May 3, 2011 Spring STAC
Board 16 North Deals None Vul | ♠ 9 5 3 ♥ A K Q J ♦ K J 10 7 2 ♣ 2 | ||||||||||
♠ Q J 7 6 ♥ 8 5 2 ♦ 9 ♣ K Q 8 6 4 |
| ♠ A 2 ♥ 10 7 4 ♦ A 4 ♣ A J 10 9 5 3 | |||||||||
♠ K 10 8 4 ♥ 9 6 3 ♦ Q 8 6 5 3 ♣ 7 |
4 ♦ by South |
RHO opened the bidding and the opponents bid clubs until we bought the contract at 4D. A club was led and East then played the ace of spades followed by another spade. Clearly I have to lose the ace of diamonds, and probably another spade, but look what happened in the play.
After winning the spade king, I went to the board with a heart and led a diamond off the board. East ducked! (Don't ask me why I played it this way--sometimes it pays to make odd moves.)
Now look at East's predicament--she has endplayed herself. I run the hearts, and, when she declines to ruff in, I simply throw her in with a diamond. She has to return a club and give me a ruff/sluff, allowing me to ruff in my hand and pitch my losing spade from the board.
Plus 130 was a good score with these cards. Stay alert--a defensive lapse can be costly.
See you at the table!
1 comment:
Had the trump suit been differently situated, your RHO's endplaying himself would be more understandable. A friend of mine once sent me a hand with a similar position -- that is, one where a defender ducked from Ax of trumps and was later endplayed with the A -- but in that hand, the trump king was not disclosed in dummy and thus to the defender, declarer might have been on a AQ guess, making the duck the potentially winning play.
A good technique to keep in one's declarer tool box.
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