Some Hands from Brighton 2001
Clive Keep August 2001
For the third year running, I had entered for the Seniors Pairs (with Mike Brown) and the Teams (with Mike, Gillian Lonsdale & Nigel Wilkes). The format for the Seniors was slightly different this year, with qualifying rounds on the Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon, with the finals on the Tuesday evening. We sped down the motorways in my red bullet on the Monday afternoon and returned late Tuesday (Wednesday morning?). We just missed the cut for the A&B finals (the line was drawn immediately above our names) but redeemed ourselves slightly by coming 4th in the consolation event.
This was my favorite hand from the competition - you hold as East-
and the bidding proceeds -AK1063
KJ106
J
1095
Well? Is this pairs or teams? Anyhow, somehow the J10 of hearts persuaded me and the 4S card hit the table. The D9 is led and this is what you see as Dummy -
A good teams 4S is it not? But at Pairs? Anyhow, I go up with the Ace in dummy and Lead Ace and another Heart. Do you finesse? I won with the King, played the Jack and ruffed, the HQ appearing on your left. That's the first hurdle over - what now? Time to run the Jack of spades. This lost to the Queen and then LHO played the Ace, followed by the 7 of clubs to his partner's Jack - not good news! Anyhow, I smoothly played the 9 followed by the 10 and RHO goes into a trance. The 5 of clubs is missing - who has it? His partner would have played the 7 from A75. If this is the case, then if RHO tries to 'cash' the King of Clubs, then I can ruff and throw my 'losing' queen (presumably) of diamonds on the club queen in dummy. It looks best to try and cash the King of diamonds first doesn't it? Maybe RHO is confused now and lost track of the hearts? Anyhow he exits with a spade. I run the remaining trumps and the 10 of hearts - throwing diamonds from Dummy. Again, RHO goes into the 'tank'. I now know for sure he has both the diamond and club Kings left. I'm thinking he's thinking ............... can I trust my partner to have thrown the club if he had it................. partner has led the 9 of diamonds............ what would you do? Anyhow he eventually throws the club King and I have achieved the 'impossible'. The full hands were (rotated for convenience).J87
A4
A1063
Q842
The moral to the story is - when things look bleak - do not give up! play the odd false card or two - good things might happen!Q2 954J87
A4
A1063
Q842
Q87 9532
Q98742 K5
A7 KJ63AK1063
KJ106
J
1095
How is this for a slam hand-
Our auction was North SouthQJ107 9853A64
AJ8
Q932
A98
42 95
106 KJ754
QJ732 65K2
KQ10763
A8
K104
The queen of spades was led - how do you rate your chances, looking at all four hands? Not high? diamond King wrong? It doesn't come down in three rounds? QJ clubs not doubleton? Not much chance then eh? Mike duly went one off. However, when we opened the score sheet several pairs had made it! We discussed this hand during the interval (names withheld to protect the guilty) - is yours a 'mandatory' count partnership? If so, look at the effect of playing the 10 of diamonds when declarer plays the Ace. Can you see what happens? When you play the 8 and your LHO plays small he is most unlikely to have the K (particularly at pairs), so you duck this to RHO's jack. Now you have a 'ruffing finesse' against RHO's King (as you have the Q9) and set up a diamond trick to dispose of the club loser!1D 1H
1N (12-16) 2C(range?)
3H (15-16, 3343) 4N (RKCB)
5D (0 or 3) 6H
On to the weekend - the teams event for the Four Stars Trophy and the Brighton Bowl. We exceeded our expectations on the Friday night, winning our three matches, ending with an overall score of 75%. However, we went downhill on the Saturday afternoon, continuing into the evening. The Sunday was a bit up and down, but we managed to win two matches out of the four.
We managed to bid this hand to 6 spades for a 11 imp gain-
The bidding - North East South WestQJ53
A876
Q98
KJAK742
J
AK763
Q7
* Roman Key-Card Blackwood
I should probably bid 3S with the North cards - though I was concerned
about being minimum. This would make South's task easier, knowing
that there were 4 trumps opposite. The bidding sequence would then
follow something like-
North
East
South
West
1N
Pass
2H
Pass
3S
Pass
4D*
Pass
4H
Pass
5D*
Pass
6H +
All Pass
* Cuebids
+ I have 2nd round control of clubs
On the auction we actually had, I would have bid 5H with the heart king and the queen of spades, enabling us to stop (hopefully) in 5 spades with the AK of Clubs missing. If I had the queen of trumps and no King, I guess we would have too high? - or does 5H show either the Heart King and the trump queen, or just the trump Queen? !
