Kind of a Big Deal - Deal of the Week #12

Who knows what tomorrow will bring so I'm going to go ahead with a big hand from today for the Deal of the Week. It features lots of high level high pressure bidding decisions.

N deal, All vul ♠ A ♥ K Q J x x x ♦ T x x x ♣ A K ♠ K Q J x x x x x ♥ x x ♦ x ♣ x x 17 6 6 11 ♠ T x x ♥ x ♦ A 8 7 x ♣ Q T x x x ♠ x x ♥ A T x x ♦ K Q J x ♣ J x x

W N E S 1♥ - 2♦ 4♠1 5♥2 5♠3 x4 - 6♦5 -6 - -

Here's the monster auction, all the way up to a final contract of 6♦, played by South. North opened 1♥, and South replied 2♦, ignoring the Heart fit (better to support Hearts straight away). Then the bidding took off. West saw all his Spades and came straight in with 4♠. North wasn't going to let this go, and bid over it with 5♥. East, with my encouragement, bid 5♠. South doubled it, and North went into a think. He came out with a bold 6♦ bid, which was passed out.

There's lots of big decisions there. For better or worse, here's what I would have done for those six numbered bids.

1	I agree with 4♠. Even if partner has absolutely nothing, you're only three off.
2	I'd bid 5♦ here, as you know you have a Diamond fit.
3	I agree with 5♠. You've got a couple of tricks for partner (♦A and a Heart ruff).
4	Not sure! You have a defensive hand, but 6♥ can't be far off.
5	I'd pass the double. Given your previous bidding, you have a defensive hand, with ♣AK.
6	He wanted to double, I advised against it. Likely you have one trick, and partner has none.

So after some hair raising bidding, it finished in 6♦ by South. North must have been worried about trumps, but when South has ♦KQJx it looks good. But the trumps split 4-1, and unfortunately declarer drew all four rounds. East wisely withheld his Ace, and won the fourth round of Diamonds then the defence took loads of Spades as declarer was out of trumps too. Of course once a defender is down to the bare Ace of Trumps declarer is best just to cash all his other winners (in Hearts), and at some point the defender will get his one and only trick.

With this and a series of other vulnerable penalties I think AP and TB will win the week, to get back within one of JW and NC.

School Bridge Club

Today was the last meeting of my school Bridge Club. We’ve not got too far in bidding sophistication, but we have fun, and cakes. The emphasis lately has been on getting the game bonus.

♠ x x ♥ K J T ♦ K J x x x x ♣ Q x

♠ A J x x x ♥ A x ♦ A T x ♣ x x x

W E 1♠ 2♦ 2NT 3NT

We play twelve points to open, and East has 13 so opened 1♠. West replied 2♦, and because he has a balanced hand East rebids 2NT. After I explained the value of the game bonus, West raised to game straight away.

It’s not a great contract, but has chances, especially on a non-Club lead. If the Diamonds split there’s 9 tricks. At the table South lead a Heart, and I helped declarer to put in the Ten. With a little help he realised that he was getting three Heart tricks, whether North plays the Queen or not. North did play low, so declarer won in dummy, leaving him just the singleton ♥A in hand.

Now I told declarer to start playing his long suit, and so he cashed the A♦ and K♦. Diamonds split 2-2, and that should mean six Diamonds tricks and the contract in the bag.

But declarer made an error, a classic blunder. He won the third round of Diamonds with the ♦T in hand, playing low in dummy. He was now stuck in his hand, with no more diamonds to lead to dummy, and the Hearts were blocked too. He tried to continue with Diamonds from table, but I reminded him he was in his hand. ”I’ve got a plan”, he said cunningly, and cashed the ♠A. I’m not sure what his plan was, and I went to look at another table. Whatever his plan was, it didn’t work, and he went off one.

Glasgow Division Two: Team Rowan vs Kirkintilloch

Team Rowan won this match 11-5, although me and Anna were outplayed at our table, by Al and David. On the very first board one of them made an illegal bid, by trying to bid 1NT in response to their partner’s overall of 2♦. This lulled us into a false sense of security.

In the first half of the match me and Anna declared six contracts, and went down in all six of them. The worst was when I stretched with a nice 5 count opposite my partner’s strong NT, and ended up in 4♥ doubled with 20 points and a 4-3 fit. Of course we were vulnerable, and as I started to lose trump control I realised this was going to be a very bad one for us. I played it carefully for two off and -500, a moral victory in avoiding -1100.

In the second half things were more even. On one hand Anna had a Diamond suit of AKQxxx and shrewdly let the opponents play in 3NT. She cashed the first six tricks, and we got two more after that for 3NT-4. Then Anna actually made a contract, which is more than managed all night. My highlight was on the very last board, when I decided that rather that going for a game bonus I’d double them and go for penalties instead. This is because I’ve been reading an old book by Ely Culbertson, who says that doubling the opponents is the most profitable bid in bridge. This is aggregate scoring:

W deal, All vul ♠ Q J T x x ♥ K T x ♦ x x ♣ Q x x ♠ K x ♥ A x ♦ K J x x x ♣ K J x x 8 15 10 7 ♠ A x x x ♥ x x ♦ A Q T x ♣ x x x ♠ x x ♥ Q J 9 8 x x ♦ x x ♣ A T x

Danny Anna W N E S 1♦ 1♠ 2NT 3♥ x - - -

I opened the West hand 1♦ and North overcalled 1♠. Anna had the East hand, and decided that rather than showing Diamond support she’d show her Spade stop, so bid a natural 2NT. South came in with a bold 3♥, and I had a decision to make. I’ve got 15 points and I know that partner has 10-12, so we’ve got enough for 3NT, and I’ve got a Heart stop too. But I thought that since we’ve got so many points, and the opponents don’t have a Heart fit (as far as I know) I should go for the big score and try for penalties. So I hit them with what I hoped would be a killer penalty double.

I went for a K♠ lead, as partner should have some Spades for the 2NT bid. When dummy came down I was a bit worried about the good Hearts, was hoping partner had them. Anna played the ♠9 on the first trick (giving count), and seeing the good Spades in dummy I had to switch. I switched to Clubs, which gives declarer an easy second Club trick. When I was back in with the ♥A I had another chance, and this time I did find the Diamond switch, else declarer can actually make the contract by setting up dummy's Spades. After taking the second Diamond Anna greedily cashed her spades;A. This was the setting trick, but set up the Spades in dummy so we never got any Clubs at all. So in the end we just got our five top tricks for 3♥x-1 and +200, but with better defence we get a Club trick too, for 3♥x-2 and +500.

At the time I was worried those three good Hearts in dummy meant declarer might make 3♥, but actually those Hearts are good news for us. It means that North-South have good enough Hearts that 3NT for East-West is failing on a normal Heart lead. So getting +200 meant that was probably a good board for us, even if we could have taken more tricks (and can actually make 5♦).

The most exciting hand of the day was this zinger. It generated some discussion after the match, meaning I can report what happened on some other tables too. First here's me and Anna in defence:

E deal, Love All ♠ x ♥ A T 9 x x ♦ A K 9 x x ♣ x x ♠ ♥ Q x x ♦ Q T x x x ♣ A x x x x 11 8 7 14 ♠ 9 7 x x x ♥ x ♦ J x ♣ K Q J T 8 ♠ A K Q J T 8 x ♥ K J x x ♦ x ♣ x

Danny Anna W N E S - 1♠ 2NT* 3♥ 5♣ 5♠ - - -

South opened 1♠. I think they were playing Strong Twos on our table, but it's maybe not enough for 2♠. Anna sitting West found a nice bid of 2NT, which is a bid she’s famously forgotten a few times. We play it here as showing both minors at least 5-5, and either a weak or strong hand. North came straight in over this with 3♥, and it came to me as East. We’ve a big Club fit, so I’m definitely worth at least 4♣. But I’m a big fan of pre-sacrificing and went for 5♣. Over this South instantly bid 5♠, which was passed round to me. I have five trumps, and did consider a double, as it’s not often you get five trumps in defence. There’s also a good argument for bidding 6♣, as with all my Spades partner probably has none.

