It's obvious (at least to me)

Another InterCity League match last night and young Phil filled in as my partner as Alex was unavailable. It proved a comfortable win by 23-7 VPs although it really should have been more.

Miro and Sandy defended very competently to earn the biggest swing of the night.

This was worth 14 IMPs when Phil made the same contract at our table after a less revealing auction (EW never knew about their diamond fit).

One of our missed opportunities was the result of the following auction:

What does 5♦ mean?

Ideas welcome and I've also created a poll on the BBO Forums if you want to see the thoughts of others. One point is already clear, there is no consensus and it is a bid better avoided.

Slams 'R' Us

Another Wednesday, another match in the InterCity League, this time against Dubrovnik. A 17-13 VPs win keeps us narrowly on top of our group but we are not half way through the round robin yet.

Alex and I bid three slams missed at the other table. As we lost 7 IMPs on these hands the opps were probably not disappointed.

I thought we bid this well and shows the advantage of 2/1. Alex's ability to go slowly with his hand allowed us to even investigate the grand.

Alex had a choice of a slam-encouraging 5♣ or taking the responsibility on himself. They finished in 4NT in the other room with a less convincing auction (which seemed to involve Gerber and Blackwood by the same hand).

Our final slam was a missed opportunity, although it is difficult to let the opposition play the contract when you know that you have a 12-card fit.

Then both pairs missed an excellent slam. A tough one to bid but I did have a chance as Alex was marked with spade shortage. My concern was cue bidding hearts may lead to the opponents finding their double fit and my club values being unable to cope with potential 4-1 breaks - another missed chance.

Jim, subbing for Miro, and Sandy had no problems with their only opportunity:

Interesting to consider whether the strong hand is worth an upgrade (due to the clubs) or not (due to the hearts).

The contest continues next Wednesday.

Where's my metal hat?

Judy Kay-Wolff reports on her blog:

"The UNITED STATES BRIDGE FEDERATION (USBF) is considering inaugurating a preliminary event [for the US Trials] for the first time to be held via internet and there is much to be said for saving time and money for those who do not make the initial cut, thereby being able to not have the expense of traveling to the eventual playing site."

I think it will be a while before the SBU is ready to discuss this and, even then, you can imagine it will be trialled with juniors first.

But is it coming?

Duck!

No repeat

The 49ers managed their first real win of the season last night, after three draws, as we failed to repeat last year's magnificent victory.

The first half was the lowest scoring that I've ever been involved in. After twelve boards, the aggregate score at table 1 was 750-470 - an average of 101 points scored per board. Four game contracts were attempted and defeated. The scores at the other tables were similar although table 4 did manage two making game contracts (I think one was a doubled part score and the other they failed to find the normal save).

So at the half Merchiston were only 20 points down but we fell away in the second half to lose by about 2,500 in the end. Our opponents did well on this hand:

We were the last to finish because of this board. For a bonus point, which bid took Les at least ten minutes to make?

As a pair Miro and I seemed about 700 points below par as we went off in a game that should be made. The rest of the hands seemed to be played relatively sensibly.

EPL II

The second weekend of the English Premier League was held in Manchester.

Chris was back and we all did him proud by beating most of his former team in the first match. In the second match we faced the de Botton team and lost to them by 8 IMPs, 14-16 VPs. We all had chances but, then again, so did they.

After this good start it was disappointing to get demolished in our final match of the weekend. I think we all made mistakes that were heavily punished and our opponents got all the decisions right, never a good combination.

I did not feel that Alex and I played particularly well all weekend, but only the last match really reflected that. Alan and Chris seemed to have five solid sets and it was only the final set that got away from them.

Still, no real time to reflect on this as the final weekend is only ten days away.

Complex methods

"We play Magic Diamond, so 1♦ is strong, 1♣ is any 12-16 or 15-17 balanced, 1♥/1♠ show 4+ cards and 8-11 points and may be canapé, and our two bids are all three-way."

or

"We play GITH and 1♣ shows an opening hand with hearts, 1♦ is an opening hand with spade, 1♥ is any balanced 9-15 and 1♠ is any strong (16+) hand. We have defences if you want to look at them."

Complex or just unfamiliar? How would you like to play against them in a pairs tournament with 2-board rounds and limited time to prepare a defence?

The second system, GITH, has caused the EBU to reconsider its current system regulations. The system is perfectly legal and is being played with greater disclosure than most provide, but a number of complaints at the recent Autumn Congress have caused it to become a 'hot item'. I would suggest that EBU members post their thoughts on the EBU blog and non-EBU members can post on the BBF thread created by Jeremy.

Traditionally the EBU has adopted a fairly liberal approach. The SBU is slightly more conservative with 1-level opening bids (which means that GITH is not currently permitted in Scotland) but has a similar liberal approach for 2-level openings. Given that the ACBL has just banned the Multi 2♦ in all pairs events, liberal is not a word often associated with the American system regulators.

Comments on this post are disabled so as not to dilute the EBU's efforts for feedback.

More foreign affairs

We played a team from Macedonia in the third round of the InterCity League. A strong final two boards gave us a 12 IMP win (18-12 VPs) and we still lead the table.

The biggest swing was not in our favour but, like many of the swings in the match, was created by the different systems in use.

With the 1♦ Precision opener, it did not occur to me to bid at any stage.

The auction started differently at the other table and West was in a slightly safer position (in my opinion).



So that was 16 IMPs in the out column!

Foreign affairs

Roger, who played for USA Juniors in Beijing last year, is over in Edinburgh for a few weeks and we decided to have a real game at the Melville. I think we both probably tried too hard to make the master bid or glory play, which resulted in a succession of tops and bottoms, but we had an enjoyable evening.

I thought we bid the following hand well and Roger made a good matchpoint decision at the end of the auction:

This was worth 19/24 matchpoints, but the most interesting question is how to play the heart suit? Would you play it differently at IMPs?

For bonus points, suppose East held ♥532. How would you play the suit now (a) at matchpoints and (b) at IMPs?

Can you do better?

Another practice match last night and two international players failed to take all their chances on this classic 'book' hand. With the alarm bells ringing in your ears, can you do better?

Click next to see dummy and the lead

The first question is whether you should finesse? Secondly, if you win the ♣A what card do you lead from dummy?