Mar 21 2010
Ruff High
| ♠ K ♥ A J 9 5 3 ♦ J 9 8 5 2 ♣ 8 6 |
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♠ —
♥ — ♦ — ♣ — |
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♠ —
♥ — ♦ — ♣ — |
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| ♠ A J 9 6 ♥ K 7 4 ♦ Q 3 ♣ A Q 5 3 |
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| West | North | East | South |
| 1 ♦ | 1 NT | ||
| Pass | 2 ♦1 | Pass | 2 ♥ |
| Pass | 3 NT | Pass | 4 ♥ |
| All pass |
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West led the diamond 6 and East won the A-K, West echoing. A third diamond came back and i was faced with my first decision. If East has QT8 precisely of hearts, i can afford to trump with the heart 7 now, but that’s unlikely. I have nothing useful to pitch. If i ruff low, and West has three trumps, then the Ace-King of hearts will get the rest. However, i have a problem if LHO has only two hearts.
I see two options. 1) Play LHO for three hearts and trump low, letting her overruff and have their natural trump trick now. 2) Ruff high and hope that either a) LHO has Qx, or b) LHO has Tx. It will be breakeven if LHO has Qxx. It will lose if LHO has Txx. I’m not sure what’s best, but i decide to go with option 2 since ruffing high is cool.
So, ruff with the heart King. Go out to the King of spades. Cash the Ace of hearts. Come back to the club Ace. Discard the small club on the spade Ace (the finesse was likely to work, but LHO has one card over there, and who knows what it is). And now that all the busywork is done, lead my last low heart toward dummy’s Jack. When LHO pops the Ten, i cover, and it’s over as LHO is out of trumps.
The full hand:
| ♠ K ♥ A J 9 5 3 ♦ J 9 8 5 2 ♣ 8 6 |
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♠ Q T 8 3 2
♥ T 6 ♦ 6 4 ♣ J 9 7 4 |
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♠ 7 5 4
♥ Q 8 2 ♦ A K T 7 ♣ K T 2 |
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| ♠ A J 9 6 ♥ K 7 4 ♦ Q 3 ♣ A Q 5 3 |
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