Ukraine Sim Pairs at Bawburgh

On Wednesday afternoon Anna and I returned to Bawburgh for a special event - the Ukraine Sim Pairs. After playing very little (and not at all face-to-face) this was our third session of the holiday, and we were well prepared. Anna even brought her own decaff tea bags.

 

In the first round we had a sit-out, and were then immediately faced with a strong pair playing a strong Club system. I was about to remind Anna of our defence to the Strong Club (which I was certain she'd forgotten) when I realised I'd already looked at my cards, so said nothing. 

Throughout the afternoon we were sharp, with only a few little blunders. On the one below the opponents bid aggressively to a borderline game, and I made a very poor lead to help them make it:

	Danny		Anna
W	N	E	S
			1NT
2♥	2♠	3♥	3♠
4♥	-	-	-
-	-

Anna opened 1NT and West was right in with 2♥. Anna and I have discussed what to do when they interfere with our 1NT and my 2♠ just shows a weak hand has Spades. When East competed Anna went on to 3♠, but West had no problem bidding the game.

With me having 6 points and Anna 12-14, and the opponents inching to game, it was obvious they didn't have a lot to spare. That calls for a safe lead. However, I went for something different. Looking at the North hand, what do you think is the worst possible opening lead?

I carefully selected the KC. I hoped this would give me a good chance of a ruff if Anna had the Ace, or at least would be safe if Anna had the Queen.

Declarer (Brian Bedwell) won in hand and immediately tackled trumps, leading from his hand. This gave up the chance of finessing, but was surely the right play expecting my lead to be a singleton, and knowing that he could make 4♥ this way. 

Not surprisingly no one else found that lead, but around the room 4H still made on Diamond and Spade leads. In fact game is still pretty safe on a Spade lead (for example), as South will probably play low. To beat the game South needs to win the Ace of Spades and return a Club, declarer finesses and loses, North returns a Club, and then when in with the Ace of Hearts South gives partner a Club ruff. I'm not sure we would have managed that (and in fact declarer can still prevail by refusing the Club finesse).

That was our worst board scoring 25%. Everything else was average or better.

Another blip was one near the end where I played 2♥ incredibly slowly and made +1, but actually I should be making +2 (I played two suits in the wrong order, costing two tricks, then recovered one with an endplay. Anna said it was agony watching, and felt like apologising to the opposition).

With good play and lots of luck we finished on 74%. 

Since this was a Sim Pairs our scores were compared with those in many other bridge clubs (including in Switzerland and South Africa) and moderated down to 71.68%. This was slightly annoying as the top pair (out of 600+) was on 71.80%. If I'd have just made 2H+2 we'd have been top.

Walberswick Bridge Club

Last Tuesday afternoon Anna and I returned to Walberswick Bridge Club. It only runs every other Tuesday, and we only play every other year, but we were still recognised by a few of the locals. It's my favourite local club to play at. This time we decided to walk there from Southwold. We thought we were going to be late but found that Google Maps doesn't know about the path alongside the harbour, and we were actually there with time to spare.

Anna and I did pretty well, though I messed up the defence in one hand. We had set up some winning Diamonds, but I forgot they were winning, and rather than cash them played a Club. The look of surprise on Anna's face told me I might have done something foolish, and declarer duly took the rest. Apart from this we had a couple of minor issues, such as the bidding on this tricky one below:

Love All E deal ♠ x ♥ J T x x ♦ Q J x x x x ♣ x x ♠ J ♥ A K x x ♦ T x ♣ A K Q x x x

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

You can see that we both have Hearts, but didn't bid them. After East opened Anna was too strong to overcall so doubled. West bid a (very light) 2♠, and I decided that I was worth a bid. I thought with six of them I ought to bid my Diamonds. Anna now bid her Clubs, and was left to play there. With the Clubs splitting and the ♥Q doubleton 4♣ was no problem, but 4♥ would have been better.

