The Peanuts bridge hand!

The Game Room
1

I came across an old Peanuts strip recently, in which the WWI flying ace went to the airstrip to see after his plane, and the ground crew was playing bridge instead.

The strip actually gave the hand (T = 10):

North:

S: KJ7
H: AKT9
D: J87
C: AJ5

South:

S: AQ6
H: J854
D: 53
C: KT83

East:

S: T98542
H: Q
D: AKQ62
C: 9

West:

S: 3
H: 7632
D: T94
C: Q7642

Since this is “an important hand,” I thought you bridge players may have a little fun with analysis. I know little to nothing about the game, so is it possible to guess (probability-wise) who’s more likely to win the hand? What sort of contract and play would go on, assuming perfect bidding and play with the knowledge they have?

2

Assuming North dealt and is playing some variant of SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card–popular at many duplicate clubs), he opens 1NT, East probably bids 2D.

South now has a problem. He has 10 points and 4 hearts, and would normally bid 2C (stayman), asking North to show a 4 card major. He can’t do that, because East bid 2D. Depending on what bidding conventions are in use, South might double, indicating that East took his bid, which North would possibly read as a Jacoby Transfer to hearts. South is gambling and fudging just a bit here, as a transfer normally requires a 5 card major I think (I haven’t played duplicate in at least 5 years, and may be messing up my bidding). West is going to pass.

North accepts the transfer by bidding 2H. East passes. An aggressive South then bids 4H.

All Pass.

East cashes the A-K of diamonds, but then he’s done. Once North gets in, he leads a diamond to trump in Dummy, leads back to his hand, pulls trumps, and makes 4H. West may get the last trick with QC, depending on how North plays it.

In the alternative, instead of taking the gamble above, South might jump to 3NT. If he does, East runs 5 straight diamond tricks, and N-S goes down one.

3

Acol, North is too strong for 1NT and opens 1H. East is asking for trouble overcalling 2D with only five of them (he should have six to butt in at the 2-level) but might manage 1S with six of them to the Ten, though that’s debatable. At any rate, South is good enough to go to 3H which is all North needs to go to Four. He can’t even consider slamming on a flat 17 points with three losing diamonds when the partnership has c29 HCP at most. The same losing Diamonds strongly discourage 3NT.

East leads Ace of Diamonds and gets the 4 from West, showing no future in the suit. He exits safely in Spades. South plays one top trump and drops East’s Queen. Now he has a problem. If he leads a Diamond, preparing to ruff his last one in dummy, East wins, plays a Spade for West to ruff, and North has to find the Queen of Clubs or go one down. But if he draws trumps first, his ruff goes away and if he doesn’t guess the Queen of Clubs correctly he will get buried in Diamonds as soon as he loses the lead.

Fortunately, he can do this easily. North plays the Diamond which East wins. After West gets his ruff, he exits safely in trumps. North gets his Diamond ruff (taking care to use South’s 8) to which West follows. North now knows that East began with six Spades (to West’s one) and five Diamonds. He cashes a second top trump in case East was void in Clubs and being really devious dropping the Queen of Hearts from Qx (don’t laugh - it happens), plays a Club to the King and when East doesn’t drop the Queen on this he plays a small one towards his own hand, taking West’s Queen if he plays it. Made on the nose.

4

North
S**:**KJ7
H: AKT9
D: J87
C: AJ5

South
S: AQ6
H: J854
D: 53
C: KT83

East
S: T98542
H: Q
D: AKQ62
C: 9

West
S: 3
H: 7632
D: T94
C: Q7642

Hopefully there is an SDMB brdge expert who will give us expert commentary.

For an expert a lot would depend on the scoring system, vulnerability, and identity
of the dealer, which are not given in OP.

Assuming that South is dealer then the first three bids should be:
(S) pass
(W) Pass
(N) 1NT
For players of intermediate or better skill using standard bidding methods.

I would not even call myself an advanced player, but I think the advanced first bid by East
is 1 Spade, since East has a 6-card suit, and since it takes away more bidding space from NS
than 1 Diamond. Also, concealing the AKQ62 Diamond suit may cause NS to blunder into a
3NT contract which would allow East, on opening lead, to take the 1st five tricks.

The optimum contract for NS is 4 Hearts. I do not see any billiant defensive moves available
against that. Two Diamond tricks are sure to be lost, so the problem for declarer is to avoid
losing both a Spade and a Club, the opponents possessing the Queen in each suit. An expert
would have the odds for any card combination down pat. I think odds favor cashing both the
Spade and Club Aces, and then finessing if no singleton Queen drops. Here the Spade Queen
is singleton, so the 4 Heart NS contract is safe.

Wheels within wheels: In Duplicate Bridge tournament scoring systems I believe a 4 Spade doubled
EW contract set by two tricks would produce a better result than allowing NS to make 4 Hearts.
However, NS may choose to bid 5 Hearts, which can be made if declarer guesses correctly in what
looks to me like close to a 50-50 situation. Then again, 5 Spades doubled set three might yield
a profit for EW if they are not vulnerable, and NS are vulnerable.

5

Why would East not cash AK of diamonds and then exit with Q diamonds, forcing South to waste a trump ruffing? East can deduce that with only one trump, West and South probably have four each, so reducing South’s control of the hand seems worthwhile, especially given the fact that East has no outside entries so won’t be getting diamonds led to him again. But I am just a beginner at bridge so there is undoubtedly a better play than this, such as the one you described. But without knowledge of all four hands, is the above a reasonable play to go for?

6

Normally “forcing” dummy to ruff isn’t hurting declarer at all - East can deduce that North has at least four trumps, possibly five, so dummy isn’t controlling the trump suit with only four. IOW shortening South’s four trumps to three cannot hurt declarer.

Since it’s possible, even likely, that declarer is going to have to deal with a 4-1 trump break, East may as well try to make difficulties (and believe his partner). Also, on the bidding there is just room for West to hold a black-suit honour. Leading a Club threatens to trap West’s Queen if that’s what he holds (it could pay dividends if he held the Ace and could return the suit!) but the Spade is safer. Since the Club continuation gives declarer the contract out of hand, I chose the line where he has to work harder.

ETA: With six spades, East could even find West with none (making North’s shape 4-5-2-2 maybe - that would fit the bidding). That scuppers the contract at once. The Spade’s ruffed, Diamond to the King and a second Spade ruffed, and 4H is one down with the C:Q still on the loose. :cool:

7

While the game of bridge comes up a few times in various Peanuts strips, there’s only one strip I can remember where an actual full deal is laid out - is this the one where the “ground crew” were Woodstock and other little birds, who commence to rolling on the floor fighting after one of them gives and auction ending in “…PASS ??”

So the point of the humor wasn’t in the play but in the bidding - probably N-S failed to reach the obvious 4H game contract (26 combined high card points, 8-card heart fit), or else failed to double a sacrifice bid by E-W (either 4S or 5D).

I don’t remember the details now and Google doesn’t pull it up, I must have it at home (since I have the entire “Peanuts Treasury” series) but it’ll take a while.

8

The bidding convention that South needs is Lebensohl. He could bid 3D asking for a 4-card major and denying a diamond stop, and should easily get NS to 4H.

9

http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/user/katyking/comics/snoopy-bridge.5.gif has the hand in the OP. The one you are thinking of is http://unit364.webs.com/peanutsbridge.htm

10

Ahhh…! Thanks much! Long have I loved Peanuts and bridge both (though these strips made a heck of a lot more sense after I learned to play bridge :)).

11

I saw another Peanuts bridge hand in the paper the other day. It feature Snoopy as scout leader going to check on what his troop were up to. Different hand, if I find it I’ll post it.

Meanwhile: You are South in 6S with no opposition bidding. You hold:

S: A K 8 7 2
H: K 9 3
D: A 4
C: A Q 9

West leads a trump and your partner tables:
S: Q J 5 4 3
H: A 6
D: K 7 2
C: 4 3 2

What is your 100% guaranteed route to making Six Spades?

12

As for the hand: yes, a 4S sacrifice is worth it on this deal at any vulnerability, as it can go down no more than 2 with the spades breaking 3-3 between N-S and the diamond suit running - losing 3 spades, the Ace of Hearts and Ace of Clubs. Of course that’s kind of magic (=unlikely), particularly the “3-3 spades” bit - with a six-card suit topped by T98 and a strong NT bidder on his right, there’s no sane reason East should ever think he could pull in the suit for 3 losers, not to mention assuming a side suit of AKQ-fifth would run (Jxxx or Txxx in either N/S hand would be enough to scotch it). On the other hand, if N/S are vulnerable and E/W are not, it may still be a good gamble because going down 3 is still worth it (-500 vs. -650).

However at rubber bridge sacrifices like this are generally frowned upon because you’re not competing with “the field result” but the table result, and (typically) for money. Unless you are sure N/S have an iron-clad contract, why would you intentionally go for -300 or -500 when you might in fact go plus by defeating the contract? As it is, declarer has to do two things: play trumps for no losers (remember to cash one high trump first to drop the singleton Queen), AND play the club suit for no losers.

E-W have to be careful with their discards. The “obvious” defense is AK of diamonds followed by another diamond, to avoid giving anything to North; East cannot afford to finesse a potential black-suit honor in West’s hand with a shift, and of course will not shift to a singleton Queen of trump that could be finessed into for a winner. Besides, with AKQ-fifth, it’s possible that West also has a doubleton diamond and that North started with 4 of them (though West’s discards on the first two diamonds would give count, high-low for even and low-high for odd, and a standard “4, then 9” pattern would have told him that West initially had 3 or 5 diamonds).

When South ruffs the diamond in dummy and West follows suit, North has quite a bit of information. It all boils down to playing the club suit right, so he plays everything but clubs: first, drawing trump in 4 rounds starting with one high honor (noting East’s singleton Queen), and then three rounds of spades (noting West’s singleton spade).

East must be alert and discard spades, not diamonds on the trumps or else North has the complete count of the hand. If he discards both his diamonds as “equally useless” as his spades, well, North will count West for 1 spade, 4 hearts, 3 diamonds (since all 13 diamonds are now accounted for) and therefore 5 clubs, placing East with only 1 club. The club suit is now easy to pick up, play one top Club honor in South and then finesse West if the stiff Queen hasn’t dropped.

If East discards just one diamond, either North can trust West’s count signal at trick 1 (usually very trustworthy) and count the hand out as above (i.e., trusting West to have shown 3 or 5 diamonds, but ruling 5 diamonds because East started with AKQx); or if West himself carelessly discards a diamond as “useless” on one of the spades.

If West discards two clubs on the spades, and East discards 3 spades on the trump, then North is faced with a guess for the queen of clubs.

13

Ooops, I just realized I miscounted the tricks: NS are in 4H not 5H, and to make 4H all he has to do is play trumps right to take 1 diamond ruff, 4 trumps, AKQ of spades and AK of clubs for 10 tricks. Though at duplicate, the difference between allowing an overtrick or not based on the discards would be important, it would not be at rubber bridge.

14

This is a textbook example of an endplay.

Draw trump in up to 3 rounds, cash AK of diamonds and ruff a diamond in dummy, then AK of hearts and ruff a heart in hand, ending with this four card end position:

S: 7
H: —
D: —
C: AQ9

S: 4
H: —
D: —
C: 432

Now, play a club towards the 9, covering whatever West plays. If he plays low, insert the 9 and East is endplayed; he must either play a club into the AQ, or give you a ruff and sluff (ruff in one hand and discard the losing club from the other, while retaining a trump in that discarding hand for the last trick). If he inserts (say) the Ten, you cover with the Queen and East wins with the King - he is still endplayed, as only the Jack is outstanding. Of course if West inserts the Ten and the Queen holds (West had the King), you win also.

(Note that you have to plan this out and end in hand for this 4-card position to work, if you ruffed the hearts then the diamonds you end up in dummy and say D’OH!!!)

15

Excellent analysis, robardin, except that I don’t think a Spade continuation by East can look dangerous: Ace and Queen are on the table and it is possible that West could hold the King and North guess wrong. Even if not, partner can hardly hold anything that can be trapped.

ETA: That referred to the Peanuts hand; meanwhile you have answered my problem hand exactly right (and explained well, too). ETAII: No, the director is called and you are penalised for leading from the wrong hand - you mentioned ending in hand, which puts you in the wrong hand to lead the club. :smiley:

16

Heh, I’ve been known to do that, but didn’t you write “You are South in 6S”, which I assume is the hand on the bottom, and doesn’t ending “in hand” means in your (declarer’s) hand? - No, I re-read it and you gave the “other” hand first and the second (bottom) hand as partner’s. That confused me :slight_smile:

17

Yes, the way I laid it out was a little confusing. Otherwise, as you say, a textbook (and watertight) end-play - an elimination, as you and I might call it.

18

Ah, I see where I went wrong - I thought South was declarer, but of course it is North in this particular supposition. If South had been declarer (essentially if the North and South hands are reversed), does my suggestion have any merit?

19

It can do in some cases. But if it looks like declarer and dummy both have the same number of trumps, it is much less likely to be effective - you may waste declarer’s trumps, but he still has the long trump in dummy for drawing with. Indeed some hands play better if you use declarer’s trumps to ruff dummy’s losers with and only then use dummy’s trumps to draw the defenders’, a technique known as dummy reversal.

An instance where forcing declarer can work out very well is where declarer is having to manage a 5-3 fit or even a 5-2 or 4-3 fit. That’s a time when you don’t want a defender running a long suit at you as you really can run out of trump control. It can even happen with a 5-3 fit that you have to ruff a couple of times and the outstanding trumps are split 4-1, and declarer loses control of the hand - possibly suffering the indignity of the defence drawing his last trump and still having one of their own left. Things can go badly wrong when that happens.

20

2 down is not worth it when vulnerable against not. However, it should go more than 2 down. If the defense play hearts at every opportunity, East will run out of trumps.

AH, all follow. N/S 1, E/W 0
KH ruffed. 1 - 1
spade. 2 - 1
H ruffed. 2 - 2
spade. 3 - 2
H ruffed. 3 - 3

At this point East is down to 1 trump, the same as both N and S. If East plays the last spade, N/S will win and cash 3 club tricks, thereby defeating 4S by 4 tricks. If East does not attempt to draw the last trumps, S will ruff the third round of diamonds, play a club to North’s jack. North will draw the last trump and take two more club tricks, resulting in 4S down 5.