Tag Archives: Visualizing the Opponents’ Hands

Clues from the Auction

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You have this hand in 4th seat (favorable vulnerability). Left hand opponent opens with a weak two hearts, partner passes, and right hand opponent bids four hearts. 

It’s your turn. What do you decide to do?

First thing to think about is what kind of hands opponents have. The oppening bid is straightforward, usually promising six hearts, 5 to 10 high card points, and likely loss of no more than three tricks vulnerable..

Right hand opponent usually has two kinds of hands for continuing the preempt. It could be somewhat weakish hand with four card support for hearts. Or, it could be a good hand with only two or three card support for hearts. You are somewhat in the dark, and that’s why preempts are so annoying. Those rascals have forced you to make your first decision at the four-level!

What can you deduce from your partner’s decision to pass in second seat? If responder had the weakish hand with good trump support, then partner would be short in hearts with a good hand. But partner did not double or overcall! Therefore, right hand opponent must have a big hand. You may not want to risk jumping into the auction if that’s the case. Unless, of course, you think you can hold your loss to minus 500 (down 3 in four spades doubled). Do you think your spade textue is good enough to hold your loss to down 4? When I saw this played on BBO, 4th seat chose to bid four spades. He went down four for minus 800 and for a bad matchpoint result. The usual result was minus 620 or minus 650 when opponents were allowed to play four hearts — an above average match point score for the defenders.

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: ,

Think Before You Play to Trick 1

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10 tricks are easy on this one. But you are in five hearts. Where are you going to find the 11th winner? Here is the hand, auction, and opening lead.

Your thoughts at trick one:

  • What can I infer from the opening lead?
  • What can I infer about opponents’ spade holdings from the bidding?
  • If my inferences from opening lead and bidding are correct, then how many cards does East have in the red suits?
  • Now that I can picture East’s hand, how am I going to hold my losers to two?

Give it a try and then scroll down for the solution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your thoughts at trick one:

  • What did you infer from the opening lead? I bet it’s a singleton!
  • What can you infer from the bidding? Looks like West must have four spades for the preemptive jump raise. East must have 5 spades to the ace from opening bid.
  • If your inferences from opening lead and bidding are correct, then how many cards does East have in the red suits? East has five spades and five clubs. Therefore, East holds three red cards.

 

Now that you can picture East’s hand, you know to go up with the ace of clubs immediately. Otherwise, East will win the trick and give West a club ruff. When a spade comes back through king in dummy you will be down two after first four tricks.

The idea is to end play East in one of the black suits. Run your seven hearts. By doing so, East must protect the black suits. So, East will be left with 5 black cards:

Now when you cash your ace of diamonds, pitching a low club from dummy, East must discard a club or the queen of spades.

  • If it’s a low club, you will lead a club to the king and throw East in with a club. East will have to lead a spade from A,Q into your K3.
  • If it’s the spade queen, you will lead a low spade and play low from dummy, throwing East in with the ace of spades. Now you will make 12 tricks, since East must lead into your K, J of clubs!

 

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , , , ,

Your plan for the defense?

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You are East on defense after the auction shown below. Here is what you see when partner leads the eight of hearts (partnership agreement is to lead low from 3 or more cards when your partner has the suit). Declarer plays the ace from dummy, three by you, and deuce by declarer.

At trick two declarer leads the three of spades from dummy.  Are you counting? What’s your plan for the defense?

Scroll down for my recommended plan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two key clues to this puzzle:

  1. Partner started with doubleton or singleton heart, meaning opponents hold the top three heart honors (declarer has the queen). If partner has doubleton heart, opponents’ hearts are 3-3. If partner has singleton heart, declarer has four hearts to the queen.
  2. Opponents should hold at least 24 points, meaning partner holds at most 4 points.

 

Rise with the ace of spades at trick two and lead a heart. If partner ruffs, you will set the contract: ace of spades, heart ruff, top two diamonds.

If partner cannot ruff, opponents were always going to get the top three hearts. So, you have lost nothing. You may be able to find a fourth trick in the minor suits since partner has a little smattering of HCP. Make declarer do all the work to bring contract home.

 

Category: Exercises: Defensive Play | Tags: , , ,

A Counting Puzzle for the Defense

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This is your hand:

You are West defending South’s contract of four spades after the following auction:

Your good opening lead is the queen of clubs, and here is what you see:

As usual, you will must think about where your tricks are coming from. See if you can uncover where partner may have some help. Follow the play until trick 7, and you will have enough information to solve the puzzle.

