[inquiry]

Hi, in another thread, it was suggested that we also might want to post some poorly played hands (gosh so many to choose between). So I thought I would pick one that has poor play stamped all over it to get us started. (I put this in the "hand of the week discussion group in the hopes that as we find poorly played ones, we might return to well played ones too).

Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 Pass  Pass  1♠    1NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

One spade is a tad aggressive, but the final contract of 1NT is not bad. The opening bid has encouraged a great opening lead of the ♠JACK

---

SJ S5 S4 S2 - ok duck first trick is alright. I might win the it and start ♦
S3 S6 S9 SA - boo... Let's do some counting. We have 3♥, 2♠, 1♣ for six tricks. all we need is one ♦, we might be able to get two diamonds by leading diamond from dummy if WEST has Ax, Kx, or AKx or AKxx (with heart reentry). So I would win ♠ in dummy and play low ♦.

CA CT C2 C7 = BOOOOOOOO. Now can lose 3♠, 2♣ (at least), and 2♦. Just committed suicide. Remember to count tricks. And could lose more clubs, if clubs are not precisely 3-3. The diamond play was road to sure contract.

C6 C9 C3 CJ =
S7 S8 H3 SK = low spade as suit preference (opener had 5SP for bid, so we know he has QT left... so this lowest is demand for diamond back.. but look... EAST throws away the heart of great value. Those four hearts look poor, but if partner has two spades, and the diamond ACE (for the signal) and we have a club winner... declerar is toast unless he can take four heart tricks.. NEVER throw a heart here.

HA H7 H6 H4 = wakes up that not enough tricks if leads another club...
H2 HT HK H5
HQ H9 D2 HJ = heart nine dies now due to the earlier heart discard
H8 D3 C4 D6 = wouldn't nine of heart be nice here?
DT D7 D4 DA
SQ D5 D9 D8
ST DJ CK C5
CQ DQ DK C8

Just making. This is one less than it should have been if declearer had correctly won first or second spade in dummy and lead low diamond, then if necessarily cross to heart ace to lead another diamond.

So the bridge here was not very good by either side. Declearer's play turned a sure +3.04 imps for +120 into a mear +2.05 for +90. So Delcearer's bad play cost him 1 imp, but it should have cost him more. Down one would have been -3.00 imps for a negative swing of 6.05 imps... however, the defender's heart discard cost even more. Declearer's play was going to give him a 6 imp swing, but his careless heart discard gave five of those six back.

Did we learn anything?

Ben

[inquiry]

Compare the last hand with this one... which type are more fun to read about?

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♦
 Pass  2NT   Pass  3♦
 Pass  3NT   Pass  4♣
 Pass  4♦    Pass  5NT
 Pass  6♣    Pass  Pass
 Pass  

We can only speculate what went horribly, horribly wrong here. North seemed to do an excellent job of describing his hand with 2NT 11-12 no four card major. South decided that 3D was safer than 2NT and attempted to signoff in diamonds. With huge diamond fit, north tried 3NT (good guess, it rolls). Now the funny business started. 4♣, you got me.

Maybe it was meant as keycard gerber, and south took 0-3 keycards... about only thing that can explain the leap to 5NT, 6♣, well, no grand slam interest?

That four card fit was a little confusing, this one is out and out justice...

[FONT=Courier]

Scoring: IMP

---

FONT]




4NT was blackwood, and 6♥ was meant as "void showing"... Two problems, no one knew what trumps was, and 2, the last makable contract was 6♦, so 6♥ even if partner can figure it out would be just in time to let him know that he should be playing 6♦.. kind of late then.

Now, convention abuse.. that can be a lot of fun to show....

[mr1303]

Nice one Ben. Although you do seem to have put the same hand down twice......


This one happened a while back:

---

bidding went, with me (south) as dealer

Pass Pass 2C Pass
2D Pass 3D Pass
3S Pass 4NT Pass
5D Pass 7S all pass

5D showed 0 or 3 keycards, 2C was strong. Managed to escape undoubled though, for -800 (we were vul)

[Double !]

Ben,
hi.

Will there be any prizes for people whose declarer play has qualified them for multiple entries per week into this thread? If so, then keep track of my play (when I have time to play) and just keep laughing! Is OK, I can take it.

[sceptic]

OK, I knew it would not be long before I played a hand so bad it was embarassing and here it is, I went from bad to worse, even after the crap diamond play I went to pieces and made it even worse, pick thge bones out of this one, I have a thick skin

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

 Pass  Pass  1♣    1NT
 Pass  2NT   3♣    3NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

it was played today look me up in myhands

in touney 519 ACBL 2am contract 3NT

p.s I dont know how to make a link to the file

[paulg]

Before I look at how you actually played it, let's consider the plan you should be making.

