Take a picture, quick!

So last Friday was the penultimate round of the District Teams of Four. You may recall that in the last round I more or less wrote off our chances of winning the trophy. After the events of Round 4 I am obliged not to do so. Why? Because we have suddenly found ourselves in first place - just when we weren't expecting it.

Lessurl and I started the night with a match against USHER. The Captain himself was not playing; he rotates a team of six for this event. We had the other two pairs to contend with. 009domino had never conceded defeat in this event, and was adamant we still had a title shot. But to keep that hope alive we knew what was needed against a team that was currently sitting 8th. As ever, there was a difference between knowing what is needed, and being able to do it.
The first three boards were snore bores - a 3NT+2 against us, a 2NT+1 against us and then a 1H+2 by Lessurl, during which I dashed away to collect the table money. As if trying to win at bridge wasn't a big enough ask, I was also running this event.
Next up was a 2 Spades by me, in which both I and Lessurl had 4-3-3-3 distributions, so there was nowhere to get rid of my six losers and I went one down. This was followed by another cold 11 tricks against us in No-Trump for -660.
So, we get to board 6 and the auction qualifies for the most interesting thing to happen thus far. I hold:

Kx
AKQJxx
Axx
Hxx

I open this 2 Clubs. LHO overcalls 2 Spades. Lessurl passes, showing no aces, so I bid 3 Hearts. This was a bad bid - I should have bid 4, and play there. Because I don't, we end up in 5 Hearts as I try to investigate a remote slam. The Ace of Spades lead helps greatly, and I canter to eleven tricks. Even though this was a non-vulnerable Game, I really don't think we could've penalised 2 Spades for a better score, though it is always a tempting thought.
  +690 on the next board was more likely to yield 3 IMPs than a Slam Swing out, and -170 on the next board looked like a small chance of a swing if our team-mates had a route to the thin Game. I played a 4 Heart contract that rolled in, watched as a 5 Diamond contract rolled to 12 tricks against us on the penultimate board, and then this board to finish:

xx
K10x
xxx
QJ7xx

AKxx
AJxxx
Qx
Kx

Contract: 4 Hearts by the bottom hand, King of Diamonds led.
I am Dealer at Game All, with the bottom hand. I open 1 Heart. LHO doubles.
Lessurl now bids 2 Clubs, which I alert as it shows 6-9 points with 3 card heart support and probably something in clubs (almost certainly in this case). With a reversing strength hand I bid 2 Spades, even though I know there is no fit there - it is just the best way to show my strength. Lessurl bids 3 Hearts, which suggests he is bottom of the range, but I take a view and bid 4, mainly on basis of feeling we need a swing to stay in the competition and also that I know where a lot of the points are.

LHO takes the first two tricks with the King then Ace of Diamonds. A third round of diamonds is ruffed in hand with RHO showing the Jack.
This is a tricky situation. There is a threat of losing trump control - especially if they break 4-1. I probably won't get the time to ruff 2 spades in dummy, so clubs need to be set up. And the key question is where is the Queen of Hearts? I don't know the answer to that one, but in the mean time, I may as well play LHO for the Ace of Clubs and get a count of the hand - he surely doesn't have Axxxx. As it happens, the King holds a round, and when I play a small up to dummy, the Ace appears, followed by another club. A good attempt from LHO - he knows not to give me a ruff and discard and can't risk giving me the distribution by playing on spades. He has held up a round in the hope of getting partner a ruff, but at the expense of beating an honour with the Ace. This means I have no dilemma on the third round, and as it happens, the Jack holds, and I can pitch 1 Spade. That brings me to this position:

