Declaring

Three Strikes

Oct 222002

N/S Vul
IMPs
Dealer: South
Lead: 6

	petit_g Q 10 7 3 K 9 4 2 K 7 5 K 5
picos A 2 10 8 6 A Q 9 8 4 7 4 2		tai2000 K 9 5 4 Q 3 J 10 6 9 8 6 3
	Maestro J 8 6 A J 7 5 3 2 A Q J 10

West

1
Pass
Pass

North

Dbl
3
Pass

East

Pass
Pass
Pass

South
1

Occasionally the opponents have to be taken firmly by the hand and guided to the winning defense.

Today, for instance, finds our hero declaring four hearts after an utterly normal auction. The defenders miss their first chance to defeat the contract by leading a helpful trump, picking up the suit for declarer (in fairness, it’s easy to pick up anyway as the cards lie).

Gee wins with the H7 as East ducks the queen. Let’s think along with declarer: what’s the best hope to go down? A spade ruff is certainly one possibility, so we’ll definitely want to postpone drawing trump as long as possible. There’s also a small chance the diamond ace is offside, and if so, it’s important to make sure that the defenders take all the tricks that they’re entitled to.

Gee rises to the occasion with a diamond at trick 2. West flies the DA, and, mirabile dictu, returns another diamond, spurning a second chance to shift to the spade ace and beat the contract. East follows to the DK, and our hero is in peril, with four trump, a diamond, four clubs and a diamond ruff staring him in the face.

He pulls one round of trump and finds that they break. The suspense mounts. Surely now he can’t…he won’t…he leads a spade. In a subtle point that many STCPs™ would overlook, he leads the spade jack, encouraging West, the likely short hand, to take his honor and untangle the suit for a ruff. West finally gets the message. He continues spades and gets his third round ruff. Off 1. The post mortem is unrecorded, but really, what is left to say?

The Gee-Spot

Oct 182002

N/S Vul
IMPs
Dealer: North
Lead: J

	endplay A 10 9 7 8 6 3 2 K J 9 7 4 —
icerunar 8 K J 5 A 10 6 2 J 10 8 7 4		ralphm 6 5 3 2 Q 9 7 8 K Q 9 6 2
	Maestro K Q J 4 A 10 4 Q 5 3 A 5 3

West

Pass
3
Pass

North
Pass
2

East
Pass
Dbl
Pass

South
1NT
2

Pass

Today we add a new term to the Gee lexicon, although, of course, we have seen the concept many times before. The Gee-spot may formally be defined as follows: The difference, as a percentage, between the optimal line on a contract and Gee’s actual line. Thus the Gee spot always ranges between 0 and 100.

An example may clarify. If Gee takes the optimal line on a contract, then the Gee spot is the optimal percentage minus the gee percentage, or zero, the minimum, in this case, since the two numbers are the same. This is, of course, unusual. If, on the other hand, Gee takes a zero percent line when there is a certain make available, the Gee-spot is 100% (optimal) minus 0% (Gee) = 100%, or simply 100. This, too, is unusual, though not unheard of; one of this week’s hands, for instance, had a maximum Gee spot.

As an exercise, let’s compute the Gee spot on a hand from last month. The optimal line: 99%. Gee’s line: 20%. Thus we have a Gee-spot of 99% – 20% = 79 (dropping the percentage, which is implied). Outstanding!

Yet the Gee-spot is impossible to compute for certain hands, like today’s. Gee ruffs the opening club lead and plays two rounds of trump and shifts to diamonds. The first round is ducked. East shows out on the second round. West takes his ace and leads a third round, ruffed by East, who returns a heart. Now Gee, crucially, instead of drawing the last trump and cashing diamonds, making five, ruffs his other small club and strands the diamonds in dummy by allowing East to ruff in on them with the last outstanding trump. He makes two club ruffs, four trump and a trick in each side suit for down 1.

Sure, the play is disastrous: yet what was the Gee-spot? If we reckon from the first trick, probably very small, since his line usually works when trump break (assuming he shifts to diamonds after two rounds of trump, and again, who knows?) And he was still about 80% to make right up until the moment he ruffed the second club, at which point he became 100% to go down. And if West had defended properly, winning the third diamond and shifting to hearts instead of winning the second and shortening his partner’s trump, again he would have gone down. It’s just too complicated — in this case. But many hands readily lend themselves to Gee-spot analysis, and I urge my readers to employ this useful heuristic.

Dummy Play: Threat or Menace?

