The Gargoyle Chronicles: Board 20

Monday, October 12, 2009

Board 20

Board 20
Both sides vulnerable

♠ 5 ♥ Q J 9 5 ♦ Q J 6 5 4 3 ♣ 5 2

LHO opens one heart, partner bids two spades, pass to me. I pass, and LHO bids three notrump. This doesn't make sense. I shouldn't be looking at queen-jack fourth of hearts on this auction. Three notrump should be based on solid hearts. With a balanced hand good enough to drive to game, LHO should double first. RHO bids four notrump, which the footnote says is Blackwood for hearts. LHO bids five clubs, showing zero or three keycards, and RHO bids five diamonds to ask about the queen of trumps. LHO bids five spades to show the queen of trumps and no kings. I know he's lying about that queen of trumps part. Maybe he's just embarrassed to admit he bid three notrump without it. RHO, discouraged by these developments, passes five spades. If we had any kibitzers, this is where they would all lean forward in their seats and look at each other. I don't think they're going to make this, but they might make five notrump, which is where RHO will probably run if I double. I pass, and partner leads the eight of hearts:

	NORTH ♠ Q J 10 9 2 ♥ 6 3 ♦ K 2 ♣ A K 10 9
		EAST ♠ 5 ♥ Q J 9 5 ♦ Q J 6 5 4 3 ♣ 5 2

West	North	East	South
			1 ♥
2 ♠¹	Pass	Pass	3 NT
Pass	4 NT²	Pass	5 ♣³
Pass	5 ♦⁴	Pass	5 ♠⁵
(All pass)
¹Weak jump overcall
²Ace asking for hearts
³0 or 3 aces
⁴Asking for queen of trumps
⁵Queen of trumps and 0 kings

That was some three notrump bid South produced! Ace-king-ten sixth of hearts, singleton ace of spades, and queen-jack of clubs? I play the jack of hearts; declarer wins with the ace. Declarer plays the seven of spades, which partner covers with the eight, and dummy covers with the nine.

Not only did he not have solid hearts, he didn't even have a spade stopper. Jack's bidding, while not perfect, has been at least reasonable up to this point. This is the first completely bizarre bid I've seen him take. It looks as if partner should be able to take four trump tricks. But it's possible he can be held to three. If partner has four clubs and two diamonds, declarer can strip him down to trumps, then play a heart, which partner ruffs. Dummy is now down to queen-jack-ten-deuce of trumps and partner is on play. There is no way for him to take more than his ace-king of trumps.

Declarer cashes the king of clubs--five--four--seven. Incidentally, it may seem dangerous to give count when partner might have jack fourth. But it's OK as long as both you and partner routinely give false count when holding the jack. What's important is that declarer see the same carding when jack fourth is in front of the dummy as he sees when jack third is behind the dummy. If the hand without the jack cards honestly and the hand with the jack falsecards, you accomplish this. The hand behind the dummy will echo and the hand in front of the dummy will play up the line in both of those layouts. This particular partner probably doesn't know that. But if he did, you could conclude he doesn't have the jack by the fact that he is apparently giving correct count. Declarer cashes the king of diamonds--six--seven--nine. He plays a low diamond--jack--ace--eight.

Now jack of clubs--three--ace??--deuce. What was that? If declarer has queen-jack-third, he just blocked the suit. But if partner has the queen, why didn't he finesse?

Declarer plays another club to partner's queen. So declarer had an even worse hand than I thought. Partner is still endplayed as described above when he eventually ruffs the heart. He can't take a fourth trump trick. But we have the queen of clubs as an unexpected trick, so declarer is down two:

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

I'm not sure why declarer played me for queen doubleton of clubs. Perhaps he thought partner's hand was too good for two spades? If so, I'm inclined to agree. Although it means partner would have played seven--three of clubs from seven-six-three-deuce. That shouldn't matter. He should play his cards randomly when he's not signaling, but most defenders don't. If I were declarer and were thinking about trying to drop the doubleton queen of clubs, seeing West's three of clubs might convince me not to.

The other table reproduced our weird auction, but the play was different. West began with a diamond lead, then hopped with the spade king when declarer led a spade toward dummy. Perhaps he saw the endplay coming and just wanted to speed up the play. Since the defense did not score the queen of clubs at this table, declarer went down only one.

I didn't have much to do on this deal, and that's just as well. The decision I should have been faced with was whether to run from two spades doubled. And I must confess: Had I been presented with that problem, I probably would have gotten it wrong.

This deal convinces me to upgrade to Jack 4.01. I've been playing version 3.02 up to this point. After I install the new version, I reload this deal and rebid it. My new and improved opponent now opens one heart, then passes when two spades is passed around to him. I would have doubled myself, but pass it at least a more understandable choice than three notrump.

Me: +200
Jack: +100

Score on Board 20: +3 IMPs
Total: +57 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

Monday, October 12, 2009

Board 20

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