8 Ever, 9 Never - LM Pairs Semi-Final

If I blindly followed the 8 ever 9 never rule, I would have never gone down 7, and would have almost certainly made the third day of the LM pairs, and wouldn't have this cool story about how my play from dummy at trick 3 was a 7 trick swing. If you pay attention to me on Facebook, you've probably already seen this.

At favorable vulnerability against Hampson and Greco, I picked up
ATx, AJxxx, QJxx, Kx.
It went P-3S to me. Pass I think is the correct call here (and I even thought so at the time) but I bid 3NT anyway. In dummy I found
xx, KTxx, Axxx, Jx.

We have a heart fit but 4H is still almost sure to go down while 3NT can make. If I pick up hearts for no losers and diamonds split with the K onside there are 9 easy tricks and even if LHO has 4 diamonds, it will become a fairly easy endplay with Hampson having to give me a club at the end. So after the S9 lead, I pondered at trick 1 for a minute or so before playing both major suit aces and then a heart to the ten. Greco took his Q and 6 spades and Hampson then ran his clubs for down 7 and -350.

Since I'm going to need the DK onside anyway to make, it is probably better to work on that suit first. I would find that the preemptor had a singleton diamond and then I would be much better positioned to get hearts right. -350 was worth 1.5 matchpoints while +400 would have been 86 on a 90 top.

Against the other top seed we played on Saturday (Bob Hamman and Justin Lall), they bid aggressively and went down a couple in a bad 4H contract and then I picked off their spade fit by overcalling with a 12 count and 4 decent spades instead of passing or doubling. That got us -430 instead of -450 and another good score but not enough to overcome all of the less than stellar things we did.

Philadelphia is a very nice city and I would like to have stayed longer but I have used enough vacation this summer and I don't think I could handle the 10 and 3 start times much longer.

Simple Squeeze With the Count

Here is another of my favorite deals from the Birmingham regional, also in the Sunday Swiss. I was declarer in 6NT with a spade lead. How would you bring this one home? 

Dealer: S Vul: None	North ♠ xx ♥ xxx ♦ Axxx ♣ AJTx
	South ♠ AQx ♥ AKQ9 ♦ Kx ♣ KQxx

The free finesse (which is a wining finesse) gives you the 11^th trick. East had preempted in spades so you kind of knew the spade position anyway. Where is the 12^th trick coming from? If hearts are 3-3, the H9 will be a winner, but is there another place the 12^th trick could come from? Diamonds? Spades?

We already know east has the remaining spades so if he has 4 hearts, he can be squeezed in the majors, but that is very unlikely. If either opponent has 4 hearts and 4 diamonds, that person can be squeezed in the red suits.

First, you have to duck a trick to reduce yourself to 1 outstanding loser. In this case, duck a diamond (or play K and another diamond). Now, only the person who started with 4 diamonds can guard that suit and keep dummy’s small one from becoming good. The position you want to get to is to have A9 left in hand and Hx and Dx in dummy with the lead in dummy. The defenders would still have to hold a diamond honor and 2 hearts with an honor. Given that east started with 7 spades, odds are good that west started with 4 hearts and 4 diamonds.

Dealer: S Vul: None	North ♠ ♥ x ♦ x ♣ A
West ♠ ♥ JT ♦ Q ♣		East ♠ KJx ♥ ♦ ♣
	South ♠ ♥ A9 ♦ ♣ x

Upon cashing the CA at trick 11, east’s hand is immaterial and west cannot guard both diamonds and hearts. For declarer, it is easy: If the diamond is good, cash it at trick 12. If it’s not the boss, play a heart to the A and hope that the 9 is good.

Which Squeeze to play for - never mind, there's only one possibility

Last night I had an interesting play problem in a slam. In 6NT, there are 11 top tricks. How would you plan on getting the 12^th?
 

