Many people seem to think that in order to be a bridge expert, you must be able to remember all of the hands you play in great detail. While I am always amazed by guys like Bart Bramley who might start a story with, “So in 1982, I was playing against Ralph Katz in Detroit. It was the semi finals of the Spingold. The weather was bad that day,” I can hardly remember the first hand I play of a 2 board round in a pair game once the round is over. This is especially frustrating when you are a blogger struggling for material despite playing 72 boards a day! So, don’t worry if you are not good about remembering hands, as long as you remember your bad ones and learn from them it doesn’t matter much.
With that introduction (read — excuse) out of the way, I am going to skip the second round and semi-finals of our knockout, as I honestly don’t remember any of the hands right now. Suffice to say we won both of those matches, the first one comfortably in a round robin, and the second one by something like 12 in a tight match.
In the finals we faced Mike Cappelletti Jr., Chris Compton, Tom and Carolyn Peters, and Loretta Rivers. I had two key decisions in the first half.
First, I held 
9872 
8632 
974 
Q8. The auction, starting on my right with our side not bidding, was:
1-2
3-3
4-4
4N-5
5
What would you lead?
Partner is likely to have 2 keycards, or perhaps 1 keycard and the spade queen because they stopped in 5 after using keycard (good players rarely use keycard and then stop when they are off all but 1). If he has 2 aces, we need to find another trick. Clubs seemed like the obvious place to attack, partner had 2 chances to double hearts and did not. On top of that, as clubs is my doubleton, I might end up getting a ruff or trump promotion there. And maybe partner even has the club king (keep dreaming).
After settling on a club lead, we must decide which club to lead. The queen is the normal choice, but it does not serve much purpose in this situation since partner has both of our keycards, and we know RHO has the control so we don’t need to worry about partner having the AJ over the king and putting up the ace. Leading the 8 might gain if declarer decides to finesse clubs later (if he has KJx for example), or if he ruffs low on the third club from partner thinking we have 3.
I led the 8, and I saw this dummy:
K64
A93
KQ84
J32
Partner won the club ace and RHO dropped the king! See what’s about to happen? Partner plays a club back, RHO ruffing. Now they run the Q to partner’s ace, and he returns another club. RHO ruffs high, but I have more trumps than him now as he has ruffed twice, so he is down 1. If I had led the Q, now declarer does not have to ruff the second club since his jack will be high. Now as long as declarer plays a spade off of dummy rather than a high one out of his hand, he will not suffer a trump promotion since he can ruff high and pull the remaining trumps.
I obviously was not catering to this layout by leading low, and we were very fortunate to win a big swing on this board. Keep this hand in mind the next time you see something like this written up and you’re amazed that [insert bridge hero here] could be so good as to find the winning lead, most of the time it was accidental, as it was here.
The second critical decision I had came when I picked up J932 KT AJ9 T542.
I passed r/w in first seat, and it was passed to my partner who opened 1. RHO passed, and I bid 2 showing 4 trumps and a good raise. LHO doubled showing clubs, and partner jumped to 4. RHO now bid 5. Should I pass it around to partner, or double?
My lack of club honors suggests pass. However, I have already shown my 4th spade, and my 4 clubs might give them a lot of problems in 5. My red suit holdings are also very good defensively. I opted to double, a decision I’m not sure about. Everyone passed, and I faced my next decision.
What should I lead?
This one is automatic, lead a trump. The opponents are bidding on shape, not on high card points or a strong double fit. Since we have the other suits locked up, and the opponents are expecting to score a lot of trump tricks via a ruff, the best plan is to lead a trump to stop this from happening. This is a very important concept to learn, figure out how they are planning to play the hand before you lead, and attempt to thwart that plan. This is why I liked my 4 card club holding for defense, I can keep playing trumps, and they don’t have 10 trumps to cross ruff with. If their trump is to ruff losers, my plan is to stop that from happening.
I lead a club and see this dummy:
T74
J954
K
AQJ93
Declarer wins the trump in his hand as partner pitches an encouraging spade. Declarer plays the Q from his hand, and as partner knows your count you play the 9, a suit preference signal for hearts. Partner duly shifts to the 7 of hearts, and RHO plays low very quickly. You win the king and…
I hope you stopped to think! Obviously you want to continue pulling declarer’s trumps. He will not be able to ruff all the spades in his hand, as he has no fast entry to dummy. However, if a heart ruff is available you must get it now. Look what happens if you woodenly play a trump. Declarer wins in dummy, ruffs a spade, and simply pulls trumps and sets up his heart. If we get our heart ruff and play a trump, declarer is still helpless but we have gained a trick. He will have to ruff a spade and lead a diamond, but now we will win the ace and draw his last trump.
