I was standby last Monday, which I do about once a year. This time I got a game, with Harry Connolly. I agreed to his system, including Gemmel discards, which I can find no reference to online.
We did OK. I made a few bold bids which generally paid off, and only one slip in defence.
Dummy has ♥AQTxx and leads a low one. You have ♥Jxx. What do you play? I instinctively played low. My partner won the trick with the King, and that was the only Heart we got. The whole suit was:
| AQTxx | ||
| Kxx | Jxx | |
| xx |
Of course declarer could have finessed earlier, but had got stuck in dummy. So when he lead from table I should have played my Jack, which costs nothing and gains a trick here.
Overall we finished on 57%, good enough for second in our section (a bit lower when combined with the online games).
This was an amusing deal:
On our table I was North and opened 1♥ (playing five card majors and strong NT). Harry sitting South replied 1NT and played there. West led the King of Clubs, ducked, then switched to a Diamond. East won his King and ran the Hearts. In the end declarer only got his three Aces.
Amazingly, with only 18 high card points between them, East-West can make 3NT, but of course no one bid it.
Our score of 1NT-4 was worth 8%. I don't think declarer can do any better, expect for perhaps responding 1♠, after which I would have rebid 1NT and had to play the doomed contract instead.
