{"id":12827,"date":"2019-10-29T16:26:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T14:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funbridge.com\/blog\/?p=3539"},"modified":"2021-02-09T16:14:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T14:14:37","slug":"funbridge-exclusive-tournament-milan-macura-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funbridge.com\/blog\/en\/funbridge-exclusive-tournament-milan-macura-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Milan Macura\u2019s Exclusive Tournaments \u2013 October \u2013 #4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Another week is over and we know the winners of the two first Exclusive Tournaments of October, organized by bridge professional player, Milan Macura. <\/strong>

Find the analysis of the tournaments<\/strong> below<\/strong>.

If you have not played these tournaments yet, you can find them under \u201c<\/strong>Get started\/Practice > Exclusive tournaments\u201d <\/strong><\/em>and search for Milan Macura.<\/strong>

Both the IMP and MP tournaments start on Saturday and end on Thursday every week.<\/strong>

The IMP tournament is played by Milan Macura and broadcast live every Thursday evening on his YouTube channel<\/a>.

The video of the MP tournament is available on Funbridge’s YouTube channel<\/a> every Friday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Over 1,000 players participated in the weekly exclusive tournaments, 487 in MPs and 590 in IMPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

MPs<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Mukul<\/strong> 🇮🇳 dealt with the boards the best and scored 77.37%, followed by Bobby Song<\/strong> 🇨🇳 with 76.09% and Zouky Candi<\/strong> 🇧🇷 with 75,12%. The top 11 players reached the 70% threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, I have reached the top 10 in my friends\u2019 list, scoring 63.3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Top 10 ranking of the MPs tournament – General<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Top 10 ranking of the MPs tournament – Milan’s friends<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

IMPs<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

IMP tournament was not as wild as previous time so scoring over 30 IMPs was extremely difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, 17 players managed to do that and the best of all was geoxis<\/strong> 🇫🇷 with +38 IMPs, followed by tilloy<\/strong> 🇫🇷 with +37 IMPs and Thomas alias TheMonti<\/strong> 🇧🇪 with +36 IMPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I scored +13 IMPs which was even not enough to top 10 in my friends\u2019 list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Top 10 ranking of the IMPs tournament – General<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Top 10 ranking of the IMPs tournament – Milan’s friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I could have scored 12 more IMPs if I had chosen a different approach with the following hand<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You are\nvulnerable and your opponents are not. Your partner passes and the RHO opens 1♦, what will be your bid?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You have 6 losers, most of them can be covered only by top honors \u2013 aces and kings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since partner is a passed hand, there is not much chance he will cover you all 3 losers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, there is still a chance that he covers you two, for example with AK in hearts, or clubs, or with two aces and the ♠K will be with East so you can finesse it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being vulnerable vs not, I have decided to overcall 3♠ which should show exactly the hand I have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near solid 7-card spade suit and an extra trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these vulnerabilities, you have to be very careful.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I am non-vulnerable, I will overcall 1♠ and continue bidding them up to the 3rd<\/sup> level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a regular partner, I expect he will raise to the game with his hand:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Having two\naces as sure tricks and entries for potential finesses in spades should be\nenough if you follow the vulnerability preempt rule:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In favorable<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You can bid on level 2 even with 8 losers and a relatively poor suit. On level 3 you can have 7 losers with a broken suit, sometimes even with 6 cards only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In same vulnerabilities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You should have a good suit and 7-8 losers on level 2 and 6-7 losers on level 3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In unfavorable: You should always have a near solid suit and ~7 losers on level 2 and ~6 losers on level 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big difference is if you have the suit led by the ace or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only the ace  is a key card when you are declaring, but it is also very useful when defending.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partner can double opponents aggressively with a singleton, knowing you have the ace, and use it as an immediate entry for a ruff or a trump promotion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preempts create pressure for opponents.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you are left in a good partscore, sometimes you go down when opponents have a better partscore, occasionally you will find an aggressive game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, sometimes you push opponents to a game which they will normally don\u2019t reach, sometimes you get doubled and go down for higher score than opponents can make in their own contract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, on top of vulnerabilities, you should also consider the opponents\u2019 position, analyze their chances of reaching a game or a lower level partscore (partner is a passed hand or not) and their level \u2013 some opponents tend to double more often than others, some constantly overbid. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our example, 3♠ should be a great bid which opens the most possibilities to score IMPs in your favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately for me and another 100 players, it resulted in -5 IMPs in this tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most players reached 4♠ by overcalling only 1♠ and when they rebid 2♠ or 3♠ after partner\u2019s 1NT, North kept bidding up to 3NT or 4♠.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both contracts are unbeatable since the ♠K is with the right defender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the most often played contracts<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Board 1 of the IMP tournament was really interesting. If you want to see it and watch me playing an unexpected contract which turned to be the best one, look at the <\/strong>video on my YouTube channel<\/strong><\/a> or at the end of this article.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

