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Vil Gravis Writes

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Your Call 23

Vil's Tips - Mon, 19/05/2025 - 1:43pm

Unusual No Trumps, partner? And how, and when do you play it? What about Michaels? Same question: how and when do you play that? And a final question: have you heard of ‘leaping Michaels’? The answer is possibly that you have, but what about leaping Unusual No Trumps? When you think about it, why not play the Unusual NT and Michaels to include leaps to a higher level depending on your distribution and strength. Here is a great example of the use of the UNT.

Board 10 from Friday 16/05/2025
Dealer E All Vul
KQ8763KKJT764QT875994Q9853AJ9652AQT875AK432AJT4J6322

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Slams 14

Vil's Tips - Thu, 15/05/2025 - 4:41pm

Put yourself in the NORTH seat. You have landed in 6H. This has been in part thanks to your own bidding as well as partner’s great cooperation. East leads the QUEEN OF CLUBS.

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Slams 13

Vil's Tips - Tue, 13/05/2025 - 11:05pm

This slam and the results at X-Clubs tells me that our present day players are somewhat lacking in their communication skills. It also tells me that bidding slams is not necessary for a good result, just being in the best denomination at game level and being able to execute the declarer play will get you over 75%, at least it did for the two pairs who played in 4H and made six. Bidding is about talking to partner and being aware of what both partners need to know, not just set rules about bidding suits and 4-4 fits. Let’s take a look at Board 11 and the NS thought processes.

Board 11 from Friday 9/05/2025
Dealer S Nil Vul
K2AQJ9QJ743A89838742T5K652T7665K9862QJ7AQJ54KT3AT943

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Slams 12

Vil's Tips - Tue, 06/05/2025 - 11:45am

Now put yourself in the West seat and play the 6C slam that you have put yourself in after East has opened 1S and put down the most unhelpful dummy that you have ever seen from an opening bid. North leads the ten of hearts.

Board 13 from 1/05/2025
Dealer N All Vul
QJ42T972652K3AKQ864AAQT974AK87655QJ9765T93J3KT843J82

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Slams 11

Vil's Tips - Mon, 05/05/2025 - 2:22pm

This deal should have led to a slam, but when it did, it led to the wrong slam. And a lot of the time, it was not even close to a slam, which does make me wonder about how much understanding there is between most partnerships. Let’s see what could, or should, happen in the real world. Take a look at the West hand. Can you imagine not being in a slam after East a) opens a weak two, or b) East opens a legitimate ‘rule of 20’ 1S?
Board 13 from 1/05/2025
Dealer N All Vul
QJ42T972652K3AKQ864AAQT974AK87655QJ9765T93J3KT843J82

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

Slams 10

Vil's Tips - Sun, 27/04/2025 - 9:28pm

This deal occurred at X-Clubs recently but unfortunately it was Board 28 so was only played at some clubs and was not included in the full X-Clubs analysis, but it is of such interest that it is worth discussion.

Board 28 from on Tuesday 22/04/2025
Dealer W NS Vul
984K753276T85AJT76AAAKQJ62Q2Q64QJ985974K53JT98KT4323

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Categories: Vil Gravis Writes

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

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