			North ♠ AK8x ♥ AKx ♦ Ax ♣ Kxxx
			South ♠ Tx ♥ QJx ♦ KT8x ♣ AQJx
	South	West		North	East
	1♦	Pass		1♠	Pass
	1NT	Pass		6NT	Pass
	Pass	Pass

After the lead of the ♥T, I played a spade to my ten and LHO's Q to rectify the count and try to set up a squeeze. Back came a heart, and I then cashed the clubs. LHO discarded 2 low diamonds and RHO ditched a heart. Both followed to the 3^rd heart and to the next 2 rounds of spades, with the ♠J appearing from RHO on the last spade. Under the ♦A, LHO drops the J. Should I now play a diamond to the T or a diamond to the K at trick 12?

In this 2 card ending, I know one opponent has a good spade and there are 3 diamonds out. If RHO has the good spade, the contract is un-makeable because LHO would surely have ♦Qx left. So, we must assume that LHO has the good spade and RHO has 2 diamonds left. The odds are 2 to 1 in favor of him having Qx left rather than xx. With 3 cards out, there are 2 ways he can have Qx but only 1 way he can have xx.

So does this mean that finessing is the right play? Well, no. It's what I did and it took me awhile to figure out that this was clearly the wrong play. LHO wouldn't play the J under the A at trick 11 unless it was his last diamond or if he had only QJ left. And I had a whole count on the hand (except I didn't know for sure who had the remaining spade), so LHO had to have another diamond. Playing the J from Jx left would be giving me an opportunity to finesse that he could prevent by keeping the singleton J. Therefore, the only legitimate line of play was to play for the squeeze where LHO started with ♠Q9xx and ♦QJxx. I'm glad I finally figured that out. I knew it wasn't just a restricted choice available spaces problem but I couldn't figure out why until just now.

Simple Black Suit Squeeze

In our Swiss match against the Granovetters in the Charlotte regional flight A Swiss yesterday, I was fortunate to get to declare this deal. 

Dealer: E Vul: EW	North ♠ Axxx ♥ xxx ♦ x ♣ Jxxxx
	South ♠ K9 ♥ Qx ♦ AKQxxx ♣ KTx

East	South	West	North
2♥	3♦	Pass	Pass
Pass

West, Matthew Granovetter, led the ♥A, then after a couple of minutes continued with the deuce of clubs to Pamela's ace. She cashed the ♥K with west discarding a spade, then continued with the ♥J. How do you play from here?

You can only afford to lose one more trick and that's almost surely going to be a trump because west is a heavy favorite to have 4 or more diamonds. The club finesse is almost sure to lose as well so it looks like a black suit squeeze is in order and should be fairly easy to execute if he has the expected 5-1-4-3 shape.

Ruff the heart low – it can't gain to discard or to ruff high. West over-ruffed and thought for a couple of minutes before shifting to a spade, which I won in hand and then ran trumps. If west doesn't over-ruff, play your top diamonds and throw west in with a diamond. If he leads a club the hand is over; if he leads a spade, win in hand, cash the last diamond, and the ♣K. In either case you come down to the same 3-card ending.

Dealer: E Vul: EW	North ♠ Ax ♥ ♦ ♣ J
West ♠ QT ♥ ♦ ♣ Q		East ♠ x ♥ x ♦ ♣ x
	South ♠ x ♥ ♦ x ♣ T

West cannot hold both the ♣Q and keep spades guarded. When south leads the last diamond, pitch a club from dummy. This is a rather elementary squeeze but it could have been broken up by either repeated spade leads or a club continuation by east at trick 4, after taking the ♥K. It just looks and feels so right to tap declarer, possibly promoting a trump trick for partner.

Hesitation Pseudo Squeeze

Hesitations are things to be avoided as much as possible. This is not only to keep from giving unauthorized information to your partner but also to keep giving authorized information to the opponent. Sometimes you do have a legitimate problem and need to think but being aware of this and possibly anticipating the problem can help minimize the damage.

This deal is an example of a defender hesitating so as to help declarer make a good guess. But there are several other factors to consider before you try to utilize such information. 

