Monday 11 February

Playing N/S with Adrianne we came 3rd with a Butler score of 26.

I landed lucky on this hand against Joe and Sheila when our bidding went:
1D - 1S - x - P
1N - P  - 3N - passed out
Adrianne's double promised 4 hearts, but she is a bit stuck. I would have bid 2D or even 1N (I'm used to losing the first 5 tricks).
Anyway Sheila led JH which I covered with the Q and that held. Prospects didn't look good, a 3-3 diamond break and an endplay on Sheila in spades looks the only hope. Need to rid her of clubs though. So I led a small club from dummy hoping Sheila had an honour and Joe would play low. Joe played the 10 and lucky for me my Jack won. If diamonds are 3-3 I make this regardless. I return a club ducked to Joe's 9 and he returns KC to my Ace and Sheila discards a spade. I now played A and Q diamond, Sheila discards another spade. She must be 6-4 in the majors. I cashed my other top diamond and played Ace and another heart. Sheila cashes her three heart tricks but Joe must keep his diamond and is loath to let his QC go, he discards his two spades. So I got my spade end play as Sheila had to lead away from KS and my J and A won the last two tricks.

They got me back on the next hand. Sheila opened 1C and Adrianne bid 2N (I'd prefer 1S with those defensive tricks). Anyway Joe passed(3C?) and I bid 3S. This confused Adrianne, was this showing strength instead of asking for her major? Anyway she bid 4S and Joe doubled.
Sheila led KC and switched to JD. So what is Joe's double? He must have clubs but didn't bid, surely it is based on KQxx of spades. Well, I need to set up diamonds without loss (I'm losing two spades and a club) and that looks like a doubleton diamond from Sheila. Now if she has singleton 9S I don't want to be over-ruffed.  So I reckoned I could afford one round of spades as Joe won't want to continue them and lead away from his holding. So I won AD and  led a small spade from dummy.  As expected Joe rose with the King and he continued a diamond which I took perforce in hand.  I crossed to AH and led a diamond which I ruffed with the 7 and Sheila over-ruffed with the 9. I still need to ruff a diamond to avoid two down, expecting to lose QS to Joe. Sheila returned a heart, I ruffed a club and led a 4th diamond, ruffed with the Jack and you could have swallowed me whole when Sheila over-ruffed with the Queen. A straightforward 10 tricks were there for the taking. Joe's double is the sort of tactic Zia is famous for. It certainly threw me.

An annoying hand against David and Katie.  Without interference our bidding went:
 P - 1H - 1S - 1N - 3D - 3H - 3S - 3N - 4H - 4S

Katie led a small club and my King held, I threw a diamond.  Why is everyone out to confuse me? I led 10S, why, oh why, what's wrong with 8S? Anyway David won the Ace and  returned a club. I ruffed and played QS to Katie's King and a third spade loser showed up because I'd played that 10.
Katie exited with AC, I ruffed, cashed JS and played on hearts. Luckily Katie didn't ruff the first time and I went 1 down.  Note I can still make after Katie wins KS and returns AC.  As before ruff, cash JS leaving Katie with a winning 9S and me with 6S. I cross to AH and lead QD covered by KD.  I cross to KH and run 9D. Katie can ruff any red winner whenever she likes, I have 10 tricks.
Interestingly Deep Finesse says the defence always defeat 4S, I can't see it.  3N would have been interesting.  A club to the Ace and another club.  Now you must play on diamonds as you can't go out twice to spades and they lie perfectly to go with the 3-3 heart break for an easy game.

Thursday 8 February

Playing in a Howell with Gerry we won with a good score of 66%.

 Against David and Katie we had just had a bottom being left to play in 2C with our 16 points between us going off.  Whereas other E/W had competed in the wrong suit and gone down.
Anyway Davis opened 1C, Gerry overcalled 2S and Katie doubled and David bid 2N raised to 3 by Katie.
Gerry led 2D, low from Dummy and I inserted the 10 which forced the Ace. David led over to AC and tabled JH.  Now Gerry only needs QJ10xxx QH and QD for his bid, that could give David 9 tricks if I let this go to his King.  So, not wanting to let my partner's good lead go to waste, I jumped up with AH, led back a diamond to the Q and we had 4 diamonds and a heart for one off.  Maybe if I'd played low we would have put it two off but even at Match Points if partner has found a good lead make sure you don't squander it.

