Screwed up one ruling and ended up giving a no play instead. One table desperately called for a late play, but I let it slide just to make sure I didn't screw anything up. Got the reporting ST@C results correct (I think) but didn't post it to the club website, but director tomorrow can do that. So things went fairly smoothly.

HNY everyone, good luck in all your bridge endeavors!

New Year sectional here this weekend was the one year anniversary of us starting to play. Did well, finished 8/18 teams in A and got 4th overall in X. Won 5 out of 8 matches with a few almost-blitzes, team IMPs. Pretty reassuring after some recent less than stellar sessions that we are making some progress. Highlight for me was putting my partner in 1NT redoubled vul making two for +1160, LHO nearly tossed the table over that one.

Also think I got enough MPs to bump me past 5 and outside of free play range. Sadness

I'm currently in Adelaide on vacation and looking to play some bridge. Was thinking of going to some place called south australian bridge association tonight. Wondering if there's anyone from Adelaide here that knows if it's a good club to play at? Don't have a partner for it but hope I can pick one up there.

Usually I am stripsqueez in this thread but this is what happens when you fail to update your e-mail and need a new password...

AKA SABA - Its my local and probably the best club in Australia - definitely the best in Adelaide. I will PM .

bridge with pry - somehow managed not to win in some crappy 10 table session although 61% was respectable I guess - this hand was about half way through so by now you know pry is plenty good and your opponents are rubbish

8
976
K1097
97632

MP's white v red - partner opens a 15-17 1NT as dealer and the next guy bids 2S which is the final contract - your lead ?

diamond intermediate is the book lead but I hate that section of the book; I'll try a heart.

D10

Thanks for the game last night. Had a few spots at least 1 or 2 where I could have picked up the half a board we needed to win, oh well.

Lead a diamond, absolutely. 9 or 10, depending on your lead conventions. It requires the least from partner to not give a trick away or offer a free finesse against partner's holding and also if your partner knows about your Kd, his defense will be optimal (so will probably be the declarer play, but we all know which is the toughest of these two).

yeah I guess I knew a diamond was standard - I needed reminding though when this hand declarer had AQxxx diamond and dummy a stiff with 2 small spades - declarer should make 10 on a diamond lead - a heart is marginally better - probably 9 tricks - a club or a spade and most declarers will go 1 off as partner can win and get rid of dummys trumps which are entries and tricks

opening lead - your not doing it right unless it is a disaster some of the time...

I think diamond is normal. If you look really hard I'm sure you can find a reason to lead every suit.

If you look at the bidding on the board it seems likely we have roughly 19 points and so opps have 21. The bid is likely from a hand in the ~15 range and unbalanced. Table is gonna show up with roughly 5 points and 2 or 3 card support most likely. Since your clubs are longer it might be slightly more likely that declarer has diamonds as a side suit.

Seems it could just as well be important to get the diamond tricks before they disappear.

I had a board where I'm a little uncertain of what line is best. It's a horrible contract but I ended up going one more down than most others so maybe I did something bad. Contract is 1NT. A small heart is led, hearts are 5-4. Not sure how to approach the discards correctly.

On final heart a low D is discarded on the right.

Table:
T432
Q9
T62
9743

Declarer:
AKJ
54
KQ85
KQ86

fmk is on vugraph right now fwiw

lol I'm so ****ing bad at bridge it's unreal.

Whatever - your teammates had a horrible final set. -750 was your only bad result and the fouled boards probably cost you guys too.

Funny hand at the sectional today. Auction by opps goes 1H-1S-2D-3C (fourth suit forcing)

I decide to make a lead directing double with AJT73. This gets redoubled and good for an overtrick -870

(um looking it up now I think it should of been -1240, I was leaving looking up the score to the opps after it happened. They won the event anyway)

Let say you end up in 6D after LHO overcalls clubs once.

x x
K J
K Q 9 x x
K Q 9 x

K T 8 x
A T x x
A T 8 x x


Lead: A.

What's the best line?

Feels at least a little bit dependent on how well you know LHO, also the vul.

Feels at a glance like LHO should have everything... but how about: ruff (nice play), draw trumps in hopefully two rounds (if it's three, that will change things), king/queen/ruff a club, king/ace/ruff a heart? Gives a free extra chance of a short heart queen before leading to the spade ace, and might save the day if LHO has a stiff spade ace?

Also curious about the auction. Is it an auction where LHO might think he is laying down two cashing aces?

You have plenty of tricks when trumps break - the sole issue is losing 2 spades

If you think just playing for the spade ace onside is a decent chance then your line is inferior to combining your chances - I mean draw trumps (presumably in 2 rounds) and play ace, king and ruff a heart and if that doesn't work play for the ace of spades onside

Knowing the full auction and vulnerability would be handy but watching your LHO seems most pertinent - if you hold 2 aces defending a 6 level contract normal is to lead one of them promptly - also holding 2 aces it would be common for an average sort of player to have some sort of reaction before passing their opponents 6 level contract - if the ace of clubs got led swiftly and/or they looked twice when you bid to the 6 level I am leaning to taking the heart hook through RHO rather than ruffing the third round of hearts