Glasgow Division 1: Rowan vs Metropole

Last night we began a new season with Team Rowan in Division 1, having just got promoted. As our captain said, there are some very good teams in this division, but the worst that can happen is we get relegated again. Our first match was against Metropole, who recently got promoted too, and we narrowly lost to last time Anna and I played against them (see here).

The matches start at 7pm, which is quite early for us, and Anna was still reading bedtime stories at 6:59. This may have contributed to our slow start, as we missed a chance to beat 3NT then both underbid here:

I decided to make a Weak Two despite having four Spades as they were so weak. Anna bid Ogust and I showed what I thought I had, a weak hand with good trumps. Anna settled for 3♥. I thought about bidding on anyway but made a disciplined pass. On reflection I have exactly the sort of hand that could easily make game so should have bid 4♥, and maybe should have replied to Ogust differently too. I thought we judged hand strength by high card points (in which case I am weak), Anna thought by losers (in which case I'm strong). I think her way is probably better. This hand also shows why I don't like Ogust, as it doesn't really tell you anything useful (unless perhaps you play very wide ranging Weak Twos).

Against 3♥ the defence led a Spade, and took the first two tricks before East returned a third Spade for West to ruff and me to overruff. At this point the play in 4♥ would be tricky, as if the Diamond finesse fails I might lose a Spade as well (if I draw trumps first) or a Heart (if I ruff with dummy's Ace of Hearts). I think the best line would be to ruff a Spade high, and hope that you can still draw trumps without a loser.

In 3♥ I could just draw trumps, and when the Diamond finesse was on I made 11 tricks. 3♥+2.

Our team-mates Jill and Barbara also played in 3♥, and it was only one Metropole pair who got to 4♥, on the auction 2♥-4♥.

After this we settled down a bit, and had a few good boards making 6♠, then 4♥x+1.

Our daughter has just got her own clock and is allowed to stay up until 8pm, so during the first hour of the match I heard her chatting away to herself. Then she ran in to tell me it was "a very unsusual time, eight-ninety!", which was actually 8:09. I tried not to get distracted, but did then forget to bid Checkback Stayman and Anna made a comfortable 2NT+1 (missing 4♥=). Then there was one more slam board:

I had to count my points twice to believe it was really 20, as it didn't feel good enough. Perhaps I should have gone with my instinct and downgraded it. After I did open 2NT Anna bid Stayman then wasn't sure what to do when I hit her suit with 3♠. We play that an immediate 4NT here would be quantitative, so to set Spades as trumps she needs to bid the other major (here 4♥). But we don't play much together and I suppose Anna didn't want to risk a mix up so bid an immediate 6♠.

West led a Club. Dummy was a disappointment, and it looks pretty hopeless. We have good trumps but otherwise the hands don't fit well together. Move my Queen of Clubs to the Queen of Hearts and it would be an easy 12 tricks. As it is I need to play Hearts for one loser.

I thought for a long time how best to do this. Then apologised to the opposition and had another think. It needs some imagination to find any winning layouts. I decided the best chance was to lead low from dummy hoping to get either a singleton Queen or Ace-Queen doubleton onside. You can see this didn't happen and in fact I went two off.

When I was dummy on the next hand I looked it up on Suitplay and was pleased to see my line was best, giving me about a 7% chance of success.

Our team-mates and one opposition pair also played the board in 6♠ (all going down), with one opposition pair getting to the making 4♥. So not a good board for Team Rowan.

After this we finished with a few good games bid at all the tables. The final result was a loss of 180 at our table, but +1460 at the other for a 10-6 win overall. A winning start to the season!

Partscore battle

With the Glasgow League starting again soon (and our Team Rowan promoted to Division One) Anna I thought we should get some practice. The EBU Matchpoint evening isn't ideal, its not IMPs, but it's short and starts at a good time (1930). In general we don't have too many bidding misunderstandings, the main thing I think is defence.