xx
K10x
---
Q7

AKx
AJxx
---
---

The location of the Queen of Hearts is a genuine guess. I don't have everything I need to be sure, but I must get it right as I need to play trumps for no losers and rid myself of a spade loser along the way. There are two options. Option A is play for Qxx on my left: small heart to the ace, small heart towards the K10, stuffing LHO, and drawing trumps in 3 rounds before pitching a spade on a club. Option B is to play for Qx(x) on my right: King of hearts and a small heart from dummy to trap RHO, before cashing two rounds of spades and ruffing a third and requiring the remaining heart to be on my right.
Option A seems to be the intuitive line: it picks up more heart distributions and places the Queen with the hand that doubled. I didn't pick this. LHO has shown 11 points already and is unlikely to have both major queens. He has played three diamonds and had an original holding of three clubs. Since his double implies length in spades, I am placing him with 4 of these, leaving room for three more red cards. Given his partner played the Jack of Diamonds, I think it more likely that he has another diamond, meaning that his partner rates to have longer hearts than him. It is the Theory of Available Spaces in action. In other words, if I correctly place Queen of Hearts on my right, I will be given the "luck" of RHO having three. So all that remains is to place that sodding queen. I place it on my right. Of the two major queens, I think LHO more likely to hold the Spade, since that is likely his suit and I held Ace-King. So I take Option B. This works, and the contract makes.
  I could cross my fingers this would grant us a swing, but overall, the match looked too mundane for a score. Wrong. Only three flat boards as our team-mates did not have a boring set at all. On the first, 009domino also played in 3NT but took the lot. Unfortunately, they passed out the next board and we were losing 2-4. Lessurl's 9th trick gained us an IMP on the third, and my -50 gained another 2 as our counterparts had played in 3 Spades. Then came the first board that was actually flat. Still only 5-4 at this stage.
  My 5 Hearts making was the first swing - our counterparts were also in 5 Hearts and coming 2 off. -2 and +3 followed before 2 flat boards saw us edging the match 19-6 with two to score up. Our team-mates were the heroes on the next board, finding the thin but making 6 Hearts to gain us 11 more IMPs. The above 4 Hearts gained us a further 10, and that was enough to see us fall 1 IMP short of the maximum win, settling for 19-1.

Before we scored that match we had a match to play against McGUIRE. This was a team that beat us heavily last year, or at least part thereof, as it is actually a merger of two teams. Having lost one match already, we couldn't afford a repeat result. Fortunately, it seemed to us the only potential big swings were going to be in our favour.
  After a "flat" first board in which we lost an IMP, Lessurl and I had these hands:

J10xx
AQJx
KQx
xx

AKxxx
xxx
A
AQJ10

As Dealer with the bottom hand, I open 1 Spade. Lessurl responds a Jacoby 2NT. I bid a positive 3 Spades, explained at the end of the auction as such and denying a singleton or void. I am denying my diamond singleton - I don't show a singleton Ace as such. Lessurl bids 4 Spades, which tells me he was only interested in Game when he bid 2NT. I put on my rose tinted specs and bid 4NT. However, I cannot justify a slam when the auction continues 5C (one Key Card) - 5D (QS?) - 5H (No) - 5S (I give up) So Five Spades is the contract.

How to play this on a heart lead? There are two options. Finesse and hope that either this makes, or that I only have 1 loser in the black suits if it fails. Or, I could rise with the Ace and play the spades for no losers (before or after unblocking diamonds depending on how I want to play spades) and get back to dummy with a spade to discard hearts. Hmm.
Lucky I don't have this dilemma - I get a diamond lead. I win, cash AK of spades, failing to drop the queen, then cash the Ace of hearts and pitch two hearts on the KQ of diamonds. The club finesse fails, so 11 tricks is spot on.
I would not want to be in 6 Spades here, which is exactly what our counterparts were in (also with a diamond lead). The line for attempting to make 6 is the same as for 5, so we gained 13 IMPs here. It is a fine line though - Declarer can make 13 tricks if he can see where all the cards are at Trick 1.

On the next board, my RHO passed a reverse bid. It was a judgement call that backfired when her partner was maximum. So, three boards in we had built up a comfortable 19-1 IMPs lead. By 10 boards, we had increased this to 31-1. This consisted of a gift of an extra trick, a part score battle that we won, and our opponents bidding a Game that didn't make. Unfortunately, we shipped 8 IMPs on the penultimate board to win the match 17-3. Still, 36 was a very good nights' work; the best score we've ever had in one two-match round of the District Teams of Four.

