Glasgow Division Two: Team Rowan vs Fort Matilda

Team Rowan have suffered a couple of losses lately ("scudded") so it was high time to bounce back. Our team of eight met up in Greenock for an away match against a good Fort Matilda team.

Me and Anna were North-South against Iain and Janus, who were playing an unusual system. As well as 5 card Majors and a Strong NT, their other notable opening bids are as follows (slightly simplified by me here):

1♣	Any 23+ hand (like the normal 2♣ opening)
1♦	Either a 1♣ or 1♦ opener
2♣	Weak with both majors
2♦	Multi 2♦
2NT	Weak with both majors

I'm not sure if the other tables were playing anything like this. Since you play all 24 boards against the same opponents you don't get much of an impression of what's going on at the other tables. I think this is a weakness of the format, it would be much better to swap opponents at half time, to get to meet some more people.

However, one advantage of playing the same opponents throughout is that it does gives you a bit more of a chance to know their system. Me and Anna quickly agreed that against their 1♣ opening we would play double shows majors, 1NT shows minors, we would treat the 1♦ opening as natural, and against all those unusual weak twos we would play that double shows a weak NT or a very strong hand. I say that's what we agreed to play, but actually it was more like I suggested it, and Anna looked confused, then after a pause reluctantly agreed. She forgot our defence the first time they opened 2♦, then I forgot it later on.

In the first half we didn't do much. Our opponents had some possible games, but maybe underbid a bit, and we certainly under-defended. They ended up with a few scores like 1NT+3 or 3♠+2, hard to tell if that was good for us or not. Me and Anna at least registered this success, with a very pleasing auction.

Love all S deal ♠ A Q J x ♥ A K x x ♦ A K x ♣ x x ♠ x x x ♥ x x ♦ Q J 9 x x x ♣ Q x

S N Danny Anna 2♦ 5♦

As dealer sitting South I decided not to hang around and got right in with a Weak Two in Diamonds. This hand is the minimum we would ever do that with. Anna's got a monster hand and now needs to find the right game, either 3NT or 5♦. Or maybe higher? If you give me just the ♦Q, ♠K and ♣A, then she can count 13 tricks and a grand slam is possible. Two out of three of those cards and it's an easy 6♦. But after some thought Anna plumped for an immediate 5♦, giving up on slam. It's a good job she did, as I've got a minimum, and 5♦ still needs a finesse. Luckily, the ♠K was onside and I made 11 tricks. And even better, 3NT goes down on a Club lead (which was found at some tables).

In the second half our opponents were more aggressive, and made a few games and went down in some too. Luckily, me and Anna got things the right way round for aggregate scoring, and did our best defending against games, where it really matters, and were a bit more lax against part scores, where I continued to blow tricks by ducking erratically.

I benefitted from a bold competitive style on this hand. It's an unusual deal, as there's four possible finesses, and they all worked.

♠ 9 x x ♥ K J T ♦ J x x ♣ Q J x x ♠ x x ♥ A Q x x x ♦ K x x ♣ T x x 8 9 11 12 ♠ Q x x ♥ x ♦ A Q x x x x ♣ K x x ♠ A K J x x ♥ x x x x ♦ x ♣ A x x

W N E S Janus Anna Iain Danny 1♠ 2♥ 2♠ 3♦ 3♠ - - -

I opened the South hand 1♠. West overcalled 2♥, and Anna sitting North was under pressure. She ought to have four Spades to support me (we play four card Majors), but stretched a bit and bid 2♠ anyway. I think this is quite normal, it's a good bid, but me and Anna don't normally do it. East then came in with a natural 3♦, showing a long suit. With my singleton Diamond I ignored the vulnerability and ploughed on. I do have a nice hand, but maybe bidding on is a bit foolish, as the opponents don't seem to have a fit.

