Some bridge hands
Posted on April 30th, 2013 in Bridge | 7 Comments »
Online bridge hands go by so quickly, I’m going to start blogging some of my sessions so I can start to learn from my mistakes (and others’).
Hand descriptions will be brief unless they are especially interesting. Links are given for each hand.
I held a flat 8 HCP and did not bid. Opponents bid up to four hearts, W apparently giving no weight to E’s reverse and E likewise ignoring partner’s Delayed Game Raise. On my lead of the diamond Queen, they quickly wrapped up 13 tricks. Five other pairs bid and made six hearts so that was 2.1 IMPs to us.
Our heart fit vs their spade fit was bound to end up with them declaring, especially as we were vulnerable against not. I encouraged partner’s club Ace lead with my Jack and was rewarded with the opportunity to also cash my King and Queen. I was then able to lead my heart Ace for the setting trick but my King was (inevitably) ruffed by declarer. Down one and another 2.1 IMPs to us. Had we gone on to five hearts, we would likely have been down two. In fact four hearts can be made, but you have to finesse the heart Queen which a famous rhyme will tell you not to do (“eight ever, nine never”).
Partner opens 1NT which I assume is 15-17. Holding 10 HCP myself and no four or five card major, I raise immediately to 3NT. After a helpful club lead to West’s singleton Ace, declarer has nine tricks ready-made, but due to some thoughtless discarding by oppponents, he actually makes +2. Almost everyone was in 3NT, but most were making or +1 so 2.7 IMPs to us, but I think we could have been held to nine tricks.
West and partner both pass and East opens a weak two hearts. With a doubleton heart and 16 HCP I double and consider converting partner’s three clubs to 3NT. Trouble is, partner may have been forced to the three level with no HCP at all, and my hearts offer no defense and so I passed. Partner actually showed up with AQxx in hearts albeit only 7 HCP but might have concluded that I had rather more than 12 given that opener has 10 at most and West has offered no support. According to Deep Finesse, 3NT by N should make. If South declares, then West can defeat the contract by leading a heart. There were a lot of contracts including 3NT and partner’s eight tricks in clubs fared poorly, earning us -6.9 IMPs. 2NT is probably a better response than three clubs, keeping us to eight tricks but advertising the good hearts.
Partner opens one club which might only show three cards as we are playing five card majors. With only 8 HCP I nevertheless have to respond and so I show my five card spade suit. West (recklessly?) leaps to four hearts on the basis of seven to the AKQ and a club void, but partner bids on to five clubs. I’m very happy to have Kxx in support and pass, but even though East is passing throughout, West bids five hearts which partner doubles. Generally, penalty doubles of suit contracts should be based on trump length, and partner has only one heart, and we are vulnerable against not, but it all turned out well. Partner bashed out diamond and spade Aces to take the first two tricks, I gingerly encouraged with the spade seven, setting up my Jack when West takes my Queen with the King. West proceeds to draw trumps and then tries to finesse the diamond Queen but I win the trick and score my spade Jack, following which they claim the remaining tricks – down two and 8.7 IMPs to us. Five clubs would have been down one. Partner’s double is presumably based on holding three Aces and assuming I must have a bit of something somewhere to be able to respond at all.
With a new partner, but still bidding SAYC, this time it’s E/W who bid straight from 1NT to 3NT. I lead the diamond ten (top of an honour sequence) and it falls to dummy’s Jack, placing AK with declarer who cashes two rounds of hearts and tries a spade. Partner wins the king and, trying to give nothing away, returns a diamond, but all the rest of the tricks now fall. 6NT should make but the only pair to bid it managed to screw it up somehow. It’s hard to bid a quantitative 4NT in response to 1NT from East though, as partner holds only 14 HCP. What might have inspired bolder bidding from East is the fact that those 14 HCP are almost all in the form of Aces, which means partner’s hand must be rich in Kings and Queens. Still 0.7 IMPs to them though.
Last hand, and finally I get to declare. My weak two diamonds is passed out, partner correctly not fogging the issue with a six card club suit. I duck the King of Hearts lead and wince as West shoots a club through my AQ removing my only club in hand. They cash their spade Ace and try another heart but my Jack prevails (West must have led away from the Queen) and I get to work forcing out the diamond Ace. East wins my Queen and returns a heart which falls to my Ace. Dummy’s club Ace fells East’s King and although East can ruff my club Queen, I can overruff and draw East’s last trump with my Jack. I have two trumps left and give up the last spade tricks. Contract made. Almost everyone played in either two clubs or two diamonds, with a handful at the three level – all failing. Not everyone who stuck at the two level made it and at two tables the hand was passed out so this was a good result for us – 3.8 IMPs.
Not a bad session, +11.8 IMPs to us.
7 Responses
Some comments.
Hand 1: That’s not a Delayed Game Raise.
Hand 2: Under the CA South should play CK, not CJ.
Hand 4: It’s useful to play a convention which allows North on this sort of auction to differentiate between a weak and a strong hand. Not the first thing that would spring to mind in a scratch partenrship, admittedly.
Hand 5: Five Clubs is an enormous flier. So’s the double of Five Hearts, for that matter.
Hand 6: Slam is a bit…well, it needs a bit. 3NT is where you want to be.
