The Gee Chronicles

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead: K

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

West Pass Pass Pass Pass

North 1 2 2NT

East Pass Pass Pass

South 1NT 2 Pass

Today’s bidding is a rarity in itself, placing the maestro in a normal contract after a normal auction. The North/South hands have 26 points but no fit, and the notrump game is a bad proposition that ought to go down on best defense, even on the generous layout.

West opens the defense with the heart king, a reasonable but disastrous choice. The everyday expert would duck, assuring himself seven tricks — three hearts, two diamonds, and two black suit aces — with various opportunities for an eighth. Not the maestro. Gee wins the heart king, killing his last sure entry, unblocks the diamond ace, cashes the heart queen, and leads a third heart.

East wins the jack, surveys the layout, realizes that unless his partner holds the club queen there is no chance to beat the hand, and produces the club king. Gee wins the ace and now has eight top tricks. But hey, what’s the hurry? Maybe he couldn’t kill his own hand, but it’s not too late to kill dummy’s. He leads the spade 10 off the board.

Spade jack from East, low club to queen, West carefully unblocking the jack, and it’s all over. The maestro cashes the long heart and the diamond king, and executes the Miami endplay in diamonds for seven tricks and off 1.

In the post mortem the maestro manfully admitted that “I could have played that hand better.” “How?” one of the spectators replied. “Is there a line for down 2?”

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead: 10

	drahmi A J 4 K Q 9 7 4 2 J J 9 3
recaptan K Q 9 8 3 J K 10 8 7 2 K 4		Maestro 7 5 A 8 6 5 Q 3 A Q 7 6 5
	fun1 10 6 2 10 3 A 9 6 5 4 10 8 2

West 1 3 Pass

North 2 Pass Pass

East 3 3NT

South Pass Pass

The valued correspondent who sent me this hand called it “a candidate for the worst defended and worst played hand EVER!” On the basis of my rather broad Gee experience I would have to disagree: for worst defended, try here; for worst played, well, how about last week’s? But it is certainly distinguished.

The bidding, at least, cannot be faulted, as East/West reach a perfectly normal 3NT, which is stone cold on normal declarer play and defense.

At the table things are a bit different. South leads the heart ten, and dummy hits with a grungy opener but a very useful stiff heart jack. North covers and continues hearts, and Gee ducks the first two rounds, pitching a spade from dummy.

Now the hand is almost an open book. The heart 10 is obviously a doubleton, so Gee has four hearts and at least five clubs for his 3C bid. If he had three spades he would support on the second round at the very latest (yes, I know it’s Gee, but still…), so his 3NT bid makes him probably 2-4-2-5. Four points in the majors, so he needs another eight in the minors to justify his bid. If he has the diamond ace and ace-fifth of clubs it’s hopeless; if he has the diamond queen and AQxxx of clubs, well, it’s still hopeless.

North concludes that he may as well give away a heart trick, so he continues with the heart nine. Gee wins the ace, South and dummy both pitching spades, and is faced with a choice to develop diamonds, with Qx opposite K1087x and six out, or spades, with xx opposite KQ9 and five out, for two or three tricks. What would you do? Me too. That’s why Gee plays a spade to South’s 10 and dummy’s queen.

North needs only to duck to beat the hand, but he wins and clears the hearts, South and dummy both pitching diamonds. Does Gee try to set up a diamond trick, giving him nine if the clubs break? Nah. He runs the clubs, discarding two diamonds from dummy. North pitches a heart, South pitches a diamond, and here’s the end position:

	drahmi J 4 4 J —
Dummy K 9 — K 10 —		Maestro 7 — Q 3 6
	fun1 6 — A 9 6 —

The maestro has set the table perfectly for the rarely-seen self-pseudo-squeeze. He cashes his last club, South pitches a diamond, and what to do? Being legendary for his attention to spot cards, Gee has of course noted South’s play of the 10 on the first spade. What could it be from but J10xx? And if North had begun with AJx in spades, wouldn’t he have ducked the first round? The choice is clear. Gee discards the 10 of diamonds from dummy. When North discards the diamond jack the position is obvious: he must have begun with AJ tight in diamonds. Gee plays a spade, and finesses the 9. Unlucky again: North produces the jack and cashes the last heart for the setting trick. The maestro picks up a few style points, discarding the spade king from dummy on the heart, setting up North’s last spade for off 2. It’s not every day you make three spade tricks in notrump with AJ4 over KQ98x.

