| ♠ K 7 2 ♥ A Q 6 4 ♦ Q J 7 ♣ A Q 6 |
Three passes to me. I open one club--one spade--pass--two clubs back to me. I have nothing further to say. I guess I was supposed to pass this hand out. LHO bids two spades, RHO raises to three, and LHO passes. Partner leads the three of clubs.
| NORTH ♠ A 9 4 ♥ K 10 8 7 ♦ A 6 5 4 ♣ 8 4 | ||
| EAST ♠ K 7 2 ♥ A Q 6 4 ♦ Q J 7 ♣ A Q 6 |
| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | |||
| Pass | Pass | 1 ♣ | 1 ♠ |
| Pass | 2 ♣ | Pass | 2 ♠ |
| Pass | 3 ♠ | (All pass) |
That was sporting of North to raise to three and give me a shot at a plus score. I think he already did his hand justice with two clubs. Three spades should show a hand that re-evaluates to an opening bid in support of spades.
Declarer plays the four from dummy. My first instinct is to play the queen of clubs, possibly retaining an entry to partner's hand with the jack for a heart play. Let's see if this makes sense. For it to be necessary for us to play hearts, there must be a threat of a heart discard. Perhaps declarer has something like
| ♠ Q J x x x ♥ x x ♦ K 10 x ♣ K 10 x |
If we don't play hearts, declarer can duck a diamond to me and set up a pitch. But so what? If we do play hearts, declarer can set up a heart for a diamond pitch. We can't beat it in that layout. Maybe it will be easier to beat this if declarer has club losers instead of red-suit losers. How about this hand:
| ♠ Q J x x x ♥ x x ♦ K x ♣ K 10 x x |
Say I take the club ace and shift to a spade. Declarer can win this in dummy with the ace, then club to the king, club ruff, diamond to the king, club ruff with the spade nine. This isn't going well. Perhaps the club queen at trick one is the right idea but for a different reason. It forces him to use his club entry before he's ready. Let's go back to trick one. I play the club queen. Declarer wins and ducks a club. Partner wins and shifts to a spade. Spade ace, diamond to the king, club ruff, diamond ace, diamond ruff, club ruff. We need four tricks in this position:
| NORTH ♠ -- ♥ K 10 8 7 ♦ 6 ♣ -- | ||
| WEST ♠ 10 ♥ J x x ♦ 10 ♣ -- | EAST ♠ K 7 ♥ A Q 6 ♦ -- ♣ -- | |
| SOUTH ♠ Q J x ♥ x x ♦ ♣ -- |
We don't have them. It appears it's going to be difficult to take four tricks outside the spade suit. I need to find partner with either a minor-suit king or a second spade trick. In any event, it does seem to make declarer's life a little more difficult if I retain the ace of clubs.
I play the queen of clubs, and declarer wins with the king. He plays the three of hearts--nine--ten. It' nice to have partner give such clear count signals. But sometimes I wish he would value his eights and nines a little more highly. It appears declarer has a singleton heart and is preparing for a crossruff. That suggests he doesn't have the king of diamonds. If he did, he wouldn't need heart ruffs for entries.
Since declarer is intending a crossruff, it looks right to start drawing trumps. We can play one trump now and a second trump when declarer ducks a club. How will that work? Let's give declarer
| ♠ Q J x x x ♥ x ♦ x x ♣ K x x x x |
(If he has three small diamonds, he's down, so I might as well assume this shape.) If I switch to a trump, declarer wins with the queen and ducks a club. Partner wins and plays another trump. Declarer wins with the ace, ruffs a heart, ruffs a club, ruffs another heart, then starts running clubs.
So a trump switch isn't going to help. In that case, I'm better off not breaking trumps at all and hoping partner has something useful that will produce a second trump trick. I win with the queen of hearts. I'm about to switch to the queen of diamonds when another thought occurs to me. If I'm hoping for a second trump trick, it must be right to keep declarer in the dark about the location of the diamond honors. If he finds out partner has the diamond king, he will know I have the spade king. Accordingly, I cash the club ace. Declarer plays the deuce, and partner plays the five. Apparently declarer is indeed 5-1-2-5. I play my last club, and declarer ruffs in dummy as partner plays the ten. Declarer plays dummy's nine of spades, I play low--queen--ten. Declarer plays a low spade to the ace, partner following with the jack. We eventually score my spade king and a diamond trick.
| NORTH ♠ A 9 4 ♥ K 10 8 7 ♦ A 6 5 4 ♣ 8 4 | ||
| WEST ♠ J 10 ♥ J 9 5 2 ♦ K 10 9 3 ♣ 10 5 3 | EAST ♠ K 7 2 ♥ A Q 6 4 ♦ Q J 7 ♣ A Q 6 | |
| SOUTH ♠ Q 8 6 5 3 ♥ 3 ♦ 8 2 ♣ K J 9 7 2 |
Declarer made the winning decision in spades. He certainly might have won the club jack, played a spade to the ace, then, on seeing the ten drop, lead the nine and pass it. In fact, I'm not sure why he didn't. Admittedly, spades can't be four-one (which would make the play a huge favorite), since I would be working harder to tap his hand if they were. But, even assuming three-two spades, passing the nine is a two-to-one favorite by restricted choice. The auction doesn't change that. West needs three or four high-card points (in addition to his presumed jack of hearts) to keep me from having a two-notrump opening, so there's no reason he couldn't have the spade king. I did well to keep partner's diamond king under wraps. It's disappointing that decision didn't pay off.
At the other table, the auction is the same. East wins with the club ace at trick one and continues with the six. Declarer wins with the king and plays a heart to the nine, ten, and queen. Despite his partner's nine of hearts, East tries to cash the heart ace. Declarer ruffs, ruffs a club, then makes the same winning guess in spades to make an overtrick.
Me: -140
Jack: -170
Score on Board 56: +1 IMP
Total: +135 IMPs
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