Against 5♣ Anna wisely lead her A♣, then another Club. South ruffed this, and drew all five of my trumps. He then played a Heart to the Ace, and lead a Heart back towards his King. He conceded a Heart along with the one Club for 5♠=.

If I did bid 6♣, and played there doubled it’s two or three off. There’s two Diamonds and a Heart to lose, and maybe another Diamond too depending on what happens. But a &6clubs; bid might also push them to 6♥ or 6♠, and they might well make it. You can take the Heart finesse, and in 6♠ declarer should play West for long Hearts when she shows up with no Spades. Also, if you’re prepared to run all of your trumps then you also make it without needing the Heart finesse, as West will be forced to throw away too many Diamonds or too many Hearts, and you get your twelfth trick with a squeeze. 6♥ is harder, and needs an immediate guess for who to finesse Hearts.

Each hand in the league matches is played by four tables. What happened on the other tables?

On Trish’s table she opened 4♠ and played there:

	Christine		Trish
W	N	E	S
		-	4♠
-	-	-

On a Diamond lead she threw away her losing Club, then guessed Hearts for 4♠+3

On Jill and Aileen’s table they sat East-West like us. East opened a Lucas 2♠, showing 5 Spades and a minor. Apparently it ended with them sacrificing in 7♣x:

W	N	E	S
		2♠*
[not sure what happened here]
7♣	x

After the event Trish contacted John Matheson and asked for his recommended auction from North-South, assuming no interference. Here's what he suggested:

W	N	E	S
		-	1♠
-	2♥	-	4NT*
-	5♥*	-	6♠
-	-	-

South chooses to play in Spades, so that when you run them you have a chance to find out about the Heart suit.

Overall then, another good win, 11-5.

Winter Pairs Round Four

The Winter Pairs is the best four results over several months. Anna and I now have three good scores to our name, after a big night last Wednesday. We both bid pretty wildly, but we got away with it. Against Norman and John I overbid the first board, which worked out well, then successfully underbid the next, for two good scores.

Anna John Danny Norman W N E S 1NT - - 2♣* - 2♠ - - -

Here’s the first of these boards. Norman opened a strong NT, and Anna paused for a while before passing, looking like she was going to bid but finally deciding not to. John also passed, and I came in with a controversial Crowhurst 2♣, showing majors. In normal circumstances I think my bid is just about OK, but after Anna’s big pause I should probably pass. I should pass not because Anna’s pause has suggested my bid (I’m pretty sure I’d do it anyway), but because after her pause, which suggests bidding, I have an alternative bid of Pass, and if there’s any sensible alternative I should take it.

As John states on his blog here, my bid didn’t actually affect the score that much. Either we get +140 for 2♠+1 or we get +100 for beating 1NT by one trick. Both of these beat all the East-Wests losing points by going down in 3♦, so Anna’s dodgy Pass had already won the Board.

My overcall was lucky, finding partner with good Spade support and some distribution. Next on Board 24 hand I compensated by underbidding. Anna opened with 1♠, and I had 13 points. Even after she rebid Spades I only invited to game, and we stopped in 3♠. After we had failed to bid a game, I was hoping that everything would break badly, and it did, combined with some deadly defence from John and Norman. Anna finished on 3♠-2, which was actually good news as it meant I’d guessed right not to bid 4♠.

Here’s a couple of hands where me and Anna showed a lack of partnership trust.

Anna Danny W N E S 1♥ 1♠ 3♥ 3♠ 4♣ 4♠ x - - 5♥ - - -

I swithered for a long time then bid a dubious 1♥. South overcalled 1♠ and Anna gave me a generous raise to 3♥. North bid 3♠ and I didn’t really know what I was doing and bid 4♣, thinking this might help Anna on lead if we were in defence. South bid 4♠, and Anna doubled. This was a well thought out double. Anna knew the opponents had some Diamond length (I had Hearts and Clubs), and was planning to lead A♦ and another. Then when she got in with her AS she could cross to my hand and get a ruff. In fact, on this layout, she could have got two ruffs for 4♠x-2.

But I was anxious about defending with a ten card Heart fit, and removed her double with a reckless 5♥. This was passed out. After a Diamond lead I took the Ace, and cashed the AS, discarding a Diamond with the air of someone discarding his last Diamond loser. My simple ruse worked, and later when North lead a Club I was allowed to discard dummy’s losing Diamond on a Club. So after misbidding I got a very undeserved top for 5♥=. That’s how you do it.

Anna Danny W N E S 1NT 2♥* 2♠ - - 3♦ - 3♥ 3♠ - - - x 4♥ - - -

Next it was Anna’s turn to bottle it. South opened a weak NT and Anna overcalled 2♥, showing Hearts and a minor. Her hand is a bit too good for this bid, but the alternative of double isn’t very nice either. I was planning to pass this as East, expecting partner to make it. But over Anna’s 2♥ North came right in with 2♠. I still passed, and Anna came back in again with 3♦. I corrected this to 3♥, and now South chose to show some support with 3♠. With all his points in Spades this seems quite a reasonable bid (and I might have raised Spades before with that South hand), but actually it could be expensive. Anna passed 3♠ and I doubled it. I doubled as partner has shown a good hand, and I can see a couple of Club tricks for myself, and maybe partner can get a Club ruff too. In fact defending 3♠x we take two Hearts, three Diamonds and two Clubs, for 3♠x-4 and +1100. But since she had a distributional hand and a Spade void (and hadn’t looked at the vulnerability), Anna removed my double by bidding 4♥.

With both finesses onside, this made twelve tricks, for 4♥+2 scoring +480. This was a good score, as most East-West pairs weren’t in game. We wouldn't have been in game either, but for the intervening bidding from North-South, who can count themselves unlucky for pushing us into a making game.

So, you can see we made a few mistakes but got away with it. Don’t think we’re going to make it to Peebles, so apart from one more league match this could be our festive retirement until the New Year – or beyond, as there’s no Winter Pairs in January.

Two weeks in a day - Deal of the Week #11

Friday lunch time I substituted for NC at the culmination of the week's lunch time bridge. They'd have done better without me. First of all I needlessly powered us into a 5♣ contract (3♣ would have been enough for the rubber), then needlessly played my Ace of Clubs when I was already winning with the Six. I blame it on the tough match at Maccabi the night before.

Luckily, 5♣ still made, so NC and JW were still all set to win the week. Then I was foolish again. On the very last hand TB took a wild gamble on 6♥, knowing he needed a big score to overcome his deficit. I played right into his hands and doubled. My partner was astonished. Of course TB redoubled. It would have been hugely embarrassing if 6♥xx made, but TB really was pushing it, and to my relief the contract went four off.

Later on Friday TB suggested we play another whole week's worth of bridge. "It's only a game" said JW, and agreed to the double or nothing. To add extra spice both BM and SG made their competitive debuts on the bridge table.

Having had a few drinks I can barely remember any of the hands, including the ones I attempted to write down or even photograph. I do remember it came down to this deal though, with JW and NC needing a game. I've lost my bit of paper but I think it looked like this:

♠ A K x x x ♥ x ♦ x x x ♣ J x x x

♠ Q J x x ♥ A J x x x x ♦ K x ♣ x

JW NC W E 1♥ 1♠ 3♠ 4♠

NC sitting East opened 1♥, and JW sitting West replied 1♠. NC then asked me about his rebid. He only has 11 points, but it's a great hand once you have a Spade fit. "Have you heard of the Australian Ron Klinger" I asked? He had, and based on the distribution NC jumped to 3♠. JW had been accepting every invitational bid all day (down one is good bridge) and had no trouble accepting this invite too, with a good trump suit.

The defence started on Clubs, but with a singleton in dummy, and North having the ♦A, the defence could only come to two tricks. 4♠+1, based on a combined 19 count, was a great result.

That was enough to clinch it, so JW and NC won a second week on the same day.

Jackie Josephson Cup: Maccabi vs Team Rowan

This Thursday Team Rowan travelled to Maccabi Club for what I think is the third round of the Jackie Josephson Cup [Edit - name corrected]. I don't know how many rounds there are in total, but we've done well so far. This is a knockout tournament between all the teams in the Glasgow league, with handicaps if teams in different divisions play. Tonight our opponents were Division One, so we started with a vital 1500 point headstart.