Anna put down her dummy, apologising for only having three Spades. There goes my expected nine card fit. West lead a Diamond and another Diamond, which I ruffed. I knew the defence had a Heart ruff coming, so played off the ♠AK, then lead a Heart up. West won his ♥A and played a third Diamond. If I ruff this then I'm down to one last trump, and if I ever lose the lead (if for instance the Club finesse fails) I could get my last trump drawn by the remaining ♠Q and go lots off. So I shrewdly refused to ruff another Diamond, instead throwing away a small Club from my hand, which is going to be a loser anyway. Now if the defence continue Diamonds I can ruff in dummy.

With all the finesses working it went very nicely from here on. At some point East took his ♠Q, but along with a Heart and two Diamonds those were the only tricks for the defence. I made 3♠=, and I think in practice East-West are likely to make 3♦.

At the end of the first half there were just 10 points between the teams. Not much in aggregate scoring.

The second half was a fairly poor procession of low-level misfits and partscores. Someone commented on how dull the boards were, and as if in response things took off on the next deal. This was the biggest hand of the match:

NS game W deal ♠ A K Q x ♥ Q J T x ♦ x x ♣ K Q x ♠ x x x ♥ A x x x x x ♦ A ♣ A x x

W N E S Janus Anna Iain Danny 2NT* 3♦* 4♦ 5♥ - 6♥ - - -

Janus sitting West opened 2NT, showing both minors, or just Diamonds. Anna paused for a very long time over 2NT. Remember our makeshift defence was that double showed a weak NT or a big hand. Her pause was so long, in fact, that I decided that if she did choose to pass, when it came round to me I would ethically only bid 3♥ (and not 4♥ like I would otherwise) as her pause had suggested a decent hand. As it happened, she solved the problem of what to bid by inventing a 3♦ bid. This wasn't covered by our rapid system discussion at the start of the night, but after some thought I decided it couldn't be natural and alerted it. I was now all set to jump to 4♥ to show strength, but after Iain bid 4♦ I decided I needed to bid 5♥. We've no agreement on what this sort of bid means, but Anna topped me up to slam anyway.

It was now my time for a think. I've got three Aces, so Anna must be raising me to slam with only one Ace. If she's bidding this strongly with only one Ace she must have a monster. Surely I should bid on to 7♥? I nearly convinced myself. Of course I'd forgotten that with a 19+ hand Anna would have doubled first (that's our agreed defence), so I can work out she's not that strong. I thought about the glory of a grand slam, then let it go, and reluctantly passed 6♥.

When dummy came down I noticed the hands fit nicely, and actually 7♥ looks pretty good. All I need for 13 tricks is the Heart finesse, which is likely to work after West has pre-empted. As it happened the Heart finesse failed, and I was relieved to just be in 6♥=. I told Anna I was thinking of bidding seven, and she tutted at my foolishness.

In the end Team Rowan won the match 11-5. We're back!

No good advice - Deal of the Week #14

Here's a Deal of the Week where I really messed up.

I have a good memory for bridge hands. Even though I didn't write anything down, and wasn't even playing, I can remember all of the contracts from yesterday lunch time, and the layout of all the cards on each deal (at least the distribution of each hand and the honour cards). So remembering this one is pretty painful.

The result was 3NT-5, after declarer followed my advice. With better advice, it could have gone a lot better, and is actually a really nice hand. Here's the full deal and auction.

♠ x x x ♥ Q J T x ♦ A 9 x x x ♣ x ♠ x x ♥ K x ♦ x ♣ K Q J T x x x x 7 9 9 15 ♠ A Q J x ♥ x x x x x ♦ Q x x ♣ x ♠ K x x x ♥ A x ♦ K J T x ♣ A x x

AP JW ID NC W N E S 1NT - 2♦ - 2♠ - 3♥ - 3NT - - -

South opened 1NT, showing 15-17 and a balanced hand. Textbook. West had a think, but decided to pass, even though he could have made a natural 2♣ overcall. The auction after that looks a bit strange, but bear in mind there's no conventions here like Stayman or transfers. North bid a natural 2♦, South a natural 2♠, then North a natural 3♥. NC sitting South then had a choice, 3NT or 5♦. With my encouragement he went for 3NT (I stand by that decision, the blunders come later).

