SOL4: Faben vs Maiolani

We lost this match by about 12 IMPs. I think there were two boards where I gained IMPs for the team (a double of 4♠, and a risky 3♥ vulnerable overcall) but several where I lost some. This was the low point:

With a massive hand I didn't mind coming back in with 4♣. I was close to bidding 5♣, and so was John. A Spade was lead. My first thought on seeing dummy was "We've missed 5♣". I tested trumps and when they weren't 3-2 I knew what to do; set up the Diamonds straight away. However, something went wrong. I left two trumps out instead of just one, and they were the ♣QJ in West. That meant after clearing the Diamonds I couldn't draw trumps and get back to the East hand. I ended up one down.

I've looked at this hand quite a lot since. The easiest way to make it is to draw three rounds of trumps, and leave just one out. On this layout I actually do best to start on Diamonds straight away (before drawing trumps), and maybe that's what I should have done.

The other table got it right and made 3♣+2. On their table South didn't overcall at all - a missed opportunity as North-South make 4♠ I think.

My other bodge was this one:

John's double showed at least four Hearts, but that still wasn't enough to convince me to go to 5♥. You can see that I've made the right decision to defend 4♠. John led the King of Hearts, I encouraged, and he played a low Heart to my Ace. I took it as suit preference and switched to Clubs. John won and returned a Diamond. I got back in with the Ace of Spades and it was decision time. I was convinced that John had ♣AQ and that it didn't matter which minor I played. So without too much thought I played a Diamond, and now John got endplayed and declarer escaped for -2.

4♠x-2 was +300. On the other table South opened 1NT and after a 2♥ overcall North bid 2♠, East 4♥ and South had no choice really but to bid 4♠. This wasn't doubled but went three off, holding our gain to 4 IMPs. If I get the defence right instead it's +8 IMPs.

SBU Bronze League 6: HighSchoolOfGlasgow vs Buccaneers1

Since the Peggy Bayer junior internationals my secondary school team have been competing in a Wednesday night league on Bridge Base. As I am technically Bronze too I have always been on standby, but so far not been needed. This week with school exams we had only three so I offered to play (actually I offered to reschedule but the other team preferred to go ahead and play, obviously not very intimidated by the thought of playing me!)

I don't think having one experienced player makes a huge difference; certainly a lot less than an experienced pair would. I bid sensibly and made my contracts, but think actually most of the IMPs were generated at the other table.

This is a nice hand that my partner, michaelwk bid and played well:

We play a weak NT and four card majors. Michael's 1♠ bid nearly always shows five, but I still felt more comfortable replying 2♥. This is in theory 10+, which I think my hand is worth. The main reason I didn't support Spades was because I didn't know how high to bid - 2♠, 3♠ or 4♠? When Michael rebid 3NT (showing 15+ and a good Diamond stop) it was possible that he had a 4333 hand but I guessed not and corrected to 4♠.

When I saw his hand I was glad we were in 4♠ and not 3NT. Playing 3NT on a Diamond lead you win and take five Spades, but then have to lose the lead and end up losing four Diamonds and two Aces for 3NT-2.

4♠ looks easy but you have to be careful. Missing both the ♣A and ♦A you are going to have to lose the lead, probably twice, and if you do that after drawing trumps you might end up with lots of Diamond losers.

Fortunately, Michael got the ♦A lead which makes things easier. However, if you draw trumps you could still fail. If the defence duck Clubs and Hearts you can't get to dummy and end up still losing two Diamonds and two Aces. So at trick two Michael correctly started on the Hearts. This generates more tricks, and has to be done early while you still have trumps in dummy. He ended up making 4♠+1, just losing two Aces.

On the other table North bid a simple 2♠ after the 2♦ overcall, and South raised to 4♠. Our West (Harry) lead Ace and another Heart. This sets up dummy's Hearts, but once trumps are drawn he can't get to them. Declarer tried playing Hearts before drawing the last trump but our East (Al) ruffed in and played a Diamond through for 4♠-3, a big difference.

We won the match by a big margin and after two rounds are among the top teams in Division 7.