Me and Anna took our usual seats on Table 4, against an excellent young Polish pair called Peter and Darius. "My partner is weak in English" said Peter, "so I will explain for both of us.". They were playing a Polish Club system, which has a lot of artificial bids, especially the 1♣ opener. This shows "any 11-14 hand, a medium hand with Clubs, or any 18+ hand".

I've got a bit of experience with Polish Club, as me and Ted used to play it sometimes at Edinburgh University. Together we wrote up the full system notes on a website here. And here's another old article I wrote with all the key bridge terms in Polish (and Greek) - click here.

Anna isn't so familiar with Polish Club, and in the one minute while we shuffled the cards we tried to come up with a bidding defence. I talked very quickly, and Anna had no chance. This could be a long night, against 1st Division opponents playing a funny system.

On the first few hands we actually did OK, and when I made a nice 4♥ I relaxed a bit. Peter and Darius bid a lot of games, maybe thinking they could steal some 3NT contracts, but we defended staunchly. They would sometimes have a rapid fire conversation in Polish between hands, and on more than one occasion declarer showed all his cards to dummy (and us) then we continued playing.

At the break the scores were fairly even. I overheard their team captain saying that the Boards were a bit flat, meaning they hadn't been able to overcome their 1500 point deficit. They needn't have worried, in the second half there were plenty of big swings.

Here's one where me and Anna got a good result, defending against the Polish Club.

E deal, Love all ♠ A 9 x ♥ K x x ♦ J x x x ♣ x x x ♠ T x x ♥ x x x x ♦ x x x ♣ J x x 8 1 25 6 ♠ K Q J x ♥ A ♦ A K Q ♣ A Q x x x ♠ 8 x x ♥ Q J T x x ♦ x x x ♣ K T

Me Anna Danny W N E S 1♣* 1♥ - 2♥ 2♠ - - -

East opened the ubiquitous 1♣, showing either a weak hand, medium hand with Clubs, or a strong hand. The defence I'd hurriedly suggested to Anna was that overcalls of 1♣ were natural, but that we would have special meanings for double and 1NT. Double shows Majors, 1NT shows Minors. Here I just made a simple overcall of 1♥. I'm pretty weak but I like to get in quickly if the opponents have a potentially strong hand.

Me and Anna support each other without much, and Anna can always be relied on to give a courtesy raise. Here she found a fine 2♥ bid, also with a rubbish hand. East then came in with 2♠ showing that this time his 1♣ opener was the strong hand. He's got a full 25 points. I'm not sure why he bid 2♠ rather than doubling (or even bidding 3♣). Anyway, his bid is forcing, as it shows 18+, without any upper limit. So West shouldn't pass, but he did. If you're ever going to pass partner's forcing bid, West has the right hand to do it, a very flat one count. Also he might have thought me and Anna were a bit stronger for our bids, leaving less points for his partner.

2♠ was passed out, and East wasn't happy. I lead the ♥Q and he took the ♥A and started on Clubs. Me and Anna kept forcing him in Hearts, and he kept ruffing in hand. Eventually, he lead the last Spade from dummy. Anna won it with the ♠9. Declarer was lucky, as our Spades split 3-3, and even luckier that it was Anna who won the last one and not me, as by that point Anna had no more Hearts to cash. So declarer lost just one Club and two trumps for 2♠+2. This might have looked like they had missed a game, but really 4♠ is a very bad contract, and 3NT fails on a Heart lead. I suppose you can make 5♣, but it's hard to get there. If they choose to defend 2♥x it probably goes two off. So I'm not sure what happened at the other tables, but actually 2♠+2 might have been quite a good result for East-West.

Later I was feeling quite bold and took the unprecedented step of raising Anna's 1♠ response with only three Spades. She didn't mind as she had six of them, and made 4♠ exactly. On the penultimate Board Anna opened 1♠ and again I was bold, this time raising here with just an Ace and no other points. Again we ended up in 4♠, this time doubled. It had a chance to make, all depending on playing this trump suit for no losers:

♠ A Q T x x x

♠ 9 x x x

Since West had doubled Anna went for a Spade to the ten, which ruefully lost to East's singleton Jack. 4♠x-1.

On the very last Board it was my turn to get doubled.

E deal, Game all ♠ J T x x x x ♥ K x ♦ Q T x ♣ J x ♠ Q ♥ J x x x x x ♦ J x x x ♣ K x 7 7 13 13 ♠ x ♥ Q x x ♦ A K x ♣ A x x x x x ♠ A K x x x ♥ A x ♦ x x x ♣ Q T x

Me Anna Danny W N E S 2♣* 2♠ - 4♠ x - - -

East opened 2♣, which showed 11-14 and six Clubs, or five Clubs and four of a Major. Basically it's the sort of hand we'd open1♣, but they have to open 2♣ as they use 1♣ already for something else. We'd not got round to discussing a defence to this, and previously when they bid it we had a mix up and missed game. This time I overcalled 2♠ and Anna showed no hesitation in boosting me up to 4♠. East doubled this, and Anna apologised when she put dummy down. But I think she's got her bid, I'm maybe at fault for stretching a bit with the 2♠ overcall.

West lead the ♣K, and I had a look at dummy. There was no way I could make this contract, as I had at least four losers in the minors. The best I could hope for was one off. East continued with another Club to East's Ace. East cashed two Diamonds and I was already one off. The came the defensive coup d'etat. East lead a third Club, and West was able to ruff with her singleton ♠Q, higher than all the trumps in dummy. So we finished with 4♠x-2, for 500 points out. Looking at all four hands it looks like West can probably make Four Hearts, but with an eleven card fit North-South are always playing 4♠, though probably not always doubled. "Dobre kontra" I said to East.

After we had finished there was still one table playing, so we all had to wait and see what happened there. Could we hang on? After all the scores were added we had lost the match by a few hundred points, but with our 1500 point bonus we scraped through to the next round.

A famous victory!

Too cool for just one school

Last Friday afternoon was dedicated to bridge.

First at lunch time bridge TB and AP won a very topsy-turvy week. The Deal of the Week was undoubtedly a very improbable auction to 4♥, doubled and off five.

After lunch I had my weekly Bridge Club with about ten 2nd and 3rd year boys. It's an informal club, with the focus on having fun. I hope if any of them really like it they can come back and learn properly. I've got them on to full bidding pretty quickly, and a sort of simplified scoring. The scoring is important to them, as they were always keen to know who was winning. This week I introduced the double and the redouble, and things quickly got out of hand.

After school I went across town to Hutchesons Grammar School, where John DiMambro runs a proper bridge club. There's even an associated mini-bridge club at the primary school. What a great setup. There's folders of notes he's prepared for his pupils, all with associated wallets of deals and print outs. It was very impressive.

It took me an hour to get there, so I didn't have much time in the club. I saw the seniors were being coached by Ronald Gaffin, then headed down the room to the juniors. I joined a table of three, and me and a 1st year pupil had a really horrible auction to 4♠, based on a 4-3 fit, 21 points and several misunderstandings. Shockingly, we made the game, which I think made for a very poor teaching point, and might have set back that table several months of learning how to bid properly.

Then I joined the next table up, which was playing a series of hands on the theme of Opening 1NT and Stayman. Here's the full deal and auction.

S deal, Love all ♠ A 8 ♥ K Q x x ♦ x x x x ♣ x x x ♠ K Q T 7 x ♥ T 9 x x ♦ K Q ♣ x x 9 10 5 17 ♠ J 9 ♥ x x x ♦ x x x ♣ K T x x ♠ x x x x ♥ A J x ♦ A J ♣ A Q J x

Me Pupil Teacher Pupil W N E S 1NT - 2♣ - 2♠ - 2NT - 3NT - - -

The pupils were sitting North and South. I sat West, opposite a teacher. The pupil sitting South opened a strong 1NT, and his partner replied with 2♣ Stayman. After the 2♠ response North bid an invitational 2NT, and South immediately accepted and bid a game. He bid it so quickly I'm not sure if he even checked if he was maximum, or if he just likes to bid games. Could he back up his confidence?

