A Weekend of Good Bridge

I was kibitzing the J1 team match against SCBA(B) for Bridge League Cup yesterday. Despite the fatigue due to H3 Econs exam, it was still a worthwhile journey because of all the interesting boards that came out during the match.

The first board that I want to discuss concerns accurate defense. Both declarers in NS made 3S, making it a push board. At the table that I was kibitzing, the bidding went as follows:

W N E S
1S
/ 1NT / 2S
/ 3S //

Nothing interesting. West was holding the following hand:

Jxx
Jx
AKxx
Jxxx

In this case, the choice of suit to lead is very obvious. West should lead the king of diamonds to ask for the count in the diamond suit (Attitude is pretty useless here since declarer is likely to be short in this suit as he has shown a long spade suit. It would not matter if partner held the queen of diamonds). Dummy was laid:

Qx
AQTxxx
xx
Q9x

East followed small, declarer followed small. How should west proceed?

The key to finding the killing defense is to count. In this case, the switch to club is called for. Of course, many people would reason that a club switch is obvious just by gut feeling. Before reaching this conclusion, have you considered to cash another diamond trick? Have you considered to play a heart in hope that your partner holds three hearts to the king and ace of trump so that you can attempt an uppercut? Even when switching to clubs, have you considered whether you should play the jack of club of small club?

East hand was as follows:

xx
Kxx
QJxxx
AT8

Declarer was holding:
AKxxxx
xx
xx
Kxx

Lazy to type out my reasoning on how the defend should go, welcome any responses through comments.

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The following deal illustrated how one should not feel despaired even though the contract is hopeless. One should still keep calm, concentrate and calculate the best plan to catch a sleeping defender:

x
KQxx
xxxxxx
9x

Qxx
x
KQJxxx
AQ7

South was the same player as the above previous deal. He was playing in a 5D contract missing 3 aces. West led the jack of clubs from a JT sequence, east encouraged with 8 and south won with the queen. The first plan was to steal a trick in hearts. West correctly rose with the ace of heart. Encouraged by his partner, he led the ten of clubs, which is perfectly fine since he is still unaware of the position of the ace of spades and he has the ace of diamonds. The problem arise when east, out of unknown reason, covered the ten of clubs with the king of clubs. South was a sharp declarer. Despite facing a level 5 contract without any aces, he was able to identify 7 as the largest available club. Of course, he used this to discard the spades and the rest of the story is irrelevant.

Moral of the story: Even in hopeless situation, do concentrate, be calm and count!

Hope the J1s learned their lesson the hard way.

____________________________

I learned some lessons during the Sunday team matches today too, just that I was lucking as my mistakes did not cost. The first error occurred when I was holding this hand:

KJTxx
KJTxx
Ax
x

My partner bid 1S. I splintered with 4C. Partner bid 4H showing first round control in hearts, I asked for keycards and landed in a 6S. The 6S made because of defensive error by the opponent. Yet, it was a good slam.

The problem lies in the bid of 4C. At that moment, I considered that so long my partner has an opening hand outside his club suit, we have a high chance of making slam (which is indeed what is mentioned in Ron Klinger’s book “Cue-bidding to Slams”. What I failed to consider was that even if my partner has an opening hand outside the club suit, the contract would fail if his points are too concentrated in the diamond suit. Consider the following hand opposite my hand:

AQxxx
xx
KQJx
Ax

6H can still make, just that it is much more unlikely. You need the ace of heart to be onside. Many people recommend bidding to a slam that makes on a finesse. I prefer to go against this belief as a lot of IMPs are lost because people enjoys the thrill of slams and tends to overbid.

The point is, I wouldn’t be able to ask partner for a heart control in the event that my partner bids 4D instead of 4H. A more creative approach is to bid 2H (game forcing) after the 1S and explore the slam slowly via principal of fast arrival.

__________________________

Moving on, a partial contract, but no less interesting. I was holding:

Kxxx
Kx
QTxxxx
x

Partner opened 1NT. I bid 2C (Stayman), partner bid 2D, and I bid 2NT. Partner passed and eventually we made 11 tricks.

Bidding 2NT was an amateurish mistake. In this case, 3D is the correct bid. 3D offers a safer contract for partner to land in. Most importantly, partner can find a 3NT with minimal game points when he has Xxx in diamonds (which in this case, he has). In addition, he may opt to play in 5D if he deem 3NT as dangerous with maximum. Another instance of a lack of experience and creativity...

___________________________

One final mistake before I sign off...

Axx
AKQxx
Axx
xx

I was in the third seat and went “wow” when partner opened 1NT. I transferred to hearts and bid 4NT. 4NT!! I can’t believe I bid that on the table. Likely because I have never actually bid this kind of hand in my life before. So what is the correct bid?

The correct bid is to fake a 4 card diamond suit by bidding 3D. When partner bid 3H, you can proceed with all your sophisticated slam bidding tools. When partner bid anything else, you can sign off in 6NT. Either way, abusing 3D does not cost.
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On a side note, my team got another honorable mention in the Purple Comet Math Meet, just by 1 freaking point again. 28/30 what the hell, this kind of error-prone question is just not my cup of tea zzz

A Common Mistake

There’s one particular type of mistake that occurs rather frequently. Many people, myself especially, tends to only approach a problem from a direction. Even when checking the answers, many did not consider the possibilities of solving the problem through other means. As such, many errors are overlooked.

This kind of error is critical in almost all aspects. Annoyingly, such careless mistakes is often disguised under the veneer of a self-perceived “superior working”. Here’s a hand that I held on BBO.

S Axx
H J10x
D xx
C KJxxx

Not a very interesting hand, especially after hearing a 1C from the dealer on your right. I passed, LHO passed, and my partner bid 1D. The bidding went on as below:

S W N E
1C
/ / 1D /
1NT / 2S /
3NT //

Expecting a dummy with 16-17 hcp, 3NT was not a hard decision. Dummy was

S KQxx
H Qx
D AKQ109x
C x

West led a small heart. After east cashed the ace and king of hearts, all followed small. East then returned a small heart and a club is discarded from the dummy.

What is the danger? It is not hard to identify a safety play often described in books. The risk is that west may be holding 4 or more cards in diamonds. If diamonds were to be cashed from top, you have to surrender a diamond trick to west and he will cash 2 heart tricks. As such, the safety play is to finesse the jack of diamonds (one should finesse directly instead of cashing a top honor, which will fail in case of 5-0 split). It is almost impossible for west to have an entry since east opened, which most likely leaves west with no more than 3 HCP.

So yea, luck favors me and the finesse worked. At this moment the error occurred. Can there be any error when all you have to do is to cash your top tricks?

It turned out that there was an automatic squeeze in clubs and spades. At that moment, I simply cashed the spades to check for split without cashing the diamonds! As a result, I missed an overtrick (and a chance to satiate my ego ><)

Such errors may mean nothing to many people. Sadly I am unable to tolerate such mistakes. Blame me for being a perfectionist. The fact remains that people judge you by the errors that you make and the resultant outcome. I have been so irritated by all the careless mistakes I made, be it in Math Olympiad, Chemistry and Physics Olympiad, Bridge, common tests, etc etc etc. It’s really heartbreaking to think that you have arrived at a splendid solution to a problem, yet a careless mistake such as calculation error undermine your efforts.

Missed a chance to win an iPad today... I guess I will have to blame my carelessness again.