{"id":12854,"date":"2020-01-13T10:52:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T08:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funbridge.com\/blog\/?p=4062"},"modified":"2021-02-09T15:15:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T13:15:15","slug":"funbridge-exclusive-tournament-milan-macura-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funbridge.com\/blog\/en\/funbridge-exclusive-tournament-milan-macura-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Think twice before you pick a slam – by Milan Macura"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once again over one thousand players (1,063) participated in the IMP tournament and 779 players joined the MP one. <\/p>

MPs results<\/a>

IMPs results<\/a>

Think twice before you pick a slam<\/a>

Videos<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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MPs results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I played the tournament, it seemed that no one would score over 80% this week, but in the end San2 finished with 82.07%<\/strong> and won by a big margin. This player has played over 100,000 boards on Funbridge.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silver goes to Tom (SE) with 76.21%<\/strong> and bronze to Klaus (DE) with 75.82%.<\/strong> The rest of the field scored below 73%, which indicates quite a flat session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter (SE) and Michael (CZ) reached 70% and topped my friends\u2019 list. I was aiming for 60% but a wrong lead on board 7 cost me a good position<\/strong> and I finished with 52.21% in the 312th place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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General ranking <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Milan’s friends ranking <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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IMPs results <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The IMP tournament had a couple of swing boards and who made them right could score over 40 IMPs.<\/strong> All the top players finished the boards before my live stream and Fabio (IT) was in the end the best with +42 IMPs<\/strong>, followed by Yves (FR) and Yusuf (TR) with +41 IMPs<\/strong>. Ivan (HR) and GoduLL (FR)<\/strong> got to the main screen and topped my friends\u2019 list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ended up with +1 IMP because I made a terrible mistake<\/strong> in card play on board 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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General ranking <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Milan’s friends ranking <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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What is the best approach to reach the right slam?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On board 5 of the IMP tournament, you get a beautiful hand and partner opens 1♦. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your approach?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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With 18 HCP and a solid heart suit, you are surely thinking about slam. But what is the best slam and how to find the missing honors?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you have a semi-balanced hand or better, you should stop thinking in HCP.<\/strong> Losers can help you estimate the final contract much better and searching for the missing honors should be your mission.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you consider your heart suit solid and choose it as trumps, you are missing only the ♠A, ♦AK and ♣Q. A club loser can be discarded on diamonds or the missing honor(s) can be finessed. It means that your hand is close to 3 losers only.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The natural 1♥ response is better than strong 2♥<\/strong> because you get an honest answer from partner. That is also the reason why I play 1m-2♥ as invitational with 6♥. On this board, North rebids 2♦ to show 12-16 HCP and a 6-card diamond suit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, you should put your heart suit aside<\/strong> because you have a 9-card fit guaranteed. If you support diamonds, you can ask for all 3 missing honors using RKCB. Be careful, 4NT in this sequence is quantitative<\/strong> and partner can pass it or jump to 6NT. 4♦ shows a slam interest in diamonds. North shows a spade control with 4♠ and now you can use 4NT as RKCB for diamonds. North shows 3 key cards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Which grand slam do you choose? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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You can count 6 tricks in diamonds, 3 in hearts, 2 in clubs and 1 in spades. That is 12 tricks in total and you have a chance to score extra heart tricks<\/strong>, a club trick or a spade trick if partner holds the King. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 7♥, you need partner to have the ♥J or hearts splitting well. Since partner showed 6♦, it is very likely that he has a singleton heart. I decided to ask for the ♠K which will be the 13th trick to make 7NT. Since partner denied the ♠K, I decided to bid safely in 7♦ and was rewarded by +12 IMPs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here are the most played contracts:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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And the full board:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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7NT is the best contract with the actual layout. But if partner does not have the ♥J, even 6♥ will go down. 7♦ depends on diamonds breaking 2-2 or 3-1 and the probability is 90 %. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Against NT, lead your longest and best suit <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is an easy rule to follow and it works very well<\/strong>. But in bridge, no rule works in all cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you lead with this hand in MPs?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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East\u2019s 2♣ followed by 3♦ shows 12+ HCP with a diamond fit and does not necessarily mean long clubs. 3♥ shows values and usually a missing spade stopper. In IMPs, you should always try to beat the contract<\/strong> and scoring 4 heart tricks seems to be the easiest way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this hand comes from the MP tournament. Here every trick counts and I can give you a heads-up: picking the wrong lead results into a 5% score, a good lead but bad discards into a 31% score and a good lead and good discards secure 72%.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opponents have minimum 25 HCP together. You have 6 HCP, which leaves partner with maximum 9 HCP. That can be translated as maximum 3 honors.<\/strong> West promised minimum one heart honor and denied a spade honor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It means that partner should have at least one spade honor. A club honor in North is three times more likely than the ♥Q or ♥A. That is why I have decided to lead a club with the hope of not giving away a heart trick if East holds the ♥Q. If partner holds a club honor, we can possibly establish 2 club tricks and I can use ♥KJ as an entry. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here is the whole deal:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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My analyses were right<\/strong> but the layout unfavorable so I had the bottom. Declarer played the ♣8 from dummy and finessed ♣J later on to score 11 tricks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spade lead can be good but when declarer cashes diamonds, you have to keep all 4 clubs and discard the hearts. Declarer will get scared to finesse<\/strong> the ♣J and cash his 9 tricks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the ♥J lead, partner plays the ♥9 and wins the second heart with the ♥Q. Now she [Note: On Funbridge, your partner is a robot called \u201cArgine\u201d and named after the club queen that can be found in French card games, hence the use of \u201cshe\u201d.] switches to a small spade. Declarer can still guess the clubs right to take 10 tricks but he is under pressure<\/strong> if you keep the hearts and discard the spades or three clubs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When declarer sees the ♣9, he can play the finesse the other way around and you can score the ♣J as the 4th trick and get a 72% score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Videos of Milan Macura’s tournaments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

MPs tournament video<\/h4>\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

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