Against Steve and Kirsten I opened North 1C, Steve bid 2S and Gerry just went straight to 4N.  I've got a 5S reply so ended in 6C.
Steve led his club and I drew two rounds. Obviously the diamond finesse makes or breaks it.  I thought about playing a heart first, if Steve has the Ace then I'll know the KD is offside.  Maybe I can run all my clubs but no, that won't produce anything, I need diamond tricks for the contract.  So I just took an immediate finesse by leading JD and I was home.

Ever since we've had the print out of the hands I have noticed that when partner opens 2N and you have 10 points and a 5 card suit then the slam makes.
Against Avril and Len Gerry opened West 2D multi, I bid 2H and he rebid 2N.  Now I got it into my head that was 23/24 (that's a 2C opener), it is in fact 19/20. Anyway with easy slam in mind, I transferred, maybe partner can break and we can find 7S. Gerry completed the transfer. What now? 4C is Gerber, 4N  quantitative, I'm not sure what 4D is, but should probably be another suit. I just bid 6N.
Avril led JH, Gerry won, played Ace and another diamond unfortunately Len had the King.  Heart back to the K, AC, spade back, KC, run spades claim if diamonds break which they do, phew!
Now, if I had remembered correctly that Gerry had 19/20 what would I have done after 3?.  Well going by opening remark I think I should bid 4N quantitative. Gerry will probably bid 6S which is where most others were.

We missed a game on the next one.  Gerry opened 1D and Avril overcalled 1H.  I doubled, Len bid 2H, Gerry 2S, Avril 3H. Now I bid 3S and that was passed out.
Now 3S is wrong I feel. I don't have much more than I need for a competitive 3S but it is that singleton QD.  Singletons in partner's suit are usually a negative but when we have our fit, a singleton honour is a two way bet. Either partner has a good suit and your honour will complete it or a poor suit and the singleton is working.
So I feel I should have doubled Avril's 3H to show a good 3S bid.  Anyway to make things worse Gerry made 11 tricks compared to 10 for those in 4S as After two hearts, 2nd one ruffed, diamond to Ace, Avril made the very reasonable club switch instead of a third heart which Gerry would have to allow to hold to prevent him being cut off from hand.

Got a bit lucky against Michele and Ian.  Gerry opened 1S and I bid 2N.  Gerry rebid 4S, minimum, i.e. up to 14 max.
Still, I know there is a 9 card spade fit and odds are Gerry is 5-2-4-2 (he is likely to open 1N with a balanced 5-3-3-2). I decided to try 4N anyway as surely 5S is safe.  Gerry replied two with.  If he has two red Aces and QS, he can still have KC or QH.  If he has KQ spades and a red Ace again KC is likely and at worst we are on finding AH onside (this of course is hoping he doesn't have the three missing Jacks). I bid 6S not knowing my partner only has 11 points!
Michele didn't find the club lead (although with hearts 3-3 you can still get home.  As it was Michele led a trump, Gerry immediately played three rounds of hearts, ruffing high, drew trumps and had 12 tricks

Monday 4th February

Playing N/S with Adrianne came above average with a Butler score of 10.  However I lost us 20 points by entering a game we made as played by East!  In fact if I had entered that correctly and we hadn't had such a bad start on boards 3, 4 and 5 where David and David bid and made two straightforward games that most East/Wests couldn't find and then we let Alan make a game after a mix up with our signals (you'd think we'd know by now!), we would have had a big score.

Anyway, the second board against Alan and Derek was typical of many on the night with a difficult distribution. Alan passed and Adrianne opened 1H.  You won't get many people passing as West, but Derek did which left me with an obvious 1S.  Adrianne bid 2C, so what do I say? I'm just short of anything encouraging, can't bid 4th suit, 2N is surely not a good bid (actually 3N is certain on the heart finesse).  2H is possible but I decided 2S to play was best.  Couldn't have been worse. I managed to lose 6 spade tricks and went one off.  Well done to those who found 5D.

This was the game I gave to East/West.  Maggie opened 1S, Adrianne overcalled 2D, Sally bid 2S and I doubled.  Maggie went to 4S and I bid 5D.
Sally led JS, Adrianne won Ace, ruffed a spade and finessed QD. Sally just has to play a heart now but led a club.  Adrianne let that run to Maggie's Ace and she was end played to give Adrianne the rest of the tricks. in practice she played a spade allowing a heart discard and ruff in dummy.  Adrianne drew last trump, finessed 10C, crossed to AH and KC to discard last heart.
Should have been +8 but was -12 when I entered 5D by East.

