Deceptive defences

In the National Point a Board teams we made too many silly errors to qualify for the final, but I enjoyed these two defences, where my innocent-looking partner managed to pull the wool over declarer's eyes. The first hand was particularly satisfying as it was against Jeremy Dhondy and Brian Callaghan, half of team that won the event.

East was declarer in 3♠ after West had opened a fashionable 1♣ on his balanced 11 count. Ann led a heart to my ace and I returned a heart to declarer's king. Now came a trump to the queen, and a trump back to the king and ace. Ann exited with a low club and declarer was conned into playing low, so I could win and play back a heart to promote Ann's nine of trumps. One down, and the only plus score on the North-South cards. Not that it did us much good as we lost the other three boards in the match...

The auction had marked declarer with short hearts, and Ann had not doubled the fourth-suit 2♦, so I tried leading ♥8. A couple of weeks ago in the Knight Cup, I tried a heart lead after a similar auction and blew two tricks when declarer had 10 x. This time it was more successful.

Declarer played the queen from dummy, which was allowed to win. Now declarer came to hand with a diamond and took a slightly anti-percentage play in clubs by leading low to the 10 and Ann's queen. Ann returned a heart to my ace and I continued with the 10. Thinking that I must have started with ♥ A K 10 8, declarer made the mistake of covering so that Ann was able to make all her hearts and the contract was two down.

Would declarer have got this right if Ann had covered with the king at trick 1? He should do - we were playing fourth highest leads and I would not have led the 8 from ♥ A 10 9 8, so he should be able to sniff out the actual position.

Knight Cup 2014

In the Knight Cup we were leading at half time but slipped away in the second half to finish just above half way. We were unfortunate in that the opponents held most of the cards for the second half, but there were also some self-inflicted wounds. Against the eventual winners we had the chance for two tops but managed to turn them into two bottoms - this was my contribution to the debacle.

4♣ and 4NT were explained as Gerber with 4♥ showing one ace and 5♦ showing one king.  Partner led ♥6 (second highest from bad suits) which declarer won in hand and played on clubs. In with the ace, I naively assumed that declarer would have the ace of spades (otherwise, why bother to ask for kings?) and returned a heart, letting through an overtrick instead of taking it two off.

Subsequent analysis in the cold light of day showed that a spade return is the only chance to defeat the contract, but it will concede an overtrick (this was a pairs event) if declarer's hand is something like

♠Ax  ♥AKJ  ♦KJxx  ♣Q10xx

C'est la vie. At least I have a new hand for my collection of loony Gerber auctions, which has grown to a considerable size over the years.

Writing up this hand reminded me of an article in the EBU magazine a few years ago, which reported on a tour by the Australian expert Ron Klinger where he visited various English bridge clubs. One of the locals asked him for his views on Gerber, and Ron suggested that he try giving up Gerber for a time to see if his slam bidding improved. "How long would you suggest for this experiment", asked the punter. "About 30 years."

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.