[hallway]

Beginner Intermediate Lounge

Our Celebration Event was FANTASTIC

THINK with FRED


An awe inspiring session as FRED partnered by Cascade and Opposed by JRG and Inquiry played board after board. FRED explaining to the members the information the bids were conveying to him therefore what cards he assessed the others as having. Then onto the playing of the cards He commented on the use of signals when to and when there was no need to !

It will forever be mystery to me how anyone can think - commentate via keyboard and play the cards as he does. No wonder then that members kept asking me - puzzled - 'can he see the four hands ?' !!! as time after time he would say ' partner will have ........ AND partner DID !! or Opps will have ........and Opps DID have !!


What a wonderful experience that was for all those who were able to attend - even if only for part of the time.
I do hope that it has inspired in you all a DETERMINATION to work hard at improving your understanding of this incredibly complex but fascinating game and to practicing your playing skills. (In the Lounge , of course !)

To become a good player . let alone a great one, takes dedication and committment.

Maybe........ if he sees that you are making good use of the Lounge , playing there , attending sessions, competing in our tournaments......... maybe........ we will be able to have him back one day.

It was a great privelege and a Grand way to celebrate.

From all the Members FRED we THANK YOU.

Thank you too to those three brave souls Wayne, Ben, John who undaunted (they won't confess to knocking knees ) played their part with skill - NOT easy when you know your every decision is being commmented on and all those eyes around the world are watching every move !!!

Thank you too to Rado, Roland & Dwayne for their input and fielding all the member queries.

The Beginner Intermediate Lounge is indeed Launched and now the Champions of tomorrow will begin their climb to the TOP.

[inquiry]

yes, this was a fun event.

As beginners and novices there are several models of learning on line. For example. you can kibitz advanced/expert players without any one providing input on what is happening. You might well not understand why they play one way or the other. You might watch a vugraph event and have the expert commentators make a few comments, like "4H will make", or East will return a spade, without explaining why. But it is one thing to look at all four hands and to comment on what should be happening, as you see in vugraph events. It is quite another to see only one hand, and comment on what is going on (as fred did). No doubt this latter appoach is by far more benefitial of the lessons.

If you missed this event, you missed a wonderful lesson. It might be useful is someone saved the chat from fred to combine the chat with the hands and post them somewhere. Obviously, I don't have the chat, as he wouldn't tell me what he was thinking... (that might have made my bidding/play easier..:-). Besides, if someone paste fred's chat, i could see what i missed at the table. :-) :-)

Ben

[ReginaldF]

Yes Thanks to Fred and other players it was a good insight into the way an expert thinks and the judgement logic and effort of counting that does more for a ggod bridge player than all the exotic conventions in the world.

Thanks again to all of you

ReginaldF

[inquiry]

If you missed the celebration, here are the 11 hands played. I can certainly not do justice to the information provide by Fred during the play, you just had to be there for that. But maybe someone can cut and paste in his chat for these hands to make this record more complete. Below are what I think might have been discussed/thought during the play.

Board 1

Scoring: IMP

Wayne was north,
Fred was south,
John was West
Ben was EAST

---

[quote]
Wayne  Ben    Fred  John
Pass    Pass    1H    1S
4H      4S      All Pass[/quote]

I don’t mind preempting with a four card major. I know others will not. I did not preempt with this hand as EAST because I was in the second seat. I know that Wayne doesn’t have a good hand because he passed, so if there is a good hand at the table, it is equally likely to be with my partner as with Fred. In first or third seat, I would have bid 3C with this hand. Just not in second.

Note if I do open 3C, we will not be able to reach 4S. Fred opened 1H. I am sure he probably mentioned something like this isn’t a very poor hand to open with, but being in third seat, it is sound to bid even with a lite hand like this one. Some might not open this hand in first or second seat, but nearly everyone will in third seat.

John made an excellent 1S overcall. Note he only has 4S. But if he doubles, he will not have a good bid if I were to respond with 2C or 3C. So thinking about his rebid, he choose the first bid that makes the subsequent auction easiest. Wayne with five trumps leaped to game, and I bid 4S. With a heart void, two quick tricks in clubs, and four trumps, I was forcing to game no matter what Wayne bid.


