Being just 1VP behind the leaders after Round 1, and playing against the team we were tied 2nd with, this was always going to be a crucial round for us. We needed to keep up the pace if we were to have any hope of lifting the Sybil Hay trophy at the end of the season. CAMPBELL is a sound and steady team that beat us quite comfortably last year, so a change in the winds was needed. Lessurl and I took them on over our first 12 boards of the night.
Last year, Lessurl and I had taken back a score card that we were pretty sure was a losing one. Things started reasonably this time round as I made a very pushy invite to 4 Hearts, which was (for once) not accepted, gaining 140 points. We then beat 4 Hearts when I cashed 1 trick in partner's suit before switching to a short suit for a ruff on Trick 4. Continuing partner's suit would have let the contract make; hence the importance of Count signals. This board made for a 6-0 lead, but when our opponents bid and made a Cold Game on the next board, that was enough for 6-10. We then missed a thin Game (which we'd have found had our opponents interfered), so we were happy enough to lose just 1 more IMP. A part score swing made it 10-11. Lessurl and I then had the following sequence:
1C-(X)-1D-(P)-2S-(P)-3D-(P)-3H-(P)-3NT
After a Better Minor followed by a Reverse, I asked for a Heart stop which Lessurl confirmed with 3NT. This raised the question of "When is a Stop not a Stop?" Lessurl held Ax doubleton in hearts, which was not enough when RHO had an outside entry. He consequently came 4 off, and when our counterparts played in 3 Clubs, we were losing 10-20.
We were not to be denied however, and from having half of the IMPs of our opponents with 6 boards out of 12 played, we turned it around with two Game swings and a couple of other good boards to finish 42-21 on IMPs when the music stopped, a much needed 17-3 win.
The second of our matches was against WATSON. This is the only 100% Ellon team in the competition, and their current bottom place belies a formidable resilience. They showed their capability last year when they beat the number 1 seed (and eventual winners). Although we would start as favourites for this one, the win would not be handed on a silver platter and I have to admit I couldn't see where it was coming from. This was mainly because I was picking up some really terrible hands - I was not getting my share of the HCPs. Three of the first five were cold Games against, and the other two were cold part scores for -110 and -120. This did not make for good reading.
On board 6, we managed to take my LHO two off in 4 Hearts, which was a conversion to an 11 IMP gain, not that we knew it yet. Another part score battle in our favour made the score 19-10 with 8 of 12 played. On board 9, both EW pairs missed a 21-25% Game. Board 10 was flat. This board secured a 15-5 win:
QJxxx
xx
Jxxx
xx
A10
AQxx
Q10x
AQxx
Sitting with the bottom hand, after my LHO opens and RHO responds, I bid 1NT. I hold more than 17 HCPs, but I think this is the best description of my hand. I'm surprised Lessurl didn't transfer to 2 Spades, but never mind.
The Ace of Diamonds is led, and I sense an opportunity. I play low from both hands. If LHO continues with the King, I play low from dummy and the queen from hand. The best thing LHO can do at that point is play a small diamond. I can then win with the ten (no point winning with the Jack when spades are not set up) and set up spades by playing Ace and another. When LHO has the King of Spades (which is likely given she opened), she is endplayed. Playing a pointed suit allows me to cash three spades and a diamond in dummy; whereas playing a rounded suit gives me a trick. By winning as cheaply as possible and cashing the other honour before exiting that suit, I can hope to endplay LHO again.
As it happens, LHO switches to a club, so I win with the queen and play Ace of spades and another. If LHO ducks, I'll overtake with the queen and play a small spade from dummy, playing for a 3-3 break. LHO does not duck; she wins with the King and now plays a heart. When I win, I play the queen of diamonds and LHO obliges by playing the King. 9 tricks for 6 IMPs.
There is something to be said for playing the queen of diamonds under the ace at trick 1. With the King onside, this guarantees a diamond entry to dummy. However, LHO would continue diamonds at Trick 2, so the dummy entry would not come when I wanted it.
The team were rather happy with 32 from Night 2. We have now established a gap of some 13 VPs over 3rd place, but have not climbed to first with ROSS still exactly 1VP ahead of us. It is far from a two-horse race however; 13VPs is hardly anything at this stage. CAMPBELL is the third placed team and holders HAY are up to 4th. MCLEOD (Senior) holds 5th despite only one win. I'm happy to see him there but something has to give with the McLeod derby match on Night 3. His narrow losses against some of the bigger teams thus far show how difficult it will be for us to emulate our result of last season. McGUIRE and MOWAT sit 6th and 7th respectively, and they are still title contenders. From our point of view, out of all the title contenders, we are the only ones that are capable of dropping out on Night 3. All the others are capable of winning after a bad night, but the way see it, a bad night for us is too much ground to recover. At least so far we are earning our Seeding of 2. A month to recover then, and then we will enter the fray a third time...
Saturday 3 November 2012
Monday 29 October 2012
The Season has started
It actually started over a month ago, but whatever. I foresee a very different time ahead for me in the bridge world... working shifts makes it difficult to plan ahead, and I have to prioritise certain events in order to get to play them. I shall play at Phoenix and Ellon as-and-when, as unfortunately I cannot justify asking for club nights off any more. Consequently, I have played in Round 1 of the Phoenix Cup but not Round 2, with serious doubt over whether I shall be able to play in enough rounds with lessurl to mount a challenge. I have played 2 out of 4 nights at Ellon with my regular partner there, plus one with McLeod Senior. Perhaps it is slightly more annoying to actually do well on the nights I play.
One of the prioritised events that I hope to be available for every round of is the District Teams of Four. Same format as last year: two twelve board matches per night, but only five nights this time round with a total of eleven teams competing. After a good campaign last season, where we beat all the title contenders but lost two other matches along the way, we found ourselves second seed this time around. I expect this makes life harder for us as it means we play Seeds 1 and 4 on the final night. It also meant we started with seeds 3 and 6. And what does seeding mean anyway? Right now Seed 4 (ROSS) is top, and since they beat Seed 1 (HAY) along the way, it suggests a few teams may be after the win.
Lessurl and I began our campaign by sitting East-West against the North-South pair of team MOWAT. The Seeding put us as slight favourites for this one, but really it was anyone's guess who was to come out on top. Out of twelve boards, we made five games, two of which were converted into game swings with the help of our team mates. Our opposition had 3 plus Board 21. I overcalled RHO's 1 Heart opening bid with 2 Diamonds (holding just less than opening points and Jack-high in diamonds). After LHO bids onwards, it is judgement time for Lessurl. We were at favourable vulnerability and he had 4 Diamonds, so I played in 5 Diamonds Doubled. This was an excellent call by Lessurl despite the fact we picked up -800. Were it not for a 4-0 trump break, I might have got out for as little as -300 - we hit the only distribution of the cards that could make the sacrifice not worth it, and our team mates accepted -5 IMPs on that board with good grace. It is always good to be part of a team that endorses doing the right thing on a board rather than doing what scores right on a board. The game swings took it, as we only scored on 4 boards (compared to 6 that we lost IMPs on), but we edged the match 26-20 on IMPs; 13-7. The scores also reflected Teams strategy: on three of the six boards we lost out on, it was a "1" in the minus IMPs column. Shrug and move on - none of those were stupid errors.
Next up for us was against Gibby REID and his team. With a -1 on the first board, our opponents did well to play in 3NT+1 when our team mates played in 5 Clubs. We won a part score battle on the next board, but then a mental lapse from me resulted in going -4 vulnerable in 2NT - effectively a Vulnerable Game swing. After those four boards, we were trailing 5-24. The next six boards consisted of five part score battles and one flat Game. The last of the part score battles was flat, but we picked up a 5, two 6es and a 4 in the others to get our noses in front for the last two boards (not that we knew that was how it stood at the time of playing).
On the penultimate Board, 23, the opposition bid to a tight 4 Hearts. I wish I had written down the board, as Lessurl found a killer lead: small from Kxxx of Trumps, which was a major factor in our eventually taking the contract 3 off for 300. On 24, I made a 3NT which could have been beaten, so the two effective Game Swings at the end helped us emerge winners by 17-3 VPs.
It promises to be a very close-run thing this year. Any team is capable of beating any other, and I reckon half the teams are capable of mounting a genuine challenge for the Sybil Hay trophy. Right now ROSS sits top with 31, with CAMPBELL as well as ourselves on 30. N. MCLEOD is fourth place after Round 1, which from a personal point of view is good to see (as long as he doesn't get in our way). Two VPs separate 5th and 8th, while MOWAT is still very much in the hunt - the current second-bottom placing not fooling anyone.
From my team's POV, we just hope that we are still in the hunt at the end of play on Friday. It includes a match against CAMPBELL (a team that deservedly beat us last season) and WATSON (currently bottom but we know what they're capable of - just ask Mr. Hay), so I think it is a big ask to emerge from that with a title challenge intact.
Of course, working on a rota does mean I can sometimes play in one-off events like the SBU simultaneous pairs. Things did not start well when I doubled a cold Game (although I was within my rights to do so), but on the next board my partner, McLeod Senior, made a Game that Deep Finesse doesn't when playing against itself. Two boards later I had this board:
K75
985
K2
K10974
A109
AK642
A84
86
I had the bottom hand. RHO is Dealer and passes; I open 1 Heart. LHO overcalls 2 Diamonds, but I get to 4 Hearts. The Queen of Diamonds is led.
In his notes for this board, Ian Crorie notes that you can pick up QJ103 of hearts onside for one loser by playing the 9 from dummy and intending to run it. It is the only 4-1 trump break you can make a plan for. This is an important play in 3NT for sure. However, my plan to get to 10 tricks was different (but not better, just for avoidance of doubt). I won in dummy, played a small diamond to the Ace (just in case RHO started singleton, the Ace won't be wasted), followed by the King of Hearts and a diamond ruff. RHO over-ruffs, which I am not bothered about if he started with 3. When he has 4, I need the defence to not play Hearts. A spade was ideal from my POV, but he played a club to my LHO's Ace. Instead of continuing clubs, which on the layout would finish me (I can cope with LHO having started qith AQ or AJ doubleton, or a 3-3 break, but not the actual layout), she falls for my trap and plays a diamond. I pitch a spade from dummy and over-ruff RHO's queen of hearts. Now all that I need to do is cash two spades ending in hand and ruff a spade, conceding 1 more trump trick.
The next board was a lead problem:
A92
A984
AQ1083
5
As Dealer, I open 1 Diamond (promising 5). LHO doubles. Partner bids 2 Diamonds, and after a Double from my RHO, my LHO bids 2 Spades. RHO punts 3NT and I've seen his 3NT bids before - his "stop" in diamonds may not be rock solid. I resist the temptation to double as partner's 2 Diamonds bid means I can't expect much (or any) help from him, apart from 3 diamonds approx. What should I lead?
It looked to me like RHO has hearts, so I don't want to lead that. Why not lead spades? I'll get to that in a minute. So, diamonds or my singleton club? I think there is a chance RHO has Kxx in diamonds, and if partner has any entries at all, it is probably just the one. So, I lead a small diamond to clear the suit.
Dummy is:
Q1085
QJ5
J7
AQ76
After much thought, Declarer plays small from dummy and wins with the King, and I can breathe. Unless Declarer has all 8 of the unseen clubs, I am beating this in my hand. In fact he has KJ10843, so he can cash out a total of 7 tricks before allowing me in two take the remainder for two off.
However, we could have beaten this by 5 had I found a lead of a small spade (or cashed one or both major aces and followed with a small spade). Partner had 4 diamonds, and KJ74 of spades. A lead-directing double of 3NT would have told me what to do, but I guess it was hard to imagine I was so control-heavy.
On Board 15 we missed a thin slam:
Q85
K1074
K
A10974
A976
AQJ63
QJ85
---
4 Hearts by the bottom hand.
It has to be my hand that plays 6 Hearts. It will not make from the other side of the table. In 4 Hearts, I got the lead of the 3 of clubs, which simplified matters. I won with the Ace, pitching a diamond, and played the King of diamonds. The Ace was with LHO, who continued with another club for me to ruff. I can now play Queen and Jack of diamonds pitching two spades (opps follow), followed by the Ace of Spades and a small ruff, followed by a small club ruff, and ruffing a spade high, ruffing a club with the Jack, ruffing a spade high and being left with the AQ of trumps in hand. The most difficult lead is a heart, which requires the same tactics, and as LHO has a singleton trump, the line will work. Rather risky however.
Finally, I had best post the answers to the Declarer play problems I posted at the end of my last post.
762
876
J98
AQ42
AJ53
AJ9
AK54
KJ
3NT by South, 3 of diamonds led. You play the 8 from dummy and RHO the 6.
... And automatically my hand pulled out a low diamond. I already knew I didn't want to do that. I only have 8 tricks now. I have to win with the King, cash King and Jack of clubs and play a low diamond, playing LHO for the queen. If LHO cashes the queen, I have an entry to dummy in diamonds to take the AQ of clubs.
J7
54
QJ10
KQJ954
K965
AKJ
A65
1032
3NT by South, 3 of Diamonds led. Playing the 10 from Dummy, RHO plays the 8.
This one was obvious already, but after the last one, it's in neon flashing lights. Overtake the ten with the ace and play the ten of clubs. Guess what, the Ace doesn't appear, so continue clubs until RHO is forced to win on Trick 4. RHO's best shot now is a spade, which you can duck to (at worst) the queen. Then back to RHO's Ace and a spade through your K9 - up with the King. Knock out the King of Diamonds and if lady luck smiles (which on these hands you know it will), they can't cash a spade. The last diamond is an entry to the clubs in dummy.
A3
105
K8542
AK83
KJ9
K976
AQ6
654
3NT by South, 5 of spades led.
The best line here is to win the opening trick in hand as cheaply as possible and then play a low diamond from both hands. As long as neither defender has shown out, the contract is secure. Depending on which defender won the diamond trick and what the heart situation is, they can cash a maximum of two heart tricks before letting you back in - say with a club. Cash the Ace of Spades, then the Ace and Queen of Diamonds, then the King of Spades and get back to dummy with the other club winner to take 9 tricks minimum.
The last one is a suit combination puzzle; let's isolate that heart suit:
K 7 6 opposite A J 5 3
The central point of this hand is playing this suit combination for one loser, as you must assume that when you let the opponents in they get exactly 3 club tricks (maximum). Every other suit is double-stopped.
The way to play this suit for one loser is play small from hand (the 6) to the ACE. Then the 3 back to the King, followed by the last heart towards the J5 in dummy. This way, you only lose more than 1 trick in hearts if RHO has Queen and at least three other hearts, in which case there was never anything you could do. Also, if RHO had Qxxxx, you would discover this on playing the King of Hearts and look for an endplay.
One of the prioritised events that I hope to be available for every round of is the District Teams of Four. Same format as last year: two twelve board matches per night, but only five nights this time round with a total of eleven teams competing. After a good campaign last season, where we beat all the title contenders but lost two other matches along the way, we found ourselves second seed this time around. I expect this makes life harder for us as it means we play Seeds 1 and 4 on the final night. It also meant we started with seeds 3 and 6. And what does seeding mean anyway? Right now Seed 4 (ROSS) is top, and since they beat Seed 1 (HAY) along the way, it suggests a few teams may be after the win.
Lessurl and I began our campaign by sitting East-West against the North-South pair of team MOWAT. The Seeding put us as slight favourites for this one, but really it was anyone's guess who was to come out on top. Out of twelve boards, we made five games, two of which were converted into game swings with the help of our team mates. Our opposition had 3 plus Board 21. I overcalled RHO's 1 Heart opening bid with 2 Diamonds (holding just less than opening points and Jack-high in diamonds). After LHO bids onwards, it is judgement time for Lessurl. We were at favourable vulnerability and he had 4 Diamonds, so I played in 5 Diamonds Doubled. This was an excellent call by Lessurl despite the fact we picked up -800. Were it not for a 4-0 trump break, I might have got out for as little as -300 - we hit the only distribution of the cards that could make the sacrifice not worth it, and our team mates accepted -5 IMPs on that board with good grace. It is always good to be part of a team that endorses doing the right thing on a board rather than doing what scores right on a board. The game swings took it, as we only scored on 4 boards (compared to 6 that we lost IMPs on), but we edged the match 26-20 on IMPs; 13-7. The scores also reflected Teams strategy: on three of the six boards we lost out on, it was a "1" in the minus IMPs column. Shrug and move on - none of those were stupid errors.
Next up for us was against Gibby REID and his team. With a -1 on the first board, our opponents did well to play in 3NT+1 when our team mates played in 5 Clubs. We won a part score battle on the next board, but then a mental lapse from me resulted in going -4 vulnerable in 2NT - effectively a Vulnerable Game swing. After those four boards, we were trailing 5-24. The next six boards consisted of five part score battles and one flat Game. The last of the part score battles was flat, but we picked up a 5, two 6es and a 4 in the others to get our noses in front for the last two boards (not that we knew that was how it stood at the time of playing).
On the penultimate Board, 23, the opposition bid to a tight 4 Hearts. I wish I had written down the board, as Lessurl found a killer lead: small from Kxxx of Trumps, which was a major factor in our eventually taking the contract 3 off for 300. On 24, I made a 3NT which could have been beaten, so the two effective Game Swings at the end helped us emerge winners by 17-3 VPs.
It promises to be a very close-run thing this year. Any team is capable of beating any other, and I reckon half the teams are capable of mounting a genuine challenge for the Sybil Hay trophy. Right now ROSS sits top with 31, with CAMPBELL as well as ourselves on 30. N. MCLEOD is fourth place after Round 1, which from a personal point of view is good to see (as long as he doesn't get in our way). Two VPs separate 5th and 8th, while MOWAT is still very much in the hunt - the current second-bottom placing not fooling anyone.
From my team's POV, we just hope that we are still in the hunt at the end of play on Friday. It includes a match against CAMPBELL (a team that deservedly beat us last season) and WATSON (currently bottom but we know what they're capable of - just ask Mr. Hay), so I think it is a big ask to emerge from that with a title challenge intact.
Of course, working on a rota does mean I can sometimes play in one-off events like the SBU simultaneous pairs. Things did not start well when I doubled a cold Game (although I was within my rights to do so), but on the next board my partner, McLeod Senior, made a Game that Deep Finesse doesn't when playing against itself. Two boards later I had this board:
K75
985
K2
K10974
A109
AK642
A84
86
I had the bottom hand. RHO is Dealer and passes; I open 1 Heart. LHO overcalls 2 Diamonds, but I get to 4 Hearts. The Queen of Diamonds is led.
In his notes for this board, Ian Crorie notes that you can pick up QJ103 of hearts onside for one loser by playing the 9 from dummy and intending to run it. It is the only 4-1 trump break you can make a plan for. This is an important play in 3NT for sure. However, my plan to get to 10 tricks was different (but not better, just for avoidance of doubt). I won in dummy, played a small diamond to the Ace (just in case RHO started singleton, the Ace won't be wasted), followed by the King of Hearts and a diamond ruff. RHO over-ruffs, which I am not bothered about if he started with 3. When he has 4, I need the defence to not play Hearts. A spade was ideal from my POV, but he played a club to my LHO's Ace. Instead of continuing clubs, which on the layout would finish me (I can cope with LHO having started qith AQ or AJ doubleton, or a 3-3 break, but not the actual layout), she falls for my trap and plays a diamond. I pitch a spade from dummy and over-ruff RHO's queen of hearts. Now all that I need to do is cash two spades ending in hand and ruff a spade, conceding 1 more trump trick.
The next board was a lead problem:
A92
A984
AQ1083
5
As Dealer, I open 1 Diamond (promising 5). LHO doubles. Partner bids 2 Diamonds, and after a Double from my RHO, my LHO bids 2 Spades. RHO punts 3NT and I've seen his 3NT bids before - his "stop" in diamonds may not be rock solid. I resist the temptation to double as partner's 2 Diamonds bid means I can't expect much (or any) help from him, apart from 3 diamonds approx. What should I lead?
It looked to me like RHO has hearts, so I don't want to lead that. Why not lead spades? I'll get to that in a minute. So, diamonds or my singleton club? I think there is a chance RHO has Kxx in diamonds, and if partner has any entries at all, it is probably just the one. So, I lead a small diamond to clear the suit.
Dummy is:
Q1085
QJ5
J7
AQ76
After much thought, Declarer plays small from dummy and wins with the King, and I can breathe. Unless Declarer has all 8 of the unseen clubs, I am beating this in my hand. In fact he has KJ10843, so he can cash out a total of 7 tricks before allowing me in two take the remainder for two off.
However, we could have beaten this by 5 had I found a lead of a small spade (or cashed one or both major aces and followed with a small spade). Partner had 4 diamonds, and KJ74 of spades. A lead-directing double of 3NT would have told me what to do, but I guess it was hard to imagine I was so control-heavy.
On Board 15 we missed a thin slam:
Q85
K1074
K
A10974
A976
AQJ63
QJ85
---
4 Hearts by the bottom hand.
It has to be my hand that plays 6 Hearts. It will not make from the other side of the table. In 4 Hearts, I got the lead of the 3 of clubs, which simplified matters. I won with the Ace, pitching a diamond, and played the King of diamonds. The Ace was with LHO, who continued with another club for me to ruff. I can now play Queen and Jack of diamonds pitching two spades (opps follow), followed by the Ace of Spades and a small ruff, followed by a small club ruff, and ruffing a spade high, ruffing a club with the Jack, ruffing a spade high and being left with the AQ of trumps in hand. The most difficult lead is a heart, which requires the same tactics, and as LHO has a singleton trump, the line will work. Rather risky however.
Finally, I had best post the answers to the Declarer play problems I posted at the end of my last post.
762
876
J98
AQ42
AJ53
AJ9
AK54
KJ
3NT by South, 3 of diamonds led. You play the 8 from dummy and RHO the 6.
