Bidding

This Story Has No Moral

Jul 312002

N/S Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead: Q

	tovak K 7 5 J 5 A 8 7 5 4 3 7 3
esther1 9 6 4 A 10 8 3 2 Q Q J 10 6		Maestro Q 10 8 2 K Q 7 6 — K 9 5 4 2
	icaros A J 3 9 4 K J 10 9 6 2 A 8

West
Pass
1

Pass
Pass

North
Pass
3

Pass
Pass

East
1

Dbl

South
1

Pass

Today Gee, sitting East, opens 1C. South has a very nice 1D overcall and makes it. West has a choice of raising clubs but with her five hearts to the A10 it’s hard to argue with 1H. North raises to 3D, and it’s back to Gee. Some players would consider 4H here with the fine hearts and diamond void. On the layout it goes down 1 with a spade lead (highly improbable), or a spade shift after the CA is knocked out (highly probable). But an immediate 4H might bring 5D from the opponents — it would be difficult for North not to bid 5D and equally difficult for South to double to forestall it — and defending 5D is the only way for E/W to go plus as the cards lie.

Gee, however, bids 3H, and South has a virtually automatic raise to 4D, which is passed back to our hero. West has 1 1/2 defensive tricks, having promised zero, there are two heart losers, and 4D is still ice cold. Perhaps Gee expects West to show up with the HA, the CQ, and a couple of trump tricks (in which case West might have entertained a double of her own). Perhaps it’s takeout. Perhaps…I’m reaching here, anybody have any ideas? In any case he doubles.

So what’s today’s moral? Don’t double with a trump void? Don’t double with no defense? Don’t double? I don’t know. Maybe today’s hand has no pedagogical qualities. Maybe I’m just printing it because I think it’s funny.

Bidding Outside the Box

Jul 302002

Both Vul
IMPs
Dealer: North
Lead: 3

	raquel A 9 8 2 3 A 10 9 8 10 6 5 4
krt K J 5 3 K K 7 5 2 K 9 3 2		behemoth Q 10 7 A 10 9 4 Q 6 3 A Q 7
	Maestro 6 4 Q J 8 7 6 5 2 J 4 J 8

West

Dbl

North
Pass
Pass

East
1NT
Pass

South
4

Pass

Small Time Club Players™ can read book after book on bridge, memorize and routinely apply rule after rule, and never improve. They have no table feel. Today’s hand aptly demonstrates the importance of knowing when to follow the rules, and when to break them.

Our protagonist sits South, with both sides vulnerable, contemplating his action over 1NT with seven hearts to the QJ8 and three worthless doubletons. The STCP™, or even the run-of-the-mill expert, might remember the rule about not preempting vulnerable more than three levels above the number of tricks you expect your hand to take. The South hand could expect to take five tricks — if the heart spots were a little better. So the STCP™ would thoughtlessly apply the rule, and pass; or perhaps, if he was feeling really frisky, show a one-suiter at the 2-level (double, 2C, 2D, 2H, depending on your NT poison).

This shows only what small imagination most players have. Gee leaps into the breach with a 4H call. Now, sure, this turns out to be a disaster on this hand, but before you leap to criticize, remember, his partner happened to show up with two aces. Had his partner been absolutely stone broke, as he had every right to expect, 4HX, instead of going for -1400 against 3NT making 3 or 4, would have gone for -2000 against a cold grand, saving at least 4 or 5 IMPs.

The Zero Percent Bid

Jul 292002

None Vul
IMPs
Lead: 4

	wildcats Q J 8 4 K J 10 3 8 5 3 9 3
martygx A 9 7 5 9 5 2 K J 9 10 6 4		fun1 10 6 2 7 Q 4 2 A K Q 7 5 2
	Maestro K 3 A Q 8 6 4 A 10 7 6 J 8

West

Dbl
4
Dbl

North
Pass
2

Pass
Pass

East
1

Pass
Pass

South
1

Pass

The zero percent play, as devotees of this column know, is all too common. These days I can barely stifle a yawn when I see one. The zero percent bid is far more unusual; and today we have an exquisite example.

