Wanderers Team Match

Last night I joined Ted for our first teams match together for a few months. There was the usual system discussion beforehand, though with a bit less time spent on Lebensohl than before (thankfully it has still never come up).

We got off to a sensible start, competing well in the part score. The first board gave me lots of decisions, and on this occasion looking at it now I agree with myself:

Ted opened the good 11-count as North, and I needed to respond. Three options: I could have supported his Clubs (the opening bid of 1♣ promises at least four), I could have bid my five card Diamond suit, or I could skip them both and bid Spades. I went for the major. Ted then had no choice but to redid his Clubs, and I've got another decision. I've got good Clubs, and more importantly, it seems likely opponents can make something (proably in Hearts), so I bid 3♣. This is in theory invitiational which I'm too light for but worst case we end up in a poor 5♣. I've given up hoping to buy the contract cheaply, against 2♣ good opponents are never going to let it get passed out.

3♣ ended the auction and Ted got a Heart lead. He made nine tricks via four Hearts, four Clubs (East eventually getting the ♣8) and a Diamond.

This felt like a solid start, and gained 2 IMPs when the other table competed and went down in 3♥ (losing two Hearts, a Diamond, a Club, a Spade ruff). What's interesting is that you can actually make 3♥, using a clever trick. If you can see the Spade ruff coming you can set up the Diamonds and use then to discard one of East's winning Spades.

Ted and I produced a few more decent results, before becoming unstuck when an opponent had the boldness to interfere with my 1NT opening. We ended in 4♠ in a 3-3 fit, off two. Then I was a bit bold overcalling 3♥ and that was off another two doubled. At the break though we were just 7 IMPs behind.

In the second half we were doubled twice more, once rather spectacularly at the six level - details withheld!. Instead here's a hand where I got duped by a very light opening:

Martin opened 1♦ non-vulnerable third in hand and I stretched to make a 1NT overcall. 3NT is not a bad contract, and after South lead the ♥T I'm up to nine tricks. I thought it was impossible South had either Spade honour so set about establishing the Spades and collecting my ninth trick. But North took the ♠A and cleared the Hearts, then South popped up with the ♠K and cashed the Hearts. If I'd have thought this a possibility I can make by ducking the first Heart trick. I did consider this, but sadly didn't do it.

In the end we lost the match 17-52.

Second hand low

I scored a rare win playing last week in a Wanderers friendly with Martin Bateman. We got a few things right, including a somewhat fortunate 6NT, but the hand that we discussed most was this one below.

I'm East (dkham). Once partner is a passed hand I've a bit of leeway and tried making a weak 3♦ overcall, with a hand that is a bit too strong with too few Diamonds. Straight after I regretted both not bidding 2♦ and not bidding 4♦, which probably means 3♦ was about right. My partner, who is much craftier than me, delayed giving support until the five level, which had the effect of pushing them to an impossible contract. So far, so good.

Against 5♠ partner lead a Diamond, ruffed in dummy. Declarer (Ted) immediately lead a Club from dummy. Partner won his Ace, but was not to know that I had a singleton. He played another Diamond for dummy to ruff. Declarer won and lead the ♠J from dummy. It was crunch time. Should I cover with my King? At the time I thought that either (a) it didn't matter or (b) partner had ♠Txx in which case covering saves a trick. I didn't consider (c) partner had ♠QT.

You can see that I did cover, which reduced our trump tricks to one, and let the contract through. Apart from just finding the ♠J play, Ted also did well to duck my ♠K, as if he lets it run round to West's ♠Q he might still return a Club for me to ruff.

I can't see any legitimate layout where declarer can make it (unless trumps are 4-1 but then I think you're probably down anyway), so well done to declarer!

Despite this missed opportunity we won the first half of the match 42-20, and lost the second half 27-32 for a narrow win overall.