... And automatically my hand pulled out a low diamond. I already knew I didn't want to do that. I only have 8 tricks now. I have to win with the King, cash King and Jack of clubs and play a low diamond, playing LHO for the queen. If LHO cashes the queen, I have an entry to dummy in diamonds to take the AQ of clubs.
J7
54
QJ10
KQJ954
K965
AKJ
A65
1032
3NT by South, 3 of Diamonds led. Playing the 10 from Dummy, RHO plays the 8.
This one was obvious already, but after the last one, it's in neon flashing lights. Overtake the ten with the ace and play the ten of clubs. Guess what, the Ace doesn't appear, so continue clubs until RHO is forced to win on Trick 4. RHO's best shot now is a spade, which you can duck to (at worst) the queen. Then back to RHO's Ace and a spade through your K9 - up with the King. Knock out the King of Diamonds and if lady luck smiles (which on these hands you know it will), they can't cash a spade. The last diamond is an entry to the clubs in dummy.
A3
105
K8542
AK83
KJ9
K976
AQ6
654
3NT by South, 5 of spades led.
The best line here is to win the opening trick in hand as cheaply as possible and then play a low diamond from both hands. As long as neither defender has shown out, the contract is secure. Depending on which defender won the diamond trick and what the heart situation is, they can cash a maximum of two heart tricks before letting you back in - say with a club. Cash the Ace of Spades, then the Ace and Queen of Diamonds, then the King of Spades and get back to dummy with the other club winner to take 9 tricks minimum.
The last one is a suit combination puzzle; let's isolate that heart suit:
K 7 6 opposite A J 5 3
The central point of this hand is playing this suit combination for one loser, as you must assume that when you let the opponents in they get exactly 3 club tricks (maximum). Every other suit is double-stopped.
The way to play this suit for one loser is play small from hand (the 6) to the ACE. Then the 3 back to the King, followed by the last heart towards the J5 in dummy. This way, you only lose more than 1 trick in hearts if RHO has Queen and at least three other hearts, in which case there was never anything you could do. Also, if RHO had Qxxxx, you would discover this on playing the King of Hearts and look for an endplay.
Tuesday 16 October 2012
7th Greek Islands Bridge Festival
Early on the morning of the 25th August, I woke to the sound of my alarm to be on time for a long journey - starting with a lift to Union Square Bus Station, followed by a bus journey to Buchanan Bus Station Glasgow and further bus journey to Glasgow Airport. And then the small matter of a flight to Rhodes. It was the middle of the night local time by the time we arrived, and a good thing too - I didn't want to step out into the Greek sun immediately. There were 10 of us in all, the Scottish contingent - heading to Rhodes to play in the 7th Greek Islands Bridge Festival.
The first thing I shall say about this particular event was the quality of the hospitality from our hosts. They did everything they could to make our stay as enjoyable as possible - and I mean everything. From airport transfers to accommodation to taxis from our residence to the venue, they were on top of everything. There was even a half-day cruise thrown in as part of the event. Wow. Not least in the things I am thankful is the reason we were able to go in the first place - entry and accommodation costs covered by the Greeks. The SBU would have been mad to pass it up.
The first day was taken up mainly with acclimatisation and (if you're not me) swimming. I do not intend to complain about the Scottish weather again after the heat of Rhodes. Seriously. What does it need to be 39 Degrees Celsius for? That's way too hot to actually do anything, so I was glad that most of the bridge was played in the late afternoon and evening. Did I meantion Rhodes is a very beautiful island? No? Well, it is. Not that I was up for too much exploring by day. We found it much more sensible to socialise at night - after the bridge - when we could walk around in the heat without being burned and sleep through the morning.
Still, we'd come to Rhodes for bridge, and we had to take good news back to the SBU in the hope that they might fund more events. This meant playing really well. There were three events - Open Pairs, Mixed Pairs and Teams. We had 5 partnerships for the Open Pairs, 3 for the mixed, and two teams for the Teams. "Scot A" was our Under 20 team, and "Scot B" was the other three juniors plus Mr. Duguid.
The Open Pairs were played over three sessions. Falco and I were teaming up again after our (sort-of) success in Amsterdam, for both the Pairs and the Teams. Both of us have a disliking for pairs, so our attitude was "do-what-we-can". We did just that, but it wasn't helped by boards like these:
K 8
A 6 3 2
Q 4 2
Q 6 3 2
7
Q J 9 8 7 4
K 9 6
K J 9
I had the bottom hand. After a competitive auction which I would do best to forget (since clearly Falco and I did not set a good example of how to bid), I ended up in 5 Hearts Doubled when we should have Doubled 4 Spades for +500.
I get a small diamond led to the Ace, and then RHO cashes Ace of Clubs. A diamond is returned, and this doomed contract has some hope when my King wins the trick. What I have to do is play hearts for no losers, unblock clubs and get back to dummy to pitch the last spade. Everything is set up, but I must not lose a heart. How do you play hearts?
Running the Queen is less than 50%, because it will not pick up K105 onside, although no play can pick that holding up. Playing for the drop is 26% a priori, but the odds change as the cards are played. Of course, I didn't know these percentages at the time, and my decision was to play the queen and rise with the Ace when LHO follows smoothly. This works, as RHO has singleton King. The only problem is that LHO goes into the tank for long enough to create a clear break in tempo, so I finesse. A diamond is returned for a ruff, and -800 later I am cursing myself for being too polite. I should of course have asked RHO if she agreed there had been a hesitation, and risen with the Ace if she disagreed. As many good things as I have to say about the Greeks, the behaviour of a minority of players visiting from other countries was less than admirable. But at the end of the day this was a Congress event, not a full International, so we decided to roll with the punches. We could land a few ourselves, after all.
A 10 7 3
A 10 9 7
7 4
J 7 3
Falco had this hand. As Dealer at Game All, he passes. His LHO passes and I open 1 Club (Better Minor). His RHO says 1 Heart; Falco now bids 1 Spade. Bidding continues with a Pass and 2 Diamonds from me. With what looks like a double stop in hearts, Falco bids 3NT. 8 of hearts is led, imagine his disappointment with this dummy:
Q 5
3
A K 6 2
K 10 9 8 6 2
The Jack is played from his RHO, so now Falco wins and plays the Jack of Clubs, covered by the Queen, King and Ace. Nine tricks are rolling in now. Of course, Falco expected a much stronger dummy, (I confirmed that this particular +600 (our best % score of the round) was my fault, as 2 Diamonds is an overbid), but a well-judged overbid, if I do say so myself.
Most of the other boards involved better bridge but worse luck, and we finished Round 1 somewhere below 50%. (Quite a bit below, I reckon). The second session focused a lot on bidding: When to bid Slam and when not to bid Game being two common themes. We came off worst in the first of those axioms, as our opponents invariably found their slams and our opportunity was this:
Q 6 4 3
A K Q J 9
A K J 8
---
I opted for 1 Heart and hope that partner finds a reply. This was a good decision. When partner responds to a 2 Clubs bid with anything other than 2 Diamonds we lose bidding space too fast. His reply was 1 Spade, and somehow I miss the Splinter bid of 4 Clubs and bid 3 Spades (probably because it is a cheaper bid, but that's no excuse). Partner looked at his hand unimaginitively and bid 4 Spades, which at least takes some of the blame away from me as he should find a cue bid holding a singleton heart and A K J 5 of spades. The auction should go: 1H-1S-4C-4H-4NT-5H-6S, assuming no diamond losers (throw dummy's diamonds on hearts to set up a ruff) and hope for no more than one spade loser. It still requires a punt as you could be playing in 6 Spades with Q 6 4 3 opposite K 7 5 2 in the trump suit.
The rest of the time we judged well, as we found our Games and allowed our opponents once or twice to go to Games that came more than 1 trick down, vulnerable. There was a nice bonus when our opponents decided to Double a cold 5 Diamonds contract of mine. A good session saw us riding just below 50% overall and no more.
Falco and I had agreed anything over 50% was fine, but we soon put our ambitions higher after the way we started Round 3 (the final round). On the very first board my RHO had this Declarer problem:
A K Q
4 2
10 9 7 3
K 8 5 2
9 8
A K 10 8 7 6
A K 6
7 4
6 Hearts, Jack of Spades led.
Obviously, this is a bad contract. Even if the Ace of Clubs is onside, hearts still have to be played for no losers. There are two ways to do this: play for RHO to have QJx, or play for either defender to have QJ doubleton. Those of you who know your bridge odds will know that the former line is almost 2% more likely to work a priori, and the former line gains further once you've actually played a small heart from dummy at trick 2 and RHO follows small. When the 10 holds, Declarer has to draw trumps, piching a small club on the third round, and then hope the club finesse works.
It so happens that Declarer rose with the King on the first round, dropping my Jack. Having started this line he should stick to it, dropping my queen as well and taking the club finesse. There is no point in playing me for a singleton as he can't pick up an original holding of Q 9 5 3 with my partner anyway. As it happens, this would not have saved him, as his LHO (me) held Q J 3 of Clubs. But he would come only one off, instead of the -2 that actually resulted.
Boards 21 and 22 presented some nice Declarer hands:
10 9 3
J 4
A Q 10 5 4
Q J 2
A Q 6 4
A Q 6
9 6 2
K 8 4
3NT, 8 of Hearts led.
I have two heart tricks and can establish two clubs. There is an obvious plan here: Establish 4 diamond tricks and take your tricks before the defence can hurt you with a long suit. That saves having to play spades for more than 1 trick.
I play small from dummy, and the queen wins the trick. I run the 9 of diamonds which loses to the Jack. If the King of Hearts is returned, I have to duck a round to block the suit. Instead, a club is returned to my King, which wins. I now play a small diamond to the ten, which loses to the King, and another club comes back. Dummy wins this one, and now I cannot afford to lose a trick. With only three diamonds in total, I need the second spade trick so I finesse the queen, which holds, and claim 9.
To defeat the contract, LHO needs to lead a club from his original doubleton holding. RHO can then establish three club tricks before I can establish 9 anywhere.
J 6 2
9
A 10 8 2
A Q J 10 6
Q 7
A Q 10 8
Q 7 6 5 4 3
4
4 Diamonds Doubled, LHO cashes AK of spades then plays a small one.
The Jack of Spades wins the trick, so I play a small heart. This contract is not without danger. I play a small heart to the ace and a small diamond. The 9 appears. By finessing the ten, I guarantee no more than 1 diamond loser as losing to either honour means the trumps are divided 2-1 or 1-2 and the Ace will beat the next one. The only possible way I'd lose another is if RHO held singleton Jack and LHO has a void in clubs. That is rather less likely than the chances of LHO having started with KJ9. Hence, I finesse, and although RHO does have singleton Jack, he doesn't have a return that can hurt me and I can draw the least diamond, 1 club trick, and cross-ruff the remainder. +510 was better than 5 Diamonds making, which is important, as it can make. Declarer has to play the Queen from hand, and whether LHO covers or not, the Jack has been pinned.
Here is an actual 5 Diamond Contract I played:
A Q J 10 9 6 2
J
7
K Q 7 2
---
9 5
A Q J 10 9 8 3 2
A 10 6
Lead: Ace of Hearts.
This was played against the rudest pair in the competition. We were already behind time as one of our opponents had taken long enough to play an absoloutely frigid 5 Diamonds. I'm not sure what they were unhappy about (the fact that 3NT was a superior contract maybe?), but I don't think it warranted speaking French throughout the bidding of this board. I tried to make up the time on this one, but I was hindered in a most unusual way. LHO switched to a club, which I won with the ten, ruffed a heart and played the 2 of spades, ruffing with the 8. Of course I have the worry that LHO holds the King of diamonds plus an original 5 clubs, but I avoided the worry that RHO was void in clubs or LHO was void in spades that I'd have had by playing the Queen of Clubs and pitching a heart on the Ace of Spades, all for sake of being able to take a diamond finesse that is odds-against finding King doubleton onside. Anyway, I needn't have worried; LHO followed suit and showed out when I played the Ace of Diamonds on the next trick. It was about this time that, instead of playing a card, RHO decided to go into the tank. After a while, she decided the best thing to do was grab one of my quitted tricks and look at it. She eventually followed suit, and I played the Queen of Diamonds, and RHO goes into the tank again. Therefore, I begin to claim: "It doesn't matter when you take it; I'll get back in -" I am cut short by RHO preventing me from claiming (literally pushing back up my hand that I've tried to face) and saying "Wait!" After yet another long think, she takes the King, and thinks about what card to play back for another minute or so. I win, and put my Jack of diamonds on the table, followed immediately by the ten, nine and the rest of my hand - I wasn't going to be prevented from claiming a second time.
Incidentally, this pair came up against one of our supervisors in the next event; the Mixed(!) Pairs. I was glad that our supervisor did not show the same restraint as I did and promptly put the lady who was my RHO in her place when she did her "let's just grab one of my opponent's quitted tricks and look at it" thing again.
All in all, we did very well in this session, and I still maintain that had a difference of opinion not resulted in us being in 6 Spades Doubled -2 towards the end, we would have got 60% or more in the session. Our score was still good enough to propel us so far up the rankings that we actually earned some Greek Master Points.
I can't really say much about the Mixed Pairs. I wasn't playing in it; Falco and I decided to watch a Scottish brother-and-sister partnership in Session 1. They did very well, coming 6th overall, which netted a tidy sum of Euros. Yet more success for Scotland following on from two pairs doing well in the Open Pairs.
That just left the teams.
Unusually for this type of event, the boards for the teams were hand-dealt, which meant no hand records. If I had been playing with R, I might have had a chance of going through some of the hands, as he notes down each and every bid in the auction and that might jog my memory. As it is, I'll just give a brief report on how we did.
Scotland B did okay I felt. There were 7 rounds of eight board matches. We won four, drew two and lost only one. We were never really in the running for anything, but had never expected to be. We kept clear of the wooden spoon though.
Our Under 20 team were the top junior team in the competition - quite remarkable, since all the other junior teams were Under 25.
Oh, and I can't help but mention the fact that Versace (you know, one of the best players in the world - THAT Versace) turned up to play in the Teams. That's not the interesting thing. What was most interesting was the fact that our friends in this Irish junior squad took on Team Versace and beat them. The match basically swung on a Grand Slam board which, if told right, will work it's way into the stuff of legend. I'll leave that to Wayne.
So we had quite a few players going up to collect prizes at the Gala dinner. The gala dinner was actually held outside at night; unthinkable in Scotland - but Greece is a country where you can tell whether or not there is any chance of rain based on what month it is, leaving a relaxed and pleasant al fresco atmosphere.
I haven't yet mentioned yet another aspect of this week that made the experience so positive - lessons from Krystof Martens. The SBU had said that this was one of the reasons we were going: attendance was compulsory. The compulsion was un-necessary; none of us were going to miss this. There were two lessons; the first being a session of play 8 boards normally and then analyse them. Much of it was about bidding to the right contract and this was one that we got wrong:
---
K 7 3
Q J 9 5 4
A 10 9 8 3
9 7 5 3
A Q 4
A K 10 2
K 6
I had the top hand; Falco the bottom hand. Falco is Dealer.
This was a pity as we had the methods to cope with this. Falco opens 1NT; pretty straight forward. The auction continues (with the opps passing) 2C-2S-3C. I have now shown a GF hand with at least 5-5 in the minors (Non-Prom Stayman followed by 3 Clubs). Unfortunately, Falco does not remember this, so the auction does not continue 3D-3H-4C-4D-4H-4NT-5D-7D as it would if the convention was remembered.
The second lesson was all about Declarer contracts at Teams. I'll end this post with four of them: one I got wrong (I noticed immediately after it was too late), one I got right, and two that were given as problems to take away and study (although the answers are not hard to work out).
7 6 2
8 7 6
J 9 8
A Q 4 2
A J 5 3
A J 9
A K 5 4
K J
3NT by South, 3 of Diamonds led. You play the 8 and RHO plays the 6.
J 7
5 4
Q J 10
K Q J 9 5 4
K 9 6 5
A K J
A 6 5
10 3 2
3NT by South, 3 of Diamonds led. Whatever you play from dummy, RHO plays the 8.
A 3
10 5
K 8 5 4 2
A K 8 3
K J 9
K 9 7 6
A Q 6
6 5 4
3NT by South, 5 of Spades led.
A Q 3
A J 5 3
K 4 2
A 8 3
K J 9
K 7 6
A 7 6
6 5 4 2
3NT by South, King of Clubs led.
Scottish and Irish Juniors @ Napoli Pizza, Rhodes after a hard night's work
The first thing I shall say about this particular event was the quality of the hospitality from our hosts. They did everything they could to make our stay as enjoyable as possible - and I mean everything. From airport transfers to accommodation to taxis from our residence to the venue, they were on top of everything. There was even a half-day cruise thrown in as part of the event. Wow. Not least in the things I am thankful is the reason we were able to go in the first place - entry and accommodation costs covered by the Greeks. The SBU would have been mad to pass it up.
The first day was taken up mainly with acclimatisation and (if you're not me) swimming. I do not intend to complain about the Scottish weather again after the heat of Rhodes. Seriously. What does it need to be 39 Degrees Celsius for? That's way too hot to actually do anything, so I was glad that most of the bridge was played in the late afternoon and evening. Did I meantion Rhodes is a very beautiful island? No? Well, it is. Not that I was up for too much exploring by day. We found it much more sensible to socialise at night - after the bridge - when we could walk around in the heat without being burned and sleep through the morning.
Still, we'd come to Rhodes for bridge, and we had to take good news back to the SBU in the hope that they might fund more events. This meant playing really well. There were three events - Open Pairs, Mixed Pairs and Teams. We had 5 partnerships for the Open Pairs, 3 for the mixed, and two teams for the Teams. "Scot A" was our Under 20 team, and "Scot B" was the other three juniors plus Mr. Duguid.
The Open Pairs were played over three sessions. Falco and I were teaming up again after our (sort-of) success in Amsterdam, for both the Pairs and the Teams. Both of us have a disliking for pairs, so our attitude was "do-what-we-can". We did just that, but it wasn't helped by boards like these:
K 8
A 6 3 2
Q 4 2
Q 6 3 2
7
Q J 9 8 7 4
K 9 6
K J 9
I had the bottom hand. After a competitive auction which I would do best to forget (since clearly Falco and I did not set a good example of how to bid), I ended up in 5 Hearts Doubled when we should have Doubled 4 Spades for +500.
I get a small diamond led to the Ace, and then RHO cashes Ace of Clubs. A diamond is returned, and this doomed contract has some hope when my King wins the trick. What I have to do is play hearts for no losers, unblock clubs and get back to dummy to pitch the last spade. Everything is set up, but I must not lose a heart. How do you play hearts?
Running the Queen is less than 50%, because it will not pick up K105 onside, although no play can pick that holding up. Playing for the drop is 26% a priori, but the odds change as the cards are played. Of course, I didn't know these percentages at the time, and my decision was to play the queen and rise with the Ace when LHO follows smoothly. This works, as RHO has singleton King. The only problem is that LHO goes into the tank for long enough to create a clear break in tempo, so I finesse. A diamond is returned for a ruff, and -800 later I am cursing myself for being too polite. I should of course have asked RHO if she agreed there had been a hesitation, and risen with the Ace if she disagreed. As many good things as I have to say about the Greeks, the behaviour of a minority of players visiting from other countries was less than admirable. But at the end of the day this was a Congress event, not a full International, so we decided to roll with the punches. We could land a few ourselves, after all.
A 10 7 3
A 10 9 7
7 4
J 7 3
Falco had this hand. As Dealer at Game All, he passes. His LHO passes and I open 1 Club (Better Minor). His RHO says 1 Heart; Falco now bids 1 Spade. Bidding continues with a Pass and 2 Diamonds from me. With what looks like a double stop in hearts, Falco bids 3NT. 8 of hearts is led, imagine his disappointment with this dummy:
Q 5
3
A K 6 2
K 10 9 8 6 2
The Jack is played from his RHO, so now Falco wins and plays the Jack of Clubs, covered by the Queen, King and Ace. Nine tricks are rolling in now. Of course, Falco expected a much stronger dummy, (I confirmed that this particular +600 (our best % score of the round) was my fault, as 2 Diamonds is an overbid), but a well-judged overbid, if I do say so myself.
Most of the other boards involved better bridge but worse luck, and we finished Round 1 somewhere below 50%. (Quite a bit below, I reckon). The second session focused a lot on bidding: When to bid Slam and when not to bid Game being two common themes. We came off worst in the first of those axioms, as our opponents invariably found their slams and our opportunity was this:
Q 6 4 3
A K Q J 9
A K J 8
---
I opted for 1 Heart and hope that partner finds a reply. This was a good decision. When partner responds to a 2 Clubs bid with anything other than 2 Diamonds we lose bidding space too fast. His reply was 1 Spade, and somehow I miss the Splinter bid of 4 Clubs and bid 3 Spades (probably because it is a cheaper bid, but that's no excuse). Partner looked at his hand unimaginitively and bid 4 Spades, which at least takes some of the blame away from me as he should find a cue bid holding a singleton heart and A K J 5 of spades. The auction should go: 1H-1S-4C-4H-4NT-5H-6S, assuming no diamond losers (throw dummy's diamonds on hearts to set up a ruff) and hope for no more than one spade loser. It still requires a punt as you could be playing in 6 Spades with Q 6 4 3 opposite K 7 5 2 in the trump suit.
The rest of the time we judged well, as we found our Games and allowed our opponents once or twice to go to Games that came more than 1 trick down, vulnerable. There was a nice bonus when our opponents decided to Double a cold 5 Diamonds contract of mine. A good session saw us riding just below 50% overall and no more.
