King of the Miami Endplay

I saw several interesting declarer play problems this week in club games. The ones that I made more tricks than I should aren't as memorable as the ones I went down in. While I often make excellent declarer plays, I have successfully executed several Miami endplays lately.

Dealer: S Vul: Both	North ♠ AKQx ♥ xx ♦ Q8xx ♣ ATx
	South ♠ x ♥ AQJx ♦ AJx ♣ J9xxx

South	West	North	East
1♣	Pass	1♠	Pass
1NT	Pass	3NT	Pass
Pass	Pass

First off, this is an interesting bidding problem. There are major flaws with any way you choose to bid the south hand. I think opening 1♣ and rebidding 1NT is best lie, but I really wanted to open 1♥. I wish I was playing canape as this hand would be great for a 1♥ opening. In 3NT, west led his 4th best heart (which was the 6 and the 5 was still unseen) to east's 10 and my Q. How would you play from here?

Not wanting another heart lead through my tenace so soon, I opted to cross to the ♠A and take a losing diamond finesse. In retrospect I think leading a club to the 10 is right because that's the suit is reasonably likely to produce 4 tricks via a double finesse and even if both club honors are off, east may not have a third heart. West thought for awhile after winning the ♦K, guessed well not to play his partner for the ♥J and led a low spade. I won this, crossed to my ♦A, and now played a club to the 10. This lost to the Q and east led a heart to the T and dummy's Q.


The fact that east did not return a heart implies that he has a 4th spade and another entry, presumably the ♣K. I cashed the ♦Q with everyone following. I cash the long diamond, seeing 2 heart discards from the opponents (both higher than the opening 6 so it is still not clear whether the opening lead was from 4 or 5) Now I have 9 tricks - 3 spades, 2 hearts, 3 diamonds, and 1 club. How might get a 10th? Or better yet how can I turn that into 8 tricks?


With 7 tricks in the bag, I am left with ♠x ♥3 ♦- ♣AT in dummy and ♠- ♥AJ2 ♦- ♣x in my hand. At this point I am convinced that east has the protected ♣K left so finessing the club again or trying to drop the club K is out. If clubs are coming in for one loser, I've already lost ground to the field by not attacking clubs earlier so I kind of have to play for both clubs to be offside now.

If west started with ♠Jxxx ♥Kxxx ♦Kxx ♣xx, I can endplay him by cashing the club and playing the last spade.
If west started with ♠xxx ♥Kxxxx ♦Kxx ♣xx, I can endplay him by cashing the club and ducking a heart.
If west started with ♠Jxxx ♥Kxxxx ♦Kxx ♣x, I can endplay him by throwing him in with a spade, and whether or not I cash the club first doesn't matter.

If west's original hand was something else (3 or more clubs), which I've decided is highly unlikely, I can surely make 4 by either finessing or dropping KQ tight with east.


I opted for the first line, playing west for 4-4-3-2 distribution. When I led the spade, east claimed the last 3 tricks with 2 spades and the ♣K for down 1. West actually had hand #2 so cashing the ace and ducking a heart would have gotten me most of the matchpoints for making 4.


Note that only line #3 is safe - no possible distribution can result in being set. The worst case scenario for exiting dummy with a spade before cashing the club is that east takes 2 spades and then you have 2 aces for the last 2 tricks. Line 2 risks going down when east has a heart high enough to hold the trick and 2 more spades.

Here was an interesting defensive problem a pair of experts had against me in the Sunday Swiss in Greenville last week. I'm glad they got it wrong.

Dealer: S Vul: NS	North ♠ A93 ♥ A64 ♦ Q5 ♣ K9863
		East ♠ 752 ♥ K872 ♦ K6 ♣ AT74

South	West	North	East
1♠	Pass	2♣	Pass
2NT	Pass	4♠	Pass
Pass	Pass

Defending against 4♠ at imps, you are east and your partner leads the ♥J. You win the K. What now? What inferences can we make about the hand so far?

For lack of anything better to do at this point and no current danger of your diamonds going away, you return another heart. Declarer wins in hand and then plays the ♣J, partner contributing the 2.  What’s going on now? What hasn’t declarer drawn trumps yet? You duck the club to try to get a better idea of what is happening before you have to make another decision, but declarer continues with the ♣Q, partner following with the 5. This time you take the ace. What do you lead now? Why?

Declarer obviously isn’t worried about getting overruffed in clubs but he was sure in a hurry to set up the club suit. Could partner be able to trump a heart? No, that would give declarer 4 hearts and he surely would have bid 2♥ instead of 2NT. Partner and declarer are out of clubs but can it be right to try to give partner a trump promotion by leading another club? Let’s construct a few possible hands for declarer. There are just enough outstanding high cards for partner to have the ♦A.

