I probably set some sort of record yesterday evening. Playing at the club, we won our section with 81 imp’s. That is a lot but not unique. What is more unique is that number 2 only scored +9 and all other pairs scored below average. I haven’t seen a lead of 72 imp’s in Butler before. Can I please have some carry over for the next game?
Oddly enough, the hands were not that spectacular, it was more a matter of the opponents doing everything wrong while we simply collected the imp’s. And something it wasn’t even that bad, it just worked out for us. Take this hand.
As one of the few pairs at the club, these opponents play 4 card majors and thus ended up playing 3♥ from the north hand (1♥, pass, 3♥, all pass). I led a spade and declarer made the first mis-guess by playing the ♠J from dummy. That was a good start towards setting up a trick there. Declarer then took the ♥ finesse the wrong way around (2nd misguess). A third round of ♥ followed. Declarer now played a ♦ to the J (3rd misguess). A ♠ came back and the hand was down one. Unlucky, but not played badly.
Now consider what happened at the other tables. South played the hand after 1♣, 1♥, 2♥ or similar, with west leading a minor setting up a trick there and giving away the tempo to send up a spade trick. Of course, with a slightly different layout, 3♥ by N on a spade lead could be the jackpot. A useful 6 imp’s, you need those hands going in your direction to score +81.
Our only serious minus score was this board.
2 hands to go and you know you are already plus a lot, red against white, in first seat, you have to decide how many hearts to open. My choice, 3♥, was not a success. The action continued with 2 passes and 3NT by north. With this split, that was unbeatable.
Still, I don’t think that 3♥ is that unreasonable with a bad suit, 5 side suit losers, in a partnership where 4♥ is usually a better hand. -8, ah, well, we leave something for the opponents.