We didn't think it would be enough to put us on top, however. But MOWAT beat ROSS, so the current top 4 looks like this:

1. A. McLeod 122
2. Ross 120
3. Hay 115
4. Mowat 95

This is where the seeding system does its stuff. These were the top 4 seeds (though not in that order). We, as well as HAY (the top 2 seeds) have to play two of the top four seeds on the final night. We have the worst of it I think as we face HAY and ROSS. At least it could be argued that destiny is in our own hands, but I can't place us as favourites given our run-in. In my opinion, ROSS is in the better situation, only 2 VPs off the lead, with the leaders to play plus another match against a lower seed (6th). HAY is still very much in the mix and has a good chance of retaining the title. They also have the advantage of having "got the T-shirt" in terms of having won the event, being winners since - well, longer than I know. MOWAT complete the top 4 and the list of teams that still has a mathematical chance of winning. But they will need to win big (including in a match against HAY) and get other results in their favour. I'm not saying it can't or won't be done; only that a bookmaker should offer reasonable odds on a team outside of the current top 3 winning the event this season.

All in all, everything is in place for a great final night. I don't remember the contest ever being this close at this stage - usually it is a two horse race or less. I know which horse I want to win, but I'll be happy as long as we don't fall at the final hurdle.

A busy first weekend

Happy New Year.
I signed off my last entry looking forward to Round 3 of the Sybil Hay District Teams of 4. As scheduled, this clashed with the SBU Winter Congress in Peebles, so we postponed it and Round 3 was played on the 4th January 2013. This clashed with the first weekend of the Camrose, of course, but nobody from the North is involved in that, save for the interest of watching it. Pity we can't record it on Sky+. Nor would there be (for me) any time to watch on Saturday, as I was a chapperone-slash-player at the Junior Trials in Stirling - just one of the things new SBU Junior Co-ordinator Jenny Cooper is doing to get a look at the current crop of Juniors coming through and take the setup forward, which I have every confidence she will. I also had bridge to play on Sunday, but I'm not going to blog about that.

District Teams of Four Round 3

This was a big night for us and in many ways the toughest challenge yet. Having finished both Rounds 1 and 2 sitting 1VP behind First Place, we were determined to finish Round 3 on top. The feeling was that if we didn't, we could forget about the trophy. It would not be easy - PETERS and N. MCLEOD are both scoring better than last year, although, I doubt they will be at all offended if I suggest they are not title contenders. We were under no illusions about how difficult it would be to win, and of course, anything can happen in McLeod v McLeod. No other team has the uniqueness of a "family derby" to contend with in this competition. Although this lacks the ill-feeling of Hearts v Hibs (thankfully), McLeod Senior and I know each other's games very well and a tangled web may be weaved as we try to out-think, as well as out-play, the other. Entering this match, I had the edge against teams involving my Dad in this competition, but I couldn't tell you the score as I don't keep score and anyway, this was the first time (in the Sybil Hay, anyway) that we had faced each other as Captains. His new look team started the night flying higher than ever, and I had a feeling that this was going to be one heck of a match.

Before that, Lessurl and I had twelve boards to play against Edith PETERS and partner. This team had already demonstrated the fallacy of their bottom seeding, which was based entirely on last season's finish (it could hardly have been based on anything else). They started Round 3 in ninth place on merit. If you offered me before the match a repeat of last season's result - a 19-1 win - I would have bitten your hand off. But since Bridge doesn't work like that, we had to hope that we could play well and get the wind in our sails.

In fact, we got the complete opposite. Things started well enough - I made a ludicrous 1NT bid and managed to make it. But things went against us from there on in. First of all, I was deceived by the underlead of an Ace against a suit contract - that can happen and has been duly noted. A reasonable 4 Spades contract met with bad breaks, although on Board 29 (the fifth), both of our partnerships scored + 170 for 8 IMPs. With the match poised on a knife edge, I picked up:

KJxx
Ax
Jx
AQxxx

I opened 1 Club (Better Minor). Lessurl responded 1 Heart. Now I have a tough decision - reverse or not? I opted for 1 Spade, and when Lessurl said 2 Clubs, there seemed to be no more to say. The diamond suit looked odds-on to be wide open, so No-Trumps was out and 5 Clubs was surely a stretch too far. 2 Clubs +2 was as good as we could do. Unfortunately, the same 10 tricks are available in Hearts. Our counterparts at the other table apparently misbid their way to it, and picked up 11 IMPs for their trouble. There was nowhere left that we could generate a swing, and when our team-mates had a board to forget to round off with, we slipped to a 6-14VP defeat.
  This is a result that epitomises what I have said previously. Anyone can beat anyone in this event and the tag of favourites is not coveted. I maintain that no matter who you play, skill and hard work can only get you so far. There will always be an element of luck in bridge and, as far as I am concerned, it is the worst area of my game.

