Adamson vs Smith

For our last match of the league we needed a win to avoid relegation. We didn't get one. From my perspective there were four interesting hands:

In this one John and I got our best board of the first half:

After South opened a weak NT John doubled for penalties. I have a flat hand so passed this. North's 2♦ shows Diamonds and Hearts, and South's subsequent pass at least three Diamonds. It looks like they've made an effective escape, but John doubled again and I passed (with slightly more doubt).

In fact we have plenty to beat it. John started with a couple of top Hearts, then drew trumps, and in the end declarer was limited to just four tricks (one trump, two Spades, on Club). Even though they were non-vulnerable 2♦x-4 for +800 was a good score.

On the other table South opened 1♣, and East-West played in 3NT. This could go down, but with few good options South led the ♠A and 3NT made for -600, still a small gain.

Shortly after we gave back all those IMPs and more:

North's 2♦ showed both majors, and South's 3♦ at least five Spades. I have a great hand to overcall Clubs, but didn't think it was right to come in as high as 4♣, so let the opponents bid and make 4♠.

On the other table on a more natural auction East-West won the board by getting to 5♣, and when our North-South bid 5♠x-1 it was a heavy loss.

This next board was my highlight:

Even though I was dummy, and watched John make 4H, it's a highlight as I clearly saw the winning line.

At first it looks like a possible missed slam, but with trumps 4-0 it gets tricky. On both tables South led a top Club, which declarer won and started on trumps. What do you do after play the Ace of Hearts and finding the 4-0 split?

After taking the ♥AK declarer just needs to play Clubs to set up dummy's Jack, for throwing a Diamond. You lose just two trumps and a Club.

When it was my turn to actually be declarer I didn't do so well:

After a not-completely-clear auction I got to 4♦. West began with two top Hearts, the second ruffed in hand. If I draw trumps and get Clubs right I have 11 tricks, but since I was only playing 4♦ (but wondering if I should be in game somewhere), I thought it was safer to play on Clubs while leaving a trump out (so if I lose the lead I could ruff the Heart return in the North hand, not with my top trump in South).

So After drawing two rounds of trumps I led a Spade up, and took a losing Club finesse. West did well to then play Ace and another Spade giving partner the ruff and one down.

I think I was sort of right to delay drawing trumps, but an early round of Clubs (dropping the Queen) would have really paid off here.

In the end we lost the match by 26 IMPs.

Adamson vs BShenkin

As we approach the crunch point of the season John and I needed a good result. We nearly got one, with a narrow loss to Barnet Shenkin's team. There was some good stuff, but also a couple of howlers. At the time this looked like the worst of them:

John opened a fairly standard six-card weak three Diamonds and West bid an immediate 3NT. I have a few options, including Double, 4♦ and 4♥. I went for a cautious pass. Time for the opening lead.

You can see that a top Heart works rather well, and we can take the first six Heart tricks. In fact, whatever I lead, declarer only has eight tricks (2 Spades, 1 Diamond, 5 Clubs). So there's not much chance of making the contract. Except...

...I led a low Heart. A grateful declarer grabbed the Queen and claimed nine tricks. Although I normally don't discuss the hands during the play, I felt this was worth an immediate "sorry" to my partner.,

Here are the arguments in favour of a high Heart:

• It won't give away a cheap trick if declarer has ♥Q or ♥Qx in one hand.
• If it's clearly wrong (e.g dummy shows up with good Hearts) I have time to switch to a Diamond.
• On many layouts it lets us defeat the contract with the first six tricks.

Afterwards John suggested I should hae led the King of Hearts, after which he would have given count. I suppose after that I assume he's got three, and play my King expecting him to unblock his Jack. If I start with the Ace instead he would presumably encourage, after which I could either play a low Heart to his Jack or again another high Heart for him to unblock.

But although it seems easy enough for us to take our six Heart tricks I could well see something going wrong.

