Match 8 - Egypt

Up to now, I have not mentioned much about my partner, Poon Hua. Well, the Poon-Loo partnership have been playing together for 4 years. Our first debut was PABF Youth in 2003 Manila in which we got second place in the Teams event and qualified for the finals of the pairs which remained my most memorable pairs event.

4 years down, we have won many local titles, though mostly pairs events until this year when we won most of the team titles playing in our current squad. Systemwise, we have gone through many transitions, trying out everything from pure vanilla 2/1 to Power relay system to a forcing club before coming back to a very complex 2/1 derived primarily from the Italians.

The primary reason for our success is that we have developed a good understanding of each other style's and I feel the key factor is that we are playing at a similar level. Thus, we can play what we judged best without much worries that our partner will be too confused. In addition, we both respect each other abilities that we almost never get into a arguement at the table. If you think partner has made a mistake, you better put it aside and think again after the match cos, chances are you missed a valid point of consideration.

Poon Hua's strongest point is undoubtedly his excellent card reading and almost flawless technique in card play. Whenever he declares, I can leave the table in peace, knowing that if the contract can reasonably be made, odds-on he will make it. This added to the great amount of work he put in by reading and practicing makes him one the best players in Singapore right now.

Well, in our match against Egypt, he played the first hand and it seemed like we got off to a great start:

♠ A K J 6 5 4
♥ K 9 8
♦ T 9
♣ J 9



♠ Q
♥ A 4 3
♦ K 8 6 5 4
♣ K 5 3 2

South dealt and the bidding went:

South---West---North---East
1D------Pass---1S------Pass
1NT-----2C-----3C------Pass
3NT-----Pass---Pass?---Pass

I (North) had a difficult bid on the second and third round of bidding but still managed to get it right by landing in 3NT.

West led the 7 of C, your play?

Poon got the first trick right when he when up with the J as East drops the T. It looked like smooth sailing until West discarded a club when he crossed to the Q of S at trick 2. What now?

Poon Hua considered his play for a while before emerging with a small D from hand, West went in with the J and switched to a H. He carefully took with dummy's K, cashed exactly 2 more S winners, and continued with a D towards his hand, East followed small smoothly but he unhesitantly went up with the K and led another round of D to East's bare ace. Winning the H return in his hand, he made his contract with 3S, 3D, 2H and 1 C. We cannot ask for a better start!

In the entire field, only one other declarer made 3NT, all the rest ending up with 5,6,7,8 tricks. Well, as you might guessed, the other declarer that made it was an Egyptian after some less-than-ideal defence from our teammates. He made 10 tricks even. 1 imp away for us :)

We managed to get the better of small partscores until this hand came up:

♠ K Q T 6
♥ 3
♦ K J T 9 8
♣ 6 4 2


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

You hold the East's hand. After South opens 1NT (14-16), you came in with 2H over stayman but they still ended up in 3NT. Your partner obediently led the T of H. You take the ace and cashed the Ace club at trick 2, partner encouraged. Your next card?

Well, do partner have Jxxx or Qxx, at both tables, the defence got it wrong by guessing partner has Qxx and continued with a small club. West had Jxxx C and nothing else, so declarer ran away with his contract for yet another push board. Should West wrong in encouraging with Jxxx ? This is not a new problem but I have yet to find a satisfactory solution published for it.

The match was played at quite a high level. (Did I mention we were expecting no easy games from now?)

♠ 3
♥ 9 6 3 2
♦ J 8 7 2
♣ A T 9 2


♠ A Q J 9 6
♥ A
♦ K Q 9 3
♣ K 7 4

Vulnerable and with South dealing, what would you reach with these hands?

Well, both tables bidded 5D and made it with careful play for another high level push. Time and again, I have emphasize on bidding aggressive games in teams, well the next board was a pleasant surprise as our teammates judged well:

♠ 9 7
♥ K J 8
♦ J T 6 4 3
♣ Q T 6


♠ K Q J 4
♥ Q T
♦ A K Q 9
♣ J 7 2

At our table, my opponents landed in 3NT and drifted one off after a club lead. Our teammates judged very well to avoid 3NT and end in 3D making for a 5 imp swing.

The last board of the set again proved to be the deciding set.

When partner opens 1H, do you respond with:

♠ T 9 7 6 5 2
♥ 4 3
♦ A 4
♣ 8 3 2

My teammate did and couldn't stop his partner from getting to game with

♠ K
♥ K Q J 9 8 5 2
♦ K J
♣ K Q J

At the other table, my opps didnt respond and languished in a partscore.

10 imps for us on the final deal and we ran out winners 42-23 in imps (19-11 in VPs)
We did miss a few chances to win this by a bigger margin but it still looked like a decent result as Egypt was one of the contenders and as can be seen, were one of the strongest opponents we have played so far.

We didn't get much chance to think about the match though. We are still in third place behind Poland and USA1 but the next match was against Norway (ranked 6)and it's scheduled to be on vugraph, our first for the tournament. We will still be playing with our top 2 pairs: Poon-Loo, Kelvin/Liyu. It would be our final match before the mid-RR break, can we continue our 'lucky' run?