Exit stage right - CNTC 1/4 final update

Well the quarter final matches have just ended, and alas we are not one of the advancing teams. Arguably, form prevailed in all four matches, with the winning teams being Carruthers, L’Ecuyer, Marcinski, and Rayner.

We lost a close one to Rayner by twelve imps. It turns out it came down to the last hand – I was in a borderline 3NT contract, vulnerable, in the following layout:

North

J43
A76
J9
Q10432

AK2
9843
K54
AJ8

I had opened 1 club, playing a weak NT system. Keith responded 3 clubs; showing a club raise (5-6 clubs) and a hand that would want to invite game opposite a strong NT. I only had 15 HCP, but the honours in my hand were seductive, and I did have three good clubs when I might only have two clubs for my opening bid, and we were on a roll, so I bid 3NT.

It turns out we were trailing by only six imps with this hand still to play at our table. The opponents had bid and made 2NT with these cards – so the way to win the match was to make 3NT – then we would win 10 imps and win the match by 4 imps. If I went down, we would lose the match by 12 imps.

The opening lead was the Queen of hearts, and I played low in dummy and RHO (Ken Scholes) won the king. He quickly shifted to the queen of diamonds. That looked very much like a holding headed by AQ10 to me.

I could afford to duck this, and I did, with Peter Herold playing the six. Next Ken cashed the Ace of diamonds, as Peter completed his echo, and another diamond – which I won in hand and pitched a heart from dummy. Now I have to make the contract, starting with five top tricks.

It looked like RHO had four diamonds (maybe 5, but I felt 4), and a singleton heart. That left LHO with five hearts and four diamonds and only four black suit cards.

I had one diamond, one heart, two spades and whatever I could muster in clubs. How could I take five club tricks? With length on my right, even with the king favorably placed, he could duck the club queen (or cover if he had four) and I would be limited to at most three club tricks.

A club to the jack would not help me – as (a) how could I get back to dummy if it won, and how would I score five clubs tricks? and (b) if it lost I was pretty sure LHO had another diamond in his hand.

Leading the queen of clubs would not help either – If he didn’t cover, which he should do with three clubs, I’d be limited to three club tricks.

Now what if clubs are 4-1? This won’t help – unless the club king is singleton offside – what’s that old expression? – “Le Roi de Trefles est toujours seulement” – The king of clubs is always singleton.

I reviewed this remote chance in my head a couple of times – was there not a better way? No, that’s what I decided to play for – I played the Ace of clubs, and only the nine fell from Peter’s hand. Then the Jack of clubs from hand, and Ken won the king on my right, and cashed his fourth diamond for down 1. King third of clubs had indeed been on my right, and the suit would have been blocked for me.

But wait – the hand could have been made ! Given I had reduced my chances to a “Hail Mary” play of the club Ace – why not cash the Ace and King of spades first? Suppose the queen falls doubleton – presumably on my left. Then I have an extra entry in the dummy with the Jack of spades – and can finesse through Ken’s hand and as long as he has no more than three clubs I would still make the contract.

The bridge gods were smirking at me there – because I failed to find this play and of course, this was the exact layout. lord help me !

West had

Q10
QJ1052
8632
97

East had

98765
K
AQ107
K65

To be sure, the odds are very much against the spade queen dropping ,but if it does not, I am "only" risking a few extra undertricks by trying this first. (They might then be able to cash 2-3 spades after winning the club king) Mind you, I would not have wanted to bring back -200, -300, or even -400 if it had not worked.

I had been keeping a running imp estimate on my scorecard throughout the last 1/4 - so that I would always have a rough idea of where we stood in the match.(To whatever extent that process is valid!)

I figured, before this last hand, that there was a chance we had picked up anywhere from 30 to 40 imps going into the final hand. A large minus score on this last hand, coupled with -120 or so at the other table, might also convert victory into defeat. What do you think?

So I could have won the match – and been playing in the semi finals tomorrow – but maybe I took my eye off the ball for a nano second, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Like all good bridge players, I feel mostly bad for my team mates – that I let them down in our hour of need. As for me and myself, I am numb. The fact that when Keith and I came back from lunch to find we were down 67 imps with 32 boards to play does not matter at all. We don’t think about what our team mates could have done to win the match – we always look at what we (or more precisely, first person singular) could have done.

