| Board 24 North Deals None Vul | ♠ Q 10 6 5 ♥ 8 ♦ K 10 7 6 5 3 ♣ Q 10 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| ♠ A 7 3 ♥ A Q 2 ♦ A Q J 4 2 ♣ 8 2 | |||||||||||
| 4 ♠ by North |
I wasn't thrilled with my prospects. In truth, I figured the board rated to be a disaster. I first had to decide whether to take the heart finesse and also had to decide how to play spades.
As I would almost certainly go down if the heart finesse lost, I went up with the heart ace. I then played the spade ace followed by a spade to the ten which forced the king. A heart was returned which I ruffed. One slight chance remained. I cashed the queen of spades and all followed, ridding the deck of spades!
I showed my hand, which now contained only diamonds and saved the beer card (the 7♦ ) for the last card played. Whew! This netted 15.5 out of 17 machpoints. The pair that beat us played 4 spades doubled, collecting 590!
| Board 24 North Deals None Vul | ♠ Q 10 6 5 ♥ 8 ♦ K 10 7 6 5 3 ♣ Q 10 | ||||||||||
♠ J 9 8 ♥ K J 10 9 4 ♦ 9 8 ♣ J 9 3 |
| ♠ K 4 2 ♥ 7 6 5 3 ♦ — ♣ A K 7 6 5 4 | |||||||||
| ♠ A 7 3 ♥ A Q 2 ♦ A Q J 4 2 ♣ 8 2 | |||||||||||
| 4 ♠ by North Plus 420 |
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| Board 25 North Deals None Vul | ♠ Q 4 ♥ K 9 ♦ A 7 ♣ A J 10 8 7 4 2 | ||||||||||
♠ A J 8 3 ♥ Q 7 5 3 2 ♦ K 9 5 ♣ 5 |
| ♠ 10 7 6 ♥ A J 6 ♦ Q 8 4 3 2 ♣ 9 3 | |||||||||
| ♠ K 9 5 2 ♥ 10 8 4 ♦ J 10 6 ♣ K Q 6 | |||||||||||
| West | North | East | South |
| Jenn | Bob | ||
| 1 ♣ | Pass | 1 ♠ | |
| Pass | 3 ♣ | Pass | 3 ♦ |
| Pass | 3 NT | All pass |
Before East led, he asked about Bob's 3 diamond bid and I replied that it was forcing. He then led the 3 of diamonds, the jack was covered by the king and I won the ace. I was pretty certain that East started with 4 or 5 diamonds including the queen, so that I had a second stopper.
I still didn't have 9 tricks, however. It was a nice contract, but needed some work. I couldn't afford to lead a diamond early in an effort to set up a 9th trick, for fear that west could get in with the ace of spades and lead a heart through my K9. This was to be avoided at all costs.
I studed the hand for a minute, trying to come up with a plan.
I decided to try to steal a spade trick early, before the opponents really knew what was going on. I therefore led a club to the king and led a spade off the board. This had the element of surprise in addition to the fact that many defenders are reluctant to go up with their ace looking at the king in the dummy.
When my queen of spades won, I started running my clubs. Not unexpectedly, both defenders started getting uncomfortable, particularly East. He had to make 5 discards while retaining his queen of diamonds and trying to protect his heart holding. When he released his last spade I knew I had him.
It was then a simple matter to throw him in with the queen of diamonds, forcing him to lead a heart to me at the end. 1S, 1H, 1D and 7 clubs comes to 10 tricks. Plus 430 was a tie for top.
True, the defenders could have done better, but if you give them enough rope, sometimes they will hang themselves!
See Bob's comments on the bidding below. See you at the table!
1 comment:
Comment from Bob (my partner) on the bidding:
I'd like to explain my bidding of these hands.
On the first hand, I believed, correctly, that the only possible game was 4 spades, since there were too many losers to try to make 5 diamonds, even though I knew that we had a lot more diamonds than spades and we might only have a 4-3 fit. I was prepared to take a tap in clubs in my hand to protect partner's spade holding.
On the second hand, I wanted 3NT to be played from Jenn's side, to protect her heart holding, and that she would bid 3NT with a heart stopper. So I made up a 3D bid as the only way to get her to bid 3NT.
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