Derryvolgie Bridge Club

Despite numerous visits to Belfast, this was the first time we managed to get to the local bridge club. Several times during the day I put our system card in front of Anna but she waved it away, insisting that she was going to play on instinct alone. As it she got lucky, as there were no difficult bidding hands. Her declarer play was also excellent, making crucial overtricks on all her contracts.

I played a single contract of 2♠, which got 21% after I should have done better.

We got a few gifts from lax declarer play, but also suffered when the local declarers bid ambitious contracts and made them. During the first half I was wondering if we should have gone on the more challenging Thursday-night game, but then a series of 0% scores reassured me we were in the right place. The low-point was when doubling them in 2♥, making with an overtrick.

It was a friendly atmosphere and nice talking to people. Anna hasn't since commented on the poor quality of my chat so I assume it was OK.

Here's an interesting hand from early on.

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

I opened 1♥ and rebid 3♥. I was close to rebidding 3♣, who knows where we would end up then. As it is Anna bid a sensible 3NT, and got a Diamond lead.

She won with the Ace and with the aid of a Heart finesse took 9 tricks. This scored exactly 50%, beating a few pairs who stopped short of game and one in 4♠. Those in Hearts took 12 tricks.

Overall we came third with 59%.

Team Buchanan vs Hamilton

This Glasgow league match started at 1930 to accommodate us and I just made it on time, after finding a parking space on Cadzow street. When I reassured the rest of them that John was arriving soon on the train there was general uproar: "The train?" but he got there in time to start.

In the first half we barely had any hands. In fact the strongest hand I had all night was 14 points. So lots of defending. Once when declarer in 2NT finessed I smoothly ducked my King, and the contract went down one. Afterwards John explained that if I just defended normally and took my King and returned his suit it would have gone two off.

This was a rare hand I got to play:

I opened the South hand 1H and rebid 2H. 

On seeing dummy it looks like I possibly have one loser in each suit. But when the lead was a Club, I thought I was going to take 10 tricks. Heart to the Ace revealed the bad news, and now as well as two Aces I now have three trumps to lose, which luckily I can afford as I'm only in 2♥.

I made 2♥= but possibly we should have been in game. Twice more we stayed low, once making 3♥= then 3♠+1, so maybe we were slightly underbidding.

Apart from that things went well. I got rather warm and might have been sweating a lot as one of the opponents tactfully said that I was very warm-blooded.

On the final hand the opponents were about to play 2♥, but I made a takeout double. The opponents were shortly in 5♥, which I felt obliged to double. Obviously it then made, for a bad finish of -550 points, but overall Team Buchanan had done enough to win the match 15-1.

 

Team Buchanan vs St Mungo

This was the second match of the season for the newly formed Buchanan team, but the first outing for John and I. Last week e had a practice night at the club, and have also been using the Cuebids App. It was therefore good that we didn't have any bidding misunderstandings, and played a reasonable game. Although I was able to remember the more complicated parts of our system I still haven't quite got the philosophy of playing five-card majors and 2/1, and sometimes I'm surprised by how weak John's hand is.

The first hand I played was 4♠x-2 after John raised my 1♠ opener straight to game on a zero-count. Unfortunately this time the opponents weren't making anything (except 3NT, so technically we got the par score). Near the end I opened 1♥ with a nice 17 count and after John made a simple raise went straight to game. It had no play, unless an opponent revoked, which they did, but we were nice and let them take it back.

The other three hands I played all went off one or two, where if I'd have guessed right I'd have made it. Guessing right is the hallmark of good players, and I didn't have it tonight. This was my only highlight:

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

Danny John W N E S 1♥ - 4♦* - 4♥ - 4NT* - 5♦ - 7♥

John opened the the South hand 1♥ and I knew that the only cards I cared about were the missing keycards; ♥AK and ♦A. But for some reason I feared an immediate Blackwood might be misunderstood so went through an unnecessary splinter. When I found John did have the keycards I duly bid 7♥.

West led a Heart. With 12 top tricks the obvious thing is ruff a Diamond for the 13th. So win the first Heart in dummy with the Queen, then cross to the Ace of Diamonds, ruff a Diamond, and cross back to hand to draw trumps. Although neither John or I spotted this at the time trumps were 2-2 and he duly made 7♥=. The other tables all made 13 tricks in 5♥, 6♥ and 6♥, so a good board for Team Rowan.

Overall we lost the match by a mere 1000 points, leading to a 10-6 loss.

Southwold Summer

Anna and I played an evening at the Sole Bay Bridge Club. We mostly defended, and mostly defended well, but the key to doing well in Matchpoints is to get a few gifts from your opponents, and that helped us to 66%. I had a couple of deep thinks (very slow) that made no difference.

We also played a few hands with Christine and Stanley. A few times we pushed them to high in the bidding, so when I doubled them in 5♥ they were expecting to go down. What would you lead from:

♠ A 9 8 x x x ♥ x x x ♦ K x x x ♣ -

Your side has bid and raised Spades, and they've bid and raised Hearts.

