TRUST YOUR OPPONENTS
Do you trust your opponents? If they are better than average players, I usually do.
Here are few examples.
Deal no. 1 (both vulnerable):
- W N E S
109xx ---------------------------
QJ10xxx 1S 2D 3S 5D(1)
AK8 - - x 6D(2)
AK10xxx QJxx - - x -
QJx N xxxx - -
x W E Kx
xxx S QJx
xxx
AK
A9xx
106xx
(1) If the opponents have at least 19-20 points (plus distribution) and my
partner only 9-10, the only reason for his 2D bid must be 6-7 good diamonds,
very good 9 points and 0-1 spades!
His hand can look like this:
-, xxx, KJ10xxx, AJxx or
-, xxxx, KJ10xxxx, Ax or
x, xxxx, KQJxxx, Ax or
x, xxx, QJ10xxx, AKx or
x, xx, QJ10xxx, AKxx.
In all cases we make 11-12 tricks, it's difficult to reach the diamond slam but 5D looks cold.
(2) I trusted East thought he had a trump trick and it could only have been
the King! If my partner bid 2D with QJ10xxx(x) only, where were his other 6-7
good points? Obviously enough not in hearts! So it must have been either AK or
AQJ or at least AQ in clubs, but then I hoped for spade void or at least
x,xxxx,QJ10xxx,AQ and the odds were for the club finesse.
Deal no. 2:
When my hand (South) looks like this: Qx, x, AKJ10xxxx, Qx , I like to exercise some caution. You just can never know who is on the defensive, you or your opponents, especially after your partner already passed. And if my RHO opens, my favourite first bid is pass. From my experience, this way you can learn much more about the other three hands than by bidding your diamond suit, and you don't help your opponents reach a distributional game or even slam, which they can easily make since your hand has no defensive values.
The following deal occurred only few days ago:
N E S W
---------------------
- 1H - 2H
x 3H 4D(1) 4H
- - 5D(2) x
- -
(1) I simply loved my partner's take-out double ! But if I immediately bid 5D they were very likely to bid 5H against which I didn't know what to do...
My partner's hand: Kxxx, xx, Qxx, Axxx.
(2) Now my 5D clearly sounded like a defense against 4H, and that's exactly what I wanted to achieve.!
Of course there is a killing lead - either a club lead or a heart and a club back, depends who's got the King of clubs. In this case it was a heart and a club back, but trust your opponents! They led a heart to the Ace and the King of hearts in the second trick.
Now for the first time I had a fighting chance: two rounds of diamonds leaving prudently a diamond entry to the dummy, and a small spade from the dummy. I took the Queen and played small spades from both hands. As it happened, East had Axx and the rest was easy since I had two entries to the dummy: one to ruff the remaining small spade and the second one to play the King and discard the club loser.
Deal no. 3:
My hand (South) was quite average: A108xxx, KQx, xx, Jx, and the bidding was quite simple:
W N E S
---------------------------
1D - 1H -
1NT - - 2S
- - -
West led the Ace of clubs, then the Ace of diamonds and another diamond, East discarded high-low, indicating an even number of diamonds.
The dummy: Qx, Jxx, KQJx, xxxx.
Now I had to decide what to do next. West bid a balanced hand, the diamond discards indicated that he had 5 diamonds, so I assumed his distribution was 5332. He should have AKx or AKQ in clubs since he drew the Ace and didn't continue this suit, and I assumed he had only 2 hearts (without the Ace, because he bid less than 15 points). He couldn't have KJ in spades because of the same reason, so if I did guess the distribution right, he had either Kxx or Jxx in spades. If he had Kxx, I should play a spade from my hand to the Queen, but if I tried to reach my hand they'd be forced to take a heart ruff and I'd lose the contract, so I played the Queen of spades from the dummy instead. I win if I find Kxx in the West hand, but if he has Jxx, I still win if East has K9! The Queen was covered with the King, I took the trick with the Ace and played the 10 of spades.
The full deal was as follows:
Qx
Jxx
KQJx
xxxx
Jxx K9
xx N A10xxx
A10xxx W E xx
AKQ S xxxx
A108xxx
KQx
xx
Jx
Of course I could have lost the contract if West had led a heart even after one or two Aces, but he didn't. Trust your opponents, they'll usually do the right thing - for you...
Deal no. 4:
One day, after couple of long hours of practicing leads and defense, I finally got this beautiful first hand opening: xxxx, AQx, Axxxx, x, and happily opened 1D. My partner bid 1S, I bid 2S, partner 3C (long suit trial bid) and my RHO doubled, showing long and good clubs. In a flash I saw my opening and bid 4S!
S W N E
------------------------------
1D p 1S p
2S p 3C x
4S p 5D p
5H p 6S all pass
First of all, in case you wonder, the fact that I opened the bidding proves that I did have an opening even if I didn't, and as usual, I was going to treat it as such till the end of the hand. My 4S after the double ( trust your opponents, there are there to help and serve ) must have been understood as club singleton or even void, so I must have had my 13 points somewhere else. All of the sudden my partner just loved his hand! His 5D showed a good diamond support, I cue-bidded hearts, and 6S was easily reached.
AKJ9
xx
Kxxx
Axx
N
W E
S
xxxx
AQx
Axxxx
x
After the King of clubs lead ( wasn't East a great guy? ) my partner drew the Ace of spades on which East put the Queen. My partner looked suspiciously at East, saw an average, friendly and tired face, discarded the passing thought of East having had played the Queen from Q10 without any delay, timed the play well and easily made 13 tricks: 5 diamonds since they split 2-2, 6 spades including two club ruffers and trump finesse, and 2 Aces. Absolute top.
Let's see the full distribution:
AKJ9
xx
Kxxx
Axx
10xxx Q
KJxx N xxxx
Jx W E Qx
xxx S KQJ10xx
xxxx
AQx
Axxxx
x
I guess we were lucky I didn't play this hand. I wonder how many tricks I would have taken. Would I have discarded so easily the possibility of trump Q10? My worst trait in bridge is definitely my greatly exaggerated and mostly undeserved respect for other player's ability... I guess I'd have to discard the Q10 possibility since if I defended against it and didn't finesse the ten of spades, and was the Queen a true singleton, I'd have needed diamond 2-2 split in order to take 12 tricks. I believe I'd have played dry probabilities, but would I indeed?
Thank you partner that you were North here! It did save me some very serious headache...
Deal no. 5
This one I really enjoyed, even though it didn't last long, bidding, play and all.
You are vulnerable and after two passes you open 1S with the following hand (South): K1098x, - Axx, Axxxx. West jumps to 4H. Your partner bids 4S and East 5H. It's your turn now. What will you do? Will you double, will you bid 5S or maybe you'll think of something more creative?
I bid 6S without even giving it much thought, at the moment it seemed like the obvious solution.
Let's think it over. If my solid as a rock partner heard my third hand opening and decided on 4S, he must have some 9-10 playing points (hearts excluded) with a very good long spade suit, something like AQxxx or at least AQJx, and a King in a minor. I hoped for 4 small heart since the more he's got, the shorter his minors were. The ideal North hand would be something like AQJxx, xxxx, x, Kxx or AQJxx, xxxx, xx, Kx or at even AQJxx, xxxx, Kx, xx.
Reality didn't disappoint me this time:
AQJxx
xxxx
xx N E S W
Kx ------------------------------
p p 1S 4H
N 4S 5H 6S all pass
W E
S
K1098x
-
Axx
Axxxx
Even though trumps were 3-0 and clubs 4-2, it was a piece of cake.
Thank you my E-W friends for having handed me this slam on a plate in the bidding!
