 6
♦ 7 5
♣ K 7 6 5
We are generally taught to lead the fourth highest from our longest and strongest, but these rules stem from rubber bridge, where attacking leads are the name of the game – overtricks don’t matter and the aim is to be active trying to make extra tricks. In duplicate bridge, that is rarely your aim; a good lead is a lead that gives nothing away and leaves to declarer to establish his own extra tricks.
A five card suit is a reasonable lead because you have the chance of making extra tricks, but weak four card suits are rarely good leads because they risk giving away a trick with very little to gain. A strong four card suit (with two high cards) is reasonable because with one honour from partner you may well
develop the suit, but when one honour from partner will not help sufficiently you should look elsewhere.
The key thing to remember is that you are in a partnership and there is the chance that you might be able to find your partner’s suit. Avoiding a club or spade lead from this hand, I would choose the major over the mi-nor because majors are more likely to have been bid. Lead the ♥8.
NW E
S
♠ J 10 7
♥ A K 4
♦ Q 9 3 2
♣ A 10 2
♠ Q 8 5 4 ♠ K 6
♥ 8 7 6 ♥ J 10 9 5
♦ 7 5 ♦ A 10 8 6
♣ K 7 6 5 ♣ J 4 3
♠ A 9 3 2
♥ Q 3 2
♦ K J 4
♣ Q 9 8
The lead is not dynamic, but it gives nothing away and forces declarer to do his own work. Declarer might win in dummy and lead the ♠J covered by the king and ace. The defence continue hearts each time they get the lead and might even get declarer down if he is forced to open up all the suits himself.
A diamond lead works as well, but leading your weak four card suits works out very badly. A spade lead will give a trick away when dummy follows with the ♠7 and a club lead might even give declarer three club tricks. East may well play the jack at trick one allowing declarer to finesse for your king.
Duplicate pairs is a great game, but getting used to the scoring system and the tactics that profit the most is so important and will result in much improved scores. ■
Play and Defence at Duplicate Pairs
Bernard Magee DVDs – Number Eighteen
Page 22 BRIDGE June 2016
It was the soothsayer Wise Wynfryth’s 70th birthday and Robin Hood was partnering her
in the Baron of Beef. The large magpie on her shoulder was claimed to be a reincarnation of her dead husband, Wainright.
‘It’s only fair to warn you that I’m in very good form,’ announced Friar Tuck as he took his seat.
‘We must be on our guard, Wynfryth,’ declared Robin Hood.
NW E
S
Dealer North. Love All.
♠ Q 10 5 2
♥ 10 9 5
♦ A K 5 2
♣ K 2
♠ 7 ♠ 8 3
♥ A J 8 7 6 2 ♥ 3
♦ 9 6 ♦ J 10 8 7 4
♣ J 8 6 5 ♣ 10 9 7 4 3
♠ A K J 9 6 4
♥ K Q 4
♦ Q 3
♣ A Q
West North East South
Friar Robin Little Wise
Tuck Hood John Wynfryth
1♦ Pass 1♠
Pass 2♠ Pass 4NT
Pass 5♦ Pass 6♠
All Pass
Friar Tuck slapped the ♥A on the table, where it was joined by the ♥5, the ♥3 and the ♥K from Wynfryth. The contract was cold unless East’s ♥3 was a singleton; by false-carding with the king, she hoped to deter a heart continuation.
Tuck sat back in his chair. John’s
♥3 might well be a singleton and no defence other than a heart continuation made any sense at all. Still, it was Wynfryth’s birthday and the prescribed Christian action was clear. Little John would surely appreciate the situation.
When Friar Tuck switched to a trump, Wise Wynfryth won and drew trumps, claiming the contract.
Little John thumped his huge fist on the table. ‘You useless barrel of lard, Tuck!’ he cried. ‘Give me a heart ruff and she’s one down.’
‘Hah! I played the king to fool him,’ declared Wise Wynfryth.
Friar Tuck assumed the air of a martyr. ‘It was a clever play,’ he said.
Soon afterwards a pig farmer and his wife moved to Wynfryth’s table.
‘I hear it’s your birthday,’ said Ingram Wendel. Try as he might, he could never quite remove the smell of pigs from his person. His wife, Emelisse, had become accustomed to it over the years. ‘Can we get you a celebratory drink?’ he asked.
‘Kind of you,’ Wynfryth replied. ‘I ’ad two big ones before the game, actually. Best keep my ’ead clear for the moment.’
‘Hey!’ exclaimed Emelisse Wendel, who had been sorting her hand somewhat painstakingly. ‘That bird is lookin’ at me cards.’
‘Don’t worry about Wainright,’ said Wise Wynfryth. ‘He likes to follow the game even though he can’t play no more.’
Emelisse Wendel had heard alarm-ing stories about Wynfryth’s powers. Who was to say they weren’t true? Wasn’t Wainright the name of her dead husband? Surely she hadn’t worked her magic to turn him into a magpie? Per-
haps the bird was somehow telling her what cards the opponents held.
NW E
S
Dealer East. N/S Vul.
♠ 8 5
♥ A Q 8
♦ 8 7 4 2
♣ Q 10 7 4
♠ K Q J 10 ♠ 9 7 6 4 3 2
♥ J 7 6 2 ♥ K 10 5 4 3
♦ K Q J 9 ♦ 10
♣ 5 ♣ 9
♠ A
♥ 9
♦ A 6 5 3
♣ A K J 8 6 3 2
West North East South
Ingram Robin Emelisse Wise
Wendel Hood Wendel Wynfryth
Pass 1♣
Dbl 3♣ 3♠ 5♣
All Pass
Wynfryth won the spade lead, played a trump to the queen and ruffed dummy’s remaining spade in her hand. If diamonds were 3-2, all would be easy. The best chance against a 4-1 break was surely to lead the ♦3 now. If East held a singleton honour there was a good chance that she would win the trick and be endplayed.
Wendel defended well by rising with the ♦J. When the ♦10 appeared from his wife, he congratulated himself. What a great play he had found! Maybe in some future time they would invent a good name for it. He continued with the ♦K to declarer’s ace, East discarding.
Although her first plan had failed, Wise Wynfryth saw that another line
Wise Wynfryth’s Invitation
Robin Hood’s Bridge Adventures by David Bird
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 23
of play was now available. She led the ♥9, West playing low, and called for the ♥8 from dummy. East won with the ♥10 and had no good return. A heart would be into dummy’s tenace, allowing two diamond discards. A spade would give a ruff-and-discard, with a second diamond discard to come on the ♥A. She returned a spade and a few moments later, Wise Wynfryth had made her contract.
The new partnership continued to fare well and the last round saw the arrival of Maid Marian, accompanied by a girlfriend of hers, Arabella du Bois. As was fitting for a ‘girls’ night out’, they were arraigned in their finery.
‘I’ve come to check up on you, Wynfryth,’ announced Marian mischievously. ‘Someone told me that Robin was spending the evening with another woman.’
‘You were right to be worried.’ Wynfryth replied. ‘We’ve ‘ad a great time together.’
‘Arabella and I will do our best to put a stop to that,’ declared Maid Marian. ‘Are you ready for battle, Arabella? Don’t let me down.’
After a board of no consequence, Wise Wynfryth ended as declarer on the final board of the evening.
NW E
S
Dealer South. Game All.
♠ Q
♥ A K Q 8
♦ Q 10 9 5 2
♣ 10 7 2
♠ A J 9 7 3 ♠ 8 6 5 4
♥ 9 7 4 ♥ J 10 6 3
♦ 7 6 3 ♦ A 8 4
♣ K 3 ♣ 8 5
♠ K 10 2
♥ 5 2
♦ K J
♣ A Q J 9 6 4
West North East South
Maid Robin Arabella Wise
Marian Hood du Bois Wynfryth
1♣
Pass 1♦ Pass 3♣
Pass 3♥ Pass 3NT
All Pass
Maid Marian led the ♠7 and down
went the dummy. Wynfryth had no intention of playing too quickly. Surely she and Robin would win the event if she could make this contract. The only risk seemed to be that the club finesse would lose and that Marian would be able to cross to East’s ♦A for a spade return. What could be done if the cards lay that way?
The magpie on Wynfryth’s shoulder leaned towards her and whispered something. Her hearing was not of the best. What had Wainright said? It was something like ‘then’ or maybe ‘den’. Ah, it must be ‘ten’! Her husband had been a strong player in his time. He must know what he was talking about.
Wise Wynfryth won with dummy’s ♠Q and, following the magpie’s in-struction, dropped the ♠10 from her
hand. When the ♣10 was run, Maid Marian won with the ♣K and confi-dently played the ♠A to drop declarer’s king. That was her intention, but a low-ly ♠2 fell from Wynfryth. Two spades, three hearts and five clubs then gave her an overtrick for an excellent score.
‘That’s a pity,’ exclaimed the elegant Arabella du Bois. ‘I had the diamond ace, Marian. Come to a diamond and I can play a spade back for two down!’
‘Impossible for you to find that defence, my love,’ said Robin Hood. ‘Wynfryth’s wonderful false card would have deceived the Devil himself.’
The scoring was soon performed and Wise Wynfryth and Robin Hood were announced the winners by a handsome margin.
‘Best birthday I ever ‘ad,’ declared Wynfryth, as another tankard of ale was passed her way. ‘Sorry about that last one, Marian. It was a bit naughty of me playin’ that ♠10. I’d never have thought of it myself.’
The magpie was on the table, enjoying the remnants of someone’s bread and cheese. He looked up at Wynfryth and gave her a wink.
‘You and Robin are always welcome
for a meal with me and Wainright,’ the old woman continued. ‘I do a wonderful kidney and toadstool pie.’
‘I thought toadstools were poison-ous,’ queried Marian.
‘Not if you cook them properly, dear,’ Wynfryth replied. ‘Soak them in brine and cook them for at least two hours, that’s the secret. If they were poisonous, I wouldn’t be sitting ‘ere, would I?’ ■
Page 24 BRIDGE June 2016
Opening lead ♦3.
Analysis
At that time, a small diamond lead did not promise an honour. So the Duke would not know the location of the high cards, other than knowing that West had at most 5 HCP. With only five top tricks, and at least three immediate losers, there is plenty of work to be done.
American Patricia Fox Shein-wold wrote an amusing book, published in 1976, called
Husbands and Other Men I’ve Played With. She recounts bridge games with her former husband Alfred Sheinwold and Hollywood film star John Wayne, amongst others, some named, some not.
Englishman Alfred Sheinwold (1912-1997) emigrated to the USA as a nine-year old. He was, and probably still is, a player well known to almost all American bridge players, since he, along with Edgar Kaplan, devised the Kaplan-Sheinwold bidding system, which notably uses a weak no-trump.
Patricia lived in New York for many years and worked as a freelance writer. Apart from her bridge book she also wrote four light entertainment books.
The chapter in her book about John Wayne is called ‘How a Duke Handles Kings and Queens’. It contains a lovely recollection of her visit to the Wayne family home, naturally with bridge hands included.
NW E
S
Dealer East. Vul not known.
Rubber Bridge.
♠ Q 3 2
♥ A K 6 5 2
♦ A 4
♣ K J 9
♠ A ♠ K J 9
♥ 10 8 7 4 ♥ Q J
♦ 9 6 5 3 2 ♦ K Q J 8
♣ 10 8 7 ♣ Q 6 5 2
♠ 10 8 7 6 5 4
♥ 9 3
♦ 10 7
♣ A 4 3
The DukeThe original auction.