We had scratched back 36 imps in the third quarter to be only down by 31 with 16 boards to play. Then, on the next 15 boards, we had gained back a further 25 imps and were only down by 6 imps when the final board hit the table. All those great hands that accumulated to a 61 imp comeback were for naught – good but not good enough – on the last damn hand !!!

I imagine the Janicki team feels the same way – they were down by 69 imps after the first half in their match against Carruthers. They then played tough the rest of the way, and by the end they only lost the match by 13 lousy imps.

Anyway, that’s how our day ended – now for a few hands from earlier in the match.

The first board of the match was sweet – we needed to give declarer a ruff sluff to beat a game that made with an overtrick at the other table.

North

J65
AQ73
AJ984
Q

South

72
K642
75
AKJ104

Doug Baxter declared four hearts, after I had jump overcalled 2 spades on Doug's right in the sandwich seat. Keith led the queen of spades; which held; then the ten of spades, which I won on Doug’s right and played the remaining high spade honour.

This was not a happy event, as Doug knew Keith was out of spades, and an uppercut was looming – unless Keith was the guy with three hearts – which was a good chance on the auction.

Doug made the technically correct play of pitching his losing diamond on the third spade as Keith pitched a club.

However, the coup de grace was the fourth spade from my hand, and Doug had no answer. He pitched from his hand, and Keith ruffed with the Jack – forcing dummy’s queen. As East, I had 1098 of hearts – so there was no denying the setting trick in my hand for a ten imp gain.

Added June 10 - two keen eyed readers, Jim Priebe and Michel Lorber, have both noted the above analysis is not accurate, and that Doug could and should have made 4H in spite of our defence. I quote Jim first :

" Hi Ross

We are enjoying your blog. Too bad about your 3NT. It gets a little hairy when your options are plus 600 or minus 400!

On the 4H played by Baxter you mention "Doug made the technically correct play of pitching a diamond".

Pitching is an outright error. Ruffing small works against all 3-2 breaks and the case where lefty has 4.

Ruff low, assume overruff, win diamond return, cash AQ of trump, club Q, draw trump ending in hand and claim.

If lefty has 4 trumps and refuses to over ruff, you abandon trumps momentarily after AQ, overtake club Q and run the clubs until lefty ruffs, then win the diamond, draw the last trump and claim. If trumps are 4-1 you need 4-3 clubs.

Jim Priebe "

And now a comment from Michel Lorber

"Too bad about end result...looks like you played well... Mr. Baxter should ruff the 3rd spade with H6...he will go down if hearts 32/23 only if you have a minor void, or if you have 4 hearts (except maybe J1098), or if anyone has 5 hearts. If you have J1098 or Keith doesn't overruff with 4 hearts, he needs clubs to work.

Regards,

ML"

We played pretty well for the rest of this quarter – until the sixteenth and final hand when Keith and I played in the wrong minor suit at the five level and went down 1 for –100 into our own +600. So that cost our team 12 imps needlessly, and there we were down by 24 imps after one quarter.

Team Rayner had a strong second quarter, gaining 43 imps, but rather lucky on one hand where they played in six diamonds with a trump suit of KQx opposite A10xx and also missing a side Ace. Doug guessed to play the hand under the A10xx of diamonds for J9xx and he was right – gaining ten imps instead of losing ten imps – well done !

So we sat down to play the third quarter down 67 imps and started to play really solid bridge – we did not swing per se; we just played near flawlessly.

We gained back 36 imps in this quarter – notwithstanding two adverse swings against us. Michael Roche and John Rayner did well to bid to 6 hearts against us which was missed at the other table (on a different auction of course)

Michael held AJx KQ10x AK10542 void

He opened 1 diamond, Keith overcalled two clubs. Michael’s side was vulnerable. John passed, and I raised to three clubs. Michael made a takeout double. Keith passed, and John leapt to four hearts. This convinced Michael that slam must be a good bet, and he in turn leapt to six hearts.

