Finding an extra trick

Last night Anna and I did a bit better on the EBU 12 board pairs. We finished on 58% which felt about right after a few top boards (1NTx-1 which they could have been made) and a few bad ones (3NT-3 after we had a Multi 2D mix up).

The last board caught my eye:

On the one hand it's a very flat board, with nearly everyone getting to 4♥ and making 10 tricks. That's what we did, for 51% on the board. As long as South makes the obvious ♣K lead the defence get one Club, one Diamond and one Spade.

But the question is, at the table, once you've drawn trumps how can you maximize your chances of getting to discard a losing Club? There is hope in the Diamond suit, but if once you lead the ♦J every defender should take the Ace then cash their Club. A bit better is leading the ♦2 from hand, when it's not quite as obvious you're looking for a Club discard.

But I think the best line is to cross to dummy and take the Spade finesse. If Spades behave you have a genuine chance to get away your Club loser (from dummy), and make 12 tricks. And if the Spade finesse fails you're in the same position as before.

Team Rowan vs Morrisons

Last night was the final league match of the season. I had my mind on the Peggy Bayer, the upcoming Junior Home Internationals for which I am the non-playing captain of the Scotland team, and was hoping for some nice quiet relaxing bridge. That didn't happen though, and in the first few boards we gave away two game swings then got one back bidding a 23 point 3NT. I knew it was 23 points but bid it anyway - everything was onside and Anna made +1.

In our house I play upstairs, and four times in the first hour I had to go and see Zoe, who was most definitely not asleep.

Things failed to settle down with some distributional hands, and big decisions. Here's one that did go smoothly for us:

I have a flat 18 point South hand, which doesn't feel like a great hand. I decided to rebid it 2NT anyway, on the policy of always bidding to the max at aggregate. Anna bid Checkback Stayman and I showed three Spades. At this point she bid 4♣, and I had to think.

Probably Anna is cue-bidding, having set Spades as trumps. But Clubs is my suit, so her bid could be natural with a 5-4-0-4 hand. I ruled that out as extremely unlikely and cuebid my Hearts. That's what Anna wanted to hear and she bid the slam.

East predictably lead a top Diamond, immediately finding the weakness. On any other lead declarer can afford to lose a trump and still collect 4 Spades, 3 Hearts, 4 Clubs and 1 Diamond. On this lead there are still 12 tricks there, but the risk of losing two as well. So it looks like the slam comes down to guessing trumps - but Anna found a better line.

Her plan was to cash the top Spades, then play off winners hoping to discard two losing Diamonds. This works if Clubs are 3-3 (or 4-2 with the long Club hand having the last trump), or the Queen of trumps drops. It probably needs trumps 3-2 but you might need that anyway.

Anna set about her plan playing two top Spades. As it happens the Queen popped up straight away, so that was 13 tricks.

Three of the four tables played 6♠, all making, one played 3NT.

Overall we won the match 12-4. I think that means we will finish the season in 3rd or 4th place in Division 2.

Going for Broke

In last night's EBU 12-board tournament Anna and I got off to a great start. On the first board I opened third in hand with an awful 9 points, got raised to the three level and made it. We were flying along, at least for the first three boards. Things slowed down a bit as we both failed to make overtricks, through a combination of their solid defence and our unimaginative declarer play. With one board to go we had dipped below 50%, so needed something good on the last:

West opened 1♥ and Anna overcalled 1NT. I know she's got a decent hand with a good Heart stop, and considered bidding 6♣. I made the sensible bid of 3NT though, expecting it to make comfortably.

My plans were scuppered when West bid 4♥. Anna doubled this, I suppose showing she really did have a very good Heart stop. Not many tables would be playing in 4♥x, so this could be the swing I was after.

However, having been restrained once I couldn't resist the second time, and had a go at 6♣. Since this was matchpoints there wasn't much point bidding only 5♣, as even if that made it would be a poor score losing to the majority of tables playing a comfortable 3NT.

6♣ was passed out and West lead the Ace of Spades and another. Despite dummy having nothing in Clubs it has some play. It could all come down to guessing trumps. I decided to play the Ace on the first round then finesse, reasoning I could cope with trumps 4-1 onside. But in fact they were 5-0 onside. This might not have been fatal if I had enough winners to play through East (meaning he has to ruff and I can overruff) but here it's got no chance.

Given West's unusual bidding, perhaps I should assume there's a void somewhere, and Clubs is the most likely place for it. So that argues for finessing Clubs on the first round, though in fact that's still not enough to make it.

If I leave in the double of 4♥ that's no good either. Despite Anna's excellent trumps, my ♥Q and are other two Ace-Kings we only get six tricks for +500, still losing out to 3NT making. And that's assuming we don't crash any of our trump honours. As it was going down in 6♣ didn't score well either, and we finished on 46%.

Team Rowan vs Metropole

Last night Anna and I had another Glasgow Division 2 league match against the undefeated Metropole Team. It was a very close match, with the big swing on our table when I overbid to a bad slam and went down:

Looking at all four hands, you may wonder how 6♦ could fail. The trumps are 3-2, and the Clubs are 3-3 with the Queen on side. If I just draw trumps and finesse in Clubs I get four Diamonds, five Clubs, two Spades with the ruff and a Heart.

However, I was reluctant to take that Club finesse. No one likes to go down early on in a slam on a finesse. So instead I drew just two rounds of trumps, then played the ♣AK, and had a think. At this point I realised my plan of ruffing out the Clubs was doomed, as I couldn't ruff both a Spade and a Club in the South hand, and return to North to draw trumps. I glumly tried this plan anyway, and I was correct in that it was impossible, and it duly went two off.