Against 3NT AP sitting West lead an obvious ♣K. Declarer ducked this and won the second round, East showing out. It's now pretty clear that West has a lot of Clubs. To make his nine tricks declarer is going to need one Spade, two Hearts, five Diamonds and one Club. That means that East has to have both the ♠A and ♥K, which is quite likely seeing as West didn't overcall despite having that big Club suit. You can see that on this layout declarer is doomed to fail, as West has the ♥K, but there's failing with honour and going five off vulnerable. I directed NC to the -500.

After winning the ♣A, you have a dilemma tackling Diamonds. The safe way to play, to keep West off lead, is to finesse West. But since East is so much more likely to have the Queen (and you need five Diamond tricks), you should probably finesse East. We didn't do that though, and lost a Diamond to East. When he returned a Heart we played low, and it was game over. West won the ♥K, ran his Clubs, and the defence had a riot.

The smart way to play is to get the Diamonds right, then run the suit. West will be forced to throw away his Spades and some Clubs to keep his ♥K guarded. So in fact the defence will only get four Clubs and one Heart, for 3NT-1. A lot better. Even if you get the Diamonds wrong (like we did) you should go up with the Heart Ace and run the Diamond suit, to force West to throw away some winners.

Don't underestimate the power of running a long suit

Deal of the Week #13

♠ T x x ♥ x x x ♦ A T x x ♣ A T x ♠ x ♥ A K Q J x x ♦ x x ♣ K Q x x 8 15 3 14 ♠ x x ♥ T x x x ♦ K x x x ♣ x x x ♠ A K Q J x x x ♥ - ♦ Q J x ♣ J x x

TB JW AP NC W N E S 1♠ 2♥ - - 2♠ 3♥ 3♠ - - 4♥ x - 4♠ - - -

Here's this week's Deal of the Week. North-South already had 40 points below the line, so were looking for another 60 here.

NC sitting South opened 1♠ with his monster hand. West has an even better hand. My choice of bid would be a double, then bid Hearts later (showing a very strong hand). However, the modern style is to show your suit early, and that's what TB did with a simple overcall of 2♥. JW passed in the North hand and AP passed with the East hand (good Hearts, but too weak).

South then rebid his Spades with 2♠, West rebid his Hearts with 3♥, and now North showed some support with 3♠, enough for game for North-South. The spotlight was then on East. He's still got a very weak hand, but I think with that amount of support I would have risked 4♥. As it happens West bid 4♥ himself, and North looked at his two Aces and doubled.

South then had a tough decision, to leave in the double, or bid on himself and risk going down? He went for 4♠, which was an excellent decision with nothing much in defence (he's going to win one Spade trick at most in defence) but lots of offence.

4♠ was passed out, and West lead a Heart. NC ruffed, drew trumps and finessed Diamonds. Even though the finesse lost he came away with eleven tricks. If West instead leads a Club the defence get three tricks, but there's still no beating 4♠.

How would East-West have done in 4♥x? They certainly lose three Aces, and should also lose another Club too, for 4♥x-1. If the defence is too keen to take the ♣A then 4♥ could even make. So looks like NC made a profitable decision to bid on with 4♠.

Back in the game

Anna and I went to St Andrew Bridge Club for the Friday night game, our first bridge of 2014. We've not played in about a month. I don't think that's very long, but Anna was getting ready with all the excuses before we started about how rusty she was going to be. As it happens, we did get a very poor start, against Maida Grant and Sheila MacDonald.

On the very first board I timidly let the opponents play in 3♥ (we can make 4♠ our way), and we both misdefended to let declarer make it. Then our opponents had a Blackwood mix up. They had agreed Diamonds as trumps, and in their system East then used 4♥ to ask for Aces. But West gave the responses as if partner had asked with 4NT, and ended up showing an Ace more than she had. I was thinking this is great, they're going to end up in a slam missing two Aces, but actually they ended in 6♦ and made it exactly.