N/S Vul
IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: 9

	honeydo A K 8 6 J 5 3 J Q 9 8 6 2
churford 9 4 10 7 2 9 5 4 3 J 10 5 3		johnstrod 7 3 2 6 4 K Q 10 8 7 2 K 7
	Maestro Q J 10 5 A K Q 9 8 A 6 A 4

West Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass

North 2 3 4 6

East Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass

South 2 2 4 5 Pass

Today Gee and partner reach a normal heart slam after a not half-bad auction, and West leads the nine of spades, won by Gee in hand with the queen.

Well now. You might just play the diamond ace, ruff a diamond small, assuming that if either defender had nine diamonds he might have been heard from, play the jack of trumps, and claim 12 tricks when both defenders followed. Since this loses only to all five trumps with West, for about 95%, you might just do this. But ask yourself: why do I write about Gerard and not about you instead?

The maestro first plays a trump to the jack. He plays another trump back to the queen. He cashes the ace of diamonds: it’s still not too late to ruff a diamond, cross back to hand with the ace of clubs (or even a spade, since they break), and claim.

He now leads a low club! Dummy’s queen loses to East’s king, and here’s the position:

	honeydo A K 8 3 — 9 8 6 2
churford 4 10 9 5 4 J 10 5		johnstrod 7 3 — K Q 10 8 7 7
	Maestro J 10 5 A K 9 6 A

The hand, amazingly, is still stone cold. If East returns a spade (as he probably should, since it’s just possible West is stiff and has a trump left) Gee can win in hand, ruff a diamond — yes, yes, bear with me here — and cross back to hand with the ace of clubs to pull the last trump. A diamond of course produces the same result. In fact East returned a club, which is no better. Gee can win in hand, pull the last trump, and set up the fifth club in dummy, unblocking his jack and 10 of spades under the ace and king, for his twelfth trick. At last the STCP™ can see the point of the maestro’s far-sighted play of winning the first spade in hand.

Coda

Gee wins the club return with the ace, pulls the last trump, and plays the five of spades to the ace, leaving himself one entry short.

Both Vul
IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: K

	oguz A Q 10 4 J Q J 8 7 J 10 9 7
nano J 9 7 2 K Q 4 9 4 3 8 6 2		tinmarin K 6 5 A 9 7 5 3 10 5 Q 4 3
	Maestro 8 3 10 8 6 2 A K 6 2 A K 5

West Pass Pass Pass

North 1 2NT Pass

East Pass Pass Pass Pass

South 1 1NT 3NT

I confess that I am not entirely happy with the Gee-Spot formula, which, to review, is 100*(P(C) – P(G)), P(C) being the probability of success of the correct line, P(G) being the probability of Gee’s. Sometimes it doesn’t quite capture the achievement.

Take today’s hand, for instance, an excellent 3NT contract reached after a rare normal auction. The defense begins with four rounds of hearts, West discarding a spade on the fourth round. You or I cash a club, cross to a diamond, take the club finesse into the safe hand, and score ten tricks when East shows up with Qxx in clubs. 100% for nine tricks no matter how the clubs lay out. The maestro slaps down the ace and king of clubs. The queen does not fall. He plays a third club, and East wins the queen and cashes the long heart for off 1. He then complains that he tried three things and none of them worked. (Queen singleton, queen doubleton, and queen with West, if you’re counting at home.)

In a naked Gee-spot reckoning this scores:

100 * (1.0 – 0.61) = 39

A 39 Gee-spot is respectable, but not especially noteworthy. Yet who can gainsay the magnificence of his line?

The problem is even more conspicuous here:

N/S Vul
MPs
Dealer: South
Lead: J

	konijn A Q 7 5 2 A K 8 9 8 6 Q 7
jdonn 10 9 7 6 5 2 A Q 10 J 10 8 2		dragon 9 3 Q J 10 3 7 3 2 K 9 5
	Maestro K J 8 6 4 4 K J 5 4 A 6 4

West Pass Pass Pass

North 2NT 4

East Pass Pass

South 1 3 Pass

Another normal contract on another normal auction, although Josh can perhaps be faulted for failing to Bones four spades, especially at matchpoints. The club jack is led, queen, king, ace, and it’s Endplay 101. Pull trump, eliminate the hearts, discarding the third club from the closed hand, and exit a club. Eventually West will have to lead a diamond back to you or concede a ruff-sluff. Again, a 100% line for the contract.

