Report of Club Activities for August 2014
Members of Warminster Bridge Club took part in a variety of competitions during August which included the 5th Round of the Club Open Pairs. With just 3 rounds remaining the event is building to a climax. Normal duplicate bridge evenings produced the usual cut and thrust at the tables with many a hard luck story.
Club Open Pairs
The 5th Round of the Club Open Pairs took place on Thursday 7th August. Two pairs were closely matched in the battle for the top place on the night. Eventually Gayle and Colin Webb edged out Ed Leatham and Bryan Cross. The respective scores were 64.81% and 63.89%.
Well done to both pairs.
Club Nights
Most duplicate pairs evenings were very competitive with the top placed pairs only separated by a few percentage points. The best performance of the period was by Tessa Attwater with Tony Reed. They scored a fantastic 71.53% on the 27th of the month. Another splendid performance was recorded by Gayle and Colin Webb who scored a fabulous 69.58% on the 26th of August. This is the second month in succession they have scored in the high sixty percent. In each case, they missed out on bottles of wine by a fraction of a percent.
Bad luck!
Pairs broke through the 60% barrier on 8 occasions during the period.
The winners for each evening are detailed below. Congratulations to all winners.
Aug 5 NS 1st Alan Merrills and Laurie Meale
2nd Margaret and David Thackaberry
EW 1st Jenny Hazelgrove and Chris Hogan
2nd Shirley Helme and Ann Constable
Aug 7 1st Gayle and Colin Webb
2nd Bryan Cross and Ed Leatham
Aug 12 1st Scarlet and Ed Leatham
2nd Alan Merrills and Laurie Meale
Aug 14 1st Breda Wilmott and Shirley Helme
=2nd Bryan Cross and Ed Leatham
=2nd Gillian Wood and Ann Constable
Aug 19 1st Pam Hibbs and Bill Gibbs
2nd Ian Bell and Karl Hollman
Aug 21 1st Mike Porteous and Laurie Meale
2nd Marianne Lewin and John Perry
Aug 26 1st Gayle and Colin Webb
2nd Scarlet and Ed Leatham
Aug 27 1st Tessa Attwater and Tony Reed
2nd Breda Wilmott and Shirley Helme
Tip of the Month
Declarer Play: The Rule of 40
There are exactly 40 High Card Points (HCP) in the pack. When dummy goes down, county dummy’s points and add your own (plus any shown on lead) and any revealed by the bidding. When you deduct this total from 40 you
should have a good idea where the missing points are likely to be.
Consider the East/West hands below. The final contract is 4 Spades by West.
The bidding is: West North East South
1 H 1 NT P
3 S P 4 S All Pass
West Dealer North East
K J 9 8 5 A Q 4 J 2 Board A K 6 5 4 No 1 Q J 10 A Q 4 8 7 6 3 2
North leads K, A and a third diamond, all following. Given that trumps break 3-2, how should West plan the play?
Count the Hands
You (West) have 11 points, dummy has 16. Thus, 40 – 27 = 13 gives almost all the missing points to North for the opening bid. It is clear that North has K and means the club finesse is wrong. You have already lost 2 tricks ( A & K) so cannot afford to lose two clubs.
The Plan
1. Draw trumps in three rounds. 2. The only hope of making the contract is to play North for K-x. 3. Lead A and then a low club. If North plays K you make your contract if not you are 1 off.
Here if only one layout allows you to make the contract play for it!
Your editor asked me to pen a few words about the Seniors Congress at elegant Eastbourne, but time has rolled on through the Riviera Congress at touristy Torquay and the annual week long jamboree that is the EBU Congress in bizarre Brighton. (Please bear in mind that I am not a sun seeker and Gayle and I treat these trips as part of our holidays, but taken in small doses.)
We have been playing at these events for some years, and have built up a goodly number of friends and / or teammates with whom it is fun to play, dine and drink.
As to the bridge, it is another world away from club bridge, despite there being the usual 52 cards.
Would you double this hand for a Spade lead?
North
86
AK7
AJT85
QJ8
AQT4 73
T54 Q963
Q762 94
64 KT732
KJ952
J82
K3
A95
North /South have 27 points – bid to 3NT , but West doubled the contract for a Spade lead.
How was West able to tell East that he wanted a Spade lead?
West did this because their system allowed them to use a double to call for a lead of the last suit bid by North/South. This happened to be Spades!
So how do you make 3NT*, for a top or are you 1 down for a bottom.
What’s the fun if we get beaten up like the above hand?
