SUPER 1NT

Board 7 (Dealer: S, Vul: all) from mixed pair 17th Indonesian National Games leaved a good story. Let's see them all.

	North
	♠ Q J 6 2
	♥ K 6 3
	♦ Q 9 4
	♣ Q J 9
West		East
♠ K 874		♠ 10 9 5
♥ Q 7 2		♥ 9 4
♦ K 8 7		♦ A J 2
♣ A 7 2		♣ K 10 8 6 4
	Declarer
	♠ A 3
	♥ A J 10 8 5
	♦ 10 6 5 3
	♣ 5 3

After South pass, West open a weak (12-14) 1NT and play there. This contract is very superior as it can't be beaten!. As seen in the vugraph, North started with ♠2 and South won with the Ace. He switched to ♥10. The critical point is in this trick. West should cover this and save the contract. If South cashes 5 times hearts, then it will squeeze North in spade and club. Please look at the position after 6 tricks below.

	North
	♠ Q J
	♥ -
	♦ Q 9
	♣ Q J 9
West		East
♠ K 8		♠ 5
♥ -		♥ -
♦ K 8		♦ A J 2
♣ A 7 2		♣ K 10 8
	Declarer
	♠ 3
	♥ -
	♦ 10 6 5 3
	♣ 5 3

Now, South returns a spade. West wins and plays 3 times diamond and West discards his small club. North is being squeezed. Spade discard will make declarer home, while club discards will have the same effect. The interesting point: Is it possible to beat the contract? The contract will be beaten if West fail to cover the ♥10. South will return &spades and declarer only has 6 tricks. If West cover with ♥Q, North is entryless. For instance, after winning with ♥K, North play ♠Q. West won and play the heart to 9 to rectify the count. South club returned won in West hand to play another heart. Now if South cashes his remaining hearts, the similar position as above happened. If South switch, then South can revert back to club for his 7th trick.

Be Careful with Signalling card

The Six of Diamond On the quarter final of National Club Championship 2006 in Point Square Jakarta, Geologi as a dependent champion meet Djarum Semarang. Djarum consists of Franky Karwur - Santje Panelewen and Supeno-Anhar Haitani. We bet them just 1 imp after loosing 16 imps on first 10 boards, 13-29. One imp that we collected is from the following board.

	Dummy
	♠ 876
	♥ K8
	♦ KJ54
	♣ J1065
West		East
♠ Q543		♠ KJ2
♥ J3		♥ Q109765
♦ 10962		♦ Q
♣ Q72		♣ K93
	Declarer
	♠ A109
	♥ A42
	♦ A873
	♣ A84

South open 1NT, when North invites with 2NT, South rejects and plays there. West leads Spade. After hold up spade for 1 round, I play the ♦A, West in order to give signal to his partner, play the ♦6. When East drops his Queen, declarer then collected 4 tricks in diamond. Not only that, declarer managed to collect 9 trick by running the ♣J from dummy. East is the victim of the squeeze in club and heart. -- Jakarta, 3 July 2006

Percentage Play in Grand (2)

I found another grand slam board in the local game. I arrived in the grandslam with the following auction:

North	East	South	West
1H	2S	3C	pass
3S	pass	3NT	pass
4C	pass	4D	pass
4NT	pass	5NT	pass
7C	pass	pass	pass

West started with ♦K, plan your play!.

Dummy

♠ J85

♥ AKQ972

♦ void

♣ A765

Declarer

♠ A43

♥ 10

♦ A987

♣ KQ964

How do you proceed? Below are the choice: -Finesse heart, but I think no one will choose this as its percentage is only 50%. -Ruff out the diamond 3 times, but you sort of entries to do this. -Draw trumps, if 2-2, then you ruff out heart to establish it. 4 heart tricks will bring you home. -Draw trumps, if 3-1, then you have to pray to get 5 tricks heart. There is a small variation, when the trumps divide 3-1, when you are in the South, you can finesse the heart. You have better percentage if East had 3 trumps (vacant places). If, West who has long spade, then you have to pray that heart no worse than 4-2. I failed to bring home the contract when trumps divide 3(west)-1(east) and west has 5 heart to the Jack and East has a singleton ♥8. Anyway I have executed the best percentage play.

Percentage Play in Grand

Bridge is a game of percentage play. You will win most of the time if you bid, play and defense with the best percentage one. At love all, the biddings (precision style) are as below:

South	West	North	East
1C	pass	1H	pass
1S	pass	2H	pass
4C	pass	4NT	pass
5S	pass	5NT	pass
6H	pass	7H	all pass

West started with ♦6 and East play ♦Q. Here are the cards.

Dummy

♠ AKJ105

♥ AQ6

♦ 10432

♣ Q

Declarer

♠ 43

♥ KJ8754

♦ A8

♣ A93

How do you proceed? Truthfully this is a good grand with several chances to fulfill it. There are many ways to bring home the contract. First, to play for 5 cards tricks in spade by direct finesse to the 10 and then to the Jack (percentage play for 5 tricks). Other way is to ruff a club and grab 4 tricks spade only. This play needs a good distribution of outside trump, 2-2. The better way is to combine these two lines. Draw two round of trump ending in declarer hand (South). If trump breaks 3-1, you are in right hand to finesse spade for 5 tricks. If trump break evenly, then you can play spade for 4 tricks only. The better percentage play is to make a ruffing finesse. You will succeed if East hold the ♠Q or West has a singleton or doubleton ♠Q. Or you may change your plan if you think that spade is divided 3-3 outside. So, always combine your chances.