 

Scroll below for my solution:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clues: Did you notice that partner gave you high-low during 1st two rounds of spades? That indicates interest in obtaining a ruff. Also, did you notice that declarer showed up with second diamond (the 3 of diamonds) at trick 7? How many remaining diamonds does that leave for partner?

Solution: Play low at trick 7, partner will ruff dummy’s honor. Declarer will not be able to establish diamond winners in dummy. Defense will come to four tricks: one club, two diamonds, and one ruff.

BTW, have you seen this hand before from another perspective?

Category: Exercises: Defensive Play | Tags: , , ,

A Counting Puzzle for Declarer

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Here is a declarer play problem. You are South in a contract of six spades on the bidding shown. North leads the ten of clubs and this is what you see:

You assume that West would not lead the club 10 when holding the king, so you play the ace of clubs and draw trumps in 2 rounds. As you do so you observe the following from opponents:

  • At trick 2 West plays the singleton queen of spades, East following low.
  • At trick 3 West discards a low heart and East follows low.
  • At trick 4 you lead a club, East winning the king and West following with the seven.
  • At trick 5 East continues with a low club, West discards another low heart, and you win the trick while discarding a low diamond from hand.

 

Your 12th trick will have to come via a successful finesse. Are you counting the opponents’ hands? Which red suit finesse offers the better likelihood of success? Give it some thought and then scroll down for my decision rationale:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

West showed up with a singleton spade and doubleton club. That means West started with 10 red cards and East with five. After West discards two hearts you know that West now holds 8 red cards and East 5 red cards. Odds are 8 to 5 that West holds the king of hearts. Probability that West holds the heart king is 8/13 (61.5%). It’s the same for West holding the diamond queen. I decide to go with the odds and finesse West for the heart king.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: ,

Plan your rebid

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When opening the bidding make sure you plan your reibid. Here is an example:

You are in 1st seat (both sides vulnerable) holding this hand:

You have an easy minimum opening bid of one diamond with your 13 HCP. Now anticipate a response from partner might make your rebid difficult. A one heart response would make it easy for you to raise to two hearts. A response of two clubs would make it easy for you to raise to three clubs. And a one spade response would make it easy for you to rebid one no trump.

Difficulty arises if partner’s response is one no trump. You hate to pass 1NT knowing that opponents have many spades plus a troublesome number of HCP. You hate to rebid diamonds with that crummy 5-card suit. And you are way too weak to reverse to two hearts.

But you have a couple of inferences available to help you decide: First, what is the minimum number of spades held by opponents?. Second, what is the minimum number minor suit cards held by partner?  Decide on your rebid once you answer those questions.

See my decision below:

 

 

 

Inference number 1: opponents hold at least nine spades. Partner has at most three spades and I hold one.

Inference number 2: Partner did respond one heart so has at most three hearts. Ergo partner must hold at least seven cards in the minors.

 

My rebid is two clubs. That’s your best chance for a plus score.Partner did not raise diamonds, so you should have at least a seven card club fit. You will be able to hold off an attack in spades because of your shortness. Partner may take the suit preference for diamonds which would be even better.

BTW, you may have seen this hand before. Do you know where?

 

 

Category: Exercises: It's Your Call | Tags: , ,

Counting your losers in a suit contract

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You are South in a contract of three hearts doubled. Here is the auction and what you see when West leads the queen of clubs:

East overtakes with the club king and continues with the ace at trick two. Counting losers, you have two hearts, one diamond, and one club. The problem is you may lose trump control as defenders force you to ruff clubs. The good new is you are reasonably sure that East has the ace and queen of hearts. The bad news is that you need to get to dummy twice to finess of the ace and queen of hearts. Also, East may well have four hearts.

It looks like you will need the king of diamonds to be onside. So, you might as well make that assumption.

What card do you play at trick 3? (Remember that your are worried about losing trump control.)

I recommend discarding a diamond at trick two. That makes life difficult for East. She cannot continue clubs because dummy is now void. If she shifts to a spade you let it ride to dummy’s king. Now you can lead the 8 of hearts, expecting to to win or drive out one of East’s honors. Either way you are in control.

Similarly if she shifts to a diamond you will let that ride to dummy and play as before. You may even make an overtrick: three spades, four hearts, and three diamonds.

