Board 95

Board 95
Our side vulnerable

♠ 2 ♥ Q J 10 2 ♦ J 9 8 3 ♣ A K 7 3

I seem to open lighter than Jack on shapely hands, but I tend to be conservative with 4441s. So, for the third time in this set, I'm passing a hand that I suspect Jack will open at the other table, a type of swing action I'm not used to. LHO opens one club, and RHO bids one spade. I double. LHO raises to two spades, and RHO carries on to four. I lead a pedestrian queen of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
Pass	1 ♣	Pass	1 ♠
Double	2 ♠	Pass	4 ♠
(All pass)

It doesn't appear that my pass affected the final contract. If I had opened one diamond, LHO would have doubled, and presumably they still would have reached four spades.

Partner plays the three of hearts, and declarer wins with the king. He leads the ten of spades and plays low from dummy. Partner follows with the seven. Assuming from the four spade bid that declarer has at least five spades, I don't see any reason partner would be ducking this trick. Declarer plays a low spade. A club is my only safe discard, so I pitch the club three. Dummy plays the nine of spades, and partner follows with the eight.

It was nice of declarer to let me know that partner doesn't have a spade higher than the eight.  He should have led the king or queen of spades at trick two. It seems declarer has six spades plus at least three tricks in the red suits. If he has three diamonds, he can ruff a diamond to dummy for his tenth trick. I need to hope he has a doubleton. If so, and if partner has the diamond king and the club queen, we can beat this. Can we beat it if partner has the diamond king and the club jack?

Let's give declarer

♠ K Q J 10 x x ♥ K x ♦ x x ♣ Q 8 x

He can ruff out the hearts and exit with a diamond, which I must duck to partner. Partner will then be forced to break clubs. Since Jack always assumes declarer is double-dummy, I doubt partner will think of shifting to the jack of clubs from jack-nine third. If he does, especially given my first-seat pass, we will probably beat it.

Declarer cashes the ace of hearts--five--four--deuce. If partner had seven-five remaining, I would expect him to play the seven, present count.  It seems more likely, however, that partner has miscarded than that his five is actually a singleton.  Why wouldn't declarer lead toward dummy's ace-nine-eight if he had two hearts left?

I expect declarer to ruff a heart, but he leads the deuce of clubs. I guess he doesn't have the hand I was envisioning. Partner plays the six; declarer, the five. I overtake with the seven and try, without much hope of success, to cash the jack of hearts. Declarer ruffs. He plays a diamond to the ace and ruffs a club to his hand. So declarer was 6-2-4-1. Either partner has the king of diamonds or he doesn't. He does, so we hold this to five.

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

At the other table, West opens my hand with one club. This turns out to be more pre-emptive than one diamond, since North can't double one club. He passes, East responds one notrump, and South bids three spades. This is an awfully good hand to be pre-empting with. What's wrong with two spades? North has a four-spade bid anyway, so there's no harm done. South makes five for a push.

Me: -650
Jack: -650

Score on Board 95: 0 IMPs
Total: -90 IMPs