Bridge Q & A with H. Anthony Medley

Planning the Play at the Outset

2011-11-21T20:49:00.000-08:00

Today's hand deals with planning at the outset. Here's your hand, sitting West:

♠ 3

♥ QJT98654

♦ A7

♣ A3

Here's the auction:

West North East South

P P

4H Dbl P P

Opening lead: Ace of Spades

The dummy comes down and here are your two hands:

West East

♠ 3 ♠ 652

♥ QJT98654 ♥ A32

♦ A7 ♦ Q54

♣ A3 ♣ 9842

Before you play you must analyze your cards. How are you going to make this hand? It looks as if you must lose four tricks, one Spade, one Diamond, and one Club. And since South sat for the double, she probably has the King of trump. There's no way to finesse it, so you have to lose that, too. How can you make it?

The answer is that you must play North for the King of Diamonds, and you must set it up before drawing trump. Why? Two reasons. You have to lose a Club and you need to keep the Ace before you set up a way to get rid of your three of clubs. The second reason is that if you lead to the Ace of Hearts immediately, you have no entry to the board, which is where you are hoping to get a trick if you can set up the Queen of Diamonds.

So you trump the second spade in your hand and lead immediately to your Queen of diamonds on the board. If South has the King, which is unlikely since North doubled, showing the good hand, you are toast. But if North goes up and takes the King, no matter what North leads back, you can make the hand. If he leads a Club, you take the Ace, take the Ace of Diamonds in your hand. Lead to the Ace of Hearts. Play the Queen of Diamonds and sluff your three of Clubs. You lose the King of Hearts, but you only lost three tricks, making four, doubled.

Here's the four hand layout:

North

♠ AKT84

♥ Void

♦ KT9832

♣ K7

West East

♠ 3 ♠ 652

♥ QJT98654 ♥ A32

♦ A7 ♦ Q54

♣ A3 ♣ 9842

South

♠ QJ97

♥ K7

♦ J6

♣ QJT65

I'll close with a bidding commentary. When a player opens 4 hearts, a double by an opponent is for takeout. If a player opens 4 Spades, a double is penalty. If an opponent wants to make a takeout bid over a 4 Spade opener, he bids 4 NT. That asks partner to bid her longest suit. Here, after the hand was played, South asked me if she was correct to sit for the double and I explained her partner was asking her to bid. What should she have bid? Although a double often asks for the longest suit, it also generally implies four cards in the unbid major, so I would bid 4 Spades with her hand, even though she has 5 Clubs. If Partner doesn't have 4 spades, she will correct to her long suit. Here, NS is cold for 4 Spades. Actually they can make an overtrick, losing only the two minor suit Aces if they play the Diamonds correctly.

Managing transportation when playing No Trump

2011-11-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

Playing and defending no trump is the most challenging part of bridge. It requires planning and doing things that are sometimes counter-intuitive. Here's today's hand:

Dealer: East

Bidding:

South West North East

P 1S P 2H

P 2N P 3N

P P P

Opening lead: 3C

First the bidding: When East reverses (bidding a higher ranking suit at the two level than the suit with which you opened the bidding at the one level; a "reverse" promises at least 17 HCP and is forcing for one round) by bidding two Hearts after her one Diamond opener, West is forced to bid again, so chooses the weakest response possible, considering that he has the unbid suit, Clubs, stopped. East likes her hand and raises to game.

Superficially, it looks like you can take three spade tricks, two or three diamonds, and a heart or two, plus one Club. But closer inspection shows that this is all dependent on transportation. You have to get rid of the Ace of Spades on the board before you take your King and Queen in your hand. Plus you have to take two diamond finesses for this to work. But your hand is woefully weak and the singleton Ace of Spades doesn't help transportation since your only real entries are spades. How are you going to get to your hand enough times to accomplish all this?

You take the first trick in your hand with the Club Jack. Then you take your first diamond finesse. If the honors are split, you can take three diamonds. When South wins the Queen of diamonds, she returns a spade to the board's singleton Ace. You now have to play South for the Ace and Jack of Hearts to get back to your hand. So you lead the Heart 6 to your Ten. South takes her Jack. Recognizing the transportation problems and wanting to keep the lead on the board, South takes her Ace of Hearts, figuring she'd then put the lead back on the board (that would leave the KQ of Hearts on the board) and you'd be stuck with no way to get to your hand to take your two spades and the second diamond finesse.

Here is the key to the hand. You discard your King of Hearts on her Ace, so when she leads another heart, you are able to take the trick in your hand with your Heart Ten. Since you discarded your King from the board, you have the eight to play from the board to take the trick with the Ten in your hand (if you had discarded the eight on her lead of the Ace, you are left with just the King and the Queen on the board and you're blocked from returning the lead to your hand). That allows you to take the two spade tricks in your hand and the second diamond finesse, which works, and the King falls when you play the Ace, the diamonds splitting favorably, giving you your three diamond tricks. So you end up taking three spades, three diamonds, two hearts and a club, making three. If you do not discard your king of hearts on her Ace, the hand can't make, assuming a reasonable defense.