Of course, as we headed into the McLeod derby, we did not know (although we did suspect) that the first match was a loss. So there were no title aspirations riding on this match, especially as it was clear from our opponents' demeanour they had just suffered a heavy loss at the hands of ROSS. That was not to say there was nothing riding on the match - pride, if nothing else, was at stake.
  The first board was a bog standard push. On the second I have this hand:

xxx
AKxx
109xx
85

LHO (McLeod Senior) opens 1 Club, and the bidding proceeds, with Lessurl and I passing: 2NT-3H-3S-3NT-4S

As stated above, my father and I know each other's game well, and I understood this auction. The 1 Club is an Asking Club, denying 5 cards in diamonds, hearts or spades and showing opening points. The 2NT is 11+, forcing, and asking for Opener's 4 card suit. 3 Hearts is the answer. 3 Spades was a little unexpected at this point, but must be spades. 4 Spades must really be spades.

Since I know where 4 of the missing hearts are, I lead the King for a Count signal - it is really important to me which of the other players has a doubleton. Lessurl plays the 2 on Trick 1, so it isn't him. In fact he must have exactly 3. I am seeing this dummy:

A
QJxx
Hxxxx
AJx

Now I switch to the 8 of clubs, which is allowed to run to Lessurl's King. This is when he has to find the killer continuation. It must be tempting to play a heart, and he did think for a bit before producing another club. Declarer wins with the Queen and plays a small spade to the Ace. He now plays the Ace of Clubs and pitches a heart, with me ruffing. I switch to a diamond and Lessurl produces the Ace. The contract eventually goes 2 off as Lessurl also has a trump to get. Our team-mates matched our +200 on this to score 9 IMPs. On to Board 31 and this Declarer situation:

---
K932
KQJ84
A1053

AJ875
J6
A1062
K7

After finding out about the diamond fit, I rejected it in favour of 3NT, which I hoped would be the easier contract. A small diamond was led.
I let this run to the 10, and there are 8 top tricks. The best chance of establishing one more without losing too many seems to be the heart suit. So, I play a small one from hand, cover the 8 with the 9, and hallelujah, it holds. RHO has the ace, but it will do him no good to take it, as the King will be established. End of story. Not for RHO who pointed out to McLeod Senior that, holding Q108, he should have contributed the 10. RHO is right, but it won't stop me making the contract on the lie. I will duck the play of the 10, and the only hope for the defence is for LHO to lead away from K9432 of spades. I can duck two rounds of spades, and after winning the third, I will play the Jack of Hearts. This can run to the Ace, or LHO can cover with the Queen and after the King and Ace cover, the 9 is promoted. RHO will then not have a spade to return, and I will have my ninth trick.
That board completed a run of 38 IMPs without reply. Unfortunately, on boards 33, 34 and 35 there was a reply to the tune of 19 IMPs. That was enough to take the edge off a big win - but there was still Board 36.

K10x
AQ10
109xx
Q9x

My RHO opened 1 Spade. I pass, and LHO says 2 Spades. There are two passes back to me. I don't like defending two level contracts if I can help it, so I pull out a protective Double. This gets Lessurl into a 3 Club Contract which he - just - manages to make. Combined with our team-mates' spade part score, we gathered 7 IMPs to make the final score 18-2.

Junior Trials

So, with getting home from the above-mentioned bridge on the Friday night, it was an early start in the morning again for the Junior Trials. 2013 will be absoloutely-most-definitely my last year as a - sniff - as a junior - excuse me while I go and cry - although I thought 2012 would be so if I get to do anything "as a junior" from here on in, I will jump through hoops to do so.

I have met Jenny Cooper on a couple of occasions since she took over as Junior Co-ordinator. She has the nigh-on impossible mantle of taking over the reins from the excellence of Joan Mercer, but if anyone can do it, it's Jenny. She has brought a fresh approach to the role and is turning her previous inexperience with the set-up to an advantage as she looks with new eyes at everything and I am sure will improve root, branch and twig if she possibly can. The juniors (including myself) are 100% behind her and will doubtless play their part whenever and wherever they can.

The idea of the Junior "Trials" was not to pick teams based on result, but for Jenny to get as good a look as possible at as many of the current crop of juniors as she could. Some of us are getting too old for this, and a big part of Jenny's remit is to find and then nourish the new blood coming through.

