[hallway]

My friends have urged me to ask, so please give us the answers.

E/W Vul
Dealer South
Contract 6 ♠ by East

6♠ EAST.

---

What should the contract have been ?

IF 6♠ was correct how should it have been played?

Thanking you all in anticipation

[Rado]

Hi dear Maureen,

With 26 cards seen it's nice to be at 7♠.
The play should go asf:
1. Suppose ♦ lead ( if ♥ lead a little changed)
ruff♦, ruff ♣ with 9, ♠ to the King , ruff ♣
now if both opponents followed ♣ 2 times ( means suit is 3-3 or 4-2) we are home ruff ♦ with 8, ruff ♣, drawing last trumps and A♥ entry for the established ♣.
At this variant we are making the contract when ♣ 3-3 or 4-2 nevermind how the trumps break
If singleton ♣ available , then trumps must be 2-1, and K♣ to be placed for ruffing finesse then:
lead♦ ruff, ruff♣, ♠ to the K (all follow) ♣ ruff (bad news 5-1 but K is on). Draw last trump, ruff ♦ with the last dummy trump and Q♣ for ruffing finesse. Again A♥ stays as vital last entry to the established ♣ suit
This line is approx 90 %
2. Suppose ♥ lead. Now things go worse
ruff♣, ruff ♦, ruff ♣ if both follow A♠, ♠ to the King ruff 3rd♣ and use last dummy's trump for entry
This line works when ♣ 3-3 or 4-2 and trumps 2-1 - abt 70 %
When trumps 3-0 still a chance ♣ to be 3-3 or K doubleton to appear which will add abt 9 %

So we have at least 79 % chance which is quite enough for a Grand.

When in 6♠ only the play is easy for making just 12, draw trumps and make ruffing finesse in ♣ pitching ♥.

Hope above understandable
Regards
Rado

[inquiry]

Hi Maureen,

Couple things, first I laid the hands out for easier analysis for us. Second,north and east originally had the ♠J, so I changed norht's JAck to the five. Third, I agree with Rado's line (always best to agree with his line).

Since Rado handled the play, and suggested "seeing the cards", 7♠ is best. I thought I would add a plug for beginners considering looking at ZAR points, at least for hand evaluation. If the beginners ever get to ZAR points (works well for beginners I think), you will find that EASt has...

17 Distributional points
9 hcp
2 control points, for total of....
28 pts.

West has
18 Distributional pts
14 hcp
5 control points, for total of
37 pts.

West also gets either 1 pt for the ♠ King or 3 [pt] for the ♦ void wihen combined with the fourth trump. Take the higher of the two, or 3 additional points. Raising his total to 40 points. I believe East will also get 3 points for the sixth ♠ combined with the void in ♣. But even without that boost to EAST, the total comes to 40+29 = 69, two more than ZAR points says is needed for 7♠.

Ben

[hallway]

Thank you Rado for the play sequence we will redeal the hands and follow your guide and see how it should have been done. (for 7 !! ) The lead was the ♥Q

Thank you Ben for rearranging it so that it is easy to follow - that was a nice surprise Two ♠ Jacks !! no wonder it didn't work - lol - sry I must have written it down wrong - I did check that there were 13 cards in each hand !.

Quote

I thought I would add a plug for beginners considering looking at ZAR points, at least for hand evaluation. If the beginners ever get to ZAR points (works well for beginners I think), you will find that EASt has...

ZAR points ! - perhaps you could persuade Zarpetkov to come to the BIL and give the members a session or two or three on how to use them - please.

Guys - SEVEN !! ♠ that was never a consideration ! there had already been a Grand Slam bid and made during the session - to contemplate TWO !!! not possible. the blood pressure would never stand it

Quote

When in 6♠ only the play is easy for making just 12, draw trumps and make ruffing finesse in ♣ pitching ♥.

The 6♠ Slam was number two - obviously one too many seeing as it was down 1 Then trying to figure out why it failed was a case of 'too many cooks spoiling the broth' ! - when in reality -

Quote

the play is easy for making just 12,

Ah well - maybe tomorrow .....