Wayne lead the heart 6 fourth best. Since Wayne had jumped to 4Hs, Fred already knew that Wayne had at least 4 hearts. Fred could also draw some inference from the lack of the lead of the heart Jack or Ten. With KJTx(x) or KT9x(x) Wayne would have lead the intermediate honor from the sequence. Fred played the heart 7 (high) as attitude, to show the heart honors. A diamond was led from dummy and Fred played low instead of the jack. His partner might take the low diamond to indicate an odd number of cards, but the jack would promise the ten, sometimes you can’t give count (other times you don’t want to because declearer will be watching too). The diamond king lost to the ACE. Wayne played his singleton club five, won in dummy as john played the club 4. No doubt this gave Fred a chance to explain that the club 5 was a singleton since with 85 of clubs, Wayne would have lead the 8. Fred played club QUEEN not only as attitude, but to show the jack as well. Another diamond found the jack for john and Wayne played his lowest diamond, sowing an odd number left (NOTE: Wayne and Fred were using standard signals and John and I are playing upside down signals). At this point, Fred knows his partner held originally 4 or 5 hearts, 1 club, and 4 diamonds, thus 2 or 3 spades.

John lead the heart ten, and Wayne played the NINE showing remaining count (an even number). Now Fred knows the entire distribution, if Wayne holds only 5 hearts that suggest that Johns distribution was 4-3-4-2 and that Waynes was 3-5-4-1. It’s like you can see through the back of the cards. Note Fred played his heart 5, not the 2, for the same reason. To show Wayne that he (Fred) held exactly 5 hearts. The heart 5 was remaining count, showing 4 hearts left (thus 5 initially).

To finish off the hand, John correctly played a trump to his ACE, ruffed his last heart and lead a diamond. Fred can ruff, or not, at this point as it makes no difference. If he ruffs it cost his partners natural diamond trick. Fred ruffed, but john managed to score 10 tricks.


Board 2

Scoring: IMP

Wayne was north,
Fred was south,
John was West
Ben was EAST

---

[quote]Ben    Fred    John  Wayne
Pass  Pass    1S    3H
3S    Pass    4S    All Pass [/quote]

Fred and I have easy passes, and John has an easy 1S bid. Wayne has a mild problem. When vul versus non-vul, you don’t want to preempt very often, and when you do, you want a really good chance to make or to be down one. His 3H bid promised, in general, 7 good hearts. He was a heart short, but he correctly judged that five card diamond suit could be a source of potential tricks. My 3S raise and Johns bump to game seem automatic.

John gave the hand a really expert line, but with the singleton club jack he was going to be successful no matter what. North lead the heart King. The King from KQT is generally a good lead, but with jack third in dummy, it set up a heart trick for us. Fred played the heart nine to show his partner he held and even number of hearts (two). John pulled two rounds of trumps Wayne threw away his lowest diamond. The low diamond discard might be a count signal, or might be an attitude signal. In this case, he has an odd number of diamonds, and no desire for a diamond lead, so both options fit. Without prior discussion, I would take it as attitude (I don’t want a diamond lead).

When John next lead a heart to Wayne’s Queen, Fred completed his echo. Wayne realizes that if John wants to throw away a club on the heart jack, there is nothing he can do about it (dummy has the club ACE), but if John wants to throw away diamonds on the heart jack, leading a diamond now might prevent it. So he lead his lowest diamond (remaining count, showing four left). When Fred won the diamond ACE, it dropped the king. Fred now knows that John had 6S, 1D, and 2H specifically, thus four clubs. With this knowledge, he knows his partner was 1-6-5-1. Fred returned a low diamond, ruffed. John then made the EXPERT play of low trump to dummy, and ruff the last diamond. Wayne made the clever play of the Diamond jack on this last diamond, but it can’t trick John, who knows Wayne had 1S, 6H, at least 4 diamonds, so at most two clubs. The strategy now is to lead a club to the ACE and club back to the queen. If the queen of clubs was to lose to Wayne, he would have to lead a heart giving John a ruff and sluff for the tenth trick. When the club jack showed up, John just claimed.


