All of the Bridge Clubs are closed, so it's the perfect opportunity for an online game. Last night Team Wanderers from the Glasgow League had our first online adventure, a teams match between eight of us. Hopefully we'll repeat this each Sunday, and maybe even have unofficial matches against other teams in the league.
In the first half me and Ted were up against the regular partnership of Martin and Gints. We came unstuck early on:
I sat West (dkham) with the the nice 5-5 hand and was all set to make some sort of bid when South opened one of my suits. Partner had passed, it was favourable vulnerability, and I still felt like bidding, so decided this was the time to make a five card weak jump overcall. This initially worked well as the opponents ended up in a hopeless 3NT. Unfortunately my partner expected me to have a somewhat purer hand, and bid 4♥. This was doubled, off two. At the other table West made an (also somewhat dubious) overcall of 2♥, and ending up playing 3♥-1. So that was six IMPS away.
We lost a further 11 IMPs when Martin and Gints made a slam. Then we bid one of our own - in a crowded auction partner bid 5♦ and I crossed my fingers and topped him up to six, then nervously went to put the kettle on. Luckily it worked out fine and we'd recovered slightly to finish the first half 15-18 down.
In the second half we played against Tam and John Faben. The boards were wilder here, and so was the bidding, as we were doubled four times in ten boards. This was occasionally expensive, but it worked out well for us here:
When Ted opened 1♠ I had a great hand as East and began with 2♥. South then weighed in heavily with 4NT, showing a very distributional hand with minors. North chose clubs. At this point I've a decision to make. As a partnership we (obviously) hadn't discussed what Ted's pass of 4NT meant, but I guessed (wrongly) that with defensive values he would have doublded. So I bid on to 5♥, a little worried about my doubletons in both minors but reassured by the thought that even if 5♥ went off it might be a good sacrifice. It was duly doubled.
South lead the Ten of Spades and it's one of those rare hands (rare to me) where straight away you can place all the cards and know what's going to happen. South must be at least 6-5 from the bidding and in fact must be exactly 6-5, as the lead is surely a singleton and he must have a trump if he's bothering to lead a singleton. That means that I'll be able to win the Spade, draw South's one trump, then discard my Club losers on dummy's Spades, and North won't be able to ruff in as he started with lots of Spades. That is indeed how it worked out, for 5♥x+1. It only occurred to me later that South might have just been leading a Spade as partner doubled and it was dummy's suit.
On the other table South made a more restrained 2NT overcall, then came back in with 4NT over 4♥. This got him to 5♣ doubled (likely off three with a Diamond ruff), but East bid on with 5♥ (a slam try, in their forcing pass system). The defence started well with ♣A but then switched to a Spade so that game made too.
Finally, a board with some regret attached to it, as I missed out on the game bonus:
I began with a 1♠ overcall then when partner made a modest raise settled for 3♠. This made plus one on the ♣K lead, after I was able to ruff two Hearts (but suffered a Club ruff). In fact with the friendly Spade position there are always ten tricks there, and with dummy having four trumps game is worth being in.
I was close to bidding 4♠, as I knew that partner had some spade Support and was likely short in Hearts. At the other table my counterpart East didn't have any of that information but still bid game. Their auction began with 1NT form South, passed around to East who bid 2♣ showing majors, and on seeing partner's 2♠ preference, he bid an immediate 4♠ and hit the jackpot.
In the second half my team (the felines I believe) lost by another 22, leaving the other team (canines?) 25 IMPs winners.
Overall I enjoyed playing a semi-competitive game. There was a bit of confusion about playing online, which will hopefully improve each time we do this, and with better planning I'll stop trying to make a sandwich between hands. Otherwise an excellent evening.
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