Thank you so much for contributing Ian. It’s great to have somebody knowledgeable reading and commenting.
1. Are you sure it’s not a DGR? After W opens 1H, W knows there is a nine-card trump fit and has values for game, especially with the singleton spade, but the direct jump to 4H is generally used to show weak distributional hands, so W instead temporises with a spurious bid of 2C and raises to game in hearts next time. If that isn’t a Delayed Game Raise then what is it?
2. What precisely does it tell my partner if I drop the King instead of the Jack?
4. Any conventions you particularly like which do the job?
5. That’s online Bridge for you…
1. West may have intended to make a DGR on Hand One (which wouldn’t necessarily be my choice but it depends upon what you play) but after his partner’s reverse he’s not doing so. What would West bid on the second round of this auction with x x; Q x x; K x x; A Q x x x? He’d bid Four Hearts, wouldn’t he? Consequently, he can’t bid 4H on the hand he’s got – he’s far too good for that. His planned DGR (and it’s the second bid that makes it a DGR, not the first) is now out the window.
2. The Dropping the K guarantees the Queen (you happen to have the Jack as well, which is all to the good and makes the play a lot safer and more sensible). Playing the Jack shows neither the King nor the Queen. Nor is it particularly wise (in general) to encourage with cards which might come in useful later, although that doesn’t apply here. You have three cards that can (we hope) constitute the first three tricks for our side. Playing the King underwrites that happening.
4. Lebensohl often helps. If you played it, 3C from North would have shown values. In this auction you had no idea whether he had any values or not so had to guess what to do. Opposite a 3C bid that showed values you might have tried 3H, fishing for 3NT, which partner would have bid like a rocket. Opposite a potential 0-count you passed and hoped for the best, there being no incentive for you to do otherwise.
1. I am still confused. Facing an opening bid of 1H, playing 5CM, your hand xx; Qxx; Kxx; AQxxx surely rebids 3H to show the eight-card fit and 10-12 HCP. No point messing around with the five card minor. In the actual hand, West knows 4H is on even if partner is minimum, but Delays the Raise to Game so as not to be taken for a weaker hand with a lot of trumps. Do you agree that the 4H bid would have been a Delayed Game Raise if partner hadn’t reversed? Given that E did reverse, what do you think West should have done? 4NT?
2. Yes, I think I see. The K could also be a singleton of course, but then I still want partner to lead a low club for me to ruff.
4. I’ll look up Lebensohl, many thanks. Unlikely to be of much use with a pick-up partner though, as you already pointed out.
Thanks again for contributing, Ian.
DGRs are much more complex than they at first appear. For instance the auction:
1H-2m-2H-4H is not a DGR, it’s Jump Preference.
If you have a hand suitable for a DGR, for the sake of argument some sort of 3-4-1-5 11 or 12 count, in the auction above you do NOT bid 4H on the second round, you should bid something else, possibly 4D, which would be a cue-bid agreeing Hearts, and would show Heart support, a Club Suit (your first bid) and a Diamond shortage (your second bid).
From what you write it seems that you’re still of the mindset that the first bid from responder is what makes it a DGR. It isn’t, it’s the second one. Until the second one partner doesn’t know what’s going on, and won’t until your second bid. With the first bid you’re planning a DGR, you’re not making one.
With the reverse, in the hand you played, 4H from responder is a massive underbid and might even show a hand worse than the one I gave (and I don’t think that raising 1M to 3M on 3 card support is particularly good practice: you should be able to differentiate between 3 and 4 card raises). Since a reverse over a two-level response creates a game-forcing situation you can just bid 3H and see if partner bids 3S, which should this time be a cue-bid (I’m prepared to admit that in the actual conditions this might well have been a very poor course of action indeed if E/W had never clapped eyes on each other before).
Imagine you’re in West’s shoes. Your partner bids 1H and your immediate thought is “this is good, I’ve got enough to bid game”. But you think you might miss a slam. So you bid 2C. Now partner reverses with 2S, showing a good hand himself. He doesn’t know that you have a good hand with 4 card Heart support. He just knows that you have enough to bid at the 2 level, with Clubs. If you bid 4H you’re saying “I have enough for game opposite your reverse, I prefer Hearts to Spades enough to forget my clubs, and I don’t think 3NT sounds too hot, either, so let’s forget that” That doesn’t correspond with what you thought you’d show with a DGR…
Hi Ian
No, I don’t think the first bid is the Delayed Game Raise. I fully understand that a Delayed Game Raise is a Raise to Game which you have Delayed (and not a bid which you use to delay a raise to game). Your example depicting this supposed Delayed Game Raise from opener’s point of view has cleared this up for me, many thanks.
However, I still stand by my original analysis. I think it likely that responder believes that the bid of 4H is a Delayed Game Raise (quite possibly responder hasn’t even noticed that opener has reversed – this is common online) and that opener hasn’t taken this into account when passing the game level bid.
Tom,
I understand what you’re saying, and as far as divining what’s going on at the table (in so far as it was a table, which of course it wasn’t) you’re probably right, but for opener to have failed to realise that responder has, in fact, misbid, and to then bid on on this assumption, is not something that I would blame opener for not doing!
Yrs, collapsing under a welter of double negatives,
Ian