Minor Suit 6-5 Strong Jump Shifts with Suit Quality, Losing Trick Count

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Greetings Bridge Friends,

Welcome to another BridgeHands “Extra” lesson that intercedes our more voluminous, full length episodes.  Again you will have an opportunity to demonstrate your Strong Jump Shift bidding skills as well as some play skills from our prior lessons.

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In these exercises, again South will hold very distributional hands with a 6-5 suit shape.  So when both long suits are in the MINORS and we are holding six-five shape, should we still “6-5, come alive?”  As we witnessed in our prior lessons, first off we should consider Suit Quality (of 9+), looking for a good Semi Self-Sustaining-Suits or better.   Also recall, we ought to look ahead and ponder whether we are prepared to play in a 3 Notrump contract, push to a 4 level contract in the minor, or go all the way to an 11 trick minor suit game or beyond.  Okay, let’s explore the wild world of minor suit 6-5 hands, moving around a card here and there and measure the impact on the bidding, line of declarer play and available tricks.  Be sure to view the entire video along with the concluding remarks for additional details.

In order to generate many more video lessons, beginning in the year 2013, we plan to frequently produce shorter, concise “no frills” video lessons without our all the detailed hand diagrams and written commentary.  You will find these lessons here on our blog in the Social and Advanced categories under the subheading Bidding and Play (see top of any blog page).   On a less frequent basis, we will continue to generate our popular and more comprehensive “Polling You” series.

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Board 3 South Deals E-W Vul ♠ 3 2 ♥ K Q 4 3 2 ♦ 5 4 3 2 ♣ 3 2 ♠ 9 8 4 ♥ A J 10 9 8 ♦ J 9 ♣ K 9 6 N W E S ♠ Q 7 ♥ 7 6 5 ♦ K Q 10 7 6 ♣ A 5 4 ♠ A K J 10 6 5 ♥ — ♦ A 8 ♣ Q J 10 8 7 West North East South 2 ♣ Pass 2 ♥ Pass 3 ♠ Pass 4 ♠ All pass Trick West North East South 1. W ♠ 4 ♠ 2 ♠ Q ♠ K 2. S ♠ 8 ♠ 3 ♠ 7 ♠ A 3. S ♠ 9 ♦ 2 ♦ 7 ♠ J 4. S ♥ 8 ♥ 2 ♥ 5 ♠ 10 5. S ♣ 6 ♣ 2 ♣ A ♣ J 6. E ♦ J ♦ 3 ♦ K ♦ A 7. S ♣ K ♣ 3 ♣ 4 ♣ Q 8. W ♦ 9 ♦ 4 ♦ Q ♦ 8 9. E ♥ 9 ♦ 5 ♦ 10 ♠ 5 10. S ♣ 9 ♥ 3 ♣ 5 ♣ 10 11. S ♥ 10 ♥ 4 ♥ 6 ♣ 8 12. S ♥ J ♥ Q ♥ 7 ♣ 7 13. S ♥ A ♥ K ♦ 6 ♠ 6

Poll 80, Extra – Hand 0 (reprint of Hand 7 from Polling You #80) . Despite holding a 15 High Card Point hand, with a 6-5 shape and nice honors South aggressively opens 2 Clubs with a 4 Losing Trick Count hand.  While South’s losers may be Spades 1, Diamonds 1, Clubs 2, with less than 4.5 Quick Tricks (3 here) making such a strong opening call may come back to haunt South.  With 2 of the top 3 honors, North questionably responds 2 Hearts (generally it is better to have 8+ total points in hand plus 2 of the top 3 honors in your bid suit).  With a Self-Sustaining Spade suit this South jumps to 3 Spades (4 honors + 6 long = 10) – others might instead bid 2 Spades and rebid 3 Spades with 4 losers.  Regardless, North signs off in 4 Spades. . On play, West does not want to lead away from an unprotected Ace nor a Club King to South’s strong hand, thus settling for a trump lead (technically the middle Spade 8 is correct from 3).  On the safe lead of a Spade, East goes up with the Queen that loses to South’s King.  Declarer South clears the Spade suit in 3 tricks with East signaling for a Diamond should partner West again get on the lead.  On the fourth Spade lead, West pitches a Heart without much encouragement since the visible dummy to the left holds King-Queen.  With 2 Club losers, South switches to the ambiguous Club Jack, won by East’s Ace.  East comes back with the Diamond King, won by South’s Ace and West’s Jack (high-low from doubleton).  South continues leading the Club Queen, this time won by West’s King.  West follows with the Diamond 9 to East’s waiting Queen but declarer South ruffs in.  Procrastinating in hopes to squeeze the opponents a bit, South plays another trump before switching back to the Club 10.  Fortunately both opponents followed to the third Club play, this time a lucky 3-3 split (36 percent chance) on a 5-3-3-2 suit distribution.  Yet as it turned out, North’s Heart King-Queen honors were of no help on the mis-fitting hands.