Then came my lowlight of the night. My right hand opponent dealt and opened 2♥, which was a Lucas Two, showing at least five Hearts and four cards in a minor and less than opening strength. Me and Anna keep it simple and just defend against these sorts of bids just as if it was a Weak Two. This was my hand:

♠ KQ964 ♥ AK3 ♦ A84 ♣ 62

I've got three options. I can overcall 2♠, showing a good hand with 5+ Spades. I can overcall 2NT, showing 15-19 points and a Heart stop, or I can double. I went for the 2NT overcall. This was passed out, and West predictably lead a Heart. When dummy came down I was extremely disheartened to be playing 2NT:

Board 6 N deal, NS vul ♠ J T 5 3 ♥ 7 5 2 ♦ 6 ♣ K J T 9 7 ♠ A 7 2 ♥ T 8 ♦ T 9 7 5 2 ♣ A Q 3 5 10 9 16 ♠ 8 ♥ Q J 9 6 4 ♦ K Q J 3 ♣ 8 5 4 ♠ K Q 9 6 4 ♥ A K 3 ♦ A 8 4 ♣ 6 2

Anna Danny W N E S - 2♥ 2NT - - -

Dummy has a beautiful fit in Spades, and 4♠ would have been easy (making 11 tricks in fact). Playing in No Trumps is going to be no fun, and in fact to add insult to injury I'm not even likely to make 2NT. I counted two Heart tricks, four Spade tricks once I knock out the Ace, and one Diamond. There's only seven tricks, and assuming the defence find the Diamond switch I've no time to set up the Clubs. That's the way it went, I finished one off.

Things got better and the highlight of the night was a pair of defences to 3NT. The first one was bad for us - I found a promising Heart lead then as declarer cashed his tricks me and Anna both desperately clung onto our Hearts until the very end. This meant throwing everything else away, and so declarer (John DiMambro) made 3NT+3 for a top. But in the second one we'd learnt our lesson, and after I found a promising Club lead and declarer was cashing his tricks me and Anna both abandonned all of our Clubs, and kept the other suits to restrict declarer to 3NT+1, a good score for us.

Finally here's a hand where Anna made what I consider to be an absolutely outrageous overcall:

Board 15 E deal, EW vul ♠ A K 9 ♥ 8 7 6 3 2 ♦ A Q T ♣ A 2 ♠ 6 ♥ K Q T ♦ K 9 8 4 3 ♣ K J 8 3 17 12 10 1 ♠ Q J T 5 3 2 ♥ A J 9 5 ♦ 6 ♣ Q 7 ♠ 8 7 4 ♥ 4 ♦ J 7 5 2 ♣ T 9 6 5 4

Anna Danny W N E S - 1♠ - 2♦ 2♥ 2♠ - 2NT - - -

East has an excellent 10 point hand and opened 1♠. West replied with a natural 2♦. Anna sitting North has 17 points, but no sensible bid. This didn't stop her though, and she weighed in with 2♥. Unbelievable. East, who was probably going to bid 2♥ himself, settled for 2♠, and West has a hearty Heart stop so bid a natural and invitational 2NT. East, who still only has 10 points, passed.

Against West's contract of 2NT Anna lead the ♥7 (second highest from a suit without an honour), and when dummy came down I wondered what sort of Hearts Anna had, given that West had also shown a Heart stopper. Declarer was able to set up Clubs and Spades and also took an embarrassing four Heart tricks, to make 2NT+2.

As lots of pairs were actually in game, we got a relatively good score for only conceding 2NT+2. Anna made the spectacular claim that it was her fine 2♥ bid that stopped them getting to game.

The best result for North-South is if Anna passes throughout, then makes a Lightner Double of 3NT for a Diamond lead.

Kind of a Big Deal - Deal of the Week #12

Who knows what tomorrow will bring so I'm going to go ahead with a big hand from today for the Deal of the Week. It features lots of high level high pressure bidding decisions.