These are the arguments in favour of a low Heart:

• John might have ♥Qx (or ♥Q) in which case we need a low lead to get all our tricks.
• Declarer could have a stop like ♥Jxx opposite ♥Qx in which case we need to lose a trick, and keep our entries open.
• Declarer could have a Heart suit like ♥QJxx in hand (opposite a singleton) and it needs the second Heart to come through from John's side.

What would you have lead?

Adamson vs Peden

As predicted the team bounced back with a narrow win against Peden. In the first half things were fairly quiet on our table, and every contract made. Our team-mates Glen and Gints had been a bit more optimistic than our opponents and bid a few thin games, and when two out of three made we were slightly up.

In the second half we maintained our narrow advantage, and picked up a few more with some tight defence. There were a couple of times we had them beaten and I cashed out for one down, but with some thought I could have taken them two off, or at least given declarer a difficult guess. Cashing out in defence was partly me not being totally confident I'd remembered all the cards correctly, but I think also a personality thing. Rather than go for the kill I was happy to bank a small win. Certainly this has been my philosophy with investments, when for example I sold my Dogecoin far too early.

We were about 20 IMPs up going into the last board (though didn't know it of course).

I opened 1♥ and John responded 2♦, which for us is a game-forcing two-over-one bid. My 2NT rebid is a special convention showing a good six card major, which I certainly had. John could have supported with 3♥ (a strong bid since we are game forced), but wanted so show his good Diamonds with 3♦. I could have signed off in 5♦ but thought my support and Hearts were good enough to try 4♦.

We were soon in 6♦, for the second time in the match. The first time it depended on a trump finesse, which worked but when trumps were 4-0 still went down. This time it just depended on the Heart finesse.

South led a Club that North won, and found the best return of a Spade. There's no benefit in taking this finesse so John correctly went up with the Ace, and was able to draw trumps in two rounds (if trumps are 3-1 it gets trickier as you might need an early Heart finesse in case they are 4-0). When declarer led the ♥9 North took the ♥K and cashed a Spade, for two off.

If the Heart finesse works we make 12 tricks, if it fails we make only 10, so in a sense 6♦ is the right contract (no point playing 5♦). Although the other table managed to play 4♥= so we lost 11 IMPs, instead of gaining 10.

That meant we won the match by 34-28 IMPs.

Adamson vs Stevenson

For this iteration of the league our team has rebranded as Adamson. Two of our pairs (Pinder-Barton and Adamson-Saunders) did well in the recent trials and have been selected for the Scotland team in the Camrose (see here). With that talent in the squad, surely we'd be unstopptable?

Unfortunately, John and I were not picked for the Camrose Team, and didn't even get close to entering the trials. He actually played the first two hands with new baby Xander. I had no such excuse. We had an off night, starting with this very disappointing 6♠ I let through:

I've made a slightly wild 3♥ overcall and propelled them to 6♠. There's no point leading my singleton Diamond (partner can't have the Ace), so I tried a Club, and was pleased when declarer refused the finesse and won the first trick with the ♣A. He took the ♥A, ruffed a Heart, then the King of Spades to my Ace. Crunch time.

I returned a top Heart, forcing him to ruff high in dummy (as he thought from the auction I had seven Hearts so East might be over-ruffing. Then he lead a Spade from dummy and finessed, losing to my bare ♠T. One off.

At least, that's what should have happened. Actually, when in with the ♠A I was worried about giving a ruff and discard so returned a tame Spade, not realising the power of my ♠T. Declarer won this and was able to quickly claim, for 6♠= against 4♠+2 on the other table (where South had only overcalled 2♥). An 11 IMP loss, that could have been a 10 IMP gain.

The first half continued to not go terribly well and at the break we were down by 50 IMPs to 1. In the second half we steadied the ship (but still lost slightly) to finish 53 IMPs behind.

On the upside John and I didn't have any bidding misunderstanding (just lots of poor defence), and I expect we will bounce back with a win in tonight's game against Peden.