Wanderers Team Match #2

Yesterday Ted and I had another game playing in the Wanderers Team Match. The match was due to start at seven, but unfortunately one player delayed the start by twenty minutes. He'd foolishly moved toddler bedtime back by half an hour to account for BST, and had forgotten that this would make him late for the game. On checking his phone (during a Peppa Pig omnibus book) he found many texts and missed calls, so raced through Thomas the Tank Engine and the Windy Day at double speed, put the boy down in his cot and rushed through to log on.

Thankfully, the first four boards were fairly quiet and gave me time to recover. Board 5 I had a high level decision to make, and got it very wrong:

I have a very appealing South hand, especially when partner opens a natural 1♣. Over the 1NT I blasted 4♥, then found out the 1NT was a conventional bid. Didn't matter though. When Ted competed with 5♥ I pictured him with some useful Aces and Kings, and pressed on to 6♥. As it happened, partner's hand was not the one I was hoping for. And, as he tends to do, Tam doubled me.

All three finesses lost (as you would expect from the bidding) leading to 6♥x-3. The other table also misjudged slightly to play in 5♥-1, when actually 5♦ goes down.

Later we gained some of those lost IMPs back when Ted bid 4♥ that missed at the other table, then we saw the opponents unlucky to miss out on the slam bonus with the trump suit below:

	♠ A J 2
♠ K Q 9 8 3		♠ T 7 6 5
	♠ 4

6♠ went one off. However, this was another 9 IMPs away as on the other table East-West had bid on to 7♠! North found a shrewd double and beat it by two. In fact, the 7♠ bidders were lucky 6♠ goes down too.

Next Ted and I had a misunderstanding over the meaning of a 2♣ overcall of a 1♣ opening, where the opening could be short. I wound up in 4♠ in a 3-3 fit, which actually played quite nicely for one off but still a small loss. Then we overbid to 4♠x and the opponents overbid to 6NT-1. It was not a night for aggressive bidding! We finished the first half down by 21 to 33 IMPs.

The most interesting hand in the second half came where I picked up a lovely hand, and duly overbid it to a failing slam.

After my 1♦ opening the opponents competed aggressively in Hearts;. I was happy to leave alone 4♠ but when Ted competed to 5♠ I took the plunge and bid six. I've got exactly the sort of hand that makes lots of tricks.

Throughout the auction I thought Ted had more Spades then he actually did (he's bid them three times!), and doubtless he was also rather disappointed with my dummy. If trumps are 3-3 there's actually pretty good play, if you can set up the Diamonds. Ted played it nobly, going all out for the 3-3 fit, but not to be and the result was 6♠-2. At the other table North-South got off lightly in 3♥x-2, so actually we'd have won the board playing 4♠ (or doubling 5♥).

Just for balance my final hand is one where we gained 13 IMPs. Not for doing anything clever, just getting a lucky lead.

When the ♠J held the first trick I was delighted, and 11 tricks were easy from there. At the other table West got a Heart lead, and very nearly stole the contract. He managed to sneak by a Spade to the Jack, and after that would have had nine tricks if Clubs broke.

In the end we lost the second half by 19 IMPs to 32, keeping up my 100% record of losing every stanza. Thanks to Ted for another enjoyable game and John for organisation.

Wanderers Team Match #1

All of the Bridge Clubs are closed, so it's the perfect opportunity for an online game. Last night Team Wanderers from the Glasgow League had our first online adventure, a teams match between eight of us. Hopefully we'll repeat this each Sunday, and maybe even have unofficial matches against other teams in the league.

In the first half me and Ted were up against the regular partnership of Martin and Gints. We came unstuck early on:

I sat West (dkham) with the the nice 5-5 hand and was all set to make some sort of bid when South opened one of my suits. Partner had passed, it was favourable vulnerability, and I still felt like bidding, so decided this was the time to make a five card weak jump overcall. This initially worked well as the opponents ended up in a hopeless 3NT. Unfortunately my partner expected me to have a somewhat purer hand, and bid 4♥. This was doubled, off two. At the other table West made an (also somewhat dubious) overcall of 2♥, and ending up playing 3♥-1. So that was six IMPS away.