West North East South
PFS JW
1♦1 Pass
Pass Dbl2 Pass 4♠3
All Pass
1It is not known whether East was playing
a strong no-trump, but few would criticise
anyone for downgrading this hand. No
aces and a queen-jack doubleton strongly
suggest doing so.2In the protective seat, bidding is slightly
different to normal overcalls. Starting with
a double states the strength of the hand. If
you had had this hand in second seat, after
1♦, then you’d very likely overcall 1♥.3John Wayne has overbid somewhat. Yes,
of course holding a 6-card spade suit is a
huge asset. But he has so little in his hand,
and it looks as if the cards lie badly so most
finesses will fail. Had he made a lower bid,
for example 1♠, then most likely his partner
would have invited game, and perhaps they
would have reached it. The problem with
overbidding when the adversaries are silent
is that, on another occasion, you may end
up too high. Look at the first John Wayne
quote. Perhaps he should have followed his
own advice.
A Blast From the Past by Shireen Mohandes
John Wayne quotes:
Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.
I never have really become accustomed to the ‘John’. Nobody ever really calls me John... I’ve always been Duke or Marion or John Wayne. It’s a name that goes well together, and it’s like one word – John Wayne.
I’ve always followed my father’s advice: he told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble.
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 25
How the Duke played the hand
He won the opening lead in dummy, and led the ♠Q. East covered (not right, not ever right, but it must have felt nat-ural to the player) and thereby crashed partner’s ace. The defence cashed a di-amond and switched to a heart. From here on, he chose to play on clubs for another trick (setting up hearts was an option he probably rejected because of the entry situation). West was unlikely to hold the ♣Q (that would have mer-ited a response to her partner’s 1♦). He ran the ♣J, which was covered and won in hand, then played West for the ♣10 by finessing the nine in dummy (ie a backwards finesse). Patricia aptly referred to this play as lassoing. The Duke made his game, but without the mis-defence he would have gone off.
How should he have played the hand?
Looking at the spade suit, and keeping in mind the auction, your main hope is that the spades divide 2-2. If they do, you just have to keep playing spades and watch all the honours come tumbling down.
What can be done about 3-1 breaks? If East has a singleton ace or singleton king, you can duck one, then cross to hand and lead a spade towards dum-my’s remaining ♠Q-x. However, cross-ing in clubs commits you to a particu-lar play in the club suit, and crossing with a heart ruff risks running into an overruff, or a ruff-in with the jack, when trumps were 2-2 all the time.
The Duke’s play of leading ♠Q works both when it tempts a cover from ♠K-J-9, and legitimately when LHO has a singleton jack. So does that mean it’s the best play?
Probably not. Rather than relying on a favourable club layout, you’d prefer to be able to set up a heart to allow you to throw a club. If hearts are 4-2, that will need two entries to dummy outside the heart suit. ♣K is one; but the other will have to be in trumps. If trumps are 2-2, you can use ♠Q as an entry, but not if you’ve played it at trick two. All in all, a low trump from dummy at trick two seems likely to give you the best chance.
Still, you can’t argue with success. After the spectacular result in the trump suit, did declarer do the right thing in clubs? This was the position after he’d crashed the trump honours, used one of dummy’s heart entries to lead towards his ♠10, and won the heart exit:
NW E
S
♠ 3
♥ 6 5 2
♦ —
♣ K J 9
♠ — ♠ 9
♥ 10 8 ♥ —
♦ 9 6 ♦ K Q
♣ 10 8 7 ♣ Q 6 5 2
♠ 10 8 7 6
♥ —
♦ —
♣ A 4 3
It looks as though you have to guess whether to play for hearts 3-3 or to play the backwards finesse in clubs. Wouldn’t it be nice to try both – hearts first, then if they don’t break fall back on the club play? Are the entries there? It looks like they’re not, because the club play needs you to start with ♣J from dummy, while you still have the king there.
But look what happens if declarer does choose to ruff a heart, and learns
the bad news that they don’t break. Now he can play all but his last trump, reaching this ending:
NW E
S
♠ —
♥ 6
♦ —
♣ K J 9
♠ — ♠ —
♥ 10 ♥ —
♦ — ♦ —
♣ 10 8 7 ♣ Q 6 5 2
♠ 6
♥ —
♦ —
♣ A 4 3
When the last spade is played West, who probably thought of their role in this deal as akin to ‘a non-talking extra in a low budget C movie’, is in sole control of the hearts, and therefore needs to discard a club. Away goes the ♥6 from dummy and East discards a club. Now declarer plays a club to the king, and runs the ♣J (pinning the ♣10).
With this line of play, it is possible to combine the chance of a friendly heart break with the club layout that Wayne had hoped for.
Poor West, starting with a four-count, then having two honours crashed! ■
Marion Mitchell Morrison (1907 – 1979)
John Ford’s ‘Stagecoach’ in 1939 made John Wayne a star. Born in Iowa, he weighed 13 pounds (5.9kg) at birth, and lived most of his life in California. He earned his nickname because he ‘…never went anywhere without his huge Airedale Terrier, Duke…’, and was nicknamed ‘Little Duke’. He went to university to study law on a sports scholarship, but an injury curtailed both his sporting and his academic plans. He started his acting career as an extra. Fast forwarding a bit, he had chalked up 142 films and was world famous for his leading roles, primarily as tough but warm-hearted cowboys. Married three times, he had 7 children; a few went into the entertainment business but none have threatened to overshadow his iconic status. What was threatened was his life, by his wife (no 2), who in a drunken rage attempted to shoot him. His tombstone, at his request, reads ‘ugly, strong, and dignified’, in Spanish, a language he was fluent in. The John Wayne Cancer Foundation (JWCF) continues to support research into the illness that took his life.
Some of his most famous films are: Rooster Cogburn (1975), Brannigan (1975), Chisum (1970), True Grit (1969), The Green Berets (1968), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Donovan’s Reef (1963) and How the West Was Won (1963).
Page 26 BRIDGE June 2016
Catching Up with Sally Brock
When I left you last month, I was just about to start
playing in the IMSA Elite Mind Games in Huai’an, China. My original inten-tion was to write about that week in the Seven Days arti-cle. However, it was quickly apparent that it would be quite boring because all we did was play bridge. The ho-tel was rather good, but it suffered from piped music all over the place, including in our bedrooms, for most of the waking day (7am to 11pm). It was the sort of music that is often sold as ‘dolphins singing’ or some such, so no doubt supposed to have a calming effect, but it rather got on our nerves after a time. The hotel was built on a lake (or rather the lake was built next to a ho-tel) and we couldn’t even go for a walk around the lake without having the same music piped at you every 20 yards or so.
In the teams we started well, but ended up third after the qualifying round. There were four teams to start with and all played all twice. Then the top two played off, and the oth-er two played off for the bronze. We won the bronze. Nicola and I never really got going in the pairs, but Eng-lish success went to Nevena Senior who played with an unknown Chinese partner (Fiona had flown back to Australia to continue her holiday) and finished up sharing the bronze medal podium. I played better in the individual and won the bronze. I had been doing quite well for most of the
event, but finished badly. When the scores were first announced I was fourth, but luckily there was a recount.
This was my favourite deal:
NW E
S
Dealer East. N/S Vul.
♠ Q J
♥ J 8 2
♦ A K Q 10 9 6 5
♣ J
♠ 9 4 3 2 ♠ 10 7 6
♥ K 7 4 3 ♥ A 10 6
♦ 2 ♦ 8 7
♣ A 8 7 5 ♣ 10 6 4 3 2
♠ A K 8 5
♥ Q 9 5
♦ J 4 3
♣ K Q 9
I opened a strong no-trump as South and my part-ner, Bénédicte Cronier of France, went for an aggres-sive raise to 6NT. West led a spade and it seemed ex-tremely unlikely that the defenders would continue spades if I played a club, so I decided to run all my winners. I started with the spades, discarding a club and a heart from dummy. In the two-card ending East came down to the singleton ♥A and a club while West threw the ♣A to keep ♥K-x. So when I played a heart, East had to win and the ♣K was my twelfth trick.
Other bridge events have included the Portland Pairs (national mixed pairs) in which I can only describe our performance as medio-cre, and the Easter Guard-ian Pairs in which I played with Allie and we finished nearer the bottom than the top (though I did win £250
at the casino on the Friday night which partially made up for the bridge).
Toby, Briony and I man-aged a quick dash to France to restock our wine reserves. We rather enjoy these ex-cursions: leave home after the rush hour, cross via the Tunnel, arrive in the after-noon and find somewhere to drive around, back to the hotel in Calais, nice din-ner out, then a bit of food and wine shopping before having lunch and heading home. Because of the time difference, if you’re careful you can avoid the worst of the evening rush hour too.
My mother is not improv-ing. We went and cooked a meal there for all the family on Mothering Sunday. The following weekend they had a lunchtime drinks party to say goodbye to their friends in the village before moving out to an apartment in a re-tirement village a few miles away. On both occasions, my mother got up and clear-ly enjoyed seeing her friends and family. However, in be-tween she is generally in bed. Still, the new place is much more convenient for them and I hope that they will both enjoy being there.
Workwise, it’s the usual combination of typesetting travel guides, online bridge coaching and bridge writ-ing. Of course, Briony and I have both been very busy with the two main projects in aid of her charity – the Big Bridge Quiz (which, with another month to go, has already reached its tar-get of £2,500) and Some En-chanted Evening, our bridge evening on May 6th. ■
Better HandEvaluationBernard Magee
Introduction
Better Hand Evaluation is aimed at helping readers to add greater accuracy to their bidding. It deals with auc-tions in which you and your partner, against silent op-ponents, can describe your hands fully to each other and, by evaluating them ac-curately, find the best final contract. The emphasis of all good, accurate bidding is on hand evaluation.
There are two general types of auction: a) a fit is found and b) no fit is found.
When you do not have a fit, you are aiming to describe the strength of your hand as soon as possible, most often using no-trump bids. This book be-gins by discussing balanced-hand bidding in Acol, as it is very important that both members of a partnership have an accurate knowledge of how to show hands of different strengths.
When a fit is found, there is much re-evaluation of the hand to be done; point count, though still important, needs to be evaluated together with distribution. The best way of reaching an accurate assess-ment is to use the Losing Trick Count; this is an important method of hand evaluation and takes up a number of chapters.
Finally, we move on to different forms of evaluation including game tries and splinter bids. You can never know enough methods of hand evaluation; the more you learn, the better you get at judging your hand.
Although the Losing Trick Count is used more easily in tandem with your partner, a large proportion of the ideas in this book can be used by an individual. For example, eval-uating your hand to be worth an extra point is going to help anyone you partner – as long as you get it right.
£14 including UK postage
Mr Bridge ( 01483 489961 www.mrbridge.co.uk
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 27
It was the monthly teams event at the Riverside and, as usual, Millie and I were playing with Kate and
Jo. ‘I’ve misplaced my bridge glasses so I’m using my driving ones. I’m not seeing the cards too well; they’re blurred,’ announced a hassled West as he arrived at our table. ‘It’s just as well it’s that way round otherwise you could be driving home using your bridge glasses, very dangerous,’ noted Millie, suddenly a safety expert. ‘I do all the driving, not Jason,’ announced his wife firmly, ‘I wear the trousers in our house’. ‘Yes you do,’ agreed her husband, smoothing his tartan kilt carefully as he took his seat. His wife continued, ‘We’re new members. I’m Gertrude by the way, but just call me Gert and leave out the rude bit.’ I was still wondering why Jason needed driving glasses if he didn’t drive, but that wasn’t really my concern. ‘Gert treats me more like a pet than a bridge partner,’ grumbled Jason softly to no one in particular. ‘Don’t exaggerate. Now have a sweetie,’ Gert responded kindly enough. This board brought us back to matters in hand.
