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?

A mixed bag

Second round of the InterCity League and we eked out a 3 IMP win with a forgettable performance. I was overly aggressive with a weak distributional hand to lose -500 on a partscore deal, and we found a hand where a 4-4 fit played considerably worse than the 5-3 fit to lose another game swing.

We did have some gains of course:



This may look a regular deal but, with no competitive bidding and an opening 1♦, my hand only raised to 2♠ in the other room and the game was missed. The competition did not make any difference to us, as the double spade raise shows a non-minimum distributional spade raise and not the monster that most people need.

Our opponents gained their revenge with an unusual Michaels treatment:



I am not a fan of using Michaels with 6-4 distribution and I was quite pleased with +300. However it proved to be a loss of 8 IMPs as they made 4♠ in the other room - Miro and Sandy started the defence very well but, understandably, the final element proved too difficult and declarer did well to take 10 tricks:



We remain top of our group but with only two guaranteed quarter-final places we'll need to improve next week.

Really tough defence

I have been arranged some practice matches on BBO for some of the English Premier League players and Scottish triallists. The next stages of both fall on the same weekend and it is good to have some competitive fun without running into people you will have to play, so it suits us all.

I don't normally feature other people's mistakes, but (1) I don't consider this an error and (2) the hand has other interesting aspects.

Firstly, try to solve the problem from the West seat. The movie will stop at the crucial moment, consider your action before continuing.



Even looking at the complete hand it is not clear that you must switch to a diamond at trick 3, even cashing the club first means that the contract will make.

You may think that an initial trump lead should beat the contract, and indeed it should. However, as happened at the other table, declarer then runs all his trumps and the West hand comes under quite a lot of pressure. You'd expect the defence to prevail, but even experienced internationalists will sometimes come unstuck.

Finally, did you spot my diamond discard on the third club? If I ruff instead then there is a trump promotion as Nigel has three diamonds and Roy can unblock his king.

Perhaps I should have set this as a 'play or defend' problem after the opening club lead.

Almost at the table ...

Some of the BBO vugraph operators are just excellent and give you a real feel of what is happening at the actual table.

Hervé was on the ball in the European Bridge Champions' Cup after Lauria-Versace bid a grand slam on a finesse:

Alfredo is very very very very very very very very ....unhappy!

Lauria has left the table.

Then the finesse worked.

BBO InterCity League

The BBO InterCity League has just started its 12th season, so I guess it has been running for about six years. Organised from Croatia there is a eastern European influence but there are a number of UK teams playing and it will provide useful practice for us all.

Alex and I have joined Miro's EDINBURGH team for the season. Actually I think we are the only two pairs and will probably need another couple to make all the fixtures. The beauty of this league is that matches are played every Wednesday evening, so you know where you stand and there is less running around trying to find convenient dates.

Last night was the first match in the round-robin. We are in group B and played MEJE. Sound play at both tables saw us run out winners by 52 IMPs, that converted to a 25-4 VP victory. All the groups, teams and results can be seen here.

Alex and I had a very delicate auction on the first board that gained us a game swing:



Then, on the final board, Miro and Sandy defended soundly to defeat a tight 3NT when Alex and I stayed in a safe part score.



Miro's excellent lead was always going to beat the contract if they discarded carefully, but declarer was given a tiny opportunity when Sandy failed to switch to a diamond at trick 2. Switching to a diamond from ♦xx into the AQJ is something that only ever works in Hugh Kelsey books, but here it deprives declarer of an additional entry to play clubs and will eventually force him to take the ♥Q or lose it. After the more normal return of a heart only a BBO commentator would have made the contract. Note also that after winning the heart Miro found the diamond return needed to beat the contract, so a well earned swing.

A team start

First night of the Scott Cup, the club's team championship. Playing with Diana and Ros we came second last year so we are hoping to go one better this time.

We had a successful start with Jean subbing for Ros. A score of 105 VPs (out of 160) was five better than Marguerite's team with last year's winners another place back. As your four best scores count, out of seven, it's good to get one on the board.

I thought LotG played this hand well:



They clearly did the right thing at the other table as the board was flat and, truth be told, any line will work with the friendly layout.

Our biggest loss occurred when I had the following problem:



What's your call?

Beer for a penny

English Premier League

Last weekend was the first of the three English Premier Leagues dates for this season. As I've noted previously, the principal reason to play in this competition is the opportunity to play some decent competitive bridge in the UK.

Alex and I have teamed up with Chris and Alan for the event, but unfortunately Chris was nabbed by the EBU to be NPC at the European Universities Championships and so a last-minute sub had to be arranged. Alan grabbed Dan, one of his silver-medal winning U20s from Beijing, to add some youth to our team.

The second division of the EPL has one outstanding team, de Botton, but the rest look competent without much between them. We won one match and lost two in the first weekend to lie just below average, at the bottom of the tightly-packed middle group.

Alex and I played fairly soundly over the weekend. The butler seemed quite kind to us (bidding an obvious slam is still worth a few imps) and we avoided costly misunderstandings. This was a nicely played hand from the last match:

The next weekend is at the end of the month.

Author, Author!

Seems like I'm in demand, although I suspect it's just a temporary phenomenon. But two articles published this month - one about my life on BBO for the Ayrshire bulletin and one on bridge blogs for English Bridge - I even got paid for one of them and could also prove that the fourteenth card in the hand was not my fault. Plus an article submitted to SBU News on ethics for the next publication.

Update: the English Bridge article can be seen in their web library for October 2009. Apologies if I did not mention you, but of course it may just have been subject to the editor's red pen since space was limited.

Flying slightly lower

Our stay at the top of the league was short-lived as Craigleith beat us last night and will be ahead on goal difference with a game in hand. If Craigleith can get their 'stars' out then they are the favourites this year, so it was disappointing that we were unable to take advantage of a couple being missing.

Miro and I did not help. We missed a simple slam and went down in two games we should have made. I don't know if everyone had the same blind spot on board 24, but the play at the top two tables was not impressive ...



Unfortunately this was not how I played it. However, with the 4-1 spade break it is likely that West holds longer hearts (and hence the ♥Q) and this line is marked. As Brian said at the end, even if the heart finesse fails the contract is not necessarily down. My line involved establishing a club for a diamond discard and hoping to cross ruff, but when Brian overruffed the ♣10 this line had no play.

At the end of the match Eric bounced up excitedly from table 3 to ask if we had made 4♥ on board 13. He was a little surprised when I said I'd made an overtrick, but it was a lot easier played the other way up. This is what I think he did:



At this point declarer has a diamond loser and East must make a heart, but East can only prevent a (high) cross ruff by drawing trumps and then the South hand is high. Nicely done.

Overall we lost by about 1700 points, about the amount that Miro and I left on the table although I think most of the team could say the same.

Next up, if we are selected, will be the 49ers in November. They will be smarting from a very narrow defeat last night and it will be a very important match for both teams as no-one can afford a second loss.