North Penn Bridge News

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North Penn Bridge Community!

Week of 10/28/2024

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Education

Shuffle & Deal. Wednesday, October 30, 9:30 - 11:30 am

Remember, our Shuffle and Deal sessions are open to all who have an interest in supervised play (not just new players.)

Deal of the Week

by Mitch Snyder

A Limit Raise & A Finesse (or not)

Here are 2 eerily similar hands that occurred almost back to back recently.

Hand 1

The first two bids are normal. The south hand isn’t quite strong enough to double and then bid spades. Maybe with another red suit honor and/or some additional shape such as a singleton or a sixth spade.

The north robot bid 2C, a limit raise in spades. Some human norths might bid a meek 2S or preempt with 3S or 4S. The hand is too good for 2S or 3S and I would prefer a little more shape and fewer honor cards to jump right to 4S. The 2C limit raise seems to be the best alternative, hopefully one or more of your quacks (queens & jacks) will be useful. It’s always nice to include your partner in placing the final contract when possible. South has an easy 4S call.

Four spades is cold as the cards lie but you have to be careful and do some thinking at trick 2. When east leads the 9 of diamonds, if you look at all the visible diamonds, you’ll note that the king is the only higher diamond that you can’t see. It’s not likely east has a holding including the king where she’d lead the 9, so conclude that you will always lose a trick to the king. Here's the thing;

TAKE the ACE NOW

The 9 might be a singleton. You can lose to the king later.

After pulling trump, take the (likely to work) heart finesse through the overcaller to make your contract, losing 2 clubs and a diamond.

Hand 2

Here we have a similar start to the auction. Again, south isn’t quite strong enough to double then bid spades. North’s limit raise is normal.

With 14 HCPs, South’s gut reaction is to bid game. But it’s not a good 14 and north may only have 10, so an invitational bid is called for. The robots invite with a natural bid, so 3D it is. A 3H help suit game try might be better If playing with a human partner.

I’m not sure why the robot didn’t go to game with a diamond honor and a ruffing value. Since a 3H game try would have been rejected, 3S is the final contract either way.

East took the first two heart tricks and west ruffed the third. West exited with a diamond presenting declarer with a situation similar to the first hand. Here you must, once again, take the ace and pull trump, this time to avoid a possible trump promotion. The play of the hand presented here demonstrates west getting his trump promotion.

Sometimes its hard not to take a finesse if there‘s a possible extra trick in the offing. But if you know it’s going to lose, you can, at least, decide when to lose it.

Tidbits

Some things to remember about squeezes:

“Discarding is very difficult for everyone. Get into the habit of making the opponents sweat.

Bridge is not like pinochle; you don't receive a bonus for winning the last trick.

Never give up. No matter how obvious your loser is, any chance is better than none.”

From Points Schmoints

by Marty Bergen

Ask the Expert

From a reader...

You pick up this hand: J863 AJ AKQT T94. You are the dealer and the bidding goes:

1D - P - 2C - 2H

P - P - 3D - P

What is your call? If you didn’t pass over the 2H bid, what is your bid?

John Dickenson. Either I can’t count or this is a strong 1NT opener. A problem of the dealer’s own creation.

Mitch Snyder. This hand should be opened 1NT, avoiding a difficult second or, in this case, third call. Having more than partner suspects, I don't think passing over 2H is right either. If partner hasn't denied a 4 card major, 2S is right. Otherwise 2NT or double (support or value showing) could work. In the given situation, I'm going to follow Al Roth's advice to bid 3NT when in doubt.

Bill Bauer. A simple hand has been turned into a problem by opener's failure to open 1NT, the proverbial textbook bid. Now opener is faced with finding a rebid that says I forgot to open 1NT and we "experts" have been given that task. We will still be looking for that bid for the rest of eternity. With a gun to my head, I now bid 3NT. I now think to check to see whether the gun was loaded. And it was. I probably rebid 2S, rather than pass after RHO's 2H overcall. Now, for my nap after this tough work.

Elaine Claire. Since I seem to be the last one to see this problem, I have nothing new to add. I agree with Mitch and John on this. Once you don’t open 1NT, you leave yourself no rebid that describes your hand. A basic bidding rule is to think about your rebid before opening. This is a perfect example.

Dennis O’Brien. I agree that opener should have opened 1NT. Given the stated auction (I'm assuming 2C was 2/1) I am wary about 3NT given that responder seems to have 9 cards in the minors but it seems like the most likely contract to succeed.

Email your questions, or a pesky hand, or something you’d like to know about bidding or playing to Toysie Walker. She will forward them to the panel, one will be chosen, and the question and answers will be printed in the following week’s newsletter.

Partnership

If you need a partner for a Monday, Wednesday or Thursday Open game, please email northpennbridge@gmail.com. We will do our best to match you with others who are looking for someone with whom to play.

Requests for Tuesday limited games should go directly to Rose Wartman at wartmanr61@gmail.com

Requests for Friday limited games should go directly to Mitch Snyder at bridge4all@comcast.net