Sandy complained that all the hands I sent him from last week's Central States I tournament were examples of one pair capitalizing on another's mistakes, rather than examples of stellar bidding and play. Hopefully he'd find the following hand more to his liking.
This comes from the Flight A Swiss on Sunday. In Swiss events, teams play a succession of short matches -- each consisting of 7 or 8 boards -- and often one single board has the ability to swing a match overwhelmingly in either direction.
Dealer: East Nobody vulnerable. K4 A6 AJT A98542 T865 Q92 J973 T85 72 8543 KQJ T73 AJ73 KQ42 KQ96 6 East South West North -- 1D -- 2C -- 2H -- 3D -- 3S -- 4NT -- 5S -- 5NT -- 6H -- 7DA detailed explanation of the North-South auction:
West made the natural lead of the club king. It looks like North-South have extended themselves too far. Or can South make 7D?
At the table, I didn't. However, there is a natural line of play which brings home 13 tricks on this lie of the cards: the high cross-ruff. Declarer can take advantage of the fact that, although the partnership holds only 7 diamonds, six of them are the high diamonds.
Here's the winning line. Win the club lead with the ace, and try to cash three top hearts. (This requires a 4-3 heart split, which will happen about 60% of the time.) If three hearts survive, then cash the ace and king of spades. You are now on the board, in the following position:
--- --- AJT 9854 T8 Q J --- 72 8543 QJ T7 J7 4 KQ96 ---Lead a club from the board, ruffing with the diamond six; then cash the queen of hearts, pitching another club. You can now crossruff the remaining six tricks -- and you can't be overruffed, because the six diamonds you have are the highest ones! A frustrated East will have to *underruff* on each of the last four tricks -- and West will have to join in on the last two tricks. Making seven.
The bridge gods frowned upon us at the other table, as well. The opposition North-South reached the contract of 6NT by South on these cards. Once again, West leads the club king.
The key in defending 6NT is that East must find a way to let his partner know that he holds the ten of clubs! (Playing upside-down signalling, this could be accomplished by discarding the three on trick one.)
Consider the play in 6NT. South should win the first round of clubs to conceal his singleton from the defense. He now plays three spades (taking the finesse), three hearts, and three diamonds. On trick 11, South is in the hand with the following position:
--- --- --- 985 T --- J --- --- 8 Q T7 7 4 K ---South now cashes the king of diamonds. This is an example of a squeeze position. West holds three cards, all of which are winners, and he must discard one on the diamond king.
Since South cleverly won the club on trick one instead of holding up for a round, West doesn't know that South is out of clubs. Because of this, West might be afraid to discard the good club for fear that South's last two cards are the ten-seven of clubs.
If, however, East makes an encouraging signal on trick one, then West can interpret that signal as an indication that East holds the club ten. West can then safely discard the club queen, and now West must win the last two tricks, defeating the slam.
I was defeated in a slam I should have made (-100), and our teammates let a slam make which they should have defeated (-990); in IMP scoring, our team received -14 on the board. In VP scoring, we lost the match 8-12. If I make 7D (+1440) and our teammates defeat 6NT (-50) -- both of which should happen on the lay of the cards -- then we receive +16 on the board, and in VPs we win the match 19-1. One board can change your whole day.....