Dubious Logic

Suffolk Championship Pairs (2)

There was a fascinating article in the American magazine, The Bridge World, a month or so back where the writer followed a board around the room at a pairs event. Normally this is frowned upon (as it might suggest something 'special' with the hands) but the organisers condoned the experiment and the deal was chosen at random. I asked the winning pair of the Suffolk Championship, Mike Sherer and Eric Newman, for an example of their play and I'll compare their experiences with our less successful actions:

South's light one spade opening worked well – Eric and Mike play a strong club system so can make light openings with a little more impunity compared to standard bidders. Their opponents got into the auction and got out, North showed hearts with his double which discouraged them from acting further. Moreover, West led the diamond ace and Mike came to eight tricks (two diamonds, one club, five spades) for +110 and almost all the matchpoints.

I have to say that I would have put money on this auction being repeated around the room but from the number of low scoring partials to East-West, that cannot have been the case. The pre-empt worked badly; West had to double to keep hearts in the picture and I had an easy pass. Declarer sneaked a diamond through and we collected +300 which, surprisingly, was almost as good EW as Eric and Mike's result for NS.

You're West, decide on a lead after the auction:

They play an active game so when spades weren't supported, Mike reasoned to look elsewhere. He settled on the club king and found partner with knave to six. Declarer had a choice: play the opener for both heart honours or the ace of spades - the latter seemed more likely but as you can see, failed here. +200 for EW was a shared top.

The game was quite good but bid surprisingly infrequently (it would make on a spade lead). We succeeded in getting clubs into the auction which deterred our opponents:

Conceding a partial was reasonable but unexceptional for us. I found myself explaining duplicate bridge this morning: at one stage I was asked, "so you play with the same cards – doesn't the same thing happen?" Hardly ever as we know – but it still surprises.

Published Saturday 5.May.2007