Think and Plan Before You Play

2011-09-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

Today's deal shows two thinking plays outside of the box, one of which allows Declarer to make what appears to be a doomed contract, and the other of which allows a courageous, savvy defender to still beat the contract regardless of what Declarer does.

North

♠ J62

♥ A832

♦ QJ8

♣ 632

West East

♠ Q9873 ♠ A54

♥ J976 ♥ QT5

♦ T2 ♦ 964

♣ 75 ♣ AT98

South

♠ KT

♥ K4

♦ AK753

♣ KQJ4

South West North East

1D P 1H P

2N P 3N P

P P

Opening Lead 7S.

Offhand, this looks hopeless. East wins the first Spade with her Ace and returns the 5. South takes the second spade trick with his King and can only see eight sure tricks, including the Spade he just took, before East gets in with her Ace of Clubs and returns a spade, which allows West to take her three Spade tricks and the contract is down 1.

But careful playing can make the contract, assuming West doesn't make an heroic play. When West leads the 7 of Spades and East plays the Ace, South must discard his King. His now bare Ten and the Jack doubleton on the board stop the suit. When East returns the 5, South is not forced to take the trick since he no longer has the King, so he plays his Ten. If West takes the Queen, Dummy's Jack stops the suit on West's next Spade lead. But the important part of this play is that by requiring three Spade tricks at the outset, when East gets in with her Ace of Clubs she no longer has a Spade to return to West and South makes the contract with a possible overtrick.

In order to defeat the contract, West must decline the second trick and allow Declarer to win the trick with his Spade Ten. That leaves East with one Spade to return to West's Queen when she takes her Ace of Clubs. But how many Wests will be courageous enough to decline the second trick?

More on Opening Leads When Defending Against No Trump

2011-09-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

Here are two hands you hold from two different auctions. You are on lead in each hand. What do you lead?

Here's the auction for Hand 1:

S W N E

1N P 3N P

P P

Hand 1

♠ 83

♥ J96532

♦ AK4

♣ 75

Here's the auction for Hand 2:

S W N E

P 1D P

1S P 1N P

3N P P P

Hand 2

♠ Q63

♥ AK7

♦ T7

♣ 87653

These are two hands played by my partner or me recently. In the first, I eschewed the heart 5 lead. While it's true we might get lucky and my partner might have the Ace, King, or Queen of Hearts, and opponents might not be able to run nine tricks before I set up the Hearts, that's a long shot. The best lead here is the Ace and King of Diamonds and a low diamond. In the actual hand, my partner had Queen fifth of diamonds, we took the first five tricks and were the only pair to set the contract.

In the second, my partner led a Club and opponents ran off 11 tricks before my partner got her Ace and King of Hearts. Here, as in Hand 1, the lead should be the Ace and King of Hearts and the low Heart. In the actual hand, I held the Queen, Jack, and three hearts and we would take the first five tricks. Here's the actual hand:

I gave this problem to many people at all levels. None chose the winning lead of the Ace and the King followed by the remaining card in the suit.

Whenever you find yourself on lead defending 3 No Trump and you hold AKx with nothing else in your hand to try to set up and your partner hasn't bid, you should lead out the Ace and King and the little card. This has three desirable effects. First, you get two tricks you might not get if opponents can run the other suits, which is likely. Second, you might catch partner with the Queen and more cards in the suit, especially if it's an unbid suit, a fit you'll never find if you don't make the right opening lead. Third, if partner has 5 small cards in the suit, you will set up two tricks for her if she ever gets in by getting rid of all the other cards in the suit with your three leads.

If you lead the small card, you block the suit for your partner if you get in and win your Ace and King; you can't get back to her. While this should be obvious, if your partner has actually bid the suit, your leading the Ace, King, little will unblock the suit for her.

Choosing a suit and card to lead when defending no trump

2011-08-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

In a previous article I wrote the rules for choosing which suit to lead when defending no trump and partner doubles. Recently a hand arose that exemplified something very important that I did not mention in that column, something that applies with or without a double by partner. Here's your hand as dealer:

♠ KT83

♥ T9

♦ Q5

♣ AQJ64

The auction:

You LHO Pard RHO

1C P 1D P

1N P P Dbl

P 2H P 2N

P P P

As a preliminary that has nothing to do with the point of this article, your first rebid should be 1S, not 1NT, but that's the way this hand was bid, so that's the way I'm writing about it.

