[sathyab]

Scoring: BAM

(p)-p-(1nt)15-17-X*-
(XX**)-p-(p)-2c-(X)-2d-
(X)-2s-(p)-p-(X)-ap

---

Double of 1nt was conventional showing a four card major and a longer minor. Redouble was cards; Partner's 2d was pass or correct to a major.

[fred]

2S! We played this one in 3S doubled (also with a trump lead).

This hand had interesting BAM aspects to it at our table, but the details would ruin the problem that was given so I will hold off on them for a while.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[manudude03]

Can you please keep the bidding to 4 calls per line like this:

(P)-P-(1NT)-X
(XX)-P-(P)-2C
(X)-2D-(X)-2S
(P)-P-(X)-AP

I'm letting this run round to hand and exiting a diamond. I'll then have to read the position. I'm hoping to take 4 spades, 2 diamond ruffs and 3 hearts for +1 if everything is right (diamonds 4-3, trumps 3-2, hearts 4-3 with Q on) unless they play on clubs on which I'll try for 3 hearts before I take a second trump in hand and start cross-ruffing. More likely it will be = or -1 though.

I'm not exactly experienced at BAM (only ever played it once), but seems like even making this should win the board unless the other table gets doubled too. It doesn't look like there's much on for the opps. (going 1 off vs 3m= will do too).

[jonottawa]

You're never getting 2 ♦ ruffs (unless you want to ruff with the A or K) barring some ridiculously unlikely (impossible on the auction) ♣ blockage.

[aguahombre]

so, playing against Fred's team, you must go for the overtrick or lose the board. And if you go down doing so, you still win the board because they will be down two.

Playing to make 2 only gains 1/2 board if Fred doesn't try to make 3.

How do you try to make 3? I have no idea

[manudude03]

jonottawa, on Dec 11 2009, 06:22 PM, said:

You're never getting 2 ♦ ruffs (unless you want to ruff with the A or K) barring some ridiculously unlikely (impossible on the auction) ♣ blockage.

If trumps are Jxx vs Tx (admittedly unlikely), I can afford to ruff with the king without losing a trump trick(assuming opps aren't the kind to open 1NT with 4441 or (543)1 and clubs turn out to be 6-1).

I'm playing (dreaming) for something like:

Scoring: BAM

---

On the layout above, they can pull 1 more round, but not 2 so I may be able to win the trump in dummy, ruff a diamond, get back with the ♥A and ruff another diamond before exiting a club, then force my way back to dummy with clubs to pull the last trump and decide what the heart position is.

Also, if East wins the diamond (I am allowed to make a wish, people do make mistakes) or West wins but only had 1 spade, I can either ruff 2 diamonds without cost, or the cross-ruff is complete if they return a club.

On hindsight though, clubs does look like the better suit to ruff since there's more entries to the south hand.

Assuming you get the same number of tricks as Fred's team, you will always win the board. If Fred's team gets 1 more trick, you can only get 1/2 at most.

tricks.....OP......Fred
6 ........ -300.. -500
7 ........ -100.. -300
8 ........ +470.. -100
9 ........ +570.. +530
10 ...... +670.. +630

I do agree with the general point though


As a final note, I would have thought 2C in that auction says that the minor is clubs, or did 2D mean pass with tolerance or it asks what the major is while 2M is nat NF.

[suokko]

First line coming to my mind is:
Win ♠Q in dummy.
lead a ♣
win in hand the trump return.
ruff ♣
take ♥ finesse back to hand
ruff ♣
♥ back to hand to pull the last trump and then set the ♣ trick.
Did I make 4?

But this line has many questions how well it works. for example ♥ finesse failing would be very bad when they will lead 3rd round of trumps.

So alternative line looks like:
win ♠ Q in dummy
lead ♣
win ♠ return in hand
ruff ♣
♥K to hand
ruff ♣
♦ trick now to opponents.
Now probably another ♦ that I ruff and I pull the last trump and cash ♥ for 8 tricks (6♠+2♥)
2nd line works even if trumps are 4-1 unless opener can discard all ♥ to prevent entry to dummy for ♦ ruff in end. But 5-2♣ break is bad for this line. How likely is 5-2♣ break on this biding? Quite likely.

Ouh well. This is one of deals where I would take far too long in trick one to decide which line I will play. It would be easier to play in 3♠ when I have to just play for miracle that is either working ♥ finesse or ♥Q doubleton where I would choose the finesse.

