Monday, September 30, 2013

Are we there yet?

If you, like me, are an intermediate player, a tricky question is whether you are getting better. You can check whether you are doing better in club games, tournaments, but the vagaries of partnerships can trip you up -- you may be doing better simply because your regular partner is better. Or worse because a regular partnership has broken up.

Another way to gauge whether you are better, of course, is to play against a computer and see if you are getting better scores than before. The robots are not any better, and the field probably isn't either.

It has been a few months since I played a robot tourney on BBO, so I decided to see how well I did.  It appears that the format has been changed, and the tourneys are now flighted.  BBO put me in flight B and I came in first in B, but only 3rd overall.   So, at first blush, it appears that there is no improvement -- coming in 3rd out of 20 players is about where I usually landed up a few months ago.

Disappointing!

Still, digging further, I see that there were just two hands that made a difference.  One positive and one negative.

Hand 2 was the negative influence. The thing is that I still do not know whether I made the right decision (scoring is IMPs).  I bid 3H and made 4 for a pick up of 0.9 imps.  Actually bidding and making 4 would have been worth 9 imps (enough to win).  Would you have bid 4H on this hand?
At the table, I decided that my club shortness was offset by the unsupported Jack, and so my hand was not worth any upgrade. My hearts were piss-poor, so I took the low road. Right decision?

Next question: how do you play the hearts?  Lacking the 10 of hearts, I led low to the King. That struck gold and I was soon in +170.  Lots of others seem to have tried to run the jack and finding that they now had 2 heart losers.  Which is why I actually gained imps for not bidding the thin game.

Hand 5 was the positive influence and the reason I at least came in third -- by bidding and making a vulnerable game that the field went down in. 
Would you have bid 4S on this hand?  My diamond singleton, 9-card fit and two aces convinced me.  The field was also in game.  East leads the two of hearts.  Plan the play.

Well, if East has 4 hearts (likely from the lead) and 6 diamonds (likely from the bid: if West had 5 diamonds and no spade honors, he would surely raise to 5D), he will have only 3 black cards. Most likely, I thought, a singleton spade and 2 clubs.  In that case, game is cold -- I can lose one spade, one diamond and one club.  So, that's what I played for, changing the way I played the clubs once East showed up with 2 spades (why didn't he lead his singleton?). The field, on the other hand, seemed to be finessing clubs the wrong way, so the play here was worth 9 imps. 

Maybe I am getting better -- a year ago, I'd have been played the club suit in isolation too.  Now, I can see that the best way to play clubs (taking the bidding, presence of two spades and heart lead into account) is to cash the Ace and lead towards the queen.

Another possibility exists of course. It never even occurred to me in the play.  What if East had a singleton heart and 4 clubs?  That would explain the heart lead and the lack of a club lead.  My line in clubs would then be the worst ... I should have checked that East did not start with a singleton heart by ruffing a heart ...

Aargh.

No one plays bridge because it's an easy game.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Good players sometimes err

We were playing in a club game against the best pair in the room (they'd go on to win, with a 69% game). We are North-South (I am South) and we get too high in the auction:
.
Board: 16
Vul: N-S
Dlr: North
N
North
10x
Qxx
xxx
QJ10xx
.
W
Defender
Kx
xxx
Qxxx
Axxx
Lead: 4
E
East
Qxx
xxx
Kxxx
xxx
.
S
Me
AJ9xxx
AKJx
Ax
K
.
The bidding goes:
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
Me
Pass
Pass
11
Pass
12
Pass
23
Pass
3
Pass
3
Pass
3NT
Pass
4
All Pass
(1) 16+ artificial
(2) 0-7, artificial
(3) 20+, 5+ spades

I get the lead of a low diamond and immediately, I see that I have one loser each in clubs and diamonds. I need to play the spades for one loser, but there is only entry in dummy, so I can not take two spade finesses.  Any ideas?

