Matamata, Te Aroha, Morrinsville Clubs

Matamata hosted Putaruru for their annual Waihou Trophy which is a competition between intermediate and junior pairs from each club.

It was a close fought thing with Matamata victorious by a narrow margin. Well done team!

Waihou Trophy

The top placed Matamata pair were Judith Howard and Jim Anelay with 61.90% while Putaruru's Peter Kraakman and Anne Patching topped the day with a massive 67.86

Waihou Trophy

Last week, the Jo Anne Prevett Teams event concluded at Matamata and good to see everybody got into the spirit of things (some more than others!) when it came to dressing up on the last night.

Joanne Prevett Teams

Winners were the aptly named BLT & Jalapeno (Barbara Keys, Lawrence Keys, Tony Pearson and Joan Darby-Smith) featured above.

Joanne Prevett Teams

Te Aroha Friday session has been moved forward and is now a 11.30am start. Please be seated by 11.25am.

We have brought it forward to allow for some of our players to meet the school bus or get home in time for afternoon milking! Therefore we aim to finish by 2.30pm.

Reminder that you don't need a partner or to be a member of Te Aroha to play on the Friday sessions. All welcome.

Hutt Valley's Vil Gravis produces a column each week on XClub site and I've been posting it for him the past weeks - thought this week's column about finessing might be useful for some of our members.

Wednesday Review 57 From Wednesday 31/5/17.

Board 2 Dealer E NS Vul

	753 AT864 86 QT3
AJT9 K5 AQT42 95		KQ QJ9 K9 AKJ742
	8642 732 J753 86

Newer players need to learn the very basic things about declarer play. Like playing on the suit that will produce the most tricks, and playing the suit the best way you can to make the most number of tricks. Finessing, and knowing when to finesse, and knowing HOW to finesse, are usually a “must know” part of a declarer's game. Witness this deal from a recent lower grade session. The basics seemed to be forgotten, because the results for many EW pairs were unbelievably poor, like 6NT down two, 4NT down two and 3NT making ONLY five. One East was in 6NT and did make six, by playing the hand the way people have been taught.

Let me tell you again. When do you finesse? When missing the QUEEN and you have an option to finesse or play the ace and king (i.e. 'going for the drop'), the odds favour the finesse IF you have EIGHT or fewer cards between you and dummy, and going for the drop if you have NINE or more cards between you and dummy. Tip: eight ever, nine never. Follow that unless you have evidence to the contrary. Then, another rule: play on the suit that will produce the most tricks. There are SIX clubs in the East hand and only five diamonds in the West hand, so playing the clubs will produce more tricks. The club suit also offers the opportunity to finesse, and with eight clubs in the two hands, the rule is to FINESSE. There is only one way to finesse if you are not going to lose a trick, and that is to lead from the WEST hand and put in the JACK from the East hand if North follows low. As you can see, North has the queen and the finesse works and declarer makes a total of twelve tricks if the ace of hearts has been taken at trick one, or a total of THIRTEEN tricks if the defence has not taken the ace at trick one. The reader may have noted that the diamond suit also has five potential tricks. Is it correct to play off three top diamonds and expect, or hope, that the jack falls in three rounds, or is it better to cash the king and then FINESSE, leading to the TEN? The odds of a 4-2 break in a suit are greater than 3-3 but I really do not know whether, taking the diamond suit in isolation the odds favour playing them from the top or finessing against the jack in the South hand. The experts could no doubt tell me but I would definitely play that suit from the top.
There are other considerations when playing a hand like this EW one. In 3NT you may be less worried about losing a trick, whereas in 6NT you would be very reluctant to take a finesse when you have lost one trick already. Nevertheless you should know the odds and play with them rather than against them. This deal provides other interesting things to think about so I will take the opportunity to do that now. Look at it again: Board 2 Dealer E NS Vul