The next hand is instructive, in many ways -
On the layout here, our opponents bid to six Clubs by South (hands rotated for convenience). Mike led the Q of Diamonds, taken by Declarer. Trumps were drawn, and the 10 of spades was led from dummy. I did not cover this, and it ran to Partner's King. Mike has actually to lead a heart now, to break up a 'criss-cross' squeeze (see later), but he not unreasonably, returned a diamond. Declarer won and ruffed a diamond and then led a small spade to the Queen and then the Ace. When the spades failed to break, she had to go one down - as trumps were reeled off, dummy was discarding in front of me, so I was not in trouble. One down for +50. Can Declarer do better on our actual defence? Once Mike has returned a second diamond, the hand is set up for a 'criss-cross' squeeze'. She ruffs a diamond, plays one top spade only, and then runs trumps. The last four cards are- (West's cards are immaterial)K6 J85410953
A107
4
AKJ64
J5432 K96
QJ1092 8763
3 95AQ7
Q8
AK5
Q10875
Now on the lead of the Queen of Clubs (throwing a heart from dummy) East is now squeezed. If he throws a heart, Declarer cashes the Ace of hearts, dropping the King, and the ace of spades is an entry back to the Queen. If East throws a spade then the Ace of spades is cashed, dropping the Jack and the ace of hearts is an entry to the boss 9. Now can you see the importance of the heart switch? It would have broken up the entries - try it and see! Of course, this squeeze works with the actual layout. If the spades were 3-3 all along you will have just gone down in a cold contract!95
A10
-
-
AJ8
K9
-
-
Q8
-
Q
What happened at the other table? The opening lead and subsequent play was the same except that when South (Cap'n Nigel) led the spade 10, his RHO covered with the Jack, Queen and King. LHO now switched to a heart. Nigel rose with the ace (Vienna coup), cashed the spade ace and ran his trumps. This was the end position-
We are now down to a simple automatic squeeze on the lead of the club queen. It is the classic position. Two menace cards in opposite hands (the 5 spades and the queen of hearts), the squeeze card (the club queen) and the entry to the two card menace (the 7 of spades). So the cap'n made 12 tricks. Pity they were only in Five!!95
10
-
-
84
K
-
-
7
Q
-
Q
I said that this hand was instructive - first you should not cover the spade 10 when it is led from dummy (it is standard practice to cover the second card of the sequence in dummy - not the first - remember?). Second, it is better play (I think) to play small to the queen on the first round of spades, and when this has lost to the King, re-enter dummy and lead the 10, hoping that RHO covers. If he does, then the position is set up as before, by cashing the ace of hearts if necessary and then running the trumps. If RHO does not cover, you cannot set up the squeeze position, because by running the 10, you have lost the necessary entries. Another good reason for not covering the spade 10 with the Jack in the actual layout, is that, if clairvoyant, Declarer can actually make the contract by entering dummy and finessing the spade 7!!
On to my last hand. I've kept it to last because it just summed up how our weekend was going.......... it was on the Saturday night and you hold this hand as North (both vulnerable)-
Partner, not unreasonably, led the King of spades (asking for a count) and then switched to his singleton diamond. I played the six on dummy's 2 and declarer ruffed. He now led the club K to my ace and I played the spade Jack to pin declarer's queen(!). Mike won and switched to a low heart. Time stood still while Declarer tranced for two minutes. He played the Ace, dropping my King, played the club queen and ruffed the club five in dummy. He then led a trump to the Queen and played a trump to Mike's nine. The Jack of hearts was cashed and Mike exited with a spade to declarer's Ten. Eventually Declarer won his eighth trick with the seven of clubs - beating my six!! 670 away!! He made One spade, four hearts, Two Clubs and a club ruff, making eight. Can we beat it? I can't bear to analyse this hand -any offers!!It has gone two passes and your RHO has opened a 5-9 point natural two diamonds! I pass (what else) my LHO bids two hearts, and this is passed round to me. Well? I reasoned that my LHO had not opened a weak two in hearts, and therefore is either only likely to have five, or very weak with six. Surely partner has a heart stack in the same way as I have a diamond stack and about 10 high card points? Would you double? I did! Poor gullible fool! This was the complete layout-J76
K
AQ1096
A64293 Q102J76
K
AQ1096
A642
A5 Q108472
KJ87542 -
103 KQ75AK854
J963
3
J98
Better luck next year!!