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Working Hard for an Average
I had the pleasure of playing at the end of the year with Rena Haas in a National Tournament organized by Gat, one of the 4 Bridge Clubs in Jerusalem, in which, for a big change, the owners/managers of all the other bridge clubs in Jerusalem attended. The tournament was held in honor of Avi Raz, the famed pharmacist of Jerusalem who was one of the founding fathers of bridge in the capital.
A decade ago there were 3 bridge clubs in Jerusalem operating twice a week on different days and were not in competition with one another. In fact, I would many times act as Tournament Director in all 3 clubs without any conflict of interest. Then almost 9 years ago, we opened the Jerusalem Bridge Center which 'shuffled the pack', so to speak, since we were open 6 days a week and were competing with all the other clubs. This competition created strained relationships between all the clubs trying to retain their share of the market. Recriminations were rife and the competition between the clubs was fierce.
But, there were many improvements for the players who gained from the benefits of the competition. All the clubs made improvements in facilities and the price of participation remained stable. The competition boosted teaching in the capital and participation in the last 9 years has gone from about 20,000 a year to about 45,000 – more than double! Compared to the national increase of less than 10%, this is certainly remarkable. The level of the bridge beyond Sha'ar Ha'Gay has improved too with all the clubs competing to bring 'big' name teachers like Eldad Ginnosar, Efraim Brifman, Moti Gelbart and Gilad Ofir to run courses.
Hopefully, a new atmosphere of positive thinking will mean that new players will increase, conditions will continue to improve, and relationships between club functionaries will become more cordial.
Here is a hand that I played against Martin Rotblatt (a club owner from outside Jerusalem) and his partner Malkolm Creme. We all know Hebrew but at this table we all reverted to our native mother tongue – English – mixed of course with lots of Hebrew wordsJ.
The bid went:
E S W N
P 1C P 1H
P 1NT P 3NT
What would you lead, as West, holding?
S 764
H JT2
D KT532
C 54
I guess most of you would lead the unbid Diamond suit from a 5 card suit headed by the King. But Malcolm had different ideas and found a killing lead of the Jack of Hearts. I suppose he figured that he was so weak that he would need to find unexpected strength in partner's diamonds to be able to rattle off some tricks in the suit. Since I did not support my partner's suit, he was hoping to find something in Hearts with his partner – which he did!
Here is the full hand:
North (Rena)
S KQJ3
H Q863
D Q4
C A92
West (Malcolm) East (Martin)
S 764 S T982
H JT2 H A974
D KT532 D 87
C 54 C QJ8
South (me)
S A5
H K5
D AJ96
C KT763
I was not proud of my second bid and maybe it would have been better to open 1NT with 15 points despite the 2 doubletons as I held honors in both of the majors. I had too many points now for either 1NT or 2 Clubs and not enough points for a reverse bid of 2 Diamonds.
Anyway the majority of pairs got to 3NT and on a ' natural' diamond lead they were quickly chalking up 3NT +2 - 4 Spades, 1 Heart, 2 Diamonds and 4 Clubs.
The Heart lead opened up the suit for the defense and did not give me time to develop both Clubs and Diamonds. The Heart lead ran round to my King and I ducked a club to East to protect myself from the Heart continuation. But now East (Martin) made the killing switch to the 8 of Diamonds and I could see that if I let West (Malcolm) win he would continue Hearts and, if East held the Ace of Hearts, my contract would die a painful death. So I rose with the Ace and took my 10 tricks with 4 Spades, 1 Heart, 1 Diamond and 4 Clubs.
This proved necessary as running the Diamond would have been fatal.
Malcolm would have won the King of Diamonds and reverted to Hearts to put me on a guess – either I would just make or go down one - both results would have given me a terrible score.
So, half the field made 3NT + 2, the rest just made or went down and a few pairs ventured to 5 or even 6 Clubs which also failed.
So, our score of 3NT + 1 with good defense and careful declarer play resulted in a fair score - average.
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A New (?) Bridge Tip
Here's an interesting hand that I played recently with Malka Yaacov at the Jerusalem Bridge Center. The scoring was Top-bottom (match points).
After playing the hand, I considered that an important tip can be applied and I have not seen it in any of the literature (I would appreciate if anyone would let me know if I am wrong)
Here is your hand:
South
S 96
H JT2
D AQT972
C 83
You are NV against vulnerable.
This is the bidding:
N E S W
1S 2H P P
3 C P P 3H
All pass
You are on lead after a competitive auction and it is critical to get the opponents down two as you get the magic 200. This will guarantee a good result because it will be better than any part-score that you could make in Spades. Partner opened Spades and then bid her second suit, Clubs. You have a doubleton in both suits and nothing really to choose between the two. Which one do you lead?
My tip is to lead the second suit not the first one. Why? Well it is true that partner opened Spades, and in a bidding sequence you would give preference to the first suit, but the opening bid does not promise honors. The bid of the second can only be made with some kind of strength in that suit.
Well I lead a Club - the second suit - and look what happened.
Here is the full hand:
North
S QJT42
H 9
D J5
C AKQ63
West East
SA75 S K83
H K754 H AQ863
D 864 D K5
C JT7 C 942
South
S 96
H JT2
D AQT972
C 83
East was encouraged to bid on due to the favorable position of the King Spades and West competed with 4 card support and the Ace in the opponent's suit. Both were hoping that their partner was short in Clubs.
I decided to lead partner's second suit with the 8 of Clubs from the doubleton. Bingo!
After the AKQ of Clubs I signaled for a Diamond switch by discarding my odd 7 of Diamonds on the 3rd round and declarer was already one down when I won both the Ace and Queen of Diamonds.
Now for the key play. If I would have led a high diamond, then partner may well have discarded and declarer can ruff small. But instead , I led the 2 of Diamonds forcing my partner to ruff the 'high' 8 Diamonds in dummy with her 9 of Hearts and when this was overruffed by declarer with the Queen, my JT2 of Hearts was promoted to a second setting trick for the 2 down = 200.
Just look what would have happened if I would have led a Spade. Declarer would win, draw trumps and concede 3 Clubs and 2 Diamonds for 1 down = 100. This would have been a bad score for us because 3 Spades can only be in trouble from a difficult Heart lead from the Ace-Queen. If there is no Heart lead, then North can even make 4 Spades. We scored a top, because I led Clubs rather than partner's first suit, Spades.
I think I made a big mistake not doubling 3 Hearts as partner bid 2 suits strongly and I have the third. In hindsight, it seems difficult to imagine that 3 Hearts can be made. 500 would have absolutely guaranteed a top.
