[pclayton]

Well we won last night

The real match was against John Swanson's team in the semis, and we squeaked by 4 (whew!).

We were stuck 14 after the RR to the team we played in the final, but won the match by about 30.

I played the 1st half and sat out the 2nd. Here's a few of the interesting hands:

1. How would you and your favorite pard bid the following set?

Scoring: IMP

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We got to 6♣ on a Precision misunderstanding after 1♣ - 1♠ (8-13 balanced) - 2♣ (natural). Unlucky! Clubs were 3-3 with the QJ off.

2. You are in 3N (you overcalled 1N) after a Precision 1♦ on your right:

Scoring: IMP

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1. 2♥ (4th), 8, A, 3
2. ♥6, 5, Q, J
3. ♣10, 3, 4, ?


3. You pick up vul / vul: ♠Q2 ♥KT53 ♦KJ76 ♣KQ2. Pard opens 2♦ (11-15, 4414, 4405, 4315, 3415). You inquire with 2N, and pard bids 3♣ (3415; strength unknown). Your options are:


A. 3♦ - Asks if pard is min or max
B. 3♥ - Forcing (but it hasn't come up in awhile)
C. 3N
D. 4♥

What now?

[mike777]

Congrats on beating JS!

1) 4nt I hope I do not go down on a spade lead

1c=1h
2d=3nt
4nt=p..

[jdonn]

1)
Standard: 1♣ 1♥, 2♦ 2NT, 3♥ 4♦, 4♠ 5NT, 6♦ p. An iffy slam to be sure, but auctions like this tend to attract trump leads, which would help here. Responder is very aggressive with a possibly wasted spade king and no real fit, but he has great controls and the T9 of clubs could turn out to be huge if partner chooses that suit.

TOSR: 1♣ 1♠(red suits or balanced), 1NT 2♥(4-4 majors or minors), 2♠ 3♣(4432), 3♦ 3♥(min, meaning 2 or 3 controls, or 8-11 with 4 controls). Now opener has thinking to do. The feasible options are 3NT signoff, 4♦ more specific range ask, or 3♠ relay for controls. I think I would go for 3♠, then responder bids 4NT showing 4 controls, with A or K in each of spades, hearts, diamonds. West knows his partner has none of the queens because of the 3♥ bid, and would probably just give up here, but he could bid 6♦ as a reasonable swinging action, which is only slightly inferior.
Edit: JoshS mentioned 4NT over 3♥ below on this auction. It didn't occur to me and at the very least should have been included among the options I listed, if not chosen.

2)
Edit: What I said was dumb, except the part about being too mentally unstable for a play problem.

3)
Just 4♥. I only want to play 3NT if partner has a stiff diamond honor, unlikely, I am not stopping short of game, and I don't have slam interest. What else is there?

[joshs]

1. With John or Dan:

1C(Strong, ART)-1S(balanced or both reds)-1N(relay)-2H(balanced, 4-4 in majors or minors)-2S®-3C(4432)-3D®-3H(9-12ish)-4N(Natural, Quant, no minor suit fit)-P

With Marc:
1C-1D(H)-2D(natural, a reverse)-3N(10+-12)-4N-P


2. It seems like there should be some way to endplay RHO into playing spades for me, but I can't work this out, so I am just winning the club, and playing some more clubs... If RHO is 2344 he wins the 4'th club. exits safely, and then gets squeezed by the 5'th club. If RHO is 3334 I don't see how to make this.

3. 3N. I might be very wrong....

[foo]

1. How would you and your favorite pard bid the following set?

♠A♥ATx♦KQT9♣AK8xx

♠Kxxx♥K9xx♦Axx♣T9

1C-1H;2D-2N;3N-end


2. You are in 3N (you overcalled 1N) after a Precision 1♦ on your right:

♠K9762♥J8♦AQ98♣73

♠J3♥K753♦K2♣AKQ52

1. H2 (4th), 8, A!, 3
2. Q!, J, H6, 5
3. CT, 3, 4, ?

Hmmm, H's are evidently QT92:A64, but LHO switched to a C...
LHO seems to not believe they will get in again to cash the 13th H.

C's do not look like they are breaking 3:3, which means we currently expect
1H+3D+4C= 8 tricks.