Here was the entire hand:

 

 

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , ,

Using clues from the bidding to guide your play

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You are South declaring three diamonds after West makes a preemptive jump to two spades over your opening bid. West leads the three of spades. Here is what you see with a summary of the auction:

Trick 1: You win the king of spades, East playing the jack.

Trick 2: Then you cash the ace of clubs, both following.

Trick 3: You then lead the eight of clubs, ruffing low in dummy.

Trick 4: Next comes the three of hearts from dummy and you put in the eight, losing to West’s jack.

 

At trick 5 West shifts to the four of spades. What spade do you play from hand? Scroll down for the answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solution: Play the nine of spades, knowing it will get ruffed. West started with six spades for the preemtive overcall. You and dummy started with a combined total of six spades. East’s jack at trick one had to be a singleton. Don’t let your ace of spades get ruffed!

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , , ,

Visualizing the unseen hands

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You are South, having ended up in a contract of three hearts. East opened the bidding in 1st seat with one spade, and you overcalled two hearts. From there it was an interesting competitive auction, during which West and North indicated weak hands by their reluctance to bid. West leads the king of spades. Here is what you see, including details of the auction:

Trick 1: You won the ace of spades.

Trick 2: You cashed the ace of hearts.

Trick 3 you gave up a spade to East.

Trick 4 East then cashed the king of hearts, West discarding the deuce of diamonds. (See details of 1st 4 tricks above.)

At trick 5 East shifts to the three of clubs. It’s your turn: Use clues from the bidding and play to decide which card to play from hand. Scroll down to see the solution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solution: You know from the auction that East has the ace of clubs. Play the queen of clubs and it wins. Once you get to dummy again you will lead another club, putting in the king if East follows low. You are assured of two club tricks, knowing that the ace of clubs is onside.

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , ,

Best sentence I read today

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It’s from Chip Dombrowski writing in the latest edition of the ACBL District 20 newsletter Trumpet. Concluding from West’s takeout double that East cannot have any of the missing honors, Chip puts in the queen of hearts from dummy. When East wins the trick with the heart king Chip comments:

It is one of my great pet peeves when people turn up with cards they are known not to have.

We have all experienced that peeve. It seems to occur at least twice every session on BBO.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , ,

How Will the Missing Cards in a Suit Break?

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Karen Walker has posted a useful table of probabilities here.

I suggest you become familiar with it. For example, you often come up with a problem such as how five missing will spades split between East and West. Answer: spades will break 3-2 68 percent of the time, 4-1 28 percent of the time, and 5-0 4 percent of the time.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , ,

An Instructive Example of Visualizing the Unseen Hands

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What’s known as “counting the hand” in bridge might better be called visualization. Experts don’t actually count. They visualize possible ways each suit originally broke in the unseen hands, and they confirm or adjust that vision as more is learned from the play. For example, say you are declarer in a spade contract with silent opponents. You hold eight spades between you and dummy. You tentatively visualize opponents’ original spade holding as breaking either 3-2 or 2-3 (a 68 percent chance). But you realize that the less friendly breaks (4-1 or 1-4 or 5-0 or 0-5) are also possible (32 percent chance).

You start to draw trumps and find that right hand opponent shows out on the second round. Don’t grimace about the 4-1 break. All the other pairs sitting your way are getting the same unfriendly break. Focus instead on adjusting your vision of the unseen hands: You now know that left hand opponent started with four spades, and you know precisely which spades those are. Also, you recall that right hand opponent was silent during the auction even though she held a singleton spade. Adjust your plan of play based on your new, more accurate vision.

To give you a little visualization exercise “here is a rather extreme, but instructive, example” from Alfred Sheinwold’s Five Weeks to Winning Bridge*:

Alfred1

 

Opening lead is the 10 of diamonds. You have 12 sure tricks. The only possible worry is that clubs don’t break 3-2, and you lose a trick to the jack. You don’t have much of a vision of unseen hands to start with, other than they each contain 13 crummy cards. How are you going to go about visualizing the club suit to eliminate that one little worry?

