Christmas Cards

Anna and I were lucky enough to play bridge twice over the holidays. Not at a bridge club, but with friendly couples in their houses.

This first deal comes from the drawing room table in Belfast. We'd all had quite a few mince pies and Anna hadn't played any hands yet so seized the contract, justifying it by joking that she was "worth an extra trick".

♠ T x ♥ A Q J x ♦ K x x ♣ A K J x ♠ x x ♥ x x ♦ A Q J x x ♣ x x x x 18 7 5 10 ♠ Q x x ♥ K T x x x ♦ x x ♣ x x x ♠ A K J x x x ♥ x x ♦ x x x ♣ Q x

W N E S Danny Anna 1♣ 1♥ 1♠ 2♦ 3NT - 4♠ - - -

In our style of Acol (Dutch? Swiss?) we open then lower of four card suits so I opened the North hand 1♣. Everyone else bid their suits and when it got back round to me I had the points and stoppers for 3NT. Anna thought for a while then removed to 4♠, which could be right if I have a singleton Spade. It's one of those strange situations where the worse my Spades are, the more we want to be in 4♠.

As it happens, 4♠ is about the same as 3NT and basically depends on the diamond finesse working, which is a good bet after the bidding. West lead a Heart, and Anna finessed (expecting it to lose) but later got trumps right to make eleven tricks.

My second hand is from a sleepy village on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, and was the very last hand of the night. I knew I was being a bit silly exploring a slam, and indeed we willingly went off at the five level.

♠ A K J x x x ♥ K 9 x ♦ x ♣ J x x ♠ 9 x ♥ J x ♦ x x x ♣ A Q T x x x 12 7 7 14 ♠ x x x ♥ A T x ♦ x x x x ♣ K x x ♠ Q x ♥ Q 8 x x x ♦ A K Q J x ♣ x

W N E S Anna Danny - 1♥ 2♣ 2♠ - 3♦ - 4♥ - 4NT* - 5♥* - - -

I opened the 5-5 hand 1♥ and West overcalled 2♣, then nearly put it back. This is authorised information to me; she doesn't have a 2♣ overcall but maybe nearly does. I couldn't quite work out what that meant she did have though.

After showing her Spades Anna recognised the misfit and signed off in 4♥. I ploughed on, and we ended in 5♥, missing two Aces and with weak trumps.

West lead the ♠9, and I had a choice to make.

To legitimately only lose one trump I need to find someone with ♥Ax. Then I can lead through them once and duck the second round. But, having avoided a Club lead, there's other options. I could try and get rid of the singleton Club in my hand on the Spades, but that would require three rounds of Spades and on the last one someone could ruff it. Similarly, I could get rid of the three Clubs in dummy on my Diamonds but again the last one could be ruffed. But if someone is ruffing with a winning trump I'm OK.

I decided to play trumps early, leading from the South hand, guessing that West had the ♥A. But it didn't work as East beat my ♥K and accurately returned a Club for one down. Oh well.