The Gargoyle Chronicles: Event 3 - Match 5

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Event 3 - Match 5 - Board 4

Board 4
Both sides vulnerable

♠ K Q 8 7 4 ♥ K J ♦ A J 7 5 3 ♣ 9

Three passes to me. I open one spade, partner bids one notrump, I bid two diamonds, and partner bids two spades. My rule of thumb is I bid one less on this auction than I would after one spade--two spades. If I would bid game after a single raise, then I invite. If I would invite after a single raise (as on this hand), then I pass. Accordingly, I pass. LHO passes as well and leads the king of clubs (denying the ace).

	NORTH Jack ♠ 10 3 ♥ A 7 6 4 3 ♦ K Q 6 ♣ 7 5 4

	SOUTH Phillip ♠ K Q 8 7 4 ♥ K J ♦ A J 7 5 3 ♣ 9

West	North	East	South
Sam	Jack	Stephen	Phillip
Pass	Pass	Pass	1 ♠
Pass	1 NT	Pass	2 ♦
Pass	2 ♠	(All pass)

East plays the six of clubs. Assuming he's encouraging with the highest spot he can afford, West has the eight. West continues with the three of clubs. East presumably has the deuce--both because West seems to be leading his lowest club and because West would not know the six was encouraging otherwise. So West has king-queen-?-eight-three and East has ace-?-six-deuce. I'm not sure about the location of the jack or ten, but we would have heard from West if he had six semi-solid clubs, so he can't have both of them. Clubs must be either five-four or four-five.

If I ruff this, I'm in danger of being tapped out. Can I plan on using one of dummy's trumps to keep control? How's this for a plan: I ruff the club and lead the king of spades. If it holds, I abandon trumps and run winners, conceding four trump tricks. If the defense wins and leads a club. I discard. If they play a fourth round of clubs, I ruff in dummy, come to my hand and cash the spade queen. If both opponents follow, then they have two trumps left. I lead winners and let them score two ruffs, losing five tricks: two clubs, the spade ace, and two ruffs.

This works as long as trumps aren't five-one. Can I do better? What if I cross to dummy in hearts and lead a spade toward my hand. As long has no one has a singleton heart and a doubleton trump (unlikely on the auction), I don't see how that can be any worse than leading spades from my hand. And it might be better. If East has ace fifth of spades and ducks, for example, I can win and start playing red suits, conceding four trump tricks. I'm not sure what my plan should be if East hops with the spade ace and play clubs. But I don't need to worry about that until it happens. I'm no worse off than if I had led the spade king from my hand. And that's all that matters at this point.

I play the jack of hearts--deuce--ace--five. Now the three of spades--six--queen--deuce. It appears I'm home. The opponents have four trumps, and that's all they can score. At least I think that's true. Let me make sure. What happens if East has all the missing spades? I lead diamonds until East ruffs. Say he ruffs the second one. He then plays a club, and I ruff. I have two trumps left, and East has three. I lead another diamond. East ruffs. We are down to this position:

	NORTH Jack ♠ 10 ♥ 7 6 4 3 ♦ -- ♣ --
WEST Sam ♠ -- ♥ x x ♦ x ♣ Q x		EAST Stephen ♠ A J ♥ x x ♦ -- ♣ x
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ K 8 ♥ K ♦ A 7 ♣ --

East can now cash the spade ace and lead a club, tapping me out. But that's OK provided he's out of clubs. When he ruffs in with his last trump, he must lead a heart. So if trumps are five-one, I need East to have started with only four clubs.

What if trumps aren't five-one? Then I have no problems. If East cashes the spade ace at any point, he draws one of his partner's trumps. And if he doesn't, I can ruff the fourth round of clubs in dummy to avoid being tapped out.

I lead a diamond to the king. West plays the deuce; East, the four. So the opponents don't give routine count. Nice to know for the future. I play the queen of diamonds and a diamond to my ace. West ruffs the third round with the spade five and leads the queen of clubs. East plays the deuce, and I ruff with the spade seven. I lead the jack of diamonds. West ruffs with the jack of spades. I pitch a heart from dummy, and East pitches the heart nine. Dummy is out of clubs, so, rather than offer me a ruff-sluff, West leads the ten of hearts to the queen and my king. I am down to this position:

	NORTH Jack ♠ 10 ♥ 7 6 ♦ -- ♣ --

	SOUTH Phillip ♠ K 8 ♥ -- ♦ 7 ♣ --

The ace and nine of spades are still out. I was prepared to lose a trick to each of them. But if East has the spade nine, I can exploit dummy's remaining trump to make an overtrick. I ruff the last diamond with the spade ten. East overruffs with the ace. If West was 4-2-2-5, East can lead a heart for a trump promotion. Otherwise, I'm scoring my eight of spades. East leads the club jack. I ruff and cash the spade king. Making three.

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

With the favorable breaks, I could have made five spades. In fact, they did make five at the other table. I don't know if the defense failed to tap declarer or if declarer simply took a more a dangerous line. In any event, we lose two imps.

Two imps is nothing to sneeze at in a short match. But I still think I was right to play safely. We stopped at the two level with 23 high-card points between us. They could easily get overboard at the other table, so I shouldn't do anything to jeopardize my plus score.

Table 1: +140
Table 2: -200

Result on Board 4: -2 imps
Total: +5 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

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Event 3 - Match 5 - Board 4

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