Thank you for your help

[Flame]

Are you asking after we see the hands or what will we bid ?
If after then 7sp, if before its too hard to answer, there could be two eqully good bridge systems , one that will get you to this 7 and one which will not, bidding 7 in a competitive aution (they arent going to be quite here) isnt something you do everyday. I wouldnt blame my partner if we land in 6sp, and im pretty sure it wont be such a bad score (probebly better then avarage on non expert fields)

[Flame]

I just now understand that you went down in 6sp.
I guess you ignored the club suit potential, i can tell you are not alone there, i played with more then one partner that for some weird resson would always prefer to use their long suits and not dummy's (mine) , when you see this dummy you must see the great potential in the club suit, 6sp should be too easy for you, u just play 2 spades then A and Q club and throw a heart on this club and u can claim it. This isnt the best play but its should be the ovious play for you.
Look at this this way dummy has AQJ10xxx this suit has 6 tricks (you give them the K and the rest is yours), if you only took the A you just ignored 5 tricks, no wonder you go down if you just ignore 5 of your tricks right ?

[bridgeboy]

Hi all,

I would like to add that the line of play of play to 6S should be taken with more care. The general idea is the same, to make use of the long clubs, but care should be taken to take care of bad breaks.. In this case draw all trumps and take ruff finesse in clubs will end in disappointment if trumps break 3-0 and clubs 6-0 offside.

hence, on a H lead( as given):

Ace H,
small club ruffed with ace.
Q trump,
10 of trump to K trump
small club ruff with J
6 of trump to 8 of trump
Ace of club discard H
Now you have QJ10x of clubs left, just give up a trick to the K ( you still have a small trump as entry and a trump in dummy to take care of the H)

this line should be 100%. (On a D lead, it might be more difficult to handle but i think there should be a close to 100% line, )

Another point to note : When you see the dummy, focus on your task to make your contract, do not rue over missing a good grand slam... Plan your play to the best for your contract, after all you can never change your final contract I've seen many disasters happen when declarer was thinking about how the bidding should have gone and misplayed the hand

[EarlPurple]

If this is MP it is not unreasonable to play for making 7♠ as the overtrick is important.

Win the ♥A, ruff a club low, two rounds of trumps finishing in dummy, then ace of clubs and another club ruff. Dummy still has two trumps so you get 2 entries with diamond ruffs, one to establish the clubs and another to get back and cash them.

A good tip for beginners: When dummy has a good suit, and also a short suit, it is usually better to try to set up the long suit, and simply to use the ruffs as entries. Therefore delay taking your ruffs, they won't go away. Well they often won't.

On a diamond lead it would have been the same line as you still have your heart entry, so you'd ruff, ruff a club, draw trumps finishing in dummy, ace and another club ruff, ruff a diamond with dummy's last trump and ruff a club, then use ♥A to return to the clubs.

At IMPs or rubber, it is reasonable for a beginner to simply take the easy 12 tricks.

[Trpltrbl]

6♠ is nice spot, 7 might even be better.
Play for ♣ to set up, and doing that sets up a dummy reversal.


Mike

[EarlPurple]

It's not really a dummy reversal. But you should count your tricks positively rather than negatively, i.e. count winners instead of losers.

You have to start with 6 top trumps and 2 aces so you need to establish 4 more to make 6 or 5 more to make 7, and you will do this by setting up 3 long clubs and ruffing 2 diamonds in dummy. The easy way (playing imps or rubber and not caring about the overtrick) sets up 5 more club tricks by taking the ruffing finesse (but even though you set up a 13th trick you can't make all of them because the opponents get one first).

[paulg]

EarlPurple, on May 23 2004, 04:24 PM, said:

If this is MP it is not unreasonable to play for making 7♠ as the overtrick is important.

As a general principle, having bid a 23-point slam I'd be playing it carefully to make even at pairs - we are likely to have most of the matchpoints already especially in a non-expert or any large field.

But of course any line to make the overtrick safely is better.

Paul

[keylime]

I whole-heartedly agree with Paul - this is a slam not many would be in, so I'd take an IMP approach to ironclad the contract.

[Flame]

keylime, on May 25 2004, 07:49 PM, said:

I whole-heartedly agree with Paul - this is a slam not many would be in, so I'd take an IMP approach to ironclad the contract.

IMP or not there is no resson not to make 7 if you can without a risk, and this hand can make 7 with zero risk.

[Flame]

posted on the wrong post , sry.

This post has been edited by Flame: 2004-May-25, 19:55