Thursday 24 January

Playing N/S with Gerry had a great game to come first with 68%.  Although I got us a bottom early on by doubling Ileen in an unbeatable game, it was just a night when everything went right.

Brd12 with N/S vul, dealer West, two passes to John, East, who opened 1C. Gerry bid 1S and Steve bid a competitve 3C.  This was passed back to Gerry who doubled.  I only bid 3H, but Gerry raised to 4H.  This went round to John who bid 5C.  Back to me. I was actually thinking Gerry might be 6-4-3-0 as he hadn't doubled the first time.  I could bring those spades in, make 650 instead of 3 or 500.  So I bid 5H.
John led KC and I ruffed in dummy. Only 5 spades to AJ10 but I still need to bring them in and although I suspect John has singleton heart for his 5C, I have to play on spades before a diamond is led. So I played KH, AH then led 9S.  John split his honours and I took AS and continued JS.  Now a diamond from Jxx is difficult to find and John continued clubs.  I ruffed again in dummy, ruffed a spade and exited with a heart.  Steve took his Queen and returned a club.  I won my Ace, crossed to AD and dumped two diamonds on the spades for 11 tricks.  I'm lucky, I think I should have finessed that heart, then play on spades and even a diamond switch now can't beat me.

Brd 18 with N/S vul, dealer East. Gerry opted to open 1N and I transferred then bid 3D to which Gerry bid 3N. I decided to leave it there, there's no ruffing value, partner's points are likely to be mostly in clubs and hearts, there's a decent chance you make the same tricks in 3N as 4S.
Issy led JD and Gerry took his Ace.  He drove out AH and Issy played another diamond.  Gerry now neatly played the 3S from dummy round to Issy's 10.  Another diamond, cash the hearts, spade finesse and make the rest.  I got away with it by Gerry's good play, safer to bid 4S!

Just to prove it wasn't all just luck for us we were let down by the odds on this hand against Victor and Willy.
With his 9 trick hand and lacking a Texas option, Gerry opened 2C and I was disappointed to eventually find there was a missing keycard and just had to settle for 6S.
We are the only pair in this contract yet only a 4-0 trump break can defeat it.  Oh well, 1 down it was.