400 by Foxymoron

The trick-taking game 400 is popular in Lebanon and parts of the Middle East including Syria and Jordan. I played it when I was in Beirut once. It is not as good a game as bridge, but well worth looking up on the internet. If you plan a holiday in Damascus or Aleppo then knowledge of the game will stand you in good stead.

We had the misfortune in Tuesday's duplicate to concede 400 on consecutive boards against Richard Creamer and Graham Horscroft, helping them to a fine win in the pairs. Neither result "troubled the scorers", an expression from cricket which first appeared in The Cambridge Review in 1890. We could have done better on both boards, but whatever we did was going to be a poor score.

We had a normal enough auction Pass-Pass-1H-Pass-1NT-All Pass. A diamond lead would help declarer, but Richard Creamer did well to lead the eight of hearts. I could rise in dummy and play a second heart, but North's diamond switch would beat me. Instead, I ran it round to the ten and led a club up. The passive heart lead had suggested to me that South would have longer clubs, so this seemed a good bet, but the queen lost to the singleton king and I went four off, rather ignominiously, for -400, as the diamond switch from North took out dummy's entry.

The next board was no better as the opponents scored +400 the normal way:

South opened a 12-14 no-trump, a much better bid than 1H as it gets the balanced nature of his hand across. My partner overcalled 2D, a convention called Multi Landy and now quite popular. He shows a six-card major and less than a penalty double. Graham Horscroft had his punting pole with him (at least that is what he claimed it was) and bid 3NT. It was very hard for West to find the Four Spade sacrifice over this, and that became the final contract. Sadly there was no defence, as declarer was forced to play for two heart honours onside for his ninth trick. 

Fortunately my partner got some of the points back by making 430 on the next board. Unnecessary effort, as it transpired, as 400, as ever, would have been a top.

Clearly Sam Northeast, the Glamorgan batsman and no relation to Marcus North or Ray East, must have read the above blog as he made an astonishing 400 in the cricket match against Leicestershire this week. Other records were set, including the highest first class score, 584, made by a side losing by an innings!

Go for Broke by Foxymoron

 The expression Go for Broke is quite interesting, and comes from Hawaiian Pidgin slang, used in craps, when you stake all your money on one roll of the dice. It first appeared in the 1951 film of the same name and was adopted as a motto by the US 442nd Infantry Regiment.

If you lead from a broken sequence against 3NT, you are gambling on partner having an honour or two in the suit. Particularly dangerous is QTxx as that can cost the entire suit on a bad day. It proved disastrous at our table when my partner went for broke on a couple of hands:

Here my partner led the ten of diamonds, disastrously giving declarer his eleventh trick as he went up with dummy's jack. The auction had been, with NS silent,  P-1C-1H-2NT-3C*-3NT-P.  3C was asking, and West would have normally shown three hearts or four spades over this. I would lead a heart on the North hand, as partner is quite likely to have four, while the second choice a spade. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Undeterred by the failure of that lead, my partner tried the same gambit on a later hand:

This time the auction was a bit less informative but the clues were all there. After three passes, South opened 2NT, 20-21 and North bid 3C, 5-card Stayman. South's response of 3NT, denying a four-card major, ended the auction. I think I would lead a heart on the West hand, and that is not hindsight, and declarer can be held to six tricks as South is squeezed on the fourth heart. The selected club lead, from an even more broken holding, allowed declarer to get out for one off, and was not a good score for East-West.

A wing and a prayer

 I think Pianola was right in selecting board 6 as the most interesting from the 5th July 2022 duplicate

After East passes there were a number of different opinions on what number of clubs to open the South hand with.  For me it is 1 or 5 although 3 and 4 were also chosen by others.  I decided on 5C as it should show a fairly solid pre-empt in 2nd position and may put pressure on West.  West doubled this which looks totally reasonable and then North has to decide whether to redouble or not.

It's close but I think XX is superior to pass.  It can of course go wrong (5C may be going down or you may scare them into a 5D save that is cheaper than 5CX making).  However on the upside 5CXX making is +800 which may be needed to match some EW pairs going three off doubled.  Also if it turns out 12 tricks are there then you will outscore anyone who bids 6C (1000 vs 920).  And finally you may convince the oppo to run which may well go for 800/1100 anyway.

Naturally East is going to pass whatever North does and hope West can come up with three tricks.  My partner decided to pass so we scored +650 for 55% as the traveller was all over the place

Well done to Keith Bush and Paul Sanders for winning the hybrid duplicate and with it the Wing Cup.  This cup was donated to the club by David Wing and all money raised from the evening will go to The Alzheimer's Society.

Success on a Plate

Woodberry Bridge Club B team were knocked out in the first round of the NICKO tournament, but are having a good run in the plate competition. The plate is a "consolation" knock out tournament for teams eliminated from the main competition in the first round. Last night we reached the quarter finals after beating Cambridge Bridge Club D team by 8 IMPs.

I have often criticised Sam for his aggressive bidding style. I would certainly not have raised 1NT to 3 on this board. I would have just made an invitational raise to 2NT, which would have probably been refused. However, on this occasion, his enterprise paid off. Matthew played the contract well to achieve a vulnerable game swing.

It is difficult for East to find the killing defence of ace of clubs lead followed by the queen. The alternative defence of leading a low heart also looked unattractive after North had bid the suit.

East led the diamond 9, taken by the ace. Matthew immediately set about establishing spades. East won with the king, and missed his last chance to defeat the contract by leading another diamond. When West won the lead with the spade ace, it was too late for a club switch. He played a heart. After cashing diamond winners, this position was achieved.

