[mike777]

A screaming and crying Paris Hilton was hauled back to jail. Can no one save this young lady?

In the meantime here is a Bramley/Lazard deal from a few weeks ago.

7. Play quiz:
9873 A3 QJ QJ873
AJ2 KJ9872 AK A2


1H 1NT
4H
Feel free to comment upon the bidding. This was Bramley and Lazard in action. It's hard to say how it "should" be bid. The opening lead is the 5 of spades (they play 3rd & 5th). It goes small, Queen. Plan the play.

[Fluffy]

Yu can bid 1♥-1NT-2NT-3NT for example

About the hand, I'd play ♠A and ♠J back, hopeing to discard myclub in 4th ♠ while only 1 trump (the queen) is left

[Halo]

Bidding looks alright to me.

Mmm.. so may plays. Think I might eliminate diamonds and play Ace and another club.

[jdonn]

I hate the bidding, opener's hand would make a great dummy/declarer for any strain at all. In fact I think it's conclusively provable that 2♠ is a better bid than 4♥, and that this auction is just begging for a minus if partner is singleton or void in hearts. But he is far more accomplished than I am and his style is his style.

Do we have to keep naming these threads paris hilton in jail? That watercooler is there for a reason...

[gwnn]

Allegedly, these thread titles will not come for 42 days.

[Robert]

Hi everyone

The bidding is not my style. Do all of his partners pull 4H when they hold x or void in hearts? If they do pull, what happens when he holds AKQxxxx(or KQJ10xxx) of hearts?

DWI should be avoided. Driving without a valid permit is also a no no.

The sheriff let her out after five(5) days served of a 45 day jail term. She had already been given 'good behavior' to reduce the time to 23 days 'before' she even entered the jail.

If you do the crime, you will do the time seems reasonable to me.

Regards,
Robert

[jdonn]

Jlall, on Jun 9 2007, 10:40 AM, said:

jdonn, on Jun 8 2007, 06:50 PM, said:

In fact I think it's conclusively provable that 2♠ is a better bid than 4♥

You really make some ridiculous statements sometimes, I wonder what you would have said if foo had said this.

(Hint: Just because you can prove that 2S with this hand will get you to better contracts does not mean you have proven that it's best to employ a style where you bid 2S with this hand).

So if I could only prove the first part and not the second, would my statement be ridiculous or merely wrong? You don't think you can prove 2♠ is a better bid, you just say it "seems really clear". That is not exactly so much difference that you would make one statement and call the other ridiculous.

You're right it's only the first part I think can be proved, the second seems essentially unprovable either way. And in fact not even the first part because I'm sure they were playing flannery which I didn't think of (yes I know I could tell from the example hand itself.) But it wouldn't be ridiculous of me to say that it can be proved if they aren't playing flannery then rebidding 2♠ will lead to better contracts on this hand than rebidding 4♥, so long as partner knows a hand like this is possible.

[jtfanclub]

mike777, on Jun 8 2007, 02:50 PM, said:

In the meantime here is a Bramley/Lazard deal from a few weeks ago.

7. Play quiz:
9873 A3 QJ QJ873
AJ2 KJ9872 AK A2


1H 1NT
4H
Feel free to comment upon the bidding. This was Bramley and Lazard in action. It's hard to say how it "should" be bid. The opening lead is the 5 of spades (they play 3rd & 5th). It goes small, Queen. Plan the play.

Is 1♥-1NT-3NT really so horrible?

On this hand, it certainly works out nicely, I think. Even without the expected spade lead.

[nige1]

mike777, on Jun 8 2007, 02:50 PM, said:

A screaming and crying Paris Hilton was hauled back to jail. Can no one save this young lady?
In the meantime here is a Bramley/Lazard deal from a few weeks ago.
7.    Play quiz:
♠ 9873  ♥  A3 ♦ QJ ♣ QJ873 
♠ AJ2 ♥ KJ9872 ♦ AK ♣ A2
1 ♥    1N
4 ♥
Feel free to comment upon the bidding.  This was Bramley and Lazard in action.  It's hard to say how it "should" be bid.  The opening lead is the five of spades (they play 3rd & 5th).  It goes small, queen.  Plan the play.

• Re Hilton: Like everything else, you get the justice you pay for.
  
• Re Auction: OK (although Tsetse club employs 2 ♣ as an artificial but not absolutely forcing relay here)
  
• Re Play: IMO ♠ A ♦ AK ♠ J; hoping that LHO had ♠ K T x; and is now end-played. If not:
  • If RHO wins the second spade and returns a club: then finesse. If the club finesse wins then continue ♥ A K
    
  • If RHO wins the third spade and returns a club: then play ♣ A ♥ KA ♠ winner discarding a club.
    
  • If either opponent plays four rounds of spades: then discard a club.

[Halo]

Maybe we can the hand now and see how diffferent lines work.

