Martin's house (a win at last)

Thursday evening was spent at Martin Stephen's house, a training match for the Merchiston Bridge Club. Three out of the 8 people there were people I went to university with, and I think 4 of them have played at least at junior international level, so there were some reasonable players in the room.

Martin was playing with Kris, who was a first year when I was at Edinburgh, and is apparently still there. Jake Corry (Northern Irish Junior international) was playing with Jun (Scottish Junior international), and Martin's wife Sally was playing with her regular partner Sue. I was partnered with Scottish senior international Yvonne Wiseman (bizarrely, the only place I can find a reference online to her having won the Lady Milne last year is on the Edinburgh university chemistry page...)

I have, I think, played one board with Yvonne about 6 months ago, but as she turned up about an hour late, and the other team were already well into their second board, our system discussion consisted almost entirely of agreeing a no-trump range and that we were playing better minor. This didn't have too much effect on the result, and we won the match by a comfortable 78 IMPs, although to be fair, I don't think the teams were very fairly matched. It was mostly a friendly game (although Yvonne was quite pleased to gain bragging rights over Jun, who I think has been one of her partners in the past).

Jake brought pre-dealt boards from the Melville, along with print-outs of the hands to facilitate post-match discussion. Unfortunately, I seem to have managed to mislay my print-out somewhere between Haymarket station and getting home, so wrote these hands out from memory... I then found the print-out just after I'd finished writing the post, and fixed the spot cards in the play hand. Nothing else was materially wrong - I'm quite impressed I managed to remember the hands for nearly a full two days.

First a bidding problem, from the West hand.

♠ Qx ♥ x ♦ AKxx ♣ KJxxxx

W N E S 1♦ 4♥ ??

We are playing better minor, so I don't even know if partner has 4 diamonds. I decided I really wasn't sure what 4N would mean, so punted 5 clubs. We still weren't sure what 4N would mean in discussion after the match. Is it Blackwood in diamonds, or does it show two places to play - if the latter, it pretty much has to be clubs and diamonds, as I didn't double. It wouldn't actually have mattered, as Yvonne happened to have AQx in clubs and Qxxx in diamonds for her weak NT, and either 5 clubs or 6 diamonds was cold (in 6 diamonds you could pitch all of Yvonne's spades on clubs and ruff a spade - another illustration of the benefits of a 4-4 fit). 

I don't actually remember the auction or the result at the other table, but after E opened a weak no trump, it was always going to be tough for them to find 5 of a minor without some advanced system.

Second, a play hand:

All Vul.N Deal ♠ Q J T 3 2 ♥ J T 9 4 ♦ A ♣ K 4 3 ♠ A K 6 ♥ K 8 6 3 ♦ J T 7 3 2  ♣ Q * * * * ♠ 9 5 ♥ A Q 5 2   ♦ Q 9 4 ♣ A T 6 2 ♠  8 7 4 ♥  7 ♦  K 8 6 5 ♣ J 9 8 7 5

W N E S 1♠  X - 2♠ - 3♥ - 4♥ - - -

I wasn't really sure what to bid in this auction. I was pretty confident we wanted to play in 4 hearts, but jumping straight to that level on these sorts of hands really fixes partner if she has, say, a huge hand with clubs. 2 spades seemed like a reasonable compromise, and we ended up in the good 4 heart contract anyway.

This was another game swing to us on the play of the hand. After a spade lead (same at both tables, although actually it was played the other way up in the other room) Yvonne drew two rounds of trumps and started playing on diamonds (planning to get rid of her clubs on the long diamonds. As it happens, our less-experienced opponents crashed their diamond honours on this first trick, but it wouldn't actually have mattered. After avoiding a club lead, Yvonne's plan is pretty much always going to work - she'll lose at most three diamond tricks (including a ruff) or two diamonds and a heart. At the other table, Jun played of the ace of clubs trying for for club ruffs, and ended up losing two diamonds, a club and a heart.

Finally, another hand for bidding.

♠ A Q J x x x ♥ x ♦ A x x   ♣ J x x

♠ T 9 x x ♥ A K Q x x  ♦ x ♣ A T x

W E 1♥  1♠ 2♠ 4♠ -

As you can see, 6 spades an excellent contract looking the two hands, but both players seem to have bid reasonably. Yvonne suggested afterwards that maybe she should have bid 3 spades on the second round with such pure values. Otherwise, a more experienced partnership might have had methods for exploring rather than just jumping to 4? Or perhaps bidding slam on the combined 25 count is just too much to ask?