Newbury Bridge Club

Tip of the Month

December 2007

Tis the Season to be jolly or so they say – look at this little number from a bridge night the other evening:

West opened a pre-emptive 3spades in front of me and I bid 4 hearts over it. All are vulnerable and East then bid 4 spades over my 4 hearts. You hold:

A spades singleton

9 hearts singleton

KQJ1098x

Axxx

What do you bid?

My partner bid 5 diamonds so I bid 5 hearts and played it making 6. This is where common sense should rule, in my opinion, what do you want to know? First of all how many Aces do I have so four no trumps asking is I feel the bid to make. The answer comes back 2. Now you know I have the Ace of diamonds and the Ace of Hearts so 6 diamonds or 6 hearts both make 7 diamonds will make on a club lead but communication between the two hands is difficult and it is dependent on the club finesse being correct. So either 6 diamonds or hearts is the correct Contract.

A victory for Blackwood. By the way my hand was:

Kx spades

AK108xxx hearts

Ax

QJ clubs (too shapely for a double in my opinion)

November 2007TERMEDIATE CARDS

INTERMEDIATE CARDS SUCH AS NINES AND TENS CAN ADD SIGNIFICANTLY TO THE PLAYING POTENTIAL OF A HAND, PARTICULARLY IF THEY ARE BACKING-UP ONE OR MORE HIGHER HONOURS. To take one very obvious example, imagine that you want to establish tricks in a suit where you hold three low cards opposite AJ32, then imagine having AJ109 instead. Both holdings come in at 5 HCP in the basic count but the latter one will provide three tricks a full three-quarters of the time while the former does not even offer a guarantee of two tricks, though three are possible if the suit breaks 3-3 and the king and queen are both onside – about 9%.

There are various number of suit combinations which are improved by the addition of intermediate cards, for example:

K32 opposite J54

K32 opposite J109

The first promises one trick and gives a 50% chance for two, while the former hardly ever provides two tricks and only makes one trick three quarters of the time.

Q32 opposite J54

Q32 opposite J104

The latter combination is one on which you can play and guarantee a trick eventually. With the first you are only guaranteed a trick if your opponents lead the suit. Doing it yourself your chances are only a little better than 50/50.

Look at the following and which would you prefer to be dealt

Spades KJ spades J109

Hearts J763 hearts K1098

Diamonds Q742 diamonds AJ10

Clubs AJ6 clubs Q108

Hand 1 contains 12 high card points but they are bad points ie unsupported honours and a total lack of intermediates. Hand 2 has only 11 high card points but only the most confirmed point counter would imagine that is weaker than 1. I would prefer to hold hand 2 and rate it as worth around 13 high card points because of all the tens and nines. Try giving your partner one honour card in any of the four suits and you will see that hand 2 offers an opportunity to establish extra tricks for yourself without risking creating much for your opponents. Do the same with hand 1 and it looks much less attractive.

October 2007

Should we ever lead an unsupported Ace? This is something I would not normally advocate, however, there are times when I would, namely:

• partner has shown length and strength in a suit I would lead Ace.

• there is a possibility that you might never make the Ace ie opposition has bid very strongly and shown long suits – take it immediately.

• you think partner may have a singleton or void in the suit.

• partner has doubled for the lead.

• your opponents have bid 7nt and you are on lead ……….

• leading an unsupported Ace often sets the suit up and all you gain is a few miserable low cards so a waiting game is very often the right one.

September 2007