Apparently, Wednesday is the most laid back night, and it certainly was. At one point the opponents had a misunderstanding and got into a very poor 5♣ contract, missing three Aces. I boldly underlead my ♥A at one point in order to give declarer a guess. Instead, I gave him the contract. Anna was a bit confused at why I'd done this, but I was very laid back and didn't mind at all. Later, defending 4♥, I cashed my ♣A and Anna played the ♣8, which I took as discouraging as we play reverse attitude. However, Anna actually had ♣KQ8 and was desperate for a Club continuation.
We recovered by bidding a massive 6NT, then later a large 6♣. The 6♣ was only large, and not massive, as actually we should have been in 7♣. Here's the hands and auction:
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I had the monster North hand and opened 1♥. It's a bumper hand. Anna replied 2♣, and I had an easy 4♣ bid. We've agreed that this is forcing, with slam interest in Clubs (3♣ would be invitational, 5♣ a sign off). Anna has a very saucy hand and cuebid 4♠. She can't cuebid 4♥, as Hearts is my suit and she wouldn't cuebid a singleton in my suit. I now bid RKCB, and Anna showed two Keycards and no Queen of Trumps. I now know that we have all five keycards. With my extra power in Hearts, should I try 7♣? I was tempted. Instead I went for 5NT, which is a King ask. Neither me or Anna know whether or not we show specific Kings or number of Kings, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Luckily Anna has no Kings here so can unambiguously bid 6♣. I meekly passed.
There's an easy 13 tricks, and Anna bagged them all for 6♣+1. One of the other tables played 5♥+2. Afterwards, I said I should have maybe just bid 7♣ with my good Hearts. But Anna had a better idea, and suggested she should have replied to my Blackwood 4NT with 5♠, showing two keycards and the Queen of trumps. Even though Anna doesn't have the ♣Q, she has six Clubs so knows we have ten of them with the Ace and King, which is enough. I would have been a bit confused, as I had the ♣Q, but once I worked out that it meant Anna had six Clubs I could count 13 tricks - 6 Clubs, 3 top Hearts, 1 top Diamond, 1 top Spade and a couple of Spade ruffs.
At the end of the night there was an embarrassing interlude when every other table had scored up, and they were waiting for me and Anna. Anna added them up with someone talking to her, and then when I checked I got a different total. I started to add it up again on my calculator, which got some derision as people knew I was a Maths teacher. Anyway, I gave us +4,000, which was enough to win. All the North-South pairs got some good cards, and we made our games, and also fluked a few good results like this one:
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East opened 1♠, and Anna made a bold double. It's bold as she doesn't quite have the right shape for a double, but has four Hearts. West made a pre-emptive raise to 3♠, which I think I like but I don't know if they play five card Majors or not. I had the North hand, with points and short Spades but only three Hearts. I doubled, which shows this sort of hand, and says to partner that I can play in the minors. Anna ploughed on with 4♥ regardless, maybe not realising I didn't have a Heart fit or maybe just fancying playing in a 4♥ game rather than a 4♣ partscore. I was happy to be in 4♥, but then East came back in with 4♠ ruining it.
When it got back round to me as North I decided that since I had a singleton Spade, and partner has short Spades too, I better bid on. Although I was tempted by 5♣, I thought my hand had ruffing value so bid 5♥. East thought about bidding 5♠ and West thought about doubling. Thankfully, 5♥ was passed out.
5♥ by South obviously didn't make, but wasn't as bad as it could have been. To begin with East cashed the ♠A, ♥A, then played another Spade. Anna ruffed this (wisely saving the ♠K), and lead the ♥Q. West won and returned a Spade, which Anna won. She drew one more round of trumps, leaving West with the last trump. Then Anna started on her winning Clubs and West ruffed in. Luckily West had no more Spades so Anna had the rest. So in the end the defence took ♠A, ♥AK, and a long Heart for 5♥-2 and -200.
Would 4♠ have made? Declarer has 5 Spade tricks, ♥AK, and might get three Club ruffs and make the contract. But on the likely defence of ♦A, ♦K then a trump switch from North though I think it has to go down.
To finish, a photo of me in the sunshine in Dumfries.
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