Hand 3
Dealer South
Vuln. EW

[quote]            S KQ           
            H K963         
            D KQ8         
            C K632         

S J863                    S 742
H AQ52                    H J84
D T2                      D AJ9753
C JT4                      C 9

            S AT95         
            H T7           
            D 64           
            C AQ875       


Fred  John  Wayne  Ben
Pass  Pass  1NT    Pass
2C    Pass  2H    Pass
3NT  All Pass  [/quote]

After 1NT, 2C was stayman asking Wayne to bid a four card major. Wayne bid 2H and Fred counted points. His partner had at least 15 and he had 10. In addition, Fred holds a good five card suit, the Ten-nine of spades and the heart Ten. That is more than enough to bid 3NT. Fred’s auction promises 4S’s, so if Wayne had 4S as well as the four hearts he showed, he could rebid 4S. With only 2 Spades, Wayne passes. I lead my fourth best diamond, and partner played the D-10 and Wayne won the first diamond trick with the Diamond King. I knew Wayne has the diamond Queen of course, because my partner would have played the Diamond Queen from any D-QT holding. So I can count 5 of Wayne’s minimum of 15 hcp. Wayne cashed the SPADE=KQ, so there was another 5 points. On these spades, my partner played the SPADE-36 in that order. Since we play upside down count and attitude, he showed an even number of spades. It can’t be six as that would mean we have a 15 card suit. Nor can it be 2, since from the auction, I am aware that Wayne doesn’t have 4Ss. So my partner has two more spades including the jack.

Next came a low club to the queen. For a second, I thought my partner might win the king and fire back a diamond through the queen. Sadly, declearer had the club king, and played low to it on the next trick. That is 3 more hcp for Wayne, accounting for 13 of his 15 minimum. My partner dropped the club jack on the third round. So I know know that Wayne has one of the top three Heart honors, but not two of them. Why? He has to have at least the heart queen to count up to 15 hcp, and the ace would give him 17. Any two honors would give him 18 hcp or more. I can also count 9 tricks (5C, 1D, 3S) for him. I also know that Wayne’s hand is 2S-4H-3D-4C. So if partner wins a heart, and leads a diamond, we can get our four tricks. To make it easy on partner, I discard my spade (I had given count earlier in spades, but this makes it clear). Next I discarded the heart 8 and then heart 4. We play udca discards, this denies interest in hearts. Partner also knows Wayne’s distribution so when my heart jack shows up later on low heart from dummy, he knows Wayne has the heart king. So he can cash his spade and lead a diamond to me.


Hand 4
Dealer West
Vuln. All
[quote]            Wayne
            S T85432       
            H Q864         
            D T9           
            C T           
John                      Ben
S AK6                      S QJ9
H KJ932                    H A75
D A87                      D QJ6
C KJ                      C 8752
            Fred
            S 7           
            H T           
            D K5432       
            C AQ9643       

1H    Pass  2H    2NT
4H    All Pass[/quote]


For the experts this is one of two extremely interesting hands in the match. The 2H raise showed 3card or more support and 7 to bad 10 hcp. This is the ideal bad 10. 4333 hands are frequently not worth what the hcp says, and queens in side suits are better for defense than offense, and aces in your suits are better for defense than offense. Fred’s 2NT bid was either unusual show a two suiter (presumably minors). I say presumably minors because some people play on this auction where 2NT comes without a jump it is any two suiter, but that is for VERY established partnerships who have discussed it a lot before it is used. The first two tricks are standard – CT to ace, and club ruff. Fred returned a low club. The low club (not the lowest, but almost lowest) suggest a diamond return and denies interest in a spade return. If Fred had wanted a spade return he would have returned a high club. Wayne ruffed and returned the diamond TEN that was covered with the QUEEN.

At this point I am sure Fred had a lot to say about whether to play the Diamond king or not. Fred’s other diamond spots are very anemic. If Fred covers, and John has doubleton ACE, it doesn’t help. Likewise if he covers and his partner has a doubleton, it doesn’t help either. Wayne’s second diamond would be the nine, and the jack would drop it. Eventually Fred covered, and when the diamond 9 dropped John made 11 tricks after making a good play in the heart suit. The good play? John cashed the heart King, and when fred played the heart T, John lead the heart JACK and let it ride when not covered. Why? Because of the 2NT bid, John knew Fred had lots of minors. He had shown up with 6 Clubs (remember when Wayne ruffed the second one?). And presumably 5 Diamonds. So John played him for 1-1-5-6. Why? Because if Fred had a spade void, he would have RETURNED a high club at trick two to ask for a spade return. At tables where South doesn’t enter the bidding, there is no reason to draw the inference John was able to draw here. So we might win an imp on this hand from many of the tables in 4H.