Even though South had shown four Spades with his 2♠ bid, I had to lead a Spade. Without much thought I lead the ♠K - we'll come back to that opening lead. The spotlight was now on South. He rapidly called for the Ace. Did declarer know what he was doing, or was he simply grabbing his Ace? John DiMambro came over and checked that declarer had counted his tricks (he had), and that he had a plan (he had). Declarer described exactly how many top tricks there were (seven), and what the best suit was to get two more (Clubs). I went off to talk to the next table, but when I came back declarer had indeed bagged nine tricks, taking the Club finesse twice. Well played!

Now let's come back to that opening lead. This is the Spade suit:

	♠ A 8
♠ K Q T 7 x		J 9
	♠ x x x x

On this particular layout leading the ♠K would have been fine. If I get back in I can lead the ♠Q, and my ♠7 will be a fourth round winner. But, what about on other layouts? Remember, from the auction I know that South has got four Spades. If my partner has the ♠J then of course leading a low Spade would be much better. For example:

	♠ A 8
♠ K Q T 7 x		J x
	♠ 9 x x x

Here I have to start with a low Spade. If I begin with the ♠K then declarer ends up with a second stopper. But what about when declarer has the Jack? I'd hate to give away a trick by leading low. You can just about come up with a situation where it's best to start with the King:

	♠ x
♠ K Q T 7 x		9 8 x
	♠ A J x x

But even then it's not looking good for the defence. I think then, on balance, I'm convinced that a low lead is best. So I've learnt something at Hutchie today as well.

Thanks to Hutchesons school for a very warm welcome at their Bridge Club. I look forward to meeting their future stars across the table!

East Swiss Pairs

On Sunday me and John Faben got the train from Glasgow through to Edinburgh to play in the East Swiss Pairs. We got a bit lost walking there and arrived about a minute after the official start. My partner for the day, Krzystof Nguyen, was already there. I was hoping to eat lunch first, but there was no time, and Kris was bombarding me with a series of questions about 4-4-4-1 openings. To be honest I've never really thought about it, and deflected him by going to the toilet. Kris had kindly agreed to play all of me and Anna's system, which meant he would be in unfamiliar Acol territory.

The format was seven rounds of six boards each. You start at a random table, and if you win you move up the room towards the top table. Lose, and you move down the room further into oblivion. Right at the start on Board One we let the opponents make 3NT+4. They thought they'd missed a slam, but actually 3NT+4 was a very good score for them. Me and Kris were both defending to try and beat the contract, which could never be beaten, so we let through an extra overtrick. Then on Board 3 Kris had

♠ ♥ Q432 ♦ KJ53 ♣ KQJT3.

He had an Acol meltdown and opened 1♦, which lead to playing 2♦ on a 4-2 fit, which he played nicely for only one down. Then on Board 4 he opened a bold 4♥ and made it doubled, and on Board 6 made an excellent overtrick in 4♠. Things were going quite well, with me being dummy.

We won the first round 12-8, and moved up the room a bit. In the second round Kris kept playing and I kept being dummy, and we won 14-6 to move up to Table 6. This turned out to be a high watermark. In round three against a very good pair they stuffed us full of overtricks. Then on Board 18 I was sitting South, and had a tricky matchpoints decision. Sadly, I bottled it.

Board 18 E deal, NS vul ♠ A 7 5 ♥ J 9 ♦ A Q 9 3 ♣ K J 3 2 ♠ Q J 9 4 ♥ A K T 4 ♦ K J T 8 ♣ 9 15 14 4 7 ♠ T 6 ♥ 8 6 3 2 ♦ 6 5 2 ♣ A 8 6 4 ♠ K 8 3 2 ♥ Q 7 5 ♦ 7 4 ♣ Q T 7 5

Kris Danny W N E S 1♥ x 2♥ - - -

West opened 1♥ and Kris sitting North doubled. East bid 2♥, which is a great bid. I wasn't sure what to bid as South. I didn't really like my hand, and thought it was too flat, and lots of other excuses, so I just passed. We beat 2♥ by one trick for +50, but actually that was a bad score as we could make 2♠ (on a 4-3 fit) or even 2NT.

Next up was Board 13. This was undoubtedly the Board of the day. I promise you this isn't a misprint:

Board 13 N deal, Game all ♠ A 7 5 ♥ J 9 ♦ A Q 9 3 ♣ K J 3 2 ♠ T 4 ♥ A K ♦ Q J 7 6 ♣ A K T 9 6 15 17 8 9 ♠ J 9 8 3 ♥ Q 6 4 ♦ K ♣ Q 8 7 4 3 ♠ A 7 5 2 ♥ J T 9 5 3 ♦ A 9 5 ♣ 5

Kris Danny W N E S 1♣ - 1♥ 1NT x - - -

Kris sitting North opened 1♣, and I replied 1♥. West overcalled 1NT and Kris doubled. This was passed out. I was sitting South, feeling good that we were going to beat this contract. Then, Kris lead the ♥J. I also had the ♥J in my hand. I stared at his lead for at least a minute, in disbelief. I was checking they were both Jacks, and checking they were both Hearts, again and again. Finally I called over the Tournament Director, who realised what had happened straight away, and assumed the cards had been wrongly placed in the wallet from the previous deal. Then we figured out that actually Kris had just kept all his cards from the last deal! Compare the North hand in this diagram with the one above.

Here's what must have happened - he finished the previous Board, shuffled his cards and put them down. Then, a few seconds later, picked them up, sorted them, and started bidding again! To be fair, he was sitting North and dealing with the Bridgemate, which no one enjoys doing. West said that when he saw dummy he was looking forward to it too as he thought he could make it easily - what he didn't know of course it that we were playing with a deck with nearly 50 points in it.

The Director ruled that we couldn't play the Board, and automatically awarded us an average minus (40%) and the opponents an average plus (60%). This 40% was actually one of our better deals, and we lost the round heavily. We lost the next round too, as by now we were both very hungry.

I had some coconut soup and a delicious coconut cake for lunch. The cake was so good I bought two to take away to give to Anna. I was feeling pretty relaxed - I think I'd only played about three hands so far. In fact, in the whole day, of 42 boards, I played only 5, and was dummy 19 times. I think this might have been because of my conservative bidding, and Kris's bold bidding. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones playing 6♣x-2 on Board 11.

After the break we emerged refreshed and had a fun match against Jun and Yvonne. I thought we were doing well, but we somehow lost this one too. There was a lowpoint on Board 27. I opened 1♦, Yvonne showed both majors with 2♦, and Kris ended up having a punt at 3NT with no Spade stop. The hand quickly unravelled for 3NT-5. Then Jun and Yvonne avoided 3NT and bid an excellent 4♥ on Board 30, so maybe on balance we did deserve to lose the match.

We were now firmly in the bottom half of the field. In the penultimate round we played Frances and Ronnie from Glasgow. Like I do in every round, I decided that now was the time to make our move. This time I meant it though. I decided to stop being shy, and on Board 34 powered to 6♥ based on a 5-2 Heart fit. When this made I knew it was a good round, and we moved back up the room a bit.

On the final round I kept up the momentum, and bid up to the maximum on the final board. I've starred the conventional bids in the auction below:

Board 42 E deal, Game all ♠ A J 9 8 6 5 ♥ A J 2 ♦ 3 ♣ A K Q ♠ T 4 ♥ Q 9 7 5 ♦ 8 6 5 ♣ 7 5 4 2 15 17 8 9 ♠ Q 3 2 ♥ K 8 6 4 3 ♦ T 9 7 4 ♣ J ♠ K 7 ♥ T ♦ A K Q J 2 ♣ T 9 8 6 3

Danny Kris W N E S 1♦ - 1♠ - 2♣ - 2♥* - 3♣ - 3♠* - 4♠ - 4NT* - 5♥* - 5NT* - 6♦* - 7♣ - - -

Kris sitting South opened 1♦, I replied 1♠, and he bid 2♣. All normal so far. Then I bid the fourth suit, 2♥, which we play as fourth suit forcing to game. Now that we are forced to game we can both relax and show the shape of our hands. Kris showed his 5-5 shape with 3♣, and I showed a sixth spade with 3♠ (If Kris had three Spades he'd have bid them last round, so for me to still have interest in Spades I must have six of them). Kris raised me to 3♠, and now we've now found the eight card Spade fit. I can now figure out that his shape must be 2-1-5-5 or maybe 2-0-6-5. The important this is that he can only have at most one Hearts, so looking at my hand we've no Hearts losers - and if Spades are good no losers in any other suit either.

