Playing against OPPONENTS, or playing WITH logic?

So the blog comes back to life, with this article.

I hope to write once a week, going forward.

This is a hand from the annual Ubhaykar memorial BAM team event. My team came tied for 4th in the event with 64 Matchpoints on a 54 average(where 4 places pay): but sadly, we got nudged 'out  of the money' by the tie-breaking rule. So "effectively" 5th.

I GOT high praise from a Pro for my play on that hand.

There is a fair bit of background to the hand, so I'll put up the background, and the hand here. Will go over what happened, what I did right, why the pro praised my play and...why the play I made was actually a POOR play at the end (even though I had made every move perfectly until then...I just could have done 1 better than I did...for the same result).

Here's the background, first. This was a BAM teams event. I've always played 1-0.5-0 BAM teams. If you watch the pros on Vugraph (Example: the recent Reisinger BAM teams), the scoring is 1-0.5-0 (1 for a win, 0.5 for a tie, and 0 for a loss). 430 (3 NT+1) beats 420 (4 of a Major making).

The BAM format of course, is Matchpoints on Steroids. I have never been a fan of BAM teams. But this one was not actually BAM. though the event was NAMED a BAM: it was a hybrid.

Of course, if you read this far, you're familiar with IMP scoring. Here is the "BAM hybrid" scoring method:

1.Instead of ONE Matchpoint per board (which would have gone 1-0.5-0 as described already), there are SIX matchpoints per board (thus, 3 is average, instead of 0.5).
2.0-10 points difference is 3-3 (this takes out the crazy 3 NTs avoiding 4 of a major)
3.20-50 points difference is 4-2.
4.60-190 points difference is 5-1
5.200+ is 6-0

Apparently, this is a popular BAM hybrid. Was surprised that with 20 years of Bridge playing experience, I had never encountered this before.

So, with this backdrop, to the hand versus the Pro (Priyaranjan Sinha)

A mundane auction: 1 NT pass 3 NT all pass.

PRS leads the Spade Ten.

Dummy:
S:KJx
H:KJx
D:JT6
C:K9xx

Hand:
S:AQx
H:A9xx
D:A8xx
C:Qx

3 top spades, 2 top hearts, 1 diamond, 1 club that can be quickly developed. Clearly, there's work to do.

Note that as the cards lie, there are 10 tricks available with this lead. The challenge is to find a SOLID, SECURE path to those 10 tricks.

I'll post what happened to the first few tricks as a problem/teaser: scroll down for the complete analysis.

I put in the Jack of spade: I figured diamonds were the most obvious suit to develop (clubs can certainly wait, and H finesse is take-able any time, it's not number 1 priority).
So I led the Jack of diamond: King, Ace, small.

Diamond back towards the dummy, small from PRS, Ten, 9 from PRS's partner.

So the trick count can be updated now: 2 diamond tricks scored, so we are now at 8 tricks (including the ready-to-develop club trick). The diamond spots have some useful clues, but I'll leave it to you to decipher the clues, and find 10 tricks.

After the ten of diamond, I crossed to hand with the Spade Queen, and finessed the JH (I expected the finesse to lose: again, this was based on inferences I made, and those inferences are critical to finding tricks 9, 10).

As expected, the JH lost to the Queen, of PRS's partner. After a substantial think, back came a club from PRS's partner.

Without hesitation, I put up the Queen of club. It won, PRS hesitated before following suit low to the club.

So how do you go about finding trick 9, trick 10 from here?























Here is the reasoning behind "my expectation", the basis of everything on this hand.

When the 9D falls, PRS is marked with Q7 of diamond (unless his partner is making a deep psychological play, which makes no logical sense: with K97, he can duck JD and  ensure a D trick for himself when his partner has a D honor, and in all other cases it doesn't matter).

Thus, LHO started with 4 diamonds to RHO's 2.

11 free slots for hearts with RHO, 9 with LHO.

Odds are 11:9 that any heart, specifically the ten, specifically the Q, is with RHO.

Hence the expectation that JH loses.

The reason for the "speed of lightning" play in club (going up with QC with lightning speed), I'll come back to eventually.

After the QC wins, the idea is, play heart to the Ace (which will pick up Tx with PRS). Then, when TH doesn't fall, lead  a 3rd H, finessing the 9.

The odds of 4-2 aren't strictly the same as the odds of finding RHO with a specific H.

But those original odds haven't bent back in favor of parity, so the % play is the 9H finesse.

Finesse holds, PRS pitching a spade. We're up to 9 tricks. Where to go for trick 10, now?