Oct 152002

E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: North
Lead: 8

	vcaracci 9 7 5 3 K 7 6 2 10 9 6 4 3 —
aupaleti A 10 2 Q J 5 A Q 7 5 2 7 6		Maestro J 4 A 9 8 4 3 K J A K 10 9
	dkogut K Q 8 6 10 8 Q J 8 5 4 3 2

West

North
Pass
Pass

East
1

Pass

South
3

Pass

Today we reach 4H after an ordinary auction, and the play begins quietly. South leads his stiff diamond. Gee wins DJ hand and plays a low trump, covering the 10 with the jack as North wins the king and returns a diamond. Gee’s king holds as South discards a spade.

At this point two veteran Gee-specs begin to debate whether the hand is, in the argot, Gee-proof:

Spec #1: well, what do you think, gproof?
Spec #2: thk gee is at least even money here with 11 top tricks
Spec #1: can still find a way to go down
Spec #2: nah, no chance

With the battle lines thus drawn, Gee decides there’s no hurry to cash his eleven tricks. He plays the CA, and North ruffs and returns a spade, won with dummy’s ace. West cannot restrain himself; “Gerard?” he asks. No sweat, Gee assures him: “This way I make five, the other way only four.” (To the STCP™ who does not understand how one increases the tricks one takes by allowing an unnecessary ruff of a winner, I can say only, study harder. Maybe someday.)

Even after the ruff, though, declarer can still draw trump and take ten tricks. Pull trump ending in dummy and claim. Gee elects instead to cash the trump queen. Not optimal, I grant, but no problem. Since the hand with the long trump is also marked with the diamonds, just cash the two diamonds and you still make. Gee cashes one diamond, discarding a spade. He then pauses for effect, and makes the key play of leading a second trump, stranding his diamond winner, losing two clubs at the end, going down one, bringing an anguished cry of “Why???”* from his partner, and making an idiot of Spec #2, who — I cannot tell a lie — was me. Gee-proof. Wouldn’t you think I’d know better by now?

*Gee answered, “You made me doubt what I was doing.”

Bones Redouble

Oct 132002

N/S Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead: J

	petit_g J 10 7 6 4 A 6 3 Q 9 2 J 2
icewater A K Q 5 3 2 Q 7 6 5 Q 9 8		justinl 9 8 K J 10 8 4 A J 4 7 6 4
	Maestro — 9 7 5 2 K 10 8 3 A K 10 5 3

West
1

Pass

North
Pass
Dbl
Pass

East
1NT
Rdbl

South
2

Pass

Today, for once, a hand on which Gee’s partner really does sell him down the river. No, really.

Gee, South, at unfavorable vulnerability, makes a reasonable 2C bid over West’s 1S opener and East’s forcing notrump. Double is the other choice, but the awful hearts could easily put you down 500 in 2H against a part score the other way.

Mini-Gee, North, doubles West’s 2S for penalties, which is fine but for the fact that you have to back up bids like that with actual defense. Seaman Lall promptly redoubles, alerting it to the specs as a Bones Redouble. We owe this modern extension of the Bones Principle™ to Ira Chorush. It can be enumerated as follows: When Gee doubles a freely bid contract for penalties, always redouble, relying on a combination of errors in judgment and defense. It will prove to be a profitable action 90% of the time.

Justin’s alert, then, was erroneous, as it was Mini-Gee, not Gee, who doubled. But since the contract is a part score, perhaps we could safely call it a miniature Bones Redouble.

The contract looks to be off 2 on casual inspection, and Mini gets the defense off to a fine start by leading the CJ. Gee cashes two clubs and gives his partner a third round ruff with his lowest club, the 3. I’m not sure what this means in the strange world of Roman carding, but ordinarily it would ask for a diamond shift. Mini takes his ruff, ponders the layout, and leads a low heart.

Now the hand is cold. Simply play the HK and lead another high heart back, discarding a diamond. The second diamond loser goes on the remaining heart, and declarer loses two clubs, a ruff, a trump, and a heart, making 2.

But West, in a fit of generosity, lets the heart run around to his queen, sticking himself in hand and giving the defense another chance. His best chance now is to cash three rounds of trump and throw North in with a fourth round, hoping he will try to cash his HA instead of shifting to diamonds. Instead he plays three rounds of trump and leads a diamond. North plays the 9 and declarer ducks in dummy. Gee now makes his one defensive error of the hand and it’s a beauty: knowing that his partner holds DQ and HA and that a diamond return will always beat the contract, he lets the D9 hold, allowing his partner to try to cash the heart. Sure enough, North, who can also mark his partner for the DK, plays the HA, and the Bones Redouble cashes in for 640.

