Ozone Overtrick Disease

[sartaj]

In the last couple of months, there have been numerous hands where Ozone declarers have gone down in contracts (very often 4 of a major) taking a line of play that does not cater for seriously bad distribution. Its often a case of making maximum tricks (overtricks) versus providing for that strange situation when you go down in "cold" game.
I personally have been guilty of it too and can think of this hand
Jxxx
Axxx
Qxxx
x

AK10x
x
AK98x
Axx
I played 4S as south on heart king lead. I played spade to the ten at trick two counting on ,for contract, 3 spades, five diamonds, one club and one ruff for 10 tricks (even with spades 4-1).....And if spade hook wins then loads of overtricks.
On the hand SQ was offside dblton but the diamonds were 4- 0 (onside) so i was down 1.
The simpler line of CA , c ruff, S ace, c ruff, spade king is more effective.
It needs spades 3-2 and if spades are foul then diamonds not 4-0.
I suspect an even better line of play exists which can cater for both foul splits.

I post this hand as fodder for thought for the squad ...There are other hands which feature the rest of the gang....But if you did it, i am sure you remember it !

I decided to post this becuase i was going through the hands from the Spingold semi-final where Weinstein was guilty of similar sloppiness
See Board 9 in set 3 at this link
http://www.bridgefederation.ch/2006/spingold/SFA3.PHP

A diamond at trick two is a far stronger play with chances for trump substitution later on after two rounds of hearts. (I think if meck pitches spades on 2nd-4th round of diamonds and ruffs the fifth round, he beats it in practice after two rounds of trumps....)

For all the yack-yack about the importance of overtricks etc, a hand like this can swing the whole momentum in a match.

[eokkoe]

With a group as strong as our Tier One OzOne pairs, there is a tendency to assume card play and solo defense are things that take care of themselves, but that is based on the belief that everyone works on these aspects of the game on his own -- reviewing deals played, reading everything available on this subject, absorbing lessons learned by watching the best players on Vugraph, and the like. A minimum level of proficiency is expected, but that minimum is fairly high for OzOne purposes, so if you're not doing what's required to keep sharp, it's time to look in the mirror, conclude that more effort is required, and go to work. Every little bit counts.

Tim Bourke and Ron Klinger have written some excellent books on declarer play and all the classics are certainly within reach. Anyone who has not read Play Bridge with Reese is hereby instructed to do so soonest -- it's been reprinted and can be an eye opener even today.

As for those overtricks (and undertricks), they'll be in hot demand in Hawaii, so besmirch them not, but your goals are clear at IMPs and playing as safely as possible remains Priority One, no matter how often we are exposed to the IMP odds in playing for highly likely overtricks. As Sartaj says, when you go down in one you should have made with greater care for negative scenarios, it will eat you up.

Verbalizing this was a good idea, Sartaj, and I trust everyone will keep your words in mind as they go into battle.

[zol]

I have enough card play errors to my discredit to make me cringe, but I must be missing something on Sartaj's hand.
Doesn't a low diamond to the queen cater for the 4-0 beak? The simple line (suitable for me) seems to be win HA, cash SA, SK, then low D to the queen.
That will lose only to SQ-x-x-x on your right and J-10-x-x diamonds on your left.

[zol]

That last posting was from Klinger, not Zol. Maybe Zol changed the OzOne settings on mmy computer when he was here last.
rdk

[Matricies]

A lot of people have their web browser checked for 'Remember me next time'.
This when Zol logged in ---> next time you logged in it would remember him.