(Again, scroll down once you're done thinking).
































The Q7 of D with PRS is a "FROZEN SUIT". Eric Rodwell writes in depth about this concept in "The Rodwell Files". Do give it a read if you manage to get access to a copy.

PRS can't pitch D. He knows I have 8x, I know he has Q7. It's a "standoff" in the suit. This position is the source of trick 10.

After AH, simply cash AH (PRS pitches another spade). I pitch club in dummy (put a bookmark against this decision, we'll return to it later. This too, is related to the earlier "speed of lightning" play in club).

The appearance of 2 spades in discards make it obvious to cash Ace of Spade (a Dentist's coup concept: removing the safe exit from opponent's hand).

RHO (PRS's partner) pitches a club.

3 tricks left, this is the position (our side has scored 3 spades, 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and 1 club. The contract is home).
Dummy:
D:6
C:K9

Hand:
D:8x
C:x

PRS, playing in front of dummy has:
D:Q7
C:?

I lead a club, and....PRS shows up with the Jack. I duck, and he's endplayed (his partner cannot gainfully overtake the JC, as he has only ATx club left).

The praise I got was, as I mentioned up front, a touch undeserved.

Certainly, credit was due for figuring out that PRS had Q7 of diamond left. But really, most experienced players get this far, and this isn't an excuse for the error I alluded to but have not yet specified.

In the post-mortem, PRS admitted that he "knew he should have unblocked, but (wrongly) reasoned that he would have a chance to pitch JC (as he felt he should have, on the hearts).

And it was then that it dawned upon me: I could have done even better than I did. Have you spotted it yet? Surely you have!

I had no reason to keep the diamond six in dummy. I was always going to end in hand when I finished cashing the hearts and the spade Ace.

The end position SHOULD have been:
Dummy:
D:-
C:K9x

Hand:
D:8x
C:x

PRS:
S:9/-
D:Q7
C:-/Does_Not_Matter
(PRS either keeps the spade 9 or A club, and it doesn't matter which of the two he does, or, for that matter, if he unblocks the JC; If he does, I insert the club 9 in dummy, and PRS's partner is endplayed with AT8 club to surrender a trick to the KC in dummy).

I had a chance to make 100% certain of trick 10. I failed, and merely got lucky that my read on my opponent's hesitation turned out to be accurate.

The full hand record, as the cards were dealt:

Dlr/Vul South / NS
	North
	K J 2
	K J 2
	J 10 6
	K 9 6 2
West		East
10 9 8 6 5		7 3
4 3		Q 10 8 7
Q 7 4 3		K 9
J 5		A 10 8 7 3
	South
	A Q 4
	A 9 6 5
	A 8 5 2
	Q 4

Note that had he thrown JC, I would have woken up and tossed the 6D as well (on the Ace of H), as I should have ANYWAY. I was lulled into complacency, by my read of his body language.

The other table also made 10 tricks in 3 NT, so we got a 3-3 score (it would have been a 4-2 loss had I not found trick 10). More than half of the field appeared to not find the 10th trick, however.

Well, I hope that was an exciting, entertaining return to life of my blog :-).

See you next week. Feel free to pontificate.

I missed a straightforward squeeze yesterday

Yes, you read the title right.

I did miss a squeeze yesterday. It was a pretty straightforward squeeze to execute.

Yes, I really did miss it. Believe it or not, it did happen. There's a hand record to prove it:

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?myhand=M-431672-1340064000

As always, the bidding is questionable when I'm involved. As you might have figured out by now, am not too interested in mundane aspects of bridge such as bidding. Am more interested in improving my card play technique. And yours.

So, we reach the contract of 5 D after the bidding sequence shown.

The opponents take the first 2 tricks with the Ace-King of spade, RHO playing the Jack under the 2nd spade..

You would normally think a 3rd spade would cause an uppercut. Spades were 4-3. Let's work with that assumption for the purpose of this discussion.

So after taking the first 2 tricks, let's say opponent passively exited a trump. Let's also say trumps are 3-3, as they were.

What now? We have six diamond tricks, 2 top clubs, 2 top hearts. Where's the 11th going to come from?

Obviously, it has to come from a squeeze. As far as simple squeezes go, a simple squeeze can exist in the following manners, on the hand:
1.LHO holds 3 or more clubs, and the spade winner. Then, simply running your diamonds and the AKH will squeeze LHO. Six diamonds and AKH is 8 winners. 2 tricks lost, 3 cards left. Dummy will keep 2 clubs and the spade ten. LHO can't keep both the spade Q and 3 clubs.

