Wernher Open Pairs--First Qual. Session
| Board 1 North Deals None Vul | ♠ A K J 10 5 4 ♥ 4 ♦ A 9 8 2 ♣ A 3 | ||||||||||
♠ Q 8 ♥ J 9 7 6 5 2 ♦ 10 5 ♣ K J 2 |
| ♠ — ♥ A ♦ K J 6 4 3 ♣ Q 10 9 8 7 6 4 | |||||||||
| ♠ 9 7 6 3 2 ♥ K Q 10 8 3 ♦ Q 7 ♣ 5 | |||||||||||
| West | North | East | South |
| Jenn | Bob | ||
| 1 ♠ | 2 NT | 4 ♠ | |
| Pass | Pass | 5 ♣ | Pass |
| Pass | 5 ♠ | All pass |
The hapless East player led a club which I won. I cashed the ace of spades, ruffed a club and drew the last trump with the king of spades. Now the stage was set for a heart lead. I didn't know exactly what would happen when I led a heart, of course, but when East won his ace and sat there in agony for a couple of minutes, it wasn't hard to envision the situation.
He finally, defeatedly, threw a diamond on the table. When my queen held, he said: "I knew I was scr---d!" We all laughed and scored up 480 for 26 out of 38 matchpoints.
Perhaps he should have led his stiff ace of hearts. As declarer it was imperative to make the routine play of ruffing the club to strip the hand and set the stage for the endplay.
See you at the table!
2 comments:
I played 6 clubs by East doubled and down 300. Deep Finesse says 5 spades always makes, so I was disappointed to get only 11 matchpoints on a 25 top.
I guess I was destined to be, um, scr__ed no matter what.
I played this hand in the last round of the session, and so had to stew about it all through the dinner break.
I was declaring 6S against a club lead. I realized that I needed three heart tricks to avoid losing a diamond to supplement the loss of the HA. That means that East must own the HA (likely on the auction I heard, where East overcalled clubs and their side bid only clubs thereafter) and that the HT must set up, meaning that the HJ must fall in time.
I cashed one round of trumps. When they split 2-0, I should have stopped to count entries to dummy. Had I done so, I would have realized that I did not need an entry to dummy from a club ruff. Instead I could afford to follow normal elimination technique of ruffing my club right away, and drawing trumps before leading a heart (leaving dummy with two spades). Both the S9 and 7 would be entries, allowing me to lead to one to cash the two top hearts (pitching diamonds) on the second and third rounds of hearts. Then I could ruff a fourth round of hearts and use dummy's last "high" trump to reach the long heart upon which I could pitch my last small diamond.
Unfortunately, I did not count my entries nor see the potential incremental benefit of ruffing a club early. At the table I drew a second round of trumps and then led a heart. East exited safely with a club, and I ended down one for a huge amount of matchpoint difference from the +980 I could have scored with more careful play.
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