Here's a matchpoint battle:

We play a weak NT and prefer to open the lower of four card suits, hence my 1♦ opening. Having passed, West then made a takeout double and Anna made a very light Diamond raise. This is the one time she can bypass a four card major. I stretched a bit with my 3♦ bid, and when they bid 4♣ I was very happy to double. I have a couple of Ace-Kings, a likely Diamond trick, and partner may well have something in trumps. At IMPS I might still have doubled 4♣, as I was expecting at least two down.

I led my Ace of Spades and Anna discouraged, and also discouraged in Hearts and Diamonds. As it turned out we had just four tricks. 4♣x-1 was worth +100 and 82%. If I don't double then we get +50 for 74%, not much difference.

Any positive score is good for North-South here, as most pairs were in 1NT-1, or defending a lower level Club contract.

We got a few gifts (6NT-2) and finished on 64% for 5th overall. Bring on the league!

Two bad boards

 At the EBU pairs this Sunday Anna and I had a good night, finishing in 7th with 62%. On one board we got a great score when I opened 1NT then misclicked double and we got them off in 2♦x. In general our defence was very good, we just messed up the declarer play on these two:

Anna made a solid 2♦ overcall then when she came back in with 3♦ I thought 3NT would have good play. I was imagining seven Diamond tricks plus an outside Ace-King for 3NT. However, as Anna said afterwards, at Matchpoints I should probably have just left it in 3♦.

You can see that I was sort of right to bid 3NT, as there are seven Diamond tricks there, plus a working Spade finesse for a couple more tricks. However... I got a low Diamond lead. I didn't think too much, just playing low and losing to the (singleton) King. When the inevitable Club came back it all fell apart and I got 3NT-5 for 2.5%. I think I was right to play low, as just occasionally a good West might underlead his King of Diamonds, but it proved very costly here.

On this board it was Anna's turn under the spotlight:

I opened 1♣ and Anna replied 1♠. After I replied 1NT Anna has nowhere to go really but 4♠. This is probably the right contract, as there are two Diamond losers, but in reality almost all Easts led a Heart.

On the Heart lead you have plenty of entries and top trumps to set up the Clubs, and generate a second discard for 4♠+3. What's interesting is that nearly all human declarers were happy to take their one discard on the Ace of Clubs for 4♠+2, but whenver a robot was declarer they always got the Clubs set up to take all 13 tricks.

Clever Bots.

Faben vs Stevenson

This was our last match of the season, a rearragement with big implications for the league. With the Division 1 table very tight, depending on the result we would finish between third and seventh, out of ten teams.

I was well prepared for the match, as it started at 1930 and I thought 1900. The first few boards John and I got off to a great start, defeating 3NT then making our own 4♥. But as so often happens when you play good people, the exact same thing happened at the other table.

Then we got our first break, when the opponents bid to 6♠. I was feeling pretty pleased with my ♠JT63 and in fact there were more problems for declarer, and it finished two down for +11 IMPs. John and I kept a pretty good card, except for two misadventures. I pushed a bit hard resulting in 4♥-1, then we both overbid on this one:

I'm not sure why I opened the bidding. Perhaps because I was quite pleased with making a good 2♠ on the board before? I wonder if I overbid following a good result, and underbid following a bad one.

My 1♥ opening was not a success. John chose exactly the wrong moment to be optimistic and bid 2♣, which for us is game forcing. There's now no recovery, and 4♥ was the best we could hope for. We avoided 3NT with no Diamond stopper, but still had to lose three Diamonds, and when North cleverly lead a fourth round of Diamonds I was down two, losing a further two tricks in trumps.

I should say North was Liz Commins from England, and her partner was David Stevenson. This was very exciting for me, as he wrote the excellent Law & Ethics letters page in Bridge magazine, which was my favourite bit, hearing his no nonsense put-downs "I've very little sympathy for either side...".