Why didn't LHO lead a S at any point? RHO's 1D opening and LHO having the HQ means RHO should have all of (SA, SQ; HA; DJ; CJ) =maybe= missing one J.
Worse, we are also missing the ST.
If They actively attack this suit, we should go down. Why aren't They attacking S's?

Are S's something like xxx:AQx or Txxx:AQ and LHO isn't playing S's because LHO does not believe EW can establish tricks here?

Declarer needs shape information. Rise w/ the CK, then put the CQ on the table and see what develops.

If RHO is =3343 or =2353, you get a 5th C for 9 tricks.
If RHO is =2344, you may be able to set up some squeezes.


3. You pick up vul / vul: ♠Q2 ♥KT53 ♦KJ76 ♣KQ2. Pard opens 2♦ (11-15, =4414, =4405, =4315, =3415). You inquire with 2N, and pard bids 3♣ (=3415; strength unknown). Your options are:

A. 3♦ - Asks if pard is min or max
B. 3♥ - Forcing (but it hasn't come up in awhile)
C. 3N
D. 4♥
What now?

Our hand is 14 HCP. GOP has 11-15. Given my D wastage, I'm not looking for slam on this hand; but We defintely belong in Game.
The obvious game with a 4:4 H fit is 4H, so that is what I am bidding.

[inquiry]

pclayton, on Jun 1 2006, 01:19 PM, said:

1. How would you and your favorite pard bid the following set?

Scoring: IMP

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1♣ - 1♥
2♦ - 3NT
4NT - Pass

2♦ = new minor forcing by OPENER!
3NT = 9 to 12 balanced, no 5♥'s, no particular minor fit, ♠ control
4NT = slam try... East is minimum, so we probably miss bidding the slam.

2

Quote

. You are in 3N (you overcalled 1N) after a Precision 1♦ on your right:

Dealer: East Vul: N/S Scoring: IMP

♠ K9762 ♥ J8 ♦ AQ98 ♣ 73 ♠ J3 ♥ K753 ♦ K2 ♣ AKQ52

1. 2♥ (4th), 8, A, 3
2. ♥6, 5, Q, J
3. ♣10, 3, 4, ?

Not looking great for us, east clearly has ♠AQ. Grab the club and hope clubs are 3-3 sees you home, but if they are not grabbing the club leaves you too few short. I will play the ♣5 to make the three look like a "big" card and hope for a ♣ continuation. I am hoping for 4♣, 1♥, 3♦ and a delayed duck squeeze on EAST with the ♠J in my hand and fourth diamond in dummy as threats.

On last club, east has to choose between a diamond giving me 4 diamond tricks, and a spade allowing me to duck a spade to his ace (I throw small spade from dummy). Sure, winning the first club when they are 3-3 works better.

---

Quote

3. You pick up vul / vul: ♠Q2 ♥KT53 ♦KJ76 ♣KQ2. Pard opens 2♦ (11-15, 4414, 4405, 4315, 3415). You inquire with 2N, and pard bids 3♣ (3415; strength unknown). Your options are:


A. 3♦ - Asks if pard is min or max
B. 3♥ - Forcing (but it hasn't come up in awhile)
C. 3N
D. 4♥

What now?

"D" 4♥, sure 3NT maybe better, but no way with this methods to determine.

[Codo]

1.
1 ♣ 1 ♥
2 ♦ 3 NT (reverse/ 10-12 bal.)
4 NT all pass (nat inviting/delcined)

2. Ok a prec. 1 ♦ does not promise diamonds, but it declines majors, so why does LHO plays a Heart from Qxxx and later switched to a club?
I won´t duck, because then I am always down if they retrurn a spade.
I have a chance to win, if I find the spades, but unluckily, I am not able to reach dummy often enought to play low to the jack. So I try the jack of spade. If this looses, I will finesse to the nie in spades nect time...

3. D 4♥, I do not see any alternative, so clear cut, that I must miss something

[pclayton]

1. 6C isn't bad, but 6D gets the gold star. With our system, I think we can find if we were better practiced: 1C - 1S - 2C - 2H (poor support, 3-4 controls) - 3D (natural), 3N. At this stage, responder is a lock to be 4432 with the AD and a major suit King, and another card or two. 5D should be at least as good as 3N, so another move makes sense.