Falco and I had agreed anything over 50% was fine, but we soon put our ambitions higher after the way we started Round 3 (the final round). On the very first board my RHO had this Declarer problem:
A K Q
4 2
10 9 7 3
K 8 5 2
9 8
A K 10 8 7 6
A K 6
7 4
6 Hearts, Jack of Spades led.
Obviously, this is a bad contract. Even if the Ace of Clubs is onside, hearts still have to be played for no losers. There are two ways to do this: play for RHO to have QJx, or play for either defender to have QJ doubleton. Those of you who know your bridge odds will know that the former line is almost 2% more likely to work a priori, and the former line gains further once you've actually played a small heart from dummy at trick 2 and RHO follows small. When the 10 holds, Declarer has to draw trumps, piching a small club on the third round, and then hope the club finesse works.
It so happens that Declarer rose with the King on the first round, dropping my Jack. Having started this line he should stick to it, dropping my queen as well and taking the club finesse. There is no point in playing me for a singleton as he can't pick up an original holding of Q 9 5 3 with my partner anyway. As it happens, this would not have saved him, as his LHO (me) held Q J 3 of Clubs. But he would come only one off, instead of the -2 that actually resulted.
Boards 21 and 22 presented some nice Declarer hands:
10 9 3
J 4
A Q 10 5 4
Q J 2
A Q 6 4
A Q 6
9 6 2
K 8 4
3NT, 8 of Hearts led.
I have two heart tricks and can establish two clubs. There is an obvious plan here: Establish 4 diamond tricks and take your tricks before the defence can hurt you with a long suit. That saves having to play spades for more than 1 trick.
I play small from dummy, and the queen wins the trick. I run the 9 of diamonds which loses to the Jack. If the King of Hearts is returned, I have to duck a round to block the suit. Instead, a club is returned to my King, which wins. I now play a small diamond to the ten, which loses to the King, and another club comes back. Dummy wins this one, and now I cannot afford to lose a trick. With only three diamonds in total, I need the second spade trick so I finesse the queen, which holds, and claim 9.
To defeat the contract, LHO needs to lead a club from his original doubleton holding. RHO can then establish three club tricks before I can establish 9 anywhere.
J 6 2
9
A 10 8 2
A Q J 10 6
Q 7
A Q 10 8
Q 7 6 5 4 3
4
4 Diamonds Doubled, LHO cashes AK of spades then plays a small one.
The Jack of Spades wins the trick, so I play a small heart. This contract is not without danger. I play a small heart to the ace and a small diamond. The 9 appears. By finessing the ten, I guarantee no more than 1 diamond loser as losing to either honour means the trumps are divided 2-1 or 1-2 and the Ace will beat the next one. The only possible way I'd lose another is if RHO held singleton Jack and LHO has a void in clubs. That is rather less likely than the chances of LHO having started with KJ9. Hence, I finesse, and although RHO does have singleton Jack, he doesn't have a return that can hurt me and I can draw the least diamond, 1 club trick, and cross-ruff the remainder. +510 was better than 5 Diamonds making, which is important, as it can make. Declarer has to play the Queen from hand, and whether LHO covers or not, the Jack has been pinned.
Here is an actual 5 Diamond Contract I played:
A Q J 10 9 6 2
J
7
K Q 7 2
---
9 5
A Q J 10 9 8 3 2
A 10 6
Lead: Ace of Hearts.
This was played against the rudest pair in the competition. We were already behind time as one of our opponents had taken long enough to play an absoloutely frigid 5 Diamonds. I'm not sure what they were unhappy about (the fact that 3NT was a superior contract maybe?), but I don't think it warranted speaking French throughout the bidding of this board. I tried to make up the time on this one, but I was hindered in a most unusual way. LHO switched to a club, which I won with the ten, ruffed a heart and played the 2 of spades, ruffing with the 8. Of course I have the worry that LHO holds the King of diamonds plus an original 5 clubs, but I avoided the worry that RHO was void in clubs or LHO was void in spades that I'd have had by playing the Queen of Clubs and pitching a heart on the Ace of Spades, all for sake of being able to take a diamond finesse that is odds-against finding King doubleton onside. Anyway, I needn't have worried; LHO followed suit and showed out when I played the Ace of Diamonds on the next trick. It was about this time that, instead of playing a card, RHO decided to go into the tank. After a while, she decided the best thing to do was grab one of my quitted tricks and look at it. She eventually followed suit, and I played the Queen of Diamonds, and RHO goes into the tank again. Therefore, I begin to claim: "It doesn't matter when you take it; I'll get back in -" I am cut short by RHO preventing me from claiming (literally pushing back up my hand that I've tried to face) and saying "Wait!" After yet another long think, she takes the King, and thinks about what card to play back for another minute or so. I win, and put my Jack of diamonds on the table, followed immediately by the ten, nine and the rest of my hand - I wasn't going to be prevented from claiming a second time.
Incidentally, this pair came up against one of our supervisors in the next event; the Mixed(!) Pairs. I was glad that our supervisor did not show the same restraint as I did and promptly put the lady who was my RHO in her place when she did her "let's just grab one of my opponent's quitted tricks and look at it" thing again.
All in all, we did very well in this session, and I still maintain that had a difference of opinion not resulted in us being in 6 Spades Doubled -2 towards the end, we would have got 60% or more in the session. Our score was still good enough to propel us so far up the rankings that we actually earned some Greek Master Points.
I can't really say much about the Mixed Pairs. I wasn't playing in it; Falco and I decided to watch a Scottish brother-and-sister partnership in Session 1. They did very well, coming 6th overall, which netted a tidy sum of Euros. Yet more success for Scotland following on from two pairs doing well in the Open Pairs.
That just left the teams.
Unusually for this type of event, the boards for the teams were hand-dealt, which meant no hand records. If I had been playing with R, I might have had a chance of going through some of the hands, as he notes down each and every bid in the auction and that might jog my memory. As it is, I'll just give a brief report on how we did.
Scotland B did okay I felt. There were 7 rounds of eight board matches. We won four, drew two and lost only one. We were never really in the running for anything, but had never expected to be. We kept clear of the wooden spoon though.
Our Under 20 team were the top junior team in the competition - quite remarkable, since all the other junior teams were Under 25.
Oh, and I can't help but mention the fact that Versace (you know, one of the best players in the world - THAT Versace) turned up to play in the Teams. That's not the interesting thing. What was most interesting was the fact that our friends in this Irish junior squad took on Team Versace and beat them. The match basically swung on a Grand Slam board which, if told right, will work it's way into the stuff of legend. I'll leave that to Wayne.
So we had quite a few players going up to collect prizes at the Gala dinner. The gala dinner was actually held outside at night; unthinkable in Scotland - but Greece is a country where you can tell whether or not there is any chance of rain based on what month it is, leaving a relaxed and pleasant al fresco atmosphere.
I haven't yet mentioned yet another aspect of this week that made the experience so positive - lessons from Krystof Martens. The SBU had said that this was one of the reasons we were going: attendance was compulsory. The compulsion was un-necessary; none of us were going to miss this. There were two lessons; the first being a session of play 8 boards normally and then analyse them. Much of it was about bidding to the right contract and this was one that we got wrong:
---
K 7 3
Q J 9 5 4
A 10 9 8 3
9 7 5 3
A Q 4
A K 10 2
K 6
I had the top hand; Falco the bottom hand. Falco is Dealer.
This was a pity as we had the methods to cope with this. Falco opens 1NT; pretty straight forward. The auction continues (with the opps passing) 2C-2S-3C. I have now shown a GF hand with at least 5-5 in the minors (Non-Prom Stayman followed by 3 Clubs). Unfortunately, Falco does not remember this, so the auction does not continue 3D-3H-4C-4D-4H-4NT-5D-7D as it would if the convention was remembered.
The second lesson was all about Declarer contracts at Teams. I'll end this post with four of them: one I got wrong (I noticed immediately after it was too late), one I got right, and two that were given as problems to take away and study (although the answers are not hard to work out).
7 6 2
8 7 6
J 9 8
A Q 4 2
A J 5 3
A J 9
A K 5 4
K J
3NT by South, 3 of Diamonds led. You play the 8 and RHO plays the 6.
J 7
5 4
Q J 10
K Q J 9 5 4
K 9 6 5
A K J
A 6 5
10 3 2
3NT by South, 3 of Diamonds led. Whatever you play from dummy, RHO plays the 8.
A 3
10 5
K 8 5 4 2
A K 8 3
K J 9
K 9 7 6
A Q 6
6 5 4
3NT by South, 5 of Spades led.
A Q 3
A J 5 3
K 4 2
A 8 3
K J 9
K 7 6
A 7 6
6 5 4 2
3NT by South, King of Clubs led.
Sunday 16 September 2012
Central District Congress 2012
This last* weekend saw my second visit to the Central District Congress in Montrose. I enjoyed the Congress last year, and was very much looking forward to another go. Last year, I was playing with lessurl in the pairs and teams, with McLeod Senior as a team-mate. After a reshuffle for this year, necessitated by retaining only 3 of our four players from last year, McLeod Senior was my partner for this Congress. We hoped to emulate last year's performance with qualification for the Finals of both events, although not the final placing of last year's Teams Final.
The campaign started on Friday night with pairs qualification. Three sections of ten tables, operating a Mitchell movement. The top two pairs in each direction would make the Final - a tough ask.
We started proceedings with a 4 Spade Contract that should come down 3. As Declarer, I managed to scrounge two tricks more, going one off. The next two boards were played by our opponents, who did not make their contracts but according to Deep Finesse should have. I'm not complaining. The second round was all right score-wise but I don't want to draw attention to it, so I'll quickly move on to Board 1, which we got in the third round. 5 Diamonds Doubled off two is a good save against a 6 Spade Contract that the opponents are unlikely to find. It was still a good save against Game. We followed this up by allowing 12 tricks to make on Board 2 for one more overtrick than the opponents were entitled to. I then got my first contract that I actually had a chance of making - a 1 Spade Contract, making with an overtrick.
We had a good round 4, with two good scores already in the bag before I got this, my favourite play of the evening:
954
1076
AK95
KJ4
AQ1062
3
J104
A983
I am playing this in 3 Spades, after an auction where RHO opened the bidding with 1 Diamond.
The 8 of diamonds is led. The finesse is marked for failure, so I rise with the Ace and run the 9 of spades. This loses to the King, and LHO switches to a club, allowing me to play for a tenth trick that isn't there. I play the Jack, but the queen covers, so I win in hand and lay down the Ace of trumps to see if the marked spade finesse is necessary. It isn't, so I draw the last trump and play the Jack of Diamonds, overtaking with the King. I then play a small diamond off table. Holding Q6, RHO does not rise with the queen, placing the 10 with partner. She therefore believes that playing the queen will promote my 9. A reasonable assumption (assuming you don't have agreements detailing what cards in partners suit you show), which is why I played for it.
That was about it for a dull but disappointing set. There were far too many silly mistakes from our side to even contemplate qualifying; in fact we took the top qualifying spot for the Second Consolation Pairs Final.
On to Saturday then. The afternoon session was the qualifying session for the Teams. We were in a section of eleven teams; 3 would qualify for the Main Final. That was our target. We wouldn't play everyone; eight 3 board matches was all we had to prove our worth.
Things started well enough. Our opponents missed a Game on the first board (all right, so partner opened, and they only had 18 points between them, but they also have a 7-2 fit. Game relies solely on the King of trumps lying onside, which it did - singleton. It was a benefit of playing with team-mates who can be trusted to bid their Games. Of course, they don't always make their contracts, but they bid them often enough. On the very next board our opponents have 12 tricks in spades - provided the hand that will open 1 Spade in the majority of systems plays it. However, missing an Ace as well as the King of trumps, it is unlikely to be bid. We were still happy to write -480 on the score card. On the third board, partner made 11 tricks in 3NT which would in the fullness of time gain 2 IMPs as part of a 14-6 win.
On board 1 (the first of the next set), Deep Finesse can make 3 Clubs with an overtrick, but our opponents came 4 off. I can't remember how this happened and the hand record doesn't suggest anything. Board 2 should be flat but wasn't, so we were already 24-0 up on IMPs before the board that our team-mates thought would lose the match. Our opponents had missed Slam, but our team mates had missed Game (a bid intended as GF with slam interest not being interpreted as such and passed), so we had to settle for 17 VPs.
Onwards to Board 5.
Q432
Q8
J105
K854
J5
A10753
K64
Q63
Can you see how I can make 2 Hearts here on a club lead? No? Well, that's because I can't. I was however happy to settle for -1 when the opponents could:
a) Take us 4 off (vulnerable) if they find the following defence: RHO wins Trick 1 with the ace, returns a diamond to the AQ with his partner, who takes these two tricks and returns a diamond for a ruff. My RHO can then give my LHO a club ruff, before getting played back in with the Ace of Spades for another club ruff. The defence must still get two more: The King of Spades and King of Hearts, which started on my left with J42 for company.
b) Make 4 Spades.
Let's skip to the next interesting board - board 10. Second in, partner opens 1 Spade and I hold:
10
AQ93
1098743
82
RHO overcalls 2 Hearts and I smoothly pass until they get to 4, at which point I produce a double. Am I sure that we'll beat it? What I am sure of is that our team mates will be in 4 Hearts too, so I am not taking any chances. If this makes, and our team mates make it undoubled, it will be a loss of 5 IMPs. I stand to lose more than that if there is a big score in the offering. I lead the ten of spades. Dummy is:
87
754
J5
AQ9754
Partner plays the King, which is beaten by the Ace. At this point, Declarer looks at her own hand that includes the A2 doubleton of diamonds and singleton 3 of clubs, and decides to "try and make the contract". She takes the club finesse, which fails, leading to one more off than she should be and +1100 for us. Our team-mates did considerably better in the same contract and we scored 14 IMPs. The next board (with an unknown 14-0 lead for us to be) is a Declarer problem:
8
A10732
A754
1086
Q765
J5
KQJ10
AK4
Your LHO (me) leads Ace of Spades and switches to a low club. Assuming you will play the 8 and RHO the 9, how do you make this contract of 5 Diamonds?
It would have been more difficult if I had switched to a diamond. Either way, the trick is to establish the heart suit for one loser before you draw trumps when they break 4-1. The way to do that is play the Jack from hand and small from dummy whatever LHO plays. If LHO has played Queen or King, you finesse against the other one - a 25% chance. This preserves a heart to pitch a losing club.
However, there is a catch: my club switch was nearly disastrous as I held the 9. Fortunately, Declarer played the 10, and for some reason drew the diamonds (of which my partner had 4), coming 1 off. This was flat when our team mates came off in the usually-more-sensible spot of 3NT. I did have both heart honours so the correct line would have made.
That was about it for interesting boards (although I could argue that every board was interesting, but I don't want to write them all up). 112 VPs out of 160 was enough to qualify for the final.
I've lost my score card for the Pairs Final, and not through choice. We sailed through and won the Second Consolation Pairs after walking on water on a number of boards. But don't let the name of the event fool you - the field had its share of strong players that I would never have expected to see there. So, we'd won something; what could we do in the Final?
Having a fairly par scorecard was not good enough to win the first match we played. The first board of the next was one of the highlights of the event for me:
Q10
K98
AQJ92
853
Game All, and first in, I open 1 Diamond (shows 5 diamonds in our system). LHO and partner pass, but RHO says 1 Spade. I pass, and LHO bids 1NT. For reasons best known to himself, my RHO now bids 3NT holding this hand-to-be-dummy:
AKJ96
Q5
1074
QJ10
This is a great bid, when we consider the definition of a "good" bid to be "a bad bid made at the right time". He will find partner completely maximum for his 1NT bid. So, my partner leads the 8 of diamonds. I pause to plan the defence, and when that is done, I produce the 9 of diamonds. I know we have to lose a diamond trick, and I want to lose it early, while partner may still hold another. I need him to have an entry to play diamonds, since I don't have any (unless partner has the Ace of Hearts, but I can't rely on that). Declarer wins with the King on Trick 1. He holds AK64 of clubs (although he is the only one that knows this), so he just needs 4 tricks from spades - and me not to get in at any stage.
He cashes one round of spades with me smoothly dropping the Queen. He now returns to hand with a club and takes what he thinks is a marked finesse against the ten. This is my reward for the False Card as I calmly take the 10 and begin cashing diamonds. This defence is 100% correct - if I play the 10 on the first round, most Declarers will play for the drop on the second round. The fact I am a danger hand with an opening bid, and theory of restricted choice all point to this play. Therefore, my only hope is to drop the Queen and hope Declarer places 105432 with my partner.
After running diamonds, the fun wasn't over. I realise that the only hope for more tricks is in hearts, since Declarer discarded one on the diamonds and partner didn't. So I switch to a small one. Partner wins with the Ace and returns a heart to my King. I return my third heart and Declarer shows out. Excellent; the rest of the tricks are ours since partner can have nothing but hearts left. Partner overtakes with the Jack and plays the 4 - I was expecting the 10, but it really doesn't matter what order he plays them. However, the reason he hasn't played the 10 is that Declarer suddenly produces it. When the revoke is corrected, we get one more trick and my partner runs out of hearts on trick 13. Still, 5 off will do: +500 = 12 IMPs when our team mates make a part score. That board alone won the match as we shipped on the other two boards.
The third match went against us when we lost a part score battle on the third board. We'd hoped it would've been won by then: our opponents bid only one of the two slams available on the previous boards, and we expected our team-mates to get both of them (not because we have high standards, but because they like bidding slams). On board 19 I was furious when partner didn't spot the opportunity to take down a 4 Heart contract, but luckily we should never have had that opportunity in the first place so this board, like the other two in the match, were flat. Still, a 16-4 win would've been much better than a 10-10 draw.
Board 26 was a bidding problem:
A9
K
KQJ65
A6532
8
AQ752
A108743
Q
The top hand is the West hand, bottom East. East is Dealer at Game All. Suggested auction here? (By the way, sitting North I threw in a pre-emptive 3 Spades). The intention of the 3 Spades bid is to throw a spanner in the works for the auction. That's exactly what it does. Our opponents didn't only miss the Grand; they missed Slam and played in 5 Diamonds. Our team mates proved their slam credentials by finding 7 Diamonds for 17 IMPs. When the same team-mates then passed out the next board and our opponents bid all the way to 4 Hearts (not making), we won 20-0.
There was still time for our team-mates to prove they liked to bid; they found a slam that wasn't bid at our table and they also found a good sacrifice which gained 3 IMPs. 5 wins and a draw out of 8 matches was enough for 3rd place, which we were very pleased with.
The Central District Congress was as vibrant, enjoyable and as well-organised as ever, so it would be churlish of me not to say so here. Well done and huge thanks to all those who helped make it happen.
* It was "last weekend" when I started writing this. I have since been to Rhodes and back, so hopefully there will be another post to come soon. Another two in fact - there is another post about 12-14NT waiting to be finished in my drafts. One day I will get caught up!
The campaign started on Friday night with pairs qualification. Three sections of ten tables, operating a Mitchell movement. The top two pairs in each direction would make the Final - a tough ask.
We started proceedings with a 4 Spade Contract that should come down 3. As Declarer, I managed to scrounge two tricks more, going one off. The next two boards were played by our opponents, who did not make their contracts but according to Deep Finesse should have. I'm not complaining. The second round was all right score-wise but I don't want to draw attention to it, so I'll quickly move on to Board 1, which we got in the third round. 5 Diamonds Doubled off two is a good save against a 6 Spade Contract that the opponents are unlikely to find. It was still a good save against Game. We followed this up by allowing 12 tricks to make on Board 2 for one more overtrick than the opponents were entitled to. I then got my first contract that I actually had a chance of making - a 1 Spade Contract, making with an overtrick.
We had a good round 4, with two good scores already in the bag before I got this, my favourite play of the evening:
954
1076
AK95
KJ4
AQ1062
3
J104
A983
I am playing this in 3 Spades, after an auction where RHO opened the bidding with 1 Diamond.
The 8 of diamonds is led. The finesse is marked for failure, so I rise with the Ace and run the 9 of spades. This loses to the King, and LHO switches to a club, allowing me to play for a tenth trick that isn't there. I play the Jack, but the queen covers, so I win in hand and lay down the Ace of trumps to see if the marked spade finesse is necessary. It isn't, so I draw the last trump and play the Jack of Diamonds, overtaking with the King. I then play a small diamond off table. Holding Q6, RHO does not rise with the queen, placing the 10 with partner. She therefore believes that playing the queen will promote my 9. A reasonable assumption (assuming you don't have agreements detailing what cards in partners suit you show), which is why I played for it.
That was about it for a dull but disappointing set. There were far too many silly mistakes from our side to even contemplate qualifying; in fact we took the top qualifying spot for the Second Consolation Pairs Final.
On to Saturday then. The afternoon session was the qualifying session for the Teams. We were in a section of eleven teams; 3 would qualify for the Main Final. That was our target. We wouldn't play everyone; eight 3 board matches was all we had to prove our worth.
Things started well enough. Our opponents missed a Game on the first board (all right, so partner opened, and they only had 18 points between them, but they also have a 7-2 fit. Game relies solely on the King of trumps lying onside, which it did - singleton. It was a benefit of playing with team-mates who can be trusted to bid their Games. Of course, they don't always make their contracts, but they bid them often enough. On the very next board our opponents have 12 tricks in spades - provided the hand that will open 1 Spade in the majority of systems plays it. However, missing an Ace as well as the King of trumps, it is unlikely to be bid. We were still happy to write -480 on the score card. On the third board, partner made 11 tricks in 3NT which would in the fullness of time gain 2 IMPs as part of a 14-6 win.
On board 1 (the first of the next set), Deep Finesse can make 3 Clubs with an overtrick, but our opponents came 4 off. I can't remember how this happened and the hand record doesn't suggest anything. Board 2 should be flat but wasn't, so we were already 24-0 up on IMPs before the board that our team-mates thought would lose the match. Our opponents had missed Slam, but our team mates had missed Game (a bid intended as GF with slam interest not being interpreted as such and passed), so we had to settle for 17 VPs.
