PETER GILL'S BLOG #1 - THE CONGRESS
QUIZ
Try this defence problem from Sunday's Congress. You are West. With both sides vulnerable the bidding goes
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | 3 | Pass |
| 4 | Pass | Pass | Pass |
Partner leads the D7. Dummy goes down with
 AJ96 |
| 65 |
 KT2 |
 AK65 |
You have
| K52 |
| A |
| AQJ54 |
| J832 |
Declarer plays D10 from dummy, you win the jack - how do you plan the defence?
The answer will be provided later in this bridge blog.
The annual Hunters Hill Congress was held last Sunday. Thanks to the efforts of a large group of helpers from the club, 48 teams of four turned up, with plenty of excellent home-made nibblies, to enjoy the harbour views from the old Henley Bowling Club which the Hunters Hill Council has this year converted to Henley Community Centre. The thirty degree weather more than challenged the air-conditioning system, but all such problems can easily be resolved for next year's Congress. Our thanks go to the local businesses and restaurants that provided prizes, including Madeline's Restaurant at the Hunters Hill Bowling Club where our Monday duplicate game is held.
The plan is for this blog to be updated once a month, or more often if I have time . If you have any suggested topics
for the blog, please email me at petergill909@gmail.com.
The winners at the Congress are shown on the home page of our website. The website showing all the results,
including what everyone did on a given board, is found from there by clicking Read More.
Locals who did well at the Congress include Trish Whitton - Ron Fitzgerald, Ken Storr - Claire Schafer,
who were the only team to defeat the winners, were near the lead all the way playing against all the stars until their big loss in the last round dropped them behind Deb Bennett's team for the Best Hunters Hill Team Prize.
Their reward for defeating the winning team in Round 2 was to draw Lazer - Gumby, Peake - Wu, three of whom came 5th in the world as the Australian Open Team in 2007 - Trish's team lost only narrowly to this powerhouse team.
Anne and Bob Ternes did very well to be 36nd out of 96 pairs in the Pair Rankings, given that Bob learnt bridge at Kay O'Connor's beginners bridge lessons earlier this year.
Margaret Brand - Norma Gleeson and Cleo Smith - Joan Ludeke defeated last year's winners in Round 2 - a strong team from North Shore Bridge Club, then in Round 3 defeated a strong team which has won congresses and included players who have won National Championships. Alas, a good start like that before lunch means you continue to play strong teams all day. Locals Helen Hobbs - Sandra Rowell with Greg and Olena Holubinskyj ran into Tony Nunn's team in Round 2 - many of those "in the know" rate Tony as the best player in Australia, then they played members of the NSW Women's Team in both Rounds 5 and 7. Yes, the bridge was not easy. My team was in the middle of the field for most of the day.
ANSWER TO THE QUIZ
Back to the bridge hand - Match 2 Board 13 - the results of which at all 48 tables are at
www.nswba.com.au/tourn/res.asp?yr=2009&dir=congress/hht&E=0&R=2&B=13&T=O
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After the diamond lead to the ten and jack, Margaret Driscoll continued with DA and a third diamond when her partner played the three. North discarded a spade, winning the diamond in dummy. A heart to the ace was now followed by the killing play - a fourth diamond, which promoted East's jack of trumps into the setting trick.
Normally you don't give declarer what is called a "ruff and discard" by playing a suit in which both declarer and dummy are void, but in this case Margaret could count out the hand - declarer has at least 7 hearts for the vulnerable 3H bid, and thus has no outside losers to dispose of on the 4th diamond, so it's the best play.The datums or average score on the board was 390 to North-South.
19 NS pairs bid and made 4H.
11 NS pairs went down one, mostly in 3NT with a few in 4H.
6 EW pairs went down doubled, losing between 800 and 1700.
3 EW pairs went down undoubled, losing between 200 and 300.
2 NS pairs bid and made 3NT.
5 NS pairs bid and made 3H.
2 NS pairs went down by 200, perhaps in 4HX.
Commentary
1. Nowadays, North has a routine 3H opening bid. In the old days, people preempted less, but
if you think about it - whenever your opponents preempt, how do you feel? Happy to be preempted?
No? Well if you're like me, you hate being preempted, so preempts, within reason, must be good
bidding weapons if they remove the opponents from their comfort zone.
Thus there has been a tendency towards more and more preempts by good players in recent
years, especially when not vulnerable.
2. If partner opens 3H, showing 7 hearts and about 6-10 points, how does South evaluate his hand?
The best way to think opposite the 3H opener is that the 13 tricks will be 7 heart tricks, 3 aces, perhaps
two kings and one other trick. When North opens 3H, South should therefore evaluate his hand by looking
at his outside aces and kings, and his trumps, and not base his bidding on high card points.
South should play the opener for 6 or 7 tricks. On this hand, South has 3 sure tricks plus potential for more
in diamonds and spades, and thus is clearly worth a raise to 4H.
Some expert partnerships use vulnerability as a guide to their preempts, with a non vulnerable preempt showing about 6 playing tricks and a vulnerable preempt about 7 playing tricks (called the Rule of 500 of you are doubled).
I think some modern bridge teachers such as Ishmael Delmonte say that preempting is so attractive that this
should be more like the Rule of 800 nowadays.
The amount of fit also affects the decision to raise. With KQJx, void, KQJx, KJxxx, North should pass
3H despite the 16 HCP due to the lack of heart fit and lack of aces being serious negative features
However, xxx, Axx, Axxx, KJx with the nice heart fit is worth a raise to 4H.
3. Margaret Driscoll did well not to double 4H for take-out. The first bid by your side is normally take-out,
but the bare ace is not a great feature - it's much better to have your aces in your long suits. Another negative
feature for a Take-out Double is having only three ordinary spades, not good if partner removes the Double to 4S.
4. The play is interesting on a spade lead. Declarer might rise with the ace and play a heart. If so, East has to be very alert - why did declarer not finesse SK at Trick 1? - Eureka! - because partner has SQ - and underlead in spades
to partner's queen for a diamond switch. I doubt if anyone found this defence. Declarer by patiently ducking the ace of spades at Trick 1 is more likely to bring home 10 or even 11 tricks.
5. Some of the 3NT gamblers were lucky. Against 3NT, East should lead DQ, not a low diamond, when holding three honours in the suit.
6. In 4H, by leading low from toward the heart honours, North avoids two trump losers unless you are playing against Margaret Driscoll. Beginning trumps by leading HK from the North hand would be an error.
Future blog topics
- where to play bridge online
- websites of interest
- anything you suggest
Peter Gill