N deal, All vul ♠ A ♥ K Q J x x x ♦ T x x x ♣ A K ♠ K Q J x x x x x ♥ x x ♦ x ♣ x x 17 6 6 11 ♠ T x x ♥ x ♦ A 8 7 x ♣ Q T x x x ♠ x x ♥ A T x x ♦ K Q J x ♣ J x x

W N E S 1♥ - 2♦ 4♠1 5♥2 5♠3 x4 - 6♦5 -6 - -

Here's the monster auction, all the way up to a final contract of 6♦, played by South. North opened 1♥, and South replied 2♦, ignoring the Heart fit (better to support Hearts straight away). Then the bidding took off. West saw all his Spades and came straight in with 4♠. North wasn't going to let this go, and bid over it with 5♥. East, with my encouragement, bid 5♠. South doubled it, and North went into a think. He came out with a bold 6♦ bid, which was passed out.

There's lots of big decisions there. For better or worse, here's what I would have done for those six numbered bids.

1	I agree with 4♠. Even if partner has absolutely nothing, you're only three off.
2	I'd bid 5♦ here, as you know you have a Diamond fit.
3	I agree with 5♠. You've got a couple of tricks for partner (♦A and a Heart ruff).
4	Not sure! You have a defensive hand, but 6♥ can't be far off.
5	I'd pass the double. Given your previous bidding, you have a defensive hand, with ♣AK.
6	He wanted to double, I advised against it. Likely you have one trick, and partner has none.

So after some hair raising bidding, it finished in 6♦ by South. North must have been worried about trumps, but when South has ♦KQJx it looks good. But the trumps split 4-1, and unfortunately declarer drew all four rounds. East wisely withheld his Ace, and won the fourth round of Diamonds then the defence took loads of Spades as declarer was out of trumps too. Of course once a defender is down to the bare Ace of Trumps declarer is best just to cash all his other winners (in Hearts), and at some point the defender will get his one and only trick.

With this and a series of other vulnerable penalties I think AP and TB will win the week, to get back within one of JW and NC.

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.

Glasgow Division Two: Team Rowan vs Kirkintilloch

Team Rowan won this match 11-5, although me and Anna were outplayed at our table, by Al and David. On the very first board one of them made an illegal bid, by trying to bid 1NT in response to their partner’s overall of 2♦. This lulled us into a false sense of security.

In the first half of the match me and Anna declared six contracts, and went down in all six of them. The worst was when I stretched with a nice 5 count opposite my partner’s strong NT, and ended up in 4♥ doubled with 20 points and a 4-3 fit. Of course we were vulnerable, and as I started to lose trump control I realised this was going to be a very bad one for us. I played it carefully for two off and -500, a moral victory in avoiding -1100.

In the second half things were more even. On one hand Anna had a Diamond suit of AKQxxx and shrewdly let the opponents play in 3NT. She cashed the first six tricks, and we got two more after that for 3NT-4. Then Anna actually made a contract, which is more than managed all night. My highlight was on the very last board, when I decided that rather that going for a game bonus I’d double them and go for penalties instead. This is because I’ve been reading an old book by Ely Culbertson, who says that doubling the opponents is the most profitable bid in bridge. This is aggregate scoring:

W deal, All vul ♠ Q J T x x ♥ K T x ♦ x x ♣ Q x x ♠ K x ♥ A x ♦ K J x x x ♣ K J x x 8 15 10 7 ♠ A x x x ♥ x x ♦ A Q T x ♣ x x x ♠ x x ♥ Q J 9 8 x x ♦ x x ♣ A T x

Danny Anna W N E S 1♦ 1♠ 2NT 3♥ x - - -

I opened the West hand 1♦ and North overcalled 1♠. Anna had the East hand, and decided that rather than showing Diamond support she’d show her Spade stop, so bid a natural 2NT. South came in with a bold 3♥, and I had a decision to make. I’ve got 15 points and I know that partner has 10-12, so we’ve got enough for 3NT, and I’ve got a Heart stop too. But I thought that since we’ve got so many points, and the opponents don’t have a Heart fit (as far as I know) I should go for the big score and try for penalties. So I hit them with what I hoped would be a killer penalty double.

