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Trans- Tasman – Round 8.

Fast and Very Slow Arrival!

The 8^th Round of the Trans- Tasman took place last Friday night. With just one round left, these are the current leading positions.

Round 7			Round 7		Round 8		Round 8		Round 8
Position					v		Score		Cum Score
1	Aust Open 2		94.63	1st	NZ Seniors 2		13.04		107.67
3	Aust Open 1		88.19	3rd	NZ Mixed 1		17.72		105.91
4	NZ Open 1		85.70	4th	Aust Women 2		14.8		100.59
2	Aust Seniors 1		90.00	2nd	NZ Mixed 2		6.25		96.25
6	NZ Women 2		79.19	5th	Aust Mixed 1		15.56		94.75

 

Although there are three Australian teams in the top 5, in accumulative victory points, New Zealand is leading 724.23 to 715.27 vps.

One board exchanged a lot of imps this time and that was Board 6. What would you open with the following hand…or would you pass?

Is this, at adverse vulnerability in first seat, a pre-empt, a “poor man’s pre-empt” or no pre-empt at all? Naturally, among the 18 tables, there was some difference of views.

It’s what we do…

Or so many would, pre-empt that is. Of course, once we have pre-empted, we just sit back and let the other three players sort out the final contract!

Let’s check the votes as it is the current season for voting. The “poor man’s pre-empt”, 2 or its cousin, Multi 2, was opened 8 times with the final contract ending as 4, once doubled, 7 times. Although this contract can be defeated by a trick, it made at all 7 tables. Another table started at 2 and finished defending 5x. Oh, I suppose you want to see all four hands:

Another 8 East’s adopted the mildly aggressive 3 opening. 7 times the bidding ended in 4, doubled 6 times and always made. As you can see above, the cards were very kind for East-West with all missing black suit honours exactly where East wanted them.

Twice East passed in first seat. At one of those tables, East-West never took a bid and South was allowed peacefully to make 4. We will come to the other table shortly.

Where 3 was opened, the bidding proceeded usually:

West                    North             East                South

                                                      3                   4
4                         x                      All Pass

Whatever the rights and wrongs of 4x making may be (the choice here may be determined from where you sat at each table!), the bidding seems quite sensible especially from West’s point of view.

Yet, look at the tables where the bidding started at the 2-level:

West                    North             East                South

                                                      2                   3
3                         4                   All Pass

Doubleton 52 just does not seem right to bid on to 4 when your partner opened a Weak 2 and you appeared to have reasonable defence to 4. To beat 4, West needs to under-lead A at trick 1 and East then must  switch to a club. If South ducks this, West can then cash A and wait for their trump trick. If South takes A, they have only one discard on a high spade  and must lose 2 more minor suit tricks and the A.

So, it’s small wonder 4 was a making contract. My support is with the 3 openers who saved their partners having to find such tough defence to beat the heart game. 

Just about all Wests led a spade against 4. A diamond discard followed immediately and then J ruff to thated high. Then 2 rounds of trumps, the second played by West. Passive defence did not help as South exited Q. If West took A, they had to exit a low diamond but 9 forced K and thus a discard for one of South’s clubs. Alternatively, East could win the diamond exit and play a club which South ducked. West had no answer. Either way, 4 made.

Meanwhile, as long as spades were played twice from dummy and clubs twice from the East hand, 4x was a making contract.

Yet, back to our 18^th table, where East, Max Morrison, was too “chicken” to open 3 and did not see fit to open at a lower level. That’s right. Max passed. Not so South who was straight to the point and opened 4.

A winning option? No way.  As South, Mike Doecke was one of the recent winners of the New Zealand Open Teams. He got his 4 bid past Jane Lennon in the West seat. North passed quietly but Max, unable to open 3 a few seconds earlier, saw fit to balance with 4…and Jane ensured she put down a more than decent dummy after North, Keiran Crowe-Mai, doubled. Well, you had to, didn’t you!

 
Jane and Max...a story of "all's well that ends well"!

Not good enough to open 3 but OK to balance over 4. Well judged, Max.

Richard Solomon

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