[inquiry]

Interesting hands from last night matchpoint event: Time to show your mastery of the game. Get all three right, you WIN, two right, you come in third, none right, and better luck next time.

HAND ONE.. Dealer East
Vuln. EW
S 6532
H A642
D AT93
C A

S A
H KJT753
D Q52
C K32

Bidding, not eloquent, but effective.1D-1H; 2H-4S; 6H-Pass
Club-JACK opening lead, plan your play. .

HAND TWO... Dealer North
Vuln. All

S 4
H AQJ942
D AK4
C A98

S Q9632
H T7
D 953
C QT6

Your 2C opening bid, by agreement, can include an acol 2 bid in either major. Partner with a total bust would bid 2H, and with this hand you would have passed. The actual auction went…

2C-(2S)-P-(P); 3H-(P)-3NT-(all pass).

Opening lead Spade Ten, East jumps up with spade KING and switches to the Diamond Queen. Plan your play.

HAND THREE... NS VUL,
Dealer, East

SA84
H8
DKJ7
CQJ9753

SQ75
HAKJT73
DA84
CK

(P)-1H-(1S)-2C; (P)-3H-(P)-4H; (all pass)

Opening lead Heart Queen. You win the Heart ACE, and cash a second heart, on which WEST discards a low spade, dummy a spade as well. You lead the club KING, and west grabs the ACE, and exits with the SPADE-KING. This is matchpoint, after you win the spade ACE, plan your play.

[Codo]

Hi Ben,

Nr.1:
Eliminate the black suits + opps trumps and lead the queen..should win whenever trumps are 2-1. Else, there are still some ways to survive with an endplay..

HAND TWO:
I see no real convincing way to make it. I win and try a club to the Queen.

HAND Three:
Ruff a club, draw one more trump, cash your Diamond ace and try the queen of spade. If West ruffs, he is endplayed to give you the rest.
Else play a diamond to the King.
Led clubs. If West ruffs, you must overruff, draw trump and "enjoy" just ten tricks.
If he has a 3. Club, you have eleven tricks.
If he has 4, you have twelve tricks for a top board.

[Free]

1: exactly like codo
2: small to H10, and a squeeze in S and C + throw in for west
3: same as codo (ur reading my mind )

[inquiry]

For the record, Codo and free have gotten one of the three problems right. For the time being, I will not say which one, but I think it is obvious anyway. This still leaves two to be solved correctly.

Ben

[luis]

Quote

Interesting hands from last night matchpoint event: Time to show your mastery of the game. Get all three right, you WIN, two right, you come in third, none right, and better luck next time.

HAND ONE.. Dealer East
Vuln. EW
S 6532
H A642
D AT93
C A

S A
H KJT753
D Q52
C K32

Bidding, not eloquent, but effective.1D-1H; 2H-4S; 6H-Pass
Club-JACK opening lead, plan your play. .

HAND TWO... Dealer North
Vuln. All

S 4
H AQJ942
D AK4
C A98

S Q9632
H T7
D 953
C QT6

Your 2C opening bid, by agreement, can include an acol 2 bid in either major. Partner with a total bust would bid 2H, and with this hand you would have passed. The actual auction went…

2C-(2S)-P-(P); 3H-(P)-3NT-(all pass).

Opening lead Spade Ten, East jumps up with spade KING and switches to the Diamond Queen. Plan your play.

HAND THREE... NS VUL,
Dealer, East

SA84
H8
DKJ7
CQJ9753

SQ75
HAKJT73
DA84
CK

(P)-1H-(1S)-2C; (P)-3H-(P)-4H; (all pass)

Opening lead Heart Queen. You win the Heart ACE, and cash a second heart, on which WEST discards a low spade, dummy a spade as well. You lead the club KING, and west grabs the ACE, and exits with the SPADE-KING. This is matchpoint, after you win the spade ACE, plan your play.

