Wednesday 13 February

Playing in a Howell with Gerry came third with 57%.  Could have been better though, I misplayed a few hands. Obviously you need to worry about distributions, bad breaks, what will I do if trumps are 4-1 etc. However you need to keep a positive attitude towards how do you make your contract.  I let the negatives get the better of me.

Gerry, East, opened 1D, Raymond overcalled 4C. I didn't fancy a direct 4S and left playing opposite a doubleton with a bad trump break so I reckoned double was a good two way bet, if Gerry doesn't have a sensible bid he might leave it in.  However Gerry has an obvious 4D and now I bid 4S. Raymond thought about bidding 5C, but passed.
Alec led 10C and I ruffed with the 2S.  Now I thought Raymond most likely has 8 clubs.  He might also have singleton AS. Both of those would make it better if I played a small spade rather than the Jack (playing the Jack and whether Raymond gets in with AS or AH, Alec can ruff a club with the 8S. So I played a small spade, Alec beat my K with A and played a second club. So all my thinking about not playing JS was out the window. I had to win this with the Ace (or see that subsequently  ruffed). I then meant to play another club to ruff with the Jack but a little flustered over misreading the hand I pulled out a spade.  The Jack won I played a heart, Raymond rose with the Ace to play a top club followed by another for Alec to ruff / trump promotion and put me down.
Now if I had just thought more positively, get the trumps out and run all those diamonds.  I just need to play JS at trick two, Alec will hold up until no spades in dummy then play a club, but I have the Ace, draw trumps, run diamonds, easy.

 Here are those negative thought again.  Playing E/W our bidding (without interference) went:
1D - 1S - 1N -2C (checkback) - 2H - 3N
Bob led JH and I won Q in dummy.  This is not a good contract.  Negatively I am playing to escape with one off from the start and plan to keep Nat off lead whenever possible.  Being in dummy it is obvious to play on diamonds first.  Positive thinking would make you finesse JD and cash Ace hoping for doubleton K with South.  I am just thinking of keeping South off lead to avoid a heart back. I led QD, covered by K and A and Bob played the 7.  So the missing cards are 1098.  Now if Bob was doubleton he could have played a higher one. I decided to play him for three so cashed JD and another, but Nat won. Now Nat is not privy to my hand and it is not clear to him to return a heart. If I have AK, I won't have much in clubs, so Nat returned a club, I ducked, Bob won the Jack and returned a club to my Ace.  I now played a spade to the 9 which took the Q, but now Nat returns a heart and I'm off.
Positive thinking would point to the only way to make the contract is for Honour 10 in spades in the North hand. Win QH, cross to AC, finesse 9S and you'll make 9 tricks on a diamond finesse.

Didn't do well on this hand either, everyone in 4H made it except me. I can't see how they managed it but many Wests played it and got AS lead, did they switch to singleton diamond?
Anyway I played it as East and got a friendly lead of a small club from Victor. Winning QC I am thinking too positively about this hand.  I seem just to have two spades to lose, but want to lead towards them.  So at trick two I crossed to AH and led 5S to Q and A. Brian returned a club, I took Ace and led a second spade to J and K, Brian returned a small spade.  Well, if I get over-ruffed with J at least I have 10 tricks, I put in the 6 and Victor discarded. Now I've made this if I play diamond to A, ruff my 4th spade, ruff a club and just lose JH for 10 tricks which is what I was thinking. For some reason (why?) I played KD first, crossed to AD, Brian ruffed, 10S forces KH and promotes JH for one off.  Ugh!