Christmas Bridge

This Christmas one evening after an extensive cheese-board we had the pleasure of playing some informal bridge. Anna and I got dealt all the good cards, and perhaps got a bit carried away on this last deal.

I opened the North hand 1♠ - a poor decision. The hand is weak and lacks a good rebid. When Anna responded 2♥ I had to bid 2♠. Unwilling to commit to Spades, Anna tried 3♣, in theory natural but here bid on just a fragment. I could have bid 3NT now, but depsite my weak hand, didn't want to miss out on a Club slam so tried 4♣. Anna ended our unconvincing auction with a jump to 6NT. West led a Diamond.

All Vul W deal ♠ K 9 8 x x ♥ J ♦ K x x ♣ A T x x ♠ J x ♥ x x ♦ Q T x x x x ♣ x x x 11 3 6 20 ♠ A T x x ♥ T 9 x x x ♦ J ♣ J x x ♠ Q x ♥ A K Q x x ♦ A x x ♣ K Q x
Katie Danny Andy Anna W N E S 1♠ - 2♥ - 2♠ - 3♣ - 4♣ - 6NT - - -

6NT is not a good contract. You have 1 Spade trick available, 4 Hearts, 2 Diamonds, 3 Clubs. Ten tricks. To make it you need two extra, which could come from Hearts splitting 4-3 (good odds) and Clubs 3-3 or a winning finesse (not so good). My singleton Jack of Hearts is a vital card, and as is often the case in 6NT, every high-card point is essential. An extra high card point would make it a good slam - for example if I had the Jack of Spades.

Anna took the sensible line of playing on Hearts, and the game was soon up when they split 5-2. She then tried the Clubs, and even though East had long Hearts (therefore expected to have shorter Clubs) she sensed that West did not have the Jack of Clubs so correctly played for the drop. But that just took her up to 11 tricks, and 6NT-1.

Looking at all four hands, you can make the contract I think. East has the Hearts covered with five of them, and he is also protecting the Spades. So if you begin by cashing your two Diamonds and four Clubs East has to find two additional discards. He can't afford to throw any Hearts, so must throw two Spades, and then you can set up the Spades. This line is crazy in real life, as it involves removing your own Ace-King of Diamonds before knocking out the Spade Ace, so only works when the Diamond suit is split something like this.

I thought at the time Anna could have made it (without such double-dummy play), but I think I'd had too much cheese.

Rouken Glen vs Rowan

The first and last boards let me down tonight. On the first, I made a difficult-to-read and far-from-clear takeout double with a partner who was still dealing with trying to put a four-year-old to bed. It didn't end well:

I made a solid 1♣ opener, and Anna responded a natural 3♣. West bid 3♠, to play. With my solid Clubs and short Spades I thought I was certainly worth bidding on, but didn't want to miss out on a possible easy 3NT. The solution - double! I thought that with a balanced hand with a Spade stopper Anna should bid 3NT. She thought with a balanced hand with a Spade stopper she should defend, probably thinking I had a strong NT. If I did have a decent strong NT type hand, with a bit more defence, then we might have beaten 3♠.

Anyway I regretted my bid when Anna passed. Declarer didn't even bother finessing Spades and still collected an easy 3♠x= for -530.

On the other tables South played 3NT-1 with no opposition bidding on a Spade lead, North played 4♣-2, and North played 3NTx= when allowed to make a Spade and a Diamond.

This board was a bidding challenge that we did not excel on:

I think my opening bid of 1♠ is clear, and Anna's 2♥ response (for us shows 10+ only). After that I decided that rather than rebidding 2♠ which could be passed, or 3♠ which I wasn't good enough for, I'd bid 3♦. This is still game forcing so I might as well have bid 3♠. Anna wasn't sure my 3♦ bid was game forcing and jumped to 4♥. I probably should have corrected this to 4♠ but considered that since she skipped fourth-suit-forcing Anna knew the final contract, so I passed.

4♥ is not a good contract. You have six trump tricks, plus two Aces. For two more you need some comnbination of the Spade finesse, a high Club, and a Club ruff. West led the ♠2, which is surely a singleton. That means your only hope is to win and play a Club up, hoping the defence don't win and switch to trumps. It didn't work out for Anna and we scored 4♥-2. With the bad Heart split I think 4♥ is hopeless, and luckily for us 4♠ looks doomed too. Well done if you get to 3NT and make it.

On the other tables they played 4♥-1, 4♠-2 and 5♠-1.

In the 24 boards I had only four opening hands. I made a few easy 1NT contracts where I felt I had good control and knew what everybody had, so backed myself to make this 4♠ on the final deal:

With a Heart and two Spade losers I need to play the minors for no losers. This could be playing Diamonds if the Queen is onside and they are 3-3 (as is the case here), or the club finesse (fails here), or playing off the Ace-King of Clubs (works too). You can guess that I took the one losing option.