To get a firm grip on opponents’ original holdings, take your tricks in the other three suits before you tackle clubs:

  • You see West discard diamonds on the second and third spade, so now you know spades were split 1-6 between West and East.
  • You play three rounds of hearts and both follow, so hearts were split either 4-3 or 3-4 between West and East.
  • You see East discard a spade on the third round of diamonds, so diamonds were split 5-2 between West and East.
  • Now you know that West started with one spade, 3 or 4 hearts, five diamonds, and East started with six spades, 4 or 3 hearts. two diamonds. Therefore East has at most two clubs. You play the king and queen of clubs, knowing that ace and 10 in dummy will take the last two trick.

* https://www.amazon.com/Weeks-Winning-Bridge-Alfred-Sheinwold/dp/4871876098

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: ,

Visualizing the Unseen Hands in Practice

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Solving the Puzzle of Shapes of Unseen Hands

Clues from bidding and play are usually available for you to deduce the original shape of unseen hands. Once you can visualize those shapes, your path to taking tricks becomes much clearer. The issue for most of us is time: How are we going to do it in the heat of battle while the director’s clock is ticking?.

The answer is practice! Bridge Winners has developed a nice game to practice deducing the opponents’ original suit holding when one player shows out: http://bridgewinners.com/pages/counting-game/. Also, Bridge Winners has a nice discussion forum among well-known experts on how best to go about practicing: https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/counting-3/  How you do it is up to you, but I recommend you get started now.

I try to tentatively estimate shapes early from the opening lead and bidding. Usually, though, I must wait until one opponent shows out of a suit to reach a firm conclusion. When an opponent shows out, it becomes easy with practice to make a mental note of how many cards in that suit each opponent originally held.

Another source for practice: Larry Cohen’s guidance on counting and visualization: https://www.larryco.com/bridge-articles/counting. (BTW, I recommend you subscribe to his newsletter. It is a great resource for learning.)

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play, Exercises: Defensive Play | Tags: , ,

Rectifying the Count

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What’s usually referred to as “counting the hand” might better be termed visualizing the unseen hands. Experts don’t count. They rectify hand patterns from clues during bidding and play. Once they have done that, they have “gotten a count on the hand” or “rectified the count”, meaning they have deduced shapes of unseen hands.

Here is a nice declarer play exercise in visualizing hand patterns by Eddie Kantar*.

kantar1

Follow the first eight tricks:

  1. West cashes the ace of hearts, East playing the nine
  2. West cashes the king of hearts, East playing the five
  3. West play the nine of clubs, East playing low, you win the queen
  4. You cash the king of spades, West discarding a heart
  5. You cash the ace of spades, another heart from West
  6. You cash the queen of spades, another heart from West
  7. You go to the king of clubs, West following low
  8. You cash the ace of clubs, West discarding a heart while you discard a low diamond

Tell me the hand pattern West started with? How many diamonds did East start with? How are you going to play the diamonds?

Were you able to “rectify the count” after trick eight?

*https://www.amazon.com/Test-Your-Bridge-Play-2/dp/1554947758

Scroll down for the answer if you need help:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At trick 3 you know that West started with 7 hearts, East with 2 hearts.

At trick 4 you discover that West started with zero spades, East with 4 spades.

At trick 8 you discover that West started with 2 clubs, East with 6 clubs.

Now you can rectify the count: West started with zero spades, 7 hearts, ?? diamonds, and 2 clubs. How many diamonds did West start with? How many diamonds did East start with? Hint: All four hands contain a total of 13 diamonds.

Now you know how to play the diamonds.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , ,

Opening Lead decision?

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Here is a chance to practice your visualization skills during the auction:

MikeL12

 

Auction suggests that opponents are likely to make 3NT. Perhaps they will, but you should still endeavor to prevent overtricks.

In a recent pairs game on BBO I was the unfortunate declarer when West made a well thought out opening lead. Decide on West’s lead and then scroll down to appreciate West’s thought process:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow West’s thought process in visualizing opponents’ hands during the auction:

  1.  South has 15-17 HCP and balanced hand.
  2.  North has invitational or better hand with at least one four-card major (2 Clubs is Stayman inquiry).
  3.  South has four hearts and possibly four spades (answering the Stayman inquiry).
  4. North signs off in 3NT, saying “I have four spades, partner, please decide on 3NT or four spades”.
  5. South holds fewer than four spades (took preference for 3NT by passing).
  6.  I only have three queens. Partner may have as much as 8 HCP and should have at least 5 spades (Stayman sequence indicates North has 4 spades and South has at most three). Declarer doesn’t know about our shapes and strength. If I lead the queen of spades through dummy’s “bid” suit, it will be deceptive and will not likely hurt our side. Out goes my queen of spades!
Category: Exercises: Defensive Play | Tags: , ,

