Board 83

Board 83
Opponents vulnerable

♠ 10 7 3 ♥ Q J 10 9 2 ♦ Q 9 5 3 ♣ J

I pass in first seat--pass by LHO--one diamond by partner--one spade by RHO. I try to avoid making a negative double with five cards in the other major, but there's no sensible alternative with this hand. I double. LHO passes, and partner bids three notrump. Given my ten third of spades, three notrump may well be the right game even if we did miss a five-three heart fit. I pass, and West leads the five of spades.

	NORTH ♠ 10 7 3 ♥ Q J 10 9 2 ♦ Q 9 5 3 ♣ J
	SOUTH ♠ K Q 6 ♥ K 4 ♦ K J 7 4 2 ♣ A Q 10

West	North	East	South
	Pass	Pass	1 ♦
1 ♠	Double	Pass	3 NT
(All pass)

Since one notrump by partner would have shown a strong notrump, two notrump would have been sufficient with this hand. I'm not sure why he bid three.

My basic plan is to win trick one with the spade ten, then hope that the red aces are split and that I can guess to knock West's ace out first. A low spade from dummy at trick one is a better idea if East has jack doubleton. But East has only one spade higher than the five and West has two (not counting the ace), so the ten is twice as likely to be right. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those times. I play the ten, East plays the jack, and I win with the king.

West doesn't know who has the spade queen. If I knock out his ace, perhaps he will play his partner for that card rather than for the other ace. I have no particular reason to think he has one ace over the other, but, because of entry considerations, it's more convenient to play hearts first. So I lead the king of hearts. I expect West to duck this, but he takes his ace and plays ace and another spade. East pitches the five of clubs on the third round of spades.

West didn't bother to duck the heart, and he didn't shift to a low spade in case his partner had the queen. Clearly he thinks he's got me beat. He must have the diamond ace. What if he has the club king as well? Do I have any sort of end position? If I run hearts, we will come down to five cards. West can hold king doubleton of clubs, the diamond ace, and two spade winners. I can endplay him for down one. But I can achieve the same down one simply by driving the diamond ace.  I might as well do that on the off chance that the diamond ace is with East.

I play the diamond deuce, and West pitches the deuce of clubs. That was unexpected. Perhaps West defended this way because he thought the heart king was my ninth trick. His defense would be correct if I had some variation on

♠ K x ♥ K x ♦ A K x x x x ♣ A x x.

I play the queen of diamonds. East takes the ace and shifts to the nine of clubs. I hop with the ace and claim nine tricks. Making three.

	NORTH ♠ 10 7 3 ♥ Q J 10 9 2 ♦ Q 9 5 3 ♣ J
WEST ♠ A 9 8 5 2 ♥ A 8 7 3 ♦ -- ♣ K 4 3 2		EAST ♠ J 4 ♥ 6 5 ♦ A 10 8 6 ♣ 9 8 7 6 5
	SOUTH ♠ K Q 6 ♥ K 4 ♦ K J 7 4 2 ♣ A Q 10

Not the best defense. I hope my teammates do better.

The auction is the same at the other table. But for some reason West chooses to lead the deuce of clubs instead of a spade. I suppose the difference is random, determined by the deals Jack happens to generate for his analysis. The jack of clubs holds, and declarer plays the deuce of diamonds from dummy. This gives East something of a problem. If he hops, he gives declarer the whole diamond suit. On the other hand, this may be his last chance to gain the lead for a club play. He decides to take his ace and play another club. The defense eventually scores three clubs and three aces for down two.

I can't take any credit for this result, but I'm not complaining. My teammates (and opponents) are allowed to help a little.

Me: +400
Jack: -100

Score on Board 83: + 11 IMPs
Total: -104 IMPs