Tollemache 2013

After a mid-table finish last time, this year's Tollemache reverted to the usual form, with Dorset struggling to avoid the wooden spoon, although the opposion was much tougher than last year.

The second hand of the event showed which way the wind was blowing. Against these opponents, I was looking forward to a chance to claim the beer card but it was not to be. Instead, I had a nasty bidding problem.

3♥ was an easy make, and much the same thing happened at the other table where Dorset were North-South, but at the other two tables both London pairs punted 3NT. To defeat this the defenders must avoid leading hearts, but this was a tough defence to find and 3NT made at both tables.

Should I have bid more strongly? A take-out double of 3♥ was one option, but that may have led to an even worse score as North would probably leave it in. As I see it, the only winning action would be to bid 3♥ over 2♠ - a definite overbid and likely to lead to a silly contract when partner only has a single heart stop.

This was an interesting hand to play

Ann's 4♥ was a slam try with 6 spades and heart shortage.

West leads ♣4, you play low from dummy and are pleased to see East follow with the 3. When you play on spades, West discards a heart on the first round and you duck the trick to the king. East returns a club and West follows with the 6.

If you are going to finesse in diamonds you should play West for the queen, as he started with nine red cards to East's seven, but a better option is to play for a double squeeze. Run the spades, discarding a heart and two diamonds from hand. Now come back to hand with a club and cash ♥A. The squeeze works if West holds ♦Q, or if East holds ♦Q and ♥K, or if East's ♦Q is singleton or doubleton.

Was I up to all this? We will never know as West started with four small diamonds and discarded three of them on the spades, so it was no problem to pick up East's doubleton ♦Q.

This hand was the subject of a post in the BBO Forums www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/63696-play-6s/, discussing how you should play 6♠ by South after a heart lead where the queen wins the first trick. You can still play for the double squeeze but it is much less obvious when you do not know the club position.  An alternative line is to discard two clubs on the hearts, then ruff a club and two hearts to try and get a count on the hand. This would suggest that East had four diamonds and you should play him for the queen - unlucky!

What about my decision to play in 6NT rather than 6♠? At the time, I could see no benefit in playing in spades and on another layout 6NT might avoid a diamond ruff. That was wrong, as on this hand you are better placed in 6♠. Say West makes the best lead of a heart and you decide to play West for the ♦Q. Instead of taking a simple finesse you can throw a diamond on a heart and then take a ruffing finesse, gaining when East holds a doubleton queen.

After the first day we were propping up the table, but a much better performance on Sunday allowed us to win a couple of matches and avoid the wooden spoon.

Three Beers

To show my juvenile side, I often play the game of trying to win the last trick with the beer card - the ♦ 7 - when partner is supposed to buy you a beer. There are two other conditions, diamonds must not be trumps (then it is too easy) and you must make the contract (as declarer) or defeat it (as defender).

In our BBO practice match last night I set a personal best with three beer cards in one session. One of these is worth recording, as a holding of  ♦ A 7 2 would not seem to have much potential for a beer, but you never know...

Click next to follow the play. When I played the ♥9 at trick 9, declarer has no easy discard, but he would have succeeded if he had thrown his club winner instead of a diamond.

From a lowly 1NT to something more exciting.

What do you think North should open on that 3 loser hand? Ann's Acol-style 2♣ made life very easy, but I suspect that I would have started with 1♠. The problem with 2♣ is that partner will expect much more in high cards, and the bidding may escalate to a high level before you have had a chance to show either of your suits.

In last week's Times, Andrew Robson describes a hand where a player held

♠ A Q 10 7 6 4
♥ A K Q 7 5 4
♦
♣ 4

and says that 'the hand easily has the playing strength for 2♣, but it is far better for South to start showing his suits right away'.

At the other table, North had obviously read Robson's article and opened 1♠. East made a frisky 2♥ overcall and South passed, scenting blood. North jumped to 4♦, South tried RKCB and bid 6♦ when North showed two key cards. That was unduly pessimistic; South should bid 5NT, asking for kings and confirming that the partnership holds four aces and the king and queen of diamonds, and North has an easy bid of 7NT or 7♠.

This hand had some interesting bidding decisions that I managed to get wrong.

The first choice was whether to double or overcall - I think it's close. The next few bids were fine, but I should have bid 3NT instead of 4♥ to offer partner a choice of contracts. 4♥ was a reasonable contract - and better than letting opponents play in 3♣ undoubled, as happened at the other table - but 3NT would have been easy.

