Monday 3rd September

Playing N/S with Adrianne just above average with a Butler score of 10.  Not a lot to the hands we played which mostly went as they should.  Except for one silly mistake by me when I thought I was opening a pre-empt of 3D, I hadn't noticed the 1S bid on my right.  At red vs green this is strong.  I played in 5Dx for -800 against the normal -420 for their 4H.

 We were among the unlucky 5 out of 15 pairs who bid this excellent slam.  Against Peter and Willie I opened 1S, Adrianne 2H and I raised to 3H. Adrianne soon bid 6H via RKC.
Peter led a club taken in dummy and after a heart to Ace to get the bad news, Adrianne cashed Ace and another club ruffed.  She took another 2 rounds of hearts and tried spades but was one down.
6S is of course basically the same.

 Not a big score on this hand but I at least got the us the best out of it.  Against Dave and Bob I opened 1H, Dave overcalled 2D and Adrianne doubled. So Adrianne has exactly four spades and at most 3 hearts.  I'll assume Dave has 5 diamonds to the AK.  Even if Adrianne has 9/10 points, we are not making 3NT, in fact are we even going to make 8 tricks?  This is the problem with aceless hands, they aren't worth as much as you think.  However I reckoned we could defeat 2D and maybe get lucky with 2 off.  So I passed.  Adrainne led 10H to Q and Ace.  With the heart pips favourable after the lead of that 10, declarer can get home now after AK and another diamond.  However you would expect trumps to be 4-2 and be worried about going more off if you did that.  So we came to a spade, a heart, a heart ruff, 2 clubs and a diamond for 1 off, +200 against 2NT going one off.

This was an interesting 3NT against John and Jennifer.  I opened 2NT, Jennifer thought about bidding and passed, Adrianne raised me to 3NT.
Jennifer led a diamond to my King, I played AC and Jennifer followed with JC and John with 7C. Looked like both doubleton so I followed with the KC, gave up a club and made 10 tricks.
No problem on a diamond lead, but what about a spade lead?  I need to cash 9 tricks now.  Would I have got the clubs?  Well not if John plays that 7, I'll still go for the drop.  So good illustration of why play cards that are of no interest to your partner but which might help declarer.  Play 6C and I'll always cross to dummy to finesse.