So, if there is no particular reason to lead partner's first suit rather than the second, then lead the second suit.
Good tip? What do you think?
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The Case of the Moysian Fit
It is always a pleasure playing in the 'Leagot', there is a special kind of ambiance in playing 16 hands against one pair in IMP's, rather than the usual 2 or 3 hands against a wide variety of different opponents in Top-Bottom.
One of our team's encounters this year in 'Leaga Artzit' was against the formidable Wax team and I found myself in an unusual Moysian fit.
A Moysian fit refers to declarer's holding 4-3 in trumps and is named after Alphonse Moyse Jr., who (in certain situations) strongly advocated opening 4 card majors and raises with 3 card support. Playing a 4-3 Moysian trump fit is often challenging since one defender often has as many or even more trumps than the declarer. The declarer's dilemma is how many rounds of trumps to play - playing more than one round of trumps usually commits the declarer to a given line of play, hoping opponents' trumps and other suits split relatively evenly and favorably.
Here is hand 21 of the final session on 12th November 2011.
(N/S Vul) (E-W N/V)
You hold as South:
S AKQT
H Q742
D T963
C 3
You hear the following bidding:
North East South West
1 Diamond Pass 1 Heart 3 Clubs*
Pass Pass 3 Spades Pass
4 Hearts All pass
* weak
My partner took me for 5 Hearts and 4 Spades – maybe a double would have been a better bid rather than 3 Spades. But, I wanted to show partner that I had game going values after his opening, especially as my hand was strengthened by the singleton Club. If partner held a Club stopper, then 3NT could be the best contract. He did not have a Club stopper, so he bid 4 Hearts opposite my presumed 5 card suit.
Here is the full hand (rotated for convenience):
North
S 962
H AK2
D AJ82
C J54
West East
S 853 S J74
H J6 H T985
D Q4 D K75
C AKT982 C Q76
South
S AKQT
H Q743
D T963
C 3
The lead was the Ace and King of Clubs. I ruffed the second round and found myself left with a 3-3 trump fit. I could see that even if the opponent's trumps broke 3-3, I would have my work cut out for me. I counted 3 Hearts, 3 Spades, a Club ruff and a Diamond – eight tricks. As so often happens in bridge, I had to disregard the axiom – ruff in the shorter suit - and I decided to play a Heart to the Ace and then the key play, ruff a Club in my hand. I was pleased to see the Queen of Clubs from East because if this was a true card which was probable after the 3 Club bid, then East had no more Clubs left in his hand.
Next came the Ten of Diamonds to the Queen and Ace and I now drew trumps with small to the Queen and small to the Ace. Then on the King of trumps, I discarded a small Diamond from my hand. I was not pleased that trumps broke 4-2 rather than 3-3. I was left to contemplate the Spade suit.
I could play a finesse to the Jack (probably a better than 50% chance since West has a known long Club suit) but decided to play from the top hoping that the Jack was singleton, doubleton or 3 times. Fortunately for me, both lines work on this particular hand.
9 tricks were in the bag and I played the high Ten of Spades. East had to ruff with the only outstanding trump but then had to play King of Diamonds and reluctantly gave the last trick to the Jack of Diamonds in dummy.
On the other table they played in the same contract for one down.
This swing of 12 IMP's meant that we "won" the match by 2 VP's – but unfortunately 2 VP's in 16 hands is a tie.
But, as I pointed out to our opponents, "We had the 2 VP's edge, so the moral victory was ours".
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Give your partner
the chance to have his bid
I remember reading somewhere that the shortest bridge book in the world is the one entitled "Rebids after a preemptive". Meaning that after your preemptive bid all that is left for you to do is to pass.
I would like to use this article to carry this thought a little further on the theme of "if you have shown your values and partner has another bid, then let him decide what to do."
The idea came to me after playing the following hand with two delightful ladies at the Jerusalem Bridge Center:
North
♠ 8
♥ 52
♦ AK752
♣ K8653
West East
♠ AKQ76 92 ♠
♥ AT8 ♥ J9763
♦ 86 ♦ 9543
♣ 942 ♣ AQ
South
♠ JT543
♥ KQ4
♦ T2
♣ JT7
North South vulnerable - East West non- vulnerable.
South (dealer) passed and West opened 1 Spade. North bid an unusual 2 No Trumps, showing the 2 minors. East passed and South gave preference for Clubs with 3 Clubs.
West, falling in love with her AKQ of Spades now made her big mistake by bidding 3 Spades. This was doubled by South and West went down 2.
If West would have passed the 3 Clubs, her partner would still have a chance to bid. After 3 Clubs pass, pass, East would be able to reason as follows:
My partner opened the bidding and then passed so she has a 5 card suit and probably 12-14 points. North bid 2 No Trumps vulnerable so is surely 5-5 (or maybe 6-5) in the minors with close to an opening. South gave preference to Clubs and since he was a passed hand anyway he is not very strong. I have 6 points so the strength is divided more or less equally between the 2 sides. But I have a 6 card Heart suit. I can bid 3 Hearts and partner will not take me for a strong hand as I did not take any action over 2 NT.
3 Hearts would make for +140 – much better than going down 2 in 3 Spades for -300.
The point is that East knows all about West's hand but West knows virtually nothing about East's hand and therefore East is in a much better position to decide on what action to take. In the hand above, to continue bidding is correct, but with a Club stack instead of the length in Hearts then double could be the right course of action. Alternatively with a weak hand but length in Spades then 3 Spades could be the best competitive bid.
The moral: If your partner still has a chance to bid after you have shown your hand, let him decide what action to take.
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Don't mess about with Lotan
Have any of you noticed that it is getting tougher to play in our national championships? The pairs, mixed pairs, Imp's and all the other have become so much more challenging because of the healthy sprinkling of World and European junior champions. It is true that many of them play with clients but they raise the level considerably nevertheless. It seems like the only refuge left is the Seniors which give the average players some chance of success.
Anyway, my partner and I were playing in the second round of semi-finals of the Mixed Pairs Championships when we were facing Lotan Fischer and his partner.
I picked up:
S 872
H 65
D J6532
C KQ4
Quite a few points more than my usual collection of rubbish. As dealer I passed and the bid continued:
1 Club was followed by 4 Spades from my partner, and then 4 NT from Lotan. I passed and Lotan's partner now answered 5 Clubs. He was not quite sure what to make of this as he was asking for Aces and his partner was showing 0 or 3. In fact, she did not realize he was asking for Aces and simply bid her long Clubs again. I could see that he was a bit agitated and when he threw down the 7 NT card , I happily doubled. Partner obviously had points for her 4 Spades bid and I held the King-Queen in dummy's suit.
