bridge · dec 28 chennai,india (formerly madras) dec 29-30 cruise the indian ocean & andaman...

BRIDGENumber Ninety-six August 2009

Christmas and New Year on board mv DiscoveryCruising from India to the East

See overleaf for further details

Fare shown is per person based on two people sharing lowest twin-bedded cabin category and includes all applicable discountsfor new bookings. *£900 per person saving refers to Category K off the early booking fare as featured in the April 2009 to May2010 Voyages of Discovery brochure. All offers are capacity controlled, subject to availability and may be withdrawn at anytime. No single supplement on selected category I and G cabins and is capacity controlled. Terms and conditions apply, seebrochure for details. Voyages of Discovery is a trading name of All Leisure Holidays Ltd.

All Mr Bridge passengers, who have paid thebridge deposit, will be eligible to participate in theafter first-sitting dinner bridge programme. Therewill also be a quiz and exclusive bridge parties. Thebridge programme is fully optional and you mayparticipate as much or as little as you wish. MrBridge actively encourages singles to join the partyand you will always be found a partner for a game.

MV DISCOVERYStarting with two days in vibrant Mumbai,this itinerary takes in two further calls inIndia: Marmagao, whereHindu and Catholicheritage co-exist amidlegacies of the Portuguesecolonials, and Cochin, theQueen of the Arabian Sea.Aromatic herbs in thebazaars of Colombo willawaken your senses whilstthe idyllic beaches ofChennai and Phuket are sure to appeal. Wewill also visit Kuala Lumpur where the viewsfrom the twin Petronas towers reveal a city ofparks and meandering avenues. In Singapore,we’ll seek out brightly coloured temples,explore museums that explain the island’smulti-cultural heritage and stroll through theHistoric District.

MR BRIDGEAlison Nicolson and her team will look after you on this18-day voyage. The evening sessions will be split into

two with the first finishing intime for those wishing to seethe evening show. In additionto bridge every evening, therewill be morning seminars andafternoon bridge sessions,which are held while the shipis at sea, so everyone canenjoy the ports of call.

WHAT’S INCLUDED• All meals, entertainment and gratuities on board• All port and pre-paid airport taxes • Flights from/toUK • Overseas transfers between airport and ship • Comprehensive guest speaker programme • Christmas dinner and New Year’s Party on board • All bridge activities • All prices on board in British pounds

ITINERARY

An exotic 18-day cruise to India & the East

DISCOVER

YCLU

B

MEM

BERS S

AVE AN

EXTR

A5%

SAVE UP TO £900 PER PERSON*

Celebrate Christmas and New Year on board mv Discovery and enjoy the charms of this captivating region on an exceptional value cruise.

YOUR MONEY AND HOLIDAY ARE FULLY PROTECTED NO FUEL SURCHARGES – GUARANTEED

INSIDE CABINNow from £1,795PP

OUTSIDE CABINNow from £1,995PP

19 December 2009 – 18 days

Bridge Hosts: Alison and Norman NicolsonDate PortDec 19 2009 Depart UK by airDec 20 MUMBAI, India

Arrive and transfer to mv Discovery

Dec 21 MUMBAI, IndiaDec 22 MARMAGAO, IndiaDec 23 Cruise the Arabian SeaDec 24 COCHIN, IndiaDec 25 COLOMBO, Sri LankaDec 26 COLOMBO, Sri LankaDec 27 Cruise the Indian OceanDec 28 CHENNAI, India

(formerly Madras)Dec 29-30 Cruise the Indian Ocean

& Andaman SeaDec 31 PHUKET, ThailandJan 1 2010 PENANG, MalaysiaJan 2 PORT KELANG

(Kuala Lumpur), MalaysiaJan 3 SINGAPOREJan 4 SINGAPORE

Disembark and transfer to airport for overnight flight home

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GUARANTEED

NO SINGLE SUPPLEMENT ON SELECTED CATEGORY I & G CABINS

� 01483 489961 Call now for brochures and bookings

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher or its Managing Editor.

BRIDGEPublisher andManaging Editor Mr BridgeRyden GrangeKnaphill, SurreyGU21 2TH

( 01483 489961

e-mail: [email protected]

website:www.mrbridge.co.uk

Associate EditorJulian Pottage

Technical ConsultantTony Gordon

Bridge ConsultantBernard Magee

Proof ReadersDanny RothHugh WilliamsRichard Wheen

Software Support ( 01483 485345

Events & Cruises( 01483 489961Jessica GaltRachel Everett

Club Directoryand Charity [email protected]

Address Changes( 01483 485342

All correspondence shouldbe addressed to Mr Bridge.Please make sure that allletters, e-mails and faxescarry full postal addressesand telephone numbers.

FEATURES

3 Bidding Quiz by Bernard Magee

5

11 Making the One Extra Trick in Pairs by Freddie North

11 Freddie North – ATribute to a Friend by Elena Jeronimidis

13 Bidding Quiz Answersby Bernard Magee

15 A Walk at HolidayTime by Countryman

17 David Gold saysMake Life Easy for Partner

18 Julian PottageAnswers Your Questions

23 Declarer Play Quizby Dave Huggett

24 Bernard Magee saysLose Your Sure Tricks Early

26 David StevensonAnswers Your Questions

30 Readers’ Letters

35 Defence Quizby Julian Pottage

36 Double Dummy Answerby Richard Wheen

37 Declarer Play Answersby David Huggett

38 Julian Pottage saysMake the Defenders Lead

39 Mike Wenble saysThink Before Playing to Trick One

43 Dave Huggett saysKeep Length with Dummy

44 Liz McGowan saysCover the Last ofTouching Honours

46 Jeremy Dhondy saysPush One Level but not Two

47 Defence Quiz Answersby Julian Pottage

ADVERTISEMENTS

2 Christmas & New Year Cruise on Board Discovery

4 QPlus 9.1

7 Tutorial Software &Mail Order Form

8Bridge Breaks

9 Bridge Breaks Order Form

10 Bridge Events with Bernard Magee

12 Eric Hill

14 2010 Diaries

14 Tunisia 2009/2010

14 Better Hand Evaluation

16 Single-suited Design Pens

16 Charity Bridge Events

33 Bernard Magee Bridge Books

36 Rubber/ChicagoBridge Events

36 Duplicate Bridge Rules Simplified

40 Global Travel Insurance

42 Christmas 2009

45 European ExplorerCruise on BoardDiscovery

48 Black Sea Cruise on Board Discovery

BIDDING QUIZ

by Bernard Magee

You are West in the auc-

tions below, playing

'Standard Acol' with a weak

no-trump (12-14 points) and

four-card majors.

(Answers on page 13)

1. Dealer West. N/S Vul.

♠ A Q 5 4 3

♥ 8 6

© 5 2

® A K 8 7

West North East South

1♠ Dbl Redbl 2®

?

2. Dealer West. Love All.

♠ K Q 3

♥ 4 2

© A Q 7

® K Q 6 4 2


1® Pass 1♥ Pass

1NT Pass 2♥ Pass

?


♠ A 7 3

♥ A K 4 3

© A 8 7

® Q J 3


1♥ Pass 1♠ Pass

2NT Pass 3® Pass

?

4. Dealer East. Love All.

♠ K Q 4 3 2

♥ Q 10 6

© 4 2

® J 9 6


1♥ Pass

1♠ Pass 2NT Pass

?


♠ A Q 4 3 2

♥ 7 6

© 4 2

® A Q 5 4


1♠ Pass 1NT Pass

2® Pass 2© Pass

?

Still the very best Acol-playing Software available

Q

Make your cheque payable to and send to: Ryden Grange, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2TH

( 01483 489961 www.mrbridge.co.uk/mrbridge-shop Fax 01483 797302

PLUS 9.1

FEATURESl The Usual Friendly Interface

(see above)

l Hint and Help Buttons– always at hand

l Easy Windows Installation

l Comprehensive Manual

l Rubber, Duplicate and Teams Scoring

l Instant results playing in teams mode

l 2,500 pre-played hands for teams

l 2,000 pre-played hands for match-pointed pairsincluding 1,000 new hands

Check your pairs percentage and ranking

Systems include: severalversions of Acol, includingBernard Magee’s system,Standard American or create your own.

l £82 including p&p

TRADE-IN OFFERSTrade-in any previous version ofQ Plus. Just post in the bookletand disk and a cheque for £32.Trade-in any other bridge softwarebefore 31 August 2009 and send itwith a cheque for £49.

Order with absolute confidence.

SYSTEMl 8mb RAM

l CD-ROM

l Pentium or equivalent

l Windows XP or Vista

HANS LEBER

NEW

NEW

Happy QPlus reader,Gill Smith of

Thames Ditton writes:

I love my QPlus Bridge. As a learner, I always have afaithful partner whenever I want one. She is alwaysavailable (late at night too)and she bids and playsperfectly. She has neverkicked me under the table,rolled her eyes or taken asharp intake of breath. If Ibid or play badly she is onhand with sound advice yetshe doesn’t take offenceif I ignore it.

There is also a use which Ididn’t realise when Ibought the CD. It is thefacility to feed in the realhands that we deal, and seehow it would have bid andplayed them. I have donethis on arriving home,usually cross with myself,after a duplicate session.My faithful friend gives mea sensible perspective onthe matter. When playingChicago or rubber at home,at the end of the biddingand playing a difficulthand, I have opened upmy laptop and switched onQPlus. With fellow learn -ers, I have looked at handsand seen how our elec -tronic friend would havebid and played. We stillhave lots to learn.

I bracket my QPlus disctogether with the dish -washer – an essential lux -ury that I would finddifficult to live without.

INVITATION

With your next issue ofBRIDGE will come aninvitation to join the Mr Bridge Club. Do dropme a line or a quick email,providing your full addressand telephone number. If Idon’t hear from you I won’tknow you are there.

QPLUS

In the adjacent advert, GillSmith of Thames Ditton,expands enthusiastically onthe merits of the QPlusbridge-playing software andwins first prize. The letteron page 33, from TonyDeyes of Torquay comes aclose second. Thank you,everybody, for taking part.

TRADE-INS

Both trade-in promotions(see facing page) are a realopportunity. The deadlinefor the second offer will bestrictly observed.

FELICITYUPDATED

Here is a recent photo ofFelicity on her first bucketand spade holiday.

Leanora Adds will be backpart-time in October and Iinclude this snap to keepbaby talk to a minimum.

DENHAM GROVE

£129I have extended this specialoffer for the Denham Groveconference centre to includethe November and earlyDecember dates.

You can come forGentle/Just Duplicate or forthe lectures and supervisedplay and/or both.

Those booking must pay infull by cheque or debit card.This hugely successfulpromotion has done a greatjob to raise reader’sawareness of this veryadaptable conference centre.

SILVER & GOLD

In the last issue, I promiseda better photograph and here it is.

Ï

Silver pendant £29.95

Gold (9ct) £69.95

Silver earrings £34.50

Gold (9ct) £85.00

Postage and packing:Silver £2.50 (1st class post)Gold £5 (Special delivery)

DANGLY

I have added a lengthierversion of the earrings to therange for those of you who,like Mrs Bridge, prefer suchthings. Shetland Silver has areally good web-site and youshould take a look at itwww.shetlandjewellery.com

You can order online or bytelephone ( 01595 830275.

DISCOVERY

SHORT CRUISE

Discovery sails September 3on a seven night cruise fromHarwich to The Riviera.There are still some cabinsavailable from £549 perperson, sharing. BernardMagee hosts this cruisewhich now attracts a greatfollowing every year as thereis always so much scope forlots and lots of bridge.Special prices for singles.

AUTUMN CRUISE

This coming October, MrsBridge and I are joiningDiscovery and the bridgeparty on board, hosted byRay and Liz Hutchinson.After cruising round theBlack Sea, it sails throughthe Greek Islands to Athens.Prices from £995 per personsharing, see the back coveradvertisement. I lookforward to discovering youon Discovery.

CHRISTMASCRUISE

Once again Alison Nicolsonand her team, host Christmasand New Year on boardDiscovery. The ship cruisesfrom Mumbai (Bombay inold money) to Singapore.See front cover and theadvertisement on page 2 forfurther details.

SPRING 2010

In May next year, BernardMagee and his team are onboard Discovery fromIstanbul all the way back toHarwich. Bernard is a realattraction and readers areadvised to book early.

SHARING

Holidaying as a single is,more often than not, muchmore costly. However, if youare willing to considersharing a twin-berthed cabin,do ring Rachel on 01483489961. And if it really is acabin for single occupancyyou want, ring her for thebest deals.

DIRECT BOOKINGS

When booking direct withVoyages of Discovery domake sure to tell them youheard it from Mr Bridge.

DOUBLE DUMMYby Richard Wheen

♠ A 6 5 4

♥ Void

© A 2

® Void

♠ K 8 7 ♠ J 10 9

♥ Void ♥ Void

© Q J © K

® J ® A K

♠ Q 3 2

♥ 4 3 2

© Void

® Void

South is to lead andNorth/South need to makeall six tricks at no-trumps.How is this possible againstbest defence? (Answer onpage 36.)

CHEAPER POST

Once again Clive Goff offersunused British stamps atlower than face value,thereby enabling readers toreduce their postage costs.

( 0208 4224906. Orderwith confidence and say youheard it from Mr Bridge.

per person.No singlesupplement

NW ES

Please provide your email address for my extra service

£14 including postage and packing from Mr Bridge, Ryden Grange, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2TH. ( 01483 498961

Bidding Tips1 Always consider biddingspades if you can

2 Bid more aggressively when non-vulnerable

3 Always double when theopponents steal your deal

4 A take-out double showsshortage in the suit doubled

5 “Borrow” a king to keep the auction open

6 After a penalty double, don’tlet the opponents escape

7 Halve the value of a singletonhonour when opening

8 Only add length-points for asuit that might be useful

9 Isolated honours are badexcept in partner’s suit

10 Use the jump shift sparingly11 Consider passing and letting

partner decide12 You need two top honours

for a second-seat pre-empt13 Put the brakes on if you have a

misfit14 Strong and long minors work

well in no-trumps15 One stop in the opponents’ suit

can be enough for no-trumps16 Keep your two-level

responses up to strength17 Use your normal methods in

response to a 1NT overcall18 Don’t overcall just because

you have opening points19 Overcalls can be quite weak, so

be prudent when responding20 Weak overcalls must be based

on strong suits21 6NT requires 33 points

not 4 aces and 4 kings22 Raise immediately, if weak

with four-card support23 In a competitive auction, show

support immediately24 Bid to the level of your fit

quickly with weak hands25 With strength and support,

use the opponents’ bid suit

Declarer-play Tips26 When your contract depends

on a finesse, think “endplay”27 Consider what a defender

might be thinking about28 Always take your time

at trick one29 Establish extra tricks before

cashing your winners30 Use your opponents’

bidding to your advantage31 Avoid the “baddie”

gaining the lead32 Use the Rule of Seven when

holding up in no-trumps

33 A low lead usually promiseslength and an honour

34 When declaring 1NT try to be patient

35 Duck an early round when youare short of entries

36 Lead up to your two-honour holding

37 Do not always assume a suit will break well

38 Drop a high card to put off the defence

39 Play your highest card totempt a defender to cover

40 Draw trumps first unless youhave a good reason not to

41 Do not waste your trumps42 Consider leaving a lone

defensive trump winner out

Defence Tips43 Keep four-card suits intact

whenever possible44 Give count on declarer’s leads45 Keep the right cards

rather than signal46 Take your time

when dummy is put down47 High cards are for killing other

high cards48 Do not waste

intermediate cards49 Pick two key suits to

concentrate on during the play50 If in doubt, cover an honour

with an honour51 If a lead is from two honours,

it is best not to cover52 Keep your honour to kill

dummy’s honour53 Try to show partner

your solid honour sequences54 Lead the normal card when

leading partner’s suit55 Never underlead an ace at trick

one in a suit contract56 Be wary of leading from

four cards to only one honour57 Lead a higher card from

a suit without an honour58 Lead through “beatable”

strength and up to weakness59 Cash your winners before

trying for a trump promotion60 Be patient when defending 1NT61 Trump leads can be safe

throughout the play

General Tips62 Do not put important cards

at either end of your hand63 Avoid being declarer when

you are dummy64 Before you lead ask for a

review of the auction65 Enjoy the Game!

Bernard Magee’s Tips for Better Bridge

65 invaluable tips in 160 pages

BACK IN PRINT

Tips for Better Bridge byBernard Magee is now backin print. A full list of the tipsis on this page. Gold dust.

TRAVEL COVER

If you are looking for thiskind of insurance, you arelikely to find the advert onpages 40 and 41 to yourliking. Do say you heard itfrom Mr Bridge.

FREDDIE NORTH

Readers will be saddened tolearn of the recent death ofregular columnist FreddieNorth. A tribute by ElenaJeronimidis is on page 11. I will certainly miss him.

CLUB INSURANCE

For a competitive quote, ring Moore Stephens on ( 020 7515 5270 and ask tospeak to Sylvia Donovan.She will be only too pleasedto help you. Do say youheard it from Mr Bridge.

DIARIES

All pre-ordered 2010 diarieshave now been dispatchedand I have added three newcover colours to the standardrange. Green, tan and black.For the full range of diaries,do see the mail order formon the facing page.

TUNISIA

Bernard Magee is going toTunisia in November. If youmissed his party this year,this is a chance to soak upsome sunshine and learnfrom this very popular andentertaining young man.

SATURDAYS

My office is now open onSaturday mornings for theconvenience of readers andcustomers.

ERIC HILL

His advert is on page 12 thistime, his service offers freedelivery, free returns and afreephone number. Pleasemention Mr Bridge.

CHARITIES

The number of events beingorganised in support ofcharities seems to beshrinking or at least thenumber we hear about andare asked to advertise is. Seethe listing on page 16. Don’tbe backward in comingforward. If it’s for a goodcause, we will both advertiseit and send the organiserssome spot prizes.

WEEKENDS

I have confined my weekendevent adverts to pages 8, 9 & 10. This enables me tofurther increase the numberof pages devoted to bridge inthis publication. If you liveanywhere near Denham youshould consider booking at£129 full board and inclusiveof bridge fees. It really iscompletely unbeatable value.

LITTLE VOICE

Do keep saving your usedstamps. Mºany a micklemakes a muckle. See page 30for the coordinator’s address.Do ask your friends to startsaving their stamps too.

AND FINALLY

Christmas is coming. Wehave a choice of venues overthe festive season, see page42 for details. Book early toavoid disappointment.

( 01483 489961

PLAY SOFTWAREQPlus 9.1 £82.00 .......

Trade-in any previous QPlus Book & Disk and just send ONLY £32.00 .......

TUTORIAL SOFTWAREAcol Bidding £62.00 .......

More Acol Bidding £92.00 .......

Declarer Play £72.00 .......

Advanced Declarer Play £77.00 .......

BOOKSDuplicate Bridge Rules Simplified £5.95 .......

Club Offer 10 for only £35.00 .......

Hand Evaluation £14.00 .......

Bernard Magee’s Bridge Quiz Book £14.00 .......

Bernard Magee’s Quiz and Puzzle Book £14.00 .......

Bernard Magee’s Tips for Better Bridge £14.00 .......

2010 DIARIESStandard

Ivory ..... Maroon ..... Light Blue ..... Red .....

Navy ..... Green ..... Tan .... Black ...... £5.95 .......

Club Offer 10 for only £35.00 .......

Luxury

Bottle Green .... Ruby Red .... £12.95 .......

SINGLE-SUITED BALL-POINT PENS

£19.95 .......

TEA TOWELSTea Towels – Any four for only £17.00 .......

We are Survivors £5.95 .......

Ten Commandments for Bridge Players £5.95 .......

Bridge Traffic Signs £5.95 .......

Life’s a game, but bridge is serious £5.95 .......

All prices are fully inclusive. I enclose a cheque for £.............

Mr/Mrs/Miss ................................................................................................

Address .........................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................

Postcode...............................................( .............................................

