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EBulletin 5

Posted by Kim Frazer on Sunday, 11 June 2017 at 22:19

Victor Champion Cup – Results after Day 2

At the end of Day 2, the Markey team have pulled to the lead by 5VP’s with a solid win over the Henbest team in Match 8. The field is quite close however, with a further 5VP’s separating 2nd from 8th so it will be quite a contested affair in the closing stages on Monday.

Pianola Prize Draw Today James Ward (pictured with Tournament Organiser Kim Frazer) has offered a prize for players who register their email address with him for the results service. We will be making the prize draw this morning. We also acknowledge the wonderful support James and Pianola have provided to players throughout the event.

Teams Category Prizes Remember to put your entry in for the Teams Category Prizes. We have also added a category for best club team – all team members must be from the same club. We will accept entries up to the start of play on Monday. Nicest Player at the Tournament   On Sunday, Jim Wallis received a nice bottle of wine for being nominated by an opponent as the nicest player at the tournament – well done Jimmy!

 

HANDS OF THE DAY – So did you pre-empt?

By Jamie Ebery

Board 15 Match 8

Yesterday, Kim Frazer wrote about the perennial issue of whether to pre-empt with a 4 card Major on the side, she mentioned we don’t generally worry about it tending to get into the bidding as early as possible. On the deal depicted below, she opened this classic 6/4 shape 3♦, and after West’s pass I bid 6♦, all pass.

I can’t imagine an auction where we would get to 6♦ with our methods if my partner had opened with a pass. Across the field, the datum was 550, most of the field played in either 5♣ or 5♠x. Several pairs took a save in 6♠x over the making minor suit slams.

A couple of pairs went down in 6♦ on the lead of the 8♣ (and the 5♣!), but taking the finesse is unnecessary unless West has 4 diamonds, because of the need to ruff the spade loser, so rising A♣ is correct.

At another table, South and West passed so North opened it a precision 1♣, and NS reached 6♦, however EW were able to get into the auction with the spades and took a 6♠ save, and NS ended up bidding a questionable 7♦ which went off by one. This might have been avoided if South had opened 3♦.

Convention Nigel!

Nigel Rosendorff told me years ago that when players open these ‘donkey’ 2’s with 4+/4+ in the Majors that double should be penalty, as you have 2♥/2♠ as takeout bids.  This worked well for us today on the following deal:

Match 6 – Board 22

After the following bidding:

W          N            E            S

                           P            P

2♣!        x            P            P

2♠         x            all pass

! - 4/4 in the majors weak

On the lead of the K♦, partner overtook, and played a spade in case West had the A♥ to prevent a ruff. North overtook West’s Q with the A, and ♦Q, ruffed in West. West now tried a club to the K won by south with the A. The 8♥ returned was won by the J, and North continued J♦ and south discarded a club while west ruffed. West now continued a low heart won by south with the 10 who played a low spade won by West’s K dropping North’s 10. West now tried another heart and NS took the rest of the tricks for +1400.  

Sitting North, I thought the double of 2♠ was a slight risk, but partner Kim with 5 Spades was delighted to pass for a great result on the hand. Interestingly, 2♣x would have produced the same result.

I was sceptical when Nigel first suggested this method to me, but the last time it came up for us was in a practice session with the Victorian Seniors’ team and on that occasion, the opponents took 1 trick for +1700 for us (7 down not vulnerable!). It has worked every time for me.