The discussion at the table about a squeeze dealt with a hypothetical situation where Fred held the diamond NINE (exchange D3 and D9). John would play all but one trump (discard small D from dummy) then three rounds of spades, winning the third spade in dummy. [quote] 
            Wayne
            S T85       
            H --         
            D 3           
            C --           
John                      Ben
S 6                      S Q
H 2                    H --
D 87                      D Q
C --                      C 87
            Fred
            S --           
            H --           
            D 95     
            C Q9          [/quote]

On the spade QUEEN, Fred has two unpleasant choices. If he discards a diamond. John will cash the diamond Queen, ruff a club, and the last diamond is good. If Fred discards a club, John would ruff a club, lead a diamond to dummy queen and cash the last club. This is an expert line of play known as a “trump squeeze”. Sadly the expert play wasn’t necessary since the T9 of diamonds was doubleton.


Board 5
Dealer North
Vuln. NS[quote] 
            Wayne
            S QT73         
            H J3           
            D 862         
            C QT32         
John                      Ben
S J85                      S A42
H AK862                    H T9754
D A                        D KJ97
C A954                    C J
              Fred
            S K96         
            H Q           
            D QT543       
            C K876         

Wayne  Ben    Fred  John
Pass    Pass  Pass  1H
Pass    4C    Pass  4D
Pass    4S    Pass  6H
All Pass[/quote]

This was John and mine’s golden moment. After partner opened 1H, I liked my hand. I have a singleton club, and five card support. I used a conventional bid known as a splinter bid. I jumped to 4C to show a singleton or void in clubs and support for hearts. Despite my initial pass, John realizes he has a very nice hand opposite a splinter jump in clubs. So he made a 4D cue-bid. Suggesting willingness to investigate slam despite my initial pass. If partner is interested, I am interested, so I cue-bid my spade ACE. That is enough for my partner who bids the slam. We have 1C, 2D, 1S, 5H in john’s hand, and 3 C ruffs in mine (one S thrown on D-King). A nice auction, lucky we had this hand instead of Fred and Wayne, as they would have bid the slam just as effectively.


Board 6
Dealer East
Vuln. EW[quote] 
            Wayne
            S 7653         
            H AJ32         
            D 6           
            C KJT8         
John                      Ben
S 8                        S AKT
H KQ875                    H T94
D AK5                      D QJT94
C 9632                    C 74
            Fred
            S QJ942       
            H 6           
            D 8732         
            C AQ5 

Ben  Fred  John  Wayne
Pass  Pass  1H  Pass
2D    Pass  3D  Pass
3H  All Pass[/quote]

The last hand shows that even a pickup partnership can have a nice auction. This one shows the problem of not having a regular partnership. If you remember from board 1 where Fred opened 1H in third seat and I said that while some people would not open that hand in first or second seat, virtually everyone would open it in third seat. When your partner opens in third seat, especially in a major (but it doesn’t have to be a major, see Wayne’s bid on board 11), you have to be wary that it is light. John and I didn’t have a method of dealing with this situation. But a convention exist called drury. If I had drury available I would have responded 2C (conventional), to show a fair hand and support. John would have let me know he had no game interest and we would have played safely in 2 Hearts. As it is, we got just too high. Perhaps john should have passed 2Ds at imps, as he knows I lack an opening hand. However, he knows that we have at most 4 spades, so they have 9 spades or more and about half the hcp. If he passes 2D, Wayne would probably balance back in. Indeed while we can’t make 3 H’s, they can make 3S, so bidding 3D might be the right bid after all.

3H had no play, and Fred made sure by giving his partner a diamond ruff (after the diamond raise, he knew Wayne had at most 1D).

Board 7
Dealer South
Vuln. All[quote] 
            Wayne
            S Q97         
            H T43         
            D T5           
            C AT753       
John                        Ben
S AK                      S T32
H QJ2                      H A975
D K98432                  D 76
C K6                      C J842
            Fred
            S J8654       
            H K86         
            D AQJ         
            C Q9           

Fred  John  Wayne  Ben
1S    1NT    2S        Pass
Pass  Pass[/quote]

John lead the diamond 8, we were playing leads of third best from even number in a suit, and fifth best from odd (if possible). I thought partner had 4 diamonds for this lead, as I didn’t suspect a six card diamond suit. So this gave me the thought that Fred had 5S (partner needs 2) and 5 diamonds, sometimes counting hands is harder than it seems. :-)

Fred played club Queen to king-ACE, and now I thought I knew what was going on. Partner will not have 5 hearts, so I thought the club Q was singleton, giving partner 2-4-4-3 (boy was I wrong). Fred played allow club from dummy and I backed my understanding of the hand by playing low. Fred won the club 9.

