Monday 25 February

Playing N/S with Adrianne, came first with a Butler score of 58. We did not do anything to earn that it just came from doing nothing wrong and picking up points from errors by our opponents. We were unlucky though as we sat out boards 1 and 2 which were rather swingy.  As we sat out we bid them anyway and reached the optimum contract in both, so we missed out on 22 points that we could have gained by our own efforts.

This hand had a very interesting bidding sequence by Bob and Ian.

1H  ---  2N
3H  ---  3N
4D  ---  4N
5D  ---  5N (specific Kings)
6H  (none)

The 2N agreed hearts, 3H showed a minor shortage, 3N asked, 4D was the shortage. Then RKC and Kings.
If you play 'normal' Jacoby.  Then the bidding goes:

1H  ---  2N        (agreeing hearts)
4C  ---  4N        (5 card club suit)
5D  ---  5N        (0 or 3, 0 is unthinkable, partner only has 3 cards in the other suits)
6C

There are 12 certain tricks, can we make a 13th.  Well it is 50-50 partner has doubleton spade in which case 13 is certain as a spade is discarded on the clubs and a spade ruff is available.  If partner has the doubleton diamond a squeeze might be on (swap the N and S hands, also change West's 3S to 3D and you'll see you must make 13 tricks after running all your hearts and clubs).  So a little odds on to make 13, but only bid it if you need the points!

There really wasn't anything to the other boards apart from opponent errors.  Here are two we could have done a bit better though:

Adrianne opened a second in hand 3H and I raised to 4H, Ileen doubled and this was the most common contract.
Adrianne, like everyone else went one down losing four heart tricks.  She thought she should have just opened 2H and that would have been better, though very unlucky with the trump break.  What would I bid over 2H, presumably 2N and when Adrianne bids 3H showing good points, I suppose I would try 3N which makes due to a lucky lie in the diamonds.
Deep Finesse says you can only make 9 tricks in hearts.  How about:  QS lead won by K, QC to AC, KC throw a spade, ruff a club, finesse QD, ruff a club, AS, ruff a spade, AD. You have 9 tricks, You have Qxxx in hand, West has AKJ10 duck a heart to West and you make QH for 10 tricks. What do you mean you're not going to finesse QD and lose 500 points, how do you know there are 4 clubs and not 3 diamonds in West's hand? That's why they call it Double Dummy.

A competitive hand near the end.  Joe opened 1S and Sheila bid 2S. I came in 3H and Joe's 3S came back to me.  I bid 4C, Adrianne 4H and Sheila 4S.  I passed this back to Adrianne who passed, not what I expected.  The opponents were passing out 3S it is really incumbent on partner to double or bid one of my suits at the 5 level.  Adrianne felt she might put this one down but wasn't going to double and flag the position of the Queen, so fair enough.  However 5C and 5H are both unbeatable.  Joe's 4S must go one down losing a trump, two diamonds and a club.