	753 AT864 86 QT3
AJT9 K5 AQT42 95		KQ QJ9 K9 AKJ742
	8642 732 J753 86

Let us consider it from how the bidding and play might go at a more advanced level. East would open 1C, West respond 1D, and East would bid 3NT. That should show at least 19 HCP, so West would bid 6NT though he might be a bit worried about a lead going through his K5 of hearts. After all, 19 plus 14 equals 33 which is the normal requirement for slam, and surely East would have at least the queen of hearts? If South leads 'fourth highest of longest and strongest' he will immediately give the slam away and declarer will have no more problems: there will be five diamond tricks, two club tricks, four spades and two hearts, but a hearts will have to be given away to the ace in order to ensure twelve tricks. All declarer has to do is ensure that the heart trick or tricks required are set up (after counting the certain tricks WITHOUT any more finesses required) and ensure there are no blockages when cashing the tricks (look at the spade suit, easy to get locked in the wrong hand which is East). South should know better than to lead a low diamond against a small slam given the bidding, so let's say South looks for the safest lead, one that will be least likely to give anything away, and chooses a spade as the opening lead. There is a paradox in this story because by not giving a vital tricks away on the opening lead by leading a diamond, South has a 50-50 chance of making a lead that could give a good declarer an overtrick in 6NT, as you will see when you read on. A club against 6NT by East is out of the question given East's opening bid, so South must choose a heart or a spade. With four small spades, it is less likely to do damage to partner's holding. But look what happens when South makes the apparently safest lead of a spade and a good declarer is at the helm. Declarer wins the first spade in hand and counts his top tricks: four spades, three diamonds, and two clubs. Two tricks can be developed by knocking out the ace of hearts but then either a club finesse would be required for the twelfth, or the jack of diamonds would need to drop. Let's take another look:
Board 2 Dealer E NS Vul

	753 AT864 86 QT3
AJT9 K5 AQT42 95		KQ QJ9 K9 AKJ742
	8642 732 J753 86

Declarer decides that rather than give up a trick to the ace of hearts immediately, he will rely on the chances offered in the club and diamond suits. He combines his chances by NOT playing on his long suit. That would involve taking the better odds finesse and losing a club would almost certainly lead to down one when the defence also take the heart ace. It is therefore a finesse that is too dangerous to take at an early stage. Declarer now looks at the diamond suit and sees that if the jack falls in three rounds, there will be five diamond tricks, four spades, two clubs and a heart could be established before taking the clubs, twelve easy tricks. The odds on the diamond suit are pretty good aren't they? Better than relying on a 50:50 club finesse, and that can also be left for later. So, declarer starts on diamonds and after playing off three rounds, gets the bad news, diamonds don't break, the jack hasn't fallen, and tricks are still required to make 6NT. Declarer still has the option of playing on hearts and hoping that South doesn't have the ace, which means he would also be able to take the jack of diamonds for down one. But declarer has been watching and counting and when North shows out on the third diamond, he is pretty sure that North will have more clubs than South. To test things further, declarer now leads his second spade and overtakes with the ace. Too many newer players find it goes against the grain to overtake a trick but there are many such plays when entries are scarce. This one is obvious and dummy now takes two more spade tricks. An extra trick is still required to make twelve, and declarer still has the option of a heart to establish a heart trick, or a club finesse. By watching carefully, declarer can usually decide which. In the play, declarer would probably have noticed enough hesitations, bum shifts etc to decide that North has either the ace of hearts or the queen of clubs. As it happens North has both, and by playing on hearts declarer would make six, by taking the club finesse, he would make an overtrick. Another consideration: If South had the ace of hearts, in an average match point game, would South not have led it on the opening lead? And there IS another way to combine the chances, by removing the ace of hearts first, then cashing two top Clubs and if the queen doesn't drop, play on diamonds and hope the jack falls, or take the diamond finesse if you can work out the better odds after taking all other available tricks (hearts and spades). What would YOU have done as declarer? For one declarer the club finesse yielded thirteen tricks (after a spade lead) and another made twelve after a heart lead. Those who failed could not have followed normal principles of declarer play, and would do well to get some practice and if they have access, read and re-read this chapter.

Fourth round of the WAP today and many of the leading pairs were notable in their absence which opened the competition up for the trailing bunch.

Cambridge duo Herman Yuan and Kevin Whyte stepped in for each other - making a double sub for missing Michael Neels and Claire Coles respectively. The second time playing together proved fruitful with the pair picking up two session wins and the a comfortable win with an average score of 62%. This also propels Kevin Whyte and his usual partner Clare Coles into the top spot on the WAP ladder after 4 sessions.