I bid 4NT Blackwood, and Kris's 5♥ reply showed 2 keycards (the ♣A and ♦A) and no queen of trumps - i.e. no Queen of Spades. Since I know he doesn't have the Queen of Spades I know that 7♠ is going to be a dodgy contract, depending on the Spade finesse at best. But, I slowly thought to myself, if we have another trump suit, we'll be able to set up the Spades by playing off the Ace and King and ruffing one in his hand. There's still a chance of a grand slam, just not in Spades. I bid 5NT to ask for Kings. He bid 5♦, which could show one King or the King of Diamonds depending what system you play. I didn't care, which he had, and went ahead and bid a massive 7♣.

Kris did remarkably well to pass this, given that he only had five Clubs to the Ten and I'd shown no Club support before. West lead a Club, and when the ♣J dropped from East it was nearly home. He drew a second round of trumps, then crossed to the South hand via ruffing a Heart. He ruffed his ♦2, the only possible loser in the South hand. He could now draw trumps and claim. So, in fact his Diamonds were so strong he never needed my Spades. And in fact you can make 7NT just by cashing top tricks as well. But I prefer being in 7♣, and I think this beat most of the field who were in 6♠. Fools.

With this strong finish we came 11th overall, good enough for the 2nd Bronze prize. Full rankings are here, congratulations to the overall winners Catriona Gardiner & Malcolm Mccardle.

Afterwards we went to Bennetts Bar with the other juniors (in bridge terms I'm still a junior) for a drink. We also met up with some of the bridge players from the Scottish Pairs Trials. But make no mistake, the big event of the day was taking place at the Carlton Club. If you are interested, the results of the Scottish trials can be found on the SBU site here with a brief report on Paul Gipson's blog here.

Killer Lead #1

This will be the first in what will undoubtedly be a long series of killer leads I've found.

Here's the auction, and your hand. You are South. It's from a Bridge Base Matchpoints tournament.

After the opponents have opened and replied, you've come in with 2♣. Partner has supported with 3♣, and you've pushed it to 4♣. With a double fit, they've finished in 4♥.

What do you lead?

Of course it's tempting to lead out the top Clubs. But that's not the killer lead. Here's the full deal.

Of course I found the killer lead - the ♠K!. Declarer won this and tried two round of trumps with the ♥A and ♥K, then started on Diamonds. But Anna ruffed in with the ♥Q. We then took our two Spades and a Club for 4♥-1 and 88% on the deal.

Criminal - Deal of the Week #10

This week TB and AP crushed the opposition to win the week and recover the lead in the series. But there were some missed opportunities - criminal misses.

Here's one where a mix up caused a missed game:

♠ K J x x x ♥ A 9 x ♦ A x ♣ x x x ♠ A Q x x ♥ J T 8 x x ♦ x x ♣ K x

Danny W N E S - - - 1♠ - 2♥ - - -

I had the North hand. After three passes, the bidding came round to me. With most partners I'd open that hand 1♠ in an instant, but in lunch time bridge you normally need thirteen points to open, so it's a borderline opener. After three passes you should open borderline hands only when you have good Spades, as the side with Spades can win the auction cheaply. So I opened 1♠. South, who originally passed, now has a much better hand, and is thinking straight away of playing 4♠.

But instead South bid 2♥, confident that his partner, who opened the bidding, would bid again. But his partner (me), didn't bid again. I didn't realise partner could have Spade support, and passed, thinking that was a cheap way to leave us in a low level making contract. With the ♣A and ♥KQ onside the result was an embarrassing 2♥+3. I now know that the house rules are that after you open you promise another bid - even if partner is a passed hand. This isn't a great agreement, but it's worth sacrificing a bit of bidding accuracy for simplicity so I'm happy to follow this from now on.

In the second hand below it's pretty clear what went wrong, we were in the wrong game. But I'm still not quite sure how to stop it:

♠ Q x ♥ - ♦ A K J x ♣ A K J 9 x x x ♠ K x x ♥ A Q 9 8 x x ♦ Q x x ♣ Q

Danny W N E S 1♥ - 2♣ - 2♥ - 4♣ - 4♥ - - -

South opened 1♥ and North replied 2♣. South rebid 2♥, which almost always shows a six card suit. North then showed his good Clubs, and slam ambition, with 4♣. The only bid available for South now is 4♥, which he bid. North then passed this, following the principle of keeping the bidding low in a misfit. But there's a saying "What do you call an eight card suit? Trumps!". North only has seven Clubs but looking at it now they're so good you know you're unlikely to ever lose more than one Club, but you can imagine several losers with Hearts as trumps.

South was stuck as declarer in 4♥. It looks pretty bad. You've got the ♠A to lose, along with probably three trumps (the ♥K, ♥J and ♥T). Even if you somehow get lucky and an opponent is forced to drop the ♥K for example, it's not really lucky as it just means the Hearts have split badly. After a Diamond lead the only shot is to try and discard your losing Spades on the winning Clubs and Diamonds. By the time you are discarding the last Spade an opponent will be out of Clubs and ruffing you, but if you are lucky trumps will split 4-3 and it will be the hand with four trumps that ruffs. Then you can draw trumps only losing that one ruff and two more.

South played this way, and briefly it looked like it might work, until the defence engineered a Diamond ruff, so the result was 4♥-1. This is bad news, as there's no beating 6♣ - you just lose one Spade. Another criminal missed opportunity.

Glasgow Division Two: Team Rowan vs Maccabi

After work on Tuesday me and Anna went straight to the Buchanan Club for a league match. I was starving. As we waited for our opponents to arrive some stories went round about how good they were going to be. Sure enough, in came a couple of Scotland Internationals. On our table we were up against Peter Cohen, the SBU Convenor [Edited as I got this wrong before], and his wife Helena.

Early on me and Anna bid to a rather wild 6♠. Helena cashed the ♥A in defence, so I needed to win the rest. This was the position in trumps:

	♠ J 9 8 7
		♠ Q T 6 4
	♠ A K 5 3 2

I didn't fancy it much, but decided to try cashing the ♠AK. On the ♠A, West showed out, and I knew I had to go down. In the end, I actually used one of dummy's trumps to ruff something, making my trumps even more vulnerable. East was now able to make two trump tricks, so the result was 6♠-2.

The hand's worth mentioning because of Peter's decision as East not to double me, despite his excellent trumps. In 6♠x I can actually make it, if I am bold enough to run the ♠9 on the first round. I'm not sure if I would have taken that line or not, it depends if I think he's doubling because of his trumps or because we've had such a poor auction.

It was chilly in the room, but I was warm. This is the natural progression of things in a league match: first, I feel warm and take my jumper off; next, Anna feels cold and borrows my jumper and puts it on her knees; finally Anna puts my jumper on.

Me and Anna had a mixed first half. On the downside we had missed a couple of games (including bidding that bad slam). On the upside we defended well. The highlight was a good 500 penalty when I had a Spade void and kept doubling the opponents for takeout and Anna kept passing, right up until she finally passed 4♠x and we beat it by three. At the break the team was surprisingly about 1000 points up. I had part of a sandwich I'd bought from Subway earlier, and we emerged rejuvenated.

In the second half me and Anna took down a series of part scores, which I think probably added up to one game altogether. There was a lot more bidding, including in my featured hand. I'm not sure if we got a good result here or not.

N deal, Love all ♠ A J 9 7 ♥ A J T x ♦ x ♣ K J T 9 ♠ x x ♥ Q x x ♦ A K Q x x x ♣ x x 14 11 8 7 ♠ K x x ♥ K x x ♦ x x x ♣ Q x x x ♠ Q T x x ♥ x x x ♦ J x x ♣ A x x

Danny Anna W N E S 1♣ - 1♠ 2♦ 3♦ - 3♠ - - -

I've got the decent North hand. Me and Anna have never really discussed how to open 4-4-4-1 hands, but I think when the singleton is a Diamond like this we're both agreed in opening 1♣. Anna replied 1♠, and West came in with a very solid 2♦ overcall (with partner having already passed 3♦ is a possibility also). Now I know we've got a Spade fit I've got a decision as North. I've only got 14 points, but it's only five losers and all the suits are very chunky. I thought about bidding an immediate game, but wound my neck in and only bid 3♦, which showed an invitational raise in Spades. I should probably have just bid 3♠ as an invite in Spades, but I bid 3♦ and Anna knew what I meant. With a minimum hand, she corrected to 3♠ and I passed.

