[Echognome]

Terence Reese is one of my favourite authors. When I first started reading about bridge, I really enjoyed his "over-the-shoulder" books. So in deference to the great master, I present a few MP problems from our local duplicate.

You are playing a pretty basic 2/1 structure. Your partner is still somewhat new to the game, but plays a pretty sound game.

1. You come to the first table and sit down next to a a friend of yours and his erratic partner.

You hold:

Scoring: MP

(P) - P - (1♥) - X
(2♥) - 2♠ - (3♥) - P
(P) - ?

---

The erratic player opens 1♥ in third and partner makes a takeout double. Your friend raises the ante and you offer 2♠. The erratic player ups it to 3♥ and it's back to you.

What do you do now?


2. You come to the next table and sit down against a nice elderly lady and her obnoxious partner who is known for his post mortems.

Scoring: MP

(P) - P - (1♥) - X
(2♥) - 2♠ - (3♥) - P
(P) - ?

---

You are not playing Ingberman over reverses, so you prefer to set your suit with 3♥ and partner raises. The obnoxious guy on your right, starts to write 4♥ down in his scorecard, but you remind him that the auction is not over. He begrudgingly puts a pass card on the table. Do you make another move?

3. You next sit down at a table with two chatty ladies who seem not to notice you at all while you sit down. On the first board, the woman on your left opens 3♣ vulnerable on J9xxxxx, the ♥K and out. You end up in an inferior spot, but somehow scramble an average minus on the board. On the second board, you pick up the following sparkling collection:

Scoring: MP

(P) - P - (1♥) - X
(2♥) - 2♠ - (3♥) - P
(P) - ?

---

You are a bit surprised when partner bids a 2/1. Why are you playing rubber bridge this hand? Regardless, you don't elicit too much useful information out of partner. Do you make another move over 3NT?

4. Your next rounds sees you against two fellows that play 1950s Acol. On the first round the auction goes 1NT - 4♥ by opponents and drifts one off. The 4♥ bidder was 55 in ♥ and ♣ and caught his partner with xx in ♥ this time. On the second round you hold:

Scoring: MP

(P) - P - (1♥) - X
(2♥) - 2♠ - (3♥) - P
(P) - ?

---

You open a somewhat heavy weak 2♥ and RHO balances with 2♠ which is passed out. What do you lead?

5. On your final table you play against an and elderly lady whom always seems to squint and a man whom you think is about to fall asleep. You have a nice 2/1 auction that propels you to 5♣:

Scoring: MP

1♠ - 2♦
2♠ - 3♣
4♣ - 4♦
5♣ - All Pass

---

The man on your left leads the ♠3 (4th best).

Plan the play.

[han]

1. This one is too tough imo. I expect partner to pass whatever I do, and it seems a pure guess to me. I expect that the new Reese will tell me what the right answer is and why.

2. I would have bid 3H without Ingberman too. I'm bidding 4S now, hoping that partner will RKC. I will show 3 keys and, when asked, deny the queen of hearts (I don't expect partner to have 3-card support). BTW, I don't think that partner has shown short spades, so cuebidding the king seems right.

3. Lovely hand, I'm bidding 4NT.

4. I lead the heart queen. While any lead could be right, my first impression is that we will get a near unanimous vote.

5. I see 11 tricks on a crossruff, and the nice thing is that I can risk losing the lead because I have more trumps than I can ruff with. I would cash the diamond ace and lead a heart to the king. If it loses I just win the return and pull one round of trump before crossruffing.

[mike777]

1) Pass, very common problem, about time I got this one right, flat hand, only 8 spades, nice controls but 8.5 loser hand
2) rkc now!
3) 4nt but very very close to 6nt for me. Give me 3clubs and 2 D and I would just blast to 6nt.
4) 6 of H.

[Codo]

Nicely written,

1.: 3 Spade, they look like 4 Heart - 1 bidders.

2. If pd will surely understand 4 Spade as cue and will ask for Keycards, I will bid 4 Spa,de else 4 NT.

3. 2 NT showd my hand, so I respect pds descission. Not even close.

4. I won´t be fancy, I lead a Heart and take the Queen.

5. I win in Hand, pitch a Heart on the ace of Diamond, ruff a Diaond a Spade and another diamond. If anything nice happend, I may drawn trumps and try for a 12. trick. Else, I play a Heart to the king to get my 12. trick there.

[bid_em_up]

1) 3S, with X a close second choice.

2) Yes

3) No. Although I really want to

4) J♦

5) I think the crossruff line will fail in #5 if trumps are 3-1, when RHO wins heart A and returns trump. Count winners, 1 diamond, 2 spades, and the 7 remaining trumps = 10. (If you are going to crossruff, you cant score the 5th spade in dummy.) A 2nd trump lead when you lose the 2nd heart will defeat 5C when clubs are 3-1.

