Bridge with Frank Installment 23 In previous installments I have shown you 3 famous opening leads: Josephine Culbertson’s under-lead of the spade A in the Culbertson Sims match; Pabis TiCCi’s inspired opening lead of the A of Clubs against an AmeriCan 4S Contract in a 1960s world Championship; Fantoni’s CatastrophiC lead against Larry Cohen that made a 26 triCk differenCe. To Complete my opening lead Mt. Rushmore, here is an opening lead by Eugenio Chiaradia (niCknamed the professor) in a 1961 Bermuda Bowl match against the FrenCh. In 1992 NY Times bridge columnist Alan TrusCott Called it the most “disastrous opening lead in world Championship history.” Chiaradia was North, Massimo D’Alelio South against the FrenCh pair Claude DeRuy West and Jose LeDentu East. North S KJ1097 H 1087 D 9 West C 9642 East S AQ63 S 5 H AJ2 H Q5 D Q6 D K1087432 C AK83 South C QJ5 S 842 H K9643 D AJ5 C 107 The auCtion was West North East South P 3D P 6N all pass DeRuy was hoping for a running diamond suit, but even without the running suit 6N was a reasonable Contract. It was destined for failure on the actual position of the Cards. In fact, at the other table Pietro Forquet reCeived a heart lead and went down 1 in 3N. Enter Chiaradia, who expeCting a strong hand on his left deCided to make the “safe” lead of the 9 of diamonds. This piCked up D’Alelio’s J and permitted 6N to make. D’Alelio’s Comment in the post mortem “Bravo, professore, bravissimo.” Last week we visited hand evaluation and finished with a disCussion of Counting losers. We Continue with adjustments to the loser Count, how to estimate partner’s losers, using the loser Count to determine Contract level, and we shall provide sample hands. First a quiCk review Basic loser count: Count 1 loser for every A, K or Q you are missing in a 3 Card or longer suit. Count 1 loser for every A or K you are missing in a 2 Card suit. Count 1 loser for a singleton other than the A. No suit Can have more than 3 losers. AKQx may have a loser, but we don’t Consider this possibility in our Count. There are some obvious problems with this method of Counting. ACes, kings and queens all Count the same, so S AKxx H AKx D AKxx C Ax has the same number of losers (4) as S KQxx H KQx D KQxx C Kx. Clearly this is wrong, so we make the adjustment of subtracting ½ loser for every A and adding ½ loser for every Q (but not for a singleton Q or Qx). The loser Count for the first of the 2 hands gets adjusted to 2, while the Count for the seCond Changes to 5 ½. There are numerous other possible adjustments taking into acCount Js and the fact that honors in the same suit work together better than disConneCted honors. This is too muCh for us to deal with. Our only other adjustment will be to reCognize the importanCe of a 9 Card or longer fit. If it’s only 8 add half a loser to your Combined loser Count. Let’s look at some loser Count hands from last week and get the adjusted Count A. S AKJxxxx H Ax D Kx C xx (1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 5) (5 - 1 = 4) B. S AKJxx H Axxx D Kx C xx (1 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 6) (6 - 1 = 5) C. S Axx H Qxxx D Qxxx C xx (4 x 2 = 8) (8 + ½ = 8 ½) D S AKx H Axxx D xxx C xxx (1 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 9) (9 – 1 = 8) Here are some very general guidelines for use in the bidding. A minimum opening bid (12-15 points) will have 7 losers; An intermediate opening bid (16-18 points) will have 6 losers; A maximum 1 level opening bid (19 points) will have 5 losers; A strong 2 Club bid (20+ points) will have 4 losers or fewer. As for responses, a single raise to the 2 level will have 9 losers, a limit jump to the 3 level will have 8 losers and a jump to the 4 level will have 7 losers. West East S AQ9863 S K1075 West has 5 losers, 4 after adjustment. He opens 1S. East, H 5 H A762 with 8 losers, 7 ½ after adjustment, bids 3S. Loser count D A2 D K87 is 11 ½. SubtraCt from 24 to get 12 ½, Slam range. Slam C A1083 C 76 is cold on hand with 24 combined HCP (28 with dist) (ZAR?) West East S AQ9863 S K1075 West has 5 losers, 4 after adjustment. He opens 1S. East, H 5 H KQ62 with 7 losers, 7 ½ after adjustment, bids 3S. Loser count D A2 D K87 is 11 ½. SubtraCt from 24 to get 12 ½. Slam range. Slam C A1083 C 76 has no play on hand with 25 HCP (29 with dist) (ZAR?) .