HSOG Bridge Christmas Party

For the Juniors Christmas party I made up some boards that had already been played at the Buchanan Bridge Club. That meant even if we played a board only once I could generate a score for each pair by comparing with people who had played it previously. I chose hands from a Matchpoint evening with 26 tables, so each deal had a maximum score of 50 (2 points from beating each of the other 25 pairs), so I could double those scores to get a percentage.

For example:

When this deal was played our East-West pair duly made 3NT+2. So they get the same score as the other pairs who made 3NT+2, 27/50 or 54%. That turned out to be from our most experienced Junior pair, Niamh & Rachel, who won the event with 64%.

Although the double-dummy solver says the optimum contract is 7♥ it needs trumps 3-3, so is far from wise. 7♣ is better, but actually (as is usually the case) you can forget about the grand and bidding any slam will get you a good score.

Perhaps West opens 1♦, North ovecalls 2♠ East doubles, West bids 3♣ then East can drive to 6♣. Would our Senior pairs have bid it? Maybe.

The full results of hands from the Buchanan club can be found here: Buhcanan Results 10th May (then click on Travellers).

Rowan vs Stirling

The Glasgow league matches consist of four tables. In this match against high-flying Stirling when the first two tables had finished we were 310 points up. But when the second match, featuring Anna and I, finished, we were 5000 points down. It's fair to say we were not on top form, or even on medium form. 

It was a demolition. Of the 24 boards there were only two where we achieved a result above par. I was guilty of pushing too hard, against some very disciplined opponents. They defended well, we played poorly, and the result was inevitable. 

Here are three of the worst:

Against 2NT Anna lead a Diamond to my Queen and I returned a Diamond to the Ace. Declarer then ducked a Spade to me. I don't really want to lead any suit, but had worked out that declarer likely only had two Hearts, possibly ♥KQ, so a Heart return was safe. I tried the ♥9, which declarer ducked to Anna's Queen. She cashed her Diamond and that was four tricks to the defence.

At this point I strongly suspect declarer is down to a singleton King in Hearts, so if Anna returns a Heart it's one down, and a great defence. But I foolishly threw a low Club, encouraging Clubs. I was just thinking about Anna making a safe exit, rather than realising we actually had enough tricks to beat the contract straight away. The result was therefore 2NT=, when it was nearly one down. A missed opportunity.

On other tables East-West variously made 2NT and 3♥.

This part-score battle soon became irrelevant, as we gave away a few large penalties and one massive one. Here is an example of fine judgement by the opponents:

My 5♦ bid is a calculated overbid, luring West into 5♠, which goes off one. But instead he doubled me for -500.

At the other tables the results were 4♠=, 5♦x-2 and 4♠x=.

Finally one where I thought the opponents were lucky, but actually I misdefended:

My 4♣ is another 'pressure-bid' that backfired as they got to 5♦. Anna cashed the King of Clubs then switched to a Heart. Declarer naturally finessed, and I correctly switched to a Spade. But declarer immediately went up with the ♠A, and was able to draw turmps via a finesse, then cross to dummy's Hearts to discard all his Spades. Note it doesn't actually matter that Hearts split 5-1, as on the run of trumps North has to discard a Heart (or the King of Spades).

The correct defence now appears simple. We need three tricks to beat the contract, so need a Spade. On Anna's ♣K lead I should overtake and return a Spade. Then it's surely one off.

On the other tables the results were 3♦=, 4♦= and 3♣+1 the other way.

Overall, a crushing defeat.