Tuesday, February 22, 2005 10:21 AM

Patterns & Hesitations

PITBULLS:

Patterns are a Bridge tool which eventually will make the game much easier. I say eventually because the skill of thinking in patterns and applying them will not come overnight. Grey cells need to be trained to use them which is the 2^nd critical step after the more mundane step of memorizing them.

When to cover an honour with an honour is done solely on patterns. A number of tormentees are having difficulty with that particular pattern application. A declarer was in 3NT and probably has 4 spades and you have Kx . Declarer led the queen from the board with 3 of them. Do you cover ? Of course you do as the pattern is most likely 4-4-3-2 and partner has a number of spade spots that can be promoted. A declarer was in 7NT and the clubs were KQxxx on the dummy and you have J8xx . Declarer cashed the Ace and lead the 10 so do you cover ? Patterns to the rescue. In advance you must apply patterns to the club suit. If declarer has 3 , the pattern is 5-4-3-1 and he will never finesse the jack with that holding so covering is just assisting declarer. If declarer has 2 clubs the pattern is 5-4-2-2 and you will always get your club trick. Simple application of patterns .

Playing with a tormentee and the auction goes P-P-2♥-2♠ and all pass. The tormentee leads the heart 10 and the board hits with xxx xxxx Axx Kxx . The tormentee has Jxx 10x Qx QJ109xx and the

10 wins the trick. A heart combination and declarer wins the Ace . Declarer lays down the Ace and partner drops the queen. Declarer leads the spade 9 and you duck as partner might have the frozen King. Partner wins the spade 10 and returns a heart over ruff by you with the jack . Declarer is not playing this hand well.

You switch to the club queen and declarer ducks. You continue with the jack and declarer ruffs. Declarer leads the diamond jack so do you cover ? Not a chance . Applying patterns , declarer has 5 spades , 2 hearts , one club so he has 5 diamonds ! 5-2-5-1 . Declarer goes up with the diamond Ace and finesses coming back losing to your doubleton queen. Patterns 1^st – covering an honour with an honour 2^nd.

Learning a new skill like applying patterns might slow the pace of play down . Be aware of this fact and look for other ways of picking up your pace of play. Also when observing the dummy and there is a key suit apply your patterns in advance and be ready when the cover an honour with an honour situation occurs. Most good players have finely tuned antennas for picking up hesitations and find honour cards by drawing inferences from your pace of play.

Applying patterns also helps you identify danger signals which direct your line of defense. Reading hesitations also do. Playing against a good player playing a Polish club system the auction goes

1♦-P-1♠-P

3♠-P-4♠-P The decision to bid game took about 3 minutes which is an eternity in Bridge time. You lead an interior sequence lead of a heart and the board hits with QJxx xx AQ10xx AJ and partner plays the Ace and returns a heart and you win your jack. Looking at the diamond suit you apply patterns and realize that these diamonds are a dangerous source of tricks. Now back to declarers long hesitation during the bidding. Was he thinking of making a slam try or thinking of passing the invitational 3 bid ? If he was thinking of a slam & has the club king and solid diamonds this is a no hoper. If not , you must get the club king before trump is drawn as that will go away on the diamonds so lets assume that declarer was thinking of passing the invitational bid. You switch to a club and when partner gets in with his spade Ace , he cashes the club and you win 8 IMPS instead of losing 12 as the opponents were in a pseudo sacrifice at the other table.