Nothing to see ... there's a void

Earlier this month Memphis MOJO blogged on A void: Don't leave home without one. Last night I took this advice to heart as I held six voids in 33 hands (probability of holding at least one void is 19:1) and naturally this led to some interesting bridge.

I was playing with Anne, one of our victorious Lady Milne team, and we seemed to handle most of the randomness as our 59% proved to be 2% clear of the field. No doubt it was the 37 pages of notes that she sent for the evening - is this worse than Sam's 10 pages for the 2-board knockout? Perhaps not.

I thought we scored well against Sam and Fiona when I appeared to make the right decision:

Two diamonds, two spades and one club gave us +500 against a non-vulnerable game and it was a top when we played it early on, but in the end we only scored 60% as a raft of +650s hit the scoresheet with people (presumably) doubling 5♥.

Later on we scored a massive top when Anne made an excellent decision in the auction. Naturally our opponents could have done slightly better, but the board was lost very early in the piece:



Anne's decision to double, rather than bid on with her 4-7 distribution, made it fairly irrelevant how tricks declarer actually made as two down would have been a top for us, but we put declarer to some tough decisions and misguesses resulted in +1100.

It'll be four weeks before I'm back at the Russell Cup, what with visitors and the Summer Nationals, but at least no shortage of bridge.

All roads lead ...

The juniors had an excellent 28-13 IMPs win last night against experienced Scottish players. Perhaps most impressive was the fact that there was only swing above 5 IMPs and the youngsters were the beneficiaries.

And before we say that it was a flat set of hands, Italy beat Norway by 69-25 IMPs when they were played the first time in the 2002 Europeans.

Eleven tricks were made at all four tables on this hand but they all took a different route in the auction:



BBO Open Room



Gyles (South) took the direct approach.

BBO Closed Room



Eric (South) took the opposite view and it led to a slightly dangerous auction.

European Open Room



Duboin (Italy, South) also took the direct approach. Not a bad man to copy.

European Closed Room



Brogeland (Norway, South) had the most room but settled for a simple overcall and it is of some interest that he did not double. Note Lauria's choice of 1♦ as the opening bid.

This looks a simple hand but it is important for regular partnerships to establish their understandings in such auctions. Does doubling a pre-empt and then bidding a new suit show a GOSH (good one-suited hand) or does it show 'a flexible hand'.

More players are now using 'flexible' doubles over pre-empts. For example, for many Eric's 4♠ could be made holding a strong 5314 hand and Dee might be considering a club slam.

But, most importantly, partnership agreement is vital.

Tops and bottoms

Stephen and I had an average evening in the Russell Cup, but with few average scores. I made a couple of poor matchpoint decisions (playing the wrong slam, for example) and, on two hands, matchpoint pessimism affected us both and we missed (what turned out to be) good games.

Boards against team mates are always competitive and the hands were helpful when we play Harry and Finlay:

I could have taken +500 by doubling 5♣ but the lure of the slam proved too much for me. When Stephen signed off I decided that bad breaks were likely after Finlay's vulnerable game bid and settled in 5♠. When Harry failed to find the heart lead we made 12 tricks for exactly 50%. As we would have gone down in 6♠ doubled it was a fine stop.

We are coming ... back

We are coming ... back (as they said, repeatedly, on Torchwood last night).

On August 8 entries will open for my World Team Championships prediction competition.

More in a couple of weeks.

PS Any sponsors wishing to offer prizes should drop me a line.

Fighting fire with fire

Another U26 practice match and I'd recruited Phil, another in the U26 squad, to play with me as my brother was unavailable.

Phil had a major impact on the match. How would you handle these problems?

Partner leads the ♠8. You win the ♠J and declarer follows this the ♠10. What do you play next?

And secondly a bidding problem (click on the highlighted bids for explanations):

Phil's actions gave us 25 IMPs on these two boards. What about you?

Advice needed

Before our match last night I popped in to watch the Scottish U20s playing a team (IMPs) match. You hold:

♠ x
♥ 6xxx
♦ J1098xxx
♣ x

At Game All, your partner opens 1♥, playing 4-card majors and 12-14 1NT, and the next hand doubles.

What advice would you give the youngster at this point?

More training

Another match with the juniors. Surprisingly only one double IMP swing in 20 boards, and that happened when someone failed to lead 4th best of their longest and strongest against 3NT.

Alex and I played against Myles and Gyles. We had one horrendous board when we had a misunderstanding and misjudgement on the same board (unusual to lose -630 when they are non-vulnerable), but the vast majority of swings were due to the different systems being used.

I thought that there were two interesting bidding decisions:

Myles and Gyles were playing standard methods, so a protective 1NT would be 11-14. On the other hand, if partner cannot overcall 1♣ what can you be missing by being a little stronger? Especially if you are aggressive bidders and would tend to double with any hint of both majors? Alex and I play that 1NT is 12-16 in this position and that would make you feel slightly more comfortable with this hand.

Without that agreement you have the choice of underbidding with 1NT or doubling and then bidding notrump.

The second problem also fell to North:

Do you pass, double, bid 1NT or bid 2♦?

Overall I'm quite pleased how these matches are going. Both the U26 pairs seem interested in the analyses that I am doing and the longer match format seems appropriate.

We'll be back on Thursday evening.

Training the young

Or not so young. Bridge players are juniors now until they're over 26, so marriage and/or kids, careers etc can all be in full flow and yet we still call them kids. Or layabouts if they are still in full time education during their final junior year!

The Scotland U26 team will be playing in the 1st World Youth Championships during August and I am arranging a series of practice matches for them. Unfortunately time and money means that they will not be playing in the European Youth Championships next month.

Last night the first match took place. Andrew and Alex were quickly off the mark:

A well controlled auction to the best contract. Even if hearts are 4-1 there are squeeze chances.

The over-26 opponents gained some revenge on this board, but Myles and Gyles limited the damage by making 3NT in the other room.

What do you think of Alex's 2♦ bid? Anyone prefer 1♠?

After each match I send a brief analysis to the pairs. Generally this takes the form of asking what bids mean, what other options were available, looking at their carding and defence. It is not intended to allocate blame, but rather to explore the depth of their agreements and guiding principles.

More on Sunday and next Thursday.