Friday, November 11, 2005 2:28 AM

Hand Evaluation – Visualization ( Puzzles )

PITBULLS:

It is very exasperating to be defending with someone who has a liking for solving puzzles outside the game of Bridge. They spend countless hours doing puzzles but when they play Bridge they ignore a vast opportunity to solve puzzles. Defense in the game of Bridge is basically solving puzzles , some easy & some difficult. There are pieces of the puzzle in the dummy , in the bidding & in partners signals. There are pieces of the puzzle by the way the declarer is playing the hand. Put all the pieces together & solve the puzzle !!

The dummy is your friend in the game of Bridge either as defender or declarer. You do not need to be formal as in Dora meet dummy or dummy meet Dora , but take the time to get acquainted ! On defense , build partial patterns using your hand with the dummy. What do I mean by partial patterns ? Build the first two steps in your pattern by acknowledging how many cards are in key suits taking your hand and the dummy into consideration. You have 5 spades , there are 4 on the board. Mentally say 5-4 so your pattern is well on the way to being built. Partner is the missing link along with declarers bidding. She gives you count quite often , so the pattern can become complete. Declarer leads a spade from the board & partner plays the 9 showing standard count. Houston , we have lift off ! The pattern is now complete 5-4-2-2 . The goal of this game is to know declarer’s hand. We now know that declarer has two spades. This is valuable information.

What about the other side of the dummy ? The dummy with the opening lead allows you to build a complete pattern , not a partial one . Partner leads the diamond 9 , there are 4 diamonds on the board & you have 4 of them. How many does declarer have ? Simple, fill in the blanks with your memorized patterns. 4-4-3-2 so declarer has 3 diamonds. Again valuable information. Sometimes these are tentative distributions because if partner led a singleton diamond 9 or 9 from 987 , you are out one. So what ? A partial plan or pattern is better than none at all.

Declarer plays a suit , partner shows out. This is a superb discovery play . Apply a pattern immediately. Partner leads a suit & declarer ruffs. You apply a pattern so it turns out partner has a 7 card suit. This is valuable information also ! This means there are only 6 cards left in partners hand so that gives you clues to declarers distribution. This information guides you on your defense. Whether to switch to a trump , tap the declarer , what card to discard i.e. defending properly. Otherwise, it is just random guessing so you invariably hand declarer her contract.. You have lost an opportunity to solve a puzzle which is fun !

The 4^th and last way to build a picture of declarers hand is discarding. Signaling is “depending on context” . Signaling by discarding is attitude most of the time. However when declarer is attempting a squeeze , quite often you switch to count instead for you discards. Declarer is running clubs in 6NT so is attempting a pseudo squeeze. Show count when you discard. Partner discards the diamond deuce showing 3 playing standard count. There are 4 on the board & you have 5 . You say to yourself 5-4-3-1 so declarer only has one of them so you discard accordingly.

Declarer play uses patterns to visualize the hands for advanced plays like squeezes & endplays or just finding queens. Tom Gandolfo has been known to play hands “double dummy”. What does that term mean ? I remember a hand that Tom played in Calgary againt the Dann’s. He was in 4♥ with a horrific trump break & Dan Bertrand had overcalled 3♣ on the auction. Dann Krammer led the club king , I put down AJx of clubs with the Kx of spades. Tom won the Ace , stripped the red suits coming down to a 4 card end position. Tom had used the information given to him that RHO had a 7 card club suit & had freely overcalled. He led a small spade towards the spade King & ducked. Bertrand was down to Qx of clubs & AQ frozen of spades. He won his spades so was end played to the club jack on the board for +620 just as Tom had planned.

I watched my partner make a trump coup where he got a horrible trump break so he had to assume a theoretical pattern for the coup to be successful & play for it. He ruffed himself down to their length in the trump suit & end played them to get an additional entry to the board. Coming off the board the defender was defenseless. He ruffed so partner over ruffed & the game made. Partner could not make this hand without thinking & applying hypothetical patterns. When the hypothetical turned out to be the real distribution , the hand made ! Solving puzzles , one of the reasons we play the game of Bridge.

Have I ever mentioned the importance of patterns in the game of Bridge before ??