Marc Smith visits the 2019 English Premier League

Late in the second weekend of the English Premier League came the matchup between teams lying first (DHONDY) and third (HINDEN). Both teams included players recently returned from a gruelling two weeks in China at the World Bridge Championships. For HINDEN, Chris Jagger and Jeffrey Allerton had represented England in the Bermuda Bowl in Wuhan. On the DHONDY team, Sally Brock and Barry Myers were members of the England team that reached the semi-final of the Mixed event and Heather Dhondy was part of the bronze medal-winning Women’s team. 

Let’s see if everyone had fully recovered from their jet lag...

N/S Vulnerable - Dealer North

For most pairs these days, reaching Four Hearts on this deal would be routine after a strong notrump opening and a transfer sequence. Both North/South pairs here, though, were playing Acol with a weak notrump, which created problems.

Allerton opened a natural One Club and at his second turn doubled West’s One Spade overcall to show a strong notrump hand type. Note that this double said nothing about hearts, as it would for most pairs playing a strong notrump system. Even so, Jagger’s non-forcing retreat to Three Clubs was purely competitive and was thus close to the weakest action available to him. Presumably, he downgraded his hand because of the spade bid on his left. Whilst he was right about that card being useless, the heart fit meant that he still had enough bits and pieces to make game good facing a strong notrump. The ♦A was with the overcaller, so that was an inadequate N/S +130 that seems to have been at least partially self-inflicted.

West - Khandewahl North - Brock East - Green South - Myers

The auction started the similarly here (although Brock opened One Diamond rather than One Club) and once again North/South were not playing support doubles. Over East’s spade raise, Barry Myers did not have the option of supporting clubs, which perhaps makes his even hand weaker. Nevertheless, he decided that he was too strong to pass. His value-showing double did not say anything specific about his shape, although there is a strong inference that he has five hearts, which was all Brock needed. A spade lead gave away an overtrick: N/S +650 and a rather unexpected 11 IMPs to DHONDY.

The next deal offers plenty of instructive points.

Both Game - Dealer South

The auction seems fairly routine up until South’s third bid. One point worth remembering is that three cards is the worst holding in an opponent’s unraised suit, and similarly two cards in a raised suit. The reason is that partner will often have similar length in each case. It is his spade holding that makes Myers’ decision to commit to the five-level game questionable. Perhaps Three Spades is a better option over Three Hearts? Certainly, partner would bid 3NT, which is an easy make no matter how the opponents’ cards lie. Brock’s raise to slam is not unreasonable: even if partner does have a second spade, the ace rates to be onside anyway. Not today but, with trumps misbehaving too, the raise just cost an extra undertrick: N/S -200.

Note that although East is fairly sure that Six Diamonds is going down, he cannot afford to double as that would be a Lightner double, asking for a non-spade and non-trump lead. The last thing he wants to do here is to persuade his partner not to lead a spade.

West - Dhondy North - Allerton East - Callaghan South - Jagger

Dhondy did not overcall on the West hand, so Allerton/Jagger had the early auction to themselves. It seems to me that Jagger had shown his good suit with his second-round jump, so here too he might have preferred a fourth-suit Three Spades at his next turn. Once he elected to bid his diamonds for a third time, the partnership was clearly headed for the doomed game in diamonds. 

I can understand the logic behind Brian Callaghan’s lead-directing double of Four Spades, but to say it turned out disastrously would be an understatement. Allerton wasted no time suggesting an alternative game, in notrumps, albeit one level higher than he might have wished. Indeed, on a spade lead, declarer needs the club finesse in 4NT once the diamonds fail to split.

If the bidding here wasn’t reminiscent of something you might find down a rabbit hole, the play certainly was. Callaghan led a heart, won in dummy, and declarer cashed a high diamond to get the bad news. It seems to me that if declarer simply plays the ♦10 now, pitching a club from his hand, he then has eleven top tricks via six diamonds, four hearts and the ♣A, with the ♠K still protected.

Instead, Allerton played a club to the queen. Now the hearts are blocked so that declarer has to cut himself off from one hand or the other (ie. if he now sets up the diamonds, he can no longer reach either the ♣A or the fourth heart trick. Fortunately, the clubs lie well enough that no damage was done. Indeed, East needed to cash his ♠A when he later gained the lead with the ♦J to save the overtrick. He didn’t: N/S +690 and 13 IMPs to HINDEN.

This deal was perhaps a precursor of the next, which is best viewed from behind a looking glass, or perhaps a large sofa if you are of a nervous disposition. Certainly, from the perspective of at least one of the East/West pairs, it seemed to be more like a horror show than a children’s fantasy. As you might have guessed, we are returning once again to the always vexing question of high-level competitive bidding.

None Game - Dealer West

Whilst Barry Myers was deciding what to do over East’s One Diamond overcall, David Bird and I were debating on BBO VuGraph commentary what action was best. My view was that with as little as ♠Axx ♥Axxx ♦x ♣Kxxxx giving you slam on a 1-1 trump break, the hand was too good for a jump to Five Clubs. David’s feeling was that the alternative, a Two Diamond cue-bid, risked opening the door for the non-vulnerable opponents to find a paying major-suit contract. Conveniently, the respective Souths obliged by illustrating the merits of each option.

