Vil Gravis's blog

How Say You?

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Fri, 05/11/2021 - 11:09

You are South and dealer, playing basic Acol. Match points.
You open 1H. West on your left bids 2D and partner doubles.

a) What would you bid holding

AQJ
AKJT
7632
Q2

(OK - no need to go on about five card majors, you have agreed to play BASIC Acol so the opening is 1H!)

b) if partner and East had both passed, what would you have bid?

The Question after that ...

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Wed, 03/11/2021 - 15:37

Vil thanks everyone that responded to his Next Question article. As many suspected, 6C is a very good end result. After his opening 1C, partner actually held:

Axxx
AKQJ
x
Txxx
opposite your
KQ2
T3
A53
AQJ52

and 6C was a breeze despite a club loser to the king offside.

X-Clubs Play_07

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Tue, 02/11/2021 - 17:35

Let’s take another look at our freak deal in issue No.6 and see what we can learn from it.

Board 13 from Tuesday, 19/10/21
Dealer N All Vul

874
KQJ62
Q7643
T2
7
QJT
AKJT852
AKQJ965
AT
K53
9
3
98543
A987642

The value of weak two suited opening bids is enough to sway me from the standard weak two single-suiter bids. Some readers may even prefer some form of ‘multi’ but I find that keeping it simple saves a lot of mental torture and disasters at the table. That is why I try to keep the Evil stuff as simple and as consistently logical as possible. You may disagree.

Next Question

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Tue, 02/11/2021 - 11:09

Match Points session
Dealer W EW Vul

SouthWestNorthEast
-Pass1Pass
?

What do you bid and why, holding

KQ2
T3
A53
AQJ52

Your answer, please, to me at villyn@xtra.co.nz

X-Clubs Play_06

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Sat, 30/10/2021 - 13:46

Freak deals do occur from time to time. This one cropped up on a recent Tuesday in a teams contest at the Hutt Club (and presumably in match point sessions at other X-Clubs).

Board 13 from Tuesday, 19/10/21
Dealer N All Vul

874
KQJ62
Q7643
T2
7
QJT
AKJT852
AKQJ965
AT
K53
9
3
98543
A987642

X-Clubs Play_05

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Thu, 21/10/2021 - 12:23

How many of us play the “Gambling 3NT”? How many even know what it is and how it works?

I believe that the classic Gambling 3NT should be very specific: a seven or eight card totally solid minor. That doesn’t happen very often. In the old days, the gambling 3NT opening bid would also, ideally, have a partial stopper outside the suit, like Kx or even Qx, but one solid suit plus that is at least a 12 count and would usually be opened 1C or 1D. So, most exponents of the gambling 3NT will have a solid minor and NOTHING in any of the other suits. That makes it easy for partner, but should also make it easy for opponents when the 3NT opening becomes the final contract. Surprisingly, the defence is often pretty abysmal, and the gamble may come home thanks to poor defence. In the old days, the recommended way to defend against a 3NT opening that becomes the final contract is to lead an ace if you have one. That makes total sense, because you will see dummy and have a better idea how to continue. Declarer’s hand will be an open book and the defence should be pretty much ‘double dummy’.

From Tuesday, 19/10/21 at X-Clubs
Board 19 Dealer S EW Vul

K73
QT7
AKQT
953
AQT6
432
J632
82
J92
AKJ95
9874
4
854
86
5
AKQJT76

X-Clubs Play_04

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Thu, 14/10/2021 - 13:39

Tuesday Teams is now in full swing at the Hutt Bridge Club, so let’s take a look at one deal that was not well handled by the EW pairs.
Here, for all XClubs readers, is a reprint of my article for The Hutt Club’s regular publication “Finesse”.

First of all, I will set a couple of bidding problems which the reader can ‘solve’. As usual, the club is offering some session tickets for the best answers to these bidding problems, so please do give it a go. Maybe we will all learn something from it. In the next issue, we will look at declarer play and defence from this same deal.

Dealer E EW Vul

T86
AQT5
A852
65
K43
7
KQJ7
AKT97

How should the EW bidding go, playing basic Acol?
a) If there is no opposition bidding?
b) If East opens 1C and South overcalls 1S?

As well as session tickets for HBC players, there will be some special prizes for the best reader contributions from other X-Clubs players, so PLEASE give these problems a go, send to villyn@xtra.co.nz

X-Clubs Play_03

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Tue, 12/10/2021 - 07:56

The following problem came up recently in a match point session. Here is your hand (South)

Dealer South NS Vul

AKJ9
AQ64
874
62

X-Clubs Play_02

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Sat, 09/10/2021 - 15:31

Let’s take another look at our problem from earlier.

You are declarer as WEST in a matchpoints session

Dealer E EW Vul

KJT2
K6
JT9
KJ65
A83
AJ842
Q52
QT

SouthWestNorthEast
---1
Pass1Pass2
Pass3NTPassPass
Pass

Fairly normal, if very basic, Acol bidding.

Vil Resurfaces. X-Clubs Play_01

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Tue, 05/10/2021 - 06:17

Hi good people who have patiently answered my bridge questions. I have left you alone for a while but I am about to start another series which I shall call X-Clubs Play. From time to time I will be reviewing an interesting deal played on XClubs. This one will be of interest to all those who regularly struggle when there are many options in the play.

You are declarer as WEST in a matchpoints session

Dealer E EW Vul

KJT2
K6
JT9
KJ65
A83
AJ842
Q52
QT

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