The 49ers at home: Another 16-0 defeat.

Jake Corry was struggling for players for his team in the Edinburgh league, and I was able to rearrange my birthday trip to London to accommodate a trip to Edinburgh to play in the match. We were facing off against the 49ers. This was another strong team. They had 4 out of the 8 players who played in the Camrose for Scotland this year, along with another couple who have been regulars in the international team. I was partnering Jun, the same player I played with on Tuesday. We'd had slightly longer to sort out some system, and were playing 2/1 with transfer responses and transfer Walsh, although I don't think there were many hands where systemic issues had a big impact.

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First big hand of the night is a pure bidding problem. With 14 top tricks between the two hands, you'd probably expect an experienced partnership to bid to one of the cold grands on the hand below. As it happens, Paul and Brian at our table won the board comfortably by being the only pair even to bid a small slam... I don't actually recall the exact auction at our table, but it was something like the below - West definitely bid keycard at some point, and then stopped in 6♥  

♠ A K 7 5 4 ♥ 9 ♦ A 9 6    ♣ A Q 6 5

♠ T 8  ♥ A K Q J T 7 6 2  ♦ Q 3 ♣ K

W E 1♠ 2♥  3♣ 3♥  3NT  4♥  4NT  5♠   6♥

The East hand has 8 tricks, plus another one if partner has the ♣A. Really with the East hand you want to figure out a way to get partner to agree hearts, and then roll out blackwood, if you find out he has 3 aces and a king, you can count 13 tricks, and bid it. Problem is that you might end up in 6 with two top losers in one of the pointed suits... I haven't quite some up with a sensible auction to the grand yet, but I'm confident one exists. 

This reminded me of a hand I played a few months ago with Phil Stephens, with a similar story. This time, we bid 7NT with our 14 top tricks, and later found that 6NT would have been enough for 100% of the matchpoints:

♠ A x x x ♥ A x x x ♦ Q x    ♣ A K x

♠ K Q x ♥ x ♦ A K x x x x x x ♣ x x

W E 1♦  1♥ 3♦   4♦  4♠  4NT  5♥  5NT 7♦

Despite theoretically only having 12 points, I felt 2♦ was a bit wet with my hand, as 3N is always going to make opposite something as weak as xxx QJx xx QJx, so re-bid 3♦. With his control-rich 17 count, it was now pretty clear to Phil that we wanted to be in a slam of some sort and it only remained to figure out if there was a suitable grand. Over his 5NT, I didn't feel I had any reasonable call other than 7♦. Although I only have 12 points, I have a lot more tricks that I need to have for my bidding so far. After Phil has shown at least some degree of diamond support, three aces and a king opposite is enough for 7N to be almost cold. 5N in this sort of situation should be something like "do you have anything extra that might be useful in the grand". I only have one bid available below 6♦, so there isn't really room for me to give any more detailed information. It was easy enough from Phil's side of the table to see that any tricks we hand in ♦ were also going to be there in NT, and didn't take long to claim his 14 top tricks. Note that it's just over a year since I played this hand, so it's possible the ♠KQ and the ♠A were in the opposite hands to the ones I have them here, or even that I have some of the suits completely wrong, but the general picture of the auction is about right.

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Here's one which Paul played well, but I think we might possibly have done better in the defence. 

♠ x ♥ T 9 x x ♦ A K Q x x  ♣ K x x ♠ A J T x ♥ K x  ♦ T x x  ♣ A x x x * * * * ♠ K x x x ♥ Q x ♦ J x x  ♣ Q J x x ♠ Q 9 x x ♥ A J x x x ♦ 8 x  ♣ 9 x

Paul Jun Brian John W N E S 1♣ 1♦ 1♥(*) - 2♠(**) - - -

I might have doubled 1♥, which was showing ♠s, in which case we might have found our way to the perfectly reasonable 4♥ contract. However, I didn't, and we didn't, so we had to try and defend 2♠. Paul's second round bid showed a weak no trump with exactly four ♠s.

Jun led out three top diamonds, I pitched the ♥2 (encouraging), and he switched to the ♥9. This is where I have my first decision. I can count 5 tricks for the defence - three diamonds, one heart, and one club (Jun must have one of the top 2 club honours, as the ♥9 denies the ♥K, and declarer has shown a weak no trump hand on the bidding). The other can only come from my getting a ruff of some sort. This can only be the third (or 4th) round of clubs. Declarer needs two entries to dummy to finesse spades twice, so I think it's right for me to duck this heart, and deny him an entry in hearts. Paul now played a spade to the king, finessed a spade on the way back, Jun showing out. When declarer now played a club towards dummy, Jun hopped up with the king to play a heart, and it was all over. If Jun doesn't win the first club, declarer cashes the ace and plays a third club. Jun wins, but whatever he plays, Paul can pick up the spades and cash his last club. 

There are a couple of things we might have tried - I could win at trick two and switch to a club, but I don't think this works. Jun again can't afford to win the first round, so Paul can just do exactly the same, and this time has an extra entry to dummy in hearts. Or Jun could try a fourth diamond after cashing AKQ. I think this might actually work. Paul can get away a loser, but I can pitch a club, and now Jun can afford to win the first round of clubs to give me my ruff. Not sure how easy this is to find at the table. I guess my hearts could be KJ, in which case it might be necessary for Jun to switch to a heart now. On the other hand, he does know I have 4 trumps, so the ruff and discard is unlikely to be a great deal of help to declarer, and might well help me to get a trump trick, and it's hardly likely the club king is going to run away. I don't think I would have found this defence, but it's one worth noting.

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There were a  few more interesting boards - one on which we missed a small slam in clubs (technically we missed a grand, but the grand was about 13%, so we'll not worry about that), and one shortly after the missed grand slam above where the opponents bid 6♣ which rolled home on a squeeze, and one where we did well to push the opps to 5♠ which, though makeable, was not easy, and eventually went off when dummy's suit broke 3-0. All in all, another enjoyable game, and despite being roundly thrashed (a comfortable 16-0, in which we had by far the worst result of anyone in our team), I feel we actually acquitted ourselves quite well. Paul and Brian just got all of the big boards right, and we got one big board wrong, and that was a good 2000+ points their way. For the rest of the night, things were pretty even. Next week, slightly less bridge (possibly a district pairs qualifier on Wednesday), but hopefully I'll manage not to lose 16-0...