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Opening Leads 30

Vil's Tips - Fri, 18/04/2025 - 5:05pm

Some well thought out opening leads can have unintended consequences. This could have been one such time, but unfortunately not a single EW pair were in what I would have thought would be the best contract if bid properly, so the opening lead was not as potentially productive as it might have been. But let’s see how things might have turned out if EW had reached what I consider the best contract, and South also made what I would rate the best opening lead, despite my constant admonitions to never lead an unsupported ace. Let’s look at the deal from X-Clubs on Tuesday 15/04/2025.

Board 13. Dealer N All Vul
Q7JKT2KJ97543KJ43Q96393AT2AT62AK742Q756985T85AJ864Q8

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

The Guessing Game 08

Vil's Tips - Fri, 11/04/2025 - 5:04pm

Declarer is South, in 4S doubled. West leads the queen of hearts. How should declarer play to avoidminus 800 and a bottom board?

Board 6 from Tuesday 8/04/2025
Dealer E EW Vul
82K632J6432T3QQJT8AT97KJ87J53A954K5A654AKT97647Q8Q92

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Opening Leads 29

Vil's Tips - Thu, 10/04/2025 - 5:04pm

Another deal from X-Clubs that gave both sides the chance to score well or badly. The opening lead against the final contract was not what the results hinged on, but the subsequent declarer play and defence did make a huge difference. Let’s see what happened at X-Clubs.

Board 6 from Tuesday 8/04/2025
Dealer E EW Vul
82K632J6432T3QQJT8AT97KJ87J53A954K5A654AKT97647Q8Q92

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Opening Leads 28

Vil's Tips - Tue, 08/04/2025 - 3:55pm

Another deal from X-Clubs that produced some extraordinary results. The opening lead would appear to be a given, and so should the outcome, but read on and you’ll be surprised!

Board 17 from X-Clubs 1/04/2025
Dealer N Nil Vul
JT54KQJ65294TAKQ8AT98K6Q979343AQJT8KJ3276277532A8654

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Opening Leads 27

Vil's Tips - Mon, 07/04/2025 - 5:22pm

This one caused a lot of controversy when I put it to my panel of club players. The deal occurred at X-Clubs on 1-April. It was a quite competitive deal, where good and bad scores were evident across the board, and where the choice of opening lead made a big difference.

Board 9 from X-Clubs 1-04-2025
Dealer N EW Vul
A634AJ75432K7KT5J8765KAJ85Q82AT92T86QT2J974KQ3Q99643

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

The Guessing Game 05

Vil's Tips - Tue, 01/04/2025 - 7:40pm

This deal comes from another match point session, where the opening lead can score or lose you many match points, as of course can the declarer play. In this deal only overtricks mattered, and the best lead from a hand that has little of any substance, resulted in a good match point score, in fact over 80% on the board, but it also needed the cooperation of partner.

Board 13. Dealer N All Vul
76A952JTAQ973K52KJ87A65JT8J984T63432642AQT3Q4KQ987K5

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

The Guessing Game 04

Vil's Tips - Fri, 28/03/2025 - 11:29am

This deal comes from a match point session, where aggression and enterprise was generally rewarded but not as much as it could have been had the NS pairs found the very simple way to communicate, which the cards they held allowed them to do. The deal is a bit freakish but that is where the better results can be obtained by aggressive bidding, partnership communication, and lateral thinking by one partner and ‘message received’ by the other partner.

Board 1. Dealer N Nil Vul

T2KQJT97Q63K4KQ8754J5JT963A963A64942A82J8532AKT87Q75

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

The Guessing Game 03

Vil's Tips - Tue, 25/03/2025 - 10:06am

There is no such thing as the correct lead from a particular holding. For instance if you had a suit like KQJ92 would you ever think of leading any other card but the KING? This deal comes from the archives and I reported it about 40 years ago, but bidding has advanced considerably since then and we may bid differently these days. How, I don’t know. But then, so many years ago, we bid as much by instinct and the seat of our pants rather than science. At the time, we bid to a 3NT contract which gave the opponents enough information to defeat the contract, but they failed to listen. Let me tell you the story as I remember it.

