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Youth Pairs - Session 1 - 5th July, 2008
Here are the Hand Analyses from the afternoon session, with links to related articles and Bridgeopedia archives from previous Wednesday Games. For example, on Board 2, Declarer's line of play is influenced by recalling the auction and placing the enemy cards accordingly. Next to the text for that board you will see a link >>BRIDGEOPEDIA: “Remembering the Auction”>> which links to hands with a similar theme.
Those who would like to test their bidding skills can follow the link to the Bidding Quiz, which contains 20 bidding problems from this afternoon's hands.
What’s the minimum needed to open the bidding with one of a suit? Grandpa needed 13 high-card points (HCP’s), Mom and Dad made do with 12, but the modern style is to open with exciting elevens and even with terrific tens.
Are you familiar with the Rule of Twenty? It’s a useful guideline for evaluating borderline hands. Add your HCP’s to the length of your two longest suits, if the answer is 20 or more then the hand is (usually) worth an opening bid. Here, North has 11 HCP’s, 5 Spades, and 4 Hearts, that’s 11+5+4 “Rule of Twenty” points, so worth an opening bid. The basic concept is simple enough, the more distribution you have the fewer HCP’s you need. So, with a 5-5 hand, you’ll need just 10 HCP’s to qualify using the Rule of Twenty. Conversely, if you have an ugly 4-3-3-3 distribution with 12 HCP’s you can pass and make Grandpa proud.
Next, look at the hands from the E-W point of view. The opponents have bid and raised Spades, and yet E-W have the balance of the points. If E-W are to avoid a bad board they must get into the auction. Whose job is that? That East fellow who has 13 HCP’s, or West who has just 10? In these cases, it’s usually the player with shortness in the enemy suit who must make the extra effort to compete, and so it is here. East has a nice hand but nothing to say over 1♠ … no suit worth bidding and not strong enough to overcall 1NT. West has only 10 HCP’s and the opponents are already up to 2♠, but even so he is the one who must venture into the auction. A Takeout Double is required. Yes, it’s sub-minimum point-wise, but that perfect shape dictates action. If West feebly passes, East’s only sensible choice is to pass also.
Now you are in the East seat. Partner doubled 2♠ for take-out, and you decided not to take a shot at 3NT, instead passing and trying for a juicy penalty. It’ll be less juicy if you find the wrong lead, what would be your choice? Not a Spade, that will surely blow a trick. Leading an Ace without the King to back it up is not usually a good idea, and this deal illustrates that point. The A♥ opening lead will save Declarer a guess in the Heart suit, and the A♦ lead will allow Declarer’s King to score an undeserved trick. By a process of elimination, the lead that stands out is a Club, and that sets the contract two or three, depending on Declarer’s Heart-guessing skills. Even if Declarer guesses the Heart right, +300 for E-W will probably be a good board, we don’t suppose that many E-W pairs will score +400 by making 3NT with their paltry combined 23 HCP’s.
An interesting first hand! Advice has been offered on the subjects of opening bids, competitive strategy, and choice of opening lead. Here’s one more piece of advice, and it’s for those Norths who opened 1♠ on 11 HCP’s and then went for -300 or -500 … don’t tell Grandpa!
Assuming the hand is suitably weak, we open Weak Twos with 6-card suits, preempt at the 3-level with 7 cards, and at the 4-level with 8. The exception is in Clubs where there is no Weak Two available, a 2♣ opening being reserved really strong hands. No problem, East’s suit is good enough for a 3♣ bid, all the more at this favorable vulnerability, a situation where it pays to jump into the fray and harass the bad guys.
When 3♣ gets passed around to North, she can take one of these two actions: Either, Double for takeout Or, bid 4♣ for the majors. The advantage of doubling is that it will allow N-S to play at the 3-level if that is where they belong. Bidding 4♣ gives the partnership the better chance to play in the right suit, but at the risk of getting too high. We could go either way on this one, but the important thing is to offer South a choice of suits, it would be a clear mistake to bid 3♥ or 3♠ here.