People use Michaels/Unusual NT too readily with any 5-5.  I don't think their partners trust them.  That's the only reason I can think that so many E/W played this in 4S.
Anyway Katie opened 1S and I bid 2N, being vulnerable you surely need a hand similar to this at this scoring where -500 is available if partner has something in one of the minors.
David bid 4S and Adrianne had no problem bidding 5D.  Katie bid 5H and I don't think she can consider defending.  David bid 5S and there they played. I led KC which is surely the best source of any tricks for the defence and Katie couldn't avoid losing a club a spade and a heart.

A very difficult hand to finish.  Clifford opens 1N and Adrianne doubles.  Len bids 2D transfer and I double.  Clifford completes the transfer and Adrianne doubles, back to me.  I didn't know what to do.  They're vul, could easily be two off for 500, but I decided against that and bid 3N.  That would not have been a success, heart lead, I knock out AD but Len would signal for a club and I'm 3 or 4 off.
However, Len can't pass that hand and bids 4C.  I bid 4D and Adrianne bids 5D.
Clifford leads a heart, I win and play a club to guarantee my ruff and three spade losers go on the top hearts.

Wednesday 30 January

Playing E/W with Gerry came in the middle with 50% after many tops and bottoms.

This was a difficult hand for the N/S pairs, many ended in 4Sx.  Against Mary and Davina Gerry opened 1H and Mary (presumably playing strong jump overcalls) bid 2C. I bid a natural 2N and Davina bid 3S.  Gerry doubled and I left it in.
Gerry led 3C to Q, K and ruff and Davina played A and another diamond.  Gerry let me win this and I played the spade to his King.  Gerry followed with three rounds of hearts. I cashed QD and at this point I can't be sure if Davina started with 6 or 7 spades but playing a top club must be right and sure enough it promoted Gerry's 10S to put it 3 off and at least we equalled the scores of those defending 4Sx.

An annoying one against Russell and Len.  Russell with his poor 11 count and rubbish heart suit decided to open 1N.  I am ashamed to say I couldn't resist bidding an Astro 2D (with those spades?!).  Len bid 3N.
I led a small diamond and Russell has the obvious 10 tricks via a spade finesse (actually I discarded my spades on the hearts).
Now if I had passed, Len would have used Stayman and we would have been defending 4H which should make 10 (11 double dummy, discarding a club on the 3rd spade and playing A then QC to get a diamond round to the King) for an average.

Got a decent score against Sylvia and Louise.  I opened 1C and Sylvia bid 1S, round to me for 2C, Sylvia bid 2H, Louise corrected to 2S and Gerry bid 3C, passed out.
Sylvia led 8D taken by my Ace.  Presumably she would bid 2C with 5-5 majors, so Sylvia's hand must be 5-4-1-3, the trumps are breaking and I keep the danger hand out by AK and another club. As expected Sylvia wins the 3rd club and returns KS.  I take the Ace and cash my three trumps then cross to dummy for KQ of diamonds.  I am down to KT of hearts and 6S, Sylvia has AQ of hearts and QS.  I exited with QS and won KH at the end for 10 tricks.

Monday 28 January

Playing N/S with Adrianne came in the middle with a Butler score of 0. Our opponents got most of the hands and mostly did the right things with them. We played OK throughout, got one piece of luck when a pair failed to bid an easy game but lost it when Adrianne got completely distracted at the end and embarrassingly went down in a stiff game.

Got a bad score against Mike and Steve.  Most East's will open 1D, rebid 1N and end up in 3N.  South will lead a club   and the defence will take 3 clubs, one or two diamonds and AS.
Steve opened 1N and Mike raised to 3N. At least Adrianne avoided the diamond lead but led 9S which ran to Steve's Q. Now South is the danger hand so Steve cleverly ran 7D which held and so he now has 4 diamond tricks to be the only one to make game.
Even after the spade lead, most declarers would just have played KD and finessed JD, South plays another spade taken by North who then plays QC to defeat the contract.

This was an awkward hand for everyone. Our bidding went:

1D - 2C - 2D - 3C
4C -  x  -  4D - P
5D  - x  - passed out.

