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?
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