Monday 14th July

There were four hands in the slam region for N/S last night. One pair bid them all and made three of them. We bid two and made one. Here are the four hands:

Board 3:

Adrianne as South opened 1S, West bid 2D and I bid 3S which we play as a genuine Acol raise. Adrianne bid 6S. This is not a bad punt, the Losing Trick Count says there are 12 tricks, if I don’t have any significant points in diamonds, then I will have AS, KH and a club honour, also QC might be with East. However West leads the AD and Adrianne had to lose 2 clubs. Our slam pair made this one, must have got Ace of clubs lead. We were the only two pairs to bid it.

Board 8:
Two pairs bid 6S on this one, our slam pair made it, the other pair didn’t. Adrianne and I quickly settled in 4S after 1NT – 2C – 2S – 4S. I had no problem making 12 as I got a trump lead and so played for the drop. Playing aggregate, I drew 3 rounds of trumps, knocked out AD and took the heart finesse for 12. In slam (or MPs) you really want to ruff two clubs to avoid the heart finesse, but this could be a problem depending on the lead. Not a slam I would want to be in

Board 11:

Nearly everyone is in 6 here. Both 6H and 6NT making:
Our bidding went 2NT – 3D – 3H – 4NT – 5D – 6NT. This was a mix up, we play 4C asking over NT openings, my 4NT is quantative, hoping that if my partner was looking at three good hearts she would bid 6H, or a maximum with 2 hearts bid 6NT. Over the unexpected 5D, I don’t know if she has 3 hearts or not, so just punted 6NT. Whatever you are in there is just one heart loser.
Our slam pair were in 6H as were most people.

Board 22:

The final slam isn’t a slam at all and this is the one our slam pair failed in. They were the only ones in it, however I had encouraged for one.

Our bidding went 1C – 1S – 2D(!?) – 3C – 3NT – 4C – 5C
The 2D is an error, the rebid should be 2NT. Over the reverse I set the suit and over 3NT my 4C is a slam try. 5C is no picnic, but Adrianne brought it home.

Thursday 3rd July

Board 5

..................ME
............... ♠ 5
............... ♥ 10 8 7 5 4 2
............... ♦ K 2
............... ♣ Q 7 6 3
♠ A Q 9 4................. ♠ K J 7
♥ A....................... ♥ 9 6
♦ J 6 3.................... ♦ Q 9 7 5 4
♣ A K 8 5 2............... ♣ J 10 4
.................Adrianne
............... ♠ 10 8 6 3 2
............... ♥ K Q J 3
............... ♦ A 10 8
............... ♣ 9
After two passes Adrianne opened the South hand 1S, West bid 1NT and I bid 2H which is weakish with heart length, to play. East thought passing would not get a good score and bid 2NT, Adrianne bid 3H and West bid 3NT to end the bidding.

I led a heart and West cashed his 7 tricks for two down. However East was right as letting us play in hearts would be a bad score as we make 10 tricks., but we’ll never bid the game, but should I have doubled? I think so.


Board 8: Our bidding went (with no interference) 1D – 1H – 1S – 1NT – 2H – P

..................ME
............... ♠ 9 4 3 2
............... ♥ A K 4
............... ♦ A K 6 3 2
............... ♣ 6
♠ J 10 7................. ♠ K Q 6
♥ Q 3.................... ♥ 10 8 7 6
♦ 10 8 4.................. ♦ J 9
♣ A K 10 7 5............. ♣ Q 9 3 2
.................Adrianne
............... ♠ A 8 5
............... ♥ J 9 5 2
............... ♦ Q 7 5
............... ♣ J 8 4
This is a very difficult contract to devise a good play for. This is what Adrianne did.
West led AC and continued a club which Adrianne ruffed. She now played a diamond to the Queen, ruffed her last club and then two top diamonds, East ruffing the second one. A heart came back to dummy’s Ace and Adrianne led another diamond on which East discarded a club and Adrianne discarded a spade, West wins with QH. West played his last club, East discarded a spade and Adrianne ruffed. Adrianne played Ace and another spade end playing East to make the last two hearts for 9 tricks.

On board 21 I am in the obvious 4H. This contract has an obvious 4 losers but can defenders ever take their tricks?

..................ME
............... ♠ K
............... ♥ K Q 7 6 2
............... ♦ J 10 9
............... ♣ Q J 7 5
♠ 9 7 5 3 2................. ♠ J 10 8 6
♥ 4......................... ♥ A 9 3
♦ A 5 3...................... ♦ K 7 6
♣ K10 6 2....................♣ 9 8 3
................Adrianne
............... ♠ A Q 4
............... ♥ J 10 8 5
............... ♦ Q 8 4 2
............... ♣ A 4

I got the 8C lead and took the Ace. I played a spade to the King and then a small heart to dummy. Well at some point we have all put up an Ace and crashed our partner’s singleton King, West just isn’t going to rise with the Ace, dummy’s Jack wins and two diamonds go on the AQ spades. But sometimes we have to ask ourselves, why did Declarer play a spade to the King before playing a trump? And if partner gives count on the spade perhaps we will have the answer.

Monday 30th June

Made a nice 9 tricks on this No Trump hand:

The lead was a heart, won by the 10 in dummy. I played KS, ducked, followed by 10S taken by Ace (better to duck twice), East showing out. Another heart was played to dummy's Ace. I now led a small diamond to my Queen, East playing the 10D. I know from the carding that East started with 6 hearts, has been shown to have 1 spade and it looks like doubleton, possibly singleton diamond. It looks like I can end play west in either spades or diamonds. I exit with 7S to West's 8. West plays JC ducked all round followed by another club to my Ace. I cashed KH and decided to end play in spades so I cashed QS and exited with 6S to get a diamond into my AJ for 9 tricks (3 diamonds, 3 hearts, 2 spades and a club).

Just one thing --- I was only in 2NT. Adrianne opened 1C and our bidding went 1C - 1S - 2C - 2NT - P.

I would not have opened Adrianne's hand 1C, 1NT is surely better, bidding that suit twice --ugh! However we will still bein 2NT after 1NT - 2H - 2S - 2NT - P

On hand 22 we ended up in an impossible 4S after 1S - 2S - 3D - 4S:

Adrianne does well to make 8 tricks, but at Match Points we shouldn't have been there. South has a 7 loser hand and I have the expected 9 losers for my raise to 2. South should pass 2S. Then over the trial bid I could still settle for 3S, maximum points but stiff QJ of clubs probably not worth anything.