Confusion and Luck

After work on Friday me and Anna went to St Andrew Bridge Club for the pairs evening.

Sometimes we played quite well, but I made some terrible blunders. Here's a shocker:

	♣Q
♣JT52		♣A98643
	♣K7

South is declarer in 3NT. Anna sitting West lead the ♣J, hitting the jackpot as I've got six of them. Declarer had no choice but to play the ♣Q, and if I just play my Ace then continue Clubs, later we're going to take loads of tricks. But I overthought it badly, and ducked, as I had no other entries. Declarer ended up taking 12 tricks, when we could have beaten the contract easily. I have to say I was quite tired by this point, and I'm trying not to drink any tea after 6pm, and in my addled mind I thought the layout might have been like this, in which case I do need to duck the ♣Q.

	♣Q
♣KJT		♣A98643
	♣752

Also, in my defence, I don't think Anna's ever learnt what the standard leads are. The ♣J is not the standard lead from ♣JT52.

After that Club mishap we had a stroke of massive luck in the Club suit, when we found a fine 2♣ contract, even though neither me or Anna was trying to bid Clubs.

NS vul E deal ♠ J 8 7 3 ♥ 9 7 ♦ T 8 7 ♣ Q J 9 7 ♠ Q 9 ♥ Q 6 3 2 ♦ Q 9 3 ♣ T 8 6 3 4 6 12 18 ♠ K T 4 ♥ A T 5 ♦ A J 6 5 4 ♣ 5 2 ♠ A 6 5 2 ♥ K J 8 4 ♦ K 2 ♣ A K 4

Danny Anna W N E S 1♣ 2♣ - - -

Our opponents here were Charles and Vi Outred, an excellent pair, who play a very unusual system. East's 1♣ bid is entirely artificial, and shows either 11-13 balanced or any very strong hand. The important thing is that it shows nothing about Clubs. Anna has a nice 18 point hand but didn't know what to do. She went for 2♣, hoping that it showed majors I think, or was somehow forcing, I don't really know what she was thinking actually. Over a normal 1♣ opening we play 2♣ as Michaels showing Majors, but after the totally artificial 1♣ I thought that 2♣ must be natural. I had a pretty strong feeling that something had gone wrong, but ethically I think I should pass, which I did.

As it happens, I have good Clubs, and so does Anna, and she made 2♣ on the nose.

On the next one we were also active in the Club suit, with a Stayman disaster culminating in 4♣x-3. But we finally got a good one in the Club suit below. I was asked this week what the fewest points I've had to make a slam is, and I said about 15. Here's one with 21 points, that me and Anna successfully bid.

EW vul E deal ♠ 5 2 ♥ 8 5 4 3 ♦ Q T 8 5 ♣ A 7 3 ♠ A T 8 7 ♥ K Q 7 ♦ K J 9 7 ♣ 6 4 6 13 6 15 ♠ K Q J 9 6 4 3 ♥ T 9 6 2 ♦ 6 2 ♣ - ♠ - ♥ A J ♦ A 4 3 ♣ K Q J T 9 8 5 2

Danny Anna W N E S 2♠ x - 3♥ 3♠ 4♣ 4♠ 5♣ - 6♣ - - -

East opened with 2♠, a weak bid. The normal bid with seven Spades would be 3♠, but maybe he kept to 2♠ because of the four card Heart suit. Anna has the big South hand, and went for a double, planning to bid Clubs next time. Another possibility is an immediate 4♣, I'm not really sure how that's different from doubling and bidding Clubs. West passed 2♠x, perhaps hoping it would be the final contract (no chance of that). I was sitting North and bid 3♥ in response to Anna's double. East now came back in with 3♠, Anna showed her hand with 4♣, and West supported with 4♠. I have a good hand considering I only bid 3♥ before, and good Clubs, so stretched a bit and bid 5♣. Anna hesitated for a long while, then pulled out a 6♣ bid.

East probably expects to beat the contract, with his good Hearts and Diamonds. He hopefully lead the ♠A, which unsurprisingly was ruffed by declarer. To make the contract Anna needs to lose only one Diamond, and set up the Diamonds to discard the Heart in her hand. So she drew trumps, and played a Diamond towards dummy. East paused for a second, and took his ♦K. Later Anna cashed the ♦A, and lead up to dummy again. She correctly guessed to finesse the ♦T, and made the contract.

I thought this would be a good score for us, but in fact nearly every North-South pair bid and made 6♣, and quite a few of them were doubled, so in fact just getting +920 for 6♣= was a fairly poor score.

The low/high point of the evening came when I was declarer in 5NT. This is the least played contract, and certainly shouldn't have been played here. Me and Anna both had big hands, but a misfit, and after bidding up to 3NT and beyond I intended my 5NT to be pick a slam. To my surprise though, rather than picking a slam, Anna picked a pass. When dummy came down it looked like a surefire 12 tricks, but, miraculously, one of the suits split 5-1 so 11 tricks was the limit of the hand. So we got a top board for making 5NT=. Anna claims this was precision bidding.

With luck like that we went on to top our section. Full results here.