Caitlin Ellen Pomer

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Caitlin Ellen Pomer www.bridge-forum.com Here Charles Goren is playing in the Brooklyn Dodgers locker room at Ebbets Field before they moved to Los Angeles.

1 Caitlin Ellen Pomer Here Charles Goren is playing in the Brooklyn Dodgers locker room at Ebbets Field before they moved to Los Angeles. TABLE OF CONTENTS: 3 Handling the Diamonds by Fred Gitelman 5 The Ten Commandments of Good Slam Bidding by Marty Bergen 6 Making Slam When It Counts by Ron Klinger 7. Signals and Discards by guest author Willie Jago 3.. Handling the Diamonds by Fred Gitelman In each of the six problems below you are declarer in 3NT against silent opposition. Overtricks and extra undertricks are not to be considered just make the contract. The opening lead is always a spade. To make your contract you will have to handle the diamonds properly. Pay close attention to the number of diamond tricks you need, the number of losers you can afford, and the entry situation. The first problem is very simple:

2 Problem 1 North 432 A2 KQ5432 AKQ QJT9 Problem 2: North 432 A2 KQ5432 AKQ K QJT9 Problem 3 North A2 32 KJT9876 K43 AQJ 32 QJT98 Problem 4

3 North A2 A2 KJT9876 K43 QJ3 32 JT987 Problem 5: North A2 KQ AKJ7654 KQ JT9 32 QJT987 Problem 6: North AKJ7654 AK KQJ 32 QJT987

4 5. The Ten Commandments of Good Slam Bidding by Marty Bergen I thought I knew how best to evaluate slam bidding well but no one book has positively affected my judgment than Marty s book, Slam Bidding Made Easier John Collins While not etched into two stone tablets, this is a useful guide to keeping your partnership away from the bad slams and toward good slams. The Ten Commandments of Good Slam Bidding 1. Never forget "the magic of voids." 2. HCP are NOT the key. 3. He who knows goes (or stays). 4. He who doesn t know invites. 5. KISSing is fun. Being tortured is NOT. 6. Don t fall in love with your hand. 7. Greed is a terrible thing. 8. The length/strength of your trumps is often crucial. 9. You can t bid 'em all. 10. Know when to say no. Are these the only commandments that apply to slam bidding? Of course not. The subject is so vast that many others are possible. However, keeping these ten in mind will go a long way towards helping you improve your understanding of this complex topic. I will explain, explore, and provide examples for all of the commandments. Can I guarantee that, by the time you finish the tenth commandment and "Know when to say no," you'll be a slam bidding expert? If only it were true. I am willing to make the following guarantee. If you carefully read the chapters that follow, you will have learned a lot and taken a big step towards achieving every player s Slam Holy Grail: bidding more good slams and avoiding more bad ones. Howard Schutzman known better by his BBO nick, hondo717 has a terrific website with free downloads. To get terrific lessons based on Slam Bidding Made Easier, just click to this link:

5 The Magic of Voids I was recently asked by a reader what I would bid with the following exquisite hand. He told me, Matchpoint scoring, neither side vulnerable. AK854 void AQ5 AKT76 I said I would open 2, but other players would prefer 1 or even 1. However, the question was not, "What would You open?" This hand was not the dealer, your RHO was. The question was: What would you do after your RHO opens 4? I suggest making your decision before reading on. Here are my thoughts on the possible choices: Double: If I were sure that my partner would bid something. I would seriously consider this call. Although doubles shows a good hand without hearts, because is at a high level, a good chance that partner would pass. Defending 4 doubled might be our best spot, but when I picked up these cards, hearts was NOT the trump suit I had in mind. 4 : This bid has two serious flaws. The first is that spades might be the wrong suit. If partner is short in spades, we could find ourselves going down in 4, while cold for slam in a minor. In addition an overcall of 4 hardly does justice to this monster. It might be the best hand you pick up all month! What else is there? Although 5 might be your best contract, it makes no sense to attempt to score up a game by taking 11 tricks at the five level when you had the chance to bid game at the four level. How did I answer? Whenever I am faced with a difficult decision and don't know what is right, I fall back on my "principles of a lifetime." What principle applies here? The magic of voids. What do I mean? Hands with a useful void take a lot of tricks. Why is that? It's like playing with a 30 point deck. When you have a void, the 10 HCP in that suit (in effect) don t matter, so you can bid and make game or slam with far fewer HCP than are actually needed. When the void is in the opponent's long, strong that's even better. With that in mind, what did I do? I overcalled 5, a seat of the pants example of a Michaels Cue Bid. Although partner might hate both my suits and have nothing, my experience reassured me to be aggressive based on the void.