However, "knowing" that the spades are 4-3 from the opening lead, allows you to win the spade A, ruff a diamond small, ruff a spade, club to dummy (making sure trumps arent 4-0), spade K (pitching a heart from hand), and then a fourth spade, pitching a heart regardless of whether RHO discards or ruffs. I think this line is 100% whenever trumps are no worse than 3-1.

If one opponent showed out on the club to dummy, I believe you are forced to play for the heart A onside at this point.

[lowerline]

1. Pass

2. I'll ask keycards. If partner has one without the trump queen: 5♥. If partner has two with the trump queen and the ♣K: 7♥. Else 6♥.

3. 4NT quanti

4. ♥x

5. You can beat 3NT if you score +1 with the ♥A onside, else just made will do.
♦A, discard ♥, ♥ to the king

[luke warm]

Echognome, on May 9 2006, 06:45 PM, said:

1. You come to the first table and sit down next to a a friend of yours and his erratic partner.

You hold:

Scoring: MP

(P) - P - (1♥) - X
(2♥) - 2♠ - (3♥) - P
(P) - ?

---

The erratic player opens 1♥ in third and partner makes a takeout double. Your friend raises the ante and you offer 2♠. The erratic player ups it to 3♥ and it's back to you.

What do you do now?

i'd pass because partner did... why hang him for his balancing double? he did get them to the 3 level

Quote

2. You come to the next table and sit down against a nice elderly lady and her obnoxious partner who is known for his post mortems. 

Scoring: MP

(P) - P - (1♥) - X
(2♥) - 2♠ - (3♥) - P
(P) - ?

---

You are not playing Ingberman over reverses, so you prefer to set your suit with 3♥ and partner raises.  The obnoxious guy on your right, starts to write 4♥ down in his scorecard, but you remind him that the auction is not over.  He begrudgingly puts a pass card on the table.  Do you make another move?

if i bid 4♠ i think partner will prefer to cue unless he has both minor aces.. on the other hand, if he shows 1 kc over my rkc, what do i do? are there 2 club losers (doubtful)? i think 4♠ is my bid

Quote

3. You next sit down at a table with two chatty ladies who seem not to notice you at all while you sit down.  On the first board, the woman on your left opens 3♣ vulnerable on J9xxxxx, the ♥K and out.  You end up in an inferior spot, but somehow scramble an average minus on the board.  On the second board, you pick up the following sparkling collection:

Scoring: MP

(P) - P - (1♥) - X
(2♥) - 2♠ - (3♥) - P
(P) - ?

---

You are a bit surprised when partner bids a 2/1.  Why are you playing rubber bridge this hand?  Regardless, you don't elicit too much useful information out of partner.  Do you make another move over 3NT?

no... partner needs a strong nt for slam to make by force, and his bidding doesn't seem to show that

Quote

4.  Your next rounds sees you against two fellows that play 1950s Acol.  On the first round the auction goes 1NT - 4♥ by opponents and drifts one off.  The 4♥ bidder was 55 in ♥ and ♣ and caught his partner with xx in ♥ this time.  On the second round you hold:

Scoring: MP

(P) - P - (1♥) - X
(2♥) - 2♠ - (3♥) - P
(P) - ?

---

You open a somewhat heavy weak 2♥ and RHO balances with 2♠ which is passed out.  What do you lead?

♣Q

Quote

5.  On your final table you play against an and elderly lady whom always seems to squint and a man whom you think is about to fall asleep.  You have a nice 2/1 auction that propels you to 5♣:

Dealer: North Vul: Both Scoring: MP

♠ K7542 ♥ K42 ♦   ♣ KQJ63 ♠ A ♥ 875 ♦ AQ987 ♣ AT98

1♠ - 2♦ 2♠ - 3♣ 4♣ - 4♦ 5♣ - All Pass

The man on your left leads the ♠3 (4th best).

Plan the play.

win the lead, toss a heart on the ♦A and crossruff

[FrancesHinden]

No. 2
I am amazed at the number of people blasting into RKCB here. To be honest, I think that's only right if partner is not capable of looking at his hand. To start with, he cannot possibly have two key cards and the queen of hearts (as one poster has suggested). 4H was pretty much his weakest call (3NT would be worse). There's no certainty slam makes opposite one ace and the queen of trumps (Jx Qx AKxx KQJxx is a down-the-middle reverse).

I think it's worth a move (4S) but we could be off at the 5-level.

