BRIDGE · 2019-04-03 · BRIDGE Number: 195 March 2019 Bernard Magee’s Acol Bidding Quiz This...

BRIDGENumber: 195 March 2019

Bernard Magee’s Acol Bidding QuizThis month we are dealing with competitive auctions.

You are West in the auctions below, playing ‘Standard Acol’ with a weak no-trump (12-14 points)

and four-card majors. It is your turn to call.

1. Dealer South. Love All. ♠ 7 6 5 ♥ Q 4 ♦ A 9 8 ♣ A J 5 3 2

West North East South 1♥ ?

2. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ J 8 7 6 5 ♥ 8 7 3 ♦ A K 4 ♣ 9 2

West North East South Pass 1♥ ?

3. Dealer North. Love All. ♠ A K 7 4 ♥ J 9 8 2 ♦ K 10 4 2 ♣ 2

West North East South 1♣ Pass 1♦ ?

Answers on page 43

4. Dealer North. Game All. ♠ Q 4 2 ♥ 9 7 ♦ A 8 7 6 5 ♣ 8 7 6

West North East South 1♣ 1♠ 2♣ ?

5. Dealer North. Game All. ♠ K Q 2 ♥ 9 7 ♦ A Q J 6 4 3 ♣ 9 8


6. Dealer North. Game All. ♠ 4 2 ♥ 9 7 ♦ A Q J 6 4 3 ♣ A 8 7


Answers on page 45

7. Dealer North. Love All. ♠ A 7 6 ♥ 4 2 ♦ A 8 7 6 ♣ A 9 3 2

West North East South 1♦ 1♥ 1NT ?

8. Dealer North. Love All. ♠ A 3 2 ♥ K 4 ♦ J 10 9 4 ♣ A J 10 9


9. Dealer North. Love All. ♠ A 8 7 6 5 ♥ 8 4 2 ♦ 8 7 6 ♣ A 7


Answers on page 47

10. Dealer North. Game All. ♠ 4 2 ♥ A K 4 3 ♦ A K 9 8 7 ♣ 3 2

West North East South 1♥ 1♠ 1NT Dbl 2♣ Dbl Pass ?

11. Dealer East. Game All. ♠ 7 4 2 ♥ A J 4 3 ♦ 9 2 ♣ Q 8 7 6

West North East South 1♦ 1♠ Dbl 2♠ Dbl Pass ?

12. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ 7 4 2 ♥ A 9 4 3 ♦ 9 8 7 ♣ A 8 6


Answers on page 49

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BRIDGE March 2019

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BRIDGE

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ADVERTISERS’ INDEX

2 2019 Cruises with Fred. Olsen

3 Clive Goff ’s Stamps 4 Grand British Isles

Discovery with Cruise & Maritime Voyages

6 Italy 2019 8 Mr Bridge UK Events 2019 9 Mr Bridge UK Events at

The Chatsworth Hotel 10 Iceland & the Northern

Isles with Cruise & Maritime Voyages

11 Mr Bridge UK Events at The Olde Barn Hotel

12 Tricks of the Trade 13 Tunisia 2019 17 Mr Bridge UK Events at

Denham Grove 19 Travel Insurance 21 Mr Bridge UK Festive

Events 2019-20 21 Bridge with Angela 22 Baltic Cities & St

Petersburg with Cruise & Maritime Voyages

25 Club Insurance 27 Bernard Magee's

Tutorial Software 27 Duplicate Bridge Rules

Simplified 28 Charity Events 29 Charity Events 32 Bernard Magee DVDs

Sets 1-4 33 Bernard Magee DVDs

Sets 5-8 33 Designs for Bridge

Table Cover 34 Croatia 2019 35 Q Plus 12 35 Little Voice 36 Malta 2019 37 Tricks of the Trade 38 European Connoisseur

with Voyages to Antiquity

40 Mr Bridge UK Events at The Elstead Hotel

40 Mr Bridge UK Events at Blunsdon House

42 North American Waterways in the Fall with New York with Fred. Olsen

43 Declarer Play with Bernard Magee

45 Acol Bidding with Bernard Magee

45 BRIDGE Subscriptions 46 Bridge Gifts 47 Defence with Bernard

Magee 48 Canaries Christmas &

Funchal Fireworks with Fred. Olsen

49 Mr Bridge UK Events at Two Bridges Hotel

51 2019 Cruises with Voyages to Antiquity

52 The Norwegian Fjords with Voyages to Antiquity

Features this month include:

1 Bidding Quiz by Bernard Magee

5 Leanora Adds' Holiday Ideas

7 Bidding Quiz by Bernard Magee

9 Declarer Play Quiz by David Huggett

11 Defence Quiz by Julian Pottage

12 Catching Up with Sally Brock

14 David Stevenson Answers your Questions

16 Games Requiring Special Cards by Paul Bostock

18 Seven Days by Sally Brock

20 Suit Preference Signals: Part 3 by Michael Byrne

23 Two-Suited Overcalls: Part 2 by Andrew Kambites

25 Two-Suited Overcalls: Part 2 Quiz by Andrew Kambites

26 The Diaries of Wendy Wensum

27 Sally's Slam Clinic

28 Improving Your Bridge Memory by Bernard Magee

30 Esther Roake’s Inspired Defence by David Bird

32 Entries: Part 2 by Mike Lawrence

35 More Tips by Bernard Magee

37 Declarer Play Quiz Answers by David Huggett

39 Defence Quiz Answers by Julian Pottage

41 Two-Suited Overcalls: Part 2 Quiz Answers by Andrew Kambites

43 Bidding Quiz Answers (1-3) by Bernard Magee

44 Julian Pottage Answers your Questions




50 Adjusted Scores: Part 2 by David Stevenson

Our 2020 sailings on board Columbus are Buy One Get One Free until 31 March 2019. 2020 will be the 3rd year of Mr Bridge groups on Columbus. Carrying up to 1,400 passengers, this mid-sized ship offers a good value British cruise experience.

Columbus is currently the only ship where we offer masterpoints, but do not be put off by this thinking they will be overly competitive. They are run in the same friendly manner as all our events. Yes, there are players keen to collect masterpoints, but most are looking for a holiday and gathering the points is a bonus.

8-19 May - Grand British Isles Discovery. See page 4

27 June - 9 July - Iceland & Northern Isles. See page 10

12-26 September - Baltic Cities & St Petersburg. See page 22

Leanora Adds' Holiday Ideas For details call my team

( 01483 489961 www.mrbridge.co.uk

Singles

I am always asked about singles. Any concerned single travellers can always call me and I will put your mind at rest. As an organisation we pride ourselves on making singles feel welcome and part of the group.

Countless times I have been advised by clients that the reason they book with Mr Bridge is that they are confident they will be well looked after. As well as other single clients, the Mr Bridge team is always on hand to make up the numbers.

Croatia

2019 will be our fifth year in Croatia. It is such a versatile destination with so much to see. The resort is comfortably equipped, so much so that many clients return year after year.

Will and Sylvia Parsons are hosting the fortnight from 4-18 May 2019. Prices from £1499 per person sharing. See page 34.

Reboot Your Play

Following the excitement of Reboot Your Acol, many have already signed up for the next year. What better way to start 2020. Designed in such a clever way that all levels are able to benefit, it is the perfect opportunity to revisit your play.

TopPick

I look after the operational elements of all Mr Bridge events. Having worked for the company for over 15 years, I have a good understanding of the products.

Focus is commonly placed on bidding and so much can be gained in the way the cards are played. It is really an area not to be overlooked. Four nights at Denham Grove 9-13 January 2020 from £479 per person. This price is almost crazy when you think it is full board with six seminars and six supervised play sessions hosted by Bernard Magee and his team.

TunisiaThe Royal Kenz were delighted to welcome Gwen Beattie and a party of 40 back to Tunisia in November 2018. It proved a great opportunity for some winter-sun. I am pleased to confirm Gwen Beattie is hosting again this November. It is exceptional value. Being all inclusive there is very little else to pay for. 5-19 November 2019. See the advertisement on page 13.

Festive Events 2019-20

Denham GroveChristmas from £519 Will & Sylvia Parsons

Twixmas from £262 With Bernard Magee

New Year from £525 With Bernard Magee

The Olde Barn Hotel

Christmas from £445Just Duplicate

Twixmas from £225Leads & Defence

New Year from £359Game Tries

Blunsdon HouseTwixmas from £228Just Duplicate

It may seem early to be thinking of Christmas

but it is comforting to have it sorted.

Introducing the TeamWill & Sylvia ParsonsLead Hosts

Very familiar faces having been part of the Mr Bridge team for 8 years.

On meeting Will & Sylvia, Mr Bridge knew they would be ideal hosts, so he fast-tracked them through our training programme. How right his assessment has proved. Favourite event: Mr Bridge seminars. This is highlighted by the fact that Will loves giving seminars and they both enjoy supporting clients through the set hands and helping improvers build their confidence. Favourite place: Will and Sylvia never tire of visiting the Greek Islands as they find them so picturesque and enjoy the endless antiquities.

BRIDGE March 2019

BRIDGE March 2019

Bernard Magee’s Acol Bidding Quiz

1. Dealer South. Love All. ♠ 7 6 5 ♥ Q 4 ♦ A 9 8 ♣ A J 5 3 2

West North East South 1♥ ?

2. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ J 8 7 6 5 ♥ 8 7 3 ♦ A K 4 ♣ 9 2

West North East South Pass 1♥ ?

3. Dealer North. Love All. ♠ A K 7 4 ♥ J 9 8 2 ♦ K 10 4 2 ♣ 2

West North East South 1♣ Pass 1♦ ?

My Answers:

1...........................................

2...........................................

3...........................................

Answers on page 43

4. Dealer North. Game All. ♠ Q 4 2 ♥ 9 7 ♦ A 8 7 6 5 ♣ 8 7 6


5. Dealer North. Game All. ♠ K Q 2 ♥ 9 7 ♦ A Q J 6 4 3 ♣ 9 8


6. Dealer North. Game All. ♠ 4 2 ♥ 9 7 ♦ A Q J 6 4 3 ♣ A 8 7


My Answers:

4...........................................

5...........................................

6...........................................

Answers on page 45

7. Dealer North. Love All. ♠ A 7 6 ♥ 4 2 ♦ A 8 7 6 ♣ A 9 3 2


8. Dealer North. Love All. ♠ A 3 2 ♥ K 4 ♦ J 10 9 4 ♣ A J 10 9


9. Dealer North. Love All. ♠ A 8 7 6 5 ♥ 8 4 2 ♦ 8 7 6 ♣ A 7


My Answers:

7...........................................

8...........................................

9...........................................

Answers on page 47

10. Dealer North. Game All. ♠ 4 2 ♥ A K 4 3 ♦ A K 9 8 7 ♣ 3 2

West North East South 1♥ 1♠ 1NT Dbl 2♣ Dbl Pass ?

11. Dealer East. Game All. ♠ 7 4 2 ♥ A J 4 3 ♦ 9 2 ♣ Q 8 7 6


12. Dealer East. Love All. ♠ 7 4 2 ♥ A 9 4 3 ♦ 9 8 7 ♣ A 8 6


My Answers:

10 .........................................

11 .........................................

12 .........................................

Answers on page 49

This month we are dealing with competitive auctions.

You are West in the auctions below, playing ‘Standard Acol’ with a weak no-trump (12-14 points)

and four-card majors. It is your turn to call.

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

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Mr Bridge UK Events 2019-20 Full Board – No Single Supplement*

Elstead HotelBournemouth BH1 3QP

Olde Barn Hotel, GranthamMarston, Lincs NG32 2HT

Denham GroveNear Uxbridge, UB9 5DG

Chatsworth HotelWorthing BN11 3DU

Just DuplicateBlunsdon House

15-17 March from £228*

6-8 September from £228*

1-3 November from £228*

22-24 November from £228*

Chatsworth Hotel

15-17 March £223Masterpointed Duplicate

26-28 April £218

7-9 June £218

5-7 July £218

27-29 September £218

1-3 November £218

15-17 November £218

Denham Grove

28-30 June £229Masterpointed Duplicate

19-21 July £218

13-15 September £218

25-27 October £218

Elstead Hotel

31 May - 2 June £218

4-6 October £218

8-10 November £218

Olde Barn Hotel

8-10 March £208

14-16 June £218

26-28 July £229Masterpointed Duplicate

11-13 October £218

15-17 November £218

Please note there are no seminars, set hands or prizes at these events.Blunsdon House Hotel

Swindon SN26 7AS

Tutorial Events

Blunsdon House5-7 April from £238*

Defence to Weak TwosHosted by John Ronan

Chatsworth Hotel10-12 May £238

DoublingHosted by Sandy Bell

16-18 August £238 Leads and Fundamental

DefenceHosted by Martin Holcombe

Denham Grove1-3 March £228

Endplay and AvoidanceHosted by Sandy Bell

9-11 August £238Responding to 1NT

Hosted by Elaine Duff

Elstead Hotel8-10 March £228

OvercallsHosted by Hilary Levett

26-28 April £238Suit Establishment

Hosted by Sandy Bell

21-23 June £238Hand Evaluation

Hosted by Will Parsons

Olde Barn Hotel 17-19 May £238

Drawing TrumpsHosted by John Ronan

20-22 September £238Further into the Auction

Hosted by Ray Hutchinson

25-27 October £238 Play and Defence of 1NT Hosted by Michael Haytack

Tutorial Eventswith Bernard Magee

Blunsdon House

28-30 June from £264*4-4-4-1 Hands

8-10 November from £264*Game Tries

Chatsworth Hotel

29-31 March £258Drawing Trumps

4-6 October £264

Elstead Hotel

15-17 November £264Key Card Blackwood and Slams

Inn on the Prom28-30 May £264

Pre-Emptive Bidding

Olde Barn Hotel5-7 July £264

Supporting Minors

1-3 November £264Defence as Partner of the Leader

Two Bridges Hotel3-5 April from £349*

Better Finessing

Denham Grove9-13 Jan 2020 from £479

Re-Boot your Play

Trouville Hotel20-24 Feb 2020 from £425**

**Price includes ferry fare for two adults in one car

Details & Bookings ( 01483 489961 www.mrbridge.co.uk

*Subject to availability. Single supplement applies to all rooms at Two Bridges & Blunsdon House.

BRIDGE March 2019

1. ♠ Q J

♥ Q 6 4 2

♦ A 10 7 6

♣ J 7 6

♠ K 8 4

♥ A K 7

♦ Q J 9 8 5 4

♣ 2

You open 1♦ fourth in hand and are soon in 5♦. West leads the ♣K and follows with the ♣Q. How do you plan the play?

2. ♠ A 7 3

♥ 7 6 4

♦ K 10 7 5

♣ 6 5 2

♠ 6 4 2

♥ A Q

♦ A Q J 2

♣ A K 10 3

You are declarer in 3NT and West leads the ♠K. How do you plan the play?

NW E

S

NW E

S

3. ♠ Q J 9 8 6

♥ A Q 8

♦ A

♣ A J 7 6

♠ A K 10 5 4

♥ 9 2

♦ K 8 4

♣ K 5 4

You are declarer in 6♠. West leads the ♦Q. How do you plan the play?

