Bridge blog
Under construction!
Whether this will be a collection of fun hands, or a list of latest site updates, or something else, it's too early to tell. I started it off with a favorite hand from the Last Chance Sectional in Helena, Montana, in August 2017 (see below).
Not a "favorite" hand — I got a terrible result on it — but a thought-provoking deal, from the Sunday Swiss in Missoula, 27 August 2017. The honours are correct but some of the spots are reconstructed:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The bidding was the easy part: 2NT-Pass-3NT. What's your plan on the ♥2 opening lead? (You put up the ♥J in case the lead was from KQxx, of course, but it gets covered.)
You have 8 sure tricks (5 diamonds and the other 3 aces) and finesse positions in both black suits. At matchpoints, this would be an easy decision: take the club finesse, since it produces 11 tricks when it succeeds.
At IMPs you have another option. If the ♥2 was fourth-best, you can win trick one and push a heart back at them. They can cash four hearts, but then they might break a black suit for you, and even if they don't, they have rectified the count for a squeeze. That might elevate your chance for nine tricks to considerably more than 50%.
Unfortunately, I didn't look at my opponents' convention card. They were playing attitude leads against notrump, and happily cashed five heart tricks. And at the other table, declarer took the club finesse, so that was minus 13 IMPs.
I'm very fond of attitude leads against notrump. The count information (whether "rule of eleven" or, as here, information about how the suit will break) seems to help declarer much more often than it helps the defense. The happy ending to the story is that when I described the deal to one of my regular partners the following week, she was eager to give attitude leads a try.
My favorite hand from the Last Chance Sectional in Helena, MT, the first weekend of August 2017:
| Dealer West Both Vul |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I was sitting South, and our uncontested auction began 1♦-1♥-1♠. I could just jump to 3NT, but I could imagine a slam if partner were 4-2-6-1 or 4-1-6-2 with the ♠AK and ♦KQ, so I chose to go slow. With this partner, 2♣ was artificial and game-forcing.
Partner's 3rd bid was 2♥. Now it looks like the "obvious" 3NT game is in trouble on a club lead: partner is either 4-3-5-1 or 4-3-4-2, and I have only Axx in clubs. This looks like a great time to play 4♥ in a 4-3 fit.
At the table, partner was 4-3-4-2 and clubs broke 4-4, so 3NT makes 3 on best defence — while 4♥ makes 5. If partner had been 4-3-5-1, 3NT would likely have been doomed, while 4♥ offered fast club ruffs.
A par 650 would have been worth an 88% board (losing to one 660 and one 690 on misdefense.) Only three pairs tried playing in hearts, and the other two didn't manage eleven tricks. I got a lucky twelve when West switched to a spade into my Q-T after winning her ♥K.