Thursday,
October 12, 2006 12:47 AM
Drawing Inferences
PITBULLS:
Bridge
is a partnership game. Given that fact , let partner help you. Single
handed guesses
are just that . You either guess
right or you guess wrong. If you
allow partner to help you , you can change guesses into certainties. Played
with a Tormentee tonight where she was guessing wrong rather than allow
partners bidding or signals to help her. The opponents bid to 3♥ and you have ♠Jx ♥xxx ♦Kxxxx ♣AKx so you lead the club Ace. The
board came down with ♠AKxxx
♥J10x
♦Ax
♣Qxx and there is no chance from the bidding
that declarer is long in clubs. In this situation ( known length ) , the
partnership reverts to Gartaganis signals. The queen 3rd is like a
singleton on the board , encouraging a club continuation should only mean
partner does not like the alternatives. A middle
club would show that. I played the club deuce to ask for a diamond shift which
would have held declarer to his contract. Partner guessed to continue clubs.
The
auction against Perry goes 1♦-1♠-X-P 1NT-P-P-P and you hold ♠AKJx ♥9xx ♦Kxx ♣QJx and lead the spade king. The board hits with ♠10xx ♥AQxx ♦10xx ♣xxx and partner plays a small spade so what are the spades
around the table ? Review the bidding to get your answer. Partner had two chances to bid 2♠
and did not and with only 6 HCP on the board , partner is marked with HCP’s (
at least 7 or 8 HCPs as you see 20 HCP between your hand & the board )
. Why did partner not bid ?
Because she is short is spades and is probably stacked in hearts . You switch to
the heart 9 and declarer puts up the queen and partner the king. Partner
returns the heart jack and declarer shows out discarding a club . Declarer
ducks and partner returns a spade. You win the spade and switch to the club
queen and declarer wins his Ace. Declarer knocks out your diamond and you now
cash 3 club tricks for down two vul
and a top board. Partner , in actuality , guessed to continue spades and Perry got the
top.
We
were defending 1NT and partner had a guess in the end position between a club or a
heart to return. She cashed her 4th and 5th spade and partner did not discourage in hearts when he had the chance. Partner is on
your side so it would be a crime
if he did not discourage in hearts when he had two
chances. Partner guessed to return a club and they made 1NT instead of
down two for a top our way.
Drawing
inferences from what a disciplined partner did or did not do is partnership Bridge .
The auction goes 1♠ and LHO doubles and you have ♠xxx ♥xx ♦10xxxx ♣10xx so you find a pass. They bid 2♣
and partner passes and
they bid 2♦
which gets passed around to partner who bids 2♥. This gets doubled so you run to two spades
so they bid 3♦ so
what do you do ? Partner could not double or bid freely over 2♣ so what is the
strength of his hand ? Probably just an opener so you are out of here. You guessed to play
partner for a huge hand
so you double and they made 5. The field was in 3NT for –630 and you turn a top
into a bottom.
Inferences
are everywhere in Bridge . Positive inferences and negative inferences are
ready to be interpreted. Tuning
into them instead of guessing
is playing partnership Bridge. As
Sherlock Holmes said “why did the dog not bark” . Why did partner not bid , why did partner not discourage in hearts , why did
partner play the deuce , why did partner not bid over 2♣ ? The clues are there if you just trust partner and
tune into them.
This
is where playing with a weak or undisciplined partner really hurts you. You can
not draw inferences from what they did or did not bid, or what they did or did
not signal or how they are defending or bidding a hand. You do not develop the
skill of relying on
partner for clues. You either guess yourself or trust the other
side to defend or bid a hand. You are not playing partnership Bridge.
This single
handedness is devastating to your Bridge game.