Monday night's game brought back some fond memories.  It was a 3 table Howell and reminded me of my early duplicate days playing a regular weekly game in Reno at the home of one of the grande dames of Reno Bridge, Flossie M.  Matchpointing was done by hand.  Masterpoints were awarded on slips of paper, to be mailed in to ACBL when you had accumulated at least a full point.  Smoking at the tables.  $3 entry fee.  Only 15 years ago, but seems like a lifetime.

The downside of playing Howells is that the lack of comparisons lead to a lot of 'fixes.'  One of the upsides of playing a 3 table Howell is that, director permitting, you know where you stand after 20 boards.  Everyone plays boards 21-25 on their last round.

Buddy and I didn't know our score, but we were sitting at 62.5% after 20 boards. 

We had a rare 'perfect' 5 board round and that got us up to 70%.

This hand helped.

KQxxx / Qxx / AQx / J9

I didn't upgrade this hand because Jx isn't pulling full weight, so I opened 1 Spade.  Buddy bid 2 Clubs.  I bid 2NT (we hadn't discussed if this shows extras, but I wouldn't expect it to without agreement.)  Buddy now bid 3 Spades.

What now?

With Jeff I'd probably make the slight overbid of 4 Diamonds here.  I've already limited my hand with 2NT.   3 Spades sounds like extras (fast arrival is normal here, no?)  I have enough to cooperate once, I think.

The default other option is 4 Spades.  I think that with 3-3-3-4 shape partner would raise to 3NT, so he's got a ruffing value in one of the reds for me. 

I decided to roll the dice and see what happens to 3NT.  I didn't want to bid 4 Diamonds and get into the 'you showed extras' 'no, you showed extras' discussion.  If partner cuebid 4 Clubs over 3NT, now I can bid 4 Diamonds.  If partner goes back to 4 Spades, that's fine too.  If pard has extras, 3NT often takes as many tricks as the 5-3 fit anyway, so if he passes, I just need a little something in Hearts.

What happened is that Buddy passed.  Okay, time to turn on my 'Lead a Diamond' mind control ray.

Unfortunately, Lefty's psychic powers were impervious to my mind control ray.  Fortunately, she decided to go passive and led a highish Club spot (the 8, if memory serves.)

AJx / xxx / Kx / KQxxx

KQxxx / Qxx / AQx / J9

Hmmm.  So much for extras.  If Righty wins this and puts a Heart through, I'm toast.

Righty wasn't about to set up Dummy's Clubs, however, and put in the Ten.  Good news!  4 Spades was likely going down and now, barring 5-0 Spades, I have 9 top tricks in 3NT.

At IMPs I'd claim here, but at Matchpoints there's no harm in playing all the Spades and hoping that the opponents pitch a few Hearts so that it's safe for you to set up a 2nd Club trick (the field was not the strongest and I was still concerned that 4 Spades might be allowed through.  I knew that +630 was an almost-sure lock for all of the matchpoints.)

Unfortunately, after 5 rounds of Spades (Righty showed out on the 2nd one, more good news.)  I had elicited only one Heart pitch, from Righty.  A lot of Diamonds were tossed, and one Club.

- / - / Kx / KQxx

- / Qxx / AQx / 9

Against expert opps I'd cash in a heartbeat here.  But the prospect of that golden uptrick against 2 LOLs was too tempting.  I led the 9 of Clubs.

Righty, fearful of establishing my suit knowing I had only 1 outside entry to dummy, ducked again.

My greed gained me nothing, as +600 would have been enough.  But it was a satisfying result nonetheless.

Lefty held something like:

Txxx / KJxx / Jxx / 8x

Righty:

x / Axx / Txxxx / ATxx

Board 23