Scottish SIM Pairs

Wednesday we were playing pairs at the club, and it was an SBU Simultaneous Pairs. I'm sure if you look up the results on the SBU website you can see quite how badly we did, but I'm not going to bother... I also made the mistake of sitting North - operating the Bridgemate is distracting enough for me that I'm sure it costs me at least a few percent on the average night.
Here's one that I think was pretty difficult to get right however the auction went - but raised a system question that we (still) haven't discussed. 

♠ A K J T 8 ♥ 3 2 ♦ -  ♣ A K 9 8 5 3 ♠ 3 ♥ K J 9 7 6 ♦ A J T 9 6 2  ♣ T * * * * ♠ 7 6  ♥ A Q T 8 5 4 ♦ Q 8 7 4 ♣ Q ♠ Q 9 5 4 2 ♥ -  ♦ K 5 3 ♣ J 7 6 4 2

John Norman W N E S 2♦ - 2♠ - 3♥ - 4♥ X -  4♠ 5♥ 5♠ -  -

Afterwards, we briefly considered whether I could have bid any differently. I think maybe a reasonable agreement is that a double of 2♠ is takeout of hearts, with the implication that you're willing to defend 2♠X if it turns out that the opener's suit is spades, and partner has anything decent. As it went, I think I would have raised 4♠ to 5♠ without the bid on my left, but now it would have been unequivocally asking for a heart stop. I'm not even sure we're in a forcing pass position here, so I don't think I have any other good way of finding out - the low doubleton heart really doesn't look good from my side. Realistically, I don't think we're ever getting to 7 of either black suit, but I think we might have managed the small slam without the 5♥ bid.

♠♥♦♣

Here's another one that Norman played, which had an interesting decision in the play. 

♠ J 3 ♥ A J 6 5 3 ♦ 8 2 ♣ A 9 8 2 ♠ Q 8 4 ♥ T 8 ♦ K J T 3  ♣ T 7 4 3 * * * * ♠ A T 6 2  ♥ 7 ♦ Q 9 6 5 4 ♣ K Q 6 ♠ K 9 7 5 ♥ K Q 9 4 2 ♦ A 7  ♣ J 5

John Norman W N E S - - 1♦ 1♥ 3♦ 4♥ - - -

I know I might be a bit strong for the leap to 4♥, but with both opponents bidding and two small in their suit, slam didn't seem very likely - I guess maybe I could bid 4♦, but I was somewhat worried this might show a diamond control... Anyway, the play went: ♦J to the Q and A, draw trumps finishing in hand, E pitching the ♠2 to signal for a club, and then Norman exited with a diamond. This was won by W with the T, and then he switched to a club to the Q. Now East switched to a small spade.

Norman decided to run this to the Jack. I think there are several reasons that he might have gotten it right, and one more interesting reason why he might have gotten it wrong. First reason, East opened the bidding. I guess it's possible he had something like Qxx x KQxxx KQx, but given that he opened, there must be a slight presumption in favour of him having a missing Ace. Second, East led a small spade. Now, it might depend on the quality of your opposition, but really how likely is it that someone would lead a small spade away from Qxx(x) looking at Jx in dummy? I suppose it's possible that it was a choice between that, a ruff and sluff or a club away from Kx, but still, another slight argument in favour of playing the K.

Finally, here's a potential argument against playing the K. We're playing in a national Sim pairs - the winning scores are going to be in the high sixties. There's no point in playing for average boards. If your opponent really has just given you a chance to make an unmakeable contract, that gives you a top if you take it, and you should definitely be willing to exchange a certain average for a 50% chance of a top and a 50% chance of a bottom in a competition like this - you can't win without getting lucky.

Two more matches next week, one against Gilmorehill in the cup, with a 1500 point headstart (we're in the same division, but they're the holders) and one against Buchanan, which is the other first division team from the club we play in, who just came up this year, so might well be an important match if we're hoping to stay in the first division.