I always think people who post a play problem should post the hand.

[mike777]

Halo, on Jun 9 2007, 03:12 PM, said:

Maybe we can the hand now and see how diffferent lines work.

I always think people who post a play problem should post the hand.

I will in a few days.

[foo]

mike777, on Jun 8 2007, 02:50 PM, said:

here is a Bramley/Lazard deal from a few weeks ago.

7.    Play quiz:
♠9873♥A3♦QJ♣QJ873
+   
♠AJ2♥KJ9872♦AK♣A2

1H-1N;4H

Feel free to comment upon the bidding.  This was Bramley and Lazard in action.  It's hard to say how it "should" be bid.  The opening lead is the ♠5 (they play 3rd & 5th).  It goes small, ♠Q.  Plan the play.

The auction is vanilla SA as taught to novices. See Audrey Grant, Edwin Kantar, Bill Root, etc for confirmation.

Many experts play a gadget here to avoid rebidding at the 4 level with a 6 card suit.
(for example 1M-1N;3C! artificial and GF)

Bramley & Lazard are not new at this nor a new partnership. They may very well have the agreement that Responder doesn't bid ♠'s with Responder's "NT'y" minimum and xxxx in ♠'s.

As for the play,
You have 4 potential losers.

The 3&5 lead of the ♠5 says there is ~4/5 that the ♠K is on your left and ~11:10 chance that ♠'s have broken 3:3 rather than 4:2.

You have to play that at least 1 of the ♥Q and the ♣K are onside or you are down.

Unfortunately, you only have 1 entry to dummy.

[Halo]

mike777, on Jun 9 2007, 05:04 PM, said:

Halo, on Jun 9 2007, 03:12 PM, said:

Maybe we can the hand now and see how diffferent lines work.

I always think people who post a play problem should post the hand.

I will in a few days.

...

[skjaeran]

mike777, on Jun 8 2007, 09:50 PM, said:

A screaming and crying Paris Hilton was hauled back to jail. Can no one save this young lady?

In the meantime here is a Bramley/Lazard deal from a few weeks ago.

7. Play quiz:
9873 A3 QJ QJ873
AJ2 KJ9872 AK A2


1H 1NT
4H
Feel free to comment upon the bidding. This was Bramley and Lazard in action. It's hard to say how it "should" be bid. The opening lead is the 5 of spades (they play 3rd & 5th). It goes small, Queen. Plan the play.

I don't care so much about the play right now. But have to say the bidding is incredible. I'd rebid 2NT, conventional GF in my methods. Other's use different versions of a 2♣ relay (Gazzilli, Cole, Witch etc.) here. Very strange to see a top pair using none of these, and have to rebid 4♥.

[mike777]

Here was the email banter and discussion. Ty all for your responses.

....................................9873...A3....QJ...QJ873

..KT54...T6...T8743.....T5.....................................Q6...Q54....9652...K964


.....................................AJ2..KJ9872....AK....A2


"Finally, the last hand of the set. Half of ya have been bugging me to get on with it, and the other half probably gave up hope.....Here we go:



7. Play quiz:

9873 A3 QJ QJ873
AJ2 KJ9872 AK A2



1H 1NT
4H

Feel free to comment upon the bidding. This was Bramley and Lazard in action. It's hard to say how it "should" be bid. The opening lead is the 5 of spades (they play 3rd & 5th). It goes small, Queen. Plan the play.

-------

First, let's look at the bidding. Several of you offered improvements:

APPLEBAUM: I don't like the bidding much. To me this auction shows a hand more like x AKxxxxx AJ10x x. Too many slams could be missed opposite the right 9 or 10 count, and 3NT could be the right game. I'd either open 2C or open 1H and jump shift to 3C.

Yes , in fact 3NT is the right game here. It does seems a tad light for a 2C opener, but that may solve your rebidding problem.

KOLESNIK: The bidding is ridiculous (starting with 1N and not 1S over 1H, unless they play Flannery). I would bid 2S over 1N (which I actually like to play as an artificial one-round force, but I would bid it also if natural). I like to play everything is a transfer now. So responder would bid 3H (showing a bad or good hand with spades). I would now bid 3N, which will show a game force without spades, and no side suit, so must be semi-balanced with more than 5 hearts, by inference). I think 3N may be a better spot than 4H.

Could be, Alex, not that our teammates found that superior spot, but they did get an easier opening lead to contend with. I do like your system of rebids after 1H-1NT, but maybe Bart and Sid need to play it natural so they find their 4-4 fits.

HOLLINGSWORTH: I like a raise to 3NT better, fwiw.

Otoh, imho, 1H-1S-2NT-3NT sure works here. wtp? Onward, to the play!!

