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As wintry weather settles in over the big smoke, many of us seek escape in our favourite pastime. No, not following the latest twists and turns in the ever more bizarre political scene in the USA, but crossing swords with opponents at the bridge table – most of whom are also our friends, of course.

In lieu (!) of a profile of an individual player this month, I shall mention another well known name in the local scene, that of Liu. Jeter Liu has been around the local scene for many years, firstly with Nong Li, and a few years ago he played for the New Zealand Open Team with Dong Huang. Jeter and his family have also provided very generous sponsorship of local events, especially the Queen’s Birthday Congress at Auckland. More recent Liu arrivals to make their mark include William and Andrew of that ilk, and their names all feature in our honour roll below.

Success for familes and "Liu's"

Back in March, the Auckland Club’s Corbans Salver was taken by our new Chairman Alan Dormer with Hamish Brown, while at East Coast Bays Carol Richardson and Matthew Brown won the Open event and Julia Zhu and Tony Jiang the Intermediate (and I would guess that they have won enough intermediate events to promote them out of the running now). Julia and Tony also won the Intermediate prize at Mt Albert, with Gary Robinson and Richard Norburn claiming the Junior event. Repeat winners at Hibiscus were Carol and Matt (completing a family triumph over Steve and Andi Boughey) and Julia and Tony in the Intermediate. The Howick club held its increasingly popular single session Junior events, with Lee Moselen and Peter Thomson emerging victors, while Waitemata was the scene of a win for Jeter Liu and John Wang.

"Double success" for new NZB Chairman

Alan Dormer, both at the table and in the election.

In the biggest tournament of this period over Easter, Herman Yuan paired up with Andrew Liu to take out a narrow win in the Open Pairs from a very strong field, while the simultaneous Junior/Intermediate Pairs went to Carol Joseph and Robyn Chalmers. The Open Teams was a very clear win for the all-international team of Ashley Bach, Mike Cornell, Matthew Brown and Michael Whibley, and the Monday Walk-in House of Travel Pairs for Johanna Perfect and Hamish Brown. The North Shore Club held its very popular Swiss Pairs in April, Steve Boughey and William Liu winning, and William teamed up with Gary Chen to win Auckland’s Anzac Day Pairs. Your esteemed Editor  Richard Solomon was escorted to a win in the Franklin Restricted Pairs by Will Fulton, and finally the Howick Open Pairs saw Mark Robertson and Sylvester Riddell on the winners’ podium with some style.

Teaching our new players

The bridge teaching season is well under way in the region, with many clubs now investing considerably greater efforts in this activity, with the invaluable help of the extensive materials provided by NZ Bridge and freely available on their website. For many clubs, this is seen as a way of recruiting new members, and to this end they have initiated comprehensive programmes of beginners, improvers and advancers lessons to ensure a steady progression of development for new players. It is very heartening to see the open and free exchange of experiences and comments from teachers, and this is also to be encouraged.

No "quick cash" at Easter

 

 

This hand from the Easter Congress Open Pairs proved a mighty headache for defenders if they tried to cash quick tricks, and for declarers if they did not. Often, North  ended up in 5 after a competitive auction, frequently doubled. If East tries to cash a top diamond or leads either black suit, North has an easy ride to 12 tricks by way of a complete cross-ruff, but try the effect of leading the ace and a second heart – not so easy now!

Where to win the second round of hearts?

 Declarer’s play at trick 2 is crucial. If he wins the second trump lead in hand he can no longer make the contract, as he will not have enough entries to dummy for the subsequent play. So, win ♥9 in Dummy. cash A♠ discarding a diamond, and ruff a spade. Now another critical play; a diamond from hand and discard a spade from dummy! This rectifies the count for a later minor suit squeeze on East.

The defence do best to return a club in an effort to cut off Dummy, but to no avail. Declarer now ruffs a spade, ruffs a diamond and ruffs another spade; East is now caught between discarding a diamond or a club, allowing Declarer to set up an extra trick by ruffing out whichever suit is chosen while he still has enough entries to use it. Brilliant! I am sure there is a highly technical term for this kind of squeeze, but I am not sufficiently well versed in the jargon. Any suggestions?

Finally, a hand that is easy to get wrong if you do not have the tools to cope. Using straightforward standard methods,

 

 Using straightforward standard methods, North will open 1NT.  South, with no 4 card major, a 5-card ♣ suit and 13 points, will probably bid 3NT. This suffers a dreadful fate as the defence will cash six ♦ tricks and the ♣A for three down. Many pairs have developed sophisticated methods to pinpoint a weakness like that in the ♦ suit here and elect to play instead in a Moysian 4-3 major fit. Here is how Biritch the Russian Blue, as South, bid it with One Of His Few Tolerated Partners, with E/W silent throughout.

                        OOHFTP                    Biritch

                        1NT (12-15)                  2    game force relay

                        2  (2 x 4 card suits)   2     Which suits?

                        3 both majors           3       Where is your doubleton?

                        3 diamonds              4      "prrrr. I don't think 3NT will play that well with my 2-2 fit. I will bid game in my

                                                                        marginally better three card major."

a contented bidder

.Surprise, surprise, +620 earned a good score against the column of ‑300’s.

 

 

 

 

 

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