2.RHO holds 3 or more clubs and the Queen of heart guarded. The play is nearly identical. You cash the exact same winners, but pitch the spade ten in dummy assuming LHO has the spade Q. Down to 3 cards, dummy has the JH and 2 clubs. If RHO has  3 clubs left, the QH would have fallen under the AKH.

This is in an ideal world. In the real world, the devilish opponent switched to a club, the 9 of club..

There goes the squeeze. In the ideal world, we kept 2 clubs in the DUMMY in the end position. Thus, we preserved the late entry to dummy, keeping the spade threat and the JH threat alive as long as possible.

Now, we can't do that any more. If LHO has the club stopper, the squeeze still works, but when RHO has the stopper, the squeeze just got broken up. Or so I thought.

So I mechanically covered the 9 with the ten, which fetched an honor. I took the trick, and ran my trumps.

Six diamonds taken, and 1 club.2 spade tricks taken by opponents.
Down to 4 cards, I kept Honor-8 club in dummy (preserving the finesse position), 1 heart and 1 spade.

RHO now safely unguards H, keeping 2 clubs, 1 heart and the spade.

Cashing hearts now is useless. RHO discards after dummy. The premise that LHO has the spade stopper seems to have sunk me.

What really sunk me was my changing of my assumption.

I had originally assumed that regardless of where the club stopper was, I was NEVER going to use dummy's club as a threat.

Rewind to the ideal scenario: With the passive D exit, I ran the trumps and brought dummy down to 2 clubs. I never used dummy's Ten-8 spots. The opponent's club 9 switch lured me into the trap.

Only one opponent can have started life with 3 clubs here. The correct play is fairly simple, once you realize the clubs in dummy are a mirage.

9 of club: ten, Jack, king.

Now run six diamonds as before.9 tricks gone.

Dummy comes down to BARE club ace,  Jxx H and the spade Ten (about to pitch on the last trump, after LHO).
Assuming LHO has the putative spade stopper, we discard the spade ten after seeing the QS doesnt appear from LHO. RHO instead follows the spade ten discard with the spade queen!

Nothing to fear. Dummy has 1 club and 3 hearts to the Jack.
We have 2 clubs and AKH in hand

RHO can keep only 4 cards.

RHO can't have kept 2 clubs AND 3 hearts to the Queen.
Just watch the discards. If ANY hand pitched a club early, then that hand probably started with 4 clubs (it can't be 2 because he would then expose his ptr's club holding. It can't be 3 because that would be giving up the stopper prematurely). Watch the last discard of the hand which pitched club.

If the last discard is not a club, it means that opponent (RHO, here) has kept 2 clubs and therefore has Qx H.
Lay down AKH, and get to dummy and enjoy the JH.

If the last discard was a club, then unblock AC, get back to hand to enjoy the good club.

A textbook .....criss cross squeeze.
Doggone it.

Winkle squeezes are cute

Earlier today, I encountered an interesting hand that I felt merited an update to the blog.

As with most of my blog posts, this one revolves around the concepts of squeezes and end-plays.

Here is the hand record:
http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?myhand=M-18607264-1337512419

I opened 2 NT with the West hand (yeah, 19 HCP, 5 card H suit, I can see your sanctimonious shakes of the head. Cut it out, because that's not the point of this post). 2 NT was the final contract.

The opening lead was a diamond, and it's time to assess prospects.

4 hearts seem likely. Either a 3-2 break or 4-1 onside (with the obvious safety play) will guarantee me 4 heart tricks.2 clubs for sure, 3 club winners are there but there's an unblocking issue there. And there's the Ace of diamond.
All in all, prospects are OK, sort of. We can untangle 8 tricks if Hearts behave. They can untangle maybe 3 diamonds with a 4-3 break, 1 heart when we duck, and Ace-King of spade. So they have 6 and we have 8 if we manage to untangle clubs before they cash out. I can live with down 1, but it doesn't hurt to try to make the contract.
So I duck a couple of diamonds to disconnect the 2 hands in case diamonds are 4-3, and win the 3rd. So diamonds were 4-3, and North probably has the 13th diamond.
It's time for that "obvious" safety play in heart. Ace of heart, Heart towards dummy's 9 (picks up QJxx H onside. It's a bigger priority than unblocking clubs. I can afford to overtake a club to ensure 4 hearts, if the break was 4-1 onside).
North wins the 2nd heart, South following (so our 4 H tricks are ready to pick). North then cashes the 13th diamond (that's the 4th defensive trick), and exits the 9 of club. On the 13th diamond, I pitch a club in dummy (needing no more than 3), and a spade in hand (Dummy's ten of spade can guard the suit, for now. I don't want to let go of my precious winners; If they take their spades, good for them).

