Yesterday night, I went to SRC and played bridge with Robert Cheong. I dun think we came in last this time… as there were quite a few weaker pairs. On the whole I made 2 mistakes. I cannot remember any hand I played extraodinarily well. One hand was a 6-4 hand with 13 points. When customer when 4â™ , I asked for roman key card and when all the keycards were present (including the Qâ™ ) I went to 6. Unfortunately, the hand was simply not strong enough. I went down 1.
HAND 1
Bidding
| North |
East (Me) | South | West (Robert) |
| - | 1♠| - | 2♦ |
| - |
3♣ | - | 4♠|
| - | 4NT | - | 5â™ |
| - | 6â™ |
| Dummy ♠KQx ♥ Jx ♦ AJxxx ♣ 10xxx |
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| South ♠xx ♥ not sure ♦ not sure ♣ Kxx |
North ♠xx ♥ KQx ♦ not sure ♣ Qx |
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| East (Me) ♠Axxxxx ♥ Ax ♦ x ♣ AJxx |
Upon a heart lead, North was marked with the KQx♥. So I played a small heart to the A♥. So that I can throw him in on my heart assuming that he does not have 5 diamonds. So I played A♦, rough small. Play to Kâ™ , rough small ♦ play to Qâ™ , rough small ♦. After that, played a ♥ to the jack ♥ which was won by North’s K♥.
North proceeded to under lead his Q♣, I played small. South’s K♣ took and all the rest were mine. Down 1. An interesting thing was… I realised that in such hands, maybe it was better for North to give me a rough and discard rather than play the ♣ back. By giving a rough and discard, there is still a high chance I will need to lose 2 club tricks as I was missing ♣KQ9.
Alternatively, by underleading her Q, I only lose 1.
Anyway, the mistake was not in the play, but the bidding. By bidding 3C, i have already shown 16 pts. Partner should be able to put me to slam if he as the points.
HAND 2
Bidding
| North (Me) |
East (Women with son in her forties) |
South | West (Trevor) |
| 1♥ | - | 2♥ | 2♠|
| - |
- | 3♥ | All Pass |
| Dummy ♠Kx ♥ x ♦ Q10x ♣ - |
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| South ♠not sure ♥ not sure ♦ not sure ♣ not sure |
North ♠AQxxx ♥ - ♦ KJx ♣ x |
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| East (Me) ♠xx ♥ xx ♦ A9x ♣ - |
I kept thinking of how to throw Trevor in. And since he bid spades, and partner lead a high club (signalling doubleton, the Kâ™ looked like a good card to throw in. In end with the above end positions, i did a throw in to the right with the K of spades. Trevor lead a J♦ from his holdings of ♦KJx and I ended up with all the diamonds good. Very very strange. I also dun know why he did that.. but a simple rough and discard, small diamond or even K diamond… would have left him with 1 trick in diamond. The only way we could win all 3 diamond tricks was for Trevor to lead the J♦ from the KJx♦ and he did just that….
Strange.
HAND 3
Bidding
| North (Me) |
East |
South | West (Trevor) |
| 1NT | - | 2 ♥ | - |
| 2â™ |
- | 3NT | |
| Dummy ♠AKxxx ♥ xxx ♦ xxx ♣ KJx |
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| East ♠not sure ♥ not sure ♦ not sure ♣ Axxxxx |
West ♠- ♥ - ♦ not sure ♣ xx |
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| North(Me) ♠QJx ♥ AKxx ♦ Axx ♣ Qxx |
Opponents lead the small ♣. I took with the Q♣ and continued club. Opponents got the A♣ and continued to lead another ♣. East showed out! In my mind, I kept thinking on how to develop the fourth heart. Whilst running the spades, East pitched a heart.
As such, my fourth heart should be good… and with the diamond stopper what else should i be afraid of? Instead I proceeded to cash all my winners… and did not establish the fourth heart.
This is pure stupid play.. as East had no spades, no clubs (showing out on the third round) so there is no risk of him crossing over for West to run the long club suit. His best return is diamond.. and even then I had the A of diamond.
| West ♠- ♥ Qxx ♦ Kx ♣ - |
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| North(Me) ♠♥ AKxx ♦ A ♣ |
The end position was as above. I should have just played all my hearts and establish the last heart trick.