3♠ is a tough contract, as you want to draw trumps so you can set up Clubs and Hearts, but you also want to ruff some Diamonds.

Anna got the ♦A lead, then another top Diamond, which she ruffed. With few entries to hand Anna immediately finessed Clubs, leading the ♣J, then the ♣T, then a third round of Clubs to her ♣A which West ruffed. The defence kept playing Diamonds and Anna kept ruffing them, and in the end the defence came to one trick in each suit, for 3♠=. Afterwards, I asked Anna why she didn't draw trumps once she'd guessed the Club finesse correctly. Her reply was "Don't confuse me, let's play the next Board", which we did. Maybe if you draw trumps you then lose the ability to ruff the last Diamond, so get nine tricks anyway.

What do you think of me inviting game in Spades? After I invited game I wished I has just bid 4♠ instead, and when Anna refused the invite by only bidding 3♠ I thought about topping it up myself, though this would have been a bit ridiculous.

My North hand, 14 points 4-4-4-1 shape and only five losers is almost exactly the same hand that John Faben features in his blog about the Buchanan Winter Pairs here.

♠ KQT4 ♥ QJ52 ♦ KQJT ♣ 4

With this hand John decided to only raise his partner's 1♠ bid to 2♠. I actually had the same cards as John in that event, and when I got the hand I also bid 3♠. So at least I'm consistent.

For the rest of our league match me and Anna played fairly well, finishing with a flourish with 6♠ on the last hand. There was a lot of high level interference during that auction from Peter, so after I decided to bid 6♠ I was pretty anxious putting my dummy down. But to my relief, Anna claimed twelve tricks almost immediately. On our table we won the second half by about 700 points.

Overall, Team Rowan won the match by 480 points, a tiny margin over a total of 96 hands of bridge. In fact, it's exactly 5 points per board. The narrow points victory translated into winning the match 9-7.

Playing the Long Game - Deal of the Week #9

It was a big week of Lunch Time Bridge. On Wednesday I took over one hand from AP, and me and TB quickly bid up to 4♥. Then I saw JW putting away his cards before the end of the auction, and decided to try and punish his impudence with an immediate 6♥ bid. Me and dummy only had 22 points between us, but with a big trump fit and lots of distribution it finished 6♥+1.

But that's not the Deal of The Week. This comes from Friday, and features NC stealing a game. Here's the full deal:

S deal, Love all ♠ A J T x x ♥ T x ♦ J 9 8 x ♣ A x ♠ x x ♥ K Q x ♦ x x x ♣ K Q x x x 10 10 7 13 ♠ x x x ♥ x x x x ♦ A Q T ♣ J T x ♠ K Q x ♥ A J x x ♦ K x x ♣ x x x

W N E S 1♥ - 1♠ - 1NT - 2NT - 3♠ - 3NT - - -

South has a balanced 13 count. Playing a strong NT he opens one of a suit (here Hearts), then rebids 1NT over his partner's 1♠ bid. North has a 10 count, and made an invitational raise of 2NT. Should South accept the invitation? He's shown 12-14, and since he has a very flat 13 count, I'd say he's at the bottom of his range, and should pass. But he wanted to bid on, and so I advised him that better than just bidding 3NT is bidding 3♠, to show 3 card support, then North can bid 4♠ if he has five of them. North did have five, but preferred the nine trick 3NT game.

Looking at the North and South hands 3NT is pretty hopeless. In immediate tricks you've got 5 Spades, and two Aces, which only makes seven. You need two extra tricks. These could in theory come from Hearts, though Diamonds are a better shot. But surely the defence will take five tricks by then, if they get into the Clubs?

West lead a Club, which declarer ducked and East won with the Jack. East was then too eager to cash his winners, and took the ♦A then continued with the ♦Q, hoping his partner had the ♦K. Declarer was thus able to get three Diamond tricks, which along with his other seven winners was 3NT+1.

There's no rush for East to take his ♦A, and he does best to continue Clubs. Of course declarer will win this in dummy, but then East-West will get three more Club tricks. You've got to think long term in a No Trump contract.

Finally, how would North-South have done in 4♠? Even with the favourable Diamond position, you've still got to lose 2 Diamonds, along with 1 Club and 1 Heart, for 4♠-1. This is slightly better than 3NT though, which will either go one or two down.

Flustered at the Winter Pairs

The first Wednesday of each month at the Buchanan is the Winter Pairs. The winning pair is the one with the four best scores from all the months. Me and Anna had a good September (see here), but missed October. So it was important we came roaring back in November.

I was sitting North, and had a very busy evening. I bothered the Director several times, from mis-scoring boards. Then one Board came over from the other room, and when I looked at the wallet straight away something didn't look right with the North cards. They were absolutely stuffed in there. I had nineteen cards! My partner had seven. How on earth did that happen? The Director was called again to sort it out, but was half way through a hand himself. Later in the night we had only one opponent for ten minutes, as it turned out her partner thought it was the break. I was getting quite warm, though everyone else was cold, and at one point Anna started wearing my jumper on top of hers.

Here's a good one for us. Both sides are vulnerable.

♠ Q ♥ K 9 7 4 ♦ J 8 6 4 ♣ 8 6 5 3 ♠ J 6 4 2 ♥ - ♦ K Q T 3 ♣ A K T 9 2

Anna Danny W N E S 1♠ 2♣ 2♠ 3♣ 3♠ 4♣ - - x - - -

East opened 1♠, and I've got the nice South hand. I overcalled 2♣, and West bid 2♠. This was Matchpoint scoring, and often 2♠ finishes the auction. But not today. Anna found a 3♣ raise with her North hand, which is an excellent bid with four trumps and a singleton Spade. From her perspective, 3♣ is probably going one off but 2♠ is making. But it didn't end there - East bid again with 3♠, and, now I realised that my partner must have a singleton or void Spade, I came back in with 4♣. East doubled this and that ended the auction.

I did think about redoubling, because I've got a great hand, with some surprises the defence won't expect - excellent trumps sitting over the doubler, and a Heart void.

I got a Spade lead and made 10 tricks, just losing one Spade, one Diamond and one Club, surprisingly to West who had ♣QJx. East had made what he described as a Match Point Double, which I think was actually a very good bid. I was most impressed that after the doubled contract made, he shrugged his shoulders and that was it. West suggested maybe she should have bid 4♠, but East just said it was just one of those things, if you always double when you should occasionally you'll double a making contract.

I entered the contract into the Bridgemate as 4♣=, then we called the Director again and fixed it to 4♣x=.

With a bit more luck like that we finished the night on 55%.

Glasgow Division Two: Team Rowan vs Strathclyde

Me and Anna missed the last match for Team Rowan, a 9-7 win against Lyndoch. We were back in the team last night for another trip to Hamilton, this time against Strathclyde.

On our table we had a storming first half, gaining nearly 4000 points over the 12 hands. This was thanks in large part to two big slams. On one of them Anna opened a Weak NT (12-14), and I had this hand:

♠Ax ♥QJx ♦AQJ9xxx ♣x

It's only 14 points, but there's seven Diamonds and I liked what I saw. I investigated a slam, and when Anna showed ♦Kx in Diamonds we ended up in 6♦. We were lucky, and it made on a finesse.

On the other big one I sorted my cards and found I had a void in Hearts. Then I saw Anna reaching for the bidding box. I was almost certain she was going to bid 1♥, or worse 2♥, but to my surprise she pulled out a 1♠ bid. This hit the jackpot - I had five Spades myself. You've got to make the most of it when that happens.

