{"id":12829,"date":"2019-11-04T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T04:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funbridge.com\/blog\/?p=3566"},"modified":"2021-02-09T16:12:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T14:12:15","slug":"funbridge-exclusive-tournament-analysis-milan-macura-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funbridge.com\/blog\/en\/funbridge-exclusive-tournament-analysis-milan-macura-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis of the Exclusive Tournaments #5 of Milan Macura"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week of October broke all the previous records in participation.<\/strong><\/p>

We were very close to reaching 1,000 players in the IMP tournament<\/strong> (921 players) and we crossed the 1,600 line in both tournaments combined<\/strong> with 682 players in the MP event.<\/p>

I have played almost a perfect game in MP scoring 78.69% and finished second, but the glory goes to Linnea Edlund from Sweden winning with 80.29%. Third place is shared by Mac Leonardo from Indonesia, Bengt Svensson from Sweden and Paul Sontag from Canada, all scoring 77.13%.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

MPs Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have played almost a perfect game in MP\nscoring 78.69% and finished second, but the glory goes to Linnea Edlund from\nSweden winning with 80.29%. Third place is shared by Mac Leonardo from\nIndonesia, Bengt Svensson from Sweden and Paul Sontag from Canada, all scoring\n77.13%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have made an adjustment to present the top 11 players who made it to the final screen, congratulations to all.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"top
Top 11 ranking of the MPs tournament – General <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"top
Top 11 ranking of the MPs tournament – Milan’s friends <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

IMPs Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

IMP tournament had only a few boards where you could score a lot, still two players succeeded to get over 40 IMPs \u2013 Peter Antal from Switzerland and Chris Stevens from the UK, both scoring +42 IMPs. Third place goes to Gerard Wertenschlag from France with +38 IMPs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"top
Top 11 ranking of the IMPs tournament – General <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"top
Top 11 ranking of the IMPs tournament – Milan’s friends <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Interesting declarer play problem came on the last board of the IMP tournament <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After standard bidding, you reach 4♥.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

How do you declare when opponents start with two rounds of clubs and then play a trump?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The contract seems to be easy. You have only two club losers and one spade loser. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So is there any problem? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Yes, people tend to get lazy when they have a standard contract to play where you draw trumps and establish your side suit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if one of the suits breaks bad? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This board is exactly the one where you should\ntake a break when you win the third round of trumps and think about what will\nhappen if spades or hearts split 4-1, or worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing on a 4-4 fit gives you the option to\nplan to get rid of losers from either hand. South has to get rid of two\ndiamonds, North hand has to establish the spade suit while drawing the trumps\nfirst.\n\nUsually, the safest way if you have high trumps on\nboth sides is to cash your winners and crossruff the hand. That would work well\nif you have AK in spades. On this board, you either have to play the spade\nfinesse OR you can simply duck a spade trick.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main rule is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you have to lose a trick, lose it as soon as possible so you have control of the game in the later phase.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So the best play is to cash one more trump<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So the best play is to cash one more trump \u2013\nif they break, you can cash the last trump ending in South hand and play a\nsmall spade towards the ♠Q. This way you will lose only one spade trick\nif West started with ♠K10xx and East with a singleton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If trumps do not break, you play a low spade,\nlet opponents win the ♠K, win any return and draw the trumps. It is important to keep entries\nto both hands, that\u2019s why you don\u2018t cash the diamond honors before losing the ♠K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the full board:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Less than \u00bc of the field managed to win this contract, others went one or even two down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"milan<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were plenty of interesting boards in the\nMP tournament. If you want to see them all, watch the full video on Funbridge YouTube\nchannel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like the first board the most because it\ndemonstrates different approaches playing MPs instead of IMPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You get the following hand and your RHO opens\n1NT after your partner passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Bad long suits, balanced shape, weak honors are factors which should discourage you from bidding. And indeed, in IMPs, I would not hesitate to pass this hand. But, in MPs, letting opponents play 1NT often produces a very bad result, especially if you don\u2018t have a good lead and you are not very confident in defending. 1NT is the most difficult contract both to declare and to defend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These decisions are more about doing the math than following any rules<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

D\u00e9cider ici rel\u00e8ve plus de calculs que de suivre une r\u00e8gle particuli\u00e8re. Si vos adversaires r\u00e9alisent le contrat d\u20181SA, ils obtiendront un score de +90 et de +120 avec une surlev\u00e9e. Si vous n\u2019\u00eates pas vuln\u00e9rable, vous pouvez chuter d\u2019une si les adversaires font le contrat et de deux s\u2019ils font une surlev\u00e9e et se garantissent encore un meilleur score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your opponents make 1NT, they score +90,\nwith an overtrick +120. When you are non-vulnerable, you can go down one if\nopponents are making and down two if they make an overtrick and still secure a\nbetter score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you manage to beat 1NT and score +50 or\neven +100, it is very likely that you can make your own contract for a better\nscore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there is always a risk that partner\nhas no honors and opponents will double you for a huge score, but that is the\nrisk you can take in MPs. The reward of pushing opponents higher or steal the\ncontract is more often greater. Remember that every board has the same importance\nin MPs whereas the swing boards (slams, vulnerable games, doubled contracts)\nare more important in IMPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the math, I chose a very aggressive 2♣ overcall\nto show both majors. Partner asked for longer suit and since I have only 4 cards,\nI chose the lowest one to give partner an option to show a weak invite with the\n2♠ bid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Partner puts a maximum hand on the table and\nyou are happy to play in hearts where you have a 7-card fit. What is your plan\nafter ♣J lead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The first thing that you should do is the HCP analysis<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You have 21 HCPs together and East promised\n15-17 HCPs. That means West has at most 4 HCPs and he already showed 1 HCP with\nthe lead. Looking at missing honors, West has exactly one of these 3 honors: ♥K, ♥Q, ♦Q. There is\nno other combination of how to place 2-4 HCPs in West hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other analysis you should make is the\ndistribution one. The ♣J lead is an obvious doubleton or even a singleton. East promised a\nbalanced hand so we need only a small piece of information to picture the full\nboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your goal should be to draw trumps and prevent\nEW from promoting East\u2018s low trumps. I chose the safe way to create an entry to\ndummy by playing a spade towards the ♠K. East won with the ♠A and returned\na club which you win in dummy with the ♣10. Now you play the first round of\ntrumps and East jumps with the queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I decided to duck the ♥Q to maintain entries to South hand for playing the diamonds later. East cashed both club winners. What do you play on the last round of clubs after West discards ♠2 in the third round?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

You got the extra piece of information. West\nplayed the ♠6 first followed by the ♠2. That indicates an even number of cards in spades. The only possible combination\nis a 4-3 split since West promised a balanced hand without a 5-card major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means all spades became winners, and\ndiamonds too since West is now guaranteed with the ♦Q. That means you\nhave all winners except the ♦A, so you can even afford to ruff the club and get overruffed. But having\na loser, it is best to discard it now to keep the trump control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the distribution of honors, 2♥ is\nmaking. But, if the red queens are switched, you go down in 2♥, and 1NT\nwill make, maybe even with an overtrick. \n\nThis board is a nice demonstration of MPs math. The\ntop scorers pushed opponents to 2♦ and\ndoubled them for minimum two down or beat 1NT three times, +110 still produced\n85%.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\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