Match 5 - Hungary

For the 5th match of the round-robin, my pair was scheduled to take a rest. However, owing to the developments of the last match, our NPC decided to field us together with Alex/Fabian for the match. In retrospect, this could be the only bad tactical move for our team in the tournament.

One of the things a bridge player learns is to leave the table at an opportune moment and take a break when things are not going his way. The idea is that when you are in a rough patch, you should go for a walk, get a drink, whatever, just leave the table for a while. It is to give yourself a chance to regain composure and enable you to concentrate on the next board the way you should: a fresh new board.

Those who had been my teammates will know I strongly believe and preach about this to everyone. However, there is a natural tendency for players to stay and remain at the table. It is somewhat bad for their ego to admit they are not playing well, that theyy are good enough to ride through the storm and get back at their opps at every slight little chance. Usually what happens is that their scores will just get worse. It is surprising what a little walk to get a drink can do. For me, my concentration level and consequently my results will inevitably improve.

Well, in our match against Hungary, our results certainly had a lot of room for improvement. The set of boards is one of those where the majority are 'flattish' with only a few chances for swings. In such sessions, if you want to get a big win, you certainly hope to take every chance you get.

The match started well for our team when we had a slam swing on the first board:

♠ A Q 9 7 5 4 3
♥ 8
♦ 9
♣ A K J 5


♠ T 2
♥ A K T 5
♦ A Q T 8
♣ 4 3 2

With South dealer, our opps at our table stopped in game while our pair at the other table pushed to slam. On a D lead through the AQ, the right play would be to take the club finesse immediately. Once that holds, you can afford to take the safety play in trumps. Otherwise, you would be forced to try to play trumps for no loser. With all the key honours onside, it wasnt tough to gather 12 tricks. 11 imps to us.

after a few flat boards, Hungary managed to get all of those imps and more back in 2 boards. First a partscore swing, then:

♠ T 7 3
♥ A K Q 2
♦ 5
♣ A J T 7 3


♠ Q J 5
♥ J 7 6 4
♦ T 6
♣ K 9 6 5

Our opps reached the cold game via a mini-splinter and through less than ideal defence, they made the contract easily. When our teammates not unreasonably stopped in 3H, 12 imps out.

After 10 more boards of seemingly no action (the actual score for that 10 bds is 10-2 imps in our favour), we finally had a chance to score another swing:

♠ 8 7 6
♥ Q 6
♦ A K 9
♣ Q T 9 8 4



♠ K Q 5
♥ A T 9 7 5 4
♦ Q 2
♣ J 6


After East opened 1S, you end up in 3NT, after the T of S lead (ducked to your Q), you note that you did well to avoid the doomed heart game. Now, how do you get your 9 tricks here?

Since it is too slow to go after the clubs, the key was to get 5 heart tricks. How do you handle the H suit?

After a brief thought, with the K of H more likely on the right, I decided to run the 9 of H from hand and later enter dummy to lead the Q to finesse against East's K.

Bad move, East's hand:
♠ A J 4 3 2
♥ J
♦ 6 4 3
♣ A K 7 3

When West hesitated on the 9 of H, I read the position correctly and rose with the Q of H but it was too late then, i switched to clubs and got out for 1 down, -100. This coupled with the fact that the Hungarian pair stop in 2H with our cards meant we lost 'only' 6 imps.

It didnt take me too long to realise that the correct play would have been to enter dummy with a top D at trick 2 and lead the Q of H immediately. This would have the advantage catering for the actual layout. Shucks, you can imagine how bad I felt then.

Well, as we were ahead of time (I did mention the boards were easy?), I immediately asked to be excused and went for a break. As fate would have it, I was back in the hot seat the next board:

♠ Q 7 4 3
♥ A 5 2
♦ A J 7 5
♣ Q 4


♠ A T
♥ Q 8
♦ K Q T 4
♣ K 9 7 6 3


After a short uninterrupted auction, we end up in 3NT on the 4 of H lead, ducked to East's K. the J of H return was captured by my Q as West followed with the 3. Plan the play.

Unless a miracle happens in clubs, if West have the 2 black honours, we are screwed. Hence, it is vital to knock out West's entry first. After a full 5 mins thought (part of it is spent trying to forget the 'disaster' the board before), I proceeded with what I thought was the best line. I overtook the D T with the J and led a small club from dummy. This will let you make the contract almost whenever East have the Ace Club (you switch to S after K hold) and if West has the ace and clears H, you probably have to work out an endplay on East.

As it was, the trick went: T, K and West takes the Ace. Now West goes into a trance(confirming your thoughts that he does not have S K) and switched to a S , you play low and East produced the J, you take and lead the T which East takes and plays another S, forcing out your Q. With the contract assured, do you see anything else to do?

Well, there is a chance for something interesting, I cashed the D King (unblocking the 7) and seeing both opps follow, I overtake the Q of D with the Ace and cash my H and club winner. When I led the 5 of D at trick 12, the situation was:

♠ 7
♥ -
♦ 5
♣ -

------------♠ 8
------------♥ -
------------♦ -
------------♣ J


♠ -
♥ -
♦ ?
♣ 9

Which winner do East keep? Do you remember which spot you have in your hand? Well, the Hungarian East 'remembered' wrongly and kept the wrong one. One of the good thing about a high level tournament is that everyone understands what is was going on and your opps is able to laugh it off and congratulate you on a hard-earned 1 imp.

Well, we won the battle but lost the war. The final result was 22-31 imps (13-17 VP) loss for Singapore and I was left to rue my misplay. As mentioned, this was a very low scoring set in most of the matches. For once, no team was able to score a 25 in this set.

2 losses in a row. Although they are small, it was not a good sign. Coupled with the fact we are about to play the leaders then, Israel, it doesn't look promising...