NW E
S
Dealer West. Game All.
♠ Q 4 3
♥ 4
♦ A K Q J 10 5
♣ 9 5 3
♠ K 10 8 5 ♠ A 7 6 2
♥ 2 ♥ A J 10 8 7 3
♦ 9 8 7 6 4 2 ♦ Void
♣ 6 4 ♣ J 10 8
♠ J 9
♥ K Q 9 6 5
♦ 3
♣ A K Q 7 2
Jason passed and Millie (North) opened one diamond. Gertrude found two hearts, described by Jason as in-termediate. Hoping that Millie might double I considered passing, but in the
end decided to show my clubs. After Jason’s pass, Millie cue bid with three hearts asking for a stop in that suit and Gertrude doubled to confirm a heart lead. I now bid game in no trumps.
West North East South
Jason Millie Gertrude Wendy
Pass 1♦ 2♥ 3♣
Pass 3♥ Dbl 3NT
All Pass
Jason led his singleton heart. Gertrude won with the ace and returned the jack. I won with the king. Jason attempted to place the nine of diamonds on the table to suggest a holding in spades. With his restricted vision, the card spun out of his hand and completed a spectacular loop the loop to land in Millie’s handbag beside her chair. ‘Do you play revolving discards?’ inquired Millie unnecessarily and, as dummy, certainly unethically. However the signal was construed, it was to no avail as with two hearts, five clubs and five diamonds the contact came home with three overtricks for plus 690.
As we scored up later we discov-ered that Jo and Kate played the hand against James and his wife, Monica, referred to as the Drama Queen be-cause of her thespian antics. ‘She’s no friend of mine,’ explained Millie. ‘I’m not surprised after all the things you say about her behind her back,’ re-torted Jo. The start of their auction was rather different. Over James’ opening diamond, Kate overcalled a conserva-tive one heart. Monica bid two clubs over which James bid two diamonds. Dangerously, Kate now bid two hearts which Monica dramatically doubled for penalties, venomously placing the red double card on the table.
West North East South
Jo James Kate Monica
Pass 1♦ 1♥ 2♣
Pass 2♦ 2♥ Dbl
All Pass
Monica led the club ace on which James inadvertently played the three. Monica now followed with the king and James played the five. Now expecting James to ruff, she continued with another club. Kate won the trick on table with the two of trumps and led a diamond which she ruffed.
At this point, Monica became visibly irritated. Kate entered dummy via the king of spades and ruffed another diamond. Monica over-ruffed and exited with a club ruffed by declarer who played the ace of spades and followed it with a low one taken by James’ queen. James played a diamond which was ruffed and over-ruffed. Monica was endplayed. Kate won the next two tricks before conceding the last trick for one off and minus 200, with the opposition taking in all two clubs, a spade and three hearts. Monica then upbraided James for encouraging a club continuation on the opening lead. James explained that he had simply pulled out the wrong card. Monica suggested he got his eyes tested, but added she suspected that he had simply forgotten their switch to reverse attitude signals and recommended a brain transplant rather than a visit to the optician. James wisely remained silent.
In the pub later, Millie wondered whether on the club lead and a favourable continuation, two hearts might have been made by Kate. I rather doubted it, but fortunately my purchase of a round of drinks quelled any further discussion on that issue. ‘Poor Jim,’ observed Jo, ‘he’s really under Monica’s thumb.’ ‘I think Jason is too,’ reflected Millie. ‘In Jason’s case I think Gertrude’s thumb may be involved,’ interjected Kate.
It had certainly been a match for remarkably strange carding signals as well as unexpected examples of defective vision and henpecked husbands. ■
The Diaries of Wendy WensumEpisode 50: The Revolving Discard
Page 28 BRIDGE June 2016
QPlaying recently, the opposition’s bidding went
1NT-2♥-4♥-4♠. Their convention card clearly stated that they play transfers over 1NT. When the responder said 4♠ and the bidding had finished, but before the lead had been made, the opener apologised and said he had completely forgotten about transfers.
Can this bid be allowed to stand, or should it be taken that they had agreed to play in hearts, so the spade bid becomes a cue bid looking for slam in hearts and therefore must not be passed?Connie Pearce by email.
AWhat infraction has occurred? There was no announcement
or alert (presumably) for the 2♥ bid, so responder knows something is wrong, but he knows something is wrong when partner bids 4♥. In fact, it is completely obvious what is wrong. So, should he be allowed to bid 4♠? While the lack of announcement is unauthorised information, he knows perfectly well
what has happened. How about opener?
Well, he does not have any unauthorised information, so if he wants to guess what 4♠ means that is fair enough.
There is some suggestion that these sequences are illegal because of fielding a misbid or something. However, not only has the EBU’s stance on fielded misbids changed so that they are no longer subject to automatic adjustment, but also they are based on private agreements. The trouble with this is that in a club these agreements are not private: everyone knows exactly what this sequence means. So the result stands.
♣♦♥♠
QPlaying duplicate pairs at an EBU-affiliated
club, West was dealer. The bidding went:
West North East South
1♥ Pass 3♥ 3♠
4♣ Pass 4♥ All Pass
Before passing 4♥, my partner, sitting South, asked East what she understood by West’s 4♣ bid.
She said she was taking it as West’s second suit. West interjected (uninvited) that, after an overcall, they had no agreement. East then repeated that she was still taking it as West’s second suit. West, who was also the director, therefore became declarer in 4♥, holding:
NW E
S
♠ 6 4 3
♥ A K 10 7 5
♦ A 8 7 4
♣ Q
When the auction was complete, West neither called another director nor told us that East’s explanations of his 4♣ bid was incorrect. West made 10 tricks by leading a low club from dummy towards his ♣Q which made. South, holding the ♣A over dummy’s ♣K, played low. Had there been a proper explanation of the 4♣ bid, South would still have had a decision to make (West might have been void in clubs) but we nevertheless felt hard done by. If indeed
they had no agreement, how could West bid 4♣ with a singleton club? We were never told the meaning of the 4♣ bid.
After the hand had been played, the matter was referred for a ruling to two other players who direct: they could not agree. We were told that the matter was being referred to one of the county’s leading experts and the club would let us know the ruling. We never heard a word and no adjustment was made.Name and address supplied.
A East should not tell anyone how she is taking it. Players
are meant to give details of agreements, not guesses. West should certainly have kept quiet until the end of the auction. Nevertheless, you seem to have been told that they have no agreement, and there is a strong inference that West is not long in clubs otherwise he probably would not have said anything. I am afraid that you have been told correctly the lack of agreement, so the result should stand. It is very wrong to make a decision
David Stevenson answers your questions on Laws and Ethics
What Happens if Conventions are Forgotten
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 29
and not tell you, even if you did not like the decision.
You ask how West could bid 4♣ without an agreement, but in fact it is common for players to make a bid in the hope that partner will read it the same way as they intend. Sometimes they are in agreement, sometimes not, but it does not matter, sometimes it goes horribly wrong: that’s bridge.
♣♦♥♠
QWe play Howell movements in a small
club. Sometimes due to bad weather, dark nights, holidays, illness, lambing and bringing in the sheep, attendance is poor. The worst case is playing a 25-board Howell, with a five board, 35 minute sit-out. Can you suggest a movement, with a shorter sit-out?Alex Mathers by email.
A The problem is, simply, that with six pairs, one
imaginary, and 25 boards, you cannot really solve the problem of pairs sitting out for 35 minutes.
I suggest that you play the movement with three-board rounds, then repeat it with two-board rounds. The Howell cards work perfectly well because in the first half you put out the first three boards of each set, for example if the cards say 6 to 10 you put out 6 to 8, then in the second half you put out the remaining two boards of each set, 9 to 10 in this example. It is easy enough to score by hand or by computer: if you use Bridgemates (which seems unnecessary with two and a half tables), then you
would have to write a special movement for the scoring program. The big advantage of this is that, while each pair has to sit out for 35 minutes or so, they do not do so all at once, but sit out three boards, and later sit out two boards. It feels better.
♣♦♥♠
QDeclarer leads a top diamond to which LHO and
dummy follow. RHO ruffs and leads to the next trick – a diamond! At this point, I was called to the table. The offender made no mention of this being a correction of the revoke when the card was played. Do I rule that the revoke is automatically corrected or that, as the lead was intentional, the revoke is established?John Ruddock by email.
A Leading to the next trick establishes the revoke, so one trick
is transferred at the end of the hand (the revoker clearly won the trick), plus another if the defenders take any of the remaining tricks.
♣♦♥♠
QI would welcome your opinions on two
points of a situation that arose during a duplicate session.
The contract on the first board of the round is an awkward 1NT played by South. After several tricks have been played, declarer is in dummy and North (dummy) plays the ♦2. This is covered with the ♦8 by East and after a
short pause, without selecting a card, South asks West what discard system the partnership is playing. West, a little nonplussed, gives an explanation but then says, ‘My partner followed suit.’ To which declarer suddenly exclaims that dummy has led the wrong card from table as he had called for a club. Dummy apologises and says she hadn’t heard the club call and neither of the defenders could say they did (although West does have severe hearing difficulties). The declarer is a senior club director but the session director, armed with the Yellow Book, is called and a discussion ensues between her and declarer. Nothing conclusive results and another player, also a club director, is called for her opinion and, although uncertain, the decision is taken that declarer can restart the trick by replacing the diamond lead and playing a club. East’s ♦8 is deemed not to be a penalty card. The contract goes two off (it doesn’t matter what lead is made from dummy, the contract is always going to fail). Because of the inquest, the table is now a board behind and the director decided that the second board should not be played and an average (50% each) should be awarded to both pairs. E/W are not asked their opinion of this action.
Please can you give a judgment whether it was correct for the trick to be started again,
even though the lead from dummy had been covered, or otherwise explain what the correct procedure should have been. Secondly, could you give an opinion as to whether an average for the second board of the round was fair to the defenders, who had no part in the original mistake?
Your valued comments will enable the club directors to deal with similar instances more speedily in future.Jim Wallis, Bovey Tracy, Devon.
A If dummy puts in place a card that declarer did not
name, it is corrected so long as both sides have not played to the next trick. It is a judgement for the director whether that is what happened. Assuming the director decides that is what happened, the decision at the table was correct, dummy’s card is corrected and the defender’s card is returned to his hand without penalty.
Giving the E/W pair average for the board they missed is unfair: they are completely faultless, and the law requires any pair that lose a board and are faultless to get average plus.
More interesting is what N/S should get for the lost board. Were they at fault? The main fault seems to have been the time taken by the director to make a simple book ruling – just reading law 45D out would have solved it swiftly. Perhaps they were ‘partly at fault’ since the declarer seems to have been involved in the discussion, which means they should get an average.
Page 30 BRIDGE June 2016
QPlaying at our local club, I questioned a pair
about their leads against no-trump contracts, after realising that twice they had led different cards from anyone else. They stated that it was their agreement always to make a non-standard lead when defending against a no-trump contract. Unfortunately very few people (at both clubs I play at) carry convention cards with them to the table. When asked, they produced a convention card in which the information is buried fairly deeply. Are they required to alert the opposition that their lead is non standard? Either after the bidding is completed or when the lead is made?
The same pair in a bidding sequence such as:
West North East South
1♥ 1♠ Pass 1NT1
17-9 HCP, may not have a heart
stop
Should this be alerted during the bidding?Rodney Light by email.