Matthew cashed the spade 9, and East had a difficult discard. He chose the club queen. Matthew then threw him in by playing a club to the jack and ace. East played the heart queen which was ducked, and  was forced to lead into dummy's K9.

At the other table, our opponents played in 1NT. The play proceeded on similar lines, but this time Ivan discarded the heart 2 on the final spade winner. Declarer cashed the heart king, then led the club jack. Ivan took the club ace and heart queen, but had to lead the club queen to the king for declarer to win the last trick in dummy.

We would not have won the match without this 10 IMP swing!

Woodberry Bridge Club 40th anniversary

Woodberry bridge club first opened in 1981.  However due to Covid we had to wait until 2022 to celebrate the 40th anniversary.  This was an event held at the Claremont Centre where the club currently holds its face to face Tuesday duplicates.  The festivities consisted of an extended duplicate with a break for cake at half time, a fish and chip supper and then a quiz hosted by Steve Bush.  Many thanks to Anne Catchpole for organising and the various club members who contributed to ensuring the day was a roaring success

In the bridge 24 pairs were playing for the Probst cup.  A cup donated by legendary bridge player and director John Probst originally used for the seeded club teams championship.  With that teams event discontinued it has now been rebranded as the trophy to be awarded for the clubs annual championship pairs.  It was lovely to see John himself make it to the club as a founder member despite recent health issues.  I celebrated this fact by handing him and Andrew Clery a top on the second board.  However near the end Andy and John met long standing members Ken Barnett and Chantal Girardin and two of the boards were exciting slams.

Board 28

The auction was 1H-2S-4H-4S-5C-P-6H-All Pass

Ken made a try with 5C and Chantal rightly judged to bid six.  The spade void looked useful but in fact it was the clubs that were the key here.  Six hearts was cold of course but you have a choice of plays in clubs as you can pick up stiff K in South or the singleton club 10 (or potentially smaller club) in North by starting with the right club from dummy (small and jack respectively).  I think North may well have led a stiff club if he had one so I think a low club is the right play and 1010 was recorded.  The only other pair to bid the slam was Chris Watkinson and Elsa Nelson.  Also of note was Richard Creamer and John Pemberton’s result of 5S*-2 as N/S for -500 which looked poor but because most of the field got the clubs right this was a rare successful adverse vulnerability save against 510!

Board 30

The auction was 1S-2D-3D-4D-4S-5D-5H-P-5S-P-6S-All Pass

Once East opens (which I think is fairly mainstream these days) and N/S bid up in diamonds it should simply be a question of six or seven for West but apart from Ken and Chantal only myself and Paul Huggins bid this slam.  Against us Peter Rogers judged well to save in 7D for -800 (his partner Vijay Tymms had overcalled a weak 3D originally) but luckily for us that only got them 2 extra matchpoints.

After this round Ken and Chantal went on a rampage but it wasn’t quite enough.  They finished 3rd with 60.81%.  Nigel Freake and Rachel Bingham were 2nd with 61.44% but with a combination of luck and good play myself and Paul managed to win with 63.47%

Aces are King

Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace - Eugene Field, US poet and children's writer.

We are always told in bridge that aces are for capturing kings, but a hand from last week's matchpoint pairs at the Woodberry was a beautiful exception.

West was just about worth a vulnerable overcall of 1S, and North decided to bid 3NT, with his solid spade stop, on the second round. East dutifully led the ten of spades, and South won and took a diamond finesse, losing the ten to the jack. Another spade came back and a second diamond finesse lost to the king. East switched to a heart, and Iain Macleay played the king from dummy, in the manner of Mr Clarke, no doubt. Alistair Hogg won and now had to find the beautiful defence of cashing the ace of clubs and then playing a second heart. Declarer is caught in Morton's Fork. If he wins with the ten, he has to lose a spade at the end. If he wins in dummy, he has to lose a club. Cashing the ace of clubs, a Dentist Coup, is necessary or West can be thrown in with a club after the diamonds are cashed. Very difficult to find.

A certain symmetry

While I didn't play last Tuesday an acquaintance pointed out this neat hand from the Woodberry duplicate.

Both sides have a double fit in a major and a minor and a major is usually the place to be at pairs but on best defense you do better in the minor on this hand.  Par result is -130 for N/S which I see occurred at one table

If N/S are defending hearts I cannot see anyone finding the DD defense to hold it to 8 tricks (diamond lead, ruff the return, underlead all the club honours to the jack for another ruff with a spade to come).  However declarer will likely lose two diamonds and a ruff anyway in the natural order of play.

If E/W are defending spades it should be possible to match the DD result although I see no one did.  After a top heart lead East plays the queen showing the jack.  Now West can switch to his club.  East hops with the ace on the first round of trumps, gives a club ruff and West underleads his hearts to get a second ruff.  Is there any alternative defense with those clubs threatening on the table?

The bidding is interesting too.  Most North's didn't open which I can understand but now is it practically impossible to get the spades into the auction and being outranked in clubs you will usually defend a heart contract.  

If North does open then the spade fit is found after 1C-P-1S-2H-2S.  East will bid 3H now and the question is can North/South justify bidding again at this vulnerability?  If you play support doubles and a weak NT (not recommended!) then perhaps South can risk it knowing of a likely double fit.  Otherwise maybe North can place their partner with only two hearts and not more than 4 diamonds (although playing Walsh style some South's may have longer diamonds than spades) and again bid a third spade based on the double fit.  

Might East make a matchpoint double of this thinking 3H is making?  As you can see from the traveller this gives you good odds.  If it makes you were getting a very poor board anyway and a double and successful defense takes you from an average to an outright top  

One final thought.  A precision club auction might start 2C-P-3C and now E/W might well get too high.  And a canape auction could start 1S-P-2S and have the same effect.