Dec 15 2008
Surfing the Hawaiian
At the local club, it’s Swiss Teams night. This is the first match, and we’re halfway through it. In first seat white on white, I pick up KJ2 AQ62 32 KQT2. It’s a decent hand, but as we play weak NTs, i must start with 1C. The bidding continues:
| me | LHO | CHO | RHO |
| 1C | 1S | X | 2S |
| 3H | Pass | 4H | Pass |
| Pass | Pass | ||
The opponents interfered early, but quickly competed to their limit, and then let us bid our game without further incident. LHO leads the AS and i see:
 T3
|
 |
| KJ2
|
KT73
AK54
J54LHO wins the first trick and immediately switches to a low diamond. I win the Ace and play a trump to hand. Thanks to the lead, this looks like an easy +450. As long as trumps behave…
Trumps don’t behave. LHO shows out on the first trump. I have run into the Hawaiian 5-0 trump break. Now i am at risk of losing the two black aces as well as two trumps. Is there any way around this? I suppose if i can strip RHO’s hand until he is trump-tight i may be able to end play him. I’ll try for that.
I go ahead and knock out the club Ace by leading a low club toward the board’s J. RHO wins this and returns a spade. I win the K. I realize right now, since RHO had the club Ace, that RHO probably led the AS from AQxxx. This is lucky for me, because if he had led anything else, i would have gone down no matter how well i handled the trump split.
Now it’s time to figure out the minor distribution. I need to be careful, b/c when RHO ruffs in, i need him to have no exit cards. I play a diamond to the K and ruff a diamond. RHO throws his last spade on the 3rd diamond. Cool – now i know his exact distribution was 3523. Now all i need to do is run my clubs until he is forced to ruff. Here is the end position.
| -
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||
| Q9
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-
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| J
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At the point in the diagram, i am in the process of cashing clubs. RHO follows to the QC, but on the TC (dummy throws the diamond) he is forced to ruff. And now he is end played into leading into the heart tenace.