School Bridge Club

Today was the last meeting of my school Bridge Club. We’ve not got too far in bidding sophistication, but we have fun, and cakes. The emphasis lately has been on getting the game bonus.

♠ x x ♥ K J T ♦ K J x x x x ♣ Q x

♠ A J x x x ♥ A x ♦ A T x ♣ x x x

W E 1♠ 2♦ 2NT 3NT

We play twelve points to open, and East has 13 so opened 1♠. West replied 2♦, and because he has a balanced hand East rebids 2NT. After I explained the value of the game bonus, West raised to game straight away.

It’s not a great contract, but has chances, especially on a non-Club lead. If the Diamonds split there’s 9 tricks. At the table South lead a Heart, and I helped declarer to put in the Ten. With a little help he realised that he was getting three Heart tricks, whether North plays the Queen or not. North did play low, so declarer won in dummy, leaving him just the singleton ♥A in hand.

Now I told declarer to start playing his long suit, and so he cashed the A♦ and K♦. Diamonds split 2-2, and that should mean six Diamonds tricks and the contract in the bag.

But declarer made an error, a classic blunder. He won the third round of Diamonds with the ♦T in hand, playing low in dummy. He was now stuck in his hand, with no more diamonds to lead to dummy, and the Hearts were blocked too. He tried to continue with Diamonds from table, but I reminded him he was in his hand. ”I’ve got a plan”, he said cunningly, and cashed the ♠A. I’m not sure what his plan was, and I went to look at another table. Whatever his plan was, it didn’t work, and he went off one.