Western League

Ann and I had a rare outing in the Western League match against Wiltshire, and although we had a good card this was more due to the generosity of our opponents than any great competence on our part. This is the sort of thing that happens when you are having a lucky day, a hand where most of the green cards seemed to have gone missing from the bidding box.

We were East-West. My 4♥ was certainly not a good idea, shifting the opponents from a non-making contract to a cold game, but my partner was there to save the day. You may think that she had mis-sorted her hand when she bid 5♠ but I couldn't possible comment, and you cannot argue with success.

The bridge was a bit less random on this hand

West found the most challenging lead of ♠9, and now declarer will go down if he tries to draw two rounds of trumps, as the defence can engineer a spade ruff and then switch to a club. I think the best line is to win in dummy and immediately play ♦A (discarding a club) and run the ♦Q, setting up a second diamond winner if East has the king.  I took a slightly inferior line by playing one round of trumps, won by West won who continued spades. I won this in dummy and now played on diamonds, which was good enough on the actual lie of the cards, and worth a 12 imp swing when one of the opposing declarers went down.

An Elopement that Eloped

The National Pairs qualifier was one of those sessions where we kept on getting poor scores without doing too much wrong, and we finished well down the field. But this was a missed opportunity for a neat play.

I should have had a sixth heart for my 3♥ bid, but it seemed very likely that the opponents could make 2♠ or 3♣ and I wanted to make life difficult for them. On the actual hand this was the wrong thing to do, as 3♥ should go down and the only making contract for East-West is 2NT, which they were never going to find.

West started with top clubs; I ruffed and advanced ♦J, covered by the queen, king and ace. East returned the ♦9 which I won to play a third round. West ruffed this and erred by playing a spade to the king and ace. (A trump exit would have given me no chance.)

This was now the position

I had already lost three tricks and still appear to have a trump and a spade to lose. But I should play king and ace of hearts, ruff a club, cash the ♠Q and ruff the last diamond. Now a club from dummy allows me to score the last trump en passant. The losing spade and trump both fall on the last trick, and two losers are condensed into one - a trump elopement.

Sad to say, I omitted to ruff a club when I was in dummy with the ace of trumps. The elopement had eloped and only resurfaced in the pub afterwards. Could've, should've.

County KO

The half time score in our county KO match read 41-40 after 12 boards of wild hands and gratuitous errors from both sides. I had two interesting 4♠ contracts to play. One I got wrong and it cost us a big swing, on the other I managed to avoid messing up but my play made little difference to the score. Such is life.

East's 2NT was Lebensohl, showing a weakish hand with a long minor. My 4♠ was a bit rose-tinted, but I had no way to make a game try as 3♠ would just be competing the part score. East gave this a little look before his final pass.

West started with ♣AK and I ruffed. Now I ran the ♠Q, hoping to squash a singleton 10, but this lost and East returned a heart. (A trump to the jack would have been better as it would keep entries fluid and still allow me to pick up a single 10 with East.) I ducked, West won the queen and returned the king to my ace. Now I drew a round of trumps and both followed. If hearts are 3-3 I can avoid the diamond guess, so I came back to my hand with a trump and ruffed a heart, but East showed out. I now needed to find the diamond queen - it looked as if East's shape was 3-2-3-6 in which case the diamonds were 3-3, and West had already shown up with 12 points, so it appeared to be a 50-50 guess. Needless to say I got this wrong by leading a diamond from dummy and finessing the 10.

It was only afterwards that I remembered East's little hesitation before passing 4♠. He could only be thinking of a sacrifice in 5♣, in which case he probably has at least seven clubs and West has four or more diamonds. I should cash dummy's last trump, which squeezes West in the red suits, so that a later diamond finesse will see me home.

In the other room West opened 1♦ and North was declarer. A diamond lead gave declarer an easy ride.

I was a bit more awake on this hand.

West led ♥Q to the ace. The bidding marks East with all of the remaining high cards, so you should resist the temptation to cash another top heart and play a diamond up. Then play another diamond when you are in dummy with the king of trumps. If you cash another heart at trick 2 and West ruffs, you can only lead diamonds once from dummy and will go down if East has more than three diamonds.

I made 4♠, but my play was almost irrelevant. The ♥Q was a singleton, but East started with ♦AQx so I could still have recovered even after trying to cash a heart at trick 2. And in the other room the opponents had a mix-up and lost 1100 in 5♥ doubled, so that the difference between making 4♠ and going one down was only 3 imp.

The second half was somewhat less volatile and we won by 25 imp.