Tuesday 12 July 2016

Monday 11 July

Playing N/S with Adrianne came in the middle with a Butler -2 score.


This is not a hand you see very often, eleven top spades.

Lester opened 2C, I bid 2D and Barry 3D.  Lester bid 4NT, two Aces reply and assuming I had AD, Lester bid 6S.
Out of fourteen tables only six made a slam.  Four were in a grand and four in game.

This sort of hand hardly comes up very often but when it does the thing to do is open 4NT.  This asks for SPECIFIC Aces.  5C none, 5D/H/S or 6C is that Ace and 5NT is two Aces.
In this case you get a two Ace answer, unfortunately you cannot find out which two, but at least you are in slam.

Thi sis the sort of aggregate game you should bid and the play here is interesting as well.
I opened 1S, that looks minimum but the spade sequence, the intermediates and 5431 distribution makes it anything but.  Adrianne bid a common or garden Acol 3S and I raised to 4S.  As I said I am not minimum, I have a 9 card trump fit worth extra and I am hoping my singleton is working.
Only 4 out of 14 are in 4S.  Some play in hearts, that is dreadful.  If partner opens 1S you should never contemplate 2H,in fact Acol relies on limit bids to work and you have a simple 3S limit.

Now the play.  Mervyn led an unusual TD to Lewis' Jack and I ruffed the diamond return. I played QS, covered and can now guarantee my contract whatever the heart disposition.
I drew trumps in two rounds, cashed AC, overtook QC, played JC and ruffed TC.  I now led a heart and just have to cover whatever Lewis plays.  He put up the Ten, I played the Jack and no mater where the Ace is, when Mervyn wins the Q he has to lead back a heart towards my King or give me a ruff in dummy and a heart discard.

Another wild hand.
Adrianne opened 1S and I bid 2C.  Adrianne bid 2H (2NT is OK but we don't play checkback) and I bid 3D (4th suit for now).  Adrianne bid 3NT and I now showed my hand with 4D, natural and slam interest.  Adrianne cued 4H, I bid 4NT and 5C reply (0 or 3) tells me a keycard is missing as one of her three is AH.  I bid 6D.

JH lead won in Dummy, I then played a spade to the King.  Missing K and J in a suit is always a nuisance, when you have the Q,T and 9 you are best to play the double finesse.  This is a 75% chance when the suit breaks and takes away the horrible decision you have to make if you play AD and small towards QT when no honour has appeared. So I ran QD and it was not covered, I finessed 9D in case the 8 had been singleton and that was my only loser.
Only 5 of us in a slam, I'm the only one in diamonds, the rest are in 6NT or 6C, much more sensible when you have 12 top tricks and don't have to find any diamonds!

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