The final Swiss Pairs evening on Tuesday 21 November saw Alan and Vivien triumphant, including winning the last round against the fancied guest expert pair of Warren Lazer and Pauline Gumby.
Warren and Pauline had a bidding problem in the last round when they missed a slam after an intervening bid prevented their being certain they had slam range points. Warren opened 1C which in their system can be a 17-20HCP hand as well as a 12-14 ish 1C opening. When Alan or Vivien intervened with a 3C overcall, Pauline bid 3NT. Warren with 20HCP passed not sure if Pauline had stretched with a club stopper. A slam went begging.
Earlier just before the session, Warren had spoken on "What to count, How to count" starting with the basics and with efficient ways to store information about hand shapes that emerges during the play of a board, and ending up with using counting to determine how to play the last few tricks with confidence. That will be our last Swiss Pairs for 2017 with the 2018 season planned to start on Tuesday 23 January.
