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It’s been a while since I last wrote to you, and in that time some things have happened. One of these is that there’ve been some local tournaments (of course). So, it’s good to celebrate the winners. Not to waste your valuable time, here’s a list:

Tournament Results	1st	%	2nd	%	3rd	%
Taieri Open Pairs	Arleen Schwartz and Murat Genc	59.35	Paul Freeland and Margaret Perley	59.23	Tony Winters and Harry Shepherd	57.90
Otago Winter Teams	John Sheehy, Maria Godfrey, Harry Shepherd, Geoff Eyles	63.37 vp	Marilyn Jackson, Greg Buzzard, Kay Nicholas, Lesley Andrew	61.04 vp	Michael Johnstone, Paula Gregory, Moss Wylie, Lindsay Glover	56.21 vp
Otago Winter Open Pairs	Geoff Eyles and Harry Shepherd	60.77	Graeme Stout and Jeff Thompson	59.32	Paul Freeland and Margaret Perley	58.81
Otago Winter Intermediate Pairs	Ruth Airey and Dot Cotton	58.33	Dale Cameron and Alan Lewthwaite	58.13	Jeff Elton and Alec Weavers	55.00
Winton Junior Pairs	Ruth Slee and Norma Macdonald	57.82	Yvonne Braithwaite and Hennie Pay	56.37	Gayle Ross and Margaret Robinson	54.70
Winton Intermediate Pairs	John Macleod and Richard Hishon	65.91	Judith Lawton and Robyn Reidie	61.02	Alan McRae and Willsher Jackman	56.29
Oamaru All Grades	Matt Blakely and Brad Johnston	67.16	Michael Johnston and Paula Gregory	61.49	Frances Sheehy and Ann Wood	59.67
Winton Open Pairs	Bruce Batchelor and Greg Buzzard	61.13	Glenn Coutts and Graeme Stout	59.89	Moss Wylie and Kevin Skoropada	58.77
Otago Junior Pairs	Jennifer Macmillan and Eleanor Westoby	59.53	Allan Lockhard and Kate Aisi	57.83	Jane Whitmore and Irene Carson	56.74
Taieri Graded Pairs	Donna Ruwhiu and Kristen Collins	62.50	Kevin Skoropada and Moss Wylie	59.72	Murray Barron and David Larsen	59.28

 Otago Winter Teams Winners                                                                   Winners of Otago Junior Pairs

                              
 Maria Godfrey, Geoff Eyles, John Sheehy and Harry Shepherd               Jennifer Macmillan and Eleanor Westoby

I want to draw special attention to the following:

• Moss Wylie and Kevin Skoropada are not a practised partnership, agreeing to play the Winton and Taieri tournaments because of a work-gap for Kevin. To come second and third in a relatively new partnership is always a happy achievement; so well done!
• Murray Barron and David Larsen won the sectional prize for the 2^nd division, and had a session win of 62.25% on the day. This means they were punching well above their weight at the event.
• You won’t see them there, but in the Winter Teams COUTTS (Sam and Glenn; Graeme Stout and Jeff Miller) were the one team to not win a match. In the Swiss format, their last loss was handed to them by JOHNSTON  (Brad Johnston and Matt Blakeley, Kristen Collins and Donna Ruwhiu), another team who weren’t expecting to be aiming for 4^th last with one match to play.
  Great Performance in Taieri Graded Pairs     Winners of Winter Otago Intermediate Pairs
                                 
  Murray Barron and David Larsen                                   Ruth Airey and Dot Cotton

 

Learner Classes

I can’t speak for the rest of the clubs around Otago/Southland, but I know that the Otago Bridge Club has welcomed 16 new players from the lessons into the Junior Division at the club.

Directors' Week-End

Otago hosted a tournament director seminar/examination weekend with Murray and Caroline Wiggins that was attended by 15 Club Directors from around the region and was much appreciated by all who attended.

Continual Learning

The Otago Bridge Club has started trialling a new initiative that other bridge clubs may be interested in. Back in the days when cash bars made a profit at bridge clubs, and scoring was manual; many people sat around discussing the hands and actually learning some things about bridge in the meantime.

Now with instant results not many people are doing this any more. To counteract this, a few volunteers at the club are taking turns writing up ‘nightly recaps’ of the hands; pointing out things that people did well, things that people could have done better, and some of the underlying philosophies of a ‘better approach’ to bridge – which are then emailed out to people the morning after the session. These are targeted at the players who’ve come out of lessons and plateaued at a point when they want to improve; but have no idea what the best way forwards is. Having a continuous stream of feedback will let those that want to improve have an easier way to actively participate in their bridge journey.
There’s been a lot of positive feedback from this initiative, maybe that means people are actually reading the recaps and engaging with any feedback or ideas in them to help improve their bridge.

Question 1:

You are declarer in 6 by East and see this lay-out after a passive 9 lead.

                                    West                            East

                                     Q854                        A6

                                     J75                           AKQT843

                                     AKJ6                        94

                                     Q4                            A8

How should you play after drawing two rounds of hearts (they break 2-1):

a.Run all the hearts                          

b.Take a diamond finesse     

c. Try to ruff out Q   

d. Play a club towards the queen  

e. Play a spade towards the queen     

f. Run Q

 

 

and try this everyday kind of problem:

At unfavourable vulnerability, your partner deals and passes and you hold the following as East: 

 K865

 953

 AT763

 K

West              North            East                South

Pass                Pass            Pass                1

Pass                1NT                ?

What do you bid now:

1. Pass
2. Double
3. 2
4. Would have opened 1 last time round

 

Here is the summary of the detailed analysis to the first problem:  (a, d, and f were not good ideas...)

“So – what play’s right? This one was a trick question, because none of the options are particularly good on their own; but you can pick a line such that if your first option doesn’t work, you then have time to try a second one. This is akin to betting on multiple horses in one race –

you’re not solely invested in one lucky outcome.

If you try to ruff out the Q you can’t take a  finesse, and if you try to take a  finesse you can’t try to ruff out theQ – so these lines are mutually exclusive. Because nothing else seems particularly appealing, I’d draw 2 rounds of trumps and play a low  towards the Q. If North has the K I can win their ♣ return, cash 1 top  (to check for a singleton Q offside), and then cross to East and take a finesse. "           the actual hands

 

and to the second problem:

“This is quite a simple question; as it boils down to whether the East hand is worth a 2 overcall or not – no other action is worth even considering.

The ‘lessons’ would have taught you that with a 5-card suit, and 10-15 HCP that you can overcall at the 2-level. I think that this is absolute poppy-cock as a comprehensive rule – but no-one ever explains this to people, and they just go off what they remember in lessons.

On this particular hand, both sides are vulnerable (so going light on a part-score board is ill-advised for your score), and your suit is rather holey (you’re not sure that it’s the best possible lead). Also, your partner is a passed hand that couldn’t act over a 1 opening after they’d already limited their hand by passing.

What this all means is that there’s very little upshot to overcalling 2 and lots of risks.

                                                                             the actual hands

 

Despite this, it was kind of right on the night with 2 and 2 both making for the opposition and 3 only down one, a great score if not doubled!”

As we know, the percentage action is not always the winning action at the table.

 

 

 

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