A Carding methods are not subject to alerts. However, I do
think that this pair should be strongly encouraged to use the modern EBU 20B card which includes a space for items that opponents might wish to know, and their leads should be mentioned there. If they do that and make the system card readily available, then they have done all that is required of them. The fact that system cards are not used much in your club is normal, but does not alter the fact that players who play strange
methods should have system cards, and that is sufficient. The 1NT response with no stopper is a borderline case. I might bid 1NT on:
♠ x x
♥ J x x
♦ A Q x x
♣ Q 10 x x
for lack of anything else and would not consider this particularly unusual, since I have some partial stop in hearts. However, if they take it to extremes and respond 1NT freely on:
♠ Q x
♥ x x
♦ A Q x x x
♣ J x x x
then I do not think 1NT is now truly natural and I feel an alert is in order.
♣♦♥♠
QThe following happened at our local club
recently. My partner (West) opened with 1♣, North made a jump overcall (2♥). I held 15 HCP and a long strong spade suit. I asked South what the strength of the jump overcall was and he said, ‘strong.’ As I held ♥A-x, I decided to jump to 3♠ (hoping to show my spade length and overall strength) with the possibility of slam prospects. South passed, as did my partner and North. When dummy’s hand went down, my partner had opened fairly light with 11 HCP and a 2-2-4-5 shape, so it seemed possible
that N/S did indeed play strong jump overcalls with South having a near Yarborough. Even so, I was disappointed that my partner had not at least bid to game, as a small slam seemed possible. As the play continued, I lost tricks to South on two finesses, as I was expecting the majority of the points to be with North. I made only 10 tricks and at the end of play North called the director and explained that his partner had misinformed the strength of his jump overcall. The director made a note of the hand and said that the score might well be adjusted at the end of the session, if he believed that we had been damaged by the misinformation. However, at the end of the evening and after discussion with another qualified director, he refused to rule in our favour, saying that a similar situation had happened recently. The offence had been referred to County Level and the ruling had been ‘tough luck’, no adjustment of score. What then is the point of a defender explaining, at the end of the hand, that there had been misinformation and what is the meaning of law 47E2b, if no adjustment can be made?Granville Williamson, Falmouth BC.
A I think your director just misunderstood the law. It is very
dangerous to compare a ruling from another event unless he is absolutely sure that all the relevant occurrences were the same.
If you are misinformed and you are damaged then the director adjusts. It appears that you were misinformed since North said the explanation was wrong. He was correct as a defender to say nothing until the end of the hand.
It seems likely that you were damaged, though I cannot be certain of this without seeing the whole hand. Of course your partner has passed a bid which appears to be forcing, but it seems likely he would have bid again if told that this was a weak jump overcall. There is also the possibility of your making more tricks by finessing the other way. So a correct ruling would give you an adjustment to a game contract much of the time, or possibly all the time, and vari-ous numbers of tricks from ten upwards. I agree with you that there would be no point in the law, if when there was misinformation and damage no adjustment was made.
♣♦♥♠
QThe following occurred during a regular
duplicate evening. Defending against a 4♠ contract, I led my singleton ♣A followed by a heart that my partner ruffed and returned a club for me to ruff.
On going to ruff my second heart lead, he inadvertantly pulled out the wrong card (a small diamond) then without actually placing it on the table (it was nevertheless exposed), he immediately realised his error and saying something like, ‘Sorry that’s the wrong card,’ put it back into his hand and ruffed again. Then he would have led another club for me to
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 31
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ruff and the contract would have been down two. Dummy objected vehemently and insisted that the diamond should be played. Declarer had seen the error for what it was and would, I’m sure, have let it stand. Dummy though would not accept this and the director was called. She then exaggerated the situation vociferously insisting that the diamond had been placed on the table (in fact it hadn’t). The director however ruled in her favour. This resulted in the declarer being able to draw the remaining two trumps and make the contract. Should my partner have been allowed to correct what was undoubtedly an unintended and immediately corrected error or was the director’s acceptance of dummy’s version the correct outcome?Ray Andrews by email.
A If your partner, when defending, puts a card in the position
where you could see it if you were looking (whether you actually see it or not) then it must be played. Whether it is the card he intended or not is irrelevant. Since you say it was exposed it cannot be changed. Whether it touched the table or not is also irrelevant. However, dummy is not allowed to call attention to an infraction, and it is not clear from your description whether dummy did this, or whether attention was called and then dummy called the director. In fact, the director has to rule anyway,
but in the former case he would warn dummy not to attempt to interfere with play in future, and if she did so she might be fined.
While there are situations where unintended happenings may be corrected, a card played by a defender is not one of them.
♣♦♥♠
QDeclarer is playing in 3NT and the diamond
lead is won by declarer with the ace. There are lots of clubs in dummy headed by the K-Q-J. Declarer leads the ♣A from hand and then leads a low club to the king.
He now tells dummy to run the clubs. Whilst the clubs are run, declarer discards three diamonds from hand. On the next trick, declarer won the club in hand. Declarer made ten tricks and the director made his ruling. Did declarer revoke three times? She said that, as she only had one remaining club, this was not so. Does the director instead restore equity? What should the decision be?Andrew Peel by email.
A Further revokes in the same suit are not subject to penalty,
therefore there is only one penalty trick awarded, since declarer did not win the trick with the revoke card.
Every established revoke is subject to equity being restored, so if the director decides the revokes cost the defence more than one trick he will restore those tricks. ■
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Page 32 BRIDGE June 2016
As declarer, make sure you take note of the lead; it can give you great advantages in the play. In fact, you can take it a step further and try to work out why they made the lead – this might then allow you to place some of the other cards.
NW E
S ♣ A 8 2 ♣ Q 10 7 3
North leads the ♣5 against 3NT, you play small from the holding in dummy and South plays the king. You win the ace and must take advantage of the layout. It seems that North has led a fourth highest club, so he must have the remaining cards higher than the ♣5: he led from ♣J-9-6-5. You can lead the ♣8 and run it. By taking two finesses you finish with four tricks from the suit. Note that you do not just finesse the ♣10 but take full advantage of the lead.
The opening leader is often choosing blind so it is clear that sometimes he will choose the ‘wrong’ lead. Furthermore, there will be times when his lead might point you in the right direction if you consider why he did not lead a different suit.
After the auction given, North leads ♣9 against your 4♠ contract:
NW E
S
♠ K J 10 8 7 ♠ Q 6 5
♥ A J 5 3 ♥ K Q 6
♦ K 3 ♦ J 6
♣ 10 4 ♣ A J 7 3 2
West North East South
1♠ Pass 2♣ Pass
2♥ Pass 4♠ All Pass
Ask yourself what does he have in clubs and why did he not lead any of the other suits?
His high lead would suggest that he doesn’t have the king or queen. He
could have shortage, but considering it is dummy’s suit he should not generally lead a doubleton, so you might expect it to be a singleton.
You play your ace and the queen falls from South. What are your thoughts now?
It looks as if North has led from ♣9-x-x-x which is a little odd: why did he not lead the unbid suit, diamonds?
The most likely reason that North did not lead a diamond is because he holds the ace and quite rightly did not want to lead away from it. This will have a big impact on your decision when diamonds are played.
NW E
S
♠ A 2
♥ 9 8 2
♦ A 10 8 4
♣ 9 8 6 5
♠ K J 10 8 7 ♠ Q 6 5
♥ A J 5 3 ♥ K Q 6
♦ K 3 ♦ J 6
♣ 10 4 ♣ A J 7 3 2
♠ 9 4 3
♥ 10 7 4
♦ Q 9 7 5 2
♣ K Q
After winning the ♣A, you play trumps to North’s ace and he plays another club to South’s king. Finally when South switches to a diamond you are ready. You decided that North may well have the ace, so you play low from hand and although North wins his ace, you make the rest of the tricks. By analysing the lead, you changed a basic 50/50 shot in diamonds in to something slightly more in your favour. Change North’s ♦A into the ♦Q and he might have chosen a diamond lead since it was the unbid suit. It is only a slight inference, but anything is better than a blind guess.
Careful analysis of the lead will often make a difference to the number of tricks you make in the suit led, but it can also make a difference throughout the whole of the hand. ■
Think about the opening lead carefully: take full advantage when you can
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BRIDGE June 2016 Page 33
One of the trickiest things about signalling is to know what signal to give, and when. If you
listen to some post-mortems after a contract has been let through, you find that one member of the partnership thought a signal to be attitude and another thought it to be count. You can’t defend to best advantage unless you resolve some of these situations. Be cheered by the fact that many very good players have accidents with their signals.
A very useful addition to the armoury is to play suit preference signals.
A suit preference signal is one where you play a higher card to suggest interest in the higher ranking suit and a lower ranking card to suggest interest in the lower ranking suit. This article features some examples of where this might be useful.
One big difference between below average, average and good players is that good players rarely play idle cards that mean nothing.
Trick One
Of course, it is important to agree when a card might be suit preference. It’s rare for a signal to be suit preference at trick one, but one situation where it should be is when you lead a top card and there is a singleton in dummy.
The bidding, by the opposition has gone 1♠-4♠.
You hold:
NW E
S
♠ 6 5
♥ A 7 6 5 4
♦ 4 3 2
♣ 4 3 2
You decided to lead the ♥A and dummy comes down with:
NW E
S
♠ Q J 9 8 3 2
♥ 9
♦ Q 10 7
♣ K J 6
If partner plays the ♥2, then he is suggesting he prefers clubs to diamonds. If he plays the ♥8 he is suggesting a diamond switch. A good reason for this is you neither care much how many hearts he has got nor whether he likes them, so mark this down as one agreed position where suit preference is best.
Which signal is best?
To start with, it may be best to just agree a few common positions where suit preference is preferable. If you are in a regular partnership, you can add to them but be aware that if you don’t you will be open to disagreement
about which cards are or are not suit preference. There are, of course, positions where a different signal is critical.
The bidding by the opposition has gone 1NT-3NT.
You hold:
NW E
S
♠ Q 9 7 6
♥ J 7 4 2
♦ 8 3
♣ K 4 3
It is your lead. You decide to lead your fourth highest spade and the dummy comes down with
NW E
S
♠ 8 5
♥ Q 6
♦ K Q J 10 7 4
♣ Q J 7
Declarer wins the first spade and it looks as if he has two stops in that suit. Now he plays a diamond. It is absolutely critical that you give count because if partner holds the ♦A, then he needs to know when to win the trick. Dummy has no certain entry. This is a clear example where a count signal is top priority.
Conventions Part 18 with Jeremy Dhondy
Suit PreferenceSignals
Page 34 BRIDGE June 2016
Looking for ruffs
Here is an example where suit prefer-ence is best.
North-South finish in 4♠.
NW E
S
♠ K 7 3
♥ K Q J 6
♦ 4 3 2
♣ Q 9 5
♠ 2 ♠ 8 6 5 4
♥ A 5 2 ♥ 10 4 3
♦ Q 8 6 ♦ J 10 9 7 5
♣ A 8 7 4 3 2 ♣ J
♠ A Q J 10 9
♥ 9 8 7
♦ A K
♣ K 10 6
You decide as West to lead the ♣A and when you see partner’s jack, you can think of nothing much better than leading another one, hoping to give him a ruff. Good news follows when he does ruff and leads back . . . ? You should have told him what to do. As you have the ♥A you lead your highest club, the ♣8 to show something in hearts. If you had the ♦A you would have led the ♣2 at trick 2 to suggest a diamond card. Leading your fourth highest at this point is a waste of a signal. Not having any agreement is tantamount to waving a white flag. Partner obediently plays back a heart and you give him another ruff thus beating the contract.
Suppose declarer (South) is playing in 3NT. After your lead which he wins, he sets about cashing his long suit.