I see that the lead was ♣7, so let's do some simple counting:

- we have six top tricks: 2♣, 1♦, 3♥
- we have 26 combined points, so East should hold all the significant missing honours
- it is IMPs, so making the contract is more important than overtricks

Where can our extra tricks come from:
- diamonds: we can force another 2 tricks by ducking a diamond, or take the finesse that is likely to work without losing a trick.
- we can lead up to the ♠A for one trick
- hearts may be 3-3 or the ♥J may drop

It certainly looks right to cross to dummy and finesse the diamond. If you lead the ♥10 then you start to unblock the suit in case you want to play West for the ♥J in the future .... this is a no cost unblock and easy for a player to miss.

Lead the ♦J for dummy - East will not cover as he holds three (and so he cannot promote ♦ in partner's hand).

So now we are up to 7 tricks with the diamond finesse apparently working. So we should now take the finesse again - should we lead the ♦10 or ♦8?

I'd probably lead ♦8 and hope that East has doubleton or tripleton ♦K, so we take the simple finesse and it works again. I now have 8 tricks and chances for the ninth trick are: diamonds 3-3, hearts 3-3, spade ace well position.

We should also recount the hand ... at this point we know East has 3-4 diamonds, and 6 clubs given his 3♣ bid, so will be short in the majors. We can cash the ♦A as it does not matter if we set up a defensive trick, but they break 3-3 so we are now up to 9 tricks.

Now we cash the ♥Q and East shows out .... so we can now finesse the ♥J and we are up to 10 tricks. Now we can lead up to the ♠K as East must hold the ace and we end up with 11 tricks - in fact if East misdefends it is possible for him to endplay himself and let us make 12!

------------------------

Looking at your line, you've paid for not unblocking the ♥10. Also you've failed to appreciate the pressure you can apply to East by cashing the ♦Q before playing hearts.

But most importantly you did not count your tricks despite the diamond play ... you had nine tricks by playing a spade to the ♠K at trick 8. Ducking this spade was the biggest error.

Cheers

Paul

[mr1303]

One from last night's Portland Bowl match:

---

Bidding went (dealer North)

P 1D
2D 4NT
5D 6D


2D was inverted, limit +, 4NT was 1430 RKCB, 5D came after a big think

I couldn't think of a good 9 count that would have 0 aces. Worst case scenario:

QJx
Jxx
Qxxx
KQxx

and we were already down in 5D, so I decided to punt 6 for no good reason. 1 off.

[inquiry]

Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♠
 Pass  2♦    3♣    Pass
 Pass  Dbl   Pass  3♥
 Pass  5♥    Pass  6♥
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

---

Ok.. one on me... Yes I opened south 1♠. Yes, 5♥ asked me to bid slam with a club control, yes, I knew what 5♥ meants, and yes with south hand, I bid slam ANYWAY: 1-despite not having a club control, and 2-despite having what most would consider a considerable sub-par opening hand.

I thought my auction turned to gold when, as I had hoped, west refused to lead a club at trick one, picking a spade instead (whoopie.... lookd like easy 12 tricks.. but no, East (who didn't make lead directing double), ruffed, and cashed two clubs.

[mila85]

This one is about a poor defence.

Scoring: IMP

RHO ME LHO PARD
(1h)-1s-(2h)-2s
(4h)-4s-(p) -p
(dbl)-all pass

---

I liked my hand and bid 4 ♠
♥2 was lead. 4♠x is not a dream contract but it can be not so bad if they can make 4h. It's -2 or -3.
I played low from dummy, RHO played 9(!) and I took by my queen. ♥2 seems to be from Qxx2, I understand to it, thanks...
Now trumph king and RHO took it. He cashed ♣A and played low club....and my queen holds. Thanks...
♠Q, trumphs are 2-2.
The position is:

Scoring: IMP

RHO ME LHO PARD
(1h)-1s-(2h)-2s
(4h)-4s-(p) -p
(dbl)-all pass

---

I must give only one diamond. I played small, LHO ten, Q from dummy and east discarded a heard. Now I understand why he played small club from AK - he wanted diamond ruff.
The key to victory is ♦T played by west - ruff heard, ruff club, ruff heard, play diamond and west is endplayed....
When I began by ♥T from dummy, west put his ♥A and the endplay was useless.....