[foo]

Nicely done in the TR style

1= Pass. Both "The Law" and common sense say GOP heard the auction as well as you did and he did not have extras for the auction so far and neither do you.

2= Depends on what you and GOP have agreed are appropriate hands for a Reverse.
a) If a Reverse promises 5- losers and 17+ HCP or a maximum, you should have 5 level safety and can afford to cue bid the SA with 4S. This is much better than 1430 because it tells GOP to worry about minor suit holes.
b ) If a Reverse can be just about any shapely 16+ count, you must pass.
(FTR, I will play style a and only style a exactly because of this kind of deal)

3= The Standard auction 1M-2m;2N shows a minimum or a maximum that will take a bid opposite GOP's sign off. You've got the rare 2nd hand type. 1S-2C;2N-3N;4C showing this hand type and the CA is probably best.

4= Some might argue the "Terence Reese lead" here is the CQ...
Others who use logic a bit more realize that this is =not= the same situation as that when TR made his (in)famous lead. For one thing; We are defending a partscore, not a game, and should consider being more passive on Opening Lead.
GOP did not support H's, so there is at least a decent chance that he is short in that suit. The appropriate H honor is the partnership lead.

5= Win the SA, Dump a Hx under the DA, ruff a D, Dump a Hx under the SK,
Now you can pursue high cross ruff lines knowing that you can only lose 2 H's no matter what.
Ruff a S (happens to be a high ruff), ruff a Dx, then start ruffing high.
If you can score 9 C's + SA + SK + DA you will come to 12 tricks.
If DK drops you have potential additional vig for 12 tricks of pulling trumps and throwing another H under the DQ.

[inquiry]

1. Pass. We have pushed them one higher, hope for the best.

2. 4♠ cue. I don't care for your methods. One thing I assume is after our jump partner has at least two spades and this is only a heart tolerance, and could be a singleton. IF he had real heart support and a singleton spade he would be doing something else.

3. Pass - I have a source of tricks, and it is matchpoint, If 4♠ could right side the contract I might bid that, but lead comes through partners red suit in both NT and ♠. At imps I would make the slam try of 4♠ (which is passable, but encouraging), at mp, I stick it out in 3NT.

4. ♥2, hopefully partner will work it out as asking for a different suit returned.

5. 3NT requires heart ACE on side (5♣, 1♦, 2♠, 1♥). 5♣ is almost cold on easy to spot crossruff. Win ♠A, cash ♦A, ruff ♦, if ♠K cashes (for a ♥ discard).and ♦ are at least 5-3 or if 6-2 you can still safely ruff twi in dummy, you end up wtih 11 tricks (2S, 1D, and 3S ruffs in hand, and 5 clubs in dummy). This way you win if ♥A is off side, or tie them if heart ace is on side.

However, since it is matchpoints, you will want to try for 12 tricks when the ♥Ace is onside. For this line, you vary your line slightly. Win ♠A, cash ♦Ace, discard a ♥, ruff a ♦, spade king, for ♥ pitch as before, ruff a ♠, ruff a ♦, ruff a ♠. Presumablyl the ♠x is the 13th now. In this ending"

Lead a ♥. If ♥ACE is onside you will make 12 tricks, if not, 11 (presuming ♣ are not 4-0

South on lead. Lead a ♥. If West has the ♥Ace you have 12 tricks. If East has heart ace, Even if ♥ loses and trumps are 4-0 and they cash two hearts and lead a trump, you have high cross ruff for 11 tricks (2S, 3S-ruff, 1D, 5 trumps in dummy). And if heart ACE is on side and the win and lead a trump (with 4-0 trumps), if the heart king will cash and you can cross ruff for 12 tricks

---

[ArcLight]

#1 - pass

You showed your hand with your bid. Terence Reese would be harshly critical (in his nasty way) of a further bid. He would say "Is there anything I haven't shown partner by my first bid? Do I have any extras? NO, so pass"


#2 - Pard bid a Reverse. (1♣ then 2♦). What does it take for slam to make? How about a Grand Slam? RKCBW tells you exactly what you need. I don't want to cue bid 4♠, I want to know how many aces pard has, and if (s)/he has the trump Q.

If pard had bid 1♦ then 2♣, then there would be no guarantee of extra values. In that case you have to ask yourself what pard needs for slam to make.
A Spade lead would be likely, and unless there is a running minor you will be down. Also, its unlikely pard has 3 hearts, in which case you need him to have Qx.


[Note: later edit - I dont consider (Jx Qx AKxx KQJxx is a down-the-middle reverse).
to be a Reverse, its not good enough, with the potentially wasted Q and J.
After reconsidering, I can see the merits of 4♠ in that pard can place the contract, based on my response to RKCBW. 3 Key cards, obviously A♠ and AK♥.]