NW E
S
♦ A K Q 4 3
♦ 10 6 2 ♦ 7
♦ J 9 8 5
On the first round, you play the ♦2 to show how many you have got.
On the second round, you have a choice between the ♦6 and the ♦10. If you play the ♦6 then the ♦10, it suggests interest in the lower ranking suit and if you play the ♦10 then the ♦6, it suggests interest in the higher
ranking suit. Partner will be under pressure and
have to make two discards before you do, so you can give him some help.
Pay close attention.
NW E
S
♠ J 6 3
♥ Q 9 6
♦ 9 6
♣ K Q 10 8 5
♠ 10 8 5
♥ K 7
♦ A Q 8 4 2
♣ A 7 3
North South
1NT (15-17)
3NT
As West, you lead your fourth highest diamond and the ♦9 is covered by your partner’s ♦10 and declarer’s jack. Declarer now plays the ♣J which you duck and partner shows three by playing the ♣2. Declarer now plays another club and you win (trusting partner) and play what? If you have turned the cards over, it is too late. After partner has played the ♣2, he has a free choice of the nine or the four. Which did he play? One defence is to give declarer his ♦K and wait patiently to get in with the ♥K to cash the diamonds. An alternative is to watch closely. If your partner plays the ♣4 it suggests something in hearts and if he plays the ♣9 it suggests something in spades. Partner has played the ♣4, so play a heart. The whole hand is:
NW E
S
♠ J 6 3
♥ Q 9 6
♦ 9 6
♣ K Q 10 8 5
♠ 10 8 5 ♠ 9 7 4
♥ K 7 ♥ A 8 4 2
♦ A Q 8 4 2 ♦ 10 7 3
♣ A 7 3 ♣ 9 4 2
♠ A K Q 2
♥ J 10 5 3
♦ K J 5
♣ J 6
It turns out that declarer had a sneaky entry to dummy in the ♠J, so if you
♠ A Q 7 ♥ A K Q J ♦ Q J 10 9 8 7 ♣ Void ♠ K J 10 8 6 ♠ 9 5 4 3 2 ♥ 5 4 3 2 ♥ VOID ♦ VOID ♦ 6 5 4 3 2 ♣ K Q J 10 ♣ 4 3 2 ♠ Void ♥ 10 9 8 7 6 ♦ A K ♣ A 9 8 7 6 5
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BRIDGE June 2016 Page 35
Summaryl Agree some situations where suit preference is best. Use as many as
you are comfortable with.
l When you lead a top card and dummy has a singleton, it is a good time to play suit preference.
l When you are giving partner a ruff, suit preference is useful to indicate where your entry is.
l When partner has already given count and has a free choice of cards, this is a good time for suit preference.
l Be careful with the cards you play. There is a danger of giving partner the wrong message.
l Remember suit preference signals are a suggestion not a command. If partner knows what to do, he can ignore you but he had better be right!
l At the end of the evening, you will be more tired because you will have looked at your partner’s cards much more closely than ever before.
worked, he would be boasting about it in the bar afterwards. To avoid this embarrassment, you should play back your highest club. He will now know you haven’t got a big diamond and exit more safely. You have used a suit preference signal not to tell partner to lead a heart, but to warn him off a diamond.
It works with trumps as well
Plenty of hands feature declarer winning the opening lead and setting about drawing trumps. You can use suit preference signals here also. Sometimes your trump pips will be too precious to waste but if you have 7-5-3 it is unlikely that any of them will play a great part, so you can unleash them to tell partner what to do. If declarer plays the ♠A from his hand as his first salvo in drawing trumps, then play the ♠7 to show a card in the higher ranking suit and the ♠3 to show a card in the lower ranking suit.
Next time you are bemoaning your card holding and alleging that the hand records will show you had very bad hands for the evening, remember that even with only small cards, you can play a part in improving your side’s defence. Don’t be one of the defenders, who when asked what his partner’s card meant says, ‘No idea, I didn’t see it.’ ■
play another diamond he makes two diamonds, four spades and four clubs. If you switch to a heart, you take two hearts, four diamonds and a club. Four tricks difference makes it worth looking at partner’s cards.
If you are now in the new-found habit of studying partner’s cards with a magnifying glass, it also follows that you must take care when playing yours. Sometimes, your suit preference signal will stop partner doing something courageous. (You will know if you were a fan of Yes Prime Minister that ‘courageous’ was one of Sir Humphrey’s most damning criticisms).
Partner leads the ♣2 against 4♠ and you see:
NW E
S
♠ A 9 4
♥ A K Q J
♦ J 8 2
♣ Q 7 5
♠ K 8
♥ 10 7 5 3
♦ Q 3
♣ A 9 8 6 4
You win the ♣A and give partner his hoped for ruff and he does what? Of course, by now, you know he is looking closely at your card. One thing you do not want him to do is to underlead his ♦A in the hope of you getting in with the ♦K to give him another ruff. If that
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Everyone agrees that, when dummy goes down, you should make a plan before playing to
the first trick; the trouble is there isn’t much time to do so. Indeed, every lesson I ever give on planning hands is followed by, ‘Great lesson, Ian, but we don’t have time to do all this at the bridge club.’ Hence, at the club, they usually just ‘bash on’ with the play, especially if their bidding has taken a long time and the director is about to call the move. Even at a home game, you can’t take too long or your opponents will get bored and you won’t be invited back.
I sympathise, but you can use your time more effectively. Don’t take too long to bid – if indecision is your problem then dithering won’t improve your choice. Indeed some of the worst bids I have ever seen have been made after interminable thought. If you bid fairly quickly, you have more time to play and can use the extra time to make a plan.
However, if you can practise planning hands at the class when
Planning and Playing in Twosyou have more time and are under less pressure, you are more likely to transfer the skills to the club. After my spoken lesson on ‘planning suit contracts’, my students work in pairs, as I demonstrated in my previous column on Finessing – this time they use wallets, not flashcards, to plan the hand. This needs twice the number of tables, but they get a lot of practice. Believe it not, declarer can play the hand out without defenders, if desired (see later). However, if you get the plan right, the hand plays itself.
Each wallet has a booklet with the contract and lead shown. The North and South cards are taken out of the wallet and put face up on the table, as shown. The East/West hands remain in the wallet with the lead face up. South is always declarer and North is dummy. The booklet has questions and answers about the play. North reads out the questions; South answers and North checks. If an answer is wrong, they discuss till they understand it fully. All four hands are shown inside the booklet. They then swap roles for the next wallet. This technique is ideal for counting losers in suit contracts as the losers are turned side on. It’s primarily a ‘teach each other’ method and the discussion is incredibly helpful; the students love it as no-one is inactive or bored. It’s so intense that 30-45 minutes is long enough and they are keen to have a tea break. The supervised random hands which follow are actually quite relaxing by comparison.
If desired, declarer can play out the hand using my ‘face up’ method of play. Declarer plays the cards left to right and dummy’s cards are played in the same direction. Winning cards point to partner and losing cards are side on. The cards are left face up and the ‘parallel effect’ gives a record of play, as shown. The EW cards are not
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BRIDGE June 2016 Page 37
Planning and Playing in Twosplayed, but North checks the booklet and informs declarer how suits break and, if defenders win a trick, North says who wins and which card is returned. The ‘play out’ option is very quick as only 26 cards are used and not turned over.
At my supervised play sessions, I sometimes use this ‘face up’ method to show how a hand should have been played when all four hands are faced on the table. Declarer and dummy play their cards under my instruction;
I tell them how the defence will go but the defenders’ cards aren’t played. This
is much quicker and more effective than replaying the whole hand.
The hand shown was a suit contract which was planned by counting losers, but the pairs method can also be used for no-trump contracts by counting winners. This technique is ideal for
hands where the defence have limited options, which is about 40% of my lessons on declarer play. Using the normal method of four at the table, only declarer is really practising the topic, the rest are just ‘making up the numbers’ waiting for their turn ‘to play’. With the pairs method, everyone is fully involved and dummy takes a very active part in the learning process.
I have used this method at hundreds of classes and have yet to find a student who didn’t like it. Try it yourself, it really works.
If you would like a free PDF and /or Publisher copy of my set of booklets on planning suit contracts, then email [email protected]
If you have Publisher, you can delete my hands and use it as a template for your own hands.
If not, you can make your own template in Word using my PDF copy as a guide. ■
should bid 2♥ to the 2♣ Stayman enquiry. My partner and I bid 2NT to the 2♣ enquiry when holding both majors. Is this not generally played here? (I know that the French, for example, use this system). Is there a disadvantage to using this bid (possibly that the stronger hand goes down)?Christine Forbes, Brecon.
A If you are playing a weak 1NT opening, responder might wish
to use Stayman on a weak hand to escape from 1NT before someone doubles. The 2NT reply would then cut across partner’s intentions. In France, a strong 1NT opening is the norm, which might explain the difference in treatment. With the standard replies to Stayman, you can still find a 4-4 spade fit after opener rebids 2♥.
If your methods give responder another bid (a natural 2NT raise or a 2♠ range enquiry for example)
to invite game without promising a four-card major, then using Stayman followed by 2NT promises a four-card major. This is Promissory Stayman, which most people play. If the bidding starts 1NT-2♣-2♥-2NT/3NT, opener should think, ‘why did partner go through Stayman rather than just raising? – I know – partner has a four-card major.’ Opener thus bids the spades knowing of a 4-4 fit.
If responder has no other way to invite 3NT (as tends to be the case for people using four-suit transfers), you need a different approach because you need to combine this with Non-Promissory Stayman. 1NT-2♣-2♥-2NT in that case just shows a raise to 2NT. The way for responder to show a raise to at least 2NT with a four-card spade suit is to rebid 2♠ rather than 2NT after 1NT-2♣-2♥.
♣♦♥♠
QI read somewhere recently that
the uncontested auction 1♥-1NT-2♠ is non-forcing, and opener
must rebid 3♠ to force a reply. Is this true?
If so, do the same restrictions apply to jump rebids: can 1♠-1NT-3♣ be passed?Geoff Simpson by email.
A You might have been looking at an old book.
These days it is normal to play a reverse after a one-level response as a one-round force. 1♥-1NT-2♠ is thus forcing for one round but not to game. Having to jump to 3♠ to create a force would be wasteful. Opener might want room to bid spades twice to show a 5-6 shape or repeat the hearts to show a 4-6 shape.
A jump in a new suit is forcing to game. Responder cannot pass after the 1♠-1NT-3♣ start (unless of course you are playing rubber bridge and have a part score carried forward that means 60 suffices for game).
♣♦♥♠
QMost experts recommend that after 1NT by
South and 2♣ by West
Julian Pottage answers your bridge questions
Responding to Stayman with Both Majors
(showing the majors), when East has 2-3 in the majors he should give preference to his three-card suit.
Now I know that I pick up 5-4 in the majors more often than 5-5.
Given this scenario, is it better not to give preference when 2-3 and let partner play, at worst, in his 5-2 fit rather than the likely 4-3?
The play is likely to end up with declarer being forced, so will 5-2 not play better?Name and address supplied.
A There is a big difference between an uncontested
auction: 1♠-1NT-2♥ and a Landy 2♣ overcall. In the first sequence, you have an idea that the hand with the majors has more spades than hearts. In the second sequence, the hand with the majors might have longer hearts or longer spades. If you bid your shorter major after partner bids Landy, you might find yourself playing with two trumps facing four rather than three trumps facing five.