Of course, if North exited spade, we wouldn't have a blog post. But even with the club exit, we still have only 7 tricks since the clubs are still blocked.
The club 9 provides an idea. Since dummy's clubs are AT86, if we cover the 9 with the ten, South (not knowing you have KQ doubleton) might play the Jack and we could then overtake the club on the 2nd round in dummy and cash the good 8.
Good idea, so we play the Ten.
South is too smart for us, and ducks the ten of club and we are forced to win the Queen of club. Clubs are still blocked, do you see a path to 8 tricks at this point ?  (I did, as soon as the 9 of club was led; Yeah, am being boastful, this is my blog, suck it up)
Scroll down for the reasoning.





























I reasoned as follows. Someone  has Jx or Jxx or so of clubs by current count of the suit (since they had lots of clubs). Probably is South. Regardless of which opponent it is, what happens when we cash out the 3 hearts, bringing ourselves down to:
S:QJ
C:K
Dummy:
S:T
C:AT
What can the opponent with Jx club do, if he/she also has a spade honor?
The spade honor will have to be bared.
Say that opponent has only one spade honor, example Kx spade.
So to keep Jx club, they have to bring themselves down to the bare Spade King.
Now, the 8th trick can be untangled. We unblock the club Queen, and exit the spade Queen. If the King is allowed to hold, then the last trick is scored by the club Ace in dummy. If the KS is overtaken by the Ace, OUR Jack of spade just got promoted to winner. The spade suit has "winkled" a trick.
This is the definition of the 'winkle squeeze'. You squeeze an opponent out of the ability to cash 2 spades as a partnership, then throw them in with the bare honor to extract a trick from the OTHER suit they were guarding.

As the hand was dealt, it turned out even cuter. It wasn't just a winkle squeeze, it was a winkle squeeze without the "throw-in endplay" element.
So on the last heart, South has to pitch from:
C:Jx
S:AK
Unable to unguard club, South lets go of a spade honor (hoping his partner had the spade queen; The nerve...does he think I open 2 NT on 17 HCP???).
Now we can set up a trick with the spade QJ without even unblocking clubs. We can cash the club queen, yawn and exit spade Q. Alternately, we can exit spade Q and get the next 2 tricks. Viva Winkle!

P.S: I realized as an afterthought that it is easy to misplay this hand.
For example, for those of us trained to automatically put unblocking requirement as the number 1 priority automatically.
For the unblockers, the play would go as follows:
Win the 3rd diamond.
Unblock KQ club.
Ace and out a heart, and hope that the opponent makes the MISTAKE of leading club.
Now, even a reasonably experienced opponent can make out that your play was unblocking club, and would know enough to not lead club. Perforce, they would then stumble into the spade play.
If not perforce stumbling into spade, perhaps they exit heart safely (if you duck the 2nd H as the safety play, as I did, but after unblocking club).
Bottom line is,  the unblocking play in club rates to lead opponent to the winning defense.
That is the primary reason why it is a defeatist move to unblock club, and the only play with a chance of success is the Winkle squeeze.

SCARY NAME Bridge technique for dummies

Having started my blog with a series of 'advanced' articles, I decided to devote an article (and maybe a few to follow up) on more basic stuff.

This article is about a concept that apparently scares the heck out of many of my fellow bridge players.

When I sit down and discuss the concept, they often quickly say "I don't quite follow SCARY NAME Bridge technique".

Or, "am still learning SCARY NAME Bridge technique, and I haven't quite got the hang of it yet".

Here is an example of SCARY NAME bridge technique in play from a hand I played tonight on BBO:

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?myhand=M-3344813-1332394134

Both tables got to the same 4 spade contract. This was in a close IMP game (Barometer scoring), I made it using SCARY NAME Bridge technique play, and the other table didn't, so we ended up winning comfortably.
You can review the play yourself at the table where the declarer went wrong. At the point when declarer ruffs with the spade Queen, let's say you are in the 'hot seat', and instead ruff with the spade 7.
Do you see how to execute the SCARY NAME Bridge technique play that I executed at the other table?