I led the King of Clubs and waited for the one down doubled. I am still waiting. 
Here is the full hand:
S 872
H 65
D J6532
C KQ4
S AT S -
H AKQT432 H 9
D K8 D AQT94
C J2 C AT97653
S KQJ96543
H J87
D 7
C 8
Lotan won in dummy and rattled off 7 Heart tricks. I followed twice, discarded my 3 Spades, a Club and a Diamond. Now came the Ace of Spades and I started squirming. Mercifully, Lotan put me out of my misery by claiming the rest. He told me that if I discard my Queen of Clubs then his Jack is high and if I throw another Diamond then he runs off the diamond suit. 7NT doubled made for a score of 2490 – an absolute bottom for us.
As I wrote as the subject of this article -Don't mess around with Lotan |
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Listen to your opponents
Here is a hand played in the Jerusalem Bridge Center in one of our tournaments and is very instructive, because it shows that we should not play bridge based on the rules we learn, but we have to listen to our opponents before deciding on the best line of play.
Here is your hand:
You have 16 points and you open 1 NT with:
S AK87
H A982
D K32
C Q3
After a pass from LHO your partner with 11 points bids 2 Clubs (Stayman). RHO opponent doubles. This double shows strength in Clubs and strongly suggests an opening Club lead. You bid 2 Hearts which partner raises to 4 Hearts.
LHO leads the 10 of Diamonds and this is what you see:
S AK87 S Q432
H A982 H KJ76
D K32 D AJ94
C Q3 C 2
Well, this is not the time to count points anymore but to count losers. You can see one possible loser in Spades (if they break 4-1 or 5-0), one in Hearts (if the finesse does not work), no losers in Diamonds after the lead of the Ten and one loser in Clubs. In fact, if the Spades are 3-2 and you guess the Hearts you may even make 2 overtricks.
Our declarer did not take any notice of the bid or lead and after Ten, Jack, Queen, King of Diamonds on trick one, he decided to play a Heart to the Jack.
This thinking was based on the principle that with 8 cards missing the Queen, the correct play is to finesse. This was fatal. South took the Queen of Hearts and played a small Diamond which was ruffed. Back came a Club followed by another ruff and one down.
What did our declarer miss? Firstly South doubled for a Club lead and North, despite that double led a Diamond.
Why?
He should have reasoned that the Diamond was a singleton and there was a serious danger that South would be able to give his partner a ruff.
Here is the full hand:
S T96
H T43
D T
C J98754
S AK87 S Q432
H A982 H KJ76
D K32 D AJ94
C Q3 C 2
S J5
H Q5
D Q8765
C AKT6
So, in order to avoid the threatened ruff, the correct play was to play the Ace and King of Hearts and when the Queen drops doubleton then he makes 2 overtricks instead of going down!
By the way, it would have been marginally better to play the Ace of Hearts and then finesse because then North only gets one ruff and also the Queen of Hearts may be singleton.
So, the conclusion: When one opponent doubles for a lead or bids a suit, and his partner does not lead that suit, ask yourself, why did he do that?
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The Shakespeare's Elbow Bridge Club in Montreal
Whenever I travel abroad, I like to visit a local bridge club to soak in the atmosphere. I have just been visiting my son Oren in Montreal and he invited me to a game at the Shakespeare's Elbow Bridge Club - strange name for a bridge club - in the very Jewish St Luc section of Montreal. It was quite fascinating to see the set up. They play every single day of the year (except Yom Kippur !) and the tournaments are run by the very amiable Michael Efraim from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. No morning - no evenings and no siesta. A lunch light before the tournament begins and free tea and coffee and biscuits during the tournament. The club is situated on the fourth floor of a shopping mall and has a beautiful view from all the windows. It costs NIS 35 to play in one of the daily tournaments.
At least 80 % of the players were Jewish and they all greeted me in such a friendly way, it was a pleasure. Many have children who live in Israel or lived in Israel and some have grandchildren who are about to go or just came back. The club has capacity for 50 tables and is the 7th largest Bridge Club in North America. Despite the fact that it is in Quebec, we only encountered one pair of French speakers - all the rest were English speakers. Funnily enough, on an adjacent table I met Blanche Gulko who used to live and play in Israel but now lives in Montreal. On the day we played there were quite a few empty tables because the weather was pleasant and many had gone off to play golf instead! That was a stroke of luck as we had not booked a table in advance- usually they are completely full and only players who book places in advance can play even though it is just a regular local tournament.
They use Bridgemates for scoring which is a pleasure too after using travelling score sheets all my life.
Everyone is so interested to see their running score and how well they scored on each board.
Probably the most striking difference is the quiet. Despite the preponderance of Jews they have obviously been influenced by the Canadians and are very calm, polite, and quiet.
They have not got a clue about Multi 2 Diamonds, and when they asked what kind of system is it? I replied : Standard Israeli.
Anyway, here is an interesting hand from the tournament:
Oren (West) Brian (East)
S KQT73 S 2
H Q H AKJT9854
D AT74 D 982
C AJ5 C 9
After I opened 4 Hearts non-vulnerable against vulnerable, Oren, who hasn't played much bridge for the last few years, simply leaped to 6 No Trumps. No beating around the bush for him in top-bottom. Instead of a friendly spade lead, he got the lead of the king of diamonds and the contract looked hopeless. All that seemed possible was that he would take 8 Heart tricks and 2 Aces for 2 down. But Oren didn't give up. He could see that his only chance of making the contract would be if South held the Ace of Spades and also had a singleton Diamond. So, after winning the Ace of Diamonds on trick one, he overtook the Queen of Hearts and ran off 8 hearts tricks. South was in trouble as this was the situation when the last heart from the dummy (East) was played.
North
S 3
H ---
D QJ6
C T
West East
S KQT S 3
H ---- H 4
D ---- D 98
C AJ C 9
South
S AJ 9
H ----
D ----
C KQ
When the 4 of hearts was played Oren realised that South was in trouble as she agonised for some time before discarding the 9 of spades. A discard of the queen of clubs would have been just as fatal as he could then discard a spade. He now discarded the jack of clubs on the heart and played a small spade from the table. As it happens south played the ace of spades but the jack would have been no better. Since south held a singleton diamond from the beginning, Oren made the contract for a top score.
Well done son, never give up even if the contract looks hopeless.