4. ♠ A Q J 10

♥ A 2

♦ 4

♣ J 10 9 8 7 2

♠ K

♥ K 7 6 5

♦ A K 8 7 5 3

♣ A K

You are declarer in 6NT. West leads the ♠8. How do you plan the play?

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S

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DECLARER

PLAY

QUIZby David Huggett

(Answers on page 37)

You are South as declarer playing rubber bridge or teams. In each case what is your play strategy?

16-18 August £238Leads and Fundamental

Defence Hosted by Martin Holcombe

27-29 September £218Just Duplicate

4-6 October £264Hosted by Bernard Magee

18-20 October £238Declarer Play

Hosted by Lesley Lewis

1-3 November £218Just Duplicate


15-17 March £258Masterpointed Duplicate

29-31 March £258Drawing Trumps

Hosted by Bernard Magee

26-28 April £218Just Duplicate

10-12 May £238Doubling


7-9 June £218Just Duplicate

5-7 July £218

Just Duplicate

For details and bookings call Mr Bridge Holidays ( 01483 489961

Prices shown are per person, full board including tea & coffee during breaks and a welcome drinks party. Single players will

always be found a partner. The Mr Bridge team will offer support during the set hands sessions, on the seminar events, and make

up the numbers in the duplicates, so there should never be a half table.

All rooms are ensuite, have tea & coffee making facilities and free Wi-Fi. The venue has a lift and is located in lovely Steyne

Gardens, close to the sea front. Garden view or sea view rooms may be available (sea view at a supplement).

2019

BRIDGE March 2019

8-10 March £208Just Duplicate

17-19 May £238Drawing Trumps

Hosted by John Ronan

14-16 June £218Just Duplicate

12-14 July £264Supporting Minors


26-28 July £229Masterpointed Duplicate

20-22 September £238Further into the Auction

Hosted by Ray Hutchinson

11-13 October £218Just Duplicate


Prices shown are per person, full board including tea & coffee during breaks and a welcome drinks party. There is no single supplement and single players will always be found a partner.

The Mr Bridge team will offer support during the set hands sessions, on the seminar events, and make up the numbers in

the duplicates, so there should never be a half table.

All rooms are ensuite, have tea & coffee making facilities and free Wi-Fi. The venue has a lift.

This charming rustic hotel is set in the beautiful countryside of Grantham in the heart of England. Comfortably furnished

and tastefully decorated rooms, with a traditional bar, contemporary lounge, atmospheric restaurant, and health

club altogether make for an idyllic retreat.

25-27 October £238Play & Defence of 1NT

Hosted by Michael Haytack

1-3 November £264 Defence as Partner of the

LeaderHosted by Bernard Magee


23-27 December £445Just Duplicate

27-29 December £225Leads and Defence

29 Dec-1 Jan 2020 £359Game Tries

2019

DEFENCE QUIZby Julian Pottage

(Answers on page 39)

You are West in the defensive positions below playing matchpoint pairs with neither side vulnerable.

1. ♠ J 7 4

♥ A K J 5

♦ A K 10 7 5

♣ J

♠ K 3 2

♥ 10 6 4 2

♦ 8 3

♣ A K 8 2

West North East South

1♦ Pass 1♠

Pass 2♥ Pass 2NT

Pass 3♠ Pass 4♠

All Pass

You lead the ♣A: ♣J, ♣5 and ♣4. What is your plan?

2. ♠ K J 9 7

♥ K Q J

♦ A K 9 7 5

♣ 6

♠ 3 2

♥ A 10 4 2

♦ Q 8

♣ Q J 10 9 5


Pass 1♦ Pass Pass

2♣ Dbl 3♣ Pass

Pass Dbl Pass 3♠

All Pass

You lead the ♣Q. Partner wins with the ♣A and switches to the ♥3. What is your plan?

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NW E

S

3. ♠ K 10 9 2

♥ 10

♦ J 10 9 3

♣ A Q J 6

♠ J 7 4

♥ A 7

♦ A Q 8 2

♣ 9 4 3 2


3♥ Pass

Pass Dbl Pass 4♠

All Pass

You lead the ♥A: ♥10, ♥5 and ♥4. What do you lead next?

4. ♠ 7 2

♥ Q

♦ K J 9 6 3

♣ A K 9 6 3

♠ 9 4

♥ A K 7 6 3

♦ 8 5 2

♣ 10 4 2


1♠

Pass 2♦ Pass 2♠

Pass 3♣ Pass 3♠

Pass 4♠ All Pass

You lead the ♥A, on which go the ♥Q, ♥10 and ♥4. What is your plan?

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NW E

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BRIDGE March 2019

Generally I am pretty good at recovering from jetlag but this time, returning from

almost the international date line, it was difficult. It took at least ten days after we got home for me (and Barry too) to get back into normal sleep patterns. So, what has been going on? Well, I have had the second half of my dental work done – all my lower teeth removed and implants put in. So it is a liquid Christmas for me, and six or seven weeks beyond that before I can go back to eating normally. That’s a bit tedious, but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Weekend-wise, we had the final stages of the Mixed Teams Play-off (to earn the right to represent England in the European Mixed Teams in Lisbon in February). We won both the semi-final and final in comfortable style. In both matches we were over 40 IMPs up after the first set, and went on to force a concession after three sets.

This was a game swing from the final:

Dealer East. E/W Game.

♠ K 6 5

♥ A J 6 3

♦ Q

♣ A J 9 8 6

♠ 10 8 7 4 3 ♠ A Q 2

♥ Q 9 7 ♥ 5 4

♦ 10 9 7 ♦ A J 8 5 4 3

♣ 10 2 ♣ Q 7

♠ J 9

♥ K 10 8 2

♦ K 6 2

♣ K 5 4 3


1♦ Pass

Pass Dbl Pass 2♥

Pass 4♥ All Pass

NW E

S

West led a diamond to East’s ace and a diamond was continued. With the prospect of discarding a spade on dummy’s long club, I was going to be OK as long as I did not lose a trick to West. Accordingly, I played the ♥K and ran the ♥10. Now I ruffed a diamond, drew the last trump and played the ♣K and a club to the jack. Although that lost (as I expected) I was home.

So, the weekend was very pleasing and we have now booked our flights and accommodation for Lisbon.

The following weekend was the Teltscher Trials to pick the team to represent England in the Senior Camrose, and this did not go so well. We lost our first match heavily to one of the weaker teams and thereafter were always adrift of the top. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this grand slam from the penultimate match:

Dealer West. N/S Game.

♠ A K Q 5 4

♥ Void

♦ K 10 6

♣ A K J 7 4

♠ J 8 7 2 ♠ 10 9 3

♥ A Q 7 6 2 ♥ J 8 4

♦ Void ♦ 9 8 7 3

♣ Q 8 6 3 ♣ 10 9 2

♠ 6

♥ K 10 9 5 3

♦ A Q J 5 4 2

♣ 5


2♥ 4♣ Pass 4♦

Pass 5♥ Pass 7♦

All Pass

West’s 2♥ opener showed hearts and another, and my 4♣ showed a strong two-suiter with the black suits. Maybe

NW E

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Catching Up with Sally Brock

ADVERTISERS' ANNOUNCEMENT

TRICKSOF THE

TRADEby Larry Cohen

This book is for players who take their bridge seriously. It is intended for those who want to improve their technique and understanding, to become more desirable partners, to achieve better results, and to gain increased respect among their colleagues.

The book investigates many paths to achieving these ends: increasing the value of experience by knowing what things to watch for, learning how to recognise recurring situations, channelling one’s mental processes along productive lines, being prepared, understanding cause and effect at the bridge table.

The articles in this book originally appeared in The Bridge World magazine and were handpicked by the author for this collection.

Because the advice in this book is of a general nature - largely independent of specific partnership agreements, personal styles, and level of expertise - it can be applied repeatedly by an advancing player who gradually gains experience playing at higher levels and a deeper appreciation of the ideas. This is a book that can profitably be read over and over, each time from a different perspective.

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BRIDGE March 2019

it would have been better to start with a double as I also had good diamond support but I liked the idea of getting my hand off my chest, especially if East was going to up the ante further in hearts. We have had this convention on our card for a while but it has not come up much and we have not discussed continuations. I did not know whether partner’s 4♦ was natural or a cue-bid for one of my suits, but I thought 5♥ described my hand pretty well – a void heart, good diamond support and excellent black-suit controls. Partner took a pot at the grand slam.

It is not so easy to plan the play. Maybe partner should have laid down the ♦K as soon as he got in, which would certainly have made things easy on the actual lie. If he starts with the ♦K, when West shows out, he can cash his five black-suit winners safely, and play on cross-ruff lines. As it was I'm not sure partner took the best line of play (ruffing a spade at trick two) but never mind – he made it!

Two of our London Leagues have come to an end: first the TGR’s League where we were a new team and therefore in Division Two. We won our half of the league and had to play the runners-up in the other half to earn promotion. That passed off peacefully so we will be in Division One next season.

The London Super League was another story altogether. In the ante-penultimate match of the season we played Black (the ultimate winners) and we were 50 IMPs up at half-time, giving us a virtually unassailable overall lead. However, in the second half we lost most of that lead and won by only 4 IMPs. Then in the next match we played Teltscher, and (in my view) mostly down to bad luck were hammered and lost by 75. That left us with virtually no chance of winning, and in any event we lost our last match heavily too to finish seventh (out of 10) – not very distinguished.

Briony departed for a five-week trip to New Zealand in the middle of the month, and Christmas is very quiet without her. She is the one who is into a Christmas tree, decorations, candles and lots of presents and so on – it will be cheaper with her gone! n

Mr BridgeHotel Royal Kenz

Tunisia 2019

5-19 November from £999 per person sharing

or one week from £699 per person sharing5-12 November or 12-19 November

Hosted by Gwen Beattie

Prices shown are per person sharing and include flights from Heathrow. Selected regional flights may be available at a supplement. Terms and conditions apply. These holidays have been organised for Mr Bridge by Great Little Escapes LLP, ATOL 5933. *Excursions are not included in the price of the holiday. For details of what is included in the all-inclusive package, please call

for an information pack and booking form.

Situated in a quiet area just 250 metres away from the sandy beach on Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast, the 4* Hotel Royal Kenz in Port El Kantaoui is a popular destination for Mr Bridge holidaymakers. A taxi into Port El Kantaoui takes less than five minutes and if you want to explore a bit further, the city of Sousse and its ancient medina is but a 15-minute drive away.

Bridge:Land based holidays allow time for plenty of bridge, but there is also time to both visit the local area and just sit back and relax. Over the fortnight the bridge programme includes four seminar & set hands sessions, which gives you the opportunity to enhance your bridge skills, as well as duplicate bridge every evening. You can play as much or as little as you wish and the excursions* are fitted around the bridge programme to maximise your enjoyment.

Singles: There is a sole occupancy supplement of £5 per room per night. If you are a single bridge player please do not worry about being on your own. At each session we will be able to find you a partner, so you can always have a game.

For details or an information pack call Mr Bridge Holidays ( 01483 489961

Seven Day All-inclusive Duplicate Bridge Holidays

BRIDGE March 2019

Q At a charity match recently an interesting situation

occurred – for which, at a club match, the director would, of course, have been called. My partner opened 1NT (12-14), there was a pass on my right and I replied 2♥ – but before my partner could announce it as a transfer to spades my LHO bid 2♠.

I felt it my duty to bring the meaning of my bid to his attention (which it was probably my partner’s job to do – but it was all sup-posed to be friendly) and allowed him to withdraw his bid – but his partner then demanded that my partner complete the transfer to 2♠, the final contract – which was just made. What would a director have judged?Sidney Barrat,London E10.

A I assume that there was sufficient time for your partner to have

said “spades”. If a player calls too fast and there was no time it might be different.

It is certainly true you should have said nothing since your partner might have forgotten and you are reminding him. Hopefully if you had said nothing your partner would have pointed out it showed spades.

Assuming the above, it is correct that the player may withdraw his 2♠ bid and

call something else. I never like the term demand which seems unfriendly, but in this case it is reasonable that your partner should bid 2♠ since the withdrawn 2♠ bid by his opponent is unauthorised information, so he must take no advantage from it.

♣♦♥♠

Q I read your answer to the Totteridge BC player in the

February issue of BRIDGE with interest as I play Benji Acol with most partners.

You say opener must hold 5 controls for the bid to be legal when holding 12 points. This is exactly what I started to do but then noticed most players were just ignoring the change, so went back to describing 2♣ as holding ‘8 playing tricks in an unspecified suit, or 19-20 balanced.’

I told my partners to NOT use the word strong in the description, as that implies you have trick taking strength in the ‘other’ suits. If opponents ask for more clarification (ie how many controls, or points once the suit is disclosed), only then supply more information.

Our description seems to me perfectly legal because the law says the emphasis is on full disclosure and not necessarily holding a minimum of 5 controls, although that is one of the

options, the other being holding 16+ points now that the extended rule of 25 has been discontinued. Please can you clarify?Shangara Singh by email.

A I believe you are confusing what you are allowed to play

and how you should describe it. To play a strong artificial two bid legally, typically a Benjamin 2♣ opening, you must play it in one of the following methods:

1. You can play it with whatever agreements you like subject to it always containing 16 or more points. You can describe it as strong and give some further idea of how you play it, for example showing eight playing tricks in an unspecified suit or just use the word Benjamin.

2. You can play it with whatever agreements you like subject to it always containing 16 or more points, or alternatively containing twelve or more points with five or more controls. You should not just describe it as strong but must give some further idea of how you play it, for example showing eight playing tricks in an unspecified suit, possibly not very strong with good distribution: in this case to just use the word Benjamin is insufficient as a description.

So your description of ‘8 playing tricks in an unspecified suit, or 19-20

balanced’ is insufficient if it might be on fewer than 16 points: you need to add something to allow for the fact it might not be as strong in top cards as the word strong suggests.

Benjamin was designed as a method of playing weak twos in the majors while also having a method of showing Acol Twos, which are defined as “a hand of power and quality with at least eight playing tricks”. Players these days open a Benjamin 2♣ on hands which certainly do not qualify as a hand of power and quality. However when you describe a hand merely as “eight playing tricks” some opponents expect a strong hand in top cards.

The current rule allows you to have some hands that are weaker than that but the opponents need to know about this possibility.

♣♦♥♠

Q In the January edition you ask for sensible suggestions

to encourage club members to volunteer to be playing directors at their club. As your column suggested, this is a thankless task shunned by most for their own varied reasons. Those who decline to assist their club’s smooth operation are however those owing a debt of gratitude to the suckers taking on the function. With no director

David Stevenson Answers Your Bridge Questions

How Do You Handle A Slow Announcement?

BRIDGE March 2019

there is only chaos.So here goes:

• Ensure that in the first instance, the club committee will back their directors.

• Have an ‘adjudication’ sub-committee to hear legitimate complaints.

• Provide a succinct instruction sheet for directors.

• Keep the ‘Rule Book’ at the director’s table.

• Provide access to the training courses operated by the national bridge unions.

• Endeavour to have a different person responsible for scoring.

And what without doubt will result in a deluge of letters: • Give playing directors an

additional 10% to their evening’s total score.

Iain Slinn,Easter Kinkell, Highland.

A Thank you for your suggestions. I hope the last one

is made tongue-in-cheek since it is certainly illegal!