It's not rocket science. After 3 rounds of clubs (KA, club ruff), both opponents cannot guard club simultaneously. Our side had 2+4=6 clubs, so even whether the suit is 3-4,2-5,1-6 or 0-7, BOTH opponents cannot have a club left in their hand.
For simplicity, let's assume the opponent with a club left is LHO of declarer (I will separately 'prove' that it "can't be" RHO).
So if diamonds are 3-3, then unless LHO also has QJx diamond, the diamond guard is "split". IF you cash your trumps, LHO can bring himself down to 2 diamonds and let his partner keep Honor-x-x and stop the suit.
Therefore either LHO needs to have QJx diamond or any 4 card Diamond suit.
As long as this holds, simply cashing your 2 trumps executes SCARY PLAY Bridge technique on LHO.

If he throws a club, you keep club in dummy and discard the D loser.
If he keeps the club, you throw dummy's club on the last trump and play out your big diamonds, diamond Ten will score as long as the cards are dealt for SCARY PLAY Bridge Technique to work.

Yes, SCARY PLAY Bridge Technique is the Bridge Squeeze. No prizes for figuring that out.

There could be prizes however if you help me understand human psychology: what makes this play so SCARY as a bridge player? Why is it so scary to cash your 2 trumps? I could show this hand to my bridge partners/friendly opponents and I would expect 75% of them to be mortally scared of cashing the 2 trumps. I read the same bridge books, I expect this play to be passe/par for the course. I do find my results from hands with SCARY PLAY technique on offer are significantly above average when I'm playing the hand than when my partner is (and gains more often than it 'should' when my opponent is playing the hand).

Side note: RHO cannot have the 13th club because RHO had 5 hearts, at-least 2 spades, and with 4 clubs, only 2 diamonds, which would mean barring a bizarre deal (Honor singleton, or QJ doubleton with RHO), you weren't going to make the contract, and assuming you can't make the contract is not a useful or acceptable assumption.

Purposeful Bridge 103: Bridge is war.

I'll start this narration with a war adage I read in an Agatha Christie novel (N or M, for those interested):
"There's time to recriminate after the war, but not during the war."

In order to not lead you in any direction, I'll give you the problem as I faced it.
This was the below hand I played on BBO

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?myhand=M-29858071-1324059618

I opened 1 NT, partner transferred me to spade and I super-accepted. Partner dutifully raised to game, and I got the lead of Ace, King and a 3rd round of club.
Dummy:
S:JT865
H:Q64
D:K
C:Q542
Hand:
S:AK7
H:A98
D:AQ865
C:76

How do you assess prospects? What would be the skeleton of your plan?














The skeleton of the plan would start with your action right now. You could try to win the QC, or try to ruff the club first and worry about the rest later.
Say you duck the club, Righty pitches a heart and you ruff. What now?

As the cards lay, you can no doubt make the hand. One of the many ways to make the hand is to unblock the KD, then lay down AK spade, and when all follow, take your 2 pitches on the AQD, pitching hearts. The opponent with QS can ruff and all's well.
But how would this work if spades were 4-1?
Someone would be left with Q9 spade. Further, they could decline to ruff the 3rd round of diamond, or ruff with the 9.
You could take the heart pitch (if they dont ruff), play ace of heart and ruff a heart. But from there you're toast.
2 trumps left, and the opponent with Q9 can win a trump lead and force out the last trump with a heart. You'd end up losing the spade 9 as well, to go with AKC and QS.
So the main threat to guard against is the 4-1 break.
Alternatively, if they ruffed with the 9, if you pitch Heart, 9S together with the QS would be the setting trick. So you'll need to overruff, and dummy will still have Q9 of heart and no apparent way to get rid of the heart loser. The closest you could try is to cash the club Queen pitching diamond, and then throwing Lefty in with the spade Queen. But if clubs are 5-2, he'd put you back on dummy with a club forcing a ruff, and you'll be stuck with the losing heart.
It is not clear what 4-1 breaks can be covered, but it seems obvious to me that its unnecessarily risky to draw trumps.
Since I'm not in a hurry to draw trumps, I may as well try to cash QC in case the suit is 4-3.

Hence, I tried to win the Q. RHO ruffed small, and I overruffed with the 7.
It is all the more imperative now to not draw trumps. Dummy now has a club loser which I haven't ruffed. All the more reason to not cash AK spade in a hurry. Accordingly,I unblocked the diamond King, and play a spade to the Ace.