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On Etiquette and Ethics
Here are 10 improvements that I would like to see in behavior during bridge tournaments in Israel:
1) Tournament Director's starting tournaments on time without players arriving late and delaying the proceedings. In England, I remember playing in a tournament and at 7:55 p.m. all the players without exception were all in their seats. At exactly 8:00 p.m. the tournament Director came in to the room and said very quietly "OK, you can start now". Play began immediately in perfect silence.
2) Less talking by Directors. I was playing in a tournament in Canada - 2 sections of 18 tables. After 9 rounds the director said "Please move to the next round" and every East-West in the room knew to skip a table. The Director did not even mention the need to skip. Apart from announcing to move to the next table the director's voice was not heard at all during the tournament.
3) A more pleasant approach to players by directors. The players pay good money to participate in tournaments and sometimes mistakes - like revokes or insufficient bids - are made. There is no point in shouting at the players. It would be far more pleasant if Directors would show more respect to the players, to make ruling with humor and without emotion.
4) Less talking by players and less body language. This is another word for cheating and has to come from the way we educate our new players and also our youngsters.
5) Respect for partners. One of Modi Konigsberg favorite expressions is "I never made a mistake in bridge…..on purpose". Remember your partner is on your side. He wants to win just as much as you do. It does not help to call him an idiot or worse, it will only ruin your chances on doing well on the next board. If your partner made a mistake, he probably knows it before you. On the other hand, a short remark, like "well played, partner" or "good switch partner" can do wonders for partnership harmony.
6) Less gloating and more respect for opponents. Shaking hands when the opponents make a mistake and demonstrably congratulating one another on a top score is very unpleasant.
7) Less post-mortems. When the hand is over it is much more pleasant to arrive at the next tale with a short greeting to the new opponents rather than remain agitated over partner's play in the previous round.
8) No mobile phones. How did we exist before they were introduced?
9) When I am directing a tournament, I am very frustrated when I am called by one player, yet the whole table starts interrupting and trying to have their say. Don't they realize that they are harming their cause? If the player who called is allowed to have is say and the others listen and respond to the questions of the director, then the problem will be solved much more equitably and fairly. Those who interrupt or talk loudly are automatically judged more harshly by me and I am sure that other directors act in the same way.
10) More teaching of ethics and etiquette to our beginner's classes not simply learning how to play the game.
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Trust your Partner
In my opinion the 2 most pleasurable moments in bridge come from:
A) The perverted pleasure in seeing one of your opponents squirm when he is squeezed and he cannot decide what card to throw. You know that he is squeezed and whatever card he throws will enable you to make the winning play. The longer he agonizes the more you enjoy it.
B) The pleasure of playing a defense in which the partners trust one another and as a result make a good score.
Today, I would like to show an example of B.
It never ceases to amaze me when beginners say to me:
"I didn't play at all today" or when asked how they did, they reply "No good, we had such lousy cards." It shows a basic misunderstanding about how duplicate bridge is scored. By, "I didn't play at all today" they mean – "I was not declarer today". This is quite possible. Remember when you play a 24 boards session then on average you will be dummy 6 times, declarer 6 times and in defense 12 times. But playing well in defense is one of the most important ways of scoring better results and generally speaking you will be twice as many times on the defense rather than declarer.
As for the "lousy cards", well it is true that the hands with lots of points can produce more spectacular bidding and use of conventions but at the end of the day what is important is to get a better score than the other pairs who play exactly the same hands as you.
Here is an example on the theme of trusting your partner which were played in the National Tournament in Ra'anana in honor of Uri Yariv (RIP) which was held in May.
You hold as South:
S QT3
H T4
D T8764
C A32
You hear the following bidding:
East South West North
1 Spade Pass 2 Diamonds Pass
2 Hearts Pass 4 NT Pass
5 Diamonds Pass 6 Spades x
All pass
What do you lead? Well usually you would lead the Ace of Clubs but just look at that double from partner. This is a "Lightner" double asking for an "unusual" lead. Well, because it is often quite difficult to know what kind of unusual lead is required, my partner and I play that it is always asking for the first bid suit of dummy – in this case Diamonds. So, my partner trusted me and instead of leading a "natural" Ace of Clubs, she led the 8 of Diamonds and …... BINGO!
Here is the full hand:
North
S 82
H Q632
D ---
C QJT9865
West East
S K9 S AJ7654
H A5 H KJ987
D AQJ532 D K9
C K74 C ---
S QT3
H T4
D T8764
C A32
I ruffed the Diamond lead and my partner later took a Spade for one down. Just notice that after the Ace of Clubs lead, declarer would have ruffed and drawn trumps and only given you the Queen of Spades for 6 Spades making.
Thank you partner for trusting me!
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"e-bridge" – An Exciting and New Experience
in Learning Bridge
At our pilgrimage to the Lot Hotel for our annual "Nofshon" at the Dead Sea this winter, I did something that I have never done before! How many over 60's can boast such a thing?
What was it? A one hour lecture on Checkback Stayman. Well, that doesn't sound so spectacular, does it? For me, though, it was. The reason is that I have never played Checkback Stayman in my life and up to a month previously, I did not have a clue about how it works. Funnily enough, a couple of months before, I was playing in a local tournament with Paula Weiss and after I opened 1 Club, she bid 1 Spade, and then I bid 1 No Trump. She now bid 2 Clubs (forcing) and I passed! She assumed that I play Checkback Stayman and could not believe it, when I told her sorry, don't know Checkback and have never played it before.
So, what has happened in the meantime? Oryah Meir recruited me to help translate from Hebrew to English, in her new internet innovation, Best e Bridge, This is a joint venture with Motti Gelbart and two other partners. The concept is so simple that everyone will be asking "Why didn't I think of such a brilliant idea?" What they have done is to take the best teacher in Israel (in fact, the teacher of all the teachers) and give bridge lessons for all on the internet. Oryah and Motti have taken bridge topics like, 4th suit forcing, overcalls, and Checkback Stayman and broken them down to 10 to 20 separate 7 minute lessons which can be ordered by the public and played at home by means of a subscription site through the internet. The advantage of this is that you get a private lesson at a very reasonable price without stepping out of your door. Motti gives the lessons in his very distinct and picturesque style, backed up by excellent graphics which make the lessons come alive.
What a great way to learn and improve your bridge! In fact, the Hebrew version is really just a pilot for the launch of this huge project, which will be distributed worldwide after translation. My translating job is excellent for me, because apart from receiving a salary for my work, I am getting free bonus lessons too.