I apportion blame for this catastrophe 80%-20% N/S. Declarer earns demerits for nearly allowing a cold hand to get away and dummy, Seaman Lall, for an incorrect alert of an unsound redouble. Gee’s sins look minor by comparison, and it’s only fair that he should be the hero every once in a while.

The Master’s Way

Oct 082002

E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead: Q

	pq2 8 7 4 5 3 K Q 10 4 A K 9 7
devil Q 3 Q J 8 7 9 8 5 3 2 5 4		domminae A J 9 6 5 A A 6 Q J 6 3 2
	Maestro K 10 2 K 10 9 6 4 2 J 7 10 8

West
Pass
Pass
2

Dbl

North
1

Pass
Pass
Pass

East
1

Dbl
Pass
Pass

South
2

Pass
3

Pass

Today we are doubly fortunate, with lessons from the bidding and the play. North in first seat opens 1C instead of 1D, for reasons that elude me. East makes a pretty ordinary 1S overcall. Now our hero has a problem. He lacks the strength for a 2H free bid, yet, as we know, it is never correct to make a negative double with a five-card suit, let alone a six-bagger. Passing never enters the expert mind. What to do? Make the free bid anyway. West is happy to defend, and North, too, presciently passes this ordinarily forcing bid. East reopens with a double, and West wisely ignores his diamonds in favor of supporting with Qx of spades. 2S probably makes, but our hero won’t settle for -110. The STCP™ who doesn’t have his bid in the first place pulls in his horns: the expert rebids his suit.

West’s double of 3H is not Bones, as some readers may assume. Sure, Gee is declaring, but West has a hand, and has heard an auction, that would prompt a double under normal circumstances. One can argue, of course, that under normal circumstances we would not have heard today’s auction at all.

West leads the SQ, ducked to declarer’s SK. Gee leads the DJ; East wins the ace and cashes two spades, West discarding a club on the second one. Gee ruffs the fourth round of spades with the nine; West overruffs with jack and shifts to a club, won by Gee in dummy as West shows an even count. He leads a low trump, which isn’t optimal but is as good as anything else on the layout. East wins the stiff ace and leads another club. West ruffs and returns a diamond.

Gee leads a trump from dummy, East showing out. Now he hesitates, and hesitates some more, and finally ducks, for -500. The beauty of this play does not lie in the mere fact that he lost the trump count; this can happen to anyone, although to some more than others. It lies in Gee’s absolute assurance that there was more than one trump out. After all, if you had any doubt, since there’s no reason to force the defense to take its “winner” now, wouldn’t you play the HK to be on the safe side? You and I would. That is not the master’s way.

Winner on Winner

Oct 062002

Both Vul
IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: 10

	fun1 J 3 2 10 7 2 10 2 Q J 9 3 2
barkun A 8 5 K 8 6 K 9 5 K 8 7 4		Maestro 9 7 6 A Q J 9 5 4 Q 7 A 5
	NezihG K Q 10 4 3 A J 8 6 4 3 10 6

West

Pass
4

North

2
Pass

East
1

Pass

South
Dbl
Pass
Pass

Today’s auction is bad, brief and without interest. South’s takeout double is dubious, and West’s pass, with trump support and an opening hand himself, is remarkable. After the strange start, however, E/W reaches the same heart game that was played at about 90% of the tables.

Those of you who can’t see how to go down in 4H are underestimating the power of the winner-on-winner play. Gee wins the club lead with the ace and draws trump in three rounds, ending in his hand, and plays a low diamond to the king, which holds. Declarer now has five tricks in, and still holds the spade ace, three good trump, and the top club.

It’s time to go to work. Gee begins to prepare the winner-on-winner by leading a second round of diamonds to the queen, which loses to South’s DA. South continues clubs, and here Gee makes his first extraordinary play by ducking in both hands. North wins the C9 and shifts to a spade, and Gee ducks again. South continues with the SK. Gee wins the SA, and completes the coup by leading a low club off the board, stranding his CK, and ruffing in hand. Two more rounds of trump fail to induce North or South to part with their spades, and Gee loses a spade at the end to go down one.

The astute reader may wonder why I call this a winner-on-winner play. It’s because Gee tosses his good club king on one of the trump winners, lifting the play into the expert class. Had he saved his CK until the end to throw on the spade loser it would have been a comparatively common winner-on-loser play — still unusual, but scarcely, at this level of play, worthy of note.

