Lost a Few Finesses September 2, 2010
Posted by justinlall in Blog, Tournament Report.Tags: Intermediate, Declarer Play, Bidding
1 comment so far
I played in the first knockout of the Dallas regional last night and all day today. My team was Jeremy Fournier, Chris Hamman, and Bart Bramley. It was fun to play “for fun” with 3 of my really good friends, I rarely do that these days.
The first set of the finals was a wild one with a lot of interesting hands. This one was definitely my favorite though.
White/Red I picked up:
T3
A862
82
AQJT9
My partner opened a gambling 3N, showing a solid 7 or 8 card minor and no side ace or king. What would you bid?
I actually think passing is quite reasonable and possibly correct. You are cold unless they run five spades. Sometimes even when that is possible they make the wrong lead, and sometimes partner has 3 spades and they’re 4-4. More importantly, even if it’s reasonably likely they’ll run 5 spades it might still be right to pass since 5 might be down anyways.
On the other hand, I feel like they will very often be leading spades; they rate to have the most honors in that suit (and of course they’ll make an aggressive lead versus a gambling 3N), and since that is our short suit it will also often be their longest. I think not playing some game is too wimpy; both should have enough chances to be worth bidding.
Rightly or wrongly, I chose to bid 5, figuring it will be better to play it from my side since I might get a club lead.
My LHO led the 4 and this is what I saw
Q62
74
AKQJ9763
—
T3
A862
82
AQJT9
This lead has stopped me from being able to ruff a spade in my hand, so I only have 10 tricks; 8 diamonds and 2 aces. I would like to set up and enjoy my clubs, but I only have one sure entry to my hand.
If the diamond ten was stiff, my 8 would be a second entry. However, I saw a better chance. Maybe my LHO has the ten and I could run this to my 8! I also saw some element of restricted choice on the lead, with T4 of diamonds they would always lead low, but with 54 they might lead either. They also might have T54 (restricted choice on that also). This means when LHO does not have a singleton, he is almost 3 to 1 to have to ten of diamonds.
On top of that, there is one other gain to ducking this trick. If it is RHO with Tx, I might make it after losing a trump trick. RHO will have to guess which major to play, and if he guesses to play hearts I can take a ruffing finesse in clubs and get back to my hand. So I would gain multiple tricks back for the sacrifice of one.
It should be said, though, that if I pop ace and the ten doesn’t drop while having no legitimate chances I still might make. I would come to the heart ace and lead the 9 of clubs from my hand, hoping to catch LHO sleeping and not covering with the king if he has it. This would be my line would be very strong against weak opponents for sure (who would never think to cover), but I think my LHO was good enough to not fall for that. It still might be the wrong line even against weak opponents since if my diamond “finesse” wins, I am cold no matter who has the K, while the swindle requires a finesse if the T doesn’t drop even if they will never cover with the king on my left.
I went for it and ducked, and my RHO won with the ten. He returned a heart, so I won the ace and then took a ruffing club finesse which lost, so I was down 2, losing the not-so-obvious tricks of 1 diamond, 1 club, and 2 spades.
Sadly, RHO had stiff ten of diamonds, and 3N was also cold.
And to think my partner thought he had a solid suit!
Venting April 12, 2009
Posted by justinlall in The Bet.Tags: Declarer Play, Intermediate
6 comments
Josh and I put a lot of hours in today for the bet, playing 8 tourneys in all. Since we are sick, we both also played more tourneys when the other person wanted a break.
My results today were pretty terrible. I definitely didn’t play great, but the bad luck I was getting on slam hands was just insane. Here is an example:
Kxx
K
AQ9xx
Txxx
AJ
Axx
Jx
AJ9xxx
You do quite well to bid 6 after opening 1N, and receive a heart lead. How do you play?
The best idea here is to strip out the major suits, and go ace and a club. True, you lose to KQx onside now if the DK was onside all along, but you pick up Hx of clubs with the DK on your right, a much more likely combination. So win the heart in dummy and lead a club (maybe they split), then strip the majors and exit a club. Unfortunately it was KQx onside, so your good play is not rewarded.
