SBU Bronze League 6: HighSchoolOfGlasgow vs Buccaneers1

Since the Peggy Bayer junior internationals my secondary school team have been competing in a Wednesday night league on Bridge Base. As I am technically Bronze too I have always been on standby, but so far not been needed. This week with school exams we had only three so I offered to play (actually I offered to reschedule but the other team preferred to go ahead and play, obviously not very intimidated by the thought of playing me!)

I don't think having one experienced player makes a huge difference; certainly a lot less than an experienced pair would. I bid sensibly and made my contracts, but think actually most of the IMPs were generated at the other table.

This is a nice hand that my partner, michaelwk bid and played well:

We play a weak NT and four card majors. Michael's 1♠ bid nearly always shows five, but I still felt more comfortable replying 2♥. This is in theory 10+, which I think my hand is worth. The main reason I didn't support Spades was because I didn't know how high to bid - 2♠, 3♠ or 4♠? When Michael rebid 3NT (showing 15+ and a good Diamond stop) it was possible that he had a 4333 hand but I guessed not and corrected to 4♠.

When I saw his hand I was glad we were in 4♠ and not 3NT. Playing 3NT on a Diamond lead you win and take five Spades, but then have to lose the lead and end up losing four Diamonds and two Aces for 3NT-2.

4♠ looks easy but you have to be careful. Missing both the ♣A and ♦A you are going to have to lose the lead, probably twice, and if you do that after drawing trumps you might end up with lots of Diamond losers.

Fortunately, Michael got the ♦A lead which makes things easier. However, if you draw trumps you could still fail. If the defence duck Clubs and Hearts you can't get to dummy and end up still losing two Diamonds and two Aces. So at trick two Michael correctly started on the Hearts. This generates more tricks, and has to be done early while you still have trumps in dummy. He ended up making 4♠+1, just losing two Aces.

On the other table North bid a simple 2♠ after the 2♦ overcall, and South raised to 4♠. Our West (Harry) lead Ace and another Heart. This sets up dummy's Hearts, but once trumps are drawn he can't get to them. Declarer tried playing Hearts before drawing the last trump but our East (Al) ruffed in and played a Diamond through for 4♠-3, a big difference.

We won the match by a big margin and after two rounds are among the top teams in Division 7.

SOL4: Faben vs DShenkin

A disappointing game for me tonight. I think I made a lot of 40% decisions. These are obviously poor decisions, but I think I was unlucky that they all seemd to fail. Starting with the positive, here's a board where I lost IMPs to good declarer play. Can't argue with that:

They've stretched to bid 3NT so we've a good chance of beating it. I led a safe Diamond and waited for our tricks to come in. We couldn't stop declarer setting up the Clubs, but he's still a bit short. Three Clubs, three Diamonds, one Spade and one Heart. On the last Club it's crunch time. I have a hand full of winners, two Hearts, a Diamond to come, and my King of Spades. I threw a Diamond, and John had already thrown one, so declarer promptly crossed to his hand and took two more Diamond tricks.

If I bare the King of Spades, declarer surely finesses and goes down. My counterpart on the other table did exactly that. So it's well played by their declarer (Martin Diamond) and their defender (David Shenkin), for a well earned 10 IMPs.

There were four more game swings their way, all of which involved competitive high-level auctions. This was the most embarrassing, where I conjured an extra loser:

John's 2NT shows a good raise, after which 5♥ is clear with nothing but trumps. This got doubled.

It looked like five off, for -800. Losing two Spades, two Diamonds and the Club finesse, which I thought was sure to fail.

West cashed the top two Clubs, but was then afraid to lead a Diamond away from the King, so continued trumps. Could I take advantage? No. I finessed Clubs, but in a muddled attempt to confuse the opposition played the Nine and Jack on the same trick. I was assuming the Club finesse would fail and didn't want West to switch to Diamonds. But when the finesse won, I've not blown too many high cards, and couldn't win the fourth Club. So it was 5♥x-2, rather than 5♥x-1.

The other table had pushed to 5♠-1, so the board was already lost. But going off an extra trick meant -12 IMPs, rather than -9 IMPs.

That was my low point. Our partnership low point came on this board, where John had the misfortunte to weigh in at exactly the wrong time.