I'll go wrong in the three :-)

Hand 1:
Club Ace, spade to the Ace, ruff a club low, ruff a spade with the hJ, heart to the Ace, ruff a spade with the hT, cash the hK, cash the cK discarding the last spade. The dQ or low to dummy endplaying east. Depending on what I've seen one or the other to get the extra chance of making 13 tricks if there's a signleton dK in west or dJ in east.

Hand 2:
Take the diamond in dummy and play the hA, if the hK does not drop continue hearts from dummy. Then if they win the hK and play a diamond win in dummy and play all the hearts. Exit with the last diamond and there're a lot of chances to make 9 tricks.

Hand 3:
I'll play the cQ and cJ from dummy trying to get the distribution of the hand, chances to make 5 or 6 are very good. I need to know what happens on the cQ play and if that is not ruffed what happens on the cJ....

Luis

[inquiry]

[glow=Yellow,7,100]Spoiler... solutions provided[/glow]

Of course, luis got them all three right anyway, but here is the full why he is right answers.

If you want to work on these hands some first, stop reading and open the thread and read the problems as presented. These are from the Thursday night Abalucy Matchpoint Tournment.

Hand One. Dealer East
Vuln. EW
S 6532
H A642
D AT93
C A

S A
H KJT753
D Q52
C K32

Bidding, not eloquent, but effective.1D-1H; 2H-4S; 6H-Pass
Club-JACK opening lead, plan your play. .

This is the easiest hand of the three hand set (IMHO). You are in an excellent slam. It needs little more than either diamond KING or JACK with WEST, or you can play low to the diamond Queen and then if that loses, hook the jack on way back. Which line is better? Neither. This is a pure elimination hand. Win Club ACE, play heart king, spade ace, heart ACE (catching the queen), ruff a spade, cash club King, throw away a spade from dummy. Club ruff, spade ruff to reach this position.

S -
H 2
D AT93
C -

S -
H 53
D Q52
C -

Now lead the Diamond Queen and let it “ride if not covered. Even if EAST has the KJ, he is endplayed. He will have to return a diamond into dummy’s AT, or a black card giving you a ruff and sluff. Of the nine abalucy declearer’s in hearts, only one found the obviously right play. In real world, diamond honors were split, but WEST had the King, so everyone who hooked WEST twice made 12 tricks, those who played low the queen made only 11. Only two pairs ventured to slam.

--------------------------------------
Hand Two. Dealer North
Vuln. All

S 4
H AQJ942
D AK4
C A98

S T5 S AKJ87
H 863 H K5
D 862 D QJT7
C J7532 C K4

S Q9632
H T7
D 953
C QT6

3NT by south, SPADE TEN to KING, and Diamond QUEEN switch.

East did two things on this hand. He bid vul at the two level opposite an announced forcing hand, and at matchpoints, he didn’t set up his spade Jack by letting the Ten ride (which was excellent defense as it would have given you 9 sure tricks in the form of 1S, 5H, 2D and 1C).

Too bad your partner didn’t reopen with 2Sx, but the point is how to play 3NT at MP. Now time to think. If West has heart king, and east club king, you always make 4H (lose 1S, 1D, 1C), but how many will be in 4H’s? Probably not many, if any, as you have bid very aggressively, you suspect the bidding at other tables will start with 1H, and north might bid as high as 3H. Playing that 2C can include an acol 2-in a major hand like this, means that 3H bid here was not forcing. 3NT was a fair shot over this 3H bid, but a little aggressive at matchpoints (vul and imps, it is a great bid however). The fact that you are in an odd contract should factor into you play because if you are down one in 3NT while others are down one in 3H you will get closer to average, and if you are down while everyone else makes 3H you get a zippo. Of course if you make 3NT, then you will get a top.

If HK and CK are both right, you will make. So one line is to force an entry to hand in clubs and hooking hearts. That is a 25% chance, and maybe less given the bidding and defense, as EAST might have both kings. There is a superior line that works whenever EAST has Diamond QJT (as indicated by the switch) and the club KING, regardless of where the heart KING is sitting.

