Not an horrific Halloween as Adrianne and I managed to come first with a Butler score of 59.
Playing N/S our first board was against Charles & Vi.
I opened 1C, Adrianne bid 1H and Vi doubled.
My KS and singleton diamond look very good now and I bid 4H.
Charles bid 5D and Adrianne 5H, everyone else was in 4H. Anyway Adrianne still had no problem as Vi started with two top diamonds.
However, what a problem she would have had if Vi switches to a spade at trick 2. How would she have placed the spades? Against Vi and after the take out double I think I would have gone up with the King.
On this board against Ros and Lewis Geneen I show yet again how to go down in simple contracts.Ros had opened 1NT as East and Adrianne overcalled an Astro 2C. I bid 2H and there I played. Lead was 8S.
I took AS and then KS. I am not going to be in hand very often and if Lewis has a heart honour, there's not much room points wise for KC, so I decide to finesse QC before touching trumps. Ooops!
Lewis takes KC, plays a diamond to Queen, AD, ruff and with two trumps to lose I'm 1 down. Just play Ace and another heart at trick 2, 8 tricks can't fail.
Missed 3NT on this board against Jack and Robert. Adrianne passed as South. I would open this. AJTxx scores more tricks on average than AQxxx (opposite 2 or 3 small), yet everyone opens this with AQxxx in clubs.
Anyway I opened 1NT, Jack overcalled 2S and Adrianne used Lebensohl to put me in 3C. This had no problem after JD lead to King, losing club finesse, heart through. TD exit (double dummy I should have played AD, KD before finessing), won Ace, AS and second finesse making 4 clubs, 4 diamonds and AS. Unfortunately 3NT makes 9 as well, difference is TS is played instead of a heart after the first club finesse, but I just cover with the Queen as I have A9 still. Also I would have played 3 rounds diamonds before the club finesse leaving Jack in a pickle.
On the next board I opened 1C and this was passed out. I went 1 down but my good ness all sorts of contracts were being played here.First of all some Wests would be playing Lucas and open 2H. This is doubled and some Souths might leave that in or bid 2S. North would now bid 3S or even 4S. Weak 2 players might even open West 2H and the bidding would be similar, though now South wouldn't be likely to leave in the double.
If West passes as at my table, North opens 1C, surely passed round to West. Should they protect? I wouldn't at this scoring. You are not missing game and run a greater risk of opponents finding a good spade contract even with the bad break (if partner has 5 spades, (s)he has even less points than you might think and the bigger the North hand. If West does protect with 1H, North doubles (though as some Norths played in 2D presumably they don't have that option). Partner will bid 1S and North should just bid 2S. At least I hope that is what I would have done.