#3 - Pass. I sure hope pard has a ♦ stopper! Why not bid 2♠ instead of 2NT, which implies the balanced hand with the stoppers? Also, you are a bit strong for teh 2NT bid which (by the Mike Lawrence 2/1 notes) implies 12-14 or 18-19.
Pard needs something for his 2/1, so I'll reluctantly pass. The Spades are so good that a 5-2 fit could be fine.

#4 - My Clubs are over Declarers. no way I lead them. Lead the Q♥


#5 - Cross Ruff, dispose of a heart from each hand, make sure you cash any needed winners (Aces) first, becaus eof the length difference in trumps you want to ruff with Dummy first.

[coyot]

1) Given the vulnerability, I will try 3♠. Since the spade freebid promised anything between 3-8 HCP and 4card, I'm not promising anything that I would not have - and I know that partner with 4 spades and 2 hearts will NOT bid 4♠ over 4♥.

2) 4♠ cue, hoping partner RKCs

3) Depends on methods - What have I promised by 2NT? What has partner promised by 2♣? He can have a lousy 12-13HCP with 4 clubs, no real way to make 12 tricks.
(With my methods, I'd bid 3NT directly, showing 15-17 bal with 5 spades)

4) Heart queen, don't see any reason for any non-standard lead.

5) Crossruff leads to 11 safe tricks, but playing MP, I'd be tempted to take the risk of clubs being 2-2 and either spades or diamonds behaving. The sleeping gentleman probably already forgot about spades being bid and led honestly fourth best, showing that spades could behave. If I could trust the opponents to signal count in trumps, I could postpone the decision one trick by drawing one round of trumps - and if they seem to be 2-2, draw one more and then play on crossruffs. Catching Kxx in diamonds would mean neat +2, +1 has its chances too.

[Echognome]

Thank you all for your replies thus far. I will post the hands a bit later. I noticed quite a few "I don't like your methods" and "I can't answer because I don't know what bid X means." Well, guess what? Neither did I. This was a pickup partnership of sorts and all we had discussed is that partner plays Hardy's version of 2/1. So any guesswork you have, I had.

By the way, on board 2, I didn't rate my hand as 17 balanced.

[cherdano]

1. Pass.

2. 4♠. Apart from what Frances said, whenever all my high cards are keycards, I try to avoid RCKB, partner will know much better how to proceed after a RKCB answer.

3. In my preferred style, I have committed myself to bid again. I avoided both 1N opening (15-17) or a 3N rebid over 2♣, showing 15-17 too. So far I have shown 12-14 or 18+, and thus have to make a further bid to show the latter.
Assuming this is the style:
4♣ = 10
4♠ = 10
4N = 9
Pass = -1

If I were playing a style where a natural 2N for partner (or equivalent) is available, so that 2♣ shows a good 5-card suit, I would demote all choices except 4♣ by a point, ♣A is crucial for partner's hand evaluation.

4. ♥Q.

5. Han's line, seems sufficient to beat all 3N bidders.

[kenberg]

1. Pass
2. 4NT
3. 4NT
4. Q of H
5. This could get a little tricky if the fourth best spade lead turns out to be a stiff. I assume they also lead small from stiffs. I think I will win the spade ace, ruff a diamond, lead a spade for a ruff to find out. If the spade lead appears to be honest (I think he will get me here if he has led the 3 from 63 doubleton) I'l cash the ace of diamonds and pitch a heart, then lead towards the king of hearts. If he shows out of spades at trick 3 this gets tough. I'll think about that when/if it happens. There are certainly ways to continue that may or may not work but I am not up for thinking them through until I see the show out since it seems to me I'll always start with the D ruff and the spade back.

[jdonn]

1: I would have bid 3♠ the round before, so I will certainly do so now. Wouldn't everyone have bid 2♠ on the same hand but without the club king?

2: HUGE mistake to do anything but pass with a trustworthy partner, absolutely huge gigantic titanic error! If he had a good hand for hearts he would (well, should) have bid 3♠ instead of 4♥ and then gone to 4♥ next round. Partner usually has a stiff heart on this auction, and you thus have no five level safety at all any time you are off an ace. You are also getting a spade lead, exactly the lead you don't want. You have already bid 3♥ when 2♥ would have been forcing, why would you bid the same hand twice? It is an insult to partner to bid on here. He has Jx x KQJx AKQJxx, and if he has more or better heart support then missing slam is his fault not yours.

3: Seems like an easy 4NT, showing 18-19 which is easily what this hand is worth.