Gee sits South. The auction proceeds normally at first. East’s club opener is perhaps a little light, but Gee’s heart overcall, West’s negative double, and North’s heart raise are all straight out of the book. (N/S often make 4-card overcalls at the 1-level, so a raise to 3, especially with no singleton, is out of the question.)

East competes to 3C with his stiff heart and excellent suit. It’s unlikely to be down more than 1, and it may induce N/S to bid 3h, which Gee promptly does. West should probably pass. But he has a decent hand for his double, and 3H may go down but is not a lock to, since E/W have at least 9 clubs and either North or South figures to be stiff. So he bids 4C, converting a plus to a minus.

Until Gee’s turn to bid arrives. The worst conceivable outcome in 4C is -130. The possible outcomes in 4HX — a double is certain on the auction — are:
Down 1: -100
Down 2: -300
Down 3: -500

The best possible outcome in 4HX matches the worst possible outcome in 4C. Why do I exclude 4H making, you ask? There is no conceivable North hand, given the opposing bidding, on which 4H makes. The magic dummy is QJxxx Kxxx Kx xx. In this scenario we must assume a) North did not raise to game over West’s 4C bid; b) East has 11 or 12 points for his opener and free bid (OK, this part turns out to be true); c) West has 6 or 7 points, counting loose queens and jacks, for his negative double and club raise; d) the moon is in the seventh house; and e) Jupiter aligns with Mars. On the other hand, North could easily hold Jxxx Kxx Jxxx Kx, in which case N/S are staring at a probable -500.

And sure, Gee goes down 2 for -8 IMPs. But readers, you should thank him, for his loss, as ever, is our gain.

Every Little Bit Counts

Jul 262002

E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: South
Lead: A

	maher A K 9 7 Q 10 10 9 6 K 10 9 4
dickfu 2 7 6 5 4 J 7 Q J 6 5 3 2		Maestro J 10 6 5 A J 9 3 2 5 2 A 7
	egypt1 Q 8 4 3 K 8 A K Q 8 4 3 8

West

Pass
Pass
Pass
5
Pass

North

1
4
Rdbl
Dbl

East

2
Dbl
Pass
Pass

South
1

Pass
Pass
Pass

Our series in hand evaluation — it seems I’m writing a series after all — continues. Today we see the importance of evaluating your hand in context. Vulnerability, type of scoring — these all count in expert hand evaluation, and lesser players often overlook them.

Gee, East, ventures a vulnerable overcall with an eight-loser hand and both the North and South hands unlimited. A shyer player might think twice; but Gee has remarked in another context on the importance of daring, and one can certainly not fault him for cowardice here. South’s 14 HCP are looking a great deal better on this bidding, with solid diamonds, 4-card support, a stiff, and the HK favorably placed, and he jumps to 3S, which his partner raises to game.

Back we come to Gee, who holds three defensive tricks. It is difficult to imagine, on the auction, that his partner holds more than one. With N/S not vulnerable, at IMPs, a double stands to gain 50 points. Or so the ordinary player might reason. Gee doubles. North, who holds a full opener himself and has heard his partner jump raise his suit, redoubles, as one might expect.

This faces Gee’s partner, who holds the zero defensive tricks that one might expect, with the attractive choice of losing the rarely-seen 880 (4S is cold on any defense) or taking the sacrifice in 5H. He takes the sac, which turns out to be a key decision.

South cashes two diamonds and shifts to a spade. North wins the SK and switches to trump. Gee rises with the ace and plays another trump. Trump break, but clubs don’t, and Gee is stuck with a spade loser at the end for down 3. But -800 beats -880, and an expert who would double 4S certainly appreciates the significance of saving 80 points at IMPs.

But, Larry Cohen Says…

Jul 252002

N/S Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead: Q

	janiner A Q 6 A 6 4 3 2 A 3 Q 8 2
jmiran 9 7 2 — K 10 8 6 4 2 A K J 6		pkchance J 10 5 3 K Q J 9 Q J 10 7 3
	Maestro K 8 4 10 8 7 5 9 7 5 9 5 4

West
1

Pass

North
1

Pass

East
Dbl
Dbl

South
3

Pass

Yesterday’s lesson in hand evaluation continues. Today we see the other side of the coin.