2. My teammate played this. By the way I put down the wrong heart spots, LHO has QT7x and you have J9 opp K8xx. RHO is marked with the AQ of spades and 4 or 5 diamonds. As Ben mentions, the delayed duck (+ prefer "squeeze without the count", Ben ) is a cinch, as long as you duck the club smoothly enough. Of course a spade thru is going to beat it, but why should LHO find it after the duck? The club suit is completely hidden, so there is no reason it expect AKQ 5th. Further, LHO has a weak hand, so he can't be expected to know about the whole hand at T4.

Maybe this play is too tough, since my world-champ teammate didn't find it.

3. I tried 3N. I was a little on tilt, after watching my pard butcher a few hands. But I love my KQx of clubs for 3N since it fills up the suit.Maybe 4H is better, in spite of the wasted diamonds. Pards hand is: Axx, AQJx, 8, JTxxx. I got the 10D lead (standard) and the JS shift.

Plan the play.

[inquiry]

pclayton, on Jun 2 2006, 01:52 PM, said:

As Ben mentions, the delayed duck (+ prefer "squeeze without the count", Ben ) is a cinch, as long as you duck the club smoothly enough.

Well, you may prefer to call this "squeeze without the count", but in fact, a delayed duck with two losers IS THE CORRECT count for that particular squeeze. Now squeezes with developmental threats like the spade suit here (where you will duck to set up a trick) can have more than two losers. The existing problem in that case is still to squeeze the "exit" card our of the victims hand. There are similar endings where the squeeze helps you establish one winner when you have three losers. For instance:

South has four winners out of 7 (3D one club). When he cashes the club ACE, EAST is squeezed. If he discards a diamond,it sets up a fifth trick for South (the long diamond). If he discards a spade, now a spade can be ducked. The diamond won in south, another spade ducked, establishing the king of spades. This would be a squeeze without the count for me.

---

[pclayton]

Kelsey never used the term 'delayed duck', it was strictly Clyde Love. Kelsey would have referred to the subject hand as an automatic strip squeeze (p 26, "Strip Squeezes").

I don't know what exit card you are referring to in my hand. Its an automatic aqueeze against RHO without having rectified the count.

Squeezes with exit cards are a different animal altogether and generally involve 2 busy suits as well as a card that either is a winner that can be cashed after a trick is cashed, or a link with his pards hand, or a safe exit.

By the way, I hate Kelsey's term 'strip squeeze' as a squeeze without the count or delayed duck. To me a strip squeeze is what Kelsey calls a 'strip endplay'.

But all of these have a common theme: losing a trick after the squeeze operates.

[pclayton]

I want to return to hand 3:

Scoring: IMP

---

This is where I made the questionable 3N call.

1. 10♦ to the Ace (they aren't playing coded)
2. J♠ shift.

Any takers?

[ArcLight]

>Any takers?

Sure! Spades had better be 5-3 with the short spade holder also having the Club Ace. So put up the Queen (in case of a weirdo lead from KJ) and duck till your ace is forced.

The odds are against you but they aren't miniscule. You have a real shot at making.

Besides in 4♥, when LHO leads his stiff Club to his pards Ace and gets a club ruff, then to his pards Dime Ace and gets another Club ruff, all those 4 heart bidders will be doing down.

[pclayton]

ArcLight, on Jun 4 2006, 07:34 PM, said:

>Any takers?

Sure! Spades had better be 5-3 with the short spade holder also having the Club Ace. So put up the Queen (in case of a weirdo lead from KJ) and duck till your ace is forced.

The odds are against you but they aren't miniscule. You have a real shot at making.

Besides in 4♥, when LHO leads his stiff Club to his pards Ace and gets a club ruff, then to his pards Dime Ace and gets another Club ruff, all those 4 heart bidders will be doing down.

Close .

I'll give you a hint. Spades are 5-3 and the K♠ and the Q♦ are both off, which isn't surprising.

Can you see a way home, even if its a little double dummy?

[cnszsun]

pclayton, on Jun 4 2006, 11:44 PM, said:

I'll give you a hint. Spades are 5-3 and the K♠ and the Q♦ are both off, which isn't surprising. 

Can you see a way home, even if its a little double dummy?

If i can see four hands, i will play:
duck first ♠ from both hand, if RHO continue ♠, it's safe to duck Q to LHO, then setup ♣; If RHO revert to attack ♦, you can put down K and start to setup ♣.