BRIDGE CHAT #1

Originally presented by Craig Hemphill on 20 Nov 2009

THIS WEEK’S TOPICS

                        Quote of the Week

                   Quiz

                   When to Lead Trumps

                   Did You See The Squeeze?

                   Open 1NT with a 5-card Major

                   How to Improve your Game

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Drag your mistakes out into the light.  Study them mercilessly.  Make a horrible example of yourself, to yourself.

Don’t alibi your errors. “

P. Hal Sims, “Money Contract,” October 1932.

QUIZ

1)    Who invented contract bridge?

2)    When and where?

3)    What game or games was it based on?

4)    Who invented the point count we use? (4321)

5)    Who was P. Hal Sims?

6)    Who first played a forcing 1C system?

7)    What living player has the most masterpoints in the United States?

8)    Who is the number one rated player in the world?

9)    Who invented the Stayman convention?

The answers are:

1)    Harold S. Vanderbilt

2)    On his yacht in November 1925.

3)    Whist, auction bridge, and bridge.

4)    Bryant McCampbell, St. Louis, Missouri, 1915.

5)    A leading player, winner of incredible numbers of tournaments, adversary of Ely Culbertson.

6)    Harold S. Vanderbilt.

7)    Jeff Meckstroth.  (Mike Passell #2)

8)    Bob Hamman.

9)    George Rapee (Stayman’s partner). Or was it Jack Marx (England)?

LEADING TRUMPS

Lead trumps when it looks like Declarer needs tricks from ruffing.  Examples include:

1)    When Partner passes a Takeout Double

2)    When the opponents are in a grand slam

3)    When responder passes in Opener’s SECOND SUIT

4)    When opener makes a three-suited opening bid (Roman 2♦ etc)

5)    When Declarer’s partner makes a two-suited bid (Flannery or Michaels

6)    When you have the balance of power and the opponents are sacrificing.

7)    When partner bid one suit and you have two others stopped well.  Where are they getting tricks?

Unless one of the above situations applies, don’t lead trumps when:

1)    You have a singleton trump (John Landry says, “there is a special place in Hell for partners who lead singleton trumps.”)

2)    You have a Jack or higher trump.

3)    Dummy has bid a side suit that might be a source of tricks.

Leading Trumps – An Example

Nancy Mitchell West, Craig East

West          North           East           South

                                       Pass          Pass

1♠               Pass          1NT            Pass

2♥               Pass          Pass          Pass

See Rule 3 – lead trumps when Responder passes Opener’s second suit. 

A trump lead (King) permits North to regain the lead and play the ♥Q and a third Heart, preventing any Spade ruffs.  Also, duck the first Diamond.  Down 1. 

Instead, North led a Club.  Nancy won and led the ♦K, and was in control.  Making three, for 10 ½ out of 12 matchpoints.

Not Leading Trumps – An Example

DID YOU SEE THE SQUEEZE?

Just for fun.  This is not a lecture on squeezes, but a basic knowledge and a simple principle can’t hurt.

When you can take all the tricks but one, run your winners.  Somebody might have to make a disastrous discard.

Here is 3-card ending.  North has no good discard on the last Heart.

OPEN 1NT WITH A 5-CARD MAJOR?

In general, NO! You should not!

Too often I have seen bad results when responder has a weak hand and support for the major.  The opponents lead their suit and beat 1NT when you could have made a part score.  It happens over and over and over.

Some hands justify making an exception –

When the suit is weak and all side suits have tenaces, open 1NT.

♠AJ9, ♥95432, ♦AQ, ♣KQ5.          Open 1NT.  They don’t have a suit to run, and your Hearts are nothing to write home about.

♠Q93, ♥AKQ54, ♦J54, ♣KJ.          Open 1NT.  Slow cards outside, honors everywhere, and a virtually running suit.  Not very suit-oriented – too many quacks.

♠Q63, ♥KQJ62, ♦K7, ♣KQ6.         Open 1NT.  A strong major suit, a lack of aces, side suits stopped.  This is borderline, and could be bid either way.

My advice – to open 1NT with a 5-card major, all side-suits must have protected honors and the major must be either very weak or very strong.  Then, open 1NT with 15 or a bad 16.  NEVER with 17 and a five card major.  NEVER with a worthless doubleton.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME

Far and away, HAND EVALUATION is the single most important aspect of the game that you can improve by yourself. 

Evaluation does not depend on system.

Evaluation does not depend on partnership understandings.

Evaluation reduces overbidding.

Evaluation is the perception of what is possible.

Evaluation is the perception of what is risky.

Hand evaluation at bridge is an appropriate subject for an entire lecture SERIES.  In the meantime, here are some useful tidbits:

-                           An Ace is worth more than 4 “points”

-                           Queens and Jacks are worth less than 2 and 1 points

-                           Honors work better in combination

-                           Demote singleton honors

-                           Demote two honors doubleton (AK, AQ, AJ, etc)

-                           Add one point for four Aces

-                           Subtract one point for no Aces

-                           Subtract one point for 4333 distribution

-                           Add one point if you have 1-3 HCP in Partner’s suit

-                           If you have three more Aces and Tens than Queens, add a point

There is much, much, more.

Finally, a quotation:

          “Any decent point-count bidding primer teaches you to add a point for all four Aces.  However, many people who learn from such a primer promptly forget this adjustment, along with the warning to subtract a point when you contemplate opening an aceless hand.  Even this adjustment seems too small: I prefer to add that extra point for three Aces.”

Danny Kleinman, “The NoTrump Zone.”