John's 4♥ shows some sort of very distributional two-suiter, and weak as he didn't bid before. When East doubled this I foolishly weighed in with 5♣. It was only when John corrected to 5♦ I realised he obviously had the other two suits. I corrected to 5♠, which was a much worse trump suit.

I realised 5♠ was going to be bad, and it was damage limitation. I played to keep trump control and set up the Diamonds, which I achieved, but only after I'd lost a lot of tricks for 5♠x-5.

Our new team-mates Alex Adamson and Derek Sanders made a solid 4♥, but that was largely irrelevant opposite our -1100 and we lost 12 IMPs.

There was another board where I had 20 points and propelled John into an awful 4♥, but I think that's enough rue for now. We lost the match by 33 IMPs to collect just 3 VPs.

On the plus side my team of High School of Glasgow pupils playing in the SBU Bronze League are doing well.

Glasgow League: Jacobin vs Rowan

Anna and I did a lot of defending in this match. It was a test of concentation. Could I have done better here?

Anna won the first Heart and correctly switched to a low Heart (from an odd number). I won this with my Ace and had a think. Or rather, I should have had a think. I just returned a Heart. Declarer won and took a losing Spade finesse, but with Hearts 4-4 we couldn't take enough tricks.

After winning the second Heart if I switch to a Diamond declarer is down. If he plays low we can take a Diamond trick to go with our three Hearts and a Spade, and if he plays the Ace of Diamonds we get three Diamond tricks and two Hearts.

Should I have spotted this at the table? Maybe. It's pretty likely declarer has the Queen of Hearts, else he wouldn't have ducked the King on the first trick.

On two of the other tables East-West bid and made a good 4♠, and on the last declarer went down in 3NT playing on Diamonds instead of Spades (perhaps afraid Hearts were 5-3).

We collected a lot of good results on part-score boards, and took advantage a few times when the opponent's overbid. On the rare times we had a game we bid and made it. But the opponents had the cards and did pretty well.

On this board Anna's caution was not rewarded:

I had a borderline 1♦ opener and an easy 2♦ rebid. Anna bid a forcing and natural 2♥, and I showed my Spade stop with 2NT. After a pause, Anna signed off in 3NT. With a good 20 point hand I think she was worth at least an invitational 4NT (which I would have passed), but in fact 6♣ is the winning bid here.

3NT made twelve tricks on a Spade lead.

This was not a good board for Team Rowan. One opponent bid and made 6♣, the other also 3NT+3. On the fourth table Colin and Sheena got to a good 6NT, but East found the killing Diamond lead - a low Diamond in fact. Declarer naturally went up with the Ace and finessed Hearts, going down two. Bad luck.

Overall we lost the match by about 2700 points for a 4-12 loss.

SOL3: Faben vs Maiolani

This was our last match of this league. The whole league has been tight, and despite not being much below average, this was in fact a relegation battle.

Things started well when John found an excellent switch to beat their 3NT, then navigated a tricky 4♠. At this point we were about 20 IMPs up, though didn't know it at the time of course. It wasn't until Board 8 that I had something to regret:

I had the good 11 point hand and opened 1♥. After the double John was between several bids and chose 3♥. I took this as pre-emptive, was expecting them to bid 4♠, so thought a 4♣ bid would be useful. With his fitting Clubs John bid 5♥, passed out, and we were in trouble.

Not only is 5♥ almost hopeless, but it looks like we've got plenty to beat their 4♠ (probably two off).

5♥ is almost hopeless, as it makes if the Spade finesse works and I can play trumps for no losers. That requires either a singleton King with West, or singleton Jack with East. Given the double East having the singleton is more likely, so I decided to play for that.

But something strange happened. After cashing one top Diamond East switched to the King of trumps! This was clearly a misclick, but under the rules of the league Undos are allowed only in the bidding and not in the play. This makes sense, for several reasons, but did feel harsh here. East did actually ask for an Undo but I refused, on the grounds that plenty of other people in the league (including me) have misclicked and not even asked for an Undo, as they know they are not allowed.

The contract now depends on the Spade finesse, which failed, so it was one down anyway. This was flat with the more reasonable 4♥-1 on the other table.

