Thursday 4 December

Just a 5.5 table Howell at the club.  Gerry and I came first with 59.7%

A lot of people who play weak NT won't open basic 12 counts when vul, especially vs non-vul. However I think if you want to play weak, then play it. If you can't stand the odd -500 or even -800 then play variable.
As North I opened 1N and Gerry raised to 3N shutting out West.
Alex led 4D to Q and K, Rod returned KS to Dummy's Ace. I finessed JH which held and led a diamond to the 8.  I followed with JD and Alex ducked
Nine tricks are in the bag, I ran clubs ending in Dummy and played a spade.  Rod took the Q and exited with TH but I wasn't being fooled.  I took AH and JS for 10 tricks.
We were the only pair in 3N.  Two are in 4S by West and there is a 3H by North.

I opened East 2H, Donny overcalled 2S and Gerry bid 4H. North is a bit stymied and Katie quite reasonably passed.
KC lead which I took right away, drew trumps, tried a diamond to K but lost the obvious 4 tricks.
Two pairs are in 4S by South, one in 5Cx by East (better than defending 4S).
The interesting thing is the swing caused by the position of AD.  If South has it, E/W make 4H, 4S goes down, lying with North, 4S makes, 4H is off.

I opened North 1D, Davina doubled (1N better) and Gerry bid 1N which was passed out.
Mary led 2C (bad lead as what does South have after 1D - 1N?). Davina took AC and returned a club to J and K. Gerry cashed his 3 club tricks then ran QD to the K.  Davina exited with KH to Gerry's Ace.  Gerry cashed his diamonds and exited with JH end playing Davina who had to lead from Kx of spades into Dummy's AQ.
Nine tricks but a different story if West finds a heart lead or even a spade and heart switch from East.

This was our last board against Raymond and Joyce.  The scrolling results were on the screeen and we were about 0.25% in the lead.
I opened East 2H, Gerry bid 2N asking and after a little thought I decided to bid 3S showing a max with diamonds.
I should be 5-5 vul against not, though with a decent hand I might not, so thought about showing minimum, but what the hell.
Gerry bid 6N.
Joyce led TS and Gerry the suit to get the bad news.  In theory finessing TH is best chance for 5 tricks but you can see the problem with that. If it loses a club trough could be a disaster.  Gerry played AH, KH, QH.  S far so good but he ain't out of the woods yet. All hearts cashed it is now AQ of diamonds and the Jack falls. Breathe again.
As it happens even the AC is right  so it was can't fail all the way.
When we entered the results we see that the others are in hearts or spades making 10, 11 or 12.  3NT would have been a top!  We increased our lead to 2 percentage points and that was that.