[sathyab]

suokko, on Dec 12 2009, 02:27 AM, said:

First line coming to my mind is:
Win ♠Q in dummy.
lead a ♣
win in hand the trump return.
ruff ♣
take ♥ finesse back to hand
ruff ♣
♥ back to hand to pull the last trump and then set the ♣ trick.
Did I make 4?

But this line has many questions how well it works. for example ♥ finesse failing would be very bad when they will lead 3rd round of trumps.

So alternative line looks like:
win ♠ Q in dummy
lead ♣
win ♠ return in hand
ruff ♣
♥K to hand
ruff ♣
♦ trick now to opponents.
Now probably another ♦ that I ruff and I pull the last trump and cash ♥ for 8 tricks (6♠+2♥)
2nd line works even if trumps are 4-1 unless opener can discard all ♥ to prevent entry to dummy for ♦ ruff in end. But 5-2♣ break is bad for this line. How likely is 5-2♣ break on this biding? Quite likely.

Ouh well. This is one of deals where I would take far too long in trick one to decide which line I will play. It would be easier to play in 3♠ when I have to just play for miracle that is either working ♥ finesse or ♥Q doubleton where I would choose the finesse.

Bingo !
You have to win the first trick in dummy, as otherwise you lack entries to ruff clubs. If you win the first trick in hand, even if trumps break 3-2, you will make only 7 tricks when the ♥ finesse is off. And if you were careless enough to play the ♥A and then the Jack, LHO can win, return a ♥ for RHO to ruff. If trumps were 4-1, now you're down 2

Win the first trick in dummy and play a ♣. RHO wins and returns a trump. Now you have to figure out whether opponents have doubled a non-vulnerable 2♠ with 23 HCP between them if trumps were breaking 3-2 ? 3♠ would be doubled even if trumps were 3-2, but it'd be surprising if good opponents would double 2♠ as readily. If you back up your conviction, play the ♠8 from hand, ruff a ♣, cash two ♥s refusing the finesse, ruff the last ♣ and claim your contract.

Here's the entire hand:

Scoring: BAM

---

Note that it takes a small ♠ lead, followed by a ♠ and then ♥s to beat 2nt. If you start with a high ♠ lead, 2nt is unbeatable.

[gnasher]

sathyab, on Dec 12 2009, 09:15 AM, said:

Win the first trick in dummy and play a ♣. RHO wins and returns a trump. Now you have to figure out whether opponents have doubled a non-vulnerable 2♠ with 23 HCP between them if trumps were breaking 3-2 ? 3♠ would be doubled even if trumps were 3-2, but it'd be surprising if good opponents would double 2♠ as readily. If you back up your conviction, play the ♠8 from hand

I don't think the trump finesse is necessary. After ♠Q, club, low spade to the ace (LHO discarding), I ruff a club, play a heart to the king, ruff another club, and play a diamond. I have five tricks already, and I'm threatening to score ♠K8 and ♥A.

The only way they can prevent that is for LHO to cash the club, allowing a heart pitch. Now they can ruff out my ♥A, but I have two spade winners and a long club.

This works against RHO's 4243, 4234 or 4333, as well as all the 3-2 breaks where he has three clubs.

[Jlall]

FWIW, there is no chance that Fred will play to make (maybe Brad would) on these cards in 3S. He will be happy with -1, which will beat the at least 110 at the other table in 2H, or maybe even 120 (sure they can hold this, but it's tough). Perhaps he will play to make thinking the other table will be 90 or minus though!

That being said, how exactly does one play to make in 3S X on these cards lol. I would be very happy with -100 and see what happens. Don't be some kind of hero and play to win or lose the board right there in a very bad situation (ie, very likely to lose) when you can keep the ball in play imo. -100 will easily be a win if your teammates have a good board, and why shouldn't they? -300 will never be a win (barring a miracle), regardless of what your teammates dude. Nothing more annoying than bringing back some miracle 150, or even just a solid 140 where you played soundly, only to lose because of your brilliant teammates.

[suokko]

hmm. I tough we were vulnerable so going down was disaster. I guess I should have looked that more carefully. Then going only one down is good idea in 3♠ but then you would like to make on layouts where opponents are unlikely to make anything. Like maybe when ♥ Q is onside. So this is makes it a lot more harder problem in 3♠ doubled.

How can we make it when ♥Q is on and not go 2 down when it is off? idk :/

[xcurt]

after

s->j->a
c
s->8
c ruff
hk
c ruffed
d

this transposes to something like gnashers ending. im going to make the ha and small spade ep or the spades and long club. and no risk of -300. im also not getting overruffed on the third club. not sure why west bid this way. i was sure he had 45 not 54 in the roundeds.

