The Gargoyle Chronicles: Challenge Match - Jazlene vs. Phillip

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Challenge Match - Jazlene vs. Phillip - Board 15

I'm up 12 imps with two boards to go.

Board 15
Our side vulnerable

♠ K Q 5 ♥ A K J 10 9 3 ♦ 9 5 ♣ A Q

I open with one heart, and partner bids one notrump. With 19 HCP and a sixth heart, I'm worth driving to game. It's possible that we have only nine winners, making three notrump a better game than four hearts. But I don't know how to find out. With diamonds wide open and the opening lead coming through my ace-queen of clubs, four hearts rates to be better, so that's what I bid. Everyone passes, and West leads the deuce of spades.

	NORTH Robot ♠ A 10 7 ♥ 5 ♦ A 10 8 6 3 2 ♣ 10 5 3
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ K Q 5 ♥ A K J 10 9 3 ♦ 9 5 ♣ A Q

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Robot	Phillip
			1 ♥
Pass	1 NT	Pass	4 ♥
(All pass)

Three spades, five hearts, and two minor-suit aces. Ten tricks should be no problem. Can I make an overtrick? Queen third of hearts might be onside. Or the club king might be onside. Or I might set up a diamond trick for a club pitch.

It would be convenient if I had two dummy entries in spades. If I play the ten of spades and it holds, I can try the heart finesse. Later, I can duck a diamond, then play a diamond to the ace and ruff a diamond. I'll still have the spade ace to get to dummy for my pitch or to take a club finesse if diamonds didn't break.

I play the ten of spades, East plays the eight, and I play the five. Awesome! (I've noticed a lot of people saying "awesome" lately, so I'm trying it out. Not sure I like it. It doesn't fit my persona. I take it back. Change that to "Good." No exclamation point.)

I have my two spade entries. Now for a trump finesse. Five of hearts--eight--jack--queen. A spade continuation will spoil my plan of setting up diamonds. I'll have to win in my hand. Then, when I duck a diamond, they can lead a third spade to knock out my entry. Will West find the spade continuation?

He does. He shifts to the six of spades. I play low from dummy, East plays the nine, and I win in my hand with the king.

West chose to lead a spade from the jack, which means he probably doesn't have a passive lead available in clubs. So he has either the king or the jack of clubs. But if he had jacks in both black suits, he could have chosen to lead either one. By restricted choice, then, his club honor is two-to-one to be the king.

If West has the club king and the long diamond, I think I can squeeze him for the overtrick. Let's say I draw trump and duck a diamond. East must return a spade to kill the dummy entry, else I can simply set up diamonds. After I win the spade in dummy, this will be the position:

	NORTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ -- ♦ A 10 8 6 ♣ 10
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ -- ♥ 9 3 ♦ 5 ♣ A Q

I can now come to my hand with the club ace and finish trumps, squeezing West in the minors.

Of course the club king isn't 100% to be on my left. And the squeeze doesn't have to work if it is. So I might as well run a bunch of hearts before I decide what to do. If it appears the squeeze isn't going to work, I'll fall back on the club finesse.

I cash the ace and king of hearts, pitching a diamond and a club from dummy. Both opponents follow.

On the fourth round of hearts, West pitches the six of clubs. I pitch another diamond from dummy, and East pitches the deuce of clubs. Robots like to pitch count cards, so someone has three clubs and someone has five. That's encouraging. It appears that West might be 4-3-3-3, in which case I have him.

I cash a fifth round of trumps. West pitches the jack of spades. I pitch a club from dummy, and East pitches the three of clubs. If I've read the deal correctly, this is the position, with the lead in my hand:

	NORTH Robot ♠ A ♥ -- ♦ A 10 8 6 ♣ 10
WEST Robot ♠ J ♥ --- ♦ ? ? ? ♣ K x		EAST Robot ♠ x ♥ -- ♦ ? ? ♣ x x x
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ Q ♥ 3 ♦ 9 5 ♣ A Q

I lead the nine of diamonds--four--six--queen. East doesn't kill the spade entry as I was expecting. Instead, he shifts to the four of clubs, so no squeeze is necessary. I hop with the ace of clubs, ruff out the diamond, then return to dummy with the spade ace to cash it. Making five.

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

Hmm. The club king was onside all along. And the club jack. So much for my inference from the opening lead. If East had shifted to a spade at the end, I would have led a club to my ace and played for the squeeze. Making only four.

It's a weird position. Usually the way to force declarer to guess whether to take a finesse or to play for something else is to lead the suit he has the finesse in and force him to commit himself. Here, that's exactly the wrong idea. Leading clubs gave me no way to go wrong.

Jazlene chose a different approach in the auction. You can hear her thoughts on the board at this bookmark at JazPlaysBridge. I'm actually going to listen to the whole video again. I'm curious if Jazlene is one of those people who say "awesome."

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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

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Challenge Match - Jazlene vs. Phillip - Board 15

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