The Gargoyle Chronicles: Free Weekly Instant Tournament - October 21

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Free Weekly Instant Tournament - October 21 - Board 1

Board 1
Neither vulnerable

♠ K J 9 8 6 ♥ A 10 2 ♦ A K ♣ A 10 3

Two passes to me. I open with one spade, intending to raise one notrump to two. I don't get the chance. LHO bids four clubs, which is passed back to me.

I can hardly pass, since partner could easily have a hand that will produce game. While I'm not a fan of offshape take-out doubles, they are less of a problem at a high level, since partner is freer to pass the double without a clear direction. Let's hope that if partner bids diamonds, he won't be disappointed with ace-king doubleton for support.

I double, and partner bids four hearts. Everyone passes, and RHO leads the club seven

	NORTH Phillip ♠ K J 9 8 6 ♥ A 10 2 ♦ A K ♣ A 10 3

	SOUTH Robot ♠ 2 ♥ K J 8 6 4 3 ♦ 10 9 7 6 4 ♣ 6

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
			Pass
Pass	1 ♠	4 ♣	Pass
Pass	Double	Pass	4 ♥
(All pass)

If I pick up the trump suit, I have six hearts, one club, and two diamonds for nine tricks. I should be able to find a tenth trick in either diamonds or spades.

How should I play trumps? Since East has at least seven clubs and probably eight, West is a favorite to hold the heart queen. So my best play is a low heart to the king then a heart to the ten. Even if this finesse loses, all is not lost. At least I'll have a trump left in dummy to ruff a diamond with.

I play the heart deuce from dummy--seven--king--five. Now a low heart--nine--ten--club eight. On the heart ace, East pitches the club five.

I'm up to nine tricks. I can set up a diamond trick on most layouts and two diamond tricks on some. The only danger is that East has a small singleton. Is there anything I can do if he does?

Suppose I cash the ace and king of diamonds and East shows out. Now what? The spade ace is surely onside, but setting up the spade king does me no good, since I no longer have a dummy entry with which to reach it. Perhaps I should cash one diamond, then ruff a club to my hand and play a spade. Now I have an entry to the spade king, and I still have two trumps left, so I still have enough entries to my hand to make five if the diamonds behave.

But what if I'm wrong about the spade ace? What if West plays low on my spade play and the king loses to East's ace? Now I'm in trouble. East will tap me and, with only one trump left, I can no longer establish a diamond trick. So I'm down one. It's embarrassing to go down with normal breaks by trying to guard against bad ones.

I could take the position that West will always hop with the ace if he has it and play the jack if he ducks. But if I'm wrong about that and the jack loses to the queen, I again get tapped out and go down. In fact, even if the jack loses to the ace, I could get a poor result. I make four, but if the diamonds lie favorably, declarers who unimaginatively cash the ace and king will be making five.

Cashing only one diamond doesn't seem to be a good idea. Is there another way to handle a bad diamond break? Let's say I cash both diamonds and East shows out. I ruff a club to my hand, ensuring West is out of clubs, then lead the diamond ten. West wins and, if he has the spade ace, he must give me either a diamond trick or the spade king for my tenth trick. So long as West has the spade ace, there is no need to lead a spade toward the king early.The need to retain a dummy entry was an illusion.

I cash the ace of diamonds. East plays the deuce; West, the eight. Maybe I should have cashed one diamond before doing all that thinking. Now that I've seen the eight, I have no further problems. I cash the king of diamonds, and East drops the jack. Good. Now I'm making five. I ruff a club to my hand as West pitches the spade three.

But hold on. Maybe I can make six. I still have two trumps left, so I can afford to lead a spade before driving the diamond queen in case West sees a reason to duck. Actually he might have a very good reason. What if I held a second spade instead of the diamond ten? From West's perspective, this might be the end position.

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

If West hops when I lead a spade, the defense can take only one diamond trick. If he ducks, they get two. It's worth a shot. Let's hope West thinks of this layout.

I play the spade deuce, and West plays the seven. Did this actually work? Or was East overstrength for his pre-empt? I play the king, and East takes the ace. He taps me with a club and I claim eleven tricks.

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

96%! This board should be average. Even if you take "eight ever, nine never" too seriously and cash the top hearts, you still make five. You can ruff out the diamond queen, trading a diamond loser for a trump loser. It's strange that this is such a good result.

Incidentally, I don't care at all for East's four-club bid. He could easily be missing three notrump. Pre-empts are supposed to be bad hands.

2 comments:

niko the wolfOctober 23, 2022 at 4:02 PM
Last diagram has spade in East and West
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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 23, 2022

Free Weekly Instant Tournament - October 21 - Board 1

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