To compound our losses on the board above our team-mates (Paul and Gints) played in 1NT by South. On their table East sensibly passed but South opened, so not a good board for opening light.

The last board of the first half was our highlight:

John's 1NT rebid shows 12-14, after which my 2♠ was natural and game forcing. After John bid 2NT I nearly signed off in 3NT, but thought I was worth one more go with 3♦. 4♦ then set Diamonds as trumps, and the redouble I think showed the Ace of Hearts. At this point I tried to sign off in 5♦, but John recognised the power of his hand (great controls) and raised me to 6♦.

I got the ♥K lead, and assessed the prospects. I have 11 top tricks (6 Diamonds, 1 Heart, 2 Clubs, 2 Spades) so need one more. This could come from a Spade ruff if trumps are 2-2, a long Spade if Spades are 3-3, a high Spade if the Queen or Jack is doubleton, or a Spade ruff even if neither trumps or Diamonds split if the hand with the long Diamond also has the long Spade. So overall, prospects were good.

I drew one trump then played two round of Spades. When North split her honours I was home, though with trumps 2-2 I'm always making. The other table played 5♦+1 so we got +11 IMPs, and ended the first half up by 22.

In the second half I confess to having something of a slump. I tried to avoid it, but it came anyway. Not sure if it's because Anna dragged me up Dumgoyne in the morning, I'd just had my second vaccination, it was getting late, or just not used to playing lots of difficult boards (probably that one). We had three boards in the middle where the opponents bid a slam, we overbid a slam, we missed a slam. An expensive trilogy. This was the opposition slam, which impressed me with the speed of the play:

After the transfer the 3♠ was a super-accept, based on three good trumps. This was enough for West to drive to slam. John found the best Spade lead, and looking at my hand I thought it might be down. I have a sure-trump trick to come, and the King of Spades too? Sadly not. Declarer rose with the Ace of Spades, played off two top trumps, then used the Diamonds to discard Spades. 6♥=.

We lost the second half of the match by 20 IMPs, to hang on for a 2 IMPs win. This gives us just enough Victory Points to vault up the table to third place, a good result seeing as we only averaged about 11/20 per game.

Congratulations to Gipson on winning the league (again?)

A couple of bodges

Anna and I played our first competitive bridge for a month or two last Monday - the 12 board EBU evening tournament. We both did very poorly. Here's two bodges from me in defence:

I've got the big West hand. I doubled, and after Anna showed Spades decided to go straight to 4♠. This was due to go one down, but quite reasonably North bid on to 5♣. I was happy doubling this.

I led my King of Spades, and Anna showed odd count. That means she has five, so I know that no more Spades are cashing. The safe thing to do would be to switch to Hearts, and set up our trick there, to go with my Spade and the Ace of Diamonds. I got greedy though, wanting two Heart tricks, and continued Spades. The danger of this soon became apparent, as declarer drew trumps and set about playing Diamonds. Luckily Anna had the ♦T, so declarer couldn't quite get all of dummy's Hearts away and it finished one off.

Anna didn't notice my bodge there, or at least didn't say anything, perhaps as we got 83% for a rare good board. This one she did notice:

Defending 1NT we get off to a good start in Spades, and all I need to do is find an entry back to Anna's hand to beat the contract comfortably. However, as declarer ran the winning Diamonds I discarded down to ♣A so couldn't get over to Anna's hand, and declarer got three more Heart tricks than he should have. I was overly focused on keeping all my Hearts to match the Heart length in dummy, but (as Anna pointed out) that was pointless anyway as my Hearts were ♥A543.

We got 7% on the board and finished with 43% overall. Luckily our season is over, and Team Rowan finished top of the second division of the Glasgow League to gain promotion for next year.

SBU Bronze League: HSOG vs Northern Lights

Last night I watched my school team playing in the SBU Bronze League. They did very well, with some excellent judgement and solid card play. What I've noticed watching them is that matches are usually won and lost by declarer play, and especially defence. More rarely, there is a chance to gain in the bidding.