Since I've not yet ruffed the club loser, I can't cash KS. Accordingly, I tried to cash AQD. If everyone follows to the AQD am in great shape. Pitch 2 hearts, Ace of H, H ruff,club ruff with the KS and ruff heart again and score one of JT spade.
However, LHO ruffs the QD with the QS. What to pitch in dummy?
It is tempting to throw the club loser away, but this is clearly a losing proposition. If you do so, then LHO can switch to heart if he's missing the king, and you'll be stuck with a heart loser.
Therefore, to continue to threaten to ruff out the club loser, it is proper to pitch the heart in dummy.
LHO now is forced to lead spade. Otherwise, you can ruff the club with the spade King and score the rest of dummy's trumps by pulling trumps, getting to dummy with a H ruff.
So LHO leads spade, removing your club ruff.

What is the recovery plan?
Dummy:
S:JTx
H:Q
C:5
Hand:
S:-
H:A98
D:54





The above end position is what I'm most interested in. I would demand that all my partners find the winning play in this end position. There's no point in playing the game if one does not, even by sheer accident, stumble into the only play available that could win. And, that play, even though it is not apparent to the naked eye, gives a 100% guarantee to make the 10th trick.
The 2 options available are:
Option 1:Ace of heart, heart ruff. You're stuck on dummy, and are 100% guaranteed to go down 1. The best you can do is play off trumps and hope for a blunder.
Option 2: leave hearts alone, ruff a diamond. Play off dummy's trumps. as with Option 1.
With 2 cards to go in dummy,when the last trump is led:
RHO has to keep the good diamond, and has to let go of a heart. Now you can safely pitch the diamond, keeping A9H.
LHO likewise sees the club threat in dummy, and is forced to keep the high club and let go of a heart.
With 2 cards to go, NEITHER opponent can keep 2 hearts. Queen of heart to the Ace will bring down ALL missing hearts.
This play works even if BOTH opponents were dealt the KJH. Because neither could keep 2 hearts in the end position: a textbook double squeeze.

Purposeful Bridge 102: (Sometimes,) Either the devil is better, or the deep sea is better.

This is a story from the Sunday 2 session pair event (on the last day of the recently concluded Seattle Nationals) where I played with Myti.

The deal is presented as a defense problem: both defensive bidding, and defensive play.
You hold:
S:KJT3
H:AQ83
D:KJ9
C:J7

Your side is Red, opponents are Black, and your Righty (me) opens 1 NT. Playing DONT over Strong NT, do you overcall?














The answer is somewhat immaterial; I would overcall 2 H in a heartbeat, even at these colors. That's me. You could choose the conservative path of passing. I wouldn't quibble with a pass. What would give the game away is agonizing. Say you agonize over the decision, and eventually pass (to make the situation same as the situation I faced; I was the Notrump opener). Lefty bids 2 club, Righty bids 2 Diamond, and Lefty rebids 2 NT, alerted as 'may not have a 4card major'. Righty ponders and raises to 3 NT.

What would you lead?














If I were defending this hand, I'll lead the Jack of Spade. Sure, sometimes dummy shows up with A98x and I've given an extra trick way, but I expect declarer's AQ to score 2 tricks most of the time, and I expect our side to get the 2 spade tricks that appear likely on the auction (since 2 D denied a 4 card major).
Again, to put you in the situation my opponent was in as defender,say you elect to lead "passive", the Jack of club.Dummy is as follows:
S:Q54
H:J76
D:A532
C:QT8

The jack of club is won by the Queen.
Declarer next plays the diamond ace and another diamond to his ten, your Jack.
You don't want to break a major suit as you can visualize the spade ace, heart king with opponent.

Accordingly, you cash your KD and exit a club. Partner pitches a discouraging spade on the KD.

Declarer wins the club continuation with dummy's ten, and proceeds to cash 2 more clubs, on which you can afford to let go of 1 card in each major. On the 4th club, declarer pitches a diamond in dummy, and then cashes the 4th diamond in his hand.

Dummy is down to:
S:Q54
H:J54
You are down to:
S:KJT
H:AQ8
Dummy is yet to make a pitch on the 4th diamond, but you have to pitch first. What do you pitch?















At the table, my opponent pitched a heart, bringing herself down to AQ H KJT spade.
I promptly pitched a heart in dummy and led towards Jx heart.
My last 5 cards were:
S:Ax
H:Kxx
Opponent can win QH and switch to spade NOW, and I put up the spade Q and force out the heart ace with the jack, scoring KH and AQ spade.

With 2 diamond tricks and 4 club tricks, that was 3 NT making.
Even if you cash AQH at one go, it doesn't help.

So why is this article on this blog with this title?

The heart discard by my opponent at trick 9( leading to the 4 card end position) is a purpose-less discard.