♠ K x x x x ♥ - ♦ x x ♣ K Q T x x x ♠ A Q x x x ♥ Q T x ♦ A x x ♣ A x

Danny Anna W N E S 1♠ - 4♥ - 4NT - 6♠ - - -

I'm sitting North. Once Anna's opened 1♠ I have a few possible ways of showing support. I could bid a natural 4♠, but my hand is too good for that. It's only 8 points, but also it's only 5 losers. I could bid Jacoby 2NT, but we save that for hands with support and some points. So instead I bid 4♥ as a splinter, a double jump showing a good raise in partner's suit, and a void or singleton Heart. We've not discussed how strong you need to be to do this, apart from of course you need to be good enough to play 4♠. The splinter could help Anna evaluate her hand, which is especially useful if the bidding gets competitive. I thought this was quite likely as I know the opponents have lots of Hearts and a few points too.

Over my 4♥ there's not much room for Anna. She can either bid 4♠ with a minimum hand, 4NT Blackwood, or make a cuebid in Clubs or Diamonds. She wisely went for 4NT. Our normal responses are 0314, so with 1 Keycard I would bid 5♦. But of course I've also got a void in Hearts, which could be as good as another Ace. I decided that I had such a freak hand the best things was just to punt for 6♠. Anna was surprised, but passed then raked in all the tricks for 6♠+1.

Me and Anna have since agreed these Blackwood responses with a void:

5NT	Even number of keycards, and a void
6 of the void suit (or six trumps if void suit is higher than trumps)	Odd number of keycards, and a void

Some people play it the other way round, but Anna says the table above is the more memorable way, as "No Trumps feels even.". If we had have agreed this I'd have bid 6♥ on the hand above, showing one keycard and a void in Hearts.

Note that despite only having 24 points 7♠ is a fine contract. We still gained for 6♠+1, as on the other table the auction just went 1♠-4♠.

Here's the half time biscuits (pictured at the end of the interval), another excellent selection from Hamilton Bridge Club.

In the second half of the match our opponents played well to claw back lots of points, but in the end we finished with a positive score on all four tables, and won the match 15-1, and celebrated with some tablet on the drive back.

Epilogue

A week later, on Bridge Base, me and Anna were faced with a similar Blackwood-with-a-void situation.

Anna sitting North opened 1♥, East overcalled 1♠ and I splintered with 4♣. Anna made a cuebid in Spades and I bid 4NT. This was crunch time for Anna. She has two keycards, and a void in Spades. Would she simply bid 5♥ to show two keycards, or would she attempt to show the void?

Although she was worried it would take us too high, Anna bid 5NT, showing an even number of keycards and a void (presumably in Spades). I now bid 6♥. I didn't have any choice, as we were already at 5NT, but of course with my one keycard our only loser was the ♦A, so it made exactly. Even better, East doubled it.

Who's a star?

Here's a good one from me and Anna on Bridge Base last night. Jake was watching, and afterwards said to me "What a star!" I thought he was talking to me, but actually he meant my partner Anna.

I was East, and passed. It went round to Anna, sitting West. She opened 1♦. North could have overcalled 1♥, or 4♥, but went for a double. I've got big Diamond support as East, and with a weak hand short in Majors I decided to preempt to the max. I bid a big 5♦. This is obviously a weak bid, so I was very surprised when Anna topped me up to six. North doubled again, and I was getting a bit worried.

North lead the ♣A, which declarer ruffed. Anna drew trumps in one round, and then claimed, as she can ruff the Hearts in dummy. It's a slam with 22 points, and we don't even need the ♥A.

We're both stars.

Wee Sleekit Cowran Beastie - Deal of the Week #8

I should have stayed out of it. I tried to, but I couldn't help myself.

This is from today's lunch time Bridge, and it's my Deal of the Week. North-South had a chance of a slam, but chickened out, after I came in with some not very helpful advice.

S deal, Love all ♠ 6 5 4 3 ♥ Q T x ♦ K x ♣ K T 8 x ♠ 8 7 2 ♥ A K x x x x ♦ x x x ♣ Q 8 9 3 20 ♠ 9 ♥ J x x ♦ J T x x x ♣ J x x x ♠ A K Q J T ♥ x ♦ A Q x ♣ A 9 7 x

TP JW AP NC W N E S 1♠ 3♥ 3♠ - - -

NC has the big South hand, with 20 points. You could open it 2♣, but I don't think it's quite good enough. 1♠ is the right bid, and NC found it. TB sitting West came right in with 3♥, an excellent bid with a weak hand with good Hearts. JW sitting North supported Spades. Normally, this hand would only bid 2♠, but with the preempt that's not possible so he has to bid at the 3 level. After the preempt you lose a bit of accuracy, and the 3♠ bid shows either a 2♠ or 3♠ bid, so is quite wide ranging, from 5 to about 11 points.

When it gets back to South, it's crunch time. He decided to pass. This looks mad, but remember this is rubber bridge, and actually 3♠ was enough for North-South to get their game bonus, as they already had a part score. So there was no need to bid on past 3♠. No need that is, unless you are interested in slam.

South could have bid 4♠. If it wasn't rubber bridge this would be a natural bid, but since 3♠ here is already game any bid past it is looking for slam. At this point I butted in to suggest to South that actually 4♣ is a better bid, as it shows an interest in slam and shows Club strength. Opposite a 4♠ bid North would normally pass, but opposite 4♣ North's hand is looking much better, and you might get to slam.

As it is, in all the mayhem, South was coffeehoused into passing. He'd been convinced that even bidding 4♠ might be too high. Against 3♠, West lead the Ace of Hearts.

There's an easy 10 tricks - 5 spades, 3 Diamonds, and at least 2 Clubs. In fact, you can always get an extra trick in Clubs to get you up to 11 - but how do you get 12? You need to get Clubs right. After winning the ♥A West switched to the ♣Q and it was decision time for declarer. Either you assume the Club is a singleton (like it is), in which case you win with the ♣K, then finesse East for the ♣J. Or, you assume that West has ♣QJ and if you think that's the case, you have to instead win the first one with the ♣A, and finesse West for the ♣J.

Given that he was only playing 3♠, NC wasn't that bothered about making 12 tricks, but just for style he won the ♣K in dummy, drew trumps, then correctly finessed the ♣J for 3♠+3.

I was blamed for North-South failing to bid this makeable slam, and if they lose the week's bridge it's apparently my fault.

Jackie Josephson Cup: Hamilton vs Team Rowan

On Wednesday night me and Anna drove to Hamilton for the first round of the Jackie Josephson Cup. This was a usual teams of eight match, with aggregate scoring. The extra twist, which I didn't realise until half way through, was that we needed to win the match by 3000 points, because we're a Division 2 team, and our opponents Division 4.

Our opponents were two ladies who defended well throughout. They had to defend well, as Anna played all of the first four hands, and then I played lots of the rest. We missed one slam, but made a lot of games. Anna wasn't holding back. On one hand she opened a weak 2♥ then later came right back in with 5♥. I was silently shocked by the gross indiscipline, but actually it was the winning choice.

At the half way mark, Team Rowan were about 2500 points up. It could have been more, but me and Anna had one massive disaster. It's a good story, but Anna's banned me from writing about it. Just to give a flavour, but no more, here's how the auction started:

	Anna		Danny
W	N	E	S
		1♣	3♣

My 3♣ confused everyone, and was not a success. When the dust settled I was in 6♦x-5, costing us 1100 points. The good news is that there was no argument from us afterwards, and we recovered well enough.

Here's a couple of hands from the second half:

♠ K J x x x ♥ J T x x ♦ x ♣ x x x ♠ A x x ♥ Q x ♦ Q 8 x x x ♣ A x x

Anna Danny W N E S - - - 1NT - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♠ - - 3♦ - - -

I've just shown the North and South hand. West dealt. She paused for a while then started with a pass, as did everyone else, until it came round to me sitting South. I have a rather poor 12 points, but of course opened 1NT anyway. Anna has a textbook weak hand with 5-4 in the majors, perfect for bidding Stayman then correcting a 2♦ reply to her five card major, and this is what happened. West still looked like she was anxious to bid, and now came back in with 3♦, which I was glad to pass. We took it down two tricks. The hand is interesting as I could sense West was keen to bid (and this is authorised information), and that nearly tempted me to raise Anna's 2♠ bid to 3♠, just to keep West out. As it is I'm glad I let West bid, as she bid my suit. I think what West should have done is double my 2♦.