Here is an excerpt from one of the lessons on Checkback Stayman:
Checkback Stayman – Opener's 4th bid
Now we will take the seat of the opener, and we will see how we answer our partner, the responder, when he asks us Checkback Stayman.
We have Queen doubleton Spade, King, Jack 3 times Hearts, Ace, Queen 4 times Diamonds and 4 small Clubs headed by the Nine. That's a total of 12 points. We open 1 Diamond, partner bids 1 Spade, we bid 1 No Trump and partner bids 2 Clubs. This bid, of course has no connection to the Club suit in itself. It is simply asking "Partner do you have 4 Hearts? And if you don't have 4 Hearts, maybe you have 3 Spades for me?"
If you have neither of these 2 holdings then bid either 2 |Diamonds showing 12-13 points or 2 No Trumps showing 14 points. In this example, with only 12 high card points, we bid 2 Diamonds. We now know that partner has 5 spades for sure and in addition he may have 4 Hearts. If Partner now bids 2 No Trump, we will pass.
If partner bids on our 2 Diamonds, 3 No Trump then that is our final contract. If partner bids on our 2 Diamonds, 3 Hearts showing 5-5 in the majors and 13 plus points we will bid 4 Hearts. This means that in this hand with our 12 points, if partner won't carry on to game we will not be there. If we change our hand a little, giving ourselves the Queen of Clubs 4 times then we now have 14 points. Now, after partner makes any move to invite us, we will continue to a full game contract. This is because partner promised 11 points or more. When partner investigates the distribution and strength of your hand after 1 No Trump, it is up to partner to decide on the final contract after discovering all the details of your hand.
Another alteration in our hand – 12 points but now with Queen 3 times Spades, when partner bids 2 Clubs Checkback Stayman after our 1 |No Trump, we will now bid 2 Spades. If partner invites us with 3 Spades we will pass. Just look what happens when we hold, Queen 3 times Spades, King, Jack 3 times Hearts, Ace, Queen, Jack 5 times Diamonds and a small doubleton Club. This is 13 points but we can add an extra point for the doubleton Club and the nice 5 card Diamond suit so, after discovering the 5-3 fit, we can accept partner's invitation and bid now 4 Spades.
At the end of all the lessons is a summary. Here is an example:
To summarize:
· Checkback Stayman is bid by the responder after the second bid of opener has been 1 No Trump which shows a balanced hand of 12-14 points.
· The responder will bid 2 Clubs and in doing so promises 11+ points and asking opener to continue to describe his hand.
· The responder will use the convention to find out, amongst other things if opener has 3 card support in the responder's suit.
It is clear that the opener hasn't got 4 card support otherwise he would have supported immediately.
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FLYING LOW!
Just look at this hand from a recent duplicate game at the Jerusalem Bridge Center.
I was playing with Shmuel Greenberg known in Jerusalem as Green or "the egg man from the Moshav" who is also a helicopter pilot. Here he was in action swooping down to the ground with a beautifully judged pass which amazed our opponents.
Here is the full hand.
North (Green)
S Q987
H A1096
D A982
C 7
(Yossi) (Shraga)
S AK1054 S 632
H Q852 H 43
D 764 D Q105
C 6 C K10843
South (me)
S J
H KJ7
D KJ3
C AQJ952
East-West were vulnerable and North-South non-vulnerable - very
critical in this situation. North, the dealer, passed of course with
his 10 points as did East. I opened 1 Club and Yossi my opponent bid a "normal" overcall of 1 Spade. Not a bad bid I suppose, with the regulation 9 + points, a 5 card suit headed by the Ace and King and with the additional bonus of a singleton in my suit. Green now passed as did west and I was looking at my lovely 6 card suit. But in these situations I play that a double in this position is automatic.
This double is a protective double which has become necessary since the introduction of negative doubles.
I spoke to Eitan Orenstein once about this situation and he told me
that the double is not automatic and should be made only when I hold less than 3 cards in the opponent's suit. This means if you have shortness in the overcaller's suit, it could well be that partner
holds a trump stack over the overcaller and could not double because this would have been "negative" and would be taken out.
With more than 3 Spades the chances are very slim that partner has a trump stack and you should bid your suits naturally.
Anyway with a singleton Spade, my hand certainly fit the bill. With a weak hand and an insignificant trump holding partner would escape to the lowest possible bid – either 1 No Trump, 2 of a long suit or simply support my opening suit.
Anyway, Green with vulnerability favorable to our side, with his good defensive values, and his trump holding opposite an opening decided to convert my reopening protective double into a penalty double. This is very rare on the 1 level but he figured that even one down would give us the magic 200 – better than any part-score that we could make and since we were non-vulnerable 2 down would be better than any game we could make.
So the final contract was one Spade doubled.
Green led a Spade. Notice that he has natural trumps tricks so there is no point in leading the singleton club. Yossi took my Jack of Trumps with his Ace and tried hopefully a Club to his King which of course lost. When the dust had cleared and Yossi managed to scramble home with 5 tricks, he was 2 down doubled for a juicy 500. All the other North South pairs played in various part scores for 110 or 130 and some made part-scores in no trump for 120. One pair on our side even managed 3 No Trump for 400.
This is an exceptional case when doubling on the 1 level leads to an
excellent score. It is certainly more common after 1 of a major, 2 of a minor overcall followed by pass, pass and then a protective double which partner can convert into a penalty double if he has the required trump stack.
500 or even 800 in such cases can be far more profitable than the dubious game which sometimes makes and more often than not,
doesn't make.
I think we should all consider eating more eggs!
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Dream session
If you can score near to 70% or more in a session against a decent field, you can feel pretty pleased with yourself. You need a few elements to help you on your way, the most important being:
1) You and your partner have to be in tune playing solidly without misunderstandings.
2) You have to take advantage of the slightest mistakes by your opponents and
3) You need a good healthy quota of luck.
Obviously number 3 is the most important element.
In the southern district preliminaries of the Israel championships (Top – Bottom) I was fortunate to have such a session with my young partner, Stav Rachmani.
Here are a couple of examples of how it can be done.
N/S vul
Dealer W
The bidding goes: (rotated for convenience)
East South West North
P 1NT* P 2Sp**
3 H 3NT P 4NT***
P 5 C **** P 6 C
end
- *14-16 (playing "Puppet Stayman")
- ** Transfer to clubs
- *** Roman Key card Blackwood
- **** 3 aces out of 5
What do you lead as West with this hand?
