Friday 30 November 2012

Thursday 29 November

Playing N/S with Gerry we came first with 61%.

 We overstretched to 4S after Joyce opened 1D as East, Gerry bid 1S, Vi 2D and I bid 3S, Gerry 4S.
Vi led 2D to K and A, Gerry crossed to AH and led a spade to 9 and J. Vi cashed QD and played a heart to Gerry's K, a spade cleared the suit and Joyce played a third heart for Gerry to ruff.  Gerry crossed to 10S and led QC, Joyce covered and Gerry took the Ace.
Now you don't cover until you have to, Joyce should only have had a doubleton (or singleton) King or else she would wait to cover the Jack. So Gerry reasoned it is 2-1 odds Vi has the 10 and he finessed 8C, one off.
We're the only ones to bid 4S, good reasoning turned a top into a bottom.

Got a good/lucky top against Len and Avril. Gerry opened 1H, passed round to Avril who bid 2C.  Gerry bid 2H, Len 3C, I bid 3H.  Back to Len with 4C.
Now Gerry bid 2H on his own vulnerable, certainly six, hopefully good ones like AK. Now we could have 6 hearts and two club ruffs right away.  Surely we have good chances of two more tricks. However one off doubled will be a bottom.  Should I even double 4C? When in doubt I'm a bidder, so 4H which was doubled on principle by Len.
A heart wasn't led so Gerry got the two club ruffs as well as picking up six hearts giving 11 tricks. Nobody else in 4H, mind you 4Cx would have been a big score as well.

Steve Bailey playing with John McIntyre played this hand really well against us. Playing 3N by East Gerry led 3H and Steve won the Q in Dummy. He now needs to keep me off lead and played 10S, I covered and he took the K.
He now cashed 4 diamonds and I have to decide what discard to make.  I can't let a spade go and want to keep my hearts. I toyed with 2C which asks for a club, but decided to be 'sensible' and let 9C go which Steve inquired about. Gerry let a heart go. He now led a spade from Dummy, inserting the 9, so Gerry won Q. Gerry played a club, but Steve put on the Queen. A third spade to Ace, Gerry discards a club. Steve now plays A and another club end playing Gerry to get his KH and a top score for 10 tricks.  Should I discard 2C? Steve would surely go up with Ace and hope to bring the spades home.  Well played anyway.

Two hands later Steve was trying was the brilliancy prize but unfortunately it backfired.
John opened 1D and although I am strong, I can't see any other practical bid than 4H.  Luckily Steve can't risk 4S as if it is doubled, not knowing his partner has 7,  he can't stand 5D either!  So 4H it was.
Steve led KD which was allowed to hold.  He is desperate for a ruff / trump promotion, which black Ace might his partner hold?  He tries ---- 2C and that's 10 tricks for me with a spade ruff.
Was it reckless? Well he needs to seek an entry, but maybe a spade might have been a better two way bet i.e. partner might have AS or AQ clubs might be over the K.

Only two pairs managed to find 3N on these N/S cards.  Maybe that's because it goes down!
Anyway John opened 1S and I decided my best bid was double (Gerry isn't likely to have the values to suddenly jump to 3H never mind 4H). Steve passes and Gerry is stuck but chooses 2C.  I now bid 2S, Gerry 2N and I bid 3N, Gerry should have something with both opponents silent.
Hearts doesn't sound like the lead when I had a take out double of 1S.  John made the more obvious lead of a small spade.  Gerry won in Dummy, immediately played a club to K and A and that was 9 tricks as you must get another spade or a heart.


We must have been cruising with a high sixties percentage until the last two boards against David and Katie.  I embarrassed myself by some wild bidding with 5-1-6-1 shape and 5 points (4 off). Then on the last board David and Katie missed their 5-5 heart fit to play in 1N.  This cannot be defeated (although I gave a misjudged signal to allow it to make overtricks), but others are in 4H going off.  So two duck eggs to finish, but we scraped home first.

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