♠KJTxx ♥Qxx ♦Axx ♣QJ. If declarer has this hand (or pretty much any hand with the ♦A), the contract is unbeatable. Leading a club might help partner score the Q but that won’t be enough to defeat the contract.

♠KQJTx ♥Qxx ♦Jxx ♣QJ. If declarer has this hand, you must cash diamonds now or at least one of them will go away on clubs. Of course, leading a diamond risks giving up an overtrick when declarer has the first hand. At imps you need to play the ♦K to have any chance at defeating the contract. At matchpoints this is a much more difficult play to make, as holding them to 4 may well be the best you can do while letting them make 5 would be worth almost no matchpoints.

Splinters Abound

This was my first time attending the regional in Greenville - strange because it's so close. I was pleasantly surprised at how well attended it was but I guess I shouldn't have been. Greenville is one of the nicest cities I've been to, particularly downtown, where the tournament was held.

David Coberly and I played in the A/X pairs Saturday and the field was stronger than I am used to seeing in the pair game. I guess that's mostly because there wasn't a full KO starting that day. Sunday we played the Swiss with the Sherwoods. I must say, I played some fine bridge both days on all but about 2 boards. David played well, too, with the exception of most of Saturday afternoon.

Part of the way through the evening session of the pair game, I thought we might win the event after having a 46.62% afternoon session, but we got several averages and one or two average-minuses in the last 3 rounds and only had a 61.33% the 2nd session.

Sunday was fun and had a doozy of matches after lunch. The team of Jerry Helms, Bill Wisdom, and the Joyces was the weakest of our final 3 matches, which we nearly blitzed. Then after being blitzed by the Fireman team including a pair of Poles and Seamon-ShannonCapp we got Meckwell, Allan Graves, and Curtis Cheek the last round. Somehow we came out with 15 out of 20 VP against them to win X and finish 4th in A.

Here is one of our team's worst boards of the day but a fascinating one.
Well, the actual hands aren't so important as the auction.

East	South	West	North
1♦	Pass	1♥	2♣
4♣	4♦	5♥	6♣
X	Pass	Pass	Pass

South, one of the Polish experts, got his lead directing bid of 4♦ in so we kind of knew that they were getting a diamond ruff at trick 1 against a heart contract. We were also off a spade trick so 6♥ shouldn't make. At the other table, south didn't make a lead directing 4♦ call and EW bid 6♥, which is ice, once the diamond ruff is avoided. North would never lead a diamond at trick one from Qxxx unless told to via a lead-directing bid or a lighner double, and I'm not sure lightner would apply to this auction anyway. The opponents had a 12 card club fit - partner had splintered in the suit I was void of! The only defensive tricks we had were the major suit aces so +200 at our table was the best we could do. However, -1430 at the other table was good for losign 15 imps. More hands to come soon.

Penalty double with 4 points

Since I have some extra time tonight (because I'm directing the Wednesday night game in Macon), I'll post another interesting hand from yesterday.

Joel got to do something you don't see much - make a penalty double at the 2 level with 4 high card points. He held: Jxx, Jx, xxx, QTxxx. With both sides vulnerable in 3rd seat, the auction was: 1H-P-P-X; XX-2C-X-P; P-P. The double of 2C is unquestionably a penalty double. My XX announced a huge hand and what more could you want to double 2C. Granted, the opponents could have bid diamonds and perhaps escaped a double but I might have been able to double 2D. I'm not sure. I held AQxx, AKQxx, ATx, x.

Trying to avoid a finesse

At the club last night, Joel and I bid this 33 hcp spade slam and unsurprisingly, I was the only person who made only 6.
 

Dealer: N Vul: EW	North ♠ QJx ♥ QT ♦ AKx ♣ Kxxxx
	South ♠ AKT9xx ♥ AJ9x ♦ Q ♣ Ax

West	North	East	South
—	1♣	Pass	1♠
Pass	1NT	Pass	2♦
Pass	2♠	Pass	3♠
Pass	4♠	Pass	4NT
Pass	5♦	Pass	5♥
Pass	6♣	Pass	6♠
Pass	Pass	Pass

In our auction, the 1NT rebid showed 15-17, 2♦ was artificial game forcing, 3♠ was a slam try, 4♠ said “I hate my hand,” 4NT was RKC, 5♦ showed 1, 5♥ asked about the Q, 6♣ showed ♠Q and ♣Q and tends to deny the ♥K (5NT would have shown it and the ♠Q). West led a diamond. How would you play this hand?

