Monday Buchanan Pairs

Last night I played in the Buchanan Pairs tournament with John Di Mambro. It was an 1830 start, and the way things worked out, I was still surrounded by children for the first board. Does that excuse my defense?

I was moderately wise not to bid in the auction, and lead a Spade against 4♥. Declarer at our table lead a Heart to the Ace, then on seeing my ♥J crossed back to dummy and gussed well to duck a Heart to my ♥K. Every other declarer in 4♥ finessed the ♥Q and had to lose two trump tricks. We could still have taken two trump tricks, if I'd lead back a Spade for John to ruff. I knew that the last Spade was the Ace and declarer had it, so it was all there for me. I did ponder for a while, but then played a useless Diamond. Conceding 4♥+2 was worth 0%.

After the first ten boards we had recovered to be on about 50%. Then we had a good run towards the end, and finished on 64%, to finish second overall. My highlight was the board below:

I made a pretty poor 2♥ opening (not sure if my partner would approve or not), then accepted defending 3NT. John dutifully lead a Heart, which I ducked, as taking the trick would just set up two tricks for declarer. When he finessed Clubs it was an easy one to duck, as he is certainly going to be finessing again. When he did finesse again I lead a Diamond, setting up my fourth Diamond. I was then able to get a Club, Heart and Diamond and hold declarer to 3NT+1, where he should always be getting 11 tricks.

My fine effort was worth 40%, as the opposition had done well to get to 3NT, and 4♠ was failing badly.

District Masterful play

Ted and I have had a good run in the SBU Tuesday tournaments, finishing 1st, 2nd and 7th. I have therefore accumulated a few masterpoints, and am now up to 25, which promotes me to District Master (the fourth lowest rank). If I get to 50 points I will become a Master.

My play last Tuesday was not especially masterful, but we were reasonably solid. The highlights were beating a few opposition contracts by three or four tricks (just enough non-vulnerable to get a good score), the lowlight deal 23 of 24 below:

I swithered between opening 1NT and upgrading the hand. I finally decided to open 1NT then realised that I'd bid 1♦. Oh well. The auction quickly escalated. After a 2♣ overcall Ted bid 2♥. To me this shows 10+, to him 6+, and we've never really resolved this. When South piled in with 4♣ I felt fairly confident bidding 4♥. North then went slightly overbaord with 5♣ (it goes three off) but it worked brilliantly as Ted was forced into 5♥, a reasonable gamble with his Club void and (presumed) double fit in Diamonds.

5♥ is not a comfortable contract. Even if you have only one trumps loser it hinges on the Diamond finesse, and when that fails it's one off. Double dummy you can make it by winning the King of Diamonds, ruffing out the ♠Q then endplaying South, but that is a bit far fetched. 5♥-1 was a disappointing score when most of the field were in 2♥.

Opening 1NT would have worked a lot better this time.

SBU Pairs

Ted and I had another good result in the SBU Tuesday pairs, finishing 2nd with 63%. This was despite starting with two very bad boards and having a dip in the middle. Unusually, I was actually ready ten minutes before the start and had time to settle and get a cup of tea, which surely helped.

Afterwards I didn't have any particular regrets, and on looking through the hands I still haven't found anything I think I would have done differently.

Here I made a somewhat heavy 1NT overcall, as I have 18 points and not the usual 15-17. But I think that's OK, especially vulernable, and with a not particularly good 18 points. I have likely 5 tricks, but with not much potential to develop more unless partner has something. The idea of doubling then playing 2NT opposite nothing was too much of a worry.

Of course, as it happened Ted had a decent 7 points, so naturally passed my 1NT overcall but would have gone on if I'd doubled. So we have 25 points and a double Club stop but have missed 3NT. This was a risk I was prepared to take.

In 1NT I got a Spade lead. This gives me enough time to set up dummy's Diamonds. In fact, East needs to duck the first Diamond to hold me to ten tricks, which isn't likely to happen. 1NT+3 was therefore worth 71%, beating pretty much everyone who stayed out of game.

Big hand

Ted and I played together the other night. We are largely on the same wavelength, albeit with roughly one mix-up every ten hands or so. Actually maybe that's quite high.

On this one we got it right:

After South opens 1♣ it gets passed around to me. I have a nice 18 point hand so start with a double. Ted isn't quite strong enough to do any more so just bids 1♥. At this point despite having such a good hand I have to be disciplined and only raise to 2♥. This feels a bit strange, as normally if partner responded 1♥ I'd raise to game. But here his 1♥ shows 0-8, so I am only worth a simple raise to 2♥.

Ted recognised that I must have a big hand to be raising opposite potentially nothing, and bid an immediate 4♥. A club was lead.

