The Gargoyle Chronicles: Event 3 - Match 3

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Event 3 - Match 3 - Board 6

Board 6
Opponents vulnerable

♠ J 8 7 6 5 ♥ 10 2 ♦ K Q J 6 ♣ A 8

One pass to me. I open one spade, partner raises to three spades, and I pass. LHO leads the king of hearts.

	NORTH Jack ♠ Q 10 9 2 ♥ A 9 8 4 ♦ 7 5 ♣ Q 7 6

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

West	North	East	South
Nathanial	Jack	Marcus	Phillip
		Pass	1 ♠
Pass	3 ♠	(All pass)

I wouldn't make a limit raise with this hand myself. But if partner wants to, I'll take that as a compliment.

I have five losers: a heart, a diamond, a club, and two trump tricks. The only loser I have any realistic chance to avoid is the club. I might be able to establish a heart to pitch my club loser on. (Among other possibilities: West might have king-queen doubleton.) Since I'm unable to draw trumps quickly, however, it may be difficult to manage that, even if a favorable heart position exists. A more likely prospect is to establish three diamond tricks, allowing me to pitch club losers from dummy. Say I lead a diamond to the queen and it holds. I now lead trumps, hoping the opponents fail to find a club shift. (Perhaps West has the jack, which would make a club shift unattractive.) Eventually, I reach dummy with the third round of trumps and lead another diamond. East must duck to avoid giving me three diamond tricks. I now need to guess the clubs (which should be easy once I know how the spade honors are split). If West has the king, I play ace and a club. If East has it, I ruff a diamond with dummy's last trump. If the ace doesn't drop, I ruff a heart to my hand and cash my last trump, squeezing East down to a three-card end position. I can then toss him in with the diamond ace.

I might as well start by ducking the heart. As usual, it is better to let West use his entry now before he knows much about the hand. I play the four of hearts from dummy, East plays the three, and I play the deuce.

East didn't encourage. If he has the jack, it must be jack doubleton. West continues with the five of hearts. It's possible he has king-queen-jack. On the given layout, he could afford to lead the queen from that holding. But if I had two slow losers (say, ace third of clubs), leading the queen might enable me to take my ace and concede a heart, establishing my nine for a pitch. He might decide it's better to lead a low heart, hoping his partner has the ten or hoping I have something better to play for than to duck this to my ten at trick two. If that's what's happened, he got what he hoped for. I'm not desperate enough to duck this trick. I rise with the heart ace. East plays the jack.

I play the five of diamonds--deuce--queen--ace. Not good. West shifts to the ten of clubs. I play the queen, East covers with the king, and I win with the ace. This isn't going the way I planned. I've reached this position. I can afford to lose only two more tricks:

	NORTH Jack ♠ Q 10 9 2 ♥ 9 8 ♦ 7 ♣ 7 6

	SOUTH Phillip ♠ J 8 7 6 5 ♥ -- ♦ K J 6 ♣ 8

Do I have any chances left? The only chance I see is to crash trump honors. Perhaps I can get East to ruff a heart with ace doubleton of trumps, then get West to hop with king doubleton when I lead a trump toward dummy. I doubt very much this will work. But it's better than just giving up.

I cash the diamond king and ruff a diamond with the spade nine. West plays eight, ten; East plays three, four. I lead the eight of hearts. East pitches the three of clubs. I didn't think he was going to ruff. Maybe if I have a heart winner in dummy, he'll ruff that. I pitch my club, allowing West to win with his heart queen, establishing dummy's nine.

West exits with the nine of clubs--six--four. I ruff with the five of spades and lead the diamond jack. West pitches the six of hearts, and I ruff in dummy with the deuce. East knows I have no loser left to pitch on the nine of hearts. so I can't imagine he'll ruff. But what else can I do? I lead the nine of hearts. East ruffs with the three of spades! Yay! One opponent down. One to go.

I overruff with the five and lead the spade six. West plays low. Oh, well. They score their two spade tricks for down one.

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

West knows he needs two trump tricks to beat this. So hopping would make no sense. But then, East's ruff made no sense, and that didn't stop him. It's too bad this didn't work. It would be fun watching the opponents argue about who made the worse play.

Howard Chandross was the master at getting the opponents to ruff when they knew--or should have known--he was trump tight. He even had a name for the play: the Idiot's Delight. I saw him execute it many times when he was short of entries for a trump coup. This is the first time I've seen an Idiot's Delight and an Idiot's Coup in combination.

If they raise only to two spades at the other table, they may buy it. So I'm a little a nervous before we compare. But, once again, the board turns out to be a push.

Table 1: -50
Table 2: +50

Result on Board 6: 0 imps
Total: +1 imp

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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, January 1, 2012

Event 3 - Match 3 - Board 6

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