We lost a further 11 IMPs when Martin and Gints made a slam. Then we bid one of our own - in a crowded auction partner bid 5♦ and I crossed my fingers and topped him up to six, then nervously went to put the kettle on. Luckily it worked out fine and we'd recovered slightly to finish the first half 15-18 down.

In the second half we played against Tam and John Faben. The boards were wilder here, and so was the bidding, as we were doubled four times in ten boards. This was occasionally expensive, but it worked out well for us here:

When Ted opened 1♠ I had a great hand as East and began with 2♥. South then weighed in heavily with 4NT, showing a very distributional hand with minors. North chose clubs. At this point I've a decision to make. As a partnership we (obviously) hadn't discussed what Ted's pass of 4NT meant, but I guessed (wrongly) that with defensive values he would have doublded. So I bid on to 5♥, a little worried about my doubletons in both minors but reassured by the thought that even if 5♥ went off it might be a good sacrifice. It was duly doubled.

South lead the Ten of Spades and it's one of those rare hands (rare to me) where straight away you can place all the cards and know what's going to happen. South must be at least 6-5 from the bidding and in fact must be exactly 6-5, as the lead is surely a singleton and he must have a trump if he's bothering to lead a singleton. That means that I'll be able to win the Spade, draw South's one trump, then discard my Club losers on dummy's Spades, and North won't be able to ruff in as he started with lots of Spades. That is indeed how it worked out, for 5♥x+1. It only occurred to me later that South might have just been leading a Spade as partner doubled and it was dummy's suit.

On the other table South made a more restrained 2NT overcall, then came back in with 4NT over 4♥. This got him to 5♣ doubled (likely off three with a Diamond ruff), but East bid on with 5♥ (a slam try, in their forcing pass system). The defence started well with ♣A but then switched to a Spade so that game made too.

Finally, a board with some regret attached to it, as I missed out on the game bonus:

I began with a 1♠ overcall then when partner made a modest raise settled for 3♠. This made plus one on the ♣K lead, after I was able to ruff two Hearts (but suffered a Club ruff). In fact with the friendly Spade position there are always ten tricks there, and with dummy having four trumps game is worth being in.

I was close to bidding 4♠, as I knew that partner had some spade Support and was likely short in Hearts. At the other table my counterpart East didn't have any of that information but still bid game. Their auction began with 1NT form South, passed around to East who bid 2♣ showing majors, and on seeing partner's 2♠ preference, he bid an immediate 4♠ and hit the jackpot.

In the second half my team (the felines I believe) lost by another 22, leaving the other team (canines?) 25 IMPs winners.

Overall I enjoyed playing a semi-competitive game. There was a bit of confusion about playing online, which will hopefully improve each time we do this, and with better planning I'll stop trying to make a sandwich between hands. Otherwise an excellent evening.

Wanderers vs Lyndoch

After last week's warm up at Buchanan Martin and I took to the table again for a Glasgow League match against Lyndoch. This being our third time playing together we had developed a reasonable system of 15-17 NT, 5 card majors, Puppet Stayman, basically everything I'm unfamiliar with.

On the first few hands I felt very warm but also shaking with the cold and made repeated pre-empts. At one point, when asked, Martin said "he's probably got a reasonable hand as he's vulnerable". But I didn't have a reasonable hand at all.

When I was dealer with the West hand below I was also vulnerable and a little too weak, but weighed in anyway. The auction is best done as a description: they competed to 3♦ and Martin doubled. I trusted that after my pre-empt his double was penalties and passed. They ran to 3♥ and he doubled, they tried 3♠ and he doubled, and were finally back in 4♦. At this point I doubled as Martin had run out of double cards, and by now I was feeling pretty confident it was going down.

