Against Russell and Len I opened 1S, Gerry bid a game raise through 2NT and I went to 6S. Russell took some time to lead and eventually led JD. I suspect this is from QJx rather than a doubleton, but the extra diamond isn't actually any use to me. I just want to eliminate the red suits, two rounds of trumps and finesse a club. Which is exactly what I did except the trumps don't break and the club finesse is wrong. Three pairs made 6S on a spade lead, so well done Russell for avoiding that lead. Of course even on that lead you have to make sure you eliminate the reds before finessing a club or you could lose 2 clubs.
Gerry got our score back on the next board by being the only one in 3NT instead of the unmakeable 4H. Russell opened 2D multi, Gerry doubled, Len bid 2H (or was it 2S?) and I passed. This came round to gerry who was not shy in venturing 3NT. len led a spade won in hand, Gerry played a small heart and Len won and continued a spade. Hearts didn't break so Gerry cashed 9 tricks. With an obvious AK of diamonds and 2 hearts to come those who bid 4H were off from the start.
Did I say the distributions were dreadful? Every trump suit failed to break. So on this hand against Colin and Helen the bidding went:P - 1D - 1N - 2D
x - 3D - P - P
x - P - 3H
I would normally assume that double after partner bids a NT is penalty, but when Helen bid 3D I was thinking it was just take out, however I passed and Gerry doubled again. Good score if I leave that in, but I'm now thinking he's maybe 4-4-0-5, so I bid 3H.
Anyway diamond lead to K and A, ruff 4D in dummy, cash AH. Helen's 10 appears.Now there are only 17 points missing, Helen has about 12 with presumably 5 diamonds, surely she has singleton heart for her 3D bid. Restricted choice also says with J10 she could have played either making a singleton more likely. So, silly me, I cross to AC and finesse 9H, down 1. The only trump suit that was breaking and I played it for 4-1.
This was a typical hand on the night. Gerry opened an off-centre 1N, I transferred to spades and Gerry bid 3S (minimum points, 4 spades). No idea whether this makes or not, but I bid 4S.
Bob Brown leads JH to King and Ace, Dave returned JD. Gerry tried to cash both diamonds letting go a club, but Dave over-ruffs, a club to Bob and another diamond ensures another trump trick for the defence. Two spades, two hearts and a club for 2 off.
Only ourselves to blame for this debacle. Against Margaret and Ann, Gerry opened 1H and Margaret bid a conservative 1S, I bid 4H, back to Margaret who bid 4S. Now my hand says bid 5H, but do I know 4S is making, is it 5Hx down 2 and 4S -1? Anyway I passed, partner certainly knows I'm 5 hearts and limited strength. Gerry doubles 4S. I'm not happy about passing but we could easily have 2 trump tricks and 2 minor tricks, so 4Sx it is. But that's not the worst of it.
I led a heart, ruffed, KS to my Ace, another heart ruffed, Margaret drew trumps and ran JC, seeing my 2C Gerry ducks. Margaret plays another club and ..... rises with the Ace for 12 tricks! We actually have to start with two rounds of diamonds to beat this then when I win AS I can give Gerry a ruff. But why didn't I bid 5H?
No comments:
Post a Comment