One bridge skill that every player can work on by themselves is how to evaluate the strength of a hand. High card points (HCP) are a reasonable guide but even novices quickly learn that some honours are worth way more than their 4-3-2-1 count while others are worthless. Holdings like KJ or KQ, for example, are frequently worth nothing opposite partner’s void. Even aces are not worth as much as usual, because they don’t help to develop any other tricks in the suit.
There are surprisingly few books that help players improve their hand evaluation. There are two that I would recommend. The Complete Book on Hand Evaluation by Mike Lawrence is easy to read: he has an engaging, conversational style, and uses many example hands to make his points. Look out in particular for his discussion of the box and the shell, two ideas that will help any aspiring player.
If you are an intermediate (or better) player then the best book to read is The Secrets of Winning Bridge by Jeff Rubens. Only the first five chapters discuss hand evaluation but those 70-odd pages are worth their weight in gold. Rubens explains why Qxx Axxx xxx xxx is worth significantly more when partner opens 1 than Axx Qxxx xxx xxx. Once you understand the principle of “in-and-out” valuation you will realise how you can bid your hands in ways that will help partner make better decisions.
(Note: Rubens’s book was originally published in 1969 and was reissued in 2013. Lawrence’s book was published in 1983 and is one of the few books he hasn’t revised in recent years. Keep your eyes out for a new edition if you can’t find it in your bridge library.)
Jumping to 3NT may be your first instinct, but this is a bit premature. Imagine if partner has these type of hands:
(a) Kx Jxx xx AQJxxx Opposite this minimum hand, 5 is a much better contract.
(b) Kx xxx Ax AQxxxx Opposite this hand, 3NT is cold but 6 is also cold!
Essentially, with so many different possibilities, we must at least try and see whether 5 or even 6 is a possibility before we commit to 3NT. How do we do this? A very well-known convention, also known as the Bourke Relay, will help you out. When you have an uncontested auction of 1minor – 1Major – 2minor, use the next step bid as artificial and game-forcing. So in the auction above, that would be 2 . This would allow you and your partner to continue exchanging information about your hands until you both decide what the best contract is.
For example, imagine after rebidding 2, your partner now rebids 2, suggesting four hearts. You can now bid 3 (cannot be passed out as we are in a game-forcing auction!) and your partner now rebids 3. What do you know? Your partner must be something like a 2=4=1=6 shape, and now you have the information that 3NT is likely down on a diamond lead! Not only that, 6 is starting to look like a real possibility!
A safety play is an effort by declarer to combat a potentially unfavorable distribution of the defenders’ cards, there are so many different kinds of safety plays that it is better to try to understand the theory behind them than to rely exclusively on memory or past experience.
East dealer. Neither side vulnerable.
Opening lead – queen of clubs.
Take this case where West leads the queen of clubs against three notrump, and East plays the king. South has no choice but to take this trick with the ace because he cannot run the risk of East shifting to a heart. This brings him to the critical play at trick two.
If declarer makes the mistake of playing the long of diamonds at this point expecting to score five diamond tricks, he goes down. As it happens, East has all four missing diamonds and now has a stopper in the suit. South still has a chance to make the contract if East has the ace of hearts, but, as the cards lie, the best he can do is to finish with eight tricks.
Before doing anything at trick two, declarer should first ask himself: ‘What can defeat me?” It shouldn’t take him long to realize that only a 4-0 diamond division can stop him from making the contract. His next step is to look for a way to combat the potential 4-0 division if it exists. Declarer notes that he cannot cope with for diamonds in the West hand regardless of how he broaches the suit, but that he can overcome four diamonds in East’s hand.
Accordingly, South leads the three of diamonds to the ace at trick two, exposing the 4-0 division. He then returns a diamond towards his hand. No matter how East chooses to thefend, his J1085 of diamonds are neutralized, and South easily makes the contract.
When you have some kind of a finesse to take to make your contract, put off the finesse until the last possible moment. In the meantime, try to get an accurate count on the opponents’ hands. In a surprisingly large number of cases this practice will guide you into the only winning line of play.