Although many players might double with the North hand it is difficult to quarrel with the heart overcall. Some players would bid 1NT with East’s hand, but he thought it more important to show the four spades with a negative double, and again this is difficult to fault.

Gee, sitting South, holds what appears at first blush to be an eleven-loser hand with four small trumps and no ruffing values whatsoever. But on closer inspection, the hand reveals itself as eleven losers with four small trumps and no ruffing values whatsoever. Some players might venture a raise to 2H; more conservative players might pass. But Gee knows the Law: four hearts plus five hearts make nine hearts. He raises to 3.

Sure enough, his brilliant gambit pays off, as West bids 4C. Four of either minor is off 2 on moderately alert defense. But North bids 4H, alas. She envisions a South hand like Kxxx Kxxx xxxx x — here the heart game is cold unless trump are 4-0 — or even Jxxxx KQxx xxx x, where it is an underdog but has chances. Of course East, who has been laying the weeds with three heart tricks, promptly doubles, and North finds the dummy somewhat, shall we say, disappointing. The usual result would be -500 or -800 (against an E/W partial), but the catastrophic trump split produces seven tricks for the defense, down 4, for a score with which we are all, by now, distressingly familiar.

Yet it is the mark of the expert to extract something from every disaster. After the hand Gee asks his partner gently if she understood that 3H was a weak bid. Her reply is unrecorded, but clarifications like this cannot help but improve partnership understanding for the future.

The Mysterious Protocol

Jul 242002

E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: North
Lead: 3

	laaremr 9 6 6 2 9 5 A K Q J 9 8 6
Maestro A 10 4 J 9 8 7 4 A 10 8 4 3		jim-1 — A K Q 5 K J 7 6 3 2 10 7 5
	arthur K Q J 8 7 5 3 2 10 3 Q 4 2

West

Pass

North
3NT
Pass

East
4

Pass

South
4

Like in any communication between people, people and machines and machines and machines, there need to be a protocol, and so far, no one has identified bridge’s mysterious communication protocol.
–G. Cohen, Bridge Is A Conversation

Today we have a rather remarkable, though brief, auction that all non-experts could study with profit.

North’s 3NT opener is gambling, showing a solid seven- or eight-card minor with nothing outside. East has a very solid 4D overcall and makes it. (4NT as takeout for the reds is also possible.) South bids the spade game with his eight-bagger, and all eyes turn to our hero, sitting West.

Gee holds four diamonds to the A10 for support, a stiff in South’s suit and a first-round control in North’s. An extremely conservative bid would be 5D; it’s barely possible that East holds something like x AQx KQJxxx xxx, where slam is on the heart finesse, which on the bidding must be off. A bold bidder might leap directly to slam on the reasonable assumption that East holds, well, what he actually holds. An intermediate choice might be a 5C cue bid, showing trump support and slam interest, over which East would bid 6D.

Gee passes. East can’t double, and 4S buys the auction. Gee leads his stiff club and gets the ruff he has coming for down 2, 100 to E/W. After the hand Gee’s partner mildly inquires why he didn’t raise in diamonds. “I didn’t think 4S could make,” says Gee, “and I was giving you a chance to double.”

“I don’t think they’d let us play in 5H, pard,” Gee continues. Those of you who are tempted to question his bidding judgment should consider the scrupulous accuracy of this post mortem. The opponents may well have refused to let them play in 5H, or 5D; they might have chosen to drive them into slam instead. Gee did indeed give his partner a chance to double. And 4S doesn’t make.

Theory and Practice

Jul 232002

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead: 3

	Maestro J A K Q J 9 Q 5 3 2 9 8 7
sasscat Q 3 8 7 A K J 7 A 10 6 4 2		danb K 10 9 8 6 5 3 2 10 9 6 4 3
	sensj A 7 5 4 2 10 6 4 8 K Q J 5

West
1

Pass
Pass

North
1

East
1

Pass

South
2

Pass

Occasionally one’s partner will make bidding errors. That’s part of the game. But it’s important to put them behind you and keep your mind on the play, as Gee demonstrates for us in today’s hand.