SOL4: Faben vs DShenkin

A disappointing game for me tonight. I think I made a lot of 40% decisions. These are obviously poor decisions, but I think I was unlucky that they all seemd to fail. Starting with the positive, here's a board where I lost IMPs to good declarer play. Can't argue with that:

They've stretched to bid 3NT so we've a good chance of beating it. I led a safe Diamond and waited for our tricks to come in. We couldn't stop declarer setting up the Clubs, but he's still a bit short. Three Clubs, three Diamonds, one Spade and one Heart. On the last Club it's crunch time. I have a hand full of winners, two Hearts, a Diamond to come, and my King of Spades. I threw a Diamond, and John had already thrown one, so declarer promptly crossed to his hand and took two more Diamond tricks.

If I bare the King of Spades, declarer surely finesses and goes down. My counterpart on the other table did exactly that. So it's well played by their declarer (Martin Diamond) and their defender (David Shenkin), for a well earned 10 IMPs.

There were four more game swings their way, all of which involved competitive high-level auctions. This was the most embarrassing, where I conjured an extra loser:

John's 2NT shows a good raise, after which 5♥ is clear with nothing but trumps. This got doubled.

It looked like five off, for -800. Losing two Spades, two Diamonds and the Club finesse, which I thought was sure to fail.

West cashed the top two Clubs, but was then afraid to lead a Diamond away from the King, so continued trumps. Could I take advantage? No. I finessed Clubs, but in a muddled attempt to confuse the opposition played the Nine and Jack on the same trick. I was assuming the Club finesse would fail and didn't want West to switch to Diamonds. But when the finesse won, I've not blown too many high cards, and couldn't win the fourth Club. So it was 5♥x-2, rather than 5♥x-1.

The other table had pushed to 5♠-1, so the board was already lost. But going off an extra trick meant -12 IMPs, rather than -9 IMPs.

That was my low point. Our partnership low point came on this board, where John had the misfortunte to weigh in at exactly the wrong time.

John's 4♥ shows some sort of very distributional two-suiter, and weak as he didn't bid before. When East doubled this I foolishly weighed in with 5♣. It was only when John corrected to 5♦ I realised he obviously had the other two suits. I corrected to 5♠, which was a much worse trump suit.

I realised 5♠ was going to be bad, and it was damage limitation. I played to keep trump control and set up the Diamonds, which I achieved, but only after I'd lost a lot of tricks for 5♠x-5.

Our new team-mates Alex Adamson and Derek Sanders made a solid 4♥, but that was largely irrelevant opposite our -1100 and we lost 12 IMPs.

There was another board where I had 20 points and propelled John into an awful 4♥, but I think that's enough rue for now. We lost the match by 33 IMPs to collect just 3 VPs.

On the plus side my team of High School of Glasgow pupils playing in the SBU Bronze League are doing well.

Glasgow League: Jacobin vs Rowan

Anna and I did a lot of defending in this match. It was a test of concentation. Could I have done better here?

Anna won the first Heart and correctly switched to a low Heart (from an odd number). I won this with my Ace and had a think. Or rather, I should have had a think. I just returned a Heart. Declarer won and took a losing Spade finesse, but with Hearts 4-4 we couldn't take enough tricks.

After winning the second Heart if I switch to a Diamond declarer is down. If he plays low we can take a Diamond trick to go with our three Hearts and a Spade, and if he plays the Ace of Diamonds we get three Diamond tricks and two Hearts.

Should I have spotted this at the table? Maybe. It's pretty likely declarer has the Queen of Hearts, else he wouldn't have ducked the King on the first trick.

On two of the other tables East-West bid and made a good 4♠, and on the last declarer went down in 3NT playing on Diamonds instead of Spades (perhaps afraid Hearts were 5-3).

We collected a lot of good results on part-score boards, and took advantage a few times when the opponent's overbid. On the rare times we had a game we bid and made it. But the opponents had the cards and did pretty well.

On this board Anna's caution was not rewarded:

I had a borderline 1♦ opener and an easy 2♦ rebid. Anna bid a forcing and natural 2♥, and I showed my Spade stop with 2NT. After a pause, Anna signed off in 3NT. With a good 20 point hand I think she was worth at least an invitational 4NT (which I would have passed), but in fact 6♣ is the winning bid here.