Note that on a spade lead you have a pitch for your diamond so could safety play the trumps. This is not horrible luck, but if stuff like this happens to you 5 times in a row you can get a little frustrated.
Anyways, luckily Josh didn’t have a great day either so I’m still very much in this. When the luck turns I have little doubt that I wll start crushing 
Common Defensive Theme April 6, 2009
Posted by justinlall in Blog.Tags: Defense, Intermediate
1 comment so far
Playing matchpoints you pick up AQ92 AT63 J52 87.
Starting on your right it goes (1) X (1N) 2 (3N) all pass. Your double was a little aggressive, but it is matchpoints.
Partner leads the 2 and dummy is:
J43
J7
AQ
AKQT942
How do you defend?
We know a lot about the hand. Partner for sure either has the king of queen of hearts, and for sure has another card (either the other heart, the K, or the K). If partner has the K we need to shift to spades and set them. If partner has the K, continuing hearts will hold them to 9 tricks and shifting to spades will let them make 9 or 10 tricks (possibly 11 if they have KTx of spades and then hook diamonds).
The best play is cashing the spade ace. You cater to partner having the K, and break even when partner has the KQ of hearts (he will discourage spades), or the K, 4 spades, and K. Also, declarer may not hook the diamond for the tenth trick even if they should when partner has the Q and T, so we will break even then.
The big thing to consider is that everyone may not be in 3N, so holding them to 9 is probably a losing proposition anyways. This hand becomes much more like an imp hand where beating them is the number one priority.
On the actual deal the SA shift was the big winner, but was not found at the table.
Five Uncommon Conventions You Should Play April 5, 2009
Posted by justinlall in Articles.Tags: Convention, Intermediate
15 comments
Generally I think most players, especially intermediates, play too many conventions. Most of the time they come up too infrequently or have very small gains that aren’t worth the trouble. However, there are a few conventions that are both frequent and useful that most people aren’t yet playing. Here they are in no particular order.
A jump cue as a transfer to 3N in the auction 1m-(1M)-3M. If you think about it, with almost every holding you have in overcaller’s major you want partner to declare the hand. Axx, AQx, Kxx, AKx are the most obvious examples. You give up a splinter to play this, but a splinter in support of a minor is very rare compared to an antipositional 3N bid.
Transfers after 1M-(X)-? starting with 1N. This is becoming more popular, and for good reason. Losing your natural 1N bid frees up two ways to raise the major. The direct raise is weak, and a transfer raise is constructive. This is very good, because with 3 trumps you always want to preempt the opponents, but you can’t jump to 3 the same way you can when you have 4 trumps. Being able to bid 2 and not have partner game try or jump to game is like having your cake and eating it too. Losing the natural 1N is not a big loss, with 10 you can XX and with 7 you should pass anyways, so you are only losing with 8 or 9 balanced without 3 trumps. In return you get not just 2 ways to raise, but also the ability to immediately show your suit regardless of whether you are weak or strong because you are guaranteed to get another chance to bid. You would hate to have to XX with a strong 1 suiter and be susceptible to preemption by LHO. You would also hate to have to pass with a good 6 card suit and nothing else. Another example of getting to have your cake and eating it too.
Jump cue as a mixed raise after an overcall. This is a convention I see misused all the time. The biggest question is, what the hell is a mixed raise? The best definition I can come up with is a hand too good for a preemptive raise, and a hand not good enough for a limit raise, with at least 4 trumps and offensive values. With nobody vulnerable if the auction goes (1) 1 p ?
KJxx x xxxx xxxx bids 3
KJxx x Axxx Qxxx bids 2
KJxx x Kxxx xxxx bids 3
The third hand is a common hand type that is very difficult to show. I see people bid 3 with hands strong enough for a limit raise, and hands that are more balanced and defensive (which should just bid 2) so often that it takes away from the value of having a mixed raise to begin with. You can get to a lot of light games by using these correctly.
Suit Preference in the trump suit. Ok, this is a carding agreement, but it’s a very important one that all top pairs and few intermediates use. The idea is simple, you show whether you like the high or low suit (sometimes the middle is in play) by the way you play your trumps. With 2 just play up the line with no preference. That way only a high low is a strong signal. With 3 play the middle for no preference. This extra signal can make all the difference for the defense.