I was officially an adult for this event, being that I was a chapperone for the Aberdeen contingent, but once all ten of us were safely at the Stirling and Union Bridge Club, I wanted to play as much as anyone else. Jenny alternated with Laura Middleton as my partner (who would want to sit opposite me for 39 boards?), so we were certainly ineligible to "win", but as there was no prize on offer anyway, I was not in the least bit bothered about that. I just wanted to play.

For some inexplicable reason, I decided that I would sit South and West, as opposed to my usual North and East. This was a bad decision for my ambition to play, as I was dummy more often than not, so there is no abundance of interesting deals to write up. One bidding problem that I would like opinions on is this hand:

KQ92
AK974
Q9
AK

Playing Standard American style 5 Card Majors (Better Minor), 15-17NT, I open this 1 Heart. Partner says 1 Spade. Now what? This hand is that unique thing - too strong for a reverse. If I bid 3 Spades, there is a danger that partner holds a 6 count and passes. If a reverse in this position is GF, then it is an option, but failing that agreement, what to do? Naturally, the devil on my shoulder fervently whispers: "Invent a bid!", but that could go horribly wrong and I would suggest usually does. So I reason that 4 Spades is the sensible choice. I can't have a bog-standard opening count for this bid as partner may only have six points. I can't have a bog-standard reverse either. I haven't splintered, so then, can partner pin me with the exact shape 4-5-2-2? With a regular partner it should depend on agreement, and failing that, yes. Jenny got the gist anyway, because she bid 4NT and we sailed into the solid cold 6 Spades.

A Declarer hand next.

A82
A3
J7
QJ9874

K975
KQJ10
Q932
3

3NT by South, Queen of Spades led.
There is no reason not to win this with the King of Spades and play a club. I can't afford to let them have a spade trick when they have four immediate minor tricks to cash. The success percentage of this contract is low enough already. On playing the club, LHO follows with the 2. What card to call for from dummy?
At first the answer is obvious: the 7. A finesse against the 10 is a 50% chance compared to a finesse against AK2, AK62, AK52 or AK652. But this intuitive thought is flawed, because it will only really gain against the possible holdings of 1062 and 1052. If LHO started with 102 doubleton, then playing the Jack will also work, and if he started with H10xx, playing the 7 will force out an honour as planned but I will still have a total of three losers in the suit. In any case, something someone taught me sometime must have paid off, because I instinctively called for the Jack without pause for thought. This brought out the King.
A spade is returned to the ten from LHO and Ace from dummy. Again I can't duck, so am playing for an exact distribution: one defender has to have all the missing minor honours, and the other the bare ten of clubs and remaining spades. The Queen is not covered by RHO, but does drop the ten from LHO, so now I call for the 9 - this time the Ace appears. I pitch a heart from hand - I cannot pitch a diamond and at this point do not know about the spade break.
I am still coming down unless RHO has no spades and both Ace and King of Diamonds - which she does. However, she correctly surmises that all she will succeed in doing by cashing them is to set up the Queen, and that may be my 9th trick. Having seen my heart pitch, it is unlikely I have 4 tricks there, so an exit in the rounded suits makes sense. Of course, it does not work - I cash three clubs, pitching diamonds, and then cash out hearts ending in hand. That leaves me with 97 of spades. Fortunately for me, LHO had held onto two spades, so my 7 was promoted for an overtrick.

That's a bidding and Declarer scenario in, how about a lead problem?

984
AJ104
A
A9653

This was played against one of Scotland's new partnerships for the Under 25 team. As Dealer, I opened 1 Club (Better Minor). This is passed to RHO, who bids 1NT (Strong). I pass, LHO says 2 Clubs (Stayman), partner passes, RHO says 2 Diamonds (denies a 4+ card major), and ends up in 3NT. What should I lead?