Playing in 4♠, there are the black Aces to be lost. Will Declarer also lose a second Spade trick? All things being equal, the percentage play, after the Q♠ loses to the Ace, is to play for the drop of the J♠. But all things are not equal here. East has length in Clubs and West has Club shortness. Therefore, there’s considerably more space available for the J♠ to be in the West hand. So, remembering the auction (always a good idea!), Declarer will finesse West out of his J♠ and score these tricks: 4 Spades in the North hand Heart ruff in South’s hand A♥, 4 Diamonds and the K♣ That’s 11 tricks for a good board. >>BRIDGEOPEDIA: “Remembering the Auction”>>
E-W stumble into 5♣ in unconvincing fashion, but it turns out to be a good contract. How do you propose to make 11 tricks? Assume the defense cashes a Heart at Trick 1 and shifts to a trump.
Without that trump shift at Trick Two, you could have had some fun, merrily cross-ruffing your way to 11 tricks, scoring 6 trump tricks in your hand, 4 Diamond ruffs on the board, plus the A♠. But the trump shift deprived you of a ruff on the board, so the cross-ruff will no longer provide enough tricks.
No matter, that wasn’t the best line of play anyway! Better for Declarer to play on Spades and give himself a chance of making 12 tricks. So, win the trump shift on the board and take an immediate Spade finesse. That loses, but now Declarer gets home by pitching Diamond losers on the Spades. >>BRIDGEOPEDIA: “Cross Ruffing”>>
Just as on Board 1, North has 11 HCP’s and a 5-card major. On Board 1 we advocated a 1♠ opening (although that didn’t work out very well!), but this hand is by no means an opening bid. First of all, it does not pass the Rule of Twenty, coming to only 19 via 11+5+3. And, looking beyond the arithmetic of points, the hand has some serious defects, such as the rotten Hearts, lack of fillers, and those two dangling minor suit Queens. As 11-counts go, this one is poor indeed.
After North passes, it’s East’s turn to evaluate an 11-count. This one does pass the Rule of Twenty and has some plus features, such as the singleton and the trump fillers. A clear 1♦ opening. And, after West responds 1♠, East should not be afraid to raise on 3-card support. With a Heart ruff or two in the Dummy 2♠ is likely to play well even if it does turn out to be a 4-3 fit.
As North, on lead against 2♠, what would be your choice? Leading away from a King against a suit contract is an aggressive attempt to establish tricks for the defense, but it also runs the risk of blowing a trick. And, the longer the suit, the more the risks outweigh the rewards. So, we won’t be leading a Heart here. Nor will we start out with a Diamond, a doubleton Queen lead is not particularly attractive, all the more so as the suit was bid by Dummy. There’s something to be said for leading a low trump (not the Ace), but our own choice would be a low Club.
Over to West, declaring 2♠ with the opening lead of a low Club. It looks as if Declarer has only 5 losers (2 trumps, a Diamond and 2 Clubs), but it’s not obvious where he might find 8 winners. The defense won’t let him ruff 3 Hearts on the board, and there are not the entries to set up the Diamonds. It’s a difficult hand to play, here’s one obscure but successful line for 8 tricks: Duck the opening Club lead (hoping in vain for a shift) Win Club continuation with Ace Exit a Club Win Heart shift with the Ace Run 9♦ around to South’s Ace Ruff the Heart continuation Cash the K♦, pitching a Heart J♦, ruff with 8, overruffed with A Heart ruffed on the board K♠ is cashed Diamond is ruffed high Heart lost to South’s Queen Declarer’s trump wins last trick Phew! 8 tricks, but it took some good guessing and delicate timing. Going down one is more likely in real life, we would say.
Back to the bidding. With a combined 23 HCP’s, it may seem rather timid for N-S never to make a peep in the auction, but actually they were well out of it. If North overcalls 2♥ (after passing originally), then South will surely compete to 3♥. That is a contract that is destined for down two or three and a bad matchpoint score.
As if to demonstrate further that all 11-counts should not be opened, the computer has dealt North another real stinker. This one is a clear Pass … dull shape, doesn’t pass the Rule of Twenty, and extremely quacky. Not even close to an opening bid. To reinforce the fact that there’s more to hand evaluation than counting HCP’s, compare North’s 11-pointers on Boards 1, 4 and 5.
What does West’s 1♠ bid tell us? Supposedly 5+ HCP’s, but also with no upper limit, so that makes the bid forcing, of course, at least for one round. How many Spades? Yes, the answer to that question is “at least five”, if West had only 4 Spades he would have made a Negative Double.
