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Hand played on |
31st May 2007 |
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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 ♠ KJT72 ♥ AQ732 ♦ - ♣ AJ4 |
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West ♠ 9543 ♥ J5 ♦ A986 ♣ K75 |
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East ♠ - ♥ K64 ♦ KQJT54 ♣ QT83 |
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North |
Bidding:
East |
South |
West |
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South ♠ AQ86 ♥ T98 ♦ 732 ♣ 962 |
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1♠ 3♥ End |
2♦ No |
2♠ 3♠ |
3♦ 4♦ |
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I should never have started this regular 'Board 13' feature! Something always seems to happen at our table, and usually not to our best advantage....
Having agreed spades as trumps, North's 3♥ bid was a 'long suit trial' asking South to describe the hand further. With a maximum for the original 2♠ bid and some 'help' in the trial suit - here hearts - South would bid 4♠ rather than 3♠. With a completely 'flat' 6-HCP hand South decided to say 'sorry partner' by bidding just 3♠. West will now realise that partner must have at most one spade and probably at least one heart trick, so the prospects for 4♦ looked quite rosy, especially when North trusted partner's judgement and passed the hand out...
South led the ten of hearts. Now, theoretically the defence can be held to just two tricks - but Declarer mis-guessed the clubs and was held to ten tricks. As it happened, that was still a well above average score for East / West...
In the inquest, it became abundantly clear that Dummy's heart holding would have been a lot more useful than it appeared at face value, even if the defence play a 'forcing' game against 4♠. Against 4♠, on the lead of the King of diamonds, North may choose to discard a club to keep control of the hand, though in practice Declarer would probably ruff in hand, then cross to Dummy via a top trump to lead a heart. Declarer will lose to East's King, but even a second diamond does not prevent 4♠ from coming home. Indeed, one Declarer bid and made 5♠.
The best North / South score went to the pair who chalked up 4♥ redoubled plus 1 for the unusual score of 1480, whereas one East / West bid and made 5♦. At least those scores over-shadowed our embarrassment!