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Strong Jump Shifts with 6-5: Suit Quality, Self-Sustaining Suits, Losing Trick Count

 

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Greetings Bridge Friends,

Welcome to BridgeHands lesson #80 where you will again have an opportunity to demonstrate your Strong Jump Shift bidding skills as well as some play skills from our prior lessons.

In these exercises, South will hold very distributional hands with a 6-5 shape in the major suits.  As the Bridge cliché goes, when holding six-five, “come alive.”  True, some would rather not spend much time thinking about “freak hands” considering that the six-five combinations only come up 1.4 percent of the time (6-5-1-1 and 6-5-2-0 are each .7 percent). Yet as we’ve seen in our prior lessons, even with so-called freak hands, wise players always consider Suit Quality, Self or Semi Self-Sustaining-Suits, Losing Trick Count and partner’s receptivity considering fit, Cover Cards and honors.   In fact, in our next lesson we will give special consideration when both our long suits are in the minors where we must choose between an 11 trick minor suit game, slam or risking a 3 Notrump game contract.  But for now, let’s focus on 6-5 hand in the major suit.  In both lessons we will evaluate the worth of singleton honors, a side suit doubleton with a primary honor as well as a worthless doubleton.  And as always, we will move around a card here and there, measuring the impact on the bidding, line of declarer play and available tricks.  In fact, most of these hands will require careful declarer and defender play to find the best contract so be forewarned, alert and put on your thinking cap!  Finally, be sure to view our entire video lessons along with the concluding remarks for additional details.

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Recall in our prior lessons the criteria for our advanced hand evaluation methods:

Highlights – Losing Trick Count and Cover Cards

– Prerequisite: 8+ card trump fit or self-sustaining suit
– Ace-King-Queen are not losers in 3+ card suits (except Q x x in a side suit)
– Generally, fourth card and beyond are not losers
– LTC – CC equals losers, as 6 LTC – 3 CC = 3 losers (major suit game)
– Extras: 5+4 trump, working Queens and Jacks, shortness

Trump Fit or Self-Sustaining Suit

1. LTC is normally a 5-3 or longer major suit fit
2. Occasionally one player has a long, strong suit
3. We need an independent method to determine the suit quality and LTC when one player has a long, strong suit
4. When evaluating Suit Quality, we generally assume partner may hold a singleton to ascertain the losers (LTC) in a long suit
5. Adjust the above when partner bids Notrump, indicating 2+ card support

Self-Sustaining Suit and Suit Quality

1. Limited to 1 loser when partner holds a singleton
2. Reserved for situations when a player holds a long, strong suit
3. Suit Quality equals the number of useful honors plus the suit length
4. Self-Sustaining Suit usually equals a Suit Quality of 10 or more, lose 0-1 tricks
5. Semi Self-Sustaining Suit equals a Suit Quality of 9, lose 1-2 tricks

Please refer to our Lessons 76 – 79 for more on LTC and Cover Card hand evaluation.

 Hand 1 (variation of Eddie Kantar hand 10)

Board 3 South Deals E-W Vul ♠ K 10 ♥ 9 8 4 ♦ A 10 6 5 3 2 ♣ Q 8 ♠ 9 2 ♥ K 3 2 ♦ 9 4 ♣ A K 9 4 3 2 N W E S ♠ 7 6 5 ♥ A 10 ♦ Q J 8 7 ♣ J 10 7 5 ♠ A Q J 8 4 3 ♥ Q J 7 6 5 ♦ K ♣ 6 West North East South 1 ♠ Pass 1 N Pass 3 ♥ Pass 3 ♠ Pass 4 ♠ All pass Trick West North East South 1. W ♣ A ♣ 8 ♣ 5 ♣ 6 2. W ♣ K ♣ Q ♣ 7 ♠ 3 3. S ♦ 9 ♦ 2 ♦ 8 ♦ K 4. S ♠ 9 ♠ K ♠ 5 ♠ 4 5. N ♦ 4 ♦ A ♦ 7 ♥ 5 6. N ♥ K ♥ 9 ♥ 10 ♥ J 7. W ♠ 2 ♠ 10 ♠ 6 ♠ J 8. S ♥ 2 ♥ 4 ♥ A ♥ Q 9. E ♣ 2 ♦ 3 ♣ J ♠ 8 10. S ♣ 3 ♦ 5 ♠ 7 ♠ A 11. S ♥ 3 ♥ 8 ♣ 10 ♠ Q 12. S ♣ 4 ♦ 6 ♦ J ♥ 7 13. S ♣ 9 ♦ 10 ♦ Q ♥ 6

