June 2016 Newsletter

Winter is making its presence felt, and while the days are shorter and cooler, what better activity than to join us around the bridge table for communal warmth, companionship, and a little intellectual stimulation. In this newsletter we bring you the usual

·         News from the office

·         Upcoming events at the club and in our region

·         Summaries of recent club events that members have shared

·         The long ago promised Health and Safety explanation from Immediate Past President, Anthony Hopkins

·         Hamish Brown tells us how a lead indicating double can help take down a contract

·         Richard Solomon recently had an article published internationally; we share it here with Richard’s permission.

·         Part One of a series of Ethics articles by Larry Cohen, reprinted with permission

Nau mai, Haere mai

New Members – Mason Lore, Jacob Kalma (Youth, Second club), Bronwyn MacKenzie, Linda Ellingham, Richard Flower, Jann Geddis, Julie Dick, Sylvia Hunt, David Hunt, Donald Nelson, Nancy Lee, Laurie Andrews, Trish Gwynne, Kinga Hajmasi,  Vonnie Harrison, Rosamonde McMillan, Patricia Young

Welcome Back - Joan Caldwell, Karen McNeill, Nancy Shiach

Passed Away – Helen Erdos (member since 1983), Leslie Porter (Member since 1969), and Vera Woollerton – long time member and at time of passing an active member.
Koutou te hunga mate, kia okioki koutou i roto i te rangimarie, koutou ko te hunga ora, kia ora ai ki runga i te rangimarie.  May they rest in peace. Our condolences to their friends and loved ones.

The opening lead is the hardest part of the game of bridge because it contains the greatest degree of uncertainty. Prioritised rules for opening leads such as lead top of an honour sequence, like K from KQJT, removes some of the ambiguity. However, since these rules are based on probability, they will not necessarily be the lead to take the most tricks on any particular hand. For this reason overcalls based on good honour strength and lead directing doubles are useful because they give the opening leader more information to guide them on the specific hand.

Both the following hands were played at big teams events where IMP’s scoring is at play. This means making or defeating the contract is the main concern, with over tricks being much less important.  At the Easter Teams in Auckland North/South bid to 6S on this auction:

On a club lead, 6S cannot make as N/S have a heart to lose.  What about on a non-club lead?  The Queen of diamonds is likely to be in the hand that does not have super long clubs so playing towards the Ace of diamonds and leading the T back to finesse against the Q is likely to be right.  On any other lead, after the trumps are drawn, the singleton Queen of diamonds drops and the 6 of clubs can be discarded on South’s 4^th diamond.

This is a classic lead directing X.  They come up often in slam bidding because North/South are unlikely to try to play the contract of 4CX.  When the opposition make artificial bids while looking for slam it’s worth being alert to opportunities to X to show your partner where you have a trick.  Once you regularly X when you want a lead, the hands where you don’t double an artificial bid also give your partner important information about what not to lead.

Is 6S a good contract?  North needs the Q of hearts or a 6th heart for slam to be sound and the Q of diamonds would be nice.  The 4C splinter here should show around 18+ so that is sound.  The 4D cue bid is reasonable since we could have a bad 6 and we have 11 with good spades and a second suit.  The 5D bid should show extras since partner can already assume North has most of these cards for their splinter so South might expect the Q of trumps or a 6th heart for 5D.  The raise to 6S is pushy.  North showed their hand with the 4D cue bid and 5S would show a minimum for 4D bid. It is Important to note here that with the X of 4C the K of clubs is wasted opposite partner’s singleton (although if partner had the Q of hearts, the K of clubs is the 12th trick and provides a discard for the third diamond so has some small value).  Most tables played 4S and made 6S on a non-club lead, however with the lead directing X of 4C, 6S is very likely to go light.   

At the table South doubled 3C which asks for a club lead.  This is South’s hand:

T54

54

2

KJ98654

 Asking for a club lead might not stand out.  In fact, as the South hand is sitting under the 2NT bidder, a club lead will subject his broken honour sequence in clubs to an immediate finesse into the danger hand, which probably holds AQX or better in clubs.  However, on the upside, the only way this hand is any help to the defence at all, is if the club suit wins some tricks.  Anytime North or East has one of the two missing honours and North has an entry (which is likely because South and East have such limited values) a club lead could be devastating.

If your partner will double for the lead only when they have a solid suit you should lead their suit every time they double.  If they double anytime a lead of that suit might be best you should use the information to guide you, prefer to lead your own suit if it is a good suit. On this hand North leads a club because: this N/S partnership doubles for a lead more frequently; neither a heart nor a spade looks very good after the auction shows E/W each hold a 4 card major; and at least the club lead can be repeated.

East evaluated that with two queens they probably had an entry and that 25+ high card points are more likely than not.  However if a heart fit exists, game is almost certain, so moving over 2NT has a lot going for it.  On this actual hand 3NT will be made after a normal heart lead – 4 diamonds, 2 hearts, 1 club, and 2 spades for nine tricks.  Without the lead directing X of 3C,  3NT is the only making contract with 5D going light on the diamond finesse. 