Invitational jumps at the 3 level after partner opens. These apply when partner opens 1x, and you bid 3y where y is lower than x. This is also only for 2/1 players. The problem is an auction like 1 p 1N p 2 p 3. This could just be a weak hand with long clubs and isn’t invitational, so with 9 to 11 points and a good suit you need another way to bid. I propose bidding 1 p 3 with that hand type. It also protects you from preemption and sometimes has a preemptive effect of its own. Ideally you would have a good 6 card suit and not Hx in support of partners major, but you aren’t always dealt an ideal hand. Just remember partner will pass with a stiff and a minimum, because if he bids anything else it’s forcing.
I think if everyone reading this adds these methods my email will be flooded with thank you notes.
You’re welcome!
Baller April 2, 2009
Posted by justinlall in Blog.Tags: Declarer Play, Intermediate
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I played at the club with Patty last night for the first time in forever and we managed to win with a 69%. Still got it!
Here was an interesting play problem:
AJ932
A6
852
J63
5
Q987532
KQ3
A2
You open 1, partner bids 1, RHO makes a takeout double and you bid 2 which ends the auction. Partner was a little conservative in the auction, but you open pretty light NV so it’s understandable.
You receive the club ten lead. Plan the play before reading on.
The key to this hand is the heart suit. The normal play is to play the ace and lead up to the queen. This picks up stiff K anywhere, any 2-2, or king third on your right. There are two problems with that play on this hand, though. For starters, you need to lead up to your diamonds twice, and have only 2 entries in dummy. This means you can’t also lead up to your heart, so you can’t pick up king third of hearts on your right. The second problem is that RHO is quite a bit more likely to have a stiff in hearts than LHO given her takeout double of the majors.
So the question is, what is our alternative. Consider the effect of leading the queen from your hand. This loses a trick when either player has stiff K of hearts, but it gains when RHO has stiff J or stiff T. We also gain a trick when LHO has KJTx of hearts (though this is discounted by RHO’s failure to balance). The only downside is that LHO is going to be able to get a diamond ruff if she has a doubleton diamond and the defense figures it out. However, since LHO is very unlikely to have stiff king of hearts as we have already established, leading the queen from hand is still much better.
When you lead the queen out of your hand you are gratified to see LHO play the king and RHO the ten. Be careful and remember to play a diamond from dummy now rather than continuing to pull trumps, and you will make 4. Well done!
This is how I played it, but it didn’t even matter much since the field was going down in 4. Oh well, a well played hand is it’s own reward right?
Ask Justin 2 April 1, 2009
Posted by justinlall in Ask Justin.Tags: Declarer Play, Intermediate
1 comment so far
Dear Justin,
What is the best way to play 3N?
AJ9x
xx
xxx
Q9xx
K8x
QTx
KQJx
AKx
Imps love all
(2)* p (3) 3N
2 is often a five card suit.
T1:
H, small, jack, queen.
If you play clubs, RHO drops the ten on the second round.
Dean
It seems safe to assume hearts are 5-3 since RHO probably wouldn’t raise a partner who often has 5 on Jx. We need to figure out the best way to pick up the black suits for 8 tricks since we have 5 fast losers right now.
I think it’s right to start spades immediately. If LHO has stiff queen of spades we need to keep the club queen as an entry in dummy, and we want to delay the club guess as long as possible. One thing I would never think about doing is leading the J from dummy at some point trying to pick up Txx of spades on our left. It’s too big of a play for no reason, LHO could just as easily have the Q and open 2 .
So I’d start with a spade to the jack. If LHO plays the Q I will play small to the 8 on the way back. Yes this means I’m being burned by a great falsecard from QT, but you just have to pay off to that. If the jack wins I’ll play small back to the king in case RHO has Tx. After that I’ll run the spades and then try clubs.
After AK of clubs when the ten drops on my right, I’ll hook LHO for Jxxx unless they also had 4 spades. We have restricted choice on RHO, and LHO is more likely to be 3514 for a preempt than 3523. Again, I don’t think a jack would deter LHO from preempting.