Despite trumps being 4-1, and the Club finesse being offisde, it's easy to make game. South is known to have all of the points, so eventually is going to have to lead you round a Diamond, or break open Spades.

At the other table they stalled in 2♥ after the same start to the auction.

I thought I was dummy

Ted and I played the SBU pairs last Tuesday. We did well, finishing over 60%, but far from the lead. There were five or six hands where we got a bad score, all self-inflicted. There was one 4♠ where Ted left on seeing I had ten cashable tricks, then came back to see I had somehow gone one down.

The hand below is a more forgivable one:

Ted opened a Benji 2♣, showing a strong suit. My 2♦ was a relay, then he showed Diamonds. I bid a natural 3♠ and he repeated his Diamonds. My 5♣ I think at this stage must be a cuebid. Ted thought so too and bid 6♦.

After the ♥T lead I wrote "brb" and dashed off to make a cup of tea. When I came back the ♥T was still there and the Round Clock had gone negative. I'd forgotten that since I'd bid Diamonds first I was playing it.

The slam has excellent chances. Although slightly wary of the lead, I decided to play for a Heart ruff. I took the two top Hearts and lead a third. This was quickly ruffed by West. With a club still to lose I had no choice but to over-ruff with the ♦J. It now seemed unlikely I could get another Heart ruff, or set up the Spades, so I crossed to hand in Spades and lead a Club up. Luckily the ♣A was onside, and I might now have enough tricks (two Spades, three Hearts, six Diamonds and one Club).

However, I've already ruffed with the ♦J, so am at risk of losing a trump trick if they don't split 3-2. I lead a Spade back to dummy, and cashed the ♣K.

All that remained was to draw trumps. At this point I knew East started with five Hearts, likely two Spades (she dropped the ♠QJ with the ♠T on table), and maybe two Clubs (she played the ♣9 then ♣J under my King. If I trust all of this then I know she started with four Diamonds, so I can gloriously finesse and make the contract

However, I didn't finesse. I just played trumps from the top and went one off. A missed opportunity.

Close calls

Last time Ted and I played I was a bit erratic. I had to apologise to him afterwards for some of my less successful calls. In my defence the matches start a bit too early for me as I'm still trying to get settled. I normally end up praying to be dummy at the start - this time I was declarer for the first four in a row!

I was unlucky in getting a lot of close calls wrong. That or I have quite poor judgment. The problem is, sometimes I decide to be conservative and end up missing out on a game, slam or juicy double, and somtimes I decide to be bold and overbid or double a makeable contract.

In the hand below my judgment was off by two tricks:

Ted opened 1♣ and I replied 1♥. When the next hand bid 4♠ Ted was under pressure and went for 5♣. I guessed that at that vulnerability he was bidding to make, and I have a great hand (apart from the two small Spades), so topped him up to 6♣. Two down.

But I was not subdued:

When Ted showed 16+ with good Clubs I chanced my arm with 3NT. The ♣K is a great card but we are still a bit light, and it was lucky that Ted had enough Aces to get me up to nine tricks (and that they didn't lead Diamonds). This time I was indisciplined but it paid off.

As tends to be the way with wild bidding we lost more than we gained and overall lost the match by 25 IMPs.

SBU Lockdown Swiss Pairs #2

A 7pm start is a bit tight for Anna and I, as that is also the kid's bedtime. We just made it to the table on time last Saturday, but I feel my head wasn't quite in the game. Witness the first deal below:

East opened 1♣ opening and I thought about how high to bid. I'd actually decided on 3♥ but misclicked and bid 2♥. Close enough I thought, and didn't ask for an Undo. Anna raised and when it came back to me in 4♣ I had a chance of glory. On the bidding partner is likely to have a singleton Club and maybe some Spades, so 4♥ might be worth a go. I passed.

Defending against 4♣, I started with a singleton Diamond and duly got a ruff. We have won the first two tricks and I have two cashing Aces in my hand. What could go wrong? I cashed the ♠A, and got a discouraging signal, so cunningly underlead my ♥A. Then I realised we only needed four tricks in total, and I'd just given the contract as a delighted declarer collected her ♥K.

Conceding 4♣= was worth -5.60 IMPs, worse than any score we'd got last week. Beating it by one trick would have been -1.33 IMPs, and making 4♥ a tremendous score.

After that disaster, things didn't improve. Twice we defended carefully for a ruff, but that actually sorted out the trump suit for declarer. Once I overcalled their 1NT opening, meaning the opponents failed to find their Heart fit. But that meant they made 3NT, while everyone else went down in 4♥. We were unlucky, but also played poorly.

Our final of -34.05 IMPs was good enough for 54th place out of 56.