S KQ62
H 987
D JT84
C A9
You have a guaranteed club trick (unless partner revokes!) and partner bid hearts so he must have something there. Looks like a double might have been in order. You lead an obvious K of spades to set up a spade trick and when dummy goes down this is the full hand:
I was sitting south and immediately saw that I was missing 2 aces. A heart lead would have defeated me instantly.
North (Stav)
S ---
H Q
D K95
C 875432
West East
S KQ62 S 9753
H 987 H AJT52
D JT84 D Q762
C A9 C ---
South (me)
S AJT84
H K63
D A3
C KJ6
The lead gave me a chance. I threw a heart from dummy, won with the ace of spades and led the Jack of spades. I needed the spades to behave, either 4-4, 5-3 or if they were 6-2 then the hand which was short in spades would have to be void or singleton ace in clubs. Fortunately they were 4-4 so when West covered my Jack, I ruffed in dummy and returned to my hand to lead the winning 10 of spades and discard my losing Queen of hearts. I could now give up a club, ruff a diamond and dummy was high. An absolute top score. You an see what I mean by a good healthy quota of luck !
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Where is the Queen?
Heard the phrase eight – ever, nine never? Excellent teaching tool but finding the queen can be much more than simply reciting a mantra and playing accordingly.
You hold Dummy
AJ72 KT743
Well, according to the mantra you should just play of the ace and king and that is the best chance that the queen will drop. (Nine – never – never take the finesse.)
Well what about:
You hold Dummy
AJ72 KT64
Now you should play for the finesse which gives you a better chance of finding the queen than finding the queen doubleton (eight- ever). It helps if the queen happens to drop on the floor or if you get a peek at the opponent's cards and then you know exactly which way to take the finesse. Sometimes you can also get an indication from the bidding or lack of bidding from your opponents.
The hands:
Declarer Dummy
S AJT S KQ9
H A84 H 63
D KQ9 D AJT
C AJ72 C KT743
The bidding:
North West South East
3 Hearts x Pass 4NT
Pass 5 Hearts Pass 6NT
North leads the King of hearts. You count 3 spades, 1 heart, 3 diamonds and 2 clubs = 9 tricks. Even if you finesse to through north and the queen of clubs loses to south you will only have 11 tricks even though south will now be out of hearts.
Anyway, according to the mantra, you should play for the drop of the queen of clubs. But since North bid 3 hearts he has 7 known cards (hearts) and 6 unknown. So South is more likely to hold the queen. Finesse against South and pray. Too bad - the queen is with North and you lose to the queen of clubs and an avalanche of hearts.
So how do you make this contract against any distribution? The answer is to make some detective work. Play 3 rounds of spades and see how many times North follows suit. Now play 3 rounds of diamonds and again see how many times he follows suit.
Let's say he follows twice in spades and twice in diamonds. Now you know that he had 7 hearts, 2 spades and 2 diamonds. He started with 13 cards so you know that he started with exactly 2 clubs. Play for the drop.
Let's say he follows 3 times in spades and 3 times in diamonds. Now you know he started with 7 hearts, 3 spades and 3 diamonds and therefore no clubs. Finesse against South
Let's say he only follows with one spade and one diamond. Now you know he started with 4 clubs. Finesse against North.
Finally, if he follows to 2 spades and 3 diamonds (or 3 diamonds and 2 spades) then you know he has only 1 club. Play the king and run the 10.
Just note that you only need to observe and count the cards from North.
What do you do if he pre-emptied with only 6 hearts? You should still be able to get the right count but if not then congratulate him on his fine bid. If you succeed in your play your partner should congratulate you on your fine play.
Compliments in bridge rather than criticism, wouldn't that be nice?
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Hands from the Israel Championships.
On the weekend of the 21st and 22nd May my wife Maggy and I played in the Israel championships. It was a very tough level even in section B. IMP's can be a very cruel tournament because you can lose so much on just a single board, especially after working arduously to scrape some single IMP's on part scores and overtricks. Then a slam comes along and you lose 12 IMP's in one shot.
Aviv Dvir partnered by Ilan Heller scored such a 12 IMP's hand against us – Aviv made an excellent recovery after his partner Ilan put him in an ambitious slam.
Here is the hand (rotated for convenience):
All Vul North (Ilan)
Dealer S Q73
South H QT4
D J9764
C K6
West (me) East (Maggy)
S J86 S 54
H J7532 H K98
D T8 D K32
C Q95 C JT432
South (Aviv)
S AKT92
H A6
D AQ5
C A87
The bidding:
South West North East
2 D (strong) P 3 D P
3 S P 4NT P
5 D P 6 S end
21 points opposite 8 points in balanced distribution – a very ambitious slam indeed especially since they are missing 2 kings.
I was faced with an unpalatable lead round to the strength of declarer and remembering the advice of my late friend Yvonne Simhon "when you don't know what to lead, then you should lead your longest suit". I duly led a small heart and then put declarer to his first dilemma – to play the 10 or the queen? He wrongly guessed the queen which was duly covered by the king leaving me with the jack now high. Aviv was now facing a heart loser and a possible diamond loser as well as needing to ruff a club. First things first: club to the king, ace of clubs and club ruff. Now he played a small spade to the queen and small diamond to the queen. The line that works on this hand is to run the jack of diamonds which succeeds as the 10 of diamonds drops doubleton. Anyway, having negotiated this hurdle it was time to draw trumps. He was lucky that the trumps were 3-2 and now he played the ace of diamonds hoping to drop the king. Again no such luck and it appeared that he still had to lose a heart and a diamond. He led a heart and I had to go up with the jack and all I had left was hearts. So I was forced to lead a heart to the ten putting Aviv back on the table and allowing him to discard his losing diamond on the now high ten of hearts. Good recovery Aviv!
Here is another cruel hand which could make or break your score.
E/W Vul North
Dealer S A976
South H KQ953
D 86
C T6
West East
S T S J84
H 87 H --
D AJ932 D QT754
C AQ843 C K9752
South
S KQ532
H AJT642
D K
C J
South opens one spade (too weak to open 1 heart and reverse because the king of diamonds is not necessarily worth anything). West now makes an unusual 2NT and North supports spades (3 or 4). East now bids 5 clubs or 5 diamonds and south bids 5 hearts or 5 spades. East- West with an eye on the vulnerability now either bids the small minor slam or not.
The north-south's who were left to play 5 hearts or spades gain 7 IMP's or if doubled 10 IMP's. By the way, 5 hearts is impregnable but 5 spades can go down after a heart lead which is ruffed.
The courageous East –West's (only 3 out of 18 pairs) who bid the minor suit slam gained a whopping 17 IMP's! What a swing!