Initially South’s hand appears to have questionable values with 13 High Card Points and a singleton Diamond King.  Now let’s check out South’s Suit Quality – 6 long plus 3 good honors equals 9, a Semi Self-Sustaining suit that often will not have more than 1 loser even when partner holds a singleton (assuming a simple finesse works).  So despite not knowing if the partnership have a trump fit, with a Semi Self-Sustaining Suit South can begin counting Losing Trick Count: Spades 1, Hearts 2-3, Diamonds 0-1, Clubs 1.  Thus South begins bidding 1 Spade, planning to make a forcing Strong Jump Shift if partner makes a bid.  With adverse vulnerability, despite a good 6 card Club suit holding a meager 10 HCP it’s too much of a stretch for West to make a 2 Club overcall.  North is willing to signoff in 1 Notrump call with 9 HCP, not quite enough to make a 2 Diamond call – also a stretch to count distribution points with Ace and 5 mediocre others.  Next South makes a 3 Heart SJS with a 5 Losing Trick Count.  Unsure of whether partner South holds 4 or 5 Hearts, North accepts a 4 Spade game. . West leads from the protected Club Ace to survey the dummy and without much thought, East plays the 5.  Unclear of a better continuance and noting the dummy’s Queen doubleton, West proceeds with the Club King which declarer ruffs.  South wins the singleton Diamond King and plays a low Spade to dummy’s King.  While unnecessary, South could not resist the urge to win the Diamond Ace and pitch a Heart – regardless, South can only lose two Hearts so a pitch is irrelevant.   Questionably switching to a Heart 9 to try a finesse in declarer’s closed hand, East innocently covers with the 10, to South’s Jack and West’s King (an error by East as we shall later see).   West returns a Spade to North’s 10 with South overtaking with the trump Jack, pulling trump and winning the remainder of the tricks to make game.  Let’s try again – both sides have made some play errors on this time.

 

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Strong Jump Shifts, Suit Quality, Losing Trick Count

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Greetings Bridge Friends,

Welcome to BridgeHands third “Extra” lesson that intercedes our more voluminous, full length episodes. Again you will have an opportunity to demonstrate your Strong Jump Shift bidding skills as well as some play skills from our prior lessons.

Premium/ULTRA – Click to view video – Polling You 79 Extra 3, Strong Jump Shift

Premium/ULTRA – Click to view video – Polling You 79 Extra 3 – Part 2, Strong Jump Shift

In these exercises, South will hold strong two-suited hands with 5 great Spades, 5 Clubs and one or more top honor along with a red suit stiff Ace and a King doubleton.   While North will only hold a small Spade singleton, the good news is that partner will also have 5 Clubs and an assortment of 7-8 High Card Point combinations.     As we know, the three primary ways to make additional tricks are ruffs, promotions and finesses.    Also, when in slam with a two-suiter and a secondary fit, it’s not uncommon for the declarer to ruff out a 5 card suit with a 5-1 fit, anticipating the opponents hold a 4-3 pattern in the suit (62 percent odds).  In these exercises, we will explore various bidding and play combinations.  We will also move a few cards here and there to see the impact of bidding and play.   Be sure to view the entire video along with the concluding remarks for additional details.

Polling You #79 Extra 3a

South holds a black hand with a 5=2=1=5 shape with 19 High Card Points plus a few more length points.   And while South would like to immediately begin counting Losing Trick Count, the Suit Quality in Spade is only 8, 5 long plus 3 in length (we need a SQ of 9 or more).  Many West’s will overcall 2 Diamonds despite the vulnerability.   South North pass after interference or respond 1 Notrump with West bidding, in either situation South will rebid 3 Clubs.   Now North should come alive cuebidding 3 Diamonds to show interest in game.  South assumes the cuebid asks for a stopper in West’s Diamond suit and bids 3 Notrump.   Yet with North’s 1=2=5=5 shape the auction is pulled to 4 Clubs.   With North’s change-up, South cuebids 4 Hearts to show a second round control (Heart King).  With no other controls to show, North rebids 5 Clubs and South ventures a 6 Club slam contract.

