Team Funbridge at the Cyprus Festival
After the Winter Games in Prague, Team Funbridge is now heading for Cyprus, where a bridge festival will be held from 4 to 8 April.
This will be an opportunity for them to discover an island at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East, with its contrasting landscapes between Mediterranean beaches and mountains.
Between two games of bridge, let’s hope that they have time to taste the local food – especially grilled halloumi cheese and mezze – or get lost in the narrow streets of Old Nicosia and Old Limassol.
Image by LaraKoptseva from Pixabay
As for the competition, the festival will start with a 3-day pairs event followed by a 2-day teams event. This will be the first tournament for three new members of Team Funbridge: Ella, Ronald and Nachiketa will join Andrea to defend our colours.
Ella Rosthøj aka
MOUSE
Ronald Goor aka
RONNIE
Andrea Nilsson aka
ANDREW
Nachiketa Muthuswamy aka
NACHOS
Special Cyprus Festival tournament on Funbridge
Join the members of Team Funbridge for the special BP100 Cyprus Festival tournament from Sunday 30 March to Tuesday 1 April. We hope many of you will participate!
Two deals from the tournament analyzed by the Team
This is MKB! I’m going to tell you about my second-best deal, which helped me finish 15th out of 1,120 players with a 71.39% score.
In 6♠, I received the lead of the queen of hearts. Unfortunately, I didn’t have another heart in my hand to finesse the jack. I started by drawing the opponents’ spades with the queen onside. Now I had to play the clubs: I started small towards the jack, I saw the 5 in West and the 9 appeared in East.
To make four club tricks, I have two options: cash the Ace or return to my hand and play the queen. Which information do we have to decide? East’s 9 is either singleton or doubleton with the 10 or the 6. So East must have one or two cards. So there is no point in drawing the Ace since the only good scenario would have been the king falling in West.
But what are the good scenarios for exiting with the queen? K1065 in West because the queen will push out the king and I will only give away the 10. And K65 since the 10 will fall (we call it a pinning play), allowing me to lose no tricks. And if K105 are onside, the card-play technique doesn’t matter.
So I exited with the queen and was rewarded as the 10 fell in East!
6♠ +1 for 94%!
The four hands:
And I’m Nachiketa! I scored 65.16% in this tournament. I’m new to Team Funbridge, and the Cyprus Festival will be my very first competition with the team.
I hold 11 HCP and 5 Diamonds, but my hand has 8 losers and poor suit quality. So, I decide to pass.
When my partner (Argine) opens 1♣ in fourth seat, my right-hand opponent overcalls 1♠.
Keeping in mind that my partner might have opened light in fourth position—and that I shouldn’t aim for overly ambitious contracts in a pairs tournament—I choose a simple 2♦ bid, which ends the auction.
In the 2♦ contract, the lead is the ♠K. The opponents immediately cash three Spade tricks. West holds three Diamonds, including the Queen, so I lose one trick in the trump suit. Unfortunately, the Heart finesse fails.
Final result: 2♦ just made — nearly 65%!
Let’s go Team Funbridge!
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