I went for a K♠ lead, as partner should have some Spades for the 2NT bid. When dummy came down I was a bit worried about the good Hearts, was hoping partner had them. Anna played the ♠9 on the first trick (giving count), and seeing the good Spades in dummy I had to switch. I switched to Clubs, which gives declarer an easy second Club trick. When I was back in with the ♥A I had another chance, and this time I did find the Diamond switch, else declarer can actually make the contract by setting up dummy's Spades. After taking the second Diamond Anna greedily cashed her spades;A. This was the setting trick, but set up the Spades in dummy so we never got any Clubs at all. So in the end we just got our five top tricks for 3♥x-1 and +200, but with better defence we get a Club trick too, for 3♥x-2 and +500.

At the time I was worried those three good Hearts in dummy meant declarer might make 3♥, but actually those Hearts are good news for us. It means that North-South have good enough Hearts that 3NT for East-West is failing on a normal Heart lead. So getting +200 meant that was probably a good board for us, even if we could have taken more tricks (and can actually make 5♦).

The most exciting hand of the day was this zinger. It generated some discussion after the match, meaning I can report what happened on some other tables too. First here's me and Anna in defence:

E deal, Love All ♠ x ♥ A T 9 x x ♦ A K 9 x x ♣ x x ♠ ♥ Q x x ♦ Q T x x x ♣ A x x x x 11 8 7 14 ♠ 9 7 x x x ♥ x ♦ J x ♣ K Q J T 8 ♠ A K Q J T 8 x ♥ K J x x ♦ x ♣ x

Danny Anna W N E S - 1♠ 2NT* 3♥ 5♣ 5♠ - - -

South opened 1♠. I think they were playing Strong Twos on our table, but it's maybe not enough for 2♠. Anna sitting West found a nice bid of 2NT, which is a bid she’s famously forgotten a few times. We play it here as showing both minors at least 5-5, and either a weak or strong hand. North came straight in over this with 3♥, and it came to me as East. We’ve a big Club fit, so I’m definitely worth at least 4♣. But I’m a big fan of pre-sacrificing and went for 5♣. Over this South instantly bid 5♠, which was passed round to me. I have five trumps, and did consider a double, as it’s not often you get five trumps in defence. There’s also a good argument for bidding 6♣, as with all my Spades partner probably has none.

Against 5♣ Anna wisely lead her A♣, then another Club. South ruffed this, and drew all five of my trumps. He then played a Heart to the Ace, and lead a Heart back towards his King. He conceded a Heart along with the one Club for 5♠=.

If I did bid 6♣, and played there doubled it’s two or three off. There’s two Diamonds and a Heart to lose, and maybe another Diamond too depending on what happens. But a &6clubs; bid might also push them to 6♥ or 6♠, and they might well make it. You can take the Heart finesse, and in 6♠ declarer should play West for long Hearts when she shows up with no Spades. Also, if you’re prepared to run all of your trumps then you also make it without needing the Heart finesse, as West will be forced to throw away too many Diamonds or too many Hearts, and you get your twelfth trick with a squeeze. 6♥ is harder, and needs an immediate guess for who to finesse Hearts.

Each hand in the league matches is played by four tables. What happened on the other tables?

On Trish’s table she opened 4♠ and played there:

	Christine		Trish
W	N	E	S
		-	4♠
-	-	-

On a Diamond lead she threw away her losing Club, then guessed Hearts for 4♠+3

On Jill and Aileen’s table they sat East-West like us. East opened a Lucas 2♠, showing 5 Spades and a minor. Apparently it ended with them sacrificing in 7♣x:

W	N	E	S
		2♠*
[not sure what happened here]
7♣	x

After the event Trish contacted John Matheson and asked for his recommended auction from North-South, assuming no interference. Here's what he suggested:

W	N	E	S
		-	1♠
-	2♥	-	4NT*
-	5♥*	-	6♠
-	-	-

South chooses to play in Spades, so that when you run them you have a chance to find out about the Heart suit.

Overall then, another good win, 11-5.