Brian Davies
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Dave_W: Yes. This is the key question. IMPs scoring on BBO and Teams scoring are both calculated in IMPs (International Match Points) and require the same tactics. Bernard’s 4 videos in the Library archive give some excellent advice.
In general:
– Bidding and making games is important – particularly vulnerable. Over-tricks (and extra under-tricks) are less important.
– Don’t compete too aggressively for part-scores – particularly if vulnerable.
– Play safe as declarer to ensure the contract makes.
– Be aggressive as defenders to try to beat their contract.The exact method of calculating the Cross-IMPs used on BBO is complicated (and uninteresting unless you are a real geek!).
Hi Sean, yes this was the end-play I was hoping to achieve, but don’t forget that you don’t have the entries to eliminate clubs and diamonds before touching trumps – your ace of hearts needs to be intact for the end-play to operate. I don’t think it can cost to ruff diamond first. You will only be in dummy to ruff the club if the first round of trumps is ducked.
In “100 Winning Bridge Tips”, Ron Klinger quotes the “Rule of 1”: When there is just one trump out higher than yours, it is normally best to leave it out.
Like many “rules” in bridge, it should be used as a guide rather than a command, but I think that it is a good default tactic.
Another play is possible, if you know that North will duck the spade – which Bernard commented was a little odd. You can win the diamond ace and play two top clubs discarding a diamond. Now, ruff a diamond (should be safe unless the diamonds were 8-1) and play a spade toward the king. If North ducks we can ruff the third club (high). The beauty of this play is that we can now play a spade, letting the defence have their ace and it will not matter who has the ace they will be end-played into leading a heart or conceding a ruff and discard. This makes the contract bullet-proof, even against a 4-1 heart split.
Hi Charles, I hope that you fully disclose this! 🙂
There is a good case to open the strong suit with a strong hand in case you are in the slam zone.
There is a crib sheet on the original Mr Bridge site (here)
But it looks rather dated – showing strong twos etc. which I don’t think that Bernard recommends now? I agree that it would be nice to have a “Bernard Magee Standard”, which can be assumed as the default for the site.
Hi Sandi, there are a lot of inference in the simple 1NT-3NT auction. We know that south has a balanced 12-14, but we also know a lot about the north hand. North will be in the range 12-18 and didn’t transfer – so will not have a five-card major. North did not use Stayman – so will be unlikely to have a four-card major (I suppose 4333 is possible for some). So we know that north has six or fewer cards in the majors and seven or more cards in the minors. In a book on no-trump leads Bird & Anthias calculated that N/S would hold an average of 5.82 cards in each major and an average of 7.18 cards in each minor. This is a big difference! Unless there are big reasons to do something different, you should lead a major against this specific auction.
On this hand (KJ64 1097 9875 72), I think that the only choice is between a spade and a heart – diamonds and clubs might work but the odds definitely favour the major. A spade lead is ok but: (1) it is only a four-card suit, so you can only ever establish one length winner in the suit. (2) you don’t have an outside entry, so might not be able to enjoy the length winner. For this reason I think that Q Plus gets the lead right.
[Note that the auction is exactly the same as the first prize quiz. I still think that a major (hearts) is best on that one!!]
I think that the 3D “high reverse” can be made on a good 15 (I said this in response to another post). But this isn’t a good 15, it is a mediocre, semi-balanced 14 which has improved somewhat in the context of the auction. But when considering a valuation we need to consider the auction so far AND also the auction to come.
We might choose to bid 3D if we think that game is likely in diamonds. How do we value this hand when considering a diamond contract? We like to have shape (singletons and voids) in a suit contract. We like to have aces and kings in high level suit contract – our “quacks” (queens and jacks) are unattractive in a suit contract. Finally we need a good quality trump suit KJ43 has a couple of honours and is ok. We also need to consider that 5D needs 11 tricks and a combined 25 points won’t guarantee game without additional shape. I would downgrade a bit if considering a diamond contract.
What about game in no trumps? We only need 9 tricks and ruffs are no use. Quacks will often carry more weight in NT contracts. This is why 2NT is a much better bid in my opinion.
Can I suggest that for lead quizzes you should always give the form of scoring please? The objective is different at IMPs (defeating the contract) compared with match-point pairs (maximising the number of tricks).
For what it’s worth, I lead the same card at either form of scoring on the current quiz. Better still, my choice matches Bernard this time! But I think things are a lot closer at pairs.
Charles, why do you choose to bid your three-card diamond suit in preference to your four-card club suit?
Change West’s ten of hearts into the three of hearts and you may only have two heart tricks – slam is much less certain to make. Your auction finds the good slam here but will you bid the same with my slightly altered hand?
Slam is good (a 3-3 club split would also work). This looks tough to bid. We have two balanced hands making slam on a combined 31 HCPs.
I think that the West hand is worth quite a bit more than 13 points. KQJ102 in hearts is huge – much better than a six-count. But although West is maximum for his actions, I think that it is difficult for west to bid any differently. I don’t think that West is quite strong enough for the bidding to start 1H-1S-1NT, for example.
Very tough, Maybe Bernard would value things differently?
Edit: Yes, remarkable similarities to the hand that Bernard showed earlier.
I bid 3C and then if:
– Partner bids 3NT: I pass, my hand probably doesn’t make slam opposite a (semi-)balanced minimum.
– Partner bids 3D (4th suit): I bid 3NT.
– Partner bids 3S (probably XXX support): I bid 3NT.
– Partner bids his heart suit a third time: I bid 4D (cue bid).
– Partner raises clubs: I bid 4D (cue bid).What does partner have? Partner doesn’t have a second suit and hasn’t opened or rebid NTs. Will partner open 1NT with a five-card major? If so, the 2H rebid promises six and we have a 6-2 fit. I am starting to get excited. If partner might have 5332 shape in the 12-14 range, I would not want to be so keen on driving to slam.
My next bid is easy anyway – I bid 3C (forcing) since I am too strong to bid bid game directly.
All of the above are good answers, almost certainly the best options.
But before you make any lead you should consider what you know about the opposing hands and your partner’s. What was the auction Sue?
The usual advice is to make a passive lead against 6NT if the opponents appear to have two balanced hands. But the opps have a maximum of 31 points, so this is unlikely and 6NT is probably based on the hope of running long suits. Unless they can run 11 tricks in the minors, the lead of the King of hearts will ensure that we can come to 2 tricks before they score 12.
