It's congress season and last Saturday Anna and I were at the Buchanan. This is our home club, even though we don't play there that often, and so it was a bit embarrassing when some other members asked us where we usually play.
Last year at the congress we bombed in the qualification, then bounced back to win the consolation final (report here). This year we did our best to repeat that, by again failing to qualify for the main final.
It was a hectic start. I had ambitiously entered a running race at Pollok in the morning, while Anna went to get a big picture framed. We met at the event in separate cars. She made it on time, but I didn't, so Horst demoted us to the sit out table on the top floor. Once we got going things went rather well, give or take the odd mishap. An early highlight came when I discovered that there was tea and coffee outside the playing area, for those who missed the pre-start tea.
I like to bid a slam on the final round (ideally the final board), and got my wish here:
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I have the East hand and opened 1♥. South passed and Anna splintered with 4♦ showing Heart support and short Diamonds. We recently agreed that you only splinter with weak hands, or strong hands, or any hands. I couldn't remember which, and thought Anna probably couldn't either. So even though I have an awful holding in Diamonds opposite a shortage (♦KJxx) I decided to press on anyway. I bid RKCB and Anna bid 5NT, showing a void and two keycards. This bit of the system we did remember. For Anna's benefit, it's documented here (apparently we play Exclusion Blackwood too).
Against 6♥ South cashed the ♠A and I was able to draw trumps and quickly claim.
At the end of the qualification event I figured that we had finished on at least 60%, but I must have had too many teas, got too excited and wildly over-estimated, as we only got 53%. This wasn't quite good enough, so we only qualified for the consolation final.
In the break we had an excellent lunch. Anna wrestled with the problem of how many sandwiches she could fit on her plate, both physically and following etiquette. We went for a short walk into Kelvingrove Park and then came back raring to go (but rather rather tired and not concentrating as much) for the consolation final.
The relaxed attitude paid off, and we had five 100% Boards in the session. This one was the most pleasing:
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1. What would you open the North hand?
We play a weak NT and are allowed to open on 5422 shape if the doubletons are strong, as they are here. However, I've got the majors and opened 1♥, ready to rebid an awful 2♥ if I had to. This was passed round to West, who overcalled 1NT. East raised to 2NT as she wasn't sure if this showed a normal 1NT overcall or a slightly lighter one in the pass out seat (we play 12-15 here, right Anna?). West liked her Hearts and bid 3NT.
2. What would you lead as North?
I picked out the ♥9, as we play second highest from only small cards. Declarer won this in dummy, and lead a Club to her ♣K and my ♣A. Now I had a bit of a think. I really want to play Spades but it won't work if lead them from the North hand. I've got to get partner in. To make things tough for declarer, I lead my ♦7. Declarer made the very reasonable guess of putting in dummy's ♦J, which Anna sitting South was able to win.
Anna then had a think before emerging with exactly the card I wanted to see, the ♠9. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton were in perfect harmony. She had managed to avoid leading a Heart (the suit I opened) and a Diamond (the suit I switched too) and found a Spade, and by leading the ♠9 declarer is pickled.
We ended up with three Spade tricks plus a few more, for 3NT-3, and a top. Surprisingly, despite having 25 points and all suits stopped only three tables in our event were in 3NT (and none at all in the main event final). Most played in Clubs.
On the very next board we also got 100%, as Anna loves a double fit:
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East opened 1♦ and Anna sitting South passed. At favourable vulnerability she could have made a 3♣ weak jump overcall but didn't fancy it (or forgot about it). West introduced Spades and I overcalled 2♥. When it got round to me again I decided to show my Club suit, which hit the jackpot for Anna and she competed to 5♥, doubled.
East lead the ♦A then switched to a Spade. I drew trumps and played a Club. East won and had a dilemma. Should she try and cash a Diamond or a Spade? She wrongly chose to play a Diamond, which I could ruff and win all the Clubs to make 5♥x=. As 4♠ was making on every table it was played we would have got a good score even for one down.
Those were two great results. Would I get carried away? Yes indeed. A couple of boards later I had this marginal hand. Vulnerable against not, with three passes to me:
3. Would you open this? ♠A ♥J75 ♦T82 ♣KQJ632
The Rule of Fifteen says you should only open fourth in hand when your points plus number of Spades is 15 or more. This hand has 11 points and one Spade, so is a definite pass. The thinking is that the points are evenly split and since you don't have Spades the opposition do, so opening the bidding just helps them to a Spade part score. And so it proved. I recklessly opened 1♣, and after a competitive auction our opponents bid and made 3♠ for -140 and 30%. Passing the hand out would have got 60%.
Later Anna had this one, with both sides vulnerable and also fourth in hand:
4. Would you open this? ♠KQ32 ♥52 ♦8742 ♣AJ9
This one's got only 10 points, but four spades. Anna followed the rule and passed it out. This got us 55%, beating the one pair who did open and ended up overboard in 3♠-1, which shows another danger of opening light.
As the afternoon turned into evening we fell into a nice groove. It was nice and warm upstairs and a packet of Fruit Pastilles melted in my pocket. The only hiccup came when twice we were undone by the Multi 2♦. That's one to work on. In the end we finished on a decent 57.9%, which was good enough for 5th.
The consolation final winners were Iain Taylor & Andrew Symons with 61%.
In the main final the top three were:
| 1 | Iain MacIntyre & Bobby Moore | 61.67% |
| 2 | Ronald Gaffin & John Di Mambro | 60.32% |
| 3 | Norman McGeagh & John Faben | 59.04% |
Full results from the consolation final here and main final here.
1. 1NT, I don't like, especially at pairs, but the 2H rebid over 2m is too ugly for me.
ReplyDelete2. H9. Don't see any reason for anything else. Partner doesn't have entries, so let's see if we can get my suit going. Also, it's not giving anything away.
3. Clear pass for me in 4th seat. The opps must have a part score in at least one of the majors...
4. This is a not-quite-so-clear pass for me in 4th seat, but I think I agree with Bobby Moore (who had this hand at our table), that's it's just too likely that you go overboard if you open this - especially if you're not playing Drury