The Gargoyle Chronicles: Board 18

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Board 18

Unfortunately, I was defender on this deal. The defense was trivial, but the there was an interesting problem in the declarer play. I'm pretty sure I would have solved it given the chance, but I'll never know for sure. It's certainly easier when you know all four hands. In order to give you a chance, I'm going to break with the usual format and present this deal from my opponent's point of view:

Board 18
Opponents vulnerable

	NORTH ♠ K J 5 3 2 ♥ 3 ♦ Q J 8 ♣ A J 9 8

	SOUTH ♠ A Q 8 7 6 ♥ K 10 7 ♦ K 9 6 ♣ 10 3

West	North	East	South
			1 ♠
Pass	2 NT¹	Pass	4 ♠²
(All pass)
¹At least four-card support, gameforcing
²Minimum, no singleton or void

I'm not sure why partner chose two notrump instead of a splinter in hearts, but that's what he did. West leads the four of clubs. You rise with the ace, on which East plays the seven and you play the three. You play a spade to your ace as East pitches the deuce of clubs. How do you play from here?

-----

East's club deuce at trick two was a poor choice, since it clarifies the club position for you. The fact that he is pitching a club at all marks him with either five or six. But pitching the deuce marks him with six. The deuce was the only remaining club lower than the one West led. Once East lets you see it, you know the lead was a singleton.

Obviously, your contract is in no danger. You are simply playing for an overtrick. It seems that your only chance for an overtrick is to score your heart king. East has no conceivable reason to duck the heart if you lead dummy's singleton. But if West has the ace, perhaps you can contrive to get him to underlead it in an attempt to get a club ruff. Lead the king of diamonds at trick three. (Don't lead low, because you want to ensure that West takes the ace if he has it.) If West has both red aces, he now has a chance to beat you if you have queen third of clubs and no heart king. He wins the diamond and underleads his heart ace to his partner's putative king. His partner can then play king and a club. Your only risk in trying this is that you might run into a diamond ruff. But, this would require the opponents to have kept silent with something like

♠ x x x ♥ Q J x x x x x ♦ A x ♣ x

opposite

♠ -- ♥ A x ♦ x x x x x ♣ K Q x x x x

Unless I were playing against Edgar and Norman, I wouldn't worry about it. If the king of diamonds holds, however, I'm not playing a second one. Now the risk of running into a diamond ruff is more realistic.

	NORTH ♠ K J 5 3 2 ♥ 3 ♦ Q J 8 ♣ A J 9 8
WEST ♠ 10 9 4 ♥ A J 9 8 5 ♦ A 7 3 2 ♣ 4		EAST ♠ -- ♥ Q 6 4 2 ♦ 10 5 4 ♣ K Q 7 6 5 2
	SOUTH ♠ A Q 8 7 6 ♥ K 10 7 ♦ K 9 6 ♣ 10 3

Perhaps you think no one would ever fall for this. Out of curiosity, I replayed this board with myself declaring and Jack defending just to see if it would work. It did. Jack duly grabbed the ace diamonds and switched to a low heart. I agree this would never work at matchpoints. But at IMPs, when the opponents are desperately trying to defeat you, you can often swindle an overtrick by dangling a false hope in front of them.

In the actual play, neither declarer found this line.

Me: -420
Jack: -420

Result on Board 18: 0 IMPs
Total: +39 IMPs

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About This Blog

First, a word or two about who am I so you have some idea how seriously to take the advice you find here. I retired from tournament bridge in 1992 (coincidentally, the year my daughter was born). At the time, I had accumulated a little over 5000 masterpoints. I had won numerous regional events and had finished second or third in several national events. Annoyingly, I have never won a national event of any significance. (The qualification is necessary. I did win one national event of little significance.) My best result was second place in the Grand National Teams (with John Lowenthal, Michael Becker, Ron Rubin, Michael Rosenberg, and Brian Glubok). I have theories about why this is, but I won't bore you with them now.

I am still in contact with many of my friends from tournament days. So I still discuss bridge and, occasionally, still write articles for Bridge World magazine, some of which you can find reprinted here: Phillip Martin's Bridge Articles

I have always enjoyed writing about bridge and have, from time to time, considered starting a blog. I think there is a void in the bridge literature that I can make some attempt to fill. Bob Hamman has stated that most people play bridge by asking themselves what they should do. Instead, they should be asking themselves what is going on. Once you figure that out, what to do will often suggest itself. I think he is right about that, and I think bridge literature is partly responsible. Bridge books and articles focus on the unusual and the spectacular. They can get you in the habit of looking for opportunities to shine, which isn’t what you should be thinking about.

The late John Lowenthal, my partner for years, was perhaps the king of doing the unusual, especially on defense. But he always found these plays by being alert to what was going on, not by simply looking for opportunities to do something unexpected. If declarer spurned a finesse John expected him to take or failed to attack a suit that John expected him to attack, John would ask himself why. Frequently, the answer to this question would reveal the entire deal. Then John could be creative and think about finding some way to deflect declarer from the winning line. And, often, he succeeded.

What I am going to attempt to do in this blog is to show by example how one should think about the game. The focus will be on process, not on results. How do you figure out what is going on? How do you try to conceal what’s going on to the opponents? How do you try to clarify the position to partner? These are the skills that separate the expert from the intermediate player more than the ability to execute a backwash squeeze. And, for this purpose, almost any deal can provide material for discussion.

What I propose to do is to play in BBO robot individuals and report on each deal in detail, focusing on the questions I ask myself and how I reach each decision. I will report on each deal, not just the ones I find interesting or instructive. This blog will probably not be of much help to a beginner, but I think it will be instructive for an intermediate player. And my expert friends will finally see what is going on inside my head when I’m in one of my interminable huddles.

I will be South, but, following convention, I will always make South declarer in the diagrams. Thus my reported compass direction may change from deal to deal.

I should point out that not all of my ideas are mainstream. I considered including a catalog of quirks, but I decided that was unnecessary. They will become apparent in due time.

The Gargoyle Chronicles

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Board 18

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