Year End 2010

In the Swiss Teams at the London Year End congress we managed to avoid our usual first board cock-up by making a quiet 1NT, but disasters soon followed as I let though two games and we allowed the oppo to make 6 Hearts when we were cold for 6 Spades. After a 20-0 loss our fortunes improved somewhat and we ended 27th out of 104.

This was an interesting slam hand



Even at green against red, my 3 Hearts was a bit frivolous as it didn't really interfere with the opponents' bidding and warned declarer about the bad breaks. Declarer made 12 tricks by squeezing me in the rounded suits. You can follow the play by clicking on 'Next'.

No-one was concentrating too hard as they had stopped in game but declarer played the hand well. He did give us a very difficult chance to hold him to 11 tricks - when he led ♥Q at trick 3, West needed to ruff high and return a club - a counter-intuitive defence that I only found by running the hand through Deep Finesse. Declarer can make 12 tricks on any defence by cashing one round of trumps before leading ♥Q.

I was sure that Chris and Hil would be in 6 Spades and so it proved. West led a diamond which should make life easier for declarer - a reasonable line is to draw 3 rounds of trumps, then play the top clubs, throw a club on a top diamond and ruff a club to establish the suit. Now exit with a trump and dummy is high. This line needs one of the black suits to break 3-2.

It's an easy game when you can see all four hands and Chris tried a different line by ruffing hearts. When East trumped one of dummy's top diamonds it should have been fatal, but West's defence was not the best and Chris emerged with 12 tricks for a 13 imp gain.

Singleton Queens at Peebles

Our first visit ot the Gold Cup Congress in Peebles more than lived up to all the good things that we had heard about the food, wine, friendly bridge and efficient organisation.

The bridge started off on the wrong note when we conceded a Biltcliffe Coup (with an overtrick to boot) on the very first board, but things improved after that. Ann began the weekend needing 3 Green Points to reach Grand Master, and a good win against strong opposition in the last match of the pairs allowed us to pick up more than enough greens and just make the prize list.

This deal helped, even though our bidding was not quite what it said on the tin.



Making 4 Hearts scored about 75% on the board so other pairs cannot have found it easy to bid. Chris and Hilary had languished in 1♠, so in the rather alcoholic celebration of Ann's new status she was on the receiving end of some gentle teasing as to whether a Grand Master should be opening 2NT with a stiff queen of clubs.






Chris shows what he thinks about opening 2NT with a singleton queen.





Justification was soon at hand. Next morning, Ann and I went for a swim in the splendid Hydro pool and then dropped in to watch a few boards of the Gold Cup final on vu-graph. Almost immediately Zia picked up as dealer

♠ A 9 7 5 ♥ K 6 3 ♦ K Q 10 9 8 ♣ Q

What did Zia open? 1NT of course. This worked like a charm as he missed a diamond fit and stopped in an easy 4NT. In the other room the hand was opened with a boring 1♦ and they ended in 6♦, a good contract but doomed on the actual lie of the cards. The 13 imp gain on this hand was the start of a change in fortunes that saw Zia's team recover from an early deficit to score a convincing win.

Walking on water

At the Guildford Swiss teams this hand showed how even the most unlikely contracts can come in when it's your lucky day.

My partner obviously does not believe in the adage about never putting a 7 card suit down as dummy, and when she chose to support spades rather than rebid 2 diamonds I showed a bit too much faith in the losing trick count and bid game.



It looked a hopeless contract when dummy went down, but the cards lay so favourably that after West led the obvious diamond there was no defence. Click on 'Next' to follow the play and click GIB after each trick to get a double dummy analysis. To defeat the contract West must start with 2 rounds of spades - not easy.

Later on I also held a 7-3-3-0 distribution and an even more ridiculous auction ensued.



When I picked up my hand it looked like a balanced 13 count, and it was only on the second round of the auction that I realised that my hearts were in fact diamonds. I doubt that even Keith Bartlett, the world's greatest aficianado of off-beat 1NT openings, has ever tried it on a 7-3-3-0 shape. Although it is a good way of making sure that you do not put a 7-card suit down as dummy...

West started with a low spade to my jack and, hoping to put off for as long as possible the moment when my hand would be revealed, I led a low diamond. West went in the the King and was no doubt surprised to see his partner follow with the queen. West cashed his spades and when they broke 4-3 I was finally forced to own up. In fact I was so relieved to come out unscathed that I forgot to win the last trick with the seven of diamonds and claim a free beer.