North’s 2♣ was a support-showing cue-bid, saying “I have at least 3 Hearts and some values”. As North is already a passed hand, those values can be no better than game-invitational.
After all of that fencing around, it seems likely that West will declare the hand in 2♠. Suppose that North leads a Heart. Let’s count Declarer’s losers. Two or three Spades, depending upon whether the J♠ can be picked up … two Diamonds … and also a Club unless the Q♣ and J♣ are both mercifully in the North hand. So, Declarer wins the K♥, and finesses the Spade Nine, losing to South’s Jack. Rats! Now the contract needs a lot of Club luck. Declarer must use his entries wisely. Let’s say the after winning the J♠, South shifts to a Diamond. The Ace is played, and, rather than play on trumps, Declarer must use the A♦ entry for a Club finesse. North might split her honors but to no avail, Declarer will eventually score up 8 tricks. >>BRIDGEOPEDIA: “Entry Management”>>
Just as on the previous board, that 1♠ showed 5+ Spades (with only 4 a Negative Double would be required). East has a pretty good 2♥ raise, wouldn’t you say? It’s not far removed from a stronger action, for more on which please see Board 26.
When 2♥ gets back to North she is reluctant to pass. After all, she does have 9 HCP’s. That gives her side at least half of the points, and you don’t win Pairs events by letting the opponents play in too many cozy low-level part-scores. One small problem, though. She won’t know whether to try 2♠ or raise Diamonds, either could be right. When in doubt, double! When the opponents have bid and raised, and are only at the two-level, it’s not so likely that you’ll need a penalty Double, far more useful to have available a Double which says “I don’t know what to do, Partner, so you decide”. This treatment is all the more useful when in the pass-out position, where there is a premium on keeping the auction alive, one way or another.
East, who was feeling a tad guilty for bidding only 2♥ on the previous round, is delighted to redouble, telling Partner that he has a good hand for that 2♥ raise. The main purpose of the Redouble is to encourage Partner to compete to 3♥ if necessary, or to double the opponents if appropriate.
We wouldn’t fault that Redouble but it does make life easier for South. Rather than guess which minor to bid, South can now pass the buck back to North. How about West’s 3♥? West knew that the opponents were about to find a home somewhere, and he knew that, after they had done so, he was going to bid 3♥. So, with no reason to delay, West bids 3♥ directly, getting quickly to where he wants to be and depriving the opponents of bidding space. Of course, East will not interpret this as a game try, he’ll remember that West was willing to play in 2♥.
After 3♥, North has nothing more to say. Her balancing Double has achieved the desired effect, namely to push the opponents up to the 3-level. So she passes, hoping that N-S can go plus by beating 3♥.
A complex part-score auction, and well bid by both sides. But if the auction was subtle the play is certainly not. Defending against Hearts, N-S can take 4 quick defensive tricks and Declarer claims the rest.
There’s not much to the bidding, this deal is all about South’s opening lead. What would be your choice?
A Spade? We noted back on Board 1 that the lead of an Ace without the King is generally not a good idea. So we are delighted to report that it is fatal to the defense on this board, allowing Declarer to escape with only one Spade loser. And while it’s fine to underlead an Ace against a No Trump contract, doing so against a suit contract is most dangerous, all too often Declarer or Dummy has shortness in the suit and the Ace never scores a trick.
A Trump? A reasonable choice, it looks safe enough, and cutting down on the ruffs in Dummy could be the winning defense on some hands.
A Diamond? If you really had to lead a Diamond it would be the Queen, and that’s another dangerous lead. On the actual hand it gets what it deserves by saving Declarer from having to make a guess in Diamonds.
A Club? A low Club would be another reasonable choice, and one which is suitably rewarded when it turns out to give nothing away.
So there you have it. The sensible leads of a Club or a trump both work well, and Declarer will be down one or two (depending on his Diamond-guessing skills). If South leads the highly ambitious Q♦, then Declarer no longer requires the Diamond guess and will be down by only one trick. Finally, if South is so impatient as to lay down the A♠ on the opening lead, then this gets what it deserves when Declarer is presented with the chance to make his contract (with the right Diamond guess). >>BRIDGEOPEDIA: “Opening Leads vs Suit Contracts”>>
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