I Fought the Law

Sep 302002

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: A

	wzheng 10 9 5 Q 10 9 7 3 6 5 3 7 3
xylene A K 5 K 10 9 8 4 2 J 10 5 2		deeper J 7 4 3 2 A 8 6 4 2 A 7 4
	Maestro K Q 8 6 J Q J A K Q 9 8 6

West

2
Pass
Dbl

North

Pass
Pass
Pass

East
Pass
Pass
3

Pass

South
1

Pass

STCPs™ must never bid the same hand twice. Experts, however, may bid the same hand as often as they like.

Gee, South, kicks things off today with a first-hand 1C opener. West overcalls a “weak” 2D, which has the advantage of showing her actual six diamonds and the disadvantage of understating her hand by about an ace and a queen. 2D is passed back to Gee, who holds seven probable offensive tricks and not much defense and makes a reasonable 3C bid. This in turn rolls around to East. She holds two sure defensive tricks and knows clubs are breaking badly. The Law of Total Tricks says to pass in such situations, and that’s what I would do. East wisely chooses 3D instead, giving Gee another chance to bid.

The “Law” is another one of those petty rules that experts can safely ignore. North rates to have two clubs, three diamonds — if East had three she would probably raise immediately — and a defensive trick or two, which means 3D is likely down. In fact 3D makes, even on the best defense of a trump lead and continuation, because of the miraculous trump layout and the fact that E/W bid their hands…eccentrically, let’s say. Sensing the impending danger of -110, Gee once again puts his inimitable table feel to work and bids 4C.

West doubles. The normal result is down 3, but we reach it by an unexpected route. West chooses the worst possible lead of the SA, selling out the spade position for the sake of a ruff with her natural trump trick. She shifts to D10; East goes up with the DA and returns a spade. Gee now makes the key play, shrewdly inserting the SK. Although this is not a zero percent play — it wins in the unlikely event that West led the ace holding the jack — there is, in Gee’s defense, no zero play available. In any case West ruffs, cashes the DK, and leads a third round of diamonds, which Gee ruffs.

Gee can now pull the rest of the trump but with no entry to dummy he must concede another spade and we’re back, again, to down 3.

Ah, Gee! Ah, humanity!

Can’t Have Just One

Sep 262002

Both Vul
IMPs
Dealer: North
Lead: K

	davekent 4 8 6 5 4 3 J 6 5 K Q 6 5
marciam K J 8 6 K 2 Q 9 8 A 9 7 2		janet 10 7 A J 9 7 A 10 2 J 10 8 3
	Maestro A Q 9 5 3 2 Q 10 K 7 4 3 4

West

Pass
Pass
Pass

North
Pass
1NT
Pass
Pass

East
Pass
Pass
Dbl

South
1

Pass

Today we have a rarity in the Chronicles, a normal auction. Gee’s hand is not nearly as bad as some that are opened routinely by experts these days, yesterday’s 1D for instance, and in third seat opening 1S mandatory. North’s 1NT is absolutely standard, as is Gee’s 2S reply. East makes a thin but plausible balancing double vulnerable; E/W could easily have a nine-card fit somewhere. Admittedly West’s penalty pass has a faint hint of Bones Principle about it. Still, it wasn’t alerted, as it must be in that case, and 2S seems a pretty big favorite to go down at least 1.

One can certainly envision this auction at another table. Then there’s the play.

West leads the HK, best for the defense, and continues hearts to East’s ace. A third round of hearts is led, and Gee makes the expert loser-on-loser play of discarding his stiff club, preserving trump control in dummy to ruff the sixth round of hearts. (West also sluffs a club.)

East shrugs and leads another heart. Gee with admirable consistency discards a diamond. (The whole obstinate line markedly resembles the 2HX hand from last week on which Gee achieved sticks and wheels in defiance of any rational expectation. A close comparison of the two will reward the reader.) A club shift brings another small diamond from Gee, as West wins the CA. She shifts to diamonds, East winning DA. Six tricks are in for the defense and no trump have been pulled.

East leads another diamond, and finally, finally Gee gets in with the DK. His low trump is ducked around to East’s S7, and Gee must still lose two more trump tricks to West’s KJx for sticks and wheels. So it turns out that Bones didn’t have very long to wait after all. Which is nice.

