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Tom Jacob. Reading his system notes is really not that hard!

A Time to Shine.

So often, we hear bridge is a game of mistakes and that those who commit the fewest will come out on top. There is unquestionably a lot of truth in that statement. However, just occasionally, you get a chance to “win” imps or match-points rather than avoid losing them. When that occasion is in the last round of a major Teams competition, it is pretty important you take the opportunity offered.

So, put yourself in the shoes of two of our top players, Tom Jacob and Martin Reid. Tom’s team was in the driving seat. A good last match in the Waikato Regional 10A Teams, held on Real Bridge, and the team of Tom and Brian Mace with Nick Jacob and GeO Tislevoll, would see them win. Meanwhile, it had not been all plain sailing for Martin Reid- Peter Newell, Michael Ware – Hugh McGann but they had fought themselves into the mix for a high finish if things went their way in Match 8, too.

The first board offered Tom and Martin the opportunity to shine. They were on lead to 3NT. The following is the sequence Tom, in the West seat, heard:

 

2 was a 3-way Multi with 2 “Pass or Correct”. 3 showed a strong “8 playing trick” style single-suited club hand with the last two bids natural. Your lead?

Let’s also check out the sequence that Martin heard:

West              North            East                South

                                                                       1

Pass                1                   Pass                3NT

All Pass

This was pretty much the same sequence. Many play a 2NT rebid as showing 18-19 balanced which means the 3NT call is semi-gambling, a good opening hand with a long suit, presumably clubs.

Both Tom and Martin chose the same lead.

Tom reasoned that to beat this 3NT contract the defence had to find five tricks very quickly. It seemed pretty obvious that South had 6 or 7 running club tricks and enough elsewhere to come to 9. Since North could have passed 3 had they a complete bust, they could contribute a trick too.

Where to go, then? Any non-club could be right though maybe a diamond less right in view of North’s natural bid. Thus, which major? Realistically, they needed five tricks, immediately. He held three spades and two hearts. Thus, his partner was more likely to hold five hearts than five spades.

There was one more reason why Tom chose the Q and that was North’s 2 bid. If North had longer hearts than spades, they might have bid 2. All scraps of evidence but they pointed to Tom trying the Q.

Yet, why did Martin lead the suit dummy had bid? Over to Martin:

“My thinking was:

 

-      It didn't look like setting up long-suit tricks in my impoverished hand was going to be a good strategy

 

-      Partner was not vulnerable and hadn't taken a bid over the opponents (1) - (1), making it:

a) very unlikely that a spade was correct (because he had a virtually no risk 1 overcall available and he would likely overcall on even a decent 4 card suit)

b) fairly unlikely that a diamond was correct (because he could have overcalled 2 but didn't)

 

-      Opponents bid 1 1 3NT (showing a hand with a source of tricks) and my hand indicated there were no nasty surprises for declarer.

So, I followed normal teams’ philosophy to make a lead which I hoped would beat the contract, rather than a more passive lead that might

minimise overtricks, but have a lower chance of beating the contract.”

 

So, Martin seized on leading the suit bid by dummy, a good enough reason why his partner was silent.

Both Tom and Martin were not to be disappointed with the strength of dummy’s heart suit and were rather happy when their partners overtook the 10 on the second round:

 

3NT down one in both their matches, game swings for both teams and important reasons why the Jacob and Ware teams were 1^st and 2^nd in the very successful Real Bridge event.

Tomorrow, we will see one of Tom’s teammates in the spotlight:

                 
Peter Newell and Martin Reid                Brian Mace 
Both Peter and Brian were heard to say "good lead, partner".

 

Hard Defence

 

You are up against it, defending 6NT. For now, try selecting an opening lead. If you found the Q lead in today's hand, you should have no problem with a lead below:

 

1NT was 15-17 and 2 a transfer to hearts. Your lead is?

Richard Solomon

 

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