The right answer is fairly simple when you stop to think about it, but given the people who missed hand ONE above, I suspect most will miss this one too. Simply play the 2S bidder for the Club King. Win the diamond ACE, and bang down the heart ACE (somedays, the heart king is stiff), and continue heart QUEEN. Either opponent will win, and continue spades for just one round and then lead diamond. You win the diamond in dummy and feed EAST a bunch of heart winners to reach an ending like this…

S --
H 9
D 4
C A98

S - S K
H - H -
D 8 D T7
C J753 C K4

S Q9
H --
D 9
C-QT

The last heart is your seventh trick (5H, 2D), and what is EAST to do. If he throws away a club, you can cash the club ace dropping his king. If he throws away the diamond T, your nine is good. And if he throw away the low diamond or the spade king, you exit a diamond to him, and after he cashes his winners, he will be forced to lead away from his Club Kx into your Qx, Ax combination. This is a vulnerable stopper squeeze, where your last free winner, squeezes a surplus “winner” out of their hand. Note this squeeze works in a five card ending with a loser count of three. This rates to be the hardest hand of the set of three, but only one pair found this “3NT” contract (indeed only one player opened 2C which explains the reasons why everyone else played 2H, 3H, or 3Sx down 2).

-------------------------------------
BOARD THREE
NS VUL,
Dealer, East

SA84
H8
DKJ7
CQJ9753

SKT632 SJ9
HQ H96542
DQT62 D953
CA86 CT42

SQ75
HAKJT73
DA84
CK

Opening lead Heart Queen. You win the Heart ACE, and cash a second heart, on which WEST discards a low spade, dummy a spade as well. You lead the club KING, and west grabs the ACE, and exits with the SPADE-KING. This is matchpoint, after you win the spade ACE, plan your play.

This is matchpoints, so making 12 tricks is important. The heart lead kept your from hooking hearts on the first round and probably saved you one trick, so making 5 might already be fairly good. People who lost to the heart Queen are going to have to make the same play you will make just to make five, and it is possible but not too likely that you could go down after losing the heart hook. Making six will be a wonderful matchpoint score. But since you have already lost a club, to make six you have to pull off a trump coup. The spade KING was brilliant defense, a low spade or a diamond would have made your task a little easier, but it is still not difficult. Now you have to worry will EAST be able to ruff the second spade? But it doesn’t matter. Cash your two top clubs and diplomatically throw one spade and one diamond on the top two clubs, and then lead the club 9. North could help you by ruffing this club, but of course he wasn’t born yesterday (at least not at your table, at some tables, he did ruff and they made six routinely), so he pitches a diamond, but you ruff anyway to shorten your trumps. Now you play a diamond to the king, in this ending (with two good clubs in dummy)…. …

S-Q H-JT7 D-A C-void…. You lead the last two clubs. If east ruffs at anytime, you overruff, and claim. If he pitches, on both clubs, you throw away your diamond ACE then your spade QUEEN. With three cards to go, the lead is in dummy and you have the JT7 of hearts and EAST the Heart 965. You lead a card and win a heart as cheaply as you can. Making six. Only one player in hearts made Six and that was when EAST ruffed in on the fourth round of clubs, that gives him 14 winners (3D, 1S, 6H, 4C) but he has already lost 1C.

Three fun hands: Elimination endplay, vulnerable stopper squeeze, trump coup... How did you do?

[irg20]

HAND TWO

Though I'd like to know what W plays on DQ a line worth considering might be to play E for 6=2=4=1 shape (without a singleton CK).

In this case I can duck the first diamond, win the diamond continuation, cash the third diamond and endplay W with a club to give me 6H+2D+1C or (if he's generous) 6H+2D+2C.

