In BWTA, if only there were an opening bid that showed 4-5 in the majors …
bobbywolffJuly 10th, 2021 at 1:13 pm
Hi Jim2,
Topical statement which also, with a different dealer could have propelled EW to a spade game but if only West and North (two loudmouths) had not preceeded East to the bat.
Yes, “Flannery may get you everywhere” should get its due with mostly all of my partners and I choosing to play it. BTW, Flannery goes especially well while playing 4 card majors.
However methinks some combination of while defending 4 spades (as a final contract EW), a combination of covering or not the right honors by the defense may make playing a spade game tricky, but not impossible. Living on the edge has its dangers, but also some great achievements.
Yes for Flannery,, but another option of a 2 diamond opening being Roman (a strong 4-4-4-1
any) is also intriguing by choice, but to any aspiring partnership 2 diamonds being just a WTB is, at least to me, a waste of good money, for far too little in return.
A V Ramana RaoJuly 10th, 2021 at 1:15 pm
Hi Jim2
Flannery of course if it is there in your partnership repertoire
Regards
A V Ramana RaoJuly 10th, 2021 at 1:17 pm
Hi Dear Mr Wolff
I was writing the post and perhaps a minute too late
Regards
Jeff SJuly 10th, 2021 at 1:40 pm
Hi Bobby,
It was hard to see the squeeze, but I think South had a chance at trick 2 to save the contract. If he plays the JH instead of the AH, doesn’t it kill the timing? If East ducks, play the ace, cross in clubs and now play the 10H. The difference is that we still have KH so if East ducks as he did in the actual hand, we can play a fourth heart and then switch to clubs.
I guess that today, we could get to the same place is if we took the AH and ran the JH at trick 3 and then cross in clubs to play the 10H, but that seems weaker as it could go horribly wrong if West turned up with Qx in hearts.
A V Ramana RaoJuly 10th, 2021 at 2:16 pm
Hi Jeff S
East wins ten of hearts and leads low spade to west’s ten. Dummy wins but there is no entry to south hand for drawing trump . If dummy leads spade, east wins and continues spade forcing south in trump. If dummy leads club, east ruffs and cashes both aces and if dummy leads diamond, EW get two diamond tricks. Idiomatically, South is hoist by his own petard as the great bard says.
Hope our host approves
Regards
Jeff SJuly 10th, 2021 at 2:44 pm
Hi, A V Ramana Rao,
Very nice! I missed the transportation problem after the second club. With the same idea, East can even take his queen at trick 2 and lead a second club as hearts are fatally blocked now.
bobbywolffJuly 10th, 2021 at 3:17 pm
Hi Jeff S & AVRR,
I side with AVRR, not because of any other reason than he is riight.
However, as AVRR mentioned, West not South, possessed the spade 10, allowing East’s low spade back to not lose the contract setting trick.
As so often happens in analysis, specific cards not particularly important otherwise, sometimes foil the best intentions, of alternate declarer play as well as defense.
Just another reason why bridge is the best mind game ever invented, with nothing less than a crying shame that the ACBL has not visited Washington DC suggesting us to agree with China, like I suggested to them in 1993 that they install bridge as an elective subject in their middle schools on up and now much later, after perhaps 15+ years of experience are reaping their educational choice by marked improvements with both mathematics and pure logic, to which the playing of bridge forces ambitious players to think overall in a much clearer way.
And for dessert, playing top-flight bridge also allows experienced players to peacefully compete with each other in countless psychological battles which seem to continue to the death of that hand and determine winners from losers.
Today’s hand becomes one of those, proving that the above is ever present and sometimes just emerges out of nowhere (even in this case, with a well discussed postmortem held seven years later, but, and of course, also likely before those actual players went to bed that night).
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In BWTA, if only there were an opening bid that showed 4-5 in the majors …
Hi Jim2,
Topical statement which also, with a different dealer could have propelled EW to a spade game but if only West and North (two loudmouths) had not preceeded East to the bat.
Yes, “Flannery may get you everywhere” should get its due with mostly all of my partners and I choosing to play it. BTW, Flannery goes especially well while playing 4 card majors.
However methinks some combination of while defending 4 spades (as a final contract EW), a combination of covering or not the right honors by the defense may make playing a spade game tricky, but not impossible. Living on the edge has its dangers, but also some great achievements.
Yes for Flannery,, but another option of a 2 diamond opening being Roman (a strong 4-4-4-1
any) is also intriguing by choice, but to any aspiring partnership 2 diamonds being just a WTB is, at least to me, a waste of good money, for far too little in return.
Hi Jim2
Flannery of course if it is there in your partnership repertoire
Regards
Hi Dear Mr Wolff
I was writing the post and perhaps a minute too late
Regards
Hi Bobby,
It was hard to see the squeeze, but I think South had a chance at trick 2 to save the contract. If he plays the JH instead of the AH, doesn’t it kill the timing? If East ducks, play the ace, cross in clubs and now play the 10H. The difference is that we still have KH so if East ducks as he did in the actual hand, we can play a fourth heart and then switch to clubs.
I guess that today, we could get to the same place is if we took the AH and ran the JH at trick 3 and then cross in clubs to play the 10H, but that seems weaker as it could go horribly wrong if West turned up with Qx in hearts.
Hi Jeff S
East wins ten of hearts and leads low spade to west’s ten. Dummy wins but there is no entry to south hand for drawing trump . If dummy leads spade, east wins and continues spade forcing south in trump. If dummy leads club, east ruffs and cashes both aces and if dummy leads diamond, EW get two diamond tricks. Idiomatically, South is hoist by his own petard as the great bard says.
Hope our host approves
Regards
Hi, A V Ramana Rao,
Very nice! I missed the transportation problem after the second club. With the same idea, East can even take his queen at trick 2 and lead a second club as hearts are fatally blocked now.
Hi Jeff S & AVRR,
I side with AVRR, not because of any other reason than he is riight.
However, as AVRR mentioned, West not South, possessed the spade 10, allowing East’s low spade back to not lose the contract setting trick.
As so often happens in analysis, specific cards not particularly important otherwise, sometimes foil the best intentions, of alternate declarer play as well as defense.
Just another reason why bridge is the best mind game ever invented, with nothing less than a crying shame that the ACBL has not visited Washington DC suggesting us to agree with China, like I suggested to them in 1993 that they install bridge as an elective subject in their middle schools on up and now much later, after perhaps 15+ years of experience are reaping their educational choice by marked improvements with both mathematics and pure logic, to which the playing of bridge forces ambitious players to think overall in a much clearer way.
And for dessert, playing top-flight bridge also allows experienced players to peacefully compete with each other in countless psychological battles which seem to continue to the death of that hand and determine winners from losers.
Today’s hand becomes one of those, proving that the above is ever present and sometimes just emerges out of nowhere (even in this case, with a well discussed postmortem held seven years later, but, and of course, also likely before those actual players went to bed that night).