I thought I was dummy

Ted and I played the SBU pairs last Tuesday. We did well, finishing over 60%, but far from the lead. There were five or six hands where we got a bad score, all self-inflicted. There was one 4♠ where Ted left on seeing I had ten cashable tricks, then came back to see I had somehow gone one down.

The hand below is a more forgivable one:

Ted opened a Benji 2♣, showing a strong suit. My 2♦ was a relay, then he showed Diamonds. I bid a natural 3♠ and he repeated his Diamonds. My 5♣ I think at this stage must be a cuebid. Ted thought so too and bid 6♦.

After the ♥T lead I wrote "brb" and dashed off to make a cup of tea. When I came back the ♥T was still there and the Round Clock had gone negative. I'd forgotten that since I'd bid Diamonds first I was playing it.

The slam has excellent chances. Although slightly wary of the lead, I decided to play for a Heart ruff. I took the two top Hearts and lead a third. This was quickly ruffed by West. With a club still to lose I had no choice but to over-ruff with the ♦J. It now seemed unlikely I could get another Heart ruff, or set up the Spades, so I crossed to hand in Spades and lead a Club up. Luckily the ♣A was onside, and I might now have enough tricks (two Spades, three Hearts, six Diamonds and one Club).

However, I've already ruffed with the ♦J, so am at risk of losing a trump trick if they don't split 3-2. I lead a Spade back to dummy, and cashed the ♣K.

All that remained was to draw trumps. At this point I knew East started with five Hearts, likely two Spades (she dropped the ♠QJ with the ♠T on table), and maybe two Clubs (she played the ♣9 then ♣J under my King. If I trust all of this then I know she started with four Diamonds, so I can gloriously finesse and make the contract

However, I didn't finesse. I just played trumps from the top and went one off. A missed opportunity.

Close calls

Last time Ted and I played I was a bit erratic. I had to apologise to him afterwards for some of my less successful calls. In my defence the matches start a bit too early for me as I'm still trying to get settled. I normally end up praying to be dummy at the start - this time I was declarer for the first four in a row!

I was unlucky in getting a lot of close calls wrong. That or I have quite poor judgment. The problem is, sometimes I decide to be conservative and end up missing out on a game, slam or juicy double, and somtimes I decide to be bold and overbid or double a makeable contract.

In the hand below my judgment was off by two tricks:

Ted opened 1♣ and I replied 1♥. When the next hand bid 4♠ Ted was under pressure and went for 5♣. I guessed that at that vulnerability he was bidding to make, and I have a great hand (apart from the two small Spades), so topped him up to 6♣. Two down.

But I was not subdued:

When Ted showed 16+ with good Clubs I chanced my arm with 3NT. The ♣K is a great card but we are still a bit light, and it was lucky that Ted had enough Aces to get me up to nine tricks (and that they didn't lead Diamonds). This time I was indisciplined but it paid off.

As tends to be the way with wild bidding we lost more than we gained and overall lost the match by 25 IMPs.

SBU Lockdown Swiss Pairs #2

A 7pm start is a bit tight for Anna and I, as that is also the kid's bedtime. We just made it to the table on time last Saturday, but I feel my head wasn't quite in the game. Witness the first deal below:

East opened 1♣ opening and I thought about how high to bid. I'd actually decided on 3♥ but misclicked and bid 2♥. Close enough I thought, and didn't ask for an Undo. Anna raised and when it came back to me in 4♣ I had a chance of glory. On the bidding partner is likely to have a singleton Club and maybe some Spades, so 4♥ might be worth a go. I passed.

Defending against 4♣, I started with a singleton Diamond and duly got a ruff. We have won the first two tricks and I have two cashing Aces in my hand. What could go wrong? I cashed the ♠A, and got a discouraging signal, so cunningly underlead my ♥A. Then I realised we only needed four tricks in total, and I'd just given the contract as a delighted declarer collected her ♥K.

Conceding 4♣= was worth -5.60 IMPs, worse than any score we'd got last week. Beating it by one trick would have been -1.33 IMPs, and making 4♥ a tremendous score.

After that disaster, things didn't improve. Twice we defended carefully for a ruff, but that actually sorted out the trump suit for declarer. Once I overcalled their 1NT opening, meaning the opponents failed to find their Heart fit. But that meant they made 3NT, while everyone else went down in 4♥. We were unlucky, but also played poorly.