I could have still made it if I'd kept going with Clubs and discarded a Spade from dummy (then guessed Hearts right in the endgame, which I probably wouldn't). But probably the best plan was just to play the Club finesse.

What I've learned is that when you have limited trumps and limited entries like this sometimes you do just need to finesse. It was an expensive lesson, turning +1370 into -200. That 1570 point swing would have meant instead of losing the match overall 9-7 we would have won it 9-7.

The other three tables played 3♦+3, 5♦= and 5♦+2, so the team lost 330 overall. Even if I'd have just bid and made 5♦ we'd have won the match.

Apart from that board, I think we marginally had it better on our table, and picked up a lot of small swings, that perhaps just about added up to that failed slam. Here's one:

My bidding is somewhat erratic here (still on the tilt from 6♦-2) and my raise to 5♦ depends on partner having quite a suitable hand. 5♦x is not going to make, but could be a good sacrifice.

Anna played it nicely, drawing trumps then eliminating Clubs and Spades before playing Ace and another Heart. This would have gained a trick if an opponent had ♥Kx or ♥Qx and so was forced to win and give a ruff and discard.

5♦x-2 was worth -300, against the opponent's easy 4♠ for a modest gain.

The other tables played 5♠+1, 4♠= and another 5♦x-2, team Rowan declaring on all four tables and gaining 300 overall.

Finally an early board, showing the opponent's careful defence:

I have a great suit for a pre-empt, eight solid Spades with zero defence. The only problem is I'm in second seat and vulnerable. When East opened 1♣ I compromised with a 3♠ overcall, and I'm glad I settled for that as West doubled and East passed! I'm not sure East should pass, and they are rather fortunate that there are five tricks in defence.

I tried leading a Spade from hand hoping they would crash their honours. There's really no reason for West to play his ♠K (would I really be leading the Queen from AQ?) but it sometimes works. When that didn't happen I settled for 3♠x-1.

The other tables scored 4♥= on a similar auction, 4♠x-1 and 4♠-1 (the defence did crash their trump honours on those two tables). Overall we gained 320 on the board.

After those initial excitements there were a lot of fairly flat boards, where the opponents played 3NT on a combined 30 count and Anna and I tried to keep our concentration. I was still looking for an opportunity to 'win back' the missing points from my 6♦, but kept my discipline.

In the end the four tables produced very similar scores, more so than I've seen in any oher league match. Our match was won by 390, the other lost by 1020, for a narrow 9-7 loss overall.

Team Rowan vs Ramblers

Anna and I played our fourth match of the season for Team Rowan last night. Things started well with a 6♠ slam. I nearly didn't bid it, but actually there were 13 tricks. After that I decided that I would always back my judgment. The next board this philosophy cost us a game when I felt West must have all the Hearts so finessed the Nine. This lost to the Ten and I went two down in a vulnerable 3NT with 29 points between the hands.

After that things settled down and we had the better of the cards, and the better of the play. We made all of our games, plus a couple that maybe shouldn't have made. Anna produced a series of awful dummys that nevertheless were just enough.

In the competitive auction we pushed them into a lot of non-making contracts. Even though this was aggregate it makes a difference, getting +100 rather than -110. Twice we pushed them all the way into game, which is always a bit worrying. Luckily they both went down.

Here's a tough hand that Anna played in 1NT, her self-professed least-favourite contract:

North lead the ♦A then the ♦Q. Anna took this and she's up to six tricks, seven if she guesses Spades right. South has shown out on the second Diamond, so the Spade finesse is a big favourite. However, if it fails you risk losing the rest for four off. So Anna played the top three Spades and settled for one down.

The key to the hand is to cash the ♥AK first. Then by the time you have the decision in Spades you already have five tricks, so the worst that can happen is two down. I also would have ducked another Diamond by letting the ♦Q hold, giving South the chance to throw a Spade away (if he's got three) or keep his Spades (if he's got four to the Jack). As Anna said afterwards if you duck the first two tricks the defence could switch to Clubs and take you down immediately, though that's not really very likely I don't think.

On the other table in our match it was also 1NT-1 on similar play. In the other match both Norths played 2♦=, for four scores of -100, +100, -90 and +90 and the flattest board of the match.

I missed a golden opportunity on the last board of the match, with some lazy bidding. My only excuse is that I'd been declarer four times in a row (and 12 times in the 24 board match):

Anna opens 1♦ then rebids 2♣ and with a balanced 17 count I go straight to 3NT, making +2.

However, given that this is aggregate (not Matchpoints) I should explore slam, as there's no harm playing 5♣. If I bid a fourth suit forcing (which we play as forcing to game), Anna will bid 3♣, showing her 5-5 shape. I then bid 4♣ setting trumps, and after a few cuebids she shows her Spade control and I jump to 6♣.

Anna's hand is very suitable for 6♣, and in fact by setting up the Diamonds you make all 13 tricks.

On two of the other tables they played 5♣, and on the last South got to 3♠x, which went off four.

Overall we had a big lead on both tables and won the match 16-0.

Strong performance

Anna and I played a league match for Team Rowan last night. It felt odd not moving tables, and playing 24 boards against the same opponents. It was a good brisk game, and I think both pairs did well. I don't think Anna and I missed any good games or slams, or let anything through, and we scored a few good results too. This was an early success:

With partner a passed hand I have free licence. Over the 1♠ opener I bid an immediate 4♥. Pre-empting at game level is very effective as the opponents don't know if you are weak or expecting to make. South has a tough decision, but chose to pass.

In 4♥ I got a Spade lead, and the defence are threatening to take five tricks (two Spades, a Diamond, a Club, and South wins a trump if a third Spade is lead through). However, I was able to discard the ♦J on a Spade and hold it to 4♥-1.