Near the end of the first half we had a gain bidding a making 5♦, a bit of a guess from me but turned out to be the perfect contract here:

When John ruffs the third Spade high he can claim once trumps are 2-1. Even better, 3NT would be down. The other table was in 3♦+2, so that was +6 IMPs.

At the end of the first half Team Faben were up by 16 IMPs.

At the start of the second half I checked with my opponents on the policy for Undos, and they confirmed they were for bidding only not the play. I was pleased to hear them say that, but not much else went right.

When the opponents got to 4♠ I needed to find a lead. I would have liked to lead a trump, but didn't have any. I guessed to lead a Heart. This couldn't give declarer a finesse he couldn't already take, but did make things easier for him. He took two Hearts and eight trump tricks for 4♠=.

On the other table East opened, so South was on lead against 4♠. He did lead a trump. Declarer has eight trump tricks and the Ace of Hearts, so needed one more. He tried leading up too the King of Clubs, then the Jack, but both failed. The last thing to try is the Heart finesse, but instead I think he tried to drop the King of Hearts in three rounds, which worked, but used up all his trumps so he couldn't draw them and enjoy his ♥Q. One off.

This one I misbid but it turned out fine - still a mistake I think:

The North hand should correct to 4♠. The suit can play opposite a singleton, and it's quite likely that partner's double stop in Hearts won't be enough as you'll have to lose the lead twice setting up Spades.

As it happened there were enough tricks outside Spades that if the defence set up their Hearts declarer is up to nine tricks without having to set up the Spades, so John made 3NT=. Similar auction and result at the other table.

The match was still tight but we had a poor finish. We conceded 3♦x= then I made a lead-directing double which John followed to let a contract make. On the last I played 3NT with seven top tricks and finished down two; a poor effort as it's not too hard to set up an eighth (or maybe even make it if the cards lie nicely).

We lost the second half by 29 to lose the match by 13 IMPs. That meant just 7/20 VPs. This is the table with four teams still to play one match:

Congratulations to BShenkin for winning the league and comiserations to Smith finishing bottom. It looks like we will finish second last assuming Chow get some points on their last match.

Glasgow League: Rowan vs Rouken Glen

In our last league match we didn't do too well, and during the week I sent Anna some stuff to read. I think she looked at some of it. This week we did a lot better. I can't really think of any bad boards that we had, although admittedly for the last few boards (defending a low contract making overtricks) some of my defence was a bit erratic.

This board was our best result:

I opened 1♣ and Anna replied 1♥. She's only got three points but it's safer to bid now than regret it later. East had a big 6-5 hand and chose to double. I bid a natural 2♦ over this, which came back to me in 2♠. At this point if I pass we've won the board, as they are missing out on 4♠. West was maximum to only bid 2♠ and East should have just bid game, making if his partner has the Ace of Spades.

I didn't realise it was their board though and pushed on, with a forcing 3♠. This is like a takeout double but stronger, rather optimistically hoping Anna could bid 3NT and it would have play. Anna had an easy 4♥ instead though. East gave this a long look then passed and lead a Club.

Anna correctly drew two rounds of trumps then played the Clubs from dummy, making 4♥.

During his long think I'd decided that if East bid 4♠ I would have doubled. This would have led to -790 instead of +620.

Our team-mates Neil and Anne did make 4♠x=, while the other tables were 4♠= and a surprising 3♠-1 where declarer never drew trumps.

This one I played unusally carefully (slowly):

Anna's 2/1 showed 10+ then when I rebid 2♥ she did well to invite, and I have to accept with a good 14 count. East led the Ten of Hearts.

It looks like I have three losers in Clubs so just need to get trumps right, and the trump lead round to my Jack has helped.

If trumps are 3-2 it'll be easy, but what if they're 4-1? I need to finesse on the second round, without even cashing a high trump first. So I crossed to dummy and lead the ♥9. There is very little risk here, as surely from his lead West doesn't have the Queen of Hearts (and if he does I will accept my fate).

As it happened trumps were 3-2 so my care wasn't required, but I was pleased I thought of it. Our team-mates Jill and Barbara also bid and made 4♥, as did one opposition pair, the other stopping in 3♥+1.