You can guarantee making 6 by just drawing trumps and taking a heart finesse for an overtrick. That also leaves open the possibility of ruffing out 1 club (making 7 when spades are 2-2 (40%) giving you a late entry to dummy and clubs are 3-3 (35%) giving you a 3^rd discard for the last potentially losing heart in hand). This line is 100% for making 6 and will make 7 slightly more than 60% of the time.

Noting that getting a 3^rd club trick is enough to avoid having to rely on the heart finesse, someone not unlike myself might attempt to ruff a club before trumps are all in. This would all be moot if spades were 4-0 because then there definitely would be no entry to the long club.

Anyway, after playing a high trump from hand with both defenders following suit, I planned to play ♣A, ♣K, ruff a club high, go to dummy with a trump and ruff another club high if necessary, and get back to the good club while drawing the 3^rd round of trumps. This line succeeds when clubs are 4-2 either way or 3-3, about 84%. Of course, this line does risk going down when clubs split badly and the heart hook is offside (8%).

LHO trumped the first round of clubs. The heart hook was on so I still made 6 for no matchpoints. Don’t you hate it when you take a superior line of play only to find out that the inferior line would have worked?

Mediocre players would draw trumps in 3 rounds, realize that they can’t set up clubs and get back to them, so they pitch 2 hearts on the diamonds (perhaps realizing that it doesn’t help at all) and then take a heart finesse. Expert players search for a way to make 7 that is better than just drawing trumps and taking a finesse.

Since nearly everyone, even fairly weak players, would reach 6S, the consideration of playing safe to make the contract shouldn’t really be an issue in matchpoints. Playing imps, the 20% extra chance of an overtrick is never worth the 8% chance of an undertrick, especially in a slam where an undertrick will cost 12 imps.

I feel bad

... for all the people who search this blog in hopes of learning about the Montreal relay convention. http://bridgemaniacs.blogspot.com/2010/09/montreal-relay-not-something-ill-be.html definitely had a reasonably accurate description of the Montreal relay but I mostly write about why I don't like it.

There is no doubt that people searching "Montreal relay" directs more traffic to this site than any other search - I guess I'm glad they are finding this blog but i hope they read other things too cause that's definitely not one of my favorite posts.

Coups are Sexier than 3-3 Splits

Here was an interesting declarer problem I faced on the last board of the session last night. It's one any novice would get right because they would just draw 3 rounds of trumps early and be home free with the round kings both onside. However, I had a chance to play for a trump coup instead of a 3-3 break. Here is the deal, with hands rotated for convenience.

Dealer: S Vul: Both	North ♠ AK ♥ AQxxxx ♦ KT ♣ Qxx
	South ♠ Q98xx ♥ x ♦ 97xx ♣ Axx

South	West	North	East
Pass	1♦	X	Pass
2♠	Pass	3♥	Pass
3♠	Pass	4♠	Pass
Pass	Pass

The defense started with A and another diamond, east echoing high-low (standard). Things look bleak. Setting up hearts is pointless because you'll never be able to get back to them after trumps are in. Trumping diamonds in dummy is no good because the AK are really needed to draw trumps. So, I played the ♠AK. West played the T on the second round. I next played a club to my ace, and then took the heart finesse and cashed the ♥A, and led another heart, pitching 2 diamonds. West then cashed the ♣K and led the DQ. After trumping this, I am left with ♠Q9 ♣x and the good ♣Q in dummy. West started with at least ♠Tx ♥KJx ♦AQJxx ♣Kx. If his 13th card is the ♠J, I need to play the ♠Q now but if his 13th card is a club, I need to play a club to dummy so I can score the last two tricks with ♠Q9 over east's ♠J8.

A priori, it is more likely that west started with 3 clubs and 2 spades than 2 clubs and 3 spades because there are more outstanding clubs than spades.
Should I take any inference from the fact that west cashed the K or not? If the defender is actually thinking about the hand and counting it out, yes. Against these defenders, probably not - they probably just thought I might pitch away the rest of my clubs on dummy's hearts. Anyway, it's pretty much a double-dummy hand for the defense. If he taps me in diamonds when I let him in with a heart, he can tap me again when in with the ♣K, thereby forcing me to play for a 3-3 spade split. (If I started with 6 spades, it matters not what the defense does and if my spades are any worse than Qxxxx, I'm always going down so this is the only relevant spade holding). Therefore, the choice not to tap me by playing a high diamond should indicate that spades are 3-3 and he wants to present me with the losing option of a trump coup.