Monday 21 December

Playing Aggregate Pairs with Adrianne we came 4th, 740 points behind the winners. Most hands were flatish but there were a lot of slams around. We should have won easily because we missed the two slams our way (there is actually a 3rd, but it is missing 2 key cards, but makes by finessing the King of trumps). Both slams we missed are really quite easy to bid, on one we had a mix up, our agreement is after a 2NT opening 4C is for Aces, 4NT is quantative, one of us forgot and 4NT was passed.

The other slam should always be bid:



Adrianne opens 1C, I bid 1H, Adrianne bids 2C. I would have thought of rebidding 1NT with the South hand, but 2C is fine. I now bid 2D and Adrianne bid 2NT.
This is a mistake, the hand is very maximum, really you must bid 3NT as my 2D is 10+.

I still really wanted to go on over 2NT but chickened out and settled for 3N. Partner should be 11 or 12 with 6 clubs, so if 6 clubs are running, she won't have AS and AD and the lead is into wrong hand, though QS, AD and AQ to 6 clubs makes a decent slam which was why I was reluctant not to go on.

If partner bids 3NT I have no problem bidding 6.

Only 2 tables out of 8 bid the slam. Playing weak NT a 1C - 2C rebid is always 6 or 5C and 4D, my 2D bid confirms that partner has 6 clubs, so counting 12 likely tricks isn't difficult.

Having said we could have won, we were very lucky on this board:

Adrianne opened 1NT and West passed. To me, my hand looks as likely to make 9 or 7 tricks as make 8 (the hand actually makes 8 tricks, shows what I know). At aggregate I'm not going to pass, so I bid 3NT

However after a spade lead, a diamond to King and Ace, defenders continued King of spades and East made an unblock of the Queen, they continued sopades, so Adrianne made two overtricks, so the hand was actuually 8 or 11 tricks!

Nobody else was in 3NT, but most Wests wouldn't hesitate to make an Astro type overcall making life difficult for North.

On board 16 like most people we passed thoughout and defended 4H. At two tables N/S are in 5Dx and at one 5H, presumably after a 5D.

At our table it went 1NT - 2H - 2S - 4H passed out. Should South come in 5D now? Should South have bid 3D after the transfer?

At match points I think South should definitely bid 5D after the 4H. 4H must make 620, surely you can't lose more than 800 on a bad day and have every chance of -500 for an improved score.

Bidding it at aggregate doesn't seem a good idea, for what might be a small gain, but well done to those who did and saved 350 (-300 against -650)