The Gargoyle Chronicles: Event 3 - Match 8

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Event 3 - Match 8 - Board 6

Board 6
Opponents vulnerable

♠ 10 9 2 ♥ Q 5 4 3 ♦ J 7 4 ♣ K 8 2

RHO opens one diamond. I pass, and LHO passes. Partner reopens with a double. I bid one heart, and partner bids one notrump, presumably showing a strong notrump. I pass, and RHO leads the deuce of diamonds (fourth best).

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

	SOUTH Jack ♠ Q 5 4 3 ♥ A J ♦ A 10 6 ♣ A Q 7 5

West	North	East	South
Christian	Phillip	Floyd	Jack
1 ♦	Pass	Pass	Double
Pass	1 ♥	Pass	1 NT
(All pass)

Since responder won't have much to do on this deal, this would be a good time for West to falsecard on opening lead. So I wouldn't pay too much attention to the deuce against a good defender. However, I am pretty confident that Jack has four diamonds.

I play low from dummy, East plays the eight, and I win with the ten. I can't be sure where the diamond honors are. East might play the eight from queen-eight third to avoid giving me a second diamond trick if I have king-ten instead of ace-ten.

I have two diamonds, three clubs, and one heart. All I need to do is to drive the heart king to come to seven tricks. I lead the jack of hearts. West takes the king, and East follows with the seven.

West leads the king of diamonds, settling the question of where the diamond honors are. (I suppose West might lead the king without the queen in an attempt to drill an entry into his partner's hand. But how would he even know his partner has the queen?) West has shown up with eight high-card points. If West is balanced, as seems likely, he has four to six additional high-card points, leaving East with three to five.

I play low from dummy, and East follows with the five. I see no gain in winning this trick. The opponents can't cash enough tricks in spades to beat me. So I duck.

West shifts to the jack of clubs. If West wanted to defend passively, he could just play another diamond. He must be looking for a source of tricks. He is hoping to find his partner with ace-fifth of clubs and plans to take one heart, one diamond, one spade, and four clubs. There was no point in switching to a club on the previous round, since he needed one diamond to come to seven tricks.

What can I conclude about West's hand? For one thing, he is missing a spade honor. I know that because he thinks I have it. His partner could not have the club ace unless I had at least four high-card points in spades. How many clubs does West have? The shift is more attractive from jack-ten third than from a doubleton. If he has jack doubleton and his partner has ace-ten-nine fifth, I could always go up with dummy's king to block the suit. But maybe my making a mistake is the only chance West sees. So I don't think I can assume he has three clubs.

I unblock dummy's eight (leaving me the option of playing West for jack-ten or jack-nine doubleton), East plays the four, and I win with the queen.

I have seven tricks. Is there any way to take an overtrick other than bringing home the club suit? There is no danger in playing spades. The defense can take at most three spade tricks. So I might as well try it and see what happens. But I need to unblock the heart ace first before they tangle up my entries with another club play. I cash the heart ace--deuce--four--nine. It appears that either East is giving present count with nine-eight-seven or he is following up the line with ten-nine-seven.

I play the three of spades--eight--ten--jack. East returns the six of spades. Why a spade rather than a diamond? I guess he is desperately hoping that I made a weird play with queen third of spades and that the suit is running. In any event, he must have begun with four spades. He would not block the suit by leading low from honor doubleton. I play the four, and West wins with the king. If my assumptions are correct, West is 2-4-4-3 and East is 4-3-3-3.

East plays the eight of hearts. I take dummy's queen, and East follows with the ten. This is the presumed position, with me still to discard on the heart queen.

	NORTH Phillip ♠ 9 ♥ 5 ♦ J ♣ K 2
WEST Christian ♠ -- ♥ 6 ♦ Q x ♣ 10 x		EAST Floyd ♠ A 7 ♥ -- ♦ x ♣ x x
	SOUTH Jack ♠ Q 5 ♥ -- ♦ A ♣ A 7 5

I have two ways to make eight tricks. I can (A) pitch a spade and run clubs, or I can (B) pitch a club and drive the spade ace. If my construction is correct, it doesn't matter what I do. So I must assume my construction is wrong. Specifically, I must assume West has one more diamond or one more spade than I think he does. It doesn't matter which.

That makes West either four-two or three-three in hearts and clubs. In the former case, clubs aren't breaking and I must pitch a club and drive the spade ace. In the latter case, East has the good heart and I must pitch a spade and run clubs. Against these opponents, the choice is clear. There is no chance I am wrong about the heart split. A human opponent might try to mislead me about who has the long heart. But Jack would never play seven-nine-ten of hearts and hold onto the six. West must have the heart six, so I pitch a club and drive the spade ace. Making two.

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

West was four-three in hearts and clubs as expected, so either play would have worked. The result at the other table is identical.

Table 1: + 120
Table 2: -120

Result on Board 6: 0 imps
Total: +31 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, October 7, 2012

Event 3 - Match 8 - Board 6

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