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.