I suspected that my clubs were not going to amount to much, so I looked for the 2 other tricks elsewhere. RHO has at maximum 3 hearts, he could also have KQ. What if I can get three heart tricks by leading the Jack? I decide to find out. That presents my RHO with this play problem:

K1075
K632
1053
Q10

AJ
Q98
KQ87
KJ84

I think Declarer can be allowed to assume that I have all three missing Aces. He starts by winning with the Queen. Looking at this double dummy, Declarer can score by playing the 9 of hearts, which will pin the 7 whatever I do. But is this likely enough to try? Declarer played a small club to the ten, and when he followed with the queen, I won with the ace and returned a club. Declarer plays the King of Diamonds, bringing out my Ace, but I force out his last club. Now he cannot take enough tricks to make the contract before giving me my Ace of clubs.
  There seems to be a large communication problem on this hand. Three club tricks need to be set up, but not before my red aces are driven out. Since Declarer cannot afford to break diamonds so early, I think the idea of running the 9 of hearts shades it. But that only gets us as far as what to do on Trick 2. It is still going to be difficult to establish and cash 9 tricks. Deep Finesse makes this contract (obviously!), but in the real world you don't get to know where all the cards are and even then, this is a tricky double dummy problem.

At the end of the day this pair were top of the juniors, with me and Laura/Jenny finishing 1st. As previously stated, that doesn't really mean anything; it was of far more interest for Jenny et al to see the juniors coming through and establish a plan for the future. I enjoyed meeting and playing against the next generation - for that's what they were; no less than 6 players at the "trial" were selected for the Junior Camrose and Peggy Bayer in February. One can only hope that the other hopefuls will break into the teams in time. Events like these are crucial to building and maintaining strength in depth. The day was proof, if proof were needed, that Scottish junior bridge is going in the right direction and, looking at where we are now, we can focus not on immediate, but long term success.

As previously mentioned, I was otherwise engaged on Sunday as well, which means that I did not get to see any of the first weekend of the 2013 Camrose. My understanding, gathered pretty much exclusively from Paul Gipson's blog post, is that Scotland were rather unlucky to find themselves in 5th at this, the half-way stage.

District Teams of Four Round 2

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...

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 the religious 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?

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.

Retaining the Reid

Sunday the 12th February saw an important event. No, not the National Mixed Swiss Teams. Oh, all right then, that as well. But for me, it was all about the Reid Trophy. The picture of the winning team is still available in a post from last February, and I am getting fed up of it as a wallpaper on my computer. (Perhaps because I am in it?) Anyway, having won last year, it was only fair I offered the same players a chance to retain the trophy, but I knew that would not be possible as 009domino was off to Glasgow for the aforementioned national competition. The remaining three all returned, Jun playing with his Mum, and we were firm favourites for the event. (Not that I like being favourite, or place myself as such for any event, but I don't get to decide).

The Reid Trophy is supposed to be a Swiss event, but for the last two years it has been a multiple teams event owing to the fact that both times, only six teams entered. This was particularly disappointing given that two of the teams that entered were junior teams (not counting my 50% junior team); so there were only fourteen over-25s in the entire District that came forward to play. This is a trend that needs to be reversed, and I shall openly consider some (possible) reasons here and respond to each in turn.

1: The qualification of entry is too low
It is true that restricting entry to those of Star Master and below rules out a number of players - or does it? The rules of the competition allowed for higher ranked players to participate provided they played with a beginner. Who wants to do that, you ask? Plenty people! Several players came forward and offered themselves as partners for beginners, and were left un-matched when not enough beginners came forward. Besides which, at least 75% of the District could have entered if they'd wanted to, and the other 25% would also have had a chance if they really wanted to play. So this really doesn't do as an answer. True, higher ranked players are more inclined to enter a District competition. But I don't think the restriction on entries is enough to explain poor turnout.

2: The competition is in the wrong place
Why should every District event be played in the City? My opinion is that it shouldn't. It might be an idea to "tour" certain trophies around the shire. Nobody likes having to travel to events all the time. There are a lot of players in the shire and maybe we might reward their numbers by bringing a competition to them, rather than asking them to come into Aberdeen.
  It is not just an issue of travel. There is still a stigma that bridge in the city is "too serious" and some players probably genuinely fear to play there as they expect the Director will be called for every move they make. This is by and large a misconception, as players in the city are just as friendly. The trouble is that there is also a minority of nit-pickers that will call the Director for every little thing. What those from the shire may not realise is that this type of player is as unwelcome in the City as anywhere else. Furthermore, Directors are there to help the social aspect of the game; not remove it. Being very lax on Laws and Ethics, as most clubs in the Shire are, is perfectly all right in of itself, but they should realise that it is fair to say that they are thereby "over-tolerant", as opposed to the general practice being "too serious".
  On the issue of tolerance then, it has been said before: "Zero tolerance for rudeness, maxi tolerance for everything else". The chances of a player falling foul of the Laws are greater in the City; there is no getting round that. But most players will allow for it, and take it within their stride. The chances of an irregularity occurring is actually greater in the Shire, but someone is less likely to call the Director in the Shire, which puts us back to square one. The stigma will exist as long as players are allowed to think that calling the Director is aggressive/ anti-social, which is the exact opposite of what it should be seen as.
  By the way, I do not hereby accuse anyone of something I don't admit to myself. I will hold my hand up and say that Yes, there have been incidents in the Shire that I would have called the Director for if I'd been playing in Aberdeen. I should know better, but then, the stigma is there and I cannot personally remove it. Why will I call the Director for something trivial when that will be seen as "causing trouble"? It's just not worth it.

