Gainesville Bridge Club

 

The Kibitzer is Shirley Wright

Jon Shuster, Gainesville, FL

Shirley Wright is an invisible kibitzer who prowls the Gainesville bridge clubs.   Irrespective of the talent level of the player, she can spot any error, the moment it is committed.  She is definitely not a results player.  If you get a top based on a faux pas, she will catch you.  Her favorite pastime is to review hands with students, asking them to find all of the errors, much as youngsters are asked to do in the Sunday cartoons.    She feels this is one of the best ways to improve your game. 

I will turn the floor over to Shirley for a sample hand.  We post about two hands per month on Gainesvillebridge.com, a site managed by Gainesville Bridge Club manager, Kirk Becker.  These are real deals, but the players’ names are anonymous.

Shirley:  ” Jon, thanks for the introduction!   I hate to tell you, but I was watching you at one of these tables!”  (So much for anonymity!)

Can you spot the errors on this hand?  I will provide a synopsis of the play at two tables.

This deal occurred on Tuesday, August 24 at the Gator Bridge Club.   I rotated the hand to make South declarer.

                                North

                              S-K742

                              H-J843

                              D-1073

                              C-Q9

West                                                    East

S-1083                                                 S-J

H-K1076                                             H-952

D-K2                                                   D-9854

C-K1032                                             C-AJ864

                             South

                             S-AQ965

                             H-AQ

                             D-AQJ6

                             C-75

With both sides vulnerable, East dealt and at both tables, the bidding went:

West     North     East    South

-             -            P        1S

P           2S          P         4S

At Table 1, West led the S3, South winning the SQ.  South played the S5 to the SK, East discarding the C8.  Next, declarer ran the D10, East played the D4, South the D6, to West’s DK. West shifted to the CK and another Club.  East exited with the H2 and the finesse lost to the HK, for down one. EW won two red Kings and two Clubs.

At Table 2, on the same lead, declarer won the SK, and ran the D10 (East playing the D9).  West won the DK and exited in Hearts.  South now made 5: 6S (including a Club ruff), 2H, 3D.  In all declarer lost a Club and a Spade.

Can you spot the errors in each situation?

Shirley Wright’s Analysis

The auction was pretty standard, and so I have no bidding comments.

At Table 1, although it would be nice to draw trump, you do not want to let the opponents signal.  If the DK is offside, and if East is not given a chance to discard, West will have a very difficult return to make.  So charge declarer with a play error.   However, Declarer did well not to play AQ and a third Spade, as pulling just two provided West with a “safe exit” of a third Spade that would have allowed declarer to scramble home with 10 tricks.

At the Table 2, declarer reaped a two trick reward, by correctly winning the SK in dummy and immediately finessing Diamonds.  (A good psychological case can be made for finessing the HQ at trick 2, rather than a Diamond. Neither red suit is an error.)  It is definitely worth the remote chance of a Diamond ruff.  However, the major blame for the EW demise lies with East, who was giving count (high low with an even number) on the D10 lead. In an expert level game, count is only provided when “important”.  Suit preference takes priority in situations like this.  Therefore, the proper diamond to play on the D10 is the D4 not the D9.  This asks for Clubs, whereas the D9 asks for Hearts.  In theory, West’s Heart return was therefore entirely correct.

Here is how perfect defense, beyond the call of duty, can work at Table 2:  West allows the D10 to win, wins the second Diamond, plays the CK and a Club to the A, gets a Diamond ruff, and exits with the last Spade.  Declarer still loses a Heart (down 2).  It can also be done at Table 1, but it is much harder.  (No error is charged to West at Table 2, however.)

Lessons (1) When playing a hand, try to arrange play so that the opponents never get opportunities to signal. 

              (2) When defending, use suit preference signals on the early tricks.  One valuable area is trump.  Many signal in trump (high-low shows 3 and a potential ruff), This comes up so rarely, I consider it virtually useless.  On most hands, you can narrow possible leads from partner down to two suits after declarer takes the first or second trick and starts pulling trump.  Low-high should either be no preference or preference for the lower suit.  High-low should be reserved for preference in the higher suit. It is interesting that on the above hand, suppose East’s holding was S-J8.  East has no way of knowing what the 2 suits are, but plays the S8 on the first Spade (lower suit or no suit preference).  Fortunately, East prefers Clubs over either red suit.  Now whether the Table 1 declarer, after drawing trump two rounds of trump, leads the D10 or leads a Heart to the Q, the defense collects their two Club tricks.