Jennbridge: Avoidance Play Pays Dividends

After a routine auction I found myself in 3NT with a diamond lead.

All Western Open Pairs

West Deals E-W Vul	♠ Q 10 6 ♥ A Q 8 2 ♦ 4 ♣ K 10 6 3 2
	N W E S
	♠ A 4 3 2 ♥ J 10 6 ♦ A Q 10 ♣ A 8 4

West	North	East	South
	Bob		Jenn
Pass	Pass	Pass	1 NT
Pass	2 ♣	Pass	2 ♠
Pass	3 NT	All pass

3 NT by South

(Board 22, 9/3/2011, afternoon session, hands rotated.)

I won the diamond king and paused to study the hand.  Clearly I needed to work on clubs, and just as clear was the fact that I needed to try to keep East off lead to prevent another diamond lead through my Q10.

Without that consideration, the club ace followed by a club to the 10 would be logical.  As this would likely put East on lead, however, I needed to play the ace and king of clubs and hope that West would be on lead after the third round of clubs.

West won the jack of clubs as East discarded a discouraging heart.  So far, so good. West, an expert, now paused for a considerable length of time before returning...a diamond!  The heart finesse won and the hand produced 12 tricks for a great score. (4C, 3D, 4H and 1 S)

Looking at the hands later, I saw that West had a difficult problem.

All Western Open Pairs

West Deals E-W Vul	♠ Q 10 6 ♥ A Q 8 2 ♦ 4 ♣ K 10 6 3 2
♠ K 8 5 ♥ K 9 4 ♦ J 8 6 3 ♣ J 9 5	N W E S	♠ J 9 7 ♥ 7 5 3 ♦ K 9 7 5 2 ♣ Q 7
	♠ A 4 3 2 ♥ J 10 6 ♦ A Q 10 ♣ A 8 4

 

It's easy to see why he was reluctant to return a major suit card given his holdings and the bidding.  As it turned out, only a heart return would have prevented me from scoring a 12th trick.  (Had he returned a spade, I would have had to play the queen!)

This simple avoidance play paid great dividends as +490 scored 32 out of 37 matchpoints.

See you at the table!