[fred]

Jlall, on Dec 12 2009, 01:16 PM, said:

FWIW, there is no chance that Fred will play to make (maybe Brad would) on these cards in 3S. He will be happy with -1, which will beat the at least 110 at the other table in 2H, or maybe even 120 (sure they can hold this, but it's tough). Perhaps he will play to make thinking the other table will be 90 or minus though!

That being said, how exactly does one play to make in 3S X on these cards lol. I would be very happy with -100 and see what happens. Don't be some kind of hero and play to win or lose the board right there in a very bad situation (ie, very likely to lose) when you can keep the ball in play imo. -100 will easily be a win if your teammates have a good board, and why shouldn't they? -300 will never be a win (barring a miracle), regardless of what your teammates dude. Nothing more annoying than bringing back some miracle 150, or even just a solid 140 where you played soundly, only to lose because of your brilliant teammates.

This post is right on.

My partner (Brad) was the declarer in 3S doubled at our table. He played the hand well to go down 1 and we won the board since our teammates were +110 in 2H at the other table.

At our table Brad overcalled 2C showing clubs and another suit (this decision, which was not made at the other table, ultimately led to us winning the board). LHO bid 2D (transfer) and I Doubled to ask Brad to bid his other suit. RHO Passed and Brad bid 2S. LHO bid 2NT (natural) and I bid 3S which RHO doubled.

Some points of interest:

- Against strong players, spades are almost certainly 4-1 at our table because nobody forced East to Double in front of his partner. It would not be smart to Double 3S here just because you have strong clubs since, without a possible spade stopper, you would have no particular reason to think you were making 2NT - any plus score would be good while -530 would be a certain loss.

- Similarly, as Sathy suggested, there is a good chance that spades are 4-1 in the auction he gave.

- Brad could see that, even with the 4-1 spade break, 2NT would have gone down on a low spade lead. However, Brad knew that he was not going to lead a low spade against 2NT so in practice the opponents would have been at least +120 if we had defended. Therefore playing for down 1, -100, looked to be a good idea.

Here is how the play went:

Brad won the first trick with dummy's Queen of spades. He gave up a club. East won and came back the Jack of spades, won by Brad.

Brad ruffed a club, returned to the King of hearts, and ruffed another club. Now he smartly cashed the Ace of hearts (can you see why this was smart?) and exited. He was sure to take 2 spade tricks at the end for down 1.

The most important thing that Justin said is that, in BAM, you should play more or less down the middle. The idea is to try to avoid losing boards as opposing to trying to actively win boards. Many people do not understand this.

Some of the implications for this particular hand:

- Playing BAM is not sufficient justification to double the opponents when you have no particular reason to think that they are going down.

- Playing BAM is not sufficient justification for trying to make an overtrick if you are lucky enough to be in 2S doubled. Play safely for your contract.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[gnasher]

gnasher, on Dec 12 2009, 02:06 PM, said:

I don't think the trump finesse is necessary. After ♠Q, club, low spade to the ace (LHO discarding), I ruff a club, play a heart to the king, ruff another club, and play a diamond.

On second thoughts, I don't think this works. LHO wins the diamond, cashes the club (RHO throwing a heart), and forces me with another diamond. I have both a club winner and a heart winner, but RHO is a trump ahead of me and has no losers.

On the actual (likely) layout, this works: ♠Q, club, low spade to the ace (LHO discarding), club ruff, heart to the king, club ruff, ♥A, diamond. RHO can win and play a trump, but I exit to LHO in hearts or clubs, and score ♠8 en passant.

That would fail if RHO were 4=3=3=3 with ♥Q.

[xcurt]

I DF'ed this deal since it was driving me crazy -- the line I gave earlier works (in fact, you can win in hand at T1 and exit a diamond and still make, since the inability of east to overruff clubs means that you can ruff two diamonds in your hand and play to elope with a club ruff later).

On the other hand if you switch the CJ and a low H (and the DK and DQ so east has a 15 count, but that doesn't affect the analysis) you can't make on the trump lead, but only if east withholds the trump honors at T1.

[MarkDean]

My opponent bid 2♣ as South, majors. We ended up in 3!D with the other cards. I thought things were going ok with the what looked like a third best club lead, but things went downhill when North ruffed the second club. It was not a happy ending.