Here is a fun hand I held the other day:
I was in 4th seat, favorable vulnerability. Freak hands are often difficult to handle. They don’t show up in text books because they are so rare. Consider what your strategy might be for the auction.
Category Archives: Bridge News
Games will be held at Eagles Club in Keaau on Sundays and Wednesdays. Start time for each game it 12:30 pm. Club Manager is Gail Buck. Gail can be reached at 808 339-7069 or by email at gailbuck at yahoo.com.
Classes will resume at a later date.
Yesterday was the first real face-to-face game Hilo Bridge Club has run since March 2020. It was a joy to see everyone again.
North had fun with a big, freak hand in the red suits on Board 10. NS can easily make five diamonds, but it’s hard to get there when East competes in spades. And the only way for EW to defeat four hearts is if East underleads the ace of spades at trick one and West gives East a diamond ruff (highly unlikely). Here is the hand:
One EW pair was allowed to play three spades doubled, making for plus 730 for a top board.
How would you bid the North hand? Do you open two clubs. Or do you open one diamond, giving yourself room for exploration at the bidding proceeds?
The difference between a master and a beginner is that the master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.
Karen Walker, in this month’s Bridge Bulletin p. 26
Is from Pam Hudson’s grand prize winner in the March Bridge Bulletin:
To staunchly conservative Loren,
All post-fifties ideas are foreign.
Our partnership ended
When he got offended:
I told him he’s no Charlie Goren.
Congrats, Pam!
My goal was never really about becoming competent at bridge. It was about seeing how good I could be. That is what it is about for me — I am still working on becoming better all the time.
ACBL’s Player of the Decade Jeff Meckstroth as quoted in the Bridge Bulletin, February 2020, p, 18.
This is from Warren Buffett in comparing bridge to investing:
The approach and strategies are very similar in that you gather all the information you can and then keep adding to that base of information as things develop. You do whatever the probabilities indicated based on the knowledge that you have at that time, but you are always willing to modify your behavior or your approach as you get new information.
Every card you play on defense should convey a message to your partner. With that in mind, observe three good defensive fundamentals in the play of this hand: Suit Preference Signal, Count Signal, and Uppercut.
Best wishes, Dickie. We will miss you.
- “Live for Clubs” did not work for yesterday’s game. Please let me know if you would like a pdf copy of the hand records. My inquiry to ACBL for help to fix the software problem seems to have gone into a black hole.
- I have scheduled STaC games for December 18th and 22nd. Our annual Holiday Potluck will be on the 22nd.
- We will be saying Aloha to Dickie on December 4th. Hope you can make it.
- A Sectional for players with fewer than 500 MPs is scheduled for Saturday December 14th at the Kona club.
- There have been recent conversations about scheduling Unit Games in Keaau. We would encourage players from Kona and Waikoloa to attend. Please give me feedback on that. They would probably be held on Sundays that don’t inferfere with Kona’s routine 2nd Sunday of the month Unit Games.
You are South holding this hand:
Opponents are silent. Partner opens one club in 4th seat. You respond one heart. Partner’s rebid is one spade. Your rebid bid is 1NT. Partner raises you to 3NT, making you declarer in 3NT. Opening lead is the jack of clubs. This is what you see when dummy comes down. How should you play?
Dummy:
Declarer (you):
You count your sure tricks: one spade, one heart, and three clubs for a total of five. Where are the other four likely to come from? If clubs break no worse than 4-2, you can develop one more trick in clubs. You will get one more trick in diamonds once the ace is dislodged. If the spade king is onside, you can develop at least two more tricks in spades. That’s probably the best you can hope for, since you are at risk in the diamond suit and there is too much to do in hearts.
You win the first trick with the ace of clubs and cash the king of clubs. You are happy to see right hand opponent follow suit with the deuce and nine. Clubs are breaking 4-2 as you had hoped. Now you cash the queen of clubs and throw left hand opponent in with dummy’s five of clubs.
Worst thing that can happen now is that left hand opponent shifts to a diamond. Say she does so and right hand opponent wins the ace and continues with the eight. You win the king, and now it’s time to test the spades.
Lead the 10 of spades to make sure you are still in hand for another finesse if left hand opponent ducks. If the finesse wins, you are going to get your nine tricks.
Pointers:
- A long suit can often be developed for an extra trick as was the case in this hand (clubs).
- Be careful of your entries to the long suit. In this case you need to make sure you lead the 10 of spades, so that you can repeat the finesse when it wins.
- When opening lead is the jack it promises top a sequence of at least jack, ten, eight of the led suit. Also, it denies the queen, since queen would be led if part of the sequence. Sometimes there is a higher honor in suit led (ace or king in this case). But, since you hold the top three honors, you know opening leader has none higher that the jack. I recommend you study standard leads and their logic.Here in bold are recommended opening leads from various suit holdings against notrump as they displayed on the convention card:
Questions?
Here is an intereting hand from Sunday. I was sitting South. Right hand opponent opened one club in 2nd seat. Since my partner was a passed hand, I decided to preempt with two hearts. In retrospect (retrospect is always easy when you can see all four hands) I have an opening hand. My king of clubs is well placed behind the opening bidder. It was a mistake to preempt.
I should have overcalled one heart. When left hand opponent passes my partner will advance with either two clubs (showing limit raise in hearts) or three hearts (actual limit raise in hearts). What kind of agreement do you have on this situation? Make sure you discuss it with partner
If I had not lied to partner about my strength, we would get a good board by competing to three hearts or by doubling East if she gets too agressive with her 18 point hand.
Do you agree with my assessment? Try to think about it from South’s viewpoint. South cannot see all the hands.
BTW, East has a hand that qualifies for a reverse. It’s unbalanced (nine cards in the black suits) and big (18 points).
Update: Emails went out from ACBL on Sunday to all players who are members and have email addresses in ACBL database. Hat tip to Walter for insight on how to change to the correct notification.
The posted results are still a bit confusing. Here is how they were displayed yesterday:
The “A” column displays the standings after handicaps are added. Similarly, the “score” column displays matchpoint scores after handicaps are added. But the “%” column displays pre-handicap percentages.
For example, you see the pair in the first row finished in 3rd place after adjustment for handicap, had a matchpoint score of 76.08 after adjustment for handicap, but finished in 1st place with a pre-handicap percentage of 58.80. The ordering of the results from top to bottom are based on pre-handicap percentages.
I hope that clears up the confusion a bit. Let me know if you have any questions.
Congrats to Robin McDuff for solving the remaining double dummy puzzle. Robin wins a free play and joins Tor on our Double Dummy Solvers’ Honor Roll. I will be posting the solution along with useful principles of declarer play to be gleaned from it.
Congratulations to Tor Thorsen for solving the first two double dummy problems. Tor wins two free plays and is first to receive recognition in HBC’s Double Dummy Solvers’ Honor Roll.
The rest if you better hurry, because Tor is working on the third one.
Might work for us, too. 
But perhaps only for Platinum LIfe Masters.
Holiday Party and STaC game is scheduled for December 22nd. Please put it on your calendar and let me know if you need a partner.
I just got word via the Unit 469 monthly report that Joan is now a Bronze Life Master. Congratulations, Joan!