2 strong
In today’s deal Mr. Champion opened the jack of spades against the heart slam. Miss Brash won with the ace and took three rounds of trumps, noting that Mr. Champion discarded the deuce and four of diamonds on the last two rounds.
Now the lazy and careless way to play the hand from this point would be to lead the six of diamonds to dummy’s ace with the intention of returning a diamond and finessing. If the diamonds finesse lost, the defenders would cash a spade for a one trick set. That would just be bad luck.
Bad Play
Actually, it would be more than bad luck. It would also be very bad play. There was no reason at all to take a diamond finesse toward Mr. Champion as early as the sixth trick. Miss Brash was not satisfied to play it that way and determination to get as good a count as possible on every hand explains why she bring home a lot of her super-optimistic contracts. There didn’t appear to be any play other than the diamond f-nesse, but there was no harm in looking for one.
So she cashed three clubs noting that the suit broke 4-3. Now she led a spade and Mr. Abel won with the queen.
Best Return
With nothing but spades and the 10 of diamonds, Mr. Abel made his best return, the king of spades. Miss Brash ruffed and when Mr. Champion failed to follow suit, discarding 10 of clubs, the opposing distribution was crystal-clear. Mr. Abel had started with six spades and he had shown exactly three clubs and three hearts, he could have only one diamond and if that one diamond were the queen or the 10, the contract was home.
Miss Brash therefore knew that her only hope was the “unnatural” play of the king of diamonds first. When the 10 dropped on her right, she led the six and took the marked finesse of dummy’s nine.
Yesterday I arrived in Rome to spend a few days in the house of Eugenia and Mario Chavarria before leaving for Montecatini where, from next Saturday, will begin the European Open Bridge Championships.
But last night, last night … last night I was invited to dinner at the house of Alfredo Versace and Emanuela Pramotton, where I shared an incredible evening, with an amazing group of friends.
Early in the afternoon, the mythical Alberto Benetti and Robin Fellus came to look for us. As soon as I set foot in the apartment, I felt at home. Eighteen people, sat at the table to enjoy a dinner whose chef was Alfredo. Here I have to stop and add that his culinary skills is only comparable to his bridge skills.
The menu:
First we tasted a dish prepared with tuna, buffalo mozzarella and tomato salad with oregano. Then came the pasta, Alfredo cooked spaghetti al dente! With tomato sauce, it was soooo delicious!
Then came the main course “Carpione de Pesce and Milanese” (I repeated twice), alongside you could also choose a delicious baked chicken with potatoes. All washed down with a variety of Italian wines from different regions, I must confess that the dry white of Sicily captivated me to the last drop.
To finish our host served the dessert: Peaches macerated, pastaflora and ice cream, then coffee and Cuban cigars… What else? The joy of sharing with friends one night that I will remember forever.
Thank you very much, Emanuela and Alfredo for your friendship and for dinner.
Today we are going to walk the city with Robin, and I will tell you afterwards …
Today’s hand is from the very popular Inter-City league on BB0. It builds on our recent theme of planning your play before playing to trick 1 (and re-planning at about trick 3 or 4 if the play provides further information).
Board 3 Dealer South Vul: EW
1) 12-14
2) Stayman
3) No 4-card major
After the lead of 3 we can count two spade, one heart, two diamond and two club tricks and will need two more. They will be most likely to come from the black suits (Plan A), though we can visualise an extra red suit winner if East holds all three of the missing honours (Plan B). East may also hold Q 10 x x or K 10 x x which will allow us to exert pressure on him (Plan C).
When the K appears at trick 1 we can make three spade tricks (ace, queen and 10), so we are now only one trick short. But we have to look after our entries. We play a club at trick 2 and insert the jack. If East tries to be “smart” and holds off his King he may soon find himself end-played so he wins and returns the 10. West pitching a spade. Declarer wins and plays queen and another spade on which East has some very uncomfortable discards.