Actually it is not against the laws of the game since Law 78D allows other scoring methods if the Regulating Authority permits. The Regulating Authority is the National Bridge Organisation so the Scottish Bridge Union could make it legal but according to my understanding they have not done so at this time.

♣♦♥♠

Q Playing in a teams match, when the players removed

their cards from the board East dropped a card face up. This was an honour card, which his partner said he had seen, although North and South did not see the card. Because this

was a match played in a private house and the other table had not played the board, we agreed to have a redeal. Had the players asked for a ruling, what would it have been?Name and address supplied.

A Technically the auction period starts for a pair once either

member takes his hand from the board. However the auction starts with the first call. So it is permissible to just redeal since it was not a card exposed during the auction.

♣♦♥♠

Q The heading to Law 15 is “Wrong Board or Hand”,

but the text of the law refers only to the wrong board.

What would be the correct procedure where a pair sits in the wrong direction in a Howell movement? The pair would be playing the right boards, but the wrong hands.

In a club game I would just arrow-switch the results, but this occurred recently in a more important game, and I applied Law 15B3 (artificial adjusted score), feeling that an arrow-switch would unfairly advantage one of the pairs at the table, but I am still not sure that this was a reasonable decision.Pat Verner by email.

A They have obtained a valid score on a board which they

were meant to be playing and there is no reason to take it away from them. At any level of the game if the board is played in the wrong direction the score stands unless it is impossible for it to do so, eg in a match where both pairs in a team have sat the wrong way.

I do not really understand in what way an arrow-switch unfairly advantages anyone. They are competing with other pairs holding the same cards which is as it should be.

♣♦♥♠

Q What do you do when your partner announces your

Gerber bid as a splinter?I was playing North

with a new partner and I am a reasonable club player. South plays at novice level and we were play-ing against Masters, who were very kind to us (as good players usually are).

South had asked to play with preference to Gerber and Blackwood ‘if we must’.

The hand in question was:

Deal West. Game All.

♠ K 8 2

♥ Q 8 7 5

♦ A K 10 6 2

♣ A

♠ J 10 6 4 ♠ Q 9 7 3

♥ 6 ♥ 9 3

♦ Q J 8 7 5 4 ♦ 9 3

♣ 9 2 ♣ Q 7 6 5 3

♠ A 5

♥ A K J 10 4 2

♦ Void

♣ K J 10 8 4

The bidding went:


Pass 1♦ Pass stop2♥

Pass stop4♣1 Pass 4♥

Pass 6♥ Pass Pass

Pass1 Was meant to be Gerber.

My partner alerted my 4♣ as a splinter, or possibly Gerber, not sure which. As we hadn’t discussed splinters I took her 4♥ bid as showing one ace and so bid 6♥.

After I had put dummy down I said to our opponents

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that there had been a mix up and suggested they could ‘reserve their rights'. The board was flat 6♥ making 13 tricks.

My question is at what point should I tell opponents of our misunderstanding (if at all)? Before the lead or as I did?

On reflection I think I have missed a point I wanted to make and that it is the weaker players who get nasty with you if you make a mistake. The good players usually just say thanks for a good score and chuckle if by chance you do well.Alun Williams,Llanfairpwll.

A I am not sure your side has done anything wrong

since your partner showed doubt as to whether it was a splinter or Gerber which seems to have been a fairly accurate description of the partnership agreement. If your partner misdescribes one of your bids then you should correct it when you become declarer or dummy, or at the end of the hand if you become a defender. So perhaps you might have said “We did not agree this sequence but my partner did say we were playing Gerber.” But I think that was probably unnecessary.

You have unauthorised information from partner’s explanation but you have done the right thing by assuming the response was Gerber since that is what you meant 4♣ as.

As for nastiness from certain opponents you should call the director, tell him and let him sort it out. n

Email your questions for David to:

[email protected]

BRIDGE March 2019

A History of Playing Cards: Part Twenty Seven by Paul Bostock

Games requiring special cards

Most card games use the standard pack, but there have been a number of exceptions. The earliest we know is the 17th century game of Faro (and its predecessor, Basset). Faro lost favour from the 1950s, but it has a spectacular notoriety in the world of high-stakes gambling. Simplifying a little, it is a predicting matching game (like roulette)

and the rewards double for each consecutive match or predicted non-match. In the Georgian gentlemen’s clubs, fortunes were said to change hands to the extent of entire estates.

Faro was also popular in the American Gold Rush. There too, vast fortunes changed hands. It was common for ‘gun-play’ to follow card play. The cards for Faro are immediately recognisable by their wide borders. Cards were placed in the game area face up and the border greatly reduced the chance of accidentally revealing a covered card. These cards evolved out of step and more slowly than the standards, so they sometimes offer a glimpse of a decade or two back in history. The smaller court cards were a printing challenge – their outlines are often blurred.

In the 1860s, Bézique became very popular and even fashionable as it was enjoyed by Queen Victoria’s son the Duke of Edinburgh. Makers were quick to accept this marketing gift and the boxes usually show ‘The Royal Game of Bézique’ in large gold lettering. The game requires two packs and a special marker for scoring (although pencil-and-paper works too). A ‘Bézique set’ is a box with two 32-card packs, two scoring indicators and a rule book.

Another game with an interesting history is ‘500’. This can be played with three to six players (three is said to give the best game). It was invented by the United States Playing Card Company and patented in 1904 and represented an evolutionary change to Euchre. It was the most popular and fashionable game in the US until Contract Bridge began. The six-player version requires additional pip cards 11-13 ranking between the 10 and jack – another sales opportunity. The six-player game is said to remain popular in Australia.

Not all the innovations are a success. In 1895 Hiram Jones took a US patent for a six-suited pack he designed – the first known introduction of additional suits (outside India). The additions are bullets (black) and crosses (red). It was not

Cards for Faro by Christopher Blanchard, 1765-9.

Bézique Set by Chas Goodall & Sons, 1870 (date from rule book)

BRIDGE March 2019

clearly associated with a new set game and probably sold mostly for novelty value. The 5-suited cards by De La Rue and Waddingtons featured in the article “Special cards for bridge” (BRIDGE 180). They were also not successful.

A recent variant is the eight-suited and descriptively named ‘fat pack’ with the additional roses and doves (red), axes and tridents (black), making 104 cards plus jokers. It was invented by a large group of friends on holiday who wanted a set that would accommodate more players. It gained considerable popularity when it was used to realise “Cripple Mr Onion”, originally a fictional game from the popular “Discworld” series by Sir Terry Pratchett.

For completeness several games are naturally presented as special sets even if they can be played with standard cards. Cribbage comes with its unique pegging board for scoring, Poker comes with gambling chips and markers for the dealer and the two ‘blinds’, Patience is better with small cards for laying out, Euchre led to the extra and now-standard Joker and Piquet uses a reduced set of 32 (2-6 of each suit removed, 32 cards remaining). Of course, purpose-made Piquet sets are a little cheaper and the first maker to offer them probably did very well.

Lastly back to Faro, which also requires a specially laid-out playing table and gambling markers for each player. Bulletproof vests - optional. n

King of Bullets, Queen of Crosses, Ace of Crosses and Joker.International Playing Cards, 1895.

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BRIDGE March 2019

TUESDAYChristmas Day. A friend came for dinner last night (Barry cooked a duck in my kitchen – a first, while I had to make do with a fishcake and mashed potato) and stayed over, but we are all up and out by about 10.30. Barry gets his wish – to spend Christmas Day on his own! Toby and I drive off to Newport, Essex, to spend the day with eldest son Ben, wife Gemma, and grandchildren Hayden (nine) and Parker (two and a half). We have a traditional Christmas (mine goes into the blender before it goes on my plate!). The boys both had scooters for Christmas so we go out for a scoot. Then open presents, and generally slouch around eating leftovers, drinking red wine and watching TV for the rest of the day.

WEDNESDAYWe leave Newport at about 10 and have a smooth ride home, arriving back about 11.30. Then I go out for lunch with Barry to meet Cypriot friends who want us to help promote their bridge tournament. Back in April I wrote about playing in a tournament in Cyprus with Zia. It was a really good tournament with excellent all-inclusive accommodation near Girne/Kyrenia in northern Cyprus. Anyone interested could contact me for details ([email protected]). After lunch it is back to the flat for a bit of time doing nothing. Toby is in charge of dinner – or at least his and Barry’s dinner (my frozen fish pie doesn’t need a lot of work). I bought some extremely

expensive rib eye steaks and Toby cooks them by sealing for one minute and then oven roasting in a really hot oven for four minutes. They turn out really well and I am feeling jealous.Then we watch The Darkest Hour – also excellent, I think.

THURSDAYI have a couple of online teaching sessions in the morning, and then set off to the Royal National Hotel for the Year End Congress. I am playing with Debbie. We meet for a coffee first and then it all starts. Our first two matches are dire. Despite losing the first 4-16, we draw a top-class pair in the second, and lose again. But thereafter things cheer up and we win the next two matches to finish exactly average. After the bridge a group of us go out for a good (but very slow) Italian meal.

FRIDAYThings are a bit up and down today – slightly more down than up as we finish the Swiss Pairs a couple of VPs below average. Still, as always, it is enjoyable. In the evening we go for a curry and then home to bed.

SATURDAYToday I am playing with Barry in the Mixed Pairs. It seems a while since I have played with him and it is a pleasure – he is my favourite partner. We have worked on a system overhaul over Christmas and now is the time to put it into practice. The first session is

Seven Daysby Sally Brock

OK – 55% or so and in 11th place. It does include the most magnificent

Grosvenor coup. A Grosvenor coup is a play that gives an opponent an opportunity to make or break a contract that he can’t possibly capitalise on because he can’t believe the perpetrator would do something so silly! All it achieves is to be supremely annoying.

This hand is played against us in 4♠:

♠ A K Q 9 7

♥ Q 8

♦ K J 9

♣ 10 9 5

♠ 10 8 5 ♠ 4 3

♥ 9 7 3 2 ♥ A 10 6

♦ 10 8 5 ♦ A Q 7 3 2

♣ 7 4 3 ♣ Q J 2

♠ J 6 2

♥ K J 5 4

♦ 6 4

♣ A K 8 6


1NT*

Pass 2♥ Pass 2♠

Pass 3NT Pass 4♠

All Pass

* 12-24

Barry leads the ♥7 and declarer plays dummy’s ♥Q won by my ace. I switch to the ♣2, won by declarer. He should play a diamond now, setting up a ruff in his hand, but instead he draws trumps ending in hand and plays a diamond to the jack and my queen. I return the ♣Q. Declarer wins in hand, discards a club on a heart honour and, instead of playing a diamond and making a guess for his contract, he

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BRIDGE March 2019

ruffs a club, establishing his eight as a winner. He now has no legitimate play for the contract and forlornly plays the ♦9 from the dummy. But ... look at it from my point of view ... should I expect declarer to have taken this no-play line? Or, does he hold the ♦10 in his hand and if I play low on the nine he will win with the ♦10 and play his good club pitching dummy's ♦K and making an overtrick – surely giving me a complete bottom at matchpoints. So I go in with the ♦A and his no-play line succeeds.

The second session is fairly miserable, however. We get no luck and most of what we do turns to dust. This is an early board:

♠ A K 8 7 5

♥ A

♦ J 8

♣ K Q J 6 4

♠ Void ♠ 9 6

♥ 6 5 3 2 ♥ K Q J 10 9 7 4

♦ 10 6 3 2 ♦ K Q 9

♣ 10 9 8 7 2 ♣ 5

♠ Q J 10 4 3 2

♥ 8

♦ A 7 5 4

♣ A 3


4♥ 4♠

5♥ 6♥ Dbl 6♠

7♥ Pass Pass 7♠

Pass Pass Dbl All Pass

Although we both feel that 7♠ will be a decent contract, we are happy to buy it in 6♠ because the sacrifice is obviously going to be very cheap (only our side is vulnerable). However, when they sacrifice in 7♥ we are probably not going to score a lot of matchpoints anyway, so we take the push to the grand slam. It is a pretty good contract, but fails when clubs break 5-1 – and any matchpoints we might have scored completely disappear when East doubles for good measure.

Afterwards we leap into a cab and go to Margaret’s for her birthday dinner. Instead of catering at home, she has decided to go to a private dining room in the pub over the road. We have an excellent meal – and as they charge

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her only £20 a bottle corkage, which is cheap these days in London, she has provided a great deal of extremely good wine.

SUNDAY The quality of the wine speaks for itself in that although we drank heavily no-one has a hangover. We drive to the bridge as it is a Sunday and parking will be easy (and free). This time I am playing in the Swiss teams with Gilly, with Barry and Gary as teammates. The first two matches are more or less draws, despite being against some very weak opposition. The next is even worse. I stop keeping track of the score after that. I would say that for this session the fault lies mostly with our other pair, but after the break we join in too, and the standard of play is dire.

Barry and Gary do well on this one, though:

♠ A 10 9 4

♥ K 10 6 4 2

♦ K Q 8

♣ Q

♠ J 8 6 ♠ K 7 5 3 2

♥ Q 8 7 5 ♥ J

♦ A 10 9 7 2 ♦ 6 5 3

♣ 3 ♣ 10 5 4 2

♠ Q

♥ A 9 3

♦ J 4

♣ A K J 9 8 7 6

Our opponents sail into 6♥, after a 1♥ – 2♣ – 2♥ start. That goes two down. Barry and Gary bid:


1♥ Pass 2♣

Pass 2NT Pass 3♣

Pass 3NT Pass 4♣

Pass 4♦ Pass 4♥

Pass 4♠ Pass 6♣

All Pass

That makes comfortably as declarer can discard his potential heart loser on a diamond.

We finish just below average and then drive back to Shepherd’s Bush and eat at Barry’s local Indian restaurant

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(the Raj of India, on Shepherd’s Bush Road – highly recommended if you are ever in the area).

MONDAYThe last day of 2018. I get up rather lazily. Toby is going to a New Year’s Eve party this evening, and spent yesterday morning making some rather delicious looking cheese and pancetta puffs to take. I offered to take something to the party we are going to – and suggested ‘nibbles’. When I get the thumbs up I decide to copy Toby – puff pastry cases around pancetta, onion and mushroom. They turn out rather well. Then there are a few domestic chores, and an afternoon snooze in preparation for a late night tonight. We go to a party at Ben and Dana’s new home in Whetstone. It’s a bit of a tedious journey on the tube, followed by a bus, but we get there only a little late and have an excellent evening with plenty of food, drink and good company. I lazily insist on an Uber home (half an hour as opposed to an hour and a half – at two in the morning), and we stagger to bed at about three. 2018 has been a pretty good year actually, but there is plenty of exciting stuff awaiting us in 2019 I am sure. n

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BRIDGE March 2019

The last few months we have been looking at the suit preference signal, a simple way for you

to give partner an idea what suit you want him to play. The situations we started looking at were ones where you were giving partner a ruff, and when you led an ace at trick one and there was a singleton of that suit in the dummy.

The general idea was that:

~ A low pip card asked for a lower ranking suit

~ A high pip card asked for a higher ranking suit

This idea can be extended when showing partner where your entry is in a no-trump contract. The card you use to clear your suit will give partner an idea of where your entry is, what suit your partner should play to get the lead to you. (The term clearing means “knocking out the stopper” and is used when you lead a suit in no-trumps where declarer has a winner. Getting rid of that winner means your suit is “cleared”, that is to say it is ready to cash).

