Match 10 - USA2

We restarted the tough regime of matches after a day break. Our remaining fixtures read USA2, USA1, Australia, Italy, Poland , Chile, France and Canada in that order. It was as tough as it can get and we can only try to do our best. First up was USA2, a team that has had participated in last's year WYC in Sydney, thus were quite experienced players.

For our rest day, we slept and lazed around till about eleven in the morning before moving off, trying to get to the shopping areas around our hotel. The very heavy traffic meant that we would do better to travel by foot, so armed with a tourists' map, we started to make our way out. If you think the roads were crowded by vehicles, wait till you see their shopping streets. It took us fifteen minutes of jostling and bashing before we could reach the main road. After another 15 minutes of brisk walking, we finally reached our destination, the World Trade Centre.

Well, it turned out that we were more interested in the shopping complex opp WTC , mainly because the nearest KFC was there :-) It shall remain a secret but it suffices to say it is part of our recipe to success :p Anyway, it turned out to be a good choice as it was an entertainment centre with a very large supermarket. Also worth mentioning is the cheap ice-cream parlour available. We returned to the hotel in the evening by taxi as noone comtemplated walking back with all the groceries(read snacks and drinks) we stocked up at the supermarket.

At night, we went to perhaps the most visited place in our 2 trips to Bangkok, Chinatown. The range of Chinese restaurants seems to have a magical attraction for our NPC, so whenever we went there, it would inevitably be a feast of fish maw, shark fin soup and other delicacies. It wasn't different this time round and we helped ourselves to more of such stuff. All these while discussing about the hands and deals we had played the past few days... you didnt think we could really forget about bridge? :)It was a relaxing 'off' day but back in everyone minds are the gruelling matches coming up next.

And so, as we sat down at the table for the match against USA2, it was the Poon/Loo and Kelvin/Liyu lineup. It seems we didnt come back from our 'holiday mood' as it was a disastrous set for my pair except for some blunders by our opps.

We started well enough:

♠ A J 8
♥ 7
♦ A K Q J T 5
♣ 9 6 4


♠ Q T 9 7 3
♥ K Q J 3
♦ 8 7
♣ Q 2

How would you play 4S when West cashed the AK of C and Ace of H before exiting with a D?

Our opponents chose the wrong minor when he played a third club, over-ruffed by the K of trumps. When our teammates made a somewhat lucky 3NT (clubs were blocked), it was a good 10 imps start for us.

We gave some of it back on the next board when we dbled our opps 1NT, making an overtick, 5 imps away. Then our teammates uncharacteristically missed a thin 3NT , reached at our table for another 10 imps away. It stayed that way until the first wild board came up:

---------------♠ A K 2
---------------♥ T 6 3
---------------♦ K 9
---------------♣ K 7 5 3 2

♠ 8 ------------------------♠ Q 9 7 3
♥ A K Q J 5 4 2 ------------♥ -
♦ Q 8 6 5 3 ---------------♦ A J T 7 4 2
♣ - ------------------------♣ 8 6 4

---------------♠ J T 6 5 4
---------------♥ 9 8 7
---------------♦ -
---------------♣ A Q J T 9

With West dealer, what do you open?

our teammates had a useful gadget for it and managed to reached 6D, dbled by North, so Liyu had not much problem getting trumps right for a tremendous +1090.

At our table, our opps opened 4H and we (N/S) zealously got into the bidding, thankfully we managed to escape for -300 in 5Sx for 13 imps.

Our opps seems to be bidding everything on sight:

♠ Q 7 6 3
♥ A T
♦ A Q 7 5 4
♣ Q 7


♠ T 9 8 5 2
♥ J 8 4
♦ 3
♣ A T 9 8

What would you reach with these cards?

Our opponents bid to 4S (1D - 1S, 3S - 4S)and with trumps 2-2 and KQ of H with West, clubs untouchable by the defence, it was undefeatable for another swing away.

It wasnt long before I faced my next tough decision:

you hold:

♠ T 9 7 4 3
♥ Q T 9
♦ T 7 3
♣ J 4

Does it occur to you all my difficult decisions are with some very poor hands?

RHO opens 1C, LHO jumps to 2D (Strong jumpshift), partner is there with 4H and RHO cuebidded 5H and raised to 7C when his partner signed off in 6! What is your lead?

I took my time to think through my choice. With a good long D suit in dummy, it seems you need to score a trick soon enough. It is either a D ruff or a major ace. Well, since partner didn't Lightner dbl, he shouldnt be ruffing anything. So which ace can partner have? Well, if partner have the H ace, it seems RHO must have a void to justify his bidding so cashing the S ace seems to be the only chance? It seems obvious but leading against a grand slam is nerve-wreaking since you cannot afford to get it wrong. After rechecking my thoughts again, I finally convinced myself a S must be right....

When dummy came down, partner took a sip of water (it seemed like eternity) before calmly producing the ace of S. Phew!

♠ J 2 ------------♠ K Q 8
♥ A 8 ------------♥ -
♦ A K Q 8 5 4 ----♦ J 9 2
♣ A 5 3 ----------♣ K Q T 9 8 7 6

Dubious bidding but still nervewrecking for you! Our teammates were in 6D for 14 imps

Unfortunately, my leads were not always that well-thought out:

Towards the end of the session,
you hold:

♠ K T 3
♥ T 6 5 3 2
♦ T 7 3
♣ 3 2

LHO opens 2D Flannery, RHO signs off in 3NT. Your lead?

It didnt take me long to lead a D, my 'better' minor. It soon proved to be a disastrous lead:

♠ A 8 6 5 -------♠ J
♥ A Q J 9 4 -----♥ K 7
♦ J -------------♦ K Q 9 6 5 2
♣ J 8 6 ---------♣ K Q 9 7

Only a S lead defeats 3NT outright, a club lead will probably defeat unless declarer takes a view in H.

Should I have got it right? The truth is it is perhaps qt random, the minors can easily be switched. (Partner's non-action over 2D doesn't tell anything as his dbl would be artifical) But it still doesn't feel good that I missed a killing lead and the fact is I didn't really consider my lead long enough.

Our teammates got to 3NT on the other side, so with the obvious S lead, it was 2 off. 13 imps away.

That pretty summed up the ding- dong match. We had 3 big swings to our favour but lost 3 big swings too and all the partscore swings went their way so we ended with a
42-57 imp (12-18 VPs) loss. Not really that bad but it doesn't auger well for the rest of the tournanment.

Especially when we are going to play USA1 after lunch. That match is scheduled to be on vugraph. It is going to be a big match so we press on with our strongest line-up...