Peggy Bayer Round 3: Wales vs SBU

For this match my third pair were given their international debut. I was pleased to see them bidding and playing accurately in the first few boards, drawing trumps and making a few contracts, which always helps to settle the nerves.

They did well overall, but came unstuck in the second half when dealt a series of good hands - hands that mostly want to be in game. We don't yet have the bidding precision to always diagnose this, and missed a couple of games (and bid what has become the SBU favourite contract, 5♣-3).

Missing games is of course costly at IMPs, and from the match being about level we slid to a 36-45; loss.

Here is a small success:

Jonny opened 1♥ and Al quite rightly passed. Despite the bad Heart break Jonny escaped for down one and minus 100. On the other table Kevin and Michael competed to 3♣ and made with an overtrick, for a 2 IMP gain. Connoisseurs of bad contracts will note that actually East-West can make 3NT, though of course no one bid it.

We lost this match 7-13. This is the current leaderboard, including the carry over from yesterday.

Peggy Bayer Round 2: England vs SBU

After a heavy loss in Round 1 on to our second match, against the very strong England team. They have a somewhat more advanced setup than us, with a professional bridge player as their coach, and an assistant coach too which no other team has. They also have a reserve pair who got a Bronze medal at the European Championship, as someone in my team pointed out to me. Anything other than a 20-0 loss would be counted as a win.

That's the setup over, on to the bridge. We had a good start, with two flat boards. Then England gained a little, but we stayed in touch. The boys were bidding their games, and defending tightly. 

Even better, we picked up a game swing. Aidan made 9 tricks here, no other declarer did:

It's a messy 3NT, with work to be done in every suit. Aidan made it via 2 Spades, 2 Hearts, 2 Diamonds and 3 Clubs. On the other table Kevin and Michael beat 3NT by two tricks, for an 11 IMP gain.

Next it's Michael and Kevin bidding a very distributional hand:

East opened a Weak Two (we play very wide-ranging bids here). Michael made a forcing bid of 3♣ and East bid his Spades. Michael now settled for 4♣.

Michael got a Diamond lead and immediately ruffed another Diamond. He took his Aces and crossed back to hand. It's now time to play trumps. I've never discussed this suit combination, but Michael instinctively got it right. He lead the ♣K. This gains when the Queen is singleton (as it is here). Playing a low one hoping the Ace is singleton doesn't work, as if the Ace is singleton his partner still has ♣Qx and gets another trick. Result: 4♣+1.

Of course this techincally correct play was found by the England declarer at the other table too, and the board was flat. But two well played hands I consider a good result.

Finally, a simple pleasure:

Against 3NT Michael lead a low Spade and they soon wrapped up five Spade tricks, with the Ace of Hearts to come for 3NT-2. This was a fast table, and this result came in first. I knew it was going to be a good board. On the other table we played 4♦-1 to win a couple of IMPs.

The good results kept coming in. There was a further highlight of Kevin making 5♥x. On the other table Harry declined to double 5♥ and gained his team 5 IMPs. But in fact on every board we were good, and ran out 26-15 winners. Restricting England to just 15 IMPs was a fantastic achievement. The score translated to a 13-7 win.

These are the running scores:

Peggy Bayer Round 1: Scotland vs SBU

The Peggy Bayer is the U21 Home Nations Bridge Tournament, played alongside the U26 Junior Camrose tournament. I am the non-playing captain of the SBU team, which is the second Scotland team. We have a very inexperienced team but they are fast learners and keen to do well.

Over the last few weeks we've been practicing on Bridge Base at lunch time, and playing in a few tournaments at the weekend. The boys have been great and have come on enormously.

Today at 5pm we had our first match against our rival Scotland Team. It was an exciting game with lots of swings on our table. In practice events we'd fared well against these more experienced opponents, but on the big stage they got the better of us, running out 67-27 winners, translating to 18-2 Victory points.

There were two boards where we gave it away, overbidding and getting doubled, but the rest was just losing out in competitive bridge. Both teams played very well and it was a good standard to watch. This was the most enjoyable board forme:

Kevin had a maximum 2♣ overcall and Michael responded 2♠, having a decent hand with five of them. Kevin bid 4♣ which describes his hand perfectly and Michael recognised the value of his Aces and Kings and bid 5♣. A Diamond was lead.

Kevin threw a losing Spade on a top Diamond and lead a Heart up, soon enough 11 tricks were in the bag.

5♣= was a great score. 

At the other table Harry opened a weak 2♦. Although this is below our official range (5-9) points it's exactly the right sort of hand to open a Weak Two, a solid suit with no defence.  I think it's fine opening weak twos like this as long as you and your partner are disciplined, and don't bid again. 

On that table East overcalled the 2♦ with 3♣ which was passed out. Declarer made the same 11 tricks for 3♣+2, Scotland gaining 10 IMPs on the board. Of the six tables in the Peggy Bayer, two bid game.