Fred now tried diamond ACE and then Diamond Queen –covered by the king and he ruffed low (ruff with queen and he makes, but Fred, like me doesn’t know about the six card diamond suit). I overruffed, and exited with a trump. John cashed both trumps and exited with a diamond. Now we win three heart tricks for 2S down one.


board 8
Dealer West
Vuln. None[quote] 
            Wayne
            S Q6           
            H Q97         
            D AQJ2         
            C KJ54         
John                      Ben
S 82                      S JT5
H J83                      H K642
D T6                      D 754
C AT9872                  C Q63
              Fred
            S AK9743       
            H AT5         
            D K983         
            C             

John  Wayne  Ben  Fred
Pass  1NT    Pass  2H
Pass  2S      Pass  3D
Pass  3NT  Pass  4H
Pass 5D    Pass  5NT
Pass  6NT  all pass[/quote]

This time the problem of a new partnership falls on Fred and Wayne. On this hand, NS can make 7D’s. 6S+1H+4C+2C ruffs. Three slams are possible, 6S, 6D and 6NT. Six D makes seven as shown, 6S is a little tricker, involving hooking EAST twice in hearts, so losing just 1 heart trick. But 6NT is difficult. The mechanism involved is called a vulnerable stopper squeeze. Win the spade lead, run spades and then run diamonds. The hand with one last diamond to play would be…

[quote]              S --           
            H Q9         
            D A         
            C K         

S --                      S --
H J3                      H K6
D --                      D -
C A9                  C Q6

            S --       
            H AT5         
            D 3         
            C --  [/quote]

On the diamond ACE, I have to discard a club and what is John to do? If he throws a heart, Wayne can lead heart queen pinning the jack or if he throws a club, Wayne can exit with the club KING and then on the force heart back play a low heart. This is a guess however, he has to guess rather John has the heart King or heart JACK. John discarded a heart, and Wayne exited a club, so john cashed a second club. Down one.

Board 9
Dealer North
Vuln. EW [quote] 
              Wayne
            S Q7           
            H J97632       
            D KJ3         
            C 95           
John                          Ben
S A632                    S K8
H Q8                      H K54
D A7                      D QT854
C AK632                    C QJT
            Fred
            S JT954       
            H AT           
            D 962         
            C 874         

Wayne  Ben  Fred  John
2H      Pass    3NT  All pass [/quote]

Fred made a good psychic bid of 3NT based upon the vulnerability and perhaps the state of the match. At this vul, John has to be aware that the 3NT might be a psych, but he choose not to double. If he doubles 3NT, Fred will run to 4H, which I will double. 4Hx would be down at least 4. We beat 3NT a lot, but since we can make 600 in 3NT, the 300 we got for down 6 was not very satisfying. Experts pick the time to be creative, and Fred picked a great one.


Board 10
Dealer East
Vuln. All[quote] 
            Wayne
            S 8763         
            H 98           
            D AKJT62       
            C 6           
John                          Ben
S KQJ9                    S T4
H KJT76                    H AQ53
D 74                      D Q985
C AJ                      C 943
            Fred
            S A52         
            H 42           
            D 3           
            C KQT8752     

Pass  Pass  1H  3D
3H    Pass  4H  All Pass[/quote]

3H by me was a very pushy, but with good four card support I felt a pass might put too much pressure on John to bid again. But 4H has a chance to make without good defense. Wayne started the Diamond Ace and Fred played the diamond 3. When west followed suit, Wayne knew fred had just one diamond because if Fred held the diamond 83, he would have played the diamond 8 first. Wayne made the great play of a low diamond which fred ruffed. If Fred lead the diamond king instead, the diamond queen would have eventually been our 10th trick. As it was, after losing the top diamond and diamond ruff, we still had to lose a club and the spade ACE.

Board 11
Dealer South
Vuln. None[quote] 
            Wayne
            S 83           
            H K75         
            D KJT7         
            C J976         
John                        Ben
S AJ4                      S QT72
H QT96                    H AJ4
D A3                      D Q9652
C T853                    C K
            Fred
            S K965         
            H 832         
            D 84           
            C AQ42         

Fred  John  Wayne  Ben
Pass  Pass  1D      Pass
1S    Pass    Pass  1NT
All Pass[/quote]

Here is another example of opening light in third seat. Wayne picked off my suit so I had no bid over 1D. Bidding 1S on a four card suit while possible, is not as desirable this hand as it was for John earlier. When the bidding came back to me, I balanced back in with 1NT. I didn’t worry too much about the singleton club king. I managed to take 8 tricks (4H, 3S, 1D)