The bidding all looks reasonable to my inexpert eye — East’s 1S reply over the overcall is perhaps a bit thin — but Gee does not agree, as we will see shortly. Nonetheless he refuses to let this affect his play. East leads his stiff club, and West returns the C2 for a ruff. A diamond back to the ace leads to another club ruff, for down 1, ordinarily, as East exits with a trump. Gee wins in hand, ruffs a diamond, and then makes the key play of ruffing a club winner to return to hand, leaving himself nothing to discard the last diamond on, and down 2.

After the hand Gee and his partner have a friendly colloquy about the bidding, which stimulates some discussion in spec:

Gee: Why not support double?
Bachelor #1: Support doubles by the advancer! A new treatment!
sensj: Support double is only if you are responder…here you show a 5-card suit
Gee: ???
Gee: no
Gee: I overcalled and 1 spade was after you…double by you shows 3 in support
Bachelor #1: everybody making notes?
Gee: geez, guys…read more books…i dunno
Bachelor #2: wow!
Bachelor #3: what is this “read”?
Bachelor #3: we are WRITING
Gee: then specs make nasty comments about me for my partner’s bad bidding
Bachelor #3: yes, it’s all partner’s fault
Bachelor #2: hahahahaha
Bachelor #3: i will have to call my pd from today and let her know it was all her fault
Bachelor #2: wait a moment, how did he go down?
Bachelor #3: unreal
Gee: sensj…I am sorry…nothing to do with you, but with my previous partners… I am upset at what happened earlier and by hearing specs’ comments…specs who also think they know but actually don’t know much for some of them
Gee: I should stop after this hand and relax for a while

And so shall we.

The Bones Principle Revisited

Jul 222002

Both Vul
IMPs
Dealer: South
Lead: 6

	vcaracci A K Q 10 4 8 5 3 2 A 4 J 2
bach 7 5 3 2 A Q 6 9 7 K 10 8 6		Maestro 9 K J 10 4 Q 8 6 5 3 A 9 3
	pinpin J 8 6 9 7 K J 10 2 Q 7 5 4

West

Pass
Pass
3
Pass

North

1
Pass
Dbl
Pass

East

2
Dbl
4

South
Pass
2

Pass
Pass

So many people sent me this hand from last night that I feel obliged to publish it. Besides, I kind of like it myself.

Gee, sitting East with 10 pts, 1-4-5-3 and five diamonds to the Q8, inserts a 2D overcall over North’s spade opener. Lesser players might double for takeout, or even pass. This sets the specs murmuring:

Bachelor #1: 2 vully D’s??? time for the bones principle
Bachelor #2: 2D? geesom

OK. I’ll settle for “geesom.” South raises to 2S, passed around to Gee, who reopens with a double. The spec buzz grows louder:

Bachelor #3: and a reopening dbl with 10 to back it up
Bachelor #1: after a spade pump gee would go for stix and wheels again
Bachelor #1: X???? lolol–this is insane

Poor West, who figures if his partner is willing to force him to bid at the three-level that they must have a pretty good shot at game, makes a 3S asking bid. Since Gee is almost certainly stiff or void on the auction this might be considered sub-optimal. Gee pulls to 4D, and the Bones Principle, which could have been profitably invoked at the two-level, is violated at the four-level as South neglects to double.

The defense taps Gee with spades, and he loses control of the hand pretty fast, winding up with two heart tricks, two spade ruffs and two club tricks for down 4. Sticks and Wheels if doubled, but we just finished a week of that, and you were bored with it anyway. After the hand Gee visits spec himself, where he overhears Bachelor #4 inquiring, reasonably, if O_Bones invented the Bones Principle.

Gee: please, spare me…the Bones Principle is as stupid as its inventor…when my partners overbid or don’t tell me their hand properly (90% of the time) I go to forbidden places. If he cannot see that, he should not pretend to be an “expert”…good night and god bless you all.