Recommendations to help you think like a bridge player

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When it comes to solving the mystery of visualizing unseen hands, World Champion Mike Lawrence’s books and software provide the best guidance I have encountered. Here is Mike’s website: http://michaelslawrence.com/

Here is a fine example one of his books:

http://michaelslawrence.com/product/how-to-read-your-opponents-cards/

I benefited immensely from this software back in the late 90s: http://michaelslawrence.com/product/counting-at-bridge-2-cd-for-pc-only/

Mike gives us daily puzzles to help improve our game. Go to his BridgeClues site: https://www.bridgeclues2.com/ to enjoy and learn.

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play, Exercises: Defensive Play | Tags: , , ,

Think like a bridge player

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 What would Mike Lawrence do?

You are South on lead against 2NT. What clues does the auction give you?

MikeL5

Here is what Mike Lawrence might be thinking:

  • It looks like East has two heart stoppers and fewer than four spades. His shape is probably something like 3-4-3-3.
  • After my rebid of two hearts, West is still inviting game. He probably has about 17 HCP with shortness in hearts.
  • East has nothing extra, probably no more than six HCP.
  • Leading a heart does not look like a good idea. How best for me to go passive with this holding?
  • It looks like the opponents have a maximum of 7 spades between them – four with West and 3 with East. Partner should have at least five spades. The unusual lead of a singleton spade should not hurt the defense.
  • I lead the six of spades.
Category: Exercises: Defensive Play | Tags: , , , , ,

Counting your tricks in no trump

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Here is a hand I observed recently on BBO:

Counting in NT

Put yourself in the South seat. It looks like you have two fast tricks in spades, two in hearts, one in diamonds (your singleton king wins at trick one), and two in clubs. You need to set up two additional tricks. It looks like diamonds are splitting 4-4, and that you will lose three diamond tricks. You have seven card fits in each of the other suits. What’s the best way to set up a ninth trick? Give it some thought and scroll down for my recommended plan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can hope for a 3-3 split in spades, hearts, or clubs. But clubs offer your best chance. Look at those nice intermediates that you posess in clubs: 10, 9, 8, 7 . Win the ace of clubs and return the nine, planning to overtake if West plays an honor. That will work whenever clubs break 3-3 or you catch West with a doubleton honor. It’s the doubleton honor that gives you a slight extra chance in clubs. Also, you will hold your loss to down one when clubs don’t behave.

Here was the entire hand:

counting in NT too

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , ,

Think before you play to trick one

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This is a recent hand on BBO where I let my instincts takeover. I made the common mistake of failing to think at trick one, and I went down in a cold contract. Opening lead is the five of hearts. What do you think I should have done?

MikeL1

Put yourself in my shoes and decide. Then scroll down to make sure you got it right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to go down because I overlooked the almost certain location of the king of hearts. I should win the ace of hearts at trick one, club to the ace, ruff a club, and lead the queen of hearts. If RHO ducks I pitch my last club and likely make 11 tricks. If RHO plays the king, I ruff high and lead a top trump, losing only one club and ace of diamonds.

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , , ,

How to Visualize a Hand

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I am dipping into How to Play Card Combinations by Mike Lawrence. There is a nice lesson in visualizing possibilities from his 1st hand:

MikeL7

MikeL8

The play looks easy if West is leading from a 4-card suit. You will drive out the two top clubs and make nine tricks.

But what if West is leading from a 5-card suit? That would mean East started with two spades. If so, what is the danger and how should you play the spades? You have two sure spade stoppers (right?), and you don’t want West to get in once they are exhausted. Say you win the opening lead in dummy and start the clubs. East wins and returns a spade to West’s queen. West then plays another spade, setting up his two remaining spades. You are safe if East started with the ace, king of clubs, but you are going down if West has one top club honor. How about the possibility that West started with the two top club honors? West would have opened the bidding with A,K of clubs the K,Q five times of spades. Your worry is the real possibility that West started with one of the top club honors.

If you duck the opening lead, you will still have two spades stoppers. After the second spade, East will not be able to hurt you when he gets in with a top club. When you work all that out you duck the opening lead!

 

Here is the entire hand:

 

MikeL11

 

Category: Exercises: Declarer Play | Tags: , , ,
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