West exits with a heart which declarer ducks and East exits safely with the 9. This is the six-card ending:
Declarer now plays the ten of spades from dummy needing five more tricks. East is squirming now: a) if he discards a heart we make the 10, two hearts and two diamonds (taking the finesse); b) if he discards a diamond we can play a small diamond to the ace and another back to the jack leaving East to bare his K or pitch a club which will allow him to be end-played to lead away from his K; c) if he discards a club, declarer exits with dummy’s last club (discarding a diamond) and East is again end-played to lead away from this red-suit kings. (Note that case c) a sharp East can still beat the contract by exiting with the king of diamonds: declarer can cross to the J but has no entry back to his hand to enjoy the queen as long as West holds on to his three cards in the suit to prevent declarer from simply cashing the ace and making the 7. But this line still represents the best chance of making.)
In summary: We had a Master Plan (A) to make three spades, three clubs, two diamonds and one heart, but also had our fall-back plan (B) to make an extra red suit winner when East has all three key cards: an extra 12.5% chance when Plan A fails. We also need to read the opponents discards so that we can resort to Plan C if the 6-card ending layout was:
Now if East throws the 10 we throw in West with the third Diamond.
Hand 2 This next hand is replayed from the 2013 Camrose series and follows our usual theme: plan your play at trick one and replan at trick 3 or 4 if events provide further information.
Lead: Q
We can see three club, two diamond and two heart tricks and need three more. They will probably come from the trump suit (Plan A). Our certain losers are two trumps. if the trumps are 3-2 with one of the honours on our left: and one diamond. We carefully win the first trick with the K so that if East has a singleton (likely from West’s lead) we can later play up to the ace and guarantee two diamond tricks.
Now we cross to the K and play a small trump, covering the queen. East wins and returns the 3. West is unlikely to play the Q from Qx so now that trumps seem to be 4-1, we are looking at three spade losers and one diamond for one down unless we can develop an endplay. We have to move on to Plan B (note that this is trick 4 – the time when Plan B is often put into effect). Win the club in dummy and play a small diamond towards the ace. If East trumps on thin air he has eliminated your diamond loser. so he has to discard (a heart or a club — it makes no difference). You now play the A and ruff the jack. then cash your remaining two club winners ending in hand.
This is the 4-card ending:
You run the seven of spades to East’s 9 and he is end-played to give you two of the last three tricks. If he plays a trump you have no further trump loser, if he exits a heart, you ruff in hand discarding dummy’s last diamond. The contract is made.
This week, we will concentrate on gleaning clues from the bidding and play. One of the beauties of bridge is that it gives practitioners a chance to reason and infer, rather than project from a position where everything is known, as in chess. This hand fooled a many-time national champion. Even though North-South were playing five-card majors, North was prepared to play in a diamond slam even opposite a three-card suit in partner’s hand. When South could not bid a a grand slam, North signed off in six diamonds.
Declarer won the opening club lead in dummy and East dropped the queen. A trump to the ace revealed the bad break, and declarer could not recover. Since he needed to ruff dummy’s club losers in hand, he could not draw East’s fangs, and East eventually scored a trump trick and a club ruff.
East’s queen of clubs at the first trick should have flashed a warning signal that declarer was going to encounter bad breaks. After winning the opening lead, correct technique was for declarer to cash the king of diamonds. When the trump position shows up, declarer can still get home with careful timing. After cashing the king-ace of spades and king-ace of hearts, declarer should ruff a heart in dummy. A marked trump finesse is then the entry to ruff a spade, and another trump finesse allows declarer to draw all of East’s trumps. In practice, West will be squeezed in the black suits, and declarer will collect all the tricks.
Counting the opponents hands to determine their respective distributions gives you a big edge over the declarer who does not bother to count at all. Sometimes you can get an accurate count after eight or nine tricks have been played. Occasionally you can do so much earlier. And on some hands you never can get a count. It all depends on the make-up of the particular deal in question.
North dealer. North – South vulnerable
In today’s hand Mrs. Keen’s contract was not in danger but she gained an extra trick by careful counting. Mr. Abel led the ace of hearts and followed with the 10. From this it appeared that he did not hold as many as four hearts.
Confirmation
With four, he would have led his fourth highest at trick two. This confirmed Mrs. Keen’s assumption that Miss Brash had five or more hearts for her overcall. Miss Brash won the second trick with the jack of hearts and shifted to the four of clubs. Mrs. Keen’s problem was to find out who had the queen of diamonds and as you see she could finesse either way against that card.