My play on this hand was decidedly unfancy. That’s usually the right way to play.
The Dog That Didn’t Bark March 31, 2009
Posted by justinlall in Blog.Tags: Convention, Inference, Intermediate
3 comments
There is a nice inference available for players that play support doubles that they often fail to make. The inference is that when partner does NOT make a support double after opening a minor, he will always have 4 cards in that minor, and often 5.
Take the auction
1 (p) 1 (2)
p
Since opener has at most 2 spades, at most 4 hearts, and at least as many clubs as diamonds his worst shape is 2434 or 2344. For those who open 1D with 4-4 in the minors, the last shape is impossible too. This means partner usually has five clubs.
This inference can help responder greatly in competitive auctions. He can compete more freely in clubs, not worrying about partner having just 3.
Today I had Axxx xx xxx Axxx and heard the auction go as above. I was able to balance easily with 3.
Sometimes the best part of a convention is the inferences you can make when it is NOT used.
Terrible Bid March 31, 2009
Posted by justinlall in Blog.Tags: Bidding, Intermediate
5 comments
I played at the club with Greg today. I made one really terrible bid in a slam auction.
My hand was 98xx AKQTx Q9xx void. Starting with me the auction went:
1 (P) 2 (3)?
1 was limited to fifteen points, and 2 was gameforcing with at least five diamonds. You might consider just bidding 3 here, but I think 4 is a much better bid. Logically it should announce four or more diamonds and club shortness. It bypasses 3N, but that’s unlikely to be your best spot anyways, and if you have a slam 4 is a much better start.
LHO now doubles 4 and partner passes it around to you. As you should now be well aware, XX shows a first round control (definitely a void in this auction), so you do that. Partner now cuebids 4 and you have a decision to make.
You could sign off in 5. You could make one final try with 5. Or you could try keycard.
I chose to sign off because I had a minimum hand and had already shown my void. I figured I had told my story. This is TERRIBLE reasoning!
To solve these problems we must construct hands for partner. If partner has AK of diamonds and the spade king, slam should be cold. His spades are protected and will get thrown away on the hearts. If he has AK A 6 is cold and 7 will likely be good, depending on his shape. If he has just the Ace of diamonds and ace of spades slam will be good on a non spade lead, and he only has eight points so he might well have the spade queen.
Basically it looks like we should shoot out slam if partner has 2 keycards, which makes 4N the right bid. At the very least, if you’re worried about the missing diamond jack, you should bid 5 to show signs of life. 5 is an atrocious bid, and this time got what it deserved. Partner had AK of diamonds and the spade ace, and 7 was excellent.
My problem was not just appreciating the value of my near solid hearts on this kind of hand, it was bidding too fast. I have a tendency to bid too fast in this type of auction so that I don’t bar my partner, but on an auction like this it’s very unlikely partner will move over 5 anyways. The decision is mine, and I should take a few minutes to maximize my chances of choosing the right one.
Ask Justin 1 March 30, 2009
Posted by justinlall in Ask Justin.Tags: Bidding, Intermediate
1 comment so far
Dear Justin,
How do I recognize a negative X, takeout X, and penalty X?
Mary T
This is an excellent question that players of all levels struggle to understand. I could write an entire book on this subject, so I’ll just stick to the basics.
Negative doubles are made after an opening bid and an overcall. Almost everyone plays them through at least a 2 overcall, and some play them even higher. A negative double just promises at least 4 cards in the unbid major. If there are 2 unbid majors then it promises 4-4 in both. There are some exceptions to these rules, but they are rare, so I wouldn’t worry too much about them. You want at least 6 points to make a 1 level negative double, and at least 8 points at the 2 level.
Takeout doubles cover much more ground. A double is takeout if:
- It’s a double of an opening bid through 3
- It’s a double of a bid and raised suit
- It’s your first turn to bid in the auction, below 3NT
- You’ve doubled the suit for takeout already
Most doubles in competitive situations are for takeout. Some players play them on at the 4 level as well, but that requires a lot of experience to know when to pass and when to pull.
