Hi all
Peter-Paul and Anne got married last Friday. It was such a nice wedding and what a party they threw! I’ll write a bigger report on it, but not until I get my hands on a nice picture (or a couple) of the newlyweds.
Back to the important stuff. Bridge. Here’s some chemistry from Hendrik and me last Thursday, we bid like this:
1
2
34566781. Either a strong NT or unbalanced 4+
2. Unbalanced
3. 4th suit forcing
4. Showing a 4-0-4-5
5. Setting trumps
6. Cue
7. Extras, with bad trumps I would have signed off
8. Alrighty then
West leads the Jack of .
Where to start? A crossruff looks like a solid plan, but the trumps together are not that good. If you go for another (trumpdrawing?) plan, there are losers and communication problems all over. And there’s an external factor to cope with, I have to maintain the current chemistry with Hendrik. Disappointing him by screwing up a delicate slam will certainly stifle our chemistry.
So I took the lead with the Ace. Cashed the Ace and King of (discarding a and a ), ruffed a , Ace and King of (dumping those dirty ) and ruffed a .
Still having no clue what to do I ruffed a 4th round of (East discarding a , West coming up with the Queen). Next I tried to cash my Queen but East ruffed and played back a high , West ruffing with the Ten in front of dummy (overruffed).
I took my last chance, playing West for T9 bare in trumps I asked for the Queen in dummy. It holds and West shows his 9 with some remorse. The rest is easy, I play high from dummy until East comes up with the King of trumps. Claim 12.
So the trump position is very favourable and other suits break good too, shortness in front of shortness. But I still don’t know what’s the best plan, or how good this slam is. I guess Lady Luck smiled a little seeing the chemistry between Hendrik and me (+40 imp).