This was the last board of the match:

On the first table our North opened 1♣ as we play a weak NT. East had a clear 1♠ overcall and it was over to Michael sitting South. I'd been encouraging them to "pre-empt to the max" and that's what Michael did here, with an immediate 5♣. It's the right time to do it, with a big trump fit, distributional hand, no defence and at favourable vulnerability. What makes the bid so effective though is that it's a jump all the way to game, so West doesn't know if the 5♣ is bid to make or as a sacrifice, so it's very hard for him to double. Also, Michael has pre-empted before they've found their fit, and so West is definitely going to want to show his Spade support.

Over 5♣ West really had to bid 5♠. This contract appears to have three losers (one Heart, one Diamond and one Club), but if declarer can set up the Diamonds he can throw his Heart losers. Luckily Michael found the Heart lead, and that set up three tricks for the defence and Kevin was able to cash out for minus one.

Over to the other table:

Here North chose to downgrade his 15 points and still open 1NT. Opening 1NT often makes it harder for the opponents, but here it hid North-Souths Club fit. Al overcalled 2♠ and Harry recognised the power of his hand and bid 4♠. South lead a Club to the Ace and when North returned a Heart that was exactly ten tricks too, this time for 4♠=. A good team board to gain 12 IMPs.

Overall we won the match 19-1 VPs, putting us in 3rd place in the league with one match to go. The top three get promoted, and next week we play the team in 4th.

Glasgow League: Team Rowan vs Shawlands

We managed to get the children to bed 15 minutes before the start of this match and I'm sure that helped, as Anna and I had a good game throughout. Three times we doubled them in 1NT. This was the most profitable:

Our doubles of a Weak NT are 14+, which happens quite a lot. In general I will only remove with a weak hand with a long suit. Here I am very happy to pass.

I'm not sure if East-West had a method to escape, especially as this was a double from the pass-out seat where different agreements apply. You can see that running to 2♦ would have been bad too, but not as bad as 1NT.

I led a Heart. Declarer won his ♥J in hand and started on Diamonds. They do not sit kindly. Anna won and continued Hearts. I didn't know how the Hearts were splitting, so took my ♥Q and switched to the ♣Q. This turned out to be a good switch, as it set up Anna's top Clubs.

Declarer finished with just one Spade and one Heart, for 1NTx-5 and -1100. There was the possiblity of a third trick for declarer if he'd hung on to a Club, but was forced to find a lot of discards.

On the other tables the results were 1NTx-4, 1NT-3 and North-South playing 2NT+2 when West made a surprising transfer over 1NT.

This was a hand where I could have defended better:

I led a low Heart, hoping partner had something in the suit. Anna produced the Queen which declarer won in hand and immediately led the King of Spades. I ducked, and declarer started setting up the Diamonds. My hope was that Anna had the ♥T, in which case we could get two Hearts, two Diamonds and the Ace of Spades. So I tried the Jack of Hearts, but when that didn't work out declarer actually had an overtrick for 3NT+1.

It was a mistake to duck the King of Spades. I know from the auction that Anna's ♥Q is her only high card. So if declarer has ♠KJ(x) then he always has five Spades, and the Ace-King of Hearts and Spades. That's nine tricks, with no shortage of entries to dummy.

So I might as well take my ♠A. I still have a decision to make, whether to go for the Hearts, or the Clubs. Here the ♣Q switch would work (same as it did against 1NTx in the hand above), as declarer doesn't now have the entries to set up Spades and Diamonds and goes off a lot. However, if I continue Hearts (as I probably would have) declarer still makes it comfortably, so I think I was quite far away from beating 3NT.

On the other tables East-West played 4♠-1, 3♦+1 and 3NT-2 by West, where North's Club lead makes it more difficult (declarer needs to play on Diamonds not Spades).

In the end we won our table by +3290 and the match by +3080 to win 13-3. Team Rowan are (for now at least) top of Division Two!