June in August

Played the penultimate round of the Russell Cup with June (who will be my new captain in the league this season). We were not particularly successful, making too many little mistakes, but had a good time.

We showed some good judgement early on:

♠ K9x ♥ Qx ♦ 9xxx ♣ AKJx

♠ JTx ♥ AKxxx ♦ AKQx ♣ x

West	North	East	South
June		Paul
		1♥	p
2♣	p	2♦	p
2NT	p	3♠	p
3NT	p	4NT	p
p	p

We were playing 2/1 so June created a game forcing auction with her initial response. I then bid out my distribution and finally made a quantative 4NT bid. June naturally refused with her minimum, non-fitting hand. With hearts 3-3, diamonds breaking and the ♠A onside June made 12 tricks for a reasonable score when others got the spades wrong.

Edit: hand corrected as per Alan's comment. Bidding 6♦ is excellent but I don't think it's clear for June to raise diamonds with such a poor suit. However she would have shown the support if accepting the slam try.
 

Vegas revisited

The team, after 10 days in Vegas!

Go Girl!

The Ladies won all three sets against the Juniors, 20-14 IMPs, 18-16 IMPs and 23-19 IMPs.

Both will play more matches before they go to China in October. Details of the bridge at World Mind Sports Olympiad can be found on the Ecats website.

Advert: Women against Boys

As part of their preparations for Beijing, the Women will be taking on the Juniors on BBO this evening.

There will probably be three short matches to help the women get more used to playing matches online: the juniors naturally spend every waking hour on BBO and the only challenge for them will be to awake for the event.

Spectators welcome from 1830 (GMT), 1930 (UK), 2030 (Europe), 1430 (New York), 1930 (Berwick-upon-Tweed).
 

Brighton blues

Alex and I played the Brighton Swiss Teams with Nick and Richard but it was a disappointing affair. We started reasonably on Friday evening, despite losing narrowly to GILLIS (with his three Norwegian champions), but a poor Saturday meant that we had no chance of getting into one of the finals. As always Sunday was then an anti-climax.

I think it would be fair to say that none of us played particularly well. Someone was always there, normally one of us (!), to concede a double imp swing during the eight boards and this made winning matches difficult. When this is happening you tend to think that you get all the bad luck too, but the following hand is probably one of the few where it was probably true.

♠ AT ♥ AKQxx ♦ ♣ AKQxxx

♠ xxxx ♥ Txx ♦ AKJx ♣ 8x

West	North	East	South
Paul		Alex
	p	p	p
2♣	p	2♠1	p
3♣	p	3♦	p
3♥	p	3NT	p
4♣	p	4♦	p
4♠	p	5♣	p
5♥	p	6♣	p
p	p

¹ 5-8 balanced

I dislike opening strong two-suiters with 2♣ but clearly this hand is too strong for any other action. Over 3NT I could have bid a natural and forcing 4♥, but I could only see Alex having a problem over this so settled for the club suit instead.

My 4♠ bid, when I could have asked for aces, was the first suggestion that I was void in diamonds. When I subsequently bid 5♥, Alex would have bid the grand slam with any semblance of an entry (like a jack in one of my suits) but we finished in the top spot.

Naturally, with such a strong hand, most of the field (including our opponents) overbid to a grand slam. This made when the ♥J was doubleton and the ♥10 proved to be an entry for the diamonds and the thirteenth trick. Another 13 IMPs away!

System developments

I'm playing occasionally with Miro in Scotland next season and we had our first live game for a while yesterday (you normally find us practising on BBO). We did not score well but one area of discussion came up.

What methods do you play your 1♣ opening bid is overcalled with 2♥? Playing a strong 1NT there is a fair chance that the 1♣ opening is actually a balanced 12-14 and it is key to cope with this.

Normally I would play double as takeout, 2♠ as forcing and 2NT as a strong club raise (and the rest natural in context). When partner is 12-14 balanced, this means that he will often bid 2♠ on a 3-card suit or select a random minor when 4-4. Not completely satisfactory.

Miro plays that double shows 10+ points (with no obvious bid) and is forcing to 2NT or a doubled contract, 2♠ as non-forcing and 2NT as natural. This is fine but causes some problems with weaker hand with four spades as you will either miss your spade fit or partner must balance on some weak hand. It can also lead to some delicate auctions when neither hand limits itself.

I've agreed to play Miro's method, but in sympathy with my own I decided to forget that last night. The result was that we missed a good slam, but it was missed by most as it was a perfect fit hand (each of us having a void).
 

Preparing for Beijing

With the Olympics only three days away you may feel it is a little late to start preparing for the event, but bridge is not involved in the Summer Games (much to the annoyance of the bridge authorities who want to get their hands on a new funding stream).

In October, the former 'Bridge Olympiad' is now taking place as part of the 1st World Mind Sports Games that will be held in Beijing following the games. Other mind sports featured will include Chess, Draughts, Go and Chinese Chess. Every country has been invited to send Open, Ladies and Junior teams.

I am not going to Beijing (I did not make the B qualifying time for the 100m, primarily due to the lack of a Lottery grant, and did not play in the SBU trials), but I am helping the Women and Junior teams by arranging practice matches on BBO. The first of these, against the Irish Ladies, featured this problem:

♠ KT93 ♥ 2 ♦ AT74 ♣ QJ43

Table 1:

Joan	Anne	Emer	Sheila
West	North	East	South
		2♥	2♠
4♥	4♠	p	p
5♥	?

Table 2:

West	North	East	South
Joyce	Helen	Michele	Jill
		1♥	1♠
4♥	4♠	p	p
5♥	?

Both Anne and Helen had an easy bid initially but were faced with a similar problem on the second round. Anne decided to bid 5♠ and Helen passed, when I thought both should have doubled - clearly not a simple decision and one that may appear in a future SBU news.

The next practice is Scotland Ladies vs Ireland Ladies on Thursday, starting around 1945 (GMT+1). Just look for me (paulg) if you want to watch.