Finally, here's the strongest hand of the day, where we did well to stay out of slam.

♠ x x x ♥ Q J x x ♦ x x ♣ A J x x ♠ A K Q J T 9 x ♥ K x x ♦ K Q x ♣ -

Anna Danny W N E S 2♣ 2♦ - 2♠ - 4♠ - - -

I've only 18 points as South, but I decided to open it 2♣. My thinking was that if I open 1♠ then Anna might easily pass with a hand that makes game easy, though looking at the hand now I think 1♠ is right. Over my 2♣ opening, Anna bid 2♦. For us this shows a non-minimum, i.e. 5+ points or any hand with an Ace. I then showed my suit with 2♠. I could have jumped to 3♠, to show a single suited hand, but thought there was just a chance that we might want to play in Hearts or Diamonds (where my void is useful for ruffing in the short hand).

Anna raised my 2♠ straight to 4♠, showing a minimum, given her previous 2♦ bid. I reckon she's actually too good for this, and should just bid 3♠. As it happens, her Ace is opposite my void so 11 tricks was the limit - but move her ♣A to the ♦A or the ♥A and it would be an easy slam. So I guess we were a bit lucky there.

In the end Team Rowan won by just over 4000 points, so we're through to the second round! On the way out we bought some Apple and Bramble Jam too.

Malta

Surprisingly, there's three Bridge Clubs in Malta, all in the upmarket district of Sliema. On Sunday afternoon we went along to the one called Malta Bridge Club.

At the address there was a buzzer outside, but no one answered it. We sat there until four elderly gentlemen came past us and opened the door. "You'll lower the average age by twenty years." one of them said.

Sunday is a quiet day, and there were only 2 1/2 tables. As our hosts all lived locally, they graciously let us sit out last, so we could get away sooner. All of our opponents played Strong NT and Five Card Majors, and referred to our Weak NT and Four Card Majors as Acol, even though I think in the UK if you said Acol that would mean a Strong NT and Strong Twos. On the first table our opponents agreed that they were playing Michaels. I think this jogged something in Anna's memory, as on the very first board she got dealt the hand below, and an opponent in front of her opened 1♣.

♠ AQJxx ♥QJTxxx ♦x ♣K

Anna eagerly overcalled 2♣, which I alerted as Michaels. We play Michaels as either Weak (8-) or Strong (15+) so really a hand like this should instead overcall twice, but maybe it is best to just treat it as Strong and show the two suits straight away. After 2♣ Anna drove the bidding to 4♠, much to my dismay as I had a three count with only two cards in the Majors.

♠ A Q J x x ♥ Q J T x x x ♦ x ♣ K ♠ x x ♥ - ♦ J x x x x ♣ Q x x x x x

Anna Danny W N E S 1♣ 2♣ - 2♠ - 3♥ - 3♠ - 4♠ - - -

I briefly considered passing Anna's 2♣ bid, but of course that's ridiculous, especially as West has bid Clubs. I bid 2♠, as I much prefer Spades. Anna then showed her big 6-5 hand by bidding 3♥, which I corrected back to 3♠. Anna then raised this to game, maybe thinking because I'd bid Spades twice I actually had some good Spades.

4♠ has four immediate losers, and I'm very likely to lose control in trumps. West cashed the ♣A and ♦A, then cunningly switched to a low trump. I thought there was no way I could draw trumps and enjoy my long Hearts, so should just take my tricks where I could get them, and went up with the ♠A to ruff a Heart. In the end I scrambled to seven tricks, for 4♠-3, the same result as the other table. Actually, Spades were 3-3 with the ♠K onside, so maybe I could have set up the Hearts.

Since this was a Matchpoint night with only five pairs, each board was only compared with one other table, so it was effectively BAM scoring. However, on the next Board, my highlight of the evening, I think we would have got a very good score against a field of any size.

I have a terrible hand but am inspired by the double fit to bid boldly:

S deal, Love all ♠ 9 8 x x ♥ x x x x ♦ Q x x ♣ x x ♠ A x x ♥ A x x x ♦ A J ♣ J x x x 2 14 8 16 ♠ Q T ♥ Q x x ♦ x x x ♣ A x x x x ♠ K J x x ♥ K J ♦ K T x x x ♣ K Q

JW Danny Anna W N E S 1♦ x - 2♣ 2♠ 3♣ 3♠ - - -;

Anna sitting South has a poor 16 count. It would be a good candidate for a Strong NT, but since we play weak NT she opened it 1♦. West had an easy double, I was sitting North and with only two points made a swift pass. East came in with 2♣, and Anna then stuck her neck very far out with 2♠. She does have the points for a reverse, but it's an awful looking hand. Plus since I've passed already, the 2♠ bid isn't really a reverse, it shows a much stronger hand. A reverse is bidding something like 2♠ opposite a partner who has 6+, here she's bidding 2♠ opposite a partner who's promised nothing.

But Anna wasn't the only one feeling bold. West competed with 3♣, and I quickly came in with 3♠. I think this is fairly safe, as I've no defence against 3♣ and have a bit of a double fit for Anna, in Diamonds and Spades. The danger is that it looks like I've got a better hand than I do, but luckily everyone passed 3♠. West lead a Club, and I put down my miserable dummy, to some amusement.

In 3♠ Anna has four Aces to lose, so there's certainly not going to be any overtricks. The opening Club lead went to East's Ace, and she continued Clubs. Anna now needs to draw trumps, and so wanted to get to dummy. She crossed to the ♦Q, which held, and lead a Spade up from dummy. This went to the ♠T, ♠J and ♠A. West tried the Ace of Diamonds, then played another trump. With the very lucky Spade position declarer only loses one Spade, and she later guessed Hearts (based on West's double), so there was only one loser in each suit.

3♠ made exactly, so rather than being a sacrifice, it was +140.

This won us the Board, but we lost a lot too, and finished on 47.5%. Although given that there were so few pairs playing, another way of looking at it is that we were one Board away from coming last, and two Boards away from winning.

Double Fit - Deal of the Week #7

Here's a good hand from this lunch time. Even during the auction, we decided this was Deal of The Week. It's also the first one I've featured with TB as declarer.

♠ A T x x ♥ x x ♦ K x x x ♣ J T x ♠ x ♥ K J x x x ♦ J ♣ A K Q x x x 8 14 8 10 ♠ Q x x ♥ A x x x x ♦ Q x ♣ x x x ♠ K J x x x ♥ Q ♦ A x x x x x ♣ x

JW AP NC TB W N E S 1♦ 2♣ 2♦ 2♥ 2♠ 3♥ 3♠ 4♥ 4♠ 5♥ - - 5♠ - - -

TB has the very distributional South hand and chose to open 1♦. This modest contract was enough to give North-South the rubber, but it wasn't likely to end there. JW was certain 1♦ wasn't going to end the auction, and came in straight away with 2♣. North supported with 2♦, and East introduced his Heart suit. South only has ten points, but it's a very powerful hand, and on the second round he introduced his Spade suit with 2♠. This is perfectly safe as he will be happy to play 3♦ if there's no Spade fit. But, actually, his bid has uncovered a huge double fit. North-South have Spades and Diamonds, East-West have Hearts and Clubs. That means everyone can make a lot of tricks, and you gotta bid 'em up.

Over 2♠ West supported partner with 3♥, and now the double fit is well known, and the auction took off. North bid 3♠, East came in with 4♥, then South went with 4♠. I thought this would end the auction, but JW backed in again with 5♥. This was excellent judgement, as North-South would have made 4♠. I thought maybe AP should have doubled 5♥, but he wisely resisted, as actually 5♥ might well have made. TB then showed good judgement of his own, and bid 5♠, which ended the auction.

To make 5♠ declarer needs to get Spades right. He played for the 2-2 split and played the Ace-King, which unfortunately meant he had to lose a trump trick to West. The defence then took their other two tricks, so the result was 5♠-1.

In a Heart contract with East as declarer it would have been easy for the defence to take their Aces, in Spades and Diamonds, as they would have seen the two singletons in dummy. If West is declarer there's a chance 6♥ might make, as the defence might try and take two tricks in Spades, then declarer can get in and discard his Diamond loser on the long Clubs.

Double fit.