Christine cashed AC then switched to a heart to Q and K. I couldn't really figure why Christine had doubled, has she 5 diamonds? I laid down AD and Ileen followed with the 10. So four small diamonds, must have singleton AS.  I tried a small spade, oh oh, Ileen won the Ace, gave Christine a ruff, one down.
At least we avoided 4S.

Thursday 24 January

Playing N/S with Gerry had a great game to come first with 68%.  Although I got us a bottom early on by doubling Ileen in an unbeatable game, it was just a night when everything went right.

Brd12 with N/S vul, dealer West, two passes to John, East, who opened 1C. Gerry bid 1S and Steve bid a competitve 3C.  This was passed back to Gerry who doubled.  I only bid 3H, but Gerry raised to 4H.  This went round to John who bid 5C.  Back to me. I was actually thinking Gerry might be 6-4-3-0 as he hadn't doubled the first time.  I could bring those spades in, make 650 instead of 3 or 500.  So I bid 5H.
John led KC and I ruffed in dummy. Only 5 spades to AJ10 but I still need to bring them in and although I suspect John has singleton heart for his 5C, I have to play on spades before a diamond is led. So I played KH, AH then led 9S.  John split his honours and I took AS and continued JS.  Now a diamond from Jxx is difficult to find and John continued clubs.  I ruffed again in dummy, ruffed a spade and exited with a heart.  Steve took his Queen and returned a club.  I won my Ace, crossed to AD and dumped two diamonds on the spades for 11 tricks.  I'm lucky, I think I should have finessed that heart, then play on spades and even a diamond switch now can't beat me.

Brd 18 with N/S vul, dealer East. Gerry opted to open 1N and I transferred then bid 3D to which Gerry bid 3N. I decided to leave it there, there's no ruffing value, partner's points are likely to be mostly in clubs and hearts, there's a decent chance you make the same tricks in 3N as 4S.
Issy led JD and Gerry took his Ace.  He drove out AH and Issy played another diamond.  Gerry now neatly played the 3S from dummy round to Issy's 10.  Another diamond, cash the hearts, spade finesse and make the rest.  I got away with it by Gerry's good play, safer to bid 4S!

Just to prove it wasn't all just luck for us we were let down by the odds on this hand against Victor and Willy.
With his 9 trick hand and lacking a Texas option, Gerry opened 2C and I was disappointed to eventually find there was a missing keycard and just had to settle for 6S.
We are the only pair in this contract yet only a 4-0 trump break can defeat it.  Oh well, 1 down it was.

Monday 22 January

Playing N/S with Adrianne, came in the middle with a Butler score of -2.  Most hands were undistinguished, there were just a couple early on where we had the chance of a good score and blew it.

Against Steve and Marilyn I opened 3D and this was passed out.  This makes easily enough even losing a club ruff.  In fact I made 10 as I slipped a spade through.
I was unsure about opening but felt it had two advantages a) It halts my partner who might have a good hand with both majors and b) if the opponents have a major game I can get across my hand by bidding clubs at a high level.  Unfortunately if I passed then Adrianne is opening 1C giving me an easy 5C bid.  More interesting is if East opens 1H (satisfies rule of 19), Adrianne will probably pass, West will raise to 3H, I'll bid 3N. East will pass and Adrianne maybe just 4C, but should really think about 5C.  In fact I should probably bid 4N, not 3.

We have a clear understanding after a pre-empt that when we bid a major we are looking for 3 card support or Hx and can support the pre-empt suit.  On this hand against Raymond and Alec our bidding went:

3D  -  P  -  3S  -  P
4D  -  P  -  4H  -  x
4S  -  P  -  5D  -  passed out.

Where did Alec get that double?  It completely threw us anyway.  Adrianne should really pass, but I'll probably bid 5D anyway 4H wouldn't have been easy without the double but I think I would have got home with Ace and another spade with a subsequent spade ruff.  As long as I don't play Ace followed by Queen of hearts from hand, or lose a diamond ruff, I should be fine.
Without the double 5D should make OK even on a spade lead (or KC followed by a spade) as now you can set up spades. With no spade lead you can set up hearts.
However, everyone is placing Alec with KJx(x) of hearts so Raymond led KC, Alec overtakes and continues a club (this ensures his diamond trick) to give Adrianne a ruff and discard, but she is expecting 2 heart losers so instead of throwing a spade she quite rightly throws a heart. She manages to set up spades and doesn't lose any heart, but loses KS, AC and QD for down one.
Now why didn't Raymond lead KH after the double? What was the double anyway?!