Monday 13 October

Playing E/W Adrianne and I came second last with a -21 Butler score.  We were never getting a good score as our opponents had this annoying habit of doing the right thing.  However we managed to shoot ourselves in the foot a few times as well.

This is a good example of me going wrong.  After three passes I opened 1D, Adrianne 1S, I rebid 1N and Adrianne raised to 3N.
Alistair led 8C and Dave played the 9 while I won the King.
I have 8 tricks and a heart finesse gives me 9.  However if I can duck a diamond I give myself the combined chance of a 3-3 diamond fit and if that fails I can take the heart finesse. This is a 70% chance rather than just 50%.  So what is that 8C lead?  I soon dispelled the idea of 4th best because with say AQT8 say, Dave would have played the Jack. So, is it a doubleton or MUD? After some thought I decided on MUD and ducked a diamond. Down 1 in a stiff contract.

On this hand I needed two defensive errors to help me home after one error was letting me make it but I contrived to throw the chance away.  It's complicated.
I'm in 5D and South leads away from their AH, so I win with my singleton King. Now all I have to do is cross to Dummy twice with black Aces to lead diamonds and I lose two diamonds for 11 tricks. Why make life easy for yourself?  I looked at all the distribution and decided I should ruff a club as they might well be 5-2.  So at trick two I crossed to AC, ruffed a heart and ruffed a club.  I now led a diamond to my King, South playing the 8.  Now if diamonds are 3-2 it doesn't matter what I do next, just two diamonds to lose. However, I realise it is probably the diamonds that break badly, too late.  I exit with a small diamond to the 10 and the 4-1 break means two more diamonds to lose --- unless.  North exits with a heart and I ruff.  As I am down to two diamonds the same as North I realise that a trump coup is possible. As long as the lead is from Dummy at trick 12 I only lose 1 diamond. Now I need an exact layout of cards.  I cashed two top clubs, finessed QS and bingo!  Dummy on lead with AS and two other cards, North with a heart and AJ trumps, I have KC and Q9 trumps.  I lead AS and North is snookered. Throw the heart and I lead from dummy at trick 12.  Ruff AS with J and I over-ruff and play KC, either way 11 tricks made.