Aug 01 2010
One Trick Too Late
| Board 12 West Deals N-S Vul |
♠ 8 7 6 ♥ 10 3 2 ♦ J 10 2 ♣ A Q 7 3 |
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♠ 2
♥ J 7 6 5 ♦ 6 5 4 ♣ 10 9 6 5 2 |
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♠ A Q 5 4
♥ 9 4 ♦ K Q 8 7 3 ♣ 8 4 |
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| ♠ K J 10 9 3 ♥ A K Q 8 ♦ A 9 ♣ K J |
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| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | Pass | Pass | 1 ♠ |
| Pass | 2 ♠ | Pass | 4 ♠ |
| All pass |
| 4 ♠ by South |
This hand is from the qualifying Swiss the first day of the GNT competition in New Orleans. I found myself in a normal 4♠ game. Perhaps i should have opened 2N or even 2♣ but all’s well that ends well, as we found game.
I received the lead of the ♣T. This appears to be favorable for me. Since i can afford two spade losers assuming i can pitch one of my red losers on one of dummy’s high clubs, i win the ♣K in hand as RHO encourages. He probably had a doubleton.
This looks like a hand from Bridge Master 2000 with the 876 of spades in dummy. I shall try to build another entry to dummy. I lead the ♠K out of my hand, and everyone ducks.
Hmm. Well, that didn’t work – now i have no chance of getting to dummy in spades. So i lead the low spade from hand towards dummy as LHO shows out. That’s annoying. I had hoped to arrange a loser-on-loser play with the clubs. But i’m not dead yet; hearts looks like the normal play here, and if RHO plays on hearts, i’ll have an easy time.
Nope, RHO returns a club. Rats! Unless the ♥J is doubleton, i have no entry to dummy to try to use dummy’s clubs, so i must try to make use of them now. So i overtake my Jack with dummy’s Ace and play the ♣Q. RHO is having none of that; he ruffs with his low trump.
I’m about to reflexively pitch my losing diamond, hoping for hearts 3-3 when i stop myself. I realize i STILL have a loser on loser play available! I overruff and start running hearts. RHO ruffs the third round with his trump Ace, but that’s his last trump and now i have a spade to ruff my losing heart with. That’s a total of ten tricks with four spades in hand, two clubs, two hearts, and heart ruff. For a nice swing on the board.
I think RHO could have beaten me by winning the first spade instead of the second and returning a club. Then i could not have perpetrated the fallback loser-on-loser play in hearts. He was one trick too late. Still, he must have been suspicious when i led the ♠K while he was looking at ♠AQ. He knew i was up to something… however, if he had paused to consider my spade spots, he should have realized he could always prevent me from reaching dummy in spades as i only had one small spot in my hand.
22 Length Points
23 Shortage Points
23 Support Points
7 Controls
4 Quick Tricks
4 Losers