Oct 13 2010
Style Points
| Board 11 South Deals None Vul |
♠ 9 6 5 3 ♥ — ♦ 9 8 7 ♣ A 10 8 7 6 4 |
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|
♠ K 10
♥ J 10 9 6 2 ♦ J 10 5 4 3 ♣ 5 |
|
♠ J 8 4
♥ A Q 5 ♦ A 6 2 ♣ Q J 3 2 |
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| ♠ A Q 7 2 ♥ K 8 7 4 3 ♦ K Q ♣ K 9 |
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| West | North | East | South |
| 1 ♥ | |||
| Pass | 1 N | Pass | 2 ♠ |
| Pass | 3 ♠ | Pass | 4 ♠ |
| All pass |
| 4 ♠ by South |
The event is a sectional Swiss, and this is the final match. It’s been a bit of a rough day. We’re not in contention for winning the event outright, but a win here could place us in the overalls.
With about the worst super-Flannery hand i’ve ever held, i open 1♥. Partner responds (hoping i won’t rebid my hearts) and is delighted to hear me reverse into spades. And we bid onward to game.
The opponents are a strong young couple. He leads the club five. From the spots, i can’t tell if it is a singleton or a doubleton, but it looks to be from shortness. I play low from dummy and she splits her honors, while i win the King.
I can’t immediately see the way to ten tricks. If the hearts are 4-4 i can possibly ruff them out, but i will have some problems getting entries to my hand (and one has been knocked out already). However, there’s nothing else to do but try. At trick 2, i ruff a heart, followed by a diamond from dummy. RHO rises with the Ace. I’m prepared for a trump return – i plan to win my Ace and cross-ruff hearts and diamonds. But no, she immediately leads a low club. I contribute the 9 while LHO ruffs with the ♠T.
Well, that confirms the club situation. I think it must be an error not to lead trumps, but i won’t complain. LHO exits with a diamond, and i win my King.
When i ruff a second heart, RHO follows with the Queen. A diamond ruffed back to hand with the deuce and another heart ruff reveals she started with ♥AQx. That means LHO began with five hearts and one club. Since he ruffed with the T, he probably has two or three spades, all honors. If he has ♠JT or ♠KJT i’m going down, but if he had ♠KT to start, i can make this.
I’m on the board, and lead dummy’s last trump to my Ace. This fells LHO’s King, so he was 2551. I cash the ♠Q, getting the ♠8 from RHO. Now i can simply cash the ♥K and let her choose whether to ruff now or be endplayed on the next trick, but i think there are more style points in abandoning the heart winner and just exiting my last trump now, endplaying her to lead into dummy’s clubs.
At the other table, a diamond was led, and a trump immediately returned. Declarer took the losing hook, and when another spade came back there weren’t many tricks available for the offense. This was worth a pickup of 9 IMPs, winning the match by 5.