Question: What do you lead? I was your partner in this deal. I haven't supported your suit, Clubs; I bid diamonds. I did not double the 2N contract, which might suggest a lead (although it would be pretty ambiguous; would a double ask for her suit or mine, or would it just say "I think we can defeat this contract; I'm not suggesting a lead?"). But with this hand it does not matter what your partner might suggest as a lead. Even if partner doubles for a different lead, you have only one lead. This brings up the first basic rule in defending no trump. All the other rules are subservient to this. No matter what partner has done, if you have a better lead than what partner suggests in your own hand, lead it.

Here are all four hands:

North

♠ QJ95

♥ J54

♦ KJ93

♣ KT

West (Me) East

♠ 2 ♠ KT83

♥ A863 ♥ T9

♦ A7642 ♦ Q5

♣ 952 ♣ AQJ64

South

♠ A764

♥ KQ72

♦ T8

♣ 873

Unfortunately, my partner thought she should lead my suit, so she led the Diamond Queen. Her lead had the deleterious consequence of me returning a diamond when I got in since I had no idea of her Club holding. She could have four little clubs with her points elsewhere. Then it's too late for the Clubs because Declarer's three diamonds set up.

It doesn't matter what I hold here in determining what to lead. If she leads the Club Queen, Declarer must take the King. When I get in with one of my Aces, I then know to shoot back a Club and Declarer is history. We get four club tricks and my two aces, minimum, for down one. Plus, her KT of spades is well situated for another trick for down 2. Dreaming further, Declarer might mis-guess the Diamond Queen since I bid Diamonds for down 3.

Here are the rules for leading against no trump. The card you should lead is in bold face:

AKJX AQJx

AJT9 AT9x

KQT9

Here are the reasons. If you lead, for example, the Jack from AJT9 and declarer takes the king or queen in his hand and the other isn't on the board, when partner gets in she will lead your suit back through the remaining honor in declarer's hand and you have a very good chance of taking three (or four if you have a five card suit) tricks unless declarer started with four cards in the suit.

If you are leading the Queen from KQT9, partner must drop the jack if she has it. Why? Because a savvy declarer who has AJx will hold up on your queen lead and if you continue, will take two tricks. So partner must drop the jack if she has it if you lead the queen on opening lead. That allows you to continue leading the suit without worrying about giving declarer an extra trick. In fact, with most of these leads, if you have an honor, you should play it on her lead, for the same reason. It sets up the rest of her hand and allows her to continue the suit if Declarer ducks.

Another thing to remember about these leads is that if partner leads the Queen and you have the Jack, you know what she's got. Similarly, if she leads the King and you have the Queen, you know that she should be holding AKJx. In both cases, you can freely play your honor on her lead without concern that you're giving up a trick. If, however, partner leads the Ace and you have the Queen, don't drop it because she should be denying AKJ.

Trust Your Partner and Fourth Seat Openings

2011-07-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

There is no reason to preempt in fourth seat. The purpose of a preempt is to keep opponents out of the bidding or to keep them from finding a contract. If you are in fourth seat and everyone has passed, you know that opponents have 22 HCP or less and probably don't have a game, so there's no reason to bid with a sub-opening hand. To do so just invites opponents to search for a part score contract they can make.

As a result of this, a two level opening in fourth seat is available for a descriptive bid if you have an opening hand. I use it to show 12+ points with a six card suit. So if I have 12+ points with a five card or less suit, I just open at the one level. But if I have a six card suit with an opening hand or better, I open at the two level. This has two positive effects:

1. It more adequately describes your hand to partner and allows you to proceed bidding without having to rebid your suit to show six cards; and

2. It hinders opponents from entering the bidding to find any contract they might have because the level is just too high to start exploratory bidding.

With that as a preamble, here's a hand we held recently:

My partner played our system and opened 2D, although I must say that it's puzzling why North did not preempt with 2 Spades in third seat, but that was the subject of my last column; when your opponents make a mistake, take advantage of it, and we did. There is a feeling that you should not preempt if you have an outside four card major. But in this situation, North, in third seat, must preempt with 2 Spades, holding six Spades and three of the top five honors. He should forget his four little hearts, especially in third seat. If North preempts with 2S, it would make our finding 3NT extremely difficult, if not impossible.

I felt my partner probably had a pretty good hand, 15-16 HCP; I had no reason for that other than instinct. I did know that she had an opening hand with six diamonds, so I immediately thought we had a shot at 3NT since I had three diamonds to an honor. My Heart bid showed a good five card suit. Since I already knew she had at least six diamonds, she was free to bid 3 Clubs to show a Club stopper. That's all I wanted to know. When she had my unstopped suit, I bid 3NT, expecting a Spade lead into my King doubleton.

Alas, my partner started thinking, never a good sign. Finally she pulled out the five diamond card, turning a cold top into an average minus. Whenever something like this happens, I know it's going to be disastrous in terms of competition, and it was. If we play 3NT we get the cold top and win. As it was, we finished a close second.