If partner has Qxx of hearts, then returning the heart ten without playing a trump now would be a costly play. Declarer can win it, knock out the diamond, and can ruff 2 spades in his hand. However, if declarer had the A he simply would have won the heart shift and played a diamond immediately without giving us a chance to return a trump. No, partner must have the ace of hearts.
I regret to report that I fell from grace and instantly returned a trump when in. It seemed natural, I was leading trumps to stop declarer from ruffing, and it was working, and my partner had crossed to me to play another heart… This is stupid. It is easy to get caught up in the flow of a hand, especially when you are happy that you made the best lead from the beginning (we have no chance of down 4 on a spade lead obviously). It is important to remain unemotional and objective throughout the hand. I am probably going to start sounding like a broken record soon, and perhaps I am re-iterating this point in my blog more for my own benefit than my readers, but almost every bad play I make stems from making auto-pilot plays, or plays influenced by one emotion or another. It is just so key to always analyze every situation based on its own merits, and it is always stupid to make a mistake when a few seconds reflection would have made it clear what the right play was.
Anyways, that was a missed opportunity, instead of 800 we got 500 when our vulnerable game was cold (partner had 5350 with the Q also).
At half time we were stuck 10. I was hoping I wouldn’t be regretting my stupid error at the bar later!
The match felt quite close when I was dealt AQ9 — K53 KQT7532 with neither side vulnerable. Already I was thinking this hand might decide the match. RHO opened 3, and I chose to bid 4. LHO bid 4, and partner bid 6. Should I bid 7?
I have a good hand for sure, but there are too many hands partner could have where 7 is bad or no play (especially if he has the ace of hearts). Partner was under immense pressure (though 4N by partner should be a slam try in clubs, we had no agreement to that effect, so partner probably felt that he had to decide between 5 and 6). Partner might have stretched already and made a winning decision. More importantly, the opponents might have a good 7 save. Just buying it in 6 could be good enough. In general it is not good to bid 7 when your partner has guessed 6 under pressure in a competitive auction, and this hand didn’t seem extraordinary enough to go against that general principle, so I passed.
LHO considered saving, but passed. I got a heart lead and this is what I saw:
743
K6
AQ973
A84
AQ9
—
K53
KQT7532
It looks like 7 is very good, but it also looks like 7 might have been cheap for them (depending a lot on the distribution). You ruff the heart lead, and play the king of clubs, LHO showing out. You draw trumps in three rounds, and play the king of diamonds, everyone following small, and a diamond to the…
Again, I hope you stopped to pause here! You have 12 tricks if you take 4 diamond tricks, 7 club tricks, and 1 spade. However, since clubs were 3-0 you have no entry to dummy if diamonds are 4-1 and will only have 11 tricks. You have an easy safety play available, just put in the 9. If they were 3-2, you gave up an overtrick, but if they were 4-1 you have no problem getting to dummy. This safety play would be correct even if partner had AQ642 of diamonds. Again, it would be easy to play this one wrong even though a quick trick count makes it obvious to duck a diamond, because emotionally you are wishing you were in 7, and when dummy hits 6 seems to have no danger at all. All of these extraneous thoughts can lead you to take your eye off the ball.
How to play it in 7 is far more interesting. You should probably hook the diamond now for a different reason. RHO opened 3, so he probably has 7 hearts. They also shown up with 3 clubs. This accounts for 10 cards already, and a stiff diamond becomes very likely. Also, if LHO was 6430, he would likely have bid more and probably saved. Not saving with 5 good spades and JTxx of diamonds makes much more sense as now he would have reasonable defense, and a hope of beating our slam.
This time diamonds were 4-1, so I made an overtrick. Combined with 3-0 clubs and the K on my left, the opponents lose only 1 spade and 1 diamond in hearts, so their save would be extremely cheap. I honestly thought that this board might decide the match. It is hard to predict such a volatile board, you might lose a big swing if your counterparts play 7 making, or you might win a big swing if your teammates find the save or your counterparts misplay 6 or 7 clubs and go down.
Nagy Kamel read off a beautiful 6X to go with many other good boards that he and John Sutherlin had, so we won comfortably. That’s what teammates are for, thanks guys.
