One Out of Two

Last month we had two matches where we were very much the underdogs. First up was a quarter final in the Faulkner Salver against Gary Watson's team, one of the original seeds. After the first set we were 10 imp behind, mostly due to a couple of bad boards from Ann and me, and the opponents had seating rights for the next set. Conventional wisdom would suggest sticking to a winning line-up, but they chose to swap opponents. This was the first board we played in the second set.

Ann led the queen of clubs, and Patrick Shields chose to go for a psychological rather than a technical line by ducking the first trick smoothly. If a club was continued and the suit broke 3-2, he would be able to get rid of two of his diamond losers. The operation was a success, as Ann continued clubs, but the patient died when I ruffed and switched to diamonds and we took the first six tricks.

In the other room the opening lead was the same but East had doubled a 4♥ splinter bid during the auction. Keith won, drew trumps and took a heart finesse to throw one of dummy's diamond losers and a 14 imp swing.

That hand changed the momentum of the match, as we had several other good boards and were 27 imp up after the second set. The third set was even and although the final set had plenty of swingy boards, with one grand and two small slams, we held on to win by 10 imps.

Three days later we played the final of the Hubert Phillips Plate against Tom Gisborne's Yorkshire team. Our presence in the final was somewhat fortunate, as Neil Rosen's team had been forced to concede our semi-final match due to illness.

Once again we suffered a small loss in the first set, but this time there was no big turnaround and we lost the second set heavily, with four big swings in the out column.  This one was largely down to me.

I led a top diamond which declarer ruffed. When he led a trump I went up with the king, consulted the ceiling and eventually exited passively with another trump. Barrie won this and switched to a club so the contract made. One of us needed to switch to a heart. From my point of view, a lead away from either king could cost a trick, while Barrie was worried that a heart lead could cost if declarer had ♥AKx. I'm not sure that is quite right, as I am unable to find a hand where a heart lead gives the contract.

But the most serious error was my overcall of 2♦, as was shown by events at the other table where South overcalled 1NT. West raied to 2♠, North bid 3♥ and East bid 4♠. After that auction it was natural for South to lead a heart when in with the king of trumps, leaving declarer with no chance.

That set meant that we were 2100 points down after 16 boards, and although we gained a little in the remaining 32 boards we never looked like turning over the deficit. A disappointing result, although we would probably have settled for one win out of two beforehand.

Hubert Phillips Plate

In the quarter final of the Hubert Phillips plate we were drawn against John Williams' Oxford team. This was an early hand where the Reverend tried to dispel his reputation for cautious bidding.

4♣ was maybe a tad optimistic (3♣ wouild have been forcing after fourth suit), but the slam had reasonable chances. How do you play when West leads the queen of spades?

I ducked this and  when West continued spades I was able to play on cross-ruff lines, ruffing hearts in dummy and spades in hand to come to 12 tricks. The reason for ducking the first trick is that if the defence find a trump switch, you have an alternative line of setting up dummy's diamonds with the ace of spades as a late entry. I think the best line is to win the trump switch in dummy, take the ace of hearts and ruff a heart, then cash the top diamonds and ruff a diamond with the eight. If diamonds are 3-3 you can now claim, but if diamonds are 4-2 and West has not over-ruffed, you can ruff another heart, ruff a diamond with the ten, draw trumps (needing a 3-2 break) and cross to the ace of spades to cash the thirteenth diamond. I would have gone two down on the actual lie of the cards, so there were a lot of points resting on West's play at trick 2.

After two sets the match was almost level, but then we got almost all of the decisions right on a tricky set of boards to run out comfortable winners by almost 2000, though this was a missed opportunity.

I ponderered for a long while over Ann's 3NT opener; my options were to pass 3NT, bid 4♣ and let Ann play in 4♦, or bid 5♦ and keep my hand concealed. 5♦ was the winning move, though I was very fortunate to get a singleton spade in dummy and find the ace of clubs with East.

In the other room West opened 2♠, weak with spades and a minor, and the opponents bid 3♦ - 3♥ - 4♥.  West kicked off with the king of spades but East ducked this and the contract made with an overtrick.

It's a tough defence for East to find but I think the clues are all there - West has at most nine points and you know five of them, so the contract cannot be defeated with high cards and the only chance is to find West with a diamond void. Much easier in retrospect than at the table though..  

One in Three

It's a long time since I have posted anything, but here are three interesting declarer play problems that came up in the last few months. Unfortunately I only got one right. First, from a Faulkner match against Jeremy Baker's team, where we gave the opponents a 35 imp start but somehow managed to win.

West led a heart which I won in hand and played a trump to get the bad news. I went up with the ace and tried a cross-ruff, but East was able to ruff the third round of hearts with the ten and draw two more rounds of trumps to defeat the contract.

I should have played the nine (or jack) on the first round of trumps. Say East returns a heart. I overtake the queen to win in dummy, ruff a heart in hand and cash the top clubs. Now king and ace of diamonds and ruff a diamond. That's eight tricks, and East has only trumps left, so it is easy to endplay him to make dummys AJ of trumps. This line works whenever East has a 5332 shape, and some of the time when he is 5422.

A few days later, another match in the Hubert Phillips plate, and I was again declaring a major suit game holding four small trumps, when 3NT would have been an easier proposition.

West led a heart to the king and ace, and East switched to the eight of clubs. I tried the queen but West won this and played another trump. Considering the heart suit in isolation, the odds favour a finesse of the ten, but a trump lead from Jxx is dangerous so I suspected that East held the jack.

I went up with the queen, cashed the ace of clubs and ruffed a club, then played off the diamond winners. East ruffed the fouth round and led a spade, and when the nine drew West's king I was home.

This was another hand where I went wrong, completely missing a simple point that seems obvious in retrospect.

2NT in the protective position showed 18-20 balanced, 3♣ asked about majors, 3♦ showed at least one 4-card major, and 4♦ asked me to bid it.

West kicked off with ace and another club. I led a low trump up, and West won to play a third round of clubs, ruffed and over-ruffed. East now played a diamond.

I need to find the queen of diamonds. If I play for the drop, the chance of a singleton or doubleton queen is about 18%. I realised that East had passed her partner's 1♣ and had already showed up with a queen, but there was still room for her to hold the queen of diamonds, so I thought that the finesse was a better chance.

Wrong! The point that I missed was that if East has the queen of diamonds then West must have the queen and jack of hearts (otherwise East would have enough to repond), so the finesse needs three cards to be well placed, about a 12% chance rather than 50%. Another indication is the opening lead - the Ace of clubs is an unattractive lead, especially when I have bid 2NT, suggesting that West has honours in all the other suits.

There is another line of play that I did consider at the table - discard a diamond on the third round of clubs. This would seem to work whenever East has four diamonds, regardless of who has the queen.  But West can thwart this plan by playing a fourth round of clubs, allowing East to discard two hearts.