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 39
QMy chosen bidding system with all partners
is Standard English. I have a valued partner with whom I have had mixed results over two years. At last, it has become clear that his system is Advanced Acol and the conflict is destructive. He ‘knows’ that his system is Acol and is unable to identify the difference with Standard English. There is a drip-feed of costly bidding differences, which is driving both of us scatty. How can I learn what is required to adjust to his system?K Davies, Northfield, Birmingham.
A The book, A Guide to Better Acol Bridge by Ron Klinger could be
just what you are looking for.The alternative, when
you have a difference of treatment on a particular hand, is to discuss it afterwards (at the end of the session). Playing in a club that provides hand records helps, although you can just jot down any hand that you would want to come back to later.
♣♦♥♠
QWhat do you think of our bidding below?
NW E
S
Me Partner
♠ Q J 8 5 ♠ A 10 7 4
♥ Void ♥ J 9 8 7 3
♦ A J 9 3 ♦ K 2
♣ K 9 8 6 3 ♣ A 7
West North East South
Pass Pass 1♥ Pass
2♣ Pass 2♥ Pass
2♠ All Pass
I made 12 tricks on a cross-ruff. Partner said, ‘I passed as you passed as opener originally.’ He thinks I should have responded 1♠ rather than 2♣. I disagree and think you should describe your hand as best you can. On my sequence he knows I have 10 or 11 points, five clubs and four spades. Responding 1♠ straight away gives less information, just 6-11 points and at least four spades.
If I respond 1♠ and partner re-bids 2♥, I can re-bid 2NT, but not sure this is best.
Do you agree with 2♣ first or should I respond 1♠ immediately?Jim Stone, Woodmansterne, Surrey.
A Although I do not feel strongly about it, I would have
gone with your partner’s suggestion of starting with 1♠ – that is if I passed in the first place. 1♠ is the most economical response and so maximises your chance of finding a fit in any suit. If partner rebids in a minor, you can raise. If partner rebids 2♥, you are going to try 2NT.
The hands fitted particularly well – the weak hearts facing the void – something you could not have foreseen easily. Your responder’s reverse would have been forcing had you not passed initially. I would not have passed as dealer, however, with 11 HCP and a void.
♣♦♥♠
QWest is dealer and opens; North, my
partner, doubles (asking me for my best suit). If
East passes, do I have to reply? Some say I must; others say I can pass. The other day, I got caught out having to respond 3♦ over West’s 2♠ opening when I had only four very poor diamonds and a total of five points. The bidding stopped there and we went down badly. My partner blamed me for bidding, the opposition said I had to bid and I thought it was foolish of my partner to ask for my best suit over the opposition’s 2♠ bid. Did I have to bid or not? Mrs V Kelly, Aberdeen.
A If your partner makes a take-out double and the next
player passes, you take out the double regardless of your strength. The only exception is if you have a very good holding in the suit opened and decide to convert the double to a penalty double by passing.
If you have a five point hand with diamonds being your only four-card or longer suit, then yes you do have to bid the suit at the minimum level, whether partner doubles 1♠, 2♠ or 3♠. Your partner should not ask you to bid and then complain when you do so.
If your partner makes a take-out double and the next hand bids, you do not have to bid. With a very weak hand or with length only in the suit opened, you pass. So with the same hand if the bidding went (2♠)-DBL-(3♠) you would pass.
♣♦♥♠
QI wonder whether you can provide a suggestion
as to how to arrive
at a slam contract.
NW E
S
♠ 6 4
♥ A 9
♦ K Q 10
♣ A K 9 8 5 3
♠ A K Q 9 5
♥ K Q 10 8 4
♦ J 8 7
♣ Void
North South
1♣ 1♠
1NT 2♥
3NT 5♥1
Pass1Intended as inviting a slam in
either hearts, spades or no-
trumps.
I have decided that we should play in a slam, the question is in what denomination? 4♥ was passed at the other table.
We had a friendly heart split and made 12 tricks. Perhaps I should have jump bid on my second bid, before agreeing a suit?Andrew Scott be email.
A The way many people play, your 2♥ rebid was not forcing
and thus highly risky with the hand you held. A jump to 3♥ would be forcing and so a better way to continue the auction. With no fit for either major, partner will bid 3NT over 3♥. You must then decide whether to continue with a quantitative 4NT or, as you did, try 5♥.
The best slam is 6NT because you are likely to make 6NT if either major suit breaks kindly. In a suit slam, you are relying on a favourable break in the trump suit.
Page 40 BRIDGE June 2016
I have often wondered why few people have seen fit to write a murder/mys-
tery novel based around a group of bridge-playing fanatics, but now that gap has been filled by Anthea Ingham. Not that bridge per se features a lot and if you expect to find bridge prob-lems to mull over you will be disappointed, for the action takes place in and around a bridge holiday. I have to say that all the protagonists are pretty ghastly people and none more so than Lady Prettyman who meets her maker via a glass of poi-soned whisky. It is left to gay couple Mark and John to get to the bottom of the matter. The suspects include a pair of Welsh ladies with a murky past, a husband and wife and their strange daughter, another couple who earn their money by stuffing de-ceased pets and a predatory female with a truly vicious streak. Nor must we forget a much abused schoolmaster, a retired headmaster and, of course, the departed’s long suffering husband. Throw in the tournament director and some staff from the Ital-ian hotel where the murder takes place and you have an awful lot of suspects!
Although the story line is fairly ridiculous, it is no more so than many of the current paperbacks of like genre with ‘International Best Seller’ emblazoned across their front cover and, in fact, I liked the story and didn’t guess whodunnit, although I most definitely should have. So as far as that goes, I was
Dear Absent Friends by Anthea Ingham
Reviewed by David HuggettNew Generation Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78507-528-5
all in favour, but in the mi-nus column…
There had been no re-search done, as far as I could see, about any actual bridge related matter. These days, you cannot sustain a penalty of -1,500, nor can you hold a bridge hand of 36 points and be missing the ♥K. (You can, but only if you have 14 cards.) I found that sort of thing strange because the stuff about the holiday and how it was run seemed to be pretty well spot on.
Also, I didn’t much care for the racist and homo-phobic remarks that more than one of the characters seemed to delight in and, in these enlightened days, I am surprised that they weren’t edited out. Or perhaps not, for in general the proof reading was pretty bad. Not so awful at first, but later on there were misspelt or in-terchanged words on every second or third page and, quite frankly, it became te-dious. (I do not know who New Generation Publishing are and my friendly man from Waterstones, who knows everything, seemed uncertain too.)
If all this makes it seem that I did not enjoy this book that is far from the truth, for I wanted to catch up on it whenever a few minutes presented themselves and that to me is the yardstick of whether or not I am be-ing entertained. With just a little more trouble taken about the bridge facts and a lot more with the editing, it would have been spot on.■
QPlaying natural openings in the minors,
the bidding proceeds as follows:
West North East South
1♣ 1♠ 1NT
All Pass
South has 14 points with ace to four spades, but only two small clubs.
His partner says this bid signifies 6-9 points. South believes that as an overcall it signifies good points and a stopper in spades.
Who is correct and how should the bidding have gone?
South made 11 tricks.Fred Sleight by email.
A A 1NT response to partner’s opening bid is a
minimum action. Without intervention, 6-9
points is correct. After the overcall, one would pass with 6, so 7-9 or 7 to a poor 10 is the range for 1NT.
So, in answer to your question, neither the player who bid 1NT nor the one who passed it is quite right, though the player who passed it almost is.
With 14 points, responder should either bid game (3NT) or make a negative double (usually showing four cards in the other major) or perhaps bid two of a new suit (typically showing five cards in the suit if it is a major).
♣♦♥♠
QThis is a tale of partners with length
in both minor suits failing to achieve a no-trump contract.
My partner opened 1♦.
I held:
♠ A J 4
♥ J
♦ 9 7 5 2
♣ Q 9 6 3 2
I responded 2♣. Partner supported with 3♣, but my 3♦ completed the auction.
Partner had the hearts stopped and 3NT was made at other tables. Where did we go wrong, please?Rupert Timpson by email.
A Your hand is an awkward strength, a bit good for an
immediate raise to 2♦ and a bit weak for a jump raise to 3♦. I guess this is why you did neither, starting with 2♣ instead. With 8 HCP, including a singleton jack, you bid the full value of your hand – one normally reckons on 9+ HCP for a two-over-response. If you missed game, either it is because the layout was lucky or because partner underbid – I cannot tell which just from your hand.
Playing with myself, your 3♦ rebid would be forcing, showing a hand too strong for an immediate 3♦ raise. The fact that you bid it with such a weak hand and that partner passed indicate that you were not playing it that way. ■
E-mail your questions
(including your
postal address)
for Julian to:
julianpottage
@mrbridge.co.uk
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 41
Improve Your Defence with Andrew Kambites
Frozen Suits In an earlier article, I introduced
Layout A.
NW E
S
Layout A
♠ Q 9 3
♠ K 6 5 ♠ A 10 8 2
♠ J 7 4
I used this layout to demonstrate the ‘Second hand plays low’ principle, showing that if South leads the ♠4 towards dummy, declarer cannot make a trick provided West plays low. Now I invite you to work out how many tricks in the suit each side can make, considering the four cases when North, East, South and West leads the first card. In each case, assume ‘Second hand plays low’. You might find it helpful to do this with a pack of cards.
If North or South start the suit, East-West make all three tricks, provided West’s ♠K neutralises South’s ♠J and East’s ♠A similarly captures North’s ♠Q.
If East or West open up the suit, North-South cannot be prevented from taking a trick. Suppose West leads the ♠5. North plays low and East must rise with the ♠A to prevent South making the ♠J, but then North’s ♠Q will subsequently make a trick.
Layout A demonstrates perfectly the concept that the role of your honour card is to capture an honour card in the hand sitting before you, but there is something even more significant here. Whichever side breaks open the suit concedes a trick. In the
expert game, such suits can often be identified by both sides at an early stage and each side strives to leave the suit alone and force opponents to open it up, sometimes leading to endplays. Because each side avoids it like the plague the suit is called a ‘frozen suit’.
NW E
S
Layout B
♥ 10 5 4
♥ K 8 3 2 ♥ Q 9 6
♥ A J 7
Layout B demonstrates another frozen suit. If North or South play a heart, they are restricted to one trick, the ♥A. However if East or West lead a heart they concede a second trick. Suppose East switches to the ♥6. Declarer plays low and West has to rise with his ♥K to prevent dummy’s ♥10 from winning the trick. Now declarer can finesse his ♥J for a second heart winner. By leading hearts, East has released his ♥Q from its purpose of guarding dummy’s ♥10.
Interestingly, a tiny change transforms Layout B into Layout C, but now the diamond suit is not frozen. Declarer can always finesse twice in diamonds (entries permitting).
NW E
S
Layout C
♦ 7 5 4
♦ K 8 3 2 ♦ Q 9 6
♦ A J 10
Can you see the difference between Layouts B and C? In Layout B, the defenders (East-West) must ensure that their honours capture a lesser honour in the hand before them. In Layout C, there is nothing in the North hand for East’s ♦Q to capture.
There are huge numbers of suit combinations where the suit is frozen. You will never be able to memorise them all so how do you recognise a frozen suit, particularly when you can only see two hands, your own and dummy?
NW E
S
Layout D
♣ J 9 5
♣ Q 10 6 ♣ K 8 3 2
♣ A 7 4
In Layout D, it looks as if the clubs were scattered between the four hands at random. Not surprisingly, it turns out to be a frozen suit. Messy suits with no structure and with the honours and intermediates scattered around the hands are often frozen. For example, if West looks at his own ♣Q-10 and then at dummy’s ♣J-9, he ought to recognise the dangers of switching to a club without necessarily working out the precise details.
