SBU Lockdown Swiss Pairs #1

Last night Anna and I played in the SBU Lockdown Swiss Pairs. This is a nine week cross-Imp tournament where they take your best six scores. It was quite a rush getting the children in bed to start at 7pm, so I'm not sure how many we'll make.

It was a nice format, with five rounds of five boards. We had enough time between rounds to have a cup of tea. Once Anna did some yoga.

Anna and I played quite steadily. In fact our biggest swing was only about 3 IMPs. Overall we finished 14th out of 52 pairs, with a modest score of +13.41 IMPs. Here's one where I had a couple of tough decisions (and got them both wrong).

After three passes it comes round to me sitting West. I've a nice 12 points, but considered passing. It's quite likely the opponents can make something in one of the majors, and a score of 0 will be better than that. Passing would have got +1.64 IMPs. Instead I went for a 1NT opening. I thought this would make it a bit harder for the opponents to enter the auction, but North was rather bold and came in with 2♥. Anna bid a nice 2♠, which we play as non-forcing, then South also stretched to bid 3♥, and now we have to beat it.

Anna lead a low Spade, to my Ace. I was worried about declarer ruffing Clubs so returned a Heart. Declarer was now able to draw trumps, taking five Hearts, two Clubs, a Spade and a Diamond when he guessed correctly for nine tricks. Well played.

In fact the best defence is to play Clubs myself, so Anna can ruff declarer's potential Club tricks, and promote her ♥K. But maybe that needs me to know that Anna has only a doubleton Club. Too tough for me. Conceding 3♥= was worth -2.32. I wish I'd passed the hand out.

Also in the tournament were John Di Mambro and Martin Bateman, from the Wanderers Team. They were a bit ahead of us though and we never met. On the hand above North opened 2♥ (Hearts and a minor) and played there, making eight tricks when he guessed Diamonds wrong.

Mid-morning matters

Today I had the rare pleasure of being able to play in the 1030 am Bucnahan pairs, with Ted.

Here's a couple of blunders I made:

I thought Ted's double showed a maximum of four Hearts so bid my Clubs again. He boldly raised me to game.

The opening lead was a Heart. Instinctively, I played low from dummy. Now I had to cross over to the ♠A to finesse trumps. When that worked I had 11 tricks, but when the Hearts didn't split that was the limit.

I should win the first Heart in dummy and finesse trumps. That keeps the ♠A as an entry to dummy if the Hearts are 4-2 and one needs to be ruffed, as is the case here. Getting that right would have meant 5♣+1 instead of of 5♣=, and I would have caught up with everyone bidding and making 4♥.

That was a relatively small error. The next one was more costly:

3♠ promised five Spades and 4♣ was a cuebid (not alerted). I lead my singleton ♥J which declarer won and drew trumps. The crunch came when she lead the ♣T from hand. I thought "what does it matter?" and covered with my Queen. Turned out it did matter, as dummy played the ♣A and partner's ♣K came crashing down. This meant no Club losers and declarer made 6♠+1 instead of 6♠=.

I didn't think many pairs would be in the slam anyway, but they were (several in 6NT). So my blunder turned a 50% board into a 0% board. To make it worse there was then a lengthy delay between rounds for me to ponder my no-win play.

Despite these bodges we finished on a winning 65.2%, earning me another 0.70 BBO matchpoints (whatever they are).

Trick 1

Last night was the final Buchanan Lockdown Teams, as the club now has proper pair's evenings organised. I played with Ted, and our team won 36-7. Of the seven IMPs we lost, six were on the board below:

I open 1♦ and rebid 2NT showing 18-19. Ted bid Checkback Stayman to check for a fifth Heart, and we finished in 3NT. North lead the ♣5.

I have a certain two stops in Clubs. Given time I have plenty of further tricks, likely four Diamonds, two Hearts and a Spade to get me to nine. The problem is I'm missing three Aces, so the defence have plenty of time to set up their Clubs.

On trick one I played the ♣2 from dummy, South the ♣9 and I won in hand with the ♣J. I've still got one Club stopper, but that's not enough. I forced out the Heart Ace, lost my last Club stopper, forced out the Diamond Ace, then South did well to play a Spade across to North, to cash a few more Clubs. In the end I lost three Clubs and three other Aces.

If I play the ♣Q on the first trick it holds. Now my remaining ♣AJ is worth two more stoppers, if I lose the lead to South. As it happens South has the Aces in both the suits I'm going to play, so I'm still down.

My play of the ♣2 on the first trick would only gain if North had lead away from ♣T9xxx, which is much less likely.

The other table played 2NT and made it.

Safety Play

In the Buchanan Teams last night Ted and I took a bit of a beating. Our one higlight was bidding and making a very poor 6♠ contract:

Ted liked this hand and rebid 3♠, so I thought he must be strong enough to have something in Diamonds so launched into Blackwood, and he showed two keycards without the Queen of trumps. The auction so far was identical at both tables. But whereas my counterpart now signed off in 5♠ I ploughed on and landed partner in 6♠.

We have 7 trump tricks, but only 3 outside winners. There are possiblities in Clubs and Hearts, but how best to combine your chances? I like Ted's line of trying Clubs first (playing the ♣A from dummy if North doesn't cover), then reverting to Hearts. But as you can see everything works so that was a lucky 13 IMPs in.