W N E S Danny N Martin S 3♣ x - 3♦ - - x - - 3♥ x - - 3♠ x 4♦ x - - -

I was pleased they'd finished with Diamonds as trumps, as I had a clear lead; the ♥J. Martin won two rounds of Hearts then returned the ♥2, as a signal for a Club ruff. We took the first six tricks then the ♦K to come for 4♦x-4 and +1100. In aggregate this is a huge score, and is actually one of the reasons I don't like aggregate as a few hands can dominate the scores.

Luckily our opponents were experienced enough to take this in their stride and got right back into it, beating us on a series of marginal games. Towards the end of the evening I was getting rather tired, and was quite unprepared for this big contract:

Danny N Martin S W N E S 1♦ 2♥ 6♦ - - -

I opened 1♦, which is the agreed bid in our system. This is the only distribution where I could have only three Diamonds. North made a weak jump overcall in Hearts and Martin thought for just a few seconds before popping down 6♦. North lead the ♥J and dummy came down.

This was only my second hand of the evening and I was really hoping it would be easy. But there was work to do. My hand is not very suitable, with only three Diamonds and wasted ♥AK. I have a certain loser in the trump Ace and must therefore avoid losing to the ♦J.

After a considerable pause I realised there was also no way I could get rid of all my Clubs on the Hearts, so I would need the Club finesse. Assuming the Club finesse was working, and considering North's pre-empt, South was likely to have long Diamonds. So, I won the Heart lead in hand and crossed to dummy with a Spade, then followed my instinct by leading a Diamond to the Nine. This heldm and after that everything fell into place. After a few more long pauses, 6♦ was home.

In the end we won the match 9-7.

Pre-season warm up

Last week I had the pleasure of playing bridge twice. The first was the pre-season social for the Wanderers team, who play in Division 1 of the Glasgow League. I played in a new partnership with Ronald Gaffin. We had 'the run of the cards' and did quite well.

My only regret was Board 1 with a trump suit of ♠AKTxx opposite ♠xxx. I could afford one loser and there were complications in the other suits so I thought it simplest to play the Ace-King. But in fact the winning play was to insert the Ten, which I nearly did as it just felt West might have lots of Spades.

The highlight was not bridge related, a delicious tiramisu provided by our host John DiMambro.

On Monday John and I played together at the Buchanan club. There was early excitement, as I picked pick up the monster hand of

♠AKQ642 ♥AKQJ6 ♦JT ♣-.

What do you open the bidding with? Well it doesn't matter, as partner opens ahead of you, with 1♥!

My response was rather unusual. I bid 3♠, which was correctly alerted as a splinter. I'd mis-sorted my hand, leaving one Spade on it's own. I saw that singleton Spade and bid the splinter. In the end it didn't matter, as we quickly got to 7♥ when opener showed both missing Aces.

The theme of the evening seemed to be the opponents opening with a weak bid, passed round to John who passed or doubled, leaving me with a decision. This was a tricky one for both of us:

W N E S Danny John 3♥ - - x - 3♠ - - -

West opened a strong 3♥ and I passed as North. East passed and South had a decision. John went for double. I have a good suit but was trying to do the sensible thing so went for a conservative 3♠.

East predictably lead a Heart and there was the potential for lots of tricks, or not very many if I lost trump control. I ruffed and played two top Spades and was glad to see them split 3-2. I cashed the ♣K and now have loads of Clubs winners with just one top trump outstanding. I'm pleased to say I was careful and drew that last trump to prevent them ruffing in at the right time and cutting me off from dummy.

In the end we got 3♠+2 which scored slightly above average, beating the pairs defeating 4♥ but losing to the pair in 5♣.

On my other featured board I went into a deep think about a bidding decision which in the end I never had to make:

W N E S Danny John 3♥ - - - -

As before West opened 3♥, passed round to South. I was North wondering what I would do if partner doubled. The options are 3♠, 4♠, 3NT or passing the double. In the end John passed it out and we defended 3♥-4. East informed his partner afterwards: "It's best to have two of the top three honours for a pre-empt".

+200 scored below average as several pairs were making 4♠.

In the end we finished on a decent 62%.

