Hands

The Pure Zero

Aug 012002

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: West
Lead: 6

	priceat — J 5 A Q J 7 4 3 2 A J 5 3
Maestro A Q 7 6 4 3 A 10 3 5 Q 8 4		hl J 8 5 2 8 7 6 2 K 10 9 7 6
	wildats K 10 9 K Q 9 4 8 6 K 10 9 2

West
1

Pass

North
2

Pass

East
2

Pass

South
3NT

Many “zero percent plays” are not, technically, pure zeros; there is often some arcane distribution on which the “zero” play would succeed. Today Gee is kind enough to supply us with the rarer case of a pure zero, a play that always fails, no matter what the layout.

Today we reach 3NT after what, by the standards of the Chronicles, is a normal auction. South has just about the absolute minimum for his game bid, and North should certainly consider bidding further with his seven-bagger and spade void. 5D is far superior to 3NT on the layout; and even slam is barely possible with a magic South hand like, say, QJx Ax Kx KQxxxx.

But 3NT it is, against which Gee, sitting West, leads an automatic low spade. The first trick goes club sluff, SJ, SK, and South leads a diamond, finesses the DQ and prays. No luck; it loses to East’s DK and the S2 is promptly led back. South plays the S10 and our hero wins the SQ. Gee thinks for a moment (I once heard a very wise player remark, “When the opponents think there’s always hope.”) and produces the S3. Plus 430 to N/S; only -3 IMPs because 5D is cold.

A rather put-upon East inquires, “I thought my S2 meant original 4th, was I wrong?”

Replies Gee: “I had so many spades, could not believe you could possibly have 4.” The reader should pause to grasp the implications of this remark.

One’s first thought might be that it’s not especially remarkable for seven hidden spades to be divided 4-3 in favor of the player who raised the suit. But let’s dig a little deeper. Original 4th best has been a standard defensive convention since Ely Culbertson’s heyday; but note that Gee doesn’t deny that his partner showed 4; he denies believing his partner had 4. Sure, bridge is a conversation and all, but one must sometimes take matters into one’s own hands.

OK then. Let’s suppose East had three and led the wrong spot back. South must have every missing high card for his 3NT bid. Therefore your only chance to beat the contract in this case is to hope that East holds K109x in diamonds and South needs a heart trick to make. You may as well clear the spades. It costs nothing; and who knows? Partner may have led back the correct spot.

It’s also remotely possible that East made an eccentric spade raise on Jx, and South holds K10985 in spades. In this scenario the only way to beat the contract is to play partner for a double stop in diamonds and six small hearts (giving South KQ tight), and to hope South misguesses clubs. Here it’s essential to lead either the HA or the H10, unblocking the suit. Not a low spade.

We are left, in short, with a play that can only lose if partner played correctly, and can only break even if partner played incorrectly. A pure zero.

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.

Trump Management

Jul 282002

Both Vul
IMPs
Dealer: South
Lead: K

	maarten Q 5 10 4 2 9 2 A 8 7 5 3 2
delikara A K 3 6 K Q 10 7 5 4 J 9 6		altay 9 8 4 2 A 9 5 3 J 8 6 3 4
	Maestro J 10 7 6 K Q J 8 7 A K Q 10

West

2
Pass

North

2
Pass

East

3
Pass

South
1

Today provides a fine lesson in hand evaluation followed by some equally exceptional declarer play.

Gee hears his partner raise his hearts and the opponents bid and raise diamonds. He correctly upgrades his already excellent hand and jumps to game.

A club lead, or even a club shift at trick 2, will put the contract down 1, but West understandably leads the SK and shifts to diamonds. Gee wins the DA and starts trump, discovering the 4-1 break as East ducks the first two rounds.

From here the naive play of continuing trump succeeds, as it often does. The opponents cash their spade trick or not as they choose, tap declarer once in diamonds, and concede the rest. This line succeeds unless clubs are 4-0 or East began with exactly 2 spades.

In fact the losing line is quite difficult to see, but not to expert eyes. Gee makes the key play of leading a spade after the second round of trump. West wins and continues diamonds. Now it becomes a question of how many to go down. Discarding a black suit winner from his hand would hold it to one, but Gee elects for maximum collateral damage: he ruffs and continues trump. East wins the HA, taps Gee out with a third round of diamonds, ruffs in on the second round of clubs and plays his last diamond. West, however, sluffed two diamonds on the trumps, so what should have been down 4 turns out to be only down 2. One can sympathize with West. Who knew?

Experts Are Visionaries

Jul 272002

None Vul
IMPs
Dealer: North
Lead: A

	taryk — K 6 2 K 10 8 3 A K J 9 8 4
kalligr A 9 8 7 5 Q 10 5 4 7 4 6 3		bania J 10 6 4 3 A Q J 9 5 Q 5 2
	Maestro K Q 2 J 9 8 7 3 A 6 2 10 7

West

2
Dbl

North
1

Pass

East
1

Pass
Pass

South
2

Pass
Pass

Today’s auction contains some controversial bids, which is usual, but none by Gee, which is not. North’s 1C opener is unexceptionable, nor do I find anything to quarrel with in East’s spade overcall. Gee, sitting South, makes a fine 2H call with a hand a little too good for 1NT. If we assume that E/W are playing preemptive raises in competition and that West can show a limit raise by cuebidding hearts, then 3S might be better than 2. It turns out to be irrelevant, as North raises to game on good support and a void in the opponents’ suit. This is passed to West, who, holding two defensive tricks, makes a rather frisky double, following it with the worst possible lead for the defense, the SA.

Gee ruffs in dummy and surveys the hand. West obviously has a trump holding; the double can’t be based on anything else. If there are only two trump losers the hand always makes. But if there are three then declarer needs to set up a third club trick for a diamond sluff.

Gee crosses to hand with the DA and runs the HJ, hoping West began with AQxx — not too likely, since this would give East something like J10xxxx 10 QJxx Qx for his overcall. In any case, bad news: East wins the HA, which means there are three likely trump losers, and returns a spade.

At this point it is clear that hearts are 4-1 unless West has gone mad. Everything hinges on clubs. With two outside entries to dummy, playing the two top clubs and ruffing the third high in hand will succeed when they break 3-2, and when West has four, and when West has the stiff Q. Altogether that’s almost 85%. Taking the club finesse will succeed when West holds the CQ. Looks like 50%; maybe less, since East was the overcaller.

Now if you regard this preamble as a suggestion that an expert like Gee play the top clubs, then you have been missing the point of these chronicles. Gee finessed the club. Of course he understood that the percentages were against him. But “against all odds, [he] had the sense that it would make.” If you have ever wondered, watching an expert table, what distinguishes their play from yours, it’s that experts are visionaries. I cannot stress this point enough.

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.

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