Barcelona Open

I'm just back from a weekend in Spain playing in the Barcelona Bridge Open. It was fun with lots of good bridge. I played with Yuqi, a Japanese U21 player who is on an exchange in Spain. We finished an extremely average 78th out of 156 pairs, with 49.9%.

Final scores and Full results

Here is a diary I kept, supplemented with some bridge hands and photos.

Friday 30th January

Left work in a hurry this afternoon and drove to Edinburgh for a flight to Barcelona. It was arranged that I would arrive half-way through the first session and take over from a substitute, so I was keen to get there as quickly as possible. Once the plane landed I dashed through passport control and got a bus to Hotel Catalonia, barely stopping for a single pastry before bursting into the bridge room, which was the whole of floor minus one. 

Taking my seat, I settled in for the highest standard bridge tournament I've ever played in. The most similar experiences I've had are a few years ago playing a season online in the top division in Scotland, and twenty ago playing in the Brighton Congress where I nearly said hello to my hero Zia Mahmood. Since then it's all been school bridge and the occasional club night. 

Before starting, I introduced myself to my partner, who I was meeting for the first time. Yuqi is a talented Japanese player who was also looking for a partner. We'd agreed to play the system he used at the Youth World Championship, reduced from thirty pages to four pages, and had practiced a few times online alongside the Scottish Juniors, who were rather hoping he would defect to play for us. 

I sat North. On the very first board I was pleased to have an easy pass, then my left-hand opponent opened 4♥, passed out.

Yuqi sitting South led the Queen of Spades, on which I encouraged. He followed up with the Jack, which I overtook with the King and cashed the Ace. First three tricks for the defence. Where was our fourth trick coming from?

One option is to play a Diamond. I'm pretty sure partner has the Ace (declarer has nothing but Hearts for his 4H bid), but if the Diamond gets ruffed, then declarer will draw trumps and win all those good Clubs in dummy. So I went for a low Spade, knowing that everyone else was out of Spades but hopefully this would make us a trump trick as partner would be ruffing after declarer (a rare instance of deliberately giving a ruff and discard).

Declarer could have ruffed with the Jack of Hearts, which succeeds here as South can't overruff. Another option is to ruff with the Ace of Hearts, then cross to dummy and finesse Hearts, which also works here. But it could easily lead to two down, as you could lose a trump trick and a Diamond. So declarer went for a third option, discarding a Diamond from hand, letting South ruff with his Ten of Hearts, then taking he rest.

Before deciding to do this, he took at least four minutes thinking, some of it with his head in his hands. I'm glad he finally made the wrong choice. We got 91% on the board, as most stopped in 3H, or made 4H. 

On the next board I defended safely for down one, and by Board 3 felt confident to risk a friendly joke, against a pair of stony faced Italians who did not respond. After that I would my neck in. A delightful Dutch couple made me feel welcome then pleasantly destroyed us in 4H+1 when everyone else was only making ten tricks. With the matchpoint scoring conceding an extra trick got us a very bad score. 

At the end of the session we had 47%. I made no big mistakes but was maybe a bit timid. After the session a welcome beer and snacks were provided.

Saturday 31st January

Slept in until 9am. Wanted to take advantage of the hotel breakfast but instead went on a run through the city, which was perhaps a mistake as it was very crowded with lots of roads to cross. A Green Man means cross if you dare. 

With no morning session Yuqi and I went out for paella. He says Spanish food is a bit like Japanese, lots of rice and seafood. Then I went for a nap and to another cafe, ready for the 5 pm start.

We got off to a great start, and then I got a bit carried away. This was the turning point. North opened 1H and I was sitting East.

The textbook bid is 3C, or maybe Pass. I went one extra with a 4C overcall. I hoped this would put pressure on the opponents, but they happily passed. My partner of course has the best hand at the table but has to pass too.

4C lost the first three tricks in Hearts, then South played a Diamond. I won in hand, crossed to dummy, threw my losing Spade on another Diamond (not expecting the spade finesse to work), and led a Club up. North snapped up his Ace and played another round of Hearts, putting me to a guess, as to how high to ruff. You can see that on this layout I can't guess wrong, but even so, 4C-1 netted only 31%. Top result was 3NT East-West, which a few pairs did find.

Then I had a chance for some good declarer play in 2NT. I had a secret Club suit of AKQ6, which I planned to play at the end, fairly confident that by then both defenders would be squeezed into throwing away too many Clubs to keep a stopper. Despite making a deliberate effort to watch out for Club discards, I missed one, and bottled it at the end and didn't risk playing my winning Six of Clubs.

