Blogs

10:55PM Friday
The results have been flowing in very smoothly since 9:45 and 70 minutes later we have all but nine clubs to come. Top runners are Vivian Sexton and Maureen Russ of Kerikeri. Vivian and Maureen are rather good at this, having won the Babich last year.

11:30
Forty heats published. Still five clubs to come - Alexandra, Gisborne (keying frantically still), Hastings, Queenstown, and Wanaka (promised first thing tomorrow).

11:45
Queenstown arrived after manual input

11:55 - pulling the pin with 41 heats published. Good night all.

9:10AM Saturday
Alexandra and Gisbourne arrive - just Hastings and Wanaka vying for the Wayne Benefield Wooden Spoon Award (Wayne holds the record at 2pm Sunday from 2015)

9:35
Hastings arrives. Just the last to come from Wanaka. Reportedly highly chuffed at some measure of success this year.

10:10 .. we have a prospectively final result!! Twelve hours after starting the scoring .. pretty good as these things go. Still hoping for two hours. Maybe next year.

The window for scoring corrections with Richard Solomon closes in two hours at midday.

This deal from recent play was sent to me by one of my regular panelists. The declarer play rather than the bidding is what will interest the reader. It is not very often that we find a vulnerable vs not vulnerable sacrifice paying off, and as my correspondent writes, this one did not either, because when this was played, 5C doubled went down two, with nearly all other tables returning a +480 when only one EW pair bid to a very good heart slam. I find it difficult to see how NS would end up in 5C doubled rather than EW in either 5H or 6H. But let’s not puzzle over the bidding, but look at the play.

Dealer N NS Vul

	T865 3 5 AKJ9863
Q973 KQ87 QJ742		KJ AJT95 AKT98 4
	A42 642 63 QT752

Vil thanks everyone that responded to his Next Question article. As many suspected, 6C is a very good end result. After his opening 1C, partner actually held:

Axxx

AKQJ

x

Txxx

KQ2

T3

A53

AQJ52

and 6C was a breeze despite a club loser to the king offside.

Match Points session
Dealer W EW Vul

South	West	North	East
-	Pass	1	Pass
?

What do you bid and why, holding

KQ2

T3

A53

AQJ52

Your answer, please, to me at villyn@xtra.co.nz

How many of us play the “Gambling 3NT”? How many even know what it is and how it works?

I believe that the classic Gambling 3NT should be very specific: a seven or eight card totally solid minor. That doesn’t happen very often. In the old days, the gambling 3NT opening bid would also, ideally, have a partial stopper outside the suit, like Kx or even Qx, but one solid suit plus that is at least a 12 count and would usually be opened 1C or 1D. So, most exponents of the gambling 3NT will have a solid minor and NOTHING in any of the other suits. That makes it easy for partner, but should also make it easy for opponents when the 3NT opening becomes the final contract. Surprisingly, the defence is often pretty abysmal, and the gamble may come home thanks to poor defence. In the old days, the recommended way to defend against a 3NT opening that becomes the final contract is to lead an ace if you have one. That makes total sense, because you will see dummy and have a better idea how to continue. Declarer’s hand will be an open book and the defence should be pretty much ‘double dummy’.

From Tuesday, 19/10/21 at X-Clubs
Board 19 Dealer S EW Vul

	K73 QT7 AKQT 953
AQT6 432 J632 82		J92 AKJ95 9874 4
	854 86 5 AKQJT76