Hard Luck Stories
The English enjoy hard luck stories - there is nothing better than playing well and losing.
Winning makes us feel a little awkward and embarrassed. In major international sporting events, especially the Football World Cup, we English have turned "losing well" into an art form.
I've a couple of hard luck stories for you from the County's Tuesday duplicate although, as you'll see, my partner and I eventually failed to live up to the proper English tradition.
Let's start with Board 2.
|
ª 9 7 5 4 3 |
|
ª 10 2© A J 7 5 ¨ Q 5 § J 10 6 5 3 |
I was partnering Chris Wilson. Chris (West) opened 1S, and I bid 1NT to finish the auction.
South led D2. Their card says they are playing standard leads, so I'm certain South must have at least one of A/J in diamonds. Therefore I play D10 from dummy, and am disappointed to see North play DJ. Nevertheless, I win this and play on clubs - South winning the second round. South leads another diamond ... so I confidently play DK, only to see it lose to North's Ace! The defence cash two more rounds of diamonds, South holding D9 by the way, followed by two rounds of spades. Now it looks like I'm heading for a disastrous score but, fortunately, they have blocked the spades and have to switch, allowing me to make7 tricks. Still, the board only scores 18% for us.
Congratulations (through gritted teeth) to South for finding this deceptive lead.
Let me hand over to Chris for a description of events on Board 7.......
Esme is a loyal supporter of the Oxford bridge club and the county side, generously helping out with the catering for home matches and competitions. On Tuesday at OBC, she showed excellent card skills to bring off a complete top against us.
I was playing in an unfamiliar partnership with Richard Lonsdale and having not played a hand all evening due to partner’s spirited bidding, I was delighted to pick up the West cards that made me certain to be declarer (or so I thought).
Dealer South – Game All
|
|
ª Q 4© 5 3 ¨ A Q 8 3 § K Q J 10 5 |
|
|
ª A K 10 9 8 7© K J 9 8 6 4 ¨ - § 4 |
|
ª 5 3© 7 ¨ K J 10 9 6 § 9 8 6 3 2 |
|
|
ª J 6 2© A Q 10 2 ¨ 7 5 4 2 § A 7 |
|
The bidding went:
|
South (Winnie) |
West (Chris) |
North (Esme) |
East (Richard) |
|
Pass |
1S |
Double |
Pass |
|
2H |
Pass (1) |
3C |
Pass |
|
3S |
Double (2) |
3NT |
Pass (3) |
|
Pass |
Double (4) |
All pass |
|
(1) Hoping the opponents might stick there on a 4-3 fit.
(2) Fed up with South bidding my suits
(3) Hoping partner gets the idea that I’m quite weak. I’ve seen his declarer play before so I hope he passes.
(4) Completely deaf. Maybe partner will remember that a double asks for a lead of dummy’s first bid suit (hearts) and ignore my earlier double of 2S (most of partner’s leads to previous hands seemed to ignore my bidding anyway). In any case, everything is breaking horribly and it’s bound to go down.
The lead predictably was S5 and I had to decide whether to win and clear the suit or duck. I decided to duck as it was possible (and indeed true) that Esme’s 3N bid was on SQx not Qxx, therefore partner will have another spade to lead when he gets in with a minor suit stopper.
Esme won with SQ, crossed to CA and led a diamond. After I showed out she won with the Ace and ran her 5 club winners. I discarded 4 hearts and 2 spades to come down to SAKxx HKJ. Esme calmly led a spade which gave me 4 tricks but then endplayed me to lead away from my hearts to dummy’s AQ.
Contract made. North/South +750 (top score).
The decision to duck on trick one is interesting. Winning and clearing the suit avoids an endplay on West, but requires East to have 2 entries and 2 hearts to lead through to get back into my hand. Also, declarer can endplay East. After running the clubs and seeing West’s heart discards, she can cash HA and duck a diamond to East who must return the suit making DQ declarer’s ninth trick.
How about West’s discards? Can I throw HJ away early and come down to singleton HK and 5 spades – this risks several overtricks if declarer guesses correctly and plays on hearts.
On Board 9, Chris and I faced Diana and Andrew Lintott.
|
|
ª J 7 6 5 4 3© Q 10 9 ¨ K 8 § 3 2 |
|
|
ª K 2© A 7 2 ¨ Q 6 5 4 3 § K 10 5 |
|
ª 9© 8 5 3 ¨ 9 7 2 § J 9 8 7 6 4 |
|
|
ª A Q 10 8© K J 6 4 ¨ A J 10 § A Q |
|
The bidding went:
|
North (Richard) |
East (Andrew) |
South (Chris) |
West (Diana) |
|
Pass |
Pass |
2NT |
Pass |
|
3H (transfer) |
Pass |
4C |
Pass |
|
4S |
All pass |
|
|
Understandably, Chris decided it was worth a break of the transfer. However, this meant the hand was now played the wrong way up (usually the case when I am declarer).
Played by South, 4S will always make either 11 or 12 tricks, depending upon the spade finesse. Indeed, played by North it's the same story, provided you don't get a club lead. Andrew, bless him, led C7.
At pairs, I decided the only way to rescue a middle would be for me to still aim for just one loser outside the trump suit. The club finesse looked unlikely to succeed, so I played CA and decided to play for DQ with East, aiming to discard my club before tackling trumps. Diana was most apologetic when she won with DQ, but she still insisted on cashing CK and HA, before sitting back to wait for her spade trick.
Needless to say, -50 was not a good score (less then 5%). As it happens, +420 scores just above average, so I should have played for 10 tricks. So much for my judgement of how the rest of the room would play.
Given the above sample, you're no doubt thinking we had a disasterous evening. I'm ashamed to say that we actually came first on the night, with a score of 64%.
Chris and I must try harder if we ever want to play for England.