, Ryden Grange, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2TH.

www.mrbridge.co.uk/mrbridge-shop

Boxed Set of Four

(Spade,Heart, Diamond, Club)

TUTORIAL SOFTWARE

with Bernard MageeACOL BIDDING

l Opening Bids andResponses

l Slams and StrongOpenings

l Support for Partner

l Pre-empting

l Overcalls

l No-trumpOpenings and Responses

l Opener’s and Responder’s Rebids

l Minors and Misfits

l Doubles

l Competitive Auctions

MORE ACOL BIDDING

l Basics

l Advanced Basics

l Weak Twos

l Strong hands

l Defence to WeakTwos

l Defence to 1NT

l Doubles

l Two-suitedOvercalls

l Defences to Other Systems

l Misfits and Distributional Hands

DECLARER PLAY

l Suit Establishment in No-trumps

l Suit Establishment inSuits

l Hold-ups

l Ruffing forExtra Tricks

l Entries in No-trumps

l Delaying Drawing Trumps

l Using the Lead

l Trump Control

l Endplays &Avoidance

l Using the Bidding

ADVANCED DECLARER PLAY

l Making Overtricksin No-trumps

l Making Overtricks in Suit Contracts

l Endplays

l Avoidance

l Wrong Contract

l Simple Squeezes

l Counting the Hand

l Trump Reductions &Coups

l Playing DoubledContracts

l Safety Plays

System Requirements: Windows XP or Vista, 8mb RAM, CD-ROM

£62

£92

£72

£77

NOVEMBER cont

27 – 29 The Olde Barn£199 Signals & Discards

Ray Hutchinson

27 – 29 Wychwood Park£199 Doubles

Gary Conrad

DECEMBER 2009

4 – 6 Denham Grove£199 Stayman etc £129 Alex Davoud

4 – 6 The Beach Hotel£235 Bernard Magee

(see page 10)

11 – 13 The Beach Hotel£199 Rubber/Chicago

Diana Holland

SEPTEMBER 2009

11 – 13 The Beach Hotel£199 Rubber/Chicago

Diana Holland

23 – 25 Marsham Court£150 Gentle / Just

DuplicateCrombie McNeil

25 – 27 Staverton Park£199 Declarer Play

Ray Hutchinson

30 –2/10 Marsham Court£199 Rubber/Chicago

Diana Holland

OCTOBER 2009


(see page 10)

9 – 11 The Olde Barn£235 Bernard Magee

(see page 10)

OCTOBER cont

16 – 18 Staverton Park£199 Take-out Doubles

ImproversAlex Davoud


(see page 10)

16 – 18 The Olde Barn£199 Doubles

Alison Nicolson

16 – 18 Wychwood Park£199 Hand Evaluation

Alan Lamb

23 – 25 Wychwood Park£199 Signals and

DiscardsJohn Wotton

30 –1/11 Marsham Court£235 Bernard Magee

(see page 10)

30–1/11 Staverton Park£150 Gentle / Just

Duplicate

30 –1/11 The Olde Barn£199 Declarer Play

Ray Hutchinson

NOVEMBER 2009

6 – 8 Blunsdon House£235 Bernard Magee

(see page 10)

NOVEMBER cont

13 – 15 Denham Grove£199 Hand Evaluation£129 Ned Paul

13 – 15 Staverton Park£199 Game Tries

Crombie McNeil

13 – 15 The Olde Barn£199 Hand Evaluation

Ray Hutchinson

20 – 22 Wychwood Park£199 Stayman and

Transfers ImproversJohn Wotton

27 – 29 Denham Grove£199 Endplay and £129 Avoidance

Alex Davoud

27 – 29 Staverton Park£199 Overcalls

Ned Paul

2009 Bridge Breaks

Marsham Court, Bournemouth

Denham Grove, Uxbridge

Staverton Park, Daventry

Wychwood Park, Crewe

The Olde Barn, Marston

Christmas & New Year

Denham GroveChris Barrable

24-27 December – £395

27-29 December – £199

29 Dec – 1 Jan – £355

The Olde Barn24-27 December

Sandy Bell – £395

27-29 DecemberSandy Bell – £199

29-31 DecemberRay Hutchinson – £199

The Beach Hotel27-29 DecemberRubber / Chicago

Diana Holland – £199

29 Dec – 1 JanBernard Magee – £395

(see page 10)

PROGRAMMEThis is the new formatfor all except BernardMagee hosted events.

FRIDAY1500

Welcome Desk openAfternoon Tea

1745 to 1830Welcome drinksreception

1830 to 2000DINNER

2015 BRIDGE 1DUPLICATE PAIRS

SATURDAY0800 to 0930

BREAKFAST

1000 to 1230SEMINAR & SUPERVISED PLAY of SET HANDS(tea & coffee at 1100)

1230 to 1330COLD BUFFETLUNCH

1400 to 1645BRIDGE 2FURTHER SUPERVISED PLAY of SET HANDS orDUPLICATE PAIRS

1815 to 2000DINNER

2015 BRIDGE 3DUPLICATE PAIRS

SUNDAY0800 to 0930

BREAKFAST

1000 to 1230SEMINAR & SUPERVISED PLAY of SET HANDS(tea & coffee at 1100)

1230 to 1400CARVERY LUNCH

1400 to 1645BRIDGE 4FURTHER SUPERVISED PLAY of SET HANDS orDUPLICATE PAIRS

Please book me for ..... places at £.... per person,

Single ..... Double ..... Twin ..... Sea View* .....

Name of Hotel/Centre ........................................................

Dates ..................................................................................

Mr/Mrs/Miss .....................................................................

Address...............................................................................

............................................................................................

Postcode ............................................................................

( ......................................................................................

Special requirements (these cannot be guaranteed, but we will do our best to oblige)

...........................................................................................

Please give the name(s) of all those covered by this booking

...........................................................................................

Please send a non-returnable deposit of £50 per person per placeby cheque, payable to Mr Bridge. An invoice for the balancewill be sent with your booking confirmation. On receipt of yourfinal payment, 28 days before the event, a programme and fulldetails will be sent together with a map. Cancellations are notrefundable. Should you require insurance, you should contactyour own insurance broker. *£30 supplement per room (BeachHotel and Marsham Court Hotel only).

BRIDGE BREAKS

Expiry: ............................ CVV.................... Issue No. ...............(CVV is the last 3 numbers on the signature strip)

, Ryden Grange, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2TH

( 01483 489961 Fax 01483 797302 e-mail: [email protected]: www.holidaybridge.com

© Full-board

© All rooms withen-suite facilities

© No single supplement

© Tuition with Supervised Play and two seminars.

HOTELSMarsham Court Hotel has a central yet secludedlocation overlooking the bayand is only a short strollfrom Bournemouth towncentre. There is an outdoorheated swimming pool (inuse May to September).

Blunsdon House Hotel, near Swindon, is a four-starhotel. It boasts a heatedindoor swimming pool anda nine hole, par three golfcourse, as well as a onemile woodland walk.

Staverton Park, nearDaventry, offers excellenthealth and leisure facilitiesincluding a challenging 18-hole golf course and aheated indoor pool.

The Beach Hotel is a familyrun hotel with the finestseafront location in Worthing.Behind the elegant façadeare all the modern facilitiesyou would expect, whilemany of the originalfeatures have been retained.

Denham Grove is set in 42acres of grounds justnorthwest of London. Itcombines a modern designwith a rural setting and isthe ideal place to unwind.Walk through the verdantgrounds or simply relax inthe indoor pool or spa.

The Olde Barn Hotel,Marston, Lincs, is an idyllicretreat set in beautifulcountryside in the heart ofEngland. The emphasis ison quality and the state-of-the-art Health Club and Spahas something for everyone.

Wychwood Park, near Crewe,Cheshire offers light, airyconference accommodationwith a vibrant atmosphere,all smartly packaged in acontemporary style.

Bernard’s New Year’s Eve Party

29 December to 1 January 2010

The Beach Hotel £395

2- 4 OctoberThe Beach Hotel

ImproversStayman and Transfers

9 - 11 OctoberThe Olde Barn HotelLeads and Defence

16 - 18 OctoberThe Beach Hotel

FULL

30 October - 1 NovemberMarsham Court Hotel

Thinking Defence

6 - 8 NovemberBlunsdon House Hotel

Game Tries

4 - 6 DecemberThe Beach Hotel

Signals and Discards

29 December - 1 JanuaryThe Beach Hotel

New Year’s Eve Party

1 - 3 January 2010The Beach Hotel

Doubles

19 - 21 MarchThe Beach Hotel

Signals and Discards

26-28 MarchThe Beach HotelThinking Defence

16 - 18 AprilBlunsdon House Hotel

Leads and Defence

23-25 AprilThe Olde Barn HotelSignals and Discards

4 - 6 JuneThe Beach HotelThinking Defence

18 - 20 JuneBlunsdon House HotelSignals and Discards

Blunsdon House, Swindon

The Beach Hotel, Worthing

Bridge Breakswith Bernard Magee

Full Board £235 per person

No single Supplement

Please book me for ..... places at £235 per person,

Single ..... Double ..... Twin ..... Sea View* .....

Venue .................................................................................

Dates ..................................................................................

Mr/Mrs/Miss .....................................................................

Address...............................................................................

............................................................................................

Postcode ............................................................................

( ......................................................................................

Special requirements (these cannot be guaranteed, but we will do our best to oblige)

...........................................................................................

Please give the name(s) of all those covered by this booking

...........................................................................................

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The fascinating featureof pairs’ competitionsis the opportunity to

score the one extra trick thatcan make such a vastdifference. When playingrubber bridge or teams,fulfilling your contract is themain aim and any extra tricks,though always welcome, arenot usually of greatsignificance. The good pairs player,

however, is constantly on thealert to notch up themaximum and sometimespinch a little more!I watched South at work on

the following hand as he gaveit the master-class touch.

Dealer West. Game All.♠ Q♥ A 9 6© 9 7 4® Q J 10 9 7 5

♠ A J 2♥ K Q 4© A K 10 8 3 2® 4


2©1 Pass 2♥2 2NT3

Pass 3NT End

1Multi Two Diamonds – usually a

weak two in one of the majors.2Relay, asking for clarification, to

play in 2♥ if West has long

hearts.3A difficult choice but no-trumps

scores well at pairs and at least

it avoided any ambiguity – also,

it might be important to have the

lead up to the South hand.

West led the six of spades,won by dummy’s queen asEast played the three. Southwas pleased to see that hisside was at least in the rightcontract. Still, a fewproblems needing solving ifdeclarer was to obtain themaximum score – and themost pressing one was how toplay the diamond suit.There seemed to be some

mileage in trying to keep Eastoff lead, so declarer called fordummy's nine of diamonds inthe hope that East might help.East (incorrectly I feel) didhelp by covering with thejack. The ace of diamondswon, West contributing thefive – what now?Continuing with the

diamond exploration,declarer went to dummy withthe ace of hearts andadvanced the seven ofdiamonds, East playing thesix. Time now stood stillwhile declarer tried to weighup the pros and cons ofletting the seven ride or ofwinning with the king.Let us look at the full deal.

♠ Q♥ A 9 6© 9 7 4® Q J 10 9 7 5

♠ K 9 7 6 5 4 ♠ 10 8 3♥ 8 7 3 ♥ J 10 5 2© 5 © Q J 6® A 8 6 ® K 3 2

♠ A J 2♥ K Q 4© A K 10 8 3 2® 4

With so much shape about

It Happened That Way by Freddie North

Making the One Extra

Trick in Pairs

and still preferring the lead tobe with West, declarerdecided to run the seven ofdiamonds. He got his rewardwhen West discarded a club.So declarer could now see

eleven tricks – six diamonds,two spades and three hearts –but he was not finished yet.He cashed all his red suitwinners, except one, to arriveat the following position; it isSouth to play.

♠ —♥ —© —® Q J 10 9

♠ K 9 ♠ 10♥ — ♥ J© — © —® A 8 ® K 2

♠ A J♥ Q© —® 4

When declarer played thequeen of hearts, West threwthe eight of clubs and East, ofcourse, had to follow with thejack of hearts. Had East heldthe ace of clubs, he wouldsurely have retained anotherheart, thus an endplay onWest looked a good prospect.Furthermore, even if West didnot hold the ace of clubs, itlooked as if eleven trickswould still be safe. Therefore, declarer exited

with the four of clubs andWest, ruing his decision to retain the ace of clubs, had to concede the last twospade tricks. +490 lookedvery special on the scoresheet! n

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FREDDIE NORTH

1921 – 2009

A tribute to a friend

It has been myprivilege to work withFreddie North for thelast thirteen years, eversince he agreed to writefor Bridge Plus in 1996.Editing Freddie’sarticles was a delight, asthey were alwaysexpertly written,impeccably checked –and a pleasure to read. He brought the same

high degree ofprofessionalism to thebooklets he wrote for the“Practise” series, thearticles he contributed toBRIDGE and laterEnglish Bridge, and thebooks he wrote forBatsfords. Freddie had aknack for makingdifficult concepts seemsimple, and entertain thereader into the bargain.His style of writing wasan extension of hispersonality: he was adashing gentleman withmany interests – rugbyand horse-racing in hisyouth, reading, bridgeand bridge teachingthroughout his life. A great and very

successful rubber bridgeplayer, Freddie Northhad also been a leadingduplicate player. He wasproud of having becomea Grand Master “in thedays,” as he put it,“when it meantsomething”.The world of bridge

has lost one of his giantsand I have lost a friend.My thoughts are with hiswife, Margaret, andFreddie’s family.

Elena Jeronimidis

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♠ A Q 5 4 3 ♠ 7 6

♥ 8 6 ♥ A K 7 3

© 5 2 © Q J 10 9 4

® A K 8 7 ® J 10


1♠ Dbl Redbl 2®

?

Double. What does your partner’s redouble

mean? It shows a good hand of 9+ points –

meaning that you have the majority of the

points – it does not suggest support for

spades. One of the messages it is trying to get

across is that your opponents might be out of

their depth and, if they cannot find a good fit,

you could double them. All doubles after a

redouble are for penalties – so you should

make one now. Doubling 2® tells your

partner that you have good clubs and that,

with the majority of points, you can be almost

sure of defeating the opponents. They might

try to run, but then East will take over and start

doubling himself.

Whatever your opponents play in, they should

go at least two off: +500 is a fantastic score

when game is worth only 400! Learning to

double your opponents at the right time in

low-level contracts can be very lucrative.


♠ K Q 3 ♠ J 2

♥ 4 2 ♥ A J 8 7 6 5

© A Q 7 © 6 4 2

® K Q 6 4 2 ® 8 7


1® Pass 1♥ Pass

1NT Pass 2♥ Pass

?

Pass. Although you do not much like partner’s

suit, you have to trust him. You have

described your hand beautifully – you have a

club suit in a balanced hand with (in the

modern style) 15-17 points: this means that

your partner is in the best position to choose

the contract and that is what you should let

him do. With six hearts and a weak hand, he

bids 2♥ knowing that you have at least two –

as you can see, 2♥ is by far the best contract.

With no entries to East’s hand, his long suit will

be wasted unless it is the trump suit.


♠ A 7 3 ♠ K Q 9 8 5

♥ A K 4 3 ♥ 5 2

© A 8 7 © 4 3

® Q J 3 ® K 8 7 6


1♥ Pass 1♠ Pass

2NT Pass 3® Pass

?

3♠. You have shown your strength and shape

by rebidding 2NT, so what does your partner

want now? Your partner is suggesting that he

is unbalanced; his 3® suggests that you might

play in a suit contract. Unless he has hopes of

a club slam, he is most probably interested in

finding a spade fit – if you have three spades

facing his five – he might also want to know

whether you have five hearts if he has three.

Even though you have no obvious ruffing value,

you should show your support for his first suit,

as you expect him to have five spades. On this

hand, he does indeed have five spades and

can raise to 4♠ rather than play in 3NT. 4♠

should make in comfort while 3NT is likely to go

down on a diamond lead. It is important to

have an accurate conversation in your bidding:

your partner did not bid 3® just for the sake of

it; he wanted to show an interest in playing in

a suit, as well as warning you of the partner-

ship’s probable weakness in diamonds.

4. Dealer East. Love All.

♠ K Q 4 3 2 ♠ J 5

♥ Q 10 6 ♥ A K J 5 4

© 4 2 © A 8 3

® J 9 6 ® K Q 4


1♥ Pass

1♠ Pass 2NT Pass

?

3♥. Your partner’s rebid shows 18-19 points in

Modern Acol, (though I know some of you will

expect 17-18), but on this occasion, the exact

range makes little difference. With eight high-

card-points and a five-card suit, you want to

be in game.

The important question to ask yourself is

which game do you want to be in: 4♥, 4♠ or

3NT? You cannot be sure yet, but any

continuation after a 2NT rebid is forcing to

game, which means you can discuss this

question with your partner. Bid 3♥ to show

three-card support in hearts: if he has five, he

can bid 4♥; if not, he might be able to show

3-card spade support, failing that he can

settle for 3NT.

On this hand, he has five hearts so he bids 4♥

over your 3♥. You should make 4♥ in comfort,

whereas, in 3NT, a diamond lead is likely to

lead to defeat.


♠ A Q 4 3 2 ♠ 5

♥ 7 6 ♥ K 9 4 2

© 4 2 © Q J 10 7 6 5

® A Q 5 4 ® 3 2


1♠ Pass 1NT Pass

2® Pass 2© Pass

?

Pass. The answer to this question is

deceptively simple – you can work it out by

asking yourself: ‘Why did my partner not

respond 2© on the first round?’

The answer is because he was too weak –

with just 6-8 points, he cannot afford to bid to

the 2-level because he will push the bidding

too high. Then, on the second round, partner

would generally choose one of your suits to

play in, so why is he bidding 2©?

The answer is that his suit must be long and

strong and he has no desire to play in either

of your suits.

Bearing all this in mind you must pass. Trust

your partner – he has heard what you have

to say and he has now picked his final

contract. n

ANSWERS TO THE BIDDING QUIZ ONPAGE 3 by BERNARD MAGEE

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© Acol Summary by Bernard Magee

© Laws and Ethics byMike Swanson.

© Scoring Tables forDuplicate and Rubber.

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Better Hand

EvaluationBernard Magee

Introduction

Better Hand Evaluation isaimed at helping readers to addgreater accuracy to theirbidding. It deals with auctionsin which you and your partner,against silent opponents, candescr ibe your hands fully toeach other and, by evaluatingthem accurately, find the bestfinal contract. The emphasis ofall good, accurate bidding is onhand evaluation.

There are two general types ofauction: a) A fit is found and b)No fit is found.

When you do not have a fit, youare aiming to descr ibe thestrength of your hand as soonas possible, most often usingno-trump bids. This bookbegins by discussing balancedhand bidding in Acol, as it isvery important that bothmembers of a par tnership havean accurate knowledge of howto show hands of differentstrengths.

When a fit is found, there ismuch re-evaluation of the handto be done; point count, thoughstill important, needs to beevaluated together withdistr ibution. The best way ofreaching an accurateassessment is to use the LosingTrick Count; this is animportant method of handevaluation and takes up anumber of chapters.

Finally, we move on to differentforms of evaluation includinggame tr ies and splinter bids.You can never know enoughmethods of hand evaluation;the more you learn, the betteryou get at judging your hand.

Although the Losing Tr ickCount is used more easily intandem with your par tner, alarge propor tion of the ideas inthis book can be used by anindividual. For example,evaluating your hand to beworth an extra point is going tohelp anyone you partner – aslong as you get it r ight!

AT THE ROYAL KENZ

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T his little piece of England wherethe birds are singing, the sunshining and the air seriously

intoxicating – it is all too easy to fallunder its magic spell and dream on,contentedly…Although Cindy, my gorgeous Golden

Retriever, needs little encouragement, Itell her that we should set off for our walknow while the showers have stopped andthere is a little blue sky around. Cindy is,of course, pretty well indifferent to theweather – if it decides to be showery inthe holiday month of August, so be it.Walkies are walkies, no matter what!Just as we get to the front door, the

telephone rings, so I go back to discoverit is Angela, an enthusiastic member ofour bridge club. Like several others shefailed in a contract of 4♥ in last night’smultiple teams (board 22) but she tellsme that she has a nasty feeling that sheshould have made it. ‘Would you be anangel and tell me how I should haveplayed it?’ implores Angela. I am not sosure about the first part but I can certainlycope with the second. This was the hand:

Dealer East. E/W Game.♠ A Q 2♥ K J 2© 8 2® 9 8 7 4 3

♠ 8 5♥ A Q 10 9 8 6 3© 7 5® A Q

This was a popular bidding sequence:


1© 2♥

3© 4♥ End

West led the three of diamonds and Eastwon the first two tricks in that suit beforeswitching to the five of clubs. I shallleave you to make a plan and we willreturn to the problem later.Cindy is waiting impatiently by the

front door with the sort of look on herface that seems to say something like, ‘Idon’t know why you bother with thatstupid instrument just as we are goingout. Come on, let us get going or it mayring again.’ Believe me, Cindy is veryexpressive in her own inimitable way.

Walking through the Woods

There has been quite a lot of rain and themeadows are somewhat soggy, so wehead for the woods. The wood paths arein fair condition for walking but Cindystill manages to get herself quite muckyas she scampers in and out of theundergrowth.Just as I think we may have the woods

to ourselves, except of course for thewildlife – and that mostly relates to thebirds – I hear children’s voices, and thenfour ponies and their riders come intoview. Well, it is holiday time for the kids,so what could be better than a pony ride?

Meeting the Ponies

Suddenly Cindy breaks cover from herincursion into the undergrowth, perhapscurious to know the source of the

unusual noise. Just then, one of theponies – a bay with a prominent whiteblaze on its face – shies violently and Ithought the little girl would be sure tofall off. Thankfully, she defied the lawsof gravity and got herself back into thesaddle without looking too perturbed atthe near catastrophe. ‘Bravo!’, Iexclaimed. ‘That was well ridden.’ Shesaid nothing but smiled shyly. I think shewas proud of being congratulated infront of her companions. Cindy wasquite unabashed and probably thinkingin her own doggy way, ‘What sillycreatures; fancy being frightened of me!’Let us get back to our hand.

