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Hand played on |
29th November 2007 - Windmill Trophy |
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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 ♠KT3 ♥J5 ♦7432 ♣T853 |
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West ♠A98 ♥K82 ♦KQ5 ♣A742 |
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East ♠752 ♥AT43 ♦AJ6 ♣J96 |
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North |
Bidding:
East |
South |
West |
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South ♠QJ64 ♥Q976 ♦T98 ♣KQ |
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No No No |
No 1♥ 3NT |
No No End |
1♣ 1NT |
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This is one of those hands that, as a Bridge teacher, you try to shield from your students - in their early days at least! You drum into them that two balanced hands, with no 4-4 major suit fits, and a combined 26 HCPs is absolutely ideal to play in 3NT. Then this one comes along...
Whatever bidding style East / West deploy, they would be expected to subside into 3NT fairly rapidly, probably with West Declaring. Despite all the top cards, there are only seven obvious tricks, and West will have work cut out to improve on that tally. At our table North started with a safe diamond lead - but Declarer was doubtless relatively relieved that a spade was not selected. The best chance of an eighth trick appears to lie in the heart suit. Technically, it is best to try the King of hearts first - that play can give a third trick in the suit if any of the following situations hold good: 3-3 break, OR Queen, Jack fall doubleton, OR Queen or Jack falls singleton in the South hand. In practice, Declarer tried a small heart to the ten, losing to South's Queen, who then promptly found the spade switch. West held off twice, and then returned to the heart suit, but when that suit didn't break, the Defence finished up with three spades, two hearts, and a club, for two off.
That proved to be the most common outcome on the board, but a few Declarer's fared better due to the fortunate lie of the club suit. Given that success in the heart suit would still only yield 8 tricks, Declarer could try the club suit before exposing the second potential heart loser. As it happens, the play of the Ace of clubs will fell an honour from South, and now it is not difficult to play a small one to Dummy's nine, and now the contract will only be one off, despite the bad lie of the hearts.
It is often said in Football circles that the FA Cup is a great 'leveller'. In Bridge terms, hands such as this one can be the equivalent 'leveller'. Four East / West pairs stopped short of 3NT, and all scored well as a result. This is definitely NOT an example hand I'll be using for teaching!