It was 110 degrees in Reno today.  That's crazy.  Still raining in Austin (wettest year in decades.)  I miss sane weather.

Still no new material, so here's the first board out of the box from our set against Izzy and Pamela on Monday.

I've mentioned before that my least favorite boards are the first board and the last board of any set.  I find a disproportionate number of poor results coming from those two boards.  Luckily, I wasn't the goat this time.

You pick up in 4th (all white, since it's board 1)

K72 / AK654 / - / K8432

Izzy opens 1 Spade on your left, Jeff bids a Raptor NT (showing an openingish hand with 4 Hearts and a longer minor (I wonder what his minor is,)) and Pamela bumps Izzy to 2 Spades.  If Jeff's minor is Clubs, we could be cold for 6 Clubs (or less likely, 6 Hearts) but I considered that a remote possibility and made what I thought was the practical bid of 4 Hearts.  Izzy bid 4 Spades, which I would have whipped if it had been passed around to me, Jeff bid 5 Diamonds (big surprise) and Pamela whipped it.  I corrected to 5 Hearts and Izzy whipped that.  Passed around to me.  So while you wait for the opening lead ...

I hope you're not waiting for the opening lead just yet.  This is a perfect opportunity to drop a blue card on the table.  You're white, and you're surely not going to go down more than 1 more than 1 time in 20 (and if you do, you can always blame partner, since you surely have your bids.)  I sent it back, passed out, and Izzy tracked the King of Diamonds.

The flop was adequate:

- / J832 / AQJ9732 / Q7

K72 / AK654 / - / K8432

This hand is a beast to play on a Spade lead (Pamela had the Ace) but Izzy's lead based on Pamela's double of 5 Diamonds could have struck gold.  I figured that setting up Diamonds looked like a good way to make 11 tricks, so I ducked the opening lead in dummy and ruffed it.  I'm not sure if that's best, but it simplifies play immensely unless Hearts are 4-0 (in which case you have massive handling problems, but they might be overcome if Izzy has specifically KT tight in Diamonds and you win the first trick in Dummy.)

When I cashed a top heart and both followed low (I know, a real player starts with a low heart,) I started to breathe a little easier.  Now all I need is 4-2 Diamonds or Izzy (the opening bidder) to have the Ace of Clubs.  When I cashed the 2nd top Heart, the bad news (though expected) was that Pamela showed out.  The good news is that she pitched the Ten of Diamonds. 

Izzy eventually got in with her Heart and cashed the Ace of Clubs.  +1000 (hence the title) was worth 12.6 IMPs.

Izzy's hand

QT9864 / QT7 / K4 / A5

Pamela's hand

AJ53 / 9 / T865 / JT96