If you want a good partnership, you must trust your partner. I know her hand and I bid 3NT, which tells her that I have a stopper in Spades, the unbid suit. By bidding 3C, she's telling me she has a stopper in Clubs and is inviting me to bid 3NT if I have a stopper in Spades. After inviting the 3NT bid, she cannot then second guess me. On top of that, she had eight diamonds, not six! She knew, or should know, I had three to an honor, so she knew we had eight cold tricks just in diamonds. She had the AK of Clubs. I bid Hearts and told her I had Spades stopped. There is no reason in the world for her to override my judgment and pull it to five diamonds. She must trust me. She started out fine by bidding 2 diamonds and then telling me about her Club stopper. Why bid Clubs if she's not understanding my search for 3NT? Up until then, she was perfect. But then she chickened out, fearful of her Heart void, even though I bid Hearts and she knew Hearts would not be a problem.

Her bid is injurious for another reason. I have Spades stopped only if the lead comes from my LHO. If she's playing the hand, a Spade lead, which is what she got, means that she will lose two Spades right off the bat, since a lead through my King doubleton is a killer. To avoid losing two Spades, I must be playing the hand with the opening lead coming from my LHO into my King doubleton.

The only way 3NT played by me can be beaten here is if North, my LHO, leads a Heart and South takes it with her Ace and switches to the Queen of Spades. Then they will take the first seven tricks. Given North's hand, however, that is extremely unlikely. A Spade switch is also unlikely since North never bid Spades and South would be looking at a Heart void on the board. So a Heart lead would be heroic and so would a Spade switch. In this hand, North has a clear lead of the Jack of Spades, especially since I bid Hearts.

But let's get back to trusting your partner. There is really no upside to doing what my partner did. What if she were right? OK, she was right. But what if she is wrong, which she was? Then there are two extremely deleterious results:

1. A very poor result, greatly affecting your competitive position in the game; and, worse,

2. A very upset partner.

Of those two, number 2 is far worse than number 1. Not only will partner be upset, but it will affect his confidence in you for the foreseeable future.

Think, also, about this. If you pass and trust your partner and partner is wrong, your partner cannot be upset with you. You will have the righteous path. So from just selfish point of view you are far better passing than making a unilateral bid that could result in the righteous fury of someone with whom you want to continue playing. Isn't it better to trust partner than to risk being wrong with all the downsides that entails? I think so.

Here, she had already described her hand to me. If her response to my 2H bid was to just rebid her diamonds, I'll either pass or bid four Diamonds (probably pass since she hasn't shown anything extra). But when she bid 3C, showing extras and interest in playing 3NT and then I bid 3NT, she can't override my judgment because I know more about her hand than she knows about mine. When I bid 3NT I should be promising three diamonds and a Spade stopper, which is what I had.

Everybody else was in either 5D or 6D (one pair, doubled, down 2), except the people who barely beat us out to be first overall; they were in 3D making six (the only way that could happen is if South leads her Ace of Hearts, which East can ruff and sluff her two spades on the KQ of Hearts, losing only a Club; never lead an Ace on opening lead unless you have the King or it's a singleton). We were the only ones who found the best 3NT contract. Too bad we didn't play it.

One of President Reagan's great quotations is "Trust but verify." In bridge it's just "trust." No verification is needed.

Give Your Opponents the Opportunity to Make a Mistake

2011-07-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

Everybody makes mistakes. Even National Champions renege or lead out of turn, or miscount trump, or make any other of a myriad of errors. In fact, a couple of decades ago I paid to play with a pro. I was a good enough player at the time that he asked me why I was paying him to play with me. I told him I was tired of my partners making silly mistakes and just wanted to play with someone I could trust to not make those mistakes.

Early in the game we were in an auction in which the opponents went into Blackwood and my RHO responded 5 Diamonds, giving me the opportunity to double for a lead, since I had the AK of Diamonds. They ended up in 6 No Trump with my RHO declarer. I doubled, figuring that with me on lead and with two sure tricks in my hand they were going to have a hard time making the contract. When the auction was completed, my partner, the pro, immediately led a Club, thereby violating at least three rules. He didn't ask if it was his lead, he led out of turn, and he didn't lead my suit. So much for counting on a pro to make no mistakes. I never paid anyone to play with me again.

If a pro could make dumb mistakes like that in a Tournament, then you should realize that ordinary players make even more mistakes than experts. Sometimes you are in an unmakeable contract. The only way you can make it is for your opponents to misdefend or make a mistake. You should realize this and give them a chance to make that mistake. Here's a good example from a hand in a recent game:

Dealer: North, both sides vulnerable

Opening Lead: Ace of Spades

I'm sitting West. Looking at the dummy I'm almost certainly going to lose the two Aces and another Heart. So I pull trump, ending in Dummy and lead the Jack of Hearts. Queen, King, Void. Now I know that East is sitting in a tenace position with her Ace-Nine surrounding Dummy's Ten. As defined in my 16-page Glossary in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bridge, the most complete Glossary of bridge terms ever published and all by itself worth the price of the book, a "tenace position" is when "there is only one card outstanding remaining between a holding of two cards." In this situation, the only card remaining outstanding between her Ace and Nine is dummy's Ten because the King, Queen, and Jack have already been played.

