Wednesday 29 December

Playing with Joan Fulton on Wednesday we managed to come first.
We got off to a good start against Charles & Vi after a dubious bid by me.


Joan is South and opens 1D, Vi overcalls 1S and I bid 2D(?). Charles shows a raise to 3S by 2H (nothing to do with hearts) and Joan bids 3C. Vi bids 4S to end auction.

Now without the 3C bid I would have led a diamond, but there is probably only 1 trick for us and if Joan has the Ace it hopefully won't go away, so I led 2C.
Vi can hardly finesse in spades, so we get 2 clubs, a diamond and a trump.

Note if I lead a diamond, Joan wins the Jack, exits with a heart and Vi will end play her with the 3rd spade which is exactly how Adrianne played in when she made 4S at her table.

A top came for us on this hand.





Joan opens an excellent 1NT and East bids an Astro 2D.

Now I am sure I should bid 3D, but just bid a direct 3NT. Declarer can defeat this by leading Ace then Jack of hearts, but in the real world led a small spade and Joan had no problem making 10 tricks.

Monday 21 December

Playing Aggregate Pairs with Adrianne we came 4th, 740 points behind the winners. Most hands were flatish but there were a lot of slams around. We should have won easily because we missed the two slams our way (there is actually a 3rd, but it is missing 2 key cards, but makes by finessing the King of trumps). Both slams we missed are really quite easy to bid, on one we had a mix up, our agreement is after a 2NT opening 4C is for Aces, 4NT is quantative, one of us forgot and 4NT was passed.

The other slam should always be bid:



Adrianne opens 1C, I bid 1H, Adrianne bids 2C. I would have thought of rebidding 1NT with the South hand, but 2C is fine. I now bid 2D and Adrianne bid 2NT.
This is a mistake, the hand is very maximum, really you must bid 3NT as my 2D is 10+.

I still really wanted to go on over 2NT but chickened out and settled for 3N. Partner should be 11 or 12 with 6 clubs, so if 6 clubs are running, she won't have AS and AD and the lead is into wrong hand, though QS, AD and AQ to 6 clubs makes a decent slam which was why I was reluctant not to go on.

If partner bids 3NT I have no problem bidding 6.

Only 2 tables out of 8 bid the slam. Playing weak NT a 1C - 2C rebid is always 6 or 5C and 4D, my 2D bid confirms that partner has 6 clubs, so counting 12 likely tricks isn't difficult.

Having said we could have won, we were very lucky on this board:

Adrianne opened 1NT and West passed. To me, my hand looks as likely to make 9 or 7 tricks as make 8 (the hand actually makes 8 tricks, shows what I know). At aggregate I'm not going to pass, so I bid 3NT

However after a spade lead, a diamond to King and Ace, defenders continued King of spades and East made an unblock of the Queen, they continued sopades, so Adrianne made two overtricks, so the hand was actuually 8 or 11 tricks!

Nobody else was in 3NT, but most Wests wouldn't hesitate to make an Astro type overcall making life difficult for North.

On board 16 like most people we passed thoughout and defended 4H. At two tables N/S are in 5Dx and at one 5H, presumably after a 5D.

At our table it went 1NT - 2H - 2S - 4H passed out. Should South come in 5D now? Should South have bid 3D after the transfer?

At match points I think South should definitely bid 5D after the 4H. 4H must make 620, surely you can't lose more than 800 on a bad day and have every chance of -500 for an improved score.

Bidding it at aggregate doesn't seem a good idea, for what might be a small gain, but well done to those who did and saved 350 (-300 against -650)

Xmas Party

After 2 and a half years I am going to try to return to sharing some of my occasional brilliances and frequent disasters at the bridge table.


