As last year I played the pairs with Sam and then the teams partnering Jenny with Tim and Sam. We started off with a 5th place in the Friday afternoon teams, worth a small prize, and then scored about 45 VPs in the first three matches in the Swiss Teams.
Friday also saw our conquerors in the Gold Cup, McGinley, lose to de Botton in the quarter-final of the Gold Cup.
Saturday was the Swiss Pairs. Sam and I came 8th last year but could only manage 11th this time. Coincidently Tim and Jenny were on the same score as us at half time and at the end, but we always managed to avoid playing each other. Sam and I played reasonably well but could not get near the top of the field early enough ... perhaps we needed another couple of rounds!
Meanwhile de Botton and Collins were winning their semifinals and would meet in the 64-board final on Sunday.
After the bridge on Saturday we had a quick drink in the bar and then went to one of the parties happening around the place. Despite trying to leave around 2am, Fiona persuaded a number of us not to go and we continuing chatting until 4am ... including one of the de Botton team who would be playing later in the morning!
It was the continuation of Swiss Teams for us on Sunday. Three wins in the afternoon left us well positioning but a heavy defeat in the evening left us too much to do. We finished with two big wins and, if results went our way, could have won, but in the end we finished 3rd well behind the first two. But we'd have settled for that prior to the event.
The Gold Cup final had a tremendous finish. It was relatively close throughout and de Botton entered the final set about 15 IMPs up. But a few poor boards near the start meant it was down to 4 IMPs with 4 boards to play. In the end the match was settled by the play of a 2♣ contract and de Botton won by 1 IMP.
What about some hands? Well I find these weekends quite tiring and all the hands seem to collapse into a singularity, but these two seem to have escaped:
|
Your opening bid?
I passed and the auction continued ...
| West | North | East | South |
| p | 3♣ | X | 5♣ |
| ? |
The other interesting hand was just an opening bid problem:
|
Your call at green (nv v vul)?
Maybe not a coincidence that the hands that you can remember both occurred in the final set of the weekend!
ReplyDeleteI preferred 3NT with the E hand. Dee bid 6C followed by 6H after my 6D response. If E doubles, is Pass now forcing? A similar situation arose in this year's Euros which caused difficulty for one of the Scottish pairs who hadn't agreed whether Pass was forcing or not.
ReplyDeleteAlan
On the first hand we didnt have the interference so got to 6H easily. But at table one a scottish npc went off in 6S when he played the pre-empter to QJ doubleton spade with 4 cards missing! So Les Steel's team won instaed of us!
ReplyDeleteIn same set EW held AQx, x, ATxx, AJTxx opposite Kx, AKxxx, xx, Q98x. The slam is very good [and brought in a slam swing for us] but very few appeared to be bidding it.
TheGarve told me that, at one table, there was a S8 lead from Q8x (at least, I think the high pip was the eight). Playing the other hand for QJ doubleton seems pretty reasonable now :)
ReplyDeleteYes, thegarv's team mate Tony Wilkinson led the 8 from ♠Q82 against 6NT. Apparently spades had never been supported so he thought he was leading through the AK.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely no chance of getting this right.
4d was my bid playing with the garve seems pefectly normal but apparently not.one of the first things the garve ever said to me is "i pre empt whenever i can".Best bridge advice i ever had and the garve certainly practices what he preaches and he does a lot of that to! Kenny
ReplyDeleteI opened 4♦ too. This makes it just too difficult from them to bid their slam.
ReplyDeleteThose who open 3♦ or pass let them bid it easily.
If E doubles, is Pass now forcing?
ReplyDeleteI think Alan is asking about the auction:
Pass-(3♣)-Dbl-(5♣)
Is Pass now forcing?
I would say only at this vulnerability. I will have to check with Alex, but if so we play Pass/Double inversion with pass asking partner to double and an immediate double being 'action' (essentially takeout with tolerance for partner's suit)
Against me, the auction started 3D-P-5D!! on a singleton. Still bid the slam :P
ReplyDeleteOn hand 1, the key decision is whether to save over the EW slam with Q8x, x, A9xx, xxxxx. I did, trusting my opponent to make it- winning DA and returning spade 8 is too brilliant for me! I don't think Pass (Pre-Empt)-Dble (game) is a forcing pass situation at any vulnerability, and not even after the first pass. Why should this be our hand?
ReplyDeleteOn hand 2, 3D didn't get the job done, but I think the criticism is result merchanting. The decision boils down to pre-empting style. If I were playing with Martin, should I lead from Kx of his pre-empt suit? Should I ever save?
Iain
With eight diamonds I did think that 3♦ was wrong as I'd always feel unhappy if the opponents bid to a major game or partner bid 3NT.
ReplyDeleteOf course it would have been better to hold a top honour!
Playing with Martin, it doesn't matter what you do ... he'll always be there to save himself.