She won the third trick with dummy’s king of clubs and cashed the king of spades. Working for a count on clubs, she led a small club from dummy and ruffed it with the ten of spades. She cashed the ace of spades and noticed that each defender had started with two cards in that suit.
Last Heart
Now she led her last heart and ruffed it on the board. Next came dummy’s ace of clubs on which the trey of diamonds was discarded from the closed hand. When dummy’s last club was led and ruffed, the count was complete. Here Mr. Abel discarded a diaimond. Since Mr. Abel had started with three clubs, it was clear that Miss Brash had started with five, Miss Brash had also started with five hearts and had followed suit to two leads of spades. Therefore she had just one diamond. Mrs. Keen led the king of diamonds. She then led the nine of diamonds, and confidently let it ride; knowing Miss Brash—had no cards left in the suit.
The job of the defense is to use its relatively few assets (in comparison to the assets of the offense) to take as many tricks as possible. One major asset of the defense is the tempo associated with the opening lead. This tempo allows the defense to strike the first blow of the battle, and wise defenders don’t squander it. This is the key to the defenders’ successful defense.
Let’s examine what’s going on at trick 1, “Expert defenders” know that when the offense shows great strength, it is best to look for ways to manufacture defensive tricks with midrange cards. As a result, “expert defenders ” hoped that partner’s expected A would provide the needed entry for the setting heart ruff to happen.
But the first trick provided unexpected extra food for thought!
A 4 preempt bid is very often made on eight trumps and not much else because the preemptor fears 4, or more, by the opponents. If all this is true, North can be expected to hold 2 Spades and at least 5 or 6 Hearts and have a host of options for how to follow suit to trick!.
What does the 2 play mean?
Partner knows as much as or more about hearts as you do. You both know that the 2, as attitude, makes no sense. Attitude is obviously negative and it is also most likely that you are leading a singleton and wouldn’t be able to return a heart if North wanted you to. So it’s partner’s responsibility to tell you how to reach her hand to get your ruff (2 for Clubs, Q for Diamonds and a middle, unreadable card for no preference).
2 says partner has a Club void and that shouldn’t be hard for you to believe given all the Clubs you can see!
What followed was: T2: Q, K, 3, 2. T3: 2, 5, 8 7. T4: Q, K, A, 2.
The Q confirmed South’s heart void.
North’s 4 requested another Club ruff, but South’s count of Clubs showed East would over-ruff another Club.
So South opted to take the A as the last (4th) trick for the defense to defeat this apparently impregnable sacrifice by two tricks for +500 and a top in a very large field. 5 makes for N-S.
Today’s deal from the final of the NEC Cup 2010 featured something akin to the Devil’s Coup. The final had two Italian pairs on the Lavazza team faced their compatriots on the Zimmerman team, and this was the hand.
Love all, dealer South.
Both North and South would open the bidding, and received wisdom is that an opening bid opposite an opening bid makes a game. Any game contract on the North-South cards is in the abstract a poor one, and North-South for Zimmerman judged well when they stopped in three clubs. At the other table, the bidding was:If West had led a trump, even Giorgio Duboin would have had no chance at all in his ambitious contract, but a trump lead from three to the jack is not the most appealing prospect. The actual opening lead was a spade to the jack, queen and king, and declarer played the king of hearts to West’s ace. He won the spade continuation with dummy’s ace, cashed the queen of hearts to discard his spade loser and embarked on a cross-ruff. A heart was trumped in the South hand, the ace of diamonds and a diamond ruff were followed by a spade ruff, and with five tricks remaining declarer ruffed a third diamond on the table. It would have done the defenders no good to put in any of their high trumps up to this point, and the position was now:Needing three of the last four tricks, Duboin led a heart from dummy and ruffed it with the queen of clubs. A diamond forced West to ruff with the jack, but declarer over-ruffed with the ace and led a heart, ensuring another trump trick with the combined 109 of clubs. 6 IMPs to Lavazza, who won the match by 2 IMPs.
Qxx 
Axxx 
xxx 
xxx is worth significantly more when partner opens 1