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Redouble Trouble
The Jerusalem Bridge Center has built up a most impressive library of bridge books. This was established by Moshe Ben Osilio and I, when we brought to the club our large collections of bridge books when we opened in 2003. This has been augmented by the generous contribution of books by my friend and snooker partner Moshe Jaffe, former Chairman of the Israel Bridge Federation, and Rena Haas who donated a large collection of books when her husband, my friend and sometime partner Chaim passed away.
In addition, whenever I go to London, I always pick up half a dozen new books from 'Chess and Bridge'.
In all these hundreds of books the use of the redouble is hardly mentioned. It is probably the least used card in the bidding box.
The reason for this is basically that a game or slam contract which is doubled usually gives a good score and redoubling does not add any advantage, especially playing match points (top-bottom). In addition, if you get defeated redoubled you are almost guaranteed a bottom
There are all kinds or conventional uses of the redouble- the support redouble, the parking lot redouble (bet you haven't heard of that one!) and others, but the two commonest uses of the redouble are to show a 10+ point hand after partner has opened and RHO has doubled and the SOS redouble. These are easily confused and below are 2 examples:
1. Partner opens 1 Spade, and after double you hold:
S 3
H AJ 74
D KQ 98
C QJ97
You redouble to indicate a) You have 10 + points (in this case 13)
b) You imply that you do not have support for partner's suit
The hand is now like an open book. Partner has 12+ points, RHO has 12+ points and you have 13. By elimination LHO has a beautiful collection of rags. There is no contract that the opponents can make and there is no guarantee that you can make game so the best strategy in this position is to double anything and everything that the opponents bid. This will usually bring a healthy 500, 800 or even 1100. It is important to note that any bid other than redouble shows less than 10 points and is of course non-forcing.
2. You open 1NT and LHO doubles and this is passed around to you.
You hold
S AJ3
H AJ 74
D KQ 8
C J98
Your LHO has 15+ points and your RHO has decided to leave in the double in the belief that he has enough points to defeat you and taking into account that the cards are sitting well for the defense with the strong hand after declarer. How can you escape? You can't bid a suit – your longest suit is hearts and you only have 4 of them. The solution: redouble (SOS -Save Our Souls) asking partner to bid his longest suit. Maybe you can escape into a 2 level suit contract and avoid the double.
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COUNT YOUR PARTNER'S POINTS
In the first few lessons any beginner learns the Milton Work point count for hand evaluation (Ace=4 points, King = 3, Queen 2 and Jack =1)
Ask any more advanced player if they count their partner's points and you will probably meet a vacant blank stare. What are you talking about? On the one hand, they will eventually reply, I don't cheat and on the other hand I do not have x-ray vision.
But counting your partner's points is an invaluable defensive tool.
Here is how to do it.
Let's say we hear 1 NT – 2NT – 3NT where the 1NT shows 15-17, the 2NT 8-9 and the 3NT now pinpoints to 16-17.
You hold :
S 32
H 84
D AKJT87
C KQ3
You did not interfere because we are vulnerable and the opponents are not.
You count 13 points, the opponents have about 25 points so partner has 2 points (you should be so lucky, he may have zero). Isn't it nice to know that he has very few points, not by the yawning and the bored expression on his face, but by your own deduction? Sherlock Holmes would be proud of you.
Since you have now concluded that partner cannot help us at all, you have to defeat the contract on our own. You lead the top diamonds hoping the queen falls and if it does not you continue with the Jack. You hope to have an entry in clubs to be able to defeat the contract.
Let's change our hand a bit to:
S 32
H 84
D AKJT87
C 543
We have 8 points and the opponents have 25 so partner has about 7 points. He isn't smiling yet but at least he has stopped yawning.
We can hope that partner has an entry somewhere – after all he has about 7 points. So we lead the Jack or Ten of diamonds probably giving up a trick but hopefully partner will get in some time and be able to lead a diamond which we will win and run our long suit to defeat the contract.
Here is another example.
The bidding goes
N S
1 Club 1 Diamond
1 Spade 2 Spades
3 Spades 4 Spades
On lead as East you hold:
S -----
H A32
D A6543
C T9876
The opener has about 15-17 points and his partner (dummy) has 8-9 which adds up to about 24 and you have 9 – Total 33 points. So we count partner's points and find out he has 7 points AND most probably a 5 card spade suit. You have 2 sure tricks with your aces, so it seems certain that the contact will fail.
Did you double that 4 spade bid?
Won't you enjoy seeing declarer face when he finesses spades against you, only to discover that you don't have any, and it is in fact your partner with the long spades? You are expecting to hear words of congratulation on your fine double, now that declarer goes down 2 doubled, rather than 1 undoubled, but most probably, though, you will hear partner say that he was afraid to double with "only" 7 points even though he held 5 spades. He had not read this article so partner didn't know that you had 8 points and that the contract was doomed to failure.
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Brilliancy in Defense
Have you ever had a lousy session and thought "Things are going so badly, maybe I can make the play of the year and have an article written about me". This almost happened to me. It happened in the finals of the Israel Championships played in Ra'anana in April.
Here is my hand:
S 854
H 1092
D AKQJ54
C 9
My left hand opponent opened 1 No Trump and my partner bid 2 diamonds.
We play a reverted Cappelletti (I was told that this is called Multi Landy in Europe) which means that 2 club shows both majors and 2 diamonds shows a 6 card suit. The advantage of this system is that after 2 clubs if partner an equal number of hearts and spades, then he bids 2 diamonds and then if you were naughty and have only 5-4 in the majors then you can bid your 5 card major. This avoids playing in a 4-2 fit.
Anyway after 1 No Trump, 2 diamonds and the appropriate alert my right hand opponent asked if the 2 diamonds is forcing. Since it shows any 6 card suit, I replied "In principle, yes". So he passed and I looked at my hand again and thought, "Well, partner's 6 card suit is probably clubs so I am going to stay on the 2 level and I passed!"
The 1 No Trump opener bid 2 spades and my partner now bid 3 diamonds! Could this be her 6 card suit? No, of course not, this is because the 1 No Trump opener has to have at least 2 diamonds and I have six so there are only 5 left. She just understood that I had to have loads of diamonds to have passed her 2 diamonds.
The opponents eventually got to 4 Spades and partner led the ace of clubs and this dummy went down:
S JT32
H J8543
D 9
C KT3
Great! I could follow with an encouraging 9 of clubs (instead of the 2 or 4 which I usually get when I have a singleton).
