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APBF Day 5: Little Change.

That could sum up the results of our four teams on Day 5 of the competition. Our Open Team dropped one place to 11^th, hugely clear of the bottom 2 and still realistically in reach of 7^th placed Japan 16.67 vps ahead. They recorded bad losses to China (3.79) and Indonesia (3.97) before a small 10.33 win over Chinese Taipei and a small 8.13 loss to  Hong Kong China. Meanwhile, Australia which includes former Kiwis James Coutts and Liam Milne, lie a close 2^nd.

Our Ladies have made 5^th place their own with higher progress unlikely with Hong Kong China one place higher and 38.76 vps ahead. Their latest results saw 2 losses, Indonesia (3.28) and Japan (9.03) and 2 wins over  Hong Kong China(10.66) and Korea (13.72).

It was though a better day for our Mixed Team who finished on a high with a 67-19 imp victory over Indonesia (19.28). They also recorded a 17.91 win over Thailand and 2 small losses, Singapore 8.13 and Japan 8.42. They finished the day in 6^th place with Japan and Indonesia well within their sights.

It was a disappointing day for our Seniors who recorded 3 losses, Australia 4.34, Indonesia 5.81 and China 7.29. They have dropped to 5^th place, nearly 15 vps behind 4^th placed Indonesia. Australia led the way, about 31 vps ahead of the Kiwis.

Would you open this hand at all vul?

 

Back to this shortly.

 

The following board was very well played by Lysandra Zheng in the Open Team’s match against Thailand, which resulted in a high-scoring loss.

 

Most Open declarers were South after they opened a 15-17 1NT and responded 2 to their partner’s Stayman enquiry. However, Tim Pan opened a Precision 1 and then relayed the board with North, Lysandra, as declarer. While she was favoured by 5 lead from East as opposed to a rather unhelpful T from West players, she still had plenty of work to do to make 4. Also, the opposition knew the exact shape of her hand.

She ducked the opening lead to West’s A. West continued diamonds with Lysandra playing AK to discover the bad break. She did not want to commit to taking the heart finesse just yet and so played A and a second club with West overtaking East’s J with Q to play a third round of trumps.

On the second and third rounds of trumps, East had discarded diamonds. Lysandra won the third round of trumps with J in dummy. She decided to play “no trumps” by playing a fourth round of trumps, with East again discarding a diamond, Q, presumably from an original 5-card suit. East’s discarding had been quite slow and Lysandra guessed that East held more hearts than his partner. So, she guessed that the simple heart finesse was likely to fail.

Backing her judgement, she placed J on the table and when East played low, so did Lysandra from dummy. So, she had or was about to take 3 heart tricks, 4 spades, a diamond and A. She needed a tenth trick and exited a small club to East’s K. East was left with Q86 and dummy’s 5 became Lysandra's 10^th trick.

Certainly, she was helped with the opening lead but she put maximum pressure on her opponents and displayed good table presence, too. Only 2 out of 11 declarers in the Open field made 4, the majority failing by two tricks.
                   Our Ladies' Team

 
Kinga Hajmasi, Candice Smith, Kate Terry, Mindy Wu, Andi Boughey, Carol Richardson, Kris Wooles (npc)

Back then to our 10 hcp hand. Kate Terry had no qualms about opening 1. This was the subsequent auction:

 

Kate’s opening made it easy for Mindy to make a take-out double. Mindy was able to make her vulnerable game comfortably. Meanwhile, in the other room, North did not open. East opened 4 and South found it too hard to double. Not only that but three early rounds of diamonds set up a discard for a black suit loser and 4 made, a nice double game swing.

Kate had a key part to play in our Ladies’ 17 imp gain against  Hong Kong China on the following board. The following was the bidding when Kinga and Candice bid their way to an aggressive slam:

 

3 was Bergen, 10-11 hcp with 3 spades. Two cue bids followed and then key card, not always ideal when one has a void. However, Candice was fairly confident one of her partner’s key cards was A. It all depended on the opening lead and East chose to attack with a small heart.

Candice seized her chance, finessing successfully and then showing good technique by playing a spade to the ace (no singleton K today), then a diamond to the ace, A discarding her other diamond and then a second trump..12 tricks.

The China Hong Kong pair at the other table had a similar cue-bidding auction. However, there was one small but very significant difference. Kate Terry (West) doubled 4. That did not seem to worry North-South but it meant Mindy Wu (East) could lead a diamond against 6 after which the slam could not be made. A very sensible double.

Richard Solomon

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