We all had a great night at our Xmas party on Thursday and I had one top score to show off, though as usual it came about by accident:


Dealer East, both Non-vul



South: .............AT7x

....................AQxx

....................xxx

....................Ax

East .....QJ5 .................xx

..........Kxxx ................Jxx

..........KJxx ................Qxx

..........Kx ..................JTxx

.....................K9xx

.....................xx

.....................Ax

.....................Q9xxx


Dave France, obviously not playing weak NT, opens 1H, Adrianne has an awkward choice between a 1NT overbid or a double. Personally I would gone for 1NT (which would have got us to 4S via Stayman), but double it was. Bob Brown stirs it up by bidding 2H. I bid 2S which goes round to Adrianne who, presumably after thinking about bidding 1NT, has it in her head she has 16 points, so bids 3S and I bid 4S.


Dave leads a small heart and dummy goes down. Well how do you get 10 tricks out of this lot while only losing 3? Trumps have to be 3-2, I need the heart finesse and then bring clubs home so they have to be 3-3 with K onside. However what are the opponents hands? Hearts are 4-3 so Dave has at least 12 points for his opening, Bob is under valued. Dave can't have KQJ of diamonds or would have led them, I need him to have KH, really he is well odds on to have KC. A fall back will be to get as many ruffs as possible. So I'll try to bring clubs home while ruffing what I can.


Trick 1 finesse QH

trick 2 cash AH

trick 3 ruff a heart

trick 4 Ace of clubs

trick 5 small club, West doesn't go up with K so I duck and Dave wins King

trick 6, what does Dave play?

A trump loses his trump trick, doesn't like diamond from KJ, so tries 4th (winning) heart. Bob can't see any gain by ruffing small so discards a diamond and I ruff.

We now have :

South: .............AT7x
.................... -
....................xxx
.................... -
East .....QJ5 .................xx
.......... - ................. -
..........KJxx ................Qxx
.......... - ..................JT
.....................K9
..................... -
.....................Ax
.....................Q9x

I'm in hand, I have 5 tricks for the loss of 1 and really must make 10 from 3 more spades, a diamond and a club by playing K, A and another spade now, however what if Dave started 4-4 in the majors?

So I played a small club. If Dave had 4 spades, a small ruff is no good as I over-ruff and play 3 spades making 10. A ruff with the Jack means I over-ruff, diamond to the A and now QC, if Dave takes QS I only have a diamond to lose, if he discards, my Queen wins and again I'll have 10 tricks.

As the cards lay it didn't matter, Dave actually discarded, I returned to AD and led QC and made 10 that way.

A complete top as nobody else bids 4S, excellent 3S bid partner!

Monday 14th July

There were four hands in the slam region for N/S last night. One pair bid them all and made three of them. We bid two and made one. Here are the four hands:

Board 3:

Adrianne as South opened 1S, West bid 2D and I bid 3S which we play as a genuine Acol raise. Adrianne bid 6S. This is not a bad punt, the Losing Trick Count says there are 12 tricks, if I don’t have any significant points in diamonds, then I will have AS, KH and a club honour, also QC might be with East. However West leads the AD and Adrianne had to lose 2 clubs. Our slam pair made this one, must have got Ace of clubs lead. We were the only two pairs to bid it.

Board 8:
Two pairs bid 6S on this one, our slam pair made it, the other pair didn’t. Adrianne and I quickly settled in 4S after 1NT – 2C – 2S – 4S. I had no problem making 12 as I got a trump lead and so played for the drop. Playing aggregate, I drew 3 rounds of trumps, knocked out AD and took the heart finesse for 12. In slam (or MPs) you really want to ruff two clubs to avoid the heart finesse, but this could be a problem depending on the lead. Not a slam I would want to be in

Board 11:

Nearly everyone is in 6 here. Both 6H and 6NT making:
Our bidding went 2NT – 3D – 3H – 4NT – 5D – 6NT. This was a mix up, we play 4C asking over NT openings, my 4NT is quantative, hoping that if my partner was looking at three good hearts she would bid 6H, or a maximum with 2 hearts bid 6NT. Over the unexpected 5D, I don’t know if she has 3 hearts or not, so just punted 6NT. Whatever you are in there is just one heart loser.
Our slam pair were in 6H as were most people.

