Dave Jolley Pairs

Last night I played with Ted Black in a Matchpoint event at the Buchanan Bridge Club. It was a handicap pairs event, which meant that after the usual scoring each pair would be adjusted based on their previously accumulated masterpoints. In fact this time the handicapping didn't make any difference, as the winning pair won by nearly 20%. ]

It wasn't us, far from it, and in fact my featured board involves scoring 0% and a call to the director:

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

East opened 1♣ and I had no trouble overcalling 1♦ with the South hand. West had a think then doubled showing the majors, and Ted made the obvious raise to 2♦. At this point East thought for a long time and then passed. I suppose he was thinking about either bidding Hearts or rebidding his strong Clubs. At this point I should bid 3♦ as South, to buy the contract. At the time I was well aware that I should bid 3♦, but tried to buy it on the cheap and passed. As we will see, this strategy backfired badly.

West kept going with 2♠, which East corrected back to 3♣. Now I bid the 3♦ I should have bid the round before, and West bid 4♣. I doubled, for various reasons none of which is particularly good.

I lead my Club and was briefly hopeful, but there are exactly three tricks for the defence leading to 4♣x=. The director was called at this point as East's long pause before passing 2♦ may have lead West to bid on. Is it obvious for West to compete to the four level opposite a partner who passed 2♦ with nothing to think about?

The director said he'd think about it but was later relieved of this duty as we withdrew our claim; it's a bit woolly for anything definite, though still annoying. Though perhaps it's mostly annoying as I doubled a making contract.

My second featured hand is against the runaway winners, Neil Wylie and Iain Liddell:

W N E S Danny Ted - - - 1♦ 1♥ 1♠ - 3♣ - 3NT - - -

I sat North as dealer with a poor eleven count. I decided to be prudent and pass, but then felt the need to catch up and overcall West's opening bid of 1♦. The opposition quickly got to 3NT and Ted dutifully lead my suit, kicking off with the ♥J. Needless to say, my suit was the very worst one to lead.

Dummy covered the ♥K and I took my ♥A and rapidly reassessed. It has been an evening of opponents running long suits in NT and I fully expected all six Diamonds to run - either declarer had the ♦Q or it would be finessed. Declarer also seemed to have at least three Heart tricks, bringing his total to at least nine.

So I found the bold switch of the ♠2. Declarer did the natural thing of playing the ♠J, so Ted took his Queen and returned a Spade to my Ace. It was now time for another rethink. Declarer still had all of his Diamonds and Hearts, plus maybe a Spade, so our only hope was a Club. I switched to Clubs and Ted took his Ace for the fourth and final defensive trick.

I had defended boldly and all of my assumption has been correct. For this we got another 0%.

The reason for the poor score was that the one other table in 3NT had gone down , and everywhere else East-West were playing in a part score. In fact with only 22 points between them East-West need a bit of help to make 3NT, so although we did well to take four tricks after the Heart lead, we were already doomed.

I think perhaps we were unlucky to get 0% there, but I can't really complain, as the unluckiest pair were surely Laurence & Sandy, the only ones to bid to this excellent 7♥, when everyone else, including us, stopped in 6♥:

Although seven can be made, it requires an inspired Club finesse.

In our auction I opened 1♥ and Ted splintered with 3♠. Although I later found out we had all the keycards I was cautious and stopped in 6♥, as I was worried that with all the high trumps in dummy I wouldn't be able to ruff Spades and draw trumps (which turned out to be roughly true). I was also cautious as I was a bit too tired to investigate a grand slam, and the two-board Howell movement meant we always seemed to be running late and I felt quite pressed for time.

Not long after this I hit a low point by revoking to produce a minor penalty card (the ♥5). This allowed declarer to sneak a Heart past my known King and win unjustly with his ♥Q in dummy. It was painful to see, and a good reminder of the importance of always following suit when you can.

Our score of 51% was good enough for 4th before the handicap and 6th after it.

No coffee

My favourite game with our children is to lie on the floor and pretend to be asleep. Sometimes I'm waiting for Santa to arrive, sometimes I'm just lying there. Once I actually did have a micro-nap on the playroom floor. Unfortunately, their favourite game is now to jump on top of me while I'm pretending to sleep.

Yesterday I was feeling very tired and spent a lot of the afternoon lying on the floor, getting jumped on. I knew I had bridge in the evening and was saving my energy. On previous Monday night bridge I've had a half-time Coke or strong coffee, but I've found that the caffeine, along with a good memory for all the hands I got wrong, has meant it takes hours for me to go to sleep. So this time I had no coffee, and I think the fatigue may have lead me to some odd decisions. The featured boards below show me passing out a Blackwood inquiry and claiming when I'd miscounted trumps.