As you can see, 4♠ for North-South is cold, which perhaps they would get to if South doubled 4♥. On the other table our team-mates made 4♠, after East only overcalled 2♥. In the other match North opened a weak 2♠ both times, once leading to 4♥-2 and once 5♥-2. Overall then a good board for Team Rowan. Really North-South should be getting to 4♠ with South doubling anyone who bids 5♥.

My second featured board was not such a good one:

I opened 1♥, South doubled and Anna bid 2♦, still showing 10+. When I rebid my Hearts Anna gave support, and it's hard for me to avoid bidding game, especially at aggregate scoring. I did consider 3NT, as I know it's going to be difficult getting Spade ruffs with short Spades on my right.

When dummy comes down it's not looking good. On the ♦T lead I know that the Diamond finesse is failing, so I have two unavoidable Club losers. I need one trump loser, and to ruff two Spades in dummy, which requires finding exactly ♥Kx onside. So that's what I play for. It's looking good when I am able to ruff one Spade with the ♥9, but falls apart when the Heart finesse fails.

Two off is no disaster at aggregate, and it was worth trying for that layout that would let me make it. However, there's a further twist. With just three tricks left I've got ♥A62 in hand with one other small trump outstanding. I ruff with the ♥2 and accidentally double-click, therefore starting the next trick with the ♥6! This is as obvious a mis-click as you could get, and I immediately explain what happened and ask for an undo.

My request is rejected, then one opponent says "try again" but her partner still rejects the Undo. So it's 4♥-3 and minus 300.

On the other tables most were also unable to avoid bidding 4♥ either, and it finished variously 4♥-3 (me), 4♥-1, 4♥-2 and 3♥-2.

In the end we won our match by +800, and the other match by +140 for an overall win of +940 translating to a 10-6 win.

Would +1040 have been a different score?

Finding the overtrick

Last night Anna and I had another go at the EBU pairs. I bid and defended quite recklessly, and got lucky as pretty much everything came off. The high point of good fortune was bidding a terrible 3NT that relied on getting four tricks from ♠AJ92 opposite ♠K6.

The hand below was the most interesting:

North made a light third-in-hand 1♦ opening, which Anna overcalled 1♥. She should really double first with six hearts and 16+, but the overcall worked well enough here when I supported with 2♥ and she could bid game.

South lead a Diamond to the Queen and Ace. There are now ten tricks - six Hearts, two Diamonds, a Spade and a Club. Anna drew trumps then used the Club entry to take a Spade finesse. This would gain a trick if North had both missing honours, but as it is he ducked correctly to South's ♠Q and later Anna had to give a trick to the ♠K.

4♥= was a common score and got 46%.

The wining play is to realise that you need to finesse Spades twice, so need two dummy entries. That means ruffing a Diamond in dummy, even though it's a winner. As Anna agreed afterwards, it would be easier if you'd be dealt ♦Axx.

We finished on 62.8%, good enough for 11th out of 102 pairs.

Too Obvious

Yesterday I went for a snooze after putting the children to bed. Anna woke me up, and five minutes later we were playing in our second-ever EBU tournament. On the first board I made a 2♣ bid, and alerted it as "Checkback Stayman, forcing to game". I'd got confused though, and it wasn't Checkback Stayman. Anna correctly passed, and we played 2♣+2 with a combined 27 count. Amazingly, no game made, and we scored 83% for our efforts. I apologised to the opposition.

We had got lucky there, but also had plenty of missed opportunities. This could have been glorious:

I'm 5-5 with Clubs and Spades, and decided to open 1♣. When Anna replied 2♣ I was a bit anxious about not showing my Spades but couldn't really make a forcing bid so passed. When it go back to me at 3♥ I still haven't shown my Spades so rather foolishly bid them now. This must show five, but with Anna only having a doubleton she put me back in 4♣. West doubled, and lead the ♠T.

The lead went to the ♠Q, ♠K and ♠A and now my Spades are all winners. If I can just draw trumps I could only lose one trump and two Hearts. Or I could even get rid of the Hearts on the Diamonds. I cashed the ♦A, and lead my ♠J, hoping the lead was a doubleton. It wasn't. West ruffed, took his ♣A and two Heart tricks for one off.

There is no legitimate way to make the contract, but I could have done a lot better. Leading the ♠7 rather than the ♠J would mean that West might not ruff (ruffing could cost a trump trick if his partner has ♣Jxx). Also, I could instead have tried to get to dummy with a low trump to the ♣Q, after which I can discard my Hearts. Or, maybe I shouldn't even unblock the ♦A, which is so obviously a singleton, but rather start on trumps and hope West continues to be reluctant to lead Hearts (thinking I have the ♥K).

Conceding 4♣x-1 was worth 12%. If we leave in 3♥ and beat it we still only get 37%. Making 4♣x would of course been a top.

After this we played 6♣+1 not 6NT for another bad score, then got 0% where I failed to switch against 3NT and it made with an overtrick instead of five off. But we had a few good ones too and finished on 56.5% for 34th out of 148 pairs.

EBU Debut

Last night Anna and I played in our first EBU tournament. It was only 12 boards, starting at 1930.

We got off to a good start, but two minor slip-ups and two good boards for our opponents held us back.

On the one below it only occurred to me afterwards that I could have done better:

North didn't alert any of her bids, but I asked and it turned out she'd shown 5-5 in the majors. I lead a Diamond. Declarer drew trumps and played Spades. I took my Ace and played Clubs. Anna was alert to the danger and took her ♣A before it went away. Conceding 4♥+1 was a common score, and was worth 41%.