Onwards to Board 5.
Q432
Q8
J105
K854
J5
A10753
K64
Q63
Can you see how I can make 2 Hearts here on a club lead? No? Well, that's because I can't. I was however happy to settle for -1 when the opponents could:
a) Take us 4 off (vulnerable) if they find the following defence: RHO wins Trick 1 with the ace, returns a diamond to the AQ with his partner, who takes these two tricks and returns a diamond for a ruff. My RHO can then give my LHO a club ruff, before getting played back in with the Ace of Spades for another club ruff. The defence must still get two more: The King of Spades and King of Hearts, which started on my left with J42 for company.
b) Make 4 Spades.
Let's skip to the next interesting board - board 10. Second in, partner opens 1 Spade and I hold:
10
AQ93
1098743
82
RHO overcalls 2 Hearts and I smoothly pass until they get to 4, at which point I produce a double. Am I sure that we'll beat it? What I am sure of is that our team mates will be in 4 Hearts too, so I am not taking any chances. If this makes, and our team mates make it undoubled, it will be a loss of 5 IMPs. I stand to lose more than that if there is a big score in the offering. I lead the ten of spades. Dummy is:
87
754
J5
AQ9754
Partner plays the King, which is beaten by the Ace. At this point, Declarer looks at her own hand that includes the A2 doubleton of diamonds and singleton 3 of clubs, and decides to "try and make the contract". She takes the club finesse, which fails, leading to one more off than she should be and +1100 for us. Our team-mates did considerably better in the same contract and we scored 14 IMPs. The next board (with an unknown 14-0 lead for us to be) is a Declarer problem:
8
A10732
A754
1086
Q765
J5
KQJ10
AK4
Your LHO (me) leads Ace of Spades and switches to a low club. Assuming you will play the 8 and RHO the 9, how do you make this contract of 5 Diamonds?
It would have been more difficult if I had switched to a diamond. Either way, the trick is to establish the heart suit for one loser before you draw trumps when they break 4-1. The way to do that is play the Jack from hand and small from dummy whatever LHO plays. If LHO has played Queen or King, you finesse against the other one - a 25% chance. This preserves a heart to pitch a losing club.
However, there is a catch: my club switch was nearly disastrous as I held the 9. Fortunately, Declarer played the 10, and for some reason drew the diamonds (of which my partner had 4), coming 1 off. This was flat when our team mates came off in the usually-more-sensible spot of 3NT. I did have both heart honours so the correct line would have made.
That was about it for interesting boards (although I could argue that every board was interesting, but I don't want to write them all up). 112 VPs out of 160 was enough to qualify for the final.
I've lost my score card for the Pairs Final, and not through choice. We sailed through and won the Second Consolation Pairs after walking on water on a number of boards. But don't let the name of the event fool you - the field had its share of strong players that I would never have expected to see there. So, we'd won something; what could we do in the Final?
Having a fairly par scorecard was not good enough to win the first match we played. The first board of the next was one of the highlights of the event for me:
Q10
K98
AQJ92
853
Game All, and first in, I open 1 Diamond (shows 5 diamonds in our system). LHO and partner pass, but RHO says 1 Spade. I pass, and LHO bids 1NT. For reasons best known to himself, my RHO now bids 3NT holding this hand-to-be-dummy:
AKJ96
Q5
1074
QJ10
This is a great bid, when we consider the definition of a "good" bid to be "a bad bid made at the right time". He will find partner completely maximum for his 1NT bid. So, my partner leads the 8 of diamonds. I pause to plan the defence, and when that is done, I produce the 9 of diamonds. I know we have to lose a diamond trick, and I want to lose it early, while partner may still hold another. I need him to have an entry to play diamonds, since I don't have any (unless partner has the Ace of Hearts, but I can't rely on that). Declarer wins with the King on Trick 1. He holds AK64 of clubs (although he is the only one that knows this), so he just needs 4 tricks from spades - and me not to get in at any stage.
He cashes one round of spades with me smoothly dropping the Queen. He now returns to hand with a club and takes what he thinks is a marked finesse against the ten. This is my reward for the False Card as I calmly take the 10 and begin cashing diamonds. This defence is 100% correct - if I play the 10 on the first round, most Declarers will play for the drop on the second round. The fact I am a danger hand with an opening bid, and theory of restricted choice all point to this play. Therefore, my only hope is to drop the Queen and hope Declarer places 105432 with my partner.
After running diamonds, the fun wasn't over. I realise that the only hope for more tricks is in hearts, since Declarer discarded one on the diamonds and partner didn't. So I switch to a small one. Partner wins with the Ace and returns a heart to my King. I return my third heart and Declarer shows out. Excellent; the rest of the tricks are ours since partner can have nothing but hearts left. Partner overtakes with the Jack and plays the 4 - I was expecting the 10, but it really doesn't matter what order he plays them. However, the reason he hasn't played the 10 is that Declarer suddenly produces it. When the revoke is corrected, we get one more trick and my partner runs out of hearts on trick 13. Still, 5 off will do: +500 = 12 IMPs when our team mates make a part score. That board alone won the match as we shipped on the other two boards.
The third match went against us when we lost a part score battle on the third board. We'd hoped it would've been won by then: our opponents bid only one of the two slams available on the previous boards, and we expected our team-mates to get both of them (not because we have high standards, but because they like bidding slams). On board 19 I was furious when partner didn't spot the opportunity to take down a 4 Heart contract, but luckily we should never have had that opportunity in the first place so this board, like the other two in the match, were flat. Still, a 16-4 win would've been much better than a 10-10 draw.
Board 26 was a bidding problem:
A9
K
KQJ65
A6532
8
AQ752
A108743
Q
The top hand is the West hand, bottom East. East is Dealer at Game All. Suggested auction here? (By the way, sitting North I threw in a pre-emptive 3 Spades). The intention of the 3 Spades bid is to throw a spanner in the works for the auction. That's exactly what it does. Our opponents didn't only miss the Grand; they missed Slam and played in 5 Diamonds. Our team mates proved their slam credentials by finding 7 Diamonds for 17 IMPs. When the same team-mates then passed out the next board and our opponents bid all the way to 4 Hearts (not making), we won 20-0.
There was still time for our team-mates to prove they liked to bid; they found a slam that wasn't bid at our table and they also found a good sacrifice which gained 3 IMPs. 5 wins and a draw out of 8 matches was enough for 3rd place, which we were very pleased with.
The Central District Congress was as vibrant, enjoyable and as well-organised as ever, so it would be churlish of me not to say so here. Well done and huge thanks to all those who helped make it happen.
* It was "last weekend" when I started writing this. I have since been to Rhodes and back, so hopefully there will be another post to come soon. Another two in fact - there is another post about 12-14NT waiting to be finished in my drafts. One day I will get caught up!
Saturday 21 July 2012
11th European Youth Pairs Championships
The 11th European Youth Pairs Championships, an Olympiad event, took place at the Hotel Vingsted, near Vejle in Denmark. Its my final year as a Junior, and I am keen to get as many events under my belt as possible, so at great personal expense I flew to Denmark to take part. The SBU funded some of the costs, notably the entry fees, but beyond that we were on our own. The royal "we" here meaning myself and my Scottish partner, R. What happened to Falco? He couldn't make it.
The event opened on a Sunday, but we didn't go then, obeying thereligious Scottish law of "Thou shalt not spend money un-necessarily", arriving on the Tuesday instead. The first two days of play (Monday-Tuesday) were given over to a Mixed Pairs event. R is not a girl, (and wearing a kilt wasn't going to convince anyone otherwise), so we weren't taking an earlier flight for an event we couldn't take part in. On the Tuesday afternoon, there was an invitational event for those who couldn't play in the Mixed, and we gladly signed up for that, keen for a warm-up before the main event starting on the Wednesday.
It was an honour to be competing alongside the cream of European Youth Bridge. Never did we imagine we would do so well in the Invitational. We made a slow start, but picked up after the first few rounds. The first hand I will give is this one:
8643
A94
Q874
AQ
AKJ
KQJ105
AK6
102
I am North (the top hand). My RHO is Dealer, and when the tray comes through from the other side of the screen, there is a Pass on it. Playing 12-14 1NT (a major compromise; see my follow up post), I open this 1NT. My LHO passes, and I push the tray through. When the tray comes back, I find that my partner has emptied the bidding box onto the tray - 7NT is his bid. Brave or foolish? Who knows.
A priori, we have 11 top tricks. A slam will make if diamonds are 3-3, or if there is a successful guess in a black suit. I need TWO of these three things to happen for me to make 7NT - about 25% for a Grand Slam; not one we should be in.
The good news is that I get a club lead. RHO rises with the King, and I win with the ace. It may be said that the lead gives away nothing, as I could take the working finesse anyway, but who is to say that would present itself in the play? I now cash five top hearts. After the lead I could see 12 top tricks from Trick 1 - now I just need to find the thirteenth in a pointed suit. Time for a pseudo-squeeze.
On the extra two hearts I am pitching two spades. So does RHO, who started with three hearts. LHO discards three clubs. I am now at this position:
Hand
86
---
Q874
Q
Dummy
AKJ
---
AK6
10
My plan is to cash the Ace of Spades, and then cash the Ace of Diamonds to the 4, King of Diamonds to the 8, then 6 of diamonds to the Queen. If diamonds are 3-3, I play a small spade to the King, return to hand with a club and take the last trick in hand for what would have been a spectacular beer. If diamonds do not break, then instead I cash the Queen of Clubs and play up to the King-Jack of spades, hoping to have a count that allows me to determine where the Queen is.
Unfortunately, for RHO, he has scuppered that plan. When I play the Ace of spades, he shows out. So now I cash my top three diamonds ending in hand, lay down the Queen of clubs followed by the 8 of spades and claim on the marked finesse. I was pleased with the outright top, but spare a thought for all the unfortunate North-South pairs who stayed in Small Slam and got a minus MP score. It's where they should be, yet one pair was Doubled and two pairs went to 7 Hearts, which also made, thus punishing those who were in the right contract.
That was in the 6th Round, and in the 7th round R kept up the cavalier bidding, and I kept on vindicating him.
K92
KQ43
AK86
J4
103
98
9532
K9865
LHO (East, my screen-mate), opens 1NT, which he alerts. I ask him the meaning and he tells me 12-14. His bid does not require an alert, but his alert did not do any harm (a massive advantage of playing with screens), so I'm not fussed. There are two passes to me, and with 16 points (I am the top hand again), I double - penalties.
This is passed, but R is understandably not confident holding only 3 points, and pulls to his 5 card suit with 2 Clubs. This is running to the most convenient spot, bidding suits up the way. I cannot know he has 5, so with 2 good 4 card suits myself, I bid 2 Diamonds.
Then the fun begins. My LHO Doubles for penalties. Knowing an 8 card fit, I think most of my partners would pass smoothly and hope for the best. But R, knowing that 2 Diamonds is not doubled into Game, finds the bid of 3 Diamonds. If they're doubling 2, they have to double 3 - and they do. 3 Diamonds Doubled is the contract.
I get the Jack of Diamonds lead. I play the 2 from dummy and RHO plays the Queen. So I win with the King and take stock. I appear to have four losers - three aces and inevitably a diamond. I am worried diamonds will break 4-1 and sink me. I can cash a diamond now in the hope of a 3-2 break, but that could spell disaster if an opponent wins with an ace and leads a diamond. So, I need to set things up. I play the 4 of clubs. Quick as a flash, LHO rises with the Ace and continues clubs with the 10 - surely he started with A10 doubleton for this play. So, I rise with the King, but what now?
I am resigned to giving LHO a ruff - happy to, in fact. I know he didn't start with a singleton (he opened 1NT), and I have to lose a diamond some time. What matters to me is that I don't lose two. I can run the 9 of clubs now, which will win if LHO started with three diamonds and 3 aces - entirely possible. Of the three missing queens, I know that RHO has two of them. Were he to have the third, LHO really should have all 3 aces and could still have them even if he held the Queen of Spades. However, running the 9 of clubs will fail if RHO holds an ace, and LHO ruffs and leads to it.
My other legitimate line is to play up to the King of Hearts. If RHO holds the ace, he can take it and give his partner a ruff, but can't get back in to give him another. If LHO holds it, he will think it better to beat my honour and keep hearts going. He is no longer interested in a ruff, because he needs a diamond stop later.
I took a view and played the 9 of clubs. RHO played the 7 (a little too fast), and I pitched a spade. I lost to a ruff as expected, and my view was wrong. LHO can kill this contract with a spade switch, but he played Ace and another heart. I won with the King and laid down the King of diamonds, drawing trumps. Now I ruff a small heart, ruff a club, ruff another small heart and pitch the 9 of spades on my last (winning) for a total of 9 tricks and an outright top.
There did come a point where the cavalier bidding asked too much of my limited Declarer skills, but by then we'd given ourselves a margin for error over the bulk of the field, finishing a very pleasing 4th at the end.
Onto the main event. We had quite a clear target for the qualifiers - 49th place. In other words, don't come bottom. That was an extremely difficult task. Several things counted against us:
1. System. We were playing an absolutely diabolical system, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. There is little chance of R being offended by this, as he knows full well my opinion. We were about the only pair (apart from our opponents above) playing a 12-14NT, and my feelings about 12-14NT are a matter of public record. The system around it was basic and ill-equipped for the rigours of International competition. We were hoping the simplicity would compensate, and in fairness, at times, it did.
2. Preparation. We were in a completely different scenario from when I played at the White House. R and I hadn't been able to practice nearly as much. All in all there was little time to get anything but the basics sorted; the White House system and the Denmark system are chalk and cheese.
3. Prepared methods. We had none. Absolutely criminal at International level. But again, it was a matter of time, and the lack of it that we had.
4. Experience. Both of us had played at this level before, but not together. Establishing a partnership style was something that could only be done the more boards we played.
5. Luck. Yes, we were desperately unlucky in the qualifiers and I won't hear otherwise. I'm not saying bad luck ruined our card, but I am saying we could comfortably have achieved our target with room to spare had our share of the luck been an equal one. In the 8 sessions, 4 Grand Slams were on. We were on the defending side each time - and our opponents bid them, even on one occasion where it relies on a working finesse.
I could continue the list; you get the idea.
Here was the first judgement decision for me:
---
A J 10 5 3
A 5 2
A K 10 7 6
LHO Partner RHO Me
Pass Pass 1S 2H
3S Pass 4S 5C
Pass 5H 5S ?
Opps Vulnerable
If anyone can advise me how I should have gone about getting this call right, I'd be very happy to listen (not least because I got it wrong, as is my want).
There were other interesting scores in Session 1 - one of which I am saving for my next post (it was a bottom). We had an outright top on the very next board, which was pleasing in terms of resilience but in all fairness, it was a result of a hideous misjudgement from our opponents rather than anything we did. There's nothing else worth writing up.
I'll give one board from session 2, a hand that I "got wrong" but at least have a decent argument that I "played right".
J 10 4 3
A 9 8 2
10 8 6
Q 7
K Q 2
K Q 7 5
9 4
A K 9 2
I have the top hand again, playing 4 Hearts.
LHO leads the King and then Jack of Diamonds, his partner following with the 5 and 2. On Trick 3, he plays the Queen.
I have lost two tricks and I'm surely going to lose a spade. So I cannot afford to lose a heart trick. I am almost certain that RHO has no diamonds left, so the question is what card do I ruff with?
Gut instinct is telling me to ruff with the Queen. RHO probably has either the Jack or the Ten. But let's work this out, I tell myself. There are two options.
Option A: Ruff with the Queen. I now need to drop J10 doubleton with RHO or find LHO with a singleton Jack or Ten. Note that J10 doubleton with RHO is no good to me. Whilst it is true that I could still catch it by cashing King and Ace, I'm not going to. After cashing the King, if I see LHO play the 10 or Jack, I will finesse through RHO. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, Theory of Restricted Choice dictates that after I see LHO play Jack or Ten, the other is with RHO. Secondly, Theory of available spaces suggests longer hearts with RHO. And thirdly, J10 doubleton offside is a distribution that will be picked up by ruffing with the 7. Mathematically the success of this line is just below 10%, plus a bit more weight by Theory of Available Spaces.
Option B: Ruff with the 7. I now need J10x offside in hearts. A priori odds for two specific cards being offside is 25%. But arguably that's not the way I should calculate it - West will have exactly 3 cards in hearts (I can't afford him to have 4) 33.91% of the time. However, only 3 of the ten possible holdings are any good to me, so that is 11.73%.
It's a close one. Obviously at the table I can't remember the percentages to two decimal places - and how do I factor in Theory of Available Spaces? In the end I took the line that was technically right but felt wrong - Option B. LHO had the singleton Jack of Hearts. Grr.
This brought us to lunch-time on Wednesday, with us already down to 49th place - in other words, we had no margin for error in terms of achieving our target. Onwards and (we hoped) upwards.
Things started well in session 3 - I made a 3NT contract for 68.75% on Board 1. Board 2 brought a shockingly bad 10.42% when we bid and made 6 Clubs, played by R. 13 tricks makes if your name is Deep Finesse, but given an offside 4-1 trump split, I don't know how so many people can make 7 Clubs. Nor do I know how they make slam in another denomination (if that's what happened) - Deep Finesse says it can't be done, so it must be true. And the less said about the rest of the session, the better.
Session 4 saw four doubled contracts, resulting in scores of 200, 300 and two 800s for the defenders. We were the defenders on just one of the four occasions unfortunately. And that was the 200. The -300 I thought was a reasonable attempt - 5 Clubs Doubled is a save against 4 Spades the other way. Granted, 4 Spades doesn't make IF (and only if) West leads from Kx doubleton in hearts.
So, overnight we were sitting bottom. That was bad news. But if there was good news to be had, it was that we were bottom early - being bottom now as opposed to later gave us a chance to change our tactics and time to escape the bottom. At least, I'm going to claim there was a change of tactics - and yes, of course the master plan to get off bottom was all my idea. (If it hadn't worked I wouldn't have said that).
Board 5 was one of the most banal sessions of International Bridge imaginable. 50% would have been a reasonable return, but we don't get reasonable returns, so we got 36.04% - 45th out of 50 for the session and still 50th overall. At this point I wonder if anything can be done to save us. One only has to look at board 6 - a bog standard 3NT played by me that can make no more than 11 tricks - until I get a favourable lead and make 12. That was enough for 4 out of 48 Match Points. I mean what?
Session 6 I don't have hand records for, but again it was a case of playing okay and scoring badly. This set did include yet another Grand Slam that we happened to be sitting against. So we were still sitting bottom with two sessions to go.
Session 7 did not start great. What bid would you make with R's hand here?
K 3
K J 6
A K 9 4
A K 7 6
You are Red v Green.
LHO is Dealer, and opens 2 Spades (weak, 5+ spades, 4+ minor)
Your partner bids 3 Diamonds. RHO says 3 Spades. Your bid.
R and I had a "difference of opinion" on this board, but before we started the next board, we were in agreement. On board 7, West (we were NS) can make 12 tricks in NT, so we were disappointed that -690 was a bad score. Of course, it is a lot easier to defend 6NT than 3NT (more likely to make a costly lead against 3), and I imagine that those who went to 6 came down, as it does require the DF goggles.
Then I'm in 3NT (from the bottom hand, for a change)
Q J 9
7
K Q 9 7 3
K 9 6 4
K 10 5 3
K 10 9 8 6 4
4 2
A
Red against Green, Jack of Hearts led. I really wish I could remember the play of this hand, because I made 9 tricks for an outright top. If it comes back to me, I'll edit this.
When the dust settled on Session 7, we still couldn't get a >50% session, but we were 33rd in the round which put us 49th overall. Having been less satisfied with our play in Session 7 than I was in Session 6, I was happy with that. But had we "peaked" too soon? We still had another session to go. But 33rd was the highest placing we'd had for one session in the event, so there was room for some optimism.
Onto session 8, and here was the first hand we picked up (me North, R South)
A K 9 3 2
J 10 9 2
---
A Q J 4
Q 10 5
A 4
Q 10 2
K 10 8 6 2
R decided to Pass as Dealer. I opened 1 Spade, and partner said 2 Clubs. This does not deny 3 spades, but I can see a 9 card fit in clubs as opposed to at best an 8 card fit in spades. This looks like a hand where ruffs will be important. For better or worse, I chose 4 Diamonds. R bids 4 Hearts (Italian Cue). If I bid 4 Spades now, R will definitely say 5 Clubs, which is no use to me. I could say 4NT, but playing 1430, R would be committed to saying 5 Diamonds (and thereby as far as 6 Clubs) with 0 Key Cards - which there is just room for him to have. I bid 6 Clubs.
13 tricks are there on the lie of the cards. I couldn't count them out in the bidding though, and R did only make 12 tricks, so I'm happy with the 72.92% we got for 6 Clubs=. The next board got us 89.58% - a 1NT contract by our opponents that couldn't make.
After that solid start, I was hopeful of holding out for at least 50% and staying off bottom. This board didn't help:
J 8 5
A K 10 9 7 6 5 2
10 2
---
A 4
Q 8 4
A Q 5 4
A K 5 2
Which hand did I have this time? Neither of these! Our Polish opponents bid 7NT by the bottom hand with this. Declarer can pseudo squeeze to his heart's content, but the bottom line is always going to be the diamond finesse - which works.
It may seem churlish of me to bemoan this 50% Grand when I had a lesser one earlier. But then, I wasn't the one that bid that. R was the one whose job it was to go get the results sheet. I went for the big screen - and was relieved to see that we had actually moved up another place to 48th. That was a much better finish than it had been looking like for some time.
The plan was that we would be more competitive in the President's Cup. The standard of opposition was still as high as in the Qualifiers, but the "better" players would be playing in the finals, which in theory would give us slightly more of a chance.