Doom to Fail

Without any opposition bidding, you arrive at 3NT.

South	West	North	East
1D	pass	1S	pass
1NT	pass	3NT	all pass

West lead ♥6, most likely from 5 cards. How do you manage to bring home the contract? Here are the cards.

Dummy

♠ Q852

♥ KQ5

♦ AK

♣ 10864

Declarer

♠ K96

♥ J10

♦ QJ986

♣ A93

How do you proceed? As usual, you have to count your total tricks in notrump contract. You already have 7 triks, 1 from heart, 5 from diamond and 1 from club. The 8th trick can be easily establish, either from spade or from heart. How about the 9th tricks? Say, you play spade to Queen, won by East with Ace. Best defense is attacking the club. Won the 2nd club, you switch to heart for 9th tricks. West will win with &heart;A, play club and attack your entry in spade. If the ♠Q win, you will play heart. West will win and attack club to cut your 'bridge'. You eventually fail to book your contract, as West with long heart and spade Ace will prevent you to enter your hand. How about play heart directly at trick 2? Best defense, west will win with ♥A and return club. You may hold up and win the second club. Cash all winners in dummy and play spade to King. You will succeed if east has &spade;A along with club honor. Although this play only 50% chance with best defense, I think this is the best way to handle this contract. What's your opinion?

Great Defense

Playing with or against world class players creates interesting moment and feeling. I had an opportunity to play with Indonesian national player, Taufik Asbi in Alex Frans Memorial Invitation Pair on April 2006. Previously, we played together when Taufik was still a student in Bandung, a nice city around 180 km east Jakarta.

This board will show the interesting moments, both in defensive play, the hardest part of bridge game because of both defensive player are involved.

The role play on this board was Ferdy Waluyan, previous famous Indonesian national player. This board showed Ferdy's capability in defense to make life difficult for declarer.

Contact died at low level 2H with no opposition bidding, North 1D, South 1H and North raised it. West opening lead was ♣3. Below are the complete distribution.

	Dummy
	♠ A1043
	♥ K854
	♦ A94
	♣ Q4
West		East/Ferdy
♠ K86		♠ J972
♥ 32		♥ Q96
♦ KJ75		♦ 10863
♣ K1083		♣ A2
	Declarer
	♠ Q5
	♥ AJ107
	♦ Q2
	♣ J9765

East, Ferdy won the first club, and switched to ♦8, ♦Q, ♦K and ♦A. Next club won by west who cashed the ♦J and continued diamond. Declarer ruff and run ♥J, but East won with ♥Q. A critical moment arrived. Let's think for a while. Knowing that declarer hold 2425 along with bad spade position for defenders, Ferdy returned a killing defense double void diamond. This is the only defense which might defeat the contract.

Declarer will setup club on heart attack. Spade return, playing the correct card will make 9 tricks. Event when declarer played the wrong spade, declarer will still land their contract by setup his long club and used their trump as entry.

With diamond return, declarer lost his control. He can not setup club anymore. It needs a careful play to fulfill the contract. There are two ways, correct placing the ♠K or the ♥9. If you placed ♠K in East, after discard club in the hand, ruff in dummy, you may play spade to Queen. As the cards lie, this plan was fail. If you place the ♠K with West, after ruffing the diamond in dummy, draw all trumps and play ♣J and club, throw West in. For all declarer who count the high card point on both defenders, you may find that both of them may have the ♠K.

There is another way to land the contact by placing the ♥9 in the West. After ruffing the diamond in dummy, discarding spade in his own hand, Taufik played ♠A and spade ruff. club ruff with ♥K and another spade ruff. He continued with club to be ruffed with ♥8, en-passan. Unfortunately, East hold the ♥9 so contract failed. Congratulation for defenders.

Second Degree Assumption

Second degree assumption was popularized by Terence Reese, a great author of bridge book. I found out this theme during the Frans Waleleng Invitation Pairs last week in Jakarta. At love all, the bidding run as below:

South	West	North	East
1H	2D	3H (weak)	pass
4H	X	all pass

West started with ♦A and continue with ♦K when East signal with ♦10. Here are the cards.

Dummy

♠ 105

♥ Q986

♦ 432

♣ J954

Declarer

♠ AJ43

♥ A10754

♦ 8

♣ AQ3

How do you proceed? In order to succeed you need to place the ♣K on East. When West make a double on his own hand, you shall place all of high cards in his hand. Another assumption is ♣10 shall be with West, you will fail otherwise. When you ruff the second diamond and lay down the ♥A, West follows with ♥K. What next? A small heart to Queen, followed by diamond ruff, close the exit card. Then you play a small spade. West will win and end-played. Below are the complete distribution.

	Dummy
	♠ 102
	♥ Q986
	♦ 432
	♣ J954
West		East
♠ KQ97		♠ 865
♥ K		♥ J32
♦ AKJ76		♦ Q1095
♣ 1065		♣ K87
	Declarer
	♠ AJ43
	♥ A10754
	♦ 8
	♣ AQ3

Club return will solve declarer problem, then West return spade. Assume West return ♠K. Declarer win with ♠A and cash ♠J to discard a club. Spade ruff. East may be overruff but he will be end played. If he discard club, then declarer will land his contract with 3 club tricks. If he parts with diamond, he will throw-in with heart. A nice board.