Dealer W All Vul
Q8753JT65K643AK64AK874AJ8253T8764AQ2Q75JT92KQJ9293T9

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

The Guessing Game 02

Vil's Tips - Sun, 23/03/2025 - 10:34am

This deal comes from a recent X-Clubs session which was used as one session of a Swiss Pairs series at our club. In this form of the game both the contract and the opening lead could have made a huge impact on the result of an 8-board match. That is because of the possibility of a slam being bid, and the opening lead if the slam was played by either North or South. But the events that I expected to see did not eventuate at our club, with nary a slam bid anywhere. Even across the whole of X-Clubs the 6S slam was only bid four times, with surprising results. But more of that later. Let’s have some guessing practice to see what we can learn about leads against small slams.

Dealer N NS Vul
You are WEST and pick up this hand:
3KT9762KTJT72

This was the bidding:
SouthWestNorthEast--1NTPass3Pass4Pass4NTPass5Pass6PassPassPass

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

The Guessing Game 01

Vil's Tips - Tue, 18/03/2025 - 1:05pm

The Guessing Game
In this series, I hope to teach the reader how to make the best guess when they have to make the opening lead. As part of the exercise I have asked a number of club players to offer their guesses as to a) dummy’s cards and b) their opening lead. This is what I said to them.

“This series will be about opening leads, because they are the one single most important part of defence. They set the scene for the rest of the defence. You will expect to defend half the time, so if you can defend better than others, your overall scores will be much better than others. Don’t forget that it takes TWO people to defend but only ONE is responsible for the opening lead. It is therefore most important that your partner also understands what you are trying to achieve with your opening lead. Wouldn’t it be great if you and your partner, when defending, could see, from the very first card played, what everyone holds? Surprisingly, you CAN! I exaggerate of course, but a good pair of defenders will be able to GUESS with an amazing degree of accuracy, just how they, as a partnership, can best defend right from the very first card played.”

This series will not be aimed at any particular level, but I do hope that the reader will learn the importance of ‘guesswork’.

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Opening Leads 26

Vil's Tips - Tue, 11/03/2025 - 3:44pm

If only we could make the sort of opening leads that Deep Finesse always manages to find! Unfortunately we don’t have the capacity to see the full deal a priori, nor the time to work out our best attack even if we saw all the cards, but sometimes it can be a good exercise to try and think like Deep Finesse. There was not one opening leader against a 5C contract who found the ‘killing’ lead, so let us try and go through some ‘Deep Finesse’ thinking without the benefits of seeing all the cards. This deal comes from an X-Clubs session which was played as part of a Swiss Pairs event at our Hutt club. I believe the fact that this was, in effect, teams play should make the killing opening lead much easier to find.

Board 13 from Tuesday 4/03/2025
Dealer N ALL Vul
8753652AQJ654JT9K94KJT9832AKQ4AKQTT737662J9874382AQ5

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Slams 09

Vil's Tips - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 10:48am

When was the last time you (successfully) bid game with a combined nine count? And when was the last time you (also successfully) sacrificed against a cold slam, also with a combined nine count? Both those things could have happened on the very first board of our deal from last Tuesday's X-Clubs.

Board 1 from Tuesday 25/02/2025
Dealer N Nil Vul
KAJ52AKQ542A4Q76377Q987652AJT982T9643T354KQ8J9863KJT

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Slams 08

Vil's Tips - Thu, 27/02/2025 - 5:34pm

The temptation of bidding a slam is something that leads many of us astray. It is a double edged sword and one that has to be handled with great care. To make slam bidding easier, the experts have added the ‘super accept’ to the standard repertoire of transfers. The problem with that is that the super accept can carry a weak hand too far, to the extent that a perfectly good (and weak) two-level contract becomes difficult as a three level one. The following deal may or may not have resulted in a slam if the players were playing the ‘super accept’ but I have a better suggestion for anyone interested, one which we have been using successfully for some time. Let’s look at the deal first.