There were plenty of interesting boards in the MPs tournament.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I like board number 6 the most because there is a technique which one doesn\u2019t use very often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bidding went in a standard way at most tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You reach 4♥ and East leads a ♦10. What is your plan?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You have 9 tricks from the top if hearts split 3-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can establish an extra diamond trick to make the contract and you can make the spade finesse for 11 tricks if it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if hearts do not split and the ♠Q is with West? Can you still make 11 tricks?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the majority of boards, you should plan to get rid of losers from the hand with more trumps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are very few boards where you can play a reverse dummy. On these boards you plan to get rid of your losers from the hand with shorter trumps \u2013 South on this board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, you always have to lose a trump trick and since you are missing the ♦Q and ♦J, you have to lose one diamond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you win one of the opponents\u2019 diamond honors with ♦K, you can establish an extra diamond trick to discard the ♠J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore the goal on this board is to ruff three clubs in North.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a very difficult line of play because you have to plan all 13 tricks in advance. Maintaining entries and drawing trumps at the right moment is the key to success. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You start by winning the ♦A. Then, you cash the ♣A and play another club to ruff in North. Finally, you cross with the ♠A to the hand and ruff another club \u2013 West doesn\u2019t follow in the third round of clubs and discards a diamond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your analysis about the distribution now?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

East has 6\nclubs (KQJ1063) and led the ♦10. That should indicate he has a singleton. That leaves him 6 cards in\nspades and hearts. In the spade trick, East followed by ♠3 and West with ♠7. Argine signals second lowest from\n4 cards or high card from a doubleton. If East has only doubleton spade, he\nwill have 4 hearts. With a singleton heart with West, he will surely ruff the\nthird round of clubs unless he has singleton ♥4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because West\ndidn\u2019t ruff, we can expect East to start with 4 spades and only 2 trumps. Since\nWest played a ♠7 having 3 cards, he must have ♠Q107 because there are no higher cards left\nthan the ♠7. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, you\nplay 2 rounds of trumps ending in South and reach this ending:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When you\nplay your last club, West has a difficult discard. His best choice is to\ndiscard a diamond. You ruff the club in North with ♥8 and now you can either cash the ♦K and play another diamond to\nendplay West or you can play ♦7 first to keep the ♦K as an entry for a spade discard on the last diamond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This line\nof play will secure 11 tricks for 94%. There were 12 players who made 12 tricks,\nbut that is due to declaring from South and getting the ♦Q lead. That way you don\u2019t lose the\ndiamond trick and you can simply play two rounds of trumps, finesse the ♦J and crossruff the hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t\nfind the winning play since I have made wrong distribution analyses and put\nEast with 3 trumps. I have still received 72.19% for scoring 10 tricks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the most played contracts:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Another\ninteresting hand came on board 3. You can watch the video on Funbridge YouTube channel\nand test yourself whether to bid or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Videos of Milan Macura’s tournaments<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

MPs tournament video<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You can find all the boards in the video which is posted on the Funbridge YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subscribe to be notified directly when my next video is online! Click on the button below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n