In session 1 , the pick of the boards as far as I can see was this:
A Q 5 4
9 4
Q 10 8 3
Q 6 5
K 7
10 8 3
A K 9
A J 4 3 2
R holds the bottom hand and he plays this in 5 Clubs, Queen of Hearts led.
This isn't too good a contract. There are two clear heart losers. So R must somehow not lose a club. If he was on lead, then he would have an obvious play for this (even if it doesn't work), but the opening lead is made by the opponents.
North leads the Queen of Hearts. South holds the following hand:
10 9
A K J 7 6 5 2
J 5
A 10
It is easy to work out what South should do at Trick 1 - overtake. When that holds, he should cash another heart. As it happens, he will see his partner pitch. Now what?
The key is in the club suit. Declarer surely has AJxxx. When Declarer gets in, therefore, he will make all the club tricks - a finesse of the Jack followed by the Ace, dropping the King. There is nothing South can do if Declarer holds the 9, but he has a chance if not. If he plays another club now, Declarer will have to ruff in dummy. Declarer can take the finesse and drop the King, but if North had 9xx he will make the 9, as the queen must also fall under the ace. I'm sure there's a technical name for this, but I'll just say trump promotion.
When South failed to find this defence, R made 11 tricks and 95.16% on the board.
We finished the 1st session with a whopping 54.56%. It was the first time (apart from the Tuesday Invitational) that we had gone a session above average and this gave us hope that we could actually do quite well here. Unfortunately, the wheels came off in Session 2.
We started by missing a solid Slam. The surprise was that we got as much as 41% for that. We then followed it up with a good board by doing - nothing. The board was passed out, which accumulated 91% for us. Granted, there was a lot in the session we were not happy with (I can't really go into any constructive detail), but there was misfortune as well - 41% on a board does not seem a reasonable return for our opponents missing a solid 3NT contract. All in all, this one bad session cost us dearly, putting us 55th out of 60.
Onto session 3. and we started against a very impressive young Danish pair. They were aged 11 and 9(!) years old. Two players playing on an International stage at an age that I had not even started to play - and I think most bridge players across the world will be able to say that. They could be future World Champions in the making (you heard it here first), and if so our first board against them will be one to tell the Grandchildren when they are - well, the age these boys are now. By the way: Yes, I have their names, and No, I am not going to publish them on a publicly viewable blog.
This was my hand (All Vul):
---
K 9 8 5 2
9 7 4 2
A 8 7 2
Second in, I pass. LHO opens 1 Spade. R overcalls 1NT. Having seen his hand, I don't agree with this bid, but never mind. RHO passes, so I bid 2 Diamonds, and R completes the transfer to 2 Hearts. This is passed around to my LHO, who enquires about a spade stop - via the intermediary of his English speaking partner (this event did not have screens). On finding out R has at least one stop, he bids 2 Spades. R bids 3 Hearts now. RHO enters the fray with 3 Spades, which is passed around to R, who now bids 4 Hearts. I now expect one of our opponents to double - the auction practically demands it. In so doing, they'll wander straight into a trap. More on that later. But RHO bids 4 Spades. We decide enough is enough and double.
R leads the 10 of Clubs. Dummy is:
J 9 8 4
6 3
J 3
Q 9 6 5 3
The 9 year old Declarer plays the 3 from dummy, and I rise with the Ace. Declarer plays the King. What now? First, I start placing the points. R has to have the two major aces. He has no points in clubs, which probably means a tenace in the diamonds - that looks more likely than a spade tenace. The plan develops. Has R led from a singleton, despite his 1NT bid? Or is it doubleton? If it is a singleton, I need to give him a ruff now, get back in with the King of Hearts, and switch to a diamond to play through Declarer. If Declarer has a second heart, we will come to 7 tricks - a club, club ruff, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and a natural spade trick. Giving a second ruff instead of the diamond switch would endplay partner. If the lead is from a doubleton however, I need to switch to the 9 of diamonds now, as I will need the King entry to give a club ruff after R sets it up.
I play the 8 of clubs. R does get his ruff. He trusts my suit preference signal and plays a low heart, getting me in ASAP just in case Declarer has a singleton. Declarer does of course drop the Jack. I make the diamond switch and R gets his two diamonds. Unfortunately, he is fooled by Declarer's false card and does not cash a heart trick, meaning he never gets it. We had to settle for 800 instead of 1100. There was some nice play from Declarer - unblocking the King of Clubs with K J 4, which might also have succeeded in fooling East into misreading the club situation. Then the Jack of Hearts false card, which fooled nobody except the intended victim.
4 Hearts Doubled would have collected a neat +1190 for us. For those of you who know your contract scores, you will know that means there were actually 12 tricks available for us in hearts - we'd missed a Slam. Of course, I thought I was sitting opposite a balanced 15-17 hand with wasted values in spades, so we're not getting there, but on another day the smooth pass of 2 Hearts works a treat. Of course, one has to be confident that one's opponents will re-open. But these particular opponents took the not-very-obvious sacrifice. Well done boys, with the benefit of hindsight you deserved more than the 12.9% you scored on that board.
The second board against them:
A 9 7 6 5
A J 5 2
A Q J 2
---
As Dealer with this hand, I open 1 Spade. There are two passes then 2 Clubs on my right. A perfect opportunity for me to bid 2 Hearts, showing my hand. LHO bids 3 Clubs, which is passed around to me. A perfect opportunity to bid 3 Diamonds. I wonder if R has got the message yet? One of the opponents bids 4 Clubs, R still shows no interest in bidding and I am obliged to pass now, having got the opponents to a Contract of Death.
I get my 3 aces and R has the King of Diamonds to take it one off for +50 and thank you very mu- wait a minute... let me see your hand R:
J 8 4 2
9 8 7 4
K 5 4
6 4
Yep, 4 Spades is an easy make. On the lie of the cards, not even I could have messed it up. Add that to our list of missed Games. The third round continued with nothing to report except another missed Game - by the opponents, and we seemed to be hitting the optimum spots. I fail to see how we only got 43% for a session that seemed to go very well. At least we went up two places overall.
Round 4 started badly, with R going to 3 Hearts unsupported and getting doubled for -200. But then a good (yet boring) result on the next board gave us hope. On to boards 3 and 4 - two boards against Kelan O' Connor and Richard Boyd of Ireland. It was a tale of two 3NT contracts, and of some deceptive defence by R.
9 2
Q 6 5
A 8 7
K Q 9 6 5
K Q 5 3
K 8 7
K J 10 6 2
10
Richard is playing 3NT by the bottom hand, with me on his left and R on his right. The bidding started with Kelan and went: 1C-P-1D-1S-X-2H-3NT-End. I lead the Jack of Hearts.
Declarer needs to assume he'll get the diamond guess right and reel in 5 tricks there. The difficulty is making 4 elsewhere. The clubs seem to be the best bet. A good club guess will set up a total of 4 club tricks on the actual lie. The next thing to sort out is the hearts. Initially playing the Queen to knock out the ace and block the suit looks the way to play, but Richard looks deeper. R bid hearts on the second round missing the King, Queen and Jack. It is quite likely he has 6. So, if he ducks in dummy and wins with the king, he creates a second heart trick if R ever plays them. And if I don't have any hearts, I'll be endplayed whenever I get in.
Richard decides on this line. He wins with the King and runs the ten of clubs, which holds. I have ducked with AJ8 in the hope he'd rise with the King and give me two club tricks instead of one. But no, Richard plays the Jack of diamonds, overtakes with the ace and plays a small diamond. R plays the queen, so now he can run diamonds. After that, he has to exit a spade. Unfortunately for him, I hold a second heart, which I play after I cash my two black aces, taking the contract 2 off.
9 8
Q 7
Q 8 3 2
A K J 5 3
Q 10 7
A K 10 3 2
A K
7 6 2
Kelan is playing 3NT by the bottom hand (no opposition bidding this time). The 3 of spades is led, to the 8, King and 7. I return the 5, which goes through to R's Jack. R cashes his ace, with me unblocking the 6 with a diamond pitch from Kelan, followed by another round of spades. Kelan pitches a club from dummy and from hand. As I actually held 4 spades, we have 4 tricks - one short of our target.
R switches to the 10 of clubs. Kelan certainly doesn't need to risk a finesse now, as he can hope for 4 hearts and 3 diamonds. So he rises with the King, cashes the AK of diamonds and crosses to the Queen of hearts. He plays a heart, hoping they will run, but I show out, so he cashes his Ace and King to come to this position:
---
---
Q
K J
---
10 3
---
7
He plays the 7 of clubs, obviously. R plays the 9. Now he is on a guess. Did R lead the ten of clubs from 109x or Q109? Normally it is top of nothing, but R may be trying to fool him into thinking that is what he has so that he wrongly plays for the drop. After all, if R had 109x, he should still be playing the 9 on the second round to make it hard.
Kelan gets it right - he finesses and makes 9. This was still a good board for us as 4 Hearts is the superior contract despite the bad trump break.
If only Kelan had cashed the Queen of diamonds before playing back to his hearts, he wouldn't have had to guess. R started with 4-4-2-3. The Queen of Diamonds would have caught him in a Guard Squeeze. If he pitches a heart, he unguards them, thus losing them all. Or he can pitch a club and the queen will drop when Kelan is forced to play them. However, that is a post-mortem analysis. It wasn't too likely I had 5 diamonds so he won't usually learn anything by cashing the Queen.
Credit to Richard for giving a doomed contract his best shot, and well done Kelan. I'm sure there is a phrase that would be appropriate to sum up the fortunes of people from Ireland on these boards...
As we ended the fourth session, we promised our Slovenian opponents (who we'd already got to know) that we'd meet them in the bar (for more bridge... of sorts). We wouldn't want anyone thinking all we did over there was play bridge and nothing else, would we? Neither R nor myself drink alcohol ("what kind of Scottish people are you?" was most definitely asked of us), but we joined in with the party atmosphere anyway. After all, its all very well going to a big competition and learning from the best juniors Europe has to offer, but it was important to mix with them and make friends as well.
That said, apparently I am more well known than I believed. Kelan brought this to my attention on the Thursday night when he asked about my Interchange system (any readers from Ellon and a few that are not may be familiar with that name!). R and I bid with Interchange in the bar on Friday night, which went rather well considering he doesn't know it and I don;t remember it.
And if the SBU asks for a report, it was a success story. We did better than could reasonably be expected of us (honest), and we definitely boosted the reputation of Scotland as a country. I can't speak for R, but I certainly picked up a number of tips and ideas for my game going forward. I would share photos of the event, but R has them all - or most. If anyone has a photo of Yves Aubry, the President of the European Bridge League, standing with a tall guy in a kilt and a smaller guy in a brown top, could you please forward a copy to us?
The event opened on a Sunday, but we didn't go then, obeying the
It was an honour to be competing alongside the cream of European Youth Bridge. Never did we imagine we would do so well in the Invitational. We made a slow start, but picked up after the first few rounds. The first hand I will give is this one:
8643
A94
Q874
AQ
AKJ
KQJ105
AK6
102
I am North (the top hand). My RHO is Dealer, and when the tray comes through from the other side of the screen, there is a Pass on it. Playing 12-14 1NT (a major compromise; see my follow up post), I open this 1NT. My LHO passes, and I push the tray through. When the tray comes back, I find that my partner has emptied the bidding box onto the tray - 7NT is his bid. Brave or foolish? Who knows.
A priori, we have 11 top tricks. A slam will make if diamonds are 3-3, or if there is a successful guess in a black suit. I need TWO of these three things to happen for me to make 7NT - about 25% for a Grand Slam; not one we should be in.
The good news is that I get a club lead. RHO rises with the King, and I win with the ace. It may be said that the lead gives away nothing, as I could take the working finesse anyway, but who is to say that would present itself in the play? I now cash five top hearts. After the lead I could see 12 top tricks from Trick 1 - now I just need to find the thirteenth in a pointed suit. Time for a pseudo-squeeze.
On the extra two hearts I am pitching two spades. So does RHO, who started with three hearts. LHO discards three clubs. I am now at this position:
Hand
86
---
Q874
Q
Dummy
AKJ
---
AK6
10
My plan is to cash the Ace of Spades, and then cash the Ace of Diamonds to the 4, King of Diamonds to the 8, then 6 of diamonds to the Queen. If diamonds are 3-3, I play a small spade to the King, return to hand with a club and take the last trick in hand for what would have been a spectacular beer. If diamonds do not break, then instead I cash the Queen of Clubs and play up to the King-Jack of spades, hoping to have a count that allows me to determine where the Queen is.
Unfortunately, for RHO, he has scuppered that plan. When I play the Ace of spades, he shows out. So now I cash my top three diamonds ending in hand, lay down the Queen of clubs followed by the 8 of spades and claim on the marked finesse. I was pleased with the outright top, but spare a thought for all the unfortunate North-South pairs who stayed in Small Slam and got a minus MP score. It's where they should be, yet one pair was Doubled and two pairs went to 7 Hearts, which also made, thus punishing those who were in the right contract.
That was in the 6th Round, and in the 7th round R kept up the cavalier bidding, and I kept on vindicating him.
K92
KQ43
AK86
J4
103
98
9532
K9865
LHO (East, my screen-mate), opens 1NT, which he alerts. I ask him the meaning and he tells me 12-14. His bid does not require an alert, but his alert did not do any harm (a massive advantage of playing with screens), so I'm not fussed. There are two passes to me, and with 16 points (I am the top hand again), I double - penalties.
This is passed, but R is understandably not confident holding only 3 points, and pulls to his 5 card suit with 2 Clubs. This is running to the most convenient spot, bidding suits up the way. I cannot know he has 5, so with 2 good 4 card suits myself, I bid 2 Diamonds.
Then the fun begins. My LHO Doubles for penalties. Knowing an 8 card fit, I think most of my partners would pass smoothly and hope for the best. But R, knowing that 2 Diamonds is not doubled into Game, finds the bid of 3 Diamonds. If they're doubling 2, they have to double 3 - and they do. 3 Diamonds Doubled is the contract.
I get the Jack of Diamonds lead. I play the 2 from dummy and RHO plays the Queen. So I win with the King and take stock. I appear to have four losers - three aces and inevitably a diamond. I am worried diamonds will break 4-1 and sink me. I can cash a diamond now in the hope of a 3-2 break, but that could spell disaster if an opponent wins with an ace and leads a diamond. So, I need to set things up. I play the 4 of clubs. Quick as a flash, LHO rises with the Ace and continues clubs with the 10 - surely he started with A10 doubleton for this play. So, I rise with the King, but what now?
I am resigned to giving LHO a ruff - happy to, in fact. I know he didn't start with a singleton (he opened 1NT), and I have to lose a diamond some time. What matters to me is that I don't lose two. I can run the 9 of clubs now, which will win if LHO started with three diamonds and 3 aces - entirely possible. Of the three missing queens, I know that RHO has two of them. Were he to have the third, LHO really should have all 3 aces and could still have them even if he held the Queen of Spades. However, running the 9 of clubs will fail if RHO holds an ace, and LHO ruffs and leads to it.
My other legitimate line is to play up to the King of Hearts. If RHO holds the ace, he can take it and give his partner a ruff, but can't get back in to give him another. If LHO holds it, he will think it better to beat my honour and keep hearts going. He is no longer interested in a ruff, because he needs a diamond stop later.
I took a view and played the 9 of clubs. RHO played the 7 (a little too fast), and I pitched a spade. I lost to a ruff as expected, and my view was wrong. LHO can kill this contract with a spade switch, but he played Ace and another heart. I won with the King and laid down the King of diamonds, drawing trumps. Now I ruff a small heart, ruff a club, ruff another small heart and pitch the 9 of spades on my last (winning) for a total of 9 tricks and an outright top.
There did come a point where the cavalier bidding asked too much of my limited Declarer skills, but by then we'd given ourselves a margin for error over the bulk of the field, finishing a very pleasing 4th at the end.
Onto the main event. We had quite a clear target for the qualifiers - 49th place. In other words, don't come bottom. That was an extremely difficult task. Several things counted against us:
1. System. We were playing an absolutely diabolical system, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. There is little chance of R being offended by this, as he knows full well my opinion. We were about the only pair (apart from our opponents above) playing a 12-14NT, and my feelings about 12-14NT are a matter of public record. The system around it was basic and ill-equipped for the rigours of International competition. We were hoping the simplicity would compensate, and in fairness, at times, it did.
2. Preparation. We were in a completely different scenario from when I played at the White House. R and I hadn't been able to practice nearly as much. All in all there was little time to get anything but the basics sorted; the White House system and the Denmark system are chalk and cheese.
3. Prepared methods. We had none. Absolutely criminal at International level. But again, it was a matter of time, and the lack of it that we had.
4. Experience. Both of us had played at this level before, but not together. Establishing a partnership style was something that could only be done the more boards we played.
5. Luck. Yes, we were desperately unlucky in the qualifiers and I won't hear otherwise. I'm not saying bad luck ruined our card, but I am saying we could comfortably have achieved our target with room to spare had our share of the luck been an equal one. In the 8 sessions, 4 Grand Slams were on. We were on the defending side each time - and our opponents bid them, even on one occasion where it relies on a working finesse.
I could continue the list; you get the idea.
Here was the first judgement decision for me:
---
A J 10 5 3
A 5 2
A K 10 7 6
LHO Partner RHO Me
Pass Pass 1S 2H
3S Pass 4S 5C
Pass 5H 5S ?
Opps Vulnerable
If anyone can advise me how I should have gone about getting this call right, I'd be very happy to listen (not least because I got it wrong, as is my want).
There were other interesting scores in Session 1 - one of which I am saving for my next post (it was a bottom). We had an outright top on the very next board, which was pleasing in terms of resilience but in all fairness, it was a result of a hideous misjudgement from our opponents rather than anything we did. There's nothing else worth writing up.
I'll give one board from session 2, a hand that I "got wrong" but at least have a decent argument that I "played right".
J 10 4 3
A 9 8 2
10 8 6
Q 7
K Q 2
K Q 7 5
9 4
A K 9 2
I have the top hand again, playing 4 Hearts.
LHO leads the King and then Jack of Diamonds, his partner following with the 5 and 2. On Trick 3, he plays the Queen.
I have lost two tricks and I'm surely going to lose a spade. So I cannot afford to lose a heart trick. I am almost certain that RHO has no diamonds left, so the question is what card do I ruff with?
Gut instinct is telling me to ruff with the Queen. RHO probably has either the Jack or the Ten. But let's work this out, I tell myself. There are two options.
Option A: Ruff with the Queen. I now need to drop J10 doubleton with RHO or find LHO with a singleton Jack or Ten. Note that J10 doubleton with RHO is no good to me. Whilst it is true that I could still catch it by cashing King and Ace, I'm not going to. After cashing the King, if I see LHO play the 10 or Jack, I will finesse through RHO. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, Theory of Restricted Choice dictates that after I see LHO play Jack or Ten, the other is with RHO. Secondly, Theory of available spaces suggests longer hearts with RHO. And thirdly, J10 doubleton offside is a distribution that will be picked up by ruffing with the 7. Mathematically the success of this line is just below 10%, plus a bit more weight by Theory of Available Spaces.
Option B: Ruff with the 7. I now need J10x offside in hearts. A priori odds for two specific cards being offside is 25%. But arguably that's not the way I should calculate it - West will have exactly 3 cards in hearts (I can't afford him to have 4) 33.91% of the time. However, only 3 of the ten possible holdings are any good to me, so that is 11.73%.
It's a close one. Obviously at the table I can't remember the percentages to two decimal places - and how do I factor in Theory of Available Spaces? In the end I took the line that was technically right but felt wrong - Option B. LHO had the singleton Jack of Hearts. Grr.
This brought us to lunch-time on Wednesday, with us already down to 49th place - in other words, we had no margin for error in terms of achieving our target. Onwards and (we hoped) upwards.
Things started well in session 3 - I made a 3NT contract for 68.75% on Board 1. Board 2 brought a shockingly bad 10.42% when we bid and made 6 Clubs, played by R. 13 tricks makes if your name is Deep Finesse, but given an offside 4-1 trump split, I don't know how so many people can make 7 Clubs. Nor do I know how they make slam in another denomination (if that's what happened) - Deep Finesse says it can't be done, so it must be true. And the less said about the rest of the session, the better.
Session 4 saw four doubled contracts, resulting in scores of 200, 300 and two 800s for the defenders. We were the defenders on just one of the four occasions unfortunately. And that was the 200. The -300 I thought was a reasonable attempt - 5 Clubs Doubled is a save against 4 Spades the other way. Granted, 4 Spades doesn't make IF (and only if) West leads from Kx doubleton in hearts.
So, overnight we were sitting bottom. That was bad news. But if there was good news to be had, it was that we were bottom early - being bottom now as opposed to later gave us a chance to change our tactics and time to escape the bottom. At least, I'm going to claim there was a change of tactics - and yes, of course the master plan to get off bottom was all my idea. (If it hadn't worked I wouldn't have said that).
Board 5 was one of the most banal sessions of International Bridge imaginable. 50% would have been a reasonable return, but we don't get reasonable returns, so we got 36.04% - 45th out of 50 for the session and still 50th overall. At this point I wonder if anything can be done to save us. One only has to look at board 6 - a bog standard 3NT played by me that can make no more than 11 tricks - until I get a favourable lead and make 12. That was enough for 4 out of 48 Match Points. I mean what?
Session 6 I don't have hand records for, but again it was a case of playing okay and scoring badly. This set did include yet another Grand Slam that we happened to be sitting against. So we were still sitting bottom with two sessions to go.
Session 7 did not start great. What bid would you make with R's hand here?
K 3
K J 6
A K 9 4
A K 7 6
You are Red v Green.
LHO is Dealer, and opens 2 Spades (weak, 5+ spades, 4+ minor)
Your partner bids 3 Diamonds. RHO says 3 Spades. Your bid.
