Posted 4:56 PM by Floyd

Bridge Geekery: The Friday Barometer
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Friday night Sherry and I played bridge at the Palo Alto club. This is the best of all the local club games; it is a barometer, which means that everyone plays the same hands and gets their scores at the end of the round. This game also attracts a lot of good players; there were 16 tables.

The most interesting hand was board 9:

North dealer, E-W vulnerable.

	A852 J83 76 KQ96
T7 QT9752 AKQ 32		K643 A4 T952 T74
	QJ9 K6 J843 AJ85

Sitting North I passed. East passed, Sherry opened 1. West overcalled 1.

I bid 1, which shows 4 or more spades. (We do not play negative doubles.) East bid 1N. Now what should Sherry do? If she passes, we may miss a good spade fit. If she raises, we could be in a bad 4-3 spade fit. At the table she bid 2 and all passed.

East led the ace of hearts and switched to a trump. I considered playing low but that might prove awkward if West had the ten. East was more likely to have the king than the ten, so I played the queen and it held.

I liked the idea of pulling trumps because it meant that I could enjoy my clubs. So I crossed to the king of clubs and led a spade up. East ducked and I won the jack. Now I cashed the king of hearts, played a club to the queen and led a heart. East pitched a club and I ruffed with dummy's last trump. At this point I had taken six tricks.

Now it was time to play clubs. On the third round of clubs East ruffed with his small trump. Now he played a diamond to his partner, who played a heart. I could ruff small and get overruffed; then I could ruff back in with the spade ace and cash my club. At the table I ruffed high and put my last club on the table. East could ruff this with the king, making my 8 good, or let me score the club. +110 was worth 25 on a 30 top.

Hands like this are why I am a firm believer in raising on three trumps. Note that there is no defense to 2. The diamond position appears unfortunate for the defense but that really has nothing to do with it. Switch the Q and 2 of diamonds so that N-S cannot set up a diamond trick.

Suppose E-W start with a tap:

• T (from QT92, remember)
  
• K
  
• A ruffed.
  
• A spade towards dummy; East rises K
  
• Q. West ruffs with the 10 and North overruffs.
  
  Now North has 85, West has the 7, East has 643, and South has QJ.
  
  
• heart to the king. East can rise and do whatever he likes; if he ducks I win the king and play another heart.
  
• high spade (unless East has played another round when in with the heart ace)
  
• club to the king
  
• heart ruff high
  
• club to the queen
  
• 8
  
• A third round of clubs.
  

East gets a small trump at the end.

If East leads a trump and continues trump thereafter, North can pull trumps and score all four clubs, three trumps, and the heart king.

There are other variations, but they all add up to eight tricks for N-S.