Here is a simple example that will show what I mean.

You hold these cards:

♠ 7 6 2

♥ K Q J 8 2

♦ 5 4

♣ A 6 4

The bidding is short and sweet:


1NT

Pass 3NT All Pass

You (West) correctly pass 1NT as 5-3-3-2 hands should not overcall at the two level, and you have to select a lead against 3NT. No problems so far! The king of hearts leaps out of your hand onto the table and you see this dummy:

♠ 3

♥ A 6 5

♦ K Q 10 9 7 6 3

♣ Q 3

♠ 7 6 2

♥ K Q J 8 2

♦ 5 4

♣ A 6 4

Declarer ducks the ♥K lead, partner signals with the 3 and you carry on by playing the ♥J. Declarer ducks once more and partner plays the 7, declarer follows with the 9. Your hearts remaining are the Q-8-2 – what do you play now?

No, this isn’t a silly question, you have one job to do and that is to show partner where your entry is. Imagine that you pick a heart at random and play it; declarer wins on the table and starts on diamonds. Today he leads the king from the table and partner wins it with his ace. How should partner know that you have the ace of clubs and not the ace of spades?

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Let’s have a look at the whole deal and hear a tale of woe:

♠ 3

♥ A 6 5

♦ K Q 10 9 7 6 3

♣ Q 3

♠ 7 6 2 ♠ 10 9 8 5 4

♥ K Q J 8 2 ♥ 10 7 3

♦ 5 4 ♦ A

♣ A 6 4 ♣ K 10 7 2

♠ A K Q J

♥ 9 4

♦ J 8 2

♣ J 9 8 5

At the table East won his ace of diamonds perforce, and switched to the ♠10. A relieved South now put his cards on the table and claimed ten tricks.

A club switch would have led to the defence taking 4 heart tricks, 2 club tricks and the ace of diamonds for a total of 7 tricks, which is 3 down. A rather big difference…

The important part was for West to give his partner a message on the third round of hearts, so the heart he uses to knock out the ace should be the 2. A low card for the lower suit, clubs. On some occasions there will be a choice of 3 suits, but the suit on which declarer plays can always be discounted, since if we had a winner there then we would be getting the lead to cash our heart tricks.

Partner should look carefully at our two of hearts, trust us and play a club.

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Michael Byrne on Suit Preference Signals

Suit Preference SignalsPart 3

BRIDGE March 2019

Never mind that he is leading from a king around to the queen in dummy; we have asked him for a club and that is what he should play.

The example above was nice and simple because we held an outside ace to go with our good heart suit. Sometimes the situation will not be so easy and we must really watch the cards closely and look at what message we want to convey.

Let’s now imagine this time that it is our partner on lead and we are the one watching for his signal.

You hold these cards:

♠ A 3

♥ A 8 4

♦ K 10 5 4 2

♣ 7 6 2

The bidding once again reaches 3NT, but this time takes a more circuitous route:


1♣

Pass 1♥ Pass 1NT

Pass 3NT All Pass

Partner leads the ♠6 and you survey this dummy:

♠ J 7 2

♥ K Q 10 9

♦ J 8 3

♣ K 4 3

♠ A 3

♥ A 8 4

♦ K 10 5 4 2

♣ 7 6 2

You win the ♠A at trick one as declarer drops the 7. On enquiring you are told the opponents’ sequence has denied a 4-card major, so it seems clear partner has led from a 5-card spade suit and you return one. Declarer ducks the trick to your partner’s queen and then wins your partner’s ♠4 continuation with his king as you throw a small diamond.

Declarer now leads a heart to the ten, then the king and the queen. Whether you take the first, second

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or third round of hearts you must decide what to play next. Did you see partner’s signal?

Let’s have a look at the full deal and see how you did:

♠ J 7 2

♥ K Q 10 9

♦ J 8 3

♣ K 4 3

♠ Q 10 8 6 4 ♠ A 3

♥ 6 3 2 ♥ A 8 4

♦ 9 6 ♦ K 10 5 4 2

♣ Q 10 5 ♣ 7 6 2

♠ K 9 5

♥ J 7 5

♦ A Q 7

♣ A J 9 8

After you win with the ♥A the key thing is that you don’t play a diamond, which would travel round to the jack and give declarer three diamond tricks, as he can finesse against your king on the way back. In addition to three heart tricks, two club tricks and the spade he made at trick three, those diamond tricks would give him nine in all and the contract.

Instead partner has been quite shrewd; when he led the third round of spades he signalled for a club by playing his lowest spade. You can safely lead a club and whatever declarer plays he has to go down late in the day.

There are several points of interest in the play – the first is that the contract will still go down if you exit peacefully with a heart, giving nothing away.

The second is that partner signalled for a club because he knew it was safe for you to lead one, with him holding the queen and ten over declarer’s concealed suit. If partner hadn’t held the ten (and had only the queen) then he would certainly not have signalled for a club because if you switched to one it might pick up his queen. n

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BRIDGE March 2019

About the Contested Auction by Andrew Kambites

Everything you need to know about two suited overcalls

Part 2

I will start by revising the main conclusions of the last article. An even better suggestion is that you

re-read that article.

All two suited overcalls of a suit bid guarantee at least 5-5 shape.

Two suited overcalls of a one level suit bid are made only on hands that are weak or strong.Weak: 6-10 high card points. Intermediate: 11-15 high card points.Strong: 16+ high card points.

GhestemIn my previous article I invited you to choose between Ghestem and Michaels, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each method. My preferred method is Michaels but I ought to at least give you an outline of the detail of Ghestem. Unfortunately there are more versions of Ghestem than I could list, some of them described as ‘Modified Ghestem’ but the most common is this.

When playing Ghestem, after an opposing one-level opening, the three overcalls mentioned denote the three possible two-suited hands in the suits excluding the suit opened:

2NT: Shows the two lowest-ranking unbid suits.

3♣: Shows the two highest-ranking unbid suits.

Cuebid: Shows the top-and bottom-ranking unbid suits.

The fact that there are so many versions

of Ghestem around causes many problems for tournament directors. Players write on their convention card ‘Ghestem’ with no explanation. During the bidding one player bids 3♣ and his partner’s explanation differs from his hand. Opponents have a right to know the agreed system, not whether you have remembered it, but the onus is on you to prove your system. You certainly cannot do this by just pointing to the word ‘Ghestem’ on your card, therefore the director will almost certainly rule against you. If you choose to play Ghestem there are two requirements if you are to avoid director rulings against you.

1) Don’t forget the suits shown by a bid, especially the 3♣ overcall.

2) Fill in your convention card properly, by listing the suits shown by each bid, as I have done in bold type above.

I will finish my section on Ghestem by commenting that I really dislike the fact that I have to bid 3♣ over 1♣ or 1♦ to show the majors. The result is that I cannot play in 2♥ or 2♠. If you play Michaels cue bids then the cue bid (1♣ 2♣ or 1♦ 2♦) shows the majors, so playing in 2♥ or 2♠ is possible.

Michaels Cue Bids and the unusual 2NT

Michaels is best played with the unusual 2NT which I will look at in my next article.If the opening bid is a minor suit then the Michaels Cue Bid shows the majors, weak or strong.

If the opening bid is a major suit then the Michaels Cue Bid shows the other major suit and a minor, again weak or strong. An enquiry bid of 2NT asks which minor.

Here are some examples. Layout A results in Auction B.

Layout A.

E/W Game.

♠ A 10 9 6 2 ♠ 7 5

♥ K 10 9 8 7 ♥ J 6 4

♦ 7 3 ♦ A Q 6

♣ 6 ♣ K Q 7 3 2

Auction B


1♣

2♣1 Pass 2♥2 End1 2♣ shows the majors.2 East bids on the assumption that West is

weak.

Layout C results in Auction D.

Layout C.

E/W Game.

♠ A 10 9 6 2 ♠ K 3

♥ K 10 9 8 7 ♥ A 5 3 2

♦ 7 3 ♦ A 9 6

♣ 6 ♣ 9 8 7 3

Auction D


1♣

2♣1 Pass 4♥ End1 2♣ shows the majors. u

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BRIDGE March 2019

East bids on the assumption that West is weak. He has only eleven points but he has an excellent fit with West and his eleven points are far more useful than the twelve points East had in Layout A. Any points in partner’s known suits are helpful but only aces and occasionally kings in his short suits are useful. Remember that partner has at most three cards in the other two suits and queens and jacks opposite singletons and doubletons are wasted values. East/West have only 18 points here but they will make ten or eleven tricks in 4♥.

Layout E may result in Auction F.

Layout E.

N/S Game.

♠ A 10 9 6 2 ♠ 7 5

♥ K 10 9 8 7 ♥ J 6 4 3 2

♦ 7 3 ♦ 9 6

♣ 6 ♣ 8 7 3 2

Auction F


1♣

2♣ Pass 4♥ ?

Auction F is identical to Auction D, but East’s hand is very different. This time he bids to the level of the fit in order to make life difficult for a vulnerable North/South. South must be very strong and undoubtedly will find some action, but North/South may find it difficult to bid to their laydown minor suit slam.

Layout G may result in Auction H.

Layout G.

Love All.

♠ A K J 5 3 ♠ 8 4

♥ A K J 8 7 ♥ Q 10 6

♦ 6 2 ♦ A 7 5 3

♣ 5 ♣ 7 4 3 2

Auction H


1♣

2♣1 Pass 2♥2 Pass

3♥3 Pass 4♥4 End1 This time West has the strong version.

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2 East bids on the assumption that West is

weak.3 West shows he is strong by bidding on.4 East has two excellent cards. Bidding

game is clearcut.

Layout J should result in Auction K.

Layout J.

Love All.

♠ A J 8 7 6 ♠ 3

♥ 8 ♥ A 7 6 2

♦ K 10 8 6 3 ♦ A J 7 5 2

♣ 7 2 ♣ 8 6 4

Auction K


1♥

2♥1 Pass 2NT2 Pass

3♦3 Pass 4♦4 Pass

5♦5 End1 West shows spades and a minor suit.2 East doesn’t want to play in spades and

bids 2NT, which is conventional and asks for

West’s minor suit.3 3♦ shows the weak type and diamonds. 4 East now sees a huge diamond fit and

invites game.5 West could be a lot worse than this for his

bidding so accepts East’s game try.

Layout L might result in Auction M.

Layout L.

E/W Game.

♠ A K J 7 2 ♠ 8

♥ 8 ♥ A 7 6 2

♦ K Q 10 9 3 ♦ A J 7 5 2

♣ A 2 ♣ 8 6 4

Auction M


1♥

2♥ Pass 2NT1 Pass

4♦2 Pass 4♥3 Pass

4NT4 Pass 5♥5 Pass

5NT6 Pass 6♣7 Pass

6♦8 End1 Again the 2NT enquiry opposite a Michaels

bid which shows the other major and an

unknown minor; asks for West’s minor.2 This time West is strong, so he jumps to 4♦. 3 East is now interested in a diamond slam

which he shows with a cue bid of 4♥.4 Key card Blackwood.

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5 Two key cards, the two red aces.6 How about kings?7 No kings.8 West cannot see a way of getting rid of his

club loser so he settles for the small slam.

Layout N could lead to Auction P.

Layout N.

E/W Game.

♠ A K J 7 2 ♠ 8 3

♥ 8 ♥ A 7 6

♦ K Q 10 9 3 ♦ A 7 5 2

♣ A 2 ♣ 8 6 4 3

Auction P


1♥

2♥ 4♥ Pass Pass

Dbl1 Pass 4NT2 End

5♦3 Pass 6♦4 End1 This shows the strong version. It cannot

sensibly be penalties because West cannot

have more than three cards outside his two

suits.2 4NT asks for East’s minor suit. No suit has

been agreed so this cannot be Blackwood.3 West has diamonds and spades.4 Based on a sound appreciation of the

value of his two aces opposite a strong

Michaels. Occasionally the slam might fail,

but not often.

With a weak hand West must never bid again unless invited to do so. Layout Q resulted in Auction R in a county match.

Layout Q.

N/S Game.

♠ Q 10 8 6 4 3 ♠ 7 2

♥ 4 ♥ 9 6 3 2

♦ K Q 6 4 3 ♦ 5 2

♣ 5 ♣ K J 6 7 4

Auction R


1♥

2♥ Pass 2♠1 4♥

4♠2 Dbl End1 East is pretty certain than West has

diamonds and spades. 2♠ is preference, not

support.2 A truly awful bid. West argued that his bid

showed the sixth spade but it was showing

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BRIDGE March 2019

a strong hand. -1100 was richly deserved.

Raises of a promised suit can be used to bid to the level of the fit.

Layout S may be bid as in Auction T.

Layout S.

N/S Game.

♠ A K J 7 2 ♠ 8 3

♥ K Q 10 9 3 ♥ J 5 4 2

♦ 8 ♦ J 6 3

♣ A 4 ♣ 8 6 3 2

Auction T


1♦

2♦1 Pass 3♥2 Pass

4♥3 End1 2♦ shows the major suits2 Pre-emptive. East knows of a 9-card heart

fit.3 West wouldn’t bid on with a weak hand

but he has a strong version. East must

have four hearts for his 3♥ bid. It won’t take

much from East to make 4♥ good. It is an

indication of just how powerful strong two-

suiters are that 4♥ is an excellent contract

on just 19 points.

Of course if 3♥ is pre-emptive, it cannot be used as a game try. If your partner has made a two suited overcall and you want to play in game, if he is at the upper end of the weak version you must take the strain yourself and bid game. n

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Two Suited Overcalls Part 2 Quiz

by Andrew Kambites (Answers on page 41)

1 At love all your right hand opponent opens 1♥. You are playing Michaels Cue Bid and the unusual 2NT, both weak or strong. What do you bid with these hands?

Hand A Hand B Hand C

♠ A 10 9 7 5 ♠ A 10 9 7 5 ♠ A J 10 9 4

♥ 6 3 ♥ A 3 ♥ A

♦ K Q 10 5 4 ♦ K Q 10 5 4 ♦ K Q J 7 5 4

♣ 2 ♣ 2 ♣ 2

Hand D Hand E Hand F

♠ 2 ♠ 2 ♠ 2

♥ 6 3 ♥ A 3 ♥ A

♦ K Q 10 5 4 ♦ K Q 10 5 4 ♦ K Q J 7 5 4

♣ A 10 9 7 5 ♣ A 10 9 7 5 ♣ A J 10 9 4

2 At game all the bidding starts as in the auction shown. You are playing Michaels Cue Bid, weak or strong. What should South bid with hands A to C?


1♥ 2♥ Pass ?


♠ 7 3 ♠ 7 3 ♠ K J 7 4 3

♥ A 6 4 3 2 ♥ A 6 4 ♥ 7 4 3 2

♦ 8 2 ♦ Q J 7 4 ♦ 5 3

♣ Q 10 4 3 ♣ K 6 4 3 ♣ 6 2

3 With East/West vulnerable the bidding starts as in the auction shown. What should North bid with hands A to C? You are playing Michaels Cue Bid, weak or strong.