W N E S Danny John 2♥ 2NT 3♥ 3♠ - 4♥ - 4♠ - 4NT* - - -

North opened a weak 2♥ and John made a natural 2NT overcall, showing 15-19 and a Heart stop. South raised to 3♥, which I would never do with a singleton Heart but certainly worked here. I was sitting West, and had a problem. All of Pass, double, 3♠ and 3NT are options. I decided on 3♠, slightly worried it would look strong (as I was an unpassed hand) as I've forced us to game.

In fact John liked his Spades so much, along with my suspected singleton or void Heart, he tried a 4♥ cuebid. I tried to put the brakes on by signing off in 4♠ but this was met with a 4NT bid. I was pretty sure this was Blackwood, but passed anyway. There's no way we were making eleven tricks but might have a chance at ten, especially with my good Heart stop, I thought.

As it happens 3NT (or 4NT) was doomed, for various reasons, but actually not the lack of Heart stops. 4NT-3 did not score well. Bidding on to 5♠ would also not have scored well either, and would probably be doubled.

Never mind, on to the next one. Nearly the end of the evening and I'm flagging slightly.

W N E S Danny John 2♥ 2♠ - 2NT - 4♠ - - -

South opened, another weak 2♥ with 6-5 shape. This one I might even have opened 3♥, at favourable vulnerability. I was sat Weat and over 2♥ I went for a modest 2♠. John replied 2NT. I considered if 3NT would have play, and thought it probably would, as there'd be time to set up my Spades. But then I came to my senses, saw my seven card Spade suit and bid 4♠. North hesitated and passed it out.

She lead the ♣A and I was glad I wasn't in 3NT, with lots of Club losers. in 4♠ I can see ten tricks: seven Spades, two Hearts and a Diamond or even two if the finesse works. I ruffed the third club, unblocked the ♠A (South threw a Diamond) and ruffed a Club back to hand. I then did what I thought was drawing trumps with the ♠KQJ, before crossing to dummy to finesse the Diamonds for an 'overtrick'. When the ♦Q held I showed my last two cards, the ♦A and ♠7.

Quick as a flash North rejected my claim, showing her ♠T and a winning Club.

At this point I actually have either nine or ten tricks. Ten if I play the ♦A first, nine if I play my Spade first. It feels normal to me to always play the ♦A first, just in case, but obviously that's not good enough and by the laws I don't have a leg to stand on. I offered to call a director, but North-South graciously refused and allowed me ten tricks.

In fact North has already gotten herself a good score by not doubling as a couple of tables played 4♠x=.

Overall we finished on 55%, which was just good enough to be the top East-West pair.

Timidity

An enjoyable night last night at the Buchanan with John Di Mambro. We finished 3rd with about 60%. We had a strong start then fell away a bit as I demonstrated a mixture of under and overbidding. Here's one where I was too shy:

W N E S John Danny 1NT - - -

East opened with a maximum weak NT. I have the South hand with seven Spades. I can bid 2♦ showing a single-suited hand, which will be fine if I get to play 2♠, but I fear it will get us overboard if the auction becomes competitive, so select a meek pass. This works out poorly as declarer is able to win my opening Spade lead then rattle off five Heart tricks and finish with 1NT+1, getting us 34%. Playing and making 2♠ would have been 84%. In retrospect, my seventh Spade makes up for the weakness of the hand and it's worth an overcall.

In the second hand I was a defender, and made a bold defensive play, which looks foolish, and may well have been.

W N E S John Danny - - - 1♦ 1♥ - 2♦* x 3♥ - 4♥ - - -

I liked my East hand and opened 1♦. South overcalled 1♥ and I was all set to make a takeout double when North made an unassuming cue bid of 2♦. I decided to treat this like a Heart raise and still double for takeout. John was on the same wavelength, recognising my double as takeout, but of course had no bid, and the opposition soon got to 4♥.

John lead a Diamond to my Ace and I went into a think. It looks to me like South has got all the missing Hearts, and either has the Q♣ or can finesse it. So there's every chance she has 12 tricks now - five hearts, two Diamonds (the King and a ruff), and five Clubs. I could see any losing Spades going away on the Clubs in dummy, so cashed my ♠A, which felt totally wrong with the ♠AQ over the ♠KJ.

In a sense my analysis was correct. If I don't take my Ace of Spades at that point declarer can take 12 tricks. However, in a more practical sense it was not right at all as by letting 4♥ make we scored only 18% on the board. Most declarers made only nine tricks. It takes some working out to see how this is possible, but it can be done if you cash the ♣AK and ruff a Club low back to hand, or perhaps go for leading Spades up to dummy twice. The best line I think is for declarer to finesse Clubs immediately, as even if this fails you still have ten tricks (even though you expect the Club finesse to fail).

So a disappointing result but at least I erred by being too bold this time.