Bridge of AngST

Our next round was against MIS, a team made up of a Malaysian pair and an Indonesian pair. The Malaysian pair were our table opponents for this round.

Two mistakes sealed our fate for this round:

Dealer W Vul N/S Scoring Imp Lead	♠ AKQ6 ♥ Q75 ♦ AQ762 ♣ J
♠ T432 ♥ A863 ♦ 83 ♣ K83		♠ 5 ♥ KJT9 ♦ KJT ♣ AQ942
	♠ J987 ♥ 42 ♦ 954 ♣ T765

Xiaoming chose to bid 4S after I had shown spade support. This was doubled and went down 4. Teammates only downed 4S by 2 undoubled at the other table so this was 14 imps out.

The next board saw a cold 4S, but teammates had a bidding misunderstanding and opps made 1NT= at the other table. 12 imps out.

I lost the chance to make good the deficit:

♠ 3 ♥ K8 ♦ AKQT8543 ♣ Q9

After hearing partner open 1C and RHO overcalling 1H? What would you do?

Sad to say, I blasted 3NT which was passed out. Dummy came down:

♠ A75 ♥ AT72 ♦ 7 ♣ AK653

14 top tricks! The only consolation was that the other table was in the same contract for a push.

At another table, 1NT was opened with the North hand, and after Gerber, 7NT was bid and made. 1520 vs 520 would have been a good 14 imps to us.

A game swing gave us 10 imps. Ironically, DD analysis shows that 6 can be made.

Dealer S Vul N/S Scoring Imp Lead	♠ 84 ♥ A842 ♦ J98643 ♣ K
♠ KT6 ♥ Q ♦ A75 ♣ QJT976		♠ QJ75 ♥ 763 ♦ QT2 ♣ 842
	♠ A932 ♥ KJT95 ♦ K ♣ A53

Perhaps this board was our table opponents’ only major mistake in the 10 boards:

Dealer E Vul N/S Scoring Imp Lead ♦T	♠ AQ8 ♥ KJ7 ♦ QJ854 ♣ T6
♠ 53 ♥ AQT5 ♦ 763 ♣ K873		♠ 972 ♥ 94 ♦ AK2 ♣ AQJ94
	♠ KJT64 ♥ 8632 ♦ T9 ♣ 52

As this was the last board of the round and we had plenty of time to spare, I decided to consider my opening lead. Opponents had used Stayman, so a major lead did not seem right. After much consideration, I decided to lead the Ten of Diamonds.

Declarer won the first trick, tried to finesse hearts, got his second diamond stopper knocked out, tried to finesse hearts again, and Xiaoming promptly cashed the diamonds. 5 tricks to us. Now, he cashed Ace Spade, and I was very happy to throw the J. a low spade came to my ten, and I ran the spades for down 5. (I discarded one earlier) This was 3 imps to us.

But then again, one wouldn’t expect to be so unlucky?

We lost 13-28 in imps, so this was 11-19 in VPs. After two rounds and 33 VPs in the bag, things were still looking good.

After a short dinner break at the coffeeshop opposite, we sat down to face the Ladies team.

The match was dictated by 5 big swings, 4 in our favour. The other two smaller swings were in their favour.

Dealer S Vul E/W Scoring Imp Lead ♥3	♠ KJ7 ♥ QT5 ♦ T87 ♣ KT65
♠ AT832 ♥ 96 ♦ K9653 ♣ 2		♠ Q5 ♥ AK72 ♦ AQ4 ♣ 9873
	♠ 964 ♥ J843 ♦ J2 ♣ AQJ4

At my table, Mrs Foo declared 3NT which went down 1. Our teammates made 4S.

The next board saw another swing:

Dealer W Vul All Scoring Imp Lead ♦Q	♠ Q75 ♥ 8 ♦ K98542 ♣ K92
♠ T986 ♥ QJT652 ♦ ♣ QJ8		♠ AK2 ♥ A743 ♦ A7 ♣ AT76
	♠ J43 ♥ K9 ♦ QJT63 ♣ 543

12 tricks, but how do you get there? Our table saw the following precision auction:

I did not ask how, but teammates found 6H. 13 imps to us. These 2 boards seemed to have affected them rather badly.

We actually started off with this board:

Dealer E Vul E/W Scoring Imp Lead ♦J	♠ AQT54 ♥ 74 ♦ 92 ♣ A842
♠ J82 ♥ 98 ♦ JT864 ♣ T93		♠ K763 ♥ JT2 ♦ Q75 ♣ QJ5
	♠ 9 ♥ AKQ653 ♦ AK3 ♣ K76

I drew trumps, noting the 3-2 split, then chose to finesse spades to try for an overtrick. 980 vs 480 meant 11 imps to us.

Cheng Yen said that Kelvin claims that there is a cold 100% line for 13 tricks. Anyone can figure what is it?

The other swing for us came when my side stopped in 2NT which made, while the ladies at the other table went to 6C. Seems like a misunderstanding. This went down 5.

The last major swing came when it was our teammates turn to have some bad judgement in the slam zone:

Dealer E Vul All Scoring Imp Lead	♠ T953 ♥ J ♦ K82 ♣ AK962
♠ AJ86 ♥ AQ6 ♦ 954 ♣ J83		♠ ♥ KT9532 ♦ AJT63 ♣ QT
	♠ KQ742 ♥ 874 ♦ Q7 ♣ 754

6H is not making so it was 13 imps out.