At club level, defenders constantly open up frozen suits and throw tricks away. In Example E, West led the ♦Q. Dummy won the ♦A, East followed suit with the ♦4 and South played the ♦2, giving West little clue as to the layout of the missing diamonds. A spade was now led to South’s ♠K,
Page 42 BRIDGE June 2016
won by West’s ♠A. What should West do
next?
NW E
S
Example E
♠ Q 6 3 2
♥ A 10 6
♦ A 8 5
♣ J 9 5
♠ A 7 4
♥ Q 5 2
♦ Q J 9 3
♣ Q 10 6
South North
1♠ 3♠
All Pass
West shouldn’t want to do anything!
A diamond continuation could easily go round to declarer’s ♦K-10 and both clubs and hearts could be frozen suits, indeed the club suit is exactly as shown in Layout D.
There is no urgency for West to do anything: dum-my is balanced and there is no indication that any of dummy’s winners can be used to discard any losers in declarer’s hand. Equally, there is no indication that South has a side suit that will allow discards from dummy. West’s best hope is to let declarer do his own work and hope he struggles to make nine tricks.
West should exit passively with a trump. South has:
♠ K J 10 9 8
♥ J 3
♦ K 10 2
♣ A 7 4
The subsequent play might be complex, but if left to his own devices declarer may well lose a heart, a diamond and two clubs as well as the ♠A. I almost feel that many
club defenders have a mis-placed form of a Victorian work ethic. They feel they have to do something posi-tive for their side. Particu-larly against suit contracts, I defend with a far more pas-sive approach: I aim to avoid giving things away cheaply.
In Example F, West leads the ♣4 against 4♠. Dum-my’s ♣10 loses to East’s ♣J, declarer following with the ♣2.
What should East do next?
NW E
S
Example F
♠ K J 2
♥ 10 5 4
♦ K 5 3
♣ A Q 10 6
♠ 7 6
♥ Q 9 6
♦ A J 6 2
♣4 led ♣ K J 9 8
South North
1♠ 3NT
4♠ All Pass
There is no case for return-ing a club ‘just in case part-ner can ruff’. If partner can ruff he is only ruffing a loser.
If East is tempted into switching to a ‘safe’ heart he should think again. A heart switch is far from being safe, see Layout B.
The clue for East is that he has the ♥Q sitting over dummy’s ♥10. There is nothing in dummy to sug-gest that dummy’s high cards will provide losers in declarer’s hand, so East should aim to give nothing away and return a passive trump. South has:
♠ A Q 10 9 8 3
♥ A J 7
♦ Q 7
♣ 5 2
Please note that if the hearts in dummy were ♥7-5-4 rather than ♥10-5-4, then a heart switch would be safe because there is no honour in dummy for East’s ♥Q to guard.
The saying ‘Lead up to dummy’s weakness’ is a good guideline, but it means real weakness: ♥10-5-4 is not weakness when you hold the ♥Q sitting over it.
Finally consider Example G.
The bidding is the same as in Example F and the ♣4 is led again to East’s ♣A and declarer’s ♣2.
NW E
S
Example G
♠ K J 2
♥ 10 5 4
♦ K 5 3
♣ K Q J 10
♠ 7 6
♥ Q 9 6
♦ A J 6 2
♣4 led ♣ A 9 8 7
A passive trump return is not good enough now be-cause the club lead has set up three club winners in dummy which declarer can use to discard losers in his hand. East needs quick de-fensive winners and has two choices.
East can return a club, hoping for a club ruff. He needs West to have a single-ton club, or maybe a double-ton club with the ♠A.
Alternatively, East can return a heart, despite the danger of opening up a fro-zen suit.
East would then be hop-ing South has:
♠ A Q 10 9 8 4
♥ K 2
♦ Q 10 9
♣ 5 2 ■
JULY 2016
8 GREAT BARFORD CHURCH Village Hall, Great Barford, Beds. £14. Derek Fordham ( 01234 870324 Gill Wilkes ( 01234 870428 [email protected]
17 CHIGWELL RIDING TRUST for people with special needs. Abridge Village Hall, Essex. 1.30 for 2pm start. £12 pp. Duplicate/Chicago available. Mrs M Walker ( 02035 390387
AUGUST 2016
19 ST IVES DAY CENTRE. £15 pp. Village Hall, Hemingford Abbots. Don Moorman ( 01480 463444
SEPTEMBER 2016
8 HUDDERSFIELD PENNINE ROTARY CLUB. Outlane Golf Club, Huddersfield. 12 for 12.30pm. £50 per table (may rise to £52) including lunch, afternoon tea & biscuits. Raffle prizes. Rtn Sam Smith ( 01924 402540 ( 07968 868828 samuelsmith396 @btinternet.com
18 CHIGWELL RIDING TRUST for people with special needs. Abridge Village Hall, Essex. 1.30 for 2pm start. £12 pp. Duplicate/Chicago available. Mrs M Walker ( 02035 390387
OCTOBER 2016
7 ST NEOTS MUSEUM. St Neots Outdoor Bowling Club. £14 pp. Jean Searle ( 01480 212298
14 WESSEX CANCER TRUST Rubber Bridge at Dovetail Centre, Winchester Road, Chandler’s Ford SO53 2GJ. 7pm start. Mrs Christine Pennell ( 02380 791046
READERS’ LETTERSWHY SALLY BROCK?Let me start by saying what a great magazine BRIDGE is. Plenty of interesting and instructive articles, but I don’t think we need to know the minutiae of Sally Brock’s life.
Also, the bidding sequences in her column in BRIDGE 158 leave me, an average bridge player, totally baffled.
I am sure a lot of other people must think the same on both of these matters. John Shingler by email.I originally invited Sally Brock to write a monthly column, as I thought some readers would welcome an insight into the world of professional bridge. In addition to her ‘day’ job, there is a need to be physically, as well as mentally, fit. Bridge at the top is a man’s world. That she, a woman, is able to hold her own is remarkable. So yes, I believe her life is interesting to some of us and I am confident a number of readers agree with me.
Anyway, BRIDGE is a magazine and by definition not everything will appeal to everyone. Likewise, the bridge that she plays with some of her partners is almost unrecognisable from basic Acol and it takes the use of these bidding systems appearing in her column to make just that point.
HAPPY BUNNYThank you for the ‘Better Bridge with Bernard’ CD.
While on board Aegean Odyssey, being part of such
Write to Mr Bridge at: Ryden Grange, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2TH or e-mail: [email protected]
a vibrant social group added much pleasure to my cruise experience. It is like having ready-made friends already on board. I hope to join Mr Bridge again in the future.Mrs Penny Crowe, Cheltenham, Glos.
TRAVEL TIPSMany people possess mobile telephones and tablets which can only be activated by the input of a code; therefore it might be impossible to access your contacts’ details in case of accident or emergency. Write the names, telephone numbers and email addresses of your next of kin onto a piece of paper, photograph it using your telephone or tablet and then set the photograph as your ‘wallpaper’. As soon as your telephone is ‘opened’ this information will always appear on your screen without your device having to be unlocked.Ruth Major, Oldham, Lancs.
CAN YOU HELPAbout 20 years ago, I read a bridge book in which there was a story of a system where you bid one up from the suit you had. For example, opening 1♥ meant you had diamonds. I had thought it was a section in one of the Victor Mollo series, but I cannot seem to find it. Could anyone help me with the name of the book?Richard Martin by email.Email address supplied. ■
BERNARD MAGEEat Denham Grove
near Uxbridge, Bucks, UB9 5DG.
13-16 January 2017£399pp Friday – Monday
£369pp Friday – Sunday
Full Board – No Single Supplement1
Limited places for Thursday night available. £65pp single, £45pp double/twin.
TopicsMORE SIGNALLINGI will be looking at different times when you signal and the messages you might want to give. Using signals in new ways can greatly improve your enjoyment of defence as well as pushing up your scores.
4-4-4-1 HANDSEverybody’s least favourite type of opening hand. I will be going through the methods for choosing the right suit to open as well as coping with responses. As responder you need to be aware of the options and work out your partner’s type of hand. Strong 4-4-4-1 hands can be just as difficult and will be dealt with too.
DRAWING TRUMPSThis seminar sounds straightforward, but we will not be simply drawing trumps, we will be considering the reasons for delaying. Keeping control of trumps is an important part of declarer play. Knowing when to risk leaving trumps out and when not.
FIVE-CARD MAJORSPopular around the world, this method is becoming more popular here. It is not a method I would advocate for club players, however it is important to understand the method as you will need to defend against it.
FUNDAMENTALS OF DEFENCEDefence is by far the hardest aspect of bridge: this seminar seeks to show the building blocks that can start you off on a wonderful journey. If you can get the basics right then the more complicated aspects of defence can follow.
SUPPORTING MINORSMinors as the name suggests are not as important as majors, but we have to bid them and it is important to know your system. Bidding more 3NT contracts will get you better scores, but being able to spot a minor suit slam will put you a cut above.
6 seminar sessions with Bernard2
6 sessions of supervised play3
Contact Mr Bridge to book your place or for further details: ( 01483 4899611Subject to availability 2Filmed 3Not with Bernard Magee
Page 44 BRIDGE June 2016
One of the problems often seen in queries sent to me and run into by directors is that
players use a name of an agreement, convention or system and assume everyone else plays it the same way. When this is not the case, it causes a lot of trouble. Players also misuse names which also causes difficulties.
Consider the system name Acol, whether Benjaminised or not. What is Acol? It is a system that opens four-card majors and three-card minors to avoid rebid problems. These days a majority of Acol players play a weak no-trump, which avoids the rebid problem so minors are also four-card. Another basic part of the system is that a 2 over 1 response, eg 2♣ in response to 1♠, shows at least 8 or 9 points. Within this framework there are many possibilities and it is not possible to assume what else a pair plays. For example, a 2♦ opening might be an Acol 2♦, a strong hand with 8 playing tricks and forcing for one round; or it might be a weak two; or a Benjamin 2♦ showing 23+ balanced or a strong game force; or a Multi 2♦ showing a weak two in a major or various strong hands.
However, there seem to be a growing number of players who describe their system as Acol when it has a different basis. For example, some people play five-card majors, a perfectly viable system, but they call it Acol, which it is not and this confuses opponents. It should just be called five-card majors, or Standard American. Five-card spades is another system (also known as Flint-Pender) that should be called by its own name so as not to confuse. There are also people who play four-card majors, but their 2 over 1 response is much stronger, leading to a totally different approach: they open 1♥ or 1♠
on hands where an Acol player would open 1NT, or 1♣ or 1♦ if not playing a weak no-trump. They should describe their system as natural, or four-card majors, but not Acol.
How about Benjamin? This was a convention designed to play weak twos whilst retaining a method of showing Acol twos. Thus the most important part of Benjamin are the 2♣ and 2♦ openings. There are plenty of other ways to play weak twos, but unfortunately some people think that Benjamin means weak twos, so they call it Benjamin when they play other 2♣ and 2♦ openings. Again, this merely confuses opponents, and is unnecessary. For instance, if you play Acol with three weak twos, it is not Benjamin. Furthermore, it is perfectly possible to play Benjamin with other systems, eg Benjaminised five-card majors.
Do you know what a Lucas opening is? It is a bid of 2♥ or 2♠ which shows a weak hand with five cards in the suit bid, and another suit of at least four cards. Can the second suit be the other major? The answer is that it depends on the pair’s agreements: some pairs allow the second suit to be the other major, some do not. In fact some pairs insist that the second suit should also be at least five cards long. But whichever of these agreements you have, it is still Lucas, and people should not assume opponents play Lucas their way.
