Saturday,
September 16, 2006 12:34 AM
Counting Out Hands
PITBULLS:
All Bridge experts have the ability to
translate bidding , signals , showing out of suits etc into hand patterns and
plan their play or defense on that basis. This skill is assumed by other
Bridge experts as an essential but standard skill. Tom Gandolfo plays hands
“double dummy”. This means that he has a mental picture of the two defenders
hand via hand patterns and plays accordingly. This is like looking at the hand records while you are playing hence
the term “double dummy” as you are allowed to see the dummy in Bridge.
Some
experts are lazy. They only use patterns as declarer
and not as defender . This makes no sense at all. In order to declare double
dummy , you have two unknown hands
to consider so it is twice as
hard as defending. On defense , you only have to use patterns to construct one unknown hand . In addition , if you
have partners hand counted , the 4th hand declarers hand becomes
crystal clear.
Here
are two hands from the Calgary Calcutta which shows this skill. Nick Gartaganis
was playing 3♦
and in the end position he was down to ♣J10x of clubs and led a small club from
the board . I played small from my ♣9xx and Nick played small and Kiz won her
now stiff queen. This allowed Nick to make 3♦. After they left, I said to Kiz “hell of a play by Nick” to make the contract.
Easy said Kiz “ I lead a small heart showing 3 , I showed up with 5 spades and
3 diamonds”. When I won my club Ace and gave you a spade ruff, I signaled a club for you to return so
Nick knew I
was 5-3-3-2 with the queen. Note how quickly Kiz analyzed Nicks play thinking
the same way he was thinking.
I
was defending 1♠X
with Kiz where applying patterns on defense is a must. 1♣ by Kiz everybody vul
and Gerry McCully overcalled 1♠
which was passed around to Kiz. She put the red card on the table and everybody
passed. I led the heart queen and the Board came down with ♠9x ♥K10xx ♦KJxx ♣xxx . Gerry covered with the King and Kiz won her Ace. Kiz held
originally ♠x ♥Axx
♦Axx
♣KQJxx so when she won her heart she switched to clubs. Gerry won his Ace and
led the diamond queen which I followed with the deuce. Kiz applied a pattern
since I showed 4 and said to herself 4-4-3-2 so declarer has two diamonds and
she ducked. Gerry know switched horses in mid stream and led a spade to the 9.
I won the 10 , cashed my heart jack and returned the diamond 10 and Gerry
carefully played low as a deceptive play . Kiz knows he only has 2 diamonds and
the board is dead and if she ducks like Gerry obviously wanted her to do , I
would be end played. Accordingly Kiz wins her diamond Ace and cashed her club
king and I discard my last heart . Kiz cashed her other club and returns a heart which I ruff. I am
now down to AQJ of spades and am legitimately end played but Jerry only got the
club Ace , one diamond and one spade for +1100 . Imagine needing an end play
for –1100 with a vulnerable overcall. I held ♠ AQJ10x ♥QJx ♦1098x ♣.
The
point to the above hand is you “think in patterns” on defense all the time.
Patterns prevent you from falling into deception by declarer like not covering
the diamond. If Kiz fell for Gerry’s play , he escapes for –500 and wins 5 IMPS
instead of losing 12 . A 17 IMP swing re-enforces you to always think in
patterns !