Kevin and Herman

Thank you to Herman who provided some commentary looking at board 23 in the second session ... go to the Waikato Bays site for more information. http://www.waikatobays.bridge-club.org/wap_comment

While Herman might not have missed Michael Neels today ... we in the administrative side of the WAP team are starting to find his month long absence a bit trying and hence you might not find all the things that should be in the right place ... not in the right place. Hopefully these will be sorted on his return:)

Alan and Malcolm
Second place were Alan Parkes and Malcolm Smith who had a great morning and a pretty good afternoon (note to Alison - I did try to tidy his sweatshirt up before the photo).

MAry and Olive
Third place was Waikato's Olive Ronke and Mary Davis who are also third placed on the overall league. They also caused a bit of excitement by appealing a director's ruling and instigating an appeals committee at the close of play. A first for the WAP in recent history at least.

Peter and Malcolm

Finally well done to Junior Duo from Te Aroha/Matamata who were the top non-open pair who had a great day out:)

Been some great results by locals over the past week.

Anna Kalma and Lesley Quilty combined to take first place in the Putaruru 8B tournament last Thursday. It was a Matamata one-two with Ian Bond and Lynette Morgan coming in second place. Also featuring in the session prizes was Rochelle van Heuven and Ross Stewart for their morning performance and Sonia Crawford and Dale Swap briefly got to hold a bottle of wine each for their morning performance before getting it whipped away with a whoopsie sorry should have been somebody else!

Then on Saturday Hermanna Hemmes and Peter Daffurnwere 6th overall and took out best Open-Junior prize at the Te Awamutu restricted.

Then to top the weekend off; Rochelle van Heuven and Tim Rigter won the Katikati Intermediate tournament on Sunday with a combined average of 63% over the two sessions. Rochelle was a concerned about the amount of bridge she has played over the past week which had her husband querying her family commitment but luckily she got a pass to play bridge on the Sunday!

No photos appear to be forthcoming yet...

Get your team together for the Joanne Prevett Travel Teams Event
which takes place at the Matamata Bridge Club over three Thursdays; June 1st 8th & 15th

Choose your own team name.
(Small prize for the most original)

Optional Dress up on final night.
(small prize for best team outfit)

Sign up at the bridge club

Spain: here is some inspiration for dressing up ..

The three night Quilty Trays concluded this week which was interesting or special in that;
a) It was conducted using a triangle format which allowed for 7 teams to participate;
b) teams from Morrinsville, Hamilton, Te Aroha and Tokoroa took part which keeps things interesting and it is always nice to have new faces.
c) very nice suppers which were conducted midway between the two sessions of 12 boards each night.

Winners of the Quilty Tray 2017

Being the gracious hosts Matamata (or specifically the Crawford team of Dale Swap, Sonia Crawford, Kathy and Ken Yule) allowed the Hamilton team pictured from left to right: Malcolm Smith, Ian Clayton, Alison Smith and Jeffrey Chang to take the victory (albeit deservedly) after 5 solid wins out of 6.

Thanks to Holloway Harris (Hermanna's Accountants) for sponsoring the event.

On Tuesday last week, several pairs from Matamata went along to the annual Hamilton Ladies tournament - visitors are always well looked after with lunch, atmosphere and pretty competitive bridge across several divisions.

Lesley and Kathy had two great sessions coming in top of the 3A event against a field that included a pretty decent contingent from Waikato, Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.

Lesley and Kathy

Here is Nigel Gresson president of Hamilton enjoying his role flanked by the various division winners including our Lesley and Kathy.

Well done Ladies!

Matamata hosted a 3B Junior Tournament on the weekend and great to see Te Aroha pair Charlotte Jager and Victor Kooter win after two good sessions.Victor and Charlotte: From L-R Victor, Charlotte along with sponsor Joanne Morgan

In second place were Ross and Susan Provan of Putaruru.

Ross and Susan Provan: Ross and Susan with sponsor Joanne Morgan

Best of the Matamata entrants and enjoying a bottle of Kim Crawford wines were Jill Ireland and Malcolm Kirkby who came home in 5th place.

Jill and Malcolm