How can I avoid losing two Hearts? The answer is that with good, or just adequate, defense, I can't. So the only thing to do now is to give her the opportunity to make a mistake. If I lead from my hand to the Ten, she'll take it with her Ace and then her Nine will be the highest remaining Heart and she'll take that trick eventually since I will still have a Heart to lose in both dummy and my hand, even if she doesn't realize it's good. So in order to give her the best opportunity to mess up, I have to lead from the board to my unseen hand.

The first thing I do is to draw her attention away from the Heart trick that has just been played that got rid of the King, Queen, and Jack of Hearts. So I lead the Ace and King of Diamonds and ruff a Diamond, leaving me on the board with the following position (North's holding is irrelevant):

I'm hoping she is inattentive enough to not realize that her Ace and Nine are both good tricks with the Ten on the board. I lead the board's Two to my Eight. If she plays her Nine she'll win the trick and I'll lose the two Heart tricks. But if she forgets that all the cards between her Nine and her Ace have already been played except the Board's Ten that I led away from, she might think that I'm going to win the trick in my hand if she doesn't take it with her Ace.

She doesn't even hesitate, going up and taking the Ace. That leaves my Ten on the board as my 11th trick. I gave her a chance to make a mistake and she made it. The result was that we got a top Board. Several pairs bid and made Four Spades. One was down one in Four Spades. One played Five Hearts our way down three. We were the only pair in Clubs.

The moral is, never give up. If it looks hopeless but there's a chance that opponents will misplay, give them that chance.

Doubling One No Trump

2011-07-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Most experts will agree that the hardest contract to make is One No Trump. The reason is that if someone opens 1N and partner passes, it means that opponents probably have an equal number of points or better because Opener's partner will bid with 8 HCP. If partner passes, the odds are that she has 5 or less. That means that the points are pretty evenly split between declarer and defense.

If opponents' bidding goes 1 of a suit-1 of a higher ranking suit-1N-pass-pass-?, it also indicates that points are pretty even between declarer and defense because declarer has 12-14 HCP and partner has 6-9. Add them up. Probably each side has 20 HCP; sometimes Declarer has as few as 18.

Because of this, defense has just as good a chance of taking seven tricks or more than declarer, probably a better chance because defense has the opening lead. Yet one rarely sees 1N doubled. Recently my partner and I had enormous success doubling 1N. The first was in a team game where we doubled an auction of one of a minor-one of a major-1N. That one went down four after I doubled in the pass out seat and my partner sat for it. Here's the second, a hand I picked up in second seat in a game less than a week later:

I was in second seat and my RHO opened One Club. Even though I had 13 HCP, I have no call. I can't double because if partner bids hearts, I don't have a rebid, so I passed. LHO bid 1D and my partner bid 1H. My RHO rebid 1N and then I doubled in direct seat. I knew partner had enough to make an overcall, at least eight HCP and either had a good heart suit or six hearts. Either way, knowing we have at least 21 HCP between us, I'm doubling with my opening hand, especially since I had the queen of her suit. By our agreement, this is for penalty. Since my partner knows any time I double 1N I'm hoping to defend, she passed. Here's the entire layout:

I led the queen of hearts, which Declarer took with the Ace. He led a diamond and finessed my King. He led a spade to his king but East put up the Ace to lead another heart, which South took with the King. He led to the Ace of diamonds and then led a Club. Partner played the Queen, which he let ride. East then took four heart tricks with me discarding the Queen of Spades, asking for a spade lead when she got finished cashing her Hearts. I discarded one Club and my two remaining diamonds on her last three hearts, leaving me with the Jack-Ten of Spades and the Ace of Clubs.

The only Club I had besides the Ace was the six and that would be hard for her to decipher. Since I had to discard judiciously to make sure I had the last two tricks, at least, I wanted to be certain she returned a Spade. If I asked for a Club with the six and discarded my Spades, and she misunderstood the six as discouraging instead of encouraging, I could envision him taking an extra Spade trick if I discarded my two spades, for only down one. So instead of taking a chance and asking for a Club and retaining two diamonds and no Spades, I took the sure way to make certain I got two of the last three and asked for a Spade, which enabled me to protect my Spade winner and my Ace of Clubs. She led a spade and Declarer took his King and the last two were mine with the Jack of Spades and the Ace of Clubs, for down two doubled.