Not sure that this is any better than lines given but seems consistent with E play at the first two tricks.

Still thinking on hand three...

Ian

[Codo]

Hi Ben,

besides being happy about choosing three winning lines:

In hand two, you need just the K of Club right sided:
2 D, 5 H and 2 Clubs should be about 9 tricks. even with the heart finesse not making...
This makes it a 50% play...
Of course "simple finesse" does not sound as good as "vunerable stopper squeeze". But sometimes they work

[inquiry]

Quote

Hi Ben,

besides being happy about choosing three winning lines:

In hand two, you need just the K of Club right sided:
2 D, 5 H and 2 Clubs should be about 9 tricks. even with the heart finesse not making...
This makes it a 50% play...
Of course "simple finesse" does not sound as good as "vunerable stopper squeeze". But sometimes they work

Well, you can set up 9 tricks, but they take 5 before you get yours (actually 6, but who is counting... certainly not you).. they win 2S (AK), the heart King (you had the hook lose), the club King, and of course any number of diamonds they set up when they pop up with a club on the first lead of clubs and continue the suit. And if the club king is offside, you a) cant even get to your hand to take the heart hook, and you have no shot for 9 tricks. So to play a low club plays EAST for the club KING anyway. And if you play him for the club king, the vulnerable stopper squeeze will get him.... so low club from dummy is clearly, unambigiously, wrong, imho. Since the "good sounding" vulnerable stopper squeeze works essentially 100% of the time when your line does, and works when it doesn't, like catching EAST with stiff Heart king, or any to the heart king. Some times the good sounding play not only sounds good, but really is good.

At the table, my partner in fact did play a low club to trick three. East grabbed the club king and cleared diamonds. On club to the queen and heart hook he went down two, losing even to those in 3H down one.

BTW, although I found this line, I was the dummy and could see all 52 cards. I was on defense on another of the hands, and sadly, I missed the correct play at the table on the third hand (I apologized for my error immediately, as a partial excuse I was also watching the baseball playoffs at time I was playing these hands).

ben

[Codo]

Hi Ben,

calm down, I did not want to critisze your way, I prefer to see beauty endings much more then simple.
But I am not sure about your line.


S 4
H AQJ942
D AK4
C A98

S T5 S AKJ87
H 863 H K5
D 862 D QJT7
C J7532 C K4

S Q9632
H T7
D 953
C QT6

To succeed, you need the king of clubs with East. Else, where is the problem for the defence?

If it is onside, you may have two finesses through west, who may have the heart king. (And Don't tell me, that East would have bid different without the King of H)

So, if the king is onside, your line fail, if East has not exactly 4 diamonds or QJT.

Your line will loose to all 4 Heart players, if the K of Heart is with east.

And just for my curiosity: How did the players managed to fail in 3 Heart?

[inquiry]

Quote

Hi Ben, calm down

I think I am reasonably calm, I respond to comments as they are made. So please take the following comments in the spirit in which they are offered as I respond to your points (your text in bold).

Let’s handle the straight forward question first. I never said anyone went down in four hearts. What I said was “the fact that you are in an odd contract should factor into you play because if you are down one in 3NT while others are down one in 3H you will get closer to average, and if you are down while everyone else makes 3H you get a zippo.” However, someone did manage to go down in three hearts. The play went Spade A, DQ, low heart to king, another diamond, heart to ten, and club QUEEN, this play doomed 3Hs, losing 2C, 1D, 1H and 1S.

Let’s now handle the fuzzy ones. You said “your line will loose to all 4 Heart players, if the K of Heart is with east.” I am not sure what you mean by if the heart king is with EAST, I assume you mean WEST. Any four heart bidders will be down if heart king is with EAST. In addition, if East has club king, and WEST has heart KING, all the four heart people will beat you because they lose just 1C, 1D and 1S. You can’t touch that, so at matchpoint, just ignore it. But on the other hand how many people do you think will reached four hearts with this hand? I guessed none, and that is right. Out of 9 tables, not one played at the four level, and a few played at the two level. So being beaten by 4H’s is really not an issue. If you ARE thinking there will be tons in four hearts, then playing low to a club (your line) in the hopes RHO has the club king and LHO has the heart KING can’t be right. I mean against tons of 4H bidders, that is a losing play in 3NT. I would rather think looking at the hand, the people I am playing against are the all those in 3H and 2/3S-dbled.