1♥ 2♥ Pass 2NT

Pass ?


♠ A Q 6 5 4 ♠ A Q J 7 6 ♠ A K J 6 5 4

♥ 6 ♥ 2 ♥ A

♦ 5 2 ♦ 7 5 ♦ Void

♣ Q 10 9 7 6 ♣ A K Q 6 5 ♣ A Q J 10 8 7

4 At game all the bidding starts as in the auction shown. What should South bid with hands A to C? You are playing Michaels cue bids, weak or strong.


1♥ 2♥ Pass 2NT

Pass 3♣ Pass ?


♠ 7 ♠ 7 ♠ 6 4

♥ A 7 6 5 ♥ A 7 6 5 ♥ A Q

♦ A K 3 2 ♦ A K 3 2 ♦ A K Q 8 7 5 4

♣ Q 7 5 4 ♣ A K 3 2 ♣ 7 3

5 With East/West vulnerable the bidding starts as in the auction shown. What should North bid with hands A to C? You are playing Michaels Cue Bid, weak or strong.


1♥ 2♥ 4♥ Pass

Pass ?

Hand A Hand B Hand C ♠ A Q 7 6 5 ♠ A Q J 6 5 ♠ A K J 8 5 4

♥ 6 ♥ 2 ♥ Void

♦ 7 5 ♦ A 5 ♦ 6

♣ K 10 7 6 5 ♣ A K J 8 7 ♣ A Q J 6 5 4

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BRIDGE March 2019

Decades ago the disparaging phrase ‘kitchen bridge’ was used in connection with the

standard of rubber bridge played in the bar at the River View Golf Club. This aspersion was regarded as a major insult and a challenge match was organised between the golfers and the then newly-formed Riverside Bridge Club. The event was a success and the tradition continues to this day. A team of eight from each club compete annually for the Golf and Bridge Trophy.

Millie’s husband, Justin, was appointed captain of the Riverside team and mustered his forces for the grand event. Hence on a Sunday afternoon battle commenced.

Playing as four pairs within each team, each pair played a four ball foursome over nine holes. The Riverside team put up a spirited performance but by late afternoon found themselves behind, losing two of the encounters with two halved producing a score of 2 – 6.

Neither Millie nor I play golf. In my case, I regard golf as a good country walk spoiled by the necessity to carry a collection of long sticks to hit an irritating little ball across fine grasslands. On the other hand Millie would never choose exercise when the alternative was to stay contentedly in the clubhouse bar. We arrived for pre-prandial drinks just as the golf players finished their rounds. After the dinner, the pairs in the inter-club match settled down to play an IMPs-scored teams-of-eight match of bridge.Millie and I entered the open duplicate pairs event played with the same boards. This deal did not seem unduly

difficult to bid or play:

Dealer North. Love All.

♠ K J 9 2

♥ J 8

♦ 2

♣ K Q J 9 6 4

♠ 6 5 3 ♠ 7

♥ A 9 7 4 ♥ K 6 3 2

♦ K Q J 5 3 ♦ A 10 7

♣ 2 ♣ 10 8 7 5 3

♠ A Q 10 8 4

♥ Q 10 5

♦ 9 8 6 4

♣ A

Millie in the North seat opened the bidding 1♣ and East passed. In the South seat with opening values I responded 1♠. West doubled to show both red suits in a reasonable hand, Millie jumped to 3♠ and I completed the auction with a raise to 4♠.


Millie Wendy

1♣ Pass 1♠

Dbl 3♠ Pass 4♠

All Pass

West led the king of diamonds, which won the first trick. She now played the ♥A and followed with the ♥4 to her partner’s king. East now tried a club, more in hope than in expectation. I won with the ace, tested the trumps and claimed the contract. As I sipped my glass of wine, West asked what I was drinking. I replied that it was the house claret. ‘I prefer my grapes the traditional way,’ she explained, ‘through a straw as a cocktail: grape

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juice, lots of ice with a double slug of rye whisky.’ I felt myself shudder at the thought.

In the inter-club match, the bidding on the deal took a series of rather different routes. George and Justin had no intervention from the opposition with the sequence:


George Justin

1♣ Pass 1♠

Pass 4♠ All Pass

As usual Len and Neil were playing a strong diamond system, so when they played the board, Len opened 2♣ showing at least five clubs and at least one four-card major.


Len Neil

2♣ Pass 2♠

Pass 4♠ All Pass

At the other two tables where Riverside took the East-West seats, one golf club pair found game. The other finished in 2♠. This and other similar results elsewhere enabled Riverside to win 7 VPs to 1 VP in the bridge phase of the match producing an overall victory of 9 – 7. The president of the River View Club presented the cup to the Riverside captain, Justin. Gallantly Justin lightly kissed the back of her hand. ‘It’s ages since my hand was kissed,’ lamented Millie watching her husband from the side of the room. ‘Well never mind, at the time you must have enjoyed it as a romantic gesture,’ I offered sympathetically. ‘Not really’, came the response, ‘It was a black Labrador.’ n

The Diaries of Wendy Wensum

Episode 83: The Clubhouse Challenge

BRIDGE March 2019

Where did we go wrong?

This month’s deal was sent in by Chris Irvin from York Bridge Club:

♠ A J 7 ♠ Q 6 3 2

♥ A ♥ 9 4 2

♦ A Q 10 6 5 ♦ K 3

♣ K J 8 2 ♣ A Q 7 3

Their bidding was:


1♦ Pass 1♠ Pass

3♣ Pass 3♥ Pass

3NT All Pass

Fourth-suit forcing should be considered as a request for a descriptive bid rather than simply asking for a stopper. After 3♥, West should certainly have bid 3♠. Then, although East does not have a lot, he should realise that what he does have is working, facing what he knows is a singleton heart. However, it is not clear why East bid fourth-suit-forcing rather than raise clubs immediately. That would have led to our recommended auction:


1♦ Pass 1♠ Pass

3♣ Pass 4♣ Pass

4♠ Pass 5♦ Pass

6♣ All Pass

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Sally’s Slam Clinic

Sally Brock Looks At Your Slam Bidding

The upshot of it all is that if West shows a game-forcing hand with diamonds and clubs, and heart shortage, then East is worth bidding a slam.

Slam of the month

Derek Adams sent in this fine slam hand that cropped up at Cardiff Bridge Club:

♠ 8 7 4 ♠ A Q 10

♥ A Q J 10 8 7 6 ♥ K 9 5 4 2

♦ Q ♦ K J 9 5 4

♣ 9 5 ♣ Void

This was their auction:


3♣

3♥ 4♣ 5♣ Pass

5♥ 6♣ 6♥ All Pass

Once West had friskily overcalled 3♥, there was no stopping East who would have been thinking more about reaching a grand slam than staying out of a small slam. On a club lead, after drawing trumps, declarer could knock out the ♦A, establishing two discards for the losing spades, thus not needing the spade finesse. ■

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DUPLICATE BRIDGE RULES

SIMPLIFIEDby David Stevenson

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£595

BRIDGE March 2019

This DVD is focussed on making the most of your memory. I am sure you have all found yourself

in the frustrating situation of forgetting about a winner or underestimating the value of some cards. There are some simple ideas to improve your memory and some slightly more difficult ones, but anything that changes a 50-50 chance to something better has to be worth it.

I start with some simple ideas: rather than counting all your trumps, just count the trumps you are missing – assuming you are in a normal contract – the missing trumps will be 4 or 5, rather than your own which will amount to 8 or more. Furthermore, as declarer, your side will be doing most of the ruffing, so if you are counting only the missing trumps you can ignore your ruffing and thus keep a more accurate count.

Another simple idea is demonstrated by this dummy:

♠ A 3 2

♥ Q J 10 9

♦ J 6 5

♣ A K 3

Playing in no trumps, the opponents lead and you play on hearts, then they lead again, then they duck and the play carries on… leaving these cards in dummy:

♠ —

♥ 9

♦ J 6

♣ A K

Bernard Magee DVDs – Number Twenty Four

Improve And Develop Your Bridge Memory

You get back on lead with the ♣A, but cannot quite remember what has gone in hearts: have the ace, king, queen, jack and ten gone?

Instead you leave yourself with this:

♠ —

♥ Q

♦ J 6

♣ A K

You win the ♣A and all you need to remember is whether the ♥A-K have gone, which they have, so you confidently cash your ♥Q.

The point is that when you are declarer you can choose to play your high cards in any order (you do not need to signal to partner because he is dummy). Therefore when playing out the ♥Q-J-10-9 you can choose to play the nine first and upwards, so that towards the end of the hand you are left with the queen and have fewer cards to remember.

Of course, most of the time I hope you can remember anyway, but this might just be useful on one deal in a hundred!

Other aspects of memory revolve around the type of memory you have, or which you excel at. I go through the various different ways of retaining information, sound, picture, kinetics and repetition to name a few. Knowing your best method allows you to focus on ways of using it to your advantage. Repeating cards in your head, asking players to show you their card again – particularly on key tricks like the first discard or signal.

Another aspect that can help is trying to pinpoint the important

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BRIDGE March 2019

Bernard Magee DVDs – Number Twenty Four

Improve And Develop Your Bridge Memory

‘middle cards’ early on in a hand:

♠ K 9 8 4

♥ J 10

♦ A 6 5

♣ Q 10 9 8

♠ A Q 2

♥ A 8 5 2

♦ 4 3

♣ K J 3 2

You finish in 3NT and West leads the ♥4, East playing the ♥Q. Your first thought might be to duck, but always be wary of ducking if you have a second weak suit. If you duck the heart lead, then a diamond switch would be unpleasant.

However, before you play to trick one, I want you to evaluate your middle cards: which cards might be important to you, and if necessary make an effort to highlight them in your mind.

The cards that stand out to me are the ♠9 and the ♥8. I hope that the spade suit will be obvious, you are hoping for a 3-3 break, but there is also the chance of a doubleton jack-ten as well as other helpful holdings. I would like to keep the ♠9 in my mind. The card is in dummy, but one thing you can do is adjust the dummy physically – some will use the French term ‘j’adoube’ to do this (also used in chess). The action of adjustment can help you to remember.

In hearts, with the ten, queen and your ace going on the first trick and

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quite likely the king and jack on the next – your eight could have a key role to play. Since the card is in your hand you can adjust it to help yourself: skew it slightly, or raise it slightly. Anything that might remind you of its importance.

With the important cards highlighted in your mind, you win the ♥A and play on clubs. East wins the third round and leads the ♥9 to his partner’s king and he switches to the ♦Q. Having kept the ♥8 in mind, you know it is a winner. You might duck one diamond, to tighten the end of the hand and then win the second round. Now you take your clubs, cross in spades and cash your ♥8. With your mind keeping a look out for the jack-ten of spades you take your spades, but nothing appears and you lose the last trick.

Had you not highlighted the ♥8 early you might have missed East’s play of the ♥9 and not cashed the trick at the right time.

As declarer you can use the card adjustment tactics easily because there is no partner to affect, but as a defender you do need to be careful because you must not give your partner any information. However, thinking about relevant but not obvious cards early can help you remember them for later – staring at the card, or repeating it in your mind.

It is hard to pinpoint what we require from our memory because when focused we hope we do not need the help. However, I cover a myriad of methods that I hope will help you retain important information and with it allow you to make extra tricks and stop your dummy mentioning that you left a winner on the table! n

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BRIDGE March 2019

Robin Hood's Bridge Adventures by David Bird

Esther Roake’s Inspired Defence

It was the wish of Samuel and Esther Roake to donate a substantial portion of their wealth to the

deserving poor of Nottingham.Their only request had been that

Robin Hood and a chosen partner should favour them with a high-stake game of bridge at their spacious country home. By the time they stopped for supper, Hood and Nazir had already amassed some 350 golden guineas.

‘You will not believe how much happiness such a sum will bring,’ declared Robin Hood as he took his seat in the Roakes’ oak-panelled dining hall.

‘You must come with us when we distribute the money,’ suggested Nazir. ‘It is only right that the recipients can pay tribute to such generous benefactors.’

‘Tonight we will taste a speciality of our cook,’ declared Esther Roake. ‘Ah, here it is, Wild Bird Pie! You can have fun identifying the contents. He uses pigeon, song thrush, quail, blackbird, crow ‒ whatever is available. We were once given half a peacock to add to it!’

Robin Hood’s eyes lit up. ‘I’ve never seen such a magnificent pie,’ he said. ‘It could feed an army.’

The meal was accompanied by a fine Spanish red wine. As Hood resumed his place at the card table, he shook his head to regain concentration. The wine was several times stronger than the rather tasteless ale brewed by Friar Tuck.

This was the first deal of the evening:

Dealer North. Love All.

♠ 6 3

♥ 8 6

♦ A 10 9 7 6 4 3

♣ 10 9

♠ Q J 10 5 ♠ 9 8 7 4

♥ K 5 3 2 ♥ J 10 9 7

♦ 8 ♦ Q 5 2

♣ 8 5 4 2 ♣ J 6

♠ A K 2

♥ A Q 4

♦ K J

♣ A K Q 7 3


Samuel Nazir Esther Robin

Roake Roake Hood

3♦ Pass 4NT

Pass 5♦ Pass 6NT

All Pass

The ♠Q was led and Robin Hood studied the dummy that was laid out. Why on earth had he bid 6NT? The wine must have gone to his head. A contract of 6♦ would have been so much easier.

Hood won the spade lead and gave himself an extra chance by running the ♦J. If East won with the ♦Q, all would be well. If instead the ♦J won, he would be no worse off. He could overtake the ♦K with the ♦A and hope for a 2-2 break.

Esther Roake knew that declarer held the ♦K and therefore held up her queen.

When Hood led the ♦K next, a heart

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discard appeared from West and he paused for thought. ‘You defended well, Esther,’ he said. ‘As it happens, I have a second string to my bow.’

‘How appropriate!’ quipped Samuel Roake. Robin Hood followed with a low diamond from dummy and then led the ♣3 from his hand.

He could not be prevented from entering dummy in clubs and the slam was made.

‘A clever hold-up in diamonds, my love,’ said Samuel Roake. ‘It’s unfair for you that such good clubs were awarded to the dummy.’

An amusing thought occurred to Robin Hood. If Roake had led a club, East retaining her ♣J and playing the ♣6, the slam would have gone down! Declarer would make five club tricks, yes, but only two diamond tricks.

Not long afterwards, Hood reached 6NT again.

Dealer South. N/S Game.

♠ K 9 5

♥ K Q 10

♦ A 9 2

♣ A Q 5 2

♠ J 4 ♠ Q 10 7 2

♥ 9 8 5 3 ♥ 7 4 2

♦ Q 10 7 3 ♦ J 8 6 4

♣ 10 9 3 ♣ 8 6

♠ A 8 6 3

♥ A J 6

♦ K 5

♣ K J 7 4

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BRIDGE March 2019



Roake Roake Hood

1NT

Pass 6NT All Pass

Samuel Roake led the ♣10 and Nazir laid down the honour-strewn dummy apologetically. ‘Such luck we have!’ he exclaimed. ‘Unfair for you, I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s the way the Good Lord intends it,’ said Samuel Roake. ‘He will have heard of the terrible harvest this year.’