Partner now led the 2 of clubs for me to ruff and I was desperate to ruff again to defeat the contract.
Now for the spectacular play! I noticed the 2 of clubs indicating a preference for a lower ranking suit (in this case diamonds rather than hearts) and I could see that with a singleton diamond on the table, we would only win one trick in diamonds. I had a further indication in that partner bid 3 diamonds and she could well have the Ten. I realized that my chance had come to have an article written about me. I underled the Ace, King, Queen and Jack of diamonds playing the Three of diamonds! Nobody was more surprised than my partner to win the trick with her Ten.
This was the full hand:
S K
H Q7
D T62
C AJ87652
S AQ976 S JT32
H AK6 H J8543
D 873 D 9
C Q4 C KT3
S 854
H 1092
D AKQJ54
C 9
She led another club which I ruffed but unfortunately this was overruffed as my partner had a Seven card club suit rather than a Six card suit.
The contract went down anyway as declarer played a finesse losing to the singleton king of spades, (there were so many singleton Kings that day, he should have gone with the flow) but my moment of glory was lost and nobody is going to write an article about my brilliancy (except me, of course J).
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Take me to your leader
Ask any tournament director what is the reason he is most often called to a table, and you will inevitably get the reply "opening lead out of turn". The reason is quite clear. You are busy thinking about what lousy cards you have been receiving all session, thinking about how can you do well when you have such lousy cards, and are disturbed by the noise coming from an adjacent table and you hear the auction 1 diamond, 1 heart, 2hearts, 3 hearts 4 hearts. You lead your obvious singleton 9 spades and the roof crashes in. TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR !!! Oops ! The first heart bid came from your left not your right and you have made an opening lead out of turn.
The correct procedure should have been that you lead your card faced down to give your partner the chance to ask questions regarding the meaning of the opponent's bids. Had you done this, someone should be telling you that you can put the card back as it is not your lead.
Anyway, the tournament director arrives and really doesn't have to receive any explanations. He has seen this situation so many times that he wishes he had NIS 1 for each time it has happened – he would be pretty rich by now.
Now let's go back to the player who was originally supposed to be declarer. The 9 spades will be on your right and the director will now explain your choices. There are 5 choices:
- Accept the lead and be dummy.
- Accept the lead, see the dummy and then you play the hand.
- Do not accept the lead and insist on a spade lead from your left. (The 9 spades returns to the hand of the defender who led out of turn).
- Do not accept the lead and insist that a spade is not lead from your left. (Again, the 9 spades returns to the hand of the defender who led out of turn).
- Allow your left hand opponent to lead whatever he wants, but then the 9 spades remains on the table as a penalty card.
(Aside recommendation to my fellow directors – In my experience if I tell a player that he has 5 choices by the time I get to number 4 , number one is ancient history, number two is medieval history and number 3 is fading fast – I find it is more effective and easier to understand by telling a player that he has two choices – to accept the lead or not accept the lead – and then to break it down to choices between these two alternatives.)
Since it is difficult to make a good choice on the spur of the moment, I strongly recommend that you acquaint yourself with these 5 choices, so that when the situation arises, you will be in a much better position to make the best decision.
What should you be taking into account? Here are some points for consideration:
If you are playing with a weaker partner maybe you will feel more confident if you play the hand (the Hideous Hog) or if you feel that your partner is better than you, then it maybe better if he plays the hand (not too many of these around).
Which hand is going down on the table? Usually it is better that the weak hand is on the table.
Is the lead a singleton? Maybe you do not want that suit played as you may run into the opponents ruffing your high cards early on.
If you have AQ in the suit led maybe you are getting a free finesse and it would be advantageous to not accept the lead yet insist on a spade lead from your left. If you have a singleton in the suit lead, maybe your partner should play the hand as the lead will be coming round (hopefully) to his AQ.
Also take into account that if you insist that a spade not be led from your left, that opponent cannot switch to spades as long as he retains the lead. This could be to your advantage.
It is perfectly legitimate to take full advantage of the opponent's mistaken lead, and I strongly recommend that you consider your choices now rather than having to make a hasty decision, on the spur of the moment, with the tournament director breathing down your back.
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Hey, that's my wife you're squeezing
My wife and I recently played in a 30 hand National tournament in the Wizo Petach Tikva Bridge club amiably hosted by Yehudit Friedlander and Motty Paz. They supply lots of free food and hot drinks in very pleasant surroundings.
Hand 23 was traumatic for us as we played against Inon Liran who pulled off a very elegant squeeze against my wife Maggy on Board Number 23.
Here is the full hand:
North (Me)
S J8752
H 87
D 9762
C Q6
West (Sigla Meliana) East (Inon Liran)
S 43 S AQ96
H KQ2 H AJT543
D KQT5 D A3
C 9852 C 7
South (Maggy Zietman)
S KT
H 96
D J84
C AKJT43
Dealer South All vulnerable
The bidding:
South West North East
1 Club Pass Pass 1Heart
2 Clubs 3 Hearts Pass 4 Hearts
All pass
After Maggy led the King and Ace of clubs, Inon Liron saw my Queen drop so he knew that all the rest of the points were with South including of course the King of Spades. So the finesse was hopeless and it looks like 4 hearts plus one. Inon though had other ideas and was out to make plus 2 – critical in top-bottom. He ruffed the second club and drew trumps in 2 rounds and ruffed another club. Instead of relying on the Jack diamonds dropping in three rounds or finessing (which both work) Inon now ran off all his hearts discarding a spade and a diamond from dummy followed by ace of diamonds and diamond to the King. Inon pointed out that if Maggy would have held the Jack of diamonds four times she could have been endplayed into leading Spades anyway.
Winning in dummy with the King of Diamonds this was the 3 card ending:
North (Me)
S J8
H
D 9
C
West (dummy) East (Inon)
S 4 S AQ9
H H
D Q D
C 9 C
South (Maggy)
S KT
H
D
C J
On the Queen of Diamonds he discarded the 9 of Spades and Maggy was inexorably squeezed in Clubs and Spades. She could not discard the Jack of Clubs because the 9 would then be high so she discarded the Ten of Spades. Reading the situation perfectly, Inon now led the 4 of Spades to the Ace felling the now singleton King.
Four hearts plus 2 scored 84%. It was not a top score because other players managed to capture the Jack of Diamonds but the majority finessed in spades to make just plus one for just 51%.
I posted a message on Inon's wall in Facebook congratulating him on a well executed squeeze but mentioned that it was not nice to squeeze my wife in front of me. Inon answered that next time he will be more polite :)
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