Back to the bridge hand

♠ A Q 2♥ K J 2© 8 2® 9 8 7 4 3

♠ 10 9 6 4 ♠ K J 7 3♥ 4 ♥ 7 5© 10 6 4 3 © A K Q J 9® K J 10 6 ® 5 2

♠ 8 5♥ A Q 10 9 8 6 3© 7 5® A Q

Angela followed the familiar path oftrying the queen of clubs, which lost toWest and she then had to contend with aspade switch. Some declarers took theunsuccessful spade finesse and werequickly one down. Angela did a littlebetter, given the bidding, by going upwith the ace of spades and trying to

Seasonal Walks with Countryman

A Walk at Holiday Time

NW E

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set up the club suit. She playedthe ace of clubs, ace of hearts,and jack of hearts beforetaking a club ruff; when clubsfailed to break three-three, shewas also one down.

The Solution

The solution is, of course,quite simple once you think ofit. Go up with the ace of clubsat trick three – rejecting thefinesse – cash the ace of heartsand play the queen of clubs.West wins and switches to aspade but declarer againrejects the finesse and winswith dummy’s ace. After aclub ruff comes a heart to thejack and a second club ruff toestablish dummy’s nine. Theking of hearts provides theentry to enjoy the winningclub for a spade discard.

Finesses have aMagnetic Effect

Funny thing about finesses;they have a sort of magneticeffect, suggesting that as theyare there that you should takethem. The fallacy in thispursuit becomes apparent ifyou substitute a small club forSouth’s queen. Then surelymost – if not all – declarers

Holiday Time continued

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would go up with the ace andestablish the suit withoutbreaking sweat. The ace ofclubs wins trick three; Westwins the club continuationand switches to a spade. Theace wins and declarerproceeds as already indicatedby ruffing the club suit goodfor the vital spade discard.Seven hearts, one spade andtwo clubs make up declarer’sten tricks.

Caught in the Rain

On the way home, we getcaught by a shower but thatdoes not seem to bother Cindyone iota. As I dry her off –something she always seemsto enjoy – I explain to her thatalthough finesses are there forthe taking, it is not alwaysright to take them – and thiswas a typical example; notonce, but twice! She looks atme with those big brownsoulful eyes that always seemto express completeunderstanding. So I continue,‘You know Cindy, a thoughtoccurs to me. If East hadreturned the nine of diamondsat trick two and West hadovertaken with the ten andswitched to a spade, thecontract would never make.’My hand gets a wet lick so Iknow she has followed myconcluding observation. Whata dog! n

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Single-Suited Design Pens

Defence is a difficult art andteamwork is the key. On thisdeal you are East, playing teams:

♠ K J 5♥ 8 4 3♦ K Q J 4♣ Q J 10

♠ A 4 3 2♥ A K 7♦ 7 5 3 2♣ 8 7

South opened 1NT (12-14) and Northraised to 3NT. Partner leads the heartqueen and you see the dummy.

You overtake with the king of heartsand cash the ace. Next, you continuewith the seven. Partner wins with thenine (South follows) and cashes thejack. What should you discard?

Well, you already missed the chanceto ‘make life easy for partner’! Youshould have cashed the spade ace beforecontinuing with the third round ofhearts. At the table East did not cash thespade ace and instead discarded the fourof spades on the fourth round of hearts.Unfortunately, this did not look veryencouraging to partner, who switched toa club. This was full deal:

♠ K J 5♥ 8 4 3♦ K Q J 4♣ Q J 10

♠ 10 8 6 ♠ A 4 3 2♥ Q J 9 5 ♥ A K 7♦ 9 8 6 ♦ 7 5 3 2♣ 9 3 2 ♣ 8 7

♠ Q 9 7♥ 10 6 2♦ A 10♣ A K 6 5 4

The club switch was a disaster asdeclarer now took five club tricks andfour diamond tricks to make 3NT.Perhaps West might have worked outthat the four of spades was anencouraging card but East missed thechance to ‘make life easy for partner’ bycashing the ace of spades.

Look at this deal from a pairs’ event:

♠ K J 4 2♥ Q 10 3 2♦ 5 2♣ K J 8

♠ A 10 9 6 3 ♠ Q 8 7 ♥ 7 5 ♥ 6 ♦ A Q 9 8 ♦ K 7 6 4 ♣ 5 4 ♣ 10 7 6 3 2

♠ 5♥ A K J 9 8 4♦ J 10 3 ♣ A Q 9


1♥

1♠ 3♥ Pass 4♥

End

West led the five of clubs, which declarerwon in hand. Fearful of a club ruff,declarer drew trumps. East realised thatthe contract was laydown and saw thedanger of a overtrick. If declarer played alow spade towards dummy, his partnermight duck to give declarer a guess if heheld a doubleton spade. Since East knewthe spade position from West’s overcall,he thought of a clever way to ‘make lifeeasy for partner’. Can you spot it?

East discarded the queen of spades onthe second round of trumps. Now therewas no way that West would duck thespade when declarer played the threetowards dummy.

Even in the simplest scenarios, we all‘make life easy for partner’ regularly.

Here is a simple example from a pairs’game:

♠ Q J 10♥ Q 10 9 3 2♦ Q J 4♣ A 3

♠ 9 8 7 4 ♠ A K 3 2♥ 7 ♥ 6 5♦ K 10 8 6 ♦ 9 7 3 2♣ Q 10 8 7 ♣ J 9 5

♠ 6 5♥ A K J 8 4♦ A 5♣ K 6 4 2

North South

1♥

4♥

West leads the eight of spades (secondhighest from a poor suit).

Every one of us as East would wintrick one with the king. We do it withoutthinking but, actually, we are doing it to‘make life easy for partner’, who nowknows that you also hold the ace (ordeclarer would play it). If you win withthe ace (and do not have anyunderstanding about which card youplay from touching cards), partner willnot know that you have the king.

Precision Defending

After winning with the king, a precisesequence of play holds the contract toten tricks. East switches to the diamondnine (to show no interest in the suit) anddeclarer tries the finesse, West winningwith the king. Now, thanks to the play ofthe king of spades at trick one, West hasno trouble in playing a spade back tohold the contract to ten tricks and a goodmatchpoint score. So remember, ‘Makelife easy for partner’! ■

Make Life Easy

for Partner

David Gold Says

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Q Playing pairs, mypartner opened1♥. I held:

♠ A K Q J 9 4♥ Q 7 5 4♦ 6♣ A 6

Our system is KISS (Keepit simple, stupid), so I bid4NT; partner showed bothmissing aces, so I went7NT. This was laydownfacing:

♠ 7♥ A K 8 6 3♦ A 7 5♣ Q 7 5 3

One other pair bid 7♥.Nobody else bid 7NT. Doyou think my 7NT wassensible?Ron Gerard, Totteridge by email.

A You do not usuallywant to guess whenit comes to grand

slams. If partner has neitherthe king nor the jack ofhearts, 7NT could behopeless.

Playing KeycardBlackwood or RomanKeycard Blackwood,whereby the king of trumpscounts as a fifth ‘ace’ would

be very useful. Since heartsis the only suit bid, it wouldcount as the trump suit. Isuggest you persuade yourpartner to adopt KeycardBlackwood. The replies to4NT are these:

5♣ zero or four keycards5♦ one or five keycards5♥ two keycards5♠ three keycards

Even knowing partner hasthree keycards, you cannotquite count thirteen tricks,though it seems right to bidthe grand slam. In Acol, you expect opener to have either five hearts or atleast fifteen points. It wouldbe very unlucky if athirteenth trick failed tomaterialise.

As to the choice between7NT and 7♥, if someone has five spades to the ten,7♥ could be safer. Thenagain, if hearts are 4-0, youmight make 7NT but not7♥. Bidding 7NT seems fineso long as you know aboutthe ♥K as well as the twoaces.

♣♦♥♠

Q Please explainwhat a splinter isand what sort of

hand you need for it.Ann Mitchell, Farnham,Surrey (similar from CharlesLeveson Poynton, Cheshire).

Ask Julian Pottage

Is simple

Blackwood the

best slam tool?

A A splinter bid is agreat way offinding good slams

and avoiding bad ones. Withone bid, you describe threefeatures of your hand:support for partner’s suit, ashortage (singleton or void)in the suit you bid and thevalues to raise to game.

A splinter bid is usually adouble jump, eg partneropens 1♠ and you respond4♣. The values you needwill depend upon thecontext of the bid. If partner has opened thebidding, suggesting 12+HCP, you need about 12-14HCP yourself. This handwould be a suitable for a 4♣ splinter response to 1♠:

♠ K Q 7 4♥ Q 9 6 4♦ A J 5 3♣ 6

An article in the maximsseries will go into moredetail about splinters.

♣♦♥♠

QWhat should Iopen on thefollowing hand?

I would rather not tellyou my choice, but I didthink I had five losers andtherefore eight playingtricks.

♠ A♥ Q J 10 8 7 5 4 3♦ K 2♣ 7 6

Jackie Shergold, Broadway,Worcester by email.

A With an eight-cardsuit, I would open4♥ despite the fact

that most of the values areoutside the heart suit. Youare very likely to want toplay in hearts; also, a pre-emptive bid is likely toobstruct the opponents.While you could open 1♥,that would make life easyfor them. You have sevenand a half tricks (♦K-x ishalf a trick), so I think thehand is too good for 3♥whatever the vulnerability.

Note that your losers(using the losing trickcount) added to yourplaying tricks often comesto fewer than 13. You cannotsimply work out yourplaying tricks by takingyour losers from thirteen –you need to count realwinners. This time, it doesnot really matter whetheryou think you have sevenand a half tricks or eight.However, if you had a muchstronger hand, when an Acol2♥ could come into theequation, the differencewould be important.

Ask Julian continued

Q Playing Benji witha 6-10 range for a2♥/2♠ and 12-14

for 1NT, how wise isit to open 2♠ with 11 pointsor 1NT with 15? How welldoes a 2♠ opening describethis hand?

♠ A K 10 9 8 7♥ 10 7♦ 10 5♣ K J 6

Mike Bass, Dorking, Surrey by email.

A While it is normalto adjust the rawpoint count because

of positive or negativefeatures, being out of rangefor no reason simplyconfuses partner. The handyou cite is in fact a verygood eleven count. You havea strong six-card suit, withgood spot cards plus two anda half defensive tricks. Usingthe rule of 22 (see BRIDGE93) you have an HLQT(High Cards, Length, QuickTricks) count of 22.5 (andthat is not counting a pointfor the ♠10-9-8-7), so youhave a clear-cut 1♠ opening.A 2♠ open ing describes theshape well and would be finein third or fourth seat, but istoo much of an untruth interms of strength for it to beright in first or second seat.The whole idea of a pre-emptive opening is to get inthe way of the opponentswhen you have a weak hand.When, as here, you haveopening values, you do notwant to get in partner’s way.

If you understate yourstrength, all sorts of thingscan go wrong: you mightmiss a game, you might missa slam, partner may make aphantom sacrifice, or partnermight fail to make a

lucrative penalty double. The position is the same in

respect of a 1NT opening.On board 13 on the BGBsimultaneous pairs on 14 April, the East hand was:

♠ K Q J 3♥ Q 4 2♦ Q J♣ K J 4 3

This hand has 15 points inhigh cards but the Q-Jdoubleton is clearly badnews. With no bullishfeatures to make up for it,this hand is not worth 15points and is thus fine for aweak 1NT opening.

However, a hand worth 15points (and most hands thatstart with 15 points beforeadjustment are worth 15points) would be too goodfor a 12-14 1NT.

♣♦♥♠

Q Do you agree thatlow-level doublescan be rewarding

with the right kind of hand– medium strength (9-11points), not much liking forpartner’s suit, and a usefulholding in your opponent’ssuit? Say partner opens 1♠and RHO bids 2♣. Youhold:

♠ J♥ Q J 7 4 3♦ 10 6 4♣ A K 10 6

There is no certainty ofgame; against a clubcontract you could make,via a spade ruff or two, allfour trumps plus partner’swinners in the side suits:seven tricks in defence is areasonable expectation.

Even with game-goingvalues, at favourablevulnerability it may pay to defend a doubled

contract, aiming to score500 as against 400/420.

Simon argued this in theclassic Why You Lose atBridge.Humphrey Miller, Solihull.

A Yes, if you cannotmake game, as islikely with the type

of hand you cite, two downdoubled is going to be agood score. If the opponentsare vulnerable, even onedown doubled will be good.However, hands on whichyou wish to penalize theopponents are rather in theminority. For this reason,many pairs playnegative/Sputnik/take-outdoubles after an opening andovercall. Much of the time,when you want to defend adoubled contract, you canstill achieve this by passing(smoothly) on the first roundand then leaving in partner’shoped-for reopening double.Playing pairs, with yourexample hand, I wouldprobably pass if theopponents are vulnerable but bid 2♥ if they are not.

By the way, the great bookyou mention has a sequel,due out soon: Why You StillLose at Bridge.

♣♦♥♠

Q About 15 yearsago, I learnt toplay bridge using

5-card majors. I have sinceforgotten how it goes, apart from opening yourbetter minor if you haveonly a 4-card major, and I cannot recall theresponses. Jane Smithson, Whitsome,Duns, Scottish Borders(similar from Richard Jarvisand Viv Tremeer).

A Most people whoplay 5-card majorsalso play a strong

no-trump. If you do that, youare really playing StandardAmerican rather than Acol.

Plenty of web sites give thebasics of Standard Americanbidding. One I found is http://home.comcast.net/~kwbridge/basics.htm

As responder, you avoidraising partner’s minorunless you have 5-cardsupport (opener may haveonly three) but you can raisepartner’s major freely with 3-card support (as openerhas promised a five-card suitor better). In StandardAmerican, you need afraction more for a change of suit response at the twolevel than in Acol as it isnormal to play that a two-over-one response promisesanother bid.

If you want more details,you could look at theACBL’s own web sitewww.acbl.org orhttp://www.rpbridge.net/bgtc.htm

If you want to combine 5-card majors with a weakno-trump, there are moresequences the same as Acol.The only real problem is anopening hand with 12-14HCP and a 4-4-4-1 shape,which is too weak for 1♦-2♣-2NT. In this case,you have to tell a lie of some sort.

♣♦♥♠

QWhat is thedifference betweenan overbid and an

overcall?Name and address supplied.

A There is a bigdifference betweenan overbid and an

overcall. An overbid is whenyou bid more than the values of your hand justify,eg, partner opens 1NT 12-14and you raise to 3NT withonly 10 or 11 points insteadof the usual 13-18. Anovercall is when you comein with a bid over anopposing opening – eg, thehand on your right opens 1♣and you bid 1♥.


Q Playing socialbridge, Westopened 1♣ and

North overcalled 1♥. Whatshould East call? It mighthave been easier if Westhad opened 1♦.

♠ K Q 6 ♠ A 10 7 5♥ Q J ♥ 9 8 5♦ J 7 3 2 ♦ A K 10 4♣ A K 4 3 ♣ 6 5

Alan Solomon, Wimbledon, by email.

A In social bridge,when presumably adouble by East

would be for penalties, youshould just call 1♠ – thesame bid you would havemade without the overcall.

I agree with opening 1♣ –the suit is better and thiskeeps the bidding lower.However, had West opened1♦, East should still bid 1♠. It would be premature toraise diamonds. Majors aremuch more important thanminors. You need to checkwhether you have a 4-4spade fit before raising theminor.

At duplicate, when playingdouble of the 1♥ overcall fortake-out, showing at least sixpoints and usually exactlyfour spades, you woulddouble.

♣♦♥♠

Q 1. I had a stronghand and wantedto explore for a

slam after this bidding:


1♥ 1♠� 3♥ Pass

?

As I had two small clubs, Iwanted to cue bid 3♠,showing my ♠A, hoping to

hear my partner cue-bid4♣ so that I could useBlackwood. In view of the1♠ overcall, would my 3♠cue-bid still have a clearmeaning?

2. My partner (West)had a balanced 16 points:


1♦ 1♥ 2♣ Pass

?

Does opener now need aheart stopper to rebid 2NT?Hugh Knowles by email.

A 1. Yes, when thepartnership hasagreed a major, it is

usual to play that any bidhigher than three of theagreed major is a cue-bid(showing control in thatsuit). When an opponent hasbid the suit, it is even clearerthat 3♠ is a cue-bid ratherthan a second suit.

2. Yes, it is good idea forWest to bid 2NT only whenholding a heart stopper. Inthis case, a bid of 2♥ wouldask for a heart stopper. Thereare two key differencesbetween this auction and thefirst: (a) the bidding is lower(b) you have not agreed amajor (indeed, you have notagreed any suit or even bid amajor). This is why 2♥ asksfor a stopper in this auctionbut 3♠ showed a control inthe first auction.

♣♦♥♠

Q Can you pleasedefine ‘finesse’ forme please?

Cyril Jenkins, Weston-super-mare by email.

A The officialdefinition is: theattempt to gain

power for lower-rankingcards by taking advantage ofthe favourable position ofhigher-ranking cards held bythe opposition.

If dummy (North) has A-Qof a suit and West K-x,

declarer might lead a lowcard and, if West plays low,put in the queen. You caneither say this is a finesse ofthe queen or a finesseagainst the king.

The defenders can takefinesses, though as they tendto hold fewer higher cardsthan the declaring side, it isless common for them to doso.

You can also use the wordfinesse as a verb. In theabove example, you finessethe queen or you finesseagainst the king.

♣♦♥♠

Q In the example inNed Paul’s articlein BRIDGE 93

declarer arrives in 4♥ afterWest opened 1NT. Howshould the play go?R J Stephenson, Stoke on Trent.

♠ A K 10 6 2♥ Q J 9 8 7♦ 9♣ 8 5

♠ J 8 5 ♠ Q 9 7 4♥ 10 6 3 ♥ 2♦ A 7 6 ♦ K J 10 4 2♣ A K Q 9 ♣ J 10 4

♠ 3♥ A K 5 4♦ Q 8 5 3♣ 7 6 3 2

A Let us assume thedefenders cash theirthree top winners

and then play a seconddiamond. You ruff low indummy and can afford todraw one round of trumpswith the ace. Assuming allfollow, you play a spade tothe ace, ruff a spade low andreturn to dummy with a hightrump. Next, you ruff anotherspade (with the king) andruff a diamond low. Finally,you draw any outstandingtrump and cash dummy’s twogood spades. For the line towork, you need spades 4-3

and hearts not 4-0.On this line, if trumps are

4-0, you will need more luckin the spade suit, Q-J-x some -where, or a defensive error.

♣♦♥♠

Q At rubber bridge,my partner opened1NT (12-14) and

the next hand overcalled2♣ (natural).

♠ A 9 3 2♥ A 10 3 2♦ J 6 5 4♣ K

What should I now bid?Alan Solomon, Wimbledon.

A At rubber bridge,double would be forpenalties, which

might work but would berisky. I would bid 3♣. Thecue-bid is a slight overbidbut this should ensure youplay in a sensible spot.Whether partner shows you a4-card major or a clubstopper, you should behappy. You will raise 3♥ or3♠ to game or pass 3NT.

♣♦♥♠

QWhat does 3♣mean in thesequence 1♠-2♣-

2♠-2NT-3♣?Mike Clements, Guildford, by email.

A Clearly, you musthave an unbalancedhand or you would

either pass 2NT or raise to3NT. You cannot have onlyfive spades and four clubs,since then you would haveraised 2♣ to 3♣.

I suggest playing thesequence as six spades andfour clubs, non-forcing –you could bid 3♦ or 3♥ toforce responder to bid again– it is good to have a fewnon-forcing bids available.

NW ES

NW ES

Q North opened 1♦,East bid 1♠ andSouth passed.

What should West do?

♠ A 7 6 5 ♠ K Q 10 4♥ A 8 5 3 ♥ K J♦ 9 ♦ 10 6 5♣ 10 8 7 3 ♣ A Q 6 3

At the table I (West) called2♠, ending the auction.East said my bid was toocautious. He may be rightbut I think he could havebeen more adventurous.Hugh Ball, Eastbourne.

A A simple raise to 2♠ fails to do thehand justice. With

four-card support, a fewvalues and a singleton, youshould bid 3♠. This does notshow many high cards (youwould bid 2♦, opener’s suit,to show a good hand) butgets over the playingstrength better. Indeed, forsome the hand would be toogood even for this jump to3♠, especially if you are apassed hand or you are notvulnerable. Usually theovercaller will have a five-card suit, making it safe (inline with the law of totaltricks) to bid 3♠ on manyhands with four spades – if itgoes down, the other side canprobably make something.

East has done quite well tofind the overcall on thestrong four-card suit (this isa rare hand on which it isright to do so) and has noclear way to continue over asimple raise to 2♠.

♣♦♥♠

Q The Bidding Quizsays StandardAcol, weak

no-trump and 4-cardmajors. What do you mean

by 4-card majors? If youhave four spades and fivediamonds, in an openinghand, would you show thespades first? Patricia Cravitz by email.

A Playing 4-cardmajors means thatyou can open a

4-card major, not that youmust. You might open a 4-card major if you have abalanced hand too strong toopen 1NT but not strongenough for 2NT. Opening a4-card suit ahead of a 5-cardsuit is canapé, which is notpart of Acol.

♣♦♥♠

Q East-West bidthese hands asindicated below:

♠ K J 9 6 ♠ Q 7 5 4♥ 9 8 5 3 ♥ A K Q J 4♦ A ♦ K♣ A 7 5 4 ♣ Q 10 8

West East

1♣ 1♥

2♥ 4♦*

4♥ 4NT

5♥ 6♥

*splinter

Is a splinter wise holdingsingleton king? Is the signoff in 4♥ correct?

