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Hand played on |
15th January 2009 |
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Board number 13 |
Mary Rogers Trophy |
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Dealer |
North |
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Vulnerability |
Both |
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Submitted by |
Alaric Cundy |
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North ♠K 7 4 2 ♥A ♦T 4 ♣T 9 8 6 3 2 |
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West ♠Q 9 6 5 3 ♥Q 6 3 ♦8 7 ♣J 5 4 |
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East ♠T ♥K J T 9 4 ♦A J 9 3 ♣A K Q |
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North |
Bidding:
East |
South |
West |
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South ♠A J 8 ♥8 7 5 2 ♦K Q 6 5 2 ♣7 |
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No x No No
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1♥ 2♦ 3♦(2) No
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No 2♠(1) x(3) x(3)
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No No 3♥ End |
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(1) Calculated gamble - partner almost certainly has a 4-card spade suit on the bidding, and that singleton club looks to be very useful
(2) Most players would expect this bid to show a 5-card suit
(3) Both penalties
From Declarer's perspective this contract looks quite good: there are reasonable chances of four trumps, three clubs, and the ♦Ace. All Declarer needs to do is to trump a diamond in Dummy and to avoid conceding a club ruff.
There is, however, a way of defeating this contract.
With long trumps it is often a good idea to to attack Declarer's short suit - i.e., spades - forcing him to trump, and hoping that he will lose trump control. Alternatively, looking at a long string of useless trumps South might judge that the best defence would to be to get whatever tricks can be made with partner's clubs and then to trump some of them. The singleton club is led, won by the Ace. Declarer tries Ace then other diamond, won by South. South leads the ♦2 - a clear signal for a club switch. Dummy ruffs, and North over-ruffs. North returns the ♣ten, ruffed by South. Reading the high club as a suit preference suggesting a spade return, South under-leads the Ace to North's King, who gives South a second club ruff. Five tricks to the defence, +200 to North / South - almost always a very good score at match-pointed pairs.
However ....
Chickens came home to roost courtesy of that off-beat 2♠ bid by South. Things went to plan up to the point where North over-ruffed the third round of diamonds. Up to that point the Defence had two tricks, and needed three more. North could give partner a club ruff, but the spade clearly wasn't going to stand up as North could see 5 in Dummy and partner had shown four, so Declarer didn't have any... North switched to 'forcing defence' by leading a spade, and was surprised to see partner actually win the trick. Now, however, it was all over for the defence. Declarer was able to ruff the fourth diamond in Dummy as North was out of trumps, then draw trumps, and cash the winning clubs, to yield an overtrick and the unusual score of +930 to East / West
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