There are several legitimate lines of play when you add up the combinations of what you can do. There seem to be two main camps, those who play on spades and those who play on clubs, with a major variation being on whether you cash your diamonds first. and there are up to three more other top cards you may consider cashing before surrendering the lead.

Alex, Jay, Mike, and Alan all were in favor of the same play, with the best (or at least longest) discussion coming from:

Francis: I read the lead as third best, and I assume the lead is from KTxx. But it might be from K654, in which case leading the jack of spades would crash the ten and set up a spade winner! (Alex pointed out it actually could also be from a 1, 2, 3, or 4 card holding, which could also include T654.)

I'll win the ace, cash the AK diamonds, lead the jack of spades, hoping it crashes the ten. If it doesn't, lho has to lead a third spade, small, to let rho ruff it. Otherwise he's end played. He might fear that partner began with 3, and not return a third spade, in which he'll be end played. Partner will have to signal what...present count??...on trick two...If playing udac, that would be easy to read. If not, then I have the 2, so it would be hard to read. Assume lho reads it correctly and gives him a ruff with a low spade on trick 3.

Now, after the third round of spades is ruffed by rho, rho has to lead a club or a trump. Either way, I'm gonna get to take a finesse in both of those suits. That's better than one finesse, which I otherwise would have had, because I only had one entry to dummy. RHO's lead lets me take a second finesse.

So I gave myself three chances: crashing the ten of spades, and taking a finesse in both spades and clubs. And lho might not lead a third round of spades, thinking I'm leading the jack to get a ruff-sluff if he continues the suit.

That's pretty good, Jay. And if the spades are really split one of the ways you didn't envision, you still have the same excellent chances when spades are 3-3. In fact you gain an option in this situation when Righty wins the third round and leads a club (or heart), and chose to refuse the finesse, cash the hearts ending on the board to pitch your club on the 13th spade. Your stock does go down a little in the more rare event that the lead was from a singleton or doubleton -- if they play three rounds of spades back at you, you'll have to pitch your club and hope you then can pick up trumps, still, that seems to be around a 50% play I believe.

While it wasn't anyone's first choice, Steve suggested that leading a low spade is better than the Jack. While he didn't explain, he might have been thinking that the lead is more likely from Kxx than from Txx, and if they cash their spades, you want lefty on lead last.

And now the club players.

Hollingsworth: Cash DAK and play CA and 2. If I next lose 2S, I play RHO for Qxx in trump.

Yes, and if they don't cash two spades, you can play King and Ace of hearts, pitching a spade on a club, and make as long as trumps don't misbehave too badly.

Barry Turner suggests to play Ace and a club immediately. And the fastest play of all comes from:

MARTEL: Win and play a low club. Might steal it, also makes the defense harder if don't reveal/release A of clubs (also more likely to get honest signals on the clubs).

Yes, every so often I have seen declarer (but never my partner) mess around an extra trick or two only to give the opponents a clearer view of what's going on. If you'd like them to duck something when they should rise, or vice versa, or when you want to see an honest count (although here, I don't think it helps all that much), then put them to the test right away!

Also by playing a low club, they can't cash two rounds of spades and then have one who might have started with 4 clubs lead a club for the other to ruff and possibly score an extra trump trick against you.


So what is better, the spade or the club? The spade is better when the club King is with Righty. The club works a lot better when Lefty has the King...


The full deal:


9873 A3 QJ QJ873



KT54 103 T8743 T5 Q6 Q54 9652 K964




AJ2 KJ9872 AK A2


Our declarer won the A of spades. Cashed the Ace and King of Diamonds. Cashed the King of Hearts, and a heart to the table. He ran the 9 of spades to the Ten and King, with Righty (me) wisely discarding a club, not a diamond, Lefty (Hugh) exited a diamond. Declarer ruffed and tried exiting a heart, but Righty's last diamond provided a final exit for the defense, and declarer had to lose a club.

It appears declarer staked his chances on finessing Righty for the Ten of spades, with the added chance of the the queen of hearts falling doubleton, or a miracle endplay.

On this layout, the Spade play (by Francis and others) works the best and you might even make an overtrick as I think they did at the other table albeit with a friendlier lead.

Either club play might work, but look what happens....Righty wins the King of clubs, and leads a spade to the Ten. Lefty then cashes the King, and leads his last spade that Righty ruffs high of course with his Queen...Declarer over ruffs, and now has a trump guess where he just might go wrong and hook into the 10.

And had the heart position been Txx to the left, and Qx to the right, the same defense now always defeats the contract, while other plays, including what our declarer tried, come romping home!!

Anyhow, this hand gave our team a temporary lead at the half of our first round match against the Bramley team that went on to win the event and the right to compete for the Grand National Championship this summer in Nashville.

Thanks to all eight of you for participating and providing so many good comments for this set, and thanks also for the occaisional word of wisdom and frequent word of correction from Hughie (he remembers details of hands amazingly well).

-kcj- "