Double Dummy

Sep 202002

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: South
Lead: A

	johnjay 10 9 3 Q 6 A Q 10 7 Q J 10 8
renchau A 8 5 K 10 7 5 3 9 K 9 5 2		tschen K Q J 6 2 2 K J 8 A 7 4 3
	Maestro 7 4 A J 9 8 4 6 5 4 3 2 6

West

Pass
Pass
Pass

North

1
Pass
Pass

East

1
Dbl

South
Pass
2

Pass

Well, it’s been a while.

At first glance it appears that Gee, sitting South, has a couple of alternatives after his partner opens a third-hand 1C and East overcalls 1S. An STCP™ might consider a negative double (pass is a bit chicken, especially non-vulnerable) but experts know that a negative double is always wrong with a five-card major. Of course in this case N/S miss their nine-card diamond fit, but no methods, no matter how sophisticated, can cover all contingencies. Still, it’s too good a hand to pass, so what’s left but 2H? Gee accordingly bids it. This is passed back to East, who doubles for takeout, and West is more than happy to leave it in.

2HX looks to be down 2, but some declarers just can’t catch a break. The defense opens with three rounds of spades, Gee discarding a club on the third round to minimize communication with dummy. The club shift is ruffed, and Gee plays a low trump to the HQ, which holds. Two tricks in, trump ace in hand, and yet it is still possible to go down 5!

The first key play is another trump, on which West shows out, discarding a club. Gee goes up with the ace, leaving West with K107 of trump over declarer’s J9, and leads a diamond, finessing the 10. East wins the DJ and and plays a spade. At this point South can still scramble a trick or two by discarding diamonds, but Gee ruffs with the H9. West overruffs with H10, pulls declarer’s last trump, and the defense cashes four black suit tricks and the long trump. 1100.

Gee manfully shoulders responsibility for the result in the post mortem.

Spec #1: EW makes 4H!!!
Spec #1: stix and wheeeeeeeels
Spec #2: oh well only 1.6 imps
Spec #2: 12.6
Spec #3: kaboom
G: I am not playing well any more
Spec #1: not playing well?????
Spec #3: go figure
Spec #4: any more?
Spec #5: now that was dbl dummy
G: let’s make this our last ok?
Spec #6: g-man strikes again
Spec #1: it takes great effort to bid that 2H
Spec #2: the operative words “not playing well”
johnjay: ok
Spec #7: the bid was ok then???????
Spec #4: sounds like
Spec #8: yes, but the play wasn’t

I kind of missed the logo. Didn’t you?

Subset, Superset

Sep 172002

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: 5

	rfische J 10 9 8 2 Q 10 8 6 2 Q A 9
ralphm K 6 5 A 8 2 K Q 7 6 4 3 2		Maestro A 7 3 5 4 3 A K 10 9 7 6 3 —
	pru Q 4 K J 9 7 J 5 4 J 10 8 5

West

2
2
3
Pass

North

Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass

East
1

South
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass

There are intricacies to zero percent theory that have yet, in this column, gone unexplored. What shall we call a line that makes against a particular layout, when there is another line available that makes against a superset, as we computer types say, of that layout? How about a line that wins against a particular, improbable layout when there’s a line that wins against every single layout no matter what? You need Venn diagrams for some of this stuff.

Today Gee, East, winds up declaring an excellent 5D contract after a rather inelegant auction. 2C is presumably game forcing, so after the 2D rebid, showing a minimum, West has no reason not to rebid his clubs. 5C may be the best contract, and even 6C is possible against the right minimum, something like Ax xx AKxxxx Jxx.

Against 5D South leads the trump 5. Gee plays the deuce from dummy and wins the queen with the ace. Time to plan the play. Not much to plan: the hand is 99 and 44/100% cold. Cross to the HA and run the CK, discarding a heart. If it holds you ruff a heart and make 5. If South wins and continues trump, you have no trump losers and the spade disappears on your good club, making 5. If she plays anything else you ruff a heart in dummy (the 8 will force the jack, so an overruff again disposes of the potential trump loser) and pull trump, making 5. If North covers you ruff, ruff a heart, cross to your hand with a spade and pull trump, making 5. This fails only if one defender began with three trump and nine hearts, in which case we might have heard something about it in the bidding; or if North holds all six clubs and South holds three trump.

At the table Gee wins the trump king and promptly slaps down another high trump. This line succeeds whenever trump are 2-2 and the CA is onside, for about 20%. This does not, however, come to pass, and Gee winds up down 1.

After the hand Gee graciously congratulates South on her “good lead.” “Yes,” West chimes in, “it makes you guess.” It makes you guess. Are post mortems contagious? I refer this question to my medical authority.

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