Recently, there was a pair who opened 3♥ with 11 points and seven hearts, which was described as a pre-emptive opening. Their opponents accused them of breaking the rules and were quite nasty about it. Why? Because the opponents play that a pre-emptive opening shows a maximum of ten points. This sort of nastiness is
Names of Conventions
David Stevenson answers your Frequently Asked Questions
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BRIDGE June 2016 Page 45
quite wrong, apart from being rude. So long as this pair is playing it as a weak hand with a long suit, their opponents have no right to assume that they are playing it exactly as they would, and should not object because their opponents play it differently.
One of the conventions that causes directors a lot of trouble is Ghestem. Over an opening 1 of a suit, a 3♣ overcall, a cue-bid in the opponent’s suit, and 2NT all show different two-suiters. But which two suits? Again, different people play it different ways, but it is all Ghestem. Some make other slight adjustments, for example, over 1♣ replacing the cue bid with 2♦. But all of them are Ghestem. If someone describes a bid as Ghestem you can-not assume you know which two suits are shown. In fact, every pair who play Ghestem are required to put the de-tails of which two suits are shown by which bid on their system card.
What is the difference between Aspro, Astro and Asptro? All are defences to a 1NT opening showing two suits, one of them a major. Does it matter? Probably it does not matter, but Astro was the original one, where 2♣ showed hearts and a minor, 2♦ spades and another. Aspro followed soon after, where 2♣ showed hearts and another, 2♦ spades and a minor. A lot later Asptro was developed, where 2♣ showed hearts and another, 2♦ spades and another. Some people bid 2♦ if the hearts were longer, some bid 2♣ if the hearts were longer. Nowadays, a lot of people just mix the three names up, but the development of the auction is different in the four cases and it might help somewhat to use the correct name. I should like to propose that we call Asptro where the bid shows the longer suit ‘Long Asptro’, and where it shows the shorter
Names of Conventions
David Stevenson answers your Frequently Asked Questions
suit (for example with five spades and four hearts bidding 2♣) ‘Short Asptro’.
How about Stayman? Surely everyone knows what that means? It means that 2♣ after 1NT, or 3♣ after 2NT, asks for majors, with responses being a major with four cards, and 2♦ or 3♦ with no four-card major. It does not show anything, except the ability to handle any response, and what sort of hand the Stayman bidder has is shown by the next bid. However, a lot of people are taught you have to have game try values to use Stayman. Other people have learnt that it guarantees a four-card major (often called ‘promissory’ Stayman). Many of these players assume that other people play the same way. Similarly what do you respond with both majors? Different people have different ideas: you cannot assume opponents will play your way.
To summarise, each name has some sort of basic approach, but different people apply the details in different ways. Names are fine for system cards, which are often not detailed and quick explanations where a full explanation has not been sought, but players should never assume their opponents play everything their way and if they need to know, they should ask for a full explanation. It is also somewhat embarrassing when a player uses a name of an unusual agreement and the opponent has not heard of it and may not like to say so.
The worst of all is a player who harangues his opponent for not playing something the way he does: not only is it unnecessary, but haranguing is rude and illegal. Furthermore, some people use unsuitable names, like calling their system Benjaminised Acol when it is actually Benjaminised five-card majors; people should be careful to use the correct name. ■
Rovinj is situated on the western coast of Istria in Croatia, the largest peninsula on the Adriatic coastline, a one hour drive from Trieste, 2.5 hours from Zagreb. Boasting a rich, natural and cultural heritage, with beautiful landmarks such as the old town, the Golden Cape Park Forest, protected islands and coastal area.
The climate is warm and semi-dry, with more than four months a year without wind.
Hotel Eden is wedged right between a peninsula covered by a one hundred year old park forest and a quiet cove. The old city centre of Rovinj is just a 20 minute walk away.
Rooms: All rooms are equipped with a direct phone line, LCD SAT TV, mini-bar, safe, bathtub or shower, toilet, hair dryer, balcony, air conditioning/heating. Suites are available, details on application.
Singles: There is a sole occupancy supplement of £11 per room per night. If you are a single bridge player, please do not worry about being on your own. We will always be able to find you a partner and you can always have a game.
Beaches & Pools: The playful curves of the pool offer refreshment in the summer with a salty breeze coming from the natural stone and pebble beach only a few steps away. The vast outdoor pool will cool you down after a day of lounging in the freely available deck chairs.
Terms and conditions apply. These holidays have been organised for
Mr Bridge by Great Little Escapes LLP, ATOL 5933
Details of the bridge programme ( 01483 489961
CROATIA2-16 May 2017Bernard Magee
HOTEL EDEN
ROVINJ
From £1,425 sharing
Page 46 BRIDGE June 2016
Easter MondayBriony and I had planned a day out, with a lot of retail therapy. However, when I wake up, the weather outside sounds foul. It is really windy and rainy – the sort of weather that makes you want to stay inside in the warm, eating hot-buttered crumpets. So we make an instant decision to swap today for tomorrow. That means I must have a session on my exercise bike. I’ve been very remiss with this and need to get back in the habit. The rest of the day we work – mostly trying to drum up numbers for ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ on May 6th. We take a break in the middle of the afternoon to do some cooking: we usually cook on a Monday to last us most of the week.
TuesdayI have an online teaching session with one of my Irish pairs at 8.30am, so there’s no lying in bed this morning. After a couple of hours, Briony is up too and we go to to Bicester Village (a designer retail outlet). We have a nice, though expensive, lunch out at The Farm Shop and both buy a couple of things. Then it’s home for a bit of relaxation (shopping is such hard work!) before I have another teaching session with my other Irish pair. I’m done by 8pm and it’s a bit more TV before Barry and I practise online for an hour or so before saying goodnight in our respective homes.
WednesdayAn exercise session gets me started. Then I sit down in front of my computer. It seems to take me forever to deal with emails these days. My inbox is
full of things that need attention and it can easily take a couple of hours to do nothing much at all. I have my regular session with Richard and Gerry at two o’clock, but it is fraught with problems. Richard is feeling dreadful with man-flu (his words, not mine) and although I eventually do manage to get online, after 45 minutes or so the connection drops and we decided to abandon it. In the evening, I have another online session – this one is with a group of four so I just have to watch and give my opinion from time to time. Unfortunately, this is the most boring set of boards I can ever remember, and it is all about how they should defend partscores. The same defensive lesson recurs: lead whatever you lead, and continue with it – every time you broach a new suit you help declarer.
ThursdayMore exercise bike, though there is a slight glow from knowing that I have actually done my three sessions this week. After lunch, I drive to London and leave my car at Westfield. Then Barry and I drive to the Wimbledon Club to meet up with Heather and Buster for a few hours of relaxed informal bridge. We bid three good slams. This is my favourite (deal in next column).
I open 1♦ as North, Heather overcalls 2♥ and Barry bids 3♣. I have a difficult choice now. I could bid a clear 4♥ splinter, but my hand isn’t that good and the ♥K might not be much use. I decide instead to bid 3♠, emphasising my chunky four-card suit. Barry rebids 3NT (not unexpected) and I bid 4♣. This is just what he wants to hear. If I have a singleton heart, then he is prepared to go for a slam. So 6♣ it is.
NW E
S
♠ A K Q 8
♥ K
♦ K 7 6 3
♣ J 9 8 3
♠ 7 6 3 2 ♠ 5 4
♥ 10 3 ♥ A J 9 7 4 2
♦ A Q J 4 2 ♦ 10 9 8 5
♣ 6 5 ♣ 4
♠ J 10 9
♥ Q 8 6 5
♦ Void
♣ A K Q 10 7 2
Afterwards, we go back to Hammersmith and have dinner with Heather. Our first-choice Thai restaurant doesn’t have room for us, but there are plenty of others to choose from and we are soon settled into an excellent Indian establishment.
FridayAfter some work at Barry’s in the morning I go out to meet my two sons, Ben and Toby, for lunch. I can’t remember getting together with just the two of them before and I’m quite excited about it. We meet in a modern Indian restaurant in Wardour Street, and have a really lovely lunch. Ben’s new baby is due next week so we talk a lot about that, and try to help Toby with some suggestions about how he might find a job. I leave them about 3.30pm and head back to Shepherds Bush. Barry has had a pretty hectic week and so we opt for an evening in rather than bridge at the YC.
SaturdayAfter a lazy morning, we head west along the M4 to see my parents. It’s the
Seven Daysby Sally Brock
BRIDGE June 2016 Page 47
first time I’ve visited them in their new place. Somehow, because I had seen it empty, I am expecting to see it more or less empty, with a few bits of essential furniture – but of course it is cluttered and full of the stuff they had in the old house. It will be a while before they get themselves organised.
We go back to the old place and poke around. In principle, now there is nothing there that they want, it is a free-for-all. We help ourselves to some bits and pieces and then go back to Wadswick Green, where my siblings and their spouses join us for a takeaway. We go back to my brother John’s house for the night. I do love his house which is a barn conversion he designed himself.
SundayAfter breakfast, we drive to the other side of Bath where we have been invited to a private bridge tournament in Chris Dixon’s home, a lovely old farmhouse on the Radstock side of Bath. He keeps sheep and alpacas, and is proud of a couple of two-day-old baby lambs.
This is an individual tournament with quite a decent field. We play four rounds and then stop for an excellent lunch: a whole salmon, cold roast beef, lots of salad, followed by berries and cream. Then it’s another five rounds and we stop again, for tea this time: cheese with celery and biscuits, and hot-cross buns. Then the final four rounds.
Generally, I’m not doing well – I seem to get on the wrong end of quite a few boards. For example, someone opens a perfectly normal weak 2♥ and their partner has a balanced 18-count with four-card support. At my table they bid 4♥ and lose the obvious three tricks, but at the other two tables they get too high. So I lose 27 IMPs. However, things do start to improve towards the end. Taf Anthias wins, but Barry and I are joint second … until they split the tie in his favour!
It’s always a bit difficult playing in an individual, especially when you don’t know a lot of the people. No-one really quite knows what anyone thinks would be forcing. However, this good slam bid by Barry and Patrick
Jourdain, shows that you don’t need anything complicated:
NW E
S
Dealer South Game All.
♠ K 5
♥ 9
♦ A 9 7 6 5 3
♣ Q 9 4 2
♠ 8 4 3 2 ♠ Q J 9 7
♥ 8 7 4 2 ♥ Q J 6
♦ 8 4 ♦ J
♣ 10 8 7 ♣ A K J 6 3
♠ A 10 6
♥ A K 10 5 3
♦ K Q 10 2
♣ 5
Our opponents struggle:
West North East South
1♥
Pass 2♦ Dbl Rdbl
2♠ Pass Pass 3♠
Pass 3NT Pass 5♦
All Pass
South doesn’t have the confidence to bid just 4♦ as he is afraid it might not be forcing. However, even if he does bid 4♦ North doesn’t really have any extras, so it is not clear the slam would be bid.
When Barry is South, this is how it goes:
West North East South
1♥
Pass 1NT 2♣ 2♦
Pass 5♦ Pass 6♦
All Pass
Here North-South are playing strong no-trump with five-card majors and two-over-one, so North has to start with 1NT. When he raises the 2♦ to 5♦, Barry knows he has to have a pretty exceptional hand and is happy to press on to slam. Note that it would be a pretty good contract even if North had not held the king of spades.
For a lot of the day the weather is brilliant and we sit outside enjoying the view for all our meals. However, the drive back is miserable with pouring rain the whole way. I drop Barry off at Heathrow (to catch a tube, not a flight) and then head home. ■