R and I had a "difference of opinion" on this board, but before we started the next board, we were in agreement. On board 7, West (we were NS) can make 12 tricks in NT, so we were disappointed that -690 was a bad score. Of course, it is a lot easier to defend 6NT than 3NT (more likely to make a costly lead against 3), and I imagine that those who went to 6 came down, as it does require the DF goggles.
Then I'm in 3NT (from the bottom hand, for a change)
Q J 9
7
K Q 9 7 3
K 9 6 4
K 10 5 3
K 10 9 8 6 4
4 2
A
Red against Green, Jack of Hearts led. I really wish I could remember the play of this hand, because I made 9 tricks for an outright top. If it comes back to me, I'll edit this.
When the dust settled on Session 7, we still couldn't get a >50% session, but we were 33rd in the round which put us 49th overall. Having been less satisfied with our play in Session 7 than I was in Session 6, I was happy with that. But had we "peaked" too soon? We still had another session to go. But 33rd was the highest placing we'd had for one session in the event, so there was room for some optimism.
Onto session 8, and here was the first hand we picked up (me North, R South)
A K 9 3 2
J 10 9 2
---
A Q J 4
Q 10 5
A 4
Q 10 2
K 10 8 6 2
R decided to Pass as Dealer. I opened 1 Spade, and partner said 2 Clubs. This does not deny 3 spades, but I can see a 9 card fit in clubs as opposed to at best an 8 card fit in spades. This looks like a hand where ruffs will be important. For better or worse, I chose 4 Diamonds. R bids 4 Hearts (Italian Cue). If I bid 4 Spades now, R will definitely say 5 Clubs, which is no use to me. I could say 4NT, but playing 1430, R would be committed to saying 5 Diamonds (and thereby as far as 6 Clubs) with 0 Key Cards - which there is just room for him to have. I bid 6 Clubs.
13 tricks are there on the lie of the cards. I couldn't count them out in the bidding though, and R did only make 12 tricks, so I'm happy with the 72.92% we got for 6 Clubs=. The next board got us 89.58% - a 1NT contract by our opponents that couldn't make.
After that solid start, I was hopeful of holding out for at least 50% and staying off bottom. This board didn't help:
J 8 5
A K 10 9 7 6 5 2
10 2
---
A 4
Q 8 4
A Q 5 4
A K 5 2
Which hand did I have this time? Neither of these! Our Polish opponents bid 7NT by the bottom hand with this. Declarer can pseudo squeeze to his heart's content, but the bottom line is always going to be the diamond finesse - which works.
It may seem churlish of me to bemoan this 50% Grand when I had a lesser one earlier. But then, I wasn't the one that bid that. R was the one whose job it was to go get the results sheet. I went for the big screen - and was relieved to see that we had actually moved up another place to 48th. That was a much better finish than it had been looking like for some time.
The plan was that we would be more competitive in the President's Cup. The standard of opposition was still as high as in the Qualifiers, but the "better" players would be playing in the finals, which in theory would give us slightly more of a chance.
In session 1 , the pick of the boards as far as I can see was this:
A Q 5 4
9 4
Q 10 8 3
Q 6 5
K 7
10 8 3
A K 9
A J 4 3 2
R holds the bottom hand and he plays this in 5 Clubs, Queen of Hearts led.
This isn't too good a contract. There are two clear heart losers. So R must somehow not lose a club. If he was on lead, then he would have an obvious play for this (even if it doesn't work), but the opening lead is made by the opponents.
North leads the Queen of Hearts. South holds the following hand:
10 9
A K J 7 6 5 2
J 5
A 10
It is easy to work out what South should do at Trick 1 - overtake. When that holds, he should cash another heart. As it happens, he will see his partner pitch. Now what?
The key is in the club suit. Declarer surely has AJxxx. When Declarer gets in, therefore, he will make all the club tricks - a finesse of the Jack followed by the Ace, dropping the King. There is nothing South can do if Declarer holds the 9, but he has a chance if not. If he plays another club now, Declarer will have to ruff in dummy. Declarer can take the finesse and drop the King, but if North had 9xx he will make the 9, as the queen must also fall under the ace. I'm sure there's a technical name for this, but I'll just say trump promotion.
When South failed to find this defence, R made 11 tricks and 95.16% on the board.
We finished the 1st session with a whopping 54.56%. It was the first time (apart from the Tuesday Invitational) that we had gone a session above average and this gave us hope that we could actually do quite well here. Unfortunately, the wheels came off in Session 2.
We started by missing a solid Slam. The surprise was that we got as much as 41% for that. We then followed it up with a good board by doing - nothing. The board was passed out, which accumulated 91% for us. Granted, there was a lot in the session we were not happy with (I can't really go into any constructive detail), but there was misfortune as well - 41% on a board does not seem a reasonable return for our opponents missing a solid 3NT contract. All in all, this one bad session cost us dearly, putting us 55th out of 60.
Onto session 3. and we started against a very impressive young Danish pair. They were aged 11 and 9(!) years old. Two players playing on an International stage at an age that I had not even started to play - and I think most bridge players across the world will be able to say that. They could be future World Champions in the making (you heard it here first), and if so our first board against them will be one to tell the Grandchildren when they are - well, the age these boys are now. By the way: Yes, I have their names, and No, I am not going to publish them on a publicly viewable blog.
This was my hand (All Vul):
---
K 9 8 5 2
9 7 4 2
A 8 7 2
Second in, I pass. LHO opens 1 Spade. R overcalls 1NT. Having seen his hand, I don't agree with this bid, but never mind. RHO passes, so I bid 2 Diamonds, and R completes the transfer to 2 Hearts. This is passed around to my LHO, who enquires about a spade stop - via the intermediary of his English speaking partner (this event did not have screens). On finding out R has at least one stop, he bids 2 Spades. R bids 3 Hearts now. RHO enters the fray with 3 Spades, which is passed around to R, who now bids 4 Hearts. I now expect one of our opponents to double - the auction practically demands it. In so doing, they'll wander straight into a trap. More on that later. But RHO bids 4 Spades. We decide enough is enough and double.
R leads the 10 of Clubs. Dummy is:
J 9 8 4
6 3
J 3
Q 9 6 5 3
The 9 year old Declarer plays the 3 from dummy, and I rise with the Ace. Declarer plays the King. What now? First, I start placing the points. R has to have the two major aces. He has no points in clubs, which probably means a tenace in the diamonds - that looks more likely than a spade tenace. The plan develops. Has R led from a singleton, despite his 1NT bid? Or is it doubleton? If it is a singleton, I need to give him a ruff now, get back in with the King of Hearts, and switch to a diamond to play through Declarer. If Declarer has a second heart, we will come to 7 tricks - a club, club ruff, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and a natural spade trick. Giving a second ruff instead of the diamond switch would endplay partner. If the lead is from a doubleton however, I need to switch to the 9 of diamonds now, as I will need the King entry to give a club ruff after R sets it up.
I play the 8 of clubs. R does get his ruff. He trusts my suit preference signal and plays a low heart, getting me in ASAP just in case Declarer has a singleton. Declarer does of course drop the Jack. I make the diamond switch and R gets his two diamonds. Unfortunately, he is fooled by Declarer's false card and does not cash a heart trick, meaning he never gets it. We had to settle for 800 instead of 1100. There was some nice play from Declarer - unblocking the King of Clubs with K J 4, which might also have succeeded in fooling East into misreading the club situation. Then the Jack of Hearts false card, which fooled nobody except the intended victim.
4 Hearts Doubled would have collected a neat +1190 for us. For those of you who know your contract scores, you will know that means there were actually 12 tricks available for us in hearts - we'd missed a Slam. Of course, I thought I was sitting opposite a balanced 15-17 hand with wasted values in spades, so we're not getting there, but on another day the smooth pass of 2 Hearts works a treat. Of course, one has to be confident that one's opponents will re-open. But these particular opponents took the not-very-obvious sacrifice. Well done boys, with the benefit of hindsight you deserved more than the 12.9% you scored on that board.
The second board against them:
A 9 7 6 5
A J 5 2
A Q J 2
---
As Dealer with this hand, I open 1 Spade. There are two passes then 2 Clubs on my right. A perfect opportunity for me to bid 2 Hearts, showing my hand. LHO bids 3 Clubs, which is passed around to me. A perfect opportunity to bid 3 Diamonds. I wonder if R has got the message yet? One of the opponents bids 4 Clubs, R still shows no interest in bidding and I am obliged to pass now, having got the opponents to a Contract of Death.
I get my 3 aces and R has the King of Diamonds to take it one off for +50 and thank you very mu- wait a minute... let me see your hand R:
J 8 4 2
9 8 7 4
K 5 4
6 4
Yep, 4 Spades is an easy make. On the lie of the cards, not even I could have messed it up. Add that to our list of missed Games. The third round continued with nothing to report except another missed Game - by the opponents, and we seemed to be hitting the optimum spots. I fail to see how we only got 43% for a session that seemed to go very well. At least we went up two places overall.
Round 4 started badly, with R going to 3 Hearts unsupported and getting doubled for -200. But then a good (yet boring) result on the next board gave us hope. On to boards 3 and 4 - two boards against Kelan O' Connor and Richard Boyd of Ireland. It was a tale of two 3NT contracts, and of some deceptive defence by R.
9 2
Q 6 5
A 8 7
K Q 9 6 5
K Q 5 3
K 8 7
K J 10 6 2
10
Richard is playing 3NT by the bottom hand, with me on his left and R on his right. The bidding started with Kelan and went: 1C-P-1D-1S-X-2H-3NT-End. I lead the Jack of Hearts.
Declarer needs to assume he'll get the diamond guess right and reel in 5 tricks there. The difficulty is making 4 elsewhere. The clubs seem to be the best bet. A good club guess will set up a total of 4 club tricks on the actual lie. The next thing to sort out is the hearts. Initially playing the Queen to knock out the ace and block the suit looks the way to play, but Richard looks deeper. R bid hearts on the second round missing the King, Queen and Jack. It is quite likely he has 6. So, if he ducks in dummy and wins with the king, he creates a second heart trick if R ever plays them. And if I don't have any hearts, I'll be endplayed whenever I get in.
Richard decides on this line. He wins with the King and runs the ten of clubs, which holds. I have ducked with AJ8 in the hope he'd rise with the King and give me two club tricks instead of one. But no, Richard plays the Jack of diamonds, overtakes with the ace and plays a small diamond. R plays the queen, so now he can run diamonds. After that, he has to exit a spade. Unfortunately for him, I hold a second heart, which I play after I cash my two black aces, taking the contract 2 off.
9 8
Q 7
Q 8 3 2
A K J 5 3
Q 10 7
A K 10 3 2
A K
7 6 2
Kelan is playing 3NT by the bottom hand (no opposition bidding this time). The 3 of spades is led, to the 8, King and 7. I return the 5, which goes through to R's Jack. R cashes his ace, with me unblocking the 6 with a diamond pitch from Kelan, followed by another round of spades. Kelan pitches a club from dummy and from hand. As I actually held 4 spades, we have 4 tricks - one short of our target.
R switches to the 10 of clubs. Kelan certainly doesn't need to risk a finesse now, as he can hope for 4 hearts and 3 diamonds. So he rises with the King, cashes the AK of diamonds and crosses to the Queen of hearts. He plays a heart, hoping they will run, but I show out, so he cashes his Ace and King to come to this position:
---
---
Q
K J
---
10 3
---
7
He plays the 7 of clubs, obviously. R plays the 9. Now he is on a guess. Did R lead the ten of clubs from 109x or Q109? Normally it is top of nothing, but R may be trying to fool him into thinking that is what he has so that he wrongly plays for the drop. After all, if R had 109x, he should still be playing the 9 on the second round to make it hard.
Kelan gets it right - he finesses and makes 9. This was still a good board for us as 4 Hearts is the superior contract despite the bad trump break.
If only Kelan had cashed the Queen of diamonds before playing back to his hearts, he wouldn't have had to guess. R started with 4-4-2-3. The Queen of Diamonds would have caught him in a Guard Squeeze. If he pitches a heart, he unguards them, thus losing them all. Or he can pitch a club and the queen will drop when Kelan is forced to play them. However, that is a post-mortem analysis. It wasn't too likely I had 5 diamonds so he won't usually learn anything by cashing the Queen.
Credit to Richard for giving a doomed contract his best shot, and well done Kelan. I'm sure there is a phrase that would be appropriate to sum up the fortunes of people from Ireland on these boards...
As we ended the fourth session, we promised our Slovenian opponents (who we'd already got to know) that we'd meet them in the bar (for more bridge... of sorts). We wouldn't want anyone thinking all we did over there was play bridge and nothing else, would we? Neither R nor myself drink alcohol ("what kind of Scottish people are you?" was most definitely asked of us), but we joined in with the party atmosphere anyway. After all, its all very well going to a big competition and learning from the best juniors Europe has to offer, but it was important to mix with them and make friends as well.
That said, apparently I am more well known than I believed. Kelan brought this to my attention on the Thursday night when he asked about my Interchange system (any readers from Ellon and a few that are not may be familiar with that name!). R and I bid with Interchange in the bar on Friday night, which went rather well considering he doesn't know it and I don;t remember it.
And if the SBU asks for a report, it was a success story. We did better than could reasonably be expected of us (honest), and we definitely boosted the reputation of Scotland as a country. I can't speak for R, but I certainly picked up a number of tips and ideas for my game going forward. I would share photos of the event, but R has them all - or most. If anyone has a photo of Yves Aubry, the President of the European Bridge League, standing with a tall guy in a kilt and a smaller guy in a brown top, could you please forward a copy to us?
Sunday 1 July 2012
Scotland at the White House
I am back in Aberdeen and have returned from the biggest event of my bridge life so far - the White House Juniors 2012. It was every bit as exciting, enjoyable, industrious, exhausting and nerve-racking as I expected it to be. It was a great experience and one that I'm very grateful to have been able to get. I feel that I learned a lot (at least I hope I did), and hopefully I'll be able to take that forward to new opportunities in times to come.
Things started in earnest bright and early on a Sunday morning (3am on the morning the clocks came forward!), as I was woken by my alarm so that I had enough time to get up, get ready to go and see to last minute details before meeting up with Jun at the airport just after 4am. Of course, we had prepared for this, hadn't we? Surely we went to be about tea time to make up the hours of sleep? Well, no. Best laid plans and all that...
Still, we had an International tournament to look forward to, so neither of us were particularly feeling it. After a routine, but turbulent, flight, we landed in Schipol just after 8am local time. After the smoothest Arrival ever (by the time we had walked the length of the Arrivals Lounge and gone through security - the only two to go through at that particular time - our bags had already come round the carousel and we picked them up almost without breaking stride), we had the task of finding our way to the hotel.
We had an address, and we had an idea how to get there, but where we fell down was that we were largely reliant on my non-existent photographic memory of Google Earth. We settled on taking one train to Amsterdam Central, followed by another to Amstel, where we got off knowing that the hotel was just on the other side of the river. Uhoh. Which one of these waterways is the river? Neither of us had learned to read Dutch in school, and we had only one point of reference. (You need at least two points of reference when navigating to have any hope). After walking completely the wrong way to get our bearings, we crossed the Amstel and walked past the hotel (which was one block over), but a local was able to point us in the right direction and we eventually found it.
Dutch people (or those in Amsterdam particularly) are brilliant linguists. I have been to the Netherlands twice in my life and the only person I met that wasn't fluent in English was about seven years old. I'm a firm believer in "when in Rome...", but I doubt my Dutch will ever be up to scratch. One of the English team has actually lived in Amsterdam for 18 months and as far as I'm aware hasn't picked up the language at all. I tend not to take this brilliance for granted and never fail to be impressed. Netherlands, I salute you.
After a quick rest and change of clothes (we now had to don our Scotland shirts), it was time to get lost all over again. We found our way to the tram easily enough, and we got off at the right stop. I had remembered Google Earth well enough this time, but still did not know where the White House actually was. This was probably mainly to do with the fact that I was under the impression that Der Witte Huis was a hotel, and not, in fact, a tennis club. Despite this, another local knew exactly where it was and we got there in enough time for the event.
Above is a picture of the main playing area in the White House. It is taken from the upper level, which housed some of the tables (four on each wing). Most of the tables are not in view.
My partner for the week was Falco. No, that's not his real name, but I didn't ask if I could use his name in this, so I'm not going to use it. (Even if it has been used in other on-line articles already.) "Falco" and I had done a lot of preparation for the event, by using BBO, but the first time I actually met him was a couple of minutes before play started in the pro-am Sunday tournament. Although we wanted to do well, Falco and I were treating this one-day event as no more than a "warm-up" for the week to come, as we hadn't played any "real" bridge together. It was a chance to iron out any systemic wrinkles.
Things started well, however. On the very first board, as West, I picked up:
AQJ83
Q985
3
1084
North passed, and partner opened 1 Diamond. South overcalled a Weak 2 Spades. I smoothly passed this, and waited for a re-opening double from partner. Falco obliged, feeling his hand was worth a take-out double, and I penalty passed. North could do nothing, so we took down 2 Spades Doubled, not by as much as it could have been, as we didn't defend optimally, but it was a start.
When all said and done, in a tournament that invited coaches, professionals and sponsors to play, we finished 8th out of 24 - much higher up the pecking order than we'd have thought possible. After two big wins mid-way, we were actually sitting 2nd. But we couldn't allow ourselves to finish THAT high; it might give away the fact that we were planning to not actually come last in the main event.
24 boards was not abnormal for me (or any of us), so we took that in our stride. But for me, the White House Tournament was to be an altogether different affair.
On Sunday evening they erected the screens (which can be clearly seen in the above picture), and playing with screens was a new experience for me. Although I have only heard positive things about them, they still take some getting used to, and I was very nervous when I sat down to play our first match - against Denmark.
The first day consisted of a group stage of five ten board matches. I posted previously the group, and my reservations about the seeding. However, you can only play what is put in front of you, so we just had to do what we could.
The nerves were not a good thing. They caused me to misbid on Board 2, and we missed a Game, and before I had entirely calmed down I found myself playing 4 Spades on Board 4. Faced with a holding of AKJ10984 opposite 62 in dummy in the trump suit, I miscounted, Played the Ace and then took a finesse, which turned out to be the only play to get twelve tricks as the queen was onside. Who said nerves are a bad thing?
One board later, we lost 16 IMPs, and although I again chalked this up to nerves, on reflection the opponents were in a cold Game so the swing didn't happen at our table. Denmark kept up the good work and took the maximum 25 VPs. Somehow late in the match we took 10 IMPs on an innocent looking board, to get some VPs and look onwards and upwards.
The second match was against Israel. Just what you need after a thrashing by the team that came 3rd last year: a match against the reigning Champions. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to this one. This was what I had come here for. The screens were already my new best friend and my nerves had evaporated. All I wanted to do was put the first win on the board for Scotland, and I didn't care who was standing in my way. Unfortunately, Israel didn't co-operate with this plan, and beat us 21-9. This was adjusted to 23-7 after they called the Director, which we had to accept because there was no appeals committee, which was something of a surprise.
However, there had been a marked improvement from Round 1 to Round 2, and with two of the big teams out of the way it was time to see what we could do against one of the host teams - Netherlands Orange. We were still looking for our first win, and effectively it came in the first three boards of the match. On Board 21 (the first board) we gained an IMP when we held 4 Spades to ten tricks. On boards 22 and 23, we bid routine 3NT contracts, making 9 and 11 tricks respectively. Our team-mates must've done something spectacular because on both boards we gained 13 IMPs, putting 27 IMPs on the board - the only 27 IMPs we gained in the match, which we won 18-12.
That doesn't mean we did all the work on those boards. The match is ten boards long, and there were four flat boards, and it is not always easy to stop the IMPs leaking out. For example:
A872
KJ5
KJ53
62
All Vul and Dealer, I open this 1 Diamond. (Better Minor). LHO overcalls 1 Spade and partner doubles. The auction gets as far as 3 Spades by our opponents. In a Bridge Club, 3 Spades would ordinarily be the contract. However, one of us (I forget which one) managed to find a Double. Doubling into Game is not something you do unless you have an absolute guarantee of beating the contract. We certainly didn't seem to have that looking at the hand record. However, we did defend accurately, and consequently beat the contract by 1 for +200 - a flat board, because the same thing happened at the other table. It was to be a theme of the week - International Bridge is mostly about not shipping. You have to play well to get a flat board, as was evidenced by match 4.
I'm sitting playing against Kopecky - a name I recognise, and no wonder. Although a Junior, he has played in the Czech Open team. He was also part of the Japan-Czech team that won the Junior World Internationals a couple of years ago. And he happens to be my screen-mate for 10 boards.
The first half of the match has gone well - I think we're ahead (but I don't know.) Then board 6 comes along, and the opponents, starting with LHO, have the following auction:
1H 2D
2H 4C
4D 6H
7H
The bids are natural until 4 Clubs, which is a splinter. 4 Diamonds is a cue bid. My partner holds:
J652
J
A83
109872
Falco has a serious problem here. His LHO clearly has long diamonds, and for RHO to bid 7, the cue bid looks for all the world like a void. Leading the Ace, which I will grant you many club level players will do without thinking, could set up the suit in dummy and be disastrous. Falco made a quick decision here, and led the Ace - which HELD. Nice bluff by South, matched by an excellent Call from partner. As it happens, without the ace lead, 7 Hearts does not have much play and will come down, but Falco gave it no chance. Things did not get better for Czech Republic; this was our score-card for boards 6-10:
6: 7 Hearts -1 by South, +50
7: 2 Spades +1 by North, -140
8: 4 Spades -3 by North, +150
9: 4 Spades -1 by South, +50
10: 2NT -1 by Opponent, +100
Board 7 we are hoping for a flat board, but on the rest we are hoping for a gain - including a slam swing. My only concern was that I had not Doubled Kopecky on Board 8. I'd a long spade suit myself, but had not wished to reveal that fact to him by Doubling - a decision our team-mates would agree with later. So, having had a great match from our perspective, we looked forward to scoring this up.
