Saturday 9 January 2021

EBU Debut

Last night Anna and I played in our first EBU tournament. It was only 12 boards, starting at 1930.

We got off to a good start, but two minor slip-ups and two good boards for our opponents held us back.

On the one below it only occurred to me afterwards that I could have done better:

North didn't alert any of her bids, but I asked and it turned out she'd shown 5-5 in the majors. I lead a Diamond. Declarer drew trumps and played Spades. I took my Ace and played Clubs. Anna was alert to the danger and took her ♣A before it went away. Conceding 4♥+1 was a common score, and was worth 41%.

But, as you can see, I could have given Anna a Spade ruff. From the auction I know that North has five Spades, I've got four, and South must have at least two for the 1NT opener. Could I have pictured my partner with a singleton and lead the ♠A? Maybe I should have. After the Ace and a ruff we still need to cash our Club trick, for 4♥= and 77%. Not easy, especially with my nice Diamond lead.

By contrast, here's a board I did well on:

South opened a weak two in Diamonds and I had the West hand. 2NT is my bid, but I didn't like it. I'm flat, with only 15 points, vulnerable, and with a poor Diamond stop. But I bid it and hoped for the best.

Dummy was a disappointment, with just an Ace of Spades. North lead a Diamond and South took the ♦A and played another. I won my King, and North discarded the ♠3. On asking, she revealed that she played reverse attitude discards (!). I lead the ♠T, expecting a cover from North's ♠QJxx, but when that didn't come I played Spades from the top and collected four Spade tricks along with my Diamond trick.

The good news is that South has now shown a full 9 points, so has no cards to ever get back in with. So I now exited with the ♣Q, giving North a problem. He won and gave me a Heart trick (trick number seven), then was endplayed again to give me a second Club (trick number eight).

My enjoyment was only tempered by the fact that we were running out of time, and it looked like we weren't going to get to the end before the clock reached 0. With one trick left before my claim the cards disappeared, and we were awarded an average score. But to my relief the director immediately adjusted it to 2NT=, for 89%. Going one off would still have got above 50%, as North-South were making 110 in 2♦+1.

Overall we finished on 57.8%, good enough for 25th out of 134.

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