Maccabi vs Rowan

Very enjoyable bridge last night, against good opponents (Steve Male and Marilynsil). It felt like they got a lot right, bidding a slam missed at two other tables and twice getting to a making five of a minor after we'd pre-empted. We also got caught in 2♣x, when I would say Anna needlessly volunteered a 2♣ rebid on a five-card suit, but then I'd entered the bidding with 2 points so must take quite a lot of the blame too:

I would definitely reply 1♥ without the double and decided to do it anyway. When Anna rebid 2♣ I assumed she had a very long Club suit. I also knew that she was likely void in Hearts, as I have seven and both opponents have them. Removing to 2♥ wouldn't help here, it's equally bad (but might not get doubled). I did think about redoubling 2♣, which Anna assures me she would indeed have taken as an escape. That might get us to the decent spot of 2♠, which can make lots of tricks on a cross-ruff.

At the other tables the contracts were 4♠x-1 by South (helpful ♦A lead), 3♠-1 and 2♥-2 by North. So not a good board for North-South.

Perhaps chastened by this misadventure we bid rather conservatively, and played 3 of a major many times. This was nearly always the right thing to do, as the cards lay badly, though didn't feel right at aggregate scoring.

Here's one we did bid game on, albeit the wrong game:

Playing a strong NT West opened 1♦. With 19 points I'm too strong to overcall so started with a double. In response Anna jumped to 2♥. We weren't clear on whether this jump shows a decent hand (7-10 say, with 4+ Hearts), or just good Hearts. I bid my Spade suit hoping Anna could rebid her Hearts if she did have length, but instead she supported my Spades with only two. My slam inquiry of 4♣ was quickly closed down and I was left to play 4♠.

It takes extra concentration to play what you know is the wrong contract.

I got a Diamond lead. With no extra entries to dummy I can't ruff out the Hearts, so have to rely on getting them right first time (either a finesse or dropping the Queen). But first I drew trumps. When they split 4-2 I had three trump losers, but this wasn't necessarily fatal, as the defence hadn't touched Clubs yet. My plan was to get rid of the last trump then rely on Hearts coming in. Even though it meant further weakening my trumps I played a fourth round to draw East's master trump, so that he couldn't ruff in during the Hearts. This was a rare time to break The Rule of One and draw a master trump.

Once trumps were drawn I played the King of Hearts and lead up to dummy. Crunch time. I knew that the Club honours were split (with KQJ West would have lead one) so to have enough points to open I thought West had to have the Queen of Hearts. I also knew she had 5 Diamonds and 2 Spades, so my only hope was 5422 shape with doubleton Queen of Hearts. Not impossible. I therefore played Hearts from the top. It didn't work, and because I'd drawn that extra trump I went three off. But I took consolation from the fact I think I played it the right way.

The one good thing about the Heart finesse failing was that it meant 4♥ was unlikely to make. However, on one other table North made 1♠+2, when South only replied 1♥ to the double, and on another North made 1♠+1 when he just overcalled instead of doubling. On the last table North made 3NT+3, after the Heart finesse miraculously won (West ducked the Queen of Hearts, perhaps a misclick). So 4♥ wasn't the popular contract I assumed.

Overall we lost our table by 110 and the match by 1230.

Strathcylde vs Rowan

Anna and I had a fairly subdued game here, mostly defending unbeatable contracts and not beating them. My highlight was making this game:

I thought about overcalling 3♥ but decided the hand was too good, then when Anna showed some points got to 4♥. I got a Club lead.

You can see there are 10 easy tricks, seven trumps and three Aces. But after the King of Hearts brought out the Ten, I tried a Heart finesse. I think the odds were in my favour, as South had a weak NT sort of hand (they played five card majors) so I felt was more likely to have Qxx than xx. Anyway it's a close call, and I got it wrong.

Now that my ten tricks have turned to nine, I need the Diamond finesse. But after playing through other suits it become increasingly clear that finesse was doomed. So instead I played of all my trumps, and when South came down to a top Spade and ♦Kx I played a Spade, letting him win then lead a Diamond round to me. If he'd have seen it coming he could have avoided the endplay by throwing all his Spades (hoping his partner had the Jack), but at this level it's much more likely I would just finesse so he probably defended correctly (another option would be blanking his Diamond King and keeping two winning Spades).

The other tables played 4♥= (playing Hearts from the top), 3♥+1 after a weak jump overcall (playing Hearts from the top) and 2♥+1 after South opened 1NT (also taking the losing trump finesse).

My other featured hand is a fun one:

I opened 1♥ and when North doubled Anna made a pre-emptive 3♥ bid. North bid 4♦ and I made perhaps a slightly undisciplined 4♥ bid. North wasn't done and bid 5♦, passed out.

Declarer has hit a rather nice dummy - with five trumps and a singleton to take care of your Spade losers. We took our three top tricks for one off.

How about 4♥? There's four losers, five if the defence arrange a trump promotion, but it's not easy to defend, and might make in practice. On the other tables there was a 5♦x-1, 4♦= and 4♥+1, where in defence North took one Diamond then switched to a Spade.

Overall we lost the match 10-6 to put us near the bottom of the Glasgow League Division 2.