After opener’s 4♥ signoff is responder worthanother try?Huw Jones by email.

A Splinters with asingleton king can bea bit misleading.

Partner will tend to place youwith values elsewhere thatyou do not have andundervalue honours in thesplinter suit. When you add inthat, on this auction, openerhas no room between thesplinter bid (4♦) and theagreed suit, East should makea different rebid over 2♥. Isuggest 2♠, ostensibly a game

Ask Julian continuedtry. Opener might then be theone to make a 4♦ splinter.

On the actual sequence, Iagree with opener’s 4♥ signoff. The trumps are poor andhaving a singleton diamondin each hand means there willbe losers elsewhere. It isdebatable whether responderis then worth another bid.The ♠Q facing a likelydoubleton is a dubious value.The singleton ♦K is alsodubious. One card or theother is likely to be useless.For sure, without first- orsecond-round control in theunbid spade suit, 4NT is not agood idea. There could easilybe two fast spade losers.

If responder does go on, itshould be with 5♥, warningof the lack of a spadecontrol. Opener does havethe ♠K but the rest of thehand (if you know thesingleton diamond is noasset) looks pretty awful andsays to pass. Even 5♥ couldgo down if spades are 4-1 oryou lose two club tricks.

♣♦♥♠

QMy bridge teachersays thatRevolving discards

are superior to McKenneyand DODD discards. Howcan this be so as there seemto be just as many optionswith the other methods?What do experts do?P Gayler, Hailsham, East Sussex.

A You are right thatthere are no morecards to discard

with Revolving discards. The method is superior toMcKenney for anotherreason – a greater chance ofbeing able to use a low cardto give the right message.Suppose the lead is a spadeand you are using Revolvingdiscards. To ask for a heart,you discard a low club (or ahigh diamond); to ask for adiamond, you discard a lowheart (or a high club); to ask

for a club you discard a lowdiamond (or a high heart). Inthe same situation, playingMcKenney discards, youhave no way of asking for aheart with a low card.

Despite the technicalsuperiority of Revolving overMcKenney, far more peopleplay McKenney because theyare used to playing suit-preference signals in othersituations. That McKenney issimpler to remember and thatit is easier to find a partnerwilling to play it may out -weigh the theoretical advan -tage of Revolving. It dependsreally upon whether you playa lot with one partner.

A comparison betweenDODD and Revolving isharder, especially as thereseem to be different ways ofplaying DODD. Finally,since you ask, most expertslike to play attitude typediscards, indeed usuallyreverse attitude ie, low toencourage.

♣♦♥♠

Q As opener, I hold along minor – saysix diamonds –

and 16+ pts. If possible, Iwant to play in this minoror no-trumps. I open 1♦partner responds 2♣. Howdo I steer the contract intono-trumps?John Morley, Camberley.

A Depending upon thequality of the suitand your stoppers

outside, your rebid is likelyto be either 3♦ or 2NT. Witha good 6-card suit, 3♦ is themore descriptive bid. Partnerwill be aware that you wouldneed to make 11 tricks forgame in a minor (and that, atpairs, minors may scorepoorly even when game ison). Often partner will rebid3NT over 3♦, or, if holding astopper in one major only,show the stopper by biddingthe suit (ie, 1♦-2♣-3♦-3♥shows a heart stopper).

NW ES

NW ES

Q Can you tell mewhat to do whenmy partner opens

3♦ as North and Eastdoubles? I have fourdiamonds and a weak handso I increase the pre-emptby raising to 4♦. Partnerwent on to 5♦ and Eastdoubled again. We wentthree down. Should I havebid differently?Zena Duffy by email.

A Your 4♦ raisesounds sensible withfour-card support –

when you have a huge fityou do not need values tobid. Assuming the opponentsknow what they are doing,they are not going to defend3♦ doubled with a singletondiamond each. The usualrule is that the pre-emptordoes not bid again, sopartner’s 5♦ is an unusualaction. Down three doubledshould be a good score onlyif the opponents alone arevulnerable (game their waywill be worth 620 againstyour 500) but poorotherwise. It would appearthat the 5♦ bid is the causeof any poor score.

♣♦♥♠

QWhat is aresponsive doubleand when can I

use it? Surely you cannotdouble partner’s double.Jan Stockdale, Chesterby email.

A Responsive doublesoccur in auctionslike these:

Auction 1


1♥ Dbl 2♥ Dbl

Auction 2


3♦ Dbl 4♦ Dbl

In both cases, the doublesays ‘I have the values to bidbut I am unsure what suit weshould play in.’

If responder (East) passes,indeed you cannot double.To send a similar message inthat case, you cue-bidopener’s suit. If you changeEast’s 2♥ to a pass inauction 1, you would bid 2♥.If you change East’s 4♦ to apass in auction 2, you wouldbid 4♦. Bidding opener’s suitdoes raise the level, so youwill need a good hand, withvalues sufficient to forcepartner to bid at that level.

♣♦♥♠

Q I know of thebenefit of playingin a 4-4 rather

than a 5-3 trump fit. Doesthis still apply with a 4-4and a 5-4 trump fit?Huw Jones by email.

A Usually the moretrumps you have thebetter. The more

you have, the more ruffs youcan take and the less thedanger posed by theopposing trumps. That said,you can construct hands onwhich a 4-4 fit plays betterthan a 5-4 fit.

♠ K Q J 7 5 ♠ A 10 6 4♥ A Q 7 4 ♥ K J 10 3♦ A 3 ♦ 8 5 4♣ A 2 ♣ 7 5

Playing in spades, you havea sure loser in each minor.However, if you play inhearts and trumps break 3-2,you can make an extra trickvia a ruff. Without a clublead, you might make 6♥even if hearts are 4-1.

If you manage to diagnosethis type of layout in thebidding, you are doing verywell. Most of the time whenyou want to play in a 4-4 fitrather than a 5-4 it isbecause the 4-4 fit is in a

Ask Julian continuedmajor and the 5-4 is in aminor.

♣♦♥♠

Q Partner opened 1♦and I was lookingat:

♠ K J 7♥ 7 4♦ A K J 7♣ Q 8 5 3

I thought a jump to 3NTwas precipitous, in view ofmy hearts, so I temporizedwith 2♣. Partner rebid2♦, leaving me with thesame problem. We endedin 5♦ – making, but a‘bottom’, as the rest made3NT+1 or +2. Partner held♥A-K. After her 2♦rebid, how can I find outabout this and end in 3NT?Paul Jesper by email.

A Using standardmethods yours is atough hand to bid.

The initial 2♣ is fine. Isuggest you rebid 2♠ over2♦. A responder’s reverse isforcing, so you will not findyourself left to play there. Ifpartner raises spades or givespreference to clubs, you canalways go back to diamonds.You hope, of course, thatpartner has the hearts stoppedand bids 2NT or 3NT.

♣♦♥♠

QMy partner and Ibid to 5♦. We made12 tricks but it was

a bottom. Other scores were3NT with overtricks or 6♦making. Should Westperhaps have opened 3♦?

West East♠ 7 5 ♠ A Q 6♥ J 5 ♥ A K♦ K 8 7 5 4 3 2 ♦ A Q J 10♣ 7 5 ♣ K Q 8 3

West East

Pass 2♣

2♦ 3♣

3♦ 5♦

End

Rose Smith by email.

A A very strong handfacing a very weakhand is often hard to

bid. The ideal spot looks like6♦ by East. This makeswhenever the ♠K is onsideand some of the time the ♣Ais onside. Alas, even Houdiniwould struggle to get there.

With the poor suit andrelatively poor shape I agreewith West’s initial pass. 2♣-2♦ is fine too. After that,with a balanced hand Eastmust rebid in no-trumps andnot clubs. With 25 points,3NT is the value bid as 2NTshows 23-24. On the actualauction, East’s 5♦ is also apoor bid. Since 2♣ followedby a suit rebid created agame force, there isabsolutely no need to jump.4♦, agreeing the suit, wouldbe much better. At pairs, 5♦is poor for another reason.When you know that 3NT isan easy make, you are likelyto get a bad score playing infive of a minor as 430/460outscores 400/420. 6♦ is abetter bid than 5♦. Sorry tobe so hard on East butWest’s bidding isimpeccable.

♣♦♥♠

QWhat, if anything,does Acol standfor?

Name and address supplied.

A Acol is not anabbreviation. It isthe name of a road

in North London, where thefounders of the Acol systemmet. There is still an Acolbridge club, though it doesnot meet in Acol Road. AsAbbey Road is to Beatlesfans, Acol Road is to Britishbridge aficionados.

NW ES

Q I am a convert toBenji Acol. If Iopen 2♣ (meaning

8/9 playing tricks) and mypartner makes a 2♦ relay, Ihave to rebid at the threelevel if my long suit is aminor. If partner has little,does she have to show anegative over that of 3NT?Derek Allum, Tring, Herts.

A Playing 2♦ as anegative rather thana relay is better in

my view. Good biddingusually involves an exchangeof information betweenpartners. Waiting bids saynothing and rarely help youin judging the right contract.

Opinions vary as towhether 3♣ or 3♦ fromopener on the second round(after a 2♦ negative) shouldbe forcing. I think partnershould be able to pass with abust as you could have eitherjumped or opened 2♦ (Benji’sbig bid) if you were unwillingto stop short of game.

♣♦♥♠

Q If you open 2♣,Acol, what does itmean if you rebid

3♠ over partner’s 2♦?Mrs D Parrington, Alicante, Spain.

A A rebid of 2♠ wouldbe forcing, indeedgame forcing (only

2NT would be non-forcing).Therefore, with most handson which you want to showspades, you rebid 2♠. Thejump to 3♠ is a special bid.By tradition, it sets the suitand asks responder to cuebid any ace held. To make

the bid you need a solid suitand enough strength topicture a slam facing as littleas an ace or a king frompartner. You could havesomething like this:

♠ A K Q J 8 4 3♥ K Q♦ A 5♣ A K

If, after your 3♠, partnerrebids 3NT (denying anyace), you can bid 4♣,leaving room for partner tobid 4♦ if holding the king ofdiamonds.

♣♦♥♠

Q Can you explainwhy the scoringsystem includes a

zero after every result?Why is not 1♣/1♦ worth 2,1♥/1♠ 3, game 10 and soon?Graham Webber by email.

A I am not sure that Iknow, though I canguess. Bridge as we

know it now is in realitycontract bridge. Very fewpeople use the word‘contract’ because hardlyanyone plays any other sort.However, prior to the launchof contract bridge in 1925,there was another version,called auction bridge. Inauction bridge, scoring waswith very low numbers. Onereason for having a zero atthe end of everything incontract bridge could be todifferentiate its scores fromauction bridge scores.Another could be that HaroldVanderbilt, who invented thescoring, was American. InAmerica, bigger tends toequate to better. ■


E-mail your questions for Julian to:

[email protected]

DECLARER

PLAY

QUIZ

by David Huggett

(Answers on page 37)

You are South as declarer, playing teams or rubber bridge.

In each case, what is your play strategy?

1. ♠ 8 6 4

♥ A 4

♦ Q 9 5

♣ A K 10 9 5

♠ K 5

♥ K 9 7 5 2

♦ A J 10 6

♣ J 6

You are declarer in 3NT

and West leads the ♠3.

East wins with the ♠A and

returns the ♠J, West

playing the ♠2. How do

you plan the play?

2. ♠ 10 7 5

♥ A 10 9

♦ 8 6 5

♣ A K Q 4

♠ A 6

♥ K 7 5 2

♦ A K 4 3

♣ 7 6 5


(you opened 1NT and

partner raised to 3NT).

West leads the ♠2, East

playing the ♠Q. How do

you plan the play?

3. ♠ K Q 6

♥ J 8 6

♦ J 5 3 2

♣ A K J

♠ A 5 2

♥ A K Q 2

♦ A K 8

♣ 9 5 2


and West leads the ♠10.

How do you plan the

play?

4. ♠ K Q 7 6

♥ A Q 7 5 3

♦ 7 5

♣ K 2

♠ A J 10 8 5 3

♥ 4

♦ A Q 6

♣ Q 8 7

You are declarer in 6♠ and

West leads the ♠4, East

following with the ♠2.

How do you plan the

play?

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

Endplays, squeezes and coups arewonderful plays, but they are noteasy to manage: most of these

elaborate plays are in the realms of theexpert. One useful tactic that can allowsome plays to fall in to your lap, almostby accident, is to try to give away allyour sure losers before making a keyplay (like taking a finesse).

There are two main reasons for this.The first is that you might force adefender to make a good lead for you.The second reason is that the defendersmight make a mistake. Defence is by farthe most difficult aspect of bridge and,therefore, the more occasions that yougive your opponents the chance to gowrong, the better chance you have ofsucceeding.

Here is an example:

♠ J 9 8 4♥ 4 3 2♦ A Q 6♣ J 9 8

♠ A K Q 6 5♥ Q J 10♦ 10 4♣ 10 6 5


1♠

Pass 2♠ End

West leads the ace of hearts and thenplays the king of hearts and a thirdround, with everybody following tothree rounds.

You count your winners and see fivetrumps and a heart. You have a simplechance to make two diamond tricks byfinessing West for the king; how do youplay?

♠ J 9 8 4♥ 4 3 2♦ A Q 6♣ J 9 8

♠ 7 3 ♠ 10 2♥ A K 6 5 ♥ 9 8 7♦ J 8 3 2 ♦ K 9 7 5♣ 7 3 2 ♣ A K Q 4

♠ A K Q 6 5♥ Q J 10♦ 10 4♣ 10 6 5

You draw trumps but, rather than simplytaking the diamond finesse, you followthe maxim and let the opponents havetheir club tricks.

Sometimes they will go wrong; evenbetter, sometimes there is nothing theycan do.

Here, East has to win the first club andcan take two more. Then he has onlylosing options. Either he plays anotherclub – allowing you to discard adiamond from hand and ruff in dummy –or he has to lead away from his king andgive you two diamond tricks.

This layout is no doubt unlikely, butyou gave nothing up by losing your surelosers before trying the diamondfinesse.

Have a go at this next hand:

♠ 3 2♥ A K Q 7♦ 6 4 3♣ 9 8 7 4

♠ A K Q J 10♥ 4 3 2♦ K 5 2♣ Q 3

North South

1♠

2♣ 3♠

4♠ End

West leads the jack of diamonds againstyour adventurous 4♠ contract.

The bidding was debatable – Northmight have tried 1NT and South mighthave rebid 2NT over 2♣. However, yourjob is to make the contract.

You have eight top tricks and, whenEast takes the ace of diamonds at trickone, you are up to nine. East decides toswitch to a trump and you draw trumps infour rounds (West and North discard twodiamonds). A 3-3 heart split will take youto ten tricks, but there is no rush to try thehearts: lose some of your losers first.

It looks like it will make no difference,but bridge is a funny game. That trumpswitch was strange given what is indummy, so maybe something elseextraordinary will happen.

♠ 3 2♥ A K Q 7♦ 6 4 3♣ 9 8 7 4

♠ 5 4 ♠ 9 8 7 6♥ J 9 8 6 ♥ 10 5♦ J 10 7 ♦ A Q 9 8♣ 10 6 5 2 ♣ A K J

♠ A K Q J 10♥ 4 3 2♦ K 5 2♣ Q 3

Having lost the first trick to the ace ofdiamonds and drawn trumps in fourrounds, you duck a club. East takes hisjack and, slightly to your surprise,continues with the ace and king of thesuit. You ruff the third club with your lasttrump and cash the king of diamonds.

Your plan is simple; you hope

Lose Your Sure

Losers Early

Bernard Magee Says

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Lose Your Sure Losers Early continued

hearts are 3-3, but you have also giventhe opponents plenty of chances to makebad discards. In fact, most likely withoutknowing it, you have executed asqueeze. This is the position as you playthe king of diamonds:

♠ —♥ A K Q 7♦ —♣ 9

♠ — ♠ —♥ J 9 8 6 ♥ 10 5♦ — ♦ Q 9 8♣ 10 ♣ —

♠ —♥ 4 3 2♦ K 5♣ —

When you lead the king of diamondswhat does West discard? If he throws aheart, dummy throws a club and its fourhearts will take the last four tricks. Ifinstead he throws the ten of clubs, youhave to remember back to the first threeclub tricks – the ♣A-K-Q-J have allgone. You will thus realise that the nineof clubs is a winner and throw the lowheart, again leaving dummy high.

You have squeezed West out of awinner – it was not something you hadplanned, but it was something thatoccurred because you lost some of yourlosers before playing the key suit.Squeezes are difficult plays, but givingaway your losers is not so difficult: youdo not have to know what you are doing;you just have to hope something goodwill happen.

On this deal, the opponents could havedone a lot better, but that is another oneof the reasons for losing your losers: togive them the chance to go wrong.

Defensive Errors

More common than a genuine squeeze isa simple defensive error: whenever Ihave a suit such as the hearts dummyhad on this hand, I like to hide the suitfrom the opponents (if it is in my hand).There is a chance that they might makea wrong discard and then the suit willrun at the end of the play.

Now try this more mundane deal:

♠ 8 5 4 2♥ 10 9♦ Q 7 3♣ A 5 4 3

♠ K ♠ Q J 10 9 3♥ Q 4 3 ♥ K J 6 5 2 ♦ 10 8 5 2 ♦ J 9♣ J 10 9 8 7 ♣ 6

♠ A 7 6♥ A 8 7♦ A K 6 4♣ K Q 2

You open 2NT and partner raises to3NT – a nice simple auction. West leadsthe jack of clubs.

3NT should go one down since clubs,diamonds and spades all break badly,but bridge is never that simple. Try theeffect of losing some losers early andkeeping your diamonds disguised. Winthe club and duck a spade, win thesecond club and duck another spade.East wins and plays a third spade,knocking out your ace. Look at West’shand and remember he cannot see yourdiamonds: what two discards is helikely to make? If he keeps all hisdiamonds, he has done very well, but Iam not sure everyone would manage it.

When giving up your losers, you doneed to make sure that this does notharm your genuine chances.

♠ A K Q♥ Q 4♦ 7 6 4 3 2♣ 8 6 5

♠ J 10 9 8 7 6♥ A K♦ A Q 8♣ 7 4

North South

Pass 1♠

2♦ 2♠

3♠ 4♠

End

You play in 4♠ and West leads the jack ofhearts. You win the first heart and drawthree rounds of trumps. West follows allthe way but East discards low clubs onthe second and third rounds of trumps.

The maxim suggests losing yourlosers, but you should also have made aplan. This plan should include notingyour entries to each hand. Your onlyentries to dummy are in trumps and theyhave now all gone. So, if you need tolead from dummy, you must do so atonce.

♠ A K Q♥ Q 4♦ 7 6 4 3 2♣ 8 6 5

♠ 5 4 3 ♠ 2♥ J 10 9 8 2 ♥ 7 6 5 3♦ J 5 ♦ K 10 9♣ A Q J ♣ K 10 9 3 2

♠ J 10 9 8 7 6♥ A K♦ A Q 8♣ 7 4

In the other examples, when you gaveaway the lead, you could go back to youroriginal chance if nothing excitinghappened. Here your clearest chance fora tenth trick is the diamond finesse.However, if you give your losers awaynow and nothing pleasant happens, youwill be unable to fall back on yourgenuine chance of the finesse – you willbe in the wrong hand. Therefore, afteryou have drawn the last trump, you takethe ‘ordinary line’ and play a diamond toyour queen. This wins, allowing you tomake your contract.

Conclusion

Giving up losers early is a clever tacticthat can pay handsome dividends, inparticular enhancing your prospects forovertricks playing duplicate pairs.Giving the opponents the chance to gowrong should be reason enough to dothis. Sometimes you will also findgenuine plays that will surprise you:endplays and squeezes; not planned, butthey might come up because by losingyour losers you have tightened theendgame. However, there is one vitalcaveat: make sure you can still makeyour ‘normal play’ later in the play.Make sure you have the entries neededto take a finesse, for example. ■

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Q Am I right inthinking that Ican make a weak

takeout into clubs afterpartner opens 1NT bybidding 2♣ (Stayman) andrebidding 3♣?John Bradley, Grimsby.

A Stayman, as devisedby Jack Marx inEngland and

George Rapee in the USA,included a sign-off in clubs,and playing this as part ofthe Stayman convention hasalways been legal. For thatmatter, people have come tomany other agreementsabout further bidding afterStayman and it is legal toplay any set of rebids.

Sadly, many peoplebelieve that Stayman has toshow a four-card major.While it is reasonable for itto do so, there is no reasonwhy it should.

One problem is that manypeople think everyoneshould play the way thatthey do, but that is not thecase. Bridge teachers shouldpoint out that not everyoneplays the same system, but few do. If you want toplay Stayman to show afour-card major, that is fine:if you want to play it so that it does not, that is fineas well.

On a system card, it iscommon to write ‘prom’ forpromissory, or ‘non-prom’

for non-promissory to showwhether you play Staymanto promise a four-cardmajor.

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Q South was playingin 4♠ with a 5-3fit. Having gained

the lead, he played threerounds of trumps. To hissurprise, both defendersshowed out on the thirdround. A few tricks laterWest ruffed a heart,cutting declarer off fromseveral winning hearts.Dummy said that Westhad revoked, whereuponthe players turned overquitted cards to prove thepoint. West agreed she hadrevoked and called thedirector.

