HighSchoolOfGlasgowJuniors vs Aardfap

It's school exam season, which meant I only had two Juniors available for my team this week. Phil and I stepped in to be the other pair. In this match we had the pleasure of playing against Peter Edmond's Bearsden Improvers Club. Peter is also a former HSOG maths teacher (like Phil) so it was a true reunion.

I like Phil's style, as like me he is always on the lookout for a possible game and slam, and together we bid pretty aggressively. This produced some very good results, though this is not one of them:

On both tables East opened 4♥. This is definitely not my choice, as you might miss slam, or your partner may sacrifice when in fact you have lots of defence.

Phil had the big South hand and took the reasonable decision to double. He got to response he didn't want, 4♠, and had to pass.

In 4♠ I got the expected ♥A lead. How do you play it?

In fact the best option is to duck this trick, throwing a Club or Diamond from dummy. Then when East continues Hearts (as he surely would) you can ruff it, draw a couple of rounds of trumps with the Ace-King, finesse Clubs and run winners. The defence just gets that one Heart at the start, and two trumps. It needs a lucky layout in Clubs (and Spades 4-2 oddly) but works here.

It's an interesting deal in that the winning play relies on ducking, in a suit contract, which you don't see often.

This duck did not occur to me at the table. I was just trying for as many tricks as possible, and planned to ruff two Hearts in dummy. The problem with this is that each time you ruff a Heart you have no entry back to hand. I finished on 4♠-3. On the other table East-West pushed on to 5♥, which South gratefully doubled and beat by two tricks.

Despite the 14 IMP loss on this board, we scraped home to win the match 50-45.

Sole Bay Bridge Club

Anna and I are on holiday in Suffolk and took advantage of the trip to visit the Sole Bay Bridge Club again. This was our first time playing here in a while, and it is always very enjoyable. There was a nice atmosphere and a brisk 21 boards. We mostly got good results but three times I tried to be clever, and three times it backfired.

The first time was when I thought for ages, and finally decided it was safe to duck my winners in the hope of setting the contract two. To my surprise declarer then took the rest! Well done Jenny and Alan. In my analysis of the hand I'd forgotten that the ♦A was still out there, what a blunder.

Then I had this promising hand:

♠x ♥x ♦Qxxxx ♣AKxxxx

First to bid, no-one vulnerable. I probably should have opened 3♣, but decided to pass. Then Anna bid 1NT and I considered several options (including minor suit Stayman) before passing. I definitely should have transferred to 3♣ now.

Anna had a rough time in 1NT, the Clubs did not come in and it was 1NT-2.

My third bodge was in a competitive auction. I pushed on to 4♥, thinking the opposition would surely be making 4♣. It went one off (fine), but I think 4♣ might have been failing too. Everyone else played 3♥=, so I suppose we have to say well bid to Vivien and Linda for pushing us too high.

Despite my off-night Anna did well and we finished with a winning score of 64%.

Here's an interesting hand:

Love all S deal ♠ Q T ♥ x x x ♦ K Q x x ♣ A K x x ♠ x x x ♥ x x ♦ A x ♣ Q T 9 8 x x 14 6 14 6 ♠ K ♥ A K Q x x ♦ J T 9 x x ♣ J x ♠ A J 9 8 x x x ♥ J x x ♦ x x ♣ x

Anna Danny W N E S 3♠ - - -

It was a simple auction at our table; 3♠ passed out. I agree with the 3♠ opening bid; you'd like stronger Spades but it's a decent seven card suit with a singleton.

North is close to a raise. You have three Heart losers but it's likely that partner has shortage (not today though). You expect about four losers (one Spades, two Hearts, one Diamond), so at Teams might bid an optimistic 4♠. Here North did well to pass.

With the East hand I was thinking about a double of 3♠. If partner inevitably bid 4♣ I'd just have to pass. But North looked like she had a good hand so I chose to pass, and was glad I did when I saw such a good dummy.

In defence to 3♠ Anna lead a Heart. I took three top tricks then a Diamond for 3♠=. Anna was quick to notice that if I switch to a Diamond after winning my the first Heart then we can beat it, as Anna can then throw her small Diamond on a top Heart and get a Diamond ruff for the fifth defensive trick. I have to admit this never crossed my mind.

I think if Anna leads the Ace of Diamonds, a fairly normal lead after the pre-empt, we might have found the winning defence. One table did as the result was 4♠-2, but another table presumably lead a Club and conceded 4♠=. A two trick swing on the opening lead.