But, as you can see, I could have given Anna a Spade ruff. From the auction I know that North has five Spades, I've got four, and South must have at least two for the 1NT opener. Could I have pictured my partner with a singleton and lead the ♠A? Maybe I should have. After the Ace and a ruff we still need to cash our Club trick, for 4♥= and 77%. Not easy, especially with my nice Diamond lead.

By contrast, here's a board I did well on:

South opened a weak two in Diamonds and I had the West hand. 2NT is my bid, but I didn't like it. I'm flat, with only 15 points, vulnerable, and with a poor Diamond stop. But I bid it and hoped for the best.

Dummy was a disappointment, with just an Ace of Spades. North lead a Diamond and South took the ♦A and played another. I won my King, and North discarded the ♠3. On asking, she revealed that she played reverse attitude discards (!). I lead the ♠T, expecting a cover from North's ♠QJxx, but when that didn't come I played Spades from the top and collected four Spade tricks along with my Diamond trick.

The good news is that South has now shown a full 9 points, so has no cards to ever get back in with. So I now exited with the ♣Q, giving North a problem. He won and gave me a Heart trick (trick number seven), then was endplayed again to give me a second Club (trick number eight).

My enjoyment was only tempered by the fact that we were running out of time, and it looked like we weren't going to get to the end before the clock reached 0. With one trick left before my claim the cards disappeared, and we were awarded an average score. But to my relief the director immediately adjusted it to 2NT=, for 89%. Going one off would still have got above 50%, as North-South were making 110 in 2♦+1.

Overall we finished on 57.8%, good enough for 25th out of 134.

Stretching

Last night Anna played our Saturday night SBU cross-IMPs game. We thought it was match-points for the first round, but don't think that affected our play much.

It was a good standard, and in 25 boards I don't think we got any gifts from our opponents at all. The closest was when they went down in 3NT, on a reasonable line that didn't work.

Anna had lots of high-level decisions, about whether to sacrifice, and judged well throughout. I had a tricky decision below:

I have a nice South hand, which was my first good one in ages. I was happy with my 1♠ overcall, but not so happy bidding 3♠ over 3♣ when vulnerable.

West lead a Heart, and I counted my tricks. Just for once, Anna had a decent dummy for me. I was still thinking about matchpoints and fancied that one off would be fine, losing two Spades, one Heart, one Diamond and one Club. But actually trumps split 2-2 so I had only four losers and made it.

This gained 3.4 IMPs. I thought it might be a better score, as East-West can make game. 4♥ needs careful play. Since you can afford one Club loser you should give up on the miracle of ♣KJ onside, and cash the ♣A first. This gains here, but was hard to find and lots of people went down in 4♥.

In the end we finished 19th out of 52, with +8 IMPs (28 in our plus column, 20 in our minus column).

The winners (Roy Bennet and Harry Smith) finished on +65 IMPs. They actually had 21 in their minus column, but 86 in the plus column. We simply don't generate enough IMPs to do really well in these tournaments, and always seem to finish around average. Anna actually said at the end "I prefer matchpoints, but I never thought I'd say that".

Falling to Pieces

In our almost-weekly Tuesday night game Anna and I got off to a cracking start this time. The children were all nicely in bed, and the first hand was Passed Out, giving us time to settle. Even better, we got 85% for it. At the end of the first half we were at about 60%, the only two bad results coming from when the opponents bid and made something that everyone should have bid and made.

The highlight was Anna bidding this 6♠, and employing a little deception to make it:

I have a balanced 14 count and a five card major. I could have opened 1NT but am fed up missing the major fit, so decided to open 1♥ prepared to make an uncomfortable 2♥ rebid. When Anna replied 1♠ I switched tack and rebid 1NT, showing 15-17 (which I don't have), as that makes it easier to find a Spade fit if there is one. As tends to happen when I upgrade my hand, Anna launched us into slam.

6♠ needs trumps to be 3-2 (or 4-1 the right way) and something good to happen in the other suits. Anna got this good thing straight away with a crafty ♦Q on the first trick, after South lead a low Diamond. North really shouldn't cover this, as he knows from the bidding that declarer has the ♦A, but couldn't resist and that was the 12th trick sorted.

Of the 22 tables, seven bid 6♠ (making six times), someone went down in 6♣ and two bid 6NT (making once). 6♠= was worth 82%.

In the second half things began to slide a bit. We didn't compete enough, and suffered a 0% when our opponents bid and made 6♥ (most other tables in 4♥+2).

The lowpoint was when I wasn't sure if Anna's bid was forcing or not, so bid on, and found myself in a hopeless 4♠. The most common result was 2♠-1, I recorded 4♠-4, which could have been a respectable (but still very low scoring) two off. The worst part of my game is when I am playing a bad contract, when I just fall to pieces. The full debacle is recorded below:

We finished in 15th place with 54%.

Festive Pairs

Anna and I started rather slowly, as is often our way. On Board 1 Anna missed my encouraging signal of the Seven of Hearts (we play reverse attitude but the 2,3,4,5,6 were all visible so the 7 was actually an encouraging low card). It's quite understandable that she missed this, as she was upstairs seeing Zoe who had lost Mini-Monkey. On Board 2 I could have been more competitive in the auction, but was helping Alex who had dropped Bunny over the side of the cot.

At the half way stage we had only two positive boards, one of which was when everyone passed and that gave us +1.1 IMPs.

Things picked up a bit after that, but mostly through the good fortune of the opponents underbidding. They played 3♦+2 (giving us +4.8 IMPs), 4♠+2 (+7.8) and 3♠+1 (+4.9). So our good scores were mostly lucky, our bad scores self-inflicted.

