Event 3 - Match 5 - Board 8

Board 8
Neither vulnerable

♠ 7 6 2 ♥ A Q 6 2 ♦ Q 8 4 3 ♣ K 2

One club--pass--one heart to me. I pass. LHO bids one spade, and RHO raises to two spades. I pass again, and two spades ends the auction. Partner leads the six of diamonds (third and lowest).

	NORTH Stephen ♠ J 8 5 4 ♥ K J 10 8 5 ♦ K ♣ 10 8 6
		EAST Phillip ♠ 7 6 2 ♥ A Q 6 2 ♦ Q 8 4 3 ♣ K 2

West	North	East	South
Jack	Stephen	Phillip	Sam
			1 ♣
Pass	1 ♥	Pass	1 ♠
Pass	2 ♠	(All pass)

Partner would lead the jack from jack-ten-nine-seven-six. So the six must be third best from an even number. There is no six-card holding where the six is third best, so partner must have four. That means declarer is 4-1-4-4 and we unfortunately have only one heart trick. Where will six tricks come from? If partner has the club ace and a trump entry, perhaps I can get a ruff. But that's still only five tricks. This isn't going to be easy to beat. I start by discouraging in diamonds to suggest a club shift. Declarer plays the diamond deuce, then leads the four of spades from dummy--six--ten--queen. Partner probably has the ace or king as well, since declarer would be unlikely to take a first-round finesse against the queen. And indeed he does. Partner cashes the ace of spades--five--deuce--three. Well. Two trump tricks.

Now the ace of clubs is enough to beat it, although it's unlikely partner has that card. If he did, he probably would have tried to give me a club ruff instead of surrendering his second trump entry. It appears he has slow club tricks and is trying to protect them by drawing trumps. Is this going to work? If I play a third trump when I win my heart trick, will declarer have trouble coming to eight tricks?

Partner shifts to the seven of hearts, and declarer plays the eight from dummy. It looks right to play the ace. If I play the queen, declarer can take a ruffing finesse against my ace and establish his suit. If I play the ace, declarer might not realize that I know he has a singleton and he might not suspect me of this falsecard. So he may try to ruff out the queen in partner's hand.

Perhaps that's a vain hope. But it's hard to see how it can hurt to play the ace. I do so, and declarer ruffs with the king of spades. So he's 4-0-4-5 instead of 4-1-4-4. Declarer has two diamond tricks, the heart king, and four trump tricks on a crossruff. If he has the club ace, that's eight tricks. If he doesn't, he can establish an eighth trick in hearts. I don't care for our prospects.

Declarer plays the nine of diamonds. Partner covers with the ten, and declarer ruffs in dummy. Declarer apparently has the ace-jack of diamonds left. Declarer leads the ten of hearts, I play low, and declarer pitches the club three. That's his eighth trick. He probably wasn't expecting the ten to hold. He was willing to concede a heart trick to set up dummy's jack. Declarer plays the ten of clubs. I cover with the king--ace--seven. That makes nine tricks.

For some reason, declarer abandons his cross ruff. He plays the nine of spades to dummy's jack as partner pitches the five of diamonds. Declarer had nine tricks on a crossruff. He must be trying to take ten by establishing clubs. We are down to this position, with declarer apparently hoping to lose only one more trick:

	NORTH Stephen ♠ -- ♥ K J 5 ♦ -- ♣ 8 6
WEST Jack ♠ -- ♥ 9 4 ♦ 7 ♣ ? ?		EAST Phillip ♠ -- ♥ Q 6 ♦ Q 8 ♣ 2
	SOUTH Sam ♠ -- ♥ -- ♦ A J ♣ ? ? ?

Declarer plays the six of clubs to his jack. Partner wins with the queen and cashes the nine. How was this line supposed to yield ten tricks? If I had queen doubleton of clubs left, I would just hop and exit a club, leaving declarer with a diamond loser in his hand. Hooking me for the club nine might make some sense. If I had it, partner would have to lead a red suit for him after winning the club queen. If declarer wasn't going to do that, he should have just kept up the crossruff to guarantee nine tricks.

I pitch a diamond. Partner plays a heart. Declarer, apparently still believing partner has the heart queen, finesses, and I score my queen. Making two.

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

As the cards lay, declarer could have made ten tricks by starting hearts at trick two. Maybe our teammates will get to four spades and make it.

I get the first part of my wish. They got to four spades. But they went down two. We lose five imps but hold on to win the match and pick up 19 out of 30 victory points. Next week, we start Match 6 against Thomas and Adrian, who play Dutch Doubleton.

Table 1: -110
Table 2: -100

Result on Board 8: -5 imps
Total: +12 imps (19 VP)
Current Total: 92 VP