友情来文

zapple

In a recent abalucy MP tourney ( a tourney for experts in bbo), I played a strange 4-2 trump fit board with aihua.

KJxxx

AQxx

KT87x A9xx

T8x Kxxx

98x Tx

Kx Txx

AQJ9

AQx

J98x

Here is the bidding:

S W N E

1D P 1H P

2C P 2S X

P P 3C P

3H P 4H P

P P

After partner bided 3h I paused for a moment. I knew 3nt was hopeless and 5c might be the right spot. However, if partner had heart kx, 4h would be nice in mp. Even if partner had xx I still had chance (with right position of cards + defense mistake). It is true that if partner had 3 cards heart she probably would have bided 3h over 2sx. But with xxx pass is also possible. Anyway, I had no way to know whether partner held kx or xx. Since partner had at most qx in spades (probably xx or x), she had a good chance to hold hk. So I bided 4h.

As the cards lied favorably, only 3 rounds of spades could have defeated 4h. I doubt any 1 can find that defense at the table. In the real life, I got a trump lead and made 4h. I was quite sure I was the only 1 to bid 4h and I expected a top board for us.

The results are quite astonishing, we got a 50%! Because 6 tables bid 3nt only 1 board go down. Astonishing but reasonable, it taught us a lesson how to play match points!

Here are some techniques for match points according to my experience:

1. Don’t bid too much in detail, because you don’t want to tell ops what to lead. In this board many players opened 1d and rebided 1nt. It is bad bidding in imp, but in mp, hard to say.

2. Seek nt desperately. This board is a good example. 6 tables bided 3nt and 3 tables 3nt+4. Only 1 table went down in 3nt because east overcalled 1s.

3. Seek 4-3 or 5-2 in majors if nt is impossible. Forget 4-4 or even 5-4 in minors. Minor is the last resource in mp. Safety is important in imp, but in mp, opportunist won!

Such a nice 4-2 trump fit is not only available in mp, it can be also found in imp matches.

In the recent Bermuda cup, polish players played a nice 4-2 fit 4s against Chinese ones.

Here is the board:

AKJx

KQ9xx

xxx xxxx

KQTxx KJxx

Jxx Qxx

Tx Ax

AT9xx

Jxxx

N E S W

1C X 1D P

1S P 2C P

3C P 3S P

4S P P P

I am not familiar with polish club. I guess 1s by north shows 5 spades possibly. 4s is a strange yet nice contract here, and only 3 rounds of hearts could have defeated it. (Play the 4^th heart when ca wins in). As I commented when this match was live broadcasted in BBO, a strange defense could have defeated a strange contract.

Now we make a compare and contrast for the 2 boards.

Note that both boards can be defeated by the same line of defense---let ops ruff and discard. That is perhaps the secret weapon to defeat 4-2 fit trump. When you play 4-2 fit, you lack trump length, thus you must have strength in trump + a running minor suit. So a ruff and discard doesn’t help declarer.

The 2^nd board is imp and no other game is possible. On the other hand, the 1^st board 5c/5d can be made by NS. However, as we suggested earlier, 5c/5d score less and thus are poor contracts in mp. Moreover, the chance of 5c/5d is no better than 4h. To make 5c/5d, we need ckx onside + hk onside, about 15%. While 4h is 25%--- need both ks onside.

2004/01/16