Gee pulls trump and plays another club. West wins and shifts to hearts. Gee wins a high heart, and it’s still not too late: cash the second heart, discarding a club, ruff a heart, cross to the board with a trump and run the diamond 9, covering whatever East plays. But Gee runs the diamond 9 immediately, eliminating neither suit and giving West his choice of safe exits. West exits a club, ruffed on board, and now with AQ10 all offside in diamonds he has no chance to make the contract. (How he managed 41 of the matchpoints remains a mystery.)

The Gee-spot works out as:

100 * (1.0 – 0.88) = 12

A lousy 12 Gee-spot for that brilliant effort? Gee-ology, for good or ill, remains as much art as science.

None Vul
MPs
Dealer: East
Lead: 6

	cleos2 K 4 Q J 7 4 3 2 Q J 9 8 3
giorgi A 9 8 7 8 5 7 5 K 10 9 7 4		Maestro Q 3 A K 10 9 10 4 3 2 A 5 2
	jccasper J 10 6 5 2 6 A K 8 6 Q J 6

West Pass Dbl Pass

North 2 Pass Pass

East 1 Pass 3

South 1 2NT Pass

Today we have a play problem. How do you make 2NT as South against a club lead?

Answer below, but first some bidding, which is one way to put it. Our hero opens a normal 1D, and South makes a normal 1S overcall. West, with a fine defensive hand, makes a nice pass to await developments. North rewards him with an ill-advised 2H call. Conceivably South holds something like AQxxx Kx A10xx xx and you have a heart game, but with 9 lousy points, a spade tolerance, and a bad suit, passing is more likely to keep you out of trouble.

Gee manages to restrain himself and pass, and South, not unreasonably, offers up 2NT, doubled by West, obviously for penalty. The maestro shrewdly pulls to 3C, which offers several advantages. It keeps his partner off lead against 2NT, right-sides the hand, and helps forge the trust that is indispensable to a successful partnership.

3C buys the hand, and South leads his stiff heart 6, covered by the jack and won in hand with the ace. If South holds four trump and a stiff heart, you’re always down on correct defense (I think — my readers are welcome to correct me, as always), but the hand is pretty cold as long as the trump splits. Two rounds of trump, ending up on the board, followed by the semi-marked heart finesse. South can ruff in and cash his two diamonds, but now declarer’s third trump provides an entry to the good hearts, and the defense gets a trump, a spade, and two diamonds.

The maestro begins as recommended, with the ace and king of trump. He now plays a spade, and lo! the practice finesse holds, despite the bidding. North rises and leads the diamond queen, overtaken by South, who cashes the master trump and exits with a spade, which Gee wins on board with the queen. We now have:

	cleos2 — Q 7 4 3 2 J —
giorgi A 9 8 5 10 9		Maestro — K 10 9 10 4 3 —
	jccasper J 10 6 — A 8 6 —

Diamond from hand, right? If South wins and returns a spade, no need for the heart finesse. South wins and returns a diamond, ruff, heart finesse, nine tricks. North wins, returns a heart, same nine tricks. Or you could simplify matters by cashing the heart king, playing South to have led the heart 6 from J6. Again, no luck. South shows out, and Gee loses a diamond and a spade at the end for down 1.

2NTX might have been interesting. On a club lead the defense appears to collect four clubs, two diamonds and the spade ace for 300. On a double-dummy heart lead there seem to be even eight tricks for the defense: two clubs, four hearts and two spades. However, my powers of analysis being what they are, I am fortunate to have Gee to set me, and the spectators, straight:

G: further more he doubled a 2NT bid that was making and I took it out… he screamed at me for it (The “scream” was as follows: “how could u over 2nt to 3cl, if i want to bid 3cl i bid myself, it’s only unbid suit, and then in 3cl u cashed top heart instead of finessing it” —Ed.)
Spec #1: 2n was making?
G: sure it was
Spec #2: sure
G: and the 3C making 3 was the only viable contract for us (Um, making 3? —Ed.)
G: making 4
Spec #1: looks to me like you get 4 clubs, AK of hearts and ace of spades on defense
Spec #3: 2NT never makes
G: 2NT makes
Spec #1: 3 rounds of clubs and how can you see they make 2NT i still am missing it
G: it makes 1C, 4D, 1S and 2H tricks

So simple. Once it’s explained to you.