The correct and deservedly winning decision is to bring yourself down to KJ spade, AQ8 heart. Then, based on declarer's discard+play, you have a way out to get more than your 2 natural H tricks.
For example, say declarer pitches heart in dummy again, and plays heart towards the Jx. You take your AQ H and exit heart and wait to score your KS for the setting trick.
If declarer pitches heart and instead plays ace and out a spade, you win the spade King and place the QH on the table. Dummy has Jx heart and a good spade,but by leading Q and not low, you've killed the JH as an entry.Partner has kept T9x heart so partner guards the heart if declarer wins the king of heart and leads a heart back at you.
If declarer pitches spade in dummy and leads low towards Jxx heart, again, you win the QA heart and exit heart, waiting for your KS.
If declarer pitches spade in dummy and plays ace and out a spade, you win the king and lead low heart, letting the jack win.

As long as partner started with 4 spades, declarer cant win the heart in either hand gainfully, even if declarer had KTx Heart for example.
This was a little 'advanced' problem in end-play avoidance. My opponent wasn't up to the challenge, and let me make an unmakeable 3 NT.
This was my hand:
S:A7
H:K42
D:QT84
C:AK64

From the auction stage itself, I had decided to play my LHO for all the missing cards. The agony over my 1 NT opening was perceptible to all at the table, and I could not help bidding 1 for the road on end-plays that were bound to arise from such a lop-sided distribution of missing high-cards.

If you agonize over your call over the 1 NT opening from opponent (with the defensive hand) and elect to lead passive, you better find the right discard at the end :-)

The crux of LHO's (constrained by the opening lead) problem is to make a discard that LHO knows gives up something, but hopefully doesn't give up too much. And when you work out the holdings partner (with his admittedly scarce values) can contribute, there are a few "outs" partner can give you, if you find out the correct play of keeping the valuable 3rd heart as an exit card. Even when giving up a trick (in this case, the potential trick and suit blocking ability provided by the spade ten), the choice must be to find a purposeful way to give up a trick/potential trick: that's the name of the game.
On the surface, the discard at trick 8 looks like a choice between the devil and the deep sea. But sometimes, either the devil is better than the deep sea or vice versa :-).

Purposeful Bridge 101: Setting the tone

I've always said to all my bridge partners and opponents that the single biggest challenge in all bridge hands you have played and will ever play in your life, is to find purpose behind every move of yours.
Here's a hand which illustrates my point.

I played this on BBO, and you can find the hand record at:

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer.html?myhand=M-23871842-1323106937

This was the hand as I saw it, as declarer:
Dummy:
S:KJ
H:KJ765
D:AK86
C:T8
Declarer:
S:AQ982
H:32
D:753
C:AQ7

My partner opened 1 H, I responded 1 spade, partner rebid 2 D and I signed off in 3 NT.

I got the opening lead of the diamond Queen. I took it in dummy, unblocked the spade KJ, all following. Next, I finessed the club Queen by leading the 8, Righty plays low and I stick in my Queen.
Thus far, I don't think anyone will disagree with my line. I have 5 spade tricks, 2 diamond tricks, and a 50% chance at a 2nd club trick, which I've just taken. The Queen loses to the King, back comes the JD. There appears to be no purpose to ducking, so I took the Ace, righty pitching the spade ten.
Oh well, diamonds are 5-1. Time to assess. We have 8 tricks, which we can take only by expending the club ace. It is unclear if -1 will be bad if nothing works, but I figured it cost me nothing to try cash the spades and see what happens. Accordingly, I lead the ten of club, Righty again plays low, and I take the Ace, and follow it up with 3 more spade winners.
Righty having got rid of his 3rd spade, pitches 3 hearts, while Lefty follows to the 3rd spade, and then pitches 1 heart, 1 diamond.
How do you assess prospects? Has the heart guess narrowed at all?









This is a hand for which there is one and only one purposeful play available (assuming the purpose is to try to make 3 NT). I'll show you how I got there, and when you read how I got there, you'll see the point of the title about purposeful play.

