Buchanan at home

We played against Buchanan at home on Wednesday. Hillhead, the team that I play for, is also based at the Buchanan, so this was a local derby of sorts. Buchanan are also the other team that came up from the second division last season, so probably one of the teams we need to beat if we're going to stay in the first division. We were playing against Betty and Peggy at table one, and here's one hand that where we were on the right side of some slightly sub-optimal bidding by the opposition. Not sure we would have done any better....

E deal, Love all ♠ T 5 4 3 ♥ 9 7 4 ♦ A Q 9 5 3 ♣ Q ♠ Q J 2 ♥ A 6 2 ♦ K T 8 4 2  ♣ 6 3 8 10 17 5 ♠ A 9 7 ♥ K Q  ♦ - ♣ A K J T 9 7 5 2 ♠ K 8 6  ♥ J T 8 4 3 ♦ J 7 6 ♣ 8 4

Norman Me W N E S 2♣ - 2♦ - 3♣ - 3♦ - 3NT - 4NT - 5♥ - 6NT - - -

The opponents were at least both on the same page throughout the auction - agreeing that West's 4NT was Blackwood in ♦s. As you can see, 6♣ is an excellent contract, and I think probably East cards should be more insistent about playing in clubs. Either jumping in clubs earlier, or maybe just responding 6♣ to partner's 4NT (whether this is BW or not). There's also some question of what you should open with the East cards. It's true that 1♣ is unlikely to be passed out, but how are you going to communicate the size of the hand after you open 1♣? As little as Kx xxx xxxxx xxx opposite and the slam is almost totally cold, Give partner the ♥A and a couple of other honours, and you might we'll want to be in 7♣. I think you have to open this hand with whatever your strongest opening is. All the better if that happens to be 2♣, so you're not wrongsiding anything.

Despite declarer apparently having 12 tricks, 6NT really shouldn't stand much of a chance - there's no entry to the heart ace, and no reason to allow one, but it made at at least one table. I didn't really hear the story of the play, but I guess North pitched a heart at some point, which I think then exposes his partner to some sort of strip squeeze and endplay in the majors. The ending would be something like the one below.

S deal, Love all ♠ T 5 ♥ 9   ♦ A Q  ♣  ♠ Q J 2 ♥ A 6  ♦   ♣  ♠ A 9 7 ♥ K   ♦ - ♣ A  ♠ K 8   ♥ J T  ♦ 6 ♣

Norman Me W N E S 2♣ - 2♦ - 3♣ - 3♦ - 3NT - 4NT - 5♥ - 6NT -

South has to pitch the last diamond in order to prevent giving declarer a trick in either major, but now E has a choice of methods to endplay him. Either unblock the hearts, cash the spade ace and play a spade, using the S hand as a stepping stone to the&♥ A, or overtake the ♥K, and play the 6 to endplay S. Of course either of these plays might look very silly if N has the ♠K all along, so it does need declarer to read the position pretty well.

Incidentally, when we played this board, I was on lead against 6NT, and picked a ♦, which meant we didn't have to get our discards right. I mostly led a diamond as it seemed to be the lead least likely to give away a trick - I think probably Norman could have doubled 6N for a diamond lead. it's possible he was worried that the opponents could make 7♣.

The more sensible contract of 6♣ is cold when the trumps split - you just give up a trick to the ♠K at some point, and you've got a comfortable 12.

♠♥♦♣

Here's another one which was all in the bidding.

W deal, Game all ♠ A J 8 2 ♥ A 8   ♦ J 5 3 ♣ 6 4 3 2 ♠ Q 5 4  ♥ K Q 9 6 3 2 ♦  9 8 7 6 ♣ - 10 7 11 12 ♠  K T 9 7 3 ♥  J T 7 4 ♦  A K T   ♣ T ♠ 3  ♥ 5 ♦ Q 4 2 ♣ A K Q J 9 8 7 5

Norman Me W N E S 2♥ - 4♥ 5♣    - -    -

I had a long think before bidding with the South cards. I'm still not sure I made the right call - there must be plenty of hand partner can have good enough to beat 4♥ where 5♣ doesn't make, but on the other hand, partner could still have a pretty strong hand on this bidding. I could easily pass when 6♣ was on... The contract obviously depends on not losing more than 2 diamonds. This can be done either by making sure the opponents open up the diamonds, or if both diamond high cards are in the same hand. Unfortunately, there's no way to give up the lead in a suit that isn't diamonds, so just leading up to the diamond honours in turn was the only option. After the ♥K lead, and with the Q of spades coming down on the third round though (I figured I might as well ruff two rounds of spades just in case there was KQx in one hand - however unlikely this was on the bidding), this was pretty much always going to work - with the ♣6 eventually proving a useful late entry to the dummy to lead a diamond to the Q.

Turns out bidding 5 clubs was the right decision - the opponents are almost always going to make 10 tricks in hearts, and will make 11 unless we're quick enough to get our spade ruff. We eventualy won the match by a couple of hundred points, which translates to an 8.5/7.5 victory on the scale. Turns out that to draw 8-8 you actually have to have a 0 point margin of victory, which is pretty unlikely, so this is as close to a draw as it's possible to get.