The director, a playingdirector, came once he hadfinished his hand, but saidhe could not look at theboard as he had yet toplay it.Frederick Alan Records,Binstead, Isle of Wight by email.

A Dummy shouldkeep quiet: he canpoint out revokes at

the end of the play, but notbefore. The director shouldhave warned dummy, evenpenalising him if he haswarned him before.

The players have no right

to turn over quitted cards.As soon as there was asuggestion of a revoke, theyshould have called thedirector and left it to him.

The playing directorshould come when called. Itis not generally goodenough to finish playing thehand at his table, unless thedelay is very short.Furthermore, if he needs tolook at a deal to establishwhether he needs to adjustthe score to restore equity,he should look at the deal. Ifhe cannot play it as a result,that is unfortunate, but thatis one of the disadvantagesin being a playing director.

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Q I had about sevenpoints with a 3-5-0-5 shape

and the bidding started:


1♦ 1NT 2♦

?

As my hearts were poor, Idecided to double. To mysurprise, this ended theauction (partner did notalert). Declarer, uponfinding about my diamondvoid, described my doubleas an ‘outrageous bid’,eventually going one down.Surely, as the other threeplayers were claiming tohold diamonds, I could not

have the suit.Unfortunately, it is not

the first time someone hasspoken to me like this.Name and address supplied(Northern Ireland).

A Not everyone playsthis double astakeout; in fact

most probably do not. Still,it is sensible to do so. Whilethis double would not bealertable in England, Walesor Scotland, it is alertable inNorthern Ireland, so yourpartner was at fault for notalerting it. You did nothingwrong.

The attitude of youropponent really worries me.To describe your double as‘outrageous’ is rude anduncalled-for. I advise you infuture to call the directorimmediately and tell himthat an opponent has beenrude to you.

It does not matter whichside is in the wrong or theright, opponents have noright to be rude to you andthe director will issue themwith a sharp rebuke, orpossibly a disciplinarypenalty. He might adjust thescore because of the lack ofalert, but that is a differentmatter. If this is happening alot, I think you are going tohave to take it up with theclub. Players are required tobe courteous at all times –that is a matter of Law.

DAVID STEVENSON answers questions on Bridge Laws

Can I use

Stayman as a

Weak Take-out?

Q Playing duplicate,the other threeplayers at the end

of the play immediatelyshuffled their cards andreturned them to theboard, the oppositionclaiming eight tricks whilstmy cards on the tableshowed seven. I objected asI was certain that they hadonly made seven but mypartner did not contest andthe result stood.

On a similar note, a dealhad been played, cardsreturned to the board andscore written in when theopposition claimed therehad been a revoke. I wassure no revoke occurredbut the score was adjustedto allow for the revoke,surely too late.

An attitude seems to existthat adherence to the rulesor calling the director isanti-social.Robert Houghton, Ruislip, Middlesex.

A Correct procedure,as always whensomething goes

wrong at duplicate, is to callthe director. He will make adetermination of how manytricks were made; since yourcards were in order he isvery likely to decide in yourfavour. The other playerswere at fault in shufflingtheir cards before thenumber of tricks was agreed.If you objected to the claimof eight tricks before theyshuffled their cards, thentheir conduct is no longer asmall misdemeanour but amore serious matter.

The rules say that a revokepenalty may be adjudged ifattention is drawn to therevoke before the non-offenders call on asubsequent deal, or beforethe round has ended. So thefact that the score has been

written in does not make itout of time to ask for aruling on a revoke, nor forpenalty tricks to beadjudged. It is probablymore difficult for the directorto judge than if he had beencalled earlier, so he wouldprobably rule no revoke if hehad any doubt.

There is certainly somesort of feeling against callingthe director. My view is thatthe worst arguments in clubsstart with the ominous words‘I am not going to call thedirector, but …’ and I alwayscall the director if anopponent says this. Thedirector sorts out differencesand I often think not callingthe director is anti-social.

In practice, there are somerules ignored in some clubsand it is generally wise toaccept the common view.For instance, few clubs insiston two convention cards perpair and this is notsomething to worry aboutexcept with pairs playingexotic methods.

Failure to call the directorwhen something is wrongleads to bad feeling, mistrustand creates a generallypoorer game. While Iappreciate that players donot want to disturb thedirector more than necessary,it really is best to follow therules.

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Q If opponents makean alert butexplain it

incorrectly, what shouldyou do? Do they suffer apenalty?John Morley by email.

A In general, we donot issue penaltiesat club level – or

even local competitions –except for three things. Oneis a repeated violation, forexample if this pair get alertswrong all the time. Two is aviolation that means another

Ask David continuedtable cannot play a board.Three is bad behaviour.

Of course, the Directorwill look to see if theiropponents have sufferedbecause of the wrongexplanation. If he thinks theymight have, he will adjustthe score, giving them thescore they might haveobtained otherwise, orpossibly a percentage ofvarious scores he believeswere possible.

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Q The hand on myright opened 1NT.I had 15 points

with ♥Q-J-x-x-x. I bid 2♥.My partner thought for awhile and then raised to3♥. I went on to 4♥ andmade it in comfort. Theopponents queried my finalbid.Aubrey Pengilly, Kingston, Surrey by email.

A When partnerhesitates it showsdoubt, and often

you can work out the natureof the doubt. For example, ifpartner thinks for a longtime before making apenalty double, you can besure she does not have fourtrump tricks.

When partner hesitates,you must take every care togain nothing from thehesitation, for examplepassing when partner makesthe slow, doubtful double Idescribed.

Here it is not obvious atall what her problem is and,since you seem to have aclear 4♥ bid, you werecorrect to make it.

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QWith a spade suitof a singleton kingin the South hand

and A-Q-10-8-7-3 indummy, declarer leads theking, West follows suit anddummy plays the three.

Declarer insists on havingthe three replaced. Westobjects.Lesley Slater by email.

A Cards that declarerdid not ask for butdummy played

anyway do not stand, sodeclarer will get to play theace from dummy as shewished. The director shouldhave a sharp word withdummy about playing onlycards that declarer has askedfor. However, on thisoccasion, dummy’sunfortunate act has causedno problem whatever to thedefence and so West is notgoing to get any redress.

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Q After I opened 1♠,we ended in 4♠.My RHO led and I

put my cards on the tableunthinkingly. My partner,also not awake, called forme to play a card, which Idid. My LHO then pointedout that I should have beendeclarer. My RHO said Ihad condoned the lead byplaying on it.

What is the correctprocedure?AA Simpson, Chard, Somerset.

A Once you havefaced one singlecard, the Law says

you must become dummyand partner declarer, sowhile your opponent got thereason wrong, he got thesolution right.

You ask for the correctprocedure. In duplicate, youcall the director, whoexplains the rules; in a clubrubber game, you call thehost who does likewise: andin a friendly rubber game, itdoes no harm to have a copyof the rubber Bridge Laws tolook at. Mr Bridge’s Yellowbook is a fair alternative: forthings like this, duplicate andrubber rules are similar.

Q In the endingbelow declarer(South) claimed the

rest of the tricks. East, whowas on lead, claimed a trickas he still had a trump (aclub). Declarer said thathowever the play went,whatever the lead, he wouldmake the last six tricks.

The director was calledand awarded a trick toEast.

♠ Q♥ — ♦ Q 4♣ 10 6 4

♠ J 10 ♠ 9♥ J ♥ —♦ 10 9 3 ♦ 8 7 6 5♣ — ♣ 7

♠ 2♥ —♦ A K J 2♣ K

Dawn Gibson, Stowmarket.

A It is not the casethat a defender withan unmentioned

trump gets a trickautomatically. Since Eastmust follow suit throughout,there is no way he can take atrick, so declarer gets all thetricks. Defenders shouldnever claim tricks if theycannot make them.

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QWe play aconventional 1♣opening with a 1♦

negative response. I opened1♣. My partner alertedand, when asked, said thatit showed 15-19 points withno 5-card major, the sameas it says on our card.Later someone askedwhether I could hold twoclubs, to which my partnerreplied ‘yes’. The

opponents said this answermisled them. In fact, Icould have held any numberof clubs from 0 to 5.John K Lewis by email.

A It is never entirelyclear how muchmore you should

describe when asked aspecific question. While it isdifficult to disagree withyour partner’s truthfulanswer, I suggest in futurethat you give a completeanswer even if the questiondoes not ask for one. Yoursystem card should also statespecifically that 1♣ could beon a void.

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Q How should Imark an averageand a throw-in

at duplicate?Sharon Kayes by email.

A I assume you arescoring by hand.Average you

generally score by giving thepair half a top on a board,and scoring everyone elsefrom one up to a top lessone. This is not veryaccurate and you should notuse it if you have a scoringprogram, such as JeffSmith’s free one. Scoringprograms have a complexmethod called Neuberg, butyou do not need to knowhow it works: ask it foraverage and the softwaredoes the rest.

Passed out is different. It isjust another score, beatingall the minus scores, andlosing to all the plus scores.This means that it could evenbe a top or bottom. Last timeI passed a board out, I hadmisjudged: I got a bottom.

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QWe play that it isOK to open 1NTwith a 5-3-3-2

shape where the 5-card suit

Ask David continuedis any of the four suits. Isthis legal and do we needto announce this?Ann Yeldon by email.

A It is legal to playthat way and it isnot misleading to do

so. Often players complainabout being misled by minordifferences in style that reallymake little difference tothem. I doubt that anyone butan expert could tell you whatdifference it would make toyour opponents to knowwhether you play this way.

If you decide to continueopening all 5-3-3-2 handswith 1NT and if your clubhas no convention cards, youshould mention it in future atthe start of the round. It isunnecessary if you haveconvention cards: just writeit on the card.

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Q Opponents saidthey were playingAcol with a 12-15

1NT. Is this right?Bernard Abbott, Leamington Spa.

A Basic Acol haschanged a lot overthe years, and

hardly any two pairs play itthe same. It is more a basicapproach and, if you need toknow what an opponent isshowing by a bid, it is bestto ask, not to make assump -tions. Even pairs who saythey are playing Acol canplay any 1NT range that theylike, so you should not besurprised if they play some -thing different from yourself.

♣♦♥♠

Q Please confirm if Iam right that, evenif you declare that

your 1NT is 12-14, you arenot wrong if you open 1NTwith 11 points – or even 15– if you fancy that bid andyour partner is not aware

that you do this regularly.Anthony Bateman-Jones by email.

A Nothing stops youdeviatingoccasionally from

your announced methods. Anoccasional 11 or 15 is notwrong. Furthermore, handvaluation is not an absolute:if an 11 is so good it lookslike 12, or a 15 so bad itlooks like 14, there isnothing wrong with opening1NT then either.

If, however, a player opens1NT with regularly 11 or 15,it is time to adjust theannouncement, to ‘Good 11to a bad 15’ or similar.

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QWhen can I pointout that tricks arefacing the wrong

way? Suppose we are ontrick 5 when I notice thattrick 2 or trick 4 is wrong.Audrey Stewart by email.

A As a defender ordummy you canpoint out that trick 4

is the wrong way untilsomeone leads to trick 5, butnot after that until the end ofthe hand. If trick 2 is wrong,once there is a lead to trick 3you must leave it until theend of the hand. Declarer, bycontrast, can point outwhenever he likes.

I believe the lawmakerswere worried that peoplemight wait until the criticalmoment when they wantpartner to cash out and thenpoint out a wrong card togive him a nudge.

David Stevenson answersall queries based on thefacts supplied by theletter writer.

Neither Mr Bridge norDavid Stevenson has anyway of knowing whetherthose facts are correct orcomplete.

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Q North alerted my2♣ in the handbelow.

Dealer East. Love All.♠ K 7 5 3 2♥ Q 8 7 2♦ Q 10 8♣ 5

♠ A 9 8 ♠ 10 4♥ 10 9 5 4 ♥ A K 6 3♦ A J 5 ♦ 4 3 2♣ 9 4 2 ♣ A J 10 8

♠ Q J 6♥ J♦ K 9 7 6♣ K Q 7 6 3


1NT 2♣*

Pass 2♥ Pass 3♣

End

West duly asked itsmeaning. My partner saidwe play Asptro so 2♣should show hearts andanother suit. I remainedexpressionless throughout.West led a club and earlyin the play East tried tocash two rounds of hearts.When I ruffed, the roof fellin. The TD was summonedat the end of the hand (Iwent two down) and theTD accepted immediatelythat an honestmisunderstanding hadoccurred. He adjusted thescore from -100 to -150. Inpractice, Asptro is not onour system’s card.

At the end of theevening, the TD returnedto point out my duty toexplain that my partnerhad given wronginformation, which, ofcourse, I accept was myerror through ignorance.However, surely the factthat I took out 2♥ to 3♣suggested I did not have aheart suit. Up to that pointin my new bridge career,

the very pleasant andunderstanding members ofthe club dealt kindly withany procedural errors Ihad made, withoutsummoning the director.

Finally, what aredeclarer’s duties to informdefenders about wronginformation? For example,what happens if partnerdescribes a bid’s meaningcorrectly but declarer’shand does not match itbecause he has psyched? Graeme Knox, Glasgow.

A Initially you did theright thing, bymaintaining a poker

face when your partnerexplained your bidincorrectly. I am afraid,however, that you wentwrong thereafter.

Like any other game,bridge has a governing set ofrules. Of course, nobodyexpects players to know allthe rules, which is why wehave directors. The directorhas a duty to be fair,courteous and impartial andto act in accordance with therules. Players have a duty tosummon the directorwhenever they believe thereis an infraction. Youropponent was within hisrights to call the director –indeed, it was his duty. I haveno doubt your errors werethrough ignorance, but failureto accept peaceably a rulingby a director is not ignorance.

Your main error was howyou dealt with theunauthorised informationyou gained from yourpartner’s explanation. Underthe rules, you must strain notto take advantage of anycomment, question, reply toa question, alert, failure toalert, announcement, unduehesitation, overly quick call,look or anything else fromyour partner. Here, you bid2♣, not imagining thatpartner would take it as theAsptro convention andpartner bid 2♥, which you

Ask David continuedshould pass. Why did younot pass – you had no moreclubs and no more valuesthan you had already shownwith your overcall?

You bid 3♣ becausepartner said 2♣ was Asptro,and you used the informationto tell you that his 2♥ bidwas not a genuine bid butmerely support for yoursupposed suit – and that isillegal. It is now normal forsomeone to call the director,perfectly ethical by youropponent and I would expecteveryone to do so. Thedirector ruled it to 2♥-3correctly, taking away theadvantage that your illegalbid of 3♣ had gained. Thefact that you did not realiseyour 3♣ bid was illegalmakes no difference underthe rules.

As the director explained,you made a second mistakeat the start of the play. Nowthat you could draw theopponents’ attention to theincorrect explanation withouthelping your partner, youshould have done so. Youshould have stated that youhad not agreed to playAsptro. This would preventany damage to youropponents during the playand reduce the likelihood ofa need for an adjusted score.As it happens, this would nothave affected the result,because you should not havebeen in 3♣ anyway.

As for your final point,psyches are indeed legal andthere is no requirement fordeclarer to correct anexplanation if it is correct. Ifyou (rather than partner)forget the system, againthere is no need to correctthe explanation.

♣♦♥♠

Q East opened 1♣and Southovercalled 1♥.

North-South ended in 3♠.West, with only two smallspades but a singleton club,

deduced that North-Southhad a misfit and doubled.

The contract went onedown as East had someuseful trumps. Declarerassumed West had thetrumps and said that in aclub she would have askedfor a ruling.Sue Chowen, Lewes.

A The ruling would bethat the resultstands. If a player

doubles for penalties, he issaying he thinks it will gooff and he wishes to increasehis score. If declarerconcludes wrongly whathand this requires, that isjust unfortunate. The laws donot decide how a playerjudges a hand.

♣♦♥♠

QWest was dealerbut East opened1♣. What do the

rules say about this?Judi Marriott by email.

A When a player bidsat his partner’s turnto call, the next

player (South) may accept orcondone that bid: in thatcase, the bid out of turnbecomes legal and thebidding continues from there.

If the next player does notaccept it, then the bid iscancelled and West mustpass throughout, but Eastmay make any legal call helikes at his turn.

Furthermore, if South doesnot accept it and if East doesnot bid clubs again andNorth or South declare, leadpenalties apply: the first timeWest is on lead declarer mayrequire a club lead, or forbida club lead as long as Westretains the lead. ■

E-mail your questionson bridge laws to:[email protected]

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READERS’LETTERSCLUB RATEI ordered 20 yellow books atthe club discounted pricehaving taken orders from my students last week.I ordered them late Friday

afternoon. A very nice ladytook the order and theyarrived on Saturday morning.If only everything in life

was as reliable as Mr Bridge.Ian Dalziel, Troon, Scotland.

IDYLLICWe thought that you andyour readers would like toknow that we do bridgeparties at our attractive andwell-appointed oldfarmhouse and gite in thebeautiful seven valleys areaof Northern France – situatedin a quiet village near themarket town of Hesdin andonly one hour from thechannel tunnel and ports.

Ï

We are just a couple of milesfrom Azincourt (sic) and otherhistoric sites and places. Youcan see what we have tooffer by logging onto ourwebsite atwww.7valleysbandb.comAs far as we are aware,nobody else is offering this

over 40 years ago inEdinburgh – a charminggentleman with the splendidname – Waverley Cameron.It would be interesting to

know how many of yourreaders made the connectionif indeed the connection iscorrect.Mr K Thorp, Poole, Dorset.I’m made in England and youstand alone.

UNIMPRESSEDI watched all episodes of therecent bridge on Sky Arts 2. Itis of course good to seebridge on TV again aftersome years.I have to say that I was not

very impressed, but Isuppose the emphasis wason ‘entertainment’. Thewords that come to mind areKitchen Bridge. Roy Cross, Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire.

ACOL RULESI think you were ratherdismissive and unnecessarilybrusque to Mr K I Hubbard ofLeicester. Contrary to yourassumption there are quite afew people who play non-Acol bridge. In my area weplay mostly social bridge,and the asking 1♣ andstrong no-trump is a simplemethod without too manyconventions. The asking club(12-14 points and no 5-cardsuit) with a negative reply of 1♦ means you are still at theone level – and you get agood idea of your partner’shand. We play in local bridgedrives and find people arevery tolerant of our simplegame – and we sometimeswin. Tony Forrester issympathetic to the strong no-trump. He wrote an articleabout it in The DailyTelegraph not long ago.I enjoy your magazine very

much – and learn a lotabout leading, countingpoints and tricks.Patricia Daman, Oxford.

sort of activity in the Nord Pasde Calais Region.Ian and Christine Blackshaw,( 0033 321904203.email us on:[email protected]

BIDDING AIDI am wondering if any of your readers who play socialrubber bridge in a relativelysmall room with say, fourtables, have found a way for a hard-of-hearing playerto cope with the quietly-spoken bids. The use of bidding boxes

is difficult because normal-sized card tables haveinadequate space for thescore pads, tricks etc., plusthe boxes. The use of sidetables is not really feasible in the available space.Over many years I have

tried a variety of hearing aidsand consulted dispenserswithout success in thisspecific situation.Mrs B Hallen, Lytham St Annes, Lancs.Try bidding boards.

WELL PICKED UPIs your letters editor Scottish?I ask because I was intriguedby the heading to one letter‘LIKE THE WAVERLEY’. It wasonly when I saw the word‘boon’ in the body of theletter that the pennydropped.They come as a boon and

a blessing to men – ThePickwick, the Owl and theWaverley Pen.I met the proprietor of the

Waverley Pen Company well

USED STAMPSI have been collectingstamps from the ladies at ourgolf club for quite some timeand my husband and I are inthe process of separatingthem and cutting off all thesurplus paper, we still havehalf a carrier bag to go. Canyou please let me know ifyou are still wanting them forthe ‘Little Voice’ charity.Sylvia Dennis, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire.

MANY THANKSPlease find enclosed stampsfor the ‘Save Stamps –Change Lives’ initiative onbehalf of Little VoiceFoundation in Ethiopia. My daughter Selina met

Jenna Hoyt, the founder ofLittle Voice, whilst living inEthiopia and was veryimpressed with the work theyare doing in Addis.I hope these stamps, which

we have collected in Armagh,will be of some value.Can you please confirm

receipt of stamps by emailingmy daughter. Anna Donnelly, Armagh,Northern Ireland.Thank you both for yourefforts. Could everbodyplease send used stampsdirectly to: Mr C Bamberger179 High RoadTrimley St MarySuffolk, IP11 0TN( 01394 283186

CELEBRATIONThe Cathcart Castle Golf Clubladies section bridge club ishaving a 50th anniversarycelebration in October thisyear. The club has 46members and playsduplicate every Thursdayafternoon from November until the end of March.If any former members

would like to get in touchthey could join us in ourcelebration.Mrs Moira Moreland,Glasgow.

VIRTUALI was delighted to read inMike Day’s letter in BRIDGEissue 95 that BernardMagee’s Acol Biddingpackage works on a Macwithout any trouble, though Iwondered what he meant by‘on windows under VM’.Please could we have anexplanation?Sally Miles, Bengeo, Herts.Johannes Leber replies.