Board 22:

The final slam isn’t a slam at all and this is the one our slam pair failed in. They were the only ones in it, however I had encouraged for one.

Our bidding went 1C – 1S – 2D(!?) – 3C – 3NT – 4C – 5C
The 2D is an error, the rebid should be 2NT. Over the reverse I set the suit and over 3NT my 4C is a slam try. 5C is no picnic, but Adrianne brought it home.

Thursday 3rd July

Board 5

..................ME
............... ♠ 5
............... ♥ 10 8 7 5 4 2
............... ♦ K 2
............... ♣ Q 7 6 3
♠ A Q 9 4................. ♠ K J 7
♥ A....................... ♥ 9 6
♦ J 6 3.................... ♦ Q 9 7 5 4
♣ A K 8 5 2............... ♣ J 10 4
.................Adrianne
............... ♠ 10 8 6 3 2
............... ♥ K Q J 3
............... ♦ A 10 8
............... ♣ 9
After two passes Adrianne opened the South hand 1S, West bid 1NT and I bid 2H which is weakish with heart length, to play. East thought passing would not get a good score and bid 2NT, Adrianne bid 3H and West bid 3NT to end the bidding.

I led a heart and West cashed his 7 tricks for two down. However East was right as letting us play in hearts would be a bad score as we make 10 tricks., but we’ll never bid the game, but should I have doubled? I think so.


Board 8: Our bidding went (with no interference) 1D – 1H – 1S – 1NT – 2H – P

..................ME
............... ♠ 9 4 3 2
............... ♥ A K 4
............... ♦ A K 6 3 2
............... ♣ 6
♠ J 10 7................. ♠ K Q 6
♥ Q 3.................... ♥ 10 8 7 6
♦ 10 8 4.................. ♦ J 9
♣ A K 10 7 5............. ♣ Q 9 3 2
.................Adrianne
............... ♠ A 8 5
............... ♥ J 9 5 2
............... ♦ Q 7 5
............... ♣ J 8 4
This is a very difficult contract to devise a good play for. This is what Adrianne did.
West led AC and continued a club which Adrianne ruffed. She now played a diamond to the Queen, ruffed her last club and then two top diamonds, East ruffing the second one. A heart came back to dummy’s Ace and Adrianne led another diamond on which East discarded a club and Adrianne discarded a spade, West wins with QH. West played his last club, East discarded a spade and Adrianne ruffed. Adrianne played Ace and another spade end playing East to make the last two hearts for 9 tricks.

On board 21 I am in the obvious 4H. This contract has an obvious 4 losers but can defenders ever take their tricks?

..................ME
............... ♠ K
............... ♥ K Q 7 6 2
............... ♦ J 10 9
............... ♣ Q J 7 5
♠ 9 7 5 3 2................. ♠ J 10 8 6
♥ 4......................... ♥ A 9 3
♦ A 5 3...................... ♦ K 7 6
♣ K10 6 2....................♣ 9 8 3
................Adrianne
............... ♠ A Q 4
............... ♥ J 10 8 5
............... ♦ Q 8 4 2
............... ♣ A 4

I got the 8C lead and took the Ace. I played a spade to the King and then a small heart to dummy. Well at some point we have all put up an Ace and crashed our partner’s singleton King, West just isn’t going to rise with the Ace, dummy’s Jack wins and two diamonds go on the AQ spades. But sometimes we have to ask ourselves, why did Declarer play a spade to the King before playing a trump? And if partner gives count on the spade perhaps we will have the answer.