First of all, Lefty can't have the heart ace. If Lefty had it, All Lefty has to do is keep 3 diamonds and the heart ace.
For that purpose (assuming Lefty had the Ace of heart), Lefty can boldly let go of his clubs with no fear of setting up a length-trick for you. This is because Lefty and Righty both know you did NOT start with club AQJx How do they know that?
From your line of play. If you started with AQJx, you'd have floated the club ten to the king, guaranteeing 3 club tricks without needing club pitches from opponent. Therefore, you didn't start with AQJx.
If you started with just AQJ, then the 4th club was expendable as opposed to the diamond actually discarded by Lefty.
Therefore, Lefty did NOT start with the Ace of heart.
Note that there is a key difference in inference here.
The first inference is, If Lefty started with the Ace of heart, you can NOT make this hand.
That's the easy part.
Next inference is, Lefty Indeed did NOT start with the Ace of heart! This is because, he pitched a diamond as opposed to the expendable club.
So we know Ace of heart is with Righty. So do we just play a heart to the Jack and hope the Queen is onside?

A donkey can do that, we're bridge players. Let's try to do better.

First, since we started with only 5 clubs, the opponents have not only a bunch of cashing diamonds, but also cashing clubs. And not only are their clubs cashing, they would know it if you play heart to the Jack(since they know you don't possess club AQJx, if you lead heart to the jack, as opposed to taking your 9th trick in the form of the JC, it implies you didnt have the 9th trick in the form of the JC).

And further, what about the club break?
If the clubs are 5-3 with Righty holding Jxx now, he can cash the clubs and the heart ace for down 1.
Therefore, if you have any purpose in this hand, you have to assume clubs are 4-4.
But it doesn't end there.
There are 2 key parts of inference left.

First, about the defensive inference logic, which is more difficult.

If clubs are 4-4, once you play a heart to the Jack and (presumed) Ace, They know the KH is providing the 9th trick, and therefore cannot help finding the cashing clubs. If the cashing clubs provide Lefty with an entry, he will cash his diamonds too. Thus if the clubs do admit an entry to LHO, they cannot help finding it.
Therefore, you need to assume the clubs do NOT provide an entry to LHO i.e. clubs are blocked up with RHO holding 2 cashing clubs.
Now let's go to the easy part of this inference. Basic counting.
We've taken 8 tricks and lost 1 trick.
4 cards remain in LHO's hand. 2 of them are good diamonds. Atleast 1 of them is a club. No club has been discarded, so if LHO INDEED has QH, then LHO has only 1 club and which implies RHO had 5 clubs. So, regardless of where the JC is, the QH will popup if LHO has the Queen, and Righty will see it, and will have no choice but to cash the JC. Even if Lefty had Jxx club and failed to unblock, Lefty gets in to cash 2 good diamonds.

Therefore, here is the BIG inference.
There is NO purpose, ABSOLUTELY none, to playing Lefty for the Queen of heart as well!!!
So what remains? Fold up the cards and give up?

There is one slim chance remaining: that Righty possesses AQ H (as we reasoned) but has failed to unblock his clubs!!!

Accordingly, I exited club. Righty had indeed started with J9xx club, and had indeed failed to unblock. Making 3 NT for 10 imps. And needless to say, Righty of course had AQ of heart.

Note that this was not a makeable 3 NT. I should be down 1. But that doesn't give any kind of justification for any line other than the line taken (assuming you were with me for the first 9 tricks). Because, all alternative lines (in the 4 card end position) lack purpose.
Also, the play I took DID have a non-zero probability of working. Give Lefty a starting club holding of K432, which gives Righty a starting club holding of J965. Then, the clubs were never unblockable.
Once you start off with that base distribution of missing cards, you can work out how many other distributions exist where Righty needs to be alert in order to set you.
Example Lefty's initial club holding is K532, and Righty's original holding is J964. To beat you, Righty needs to unblock clubs on the first 2 rounds, saving the 4 for his partner to overtake on the 4th round. I happened to run into one of the permutations where it is far easier to unblock, but nevertheless, the unblock didn't happen.
Also, once you get the clutter cleared out of guessing the heart suit, you also realize counting tells you the heart suit NEEDS to be unguessable if you want to stand  a chance to make the contract.
Let's revisit the counting exercise above in a different way.
Lefty pitched 1 heart, 1 diamond. Righty pitched 3 hearts on the run of spades (having pitched his 3rd spade on the diamond continuation).
Between the two of them, opponents have pitched 4 hearts. And since dummy started with 5 and you started with 2, they are left with only 2 heart cards. If you play a low heart and hoping for Lefty to have the Queen, if Lefty DOES have the Queen you cannot make the contract! It goes Queen, King, Ace, and you may as well fold up your cards. Nobody at the table who is on lead has a heart left, and dummy's good heart, and your own 2nd heart all serve no purpose. You may as well concede down 1 if Lefty indeed has the Queen of heart. So really, you're hoping that AQ of heart are both behind dummy's King-Jack, something you don't normally hope for :-).