Partner Makes a Slow Pass (Part 1 of 2)

By Larry Cohen, reprinted with permission from his website

The most frequent "ethical" problem is when a player takes advantage of his partner's slow pass. For example, with both sides vulnerable:

WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
3	Pass*	Pass	??

* Slow (45 seconds)

After North takes an exceedingly long time (45 seconds) to Pass, South has an ethical dilemma. He knows that his partner has some values (isn't broke). North didn't pass in tempo (normal would be 5-10 seconds). He thought 45 seconds and passed. Clearly, North was thinking of doubling or overcalling. Suppose South holds:

 A4  

 AQ9652  

 Q42  

 32 

Is South "allowed" to bid 4? Is he allowed to take advantage of his partner's tempo? In other words, is it "authorized information" to South that his partner has a decent hand?

This is an unfortunate part of the game. The speed/tempo of an action gives away information.

The proprieties state that information shouldn't be conveyed by anything other than the bid itself.  The speed of the bid (or heaven forbid, the emphasis of the bid--such as "snappy" or "fumbling") must be ignored by the partner of the bidder.

So, when North makes his slow pass, South must not draw any inferences. In fact, he should ethically bend over backwards to NOT take advantage. With the example hand above, he should not bid 4. To do so would be utilizing the information that his partner has some values. If South does bid 4, the opponents can (and should) call the director. The director call is not an "accusation of cheating." It is just proper procedure to draw attention to the fact that North slow-passed and South then bid. Is South allowed to bid? If his hand warrants it, of course he is allowed. Suppose South held:

 A2   AKJ107652   32   2 

Who would not bid 4? I don't care how long North took or even if he did a cartwheel on the table. South has every right to bid what is in his hand. I've heard uninformed players erroneously state: "South was barred--his partner's slow pass barred him from bidding." Not so. It bars him only in marginal cases. If it is 100% action, he can still take it.

But, when it gets "marginal," the partner should not bid after obtaining "unauthorized information." He should take his medicine, be a good person, and make the ethical pass.

Click here for a PDF Version of this Article.

To be continued....

Those Part Scores are Important too

Richard Solomon - originally published on the NZBridge website and later published on CSBNews

No matter what form of the game you are playing, you want to be on the right end of the part-score battles, both in the bidding but also in the play and defence. Many examples deals are about the action in playing or defeating a slam. Here, let’s look at a part-score deal where it looks like North-South won the bidding but the victory will not be that great if the play lets South down:

Looking at the North-South hands, there appear to be five losers, three diamonds, a club and the trump ace. None of those losers are going to disappear especially after the three top diamonds are played. South has to do the best they can to avoid any more losers, or in particular, a second trump. If West has  A10 and two or three others, then there is no hope in avoiding the second trump loser. If the suit breaks 3-2, then unless West has a singleton spade, the contract looks safe.

Yet, there is one more danger lurking, the actual lay-out above, which becomes a definite reality when East has overcalled without any diamond honour.

What, therefore can South do? Winning the A and then crossing to the K to lead a heart towards the South hand (East’s ace goes up “on thin air”) does not work. East plays a third round of spades (10) with South throwing the losing club but when the 9 comes next, one trump loser becomes two, no matter with which card South ruffs. Down one, again.

The winning line is quite simple. When West switches to the spade at trick 4, play dummy’s king. Capturing East’s queen is an absolute irrelevancy as there is no entry to dummy to play a third spade to discard the club. South knows that. Thus, win K and play a low heart. East wins and plays a second spade won by South’s ace. Now, draw trumps and claim conceding a club trick…making 2.

A little care and forethought was all that was needed. The opposition bidding had helped too. “Only a part-score” you may say. 2 or 3% chucked away playing Pairs, 5 imps playing Teams. Can you afford to do that? I can’t and I doubt that you can

If you’ve not visited the club recently you’ll not have heard the notices about health and safety at the club, nor seen the new signs.  New Health and Safety legislation came into force in April and aims to reduce the injury and death rates in NZ workplaces. 

Our bridge club falls within the new legislation.  It isn’t a minor undertaking because we have about 40,000 visits to the club each year by members, staff, contractors, volunteers, tenants, visitors and youngsters.

A key point in the new legislation is that everybody must do their bit to keep workplaces safe. This means:

• If you spot and hazards or potential safety issues in or on the Club premises please inform Ann or Deb at the Office without delay
  
• Please do not enter the kitchen areas as this is for STAFF ONLY (if you need access to the kitchen areas you’ll require a safety briefing).

The Committee have employed an expert to assess the risks and their recommendations are posted on the noticeboard.

A second key point is that the new legislation allows for substantial personal and/or corporate penalties for breaches in workplace health and safety.

CERTIFICATES awarded by NZ Bridge March 2016

GRAND MASTER - Neil Stuckey 1*

LIFE MASTER - Nola Clark 1*

PROVINCIAL MASTER - Jill Church 2*

LOCAL MASTER - Margaret Kerby, Leah Andrews 1*, Susan Burslam 2*, Robyn  Hardley 3*, Pauline Mulligan 3*, Don Murray 6*, Wayne Gyde 8*

CLUB MASTER - Lee Moselen, Patty Spencer

Club Session Series Results

Tournament Results since March