I took East's King of diamonds with the Ace and decided to see if I could sneak a trick past them. I led the king of clubs like a man who has Kx and wants to enter dummy to take a finesse.  West took his Ace of clubs though and cashed his Queen of diamonds.  He then played a third diamond and I ruffed.  What now?

I went to dummy with the Queen of hearts and tried to run the 10, but West had the King of spades. He now thought for a while and put a club on the board.

Time for thought.  From the bidding (2S-3H-4S), everyone at the table knows that I have 6 spades and 4 hearts. I have already shown up with 2 diamonds and therefore, I could have had only the singleton king of clubs. Why would West put me on the board, begging me to finesse the spade again?

Only if he had the KQ tight of spades! In that case, he'd be worried that if I was stuck in my hand, I'd have no choice but to bang down the Ace, felling the queen and making the contract!

So, I led spade from dummy. East played a low spade. Decision time.  I decided to go with my gut. West could not have made such a rookie mistake as to give me a finesse opportunity if the finesse was working. I went up with the Ace.

Wouldn't you know it?  East had the Queen of spades.  They had given me the opportunity to make the contract by making a defensive error and I didn't believe that they had ...

Monday, September 9, 2013

The difference between set puzzles and real play

I've written before about the 16-board free online tournament that is run by bridgez. I can not praise the tournament enough -- it has really improved my card play. As a bonus, because it is only 16 boards, I play less computer bridge than before (more time for other things), but get more benefit out of it -- the best of all worlds!

There is one feature of the tournament I do not care for, though. The very first board is usually a fixed contract.  Everyone in the tournament is playing the exact same contract and so, you are being ranked purely on your card play.

Take this board, for example, from a recent tournament (cards are approximate since I can not find a way to get back past boards).  You are in 7D and South leads the 3 of clubs. What's your plan?
W
Dummy
xxx
AKxxx
J93
xx
Lead: 3
E
You
AQJ10
AKQ10872
AK


Here is the thing: you know this is a "fixed board" and that 7D can be made. So, how do you play it?  The spade finesse is less than 50% (there is the danger of a ruff).  If you can set up one heart, though, you are home and you can if hearts are 4-4. Try it first and fall back on the spade finesse only if hearts are not 4-4. How do you do this?  You will need three entries to dummy, and you have it in diamonds.  So, lead the 10 of diamonds to the Jack and if they both followed, ruff a heart with the Ace of diamonds. Now, lead to the 9 of diamonds and ruff another heart high. Now, back to dummy by leading the 2 to the 3 and and play Ace and King of hearts on which you throw two spades. If hearts break 4-4, you have a parking spot for your queen. Otherwise, take the spade finesse.

I did this, but I did this only because I knew that this was Hand no. 1.  Had this been an anonymous hand at the local club, I am quite sure I'd have been at the mercy of the spade finesse.  So, in that sense, the "fixed" hand does not do anything to improve my card play.   Loosely speaking, this is the difference between solving end-game puzzles in chess ("3 moves to mate") and actually finding spectacular checkmates in a real game.

Another example, this time from a few days ago.  Again, the cards are approximate.  The opponents are in 4S on an auction that seems to have gone 1S-2H-2S-4S.  Partner leads a diamond.  What's your defense?
.
N
Dummy
Jx
KQJxxx
xxx
AJ
W
You
xx
xxx
Axxx
Kxxx
Lead: ♦7















Again, the thing to realize that because this is board #1, it is a puzzle and not a real hand. The contract is beatable. The threat, obviously is dummy's hearts. Partner has no diamond tricks, so the only hope is that he has the Ace of hearts, Queen of spades and Queen of clubs (they must be in a 25-point game).  That, along with the Ace of diamonds, will beat the contract.

So, I took my Ace of diamonds and tabled the king of clubs.  This has the additional benefit that it takes out dummy's club entry immediately.  That was the winning play, but is this something I would do in a real matchpoint club game?  I am not so sure.

p.s. this grew out of  a comment I started to leave on Paul Gipson's blog ...