And God bless you all, and to all a good night.

Grand Finale

Jul 182002

E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead: J

	drkangel K 6 Q 3 2 7 5 K 10 7 6 5 4
demolay Q 7 4 A J 10 6 5 — A Q 9 3 2		Maestro A 9 5 2 8 7 A K Q 10 8 4 3 —
	waso J 10 8 3 K 9 4 J 9 6 2 J 8

West
1

2NT
4

Pass

North
2

Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass

East
2

4NT
5NT
7

Pass

South
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass
Dbl

Today I shall necessarily be brief, for before us is the Auction That Passeth All Understanding.

Our hero sits East. After a perfectly sane 1H opener from West and a rather less sane 2C overcall from North, Gee responds 2D. This is the last bid of his that I understand. Doubtless this is due to my own limitations. West rebids 2NT. He has no attractive alternatives, and one can sympathize. (3NT may well make at the table. 4H is somewhat better, but no game is cold.)

West has now shown no fit — with four spades he would probably bid them over 2D — and a minimum hand. Lesser players would content themselves with a simple 3NT here. Gee, however, bids 3S, and West raises to 4 — assuming that his partner would never introduce a motheaten four-card suit at the 3-level. A pause ensues, and 4NT emerges. Blackwood with a void is again perhaps not every player’s choice, but true masters adopt, quite properly, a Nietzschean contempt for the silly “rules” that constrain the rest of us. West dutifully responds 5S, with spades agreed. It is possible to construct a West hand on which six diamonds makes, something like QJ10 Axxxx Jx AJx. But Gee, missing a key card but nonetheless dissatisfied with a mere small slam, proceeds to 5NT, asking for specific kings. West denies an outside K with 6S, Gee signs off in 7D, South doubles, and the rest is silence.

The diamond grand is off only one if spades and diamonds both break 3-3 (or the DJ drops second) and the SK is onside. On the actual, rather more likely distribution we have…well, you all know by now what we have. Don’t you?

Sticks and Wheels in the Balance

Jul 172002

E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: South
Lead:3

	okcu A Q 2 K 10 8 7 3 2 A K 10 9
Maestro K 9 7 5 4 3 K 9 9 5 6 5 2		shosha J 10 2 A Q 10 7 5 Q J 4 8 7
	balahe 8 6 J 8 6 4 3 A 6 Q J 4 3

West

Pass
Pass
2
Pass

North

1
2
Dbl

East

1
Pass
Pass

South
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass

Balancing the opponents into game is one thing; I myself do it twice a week. But balancing one’s partner into Sticks and Wheels is one of the finer points that separate the EXPERT from the Small Time Club Player™.

Gee is West on today’s deal. N/S have a cold club slam on 24 points and an eight-card fit, but it is the rare pair that will reach even the good 5C contract (which essentially requires 3-2 splits in both minors), let alone the low percentage slam (as above, plus the SK onside).

Our N/S is not one of those rare pairs. North opens 1D third hand, East inserts a fairly grungy 1H vulnerable overcall, and the hand is passed back to North, who reopens with 2C. East passes, and although one can argue for 3C or even 2NT by South (3NT makes on the layout), or 1NT in the first place, South passes as well and leaves matters in our hero’s hands.

It would be grievously unjust to call Gee’s 2H balance a zero percent bid. If East holds Ax AQJxx xxxx Kx, just possible on the auction, and hearts are exactly 4-2, 2H makes and 2C makes as well. There are a few other possible East hands that break even as long as you’re undoubled, where 2H is down 1 and 2C makes. Then there are still other possible East hands, like the actual one.

Against 2H doubled South opens a low trump, won by East in dummy with the 9. It’s probably best to play a diamond immediately, not that it matters on the layout, but declarer instead cashes the HK, getting the trump news, and leads a diamond. South wins and shifts to clubs. When the smoke clears the defenders make two diamonds, two clubs and two spades and three trump for — say it with me brethren! — Sticks and Wheels.

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