Our final of -34.05 IMPs was good enough for 54th place out of 56.

Stealing a trick

Just for a change here's one I think I played well, playing with Ted in the Tuesday night Wanderers Teams match on Bridge Base. I had to play it well as I'd overbid, and was in 5♥ off three cashing tricks:

Having been starved of good hands I was very exicted by that East hand. I opened 1♥, and when partner raised to 4♥ (showing this sort of hand) I decided to check for Aces. I figured I had some safety in that they were likely to lead Spades. When partner showed only one Ace I was stuck in 5♥.

I got the ♠Q lead, and won the Ace. I crossed to dummy in trumps (actually drawing them all) and lead a Club up to my ♣Q. North ducked, and I was home. I played it quite quickly which was good. On the other table it was 4♥+1 with the same play, and less stress.

SBU Lockdown Swiss Pairs #1

Last night Anna and I played in the SBU Lockdown Swiss Pairs. This is a nine week cross-Imp tournament where they take your best six scores. It was quite a rush getting the children in bed to start at 7pm, so I'm not sure how many we'll make.

It was a nice format, with five rounds of five boards. We had enough time between rounds to have a cup of tea. Once Anna did some yoga.

Anna and I played quite steadily. In fact our biggest swing was only about 3 IMPs. Overall we finished 14th out of 52 pairs, with a modest score of +13.41 IMPs. Here's one where I had a couple of tough decisions (and got them both wrong).

After three passes it comes round to me sitting West. I've a nice 12 points, but considered passing. It's quite likely the opponents can make something in one of the majors, and a score of 0 will be better than that. Passing would have got +1.64 IMPs. Instead I went for a 1NT opening. I thought this would make it a bit harder for the opponents to enter the auction, but North was rather bold and came in with 2♥. Anna bid a nice 2♠, which we play as non-forcing, then South also stretched to bid 3♥, and now we have to beat it.

Anna lead a low Spade, to my Ace. I was worried about declarer ruffing Clubs so returned a Heart. Declarer was now able to draw trumps, taking five Hearts, two Clubs, a Spade and a Diamond when he guessed correctly for nine tricks. Well played.

In fact the best defence is to play Clubs myself, so Anna can ruff declarer's potential Club tricks, and promote her ♥K. But maybe that needs me to know that Anna has only a doubleton Club. Too tough for me. Conceding 3♥= was worth -2.32. I wish I'd passed the hand out.

Also in the tournament were John Di Mambro and Martin Bateman, from the Wanderers Team. They were a bit ahead of us though and we never met. On the hand above North opened 2♥ (Hearts and a minor) and played there, making eight tricks when he guessed Diamonds wrong.

Mid-morning matters

Today I had the rare pleasure of being able to play in the 1030 am Bucnahan pairs, with Ted.

Here's a couple of blunders I made:

I thought Ted's double showed a maximum of four Hearts so bid my Clubs again. He boldly raised me to game.

The opening lead was a Heart. Instinctively, I played low from dummy. Now I had to cross over to the ♠A to finesse trumps. When that worked I had 11 tricks, but when the Hearts didn't split that was the limit.

I should win the first Heart in dummy and finesse trumps. That keeps the ♠A as an entry to dummy if the Hearts are 4-2 and one needs to be ruffed, as is the case here. Getting that right would have meant 5♣+1 instead of of 5♣=, and I would have caught up with everyone bidding and making 4♥.

That was a relatively small error. The next one was more costly:

3♠ promised five Spades and 4♣ was a cuebid (not alerted). I lead my singleton ♥J which declarer won and drew trumps. The crunch came when she lead the ♣T from hand. I thought "what does it matter?" and covered with my Queen. Turned out it did matter, as dummy played the ♣A and partner's ♣K came crashing down. This meant no Club losers and declarer made 6♠+1 instead of 6♠=.

I didn't think many pairs would be in the slam anyway, but they were (several in 6NT). So my blunder turned a 50% board into a 0% board. To make it worse there was then a lengthy delay between rounds for me to ponder my no-win play.

Despite these bodges we finished on a winning 65.2%, earning me another 0.70 BBO matchpoints (whatever they are).