Missing a squeeze is forgivable, but then I made my only really big blunder of the weekend. I was in another 2NT, needing four Club tricks from AKxxx opposite xxx. The suit split 3-2, but I foolishly cashed the Ace-King then played a third round, and was now stranded from my other two winners (should duck on first or second round). 

Firmly on the tilt, I accidentally made a game forcing bid when I just wanted to play at the two level. I had done a good job memorising the system but bodged here. The auction continued out of control until luckily Yuqi bid one of my suits, and I was able to pass 3H, to the surprise of everyone else at the table. This made exactly, for a solid 56%, and after that good fortune we finished the session well, moving up to 49% overall.

Afterwards I went for a drink with the Welsh Juniors (James, Jo and Sophie), then on to the official bridge dinner, on a friendly table with Serbian and Swedish bridge players. I had a fantastic egg dish followed by a very meaty Catalan stew. I think the Spanish style is to have only large meal a day. I've had two, and am surprised that Yuqi, a slender Japanese man half my size, is eating the same.

Sunday 1st February

After a three course meal last night starting at 10pm I once again didn't really feel like breakfast, but had plenty of orange juice and coffee instead. 

The final session of the bridge was about to start. Could we haul ourselves above 50%, in a very good field?

Things started well when I made 3NT with no Heart stopper.

I opened the East hand 1NT, preferring it to 1D for reasons I don't remember. South overcalled 2H showing Hearts and a minor, and Yuqi bid the West hand 3D, natural and game forcing. Although I have massive Diamond support I instead bid 3S, and Yuqi bid 3NT. I thought this promised a stopper, and maybe South did too, as he led a Diamond.

I have nine top tricks. I could have cashed all my Diamond winners then maybe taken a Spade finesse for an overtrick, but realistically I was never going to risk the contract, so I just claimed after checking if the Queen of Spades fell. Making this terrible 3NT was worth 77%, not even more as 5D also makes for the more sensible bidders.

We kept up a good start, until the wheels fell off when I made a fairly decent 2D overcall, which got doubled. We ran to 3C doubled, even worse, when 2NT would have been a decent spot. 

A highlight was getting to play against the great Argentinian Diego Brenner, who had a cool demeanour and leather jacket. I was also looking good in some shorts and 'double penguin' (T-shirt and socks). We got one good board against him when I played 2C-1 (could have made it, nearly did) then Diego fixed us with a four card overcall.

   

I opened the East hand 1D and Diego bid 1S with the South dross. Yuqi bid 2NT, which I alerted, then realised that I'd forgotten I opened the bidding, and withdrew my alert. Diego was very nice about it. We ended in 3NT and North found the Spade lead to hold us to 9 tricks. 3NT= was worth just 15%. What a big difference Matchpoint scoring makes.

About half the players were Spanish and the other half from all over Europe. There were some friendly Croatians who had been in Barcelona a week to watch a Champions League Match. We also played against the Italian great Alfredo Versace, who wore a big hoodie often with the hood pulled tight around him. 

On the final hand I finally got to play a singleton-invite system that we had agreed.

I opened the East hand 1S, and Yuqi raised to 2S. I bid 2NT, forcing Yuqi to bid 3C, then I showed my Heart shortage. Yuqi settled for 3S, and I played there. 

South lead a Diamond. I have six top Spade tricks, the Ace of Diamonds, and at least one ruff, so eight tricks to start off with. I set up the Clubs, and was able to ruff both a Club and a Diamond, plus the 8 of Clubs became a winner, for ten tricks and 3S+1. A great one to finish on, getting us 64% on the hand.

In the final session we moved up slightly to finish on 49.9%. However, remember that the first few boards of the event were played by Yuqi and a substitute, and they only averaged about 43%, so for the boards I played we actually averaged 50.5%. Sad that for me a win is beating 50%, I'm a long way from really winning.

After the bridge I popped into Barcelona for a quick haircut then went to the airport, where I was able to play a couple of hands online with the Scottish Juniors before flying home.

It was a very tiring weekend but lots of fun. The event was well run and thanks to the organisers including Nico, the tournament directors, and all the friendly Catalan people.

Now that's done I can concentrate all my bridge efforts on getting the Scottish Juniors ready for the Peggy Bayer in three weeks.