Final result: 45-21 in imps, 22-8 in VPs. A bit of luck as the slam boards went mostly our way.

Our last opponent for the night was against the U-28 team representing Singapore this October in the World Mind Games Olympiad. RJC’s Bridge club teacher-in-charge Mr Lai is on this team, so I was not really looking forward that much to facing him. However, he sat down at the other table with Licai, so our table opponents were Jicheng and Yuanfeng.

There was some element of luck again when Zhibang self-bid a 4S sacrifice over 4H which would go down plenty, but for some reason he managed to grab 8 tricks for -300 at favourable vulnerability. Xiaoming made 4H+1 after I had doubled opponent’s 2S pre-empt. This was 8 imps to us.

I have to admit that my stamina isn’t as good as it used to be. I was somewhat tired by the this round, and when Xiaoming contested a claim on board 13, I had no idea what was going on, but since Xiaoming contested declarer’s claim for making to down 1, I suppose it had to be a good thing. Opps didn’t say much, but I could gather that there was some misplay as Jicheng wasn’t very happy.

There was some misdefence on board 14 and we allowed oppponents to make 4S, teammates went down so 10 imps out.

There were a few other small swings, but we earned a big one on the last board. West opened 1NT and Xiaoming doubled for penalties, which was passed out. This went down 2. Licai elected to bid 2D instead at the other table, which just made. 9 imps to us.

We won 31-21 which translated to a small 18-12 win, but nevertheless an important win.

In tradition with my last outing at Youth Teams, I ended up in a team with teammates whom I have never really played with before.

Much thanks to Kelvin (Ng) who was the matchmaker and hooked me up with Xiaoming, Xiaoling and Kenneth. Our later additions were Zhibang and Xiaoxuan so I was the odd one out in a HC alumni team.

Throughout the tournament, I partnered Xiaoming who did a brilliant job, if I am not wrong, he played all 90 boards, partnering Xiaoxuan when I took a break during the Sunday morning session to attend Easter service. It is with great shame that I admit I doubted him on a few occasions which didn’t give very good results of course. Moral of the story: Trust your partner, for he might very well turn out to play even better than you.

My first task for Xiaoming was to attend the captain’s meeting in place of him, where they decided to draw instead of playing adjacent team numbers in the first round, which meant we would avoid playing X-men and YMouse in a triangle. Instead we got TS, which featured Mr and Mrs Thomas Goh. Having played them often at the weekly games, I was well aware of the threat they posed. Nevertheless, I hoped that we would be able to get off to a good start.

We started with board 4, which saw:

Dealer W Vul All Scoring Imp Lead	♠ A4 ♥ AK8 ♦ KQ73 ♣ T852
♠ K8765 ♥ 74 ♦ A ♣ AKJ64		♠ T92 ♥ 93 ♦ J9652 ♣ Q73
	♠ QJ3 ♥ QJT652 ♦ T84 ♣ 9

It was bad enough that we sold out to them when we had 4H cold. Even worse was the fact that we could have downed 3S, but let them make 10 tricks instead. Xiaoming led the Ace of Hearts, but was confused by my 6, which could have been easily solved had i thrown the Q down. He switched to a club instead. Teammates went 2 off in 4S. -9 imps.

But of course, our opponents did not see the full picture. The next board saw them bidding to 3H, making 10 tricks. This was a cold game though. I could sense that after these 2 boards, our opponents probably thought that they had conceded two game swings. In reality, we were still 3 imps behind even after the non-vul game swing on board 4.

Board 6 saw them bid to a cold 3NT after a few rounds of bidding. I made a mistake on the first trick. Holding AQJ7, with 5432 in dummy and partner leads the 9 (this shows 0 or 2 higher honours). What do you play? I went up with the A and returned a spade. Declarer cleared out partner’s diamond A and cashed his tricks for +2, Of course, it was cold either way but this still wasn’t a good play by me. Lost an imp to the overtrick.

Board 7 saw both myself and my counterpart going off 2 in 2NT. Board 8 saw Xiaoming go 4 off in 3C after West opened a weak 2S. Teammates made 4S. Score 6 imps to us. Board 9 was an overtrick’s difference in our favour in 2D contracts.

Despite the fact that I had a string of negative scores in my scoresheet, I was pretty optimistic. The boards looked pretty flat, and teammates should be holding the ground pretty well. Boards 4 and 5 might even be good for us. (I didn’t look into the possibility of 4H on board 4.)

Now on board 10, teammates made a 3NT which in theory fails, but in practice makes as South would not lead from AQxx in clubs. Our opponents at the table had a misunderstanding, and ended up in 3D+1. This board scored 11 imps for us.

Board 1 seemed flat as it was a pretty routine 1NT-2H-2S. Xiaoming made 10 tricks. The element of luck for us was the misunderstanding at the other table where South misbid 2D instead of 2H, and spent 3 levels trying to convince North that he had spades. 4NT-4 and 2S+2 scored 9 imps.

Board 3 was interesting.

♠ 85 ♥ 95 ♦ AJT6532 ♣ 52

Why 1NT? I had the inkling that opps would overcall if I opened 1C, perhaps with 1S and make life difficult. As it is, the 1NT opening worked. I decided that 3NT had a chance with my stops and Qxx in partner’s presumbly long suit, which might depend on a finesse. As it is, I was right, but the finesse was wrong, so I went down. 2 imps to them.

We won 35-12 which translated to a 22-8 victory.