Ï

The Acol Bidding program(as well as the otherprograms with BernardMagee) still needs theWindows operating system.On a Mac, it works only if aWindows emulation isinstalled there. A ‘Windowsemulation’ is a programwhich creates anenvironment for otherprograms (like the bridgeprogram) on a Mac so thatthey believe they are runningunder a Windows PC.‘Windows under VM’ (VM

stands for ‘Virtual Machine’)is an example of such anemulation. You can get thisprogram (and perhaps otheremulations) from anAppleMac dealer. If you tellthem that you want to run aWindows program on yourMac they will realise whatyou mean and sell you whatis needed.

WANTEDI retired recently and I amtaking up duplicate bridge for the first time havingplayed rubber bridge in thelate 1980’s. I am trying to teach myself from the book‘Basic Bridge’ by Ron Klinger– any advice would be

TRY HIMYour correspondent MrsSarah Robinson, Readers’Letters BRIDGE 95, asksabout articles to help herteach bridge. Would you bekind enough to direct her to:www.brisbridge.talktalk.net/pb.htmIf readers have the time, I’d

be interested in their opinionof the main site which isdesigned to help beginnersand improvers. If suitable,perhaps you would pass iton to Mrs S Wade of Chorleywho enquired about websites and anyone else youthink might find it useful. Allthe articles on bidding arefinished and those on playwill be completed fairly soon.www.brisbridge.talktalk.netBrian Somerville by email.

NOT WORTH A LOOKHave heart Mr Corbett, (seeBRIDGE 95) the programmewas a waste of time, withvery few hands beingviewed. The bidding was, tobe kind, very amateurish.You missed nothing.Mr A Rogers,Leigh on Sea, Essex.

LET’S BE POSITIVEI’m fed up with hearing andreading all the negativecomments about the P2Pproposals. I got my first tasteof bridge as a youngster –making up a four with Dadand two Grannies.Children today have the

choice of so many activities –they are unlikely to comeacross bridge unless theirparents play.If the EBU can redirect

resources to introducingmore young people to thegame it surely has to be theway forward.Jane Spence, Londonby email.

READERS’ LETTERScontinued

appreciated. (I attended mylocal club as a visitor lastweek) and I am now lookingfor a regular partner.Mrs P Lambert, Wakefield.( 01924 862128.

REVOLUTIONThe scoring system devisedfor contract rubber bridge isrational and allows fortactical play between twoopposing sides. To havetransferred this system to bethe notional scoring methodfor duplicate bridge andsocial bridge (when basedon Chicago scoring) seemsentirely irrational.I am aware that there are

compensatory scoringmethods based upon pointcounts taken after the handhas been played, but thesesystems do not appear toaddress the nonsense ofnotional game scores andslam scores which gaindisproportionate bonuses.Game scores do not haveany relevance to other thanrubber bridge and the award of bonuses of 300 or500 points, for achieving thearbitrary number of nine (no-trump) or ten (suit) tricks,seems quite absurd. One ofthe acknowledged, mostdifficult contracts to achieveis One No-Trump (weak) afterpartner’s pass. The rewardfor success is a mere 90points. But there is a bonusof 400 or 600 points for 3NTwith, perhaps, a lay downholding of thirty points!Moreover, but to a lesser

degree, vulnerability has nosensible place outside rubberbridge. Every deal presents achallenge related to the luckof distribution and share ofpicture cards. Fair enough,but why compound this luckby awards which have littleto do with the intellectualside of the game?It may be suggested that,

in the case of duplicatebridge, the scoring method is

uncritical since each side,North/South or East/West,play against others on aneven playing field. Whilst this may be so,

it in no way lessens the point of my argument,particularly at a time whenmore and more players ofsocial bridge seem to beswitching to the Chicagoscoring system.Ian Glegg, Banchory,Aberdeenshire.

QUITEFor some years we havesubscribed to both PrivateEye and BRIDGE. The letters’page of the former has been dominated recently bya very silly game amongstreaders to get letters withmade up names published.We hope your magazinenever descends to this puerile level. We agree with Dr Corfan,

BRIDGE 95, that trivial lettersshould be banned.Mr J Hart, Juno Trumps, High Wycombe, Bucks.

I CANNOT HELP YOUMagazine much appreciated,but to cruise on Discoveryfrom Harwich is difficult forme. How about Fred. Olsen’sships out of Southampton?Mr G Smith, Torquay, Devon.

DECLUTTERINGI am preparing to movehouse and have come acrosssome back numbers ofBridge Plus and wonderwhether you know of anyreader, or bridge enthusiastwho might be interested inmaking a decent offer forwhat I have. It is notcomplete, but dates from theearly days in 1989/1990/1991through to 2003, missingyears 1992/1999/2000. Anyone interested should call me. Brian Lee, Ascot, Berkshire.( 01344 884759.

appear on one of the fourSky Sports channels insteadof some of the more obscuregames that are shown.As your magazine reaches

all levels of players, so tooshould any future televisedbridge programmes.Mrs M Blackwell, Dinas, Powis.I regard bridge is a pastime,not a sport.

YES WE DOI learned to play bridgerecently. Do you organise any beginners’ weekends?Ms M de Landmeter,Cochester, Essex.

LESS MEANS MOREMay we please have fewerreader’s letters and morebridge articles?Mr A Bevan, Willingham,Cambridgeshire.

GOOD FOR YOUAlways enjoy reading BRIDGE– having just become anoctogenarian, I havediscovered from your pagesthat ‘Old dogs really canlearn new tricks’. Mrs M Davies, Sutton, Surrey.

SINCERE THANKSI have been a reader of yourmagazine for some time andwhilst intending to write andthank you have neglected to do so.I had reason to telephone

you with a query regardingmy forthcoming cruiseholiday. The helpful andreassuring information andadvice that I was given wasprecisely what I needed toput my mind at rest. My thoughts about the

consistently high standardsof the magazine have beenreinforced and I know nowthat the same high standardsare extended to a personalservice.Mrs Sylvia Lichfield,Maidstone, Kent.

BRIDGE ON TVI was entertained hugely byGrand Slam Bridge, hosted byClive Anderson on Sky Arts 2.Bernard Magee previewed itin BRIDGE 94 magazine and it was so helpful to have thehands to look at while playwent on.It was also interesting to

have the two expertswatching on CCTV in anotherroom. Their suggestions andcomments on the bidding andplaying of the hands, apartfrom being illuminating,showed how big swingscould be made by aggressiveand daring overcalls, which is the true excitement ofplaying bridge. Wouldn’t it be fun if another

series was commissionedinviting Bernard Magee andAndrew Robson each to bringa team of their celebrityfriends to show us how itshould be done? I haveemailed my congratulationsto Sky. Perhaps a few of yourreaders might too.Mrs E Birbeck, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

MINORITY INTERESTReading your April edition Iwas really excited that wewould be able once again towatch bridge on television.We have a Sky subscriptionpackage but, sadly, this doesnot include Sky Arts 2, whichwas the host channel for thecharity event. Did it prove a successful

‘foray’ or are you inundatedwith letters from disgruntledbridge enthusiasts who, likemy husband and me, wereunwilling to pay an extrasubscription to be able towatch a one-off event?I do hope you will be able

to approach Sky to ask forbridge to be recognised as asport and, therefore, it could

READERS’ LETTERScontinued

When the Dry DraytonDuplicate Bridge School

and Club was established inNovember 1994, it aimed to pro-vide bridge lessons, polite playingfacilities, knowledge of the appli-cation of the Laws of DuplicateBridge and to convert rubberplayers to duplicate bridge. DryDrayton is a village about fivemiles west of Cambridge and hada population of between 500 to600 growing very slowly.Membership prospects were low.Only three people played regular-ly at a bridge club. There wereonly 15 members at the end ofthe first quarter. It was essentialto encourage a regular turn out.Therefore, it was key to ensure agame for all and to find approach-es that helped to bind the peopletogether. We were very aware thatthe host player system had failedat the Cambridge Club because itwas abused by a few who madeno effort to find a partner. Theresult was resentment which we,as a new club, could not permit todevelop.

In any case our helpers allwished to play as a ‘reward’ forattending and helping.

We played individualmovements with an odd number,pairs with an even number andteams on some occasions (with aneven number of pairs). Pairsbecame established as thepreferred method, with individualsand teams continuing as part of avaried programme. Pairspresented the problem of how doyou cope with an odd number? Aperson going or staying at homewas very unlikely to be willing tokeep the evening free for bridge ifsome form of play cannot beguaranteed. The establishment ofthe Dry Drayton Threesomeaccommodated ‘all play’.

Basically, a triple was formedand two played as a pair. Afterthe first hand the third playerreplaced the first of the pair andafter the second hand, thedisplaced player returned for thethird hand and the second playerwas replaced by the third player.In practice, to save too muchgetting-up and down, thereturning sitting-out playerdisplaced the one due to sit-out inthe triple cycle. The disadvantagewas that players changeddirection of play, eg, N to S when

returning to the table which is notideal but is convenient for theorganiser and his procedural rulesare what keeps things simple andeasy to follow.

The club purchased localpoints and issued them. It wasdecided that if a triple was in thetop third, all three playersreceived the appropriate points.This was an extension of thepractice for teams in which teamsof six players could be substitutedafter each session. The technicalproblem is what is a session? Itcould be a round as defined bythe organising body; the club. Theonly other condition for equalissue of points is that each playermust play 50% of the boards.Under our arrangement eachshould play 60% minimum. Theper round session means that oneplayer sits-out for a whole round,which is no worse than a halftable movement but it isimportant for satisfaction ofplayers that the triple avoids a sit-out session. This is relatively easywith an experienced director whoremembers it could be a problem.It may be argued that a triple isnot a pair, but it is a pair thatplays each hand and under Law 4,the director may substitute aplayer. There is no limit on thenumber of times. Clearly it is theorganising body’s authority i.e.the club.

It is interesting that the triplehas remained operational in theclub as it grew. In the early daysthe players volunteered to taketurns to be a threesome. Now ittends to be operated withingroups of players who playtogether regularly. As there canonly be one threesome per night,it must be with the director’sagreement. Any other club playerwithout a partner makes the triplea foursome and two pairs! Theclub success is a membership of43 with a high turnout above 60%on average and peaking so farwith 75%. It is largely due to thethreesome facilitating a regulargame for all members. A shortrefreshment break and occasionalwine evenings keep the socialinterchanging at the club andenhance the club objective ofpleasant evenings withoutunethical barbed behaviour.Here’s to more threesomes as awider club development tool.

THE DRY DRAYTON THREESOME

Brian Copping, Dry Drayton, Cambridge.

compared the player whorelied on this feature at thebridge table to one whorelied on Mystic Meg (thoughas I pointed out, neitherQPlus nor Mystic Meg couldbe consulted ‘at the table’).Mystic Meg was, of course,

the TV pundit who purportedto predict the outcome of theNational Lottery, though Idoubt if Hans Leber wouldknow that.On further reflection, I

realise that my flippantanalogy was more valid thanI realised, for Mystic Megwas a psychic, and whatQPlus’s simulation of biddingfeature amounts to is psychicbidding.What is psychic bidding

other than making a bidcontrary to the systemagreed to by bidder and hispartner? Admittedly, themotive in QPlus is totallybenign, namely the desire toachieve the optimumsituation for one’s ownpartnership, rather than toact maliciously towards one’sopponents as such.Nevertheless, given thatthere is no counterpart inactual bridge to simulation ofbidding as described, psychicbidding is the nearestequivalent and I would like tosuggest that considerationbe given to renaming thefeature accordingly.John Macleod by email.

LET’S BE HEARINGWould it be possible to letpeople know when weshould re-register? I wouldhate to miss a copy.Miss M Martin, London SE6Readers should re-registerevery two years.

ANOTHER WINNING ENTRYMy wife and I have practisedwith Q-Plus Bridge for 18months or so now, but wefound our game really beganto improve once we started

IT GETS BETTER

A few months have elapsedsince our return from theSouth Atlantic. I have hadtime to reflect on what amarvellous experience itwas, much enriched by allthe bridge activities on boardm.v. Discovery. Brian and Ienjoyed the company of allthe bridge playersthoroughly. The party tocelebrate your 70th birthdaywas a particular highlight.Thank you for encouraging

me to play duplicate andbeing my partner for my firstduplicate session. It seemeddaunting at the time, but withyour help I managed to getthrough it. By the time we leftthe ship in Cape Town, I hadplayed a number of sessionsand was far more relaxed.Heide Head, Pinner, Middx.

CLEARANCEAs I have to make space, Iwould like to offer past issuesof BRIDGE, 20-92 inclusive, toanyone willing to take themas I feel it would be a shameto just throw them away.Mrs J Blackwell, Richmond.( 020 8948 1351.

A ROSE BY...In the review of QPlus that Iwrote some weeks ago,when commenting on the‘Simulation of Bids’ feature inthe manual, I jocularly

READERS’ LETTERScontinued Bernard Magee’s

Tips for

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Improve your game with 65

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Expert advice is based on

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Bernard

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This book features a wide

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weak twos, sacrifices, Moysian

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Something to cater for every

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You would expect Bernard

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Bernard

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With 160 trivia questions and

80 full-page bridge problems,

Bernard Magee’s Bridge Quiz

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hours of fun for every bridge

player. The book is laid out in

an easy-to-use format and is

filled with an assortment of

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£14

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playing as partners using thenetworking facility.We play using two laptops

connected by a LAN cable,and this is as near playingan authentic game of bridgeas it is possible to get. Aftereach game we are able todiscuss both the bidding andthe play, re-play the game ifnecessary and improve ourscores.More recently I have

started to use the ‘enteringdeals manually’ feature(manual pp.31 ff.). This isparticularly useful whenwe've been to a sim pairs orsimilar tournament where adescription of the hands isissued after the games.Inputting those hands into Q-Plus Bridge allows us toreplay the hands, particularlythose where we did not getthe same result as suggestedin the hand commentaries.Interestingly Q-Plus Bridgewill sometimes provide adifferent outcome of thehands from thosedescribed – a different lead,for example – and this, too,prompts some interestinganalysis and discussion.So, yes, an extremely

versatile and 'realistic'training programme whichhas now become almost partof our lives at home betweenduplicate sessions.Tony Deyes by email.

PLUGSmall social group requireplayers of reasonablestandard to play onWednesday nights in theAmersham/Chalfont area.Ring for more information.Mrs P Vincent, Denham,Buckinghamshire.( 07868 264778.

NO CATCHI really enjoy and lookforward to your magazine –it has to be the best ‘free gift’available. Mr J Nash, Radley, Oxon.

ask you to send it to our‘improvers’ at FramlinghamBridge Club, so please don’tdelete us from your mailinglist over this issue, aboutwhich I feel very strongly.Fleur Waters by email.

AGAINST P2PThe principle behind P2P isenshrined in the maxim,‘universal membership’. Iwould add, ‘but it comes at aprice’. The price is theadditional cost each year ofservicing 20,000-30,000more members, around£100,000 for each and everyyear hereafter. Who pays? The people

who play in EBU clubs. Notthose who play in nationaland county events but youraverage club player. Under the arrangements in

place today, the EBUmembers pay about 70% ofthis money and the non-members about 30%. UnderP2P the opposite is almosttrue. So, in future, the currentnon-EBU members will besubsidising the existing EBUmembers! I play very little club bridge,

only a few times a year, butplay in many county andnational events. So I will befinanced by others whonever play in county andnational events. I will payonly a pound or two for mymembership, whilethousands of club players willbe paying much, muchmore – this can’t be right!I do not propose to go into

the EBU’s documentation inany depth, suffice to say it islittered with misleadingstatements. For example,‘Fees payable to the WBF andthe EBL will be negotiateddownwards’ should probablyhave been phrased, ‘Ofcourse the amount we willhave to pay to the WBF andthe EBL will go up quitesubstantially but the averageper person will be negotiated

downwards.’Nor will I bring up the Laws

& Ethics implications, whereabsence of knowledge willbe no defence. Each andevery player in each andevery bridge club will bebound by some very strictlaws and could be hauled upbefore the L&E Committeeand be liable to the full forceof its powers.And I won’t even go into

the cost of this exercise interms of human and financialresources, or the fact that it isvery unlikely to put one morebum on one more seat ofany bridge club in thiscountry!I also believe most of the

perceived offerings andsavings suggested by theEBU could be achieved underthe present system and leadto real savings, withoutincreasing other costs. Be that as it may, will P2P

be a success? Who knows?Will it be a failure? We maynot know for quite a whileand the EBU could easily losehundreds of thousands ofpounds finding out. Is it goodfor EBU and bridge inEngland? I doubt it!Moreover, it doesn’t matter

what I think. It is in the lap ofthe gods; or to be moreprecise the clubs. Either theywant to sign up and pay theprice, or they do not. We willall know soon just how manyclubs and their members areprepared to play ball.As a member of the EBU

for over 25 years and onewho is passionate aboutboth bridge and England’scontinued success as aNational Bridge Organisation,I would ask each club toconsider these proposalsvery carefully before makingtheir final decision. If all thepeople playing in EBU clubswant to subsidise the countyand national tournamentplayers, who am I to argue?Peter Hasenson, London N3.

ABUSE OF TRUSTWhen I wrote to youoriginally, several monthsago, it was in response to aletter in issue 93, askingwhat the writer’s clubsubscription to the EBU wasfor. Your response was thatreaders might tell you. Iwrote to you with my viewsand was impressed by yourprompt reply, although youdid not print my letter in thenext issue, but did include anexcellent letter from PaulHabershon which mademany of the same points asmine; you also included arather muddled letter fromClaude Stokes, which didn’tseem to add much eitherway. You telephoned merecently, to say that you hadasked Ned Paul to write an‘overview’, giving the prosand cons. Since I know MrPaul’s stance, I was nothopeful but I did feel that onecolumn ‘for’ and three‘against’ was hardlybalanced. Surely you must beaware that the cost to clubsis minimal – you send out anexcellent free magazinebecause it advertises yourcruises and bridgeweekends. Do you reallythink your customers areunable to afford a few morepounds each year to enjoywhat must be one of thecheapest evening’sentertainment ever? Been tothe cinema or theatre lately?

Your cruises andweekends are obviouslypopular – what is the

average age of those takingpart? There doesn’t seemmuch interest in the future ofour game from either you orMr. Paul but the EBU does itsutmost to encourage thegame among young people –no one else will. No doubtTerry Collier would be willingto try (again) an alternativeorganisation to run bridge.... I would be interested also toknow why there is so muchinterest in our internationalteams at football, tennis etcbut so little in ourrepresentational bridgeevents; can it be that younever encourage people towatch Bridgebase Online? Orwrite about the national andinternational competitions?The EBU is not perfect, but

it does its best and willhopefully get better if it is notundermined constantly. Youhave immense influenceamong ‘ordinary’ clubmembers and I am sorry tosay that I think you haveabused their trust by yourlengthy vendetta against theEBU and your refusal to givea truly balanced view of thesituation. It is not goodenough to blame the EBU fora decline in numbers - surelyyou have noticed that theworld has changed? Perhapsif a few more of your readerstook the trouble to play cardswith their grandchildren, wemight be able to encouragesome of them to playbridge – as it is, how manyof them will be playing whenthey are our age?

My husband and I haveenjoyed your magazine foryears (and keep all the backnumbers) and, as you know,

Write to Mr Bridge at: Ryden Grange, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2TH or e-mail [email protected]

E-mail correspondents are asked to include theirname, full postal address, telephone number andto send no attachments.

Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

READER’S EBU LETTERS

DEFENCE

QUIZ

by Julian Pottage(Answers on page 47)

You are West in the defensive positions below. It is your

turn to play.

1. ♠ Q J 4 2

♥ 7 6

♦ A J 6

♣ K Q 10 2

♠ A 10 8 7

♥ K Q J 5

♦ 10 5

♣ 8 7 4


1NT

Pass 2♣ Pass 2♦*

Pass 3NT End

*no 4-card major

You lead the ♥K and con-

tinue with the ♥J and ♥5.

Declarer wins this with the

♥A and leads a low spade.

What do you do?

2. ♠ A 9 4 2

♥ 10 7

♦ K Q J 6 3

♣ Q 9

♠ K 10 6

♥ J 9 6 2

♦ 9 5 2

♣ K 8 4


1NT

Pass 2♣ Pass 2♦*

Pass 3NT End

*no 4-card major

You lead the ♥2: ♥7, ♥K,

♥A. Now declarer leads a

low club. Do you win?

NW E

S

NW E

S

3. ♠ A 9 8 2

♥ J 10 7 3

♦ 6 3

♣ K Q 9

♠ 10 6

♥ K 6 2

♦ A Q 9

♣ J 8 5 4 2


1♥

Pass 3♥ Pass 4♥

End

You lead the ♣4. Declarer

wins with the ♣A and

leads a low heart. Do you

go in with the ♥K?

4. ♠ K J 10 9 2

♥ J 10 7 3

♦ Q 3

♣ A K

♠ A Q 6

♥ K Q 6

♦ J 10 9 6

♣ J 8 4


1♠ Pass 2♥

Pass 4♥ End

You lead the ♦J; all cover:

♦Q, ♦K, ♦A. Now declarer

leads the ♠4. What do you

do?