A word about carding: in a perfect world, once my partner got in with the Queen of Clubs, we can take the rest of the tricks for down three. If I play my six of Clubs on her Queen, then discard the three of Clubs on her first Heart, it would tell her I wanted a Club return. If I were sure of her seeing this, I could discard all my Spades on her last three Hearts, one of which was a loser, and be down to two good diamonds and the Ace of Clubs.

However, this is not a perfect world and everyone is fallible. There is a good possibility that my partner will be so intent on winning her Queen of Clubs so she can run her Hearts that she will not notice my six of Clubs. Then when I play my three of Clubs on her first Heart, it will look discouraging and she'll lead a Spade. If I discard all my Spades, relying on her seeing my high-low signal, Declarer will win two of the remaining three tricks and only be down one. If I clearly ask for a Spade return I'm sure they will be down two as we will take two of the last three tricks. So I opted for safety, choosing down two and 500 in lieu of risking only getting 200 on the outside chance of getting 800. I knew 500 would be a top and it was. Two other pairs defended 1N for down two but not doubled. So 200 would have tied two others for top. Playing it safe and not succumbing to greed got us a 500 top.

The key to the hand is that my partner knows I want to play 1N doubled if at all possible and she passed with a weak six-card heart suit opting to defend with two ways to get in if we can set up her hearts.

Here are the rules for doubling 1N. I want to emphasize that these are my rules alone. You can't play these unless you have a firm understanding with your partner that this is the way you are going to play. Not many others play this besides my partner and me to my knowledge. But I get more high boards defending 1N doubled than on any other contract.

1. If the bidding goes 1N-P-P_?, you double with 10 HCP or more and pass with 9 or less . If partner has a good 8, I want her to sit for the double. If not, she bids her longest suit and I pass. I'm not promising support for any suit she bids, so she knows we might be playing in a bad fit, like 4-2, but we're unlikely to be doubled. We might get a bad board, but 75% of the time when we defend we get tops because even though nobody is making 1N we are the only ones who doubled.

2. If the bidding goes 1 of a suit-1 of a higher ranking suit-1N-P-P-?, the person in the pass out seat doubles with a 10+ point hand and passs with 9 or less. In this auction, it's likely that declarer's team has an even weaker hand than the 1N-P-P auction. Partner passes with a good 8 or with less points but both of opponents' suits (so no suit to bid to rescue the hand). Once again, the likelihood is that declarer will be down one or two at every table, but you'll be the only pair to double.

3. In the auction of the hand I describe above, after partner has made a call and then opponents bid NT, a double in the direct seat is penalty. Since Partner has described her hand, she should have a very good reason, indeed, not to sit for it. I can't think of one. Here is where she must trust her partner.

Playing 1N doubled is probably the most competitive contract you can play but it will reward you because it will be the most fun you'll have at bridge, especially when you are successful. If you are too successful, if your percentage is too high, then you aren't doubling 1N enough. It never bothers me to double and have the opponents make it. You must be unsuccessful occasionally. But if you're only successful 50% of the time, you're too aggressive. The only way to know is to start doubling 1N when the bidding indicates. As you get used to it you should slowly learn when to double and when to pass and you will start to climb towards the 75% success level. Bridge is not a game for the faint of heart. Try doubling more; you'll like it.

All Red Hand

2011-05-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here’s the hand I was dealt in a team game:

I was in first seat. I had a one loser hand with 16 high card points and two voids. There are three possible ways to bid this hand.

Open 2 Clubs. This is a one loser hand. You will rarely see a more powerful hand. In normal bidding unless partner has a five card suit headed by 2 of the top 3 honors, she’ll respond with a 2D waiting bid. What’s your next call? Normally with a heart suit like this you would jump to 3H next, which says “hearts is trump,” asking partner to bid her aces and kings up the line. That lets out finding a diamond fit. As the cards actually lay, partner would respond 4C, showing the ace of clubs. That’s meaningless to you so you would probably close out in 4H or 6H. And that assumes no bidding by opponents.
Another way to bid it is to open 1 Heart. With only 16 high card points, it’s extremely unlikely that it will be passed out. If partner has 5 points or less, that means that opponents have at least 19 HCP between them. Somebody is going to make a call. But what’s your next bid? Do you ignore your hugely strong heart suit to jump shift into diamonds? If partner has 3 diamonds and 2 hearts, she’ll support diamonds when the hand should probably be in Hearts. Do you jump to four hearts? Another downside to either 2 Clubs or 1 Heart is that it allows opponents an opportunity to find a 5-5 or better fit in the black suits. If you get into a competitive auction, they could sacrifice at 6 spades (maybe it won’t be a sacrifice; it might make) and force you to choose whether to defend with a hand that doesn’t have that much defense if they have major fits in both black suits, or go to seven, which you might not make.
I didn’t want opponents to communicate, so opened 6H and it was passed out, even though opponents did have a 10 card spade fit.

