Friday 19 October 2012

Wednesday 19 October

Playing N/S with Gerry came joint second with 57%, felt like more as we had a number of obvious tops, unfortunately too many bad ones kept the score down.

 There were a number of big swingy boards.  I got this one wrong.  John opened 1S and Gerry bid 2S (normally weak).  Cathy bid 4S and this was passed round to Gerry who surprisingly bid 5D.  This went round to John who bid 5S and Gerry doubled.
Now I know Gerry obviously has some top tricks but think he has 6 diamonds and we have no tricks there. If he has three tricks outside diamonds could we make 6D anyway? As usual when I don't know what to do, I chose to bid and so we played in 6Dx -1 instead of defending 5Sx for 1 off.  Strangely if I had had the AC instead of KC, would I have passed? I might have, yet we would have made 6D.

On the next board nobody found the slam.  Against Steve and Marilyn we had no chance.  Steve opened 4S, I doubled and Gerry bid 5D.  Nothing else either of us could do really, that's why you pre-empt.
If East opens 3S at least you can find the heart fit.  Presumably 3S - x - 4S - 5H, though with six diamonds you are taking a risk.  It is now possible to bid 6H, in fact I think I would, how is partner finding a vulnerable 5H bid assuming no points in spades?  So always pre-empt to your limit and don't give the opponents room.



We had a mix up against Charles and Vi.  Charles opens 1C alerted so I passed, Vi bid 1D alerted and Gerry bid 2D.  I didn't alert, was this not diamonds?? Charles bid 2N, I bid 3C, Vi 3N which came round to me and I bid 4C, doubled, passed out.
Vi led 6S but Charles didn't see me with four and played the 10.  I quickly played A and another club so lost two clubs, two diamonds and a spade for 2 off. 3N would have made and we actually got above average as most played in clubs by me, even as high as 5Cx.  Presumably East opened 1D and they overcalled some number of clubs.  So we were the only ones who could have found the spade fit (4S makes by ruffing a couple of hearts). Unfortunately we need some agreements on these systems.

One of our poor scores against David and Katie. Our bidding went:
1S -  P  - 2C - 2D
4C -  P  - 4S -  P
4N -  P  - 5S -  P
6S

I bid 4S as the practical Match Points bid. Unfortunately Gerry is strong with this double fit.  Now with the 5S bid he knows two Keycards are missing, but if I have AC rather than KS, with the overcall implying the King might be onside, Gerry optimistically went for the slam.  As usual I don't have what is required.

 Gerry quickly made up for it with a top on the next board.  After three passes he opens 1H, East passed again and I tried to think of something clever I could bid, but opted for the sensible pass.  David protected with 2C, Gerry doubled, Katie bid 3C and I bid 3D.  Gerry bid 3H, Katie 4C and I bid 4D.  Gerry thought obviously 4H had as mush chance as 4D so bid the game.  Katie led AC and that was it, hearts were 3-3, just two spades to lose, game made.  Surprisingly nobody else found 4H.
 Not to be outdone I managed a joint top on the next one.  We play Lucas but I don't think it is right when your A and K are not in the suits, so I passed. Gerry opened 1H, I bid 1S, 3S from Gerry and the obvious 4S from me.
David led a club and it was very disappointing to see 9 of our points in that suit and I'm playing now to avoid 2 down.
I won KC, cashed AK of spades, AC and discarded a heart.  Now AH and heart to dummy got the King from David who is stuck.  The only way to beat this now is a small diamond which is unlikely.  In practice he played a third heart, I took the Queen discarding a diamond, took out last trump and the 4th heart gave me another diamond discard and 10 tricks.

 What do you call a 9 card suit?  Trumps.
Well only if you don't have a fit with partner.
David opened 1D and Gerry (knowing this bidding wasn't going to stop early) bid 2C.  Katie passed (?) and I bid 2S, Gerry tried 3D and I bid 3S, so Gerry went for 4S.
David led AD and switched to a small spade which I won with the 8.
I have no option now, just ruffed a diamond, crossed to KC, ruffed a diamond.  Played AC and discarded 10H, David ruffing and I eventually lost a heart for one off.
5C of course has no chance with me bidding spades.  Katie will lead a diamond to Ace and David plays A and another spade for a ruff.  The trouble is two people in 5C doubled made it.

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