‘I’m sure he has,’ Hood replied. He won in his hand, noting that eleven top tricks were visible. The spade suit was the most likely source of a twelfth trick.

Hood played three more rounds of clubs, both defenders throwing hearts. His next move was a low spade to dummy’s nine. Esther Roake won this trick with the ♠Q.

Robin Hood won the heart return with the ace and led another spade. The jack came from West and he won with dummy’s king. These cards were still to be played:

♠ 5

♥ K Q

♦ A 9 2

♣ —

♠ — ♠ 10 7

♥ 9 8 ♥ —

♦ Q 10 7 3 ♦ J 8 6 4

♣ — ♣ —

♠ A 8

♥ J 6

♦ K 5

♣ —

Since Esther Roake had won the first round of spades with the queen, West surely held the ♠10. Hood led dummy’s ♠5 and, with some confidence, played the ♠A from his hand. He could barely believe it when West showed out, discarding a heart. A few moments later, he was one down.

Robin Hood turned to his right. ‘What a wonderful defence, Esther!’ he exclaimed. ‘You won dummy’s ♠9 with the queen from Q-10?’

Esther Roake’s eyes were alight. The finest card player in the shire had

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complimented her defence. ‘You would have played differently if you held the ♠J,’ she replied. ‘Samuel held the jack, so my queen and 10 were equal cards.’

Nazir shook his head admiringly. ‘I’ve rarely seen a better play,’ he observed. ‘It was inspired by the Wild Bird Pie, I’m sure of it.’

Esther Roake sat back in her chair. When the Good Lord finally called her, she would die a happy woman. What a pity her neighbours, Bayard and Albreda were no longer around. How she would have enjoyed telling them about the deal!

Dealer North. N/S Game.

♠ A 9 3

♥ 6 3

♦ A 9 7

♣ K 10 7 5 4

♠ 8 4 ♠ K Q 10

♥ J 2 ♥ Q 9 8 5

♦ K Q J 5 4 ♦ 8 6

♣ Q J 6 2 ♣ A 9 8 3

♠ J 7 6 5 2

♥ A K 10 7 4

♦ 10 3 2

♣ Void



Roake Roake Hood

1♣ Pass 1♠

Pass 2♠ Pass 4♠

All Pass

Robin won the ♦K lead with dummy’s ace and saw that he would need a good number of trump tricks to reach the prescribed target.

He ruffed a club in his hand and continued with ace, king and another heart.

West discarded on the third round,

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and Hood ruffed with dummy’s ♠3. A further club ruff in hand was followed by a trump to dummy’s ace. A club ruff with the ♠7 and a heart ruff with the ♠9 left these cards out:

♠ —

♥ —

♦ 9 7

♣ K 10

♠ 8 ♠ K Q

♥ — ♥ —

♦ Q J 5 ♦ 8

♣ — ♣ A

♠ J

♥ 10

♦ 10 3

♣ —

When the ♣10 was led, Esther Roake followed with the ace. Hood ruffed with the ♠J and could not believe his luck when Samuel Roake was unable to overruff. Ten tricks were now before him.

‘Wonderful play!’ exclaimed Esther Roake. ‘I have never seen the like of it.’

‘In truth, it was simply very good fortune,’ Robin Hood replied. ‘I wouldn’t wish to reach such a contract again.’

It was past ten on the clock when play drew to a close. ‘We have learned so much from you,’ declared Samuel Roake, rising to his feet. ‘Not that it will produce much benefit at our age.’

Nazir looked up from the scoresheet. ‘Seven hundred and twenty-six golden guineas,’ he announced. ‘Wonderful!’

‘That amount will feed many villages for a whole year,’ said Robin Hood. He embraced Samuel and Esther Roake in turn. ‘Your names will be fondly remembered in these parts. Yes, for a very long time.’ n

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BRIDGE March 2019

♠ J 6 2

♥ A J 10

♦ Q 10 9 8 5

♣ 7 6

♠ A K Q

♥ K 8 3

♦ J 6

♣ Q J 9 5 3

South opens 1NT(15-17) in first seat and North raises to 3NT. North has only eight high card points but he has a good five-card suit and he has the ♥10, too. These little extras add up. Imagine, for instance, that North had the ♦Q-9-8-7-3 instead of the♦Q-10-9-8-5. It would be much harder for South to set up the diamond suit. That ♦10 is a huge plus for play in 3NT.

You get the lead of the ♥6 from a player using fourth best leads. A reminder: it is often wise to work out what the opening leader has if possible. Sometimes it can be important. Do that before continuing.

You play the ♥10 from dummy and East plays the ♥5. At trick two, you lead diamonds and the ♦J wins the first trick, West playing the ♦7 and East the three.

When you continue diamonds, West plays the ♦2 and East wins with the ♦K. East continues hearts, leading the ♥4.

Here is a crucial question. What are the hearts in your hand and dummy at this point? Do you see why this is so important?

If your hearts are ♥K-8 facing ♥A-J, you are going down. When you play a low heart, West can play the

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queen, which you win but that leaves you with the ♥K in your hand and the ♥J in dummy. You have no entry to dummy so even though you can set up the diamonds, you have no way to get to them.

The solution comes about with proper play at trick one. I reminded you to consider what that ♥6 indicated. Six from eleven is five. You have three hearts in dummy and two in your hand that are higher than the six. East can’t have one higher since they are all accounted for. The correct play is to win the first heart with your ♥K.

Here is the layout.

♠ J 6 2

♥ A J 10

♦ Q 10 9 8 5

♣ 7 6

♠ 10 7 ♠ 9 8 5 4 3

♥ Q 9 7 6 2 ♥ 5 4

♦ 7 2 ♦ A K 4 3

♣ A 10 4 2 ♣ K 8

♠ A K Q

♥ K 8 3

♦ J 6

♣ Q J 9 5 3

If you win the first heart with the king, you will still have the A-J in dummy and since the heart finesse is presumed to win, you can take a later finesse which will get you the entries you need.

Note that East played low on the first diamond lead. He made a good play that many would miss. Note that West played the ♦7 on the first diamond lead. This was an effort to tell East that West had two diamonds. Giving count on defence is something that often helps partner know what to do.

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Fireside Chats with Mike Lawrence

Part TwoEntries

SET 1 1 Ruffing for Extra Tricks

2 Competitive Auctions

3 Making the Most of High Cards

4 Identifying & Bidding Slams

5 Play & Defence of 1NT Contracts

6 Doubling & Defence against Doubled Contracts

SET 2 7 Leads

8 Losing Trick Count

9 Making a Plan as Declarer

10 Responding to 1NT

11 Signals & Discards

12 Endplay

SET 3 13 Hand Evaluation

14 Pre-Emptive Bidding

15 Splinter & Cue Bids

16 Avoidance Play

17 Play & Defence at Pairs

18 Thinking Defence

SET 4 19 Defensive Plan

20 Further into the Auction

21 Weak Twos

22 Trump Control

23 Sacrificing

24 Improving Bridge Memory

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BERNARD MAGEE

TUTORIAL DVDs

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BRIDGE March 2019

Sometimes you have to manufacture entries. Sometimes you have to keep the ones you have. Here is an example of keeping entries and not squandering them prematurely.

♠ A K Q

♥ 8 7

♦ 7 6 4

♣ J 5 4 3 2

♠ 3 2

♥ A K Q J 10 9

♦ Q J 5 3

♣ 7

South plays in 4♥ and gets a club lead. He ruffs the second club and draws trumps in three rounds, leaving himself with two trumps.

Here is what all too many declarers do next. They whack out three rounds of spades, getting rid of a diamond. Now they lead a diamond to the queen and West’s king. West leads another club, and that puts South in his hand. South still has the ♦J and would like to lead a diamond towards his hand, but there is no way to get to dummy. He must lead a diamond from his hand instead. East has the ♦A-10 left and gets two tricks. Down one.

A player who is not in such a rush will play in this fashion: he ruffs the second club and draws trumps. Next comes a spade to the ♠A. At this point our winning declarer does not take the rest of the spades, but instead leads a diamond. West beats the ♦Q with the ♦K, but South is in command. He ruffs the next club and goes to dummy in spades. Now he cashes the last spade and leads a diamond from dummy toward his ♦J. This line produces a diamond trick whenever East has the ♦A or ♦K.

Premature use of entries is an expensive error. If you get the feeling that you are in the habit of taking winners as soon as you see them, think about this hand and consider if your winners might not have a use other than winning immediate tricks. n

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SET 5 25 Defence as Partner

of the Leader 26 Aggressive Bidding

at Duplicate Pairs 27 Strong Opening Bids 28 Take-Out Doubles 29 Suit Establishment

in Suit Contracts 30 Landy / Defending

Against a 1NT Opening

SET 6 31 Counting Defence 32 Extra Tricks

in No-Trumps

33 Supporting Partner 34 Finessing 35 Bidding

Distributional Hands 36 Coping with Pre-Empts

SET 7 37 More Signalling 38 4-4-4-1 Hands 39 Drawing Trumps 40 Five-Card Majors 41 Fundamentals

of Defence 42 Supporting Minors

SET 8 43 Teams of Four 44 Game Tries 45 Disrupting Declarer 46 Defending Slams 47 Overcalling 48 Pressing the Defence

BERNARD MAGEE

TUTORIAL DVDs

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BRIDGE March 2019

More Tips from Bernard Magee

When weak, try hard to support

In competitive auctions, showing support is so important because it allows your partner to bid more

(evaluating his hand for a fit). You may be used to stretching over an opponent’s double; extending that to overcalls can work well. Playing duplicate pairs, bidding more with fits works well – so often -50 will be a good score – going down in a contract when your opponents can make something. Outbidding your opponents should be a partnership decision rather than one person. This is particularly important when your partner has a distributional hand like a 5-5 shape.

Dealer East. Love All.


1♥ 1♠

?

♠ 10 7 4

♥ J 7 6

♦ K 8 7 6 5 2

♣ 3

Your partner opens 1♥ and South overcalls 1♠. You have a very poor hand in high card points, but there is a lot of potential in a suit contract if you have a fit. Now, playing Acol, you cannot be sure of an 8-card heart fit, but bidding 2♥ on hands like these tends to work. If your partner has only four hearts he will be balanced and so will not get too excited, but when he has five hearts your hand will be worth the bid and allow your side to bid to its full potential.

This kind of bid is risky, but as a partnership you can agree to stretch your supporting bids in competition – it allows you to compete for more part-scores and also make better decisions at higher

levels, as this hand shows.Here is the full deal:

♠ A J 9 8 2

♥ 8 3 2

♦ Q

♣ J 8 6 4

♠ 10 7 4 ♠ Void

♥ J 7 6 ♥ A K Q 9 5

♦ K 8 7 6 5 2 ♦ 9 4 3

♣ 3 ♣ K Q 9 7 2

♠ K Q 6 5 3

♥ 10 4

♦ A J 10

♣ A 10 5


1♥ 1♠

2♥ 4♠ 5♥ Dbl

Your 2♥ stretch bid allowed your partner to go 5♥ over North’s jump to 4♠. South doubled this, but with the shortages in both hands East was able to make nine tricks.

Two off doubled cost 300 points, but was better than allowing 4♠ to make (-420).

Without your 2♥ supporting bid, East would be taking a wild gamble to bid on, but with your bid his hand becomes powerful and is worth pushing on to 5♥.n

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BRIDGE March 2019

1. ♠ Q J

♥ Q 6 4 2

♦ A 10 7 6

♣ J 7 6

♠ A 9 7 2 ♠ 10 6 5 3

♥ 9 5 3 ♥ J 10 8

♦ 3 2 ♦ K

♣ K Q 10 8 ♣ A 9 5 4 3

♠ K 8 4

♥ A K 7

♦ Q J 9 8 5 4

♣ 2

You open 1♦ fourth in hand and are soon in 5♦. West leads the ♣K and follows with the ♣Q. How do you plan the play?

With an unavoidable loser in each black suit it would appear that the success of this contract depends on not losing a trump and in isolation it would be right to take a finesse against the king. But it never hurts to do a bit of explorative work and here we can make use of the fact that West passed as dealer. So ruff the second club lead and play a spade just to see who has the ace. If it is West he can hardly have the king of diamonds as well as that would give him a twelve count and he would surely have opened the bidding. In that case play a trump to the ace in the hope of catching a singleton king with East.

2. ♠ A 7 3

♥ 7 6 4

♦ K 10 7 5

♣ 6 5 2

♠ K Q J 9 ♠ 10 8 5

♥ K 8 2 ♥ J 10 9 5 3

♦ 9 8 3 ♦ 6 4

♣ Q 9 8 ♣ J 7 4

♠ 6 4 2

♥ A Q

♦ A Q J 2

♣ A K 10 3

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You are declarer in 3NT and West leads the ♠K. How do you plan the play?

You are only looking for one extra trick and a successful heart finesse would see you home, but you might be able to do better than that. First of all duck the opening lead and duck the second round also when West continues with the ♠Q. When East follows to a third round you know you have only one more spade loser so now you might be able to score a long club. Play a club to the ten and if it loses – as it probably will – West can cash his good spade on which you throw a heart from dummy and a diamond from hand. A heart switch now will give you your ninth trick while a diamond or a club will enable you to test for a 3-3 club break. If East plays the queen or jack of clubs on the first lead from dummy then win, return to dummy and repeat the finesse, so you also gain if East started with both the queen and the jack of clubs. If all else fails, take the heart finesse.

3. ♠ Q J 9 8 6

♥ A Q 8

♦ A

♣ A J 7 6

♠ 2 ♠ 7 3

♥ 10 7 6 5 ♥ K J 4 3

♦ Q J 10 7 3 2 ♦ 9 6 5

♣ 9 2 ♣ Q 10 8 3

♠ A K 10 5 4

♥ 9 2

♦ K 8 4

♣ K 5 4

You are declarer in 6♠. West leads the ♦Q. How do you plan the play?

You have a potential heart loser and a potential club loser and while you might consider yourself unlucky if both finesses failed there is in fact a sure way of making your slam. Win the diamond and draw trumps before playing the diamond king, discarding a low club from dummy,

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and ruffing the third diamond. Now come back to your hand with a club to the king and lead a heart, simply covering whatever card West plays. East will doubtless win but will be hopelessly endplayed, having to either lead a heart into the remaining tenace or a club up to the A-J in dummy or give a ruff and discard by playing a diamond.

4. ♠ A Q J 10

♥ A 2

♦ 4

♣ J 10 9 8 7 2

♠ 9 8 7 4 3 ♠ 6 5 2

♥ J 8 ♥ Q 10 9 4 3

♦ Q 10 9 2 ♦ J 6

♣ 6 5 ♣ Q 4 3

♠ K

♥ K 7 6 5

♦ A K 8 7 5 3

♣ A K

You are declarer in 6NT. West leads the ♠8. How do you plan the play?