Penalty doubles are the rest of the situations. They apply when,
- The opponents are at the game level or higher
- You have stopped bidding, then the opponents balance, and you double
- You have passed several times in the auction and then double
- You have bid and raised a suit
Again there are exceptions to these rules, but I wouldn’t worry about them. A lot of experts play doubles that were classically penalty as “card showing” now. This is a modern style that I wouldn’t recommend trying to learn until you feel like you are an advanced player.
Old Position, New Twist September 5, 2006
Posted by justinlall in Blog.Tags: Declarer Play, Intermediate
6 comments
One of my favorite bridge stories occurred at the San Antonio bridge club several years ago. I was playing a contract against a very sweet but completely clueless little old lady. I needed to play AT9 of clubs opposite Kxx for no losers so I stripped the hand and put her in to break the suit for me. Without a care in the world she put the queen of clubs on the table. Ordinarily, one should play for this to be from Qxx based on restricted choice (the defense must exit an honor or you have no chance to guess the suit). In this case however, I was confident that this lady had the QJx otherwise she would never exit with an honor. I played accordingly and went down! She had found the Q play from Qxx. When I congratulated her for her excellent play she had no idea what I was talking about. She found it to be nothing more than routine.
Aaron Haspel, as an unfortunate result of being a good friend of mine, has had to suffer through that sad story dozens of times. I’m sure it was on his mind when, playing against me, he wound up in 4 with these cards:
KQ53
K75
AQ6
842
AJ972
AT9
J52
Q9
In the auction I had made a takeout double of 1 on his left and then they had a free run. On the ace of clubs lead his RHO played the jack, and I continued with king and another club which he ruffed. I had shown up with the AK of clubs and had to have the king of diamonds for my bid. Aaron now saw that the best possible way home would be to strip everything but hearts and put me in with a diamond (seem familiar?). He started by drawing two rounds of trumps, everybody following. Now he finessed against the diamond king, cashed the ace, and exited with his last one. I was in with the king and produced…the queen of hearts! Putting yourself into Aaron’s seat, what would you do now? Before immediately deciding to play for split honors based on the previous story, let’s think about this a little deeper.
There is a key difference between the hand in my story and the one Aaron was playing. Here there is not restricted choice on the Q, assuming I am a good defender. As I have only shown up with AK, K and have followed to 2 spades, I know that declarer has already placed me with the Q for my bid. Accordingly, with QJ I MUST play the queen, otherwise Aaron will know that I still have it in my hand. This means it’s not clear what the percentage play is in hearts. To figure it out we need to calculate the number of possible QJx(x) combinations and weigh it against the number of Qxx(x) combinations. If I have 3 hearts, there are 4 QJx’s possible and 6 Qxx’s possible. If I have 4 hearts there are 6 QJxx’s possible and 4 Qxxx’s possible! Based on the club and diamond cards played, Aaron felt that I was most likely to be 2344 or 2335 making it percentage to play for Qxx(x) if I would also always exit with the Q from that holding too. But would I?
We’ve established that I should clearly play the Q from QJx(x), but that is not so clear from Qxx(x). Remember, I’m not looking at the T or 9 in dummy. Therefore, if Aaron had started with ATx of hearts I could get out with a low one and guarantee a set. Only getting out with the queen would give away the contract. I would have to know that Aaron has AT9 specifically to know that it’s right to exit with the Q. Amazingly, I should know just that. If he had had ATx of hearts his only shot at the contract would be to find me with the QJ of hearts, and exit with 3 rounds of hearts instead of 3 rounds of diamonds. If I did have the QJ of hearts, I would be forced to lead away from the K. For Aaron’s line to make any sense, he must have AT9 specifically.
After weighing these considerations carefully, Aaron did play for split honors and was right. After I gave him kudos on his nice play, he told me that it was routine.
UPDATE: It has come to my attention that my math on the number of possible QJx(x) combinations was wrong. In fact, it was perfect if there were SIX missing hearts, but there are actually 7. Brilliant! This means there are more Qxx combinations than QJx which makes Aaron’s play mathematically correct even if he could not read my shape.