I tried so hard to work out East's hand, and by the time I was playing the Club suit felt convinced he must have the ♣Q, as he'd only shown the Ace of Hearts so far. What I'd forgotten is that he had five Hearts, making his 2♥ raise quite reasonable (maybe even an underbid). I should have instead focused on West's hand - he overcalled 1♥ with a five card suit to the Jack (as far as I knew), so I should have played him for the remaining ten points. I didn't, and went one off in a making contract.

The other tables played 4♠-1, 3♠= and 3♠+1.

But the rest of the team came through, Jill and Barbara bid a couple of slams, and we won the match comfortably.

Christmas Tournament

There were 11 pupils for the school Christmas party. We played matchpoint scoring with boards that had already been played at the Buchanan, meaning I could instantly generate a score even for boards that were only played once.

For the three younger pupils, who had no experience of bidding (or even playing in suit contracts), I bypassed the auction and fixed the contracts. When this led to the most Junior pair leading the field there were accusations this method was unfair, but actually the scores all evened out and I would suggest the final result was somewhat random.

Not to take anything away from the winning pair of Claire and Parveen, with 56%, assisted by Sarah when Parveen had to leave early. Sarah also had the distinction of being in the lowest ranked pair, on 43%, partnered with me.

The best play award goes to Niamh, for this

l North was put in a contract of 1NT, and received a Spade lead. West took his ♠AK, ♦A then tried the Jack of Hearts. Declarer won in hand, then crossed to dummy and took the marked Heart finesse, collecting five Heart tricks in total and finishing on 1NT+2.

While this might not have been the hardest play to find, it was a good achievement given the general noise in the room, Michael Buble Christmas songs and sweets around the place.

Next year we'll all be bidding.

Scottish Cup Plate Round 2

After our sensational win against Fiona Greenwood's team we were up against it to repeat that feat against Harry Smith's team. Tonight England's men's football team were also in action and I'd been listening to how they've been preparing for their 7 pm kickoff: long lie-in, relaxing as much as possible, big nap in the afternoon. Not quite the same preparation for Anna and I: she didn't get in from work until 655 pm and I was still looking after both kids until about 8 pm.

On the first few boards were were rather sluggish, and underbid. However, looking at the hands afterwards it wasn't clear we'd done badly, as the games we'd missed our way were marginal at best, and maybe our +100s were good scores. Sadly, everything was indeed bid and made at the other table, and we went into the interval down by 61-8. The good news was that being behind by so much took the pressure off, and when Michael apologised for not making his part-score on Board 11 no one really minded.

The match was on RealBridge, which is not our preferred format. Three reasons; firstly it's harder to multitask and read a bedtime story when you're dummy. Secondly it's harder to look back at the hands and export them. Thirdly, we are not so familiar with it. Anna in particular somehow didn't know there was a button to review the auction, which cost us dear when she played a handsome 6♥ contract. She ducked the Spade lead and was rather surprised to see one returned and ruffed, the slam failing on a 7-1 Spade break. What she'd forgotten is that an opponent had opened 3♠.

In the second half I took slightly riskier actions, and they generally paid off. With two game swings each we won that section 30-24. Our big results were Kevin and Michael making a solid 6NT, and Anna collecting 4♠= that was two down on the other table.

This could have been a big swing too, on the very last board.

West opened 1♣, East replied 1♠ and West jumped to 3NT. One of the advantages of RealBridge is that it's easier to ask your opponents about the meaning of bids, and when I enquired West belatedly told me that the 3NT was based on a long minor. Based on very little, I decided to double 3NT. Among experts I believe this sort of double of 3NT ask for partner to lead dummy's suit, here Spades, and indeed if Anna had something like ♠Ax and dummy ♠xxxx then the Spade lead would have beaten 3NT. However, neither Anna or I are experts and it's not clear that Anna would have led a Spade. Furthermore, as you can see, if she does then declarer gets 12 tricks and even on hte best Diamond lead declarer gets 11, so doubling 3NT looks costly.

But much to my relief West removed to 4♣. East quickly bid 4♥, passed out. It would have been a better story if after duping them out of 3NT we took them down in 4♥, but unfortunately didn't. We needed to play Spades to tap dummy, but didn't quite get it right. Anna led a top Diamond, then switched to a Club (good plan, in case declarer has a singleton Club and wants to draw trumps then play Clubs). Declarer took as many Clubs as possible, with me finally ruffing. I needed to switch to a top Spade, but didn't, and declarer was able to draw trumps and enjoy the Clubs so 4♥ made. Team-mates were safely in 5♣+1 for a flat board.

Our cup-run is over. Shorter matches from now on.