Board 24 from Tuesday 18/02/2025
Dealer W Nil Vul
T9626954AJT52K85K843A8K983A4AJT9752QJ76QJ73QKT632Q74

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Slams 07

Vil's Tips - Sat, 15/02/2025 - 1:03pm

Here is was another slam that was often bid in No Trumps though it would have been more comfortable in clubs.

Board 14 from Thursday 13/02/2025
Dealer E Nil Vul
A85AK5KQ53A62J7687632T94T9KT432JJ876QJ3Q9QT94A2K8754

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Slams 06

Vil's Tips - Fri, 14/02/2025 - 9:20pm

I have always been an advocate for playing slams with a trump suit and not in No Trumps but there is clear evidence that, if bid properly, this one should be played in 6NT rather than 6S with a 5-3 spade fit, or clubs with a six card club suit headed by AKQ.

Board 10 from Tuesday 11/02/2025
Dealer E All Vul
Q42JT872T6T75963KAJ7AKQ942AKT75AQ6K9838J89543Q542J63

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Your Call 21

Vil's Tips - Fri, 07/02/2025 - 10:32am

Now for another hand from the past, but one where West had an obvious takeout double that few Wests made use of but some of my panelists did see as being ‘fit for purpose’.

Dealer W Nil Vul
K8AT7K2AQT93A9742KQ3A84346J98Q86KJ872QJT6542J97465

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Your Call 20

Vil's Tips - Tue, 04/02/2025 - 3:06pm

This deal comes from Friday 30/01/25. The bidding by NS was pretty tame but was as described in YC19, with North overcalling 2C and passed back to West. This was the first problem I posed to my panel of club players, with many opting to continue bidding and only one or two leaving North in 2C. Considering NS can make 7C passing would have produced a reasonable outcome. This was the scenario at one table when West decided to bid 2H after North’s overcall and two passes: North bid 3C, East 3H, South 4C, pass, pass and East then kept competing and bid 4H. North, despite being a died in the wool conservative, having ventured a mere 2C overcall with his first bid, was now more confident and doubled 4H. The NS defensive play was far superior to their bidding and West was down five for 1100 and not a happy declarer. East is recovering in A&E from tomahawk blows to the head following a late night discussion with West.

Board 24 Dealer W Nil Vul
AT87AT7AAQT93KQJ63Q643Q3K7954K982T865282J5KJ974J6542

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Your Call 19

Vil's Tips - Mon, 03/02/2025 - 2:21pm

I could title this “Spot the Difference” or “Respect Your Passing Partner”. I sent out three bidding problems to a panel of club players. Firstly let me give you the hand you are asked to bid, sitting WEST as was the case at the time:

You are West and Dealer at Nil Vul
KQJ63Q643Q3K7

Problem 1. You have opened 1S and North has overcalled with 2C. After two passes, it is your call. What should you be thinking? Why has partner PASSED?

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Compass VB.NET Zoom Presentation

Vil's Tips - Sat, 01/02/2025 - 4:03pm

Click on the COMPASS tab above for Bob Fearn's introduction of the new-look Compass - coming to your club soon

Bob has been working long hours for many months to rewrite Compass in a new language. Starting with no knowledge of VB.NET he has patiently broken the back of a mountain of work. There is still much to do in redeveloping functions that not all clubs use but the core scoring and database functions are ready to go live. Volunteers will be encouraged to do extensive testing at home before making the switch at their club. As with all new software there will be glitches to weed out even after pre-release testing but with more Compass devotees on the job all clubs should feel confident to switch to Compass VB.Net by mid-2025.

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Opening Leads 25

Vil's Tips - Thu, 30/01/2025 - 8:34pm

The second one from our first Tuesday session of 2025 has the same theme but in a different context.

Board 23. Dealer S ALL Vul
Q3J52J752T64298764AQ6QT8K5JTKT8749643J3AK5293AKAQ987

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Vil's Red Book

X-Club Blog

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