PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS #4
By Larry Matheny
Here is another
addition of Problems and Solutions. As
with the earlier lessons, I have selected problems that occur frequently and
proposed a solution to them. Let’s start
with a problem involving trump quality.
1. How good are
our trumps?
Scoring: Matchpoints
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*1
or 4 keycards
I was in the North
chair and as soon as my partner opened 2
,
my thoughts went to slam. However, our
weak-2 bids aren’t that structured so I was concerned about trump quality. The answer could be found with Keycard
Blackwood. South’s 5
response showed one or four keycards so I knew we were missing one important
card. My 5
bid asked about the spade queen and his leap to 6
told me he held the lady but no outside king. Without the queen, he would have bid 5.
West lead a club and my partner quickly wrapped up thirteen tricks. He led the spade eight from dummy and when
that held trick, he continued with a small one to his hand. He then went back to dummy with a diamond to
repeat the spade finesse. He discarded
his losers on dummy’s heart suit after establishing the suit by ruffing the
fourth round.
To realize the value of the convention, what would you have bid if South had
denied the spade queen? What if his suit
was: AJ9754 or KJ10754? Do you still
want to be in slam? Merely asking for
aces or keycards is just not enough.
2. How do I use
Blackwood with my void?
Scoring: Matchpoints
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Here is another
hand where North soon had slam ambitions.
South holding14high card points along with a void jumped to 3
.
North wanted to check for aces, however,
regular Blackwood or even Roman Keycard would only tell him the number of
aces/keycards, not which ones. To solve
this dilemma North jumped to 5
unleashing the rarely used Exclusion
Blackwood convention. This asked
South for the number of keycards (aces plus the king of trumps) held outside of the diamond suit. South's response showed 3 keycards and North
confidently bid the grand slam.
North won the opening trump lead, cashed the ace and king of both black suits,
and had a high cross-ruff for the rest of the tricks. So many players routinely use Blackwood before
bidding a slam. This is another example where asking for the number of aces would not help.
3. How good is my
hand?
Scoring: IMPs
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*0-3 keycards
While the 4-3-2-1 point count system most players use to evaluate their hands
is useful, sometimes you have to look beyond it. This hand is a good example of how big seven
high card points can be.
After East's 3
preempt, South jumped to 4.
A vulnerable overcall of 3
would show a good hand so the jump indicated a very strong hand. North didn't hold many high card points but he
had good heart support and controls in two of the outside suits. He also knew his partner should be short in
diamonds. Realizing what a good dummy he
had, he used Roman Keycard Blackwood to check for the keycards (four aces +
heart king) and then bid the slam.
Declarer won the spade opening lead and knocked out the ace of trumps. He was
later able to discard one club loser on the spade king and ruff the other two
in dummy. The North player at the other
table passed the 4
bid saying "I only had seven points".
4. Suit
combinations
Suit management is
more than just taking a finesse. You
must be able to look at the entire hand and not just the suit you are about to
play.
Scoring: Matchpoints
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West led the jack of clubs and declarer was in trouble. The defenders took the first two club tricks
followed by the ace of diamonds. Declarer
won the second diamond in dummy and had to find the king of spades in the East
hand. Obviously the spade finesse must
be taken but what card should declarer lead from dummy? The correct card should be a low spade to
protect against the singleton king in the East hand. However, if there are no
more entries to dummy, declarer must play a high spade to stay in the North
hand if East fails to play the king.
In a local duplicate game, eight pairs reached the contract of 4
and four of them failed by one trick because they led a high spade from dummy. That nine of spades is a valuable card.
5. It’s Matchpoints!
Matchpoints (pairs) is
a very different game. Your goal isn't
to just make or defeat a contract; rather you must strive for the largest plus
or smallest minus possible. Sometimes you might even risk the contract.
Scoring: Matchpoints
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*
second negative
South had 9+ tricks in his hand so he offered 3NT but North sought the
safety of a trump suit by bidding 4. West led a trump which declarer won this in
his hand, noting that dummy's eight of hearts was now an entry to dummy. South saw he only had three losers (1 spade, 1
diamond, and 1 club) so his contract was safe.
The opening lead disappointed him because he saw that a diamond lead
would have presented him with an extra trick.
