Free Super Sunday Daylong - May 29 - Board 12

Board 12
Our side vulnerable

♠ A K Q 4  ♥ A K Q  ♦ 9 6 5 3 2  ♣ J

Partner opens with three clubs in second seat and RHO passes. If partner has a stiff diamond and a one-loser club suit, we could make five clubs. If I needed one bit of luck, I might try five clubs. But two bits of luck is too much to hope for.

I pass, as does LHO. West leads the diamond king.

	NORTH Phillip ♠ A K Q 4 ♥ A K Q ♦ 9 6 5 3 2 ♣ J
	SOUTH Robot ♠ 6 5 3 ♥ -- ♦ 8 7 4 ♣ A K 6 5 4 3 2

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
		Pass	3 ♣
(All pass)

We have three diamond losers and at least one club loser. I'm happy I didn't get too aggressive with this hand.

I play a low diamond from dummy, and East discards the spade deuce. I might actually go down in this contract. If East can pitch three spades and get a spade ruff, I'll need the remaining trumps to be two-two.

West continues with the ace of diamonds. That's an error. He should lead the queen to tell his partner he will be making two more discards. He should lead the ace only if he doesn't have the queen or if I started with a singleton. In the latter case, the queen, suggesting East will be making two more discards, would be misleading.

On this trick, East pitches the spade nine; on the next, the spade jack. West doesn't get the hint. He shifts to the six of hearts. I win and cash the ace and king of clubs. They split. Making three.

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

East had a natural club trick, so West's failure to give him a spade ruff didn't cost.

Plus 110 is worth 77%. Some brave souls bid three notrump over three clubs, a bid I didn't even consider. They caught partner with a magic hand: Two cashing tricks, three spades (so the a three-three spade trick gives you a ninth trick), and three diamonds (so East has no diamond to lead).

Despite this good fortune, of the 49 declarers who played 3NT, 36 managed to go down. East always led the club seven. Some declarers continued to display their bravery by ducking the club to their jack. Unfortunately, while the finesse worked, they now had only one club trick instead of two. I'm not sure what to call this kind of finesse. A finesse that gains nothing if it works and loses if it doesn't is commonly called a practice finesse. But what do you call a finesse that must lose tricks whether it works or not? Perhaps a Pyrrhic finesse?

Another declarer overcame the trick one hurdle by rising with the club ace. But he also failed to notice that dummy was entryless. He cashed the club king and played a third club to establish the suit. Since East was void in diamonds, he should have survived this. But he pitched the four of spades on the third round of clubs, so he still found himself a trick short.

My final score was 75%. I finished 46th out of 16,499.

Next week I'm going to go back to playing the Weekly Free Instant Tournament, but I'm going to do it a little differently. I'll starting by posting board number one from the August 26th tournament. The following week, I'll post board number two from the September 2nd tournament, and so on for the next eight weeks. That way, if you haven't played the board yet, you will still have an opportunity to play it before you read the post. Of course, since each board will be from a different tournament, there will be no meaningful overall score at the end.