Although it was a heavy loss, they played well, and the team have now won their first Victory Points for their country. Not many, but a few. And we have promoted the other Scotland team to the top of the table! Here is the scores after Round 1 - with Ireland playing very well to get the better of the strong England team.

Team Rowan vs Morrisons

Last night was the final league match of the season. I had my mind on the Peggy Bayer, the upcoming Junior Home Internationals for which I am the non-playing captain of the Scotland team, and was hoping for some nice quiet relaxing bridge. That didn't happen though, and in the first few boards we gave away two game swings then got one back bidding a 23 point 3NT. I knew it was 23 points but bid it anyway - everything was onside and Anna made +1.

In our house I play upstairs, and four times in the first hour I had to go and see Zoe, who was most definitely not asleep.

Things failed to settle down with some distributional hands, and big decisions. Here's one that did go smoothly for us:

I have a flat 18 point South hand, which doesn't feel like a great hand. I decided to rebid it 2NT anyway, on the policy of always bidding to the max at aggregate. Anna bid Checkback Stayman and I showed three Spades. At this point she bid 4♣, and I had to think.

Probably Anna is cue-bidding, having set Spades as trumps. But Clubs is my suit, so her bid could be natural with a 5-4-0-4 hand. I ruled that out as extremely unlikely and cuebid my Hearts. That's what Anna wanted to hear and she bid the slam.

East predictably lead a top Diamond, immediately finding the weakness. On any other lead declarer can afford to lose a trump and still collect 4 Spades, 3 Hearts, 4 Clubs and 1 Diamond. On this lead there are still 12 tricks there, but the risk of losing two as well. So it looks like the slam comes down to guessing trumps - but Anna found a better line.

Her plan was to cash the top Spades, then play off winners hoping to discard two losing Diamonds. This works if Clubs are 3-3 (or 4-2 with the long Club hand having the last trump), or the Queen of trumps drops. It probably needs trumps 3-2 but you might need that anyway.

Anna set about her plan playing two top Spades. As it happens the Queen popped up straight away, so that was 13 tricks.

Three of the four tables played 6♠, all making, one played 3NT.

Overall we won the match 12-4. I think that means we will finish the season in 3rd or 4th place in Division 2.

Going for Broke

In last night's EBU 12-board tournament Anna and I got off to a great start. On the first board I opened third in hand with an awful 9 points, got raised to the three level and made it. We were flying along, at least for the first three boards. Things slowed down a bit as we both failed to make overtricks, through a combination of their solid defence and our unimaginative declarer play. With one board to go we had dipped below 50%, so needed something good on the last:

West opened 1♥ and Anna overcalled 1NT. I know she's got a decent hand with a good Heart stop, and considered bidding 6♣. I made the sensible bid of 3NT though, expecting it to make comfortably.

My plans were scuppered when West bid 4♥. Anna doubled this, I suppose showing she really did have a very good Heart stop. Not many tables would be playing in 4♥x, so this could be the swing I was after.

However, having been restrained once I couldn't resist the second time, and had a go at 6♣. Since this was matchpoints there wasn't much point bidding only 5♣, as even if that made it would be a poor score losing to the majority of tables playing a comfortable 3NT.

6♣ was passed out and West lead the Ace of Spades and another. Despite dummy having nothing in Clubs it has some play. It could all come down to guessing trumps. I decided to play the Ace on the first round then finesse, reasoning I could cope with trumps 4-1 onside. But in fact they were 5-0 onside. This might not have been fatal if I had enough winners to play through East (meaning he has to ruff and I can overruff) but here it's got no chance.

Given West's unusual bidding, perhaps I should assume there's a void somewhere, and Clubs is the most likely place for it. So that argues for finessing Clubs on the first round, though in fact that's still not enough to make it.

If I leave in the double of 4♥ that's no good either. Despite Anna's excellent trumps, my ♥Q and are other two Ace-Kings we only get six tricks for +500, still losing out to 3NT making. And that's assuming we don't crash any of our trump honours. As it was going down in 6♣ didn't score well either, and we finished on 46%.

Team Rowan vs Metropole

Last night Anna and I had another Glasgow Division 2 league match against the undefeated Metropole Team. It was a very close match, with the big swing on our table when I overbid to a bad slam and went down:

Looking at all four hands, you may wonder how 6♦ could fail. The trumps are 3-2, and the Clubs are 3-3 with the Queen on side. If I just draw trumps and finesse in Clubs I get four Diamonds, five Clubs, two Spades with the ruff and a Heart.

However, I was reluctant to take that Club finesse. No one likes to go down early on in a slam on a finesse. So instead I drew just two rounds of trumps, then played the ♣AK, and had a think. At this point I realised my plan of ruffing out the Clubs was doomed, as I couldn't ruff both a Spade and a Club in the South hand, and return to North to draw trumps. I glumly tried this plan anyway, and I was correct in that it was impossible, and it duly went two off.