We get the chance to play against top players, including England’s World and European champion ladies, and European champion Seniors men, together with a host of other professionals who earn their living from bridge. Their income is not only from lecturing, writing books and articles for magazines, but surprisingly being paid by punters to play with them or in wholly financed teams. If you have a bit of spare cash just hire a bridge pro for a tournament!!
Bidding Systems
At these tournaments there is a whole range of bidding systems in use. This year the Polish and the Dutch brought their different styles. There was plenty of Acol based “Three weak twos” that Gayle and I play, plus a range of Benji Acol style. Standard American is well accounted for, as is Precision. Also not many 1NT opening bids get unchallenged with players using their latest gadget to grab the contract.
The top young stars are playing a sort of club and transfer system. This system usually plays 5- card majors with a strong no trump
1. So what do you think this sequence means (with no opposition bidding):
1C – 1D – 1H – 1S -- 1NT
Translated as:
West: 1C flat hand similar to weak 1NT
East: 1D transfer to a four card heart suit
West:: 1H completion of transfer
East:: 1S transfer to 1NT, weakish hand partner, should play in 1NT
West: 1NT complete the transfer
2. Or what about, 1C – 1D – 1H - 1NT – 2S Translated as:
West: 1C as above
East: 1D as above, transfer to hearts
West: 1H as above complete the transfer
East: 1NT I have 4 spades, but non-forcing
West: 2S I have four spades as well, lets play here.
The good thing is that we can sit back and ask questions before the play. The bad thing is that these transfers are bidding our suits. One defence is to bid as if you were bidding against a 1NT opener. But I am not ready for the messes that we would likely get in to.
But, these guys and girls also provide us lower life (in bridge terms) with occasional stories to tell.
Mixing it with The Professionals!
In Brighton, at one of the expert lectures, Brian Senior was asked what chances we club players had of beating the stars. His answer was simple, the shorter the match the more likely that we could win. Over the standard 7 / 8 board match, a 40% chance but over a 48 board match, he would expect the better players to win all the time.
So this summer Gayle and I have been in teams that have beaten Brian and Nevena Senior, Paul Hackett and David Burn. All professionals and each match a 7 board affair.
But the story that we are dining out on comes from Eastbourne and starts with Jenny Gray. Playing in the Swiss Teams event , having lost their first match, Jenny’s team were against a financed team that included Brian Senior and Tony Forrester (the best of the best).
Jenny’s team won their 8 board match with a score of 20 – nil.
Meanwhile our team had also begun badly losing our first two matches. We were now drawn against the Senior / Forrester squad. We won by 18 – 2. This put the Pros bottom of the field!!
A major contribution to our win came from a hand that Gayle was playing in 4 Spades. She could see no way of making the contract but halfway through the play, Tony Forrester put his cards down and had a long think about what to lead next.
Gayle was quick enough to realise that if he had a problem, then she probably now saw the route to making the contract. Which she duly did.
So what is different from club bridge?
Same 52 cards, but the bidding is more aggressive and opponents mistakes in the play are much fewer.
For example you are unlikely to get an exploratory lead of an unsupported Ace, common to club bridge.
Though I have to say that I played a hand at Brighton where the lead of a low spade completely fooled me into a wrong line of play. It never occurred to me that she had led from A Q x x!!
Another hand from Brighton, dealer East
North
3
8654
7432
9754
A5 KQT7
KQ2 A9
A96 KQJ85
KQJ82 AT
J98642
JT73
T
63
Holding 38 points would you and your partner reach one of the several making slams ?
What difference would there be if South bid 2S over a 1D opening or 3S over a 2 level opening bid?
Andrew Robson commented that this was a very good defensive bid to make.
Quiz No. 2 Declarer Play
In the hands shown below, West is in 7 No Trumps.
The lead is a low Spade.
How do you make your contract?
Note: If you try the Club finesse it will fail!!
J 10 9 5 2 6 4 3
5 4 K 7 4
3 A K Q A K Board Q J 10 A K Q No 1 J 10 9 8 7 6 A Q J 9 8 3 2 7
8 7 6 4 9 8 7 5 2
3 2 6 5
Solution
1. The Spade lead is taken by the Ace. 2. The K and Q of Spades are played and the A and K of Hearts are discarded from West. 3. The Q, J and 10 of Hearts are played and the A, K and Q of Diamonds are discarded from West. 4. The six Diamond tricks are now taken by East. 5. Finally the Ace of Clubs is taken for 13 tricks.