Gilmorehill vs Maccabi

For my next league match I had another new partner, and agreed a simple system with Martin. We had a poorish start, the low point being this agonising decision I got wrong:

♠ Q 7 4 3 2 ♥ 8 7 3 ♦ 6 3 ♣ A J 6 ♠ A 8 5 ♥ J ♦ A Q J 8 5 4 ♣ Q 8 2 7 14 16 3 ♠ K J 9 6 ♥ A Q 9 ♦ K ♣ K 7 5 4 3 ♠ T ♥ K T 6 5 4 2 ♦ T 9 7 2 ♣ T 9

W N E S Martin Danny 1♦ - 2♣ - 3♦ - 6♦ - - -

West opened a precision 1♦, which is limited to about 15 points. He then rebid 3♦ and East went into a very long think. He had faith in his partner's bid and chose 6♦. West wisely made no comment.

On the first trick Martin found the excellent lead of a Heart and declarer finessed, my King winning. When declarer had to follow suit with the ♥J it was clear that he now had two Heart discards in dummy, and I needed to get the right switch. Could I find my partner's Ace and defeat the slam?

I came close to leading a Spade, but finally settled for a safe trump lead, reasoning that gave almost no chance of declarer making it. However, the spade finesse is onside and furthermore North is squeezed into discarding Spades, so only one finesse is needed for four Spade tricks, and all three Clubs can be discarded. Declarer took full advantage of my generosity and the favourable position and brought home the slam.

At the half way point we were down about 1000 points on each table. Certainly our opponents had got the better of us so far. Captain John Di Mambro reminded us that at this stage in the league the match was effectively a free shot. We took this advice to Heart and after the break brought in consecutive 6NT slams. Both times I began a Puppet Stayman sequence then realised I didn't know the continuations so had a punt. It would have been three slams, but I underbid on this one:

♠ K ♥ T 5 3 ♦ Q 9 6 ♣ Q J 9 8 6 3 ♠ Q J 7 ♥ J 6 4 ♦ K T 4 3 ♣ T 7 2 8 7 10 15 ♠ T 8 ♥ A K Q 9 8 2 ♦ J 8 7 5 2 ♣ - ♠ A 9 6 5 4 3 2 ♥ 7 ♦ A ♣ A K 5 4

W N E S Martin Danny 1♥ 4♠ - - -

East opened 1♥ and I bid an immediate 4♠. When I saw dummy I realised that 4♠ had excellent play, but that 6♣ was even better. On Ronald's table he began with a double from the South hand, and after partner jumped to 3♣ East-West competed but he was able to play in 6♣.

My thinking was that if I double I let East-West into the auction, and I knew by this point in the evening that they certainly weren't afraid to compete. They could have found a cheap sacrifice, especially if they find the double fit. With my values in South I could well have ended up doubling 5♥ off two, which is actually worse than making a vulnerable 4♠.

We defended quite nicely sometimes. My declarer play was rather shaky but here's one that did go nicely:

♠ Q J T ♥ J 8 7 ♦ 4 2 ♣ J 7 5 4 3 ♠ A 7 6 5 3 2 ♥ 5 2 ♦ 9 5 ♣ Q 9 8 5 6 13 16 ♠ K 9 8 4 ♥ 4 3 ♦ A Q J T 8 ♣ K 2 ♠ - ♥ A K Q T 9 6 ♦ K 7 6 3 ♣ A T 6

W N E S Martin Danny - 1♥ - 2♥ - 3♠* - 4♥ - -

I have the lovely South hand and opened 1♥. An advantage of playing five card majors is that North was able to scrape together a raise. I pictured a perfect hand opposite and tried a Splinter in Spades. At this point Martin regretted even responding and signed off quickly in 4♥. I got a trump lead, and taking a leaf from my opponents' book took some time to consider the hand.