NW E

S

NW E

S

or average minus. I came tothe conclusion that theyreally deserved average plus.They had demystified bridgeand put it into context. Bridgeis for them a pastime. Itserves a purpose in bringingthem together and theformat enables a change ofpersonnel with whom toexchange news and viewsevery twenty minutes or so.Does this lady require

membership of a nationalbody? She already gets anexcellent magazine, courtesyof Mr Bridge, County and orNational competitions are ofno interest, in fact she hardlyever bothers to look at lastweek’s results.Let us call the lady Mrs

Smith. I was a member of theEBU for a long time. I thoughtthat a National body was agood thing, but now I aminclined to Mrs Smith’s view.This might be acceptedwithout much argument,particularly as the cost wouldbe minimal and could becollected in the form of a levyon the table fee. A few penceper player would be anirritation for the clubtreasurer, but that’s his job.The National body could thenencourage membership of acompetition section, whichplayers who enjoyedcompetitions at County andNational level could join. Theycould also cover the coststhemselves. This mightplease a few more peoplethan the present proposal,which involves Mrs Smith andI paying for a magazine wedon’t need and to subsidisepeople with whom we havenothing in common whilstthey play for the County andpossibly their Country.When my local clubs

debate the current proposalsI shall oppose. I have more incommon with Mrs Smith thanmany competition players Ihave met. John Davies, Malvern. ■

HALF AND HALFThe die is cast. Personally Idisagree with the concept ofPay to Play. It behoves all EBUmembers to be supportive ofthe decision which has beentaken via the EBU’s demo -cratic procedures. Con tin ualmoaning will achieve nothing.Richard Fleet, Berkhamsted.

EASIEST TO WHOMI think you are being a bitunfair to the EBU over pay toplay. Yes, they are bloatedand could well operate moreefficiently, but how they raisetheir funds does not reallymatter. Most players willcontribute roughly the sameamount each time they playunder either system. To put itin perspective, I like to play inIpswich. It is a 50 mile roundtrip, costing my partner meor about £10 each week.Table money is still £1.50,though likely to rise to £2.00soon. Does it matter if wepay the EBU 30p or 35p? Nordoes it matter if the club paysby P2P or by buyingmasterpoints.David Haig-Thomas, Thorpe-Le-Soken, Essex.

CHANGE OF HEART I lead a University of the ThirdAge group for bridgeexperience/improvementand, the other day, a ladycame to me at the end ofplay and apologised, sayingthat she and her table hadnot played two of the boardsin the set on the previousround. She said that afterone board they foundthemselves chatting andwhen the move was called,two boards remainedunopened. I said that I couldaward some sort of average.I started to think about thislater and considered whetherthe score should be average,

EBU LETTERScontinued

DOUBLE DUMMY SOLUTIONby Richard Wheen

(Problem on page 6)

So there we were, in theSouth-East Surrey

Senior Novice Teams’Knockout Competition,needing (so it seemed to us)some dramatic swings inour favour to get through tothe next round. On board 17my partner (South, to lead)needed to make all six tricksin the position shown abovein order to land our ambi-tious no-trump contract.

As usual, I had made myway in my ’08 registrationelectric buggy to behindpartner’s wheelchair towatch him play. I could seefive tricks on top (threehearts and two aces), butwhere was the sixth trick tocome from? Partner had notbeen reading all thosebridge books in vain, so itseemed, because he confi-dently led off two hearts inquick succession (thoughspeed is a relative termwhen applied to S-ESSNs).West discarded a club and alow spade happily, while

♠ A 6 5 4♥ Void♦ A 2♣ Void

♠ K 8 7 ♠ J 10 9 ♥ Void ♥ Void♦ Q J ♦ K♣ J ♣ A K

♠ Q 3 2♥ 4 3 2♦ Void♣ Void

NW ES

DUPLICATE�BRIDGE�

RULES�SIMPLIFIED(otherwise�known�as�the�Yellow�Book)

by John Rumbelow and revised by David Stevenson

New�Edition.�Includes�2008�Law�Revisions.

Available�from� ( 01483 489961

only

£595

dummy parted companywith two low spades. Eastthrew two clubs.

Declarer now played hislast heart and West startedsquirming visibly. In fact, Iwas concerned lest a heartattack or stroke was loom-ing. When I looked at hishand, I saw why he wasagitated. If he discarded afurther spade, dummy’s acewould fell West’s king, andSouth’s queen would makean unexpected trick. West,in fact, chose to discard adiamond. This worked nobetter, as declarer nowthrew a third spade fromdummy, winning the lastthree tricks with the ace ofspades and the ace and twoof diamonds. East’s hand,despite all its points, wasirrelevant in all this.

As I scored the deal, mypartner told me proudlythat he thought he had justengineered his first-eversqueeze. Since I still getexcited by taking a finesse,I was very impressed andcongratulated him profuse-ly. Partner added that thesqueeze would not haveworked if the East and Westhands had been the otherway round, but that was fartoo much for me to take in.

Largely because of mypartner’s skill on this deal,we duly proceeded onwardto the next round of the S-ESSN Teams’ KnockoutCom petition – of which,perhaps, more anon.

Please book me for .... places, Single .... Double .... Twin ....

for the Rubber/Chicago weekend(s) of ...............................

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Special requirements (these cannot be guaranteed)

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Please send a non-returnable deposit of £50 per person per placeby cheque, payable to Mr Bridge. An invoice for the balancewill be sent with your booking confirmation. On receipt of yourfinal payment, 28 days before the event, a programme and fulldetails will be sent together with a map. Cancellations are notrefundable. Should you require insurance, you should contactyour own insurance broker.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ BOOKING FORM _ _ _ _ _ _ _

RUBBER / CHICAGO 2009Hosted by Diana Holland

11-13 September (Fri-Sun)The Beach Hotel £199

30 September-2 October (Wed-Fri)Marsham Court £199

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Please note there are no seminars or set hands at these events

Full-board – No Single Supplement

Marsham Court The Beach HotelEast Cliff, Bournemouth, BH1 3AB Worthing, BN11 3QJ


( 01483 489961 Fax 01483 797302 e-mail: [email protected]

website: www.holidaybridge.com

1. ♠ 8 6 4 ♥ A 4© Q 9 5® A K 10 9 5

♠ Q 10 7 3 2 ♠ A J 9♥ 8 6 ♥ Q J 10 3© K 4 © 8 7 3 2® 8 7 4 2 ® Q 3

♠ K 5♥ K 9 7 5 2 © A J 10 6® J 6

You are in 3NT and West leads the ♠3. Eastwins with the ♠A and returns the ♠J, Westplaying the ♠2. How do you plan the play?

You know, from the opening lead and the playto trick two, that West started with fivespades, leaving three with East, so there canbe no advantage in a positional play to keepWest off lead. If you decide to play West forthe queen of clubs by taking a finesse againstthat card and it succeeds, then you almostcertainly have the three extra tricks requiredfor the contract. Likewise, a successful dia-mond finesse against East will also provideyou with the extra tricks you require. So whichfinesse do you take?

Well, actually, you can combine your chancesby playing off the top two clubs in dummy tosee whether the queen drops doubleton,which provides a reasonable chance. If youplay off the top two clubs and the queen doesnot make an appearance, then you still havethe diamond finesse in reserve.

2. ♠ 10 7 5♥ A 10 9© 8 6 5 ® A K Q 4

♠ K J 8 2 ♠ Q 9 4 3 ♥ J 6 4 ♥ Q 8 3© J 9 7 2 © Q 10® 9 3 ® J 10 8 2

♠ A 6 ♥ K 7 5 2© A K 4 3® 7 6 5

You are in 3NT and West leads the ♠2, Eastplaying the ♠Q. How do you plan the play?

The lead of the two of spades has struck yourweakness, but as you expect the suit to break 4-4, you might as well win the opening lead.This time, you have eight easy tricks and, atfirst sight, it might look right just to play out thetop clubs hoping that the suit breaks 3-3. Thatis against the odds, however and it must bebetter to take out extra insurance. What doyou think of trying for a 3-3 break in eitherhearts or diamonds? You will have to testthem before the clubs since you cannot affordto lose three spades, a club and another trick.If you guess which red suit to try and are right,you do not need the clubs to break.

Is it just a guess which red suit to try? No, it isnot, because if you play a heart to the nine, itmight just win – and if it loses to an honour,you have an additional chance. Let us say thedefenders cash their spades, on which youthrow a card from each minor from hand anda diamond from dummy. When you regainthe lead and play the ace of hearts, the otherhigh honour might fall, thus promoting the tenof hearts as an extra trick. If it does not, thesuit might still break 3-3 after all. Failing that,you can test for a 3-3 club break.

Even if all of these chances fail, you might findthat the defenders discard enough diamondsfor your four of diamonds to take the last trick.

3. ♠ K Q 6♥ J 8 6© J 5 3 2® A K J

♠ 10 9 8 7 ♠ J 4 3♥ 10 7 5 ♥ 9 4 3© 9 7 6 © Q 10 4 ® 10 8 3 ® Q 7 6 4

♠ A 5 2♥ A K Q 2© A K 8® 9 5 2

You are declarer in 6NT and West leads the♠10. How do you plan the play?

Having bid to a good slam, you would feeldisappointed if you failed to make twelvetricks. Still, you do really want to try to com-bine the chances that lie before you. You haveeleven tricks ‘on top’ and need just one more,which could come from diamonds or clubs. Ifyou simply took a club finesse and it lost, youwould need the queen of diamonds to be

obligingly doubleton. If, instead, you triedplaying the top two diamonds first and noth-ing exciting happened, you would not knowwhat to do. If you played another round, hop-ing for a 3-3 break, you risk instant defeat ifEast has queen and another diamond left,leaving you no chance to try the club finesse.A better idea is to play one top diamond – incase the queen is singleton – and then leadlow towards the jack. This line will give youthree diamond tricks whenever West has thequeen or the suit breaks 3-3. You will be ableto check out both these chances before test-ing the clubs, so you will know whether totake the club finesse (after cashing one topclub, of course). As it happens, playing threerounds of diamonds would work, but that isnot the correct play.

4. ♠ K Q 7 6♥ A Q 7 5 3© 7 5® K 2

♠ 9 4 ♠ 2♥ J 9 8 2 ♥ K 10 6© K J 8 3 © 10 9 4 2® 9 5 3 ® A J 10 6 4

♠ A J 10 8 5 3♥ 4© A Q 6® Q 8 7

You are in 6♠ and West leads the ♠4, East fol-lowing with the ♠2. How do you plan the play?

With a certain club loser, it might look as if youneed East to hold the king of diamonds. In thiscase, a simple finesse would bring home thecontract, as you could ruff the third diamondand third club in dummy. You really wantsomething better than that!

So win the opening lead and play a heart tothe ace in dummy. Ruff a heart high, re-enterdummy with a trump and ruff another heart. Ifthe king has fallen, you can dispose of yourqueen and low diamond on the two goodhearts in dummy. If the hearts are not so kind,you will have to take the diamond finesse. Ineach case, you can be sure of reachingdummy by ruffing the third round of clubsafter you have driven out the ace.

All the deals in this issue are examples of howto combine chances and not to put all one’seggs in one basket. ■

ANSWERS TO THE DECLARER PLAY QUIZON PAGE 23 by DAVID HUGGETT

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

Often the best way to play a suit isnot to play it yourself but to letthe other side lead it. With A-J-x

facing K-10-x you have a two-way guess– but not if the opponents lead it. If youplay on a suit like Q-x-x facing J-x-x,you will need to find a helpful layout,such as the A-K in one hand for you toset up a trick. However, you are sure of atrick if the opponents lead it. Likewise, ifyou have an A-Q holding, you are sure ofa second trick if LHO leads the suit. Ofcourse, defenders are wise to this. Theylead these suits only when you havetaken away their other options.

♠ J 9 8 5 2♥ K 3© J 7 4® K 8 3

♠ 10 ♠ K Q♥ J 10 8 5 2 ♥ Q 9 6 4© A 10 5 3 © K 8 6® 9 5 4 ® J 7 6 2

♠ A 7 6 4 3♥ A 7© Q 9 2® A Q 10

You are South in 4♠. West leads the heart jack, which you

win with the ace. You cash the ace oftrumps and are pleased to see all follow.If you play on diamonds yourself, youwill be out of luck because West has theten and nothing else nice happens. Howdo you make someone else lead the suit?You do not give up your trump loser

yet. The opponents can still lead heartsor clubs safely. First, cash your otherheart winner and play three rounds ofclubs (you do not mind if someone ruffsa club – it will be with the mastertrump). Now that you have stripped theside suits, the stage is set. You give up atrump, not caring who wins:

♠ J 9 8 5♥ Void© J 7 4® Void

♠ Void ♠ K♥ 10 5 2 ♥ Q 6© A 10 5 3 © K 8 6® Void ® J

♠ 7 6 4 3♥ Void© Q 9 2® Void

If whoever wins the trump (here East)leads a heart or club, you ruff in onehand and discard a losing diamond fromthe other (a ‘ruff and discard’). Ifinstead, a diamond comes back, you canbe sure of a trick in the suit.Sometimes you need to do more than

cash winners to stop your opponentsfrom having a safe means of getting offplay. This you will see on the next deal.Another feature is that you may be ableto throw someone in with the suit thatyou want back. If you have a doublefinesse suit, say A-J-10 facing low cards,you can make an extra trick even if themissing honours are offside. To achievethis you strip the other suits before youtake the finesse.

♠ 8 5 4 3 2♥ 3© 8 7 4® A Q 8 3

♠ 10 ♠ 7 6♥ J 10 8 5 2 ♥ K Q 9 6 4© K 10 5 3 © J 6® 9 5 4 ® J 10 7 2

♠ A K Q J 9♥ A 7© A Q 9 2® K 6

You are in 6♠ now. West leads a heart.You win and draw trumps. Again, youwant to strip the hearts and clubs. Playfour rounds of clubs; throw a diamondon the third round and ruff the fourthwhen East follows. Finally, you ruff aheart in dummy to leave this position:

♠ 8 5♥ Void© 8 7 4® Void

♠ Void ♠ Void♥ 10 ♥ K Q 6© K 10 5 3 © J 6® Void ® Void

♠ Q J♥ Void© A Q 9® Void

You finesse the nine of diamonds (orcover the jack with the queen). Westwins but has no safe exit. A heart wouldgive a ruff and discard while a diamondgoes into the tenace. Note the normal features of a throw-in

(or elimination play or endplay):1 You need a suit or suits that you want

the opponents to lead.2 You need to play other suits either so

that the opponents have run out or sothat you and dummy are both void –this way, if they can play some othersuit, it gives you a ruff and discard.

3 You give up your loser.The normal things to look for if you

want to try for a throw-in are:1 Enough trumps so that you will have

at least one trump left in each handafter you draw trumps.

2 A suit you want someone else to lead– a guess suit such as K-10-x facingQ-9-x, a frozen suit like A-10-xfacing K-9-x or, if you can choosewhich defender leads, a tenace suit.■

Make the

Defenders Lead

NW E

S

NW E

S

NW E

S

Julian Pottage Says

NW E

S

This is a truly vital maxim for playas declarer. When dummy hitsthe table, you should form a plan

of attack, rather than playing onautopilot. It will be worth thousands ofpoints over the course of a season’sbridge. Consider exhibit number one:

♠ K Q J 10 9♥ J 7 6© Q J 3® 8 4

♠ 6 3 ♠ A 7 4 2♥ Q 9 3 ♥ K 4 2© K 9 5 4 2 © 10 8® Q J 5 ® 10 9 3 2

♠ 8 5♥ A 10 8 5© A 7 6® A K 7 6

South plays in 3NT and West leads hisfourth-highest diamond. If declarer winsautomatically and carelessly with anhonour from dummy, he will go down ina cold contract. Now suppose he stops tothink before playing to trick one. He willrealise that the queen-jack of diamondsrepresents a certain entry to dummy forthe long spades. Therefore he shouldpreserve them by playing the three ofdiamonds from dummy and winning thefirst trick in hand. He should play onspades next. East can take his ace ofspades whenever he likes and can returna diamond or switch. No matter what thelayout, the defenders cannot make fivetricks before declarer makes nine.Observe what happens if declarer

erroneously wins the first trick with thequeen or jack of diamonds. He canestablish the spades, as before, but thedefenders can keep him out of dummyand will defeat the contract.

Here is another example of how declarercan throw away his contract at trick onethrough lack of planning.

♠ Q 10 7 4♥ 2© J 8 7 2® A 10 5 4

♠ K 8 5 2 ♠ A J 6 3♥ K J ♥ 6 4 3© Q 9 3 © K 10 5® J 9 7 2 ® K 8 3

♠ 9♥ A Q 10 9 8 7 5© A 6 4® Q 6

South opened 1♥, North responded 1♠,South rebid a slightly frisky 3♥ and allpassed. The opening lead was the two ofclubs, dummy played the four, East theking and declarer the six. A lowdiamond switch went to West’s queen.West now led the nine of diamonds,covered by the jack, king and ace.Declarer led the queen of clubs andovertook with dummy’s ace in order tofinesse the queen of hearts. Westproduced the king, and the defenderstook another diamond trick and the aceof spades to defeat the contract.Can you see declarer’s error? He

expects to lose a trump trick and soneeds to dispose of a losing diamond (orhis spade). He should recognise that hehas no side entry to the ace of clubs. Heshould therefore have thrown the queenof clubs under East’s king at trick one.Now he is able to finesse the ten ofclubs for an extra winner in dummy onwhich to throw one of his losingdiamonds.In our final example, South played in

a routine 3NT at rubber bridge andreceived the lead of the four of spades.

♠ A 9 8♥ 9 6 5 3© A Q 5 2® K 8

♠ 7 4 3 2 ♠ K J 6♥ A 8 2 ♥ Q J 10 7© 9 8 4 © 10 3® 7 6 2 ® 10 9 5 4

♠ Q 10 5♥ K 4© K J 7 6® A Q J 3

Declarer read the lead correctly as beingfrom length. He also spotted that if heducked the lead in dummy then he couldbe sure of a second spade trick. Hethere fore played low from dummy.Unfortunately, East won with his king ofspades and had little difficulty in findingthe heart switch. The defenders thustook the first five tricks.With nine tricks on top – enough for his

contract – declarer has no need to risk thisat rubber bridge, Chicago or teams. Heshould go up with the ace of spades andplay on the minors. Note that the correctplay is different at matchpoint pairs. Nowthe prospect of overtricks if West hasunderled the king of spades makes theplay of a low card from dummy verytempting. It is only incorrect if East holdsthe king of spades, West holds the ace ofhearts and East finds the heart switch.To recap, before you play from

dummy, stop, look at the two hands andform a plan. This may tell you whereyou want to lead from at trick two – forexample to take a finesse. Maybe yourplan will tell you where you need a laterentry (as in example one). Maybe yourplan will tell you that you want to keepsomeone off lead. Playing to the firsttrick is a bit like walking across a busyroad – stop and think before you do it! ■

Think Before

Playing to Trick One

Mike Wenble Says

NW ES

NW ES

NW ES

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CHRISTMAS and NEW YEAR 2009

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CHRISTMAS 2009

Example Programme

ChRiStMAS EVE

1500 Welcome Desk open.Mulled wine and mince pies

1745 Welcome Reception (Black Tie optional) followed by DINNER then BRIDgE (duplicate pairs)

ChRiStMAS DAY

1030 SEMINAR or other games (Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble etc)

1230 CHRISTMAS LUNCH

1500 BRIDgE (duplicate pairs)or Queen’s speech

1830 Festive Buffet DINNER followed byBRIDgE (duplicate pairs)

BOXiNG DAY

1000 SEMINAR followed by Supervised Play

1230 LUNCH then further Supervised Play or (“novelty” bridge, duplicate pairs)

1830 DINNER then BRIDgE (duplicate pairs)

27 DECEMBER

1000 Informal Prize-giving for Duplicate Section SEMINAR followed by Supervised Play

1230 Buffet LUNCH followed by BRIDgE (duplicate pairs)

TWIXMAS 2009

Example Programme

27 DECEMBER

1500 Welcome Desk open. Mulled wine and mince pies

1745 Welcome Reception followed by DINNER then BRIDgE (duplicate pairs)

28 DECEMBER


1230 LUNCH then further Supervised Play or duplicate pairs


29 DECEMBER



NEW YEAR 2009

Example Programme

29 DECEMBER

1500 Welcome Desk open. Mulled wine and mince pies

1745 Welcome Reception followed by DINNER then BRIDgE (duplicate pairs)

30 DECEMBER




NEW YEAR’S EVE


1230 LUNCH then further Supervised Playor “novelty” bridge or duplicate pairs

1745 gALA RECEPTION (Black Tie optional) followed by a gALA DINNER thenBRIDgE (duplicate pairs)

2345 See in the New Year

NEW YEAR’S DAY



DETAILS & BOOKINGS ( 01483 489961

THE BEACHWorthing,

West Sussex, BN11 3QJ

29 Dec-1 Janwith Bernard Magee

from £395

Sea View £30 supplement per room.