Boards 6 to 10 were all flat boards. Thus underlining just how hard it is to gain at this level. This was the one match of the tournament where we left the table confident of a win - a win not provided by very swingy boards. In fact, we had to make a MISTAKE (of sorts) to win.
The match was won on Board 3:
J62
A10752
10653
J
I held this hand, and LHO opened 1 Club. This is either natural, or 19-20. Partner has overcalled 2 Clubs. We have no prior agreement on this, so I have to decide whether I think this is natural or not (and Kopecky wants to know). I think that it is Michaels, because if the 1 Club isn't natural, partner probably doesn't want to overcall a strong hand. However, I am not 100% sure, so I bid 2 Hearts. South bids 2 Spades, and partner now says 3 Clubs - I guess it was natural then. Kopecky and I pass, and push the tray through. The tray appears back with a double from South. Kopecky pulls this to 3 Spades, I pass, and the tray goes back through. The next time we see it, partner has bid 4 Clubs. This goes round to South, who doubles again and this time it is left.
Partner held:
Q8
8
K8
AKQ98532
The Ace of Diamonds was onside, so he made an easy ten tricks for +710. That contributed 11 of our total of 13 IMPs, and we won the match 17-13. That was probably our "giantkilling" match.
The last match of the first day was against Bulgaria Green. In this match we took what we got, and what we got was enough. The first swing came on Board 12, where we gained 12 IMPs when partner made a 5 Spade Contract that looks reasonably safe double dummy. Then on Board 14 we gained 14 IMPs. South opened 1 Spade. Falco held:
86532
-
AKQJ10752
-
Falco bid 4 Diamonds with this. In the post mortem it was agreed that 5 Diamonds would be better, but the point was he bid something. North bid 4 Hearts over him, which we took down. For reasons best known to himself, Falco's counterpart passed 1 Spade, and our team-mates found their way to a Club Slam, which they made.
So ended our first day at the White House. It had been a successful day by any account. The match against Denmark was a write-off which was hardly a surprise with two new partnerships. We then competed against Israel before winning our remaining three matches. We couldn't have hoped for better.
Placings in the group stage affected starting positions in the Swiss, which would be played over the next two days. We started on Tuesday against Croatia. I believe the WordPress site mentioned in my last post has a report on that, so I will pass over this 12-18 defeat to move onto Round 7. Here we were up against Ireland.
Those who watch the Camrose (Junior Camrose/ Lady Milne etc) will be used to seeing Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland as two different teams. In these Home Nations events, this is what happens - the two countries send their own teams, which are usually competitive and one or other (or both) can be in with a shout of winning. However, in all other events, the two combine to send an IRELAND team, and this was what we were facing - the best of both, as it were. This was no Junior Camrose match. Ireland had their best team and we had a new team. Ireland were strong favourites.
Not to worry. Board 1 provided our first slam of the tournament, and despite it being a virtual laydown, it gained us 11 IMPs. That set us on our way, and in a tight match, we did scrape a 3, a 2 and two 1s to add to the 11, and losing 11 on the penultimate board was not enough to stop us winning 18-14 on IMPs, 16-14 on VPs. (Our second slam of the tournament also rolled in on this match, but it was flat). Although small gains can sometimes be just as interesting as large, I'll resist the temptation to analyse in full as this is already becoming an essay.
Round 8 was against Poland, which I don't have hand records for, but we won 16-14.
Onto Round 9. This was against Germany, and more importantly (from my point of view) it was on Vugraph. For the uninitiated, Vugraph is the feature by which BBO is able to screen live bridge matches. Anyone on BBO can watch. The biggest events draw thousands of spectators. Knowing that anyone, anywhere, can be watching you as you try to decide which of the thirteen cards you should play, or the various bids you can make, would surely strike the nerves of anyone. And I had never done it before. That sort of pressure can easily affect decisions - and has. I have been a spectator as a player has completely crumbled under the pressure - it isn't nice. Now it was my turn to try and cope.
The nerves I felt for the first few boards of this match were second only to the first five boards against Denmark. However, I was pleased to find I coped somewhat better, and things certainly became easier after they bid to a 6 Clubs which didn't make. By that time we had also (completely unbeknown to us) accrued another big swing by bidding a routine 3NT when our counterparts bid 5 Diamonds coming off.
That's not to say things didn't go wrong. I misread a situation in 3NT and went off with a chance to make it, and we got an 800 in the minus column too. Vugraph crashed with a few boards to go, and although we played on oblivious, some of our supporters were left under the impression we lost the match. My Dad was actually told Scotland had "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory", when in fact we did gain 11 IMPs on the last board to win the match 16-14.
As for my Vugraph experience, I made mistakes, which I had been dreading, but this had a positive effect. For a start, I was not nervous by the time the match ended - I had partner to thank for that. I was rather annoyed when he hadn't found the defence I'd been looking for on one board, but to my delight I found that I could not be annoyed and nervous at the same time. I promptly told myself I was annoyed for the rest of the match, and managed my nerves rather well. As for my mistakes, it made me feel like I wasn't showing myself properly - and that was a good thing. Next time I'm on Vugraph (if there is one), there will be a determination to show what I can do which should keep the nerves at bay. I certainly won't be dreading it like I was this match.
The eagle eyed will have noticed that this was our third 16 in a row. If nothing else, we were grinding matches out. This is a quality that every International Bridge team wants to have in its locker in case things don't go well, so we were pleased to prove that we could do it. It didn't occur to me at the time, but we had at this point won 6 of the last 7 matches - something that would have been unthinkable before play started, and certainly far in excess of expectations.
What my Dad had been told actually applied to our next match, against Austria. We were winning comfortably at one stage, but then we contrived to throw it away on the last two boards by looking for a slam that wasn't there and one major misunderstanding. We lost 14-16. In fairness, one major misunderstanding in the space of 261 boards, for a partnership that had never met, and only one month to prepare for an International tournament, is an excellent return, even if it costs a match. We would both have bitten the hand off anyone that offered us that before the tournament.
We finished the day with a disappointing 8-22 against Netherlands Blue. I think this was one of those matches where our luck just was not there. Netherlands Blue played really well, leaving us no margin for error, and capitalised on a few Scottish mistakes. It was disappointing, but not unexpected - it was our first single-figure VP score since the match against Israel, which was pretty good going.
Wednesday started with a match against another Dutch team - the White team. Nothing interesting happened at our table, except maybe one hand that Falco won't thank me for posting, and we lost the match 13-17.
Onto Round 14 (not 13; we had a bye), and a match against Finland. We only had two minus scores on the card - a solid Game and a -300. We had pushed to 3 Diamonds, which they found a double for. I can't post the hand as I can't remember how we (me, I think) contrived to come down 2, and this contributed to 9 IMPs out - the only board we lost IMPs on in the match. However, in a very flattish match, it was hard to pull back this loss over 9 boards, in a match we were hoping to win.
Boards 12-15 were flat, a fact I will accept with good grace given we did have a +170, followed by a 2, a 1, and another flat board. On Board 19, after a competitive auction I played and made 3 Hearts - the optimum result, but my counterpart didn't make (I don't know much about what happened at my team mates' table), and the match was level. It swung our way on Board 20 when our opponents attempted a thin 3NT that turned out to be way too thin. We took it two off for 200, gaining 3 IMPs and yet another 16 VPs.
In Round 15, we lost 7-23 to Norway. I certainly didn't think our performance in the match merited such a heavy defeat, but I can't produce evidence from hand records (because I don't have them for this round) to back this conviction up.
In Round 16, we were a bit unlucky I thought. On the second board, I doubled a 5 Club Contract which made with two overtricks, which is absolutely fine as long as our team mates find the Slam their way (I wouldn't expect them to find the 50% Grand which happens to make). That would have turned an 11-19 defeat into another 16-14 win. We did have our biggest swing in during this match: 15 IMPs for 4 Spades Doubled making, when combined with our team mates' score.
Our last match of the Swiss was against the England Under 25 team. As they were flying quite high at the time and we weren't, this was a bit of a surprise. We'd scored a maximum (or nearly) against the Under 20s on the Sunday, but this was a different prospect. We would be doing well to hang on to their coat tails. We did, though; Falco and I holding our own but we came out just on the wrong side of things - a narrow 13-17 defeat, which we felt was less than we deserved.
At this point, the teams were divided into Groups of 4 for the Thursday Finals (or Semi Finals, for those in the top 4). Each team would play against every other in their group, in 14 board matches. We were in the second bottom group, which we were happy with (the worst we could finish was 20th and that would still be better than expected), but we were not happy to see Ireland in our group. (Or at least I wasn't). What were they doing in 17th place? Also in our group were Finland and Norway. This did not bother me - I wanted another crack at them.
Unfortunately, 14 boards is not long enough when you miss a Slam and your team-mates miss a Game. Those were the two big swings of the match against Finland, and despite the team playing well for the other 12 boards, we could not recoup the deficit. We lost 10-20.
On to the rematch against Norway. Starting with the second half, my first hand was Board 22:
-
AJ875432
6
AK63
You open 2 Clubs with this. (Five losers; this is worth a GF in International Bridge). Apparently I couldn't make this bid in England - the 16 point rule. That deserves a separate rant, and this post is not about ranting (or raving).
Partner says a negative 2 Diamonds. You have strong options because you do not allow a "2D relay" in your system. You bid 3 Hearts, which is a self-agreement. Partner says 3 Spades (Italian Cue), you say 4 Clubs (Italian Cue) and partner says 4 Spades (Italian Cue).
For the uninitiated, partner has shown the Ace of Spades (or a void, but the odds favour the ace). He has not denied the King, nor has he shown it. He has no diamond controls. What is your call?
The auction went very wrong for us. As a result, we gained 13 IMPs. We lost an IMP on the next board (again, we don't know the score as we play), before Falco made 10 tricks in 3NT for +11 IMPs. We then lost 23 IMPs over the next two boards - partly our fault for making a phantom sacrifice. We'd set a target of getting 30% of judgement decisions right. I think over the week we got at least that and probably better, but against Norway we hardly got any right.
Case in point: Board 27 - arguably. Do you want to be in 3NT or 5 Clubs here?
J92
AQ9
A103
AKJ2
K10
J1054
52
Q10953
My hand is the bottom hand.
3NT is in danger on a diamond lead if they are not 4-4. You will then require the heart finesse. 5 Clubs requires the same finesse and a good guess in spades. Add into the equation neither opponent has bid. 3NT is the superior contract. Even a 5-3 diamond split could be okay if the suit blocks.
I'm playing... you guessed it. 5 Clubs. And the 8 of Hearts is led.
I think this is a reasonable standard play problem. But I would anticipate most, if not all, Declarers at the White House getting it right.
My line:
Up with the Ace of Hearts. The King is almost certainly on my right after the lead. There is no point losing this finesse now; I have a chance at another one to make the contract and can concede the King of Hearts at a more convenient time. I play two rounds of clubs, starting with small to the 9 and small to the King. LHO shows out on the second round, so I cash the Ace.
The contract depends on "guessing spades right". The guess is, in fact, non-existent. Nothing I do will make a difference. If either opponent has Ace and Queen of spades, I cannot win. LHO has two natural tricks when he holds them, and the contract will come 2 off because of it. RHO can keep the queen to cover the third round of spades, so unless he has AQ doubleton, I can ill-afford them to be there, either. What about split honours? Again, unless RHO holds Qx, I won't win. One opponent will win either the first or second round of spades; and the other will hold their honour until round 3 if required, so I can't pitch a diamond. The bottom line: unless RHO has exactly two spades, one of which is the Queen, I am going down.
Since the odds on that are not good, I am playing for every chance I can get. I play the Jack from dummy, in the hope that RHO will feel obliged to cover holding Qxx(x)(x)(x). I feel vindicated when I see the Queen - all of a sudden, this contract is making. I cover with the King; Ace wins. The best defence is a diamond switch - I have to win, play the 2 of spades to the ten, play the ten of clubs to the Jack and play a spade to pitch a diamond, before giving up a heart. As it happened, I didn't get that defence and the contract rolled in, and 11 IMPs along with it.
But perhaps my favourite board for subversive reasons was Board 17:
A106
987
K98
A754
K9
AK653
A7642
9
I hold the bottom hand, and am playing 4 Hearts. I get the Queen of Spades lead (from a hand that overcalled spades), which I win with the King. This contract seems innocent enough. I cash Ace and King of Hearts, and LHO shows out on the King. I have two heart losers instead of just 1 as I'd hoped. If I could have seen all the hands, of course I could've gone to dummy and ran the 9. Now I have an issue with trump control. If RHO wins a heart and plays a club, I'm going to have to tread carefully. So I look for another option than directly drawing trumps. I could draw the trumps by running diamonds once they are out - but there is a danger there too. If RHO is void in diamonds, then I may lose a trick I expect to win. However, I'm pretty sure that's not the case, because then LHO has a different overcall. So I play a small diamond to the King. Then I play the 9. RHO could be out of them by now, but if he ruffs in I have a plan. He can lead a black suit (clubs is the best choice, obviously), and I will win and play a diamond. That ensures I only have one diamond loser. Or, he could cash the heart first to make sure I don't do that. But I can still come to four heart tricks, a club, two diamonds and three spades, because I can finesse the spades through LHO. In fact, RHO has another diamond - the ten. I duck, because it is valuable that I preserve communication. LHO is forced to win with the Jack and he fires a club through. I win with the ace and play the 8 of diamonds off table. RHO could discard on this, but I will play the ace, and then run diamonds until he does ruff. In fact, he ruffs in, and now I see an opportunity developing as I pitch the 6. Not to make the contract - that is already seen to.
RHO returns a club, and I ruff. I now have two trumps left compared to RHO's one. I give him a chance to take his remaining trump trick when I play the Ace of diamonds. Nothing doing, so I now play up to the Ace of spades and exit dummy's last heart. This forces RHO to win his last trump now, on trick eleven. He only has black cards left. He selects one, and I ruff. My last remaining card is not only a winner - it is the seven of diamonds - the beer card. I knew playing for Scotland brought out the best in me.
That board was flat, of course, but the next board provided a swing when our opponents didn't bid a 23 point Game. This was yet another match where big swings were important, but this time it was to our favour. Although Norway scored on seven of the fourteen boards and we scored on 5, all five of our swings were significant and we won by 51 IMPS to 29 - or 20-10 on VPs.
Beer cards might be like busses - I've waited many years to score one, and then I do so in two consecutive matches. Board 1 of our final match - against Ireland - and I did it again, although as the diamond suit was a 9 card fit, it lacked the panache of the first. Sadly that was one of few good moments in the match against Ireland. Although Falco and I did well enough (I thought), for the team this match did not go well at all and we lost heavily - 8-22 on VPs.
That was enough to see us finish bottom of our final group. Time for us to take stock of how we did over the tournament as a whole.
In my opinion we did really well. There were no aspirations for us going into the tournament. We were probably favourites for last place. The odds were stacked against us. For a start, we were a team of four. That meant every one of us played every single board. That was a significant disadvantage over the teams of six (or the Dutch, who predominantly had teams of 8), whose players could rest for the odd match. Which gives the winners of the tournament, Netherlands Red, even more credit as they played four-handed. But then, they are four World Class Juniors. We were a team of two experts and two advanced players. Not only that, but neither of our partnerships had played together before. I think our team mates had one practice session on BBO. Falco and I practiced intensively on BBO but only met just before play started. The other three had experience of intense junior International competition, but I hadn't. Although I thrived on it for the most part, I had plenty of new things to get used to. My two most nervous matches were Denmark and Germany, without a doubt. I learned important lessons in those matches - one of the most important ones being how to handle nerves. I won't be nealy as scared of appearing on Vugraph for a second time (if that ever happens) as I was for my first.
We also lacked an NPC (more on this below).
Then the draw was unkind to us. Our starting group was a Group of Death. We didn't always get the luck of the draw in the Swiss. And then Ireland somehow managed to find their way into the E-Final along with us. I wouldn't have minded so much if they'd done to Finland and Norway what they did to us.
Yet what did we do? We somehow emerged from the Group of Death with three victories and two defeats. This included the major scalp of the Czech Republic. We strung together some 16-14 victories on the second day. We ensured before the last day even started we couldn't finish in the bottom four by getting into the E-Final with some room to spare. If anyone had predicted we'd do what we did, they'd be up there with the big-time psychics like Paul the Octopus.
So what was the key? How did a team of such little prospect achieve so much? I think there are several reasons.
Firstly, we had an excellent Captain. We were originally going to be accompanied by Jim Hay, who is a top class coach. Any team's chances improve when they get Jim on board. We had the blow of losing him as NPC, and Alex took up the mantle as Playing Captain. And boy, did he do a good job. His leadership, knowledge of the game, advice and humour played a significant part in punching above our weight.
Then there was the team spirit. This is an often under-estimated factor, but I think Scottish juniors are very good at maximising their strength here. For the amount of work we put into the week, we were as laid back as possible and generally enjoyed our time there. Analysis was always constructive, and disagreements about system etc were handled with patience and understanding. Certainly I feel that it was not just the understanding that Falco and I had, but the lack of misunderstanding, that speaks volumes for our partnership as a whole. You certainly wouldn't have caught us at the "shouting match" antics of some of our opponents.
Also, I think the underdog tag suited us. We had not been given any demands from the SBU about how far up the field we had to come. So we just took each match one at a time and tried to win where we could. If we played well, we had the element of surprise. We were an unknown entity to most of our opponents.
Overall, it was a very successful trip. I have waited a long time to get back on International duty and I was glad to go and fly the flag with the others. And fly it we did. If an under-strength Scotland team can even compete at the White House, then maybe it won't be too long before we can really make waves at an International event. Well, we can live in hope.
Things started in earnest bright and early on a Sunday morning (3am on the morning the clocks came forward!), as I was woken by my alarm so that I had enough time to get up, get ready to go and see to last minute details before meeting up with Jun at the airport just after 4am. Of course, we had prepared for this, hadn't we? Surely we went to be about tea time to make up the hours of sleep? Well, no. Best laid plans and all that...
Still, we had an International tournament to look forward to, so neither of us were particularly feeling it. After a routine, but turbulent, flight, we landed in Schipol just after 8am local time. After the smoothest Arrival ever (by the time we had walked the length of the Arrivals Lounge and gone through security - the only two to go through at that particular time - our bags had already come round the carousel and we picked them up almost without breaking stride), we had the task of finding our way to the hotel.
We had an address, and we had an idea how to get there, but where we fell down was that we were largely reliant on my non-existent photographic memory of Google Earth. We settled on taking one train to Amsterdam Central, followed by another to Amstel, where we got off knowing that the hotel was just on the other side of the river. Uhoh. Which one of these waterways is the river? Neither of us had learned to read Dutch in school, and we had only one point of reference. (You need at least two points of reference when navigating to have any hope). After walking completely the wrong way to get our bearings, we crossed the Amstel and walked past the hotel (which was one block over), but a local was able to point us in the right direction and we eventually found it.
Dutch people (or those in Amsterdam particularly) are brilliant linguists. I have been to the Netherlands twice in my life and the only person I met that wasn't fluent in English was about seven years old. I'm a firm believer in "when in Rome...", but I doubt my Dutch will ever be up to scratch. One of the English team has actually lived in Amsterdam for 18 months and as far as I'm aware hasn't picked up the language at all. I tend not to take this brilliance for granted and never fail to be impressed. Netherlands, I salute you.
After a quick rest and change of clothes (we now had to don our Scotland shirts), it was time to get lost all over again. We found our way to the tram easily enough, and we got off at the right stop. I had remembered Google Earth well enough this time, but still did not know where the White House actually was. This was probably mainly to do with the fact that I was under the impression that Der Witte Huis was a hotel, and not, in fact, a tennis club. Despite this, another local knew exactly where it was and we got there in enough time for the event.
Above is a picture of the main playing area in the White House. It is taken from the upper level, which housed some of the tables (four on each wing). Most of the tables are not in view.
My partner for the week was Falco. No, that's not his real name, but I didn't ask if I could use his name in this, so I'm not going to use it. (Even if it has been used in other on-line articles already.) "Falco" and I had done a lot of preparation for the event, by using BBO, but the first time I actually met him was a couple of minutes before play started in the pro-am Sunday tournament. Although we wanted to do well, Falco and I were treating this one-day event as no more than a "warm-up" for the week to come, as we hadn't played any "real" bridge together. It was a chance to iron out any systemic wrinkles.
Things started well, however. On the very first board, as West, I picked up:
AQJ83
Q985
3
1084
North passed, and partner opened 1 Diamond. South overcalled a Weak 2 Spades. I smoothly passed this, and waited for a re-opening double from partner. Falco obliged, feeling his hand was worth a take-out double, and I penalty passed. North could do nothing, so we took down 2 Spades Doubled, not by as much as it could have been, as we didn't defend optimally, but it was a start.
When all said and done, in a tournament that invited coaches, professionals and sponsors to play, we finished 8th out of 24 - much higher up the pecking order than we'd have thought possible. After two big wins mid-way, we were actually sitting 2nd. But we couldn't allow ourselves to finish THAT high; it might give away the fact that we were planning to not actually come last in the main event.
24 boards was not abnormal for me (or any of us), so we took that in our stride. But for me, the White House Tournament was to be an altogether different affair.
On Sunday evening they erected the screens (which can be clearly seen in the above picture), and playing with screens was a new experience for me. Although I have only heard positive things about them, they still take some getting used to, and I was very nervous when I sat down to play our first match - against Denmark.
The first day consisted of a group stage of five ten board matches. I posted previously the group, and my reservations about the seeding. However, you can only play what is put in front of you, so we just had to do what we could.