On play West begins with the Diamond King, top of broken sequence to South’s Ace.  South surveys the hands, counting 1 Heart loser and potentially a Spade loser.   Playing the Club Ace West shows out so South cashes the Spade Ace and ruffs the Spade Queen in dummy (West wisely ducks the gambit).  Without much thought, South quickly plays a low Heart to West’s Ace (more on this on hand 3b).  Unwilling to continue Diamonds with 5-5 between West and dummy North, West returns a Heart to North’s Queen.  South ruffs a Club in hand, followed a Club ruff in dummy.   After another Diamond ruff in hand and another Spade ruff in dummy, South is happy to see the suit will break 4-3, a 62 percent chance.  Using the required Diamond ruff to return to hand, South can now play their final Club trump however East has one remaining Club to set the contract by one trick.   In retrospect, we can see that a flawed declarer play caused South to go down one trick.  Let’s try another like of play in 3b.

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Click to view video – Polling You 79 Extra 3, Strong Jump Shift

Click to view video – Polling You 79 Extra 3 – Part 2, Strong Jump Shift

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Polling You #79, Extra #3b

South holds a black hand with a 5=2=1=5 shape with 19 High Card Points plus a few more length points.   And while South would like to immediately begin counting Losing Trick Count, the Suit Quality in Spade is only 8, 5 long plus 3 in length (we need a SQ of 9 or more).  Many West’s will overcall 2 Diamonds despite the vulnerability.   South North pass after interference or respond 1 Notrump with West bidding, in either situation South will rebid 3 Clubs.   Now North should come alive cuebidding 3 Diamonds to show interest in game.  South assumes the cuebid asks for a stopper in West’s Diamond suit and bids 3 Notrump.   Yet with North’s 1=2=5=5 shape the auction is pulled to 4 Clubs.   With North’s change-up, South cuebids 4 Hearts to show a second round control (Heart King).  With no other controls to show, North rebids 5 Clubs and South ventures a 6 Club slam contract.

Play through 4 continues as before.  On play West begins with the Diamond King, top of broken sequence to South’s Ace.  South surveys the hands, counting 1 Heart loser and potentially a Spade loser.   Playing the Club Ace West shows out show South cashes the Spade Ace and ruffs the Spade Queen in dummy (West wisely ducks the gambit).   This time South carefully considers play, realizing despite holding a huge hand play requires a Heart entry to the hand.  So the Heart Queen is called from North to West’s Ace, returning a Heart to South’s King.  Now South can win the two remaining Clubs from East’s hand before ruffing a Spade which West must play the final Spade King.  So after ruffing a Diamond in hand, South’s fifth Spade is now a winner to make the 12 trick slam.  Looking at the 5-1 Spade suit, the opponents indeed Spades split 4-3 following the 62 percent odds.

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Strong Jump Shifts, Suit Quality, Losing Trick Count

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Greetings Bridge Friends,

Welcome to  BridgeHands second “Extra” lesson that intercedes our more voluminous, full length episodes.  Again you will have an opportunity to demonstrate your Strong Jump Shift bidding skills as well as some play skills from our prior lessons.

Polling You #79 Extra 2

Board 3 South Deals E-W Vul	♠ 2 ♥ Q J 2 ♦ Q 9 7 6 5 ♣ K 7 6 2
♠ K 9 6 5 ♥ 10 9 8 3 ♦ 10 8 4 3 ♣ 9	N W E S	♠ 7 4 3 ♥ K 7 6 5 4 ♦ A ♣ Q 5 4 3
	♠ A Q J 10 8 ♥ A ♦ K J 2 ♣ A J 10 8

 

For better or worse, after South makes a Strong Jump Shift to 3 Clubs the partners wind up playing in a 6 Club contract.

Without looking at the hands, what West card do you suppose would be the killing lead?  Based on the bidding, would East’s play on the first make any difference?  If North held another primary honor instead of the working secondary honors, would that significantly affect their chances to make slam?  And finally, even with perfect “double-dummy” declarer play, if we exchanged the East-West trumps would that influence the outcome?   Inquiring minds must know! [Read more…]

Polling You # 79, Extra #1 Strong Jump Shifts, Suit Quality, Losing Trick Count, Cover Cards

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Greetings Bridge Friends,

With our last five Polling You episodes running close to 3 hours of video each with over a dozen hands, BridgeHands will begin a trial, offering interim “Extra” lessons on a regular basis between our pithy, full length episodes.

Polling You #79 Extra 1a

After North opens 1 Club, as you will recall from our lesson on Suit Quality and Losing Trick Count, South should consider making a Strong Jump Shift.  In this extra episode we will explore the follow-up bidding, defense and learn how to boost your odds when faced with a challenging contract.   After play, we will re-arrange the East-West hands to ensure you are following the best line of declarer play with bad splits.

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Thank you for tuning in to our first extra interim Polling You lesson.   BridgeHands appreciates your interest and support.

Happy Bridge Trails,

BridgeHands