Knowing what to throw away canbe tricky at the best of times butthere are some useful guide -

lines. Take the following deal:

♠ A K 6 3♥ J 6© K Q 6 2® J 8 3

♠ 8 2 ♠ J 10 7 4♥ K Q 10 9 2 ♥ 7 5 3© 5 4 © 10 8 7® K 9 7 2 ® A 6 5

♠ Q 9 5♥ A 8 4 © A J 9 3® Q 10 4

North South

1NT

2® 2©

3NT End

You are East and partner leads the kingof hearts to a 3NT contract, bid afterSouth opened 1NT and North invokedStayman. Declarer ducks this trick andthe next when partner continues with thequeen, but he wins the third roundperforce and plays four rounds ofdiamonds. On the third and fourth round,your partner signals heavily in clubs byplaying high-low; however, as East, youhave to find a discard. Can you see whatit is – or rather more importantly – canyou see what it isn’t? Partner has twomore hearts to cash should he gain thelead and it looks from his signal asthough he has a club entry. If so, declarermust have the queen of spades, making itvital that you do not throw a spade,because if you do, declarer will makefour tricks in the suit and his contract.This is what we mean by keeping lengthwith dummy. It has four spades and so doyou – so try to keep equal length.

Sometimes the reason for keeping equallength is more complicated:

♠ 5 3 2♥ 8 3 2© A 7 5 3® A 7 6

♠ 4 ♠ 10 7 6♥ K Q J 7 4 ♥ 10 5© Q J 9 2 © 8 6 4® 8 5 2 ® Q J 10 9 3

♠ A K Q J 9 8♥ A 9 6© K 10® K 4

North South

2♠

3♠ 4NT

5♥ 6♠

End

After a rather over-enthusiastic auctionNorth/South reach a slam and, as West,you have an easy lead: the heart king.Declarer wins at once, though it would

have been better technique to duck, andplays five rounds of spades. To thesepartner follows three times and thendiscards the queen and a low club. Youhave to find four discards and, althoughit may not seem obvious at first glance,it is vital never to discard a diamond –you must keep length with dummy. Ifyou do discard a diamond, declarer canplay the king followed by the ace andthen ruff the third round with his lasttrump. At this point, the long diamond indummy will have become a winner fordeclarer to discard a losing heart. Even if you had started with four

diamonds to the eight say, the principlewould remain, for declarer might still setup the suit with a single ruff.Although we have called this maxim

‘keep length with dummy’, the same

principle applies to the closed hand. Thedifference then, of course, is that itmight not always be so obvious whetheror not declarer has a four-card suit.Equally, sometimes it is!

♠ K Q 6 3♥ A K 7© Q 8 5 3® 7 6

♠ 10 7 ♠ J 9 5 2 ♥ 10 6 4 2 ♥ Q 8© K 7 4 © A J 10® Q J 10 8 ® 9 5 3 2

♠ A 8 4♥ J 9 5 3© 9 6 2® A K 4

North South

1NT

2® 2♥

3NT End

Once again, the opponents conduct astraightforward auction to 3NT afterlooking for an eight-card major-suit fit.As West, you have an easy lead in theclub queen. Declarer wins the first clubwith the ace and plays three rounds ofspades, ending in dummy, looking upsetwhen it becomes clear that your partnerstill holds the winning jack of spades. Sitting West, you have to find a

discard on the third spade and it mightbe tempting to throw a heart becausethey do not look as though they posemuch of a threat. Now just remember thebidding! Declarer bid 2♥ in response tothe Stayman enquiry, so he must have afour-card suit. If that is the case, it isvital that you hang on to all your hearts:pitch a diamond instead. As you can seefrom the full deal, a heart discard wouldhave enabled declarer to make fourtricks in that suit – and his contract. ■

Keep Length

with Dummy

Dave Huggett Says

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When you have one honour anddeclarer a sequence, you musttime your cover carefully.

♠ A 9 4♥ 6 5 2© A J 10 9® Q J 9

♠ J 8 2 ♠ Q 10 5 3♥ Q J 10 8 3 ♥ 9 7© 6 3 © 7 5 4 2® 10 5 2 ® K 6 4

♠ K 7 6♥ A K 4© K Q 8® A 8 7 3

South played in a bold 6NT. Whendummy came to lead the club queen,East covered with the king. Declarertook the ace, closed his eyes andfinessed the nine. When that scored andthe suit broke nicely, he made his slam.Note the difference if East refuses tocover the queen – the suit is ‘frozen’:

® J 9

® 10 5 ® K 6

® A 8 7

If dummy leads the jack, the second oftwo touching honours, East covers.South loses a club trick, and the slam. Another common layout is this:

® J 10 5

® K 9 3 ® Q 8 4 2

® A 7 6

If East covers the jack, declarer takes theace and leads towards the ten for asecond trick. If East lets the jack run toWest’s king, his queen will kill the ten,holding declarer to one trick.The situation is harder to spot when

the lead comes from declarer’s hand.

® A 6 4

® K 6 3

® Q led

When declarer leads high towards asingle honour in dummy, it should befrom a sequence: with A-x-x opposite Q-x-x, he would lead up to the queen.Sometimes you have two honours:

® J 10 7

® 9 5 4 2 ® A Q 8

® K 6 3

Declarer deserves only one trick fromthe combination – so, when he leads thejack from dummy, East must cover.

♠ A J 5♥ A 4 2 © J 9® Q J 10 6 5

♠ Q 10 9 8 ♠ K 7 4 ♥ 9 7 ♥ 8 3© A 7 6 4 3 © K 10 8 2® 8 2 ® K 9 7 4

♠ 6 3 2 ♥ K Q J 10 6 5© Q 5® A 3

South reaches 4♥. West leads the ♠10 tothe ace. When dummy leads the ®Q,East must not cover. The ®Q holds, butthe ace must win the next club. Declarermakes only two club tricks. If Eastcovers the first club, declarer wins withthe ace, cashes the ♥K-Q, returns todummy with the club jack, cashes theten and ruffs a club. He makes four clubtricks and an overtrick.As usual, the rule is not absolute:

♠ A K 9 2♥ 4 3 © A K J 10 ® Q J 8

♠ J 7 5 ♠ Q 10 8 3♥ Q J 10 9 7 ♥ 8 6 2© 9 3 2 © 8 6 4® A 6 ® K 5 4

♠ 6 4 ♥ A K 5© Q 7 5® 10 9 7 3 2


1© Pass 1NT

Pass 2NT Pass 3NT

End

West leads the queen of hearts, andcontinues with the jack when it holds.Declarer wins the second round with theking, goes to dummy with a diamond andleads the queen of clubs. East must grabhis king to clear the hearts while Weststill has an entry. How can he tell that thisis the right thing to do? He counts.Declarer cannot have both missing

aces for his 1NT response. He has madea heart, and East can see four diamondsand two spades in dummy. If declarerhas the club ace, he has the nine tricks heneeds. If he has the heart ace, he ishoping either for a helpful club layout orfor you mistakenly to duck. ■

Cover the Last of

Touching Honours

NW ES

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NW ES

NW ES

NW ES

NW ES

NW ES

Liz McGowan Says

Fare shown is per person based on two people sharing lowest twin-bedded cabin category and includes all applicable discounts for newbookings. All offers are capacity controlled, subject to availability and may be withdrawn at any time. Please note that there is a bridgesupplement of £30 per bridge player to be paid with cruise deposit. Terms and conditions apply, see brochure for details. Voyages ofDiscovery is a trading name of All Leisure Holidays Ltd.

MV DISCOVERYMinotaur legends hide inland from Crete’sbleached seafront. Creamy-coloured ramparts mark out Malta’s capital, Valletta.Sicilian Messinaoverlooks the straitwhere Odysseus facedScylla and Charybdis.There are Vaticantreasures crafted byMichelangelo andRaphael, plusNapoleonic echoes that resonate aroundAjaccio. Enlightened by the on-boardlecturers, you’ll go on,unravelling the mysteries of Pompeii,the Alhambra and Lisbon’s lovely Alfama quarter.

MR BRIDGEBernard Magee and his team will host this 16-day voyage.The evening sessions will be split into two with the firstfinishing in time for those wishing to see the evening

show. In addition to bridge everyevening, there will be morningseminars and afternoon bridgesessions, which are held whilethe ship is at sea, so everyone can enjoy the ports of call.

WHAT’S INCLUDED• All meals, entertainment andgratuities on board • All portand pre-paid airport taxes • Flights from/to UK • Overseastransfers between airport and

ship • Comprehensive guest speaker programme • Captain’s cocktail parties and gala dinners • All bridgeactivities • All prices on board in British pounds

� 01483 489961 for brochures and bookings

EUROPEAN EXPLORERwith Bernard Magee

Discover ancient treasures and minotaur legends

9 May 2010 – 16 days

INSIDE CABIN NOWFROM £995PP

OUTSIDE CABIN NOWFROM £1,195PP


Date Port

May 9 Depart UK by air toISTANBUL, TurkeyEmbark on mv Discovery

May 10 Cruise the Mediterranean SeaMay 11 HERAKLION, Crete,

Greek IslandsMay 12 Cruise the Mediterranean SeaMay 13 VALLETTA, MaltaMay 14 MESSINA, Sicily, ItalyMay 15 SORRENTO, ItalyMay 16 CIVITAVECCHIA (Rome), ItalyMay 17 AJACCIO, CorsicaMay 18 Cruise the Mediterranean SeaMay 19 ALMERIA, SpainMay 20 GIBRALTARMay 21 LISBON, PortugalMay 22-23 Cruise the Atlantic OceanMay 24 HARWICH, England

16 DAYS OF AMAZING VALUE FROM £995PP

All Mr Bridge passengers, who have paid the bridgesupplement, will be eligible to participate in the afterfirst-sitting dinner bridge programme. There will alsobe a quiz and exclusive bridge parties. The bridgeprogramme is fully optional and you may participateas much or as little as you wish. Mr Bridge activelyencourages singles to join the party and you willalways be found a partner for a game.


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If only the opponents would be quiet,it would be a simpler game but theydo like bidding, so what can you do?


1♠ 3©

?

♠ K J 7 4♥ 9 3© 4 3 2® K 9 5 4

If South had passed or called 2©, you,West, would have had an easy bid – 2♠ –but now you are under pressure. On thishand, you should be willing to accept thepush and bid 3♠. There are some goodreasons for this. The first is that you havea fit. Second, assuming you play Acolwith a 12-14 NT, partner will have eitherfive spades or 15+ because with 12-14and four spades he would have eitheropened 1NT or (if 4441) one of a lowersuit. So you know that you have either anine-card fit or the balance of points.After you bid 3♠, partner should be awarethat you might have had to push a bit andtake account of this.Another similar example might be:

♠ K Q 8 2♥ 5 4© 7 6® Q 9 7 3 2


1♠ 3♥

?

On this auction, again you should bid3♠. It does not that much matter whetheryour opponent’s jump overcall is weak,

strong or intermediate.So far, your opponents have made life

a little uncomfortable by forcing you tobid at the three level – but suppose theauction starts like this:


1♥ Pass 1♠ 4®

?

Hand A Hand B♠ A Q 7 6 ♠ A J 7 6♥ K J 9 5 3 ♥ Q 9 5 4 3© A J 2 © A J 2® 7 ® 7

With Hand A, left to your own devicesyou would have raised to 3♠ – but whatdo you do now? If you pass and partnerhas a minimum hand, he may pass evenwhen you can make 4♠ easily. You donot know whether he has dredged up 1♠on six points or he has a bit to spare –but there will be many minimum handson which game makes. Bid 4♠.On the same auction, with Hand B,

you should pass. You were ready to bidonly 2♠ and should not push two levels.If game is on, partner will surely takesome further action. What you do notwant is for partner to play in 4♠ doubledwith the points evenly split andeverything breaking badly. This couldeasily happen if you bid 4♠ and catchpartner with a minimum responseincluding a four-card spade suit.Now consider the following hands:

Hand C Hand D♠ 6 ♠ 6♥ Q J 8 7 6 ♥ A Q J 7 6© Q J 7 4 © Q J 7 4® K 6 5 ® K J 5


1♠ 3©

?

With Hand C, you have 9 high-cardpoints and a five-card major but this is abad time to accept the push. Why is this?You have no fit for partner so if you bid3♥ and he continues with 3♠ you will bein bad shape. You might end up playingin 3NT with a combined 22 count and nosource of tricks. So a lack of fit shouldguide you in marginal situations. Pass.With the stronger hand D, you have to

bid. The lack of fit is bad, but there islikely to be a play for game somewhere,so you should bid a forcing 3♥.So far, when you have been stretching,

you have done so with a fit but not manypoints. Of course, you will pick up thereal thing from time to time and youneed to be able to tell partner that youare serious. How do you do this? Oftenthe cue-bid is the way – for example, theauction might start like this:


1♠ 3©

?

Hand E Hand F♠ K J 8 7 5 ♠ K J 8 7 5♥ 3 2 ♥ A 3© 2 © 2® K 10 7 3 2 ® A Q 7 4 3

With Hand E, you bid 4♠. Your good fitand shape make up for the lack of values.Would you do the same with Hand F?If you bid 4♠, it may be the right spot

but partner will pass when you have agood play for slam. To show him you areserious you bid 4©. You happen to havea singleton diamond but 4© is merely away of showing a sound raise to 4♠. ■

Push One Level

but Not Two

Jeremy Dhondy Says

1. ♠ Q J 4 2♥ 7 6© A J 6® K Q 10 2

♠ A 10 8 7 ♠ 9 5♥ K Q J 5 ♥ 9 8 4 3© 10 5 © K Q 8 4® 8 7 4 ® 9 6 3

♠ K 6 3♥ A 10 2© 9 7 3 2® A J 5


1NT

Pass 2® Pass 2©*

Pass 3NT End

*no 4-card major

You lead the heart king and continue with thejack and five. Declarer wins the third roundand leads a low spade. What do you do?

If partner has the king of spades, the contractis down with two spades and three hearts.More likely South has the card. This being so,your opponent can always make two spadetricks. You must make sure it is not three. Todo this, you must save your ace to capture theking. Play low on the current trick. If declarercomes to hand in some other suit and leadsanother low spade, again you play low. Witha sure entry in hearts, you need have no fearof losing your ace by ducking twice.

2. ♠ A 9 4 2♥ 10 7© K Q J 6 3® Q 9

♠ K 10 6 ♠ Q 7 5♥ J 9 6 2 ♥ K 8 4 3© 9 5 2 © 8 7 4® K 8 4 ® A 10 3

♠ J 8 3♥ A Q 5© A 10® J 7 6 5 2


1NT

Pass 2® Pass 2©*

Pass 3NT End

*no 4-card major

You lead the two of hearts: seven, king, ace.Now declarer leads a low club. Do you win?

‘Second hand plays low’ worked well on thefirst deal. It will serve you well again here. Ifyou fly in with the king, you will find thatdeclarer can drive out partner’s ace of clubsand make the contract. Although you get torun the hearts, your side makes just twohearts and two clubs. By contrast, if you duckthe club, declarer will try the nine fromdummy. Your partner will win with the ten anddeclarer will be unable to set up any clubtricks without first losing five tricks.

Ducking the club (if you can do so smoothly)might have a different benefit. Declarer, ifholding A-10-x-x-(x) of clubs, will have aguess as to whether to play you for the king(put up the queen) or to play you for the jack(finesse the nine). Play the king and you ruleout any hope of a guess in your favour.

3. ♠ A 9 8 2♥ J 10 7 3© 6 3® K Q 9

♠ 10 6 ♠ J 7 5 3♥ K 6 2 ♥ A© A Q 9 © 10 8 5 4® J 8 5 4 2 ® 10 7 6 3

♠ K Q 4♥ Q 9 8 5 4© K J 7 2® A


1♥

Pass 3♥ Pass 4♥

End

You lead the four of clubs. Declarer wins withthe ace and leads a low heart. Do you go inwith the king?

Before you say, ‘I can make an easy trick bygoing in with the king,’ you need to ask yourselfwhy declarer is playing the hearts this way. Whynot go to dummy in one of the black suits andlead the jack of hearts for a finesse? Againstmost opponents, the answer is surely that thereis no finesse position. In other words, partnerhas the ace of hearts. Since you certainly do notwant to play the ace and king of hearts on thesame trick, you play low. This way, your sidescores two tricks in each red suit to beat the

game. Would it matter if, unexpectedly, partnerwere unable to beat the jack? Since your kingstill has a guard, it will not cost you a trumptrick. Yes, on certain layouts, it might bepossible to strip the black suits and put you inwith the third round of hearts, forcing you tobreak the diamonds or give a ruff and discard.In real life, this is most unlikely. How manyplayers do you know who cannot take a simplefinesse but who can pull off an elimination?

4. ♠ K J 10 9 2♥ J 10 7 3© Q 3® A K

♠ A Q 6 ♠ 8 7 5 3♥ K Q 6 ♥ 2© J 10 9 6 © K 5® J 8 4 ® 10 7 6 5 3 2

♠ 4♥ A 9 8 5 4© A 8 7 4 2® Q 9


1♠ Pass 2♥

Pass 4♥ End

You lead the jack of diamonds: queen, king,ace. Now declarer leads the four of spades.What do you do?

Often, when dummy has a K-J combination ofsome sort, it pays to duck your ace in secondseat. You want to leave declarer to guesswhether to play you for the ace (play the king)or for the queen (insert the jack). Here, sinceyou can see the ace and queen in your hand,you know there is no guess. Even when youknow there is no guess, it might still be right tohold up if dummy is short of entries and youthink declarer has a doubleton. Here, with theace-king of clubs in dummy (and othergoodies besides), you can see declarer hasno problem with entries. In fact, you have avery good reason to go up with the ace. Ihope you have seen what it is. Unless the aceof diamonds was singleton, you can see fourtricks: a spade, two hearts (you can see theace is not on your left) and a diamond.Therefore you have no reason at all to risk thefour of spades being singleton. Go in with theace of spades, cash a diamond and exitsafely with a club. Your two trump tricks willcome to you in due course. ■

ANSWERS TO THE DEFENCE QUIZ ONPAGE 35 by JULIAN POTTAGE

NW E

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Fares shown are per person based on two people sharing lowest inside/outside twin-bedded cabin category and include allapplicable discounts for new bookings. All offers are capacity controlled, subject to availability and may be withdrawn at anytime. *£1,250 saving applies to category K cabin. % saving varies according to cabin category. Cabin numbers will be allocatedprior to departure. Please note that there is a bridge supplement of £30 per bridge player to be paid with cruise deposit. Termsand conditions apply, see brochure for details. Voyages of Discovery is a trading name of All Leisure Holidays Ltd.

All Mr Bridge passengers, who have paid the bridgesupplement, will be eligible to participate in the afterfirst-sitting dinner bridge programme. There will alsobe a quiz and exclusive bridge parties. The bridgeprogramme is fully optional and you may participateas much or as little as you wish. Mr Bridge activelyencourages singles to join the party and you willalways be found a partner for a game.

MV DISCOVERYOur voyage starts with two days in bustlingIstanbul, with the opportunity to explore itsmany mosques, museumsand markets. We will sailaround the Black Sea,visiting a variety of placesof historic and culturalinterest. We will have theopportunity to exploreSinop’s 7th-century castleand walk the passages ofLividia Palace, once thesummer retreat of Tsar Nicholas II, in Yalta.We will then head through the Aegean toVolos and its 8,000-year old Acropolis, beforeour final stop in Piraeus with a chance todiscover Athens. On board Discovery, youwill be accompanied by a highly-acclaimedteam of guest speakers who will bring eachdestination to life.

MR BRIDGERay Hutchinson and his team will look after us on this15-day voyage. The evening sessions will be split into

two with the first finishingin time for those wishing tosee the evening show. Inaddition to bridge everyevening, there will bemorning seminars andafternoon bridge sessions,which are held while theship is at sea, so everyonecan enjoy the ports of call.

WHAT’S INCLUDED• All meals, entertainment and gratuities on board• All port and pre-paid airport taxes • Flightsfrom/to UK • Overseas transfers between airportand ship • Comprehensive guest speakerprogramme • All bridge activities • All prices onboard in British pounds

ITINERARY

B l a c k S e aNesebur

UKRAINEOdessa

SevastopolYalta

Sinop

TURKEY

Istanbul

SochiRUSSIABULGARIA

Canakkale

PiraeusVolos

GREECEMountAthos

Discover the Black Sea Join Mr & Mrs Bridge on a fascinating 15-day cruise bringing centuries of history to life.


Date Port12 Oct Depart UK by air to

ISTANBUL, TurkeyEmbark on Discovery

13 Oct ISTANBUL, Turkey14 Oct Cruising the Black Sea15 Oct SINOP, Turkey16 Oct SOCHI, Russia17 Oct SOCHI, Russia18 Oct YALTA, Ukraine19 Oct SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine20 Oct ODESSA, Ukraine21 Oct NESEBUR, Bulgaria22 Oct Cruising the Dardanelles23 Oct CANAKKALE, Turkey24 Oct Cruise past Mount Athos, Greece25 Oct VOLOS, Greece26 Oct PIRAEUS, Greece

Disembark and transfer to Athens Airport for flight home to UK


EXCLUSIVE TO MR BRIDGELOWEST FARES AVAILABLE

NOWFROM £995PP

NOWFROM £1,095PP

INSIDE CABIN

OUTSIDE CABIN

INSIDE SINGLE CABINNOWFROM £1,848

12 October 2009 – 15 days

� 01483 489961 for brochures and bookings

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SAVE UP TO £1,250 PER PERSON*

bridge · dec 28 chennai,india (formerly madras) dec 29-30 cruise the indian ocean & andaman...

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