6 How did it work out? The partner's hand was: T J75 KJ972 J843 Partner would have bid 5NT to ask for my minor, and 6 turned out to be the correct contract. I don't know about you, but I do believe in "magic." The setting: A prestigious international tournament in 1997, IMP scoring. Both sides are vulnerable. Your hand is: At most tables, the auction proceeded: *3 = A weak jump raise (WJR) KT95 void T9643 KJ82 West Partner East You Pass Pass *??? What's your call? Please answer before reading on. You have terrific shape and excellent support for a partner who made a vulnerable overcall at the two level. You are perfectly willing to get to 5, not to mention that you have no interest in defending if they get to 4 (a void in trumps is NOT magical). Remember: For every 20 hands you play, you rate to get only one void and sometimes it will be in partner s suit. Therefore, when you pick up a void AND it is in an opponent's suit' you should regard it as heaven sent, say Thank you, and seize the moment with an aggressive bid. If you appreciate the magic of voids you'll bid 4. Partner has: A2 QT65 A AT7654 and will jump to 6 and make it. Eight expert pairs held this hand, and only three of them bid 4. If you did, well done!

7 6.Making Slam When it Counts by Ron Klinger This article by Ron ( comes from a recent IBPA Newsletter. This is from the recent Gold Coast Congress (its 50 th well done, people): Dealer West Both Vul. Gold 93 QJ76 AKJ964 Q QJ854 Void 72 J98432 T7 AKT T6 Dummy AK62 95 QT8 AK75 On this deal from the Australian Open Team playoffs repechage (second chance round Ed.), 3NT made 11 tricks at four tables; at the other four tables, East West played in slam. Three failed. Leigh Gold was in 6 on a club lead on an auction he wishes not to be made public. Declarer can succeed via the club queen, spade ace, spade king, spade ruff, diamond to dummy, spade ruff, diamond to dummy, club ace, club king and a fourth club, discarding another heart. North is on lead and must concede a ruff and discard. However, Gold found another solution. As had bid hearts and North did not lead one, Gold deduced that North was void in hearts. He took the club queen and two rounds of trumps. When they split 2 2, he figured North was probably 6 5 in the black suits and so he ran the diamonds, to produce this ending: 93 QJ76 9 Void QJ85 Void Void J98 T7 AK62 Void Void AK7

8 AKT8 Void T North was in trouble on the last diamond. He let a spade go. West discarded a club from dummy and played the ace, king and a third spade. Dummy s fourth spade was a winner and North became the stepping stone back to dummy. Very well played, Mr. Gold. 7.SIGNALS AND DISCARDS by Guest Author Willie Jago Having taught courses with Willie Jago from Australia, I know that this article is just one of many valuable articles he has written on defense. Enjoy Caitlin Declarer has the advantage of being able to see both his hand and dummy s and can plan his play as one unit. The defenders are much more in the dark. They have the inference from the bidding and a view of dummy after the opening lead. They also have the advantage of making the opening lead, which may or may not be of use. Intelligent defence needs a good degree of cooperation between both partners. This can only work well if both have an agreed system of signalling. There are three types of signals: 1. ATTITUDE SIGNAL This tells partner if you LIKE or DISLIKE a suit. A high card encourages partner to continue the suit and a low card discourages the suit. The signal can be used both when following to a suit and also when discarding. A LIKE signal is made with a high card followed by a lower card (called a peter or echo ) and the reverse for a DISLIKE signal. This is because sometimes you will have cards, which may be misinterpreted. (a) AK76 QJ Partner leads the A. You play the 4. He can see the 3 and 2 in dummy and knows that you played your lowest card. You are in effect saying: Lay off this suit will do us no good (b) AK76 Q32 94

9 JT85 Again, the A is led. You play the 9, encouraging partner to cash the K and continue so that you can ruff the Q. (c) K962 AJ Q53 Partner leads the 2 and declarer wins with the A. You have poor cards with which to signal. Nevertheless you play the 5. If partner is alert he will notice your 3 on the play of the K and will know to continue the suit. (d) 975 AK76 KJ8 Q72 AQT T98 Partner leads the A. You have no choice but to play the 8. Partner will interpret this as a LIKE signal and will continue with the K. But you will play the 10 (the 9 will carry the same message, but the 10 is even clearer) and if partner is alert, he will know that you DISLIKE further continuation of this suit and hopefully guess to switch to spades. (e) K A J432 Partner clearly has the Q and you would like him to continue. You encourage with the 4. Partner cannot be certain of your message (declarer could have the 3 and 2), so he switches to another suit. Next time this suit is played or if discarding on a different suit, you play the 2, which completes the message. (f)

10 KQ Q AK You are defending against 5. Partner leads the K taken by declarer s A. Declarer cashes 3 rounds of trumps and leads the J. On the third round of diamonds, you should have played the 9, telling partner to shift to hearts. (g) KQ Q AK You are again defending 5. It is almost the same as the previous hand. On the K you play the 2 (DISLIKE). On the third round of diamonds, play the 2 (DISLIKE). You cannot afford to play the 3, as it will be misinterpreted and partner is likely to lead a club into declarer s AKJx combination. Thus another important way to use attitude signals is to show which suits you DISLIKE, so that partner can deduce which suits you like.

Dear teacher, Bidding. Opener's rebid. The opening 1NT. Game contracts. Opener rebids in notrumps. Distribution points. Overcalls

Dear teacher, Bidding. Opener's rebid. The opening 1NT. Game contracts. Opener rebids in notrumps. Distribution points. Overcalls Dear teacher, Nothing is more important to someone learning bridge than to have a good teacher. A good teacher will introduce the right topics at the right time, simplifying the learning process and making