4: Though I don't think it will work in a problem format, the diamond jack seems normal to me.

5: I want to make six to beat those in 3NT, without risking five so I can certainly tie them. So win the spade, pitch a heart on the diamond, and lead a heart to the king. If it loses I will fall back on the crossruff line.

[FrancesHinden]

jdonn, on May 10 2006, 05:07 PM, said:

2: HUGE mistake to do anything but pass with a trustworthy partner, absolutely huge gigantic titanic error! If he had a good hand for hearts he would (well, should) have bid 3♠ instead of 4♥ and then gone to 4♥ next round. Partner usually has a stiff heart on this auction, and you thus have no five level safety at all any time you are off an ace. You are also getting a spade lead, exactly the lead you don't want. You have already bid 3♥ when 2♥ would have been forcing, why would you bid the same hand twice? It is an insult to partner to bid on here. He has Jx x KQJx AKQJxx, and if he has more or better heart support then missing slam is his fault not yours.

For one thing, 2H would not have been forcing, we're told we aren't playing any methods after a reverse.

For another, partner won't have a singleton heart: I believe he would have bid 3S (4SF) over 3H with no spade stop and no heart support. On your sample hand, 3NT is very likely to be the right spot opposite some spade stuff, and we've been told we had to bid 3H to establish a force.

But I don't know why I'm arguing too hard with you: you are one of the few people who agree with me that it's not a slam-force-via-RKCB hand!

[jdonn]

FrancesHinden, on May 10 2006, 11:24 AM, said:

jdonn, on May 10 2006, 05:07 PM, said:

2: HUGE mistake to do anything but pass with a trustworthy partner, absolutely huge gigantic titanic error! If he had a good hand for hearts he would (well, should) have bid 3♠ instead of 4♥ and then gone to 4♥ next round. Partner usually has a stiff heart on this auction, and you thus have no five level safety at all any time you are off an ace. You are also getting a spade lead, exactly the lead you don't want. You have already bid 3♥ when 2♥ would have been forcing, why would you bid the same hand twice? It is an insult to partner to bid on here. He has Jx x KQJx AKQJxx, and if he has more or better heart support then missing slam is his fault not yours.

For one thing, 2H would not have been forcing, we're told we aren't playing any methods after a reverse.

For another, partner won't have a singleton heart: I believe he would have bid 3S (4SF) over 3H with no spade stop and no heart support. On your sample hand, 3NT is very likely to be the right spot opposite some spade stuff, and we've been told we had to bid 3H to establish a force.

But I don't know why I'm arguing too hard with you: you are one of the few people who agree with me that it's not a slam-force-via-RKCB hand!

Well I have to confess to not being well versed in what is 'standard' (I always have actual agreements ), but my instincts tell me 2♥ is always forcing in any system, except by people who simply don't know it. Just because we don't have any specific methods doesn't mean we aren't playing normal bridge.

I don't see why partner won't have a stiff heart, if he has little in spades then he would much rather play in hearts than notrump even if you do stop spades. It's like 1♠ 1NT 3♠, you commonly raise with a stiff on auctions where partner should have a good suit if you are worried about other suits.

[mike777]

1) geez everyone is bidding did not partner hear us bid 2s? or does that mean nothing?
2) Geez come on guys pard made a reverse he has a real good 17 hcp and we got honor cards and an extra heart, I do not expect p to have a stiff heart here. We could have much less for 3H. This is why I am playing 4s as RKC so I can ask for the Heart Queen.
3) Geez again you guys must be making a 2/1 on almost nothing....a random 12 or 13 hcp is not a game force from what I see forum bidders open on.

edit: Ya in USA after a reverse even a 2h rebid is forcing but often weakish with 5H. I expect pard to make some other bid with a stiff H, not 4H, very often.

[FrancesHinden]

jdonn, on May 10 2006, 05:30 PM, said:

Well I have to confess to not being well versed in what is 'standard' (I always have actual agreements ), but my instincts tell me 2♥ is always forcing in any system, except by people who simply don't know it. Just because we don't have any specific methods doesn't mean we aren't playing normal bridge.

I don't see why partner won't have a stiff heart, if he has little in spades then he would much rather play in hearts than notrump even if you do stop spades. It's like 1♠ 1NT 3♠, you commonly raise with a stiff on auctions where partner should have a good suit if you are worried about other suits.

Well obviously it's a culture thing, because here in England 2H is sufficiently non-standard to be alertable if it's forcing.

It's not at all like 1S-1NT-3S, because 3S is a 'free' uncertainty bid here. If we'd bid 1C - 1S - 2D - 3S I agree partner may raise on a singleton.