The spade lead seems to have tangled your entries although you will have more than enough tricks if the club queen is doubleton. Also an even break in diamonds will see you home. You can combine those chances by ducking a diamond early, giving odds for a successful outcome of around 57%. It’s not easy to see perhaps but in fact the contract is 100% guaranteed! Win the spade lead in dummy and play two more rounds discarding both clubs from hand. Now play clubs from the top to drive out the ♣Q and even if that suit breaks 5-0 you will still be able to make five tricks, more than enough for your contract. n

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Answers to David Huggett’s Play Quiz on page 9

Tricks of the Trade by Larry Cohen

Strategic Thinking for Advanced Bridge £20 ( 01483 489961

BRIDGE March 2019

Answers to Julian Pottage’s Defence Quiz on page 11

1. ♠ J 7 4

♥ A K J 5

♦ A K 10 7 5

♣ J

♠ K 3 2 ♠ A 6

♥ 10 6 4 2 ♥ 9 7

♦ 8 3 ♦ Q 9 6 4 2

♣ A K 8 2 ♣ 10 7 5 3

♠ Q 10 9 8 5

♥ Q 8 3

♦ J

♣ Q 9 6 4


1♦ Pass 1♠

Pass 2♥ Pass 2NT

Pass 3♠ Pass 4♠

All Pass

You lead the ♣A: ♣J, ♣5 and ♣4. What is your plan?

As you might have expected from the bidding, dummy has a singleton club. You cannot cash any more clubs while dummy can ruff. If partner has the ace and another spade and you lead a trump now, your side can play three rounds to prevent any ruffing. Given South’s weak 2NT bid, there is a good chance of this and you should go for it. If partner lacks the ace, your king remains guarded and you make it later. After you stop dummy from ruffing, declarer will hope to set up the diamonds but the 5-2 split stops this.

2. ♠ K J 9 7

♥ K Q J

♦ A K 9 7 5

♣ 6

♠ 3 2 ♠ A Q 6

♥ A 10 4 2 ♥ 9 7 3

♦ Q 8 ♦ J 10 6 2

♣ Q J 10 9 5 ♣ A 7 2

♠ 10 8 5 4

♥ 8 6 5

♦ 4 3

♣ K 8 4 3

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Pass 1♦ Pass Pass

2♣ Dbl 3♣ Pass

Pass Dbl Pass 3♠

All Pass

You lead the ♣Q. Partner wins with the ♣A and switches to the ♥3. What is your plan?

As on the previous deal, dummy has come down with a singleton club. Despite seeing the shortage, partner has not switched to a trump. Why is this? While a heart shortage would be one explanation, partner can hardly have a singleton heart because that would give South five – and the three cannot be top of a doubleton. Partner is putting you in with a heart so that you can lead a spade through the tenace. Indeed, South, who has denied the strength to respond to 1♦ but has already turned up with the ♣K, is quite likely to have no spade picture cards.

You should switch to a trump, which allows partner to play two more rounds of the suit. Again declarer ends up a trick short.

3. ♠ K 10 9 2

♥ 10

♦ J 10 9 3

♣ A Q J 6

♠ J 7 4 ♠ Q 5

♥ A 7 ♥ K Q 9 8 5 3 2

♦ A Q 8 2 ♦ 7 4

♣ 9 4 3 2 ♣ 8 5

♠ A 8 6 3

♥ J 6 4

♦ K 6 5

♣ K 10 7


3♥ Pass

Pass Dbl Pass 4♠

All Pass

You lead the ♥A: ♥10, ♥5 and ♥4. What do you lead next?

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Once more dummy has a singleton in the suit you led. Can you see why it might not be such a good idea this time to switch to a trump? For one thing, dummy has four trumps and you are not going to be able to draw many of them. More importantly, if partner has ♠Q-x, a switch to the suit will blow your side’s trick in the suit. A far better bet is to exit with a club. This does nothing to help declarer and may find partner short in the suit. A heart continuation would also suffice.

4. ♠ 7 2

♥ Q

♦ K J 9 6 3

♣ A K 9 6 3

♠ 9 4 ♠ K 6 5

♥ A K 7 6 3 ♥ 10 9 8 5 2

♦ 8 5 2 ♦ A Q 7

♣ 10 4 2 ♣ 8 5

♠ A Q J 10 8 3

♥ J 4

♦ 10 4

♣ Q J 7


1♠

Pass 2♦ Pass 2♠

Pass 3♣ Pass 3♠

Pass 4♠ All Pass

You lead the ♥A, on which go the ♥Q, ♥10 and ♥4. What is your plan?

With dummy short both in trumps and the suit led, is a trump switch a good idea once more?

Well, here dummy has good holdings in the minors and a trump switch will help pick up partner’s trumps. Indeed forcing dummy to ruff may help to protect partner’s trumps. Firstly, however, your side needs to attack diamonds – you can place partner with something useful in the suit partly by reading the high ♥10 as a suit-preference signal and partly from South’s reluctance to support the suit. Switch to the ♦5 so that you can play the ♦8 next to deny a doubleton. n

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BRIDGE March 2019

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2019

BRIDGE March 2019

Answers to Overcalling Quiz on page 25

1 At love all your right hand opponent opens 1♥. You are playing Michaels cue bids and the unusual 2NT, both weak or strong. What do you bid with these hands?


♠ A 10 9 7 5 ♠ A 10 9 7 5 ♠ A J 10 9 4

♥ 6 3 ♥ A 3 ♥ A

♦ K Q 10 5 4 ♦ K Q 10 5 4 ♦ K Q J 7 5 4

♣ 2 ♣ 2 ♣ 2

Hand D Hand E Hand F

♠ 2 ♠ 2 ♠ 2

♥ 6 3 ♥ A 3 ♥ A

♦ K Q 10 5 4 ♦ K Q 10 5 4 ♦ K Q J 7 5 4

♣ A 10 9 7 5 ♣ A 10 9 7 5 ♣ A J 10 9 4

Hand A 2♥ . Spades and a minor. You have a weak Michaels cue bid.

Hand B 1♠. Intermediate strength. Hope you can show the diamonds later.

Hand C 2♥. A strong Michaels cue bid.Hand D 2NT. A weak unusual no

trump, showing the lowest unbid suits, the minors.

Hand E 2♦. Intermediate strength. Maybe you can show the clubs later.

Hand F 2NT. A strong unusual no trump.

2 At game all the bidding starts as in the auction shown. You are playing Michaels cue bids, weak or strong. What should South bid with hands A to C?


1♥ 2♥ Pass ?


♠ 7 3 ♠ 7 3 ♠ K J 7 4 3

♥ A 6 4 3 2 ♥ A 6 4 ♥ 7 4 3 2

♦ 8 2 ♦ Q J 7 4 ♦ 5 3

♣ Q 10 4 3 ♣ K 6 4 3 ♣ 6 2

You assume partner is weak with spades and a minor, at least 5-5 shape. If he

is strong he will bid aggressively.

Hand A 2♠. It is likely that partner has spades and diamonds. Settle for the 5-2 fit at the two level.

Hand B 2NT. If partner is weak you want to sign off in his minor at the three level. 2NT is conventional, asking for his minor suit.

Hand C 4♠. Bid to the level of the fit. Your opponents must have a good fit in one of the minor suits. They haven’t found it yet. Make it hard for them.

3 With East/West vulnerable the bidding starts as in the auction shown. What should North bid with hands A to C? You are playing Michaels cue bids, weak or strong.


1♥ 2♥ Pass 2NT

Pass ?


♠ A Q 6 5 4 ♠ A Q J 7 6 ♠ A K J 6 5 4

♥ 6 ♥ 2 ♥ A

♦ 5 2 ♦ 7 5 ♦ —

♣ Q 10 9 7 6 ♣ A K Q 6 5 ♣ A Q J 10 8 7

Partner has asked you to show your minor suit.Hand A 3♣. Showing you are weak.Hand B 4♣. Showing a strong

Michaels but not absolutely forcing.

Hand C 6♣. Bid what you think you can make, even if partner has nothing. Certainly not 4♣ which can be passed.

4 At game all the bidding starts as in the auction shown. What should South bid with hands A to C?

You are playing Michaels cue bids, weak or strong.


1♥ 2♥ Pass 2NT

Pass 3♣ Pass ?


♠ 7 ♠ 7 ♠ 6 4

♥ A 7 6 5 ♥ A 7 6 5 ♥ A Q

♦ A K 3 2 ♦ A K 3 2 ♦ A K Q 8 7 5 4

♣ Q 7 5 4 ♣ A K 3 2 ♣ 7 3

Partner has shown a weak Michaels with spades and clubs.Hand A 5♣ . There should be no red

suit losers as partner has at most three red cards.

Hand B 6♣. Or maybe some other way of investigating a slam.

Hand C 3NT. You had to find out partner’s minor suit in case of the tiny chance it was diamonds. Partner will never bid again after you bid 3NT.

5 With East/West vulnerable the bidding starts as in the auction shown. What should North bid with hands A to C? You are playing Michaels cue bids, weak or strong.


1♥ 2♥ 4♥ Pass

Pass ?

Hand A Hand B Hand C ♠ A Q 7 6 5 ♠ A Q J 6 5 ♠ A K J 8 5 4

♥ 6 ♥ 2 ♥ —

♦ 7 5 ♦ A 5 ♦ 6

♣ K 10 7 6 5 ♣ A K J 8 7 ♣ A Q J 6 5 4

Hand A Pass. If you take further action partner will think you are strong. You have shown your hand with 2♥. If partner had wanted to play in your minor he could have bid 4NT.

Hand B Dbl. Showing the strong type. Partner might now support your spades, continue with 4NT asking for your minor, or maybe pass for penalties.

Hand C 4♠. This must show a strong Michaels with extra shape. If partner prefers to play in your minor suit he can bid 4NT, which is NOT Blackwood. n

BRIDGE March 2019

Answers to Bernard Magee’s Bidding Quizzes 1-3

on the Cover and page 7

1. Dealer South. Love All.

♠ 7 6 5 ♠ A K 2

♥ Q 4 ♥ 9 8 7 6

♦ A 9 8 ♦ J 5 3 2

♣ A J 5 3 2 ♣ 7 4


1♥

?

Pass. You have 11 HCP and a five-card suit. One-level overcalls can be made on pretty weak hands, but for two-level overcalls you should have a reasonable hand, close to an opening bid. Furthermore, generally for a two-level overcall you are looking for a six-card suit or a very strong five-card suit.

Discounting an overcall because your hand does not quite fit, how about a take-out double?

Looking for an opening hand and support for the unbid suits: when you are borderline (11 HCP) then you want to have the right shape. With only one long suit and a pretty poor holding in the unbid major you should choose to pass.

It might seem harmless to overcall on hands like this, but against savvy opponents, sometimes you will find the auction progressing: 1♥-2♣-Pass-Pass-Dbl-Pass-Pass-Pass. Suddenly you find yourself in 2♣ doubled with four top tricks and perhaps an extra trump trick. That’s -500 after the dust has cleared.

2. Dealer East. Love All.

♠ J 8 7 6 5 ♠ Q 2

♥ 8 7 3 ♥ 9 6 5

♦ A K 4 ♦ Q 8 7 6 3

♣ 9 2 ♣ Q 7 3


Pass 1♥

?

NW E

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NW E

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Pass. I love bidding spades, but be aware of your aims on a given hand.Your partner has passed, so with 8 HCP you do not expect to win the auction – introducing spades might allow you to compete, but it is unlikely to disrupt the opponents, since it takes up no space.The main problem with bidding 1♠ on a hand like this, is that you should expect your partner to lead spades. Holding an ace-king combination in another suit, it is dangerous to overcall.

When North ends up in 3NT the correct lead from East’s hand is the ♠Q if partner has overcalled, or the ♦6 if he has not.

If you make an overcall on a weak hand, then your suit should be strong – it tells partner to lead your suit.

3. Dealer North. Love All.

♠ A K 7 4 ♠ 9 6 3

♥ J 9 8 2 ♥ Q 10 6 4

♦ K 10 4 2 ♦ 5 3

♣ 2 ♣ A 8 7 6


1♣ Pass 1♦

?

Dbl. This is a borderline call, but with a little shape and four cards in both majors a double looks right, allowing your side to compete for the hand.

Your diamonds may well be well-placed too. Note that a double after the opponents have bid two suits, asks partner to choose one of the other two – you are not showing shortage in the last bid suit.

Your other option would be to make a naughty spade overcall (should be five) to attract a spade lead. However, with close to an opening hand, I prefer the double, East is able to respond in hearts and you are able to compete fully for the deal. n

NW E

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l Endplays & Avoidance

l Using the Bidding

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Q I am studying Bernard Magee’s DVD “Cue Bids

and Splinters” and have a question about controls.

Bernard says that a second round control is “king or singleton”, but what happens if you have K-x-x and your LHO has A-x? Then the king doesn’t act as a control and you have 2 (maybe 3) losers “off the top”.

Surely to be a proper second round control you would have to have K-Q-x?Steve Bailey by email.

AWhile you are right that a K-x(x) holding does not

guarantee that you will not lose the first two tricks in the suit, in practice it is good enough most of the time.

1. Half the time the lead will be coming up to the holding (if it is in the declaring hand);

2. Even if the ace is missing, half the time the ace will be with the hand on your right;

3. Some of the time part-ner will hold the queen;

4. Some of the time partner will hold the jack and will guess correctly what to do (when the lead is away from the queen).

I would only worry about the adequacy of a Kx(x) holding if you know you are

going to be dummy and the hand on your left doubles when you cue bid the suit.

♣♦♥♠

Q Is it always right to lead the second highest card from

an interior sequence?Name and address supplied.

A As is the case with many rules in bridge, there are exceptions.

Leading the normal second highest card works well in layouts like this:

♠ J 7 4 ♠ Q 10 9 6 2 ♠ K 5 ♠ A 8 3

Starting with the ten facilitates finessing against dummy’s jack.

If you suspect that an opponent holds four cards in the suit (and you are choosing to lead the suit anyway), you do better to lead fourth highest. This reduces the possibility of blocking the suit or crashing honours.

♠ J 4 ♠ Q 10 9 6 2 ♠ A 5 ♠ K 8 7 3

After you lead the six, partner wins with the ace and returns the suit, allowing you to drive out the king. Declarer would have a double stopper if you started with the ten.

♣♦♥♠

Q Someone has suggested playing “Three Weak Twos”.

I probably have only half the story, but the idea seems to be that an opening of 2♦, 2♥ and 2♠ are all weak 6-9 HCP and six cards.

I am not at all sure what an opening of 2♣ shows?

It also seems that you don’t have an opening game force.

I would be interested to know how it works?Alun WilliamsLlanfairpwll, Anglesey.

A With one partner I play 2♦, 2♥ and 2♠ all as

natural weak openings.If you have only 2♣ as a

strong artificial bid, you play that as a game force (except with a 2NT rebid); you need to open near game hands at the one level (and without a massive pause before doing so, that tells the opponents you have a good hand).

People overcall on less and less these days and people reopen quite freely, so it is rare that you will miss game

by opening at the one level.A weak 2♦ opening

does not have great pre-emptive effect in itself but often partner can raise to 3♦, which does make life difficult for the opponents.

♣♦♥♠

Q I am North, dealer with 11 points and a singleton

in spades. The bidding has started as follows:

West North East South Pass 1♥ 1♠ Pass ?

What should I do?Grace StevensBarnstaple, Devon.

A As a passed hand, 11 points is the most points you could hold.

Even if you were not a passed hand, you should take some action. With a singleton in your partner’s suit, you cannot raise. Assuming that you have some sort of stopper in hearts, it sounds as if you should bid 1NT. A 1NT reply to an overcall is stronger than a 1NT response to an opening bid, say 9-11 or 9-12 points (not that you can have 12 as a passed hand).