Finally, a lucky one:

West opened 1♠ and Anna doubled. Later she admitted this was a misclick, as she'd decided not to double but still had her mouse hovering over the double. She realised straight away but thought she couldn't ask for an Undo, as she'd taken a while to think of her bid, and doubling then changing it to pass gives away some information. While I can't fault her ethics I don't think she should even be thinking of a double with that hand.

East jumped to 4♠ and it was my turn to think. I ruled out Pass, as I thought they might be stealing from us at this vulnerability. We do have a Heart fit, and I could also bid 4NT (two places to play), but settled on double. Anna can take it out if she's got a really nice hand I thought (I obviously couldn't have trump length on this auction, so must just be doubling on strength).

Anna passed and lead the ♦Q. When I saw dummy I was rather concerned, a full 13 points. But the Diamonds were good to us and once declarer played the ♦K I covered with the Ace and returned the ♦7 to Anna's Jack. She found the Heart return to the Queen-King-Ace and we now have it one off. Even better, declarer tried a Club before drawing trumps. Anna snapped this up, crossed to my ♥J and I gave her a Diamond ruff for 4♠x-2 and +300.

Our team-mates Heather and David made 4♠ on this deal, when on another lead after South tried to cash his ♦A. On the other tables it was 1♠+2 and Pass.

In the second half I felt myself slowing down somewhat, and there was one enormous pause while I tried to find the right discard to prevent an overtrick in 2NT. I know it's aggregate scoring and didn't matter but I really wanted to get it right.

Anna and I kept a very tidy scoresheet, our only scores that were below par when the opposition found a good 3NT opposite a 3♣ opener, and a few times where we went one down pushing to explore game (which I think is the right thing to do at this scoring).

Overall Team Rowan won the match 16-0, to return to the top of Division 2!

SOL3: Faben vs Outred

After a heavy loss last week we were looking to bounce back. It was a fairly quiet night, with some low scoring. In the first half John and I defended some part-scores well (which still made), lost an unlucky swing wrongsiding a game, and got one back when John made this 4♥ that went down on the other table:

My 1♣ followed by 2♦ shows 18-19 balanced, and John's bidding shows at least 5-5, so I had an easy raise to 4♥.

A club was led. There are several losers in trumps but possibly nothing else. John cashed the ♥A then played on Spades. The defence scored their ♥KQJ separately but they were the only tricks for the defence, 4♥ making.

At the other table declarer didn't cash the ♥A and went one down, suffering four ruffs instead of three.

On the last board of the first half I threw away a chance for glory:

I don't like my 3♣ bid, but felt I needed to act with the short Spades. When John doubled I thought at this vulnerability I had to try 3NT, even though I knew on the expected Spade lead I'd need nine running tricks.

East lead the ♠4 and I surveyed dummy. I needed the Clubs to come in, which is unlikely, but at least it's got a chance. What I didn't realise was that the defence have now blocked Spades, so I can afford to lose one Club, and still make it. But I decided it was prudent to cash some Diamonds, to limit the expected undertricks and also to put some pressure on the defence. In doing so I inadvertently sealed my fate, as when I took the Club finesse and it lost, although the defence couldn't cash their Spades they could cash the ♦J though for one off.

My 3NT-1 could have been a good result vs 3NT-4 (if East leads a top Spade), but actually on the other table at the same point in the auction South bid 4♣ instead of double. They made 4♣ to give us a 6 IMP loss. I like our auction better, even if it lead to a bad game here.

At the half way point we were 10 IMPs down.

In the second half there were two high-scoring boards.

When John opened 3♠ I had a clear raise to 4♠, expecting it to make (perhaps losing one Club and two Diamonds). But East doubled and West bid 5♣. I passed this without much thought and lead my top Hearts.

When we won the first three Heart tricks that was good news, but it became a little too good once we took two more Club tricks. 5♣-3 was worth +300, against a likely 4♠= or 4♠x=. In fact on the other table when West passed the double it was 4♠x+1, and we lost 9 IMPs.

Although it didn't occur to me at the time, I now wonder if I should have doubled 5♣. I'm not expecting any Club tricks from partner, but there's an excellent chance of three Hearts and maybe the Ace of Spades.

The other high-scoring board was this one:

John opened 1♠ and playing five card majors I have good support. I could have splintered with 4♥, though I think that's wrong here as my hand is too weak to be happy passing if John signs off in 4♠, and too good to go on too. I decided to bid 3♥, which shows a good three card Spade raise.