The nerves were not a good thing. They caused me to misbid on Board 2, and we missed a Game, and before I had entirely calmed down I found myself playing 4 Spades on Board 4. Faced with a holding of AKJ10984 opposite 62 in dummy in the trump suit, I miscounted, Played the Ace and then took a finesse, which turned out to be the only play to get twelve tricks as the queen was onside. Who said nerves are a bad thing?
One board later, we lost 16 IMPs, and although I again chalked this up to nerves, on reflection the opponents were in a cold Game so the swing didn't happen at our table. Denmark kept up the good work and took the maximum 25 VPs. Somehow late in the match we took 10 IMPs on an innocent looking board, to get some VPs and look onwards and upwards.
The second match was against Israel. Just what you need after a thrashing by the team that came 3rd last year: a match against the reigning Champions. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to this one. This was what I had come here for. The screens were already my new best friend and my nerves had evaporated. All I wanted to do was put the first win on the board for Scotland, and I didn't care who was standing in my way. Unfortunately, Israel didn't co-operate with this plan, and beat us 21-9. This was adjusted to 23-7 after they called the Director, which we had to accept because there was no appeals committee, which was something of a surprise.
However, there had been a marked improvement from Round 1 to Round 2, and with two of the big teams out of the way it was time to see what we could do against one of the host teams - Netherlands Orange. We were still looking for our first win, and effectively it came in the first three boards of the match. On Board 21 (the first board) we gained an IMP when we held 4 Spades to ten tricks. On boards 22 and 23, we bid routine 3NT contracts, making 9 and 11 tricks respectively. Our team-mates must've done something spectacular because on both boards we gained 13 IMPs, putting 27 IMPs on the board - the only 27 IMPs we gained in the match, which we won 18-12.
That doesn't mean we did all the work on those boards. The match is ten boards long, and there were four flat boards, and it is not always easy to stop the IMPs leaking out. For example:
A872
KJ5
KJ53
62
All Vul and Dealer, I open this 1 Diamond. (Better Minor). LHO overcalls 1 Spade and partner doubles. The auction gets as far as 3 Spades by our opponents. In a Bridge Club, 3 Spades would ordinarily be the contract. However, one of us (I forget which one) managed to find a Double. Doubling into Game is not something you do unless you have an absolute guarantee of beating the contract. We certainly didn't seem to have that looking at the hand record. However, we did defend accurately, and consequently beat the contract by 1 for +200 - a flat board, because the same thing happened at the other table. It was to be a theme of the week - International Bridge is mostly about not shipping. You have to play well to get a flat board, as was evidenced by match 4.
I'm sitting playing against Kopecky - a name I recognise, and no wonder. Although a Junior, he has played in the Czech Open team. He was also part of the Japan-Czech team that won the Junior World Internationals a couple of years ago. And he happens to be my screen-mate for 10 boards.
The first half of the match has gone well - I think we're ahead (but I don't know.) Then board 6 comes along, and the opponents, starting with LHO, have the following auction:
1H 2D
2H 4C
4D 6H
7H
The bids are natural until 4 Clubs, which is a splinter. 4 Diamonds is a cue bid. My partner holds:
J652
J
A83
109872
Falco has a serious problem here. His LHO clearly has long diamonds, and for RHO to bid 7, the cue bid looks for all the world like a void. Leading the Ace, which I will grant you many club level players will do without thinking, could set up the suit in dummy and be disastrous. Falco made a quick decision here, and led the Ace - which HELD. Nice bluff by South, matched by an excellent Call from partner. As it happens, without the ace lead, 7 Hearts does not have much play and will come down, but Falco gave it no chance. Things did not get better for Czech Republic; this was our score-card for boards 6-10:
6: 7 Hearts -1 by South, +50
7: 2 Spades +1 by North, -140
8: 4 Spades -3 by North, +150
9: 4 Spades -1 by South, +50
10: 2NT -1 by Opponent, +100
Board 7 we are hoping for a flat board, but on the rest we are hoping for a gain - including a slam swing. My only concern was that I had not Doubled Kopecky on Board 8. I'd a long spade suit myself, but had not wished to reveal that fact to him by Doubling - a decision our team-mates would agree with later. So, having had a great match from our perspective, we looked forward to scoring this up.
Boards 6 to 10 were all flat boards. Thus underlining just how hard it is to gain at this level. This was the one match of the tournament where we left the table confident of a win - a win not provided by very swingy boards. In fact, we had to make a MISTAKE (of sorts) to win.
The match was won on Board 3:
J62
A10752
10653
J
I held this hand, and LHO opened 1 Club. This is either natural, or 19-20. Partner has overcalled 2 Clubs. We have no prior agreement on this, so I have to decide whether I think this is natural or not (and Kopecky wants to know). I think that it is Michaels, because if the 1 Club isn't natural, partner probably doesn't want to overcall a strong hand. However, I am not 100% sure, so I bid 2 Hearts. South bids 2 Spades, and partner now says 3 Clubs - I guess it was natural then. Kopecky and I pass, and push the tray through. The tray appears back with a double from South. Kopecky pulls this to 3 Spades, I pass, and the tray goes back through. The next time we see it, partner has bid 4 Clubs. This goes round to South, who doubles again and this time it is left.
Partner held:
Q8
8
K8
AKQ98532
The Ace of Diamonds was onside, so he made an easy ten tricks for +710. That contributed 11 of our total of 13 IMPs, and we won the match 17-13. That was probably our "giantkilling" match.
The last match of the first day was against Bulgaria Green. In this match we took what we got, and what we got was enough. The first swing came on Board 12, where we gained 12 IMPs when partner made a 5 Spade Contract that looks reasonably safe double dummy. Then on Board 14 we gained 14 IMPs. South opened 1 Spade. Falco held:
86532
-
AKQJ10752
-
Falco bid 4 Diamonds with this. In the post mortem it was agreed that 5 Diamonds would be better, but the point was he bid something. North bid 4 Hearts over him, which we took down. For reasons best known to himself, Falco's counterpart passed 1 Spade, and our team-mates found their way to a Club Slam, which they made.
So ended our first day at the White House. It had been a successful day by any account. The match against Denmark was a write-off which was hardly a surprise with two new partnerships. We then competed against Israel before winning our remaining three matches. We couldn't have hoped for better.
Placings in the group stage affected starting positions in the Swiss, which would be played over the next two days. We started on Tuesday against Croatia. I believe the WordPress site mentioned in my last post has a report on that, so I will pass over this 12-18 defeat to move onto Round 7. Here we were up against Ireland.
Those who watch the Camrose (Junior Camrose/ Lady Milne etc) will be used to seeing Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland as two different teams. In these Home Nations events, this is what happens - the two countries send their own teams, which are usually competitive and one or other (or both) can be in with a shout of winning. However, in all other events, the two combine to send an IRELAND team, and this was what we were facing - the best of both, as it were. This was no Junior Camrose match. Ireland had their best team and we had a new team. Ireland were strong favourites.
Not to worry. Board 1 provided our first slam of the tournament, and despite it being a virtual laydown, it gained us 11 IMPs. That set us on our way, and in a tight match, we did scrape a 3, a 2 and two 1s to add to the 11, and losing 11 on the penultimate board was not enough to stop us winning 18-14 on IMPs, 16-14 on VPs. (Our second slam of the tournament also rolled in on this match, but it was flat). Although small gains can sometimes be just as interesting as large, I'll resist the temptation to analyse in full as this is already becoming an essay.
Round 8 was against Poland, which I don't have hand records for, but we won 16-14.
Onto Round 9. This was against Germany, and more importantly (from my point of view) it was on Vugraph. For the uninitiated, Vugraph is the feature by which BBO is able to screen live bridge matches. Anyone on BBO can watch. The biggest events draw thousands of spectators. Knowing that anyone, anywhere, can be watching you as you try to decide which of the thirteen cards you should play, or the various bids you can make, would surely strike the nerves of anyone. And I had never done it before. That sort of pressure can easily affect decisions - and has. I have been a spectator as a player has completely crumbled under the pressure - it isn't nice. Now it was my turn to try and cope.
The nerves I felt for the first few boards of this match were second only to the first five boards against Denmark. However, I was pleased to find I coped somewhat better, and things certainly became easier after they bid to a 6 Clubs which didn't make. By that time we had also (completely unbeknown to us) accrued another big swing by bidding a routine 3NT when our counterparts bid 5 Diamonds coming off.
That's not to say things didn't go wrong. I misread a situation in 3NT and went off with a chance to make it, and we got an 800 in the minus column too. Vugraph crashed with a few boards to go, and although we played on oblivious, some of our supporters were left under the impression we lost the match. My Dad was actually told Scotland had "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory", when in fact we did gain 11 IMPs on the last board to win the match 16-14.
As for my Vugraph experience, I made mistakes, which I had been dreading, but this had a positive effect. For a start, I was not nervous by the time the match ended - I had partner to thank for that. I was rather annoyed when he hadn't found the defence I'd been looking for on one board, but to my delight I found that I could not be annoyed and nervous at the same time. I promptly told myself I was annoyed for the rest of the match, and managed my nerves rather well. As for my mistakes, it made me feel like I wasn't showing myself properly - and that was a good thing. Next time I'm on Vugraph (if there is one), there will be a determination to show what I can do which should keep the nerves at bay. I certainly won't be dreading it like I was this match.
The eagle eyed will have noticed that this was our third 16 in a row. If nothing else, we were grinding matches out. This is a quality that every International Bridge team wants to have in its locker in case things don't go well, so we were pleased to prove that we could do it. It didn't occur to me at the time, but we had at this point won 6 of the last 7 matches - something that would have been unthinkable before play started, and certainly far in excess of expectations.
What my Dad had been told actually applied to our next match, against Austria. We were winning comfortably at one stage, but then we contrived to throw it away on the last two boards by looking for a slam that wasn't there and one major misunderstanding. We lost 14-16. In fairness, one major misunderstanding in the space of 261 boards, for a partnership that had never met, and only one month to prepare for an International tournament, is an excellent return, even if it costs a match. We would both have bitten the hand off anyone that offered us that before the tournament.
We finished the day with a disappointing 8-22 against Netherlands Blue. I think this was one of those matches where our luck just was not there. Netherlands Blue played really well, leaving us no margin for error, and capitalised on a few Scottish mistakes. It was disappointing, but not unexpected - it was our first single-figure VP score since the match against Israel, which was pretty good going.
Wednesday started with a match against another Dutch team - the White team. Nothing interesting happened at our table, except maybe one hand that Falco won't thank me for posting, and we lost the match 13-17.
Onto Round 14 (not 13; we had a bye), and a match against Finland. We only had two minus scores on the card - a solid Game and a -300. We had pushed to 3 Diamonds, which they found a double for. I can't post the hand as I can't remember how we (me, I think) contrived to come down 2, and this contributed to 9 IMPs out - the only board we lost IMPs on in the match. However, in a very flattish match, it was hard to pull back this loss over 9 boards, in a match we were hoping to win.
Boards 12-15 were flat, a fact I will accept with good grace given we did have a +170, followed by a 2, a 1, and another flat board. On Board 19, after a competitive auction I played and made 3 Hearts - the optimum result, but my counterpart didn't make (I don't know much about what happened at my team mates' table), and the match was level. It swung our way on Board 20 when our opponents attempted a thin 3NT that turned out to be way too thin. We took it two off for 200, gaining 3 IMPs and yet another 16 VPs.
In Round 15, we lost 7-23 to Norway. I certainly didn't think our performance in the match merited such a heavy defeat, but I can't produce evidence from hand records (because I don't have them for this round) to back this conviction up.
In Round 16, we were a bit unlucky I thought. On the second board, I doubled a 5 Club Contract which made with two overtricks, which is absolutely fine as long as our team mates find the Slam their way (I wouldn't expect them to find the 50% Grand which happens to make). That would have turned an 11-19 defeat into another 16-14 win. We did have our biggest swing in during this match: 15 IMPs for 4 Spades Doubled making, when combined with our team mates' score.
Our last match of the Swiss was against the England Under 25 team. As they were flying quite high at the time and we weren't, this was a bit of a surprise. We'd scored a maximum (or nearly) against the Under 20s on the Sunday, but this was a different prospect. We would be doing well to hang on to their coat tails. We did, though; Falco and I holding our own but we came out just on the wrong side of things - a narrow 13-17 defeat, which we felt was less than we deserved.
At this point, the teams were divided into Groups of 4 for the Thursday Finals (or Semi Finals, for those in the top 4). Each team would play against every other in their group, in 14 board matches. We were in the second bottom group, which we were happy with (the worst we could finish was 20th and that would still be better than expected), but we were not happy to see Ireland in our group. (Or at least I wasn't). What were they doing in 17th place? Also in our group were Finland and Norway. This did not bother me - I wanted another crack at them.
Unfortunately, 14 boards is not long enough when you miss a Slam and your team-mates miss a Game. Those were the two big swings of the match against Finland, and despite the team playing well for the other 12 boards, we could not recoup the deficit. We lost 10-20.
On to the rematch against Norway. Starting with the second half, my first hand was Board 22:
-
AJ875432
6
AK63
You open 2 Clubs with this. (Five losers; this is worth a GF in International Bridge). Apparently I couldn't make this bid in England - the 16 point rule. That deserves a separate rant, and this post is not about ranting (or raving).
Partner says a negative 2 Diamonds. You have strong options because you do not allow a "2D relay" in your system. You bid 3 Hearts, which is a self-agreement. Partner says 3 Spades (Italian Cue), you say 4 Clubs (Italian Cue) and partner says 4 Spades (Italian Cue).
For the uninitiated, partner has shown the Ace of Spades (or a void, but the odds favour the ace). He has not denied the King, nor has he shown it. He has no diamond controls. What is your call?
The auction went very wrong for us. As a result, we gained 13 IMPs. We lost an IMP on the next board (again, we don't know the score as we play), before Falco made 10 tricks in 3NT for +11 IMPs. We then lost 23 IMPs over the next two boards - partly our fault for making a phantom sacrifice. We'd set a target of getting 30% of judgement decisions right. I think over the week we got at least that and probably better, but against Norway we hardly got any right.
Case in point: Board 27 - arguably. Do you want to be in 3NT or 5 Clubs here?
J92
AQ9
A103
AKJ2
K10
J1054
52
Q10953
My hand is the bottom hand.
3NT is in danger on a diamond lead if they are not 4-4. You will then require the heart finesse. 5 Clubs requires the same finesse and a good guess in spades. Add into the equation neither opponent has bid. 3NT is the superior contract. Even a 5-3 diamond split could be okay if the suit blocks.
I'm playing... you guessed it. 5 Clubs. And the 8 of Hearts is led.
I think this is a reasonable standard play problem. But I would anticipate most, if not all, Declarers at the White House getting it right.
My line:
Up with the Ace of Hearts. The King is almost certainly on my right after the lead. There is no point losing this finesse now; I have a chance at another one to make the contract and can concede the King of Hearts at a more convenient time. I play two rounds of clubs, starting with small to the 9 and small to the King. LHO shows out on the second round, so I cash the Ace.
The contract depends on "guessing spades right". The guess is, in fact, non-existent. Nothing I do will make a difference. If either opponent has Ace and Queen of spades, I cannot win. LHO has two natural tricks when he holds them, and the contract will come 2 off because of it. RHO can keep the queen to cover the third round of spades, so unless he has AQ doubleton, I can ill-afford them to be there, either. What about split honours? Again, unless RHO holds Qx, I won't win. One opponent will win either the first or second round of spades; and the other will hold their honour until round 3 if required, so I can't pitch a diamond. The bottom line: unless RHO has exactly two spades, one of which is the Queen, I am going down.
Since the odds on that are not good, I am playing for every chance I can get. I play the Jack from dummy, in the hope that RHO will feel obliged to cover holding Qxx(x)(x)(x). I feel vindicated when I see the Queen - all of a sudden, this contract is making. I cover with the King; Ace wins. The best defence is a diamond switch - I have to win, play the 2 of spades to the ten, play the ten of clubs to the Jack and play a spade to pitch a diamond, before giving up a heart. As it happened, I didn't get that defence and the contract rolled in, and 11 IMPs along with it.
But perhaps my favourite board for subversive reasons was Board 17:
A106
987
K98
A754
K9
AK653
A7642
9
I hold the bottom hand, and am playing 4 Hearts. I get the Queen of Spades lead (from a hand that overcalled spades), which I win with the King. This contract seems innocent enough. I cash Ace and King of Hearts, and LHO shows out on the King. I have two heart losers instead of just 1 as I'd hoped. If I could have seen all the hands, of course I could've gone to dummy and ran the 9. Now I have an issue with trump control. If RHO wins a heart and plays a club, I'm going to have to tread carefully. So I look for another option than directly drawing trumps. I could draw the trumps by running diamonds once they are out - but there is a danger there too. If RHO is void in diamonds, then I may lose a trick I expect to win. However, I'm pretty sure that's not the case, because then LHO has a different overcall. So I play a small diamond to the King. Then I play the 9. RHO could be out of them by now, but if he ruffs in I have a plan. He can lead a black suit (clubs is the best choice, obviously), and I will win and play a diamond. That ensures I only have one diamond loser. Or, he could cash the heart first to make sure I don't do that. But I can still come to four heart tricks, a club, two diamonds and three spades, because I can finesse the spades through LHO. In fact, RHO has another diamond - the ten. I duck, because it is valuable that I preserve communication. LHO is forced to win with the Jack and he fires a club through. I win with the ace and play the 8 of diamonds off table. RHO could discard on this, but I will play the ace, and then run diamonds until he does ruff. In fact, he ruffs in, and now I see an opportunity developing as I pitch the 6. Not to make the contract - that is already seen to.
RHO returns a club, and I ruff. I now have two trumps left compared to RHO's one. I give him a chance to take his remaining trump trick when I play the Ace of diamonds. Nothing doing, so I now play up to the Ace of spades and exit dummy's last heart. This forces RHO to win his last trump now, on trick eleven. He only has black cards left. He selects one, and I ruff. My last remaining card is not only a winner - it is the seven of diamonds - the beer card. I knew playing for Scotland brought out the best in me.
That board was flat, of course, but the next board provided a swing when our opponents didn't bid a 23 point Game. This was yet another match where big swings were important, but this time it was to our favour. Although Norway scored on seven of the fourteen boards and we scored on 5, all five of our swings were significant and we won by 51 IMPS to 29 - or 20-10 on VPs.
Beer cards might be like busses - I've waited many years to score one, and then I do so in two consecutive matches. Board 1 of our final match - against Ireland - and I did it again, although as the diamond suit was a 9 card fit, it lacked the panache of the first. Sadly that was one of few good moments in the match against Ireland. Although Falco and I did well enough (I thought), for the team this match did not go well at all and we lost heavily - 8-22 on VPs.
That was enough to see us finish bottom of our final group. Time for us to take stock of how we did over the tournament as a whole.
In my opinion we did really well. There were no aspirations for us going into the tournament. We were probably favourites for last place. The odds were stacked against us. For a start, we were a team of four. That meant every one of us played every single board. That was a significant disadvantage over the teams of six (or the Dutch, who predominantly had teams of 8), whose players could rest for the odd match. Which gives the winners of the tournament, Netherlands Red, even more credit as they played four-handed. But then, they are four World Class Juniors. We were a team of two experts and two advanced players. Not only that, but neither of our partnerships had played together before. I think our team mates had one practice session on BBO. Falco and I practiced intensively on BBO but only met just before play started. The other three had experience of intense junior International competition, but I hadn't. Although I thrived on it for the most part, I had plenty of new things to get used to. My two most nervous matches were Denmark and Germany, without a doubt. I learned important lessons in those matches - one of the most important ones being how to handle nerves. I won't be nealy as scared of appearing on Vugraph for a second time (if that ever happens) as I was for my first.
We also lacked an NPC (more on this below).
Then the draw was unkind to us. Our starting group was a Group of Death. We didn't always get the luck of the draw in the Swiss. And then Ireland somehow managed to find their way into the E-Final along with us. I wouldn't have minded so much if they'd done to Finland and Norway what they did to us.
Yet what did we do? We somehow emerged from the Group of Death with three victories and two defeats. This included the major scalp of the Czech Republic. We strung together some 16-14 victories on the second day. We ensured before the last day even started we couldn't finish in the bottom four by getting into the E-Final with some room to spare. If anyone had predicted we'd do what we did, they'd be up there with the big-time psychics like Paul the Octopus.
So what was the key? How did a team of such little prospect achieve so much? I think there are several reasons.
Firstly, we had an excellent Captain. We were originally going to be accompanied by Jim Hay, who is a top class coach. Any team's chances improve when they get Jim on board. We had the blow of losing him as NPC, and Alex took up the mantle as Playing Captain. And boy, did he do a good job. His leadership, knowledge of the game, advice and humour played a significant part in punching above our weight.
Then there was the team spirit. This is an often under-estimated factor, but I think Scottish juniors are very good at maximising their strength here. For the amount of work we put into the week, we were as laid back as possible and generally enjoyed our time there. Analysis was always constructive, and disagreements about system etc were handled with patience and understanding. Certainly I feel that it was not just the understanding that Falco and I had, but the lack of misunderstanding, that speaks volumes for our partnership as a whole. You certainly wouldn't have caught us at the "shouting match" antics of some of our opponents.
Also, I think the underdog tag suited us. We had not been given any demands from the SBU about how far up the field we had to come. So we just took each match one at a time and tried to win where we could. If we played well, we had the element of surprise. We were an unknown entity to most of our opponents.
Overall, it was a very successful trip. I have waited a long time to get back on International duty and I was glad to go and fly the flag with the others. And fly it we did. If an under-strength Scotland team can even compete at the White House, then maybe it won't be too long before we can really make waves at an International event. Well, we can live in hope.
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