This was a very strange board:

>

Anna opened 1♥ and after the double I have a fairly automatic 4♥ bid. I don't really like it, but it's got to be done. When that got passed around to East he doubled, with four tricks in his own hand, probably expecting his partner to pass. West had four Spades he hadn't mentioned though and removed the double to 4♠.

I thought about doubling this - I do have quite good Spades, but for all I know Anna has ♥AKQJxx and not much else and 4♠ is making with an overtrick. I passed, but with expectation of beating it.

In fact, we have four trump tricks. Declarer drew these, played some Clubs and finally lead a Diamond up. This finesse was bound to win, but as a bonus for declarer both Anna and I were hanging on to a Heart for some reason so came down to a doubleton Diamond, meaning declarer won the last trick with dummy's ♦5.

Our score of 4♠-1 was worth -2.4 IMPs, 4♠-2 would have been about 0. The reason we don't do better is that, rather surprisingly, 4♥ actually makes. With East on lead declarer can discard two Diamonds from hand on dummy's Spades.

The good thing about doing quite poorly at the start of the evening is that it takes the pressure off. On the last board I decided to try a manoeuvre I've read about in a book by Ely Culbertson. You overcall in your second best suit, get doubled, then remove to your best suit. The opponents of course double you again, but now you go ahead and make the contract.

When East opened 2NT (20-22) I decided not to be put off and swung into action, "Six-five, come alive".

I overcalled 3♣, and West doubled. I wasn't not sure what his double showed, and I'm not sure him or his partner did either. When it came back round I duly bid 3♥, doubled again. I was praying that Anna wouldn't have the sort of hand to correct me back to Clubs (that is the flaw in Culbertson's plan), but luckily it was passed out.

3♥x has at least five losers: one Heart, two Spades, two Clubs. So there's a chance of off one. As it happens Clubs are 4-2 and Hearts 3-1 so I can do no better than two down, still a good saving (-300) to their making game (4♠+1 for -450). My antics gained us 1.4 IMPs. Needless to say we were the only North-South pair declaring the contract.

Overall our IMP score of +6.95 was good enough for 15th out of 36.

Choosing badly

Anna and I played in the SBU Tuesday pairs last night. We didn't do too well, with a score of about 25% after six boards rising to around 50% near the end then falling to 48% when I doubled 4♠ on the last and it made with an overtrick.

I wouldn't say I made any mistakes, but certainly judged lots wrongly. Here's one where on other day we both would have bid:

I have a 10 point 5431 hand as South. Opening 1♣ is fairly safe as I have a 1♠ rebid. However, on this occasion I passed. West opened a weak NT, and now Anna is close to a 2♠ overcall. She chose to pass, and we defeated 1NT by one trick when 4♠ is on our way. +50 was worth just 9.6%. as nearly everyone else North-South is playing in Spades. Although both Anna and I could have bid, really the credit goes to West for a winning 1NT opening (most tables opened 1♦ after which North has an easy 1♠ overcall).

Although opening light would have worked well here, it has it's risks, as partner can no longer assume you have a sound opening bid.

Here Anna opened 1♦, East overcalled 2♣ and I doubled for the majors. When Anna could only rebid 2♦ I passed. I have only 10 points, no fitting Diamond honours, and most of the time whenn we open 1♦ and rebid 2♦ it will be on a shapely 11 or 12 count. Here of course Anna had a full 15 points, a Club stop, and the Diamonds split 3-3, so 3NT can't fail.

In the play of 2♦ East lead ♣A and another (hoping to give partner a ruff), and when Anna managed to get a third Spade trick, that was 2♦+3. Still, most tables were in 3NT so our +150 was still only worth 19.2%. I would say this event has quite a high standard, and that correlates with quite a lot of pairs playing a strong NT, which made it easy for North-South to bid game here. If the Diamonds don't split 3NT is down though so so I'm calling this one unlucky for us.

Here's a good one (before our final catastrophe).

I open 1♦ and after West overcalls 1NT am poised to rebid 2♦ (I've learned it's important not to be put off by their NT bids and plough on). But they have some sort of transfers mishap (you can see the lack of alerts), and finish in 3♠. I lead the ♦A and it's crunch time. We play reverse attitude, so after a very long pause I can work out that Anna must have the singleton ♦5 (with ♦75 she would have discouraged with the ♦7). I could take my winning ♦K, or give her a ruff. I decide to give her a ruff, which here is the winning choice. Even better I lead a low Diamond and Anna returns a Club, developing our winner in that suit.

On this occsaion, if I lead a high Diamond it gives declarer a useful ♦Q discard. On another day that discard might be no use, and the winning defence would be for me to cash two Diamonds and play a third for Anna to ruff high (with a hypothetical ♠J).

Conceding 3♠= on a careful defence gets us 73%, as most tables are conceding 10 tricks.

Our final board is this disaster:

I open 1♣ and North overcalls 4♠. I double this, and await Anna's move. She plays me for a very specific hand that can beat 4♠ but we can't make a game (perhaps all four Aces), and passes. This does not go well, as North has a very solid overcall and South two useful Aces. On seeing dummy I thought Anna must have some decent Spades to have passed the double, but when declarer's ♠9 holds I realise we're in trouble. Conceding 4♠x+1 is worth 3.9%, just losing to the pair who bid and made 6♠.