Dealer: W Vul: none	North ♠ QJ ♥ xxx ♦ KJxx ♣ KQ9x
	South ♠ T9xx ♥ AKJ ♦ AQxx ♣ xx

West	North	East	South
1♦	Pass	2♦	Pass
3NT	Pass	Pass	Pass

West led her 4^th best club, won with dummy's K. Next declarer played a spade to east's K, then a spade to west's ace, and another low club, won with dummy's Q. Declarer then cashed 2 spades, 1 heart, and 4 diamonds, ending in dummy. After the final diamond, at trick 11, dummy is left with a club and a heart, declarer with ♥KJ, and east clearly comes down to 2 hearts. West, meanwhile, holding the ♣A and ♥Qx, can't help but to hesitate before pitching the heart. An expert player would blank the ♥Q without thought but for a player who wasn't counting declarer's tricks and anticipating this ending, it would be hard to discard a heart at trick 11 in tempo.

Declarer can use this hesitation to help him decide whether to finesse or play to drop the now-stiff ♥Q offside. A hesitation means west has the Q and no hesitation means she does not have it.

On the actual deal, there was no hesitation so I finessed and it was right. Against a good pair, you have to be wary of trying to take advantage of this lack of a hesitation because experts would be more likely to discard in tempo (although you could legitimately take advantage of an actual hesitation in this position).

Also, it is worth noting that on this particular deal to go for the finesse because you're already a trick ahead of the field because east did not return a club when in with the first spade. That defense would always hold it to 3. The defense has allowed you to make 4, which rates to be a very good matchpoint score – taking a winning finesse allows you to make 5 but taking a losing finesse would put you back at making 3. There is more to lose by making only 3 than to gain by making 5. However, there is another thing to consider – that north may be playing 3NT at many tables because north may respond with 2NT or 3NT or south may not rebid 2 or 3NT, and if north declares, east is unlikely to lead a club (from Jxx) so the contract should make 4 fairly easily. Overall, in a decent field, I would expect 600 to be worth 35%, +630 75%, +660 95%. When it was actually played at the club last night, there was one 600, two 630s, and one 660.

AKx opposite x is sometimes worth 3 tricks

Last night at the bridge club, a place I haven't spent much time this month, Joel and I had a pretty bad game, but it was still fun. The fun was probably more due to the Malibu than anything. Here is one of our bad boards and a very interesting hand.
 

Dealer: E Vul: none	North ♠ x ♥ Kxx ♦ A9xx ♣ AK6xx
	South ♠ AKx ♥ AQJx ♦ KQx ♣ 98x

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

3♠ was a splinter and I intended 4NT as a quantitative invite as 4♣, I believe would have been RKC blackwood. Regardless, 5♣ is surely a blackwood response showing 0 or 3 key cards, 5♦ Q ask, 6♣ no ♣Q.

West led the ♣Q and I won the ace in dummy with RHO showing out. Plan the play.

You can count 11 top tricks – 2 spades, 4 hearts, 3 diamonds, 2 clubs - with virtually no chance of picking up a 3^rd club trick, so the 12^th trick will have to come from diamonds or spades. If diamonds are 3-3, it's easy but if not, you have some work to do to potentially set up a squeeze. You might as well start by ducking a club to rectify the count and maybe put some pressure on west. Assuming west does find a spade shift, you proceed to cash all your winners except spades. With the club left to be played, here is the 4 card ending.

Dealer: E Vul: none	North ♠ x ♥ ♦ 9 ♣ Kx
West ♠ Jx ♥ ♦ ♣ QJ		East ♠ QTx ♥ ♦ T ♣ -
	South ♠ AKx ♥ ♦ ♣ 9

West had to hold a club stopper and east must hold the top diamond. Therefore neither opponent can hold a spade stopper. The small spade in declarer's hand will be good to win trick 13.

That's a fairly simple double squeeze. I must say that I didn't give the hand enough thought or maybe I was too tipsy and I tried a different squeeze – the simple squeeze against west having to hold both clubs and diamonds, but that squeeze is much less likely because it would mean east started with 11 major suit cards. So, I went down 1. Despite 33 hcp, no one else reached 6NT but one other pair reached 6♣, down 2, so we still got 1 matchpoint.