I could win the heart lead in Dummy and lead up a Diamond. If the Ace is onside I'll get my ♦K plus one Diamond ruff (assuming they can continue Hearts) which still only adds up to nine tricks. I could establish a Spade by force but don't have the entries. But if Clubs are 3-2 I'm home, using two trump entries to dummy. So I won the first trick in dummy and lead up a Club, the ♣T losing to the ♣Q (is this a situation where East should maybe play the ♣K?). I was later able to establish the Clubs, and the ♦A was onside so that was in fact eleven tricks.

After the Red Velvet cake in the last match I played today our captain had produced an excellent lemon sponge. It inspired our half-time comeback but the match was still lost 9-7.

Maccabi vs Wanderers

After what surely must have been an enormous number of illnesses and unavailable players I was asked to join the Wanderers bridge team, based out of the Buchanan Club in Glasgow. I agreed, then checked the league table; Wanderers sit sixth in Division One. Having not played in any league for many years this was going to be challenging. Last Wednesday I drove out to Maccabi club in Giffnock to meet the team.

Fortunately, I had a good partner (Mark Menzies) and the cards were friendly. My first contract was a 5♣ with 11 winners missing two Aces, and most of the rest were similar. I had a few 3NTs that could have been tricky if a key suit didn't split, but it always did.

The table played quickly and at the break it looked like we'd done OK. We had one big slice of luck, when I made a terrible blunder and got away with it:

♠ K T x x x ♥ T 9 8 ♦ A x ♣ A J x ♠ x x x ♥ x ♦ x x x x x ♣ x x x x 12 0 9 19 ♠ Q J x x ♥ K x x ♦ K x x ♣ x x x ♠ A ♥ A Q J x x x ♦ Q J x ♣ K Q x

W N E S Danny Mark 1♥* 2NT; - 3♦ - 3♠ - 4NT; - 5♦* - 6♥

Mark opened 1♥ and I had the North hand. I was about to reply 1♠ when I remembered we'd agreed five card majors. In the five minutes before the match most of that time was spent discussing Jacoby 2NT so I bid it here, showing a game forcing hand with exactly three trumps. Mark bid a natural 3♦ and I bid a natural 3♠ then he bid Blackwood.

I knew I had there good cards in my hand and so bid 5♦, showing three Aces. But I only had two. I realised almost immediately what I'd done and started to worry. Mark, who is a quick bidder and player, was in a deep think. I was desperate to put the breaks on, and was fearing what bid he produced. Whatever he bid, it was going to be one level too high.

Thankfully, he took the conservative route and settled for 6♥. West lead the ♠Q and I put the dummy down. The conversation went:

"Thank you partner"
"Sorry."
"You know you're supposed to have three keycards."
"Yeah I know, sorry."
"Thank you partner"

As the hand went on I waited for it to be one down, and was hugely relieved when Mark made it. I apologised to the opponent's and we moved on.

My other hand of interest is where we missed a game. I've rotated it so I'm South this time:

♠ T x ♥ A K x x ♦ T x x ♣ A x x x ♠ A Q x x x ♥ Q x x x ♦ A K ♣ x x 11 15 1 13 ♠ x x x ♥ x x x ♦ J x x x x x ♣ x ♠ K J x ♥ J x ♦ Q x ♣ K Q J T x x

W N E S Mark Danny 1♣ 1♠ x 2♠ 3♣ 3♠ 4♣ - - -

I opened the South hand 1♣, West overcalled and partner made a takeout double. East made a courtesy raise and I bid 3♣, showing a genuine Club suit. When West bid &Spades; again Mark bid 4♣ where I played. If he'd have doubled again I would have bid 3NT with ny good Spade stop.

West lead a top Diamond and dummy came down. It looked like a pretty clear two losers in Diamonds then I have to guess Spades for one loser. But, after cashing the ♦AK West cashed his ♠A and the hand was over.

At first I thought that we had done well to avoid 3NT, but actually Diamonds are blocked and we have time to set up a Spade trick, so it always makes.

Overall, we had most of the cards sitting North-South and got a good score. This was matched on the other tables and Wanderers won the event 11-5.