Feeling sharp

Anna and I played the SBU Tuesday pairs again this week. Unusually, we both felt fairly sharp. In 24 boards we had just four bad results

• Board 2 - I decided to balance and pushed the opponents into a making game
• Board 4 - Opponents bid to a making 7NT
• Board 14 - Poor defence from Anna lets 3NT make, poor defence from me gives the overtrick
• Board 18 - An aggressive 4♥ goes four off

The first of these is pictured below:

Even though I didn't like the vulnerablity I still thought it was right to protect with a double. East had paused for a long time before passing 2♥. I thought that meant he would be sure to push to 3♥; I didn't anticipate West bidding on then East bidding game. With Hearts 3-2 and the Diamond Ace onside 10 tricks can't be prevented. Conceding 4♥ was worth exactly 0%, as on 26 tables we were the only ones to concede game (the other two times it was bid it went down, once on a sneaky low Diamond lead).

If I pass out 2♥ and we concede 2♥+2 we still only get 25%, so in a sense I was right to try and disturb the opponents from their comfortable fit. The good North-South scores were when East took only nine tricks in Hearts, or opened a strong NT and played there.

My next featured hand was a good one, as the opponents went down in 6♠:

I thought I might have a trump trick, so lead the ♣A. This turned out to be crucial, as if I don't do it declarer can make easily by playing the top two trumps then Hearts, discarding both Clubs in hand and accepting the loss of one trump. Once I've taken the ♣A she needs to get trumps right. With nine trumps she played the ♠A then lead to dummy. I made sure to play my ♠6 instantly and she duly played the ♠A. 6♠-1 was worth 84%.

Overall we finished on 56.08% for 9th out of 52 pairs.

Team Rowan vs Team Jacobin

Last night Anna and I played our second league match for Team Rowan. It was total points, so that means bidding games (and slams) where possible. We applied this principle, but it didn't pay off. Every time we stretched to bid game, trumps split badly and we couldn't make it. Twice we investigated slam, and ended up going down at the five level. It doesn't matter if trumps split badly when you're in the same game everyone will be in (the result will be the same at the other table), but it's bad luck if you bid an ambitious game and things fall badly.

By contrast our opponents lead rather a charmed life. Once one of them made a transfer into Hearts with just ♥94. Luckily their partner had ♥AKQJ4. Once the responder held ♠AKJ3 ♥AQ5 ♦43 ♣8765, and decided to make a non-forcing bid, which miraculously lead to them avoiding a bad game (opener had a ten count).

And what would you lead opposite 4♥ with ♠AJ62 ♥J3 ♦875 ♣AJT2 ? They found the ♣A lead, then when partner discouraged still continued with a Club to the King, the only way to beat the contract.

We were not without luck ourselves. The hand below was a stroke of good fortune:

After Anna competes with a double I stick my oar in with a risky 3♠ bid. At this point Anna should really bid game straight away (all she needs is for me to have the ♠K and ten tricks are likely). But she passes, then the opponents compete and end up pushing us into a making game.

After they take the first three tricks, South plays another Diamond. I'm now trapped in dummy. I did consider playing for trumps 3-0 (and Diamonds 4-1) and ruffing Diamonds back to hand to take a trump finesse, but decided that playing for a singleton ♠K needed less. When that worked, we made the game. South can make it harder for me by returning a trump at trick four, after which I would have a decision to make.

Our fortunate +620 here was a great score. On the other table in our match East-West also got to and made 4♠, after West bid Spades directly. In the other match our North-South pair did very well to make 4♥, and our East-West pair beat 5♥ by one trick. So overall for Team Rowan +620, -620, +620 and +100, making for a good board.

The next board is my folly (there's always one):

I have a big 21 point hand, but don't want to open 2NT with a weak singleton and didn't think it was strong enough for 2♣. I thought if I open 1♣ someone is bound to respond/overcall (it's more risky opening this sort of hand 1♠). To my relief Anna responded 1♥. I could have bid 2♠ showing a strong 5-4 hand, but kept things simple with 1♠. When Anna now bid 2♠ I thought I'd hit the jackpot.

All I need is for Anna to have the ♠K, and with my controls and Club suit slam is very likely. If she has the ♠K and ♦A I'm bidding seven. There's not much point cuebidding, as she can't have anything, so I just asked for Aces. Sadly, she had none, North doubled and I was in a doomed contract.

The double has told me all of the trumps are onside, so in theory I can get by losing just one trump and the ♦A. But the problem is, I keep having to ruff Diamonds, so North ends up with another trump trick. I realised this too late, and gave away an extra trick trying to draw trumps, rather than gracefully accepting the loss of three tricks and one off. At total points, the -500 for two off doubled vulnerable was not good.

On the other table in our match the opposition West also went off two in 5♠, but undoubled for a loss of only 200 points. In the other match Team Rowan went one off in 5♠ (well played) and defended 5♣, which also went off. So every contract failed, but I failed the most so the team lost points here.

Funnily enough if I open 2♣ that probably keeps the bidding lower.

My last featured board is another sad loss

Anna opened 1♥ and then rebid 2♣, promising five Hearts. I then overbid a bit with a jump to 4♥. Although Anna is weak in points her 5-5 shape mean game has a chance.

Here's my logic to bidding the game, vulnerable, at total points. If it makes we get +620, compared to +170, so a gain of 450. If it fails we get -100, compared to +140, so a loss of 240. The potential gain therefore far outweighs the loss, and in fact game only needs a 38% chance to be worth bidding.

Things looks promising on the ♦A lead. If trumps split and we can avoid a Club loser it's home. Anna goes for the Club finesse, which fails and it's off one. This finesse is not a good idea, as even if it works you still need to ruff lots of Clubs. So I think it's best to lead the ♣J (in case you get a cover) then take a ruffing finesse. That would certainly have worked here anyway.

One off cost us -100, and another -170 when the other table made 3♥+1. In the other match we conceded another 140 for 3♥=, and on the last table the board was passed out, for an overall loss on the board.

