Thursday 7 May 2015

Wednesday 6 May

Playing N/S with Gerry came 1st with 64%.  A few ups and downs as is our want but luckily more ups.




A very lucky early board where East opened 1S and Gerry bid 3H.  That came round to me and as Gerry was red against green I hoped for an excellent 6 card suit or a good 7 carder.  I bid 3N.

Club lead and that was 9 tricks.
Fortune definitely favoured the brave, looks like 1 off on a spade lead, however if I win third spade (West is unlikely to find the killing QC switch) and run the hearts, East discards three clubs and a spade.  I let 2 clubs and 2 diamonds go. I run the 10C to bare Ace, East cashes spade and I let diamond go. Exit with diamond and I have two minor winners.
East has to keep another spade and come down to singleton KD, very unlikely.  However I wasn't tested to see if I could manage it.




We overbid an earlier board against Fudge and Alan but came back with this one.  Charles passed and Gerry opened an inventive 1H.  Alan doubled, I bid 2H and Charles doubled.  I think Gerry now bid 3H (well it keeps them out of a diamond contract!) and Alan doubled, passed out.

Double Dummy this can be beaten but West unlikely to lead a heart. It was AS then a fortuitous club switch. Gerry won the QC and ruffed a spade, AC, ruff a spade, KD, AD, ruff. Ruff a third spade, which cannot be over-ruffed as Charles only has diamonds left.  Exit with club and a fourth club but all Gerry loses is a spade, club and two hearts.   3Hx made.






Playing 4 card majors and weak NT it is usually best to open North 1N which, after three passes is what I did.  (It also makes it harder for East to overcall spades).
Gerry bid Stayman and although the soft values in the minors might not be worth much, the spade suit looks great, so he raised to 3H.  I like 9 card fits, I often give myself 3 extra points, so raised 3H to 4H.
Again I wasn't tested as East led JH.  I won QH, crossed to QS, finessed a heart and cashed AH.  Another spade and defence could just take their three Aces.








Most people defended a spade contract going down.  Presumably two passes, 1D - 1S - 2C - 3S and there it might subside or North goes to 4D and E/W bid 4S.
Not at our table.
I opened 3C and Gerry raised to 5C, passed out.
Derek led 4S to David's K and David thought and thought.  I thought 'please don't lead a heart' as I counted my sure 11 tricks even if the diamond finesse fails.  Eventually David put down KH, Derek played the 2.
Now the diamond finesse must work or I am down, however what if hearts are 3-3, as it appears.  If I lead a heart from the table and David takes his supposed QH I have the extra chance of the JH and 4th heart coming good, I can discard a diamond on that 4th heart and so don't need a finesse.
That is what I went for, David and Derek cashed their two hearts for 1 down (a diamond went on that 4th heart).  I would actually have been two down if I had drawn trumps and finessed a diamond.  Brilliant heart switch and no, I'm never finding the doubleton QD for 12 tricks!



Got one back again on David and Derek shortly after. David opens 1S and I overcalled 2D ( I don't like using Unusual NT for powerhouses). Derek bid 4S, round to me.  Now Derek's bid could be quite weak with 4 or 5 spades (they play 5 card majors).  I feel I must bid 5C, well that's why I didn't use 2NT. Derek doubled expecting me to have some diamond losers and this was passed out.
Derek led a club to cut down on diamond ruffs but I took two rounds of trumps, AK of diamonds, 10D, covered, ruffed.  I exited with a spade to David who came back a heart.  I won AH and led 9D, covered and ruffed.  I just lose 1 heart and 1 spade.







Everyone is in 3N on this deal and almost everyone makes 11 tricks.
Gerry opened 1D, I bid 1H and Jennifer came in 2C.  2D from Gerry and I bid 3N.

Jennifer led KC, John played the 5 and I ducked.  Jennifer continued QC and John played the 2.  I asked about showing count and it looked like it was the doubleton it appeared.  You are not playing aggregate so no point in another duck for safety when you have the chance of the rest of the tricks.  So I took AC, ran QD, 10D and cashed all the diamonds.  John is squeezed, he can't come down to singleton KS (I checked by cashing AS) and had to let a heart go so I made 12 tricks.




No comments: