Thursday, October 05, 2006

Match 7 - Thailand

My pair sat out for the first time for this match. Judging from the fixtures of matches, it did look like the best opportunity for us to take a rest. However, we soon found out that being a spectator is tough, especially when your team is not exactly cruising to victory.

I must congratulate the committee for WYC. It was a very well-organised event, especially in terms of technical matters. 'Bridgemates' have been implemented at several major events in recent years, however WYC was the first time I have used them. In short, Bridgemates are small portable 'terminals' that are linked to a centralised system. Thus, after every board, the players would key in the result and the system will have updated scores for every match. After match, there was no hassle to check and sign the scores, we just had to make sure the scores are right and contact the directors when there is discrepencies.

Another awesome aspect of the technical setup is the vugraph presentation. Apart from the official vugraph 'show', there was a live-time updated scoreboard beside it. As a direct consequence of the bridgemates, spectators can see running scores of any match. In fact, sometimes, the running scores are more interesting than the vugraph itself :-)

Well, the way our teammates started the match, sitting in the vugraph room looking at the running scores is like watching a horror movie, none of us (me , Poon and our NPC) can stand it and left the room midway when the score was 12-45. It worked like a charm, our teammates soon recovered most of the imps lost.

It is somewhat tougher to comment on the hands when I am not personally playing, so here are some highlights as far as I can see.

NV against Vul, you hold:

♠ J T 8 7 3
♥ K 7 6
♦ 8 7
♣ T 8 2

Partner opened 1S, RHO comes in with 2NT showing both minors, std unusual. Your bid?

For our side, Alex chose to bid 4S, a perfectly reasonable bid that didn't work very well, opps chose to dbl and it went for 800. Still, it dint look that bad as opps were cold for 5D.

Well, only 2 pairs missed 5D and very unfortunately one of the was our teammates. The Thai junior chose to pass with the above hand! It worked miraculously when their opps simply showed a preference and didnt have the information to realise they had extra values and no wasted values in S. 12 imps away.


None Vul, you hold:
♠ 6 4
♥ 8
♦ A K J T 6 3
♣ A K T 6

You open 1D, partner responded 1S when the pesky RHO came in with 3H, what is your bid?

Preempts work, it is tough to get all these decisions right. As it was either 3NT or 5D will make, just a matter of how to get there. When the player for our side chose a very conservative pass, we are heading for a minus score. At the other table, opps got to 3NT, zealously dbled, making on the nose, that meant 11 imps away.

♠ K T 9 3
♥ 9 8 5 2
♦ T 7
♣ Q 9 8


♠ A J 2
♥ A 7 3
♦ K Q J 8
♣ A 6 2

What would you have reached on the cards above? Well, in typical youth style, both tables reached 3NT. Luckily for us, our side made while the Thai went down. So we managed to get another 10 imps back.


We got another big swing through some good bidding:


♠ A 4
♥ J 8 6 3 2
♦ A K J 5
♣ T 7


♠ K Q 9 7 3 2
♥ Q
♦ Q 9 6 3
♣ A Q

Our teammates reached 6S while the other side stopped in 5D, with everything behaving, there wasn't much trouble making 12 tricks in either denomination.

And so the match ended close with a small loss for us: 44-48 imps, 14-16 VPs. It was undeniably a disappointing result and it also marked the end of the 'easy' matches, although we still managed to stay in second place, it was obvious that we had our work cut out for us, we do need to play better if we are to stay with the qualifying pack.

1 Comments:

At 12:20 AM, Blogger Fabian said...

This is probably what I feel is my worst match of the tournament. There was a hand which I intended to pass a 2HX but somehow last min changed my mind, up till now not sure why...and bidded 3NT. And this had a chance on the lead, but after my shocked sudden bid of a diff game instead of passing, I myself misplayed the 1st trick, and it went -1. Although the board was a push..many imps could be earned. Also an impt point to learn is never to let anything bad affect you in ur future boards or games. Otherwise, it would be disastrous. As LL says, no matter how bad a disaster seems to be, just throw it and focus on the next board. Concentration and determination is impt in this game. :)

 

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