Overall our match was a heavy loss, but the other table a big gain so Team Rowan won the match by 10-6.

Finding the Queen

John Di Mambro and I played in the SBU pairs last night. It felt like there were a lot of low level contracts, most of which I was playing, most of which I could have got one more trick.

After they bid 1♦-2♦ John steps in with a double. This is matchpoints so you have to compete, and even if he passes I would still have bid 2♠. As it is, opposite his double I'm pretty confident of making 2♠. When trumps are 3-1 I'm down to eight tricks, nine if I can guess the Heart Queen. Who has it? I really thought about this, then got it wrong.

I know that North has about 12 points (they played a strong NT), and South about 6. From the play in the Diamond suit South has the King, meaning he must have one more honour somewhere. Could it be the clubs;K? After I take my ♣A I lead a Club up from dummy to find out. South ducked this, so I decided they couldn't have the King. Hence I presumed they had the ♥Q, and finessed the wrong way. 2♠= scored 22%, making 2♠+1 would still only have been 39%, as most East-Wests were scoring 200+ from defending when North opened a weak NT.

Could I have guessed better? Later in the play South threw a Heart, which is not likely from someone who has ♥Qxx. Maybe that's the clue I should have been looking for.

By contrast, here's one I played well:

My redouble shows 9+ without good support, and the 2NT is natural and aggressive. John had no problem raising to 3NT with his good suit. I'm expecting to need the Diamonds to make it, but then realise I've four top losers already. So if I play on Diamonds, and they don't split, I'll have five losers. If I can get six tricks outside of Diamonds I can make the contract safely. This turns out to be the case, as my Hearts and Spades get established, and I then play on Clubs instead.

Making 3NT is worth 67%, but this is mostly for bidding it. It would have been a better score (comparatively) if the Diamonds didn't split.

Overall we scored 51% to finish just above half way.

One bad, One good

With our next league match on Thursday Anna and I had another practice game at the Saturday night SBU pairs. This is a cross-IMP'd event, so is closer to the total points used in league matches. I was pretty relaxed about the game, maybe too much so.

In our first three five-board matches we finished slightly ahead, despite missing a grand slam with 14 top tricks. 6♥+1 actually got us +0.00 IMPs, as the same number of pairs got to 7♥ or 7NT as stopped in game. Then against opponents playing transfer responses I doubled a 1♥ transfer to Spades holding ♥JT9xx. Surprisingly this double was left in, as the opponents chose to play 1♥x on a 3-2 fit. They made it with an abundance of high cards, but missed an easy 3NT so that was a good one for us.

My casual attitude allowed me to let the opponents play 5♦-3, which didn't actually get us a very good score. I think I've become too used to Matchpoints, and didn't see the value in doubling. Just for good measure, I also blew a trick in defence, so maybe it could have been 5♦x-4.

That was an example of missing out on a good result. My low point was worse, turning a good result into a bad one. Our opponents bid a very poor 3NT which can only make with some extremely generous defence:

I made a simple 1♠ overcall. North asked about a Spade stopper then bid 3NT anyway, which clearly shows some sort of weak stopper of his own. I missed this inference, and when Anna lead the ♠7 assumed declrarer had ♠AK. Playing partner for the ♦A, I then found a reason to duck the Clubs not once, but twice, upon which a surprised declarer was able to scoop up 9 tricks. Conceding 3NT was worth -6.9 IMPs, beating it (by two) would be worth +4.5 IMPs.

Here's one where we did well - the very next board in fact

Anna doubled the weak 2♦ then passed my 3♣ (we don't play Lebensohl). North lead out the top two Diamonds, then switched to a Heart. I finessed and lost, then South cashed his ♠A and returned a Spade, presumably waiting to get his trump trick.

At this point I lead a Club to the Ace and dropped the singleton King. There is no room for North to have it alongside ♦AK (and presumably ♦Q too). This was the technically correct play, but I was still surprised it worked.

North could have beaten it by leading lower Diamonds (in which case I would have probably finessed the ♣K and lost), or better playing a third Diamond and South then can't be prevented from making the ♣K.

On the last board I sensed a slam and enthusiastically jumped to 5♥. This had three top losers but was allowed to make, which meant we finished just above average on +7.85 IMPs, 23rd out of 56.

Team Strathclyde vs Team Rowan

Last night Anna and I played our first match for several years for Team Rowan. They let us start fifteen minutes later to get the kids to bed, then we kicked off with the first of 24 boards against a friendly pair from Strathclyde.

The first swings came on Board 2:

East opened 1♠ and I had the nice South hand. We play an unusual 2NT, showing both minors, but only for weak or strong hands. This one falls in the middle, so annoyingly I had to settle for a 2♦ overcall. When we ended up defending 4♠ I was a little anxious about not having shown my shape, but at this vulnerability it's unlikely we have a good sacrifice, and I've also not given away too much to declarer.

I lead my ♥Q, which declarer won in hand. She then cashed two top trumps. This is probably the right play in trumps - after I've shown long Diamonds in the auction finessing is a better bet in isolation, but on this deal you don't want to lose the lead with the risk of a defensive Heart ruff. But once declarer has seen I've shown out of Spades she should be able to play off the Hearts, discarding Clubs from dummy. However, she mistimed the play and lead a third Spade to Anna's Queen.

It's crunch time for North. A club switch is required, but this looks risky and she's expecting me to have a Heart trick, so continued Hearts. (I did signal for Clubs though, we play McKenny and I threw a low Diamond). On the heart lead declarer let it run round to her six, an instinctive play but a costly one. Hearts are now blocked, and in returning to hand she has to play a Diamond. I snapped up the Ace of Diamonds and it was my turn to err. Instead of simply cashing the ♣A and across to partner's King, I lead a low Club. Anna did well to take her King and return a Club for one down.