As this was the first round we didn't have any scores to compare with, but it seems that lots of North-South pairs found this one hard to bid. And with 11 Spades between them actually East-West often won the contract, with 3♠= a common score for East-West.

On the other board that I remember (there were no hand records) Anna and I were both a bit too aggressive in the bidding:

Game all E deal ♠ A K x x ♥ K x x ♦ x ♣ J T 8 x x ♠ x ♥ Q T x x x ♦ x x x ♣ K Q x x

Danny Anna W N E S 1♦ - 3♦ x - 4♥ - - -

The auction started with opponents bidding 1♦-3♦. With the North hand I risked a double, even though I'm rather light and only have three Hearts. Anna decided she was worth a 4♥ response. This confused me as she couldn't muster up a 1♥ overcall, but you can see that even opposite my light double 4♥ has play (with only 18 point between the hands). However, it was not to be as the defence was accurate and took the Ace of Diamonds then Ace of Clubs and a ruff. Even though the ♥J was in the right place four losers meant one off.

Although -100 felt like a bad score, especially as we might have been allowed to play it in 3♥ it was about average as East-West were comfortably making nine or ten tricks in Diamonds.

Overall we were the top pair with 68%.

Bawburgh Bridge Club

For the Easter holidays Anna and I are in Southwold. With the grandparents looking after the children we drove across Norfolk to play in the popular Bawburgh Bridge Club, which has recently reopened. For the Monday Morning game there were an impressive 15 1/2 tables. They made us feel very welcome, and we soon settled into our game.

Considering this was only their Relaxed Game the standard was good, and Anna and I started with a few poor scores when the opponents bid and made games against us. On one I felt bad as I'd overcalled with ♥QJTxxx and Anna then dutifully led my suit; whereas if I'd kept quiet we would would have beaten the contract.

Anna		Danny
W	N	E	S
-	1♣	2♥	3NT
-	-	-

When South plays 3NT a normal Jack of Spades from West will give the defence the first five tricks. For some reason Anna instead led a Heart (maybe because I bid them) , and declarer thankfully took the next 10 tricks. Conceding 3NT+1 was worth 32%.

In my defence South bid her 3NT very quickly which could suggest a double stop in Hearts, indicating it might be worth trying another suit. But I don't want partner to stop leading my suit so perhaps it's better I don't overcall at all.

After a cup of tea and a KitKat we got a run of good results, mostly through competing in the auction and defending well. But we were far from perfect, and were lucky with several boards. Once Anna miscounted her points and that kept us out of a game that didn't make.

This was my favourite board:

Anna		Danny
W	N	E	S
		-	-
-	1♦	-	-
x	-	2♣	-
-	-

It's a long auction to 2♣. Everyone passed to North who opened his balanced 17 count with 1♦. I considered a bad 2♣ overcall but restrained myself (this time the suit is good, but the hand too weak). Rather than letting 1♦ be passed out Anna found a double. She's only got two Hearts, but it's still a good bid. North passed and now I had an easy 2♣ bid. This went back to North who reluctantly passed.

In 2♣ South led his partner's Diamonds and they took the first three tricks. North can see he also has two Aces coming, so just needs one more to beat the contract. He mad the fine play of a fourth Diamond, hoping to promote a trump trick for the defence.

I could have tried a low Club (hoping North had the Ten) but ruffed with the Jack. You can see that even though the King-Jack of Spades are onside if I play Spades myself my spot cards are not quite good enough and East would win the third round with the 8. So I tried something else. 

I eliminated Hearts and drew trumps, hoping North would have to lead a Spade himself or give me a ruff and discard. This worked nicely and at he end I was left with a simple Spade finesse for the contract (which by that point I knew was going to work, as North had already shown 17 points by then).

Making 2♣ was a good score, losing only to the East-West pair who got +100 for defeating 2NT. Most tables reached the best contract of 2♥ North-South making about nine tricks.

Overall we finished on 73%.