To make an overtrick, the opponents' spades would divide 3-3 only 36% of
the time, but this seemed his best chance. So he drew one more round of trumps and then
played ace, king, and another spade. He
was rewarded when the spades behaved and he was able to enter dummy with the
heart eight and discard his small diamond on the last spade. He would have gone down in a cold contract if
one of the opponents had a singleton (or void) in spades, but it was a slight
risk.
At rubber bridge or in a team game, declarer should just draw trumps and claim
ten tricks. Declarer also made a note to
discuss the 4
bid with his partner because those in 3NT would probably (perhaps not with a
club lead) have the same play for eleven tricks.
6. A slam
invitation after Stayman
Scoring: Matchpoints
(Pairs Game)
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Pass 4 Pass Pass Pass |
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*artificial |
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North’s hand was
strong enough to invite slam but not insist upon it. This N/S partnership has several agreements to
show slam invitational sequences. North’s bid of 4
showed
a heart raise, a balanced or semi-balanced hand, and was invitational to slam. South liked his hand rich with controls and
accepted.
The play was easy with declarer eventually losing only a club trick. While this is not necessarily a difficult hand
to bid, several pairs reached the slam in notrump and were defeated. They did not have an agreement that allowed
them to invite slam in a suit contract. Those who simply asked for aces or keycards
after finding the heart fit would have been disappointed if the South hand was
instead a minimum.
7. Don’t give
away your strength.
A competent declarer
will be watching and counting each defender’s hand so it pays to give away no
more information than necessary.
Scoring: Matchpoints
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West led the ten of
spades won by East with the queen. East next
cashed the ace of spades and then switched to a low diamond. Declarer won the ace and had to decide how to
play the trump suit. With no other
information, declarer would play the top two honors but he stopped to recall
the auction. East has passed at his
first opportunity and had shown up with the top three spade honors. And, South realized if West held the top three
diamond honors he would have led one. This
marked East with a diamond honor, probably the queen. Armed with this information, declarer played
the heart ace followed by a low heart to the jack. He then was able to draw the last trump and
make eleven tricks by discarding his diamond loser on the long club suit.
Note that East made it easy for declarer to place the high cards. A better play would have been to win the first
spade with the ace and then play the queen in an attempt to convince declarer
the king was in the West hand.
8. Don’t forget
Gerber.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
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South
was interested in slam as soon as he heard his partner's 1NT opening bid. His leap to 4
was the Gerber convention asking for the number of aces. The 4
response showed only one so South reluctantly signed off in game.
West led his singleton diamond and hit pay dirt when his partner won the ace. East returned the seven of diamonds requesting
a heart return (higher of the other two suits). West ruffed and East won the
heart continuation but West had no more trumps so declarer scored up the game. However, the interesting part is that many pairs
who first bid their spade suit and then used Blackwood ended in 5
down one on the same defense. Those
unsuccessful pairs were certainly unlucky, but the South hand needs only to
discover the number of aces and the Gerber convention was created for just that
purpose.
The Gerber convention is generally used after a 1NT or 2NT opening bid. It may also be used after a jump in NT.
9. The takeout
double can be dangerous.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
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*preemptive
Holding a very powerful hand West made a takeout double of South's opening bid.
Taking advantage of the favorable vulnerability, North made a weak jump raise. South bid game hoping to make it if North held
a spade honor plus he suspected E/W might have a game. West couldn't stand it and doubled again this
time hoping to defend. However, East
correctly read this bid as another takeout double and bid her diamond suit. South doubled expecting to win three top
tricks.
South quickly cashed two clubs and the ace of hearts. In an auction like this, West must realize his
second double is also for takeout. It may
seem wrong to pass and defend, but it was his last chance for a plus score.
10. Don’t forget
to count.
In our youth one of
our first lessons was learning to count. It is sad that this simple skill is not used
more often at the bridge table. Here is
a hand that shows just how important counting can be.
Scoring: Matchpoints
(Pairs)
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West obediently led his partner’s suit and East continued with a third
round forcing declarer to ruff in dummy. Declarer saw he had a spade to lose, so to be
successful he would have to find the queen of diamonds. Rather than assume East who overcalled held
the queen, declarer decided to find out more about the hand. After ruffing the third club, declarer pulled
trumps ending in his hand. Next he led a
small spade to dummy’s jack. East won
with the king and exited with another spade. Declarer now knew the diamond queen was in the
West hand because East would not have originally passed if he also held that
card.
This simple bit of deduction was possible by using just a little math by
way of a discovery play.