Continued on page 46 u

Julian Pottage Answers Your Bridge Questions

How Good Does A Control Need To Be?

BRIDGE March 2019



4. Dealer North. Game All.

♠ Q 4 2 ♠ K J 10 9 8

♥ 9 7 ♥ 8 6 4 3

♦ A 8 7 6 5 ♦ K Q 2

♣ 8 7 6 ♣ 9


1♣ 1♠ 2♣

?

2♠. When you are weak and have support for your partner’s overcall then bid to the level of your fit. Diamonds are not of interest, just bid 2♠ – three in your hand and five expected in your partner’s, so bid to make eight tricks.

The power of the spade suit is that it uses up the space in the auction. If you pass or bid 2♦, North could rebid hearts and your opponents might discover that their hands fit very well and bid all the way to game. As it is they will probably settle for a club partscore.


♠ K Q 2 ♠ A J 10 9 8

♥ 9 7 ♥ 8 6 4 3

♦ A Q J 6 4 3 ♦ K 7 5

♣ 9 8 ♣ 6


1♣ 1♠ 2♣

?

3♦. You have a really nice hand – spade support and a strong diamond suit.

NW E

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NW E

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was one bid that could describe this?

2♦ is no good: that just shows dia-monds. Spade bids do not really help ei-ther – 2♠ and 3♠ are weak bids and 4♠ overstates the value of your hand.

What would a 3♦ bid mean?You probably do not have a meaning

for the bid because there is never really going to be a reason to make the bid in a competitive auction. Bearing in mind that you do not need the 3♦ bid naturally, you can use it to show this type of hand.

A jump in a competitive auction like this is used to show length in the suit, but also to show support for partner’s suit. This will often allow your partner to judge how the hands fit together, and if there is a double fit he can bid a little more – going for game here.


♠ 4 2 ♠ A J 10 9 8

♥ 9 7 ♥ 8 6 4 3

♦ A Q J 6 4 3 ♦ K 7 5

♣ A 8 7 ♣ 6


1♣ 1♠ 2♣

?

2♦. This time you have a good hand without support for spades and it is therefore reasonable to show your own suit. You should only do this with a quality suit and a constructive hand. If partner has a good overcall he can bid towards a game. Here, East would support diamonds to compete for the contract. n

NW E

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BRIDGE March 2019

Continued from page 44

Q My partner and I missed a game with the hands

below. One pair made 3NT+3 and another pair 5♦.

♠ A Q 8 ♠ J 6 5 2

♥ A 4 3 ♥ 6 5

♦ A Q J 10 9 8 ♦ K 5 3

♣ K ♣ A J 8 4

Our bidding went as follows:

West East

1♦ 1♠

3♦ Pass

West’s rebid of 3♦ understates her hand strength, showing 16-18 and 6 losers. East has 9 losers so, using the LTC, pass seems correct. Should West have opened 2NT? Or, if not, should West have taken a gamble and rebid 3NT?Mike Johnson by email.

A With 20 HCP West should definitely not be making a non-

forcing 3♦ rebid. Because the club is the king, my preference is to rebid 3NT.

If it was a small singleton or the ace, I would prefer a 2♥ reverse. You need not worry that partner will get carried away supporting hearts, because hands with 4-4 in the majors respond 1♥ and you can therefore go back to the known 5-3 spade fit if partner does have four hearts and raises you.

With 9 HCP facing around 16, East’s pass of 3♦ is rather cautious. Admittedly East does not have an easy forward going move. 3NT is not right with no semblance of a heart stopper and you cannot rebid a four-card spade suit. Since a raise to 4♦ ought to be forcing,

that is a bit of an overbid. Maybe a fast arrival 5♦ is a better choice.

6♦ requires little more than a successful spade finesse – you would rather be in a slam than a part-score!

As you say, a 2NT opening is another way to show the strength – but it is not a good way of finding 6♦ if that is the right spot.

♣♦♥♠

Q With only 10 HCP opposite a weak NT, is it wise to

investigate a major suit game, prepared to stop in 2NT with no fit?

♠ 7 3 ♥ A Q 3 2

♦ K J 10 6 ♣ K 8 4 ♠ A Q 6 4 ♠ J 9 8 ♥ J 9 8 7 4 ♥ K 10 5 ♦ 7 5 4 ♦ 3 ♣ 7 ♣ A Q 10 9 3 2 ♠ K 10 5 2 ♥ 6 ♦ A Q 9 8 2 ♣ J 6 5

West North East South 1NT Pass 2♣ Pass 2♥ Pass 2NT All Pass

My thoughts were a 5-card minor is a plus, and if the majors in the North hand were reversed, then game has excellent chances.Geoff Simpson by email.

A While on many hands with 10 HCP it would be

correct to pass 1NT, the five-card suit, the singleton and the four-card major combine to make Stayman a reasonable gamble.

If partner has four spades, you might have game on

and you will almost cer-tainly make more tricks playing in spades than you would in 1NT.

If partner does not have a four-card major, 2♦ might be safer than 1NT.

If, as is actually the case, partner shows four hearts, the suit is less of a worry in no-trumps and the fifth diamond makes up for the lack of an eleventh point.

♣♦♥♠

QPlease can you explain why a 4NT overcall of

an opposing 4♥ is different to a 4NT overcall of 4♠?Name and address supplied.

AIf the opponents open 4♥, you have the chance to play in

spades at the four level. If you have a two-suited hand including spades, it is logical just to bid the spades rather than make a two-suited bid that would prevent you from playing at the four level. So often you can make ten tricks but not eleven. Since you will bid 4♠ (or sometimes double) if you have spades and another suit, it is possible to reserve a 4NT overcall for showing the minors.

If the opponents open 4♠, the situation is different. Now you cannot play at the four level whether you play in a minor or a major. This being the case, it is sensible to play 4NT as any two suits rather than specifically the minors. This increases your chance of finding a fit. n

Email your questions

(including your postal

address) for Julian to:

julianpottage@

mrbridge.co.uk

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BRIDGE March 2019




♠ A 7 6 ♠ 9 8 2

♥ 4 2 ♥ A Q J 5 3

♦ A 8 7 6 ♦ 5 4

♣ A 9 3 2 ♣ J 8 7


1♦ 1♥ 1NT

?

Pass. Do not forget that an overcall does not show the same strength as an opening bid.

In the modern game, you are encouraged to overcall on weak hands as long as the suit is decent. This means that even if you have an opening hand it may not be right to get involved.

Your 12 HCP are three bare aces and, with no fit for your partner’s suit, you have no reason to suspect that 1NT is going down.

You should pass and lead a heart if they stay in 1NT.

The declarer should be able to cut your partner’s hand off from you and may well get at least seven tricks.


♠ A 3 2 ♠ K J 6

♥ K 4 ♥ Q J 10 8 2

♦ J 10 9 4 ♦ 5

♣ A J 10 9 ♣ 8 7 5 2


1♦ 1♥ 1NT

?

Dbl. A subtle contrast to the last hand. You have one extra high card point, but

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there are a lot more positives: a high card in your partner’s suit and your two minors have good inner strength. All in all you should evaluate the hand as a strong 14-count and should expect to be able to defeat 1NT and should make that point by doubling.

Doubles of no-trump bids are for penalties.

Your partner has a weak overcall, but his suit has good strength as you would expect. This means that your obvious ♥K lead will establish his suit and, as he holds an entry alongside, the defence are likely to make at least 8 tricks, giving you a nice healthy score.


♠ A 8 7 6 5 ♠ 4 3

♥ 8 4 2 ♥ A Q J 10 9

♦ 8 7 6 ♦ 9 5 4

♣ A 7 ♣ Q J 8


1♦ 1♥ 1NT

?

2♥. You have two aces along with five spades, but the important aspect of the hand is its heart support: you have already found a major suit fit. There is no reason to show your spades, particularly as it will take the auction past 2♥.

With no high cards in hearts, you do better to bid hearts than try to defend 1NT. You might just get 1NT down, but it will be worth less than making 2♥ yourself.

Bid a simple 2♥, competing for the contract – showing support in a competitive auction is such an important part of bridge. n

NW E

S

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♠ 4 2 ♠ K Q 9 6 5

♥ A K 4 3 ♥ 9 6

♦ A K 9 8 7 ♦ 4 2

♣ 3 2 ♣ A 10 9 8


1♥ 1♠ 1NT

Dbl 2♣ Dbl Pass

?

Pass. You hold a strong hand considering three players bid before you in the auction. When South bid 1NT you doubled for penalties, not expecting 1NT to make. Generally, once your side has made one penalty double, then subsequent doubles are also for penalties. That means that your partner has length in clubs and does not expect 2♣ to make. You have no reason to doubt your partner’s judgement so should pass.

You are likely to take 2♣ at least two off, but it may well go further off. With your two hands misfitting you can only make a partscore yourself, so your penalty score will be a top on the board.

11. Dealer East. Game All.

♠ 7 4 2 ♠ 9 6

♥ A J 4 3 ♥ 10 2

♦ 9 2 ♦ A K J 6 5

♣ Q 8 7 6 ♣ A K 4 3


1♦ 1♠

Dbl 2♠ Dbl Pass

?

3♣. Your first action was a take-out double, often called the negative double. This is generally used to promise four cards in the unbid major. After the raise of the overcall your partner has made his own double. With the opponents having agreed a suit at a low-level, you do best to play this double as take-out – in fact this is generally called a responsive double. If

NW E

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NW E

S

your partner has four cards in the unbid major he would bid the suit – knowing you had a fit. His double expresses a wish to compete for the hand, but without four hearts.

You bid your other suit, clubs, and your side’s best fit is found.

12. Dealer East. Love All.

♠ 7 4 2 ♠ J

♥ A 9 4 3 ♥ K 7 2

♦ 9 8 7 ♦ A K J 6 5

♣ A 8 6 ♣ K Q 4 3


1♦ 1♠

Dbl 3♠ Dbl Pass

?

Pass. Now, this is where things get a little tricky – what does your partner’s double mean?

Once again you made a negative double on the first round, suggesting at least four hearts.

North has jumped to 3♠ to get in your way and make life very difficult.

Your partner is suggesting that your side should be competing for the hand. He probably does not know what your side should be doing, but what he does know is that you should not be passing 3♠ out. This kind of double is sometimes called an ‘action double’.

With a flat hand and no particular desire for your side to declare the contract, you should pass and hope to defeat 3♠. Your two aces should come in very handy added to your partner’s opening hand. This is a classic situation of doubling and leading a trump: you know the opponents are not going to make their tricks through high cards, so draw their trumps.

On a good day, you might be able to draw three of dummy’s trumps and leave declarer struggling to scrape seven tricks together. It would have to be a really bad day for them to make, but then all you can do is congratulate your opponents and move on. n

NW E

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BRIDGE March 2019

In a previous article we looked at how a director gives averages when a board is not played. Now we shall

look at a board which has been played but the director gives adjusted scores, perhaps because of misinformation or use of unauthorised information, or something else.

Suppose a pair reaches 4♥ and an opponent thinks for a very long time, pulls different cards out of his bidding box, and finally settles on double. He is clearly doubtful and his partner takes it out to 4♠ on a normal hand. He would probably have passed a quick, happy double! If 4♥ doubled would have scored better for the opponents than defending 4♠ the director will adjust the score back to 4♥, looking at the hand to see the probable number of tricks. Let us say that 4♠ makes, and 4♥ doubled would be one off, so he adjusts the score for both sides to 4♥ doubled one off. Of course if both 4♥ and 4♠ are going off there is “no damage” since the non-offending side have gained so the director does not adjust.

Suppose a player puts down dummy in 3NT with the spade ace hidden behind another card. The defence go wrong, switching to a spade and letting the contract through when it would go off on the obvious alternative defence. Putting the hand down wrongly is an infraction. I know some people claim that “everyone is responsible for dummy” but that is just not true. So, if the director decides that they would have defended correctly for two off, he adjusts the score to two off.

In another example, an opponent makes a bid and it is described as showing a strong hand. Declarer takes all the finesses into the other hand and all lose. It turns out the opponents have changed their system and now

it shows a weak hand. If declarer was told this, perhaps he would have played rather differently. What does the director do?

Suppose the contract was 4♠ and it made nine tricks. Depending on how declarer plays it he might get ten, eleven or even twelve tricks. Perhaps the director should adjust it to 4♠ making twelve? But that seems a bit harsh since it is not obvious that he would make twelve tricks. In fact the director decides that with the correct information he would probably have made twelve tricks one time in six, eleven tricks three times out of six and ten tricks two times out of six. What does the director do? He gives an adjusted score in a fashion that is called “weighted”. He gives a result like this to both sides:

20% of 4♠ +2, NS +680+ 50% of 4♠ +1, NS +650+ 30% of 4♠, NS +620

You will notice that the percentages are slightly better for the non-offending side, since one in six would be about 17%. This is normal to allow for slight errors. The three scores are matchpointed separately then multiplied by the percentages. Good software will do this for the scorer.

If 680 would have scored 9 matchpoints on a top of 10, 650 would have scored 5 and 620 3; then it is adjusted to 20% of 9 (1.8) plus 50% of 5 (2.5) plus 30% of 3 (0.9) which is 5.2 matchpoints. Good scoring software actually does it more accurately still, using a formula called “Neuberg”.

All the adjustments so far have been to give the same score to both sides. But there are two situations where this does not apply. Suppose there is a slow double of 4♥ as in the first

David Stevenson answers your Frequently Asked Questions

Adjusted ScoresPart 2 – Assigned Adjusted Scores

example, and it is taken out to 4♠. But now assume that 4♥ is making but 4♠ is not – until the non-offending side revokes and gives the contract of 4♠ to declarer. What then? It would seem wrong to give the offending side 4♠ doubled making, since if they followed the law correctly they would have been defending 4♥ making and the director will give the offending side that score. However the non-offenders have committed an “extremely serious error” and do not get the full benefit of 4♥ making.

The second case is a pure gamble by the non-offenders. In a similar situation 4♥ is doubled slowly, the partner bids 4♠ and opener who has no reason to double 4♠ thinks he might as well, because the director will adjust back to 4♥ if it makes. If it makes, the director may judge this was an unwarranted double and he will adjust to 4♥ for the offenders, but the non-offenders do not get the full benefit of 4♥. How does the director adjust in these cases? It is a bit complicated since the law tells him to deny redress for such damage as was caused by the extremely serious error or the gamble (whatever that means), but in practice letting the non-offenders keep their table score is usually close enough. These adjusted scores are called “split” scores.

If the club uses Bridgemates (or similar table-top scorers) the director will instruct the players to put the result obtained into the Bridgemate and then if he adjusts he puts adjusted scores into the Bridgemate later, unless it is a weighted or split score, which can only be put in direct into the program. If not using Bridgemates, he should write the adjustments down on paper for the scorer, even if he is the scorer himself. n

BRIDGE · 2019-04-03 · BRIDGE Number: 195 March 2019 Bernard Magee’s Acol Bidding Quiz This...

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Transcript of BRIDGE · 2019-04-03 · BRIDGE Number: 195 March 2019 Bernard Magee’s Acol Bidding Quiz This...