3NT made twelve tricks on a Spade lead.

This was not a good board for Team Rowan. One opponent bid and made 6♣, the other also 3NT+3. On the fourth table Colin and Sheena got to a good 6NT, but East found the killing Diamond lead - a low Diamond in fact. Declarer naturally went up with the Ace and finessed Hearts, going down two. Bad luck.

Overall we lost the match by about 2700 points for a 4-12 loss.

SOL3: Faben vs Maiolani

This was our last match of this league. The whole league has been tight, and despite not being much below average, this was in fact a relegation battle.

Things started well when John found an excellent switch to beat their 3NT, then navigated a tricky 4♠. At this point we were about 20 IMPs up, though didn't know it at the time of course. It wasn't until Board 8 that I had something to regret:

I had the good 11 point hand and opened 1♥. After the double John was between several bids and chose 3♥. I took this as pre-emptive, was expecting them to bid 4♠, so thought a 4♣ bid would be useful. With his fitting Clubs John bid 5♥, passed out, and we were in trouble.

Not only is 5♥ almost hopeless, but it looks like we've got plenty to beat their 4♠ (probably two off).

5♥ is almost hopeless, as it makes if the Spade finesse works and I can play trumps for no losers. That requires either a singleton King with West, or singleton Jack with East. Given the double East having the singleton is more likely, so I decided to play for that.

But something strange happened. After cashing one top Diamond East switched to the King of trumps! This was clearly a misclick, but under the rules of the league Undos are allowed only in the bidding and not in the play. This makes sense, for several reasons, but did feel harsh here. East did actually ask for an Undo but I refused, on the grounds that plenty of other people in the league (including me) have misclicked and not even asked for an Undo, as they know they are not allowed.

The contract now depends on the Spade finesse, which failed, so it was one down anyway. This was flat with the more reasonable 4♥-1 on the other table.

Near the end of the first half we had a gain bidding a making 5♦, a bit of a guess from me but turned out to be the perfect contract here:

When John ruffs the third Spade high he can claim once trumps are 2-1. Even better, 3NT would be down. The other table was in 3♦+2, so that was +6 IMPs.

At the end of the first half Team Faben were up by 16 IMPs.

At the start of the second half I checked with my opponents on the policy for Undos, and they confirmed they were for bidding only not the play. I was pleased to hear them say that, but not much else went right.

When the opponents got to 4♠ I needed to find a lead. I would have liked to lead a trump, but didn't have any. I guessed to lead a Heart. This couldn't give declarer a finesse he couldn't already take, but did make things easier for him. He took two Hearts and eight trump tricks for 4♠=.

On the other table East opened, so South was on lead against 4♠. He did lead a trump. Declarer has eight trump tricks and the Ace of Hearts, so needed one more. He tried leading up too the King of Clubs, then the Jack, but both failed. The last thing to try is the Heart finesse, but instead I think he tried to drop the King of Hearts in three rounds, which worked, but used up all his trumps so he couldn't draw them and enjoy his ♥Q. One off.

This one I misbid but it turned out fine - still a mistake I think:

The North hand should correct to 4♠. The suit can play opposite a singleton, and it's quite likely that partner's double stop in Hearts won't be enough as you'll have to lose the lead twice setting up Spades.

As it happened there were enough tricks outside Spades that if the defence set up their Hearts declarer is up to nine tricks without having to set up the Spades, so John made 3NT=. Similar auction and result at the other table.

The match was still tight but we had a poor finish. We conceded 3♦x= then I made a lead-directing double which John followed to let a contract make. On the last I played 3NT with seven top tricks and finished down two; a poor effort as it's not too hard to set up an eighth (or maybe even make it if the cards lie nicely).

We lost the second half by 29 to lose the match by 13 IMPs. That meant just 7/20 VPs. This is the table with four teams still to play one match:

Congratulations to BShenkin for winning the league and comiserations to Smith finishing bottom. It looks like we will finish second last assuming Chow get some points on their last match.