I gave it back on the hand below:

We reached a good 4♠ contract and the defence begin with the ♦K. I was expecting two rounds of Diamonds then a Club switch, which if I got wrong and the trump finesse failed would be one off. But instead North overtook with the ♦A and returned a Heart, clearly a singleton. I've bags of Heart tricks to come so I just need to draw trumps now avoiding a ruff.

Time for a safety play!

I lead the ♠J from dummy but played the ♠A anyway, to avoid losing to a singleton or doubleton King in South and suffering a Heart ruff. But actually, South was void in trumps! So when I tried to keep drawing them North got back in, crossed to his partner's ♦Q and they got their Heart ruff in the end. I think my line was correct (fails only on this layout, finessing fails if South has Kx or K of trumps), but cost the game. On the other table they played in 5♥ and although a Spade ruff is in theory possible the defence are never likely to find it.

Finally, here's one I got right:

Ted's 2NT rebid showed 15-19, and my 3♣ asked for extra length in Majors. He denied this so I know he has exactly four Hearts and at most three Spades. With my Spade void 3NT might be in trouble, so I removed to 4♥. This is a decent contract, especially when Ted happens to have the ♥QT and got the the ♥J lead. I think 5♣ is even better though, so perhaps I should have bid that.

While following the hand as dummy I was hoping the Club finesse would fail, as that would mean only 8 tricks in 3NT. The other table were in 3NT, and did get a Spade lead, but the defence got in a tangle and declarer came home for a flat board (maybe that's an advantage of 3NT I hadn't considered - how often it makes when it shouldn't!)

Overall we lost the match 32-77

Textbook

Playing in the Buchanan Saturday teams I overbid to 4♠:

After the first few tricks I'm in dummy and ready to play trumps. If I can play trumps for no losers I can make it. I lead the ♠J and ... took the finesse. This failed (and in fact there's no way to succeed) but playing the ♠A is the right play. By this point West has shown up with ♦AKJ and so East must have the ♠K, both to give him enough points to double, and because West didn't respond to the double.

It's a textbook hand, which I'm sure I would have got right in a book, but didn't at the table. Nor did the other declarer on the same defence though, but the opponents got other stuff right and we lost the match 21-32.

SBU Matchpoint Tournament

This Tuesday I convinced Ted to play in the Scottish Bridge Union (SBU) tournament. It's matchpoints which he says he doesn't like, but I thought it would suit us. Our cardplay and defence is relatively good, with our main weakness sometimes going for massive penalties.

Over the 24 boards we did nothing clever, but made few mistakes, and finished comfortably top in a large field. We had rather a charmed existence and there were only three boards where we scored below 50%. Once was when the opponents had a misunderstanding and underbid to 3♥ which just made, once was when the opponents bid and made the obvous 1NT and we got 40% (most matchpoints events you suffer loads of these), and once when I made the blunder below:

East opened 1♣ and I made a rather dubious 1♥ overcall. West had just enough to overcall 1♠ (showing five or more) and East optimistimcally raised straight to game. It's optimistic as the hand is good but the ♥K might be useless.

The problem with my 1♥ overcall now became clear to me, as Ted lead the ♥Q. Normally this would promise ♥QJ (or maybe a singleton), but once I've bid Hearts he might just be leading them for that reason. The ♥Q was covered by the ♥K and ♥A and I had the crucial decision. I didn't realise it was the crucial decision though and just played a heart back straight away. We've now lost the chance for a Diamond ruff, and when Declarer lead Spades from hand picking up the ♠A the hand was over.

If I played a Diamond back I would get a ruff when Ted took his ♠A. It would be obvious for him to give me a ruff as leading a Diamond is an odd thing to do with ♦AKTx on the table. There is some danger though that leading a Diamond will let declarer draw trumps and discard a losing Heart (if he started with say ♦Qx in hand), but I think if I'd have thought about it I might have got it right.

Five Diamonds Twice

I was watching some Scotland Lockdown Teams on Bridge Base the other day. All excellent declarers, but they had some blind spots playing these 5♦ contracts.

Put yourself in East's shoes. You've done well to get to 5♦. On the Spade lead you finesse and it holds. You now have good chances of 11 tricks: six Diamonds (assuming they split 4-2), two Spades and three Clubs, if they split 3-2 and the King is onside. They key is that if you're going to get all those Club tricks you need to keep an entry to dummy.

You play a Club back to hand and draw three rounds of trumps. They don't split so there is still one master trump outstanding. You have to leave it out and play on Clubs now, while you still have the spade entry. Declarer here didn't do this and played another Diamond, but got lucky when South didn't knock out the Spade Ace. On the other table declarer was also in 5♦, but inexplicably played low on the first Spade trick so always had to lose one Spade, one Diamond and one Club.

On to the next 5♦:

East lead the ♣2, which looks very much like a singleton. Declarer won, and wisely discarded a losing Heart from hand (on the other table declarer discarded a Spade and then had no chance). After taking the ♥A and a heart ruff it's decision time. The winning line is to cross to hand, draw trumps, then give yourself a 50-50 shot at guessing Spades. Instead declarer tried a second round of Clubs, ruffed by East and one off.

Am I being unfair on these declarers? Perhaps it's all only obvious seeing all the hands.