[ack_hh]

Here's the transscript of Fred's comments for board #9 - ENJOY!

fred->Kibitzers: ok on to the next hand
fred->Kibitzers: i can tell my opponents can make game here (very likely at least)
fred->Kibitzers: given my partner's weak 2-bid
fred->Kibitzers: and i want to make it hard for them
fred->Kibitzers: passing will not make it hard
fred->Kibitzers: i could bid 3!H or 4!H
fred->Kibitzers: of course I know we will go down
fred->Kibitzers: but if we get doubled and play there, at least the vul is perfect for this
fred->Kibitzers: i could also try to be tricky
fred->Kibitzers: and bid 3NT or something - of course I will run if i am doubled
fred->Kibitzers: and if i am not doubled, then i don't care how much i go down!
fred->Kibitzers: i think i am going to try this and see what happens - maybe my opps will believe me
fred->Kibitzers: note that it does not matter if i trick my partner
fred->Kibitzers: he has preempted so i am in control...

fred->Kibitzers: this may have worked

fred: ty partner!
fred->Kibitzers: so it looks like the opps have 3NT
fred->Kibitzers: and will score +600 or better there
fred->Kibitzers: even if i go down 9 that is only -450
fred->Kibitzers: and i am sure i will take at least 1 trick

fred: ty wayne - may need some luck
fred->Kibitzers: i wonder if the opps know yet that i was just kidding

fred->Kibitzers: hope they take their spades now

fred->Kibitzers: I suspect inquiry still has the guarded !DQ, but I am not sure
fred: perhaps i shouldn't have discarded a diamond
fred->Kibitzers: since i am going down 5 or so it appears, i am not going to think too much about this...

fred->Kibitzers: now let's see how many of the tables bid and made game...

fred->Kibitzers: excellent!

[JRG]

Yes, I felt like an ass when I didn't double. It was a great psyche. If Fred really has the outstanding HCP, then I need him to have only 3 clubs (if he has Q-J-x-x he will make 3NT).

Cute bid. Well done Fred!

[Cascade]

This was indeed a fun event.

Quote

board 8
Dealer West
Vuln. None
Wayne
S Q6
H Q97
D AQJ2
C KJ54
John Ben
S 82 S JT5
H J83 H K642
D T6 D 754
C AT9872 C Q63
Fred
S AK9743
H AT5
D K983
C

John Wayne Ben Fred
Pass 1NT Pass 2H
Pass 2S Pass 3D
Pass 3NT Pass 4H
Pass 5D Pass 5NT
Pass 6NT all pass

This time the problem of a new partnership falls on Fred and Wayne. On this hand, NS can make 7D’s. 6S+1H+4C+2C ruffs. Three slams are possible, 6S, 6D and 6NT. Six D makes seven as shown, 6S is a little tricker, involving hooking EAST twice in hearts, so losing just 1 heart trick. But 6NT is difficult. The mechanism involved is called a vulnerable stopper squeeze. Win the spade lead, run spades and then run diamonds. The hand with one last diamond to play would be…

S --
H Q9
D A
C K

S -- S --
H J3 H K6
D -- D -
C A9 C Q6

S --
H AT5
D 3
C --

On the diamond ACE, I have to discard a club and what is John to do? If he throws a heart, Wayne can lead heart queen pinning the jack or if he throws a club, Wayne can exit with the club KING and then on the force heart back play a low heart. This is a guess however, he has to guess rather John has the heart King or heart JACK. John discarded a heart, and Wayne exited a club, so john cashed a second club. Down one.

I got this hand all wrong.

1. My hand is a very poor 15 points and there is a good case for down grading to a 1C opening;

2. When Fred offered me a choice of slam with a minimum I should have preferred a suit slam;

3. Having bid 6NT I did not manage to make the contract.

In the play it seems wrong to play for the actual position.

Only if John has the hJ and cA can I squeeze him.

On the other hand if either opponent has hK and cA they will be squeezed.

The end position will be:


S --
H Q9
D A
C K


S --
H AT5
D 3
C --

With either opponent holding:

S --
H K3
D --
C A9

If a heart is pitched the hK will drop on the Ace

and

if a club is pitched then the opponent can be thrown in with the club to lead away from the hK.

Since I can squeeze either opponent, playing for this position is twice as good as playing for John to have hJ and cA.

Of course I still have to guess which honour card has been bared.

Wayne