Here’s the layout:

It’s cold for 6 hearts and 7 diamonds. 7 diamonds is hard to find if you open 2 Clubs. However, if you open 1 Heart it’s possible with the following bidding:

Me Partner

1H 2C

3D 4D

4H 5D

Do you bid 7 diamonds? Partner could only have 3 diamonds without the queen, which means you have to find the queen. There’s really no way to tell that partner has 4 diamonds. One way would be to give up on hearts when you find a diamond fit and bid 4N, roman key card blackwood. No matter what partner responds (you don't care about aces or the king of trump), you bid the next higher suit, asking for the queen. If partner responds with the queen, you could then bid 7. But you still don't know that she's got four diamonds, which is important because you might have to trump out the hearts if they split 4-1, which they do. You would be in a dilemma because you would have to pull trump before running the hearts and if she only has three, you might have to play all three to pull trump and then you'd have a heart loser.

But, of course, you don’t know this when you’re in first seat and know that there’s a possibility of a huge spade or club fit for opponents. I didn’t want them to communicate, so shut them out with my 6H bid, which won the day since at the other table they opened two clubs and ended in 5 diamonds, making 7.

Comments welcome, but please add them to the blog, not via email. Thanks.

When you bid you must take into consideration how your partner will interpret it

2011-05-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

In a recent game I, sitting West, had the following hand:

Although partner bid Clubs, and I had a doubleton, I led my Ace of Spades. I wanted to see Dummy and I wanted Partner to know I had the King of Spades. Here was Dummy:

Wow. I’m thinking my partner is sitting behind North with the AQ of Clubs. Why else would she take a free bid at the three level when she couldn’t open? She’s telling me what to lead when I get in, and she probably has six clubs and will not mind playing the contract in three clubs if she gets the bid. When I lead my Ace of Spades, she plays the Queen. This cannot be a singleton because if it were, it would mean that opponents held 8 spades between them. Since dummy only has 3 spades, if partner’s Queen were to be a singleton, it would mark opener with 5 spades. Clearly, from the bidding, that was highly unlikely, so partner was initiating a high – low discard to show a doubleton. Declarer must hold four spades. So the question was, should I lead the King and then give partner a ruff?

Since she bid Clubs freely at the three level, what is she telling me with her club bid? When I see the KJ on the board, the only conclusion I could draw was that she had to have the AQ. Otherwise, why bid Clubs? I wanted to maximize our tricks. If I give her a ruff right off the bat, she doesn’t have a lead back since if she sets up their diamonds, our club tricks will go away as declarer sloughs the clubs in her hand on her diamonds. If she takes her ace of clubs it makes the King on the board a trick. So to lead my King of Spades and then another spade for her to ruff at this point would be to end play my partner. The only lead is to switch to a club immediately, let her take her ace and queen and get back to me with her last spade to my King to give her a ruff. That would give us the first five tricks.

So I led a Club and the trick was won on the board with Dummy’s jack! I was stunned. This was my partner’s hand:

When you bid, you must realize that your partner is going to hear you. My partner did not have a bid with this hand. She only had one trick. Her club suit was horrible. If I’m on lead, unless I have a better lead in my hand (which I did), I’m probably going to lead it. What’s the point of bidding Clubs? It doesn’t describe her hand and it misleads her partner. She’s not in the passout seat, so she’s not balancing. Opponents could be moving on to game or slam. This isn’t a good enough hand to open. It’s not a hand to preempt in first seat, and it’s not a hand to overcall. It’s as weak an 11 HCP hand that you will ever see.

Because I listened to her overcall and didn’t give her a ruff, we only took our two aces and my king, so they made four. Had she kept quiet and passed, we would have taken the extra trick, because I would have had no reason to switch to Clubs and I would have given her her ruff, which is what everyone else who played the hand did.

The moral is; don’t bid unilaterally, especially in a situation like this when you are interfering in what is basically a noncompetitive auction. Your partner is listening to you. Before you make a bid, think of the conclusion your partner will draw from your bid. If it’s not the one you want, don’t make the bid.

For my next column I will be discussing the following hand I opened sitting first seat nobody vulnerable:

How do you bid this hand? Give me progressions of the anticipated bidding to the final contract. You don’t know the other hands, so you have to plan this before you make your first bid. Please answer by blogging in this blog.

How to make a contract when it appears you have too many losers

2011-05-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

Can you make 4 spades here?

Opening lead KD

I had this hand in a club game several years ago. After I made four spades, my opponent, a lady who was an experienced, accomplished player, asked what they did wrong since I was the only one to make four spades. I told her that as the cards lay it could not be beaten if it's played correctly. Although this seemed an easy hand to me, it was clear that to the majority of players in that game, it was not.

When you are playing in a no trump contract, the first thing you do is count your winners and then try to figure out where you’re going to get the tricks you need to make your contract.