Where Myers cue-bid, West did introduce a major. Unsurprisingly, the bidding was at game level when it came back to South, but he had an obvious Five Club bid. Five Clubs can be made by ruffing three diamonds in dummy, throwing one on the ♠K, and setting up a heart trick via a ruffing finesse in that suit to dispose of the fifth diamond. Certainly not impossible, but by no means a certainty then.

When Ben Green backed in with Five Diamonds, Myers was no doubt delighted to double rather than being left to play in a speculative, non-vulnerable game contract. I suspect he was also rather surprised when the auction ended there. How often will you hold two major-suit singletons when partner could not open a major, and the opponents still choose to play the hand in a minor?

Five Diamonds-Doubled was not the best spot for East/West. Myers found the optimum opening lead, a club. Green ruffed and led a diamond to the king, getting the bad news. He then took the heart finesse, played a spade to the ace, and ruffed dummy’s last club, paving the way to cut his losses by scoring all of the remaining trumps in his hand. Declarer now tried to cash the A, but Myers ruffed. Declarer could make his trumps, but that was all: N/S +500.

West - Dhondy North - Allerton East - Callaghan South - Jagger

Brian Callaghan chose to start with a takeout double rather than the overcall which has become the more common style on this type of hand in recent years. Chris Jagger immediately upped the ante to the five-level. Then the fun began when Dhondy decided that her passed hand was worthy of a responsive double. 

This wonderful game that we all love never ceases to amaze, and this auction illustrates how difficult high-level bidding can be. Even the best players can end up with egg on their face. East/West had more than one chance to get out cheaply, but deciding exactly when to stop bidding is not so easy. One can understand why Jagger did not double Five Diamonds: with no idea who the hand belongs to, do you really want to push the opponents out of the only contract you can be fairly sure you can beat? Would Allerton have doubled Five Diamonds on his void if Dhondy had passed it round to him? Maybe, but perhaps not too.

Dhondy understandably wanted to play in a major opposite a takeout double, so she duly corrected Five Diamonds to Five Hearts. When Allerton’s double came back to her, though, she had second thoughts, and removed herself to the perceived safety of her decent five-card major. You can imagine the sinking feeling Dhondy must have experienced when her partner then went back to hearts: however things turn out, Five Hearts Doubled was surely a better spot than Six Hearts Doubled!

The good news for East/West, though, was that they had at least found their best suit, albeit a level higher than they might have done. Allerton led a club, forcing dummy, and declarer played a spade from dummy. When she put in the ♠J, though, the defenders were then in a position to take a fourth trick. Allerton won with the ♠K and could have given his partner a ruff, but decided instead to force dummy again, which is okay too. Dhondy now played a diamond to the king, ruffed by North, and now Allerton needed to deliver his partner’s spade ruff (surely marked by the bidding). 

When, instead, he continued with a third round of clubs, declarer was back in control. She ruffed in hand, took the trump finesse, cashed the ♥A, and then played winning spades. The only trick the defenders could make now was the ♥K. Despite the shenanigans in the bidding, declarer had managed to escape for two down: N/S +300 and a remarkable 5 IMPs to DHONDY.

We have all seen players who play to three or four tricks and then sit and think about what to do next, not realizing that they have already made the fatal mistake. (Of course, I am sure you never do that, but you will have seen it happen to others.) One lesson that I try to instil into my students is that when a contract looks easy, ask yourself what can go wrong. Doing so can be something that even world class players fail to do. 

When writing a bridge book, it is difficult to recreate the table situation: if I tell you what happened on the first five tricks and then ask what you do when declarer or a defender does something, you are automatically alerted to the fact that this is the key moment in the hand, so you pay extra attention. At the table, there is no kindly author tapping you on the shoulder to tell you that this is the moment to think. Our final deal illustrates that even Homer nods:

You might like to cover the East/West cards:

E/W Game - Dealer West

After a short but explosive auction, you get the ♠8 lead against your Five Club contract. Is there anyone out there who would spend much time thinking about the play of this hand? Would not most of us look at dummy, register the deal as boring, and mentally turn the play over to our autopilot? Would it even occur to you that what you do would make a difference?

Fatally, Brock played a low spade at trick one, which allowed West to win the trick with his ♠J. It did not take Ankush Khandewahl long to work out why his partner had gone to such lengths to put him on lead. East duly ruffed the diamond return and cashed his ♥A to put an apparently unassailable contract one down. E/W +50.

Kudos to Ben Green for an outstanding play. What the deal proves is that even the most diligent of experts is not immune to being made to look foolish by this great game. Can anyone reading this say in all honesty that they would not have fallen into the same trap as Sally Brock did? I certainly cannot do so. 

At the other table, North played in Five Diamonds and scored an uneventful eleven tricks: E/W +400 and 10 IMPs to HINDEN. DHONDY won the match 44-29 to consolidate their place at the top of the table. 

In the penultimate match of the weekend, though, the DHONDY team suffered a 93-9 mauling by DE BOTTON to truly upset their applecart. The upshot is that, with two of the three weekends completed, we have a new leader, SMALL (Cameron Small, Jon Cook, John Cox and Peter Taylor), who head the table despite a loss to HINDEN in Match 14. Close behind them are DE BOTTON, DHONDY, HINDEN and BLACK. With less than 15 VPs separating first and fifth, there is all to play for over the final third of the event. We will return next month to see the exciting conclusion of England’s premier team event.