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Hand played on |
14th December 2006 |
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Board number 13 |
Red Section |
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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 ª AQT542 © K ¨ T953 § K8 |
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West ª KJ6 © A4 ¨ KJ62 § JT94 |
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East ª 73 © QT9753 ¨ Q7 § A62 |
North |
Bidding:
East |
South |
West |
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South ª 98 © J862 ¨ A84 § Q753 |
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1ª 2ª
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No End |
1NT
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No
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For the second week running, Board 13 in the Red Section looked fairly uneventful...
East faced a slightly awkward choice of opening lead, and in practice plumped for the aggressive Queen of Diamonds, which was won in Dummy. Declarer played the 9 of spades, which was covered by the Jack (else Declarer 'picks them all up'), and Queen. So Declarer conceded one spade, one heart, two diamonds, and a club, for a net +110. As the cards lie, Declarer has the opportunity to make a ninth trick, unless East is fully alert. After winning the queen of trumps, lead the small club towards Dummy. Unless East goes in with the Ace, a second entry to Dummy materialises for a second finesse in trumps. On the other hand, the Defenders felt they may have missed out, because they had helped Declarer to establish a second trick in diamonds. It sounded like a 'middling' sort of board...
In practice the traveller revealed a shared 'bottom' for NS with two other tables. Two Declarers did find their ninth trick, but at three others EW got into the bidding with their hearts - expensive! I can see how it happens...
At our table, East correctly passed the 1NT response. A double from East in this position should be taken as a take-out double of 1ª . The problem is, though you just about have sufficient High Card Points for the bid, your partner will expect a better heart holding, and it's understandable how West could get carried away were you to double ...
The other potential route to disaster for EW is if East chooses to overcall 2©. Vulnerable? It ought to be be better quality than that! South doesn't really have a bid now, but West may well overestimate his / her values and land the pair into trouble. West's best course of action is to pass - but that is unlikely! The correct bid is 2ª - the unassuming cue bid that asks about the quality of partner's overcall. Now EW may come to rest in 3©, but the obvious spade lead causes problems: North cashes two winning spades, and leads a third, generating a trump promotion for South, and giving the defenders in total two spades, one natural trump plus the ruff and one in each minor. Of course, if South finds a penalty double - which happened at one table - then it gets even worse!
As we all know, in Duplicate Bridge, very few 'flat boards' actually turn out to be 'flat'! |
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