In a suit contract, on the other hand, the first thing you do is to count your losers. If you have too many losers to make your contract, you have to figure out where you’re going to be able to get rid of a loser before your opponents take it. Here it looks as if you'll lose one card in each suit. How can you lose only three tricks, making 4? You should be able to see it immediately.

Give up? Win the first trick with the ace of diamonds and force out the Ace of spades because you must keep control of the lead after you lose the ace of spades. Do whatever you need to draw trump.

After you lose the ace of spades, you then lose the diamond. It still looks like you're going to lose a club and a heart.

You start with the clubs. Play the king, then lead low to dummy. Play low from dummy. They will get in and lead a heart, which you win. Then you play to dummy's ace of clubs. If clubs split 3-3, you can throw your losing heart in your hand on the last club, allowing you to trump the third heart still on the board. If clubs don't split 3-3, you have to lose a heart in addition to the three you’ve already lost.

The lesson here is to count your losers, 4, which is one short of the 3 tricks you can lose and still make your contract, and then visualize the best way to get rid of one of those losers, allowing you to take an extra trick with this hand at the first trick. The four clubs on the board and three in your hand should shout at you that if they split 3-3, that’s your ticket home.

Play of the Hand: Ducking

2011-04-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

It goes against your grain, but sometimes you have to lose a trick intentionally. This often occurs when you are playing a No Trump contract and you have a long suit in Dummy with the only entries being in the long suit. Look at the following hand where you are South playing in 3 No Trump:

Opening lead: 5D

Count your winners. You have six, the AK of Hearts, the AK of Diamonds, the Ace of Clubs, and the Ace of Spades. But that leaves you three tricks short of your contract. How are you going to make this?

Your only chance is to set up your Heart suit in Dummy. But you've got a serious entry problem, since you only have two Hearts in your hand and no other entry on the Board. How to play it?

This is where you duck to set up the Heart suit. You must lose the first Heart trick. So the play goes that you take the opening lead in your hand with the King of Diamonds. Now you lead a low Heart to the Board. West plays the deuce. You play the six allowing East to take the trick! You are hoping for a 3-2 split in Hearts. East returns a Diamond which you take with your Ace. You then lead your last Heart to the AK on the Board. Hearts split 3-2 as you had hoped and you can run your five Heart tricks.

The only way you could make this hand was to lose the first Heart trick by ducking. That took out two of opponents' Hearts and allowed you to pull the remaining Hearts with your Ace and King when you got back in the lead. If you don't duck, you have no way to get back to Dummy without losing the lead when you try to take out the last Heart. If you lead to the Ace on your first lead of Hearts and then play the King, you are out of Hearts and North still has the nine of Hearts which will take the next Heart lead. Then there's no way for you to get back to Dummy to cash your remaining good Hearts.

Further, if you lead to the Ace and then lead a low Heart, you still can't get back because you only have two Hearts in your hand and the second Heart will go on your second lead. So you must lose the first Heart trick.

This is a fairly common situation and it's one where a lot of players misplay.

What does a double of a no trump contract mean?

2011-03-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

It constantly amazes me how experienced and accomplished players have forgotten the basic game. At the Anaheim Nationals I was playing in a continuous pairs game with a Silver Life Master, a very accomplished player.

On one hand the bidding went:

Me LHO Partner RHO

P 1D P 1S

2C 2D P 2N

P 3D P 3N

P P P

Here’s my hand:

I was on lead and without a double from my partner I refrained from leading from my club suit. Instead I led 4th from the KQxx of Hearts. My RHO made 4, running the six card diamond suit and the AKQ of spades after taking the Ace of hearts, finally conceding the last three tricks.

Here are the actual hands:

When I discovered that my partner had the Ace third of Clubs I asked her why she didn't double for a Club lead (Declarer held Qxx). If I lead the Eight of Clubs (4^th from my longest and strongest suit), she takes the Ace and returns through opener’s queen and we take the first six tricks. She responded that a double would have asked me to lead a diamond, dummy's first bid suit!

This seems to be a common misconception among players even as experienced as she. In fact, a double of a 3N contract by the bidder's partner, when bidder is on lead, asks for a lead of bidder's suit. The absence of a double implies that bidder should not lead the suit he bid.

Here are the rules for lead directing doubles of 3 no trump contracts:

1. If your partner (who doubled) has bid a suit, lead her suit;

2. If you have bid a suit and your partner doubles, lead your suit;

3. If neither of you has bid, you should lead Dummy's first bid suit unless you have a better lead in your hand, so you can use your judgment;

4. If you have both bid, use your own judgment, but if your suit isn't terrific, lead partner's suit;

5. If no suit has been bid by opponents and neither of you has bid, your doubling partner is asking for an unusual lead. She probably has a long running suit, so you should probably lead your shortest suit.