3. The Competition is at the wrong time
 If this is the case, I am unsure how that can be rectified. The calendar is choc-full of events to be played. There is little wriggle-room. I am unsure how February would compare to March/ April anyway.

4. 'So-and-so is going to win; we don't have a chance of winning'
I can't imagine the Reid Trophy being so cut-and-dry. My team were favourites yesterday and I never at any point considered the event to be in the bag, until we had finished scoring up. Does taking part count for nothing any more? I've entered the Scottish Cup in the last two seasons with no hope what so ever of actually winning. Perhaps related however is...

5. Juniors getting "help with their bidding"
Sigh. It would upset as much as it would annoy me if anyone was not entering for this reason, because it is totally out-of-date. For avoidance of doubt: this has not happened for at least three years, nor will it ever happen again.
Yes, it was not a level playing field when certain junior teams had experts kibitzing on the pretext of "helping the juniors with their bidding". The main problem was that the experts could not restrain themselves from telling their charges how to play the cards as well, and this should never have been allowed. I tried to put a stop to it at the time, but was unsuccessful. However, I would point out that it was JUNIORS that STOPPED this. I am somewhat older and more confident than I was back in those days, and there will not be a return to "those days" on my watch.
People should be careful of tarring everyone with the same brush. I have played in the Reid since its inception (bar one year when it clashed with the Men's Teams in Dundee). There has always been a junior in my team, but my team has always stood on its own two feet, win or lose. How angry I would be with someone recalling the bad old days would be nothing compared to how angry I'd be with someone who suggested my team has ever had help in a tournament. The juniors nowadays are keen to enter events, stand by themselves, get beaten (heavily in some cases), and then analyse why. Always a formula for success (later rather than sooner). Phoenix Rising operates the same policy. We could have fielded stronger teams this year, but we chose the youngest teams available.

I did touch on this last year, but I felt I needed to re-visit the issue in full, because we did not improve our entries. Granted, this blog has a low circulation, but if just one person has had their mind put at rest by what I have to say, it was worth it. Now, onto the competition itself.

With six teams, we took Team 6, to make the movement easier for all the other teams. We started with a match against the Grammar School. Our opponents at both tables were over-enthusiastic on Board 1, 800 plus 500 equals 16 IMPs in. We then lost four IMPs after a horrendous mis-play by yours truly. Then came a suit combination problem:

8 5 4 opposite Q J 9 7 6

You need to play the suit for two losers, starting in hand (8 5 4). You play the 4 to the 2-J-K. Later, you play the 8 and LHO plays the 3. What do you do?
I was in 3NT, in danger of coming down if I got this wrong. My counterpart was in 4NT Doubled. I made ten tricks. I would like to think that guessing wrong is the only reason my counterpart lost 800 on this board, and maybe it is.

In the end, we were strong enough to keep it within our own hands. With scores (in Board Number order) of 20, 18, 14, 15, and 20, we scored more VPs against every team than we dropped altogether. Anyone would take that. Well done to my team-mates on a deserved victory, even with me on the team.

Of course, Bridge addicts that we are, it was not Jun or my first session of the day. No, that came at 8am in the morning, with the regular BBO practice session. Jun then had a BBO match in the evening as well, and I agreed to post this hand:

---
A Q
K J 9 2
A K J 9 7 6 5

All Vul, RHO is Dealer and opens 4 Spades.
Jun's partner held this hand, I'll let you know what he called in the next blog. In the mean time, decide for yourself. Enjoy! :)