You said, “to succeed, you need the king of clubs with East. Else, where is the problem for the defence?”. Well, this is true. I am playing EAST for specifically the club king. But what about your line, you play a low club to the Queen what are you playing for? East with the club king. But, you are playing for even more aren’t you. East has to have the club king AND West the heart King which has to be onside doubleton or tripleton. Because you are going to use the club queen as entry to take the hook. In fact, your earlier statement was that “In hand two, you need just the K of Club right sided: 2 D, 5 H and 2 Clubs should be about 9 tricks. even with the heart finesse not making... This makes it a 50% play” is demonstratably incorrect. East will pop the club king when he has it and knock out your diamond. If the heart hook loses, once again, you are down. And even if the heart king WINS, you are also down if WEST has four hearts to the king. But funny, your line that needs both the club king “onside” by your own admission and in fact, the heart king onside as well to 2 or 3 cards (without your own admission), you now attack the concept that “my line” requires the club to on side. Yes, I agree. "My line" requires the club king to be onside.

You said… “So, if the king is onside, your line fail, if East has not exactly 4 diamonds or QJT.” I am not entirely sure where you are going with this statement. If the club king is onside, something both of our lines call for, but what if EAST diamonds are… QJTxx? Or QJxxx? Or QJT ? The line I proposed works against all of those. Even has play against QJx, as the defense has to play very carefully.

Then you said, “If it is onside, you may have two finesses through west, who may have the heart king. (And Don't tell me, that East would have bid different without the King of H) ”I see no way to play two finesses through WEST as I surely lack two entries to my hand. In actual fact, my line is independent of whoever holds the heart king, be it EAST or WEST. That is the beauty of it. I don’t CARE who wins the heart. All I care about is that EAST has the club king, and the presumed diamond cards based upon his keen diamond switch. That is, when the heart HOOK is onside, I don’t need to take it if EAST has the club king. And if the heart King and club king are both with WEST, there IS NO WAY to my hand to take the heart hook. And VERY IMPORTANTLY, if both kings are on side, I am never beating anyone who stumbled into 4H’s anyway, so I don’t need to worry about them in choosing my line of play, but my line allows 3NT to make.

Ben

[Codo]

Hi Ben,

good luck that you stay calm, I was afraid I hurted your feelings. Was not intended. But somehow, we seem to talk about different things. But one more try:

Okay: Of course you are right, I meant, you will loose to the 4 Heart bidders if the King is with West.

addition, if East has club king, and WEST has heart KING, all the four heart people will beat you because they lose just 1C, 1D and 1S. You can’t touch that, so at matchpoint, just ignore it
Okay, they make ten tricks then (you agreed to that) = 620.
With your line you make 9 tricks = 600
If both Kings are well placed you make the same ten tricks with a simple finesse towards the queen of clubs if West has the King of Hearts doubelton or tripelton. This score 630. which is much more at mps.
So: If you know, that West has the king of Heart, you better play a low club to the queen early, agreed? (Of course you don`t know...)
But on the other hand how many people do you think will reached four hearts with this hand?
I agree, that it should never be a majority that reached the game. Even with a side singelton and a real nice hand... So you are surely right, that to win the game with a significant safer line is surely the winning strategy. But I still wonder, that it had been noone to bid it. But that is another story...

I did understand, that the simple finesse needs much more then the simple finesse. In your first response you perfrecly demonstrate, that I was wrong with this..

