SOME HANDS FROM THE BBL SIMS on 14 JAN 2000
by clive keep 16/01/2000
Seeing as I was lacking a partner for the BBL SIMS on Wednesday 14 January and Richard Lonsdale did not get his usual game on the Tuesday before, we agreed to 'team up' and present ourselves at the Wallingford BC. We kicked off with boards 9&10 (sitting E/W at table 5) for -140 and +200 (from defending 2N) respectively. We then held declarer to 9 tricks on Board 13 and then I had a decision to make on board 14, after Richard had been doubled in 1N (12-15) - do you rescue with-
J93
Q10864
J3
J106
Looking at my jacks and 10s I elected to pass. Richard got away with one down with 2Hs going 2 off doubled for -300, or 2S making the other way for -110 or -140. We defeat 3H by one trick on the next hand and then comes board 16 -
Board 16, E/W vulnerable, dealer West
A10943
2
J642
J107
Q876
KJ5
63
K94
109753
8
K5
A98632
2
AQJ10875
AKQ
Q4
The bidding-
N
E
S
W
pass
pass
2C (precision) 3H (strong) pass
3S
pass
pass!
pass
Well there we are, defending 3S, with 4H usually being made at other tables. Richard kicks off with the Ace of clubs, followed by a low club, declarer playing the 7 and Jack of clubs. Now what? I switch to the 3 of diamonds (club back?) and declarer plays a spade to the 10 and jack. Back comes the club 2 (diamond please?) - I ruff small and return a diamond for partner to ruff with the spade 5 and back comes a club. It is now decision time - do you ruff at all? With the Queen? If partner has the stiff King left then you come to one more trick anyhow if you discard now - but if partner has the stiff 9 it is imperative to ruff - so I duly played the spade Q - unnecessary as the cards are(!) - for two down and a 99+% board.
OK then - down a table to this 'pairs' hand!
board 17 love all, dealer North
KJ864
KJ93
8
K42
7
A953
A1087
6
K1042
AQJ43
AJ86
Q95
Q102
Q542
765
1073
the bidding-
N
E
S
W
1S
2D
pass
2S (alerted)
pass
2N
pass
3N
2S was an unassuming cuebid and I went for the 'pairs' contract with 3N. My best bid is probably 3C, followed by 3H over the likely 3D rebid to highlight the spade shortage, as 5D is much better and 6D makes if you take the club finesse early - anyhow, there we are, system discussions had been at a minimum! A low spade hits the table, and things look a bit bleak - however, dummy plays his spade and north the King. It looks like South has the Queen therefore and totting up the points, North is favorite for the King of Clubs. However, a spade hold up for two rounds reveals the likely position there (dummy throwing hearts) and when diamonds are run North bravely discards two clubs(!) and two hearts. What do you play when you as declarer play a low club towards the Ace? Richard played the Ace, dropping the King for eleven tricks and a 99% result. Board 18 saw the opposition playing in a NT partial instead of 4H for another gain. Board 21 was a huge disappointment for N/S - having 27 HCPs between them and no play for 3N (unless the defense leads a club - unlikely on our opposition bidding). Several good scores followed and then we came across this hand, giving us our worst score of the night-
board 26, all vulnerable, dealer east -
A932
A9
K103
10543
8
QJ64
KQ10543
6
QJ974
A82
K
AQJ72
K1075
J872
65
986
We played in 3N (what else?) by East, following a Precision 2C opening. South led his fourth-best spade (thankfully not a club, which would probably screw up declarers communications fatally) and three rounds of spades followed, leaving declarer in hand and with a spade loser. Well? What are the options? The diamond finesse is needed anyhow, otherwise the defense will score three spades, a diamond and the heart ace. If the spades are 4-4, then the 'safe' line is to play a heart from hand now, leaving the club K in dummy. Then after the boss spade is cashed, win the likely club return in dummy, finesse the diamond for nine tricks (5 clubs, 1 spade, 2 diamonds and 1 heart). However, what if the spades are 5-3 with the Heart Ace in the long spade hand? you are then going down. So, as the diamond finesse is needed anyhow and if the 10 comes down in two, or South has it, we make 11 tricks! I'll leave you to decide what line Richard took - needless to say we were down one for a 27% score ( 9 tricks would have been 75% - out of interest Richard!!). I have some empathy for Richard's line - it usually pays to go for the 'big' score if you can - particuarly in 'SIMS' pairs!
Several boards followed with partner playing all the hands our way (just as well), until we came across this 'ordinary' hand-
board 12, N/S vulnerable, dealer East
K6
1086
J10543
K53
109542
AQJ
AK43
Q9
2
AK98
QJ10
9762
873
J752
Q76
A84
The contract is 4S by West, with no opposition bidding. The lead is the H8 - over to you! This is the sort of hand that I hate at pairs - at teams the play will take about two seconds (sorry about 10 in my case) - play Ace and another spade in case there is a heart or club ruff about - just losing (hopefully) a spade a two clubs. In pairs however, partner is not going to be too pleased if the spade finesse works and there is no adverse ruff available in either hearts or clubs. I therefore came back to hand with a heart, took the spade finesse, followed by the diamond ace and a low diamond ruff back to hand to repeat the finesse. When the K appears I stop and think - if a draw the remaining spade, cash the K of diamonds, throwing a heart from hand, followed by a club, the defense can prevail if they win the first club and play a diamond - forcing me to ruff with my last trump. Rightly or wrongly therefore (I haven't done a deep analysis of this hand!) I leave the King of diamonds in dummy and play clubs immediately. All is well, as the clubs split (or if they were 4-2, the trump might be in the hand with long clubs) and I make 11 tricks for an excellent score.
Quite a good night! Thank you Partner!
return to main 'articles' page
return to top of page