Monday 30th June

Made a nice 9 tricks on this No Trump hand:

The lead was a heart, won by the 10 in dummy. I played KS, ducked, followed by 10S taken by Ace (better to duck twice), East showing out. Another heart was played to dummy's Ace. I now led a small diamond to my Queen, East playing the 10D. I know from the carding that East started with 6 hearts, has been shown to have 1 spade and it looks like doubleton, possibly singleton diamond. It looks like I can end play west in either spades or diamonds. I exit with 7S to West's 8. West plays JC ducked all round followed by another club to my Ace. I cashed KH and decided to end play in spades so I cashed QS and exited with 6S to get a diamond into my AJ for 9 tricks (3 diamonds, 3 hearts, 2 spades and a club).

Just one thing --- I was only in 2NT. Adrianne opened 1C and our bidding went 1C - 1S - 2C - 2NT - P.

I would not have opened Adrianne's hand 1C, 1NT is surely better, bidding that suit twice --ugh! However we will still bein 2NT after 1NT - 2H - 2S - 2NT - P

On hand 22 we ended up in an impossible 4S after 1S - 2S - 3D - 4S:

Adrianne does well to make 8 tricks, but at Match Points we shouldn't have been there. South has a 7 loser hand and I have the expected 9 losers for my raise to 2. South should pass 2S. Then over the trial bid I could still settle for 3S, maximum points but stiff QJ of clubs probably not worth anything.

Thursday 26th June

3NT proved a very difficult contract for me, all were easy double dummy but I just didn't have the insight. Here are three typical examples.


Board 3 (N/S)

After two passes the bidding went 1C – 1D – 1NT – 3NT, East led a spade to the Jack and I immediately took the Ace, not wanting a heart switch. I played AD, 10D, not covered which I ran, West discards a club (looked like a signal for hearts). I cashed AC and led my last diamond to the King.

Now double dummy I have 9 tricks by giving up a diamond (and ducking a spade continuation), however I feel sure that if East gets in I will be losing 5 hearts. So I tried the JC and West shows out discarding a spade, so I took my King. Now seeing the distribution as likely to be 5-5-1-2 in the west hand and assuming the AH is there, I decided to cash KS and exit with a spade to West, end playing that hand to ensure my KH and down 1 which I hoped would beat everyone else down 2. However although I got my King, the Ace had been onside all the time. Average score.

Board 9 (E/W)
South opens 1H, Adrianne doubles, North passes and I bid 2NT. Adrianne takes a very rosy view and bids 3NT. A small heart is led and I don’t fancy my chances much, however if I win that heart, bring home 5 diamond tricks, exit with KS to South’s supposed Ace and South gives me another heart, 9 tricks are there, although defenders can easily scupper this. Anyway I win the heart, finesse the diamond and down 3.

Double dummy of course I should win the heart, lead a spade to the King, cash 5 diamonds from the top (unblocking my Jack), cross to Ace clubs and lead another spade, whatever South does I make 9.

Board 19 (E/W)
The bidding was passed round to me and I opened 2NT. Adrianne went through Baron and we finished in 3NT (though Adrianne had seriously considered 4H). I got the obvious diamond lead and dummy’s Jack held the trick.

Now double dummy I have 9 tricks by leading QS (it does not matter whether it is covered or not). I must get 4 spades and 4 hearts to go with the diamond. However I was just hoping for a 5-5 diamond split and going 1 off (two 3-3 breaks in the majors and KS onside didn't seem likely). I played on clubs and of course ended up -2. Two East’s managed to make this contract, obviously I accept defeat too easily.


Board 17 (E/W) was a good distributional hand which worked well for us despite me making completely the wrong bid.
North opened 1D, I passed and South bid 1H. Adrianne bids 4S passed round to South who bids 5D, North decides to change this to 5H. Now Adrianne will happily double this and we should manage 3 off (4 off on a diamond lead), but I'm not in this game for the easy life! I bid 5S (Harry will be birling in his grave --- I can hear his refrain "the 5 level is for the opponents") which North doubles.

North leads AD on which South drops the Queen. North tries AC and then decides to continue with KD! Our opponents were still arguing as we moved onto the next table. I never found out what the QD was for, his partner couldn’t understand why he didn’t just show count.

One day I'll learn Harry's lesson and pass at the 5 level.