Overall, across the two tables, one of our declarer's and one of theirs made it, for a flat board.

The biggest hand of the night was this one. North's hand is massive, and partner is bidding strongly too.

Our East opened 2♠, a nice compromise with a poor seven card suit. I made a 2NT overcall, showing 15-19 points and a Spade stop. I don't have the points but I've certainly got the Spade stop, plus the potential for tricks in Diamonds. Anna leapt to 4♣ over this, which is a natural bid with slam interest. I have poor Clubs but co-operated with a cuebid of 4♦. At this point, with total faith in our system, Anna could have bid 4NT to ask for Aces, then 5NT for number of Kings and ended up bidding 7♣ or even 7NT.

However, this is a not-very-common auction for a pair who don't play together much, so Anna reasonably signed off in 6♣. As she said after, it would be too sad being left to play in 4NT, if I took it as natural, or invitational to 6NT.

We were not alone in missing the grand slam. On the other table in our match they had an unopposed auction, got as far as Blackwood, but without agreeing the trump suit, so when North got an impossible 'two keycard' response decided in the confusion to sign off in 6♣. Our team-mates with the North-South cards had to deal with East opening 3♠, after which North bid 5♣ and South passed. On the fourth table South overcalled the 3♠ opening with 4♦, North bid Blackwood then signed off in 6♣ opposite one Ace. Missed opportunities all round!

In the rest of the early boards we missed a couple of games, but so did they, and I thought we probably had the better of it. Then the opponents went on a run of bidding and playing quickly, making six of seven rapid fire contracts. Anna admits to feeling a bit dazed during this stretch, and although we defended accurately, it was a lot of points in the minus column.

On the very last board we finally picked up some cards:

After three passes I opened 1♠ and Anna jumped to 4♠, showing a weakish hand with seven losers. I should almost always pass this, but could see that with my controls if Anna had any sort of decent second suit in Clubs or Hearts we might have a slam, and I always like to bid a slam on the last board. I didn't quite know how to explore this though, and just bid Blackwood. Anna showed no keycards (the most she could have had is the Ace of trumps), and I signed off in 5♠. In fact, her not having the Ace of trumps probably makes her hand bettter, as what I don't want is too many points wasted in trumps with something like ♠AQJxx, in which case even the five level might be too high.

As it happens Anna's hand kings make for a decent fit, and there are 11 easy tricks. I got a nice low Heart lead for trick 12, not needing the Club finesse.

In retrospect a better bid to explore the slam would have been a cuebid of 5♣, hoping Anna could bid 5♥ (bypassing 5♦ showing she has nothing wasted there), after which I can have a punt at 6♠.

The other table in our match had a misunderstanding and played 3♠+3 after West muddied the water with a Michael's 2♠ overcall. In the other match both pairs bid 4♠, so overall the board was a gain for Team Rowan.

Although the slam is not great (and bidding past 4♠ is dangerous), I'm pleased to say when I gave the hand to my school bridge club today they enthusiastically bid up to 6♠, making on the Club finesse.

Overall Team Rowan gained 2090 in our match and lost 1840 in the other for a narrow win, translating to 8 1/2 - 7 1/2 victory points.

Warming up

Before our first league match next Wednesday Anna and I had another go at the Saturday night SBU pairs. There are some very good pairs playing, but you also get given a few gifts (and we give plenty too).

On the very first board Anna and I defended 3NT in such a way to concede 12 tricks, when at every other tables 9 tricks was the limit. That means W we were at least three tricks worse than every other pair in defence. Some even defeated 3NT; we conceded 3NT+3. Fortunately (as I discovered at the end of the round), it was cross-IMPs rather than matchpoints, so it was only a bad score and not a zero.

We also seem to do badly on the first board. And the first match in fact. After that we recovered, with some good defence steady bidding (meaning I underbid and we missed some slams, but so did everyone else). The hand below was a missed opportunity:

I sat West. North opened 1♣, passed round to me. Rather than let it get passed out I bid 1♠. This seems the obvious bid, but I was slightly nervous as on the hand before when I did that Anna raised me straight to game (which made, to my surprise). But this time Anna just made a raise to 2♠ and there I played.

The chances look good. Clubs and Spades should be onside, leading me losing possibly just little as one Heart, two Diamonds and one Club loser. I got the ♣K lead.

My first thought was to duck the opening lead, thus creating a finesse position (North surely holds the ♣Q too). That will put North off continuing Clubs. But instead I played the ♣A of course, then had to lose six tricks.

Overall we finished on +26 IMPs for 5th out of 56 pairs.

Tuesday night SBU

Ted and I had another game together on Tuesday. In felt very tired, and made a few errors in the endgame. Once I could have ruffed my partner's winner and returned a trump to put declarer two down; I sort of knew this was right but couldn't bring myself to do it and settled for one off, which turned out to be a bad score. I put that down to a missed opportunity to play well, rather than a mistake.

There was one highlight - the hand below is the first one I think I've ever opened a Strong Two:

We play Standard Benji so my 2♣ showed a strong suit (or strong and balanced), then when I showed Hearts Ted passed with his minimum hand. I thought this was a textbook Benji Two bid, a 'strong suit with 7 1/2 to 8 winners', but apparently it's actually too weak, and I should have opened 1♥. On this occasion it worked well as a sort of pre-empt, with my strong opening keeping them out the auction. Even better, once they lead Spades my 7 1/2 th trick became my 8th and 2♥ made.