What I didn't realise was that it's a limit raise, showing 10-12 points. I thought it was unlimited.

Opposite my limit raise John went to 4♠, showing a good hand. It was now time to catch up. I bid Blackwood, which obviously confused partner but he dutifully showed two keycards. I could now investigate a grand slam, but thought it couldn't be that good and signed off in six.

Obviously everything split nicely (and John carefully ruffed a Heart too) for 6♠+1. This was duplicated on the other table.

We lost the second half by 9 IMPs, for an overall 19 IMP loss and just 5.92 VPs.

Next week it's our final match - a relegation battle.

Glasgow League: Rowan vs Ramblers

This was our first match in this edition of the Glasgow League (Division 2). Anna declared she was up for the game and we got right into it.

On the first board I played a nice 3♥-2 when they were making game, and indeed both our East-West pairs bid and made 4♠ for a great start.

My 2♥ is weak and natural, after which I think Anna should raise to 3♥ straight away. But we did enough to keep them out of game.

3♥ was of course hopeless, but while playing it I was hoping the Heart finesse failed (meaning they were making 4♠), so was actually pleased with down two. The East-West pairs who made it to game started with East doubling then bidding 3♠ after which West raised.

On the second board our opponents missed a Club slam, and it looked like this was going to be our night.

Looking at the East-West hands you definitely want to be in slam, as it makes on a non-Heart lead or if the Spade finesse works.

Our West opened 1♣, but he was the only one. On the other tables it was 5♣ (passed out), 4♣ (passed out), and 2♣ (getting to 6♣). I'd like to think Anna and I would have bid slam (starting with a 1♣ opening), and maybe we would, but when presented with our own opportunities we largely messed them up.

Here when Anna opened 1♣ and rebid 2♣ I was sure a slam was there, but bid Blackwood just to be safe. I did think about 7♣ (which has excellent play when Anna has a sixth Club), but when I saw dummy was glad I stopped in the slam slam.

On the Diamond lead Anna drew trumps and had a think. There are 11 top tricks, so the double finesse in Hearts offers an excellent chance. Unless she guesses the Jack and King wrong there's 12 tricks.

In fact, playing in 6♣ there's an extra possibility, of ruffing out the Spades, and making a long Spade if trumps are 3-3 and Spades are 4-3. So chances are excellent.

Anna unfortunately threw the long Spade so was pinning it all on the Hearts. Once she saw East show out of Spades she decided he had the Heart honours (or at least one of them) and led the Queen of Hearts. It's now down one.

If declarer tests the Diamonds she finds that West actually has the Hearts, but playing those Diamonds uses up your entries, so I think it's a case of well played, bad luck.

All three other tables were in 6NT, which isn't quite as good, but made every time. One made through a very generous low Spade lead from West. One made via Ace of Hearts and a Heart to the Queen (a 50% shot) and one a low Heart to the Queen (the start of a double finesse, a 75% shot).

This being aggregate the failure of Anna and I to make slam there put us about 1500 points down. However, it was not a low scoring match and there were lots more swings to come.

Although I'd say we were unlucky with that 6♣-1 we also made a lot of mistakes. In fact, Board 10 was our first positive score. This was a 4♥ that should never had made, except for a weird lead of the ♦2 from ♦KJ2.

That lead gives me two Diamond tricks, then I can use my Ace of Clubs to discard dummy's last Diamond and ruff two more.

I think it was a stretch Anna raising but she later claimed to be justified as I made plus one (the defence crashed Heart honours too). On the other tables our team-mates David and Heather defeated 4♥ on more normal defence, and the other two tables stayed low.

Although his lead gave the contract, to be fair to West he had exactly the same Diamonds on the following board, and led them once again to great effect, finding the only lead to beat my 3NT. It was that kind of night.

When our next slam hand came around Anna and I hit an all time low. With 15 top tricks we played 5♠ in a 4-2 fit. This could have made (comfortably) but to complete the misery went one off. It's hard playing a contract well when you know it's the wrong one.

We beat a couple of games but let a couple through to finish comfortably second on our table. Overall Team Rowan lost by 2000 points to lose the match 11-5.

Anna has said I need to stop playing with John on a Monday night so we can practice more.