I found the bold lead of a low Spade,. In a book of bridge stories this would definitely be the lead to beat the contract, putting Anna in with her King of Spades to give me a Club ruff. It's not good playing it safe and starting with the Ace of Spades, as it's too likely declarer or dummy has a singleton Spade, then you lose the chance to put partner in for a ruff. I specifically lead the ♠2, to ask for a low suit return.

Turns out it didn't matter which Spade I lead. This was the whole deal:

All Vul W deal ♠ K ♥ Q T 9 x x ♦ J x x ♣ J x x x ♠ A 9 8 x x x ♥ x x x ♦ K x x x ♣ - 7 7 9 17 ♠ Q J x x ♥ - ♦ A Q x ♣ x x x x x x ♠ x ♥ A K J x x ♦ x x x ♣ A K Q
Danny Christine Anna Stanley W N E S 1♥ 2♠ 4♥ 4♠ 5♥ x - - -

There are four top losers, but look at how my lead lets 5♥x make. Declarer's Spade loser disappears when he wins his singleton King, a nice surprise. Then he draws trumps and runs the Clubs, throwing a Diamond loser.

Return to Buchanan Club

John and I made a return to face to face bridge on Monday with a most welcome game at the Buchanan. It's been over a year since either of us played a real match, and it was great to be back at the club. It was still light outside and with a cool breeze, perfect conditions for bridge!

As usual, John and I handicapped ourselves by playing his system (or maybe it's oringally his partner's Frazer's system). It's not a bad system, but is fairly unfamiliar to me. I spent much of the week before reading it, and even made a couple of online quizzes to test my understanding. On the second board I bid 3♥ to show a Club singleton, which to my surprise John alerted as a Diamond singleton!

Despite the misunderstanding I ended in a reasonable 6♥. In fact, without the misunderstanding I may well have ended up in 7♥, and six was high enough. The small slam made exactly for 73%, as most people were in it.

In my featured deal below we made a lot of tricks

=	John Danny W N E S - 1♣ - 1♦ - 3♣ - 3♠ - 3NT - - -

I had the big East hand and opened 1♣. John replied 1♦, and I thought about a speculative 3NT but went for the more sensible 3♣. When John rebid 3♠ I went for the NT game.

I got a Heart lead, and immediately looked to the Club suit. If Clubs are 3-2 I just have to lose one Club, and if one defender had exactly Queen-Ten then I can win all the Clubs. Even if they are 4-1 without an honour dropping I still have a good chance of nine tricks (four Spades, three Hearts, two Clubs). Is there any benefit in leading low to the Jack? I couldn't think of any, so played Clubs from the top and waas rewarded with all 13 tricks.

We got 77% as although nearly everyone played 3NT, some made only 12 tricks.

HighSchoolOfGlasgow vs Lithgae Players

Last night my team of ex-school pupils suffered another loss in Division 1 of the SBU Bronze League.

This was surely the unluckiest board:

Defending 4♥ West made the normal looking lead of the Queen of Clubs. This caught his partner's ten, and declarer was then able to pick up the Clubs and make the contract. On another lead there are at least five losers.

Conceding 4♥= was a doubly bad result as East-West have an easy Spade game. I've encouraged East to bid more next time and weigh in with 3♠.

On the other table our North-South pair did well not to push too hard and wisely sold out to 3♠, which made with two overtricks.

Overall we lost the match 24-53 IMPs which translates to about 4-16 I'd guess.

HighSchoolOfGlasgowJuniors vs Aardfap

It's school exam season, which meant I only had two Juniors available for my team this week. Phil and I stepped in to be the other pair. In this match we had the pleasure of playing against Peter Edmond's Bearsden Improvers Club. Peter is also a former HSOG maths teacher (like Phil) so it was a true reunion.

I like Phil's style, as like me he is always on the lookout for a possible game and slam, and together we bid pretty aggressively. This produced some very good results, though this is not one of them:

On both tables East opened 4♥. This is definitely not my choice, as you might miss slam, or your partner may sacrifice when in fact you have lots of defence.

Phil had the big South hand and took the reasonable decision to double. He got to response he didn't want, 4♠, and had to pass.

In 4♠ I got the expected ♥A lead. How do you play it?

In fact the best option is to duck this trick, throwing a Club or Diamond from dummy. Then when East continues Hearts (as he surely would) you can ruff it, draw a couple of rounds of trumps with the Ace-King, finesse Clubs and run winners. The defence just gets that one Heart at the start, and two trumps. It needs a lucky layout in Clubs (and Spades 4-2 oddly) but works here.

It's an interesting deal in that the winning play relies on ducking, in a suit contract, which you don't see often.

This duck did not occur to me at the table. I was just trying for as many tricks as possible, and planned to ruff two Hearts in dummy. The problem with this is that each time you ruff a Heart you have no entry back to hand. I finished on 4♠-3. On the other table East-West pushed on to 5♥, which South gratefully doubled and beat by two tricks.

Despite the 14 IMP loss on this board, we scraped home to win the match 50-45.