I could have still made it if I'd kept going with Clubs and discarded a Spade from dummy (then guessed Hearts right in the endgame, which I probably wouldn't). But probably the best plan was just to play the Club finesse.

What I've learned is that when you have limited trumps and limited entries like this sometimes you do just need to finesse. It was an expensive lesson, turning +1370 into -200. That 1570 point swing would have meant instead of losing the match overall 9-7 we would have won it 9-7.

The other three tables played 3♦+3, 5♦= and 5♦+2, so the team lost 330 overall. Even if I'd have just bid and made 5♦ we'd have won the match.

Apart from that board, I think we marginally had it better on our table, and picked up a lot of small swings, that perhaps just about added up to that failed slam. Here's one:

My bidding is somewhat erratic here (still on the tilt from 6♦-2) and my raise to 5♦ depends on partner having quite a suitable hand. 5♦x is not going to make, but could be a good sacrifice.

Anna played it nicely, drawing trumps then eliminating Clubs and Spades before playing Ace and another Heart. This would have gained a trick if an opponent had ♥Kx or ♥Qx and so was forced to win and give a ruff and discard.

5♦x-2 was worth -300, against the opponent's easy 4♠ for a modest gain.

The other tables played 5♠+1, 4♠= and another 5♦x-2, team Rowan declaring on all four tables and gaining 300 overall.

Finally an early board, showing the opponent's careful defence:

I have a great suit for a pre-empt, eight solid Spades with zero defence. The only problem is I'm in second seat and vulnerable. When East opened 1♣ I compromised with a 3♠ overcall, and I'm glad I settled for that as West doubled and East passed! I'm not sure East should pass, and they are rather fortunate that there are five tricks in defence.

I tried leading a Spade from hand hoping they would crash their honours. There's really no reason for West to play his ♠K (would I really be leading the Queen from AQ?) but it sometimes works. When that didn't happen I settled for 3♠x-1.

The other tables scored 4♥= on a similar auction, 4♠x-1 and 4♠-1 (the defence did crash their trump honours on those two tables). Overall we gained 320 on the board.

After those initial excitements there were a lot of fairly flat boards, where the opponents played 3NT on a combined 30 count and Anna and I tried to keep our concentration. I was still looking for an opportunity to 'win back' the missing points from my 6♦, but kept my discipline.

In the end the four tables produced very similar scores, more so than I've seen in any oher league match. Our match was won by 390, the other lost by 1020, for a narrow 9-7 loss overall.

Team Rowan vs Ramblers

Anna and I played our fourth match of the season for Team Rowan last night. Things started well with a 6♠ slam. I nearly didn't bid it, but actually there were 13 tricks. After that I decided that I would always back my judgment. The next board this philosophy cost us a game when I felt West must have all the Hearts so finessed the Nine. This lost to the Ten and I went two down in a vulnerable 3NT with 29 points between the hands.

After that things settled down and we had the better of the cards, and the better of the play. We made all of our games, plus a couple that maybe shouldn't have made. Anna produced a series of awful dummys that nevertheless were just enough.

In the competitive auction we pushed them into a lot of non-making contracts. Even though this was aggregate it makes a difference, getting +100 rather than -110. Twice we pushed them all the way into game, which is always a bit worrying. Luckily they both went down.

Here's a tough hand that Anna played in 1NT, her self-professed least-favourite contract:

North lead the ♦A then the ♦Q. Anna took this and she's up to six tricks, seven if she guesses Spades right. South has shown out on the second Diamond, so the Spade finesse is a big favourite. However, if it fails you risk losing the rest for four off. So Anna played the top three Spades and settled for one down.

The key to the hand is to cash the ♥AK first. Then by the time you have the decision in Spades you already have five tricks, so the worst that can happen is two down. I also would have ducked another Diamond by letting the ♦Q hold, giving South the chance to throw a Spade away (if he's got three) or keep his Spades (if he's got four to the Jack). As Anna said afterwards if you duck the first two tricks the defence could switch to Clubs and take you down immediately, though that's not really very likely I don't think.

On the other table in our match it was also 1NT-1 on similar play. In the other match both Norths played 2♦=, for four scores of -100, +100, -90 and +90 and the flattest board of the match.

I missed a golden opportunity on the last board of the match, with some lazy bidding. My only excuse is that I'd been declarer four times in a row (and 12 times in the 24 board match):

Anna opens 1♦ then rebids 2♣ and with a balanced 17 count I go straight to 3NT, making +2.

However, given that this is aggregate (not Matchpoints) I should explore slam, as there's no harm playing 5♣. If I bid a fourth suit forcing (which we play as forcing to game), Anna will bid 3♣, showing her 5-5 shape. I then bid 4♣ setting trumps, and after a few cuebids she shows her Spade control and I jump to 6♣.

Anna's hand is very suitable for 6♣, and in fact by setting up the Diamonds you make all 13 tricks.

On two of the other tables they played 5♣, and on the last South got to 3♠x, which went off four.

Overall we had a big lead on both tables and won the match 16-0.