I led a spade, which was best for us, but really the defense had no chance here – in fact; if you are in seven hearts you will make it as the cards lie reasonably well.

North

AJ3
KQ104
AK10542
Void

South

10962
AJ976
8
763

Diamonds split 3-3 and hearts were 2-2 so thirteen tricks were cold. We lost 13 imps on that board. Note that if I had raised Keith's 2 club overcall to 4 clubs preemptive, holding 854 85 QJ3 A9854, there would have been no room for John to jump to game and Michael could not have bid on with as much certainty.

In my defense, it wasn't clear we were in danger of the opponents being cold for a slam (actually they were cold for seven !) at that point - but it is always a good thing to apply maximimum pressure to your opponents when you have a large fit.

We began the fourth quarter down by 31 imps and began to grind out some imps on our side of the ledger. Soon Keith found himself in 2 spades doubled; with 11HCP opposite two jacks !! And a 4-3 fit with AKJ9 of spades facing 642 – and he was vulnerable and they were not.

His RHO had opened a strong NT, and LHO had bid 2D - a transfer to hearts. Keith had AKJ9 void K1043 107632 - he bid double - which is a bid I endorse 100%.

However, LHO said redouble, and the chase was on. I had nothing to say (as you will clearly see) and Keith bid 2 spades when the XX came back to him. His LHO passed, and I passed, but Peter Herold was out for blood, and he doubled, holding Q1053 of spades and a full 17 count. Ugh!

North

642
J976
J985
85

South

AKJ9
Void
K1043
107632

Ken Scholes led the 8 of spades to the queen and Keith's Ace. How do you like them apples? Would you be happy to get out for down 1 and only -200 ?? We were quietly ecstatic.

Miraculously that's what he did - he only went down 1 for –200 – but it was still a loss of 7 imps as no game could make the opponents way – with 27 HCP between them and a nine card heart fit! How he pulled that off had the kibitzers shaking their heads in wonder.

Shortly after that we bid 3NT with 13 opposite 10 HCP and a 5-3 spade fit, and there was no way to beat it. 4 spades has no play and that won us 6 imps.

We vigorously interfered with their auction enroute to a slam in spades, and they played in five spades making 7 for an eleven imp pickup.

We played a not so hot vulnerable 3NT with 14 opposite 10 HCP and that came home on a favorable lie of the cards.

They stepped into our part score auction (we can make 2 spades) and we doubled and took +300 defending three clubs doubled – in fact at a crucial point in the hand I led the King of diamonds from K10xx looking at the J754 in dummy on my left. I needed to create an entry to Keith’s hand to effect an uppercut. He did have the queen of diamonds, but Ken Scholes skillfully ducked from ace nine doubleton; severing the link between our hands, and he avoided – 500.

And then came that last hand – the miracle 3NT that yours truly did not make – and now we are on the sidelines of the biggest, most prestigious event on the Canadian Bridge Calendar. It smarts – for all of us – we were ready to play our hearts out tomorrow and fight for a spot in the final on Friday.

I asked a question of myself at the beginning of the blog this week – if you look at one of the first entries, I asked – “You can never go back?”

I think to my surprise, I was wrong to think that. Over the past year, I have played and practiced quite a bit – mostly practice – I would have liked more tournament play against tough opposition. There was more than one occasion when I thought I had lost the skill-set forever – too many years had passed.

Keith was always tremendously patient – he predicted right from the beginning it would take a year for me to feel truly comfortable at the table again – and that is exactly what happened. The past few days, pretty much everything finally fell into place and the feeling at the table was much the same as it had been all those years ago.

I can’t wait to strap it on again with Keith for next year’s CNTC and other major championships in the years ahead !

If anyone would like to contact me directly I can be reached at rosstaylor999@hotmail.com

As always, a table of the match results is available at the CBF website:

http://www.cbf.ca/BWeek/09files/BWeek09_CNTAqf.html

I plan to take a day off from bridge tomorrow, Thursday, and resume play in the COPC on the weekend. Hope you have enjoyed these updates from the Penticton CNTC site.