The national team of 4 competitions are traditionally played in the fall and winter of the year. Winter and fall means cold and rain here, so when it starts to get cold, it is time to start thinking about the team events. Not quite this year, when the event started for our team last Saturday, it was still the middle of summer: 27 degrees and bright sunshine. Not exactly bridge weather, though fortunately, the playing area had a nice terrace where we could relax and discuss hands after the game.
The season opener was pretty much a repeat of last year: My team, Bridgebond Nijmegen (“BBN”) 3, against BBN4. For obvious reasons, when two or more teams from the same club are in the same league, they play their matches in the first rounds. Neither team had changed its line-up, so the same players as last year sat down to play the match.
On one of the first boards, you pick up the most interesting hand of the day. You are in 4♥ after a semi-natural auction. 2♥ was a game-force, 2♠ showed most hands in the 11-14 region, 3♦ fourth suit forcing, all other bids natural. The opening lead is the ♦K. Plan the play.
The wife always complains that “plan the play” is too vague for her, so here is a hint: Planning the play simply means deciding which card will be played in which trick. In this particular case, you should be able write down which card will win the first 8 tricks.
Some more considerations: The hand is trivial to make on 3-2 trump split, simply win the opening lead and play the ♥A and a heart. Somehow, you will end up with 4 natural trump tricks and 6 side suit winners. What about a 4-1 split though. Now, due to the lack of intermediates in the trump suit, you will almost always have 3 trump losers. That means that you have to get of your minor suit losers first. OK, now plan the play again...
Here we go: Win the ♦A. Cash the ♥A and play 3 rounds of clubs, ruffing the 3rd. Next play the ♠QAK (in that order), pitching a diamond from your hand. It doesn’t matter if the 3rd spade is ruffed, with 4-1 ♥-split, that is a ruff from a natural trump trick, with a 3-2 split, they are ruffing a loser anyway.
This looked fairly straightforward but still won 10 imp’s when declarer at the other table missed the possibility of a 4-1 split and played ♥A and a heart at trick 2 and 3, then discovered that he could no longer make the contract.
We won the match by 24 imp, 19-11, which is also exactly the same score as last year. Our goal for the season is to do at least as well as last year, so we are still on track.