I wonder why you think, that I "attack" you or your line with "to succeed, you need the king of clubs with East. Else, where is the problem for the defence?”.
In my language, this is just a true statement. I just wanted to point out, that in your line it is nescessary too to have this King right placed.

but what if EAST diamonds are… QJTxx? Or QJxxx?
If East has 5+ diamonds, you would have big problems with his discards.
I doubt that you really can see if his discards did blank the King of Club or not. But of course you are right, the defence is even harer then the declarer play in that case. Surely most defenders will fail to make it correct.

you said, “If it is onside, you may have two finesses through west, who may have the heart king. ”I see no way to play two finesses through WEST
If I have a suit with Tx Opps. AQJ9xx I am able to play the ten first, and finesse towards the 9 later. This looks like two finesses to me...

So with your line, you succeed, if both Kings are with East, none with West.
You make one trick less, if West has Kx or Kxx in Heart and East the King of Club. But you still have a great MP Score, cause just a few will bid game.
All line fails, if the King of club is with west.

So even I understand, that you line is superior to your pds and mine. And of course nothing takes anything away from the beauty and the success of your line. It was much nicer then the line from your pd AND it had been successful.

[inquiry]

Quote

I wonder why you think, that I "attack" you or your line with "to succeed, you need the king of clubs with East. Else, where is the problem for the defence?”.
In my language, this is just a true statement. I just wanted to point out, that in your line it is nescessary too to have this King right placed.

I used the word "attack" because you bothered to make this statement. I mean the ENTIRE line I proposed, the PRIMARY requirement is that EAST has the club KING. It is the whole POINT of a VULNERABLE stopper squeeze. What would be your point in stating the obvious that is the point of the entire line of play? To state this in such a manner seems to be trying to wave a flag at something being wrong with playing EAST for the club King.

You are right that if West Heart Kx, heart Kxx, or singleton heart king, and EAST has club king, you can claw to 10 tricks and beat the games in hearts. Still, since not one in 9 pairs bid 4Hearts, as you say the safest line is the best line.

I think the vulnerable stopper squeeze in not only a good sounding line, I think it is the best line on this hand.

Ben

[mishovnbg]

Hi Ben!
Nice double dummy solution and analysis of finished tourney results .
1. I sometimes wonder why stupid people use sometimes Blackwood ;D. Simple play of elimination, if you have time to think at clocked tourney...
2. Opening of 1HE instead of strong 2 is may be better - 5 losers ond no 8 direct tricks on NT contract. Strategically MP may be not right too, because differ from field, when you have enough good results.
Playing of NT contract is much more complicate, esp against good players. Bidding of 2SP by int/beg player will be sure with lot of hcp and your solution is right. Good players will do it with idea for sacrifice (own contract is miracle, leading direct no need, because 2CL opener will play most of time). Q DI can be returned from any combination of cards and length - no other suitable return. Playing for all cards in E hand with QJ10 in DI is statistically wrong and lose against normal 4HE contract. Who can know only one brave soul will open strong 2 HE with such big hand? :-
Misho

[inquiry]

Quote

Nice double dummy solution and analysis of finished tourney results .

I just thought these three interesting.

2. Opening of 1HE instead of strong 2 is may be better - 5 losers ond no 8 direct tricks on NT contract. Strategically MP may be not right too, because differ from field, when you have enough good results.

This point about opening 1H instead of "strong 2" is well taken. Except the fellow who opened 2C plays a system where 2C includes any ACOL 2 bid in a major. Which is 8 tricks and at least five controls with a good, long major. Assuming you lose only 1 heart trick, this hand has 5H + 3 tricks in minors for 8 tricks. If he had opened 1H, he would have no way to show this good a hand.

What if EAST had passed instead of bid 2S? North would have bid 2D, north 2H showing EXACTLY this kind of hand (forcing now to 3H). The auction would have subsequently died in 3H's.

The point about the Diamond QUEEN if well taken.