The Gargoyle Chronicles: Board 54

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Board 54

Board 54 (Click to download pbn file)
Opponents vulnerable

♠ Q 4 ♥ A 10 8 6 ♦ J 9 8 ♣ A Q 7 6

I open one club in second seat. LHO doubles, and partner bids one spade. RHO bids three hearts, which ends the auction. I lead the queen of spades.

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

West	North	East	South
			Pass
1 ♣	Double	1 ♠	3 ♥
(All pass)

Dummy plays the deuce; partner, the nine. Declarer wins with the ace. In my opinion, partner's encouraging spade says nothing about spades. It merely indicates that, from partner's perspective, it looks like a bad idea for me to shift to clubs. Jack, however, plays it as showing a spade honor. That doesn't add up. If partner's spades are headed by the jack-nine, why didn't declarer win this trick in dummy? Based on observations from previous deals, I suspect partner miscarded, playing the nine instead of the jack from jack-ten-nine.

We have chances to beat this. I hope to take two hearts, one spade, and two clubs. We might not get the spade trick if declarer can pitch a spade on a diamond. If so, perhaps declarer will have trouble managing to ruff all his club losers.

Declarer leads the deuce of hearts to the jack, partner playing the seven. He plays the deuce of diamonds to the king, as partner plays another seven. It appears partner is giving count from four, which leaves declarer with a likely 3-4-2-4 pattern. He's shown up with nine high-card points already, so partner is apt to have the club king. That's good, because I'm probably going to have to lead clubs sooner or later.

How will the play continue? Say declarer plays a heart to the king, discovering the bad break. He can then cash two diamonds, pitching a spade. When he tries to ruff a spade or a diamond to his hand, I can overruff and draw his last trump. Dummy is then left with three losers.

Suppose he suspects the four-one trump break and plays for ruffs right away. Ace and queen of diamonds, pitching a spade, diamond ruff with the queen. That looks like a more promising line. I don't know if I can counter that or not, but there's no need to figure that out until it happens. For now, I might as well just muddy the waters by playing the nine of diamonds.

Declarer plays the five of diamonds to dummy's queen as I play the eight and partner plays the three. He then pitches the six of spades on the diamond ace. I'm expecting him to play dummy's last diamond, but he plays a heart to the queen instead as partner pitches the three of spades. My first instinct is to win with the ace and return the ten. Does that work? If declarer wins in dummy and draws my last trump, dummy has four losers. If he wins in dummy and ruffs something to his hand with the trump nine, he establishes my eight. Yes, it works. I win and lead the heart ten. Down one.

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

Can declarer make this? Let's back up to the point where he led a heart to the queen.

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

What happens if he ruffs a diamond with the queen of hearts in this position ? If I overruff with the ace and return the ten of hearts, declarer can either draw my trumps and lose two clubs and a spade or ruff a spade and lose two clubs and another heart. Either way he makes his contract. Suppose I don't overruff. Then he plays a spade to the king and ruffs a spade. Now I overruff and play three rounds of clubs, tapping dummy. Dummy is endplayed, and I have to score two more trump tricks for down one. I probably analyzed those lines in the wrong order. It's usually wrong to overruff with a natural trump trick, so I should have tried that first.

In the replay, the auction is the same. The play is the same (except for the false count signal in diamonds) up to the point where West wins with the heart ace. Then, for some reason, West decides to put his partner to the test by cashing the club ace before shifting to the ten of hearts. Declarer wins in dummy, cashes the spade king, then plays a club. If East sleepily hops with the king, declarer can score two trump tricks and make this. But East is awake. He plays the jack. West overtakes and plays his last trump. Down one for a push.

Me: +100
Jack: +100

Score on Board 54: 0 IMPs
Total: +134 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

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Board 54

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