Sunday, April 17, 2005 1:47 AM

Risk Taking

 

PITBULLS:

 

          There is a gambling aspect to the game of Bridge . If you do not take calculated risks at Bridge you will not win . Good Bridge players are also good gamblers.  Simple as that. However , taking a page from poker players , the pot odds have to be in your favour when you gamble. In other words , the expectation of your gain has to be in line with the risk you are taking. In Poker , the pot odds deal with the amount of money you are going to win in the pot against the amount of money you are gambling. In Bridge you gamble some IMPS in return for winning even more IMPS. You must take calculated risks in Bridge though or it is just stupid gambling.

 

          Here is an example of bad gambling. You are vul against non vul opponents and you hold AJxxx Q10xx Q Kxx so do you open the bidding ? You have only 1 ½ defensive tricks and you spade spots are terrible . You are not giving a lead director with your suit and you have a stiff queen to count up to your 12 HCP’s . What tactical advantage is there for you to open vul vrs non vul ? None ! On this vulnerability there is a real risk of misleading partner and getting into trouble at unfavourable vulnerability.

 

          Anyway Alvin opened this hand 1♠ vul vrs non vul . I held KQ87 AKJ8x Jxx J and this is one of my trapping vulnerabilities. If there is a chance I can get a huge vul set against a non vul game , I go for it. I passed and LHO passed . Tom held 10xx 9xx AKx A109x and decided that he had too many spades to balance. With the vulnerability being reversed , I am quite certain he would have balanced 1NT as he does have 3 quick tricks. Passing on this vulnerability is not too serious as If I have a spade trap , the vulnerable down tricks will compensate for a non vul game anyway. Tom can not lose by passing if he can not double which would be misleading with this major holding. Here is the board and Alvin’s hand. Bidding 1NT on this vulnerability just might rescue them. Partner trapping at the one level is a bid that gives information just like any other bid in Bridge. You just have to be able to read it.

         

 

9

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Q

 

 

 

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  The defense is interesting and involves obtaining a tentative lie of the land using patterns and the fact that the auction had died in 1 spade. From Tom’s perspective , he notices two HCP’s on dummy and 11 in his hand. Therefore Alvin and I have 27 HCP between us. Giving me half of them means I did not bid with opening values. I must have spades. I led the heart Ace and Tom started an echo showing me 3♥. I switched  to the spade King and Tom plays small. Alvin wins with the Ace and leads a small club with me playing the jack and Alvin the queen. Time to get a count on Alvin’s hand. Giving me 4 spades , the spades are 5-4-3-1 . It looks like I have the singleton jack of clubs so Alvin has 3 clubs. Alvin must have 4 hearts or else I would have 6 or more to AK and did not overcall. A tentative count for Alvin’s hand would be 5-4-1-3 .

 

 

A

Q

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K

 

J

10

 

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   Tom knows with 4 spades I do not want a club ruff. So he returns a heart and Alvin inserts the 10 losing to my jack. I cash the heart King and give Tom a ruff . Tom leads his spade 10 and Alvin makes a good play by ducking. Tom cashes the diamond Ace and leads another diamond which Alvin ruffs for his 2nd trick. Alvin tries to cash his club King and I ruff and cash my spade queen. I lead my 5th heart which Alvin ruffs for his 3rd and final trick. 4 down vul for –400 . No swing as he escaped unscathed as 4♥ makes our direction. However , he was teetering on disaster for no apparent reason. If Tom had 1 more heart and doubled , he is giving 13 IMPS away at –800 or worse. Why ?

 

          Good defensive hand to illustrate how patterns are used to plan your attack on defense.